As human resource development manager, will make a meeting with main office staff and discuss to create new policy rules and regulation according company working basement and working time, strict rules to department supervisor and line leader must be responsible on product operating and department cleanness environment, main leaders must coaching new operator the basic rules and company working style well. Fixing CCTV camera at whole area of company environment to avoid illegal activities and control the situation every time.
Arrange company official bus transport to all the staff to make easy facilities to cover the duration of travelling for those staying far and cover accident. According to company rules all the staff need be corporate with management and department leaders to run the company well and helping each other during working time, any information regarding company issues, product, celebration must be arrange a meeting to inform all the stuff to avoiding misunderstood and conflict.
Each every time department supervisor have taken action on neglect working stuff and inform to the management and always make daily working report to show the production result and situation, good working stuff will be offer special features, as increasing wages and much more, arrange canteen or rest room to all staff to they safety. The human resource or HR department is instrumental in implementing effective organization development. The human workers of an organization are perhaps its most important assets. The successful management of these valuable human resources will drive the organization to optimum success.
The various roles of HR organization development must be implemented in alignment with the overall strategic planning of the organization. As employers and workers and trade unions representing them for several responsible for good industrial relations, the first step is for both management and trade unions to accept the highest level, the same degree of person responsibility for industrial relations as for other functions within their respective organizations. Good industrial relations need to be developed within the framework of efficiency of the establishment or undertaking.
As such, a major objective of management must be to develop and effective personal and industrial relations policies which engender the confidence of all employees, subject to the purpose for which the establishment or undertaking was establish and its social obligations to the nation equally trade unions should ensure that the policies and practices that they adopt are not only fair in relation to the function and purpose for which they been formed but also take into consideration national interest. Ground rules are established to keep an organization guided and controlled. At times that certain rules are choking to the neck.
This may be gorunds for conflict between employees and the management. Whenever and individual feels that there are inconsistencies and irrationalities in the workplace, tendency is the person truggles to break free from such process. For employees, it may take an effort to really understand that such rules is a way of maintaining standards in the company. But this should be well-implemented andproperly disseminated by the management in a way that will not seem like a threat to the inviduals. To build inclusive and harmonious workplaces, both employees and managers play important roles.
Organisations should equip them with the relevant knowledge and skills, and encourage them to display attributes and behaviours can build competencies to foster inclusive and harmonious workplace by embedding them in formal HR practices recruitment – hiring candidates which in with fit in which the organisation’s values on inclusiveness learning and development – equipping employees with the knowledge and skills to work effectively in diverse teams performance management – assessing employees on their ability to work effectively in a diverse team or manage a diverse team organisations should adopt recruitment policies which are consistent with the tripartite guideling on fair employees practices to build an inclusive and harmonious workplace, organisations need to recruit candidates who are able to work with or ead diverse teams team department are also provided with a allowance every quarter to plan their own gatherings and team building activities.
To help new employees assimilate into organization muvee provides support to newly arrived foreign employees, helps them with accommodation arrangement, administrative requirement and share with them places to eat or visit in Singapore. An employee portal on the internet also allows new employees to quickly get acquainted with other in the company , organisations which already have employee awards in place can consider including values and behaviours that fster inclusive and harmonious workplace as part of the awards critera ANSWER SECTION ONE (B) As agency of training and development, human resource department are important facilities to every business to handling company daily situation, and working activities.
Human resource department are responsible to covered company programmed running and all the organization in perfect way in all the time. However, HR department creating new style and activities among staff to make new outcome to run company and control all the activities well , to generating new era with company and staff, HR are mostly focusing on administrative creating new way to organization and for company, HR department are mostly responsible and protection for company basement and organization. It included skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career and advancement. Planning by professionally developing with each employee and implementing that planning to an effective performance management system.
Human resources and staff development will continue to focus on developing strategic initiatives and providing services and consultation which improve business performance for the greatest and effiency . Staff will continue to participate in the review of organization structures on a consultancy basis and address issues relative to the corporate culture and values. The human resource management functions no longer have merely a transactional role. There is a requirement for the human resource department to become more strategic in the practice employees will have safe and supportive workplace. Every business needs a safety plan.
Objective develop a safety checklist and operate the business to ensure all safety regulations are met. Reduce workplace injuries to zero. nvolve employees through an internal committee or team in making their environment a safe place to work. Support health and wellness programs through an optional, additional-cost, benefit program. Strategy the safe and supportive workplace goal will be supported by a company program to engage employees in individuals health practices and improvement and work programs and work-from home progams. ensure the at work environment is ergonomically best. Measures of success reductions in injury reduction in time off request reduction in absenreeism related on the job accommodation program regular safety inspections regular safety meetings with employees regular ergonomic assessments.
Good human resource planning and management will result in good report and communications between employees and the management. It will also result in individual employees development plans low employees turn over low absenteeism low safety incident, competitive employees compensations programs including basic employees benefits high morale good quality output and efficient operations, well trained employees and satisfied customers. Salary competitveness witin the industy and basic employee benefit need to be reviewed regularly likely at least every two year. The plan needs to indentify hiring and promotion policies and employee development plans for improving employees performance.
The purpose of the Training and Development Program is to provide consultation curriculum and training services ti pinal country employees so they can improve their professional skill set to advance the country priorities and delier the best services possible to pinal country residents, 70% of trained employees who demonstrate improvement skill knowledge through pre and post training testing. 10% of pinal country employees that complete a job related degree though the tuition reimbursement program per consultation provided. 80% of pinal country employees who have completed any franklin covey training program offered through hr, that show an improved evaluation of job performance between the pre& post assessment by managers. (SECTION TWO) As HR department working for company long –term in all the ways, to create new techniques and capability to cover organization to improve company basement and development, company are now looking for more high quality new out come product and new strategic.
Human resource are plays the essential role in developing company very well by handling all the employee activities of an organization , company in beginning of growth phases can be benefited identifying training needs for existing staff. The strategies that also can reduce turnover and improve employee retention. HR department are mostly responsible company programed to make advance future facilities and development. HR department processes are in several type of function, time management, travelling management, workforce planning and recruitment. Department of human resource is responsible for monitoring effectiveness of agency or department recruitment and selection procedure in accordance with applicable policies and law.
The organization engages in strategic planning to keep itself for the future. Since component of the strategic planning the foundation for workforce planning, leaders are advised to start by creating or updated organization strategic planning to beginning the workforce planning process well. The important of strategic planning and developing public and non profit organization once looked at strategic planning as designed strictly for the profit sector with goal of increasing sales and profit margins, improvement customer satisfaction and creating good efficiency. Strategic Strategic human resource managementVertical and horizontal alignment of corporate policies-
A conceptual framework| lanning can be defined to a clear current, mission and vision that are easy to communicated and understanding and ownership of the mission and vision in all parts of the organization and critical assessment of the environment in which the organization operate Analysis of internal environment analysis of external enviroment Statement of country’s mission and strategic objectives HR objectives and strategic Function – specific HR policies and practice Recruitment / retention / succession management| Job evaluation/ Compensation reward issues| Employee benefits / payroll| Training & development| Result performance management & labour relations| (SECTION THREE ANSWER) The turn of the century has been increased focus on the same in organization globally.
Many organizations have mandated training hours per year for employee keeping consideration the fact that technology is des killing the employee at a very fast rate. The training developing our administrators and staff are among the most important things. in this rapidly changing environment, employees are constantly being called up on to learn new skill to work in new and different ways and to charge directions at a moment notice. The quality of employees and their development through training and education are major factors in determining long –term profitability of a small business. Human resource management is the function witin an organization that focuses on recruitment of management and providing direction for the people who work in the organization can also be performed by line managers.
HRM is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management organization development safety wellness benefit employee motivation communication administrative and training. HRM a strategic and comprehensive approach to managing people and the workplace culture and environment. Effective HRM enables employees to contribute effectively and productively to the overall company direction and the accomplishment of the organization’s goals and objectives . HRM is moving away from traditional personnel, administration, and transitional roles, which are increasingly outsourced. HRM is now expected to add value to the strategic utilization of employees and that employee programs impact the business in measurable ways. The new role of HRM involves strategic direction and HRM metrics and measurements to demonstrate value.
The HRM is arts and knowledge, the running needs supporter which called staffs and are human resource of the organization. HR can improve the level of management and execution. It is important during period of management. It is important to improving HRM in the importance of organization development. Human resources are the people that work for an organisation, and Human Resource Management is concerned with how these people are managed. However, the term Human Resource Management (HRM) has come to mean more than this because people are different from the other resources that work for an organisation. People have thoughts and feelings, aspirations and needs.
The term HRM has thus come to refer to an approach, which takes into account both: 1. the needs of the organisation 2. the needs of its people. Different individuals have their own needs and aspirations. HRM therefore involves finding out about the needs and aspirations of individual employees, for example through the appraisal process and then creating the opportunities within the organisation (e. g. through job enlargement) and outside the organisation (e. g. through taking up educational opportunities at local colleges/universities) for employees to improve themselves. HRM therefore relates to every aspect of the way in which the organisation interacts with its people, e. g. y providing training and development opportunities, appraisal to find out about individual needs.
Opportunities and courses for individuals to develop skills, knowledge and attitudes that help the organization to achieve its objectives. Development – the provision of opportunities and courses for individuals to develop skills, knowledge and attitudes that help themselves to achieve personal objectives. Training and development needs analysis – an analysis of the opportunities and experiences that are required for individuals to train and develop in order to meet organizational and personal objectives. A training and development plan can then be created to set out how these needs can be addressed in practical steps.
Audi has developed a training and development programmed designed for technicians at the company. Technicians are appraised by their line managers to identify their personal training and development needs. They then work with professional consultants on development training activities as well as attending relevant courses either at the Audi training center or on external courses. The technicians are able to use a multimedia based Training Needs Analysis tool that enables them to produce a Personal Development Plan automatically. A human resources training and development plan is a written document. Work with manager to identify training and development needs and create a plan to address those needs.
At many organizations, the human resources department provides a template for the plan that includes all of the necessary information. Some organizations include training and development plan in annual review. According to the website Management Help, a training and development plan should include certain components. The first component is the training goal, which refers to the overall results that hope to achieve. The learning objectives describe what will be able to do as a result of the training. The learning methods are the activities that will do in order to achieve the objectives. The documentation refers to the evidence of learning activity.
The evaluation assesses the quality of results. Before start, it should lso consider the necessary budget and set a timeline to complete to plan. The National Center for Training, Support and Technical Assistance states that training and developments plans focus on three different types of learning gaps or needs. The most common are performance gaps, professional growth gaps and opportunity gaps. Performance gaps happen when a worker lacks the necessary skills to do his job. Professional growth gaps refer to more general skills that an employee would like to develop. Opportunity gaps refer to what an employee needs to learn in order to be promoted to a new position. To create a training and development plan, start by assessing your needs.
At annual review or at another appropriate time, discuss with your manager the things that need to learn in order to do your job better. Also consider what would like to learn in order to prepare yourself for a promotion. After select the skills that would like to develop, consult with the human resources department to determine what types of training and development are available. They will help measure skills, select an appropriate training method, and establish the level of imporvement. Training and development programs have a positive impact on organizations. They increase job satisfaction, motivation and morale, which reduces employee turnover.
A company with low employee turnover becomes more efficient and also saves significant money in the cost of hiring and training new employees. Consistent training also helps companies stay up to date with new technologies. Compaines may also keep past training and development plans on file to measure how much an employee improves Human resource departments typically conduct activities designed to train and develop company personnel, whether to address performance problems or help prepare an employee for a management role. In addition to formal training courses (such as instructor-led sessions, web-based training and seminars) should offer flexible alternatives such as coaching, mentoring and job-rotation experiences.
Developing employee capacity involves managing programs such as employee orientation sessions, policy and procedure awareness sessions, leadership development workshops and other options designed to enable company (and employees) to succeed. Structure training and development department to support associates. Offer training opportunities to those who fail performance appraisals. Encourage employees to develop their professional skills by offering courses at work. Create executive leadership development programs to allow learning new skills necessary to take on management responsibilities. Conduct awareness sessions about new policies and procedures as well as to ensure compliance to local, state and federal regulations. Develop customized training courses for employees. Cover specific details about business.
Courses in communication, customer service, diversity, ethics, quality and safety typically allow people to function more effectively on the job. Focus on a particular topic such as cultural intelligence for a month at a time. Schedule related activities to promote awareness. Develop templates, job aids, demonstrations and simulations to support employees in working in a consistent manner across company. Establishing a good image both within the company and with customers and business partners depends on a well-trained workforce. Provide access to training courses through a Learning Management System (administrative software) so students can register and access training materials any time they need them.
Ensure employees create an annual development plan to establish development objectives and focus learning on activities that align to company’s strategic goals. Get executive sponsorship for any training initiative establish so that can procure the necessary funding and budget allocation required. Evaluate training and development programs to ensure they are meeting employee and company needs. Training and development opportunities typically lead to increased job satisfaction and motivation. Employee efficiencies result in operational cost savings and increased capacity, resulting in company financial gains. Learning new technologies and techniques for getting work done also improves operational metrics. Training activities can also increase employee retention rates.
Chomsky and Focault Analysis persuasive essay help: persuasive essay help
Foucault debate on human nature brought together arguably the two most prominent Western intellectual-activists of the day in a debate that shows clearly the train of thought prominent where each writer was situated. The discussion was in two parts, the first an analysis of where and how knowledge was created, with particular focus for the natural sciences, the second explicitly focused on the role and practice of oppositional politics within Western capitalist democracies which I believe were in response to the unfolding Vietnam War.
The discussion between Chomsky and Foucault reveals insight into many features of their work, and there is far too much of interest in the discussion to be expressed within the limits of a single article as you can see through Elders request to the men to try to somewhat limit their answers. The discussions raise many questions as to the debates in social and political thought. I am going to examine a limited number of themes in this article. For instance, the title of the discussion, “Human Nature: Power vs.
Justice,” describes a great deal about each of the antimodernist and modernist positions of Foucault and Chomsky. The discussion touches on past and present debates about ideas of essentialism that are of importance for the social sciences. In this essay I am going to present what I take to be the three main aspects of Foucault’s anti-essentialist critique and its effects on social and political thought. This is only one strand of Foucault’s work, but it is only these specific themes that I am concerned with here.
I will then turn to Chomsky’s rationalist account of human nature to show its effect for social and political thought and the ways in which it might be able to counter the powerful anti-essentialist critique made by Foucault. In doing this I will outline three aspects of Chomsky’s work as a defense of a rationalist understanding of epistemology. I am arguing that an understanding of some form of materialism is needed for social and political thought and that Chomsky’s ideas provide some useful insights into what form this might take.
Ultimately, Chomsky’s work provides good grounds for rejecting the contrast of either strong materialism or “essentialism. ” Foucault and Chomsky are major intellectual-activist of the past thirty years in the Western world, and their discussion is of some significance in setting out not only their different views, which I thought were quite profound and extraordinarily complicated, but also their similarities.
As the discussion goes on to show, Chomsky and Foucault share a similar understanding of the history of scientific knowledge and its development and also its misapplication in the social or human sciences. In the political world, both men recognize the need to challenge sources of illegitimate power and authority within their own societies. In addition, they also share an opposition to “vanguardist” political strategies, an anarchist ideal that connects their social and political thought.
In the end, what I illustrated was that their respective positions rest on fundamentally different idea of human nature, epistemology, and ontology. In many respects, it is when they turn to questions of social and political theory and practice that these differences are most at the most obvious to the reader and what I guess to be their respective modernist and antimodernist positions are clearly revealed. In conclusion their ideas about politics and emancipation from unjust rule are related to their respective essentialist or anti-essentialist philosophies.
Quality Control and Quality Assurance law essay help: law essay help
The process that is used to assure a certain level quality in a service or product is called Quality Control. All businesses are required to implement a quality control and verification of a products and services that they will going to serve or sell. To meet standard requisites and characteristics of a certain products such as dependability, durability and satisfaction of the buyer is the main goal of quality control. This method employs an importance on three aspects: 1.
Components just like controls, job management, defined and well managed processes, performance and integrity criteria, and identification of records. 2. Competence, such as knowledge, skills, experience, and qualifications. 3. Soft elements, such as personnel, integrity, confidence, organizational culture, motivation, team spirit, and quality relationships. Quality control involve also product inspections and observations, where all products are checked and examined manually and sometimes by using a stereo microscope to look for a detailed defects and features before it is sold.
Companies that involve in quality control such as china quality control normally have a list of workers who are foccusing to test a certain products and observe a newly services being done. The test must done in a random process of selecting a product that will going to test or observe. If there’s a problem of defects located on the products, then the quality control team might stop the manufacturing of the product until the problem has been resolved. Some companies apply quality checks on their manufactured products before selling out to the market.
Food industries are the crucial business for inspections, the products that they will going to market must done all quality checks to ensure a safe consumption of the buyers. Quality inspections must done by a professional, to avoid issues regarding on the products that companies’ are selling. They should pay or hire a person who knows everything about quality control to check and ensure that everything was done properly. Quality Control is also applicable in evaluating people. If you are an employee and you want to evaluate your employers’ performance and skills, you can use this method.
This process aim to maintain the quality of the company’s service, specially when the company is dealing in manpower products. To figure out the employers’ didication, productivity and the weaknesses they have that might affect the company’s credibility. Aditionally, the process of quality assurance is not same as quality control. Even though they are quiet similar, there are big differences. Quality control is focused on examining the products or services – the final result, while quality assurance is involved in checking the process that leads to the final result.
What is Quality Assurance? Quality Assurance is an engineering activities executed in a quality system in order to fulfill all the requirements for a product and service. It is a methodical analysis, correlation with a standard, monitoring of mechanisms and an affiliated response that deliberate error deterence. This approach is a process-centered and securing that the companies and or organizations are providing an excellent possible products or services. Design, development and production are considered parts of the process of Quality Assurance.
The Shewhart Cycle (PDCA) It is a popular tool needed to secure that processes are as productive and efficient as possible. It was created by Dr. W. Edwards Deming to help quality assurance and ensure that the method is being evaluated and enhanced on a consistent basis. This mechanism for quality assurance has four steps: Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA). PLAN – To develop the procedure first by discovering what things are improperly functioning and end up with a hypothesis for resolving these problems and complications.
DO – You must do change your design in order to resolve the problems by using small experimental scale. It helps to underrate interruption while doing test if the change will work or not. CHECK – In case the experimental or small scale changes are attaining the longged result or not. Keep on checking on the process, to identify the quality of the outputs and any occuring problems. ACT – Implement all changes on a bigger scale if the expirement is successful. Act to include other people such as departments, suppliers and customers whom probably affected by the changes.
If the process is not successful, try to repeat and start again on the plan stage to gather new ideas that may help solving the defeciencies and problems of the experiment. Competition to present specialized products and services often results in breakthroughs as well as long-term progress and change. Quality assurance guarantees that any customer offering, despite whether it is new or improved, is created and obtainable with the most effective substances, in the most detailed process and with the maximum standards. The objective to exceed customer anticipation in a measurable and accountable process is provided by quality assurance
The Crucible free essay help: free essay help
Arthur Miller in the novel, “The crucible”, analyze obliquely the relation between The Salem witch hunt with The McCarthyism. Miller supports his analogy by emphasizing the characteristics that relate the witch hunt with the McCarthyism. The author’s purpose is to express his philosophical assumptions about the misjudgment, chaos and hysteria, that is reappearing throw the history in different faces and political assumptions of the McCarthyism in order to arouse people from their blind obstinacy for what was really happening.
The author writes in a formal tone to of course all socialists, historians, and people with vulnerability to suffer this kind of event. In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, the events of the Salem witch trials stem from the community’s bitterness over political, financial, and personal issues, causing hysteria upon the Salem citizens. This scandal is seized by Abigail Williams as an opportunity to seek power and revenge, similarity with Joseph McCarthy in the Red Scare, when he used it as a tool to raise his power, until president Eisenhower instructed his vice president, Richard Nixon to stop him.
Both of them recognized, a little late, all the chaos that McCarthyism was causing rather than fixing, as mentioned in The Red Scare and McCarthyism, in a nutshell’, “Men who have in the past done effective work exposing communists in this country have, by reckless talk and questionable methods, made themselves the issue rather than the cause they believe in so deeply” (Nixon, p. 3).
The philosophical assumptions were that the crucial event was the blacklist of oneself’s name, even if one was innocent the fact of being spotted as a witch or communist was the end of one social reputation such as Miller mentioned in “why I wrote ‘The crucible’ “the crucial damning event was signing of one’s name in “The devil’s book”, In time of hysteria and delusion drowning suspicion on oneself was as easy as pie, for instance the authority was never questioned, they would say -are you with us, or against us? , even talk to blacklisted people wasn’t the smart thing to do, it would been seen as “fraternizing with the enemy”, “the old friend of a blacklisted person crossing the street to avoid being seen talking to him” (Miller,,“why I wrote ‘The crucible’ , because do such things would mean the risk of being blacklisted, this was the psychological element of fear applied in both the citizens of Salem 1691, and Americans 1950.
Miller political assumptions were that Joseph McCarthy’s role was to pretend been helping the society but actually was doing the contrary by increasing chaos, and misjudgment, “sneering like a villain, he comes across now as nearly comical, a self-aware performer keeping a straight face as he does his juicy threat-shtick” (Miller,“why I wrote ‘The crucible’ ”(¶3), his power stirred fear of creeping communism, at the peak of McCarthyism the authority example to follow wasn’t as complete, instead of represent safety and order, as it should have, it became one of McCarthy’s tools in his game.
“The old political and moral reality had melted like a Dali watch” (Miller,“why I wrote ‘The crucible’. Arthur Miller’s purpose for writing The crucible was to express his philosophical and political assumptions about the matter that was happening in that stage of The United States history, The McCarthyism, which he easily draw the analogy with the Witch hunt at Salem in the winter of 1691, both were situations of spreading chaos, hysteria ,and dilution, where both Abigail Williams and Joseph McCarthy raised their power, respectively, and both ended up by jeopardizing the original situation.
The Little Prince best essay help: best essay help
I would say love, others that balance, health, plenitude, being positive. Antoine Saint-Exupery questions the way grown-ups see what really matter in life when he states in the little prince: ‘’only children know what they are looking for… they waste their time over a rag doll and it becomes important to them… , this means only children know with assertion what humanity matters are. Across the story we met characters that represent the different flaws of grown-ups journeys to find real happiness. The little prince aspires to be a universal and timeless allegory about the importance of innocence and love, and emphasize how a little child if capable to see what we ,The adults, are too blind or occupied to notice. At such important matters if life only innocence and and youngness are the keys that allow us to pursuit.
As we grew up we tend to be more “mature”, but the little prince do not think about it as maturity, his exact words“The grown-ups are certainly very, very odd” which is trues, since our perception of life is completely different to theirs. Saint-Exupery perception in humanity is in decay and he claim that “Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them. ” which he inferred in his different characters such as the king who represent proud and blindness of power and acted like if the world swivel around him.
The conceited man is every man with excess of vanity and self-importance which lead him to a lonely life. The tippler is any person foolish enough to have lived in a circle of vice and shame instead of doing something to change it. The businessman, always occupied, they don’t have time to search, think or even care about matters of life. The lamplighter, is maybe the sadness case, since he is selfless and his head is kind of set on what he wants but he is stuck at something that hold him back.
And the Geographe intelligent but yet knuckleheaded and selfish, only interested in him own affairs and have no time to open his mind and explore his surroundings. The Little Prince makes several profound and idealistic observations about life and human nature, the perfect sample is his meeting with The fox, whom represent a messenger of wisdom and love we have ignored, since the only person that get to talk with him is the little prince, he is the only one that get to know the secret of life that “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.
What is essential is invisible to the eye” with this quote, the fox say goodbye to his little friend, whom could understand every word, but can we? the essential is invisible to the eye because is not a material thing, it is a value such as love, happiness and simplicity,and those values can only been seen by the heart and that is why we are considered blind.
Conclusion, Saint-Exupery claims that the blindness of human beings about real matters in life are subjects of selfishness, vanity, selfishness, loftiness, and dedication time, which hold us, the grown-ups, from real happiness and the only way to have it, is to come back to our childhood and let our inner child guide us, he said: “All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it. ” And he imply that those lucky enough to remember are the ones that found happiness.
Quality management melbourne essay help: melbourne essay help
Pick a product good or service that you are interested in consuming sometime in the near future. Analyze the offerings of two competing firms. How do the products compare on various dimensions of quality? From these differences, what can you infer about each company’s strategy and the customers that they seem to be targeting? A good that I will be purchasing sometime soon is a new vehicle. My husband and I are looking at either a Chevy Silverado, or a Ford F-150. Both trucks are well built, and look nice. The durability on both is exceptional.
The engine needed really depends on the type of work the truck will be used for. Both brands are popular and are also up to date on the current technology. It would really come down to personal preference, and I personally am loyal to the brands that I love. It’s very difficult for me to switch to a competing brand when I’ve decided that I found something that works for me. What I can infer is that there aren’t really any differences between these particular brands, besides the name. They both get the job done. 2. ) Employee empowerment is an essential element of quality management, especially in services.
From your own experience, cite instances where a service provider empowered its employee to go the extra mile to delight you. Then indicate an instance where the opposite happened. Many moons ago, I was late in returning a DVD to Blockbuster. The CSR informed me of the late fees. She saw the surprise in my face, and told me not to worry about it, that she was going to clear them off of my account. I asked her if she was sure she wouldn’t get into trouble. She told me that he had given her permission to clear late fees if she felt it was appropriate.
I never got another late fee again, and I was a regular customer. An instance where the opposite happened was this past week. For the past week our internet and cable TV has been going down. At&t has sent 5 technicians out, and no one has been able to fix our problem. We have called them numerous times to complain, and the only response we get is “I’m sorry. ” I have told them that we need to be compensated for the time we have spent waiting for technicians to come out, and having to go to public places with free wifi to do our homework. We’re still waiting on a manager to contact us.
We are considering canceling our services with them, and getting another service provider. 3. ) You have been commissioned to create a local equivalent of the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award for your college’s campus. The winner will receive free campus parking for one academic year. Prepare a list of criteria for use in deciding who on your campus is most worthy of this award. How would you propose these factors be measured? Should they be? The student must show leadership skills, have an excellent attendance record, and a GPA of 3. 25 or higher.
Yes, the factors must be measured because the free campus parking for a year is a reward, and not just anyone deserves to be awarded. 4. ) You have been appointed head of quality control for your organization (a firm you have worked at or at your college). During the first month, you interview desciples of Deming, Juran, and Crosby. Each seems to be equally affable and competent. Which consultant would you hire for your organization? Why? I would hire Juran because he contributed to the quality movement by creating a focus on the definition and cost of quality. 5. Why are most quality awards based on the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award program?
Why not the ISO 9000 Standard? The requirements are far more specific. They are designed to help evaluators compare quality systems and to identify superior firms. ISO 9000 on the other hand is not a competitive standard. It is intended to ensure that the quality system in place at least minimally conforms to certain requirements. 6. ) It has been said that quality management is really a “people” system, more than a technical system. If this is true, what conditions must first be in place for a firm to be successful with quality management?
What are the possible repercussions for the firm if the employees aren’t committed to the quality management program? Performance, features, reliability, conformance, aesthetics, support/responsiveness, and perceived quality all must be in place for a firm to be successful with quality management. If employees aren’t committed to the quality management program, customers might notice the difference and go somewhere else. 1. ) How would you rate Dinsmore’s Hotel? What evidence would you provide to support your position? I would rate Dinsmore’s hotel very poor. The whole experience was awful.
The doorman saw that a guest had arrived, and instead of promptly helping him with his luggage, he offered him an umbrella and had him do it himself. The parking situation was horrible, and didn’t give him enough time to check in before getting his vehicle towed away. The employees seemed genuinely bothered to have to quit socializing to tend to their guest. There was complete lack of both customer service and management. 2. ) What are some of the most interesting examples of quality found in the case? How does Dinsmore view these examples? How would you, as the customer view these same instances?
I felt the most interesting examples of the poor quality found in this case to be the fact that the doorman didn’t help the guest with his luggage. He had to do it himself getting his car towed in the process. The counter clerk wasn’t friendly, and didn’t seem to worried about the fact that he was the owner’s guest. I would think if you know that the customer is someone that the owner knows, you would go above and beyond to make the guest feel welcomed. Dinsmore pretty much sees all of the poor quality as “growing pains”, like it’s all a part of the natural process, and the problems will go away on their own.
As a customer, I would be extremely disappointed if I showed up at this hotel and experienced all of these problems. When I get to a hotel after a long day of traveling, the last thing I want is to arrive to a room that isn’t ready for me. I surely do not want to walk up some stairs due to the elevator being out of service! The food trays in the hallway would disgust me! It would make me wonder just how clean the places I can’t see really are, and I’d be questioning the housekeeper’s work ethics. 3. ) What do you think of Dinsmore’s handling of the dispute involving the vacuums?
The housekeeper probably didn’t like the suggestion about vacuuming every other day, because she knew that it was her responsibility to keep the hotel rooms clean. People do not want to stay in dirty hotel rooms. Dinsmore should have decided to invest in more vacuums so that the job could get done efficiently and on a daily basis. 4. ) What would you recommend to Dinsmore about the manager of the restaurant? The restaurant manager seemed to be the only person that was focused on great customer service. He quickly sat his customers and took a drink order.
It seemed as if the drinks and menus appeared on their own. His hotel would be a better place if he had employees like the restaurant manager. 5. ) If you were hired as a consultant by the owners of this hotel, what would you do? Why? If I was hired as a consultant, my first job would be to identify all of the problems the hotel had. There are many problems this hotel is experiencing, from the friendliness and efficiency of the staff, to the management. The staff needs training in how to do their jobs.
King Charles XII essay help 123: essay help 123
King Charles XII was born on June 17, 1682 in Stockholm, Sweden. Charles XII was a member of the Gustav family. Charles XII took the throne on December 24th, 1697 at the age of 15 after his father, Charles XI, died of cancer. Charles XII ruled over all of Sweden. Charles XII was the first Swedish king born to absolutism and at the age of 16, officially crowned himself king in Stockholm instead of Upsalla. Charles XII omitted the traditional royal oath as well.
Charles’ first official acts consisted of building and restoring palaces and modernizing the Swedish military, introducing flintlocks and bayonets into Swedish warfare. While Charles XII was away from the throne, the absolutism of his empire began to erode. Charles XII refused to marry, therefore, his weaker sister, Ulrika Eleonora, became the head of state. Charles XII thought that upon his return to Stockholm, he could regain absolutist power, but he never did return.
When Charles XII first inherited the throne, the Russians, Danes, Saxons, and Polish attacked Sweden, thinking their new king was too inexperienced to defend his country. This attack threw Sweden straight into the Northern war. With Charles XII out on the battlefield, the Swedes drove the Danes out and then went and attacked Russia. Charles XII, commanding a group of soldiers, found themselves outnumbered by the Russians 4:1, managed to pull out a victory in Russia and went on to fight the Saxons and Polish, replacing the Polish king with a Swedish puppet.
Sweden then attempted to invade Russia, but ultimately failed and agreed to sign the Treaty of Nystad, which gave Russia Sweden’s Baltic provinces. When he Swedes got involved in the Northern war, Charles XII started creating war taxes that went to outfitting the Swedish military with the latest war technology. Since Charles XII was fighting on the battlefield most of the time, he was not able to supervise details of his administration; therefore some officers went and collected unlawful taxes, causing suffering in parts of the country.
At the end of his reign, Charles XII started minting coins of copper which acted as promissory notes, invaluable themselves, but they represented a much higher value. These coins were deemed worthless and in an effort to save the Swedish economy, the government took all minted coins and replaced them with these promissory notes. During Charles XII’s reign, Sweden became centered on fighting and war. Sweden’s involvement in the Northern War helped point the focus to their military strength and tactics.
Charles XII helped make the military a more important part of Swedish life by showing their superiority by taking down 3 invading countries, ultimately protecting the Swedes from harm. He outfitted his soldiers with the best uniforms, firearms, and bayonets he could find and protected his domain from the Danish, Saxons, Russians, and Polish, until his invasion of Russia in 1708, which cost Sweden some of its land. Charles XII died in battle in December 1718 at the age of 36. The Swedish King was conducting a siege at Fredrikshald when he was shot in the head.
The projectile entered and exited his temple, killing him instantly. Many theories exist about his death; some say he was shot from the Danish fortress just across the hilltop, while many others argue that he was shot by one of his own men. Charles XII was succeeded to the throne by Ulrika Eleonora. As a citizen under the leadership of Charles XII, I would support him due to his courageousness and his war efforts. Charles XII courageously led his troops into Russia in 1708 and attempted to take over Russia.
While he failed at the invasion, his leadership skills were superb and his love of military tactics helped strengthen his country. He was also responsible. He never drank any alcohol stronger than beer and he did not marry nor did he have any children. He lived and died on the frontline and gave up his life for his country.
Activity based costing devry tutorcom essay help: devry tutorcom essay help
Toys should change its existing costaccounting system from the legacy or traditional costing methodologyto activity-based costing (ABC). In allocating overhead as a percentageof direct labor cost, the margins of 9% and 34% in the Geoffrey dolland the specialty branded doll #106 respectively, do not reflect theactual cost of overhead. Currently G. G. Toys is calculating its manufacturing overhead costs ononly on one cost driver, the direct labor.
From case facts, we knowthat the manufacturing overhead at the Chicago plant is very high(approximately 95% of the overall GG Toys manufacturing overhead)The 3 different categories of dolls require different amounts of machine hours and other variable costs. By using Activity-basedcosting, each specific category of doll would have a differentmanufacturing overhead (and hence different contribution margin)allocated to it and the profit margin analysis for the doll categorywould yield an accurate result that can be used successfully formeasuring controllability and relevance over long run.
For the Springfield plant, GG Toys has approximately 5% of the overalloverhead and from case fact, we know that GG purchases finishedcomponents from local manufacturers and then assemble thecomponents (to form the cradles) using manual labor and there is nomachine hours involved in this (Exhibit # 1). So, I recommend GG tokeep the existing cost accounting system as the primary cost driverhere is labor hours which is being rightly applied as the cost allocation basis. Moreover, ABC methodology is unnecessary because Springfieldplant is related to producing only one product.
Promotional Strategies of Big Bazaar Palakkad my assignment essay help: my assignment essay help
Indian retail sector is witnessing one of the most hectic Marketing activities of all times. The companies are fighting to win the hearts of customer. There is always a ‘first mover advantage’ in an upcoming sector. This advantage goes to “BIG BAZAAR” in India. It has brought about many changes in the buying behavior of people as Big Bazaar provides all items in one roof at low rates. The consumer’s preferences are changing & they are moving from shops stores to Modern Retail outlet.
It’s the main challenge to the Modern retail outlets to attract the customers towards them from that of competitors. To attract more customers companies have to carry out the promotional activities in unique way. BIG BAZAAR has maintained that uniqueness & has succeeded in attracting customers. The promotional activity of the company, which famous as Less Price than others as it says ‘Nobody Sells Cheaper and Better! ’ is made its place in minds of customer. As the competition is becoming stiff in the market the activities conducted by the company are unique, that have brought fruitful result to the company.
Among them sales Promotions is one of the leading activity or unique among all other activities & has high influence on the customer who walks-in. In this assignment, I have described its marketing strategies and promotional activities. The assignment is based on ‘the effective marketing strategy which influences customer to purchase a product of Big Bazaar’ helps to understand the effect of marketing strategy which is responsible for attracting customer towards big bazaar. The research was carried out as per the steps of Marketing Research.
The well supportive objectives were set for the study. To meet the objectives primary research was undertaken. The data collection approach adopted was experimental research. 1. 2 ORGANISATION PROFILE 1. 2. 1 FUTURE GROUP Future Group is one of the country‘s leading business groups present in retail, asset management, consumer finance, insurance, retail media, retail spaces and logistics. The group‘s flagship company, Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited operates over 7 million square feet of retail space, has over 1000 stores across 53 cities in India and employs over 25,000 people.
Some of its leading retail formats include, Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Central, Food Bazaar, Home Town, eZone, Depot, Future Money and online retail format, futurebazaar. com. Future Group companies includes, Future Capital Holdings, Future General India Indus League Clothing and Galaxy Entertainment that manages Sports Bar, Brew Bar and Bowling Co. Future Capital Holdings, the group‘s financial arm, focuses on asset management and consumer credit. It manages assets worth over $1 billion that are being invested in developing retail real estate and consumer-related brands and hotels.
BIGBAZAAR (Is se sasta aur accha kahin nahi! ) Big Bazaar caters to every need of the customer and his/her family. Where Big Bazaar scores over other stores is its value for money proposition for the Indian customers. Big Bazaar promises the best products at the best prices. With the ever increasing array of private labels, it has opened the doors into the world of fashion and general merchandise including home furnishings, utensils, crockery, cutlery, sports goods and much more at prices that will surprise you.
And this is just the beginning. Big Bazaar always plans and tries to add much more to complete the shopping experience. 1. 2. 2 Company Statements: Future Group Manifesto “Future” – the word which signifies optimism, growth, achievement, strength, beauty, rewards and perfection. Future encourages us to explore areas yet unexplored, write rules yet unwritten; create new opportunities and new successes. To strive for a glorious future brings to us our strength, our ability to learn, unlearn and re-learn our ability to evolve. Rewrite rules, Retain values” Group Vision “Future Group shall deliver Every Thing, Every Where, Every Time For Every Indian Consumer in the most profitable manner”.
We share the vision and belief that our customers and stakeholders shall be served only by creating and executing future scenarios in the consumption space leading to economic development. ii. We will be the trendsetters in evolving delivery formats, creating retail realty, making consumption affordable for all customer segments – for classes and for masses. ii. We shall infuse Indian brands with confidence and renewed ambition. iv. We shall be efficient, cost- conscious and committed to quality in whatever we do. v. We shall ensure that our positive attitude, sincerity, humility and united determination shall be the driving force to make us successful.
Retailing consider as sunrise industry today after InfoTech, is the most happening industry with almost all the big players vying for a share of the coveted pie. Buoyed by a strong increase in private consumption retailing is one industry that is waiting to explode. The Indian Retail sector has caught the world‘s imagination in the last few years. Topping the list of most attractive retail destination list for three years in a row, it had retail giants like Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco sizing up potential partners and waiting to enter the fray.
India‘s retail growth was largely driven by increasing disposable incomes, favorable demographics, changing lifestyles, growth of the middle class segment and a high potential for penetration into urban and rural markets. However, with the onset of the global financial crisis, Indian retailers have been suffering from the effects of rapid credit squeeze, high operating costs and low customer confidence. Organized retail structure Organized retailing is bound to grow tremendously provided the rights are adopted.
Retail businesses have broken rank and seem poised to surge head with renewed vigor, optimism, confidence and capability. There is an incredible amount of activity in terms of creation of retail oriented space across India. As per some estimates, there are over 200 retail mall projects under construction or under active planning stage spanning over 25 cities. This may translate into over 25 million sq. ft. of new retail space in the market within this year end. Huge retail formats, with high quality ambience and very courteous and ambivalent sales staff, are regular features of retail formats in most Asian countries.
However in India expect for a few big towns where modern retailing formats abound, these features are grossly missing . ETIG expects organized retailing to slowly penetrate the second rung and smaller town which will catapult the growth rate for the sector. Even though the big retail chains are concentrating on the upper segment and selling products at higher prices like crossroads, akbarally’s and shoppers stop, retail stores are sprouting that cater to the needs of middle class. With a huge middle class Population the retailers like RPG, Food World are tapping this market.
The market is flooded with products branded and unbranded. The customers are in a dilemma as to pick which one. Simon bell of AT Kearney says ? there is a close relation between the growth of branded and the growth of the organized retail. Companies selling branded products prefer to have big and organized retail put lets such as Hypermarkets where they can be differentiated from unbranded products. Though doubts have been cast on the future of Indian retailing it is our belief that the retail boom is yet to happen.
While the industry is in the introduction stage in most geography, it has just entered the growth region in the metro cities. Today the right product mix, right sourcing strategy and the right communication are the mantras for success. Each of the retail stars has identified and settled into a feasible and sustainable model of its own… * Shopper Stop: Department store format * Westside: Emulated the marks & Spencer‘s model of 100% private label, very good value for money merchandise for the entire family * Giant And Big Bazaar- Hypermarket/cash &carry stores Food World And Nilgiris – Supermarket format. * Pantaloons and the Home Store- Specialty retailing. * Tanishq- Has very successfully pioneered a very quality organized retail business in fine jewelers. Future Perspective We should see fundamental shifts in the way Indians shop in the very near future. The year 2003 could well be a landmark year for organized Indians retailing. According to recent study done by ETIG the organized retail industry is expected to grow by 30 % in the next five years and is expected to touch Rs 45000cr.
Thus, the growth potential for the organized retailer is enormous. Metro from Germany is a very successful and resourceful retailer and their cash & carry format should offer a good run for money to others. Some others will also find perfectly legitimate ways to operates in India, for example, Marks & Spencer‘s, Mango and ShopRite. But due to the economic downturn, the organized retail penetration, which was expected to touch 16 percent by 2012 from the current 5 percent, is likely to trace 10. 4 percent only. Changing and influencing factors Consumer Factors * Income Level * Change In Lifestyle * Demand For Global Trend * Supply Side Factor * Growing Importance Of Retailing Factor * Political And Economic Factor * Supply Constraints * Reduction In Import Duties-Offer Present Indian scenario India is the country having the most unorganized retail market. Traditionally it is a family‘s livelihood, with their shop in the front and house at the back, while they run the retail business. More than 99% retailers function in less than 500 square feet of shopping space.
The Indian retail sector is estimated at around Rs 900,000crores, of which the organized sector accounts for a mere 2 per cent indicating a huge potential market opportunity that is lying in the waiting for the consumer savvy organized retailer. Purchasing power of Indian urban consumer is growing and branded merchandise in categories like Apparels, Cosmetics, Shoes, Watches, Beverages, Food and even Jewellery, are slowly becoming lifestyle products that are widely accepted by the urban Indian consumer.
Indian retailers need to advantage of this growth and aiming to grow, diversify and introduce new formats have to pay more attention to the brand building process. The emphasis here is on retail as a brand rather than retailers selling brands. The focus should be on branding the retail business itself. In their preparation to face fierce competitive pressure, Indian retailers must come to recognize the value of building their own stores as brands to reinforce their marketing positioning, to communicate quality as well as value for money.
Sustainable competitive advantage will be dependent on translating core values combining products, image and reputation into a coherent retail brand strategy. There is no doubt that the Indian retail scene is booming. A number of large corporate houses — Tata‘s, Raheja‘s, Piramals‘s, Goenka‘s — have already made their foray into this arena, with beauty and health stores, supermarkets, self-service music stores, NewAge book stores, every-day-low-price stores, computers and peripherals stores, office equipment stores and home/building construction stores. Today the organized players have attacked every retail category. The
Indian retail scene has witnessed too many players in too short a time, crowding several categories without looking at their core competencies, or having a well thought out branding strategy. Growth of Retail Sector: Retail is one of the booming sectors of India in the present times. Retail, one of India‘s largest industries, has presently emerged as one of the most dynamic and fast paced industries of our times with several players entering the market. Accounting for over 10 per cent of the country‘s GDP and around eight per cent of the employment retailing in India is gradually inching its way toward becoming the next boom industry.
Another credible factor in the prospects of the retail sector in India is the increase in the young working population. In India, hefty pay packets, nuclear families in urban areas, along with increasing working-women population and emerging opportunities in the services sector. These key factors have been the growth drivers of the organized retail sector in India which now boast of retailing almost all the preferences of life – Apparel & Accessories, Appliances, Electronics, Cosmetics and Toiletries, Home & Office Products, Travel and Leisure and many more.
With this the retail sector in India is witnessing rejuvenation as traditional markets make way for new formats such as departmental stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets and specialty stores. The retailing configuration in India is fast developing as shopping malls are increasingly becoming familiar in large cities. When it comes to development of retail space specially the malls, the Tier II cities are no longer behind in the race. If development plans till 2007 is studied it shows the projection of 220 shopping malls, with 139 malls in metros and the remaining 81 in the Tier II cities.
The government of states like Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) are very upbeat about permitting the use of land for commercial development thus increasing the availability of land for retail space; thus making NCR render to 50% of the malls in India. India is being seen as a potential goldmine for retail investors from over the world and latest research has rated India as the top destination for retailers for an attractive emerging retail market. India‘s vast middle class and its almost untapped retail industry are key attractions for global retail giants wanting to enter newer markets.
Even though India has well over 5 million retail outlets, the country sorely lacks anything that can resemble a retailing industry in the modern sense of the term. This presents international retailing specialists with a great opportunity. The organized retail sector is expected to grow stronger than GDP growth in the next five years driven by changing lifestyles, burgeoning income and favorable demographic outline. Major players Food&Grocery| Fashion| Others| Food World| Shoppers Stop| Vivek’s| Subhiksha| Westside| Planet| Nilgris| Lifestyle| Music World|
Adani-Rjivs| Pyramids| Crossword| Nirma-Radhey| Pantaloons| Life spring| Each of these retail stars has identified and settled into a feasible and sustainable business model of its own. Rather surprisingly, each has developed a unique model. Westside has very successfully emulated a Marks & Spencer model (of 100 per cent private label, very good value for money merchandise for the entire family). Spencer’s Daily and Nilgris have successfully shown the viability of the `supermarket’ format in India and its ability to co-exist with the ubiquitous Kirana store.
In addition to balancing per unit income reduction against increased volume, sales promotions other than storewide markdowns balance the value of promotional offers against expected redemption rates. Loyalty programs can be a cost-effective sales promotion tool. Store membership loyalty programs can work much the same way as storewide markdowns, with the exception being that not every customer receives a discount. Members bring in lower per unit revenue while increasing sales volume. Nonmembers balance out the equation by paying full retail price and not necessarily boosting sales volume.
Coupons Coupons can be even more cost efficient than loyalty programs, but coupons can have less effect on sales volume. With coupon programs, a majority of customers will pay full price for products, while only a select few who clip coupons will receive price discounts. Coupons can be effective as a supplement to other promotional strategies, allowing retailers to gain business from a select group of value-conscious consumers.
The problem with coupon-clippers, however, is that retailers can find it challenging to build oyalty in this group, who are likely to defect as soon as the coupon promotion ends. Mail-In Rebates Mail-in rebates provide unique financial advantages to retailers. With a mail-in rebate, retailers collect full retail price for products sold, then reimburse customers at a later date. This can keep revenue figures up, while eating into profitability due to rebate redemption expenses. The more valuable a mail-in rebate is, the more likely consumers are to redeem it. The opposite holds true as well, creating distinct opportunities for retailers.
Retailers who offer small rebates can take advantage of increased demand on the spot, while minimizing the price they have to pay for the additional sales volume. A $10 rebate on a lawn chair, for example, may be enough to convince a shopper to buy a chair but not enough to motivate the customer to go through the redemption process. Contests Contests can stir up excitement about your brands, creating memorable experiences in customers’ minds that they will associate with your company. Contests can take a variety of forms, but the best accrue some sort of extra benefit to the company along the way.
Consider creating a cash giveaway for a randomly selected customer-service survey participant, for example, encouraging people to try your products while gathering valuable marketing research at the same time. Freebies Giving something away for free can be a powerful way to grab people’s attention and break down any resistance to change. For consumers, free samples in retail stores or free services offered via coupon can allow them to try something new without the risk of wasting money on a disappointing product. Buy-one-get-one programs can create a value proposition that causes shoppers to temporarily choose one brand over another.
Freebies work in the business world, as well. Food product manufacturers, for example, can provide free samples to retail purchasing managers to give them confidence that the products will sell. Discounts Offering price discounts is at the heart of most sales promotion programs. Storewide sales mark down prices on a wide range of goods, enticing customers to visit a store and search for deals. Coupons can attract a highly value-conscious market segment that can often be persuaded to buy in bulk for the right price. Mail-in rebates help keep revenue numbers high, since customers originally pay full price for goods on promotion.
In addition to this, not every customer who buys a product specifically because of a rebate will actually redeem the rebate, maximizing the value of the promotion to the company. B2B Terms of Sale Small businesses can include promotional incentives in the terms of sale for their business customers. Businesses can offer volume discounts to encourage distributors to stock up on particular products, for example. Businesses can also offer price discounts for paying off business-to-business credit accounts early. B2B Allowances Small businesses may have to use sales promotions to convince business buyers to give their products and services a try.
In the retail world, it is common for companies to actually pay retailers what is called a slotting allowance to purchase and stock their products at first, reducing the risk to the buyer. Small businesses can also offer an advertising allowance, essentially a cooperative advertising agreement fully financed by the seller, to sweeten the deal for business buyers. 2. 1. 2 OBJECTIVES OF SALES PROMOTION Keep Existing Customers A sales promotion can be geared toward keeping existing customers, especially if a new competitor is opening nearby.
For example, a barbershop owner can mail coupons to all of his existing customers to take attention away from a competitor’s grand opening event. A dry cleaner could implement a referral program where he gives existing customers a discount when they refer new customers to make a purchase, which can help build customer loyalty. Inventory Clearance A special promotion can help you clear inventory to make room for seasonal or new merchandise. If you own a clothing boutique, for example, you may need to advertise a reduced price on winter clothing to make room for spring and summer fashions.
The owner of a gift shop can conduct a clearance sale on Halloween merchandise to make room for Christmas products. Reaching New Market A promotion can be a way to reach a new segment of the market. For example, if you operate a health club and you’ve developed a fitness plan geared toward senior citizens, you can use a mailing list with addresses of those who are age 65 and older. You can then mail a coupon or special offer to this market segment. New Product Launch A sales promotion can help you introduce a new product to the marketplace.
For example, if you operate a bakery and you’re unveiling a new line of pastries, you can generate a promotion to get people to come to your bakery and try them. Your promotion can offer a discounted price or the addition of a free item, such as a cup of coffee. Increased Brand Awareness A sales promotion can help increase awareness of your brand, which can ultimately lead to additional sales.
For example, by sponsoring a charity, event such as a chicken barbecue or raffle, you can make people in the community aware of your company in a positive way, which can lead to them patronizing your business. . 2 MARKETING MIX OF BIG BAZAAR Product: Big Bazaar offers the maximum variety for every category of product. The product is the same in every store in the city but the brand options are more in Big Bazaar and the quantity for each product is not limited to large packs only. The commodities sold by the retail chain includes its “own products” which get a ready distribution network. The own products of Big Bazaar include My World fashion magazine which is not available anywhere else. So costs are very low for such products.
Big Bazaar offers a wide range of products which range from apparels, food, farm products, furniture, child care, toys, etc of various brands like Levis, Allen Solly, Pepsi, Coca- Cola, HUL, ITC, P&G, LG, Samsung, Nokia, HP etc. Big Bazaar also promotes a number of in house brands like: * DJ & C * Tasty Treat * Clean Mate * Sensei * Care Mate * Koryo and 44 other brands. Pricing: Price is the critical point in a competitive industry. Big Bazaar works on a low cost model. It considers its discounted price as its USP. There is an average discount of 6-8% on all items in respect to their MRP.
Prices of products are low because it is able to secure stock directly from the manufacturer. There are huge synergies in terms of bulk purchasing, transportation and central warehousing. These all factors are very helpful for the retailers to keep low prices. The pricing objective at Big Bazaar is to get “Maximum Market Share”. Pricing at Big Bazaar is based on the following techniques: * Value Pricing (EDLP – Every Day Low pricing): Big Bazaar promises consumers the lowest available price without coupon clipping, waiting for discount promotions, or comparison shopping.
Promotional Pricing: Big Bazaar offers financing at low interest rate. The concept of psychological discounting (Rs. 99, Rs. 49, etc. ) is also used to attract customers. Big Bazaar also caters on Special Event Pricing (Close to Diwali, Gudi Padva, and Durga Pooja). * Differentiated Pricing: Differentiated pricing i. e. difference in rate based on peak and non-peak hours or days of shopping is also a pricing technique used in Indian retail, which is aggressively used by Big Bazaar. e. g. Wednesday Bazaar Bundling: It refers to selling combo-packs and offering discount to customers.
The combo-packs add value to customer and lead to increased sales. Big Bazaar lays a lot of importance on bundling. e. g. 3 Good Day family packs at Rs 60(Price of 1 pack = Rs 22) 5kg oil + 5kg rice + 5kg sugar for Rs 599 Place: Place means the location of the business. Big Bazaar has always worked on cheap locations. It targets semi-urban population with its placement. Its strategy is to find a low-cost location and it never goes for hot spots in the city. It relied on promotional activities to make up for unattractive locations. Another strategy used by Big Bazaar to overcome location disadvantage is use of internet.
It has launched a merchandise retailing website www. futurebazaar. com which targets high-end customers ready to use credit cards. The promotion of this website is done through advertisement on Google. The website is put as sponsored link. The Big Bazaar stores are operational across three formats — hypermarkets spread over 40,000-45,000 sq ft, the Express format over 15,000-20,000 sq ft and the Super Centers set up over 1 lakh sq ft. Currently Big Bazaar operates in over 34 cities and towns across India with 116 stores. Apart from the Metros these stores are also doing well in the tier II cities.
These stores are normally located in high traffic areas. Big Bazaar aims at starting stores in developing areas to take an early advantage before the real estate value booms. Mr. Biyani is planning to invest around Rs 350 crore over the next one year expansion of Big Bazaar. In order to gain a competitive advantage Big Bazaar has also launched a website www. futurebazaar. com, which helps customers to orders products online which will be delivered to their doorstep. This helps in saving a lot of time of its customers. Promotion: Big Bazaar has huge promotion budgets.
The biggest idea behind all advertisements is to make people do bulk shopping. There are 2 types of promotional strategies of big bazaar. One is the advertisement which promotes the brand and creates awareness towards people. It is not targeted at promoting each store but only creates an image of Big Bazaar as low-cost shopping option. The store has advertised through TV, road shows and also started reality show-typed promotional campaign “The Big Bazaar Challenge. ” Promotions like “Sabse Sasta Din”(Cheapest Day) are a very successful strategy to get good results.
In these products across categories such as furniture, electronics, utensils, apparels and food products at the lowest possible prices, coupled with attractive promotional schemes. Some of the most attractive offers being a 20-litre branded microwave oven with grill for Rs 2,399, jeans and trousers for Rs 199 and HCL laptops for Rs 22,800. Buy 2 Get 1 Free types of promotions are very common. Original prices are cut down and new prices are shown, of which customer takes quick notice. There are loyalty schemes which reward regular clients.
There are multiple counters where bill can be generated for purchases made. Big Bazaar also provides delivery of products over purchases of Rs. 1000. Physical Evidence: Products in Big Bazaar are properly stacked in appropriate racks. There are different departments in the store which display similar kind of products. Throughout the store there are boards/written displays put up which help in identifying the location of a product. Moreover boards are put up above the products which give information about the products, its price and offers.
Big Bazaar stores are normally ‘U shaped’ and well planned & designed 2. 3 BIG BAZAAR’S NEW MARKETING STRATEGY Big Bazaar has launched new marketing strategy which is based on Guerrilla Marketing. Guerrilla marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing warfare strategy designed to wear-down the enemy by a long series of minor attacks, using principles of surprise and hit-and-run tactics. Attack, retreat, hide, then do it again and again, until the competitor moves on to other markets. Guerrilla force is divided into small groups that selectively attack the target at its weak points.
In the world of cut throat competition, corporate use extension of the same strategy in marketing. Corporate like Pepsi, Coke etc have been using the same for quite some time now and the latest entrant is our very own ‘Future Group’- Big Bazaar, Future Bazaar, Pantaloons, e Zone are all part of this group and they are taking on the biggies like Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, and Tata’s Westside. In order to do the same, Future Group have come up with 3 catchy and cheeky ad campaigns which surely do catch our eyes and surely one can’t resist appreciating the same. 2. 3. 1 RETENTION STRATEGY:
Big Bazaar strive to foster a feeling of well-being in their employees through care and respect, Big Bazaar have several structured processes including employee mentoring and grievance management programmers which are intended to facilitate a friendly and cohesive organization culture. Off –site activities are encouraged to improve interpersonal relationship. Big Bazaar also acknowledge the efforts exerted by their employees by organization an annual celebration called ‘Pantaloon Day’ where Big Bazaar recognize employees who have shown exceptional talent, sincerity and dedication.
My Goal Is to Become an Software Engineer college essay help service: college essay help service
Clearly identifying one’s goals can allow an individual to determine and coordinate the behaviors or objectives necessary to achieve those goals. Additionally, it may also be helpful to establish how you will measure whether or not your goals and/or objectives have been achieved. For this assignment you will take the time to write down your goals, objectives, and the means by which you will determine your success in attaining those goals.
All of these aspects should be listed per the categories identified below and should consist of an elaboration for each, not just a quick listing. Understand that it is acceptable to have more than one goal for the categories (middle school, high school, post-high school) that you will be writing about. However, if you do have more than one goal for one of the categories, you should provide separate objectives and the means with which you will measure your success. The final product for this assignment should be typed and single-spaced.
The format for this assignment is as follows: Middle School • Goal • Objective(s) • How it will be measured High School • Goal • Objective(s) • How it will be measured Post-High School • Goal • Objective(s) • How it will be measured An example for middle school has been provided for you on the reverse side of this paper. This is solely an example and you should reflect on what your goals are and not necessarily just take these. This assignment really requires you to identify what you desire in the future.
Middle School – Goal One My first goal for middle school is to earn at least a “B” in science class. Science has been a class that I have struggled with in the past, but it has also been a class that I have enjoyed. Particularly, topics associated with Chemistry have really caught my interest, and I know we will be doing Chemistry this year. Middle School – Objectives for Goal One • • • • Be sure to ask questions and seek help when I am having a difficult time understanding the topic. Try not to procrastinate on long-term assignments.
Put effort into studying far in advance for quizzes and tests. Form study groups when preparing for quizzes and tests. Middle School – How Goal One will be measured • The grade I earn at the end of each quarter and at the end of the year will help determine if I successfully attained my goal. Middle School – Goal Two My second goal for middle school is to make the basketball team. Since there is no longer a sixth/seven and eighth grade team it has become much more challenging to make the team since there is a lot of competition and the number of available spots is few.
I made it to “last cuts” in seventh grade and I am hoping that I can make it one step further this year. Middle School – Objectives for Goal Two • Continue to play on my travel basketball team and as often as possible with my friends to help my skills improve. • Try to increase my athleticism by being active daily. • Read a book about the technical aspects (drills, plays, etc. ) of basketball and try them out. Middle School – How Goal Two will be measured • Whether I make the basketball team this year will determine if I successfully attained my goal.
Case Study One homework essay help: homework essay help
They begin as glass panels that are manufactured in high-technology fabrication centers in South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Operating sophisticated tooling in environments that must be kept absolutely clean, these factories produce sheets of glass twice as large as king size beds to exacting specifications. From there, the glass panels travel to Mexican plants located alongside the U. S. border.
There they are cut to size, combined with electroniccomponents shipped in from Asia and the United States, assembled into finished TVs, and loaded onto trucks bound for retail stores in the United States. It’s a huge business. In 2006, U. S. consumers spent some $26. 4 billion on flat panel TVs, a 63 percent increase over the amount spent in 2005. Projections call for U. S. sales to hit $37 billion—despite the fact that due to intense competition, prices for flat panel displays have been tumbling and are projected to continue doing so.
During 2006 alone, prices for 40-inch flat panel TVs fell from $3,000 to $1,600, bringing them within the reach of many more consumers. In 2007, half of all TVs sold in the United States will be flat panel TVs. The underlying technology for flat panel displays was invented in the United States in the late 1960s by RCA. But after RCA and rivals Westinghouse and Xerox opted not to pursue the technology, the Japanese company Sharp made aggressive investments in flat panel displays.
By the early 1990s Sharp was selling the first flat panel screens, but as the Japanese economy plunged into a decade-long recession, investment leadership shifted to South Korean companies such as Samsung. Then the 1997 Asian crisis hit Korea hard, and Taiwanese companies seized leadership. Today, Chinese companies are starting to elbow their way into the flat panel display manufacturing industry. As production for flat panel displays migrates its way around the globe to low-cost nations, clear winners and losers have emerged.
One obvious winner has been U. S. consumers, who have benefited from falling prices of flat panel TVs and are snapping them up. Other winners include efficient manufacturers who have taken advantage of globally dispersed supply chains to make and sell low-cost, high quality flat panel TVs. Foremost among these has been the California-based company Vizio. Founded by a Taiwanese immigrant, in just four years of sales, Vizio flat panel TVs ballooned from nothing to $700 million in 2006. The company is forecasting sales as high as $2 billion for 2007.
Vizio, however, has only 75 employers, These employees focus on final product design, sales, and customer service, while Vizio outsources most of its engineering work, all of its manufacturing, and much of its logistics. For each of its models, Vizio assembles a team of supplier partners strung across the globe. Its 42-inch flat panel TV, for example, contains a Panel from South Korea, electronic components from China, and processors from the United States, and it is assembled in Mexico.
Vizio’s managers scour the globe continually for the cheapest manufacturers of flat panel displays and electronic components. They sell most of its TVs to large discount retailers such as Costco and Sam’s Club. Good order visibility from retailers, coupled with tight management of global logistics, allows Vizio to turn over its inventory every three weeks, twice as fast as many of its competitors, which is a major source of cost saving in a business where prices are falling continually.
If Vizio exemplifies the winners in this global industry, the losers include the employees of the manufacturers who make traditional cathode ray TVs in high-cost locations. In 2006, for example, Japanese electronics manufacturer Sanyo laid off 300 employees at its U. S. factory, and another Japanese company, Hitachi, closed its TV manufacturing plant in South Carolina, laying off 200 employees. Both Sanyo and Hitachi, of course, still made TVs, but they are flat panel TVs assembled in Mexico from components manufactured in Asia.
Bauhaus Interior Design english essay help: english essay help
The Bauhaus style is a very sleek and modern-looking design. It is greatly influenced by geometric shapes such as rectangles, squares, triangles, etc. It mainly uses black and white with flashes of bright colours, especially red, yellow and blue. The Bauhaus style focuses on a unique and modern style using straight edges and smooth, slim forms. The term Bauhaus comes from the art school in Germany founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius, where this type of style and design was taught.
The school was closed in the early 1930’s due to the Nazi government. The Bauhaus style is also a great influence for today’s modern architecture. Today’s Bauhaus style incorporates a lot of modern materials, such as stainless steel and glass. It is an organised and neat-looking style. Walter Gropius – The Beginning of Bauhaus Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was born on 18th May, 1883, and died at age eighty-six on July 5th, 1969. Following in his family’s footsteps, Gropius worked in architecture.
In 1919 he founded the Bauhaus School of Design. He is also considered the ‘pioneer’ of modern architecture. Gropius believed that any construction work should be regarded through a ‘systematic study of needs and problems, taking into account construction materials and techniques, without reference to previous forms or styles’. Gropius was the director of the Bauhaus school and also served as the Professor of Architecture at Harvard University.
My Thoughts on Bauhaus I personally love the Bauhaus style. I really like the way the style is so sleek and organised and I am really fond of the colour schemes used in the style. Bauhaus’s incorporation of modern styles from the past and modern styles from today is very unique and original. I do not dislike anything about the style and would love to have a home in the future in this style.
Advantage and Disadvatage of Internet in Education college essay help: college essay help
A few decades earlier, we had to scour the public libraries, newspaper archives, and old records and files section if we wanted to find some information. However, with the leaps that technology has taken since then till today, information is available, quite literally, at the fingertips of anyone and everyone. It is the one place in the world that can provide the user with that immense, infinite scope of information, without the restrictions of space and capacity. The advantages of the internet have been so many that lives today is unimaginable without it.
Even the sector of education has benefited in many ways because of the internet. Under proper supervision and guidance, the internet can help in many ways to facilitate research and communication. While the controversies and consequential debates revolving around the importance of internet in education have been never ending, it cannot be denied that it does indeed play a very important role. On the other hand, however, there are several harmful effects on the students as well. The excessive commercialization of the World Wide Web, thus decreasing its educational value is a major disadvantage.
There is also the problem of youngsters giving out to much about themselves to strangers in the world of internet. Besides, there is also the presence of a large variety of adult rated content, which may not be suitable for all kinds of audiences in the internet. Access to such content may affect the mentality and attitude of the children and hinder their education. Nevertheless, the role of internet in education is very important. One of the major advantages of internet in the field of education and studies includes the development of skills on the computer of the children to a very large extent.
Computer, as we all would acknowledge, is an indispensable component of our day to day lives in the present technological era. The development of practical skills and knowledge of computers is, naturally, very important as well. This is something, which the internet facilitates. The importance of internet in education is also increased by the fact that regular usage of internet and the computer for writing essays and projects improves the writing skills as well as the thinking abilities of the student to a considerable extent.
Critical thinking skills and simultaneously putting it in writing is a skill that proves to be very useful later in life, while the person is doing a job. Writing out essay and other projects on the internet helps the student to sketch a clean draft and learn the art of filtering out unimportant and irrelevant information from their essays. The immediate effect of this affects the thinking sills, enabling the person to be able to think clearly and concentrate on the points effectively. Gradually, this also helps in developing effective communication skills too.
The role of internet in education, however, does not end here. The internet is a virtual encyclopedia There is not one field of study or information in the world of which there is no record in the internet. This is one of the very important advantages of internet, as it provides an endless library of information to the students from where they can do research for home works, projects and essays without having to spend unnecessary time of travelling to the libraries and archives and searching for relevant information amidst a sea of data.
This is one major advantage of internet in education, because while, suppose, a book is not available in one particular place, city, state or even country due to some reason, it may be very easily accessed from the internet in a soft copy. The same is applicable for news and other such things. Apart from the above mentioned role of internet in education, there is also the major factor of e-learning courses or electronic learning courses, and distance education.
Among all other advantages of internet, this is a sector where we are able to witness not only the benefits but also a very active and constructive role of internet in education. E-learning and distance education is a kind of education that is conducted relying entirely upon the internet for facilitating communication between the teachers and the students who may be sitting in the opposite corners of the world. Yet, education is facilitated in the smoothest possible way Often, schools, colleges and other educational institutes rely completely on the internet for studies.
This means that not only will the lasses be conducted over internet, but the materials for study, texts, projects, assignments, home works, tests, quizzes and so on and so forth will be available on the virtual world of the internet. The advantage of internet in education through e-learning has taken good care of twisting the ways around inflexible schedules of teachers as well as students and made it possible to attend classes according to one’s convenience.
Moral Development professional essay help: professional essay help
The biological perspective on moral development assumes that morality is grounded in the genetic heritage of our species, perhaps through prewired emotional reactions. Humans share many morally relevant behaviours with other species, and the ventromedial area of the frontal region of the cerebral cortex is vital for emotional responsiveness to others’ suffering.
Nevertheless, human morality cannot be fully explained in this way, since morally relevant emotions require strong caregiving supports and cognitive attainments for their mature expression. Morality as the Adoption of Societal NormsDescribe and evaluate the psychoanalytic perspective on moral development. * Both psychoanalytic and social learning theories regard moral development as a matter of internalization: the adoption of societal standards for right action as one’s own.
Internalization is not just a straightforward process of taking over externally imposedprescriptions. Instead, it is the combined result of factors within the child and the rearing environment. * According to Freud, morality emerges with the resolution of the Oedipus and Electra conflicts during the preschool years.
Fear of punishment and loss of parental love lead children to form a superego through identification with the same-sex parent and to redirect hostile impulses toward the self in the form of guilt. Although guilt is an important motivator of moral action, Freud’s interpretation of it is no longer widely accepted. In contrast to Freudian predictions, power assertion and love withdrawal do not foster conscience development. Instead, induction is far more effective and seems to cultivate children’s active commitment to moral norms. Recent psychoanalytic ideas place greater emphasis on a positive parent-child relationship and earlier beginnings of morality. However, they retain continuity with Freud’s theory in regarding emotion as the basis for moral development.
Describe and evaluate the social learning perspective on moral development, including the importance of modelling, the effects of punishment, and alternatives to harsh discipline. * Social learning theory views moral behaviour as acquired in the same way as other responses: through modelling and reinforcement. Effective models are warm and powerful and display consistency between what they say and what they do.
By middle childhood, children have internalized many prosocial and other rules for good conduct. Harsh punishment does not promote moral internalization and socially desirable behaviour. Instead, it provides children with aggressive models, leads them to avoid the punishing adult, and can spiral into serious abuse. Alternatives, such as time out and withdrawal of privileges, can reduce these undesirable side effects, as long as parents apply them consistently, maintain a warm relationship with the child, and offer explanations that fit the transgression. * The most effective forms of discipline encourage good conduct.
Parents who build a positive relationship with the child have children who want to adopt parental standards because they feel a sense of commitment to the relationship. Morality as Social UnderstandingDescribe Piaget’s theory of moral development, and evaluate its accuracy. * Piaget’s cognitive-developmental perspective assumes that morality develops through construction-actively thinking about multiple aspects of situations in which social conflicts arise and deriving new moral understandings. * Piaget’s work was the original inspiration for the cognitive-developmental perspective.
He identified two stages of moral understanding: heteronomous morality, in which children view moral rules in terms of realism and as fixed dictates of authority figures; and autonomous morality, in which children base fairness on ideal reciprocity and regard rules as flexible, socially agreed-on principles. * Although Piaget’s theory describes the general direction of moral development, it underestimates the moral capacities of young children. Preschool and early school-age children take intentions into account in making moral judgments, although they interpret intentions in a rigid fashion.
Furthermore, they have differentiated notions about the legitimacy of authority figures. With respect to nonmoral issues, they base authority on knowledge, not social position. When a directive is morally valid, they view it as important, regardless of whether an authority figure endorses it. Describe Kohlberg’s extension of Piaget’s theory, methods for assessing moral reasoning, and evidence on the accuracy of his stages. * According to Kohlberg, moral development is a gradual process that extends beyond childhood into adolescence and adulthood.
Using moral judgment interviews, Kohlberg found that moral reasoning advances through three levels, each of which contains two stages: (1) the preconventional level, in which morality is viewed as controlled by rewards, punishments, and the power of authority figures; (2) the conventional level, in which conformity to laws and rules is regarded as necessary to preserve positive human relationships and societal order; and (3) the postconventional level, in which individuals define morality in terms of abstract, universal principles of justice.
Besides Kohlberg’s clinical interview, efficient questionnaires for assessing moral understanding exist. The most recently devised is the Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form (SRM-SF). * Kohlberg’s stages are strongly related to age and form an invariant sequence. In focusing on hypothetical moral dilemmas, however, Kohlberg’s theory assesses only the rational weighing of alternatives and overlooks other strategies that affect moral judgment. * Because situational factors affect moral reasoning, Kohlberg’s stages are best viewed in terms of a loose rather than strict concept of stage.
Piaget’s cognitive and Selman’s perspective-taking stages are necessary but not sufficient conditions for each advance in moral reasoning. * Contrary to Gilligan’s claim, Kohlberg’s theory does not underestimate the moral maturity of females. Instead, justice and caring moralities coexist but vary in prominence between males and females, from one situation to the next, and across cultures. Describe influences on moral reasoning, its relationship to moral behaviour, and continuing challenges to Kohlberg’s theory, * A flexible, open-minded approach to new information and experiences is linked to gains in moral reasoning.
Among experiences that contribute are peer interactions that resolve conflict through negotiation and compromise; warm, rational child-rearing practices; and years of schooling. * Cross-cultural research indicates that a certain level of societal complexity is required for Kohlberg’s higher stages. Although his theory does not encompass the full range of moral reasoning, a common justice morality is evident in individuals from vastly different cultures. * Maturity of moral reasoning is moderately related to a wide variety of moral behaviours.
Many other factors also influence moral behaviour, including emotions, temperament, personality, history of morally relevant experiences and moral self-relevance-the degree to which morality is central to self-concept. * Moral judgment maturity appears to be achieved at Stages 3 and 4, as young people grasp ideal reciprocity. Because Kohlberg’s dilemmas are remote from the experiences of children and not clearly understood by them, his theory overlooks moral-reasoning capacities that develop in early and middle childhood.
Moral Reasoning of Young ChildrenExplain how children separate moral imperatives from social conventions and matters of personal choice, and trace changes in their understanding from childhood into adolescence. * Even preschoolers have a beginning grasp of justice in that they distinguish moral imperatives from social conventions and matters of personal choice. From actively making sense of people’s everyday social experiences and emotional reactions, children in diverse cultures come to view moral transgressions as wrong in any context, regardless of whether rules or authorities prohibit them.
Gradually, children clarify and link moral imperatives and social conventions, taking into account more variables, including the purpose of the rule; people’s intentions, knowledge, and beliefs; and the context of their behaviour. * The personal domain emerges with self-awareness in the early preschool years and strengthens from middle childhood into adolescence. It supports young people’s moral concepts of rights and freedom. Describe the development of distributive justice reasoning, noting factors that foster mature understanding.
Children’s concepts of distributive justice change over middle childhood, from equality to merit to benevolence. Peer disagreements, along with efforts to resolve them, make children more sensitive to others’ perspectives, which fosters their developing ideas of fairness. Development of Self-ControlTrace the development of self-control from early childhood into adolescence, noting the implications of individual differences for cognitive and social competencies. * The emergence of self-control is supported by self-awareness and by the representational and memory capacities of the second year.
The first glimmerings of self-control appear in the form of compliance. The ability to delay gratification increases steadily over the third year. Language development and sensitive, supportive parenting foster self-control. * During the preschool years, children profit from adult-provided self-control strategies. Over middle childhood, they produce an increasing variety of strategies themselves and become consciously aware of which ones work well and why, leading to a flexible capacity for moral self-regulation. Individual differences in delay of gratification predict diverse cognitive and social competencies.
Development of self-control appears to be governed by two processing systems: an emotional, reactive hot system that eventually is dominated by a cognitive, reflective cool system. The Other Side of Self-Control: Development of AggressionDiscuss the development of aggression from infancy into adolescence, noting individual, family, community, and cultural influences, and describe successful interventions. * Aggression first appears in late infancy.
Physical forms are soon replaced by verbal forms. Whereas instrumental aggression declines, hostile aggression increases over early and middle childhood. Two types of hostile aggression are evident: overt aggression, more common among boys, and relational aggression, more common among girls. * Although teacher- and peer-reported aggression decline in adolescence, delinquent acts increase, especially for boys. However, only a few youths sustain a high level of aggression from childhood to adolescence, becoming involved in violent crime. Impulsive, overactive children are at risk for high aggression, but whether or not they become so depends on child-rearing conditions. Strife-ridden family environments and power-assertive, inconsistent discipline promote self-perpetuating cycles of aggressive behaviour.
Children who are products of these family processes develop social-cognitive deficits and distortions that add to the long-term maintenance of aggression. Widespread poverty, harsh living conditions, and schools that fail to meet students’ developmental needs increase antisocial acts among children and adolescents. Among interventions designed to reduce aggression, training parents in child discipline and teaching children alternative ways of resolving conflict are helpful. Social-cognitive interventions that focus on improving social information processing and perspective taking have yielded benefits as well. However, the most effective treatments are comprehensive, addressing multiple factors that sustain antisocial behaviour. | Learning Objectives| After completing Chapter 12, you should be able to: * Describe and evaluate the biological perspective on morality. * Describe and evaluate he psychoanalytic perspective on moral development.
Describe and evaluate the social learning perspective on moral development, including the importance of modelling, the effects of punishment, and alternatives to harsh discipline. * Describe Piaget’s theory of moral development, and evaluate its accuracy. * Describe Kohlberg’s extension of Piaget’s theory, methods for assessing moral reasoning, and evidence on the accuracy of his stages. * Describe influences on moral reasoning, its relationship to moral behaviour, and continuing challenges to Kohlberg’s theory. Explain how children separate moral imperatives from social conventions and matters of personal choice, and trace changes in their understanding from childhood into adolescence.
Describe the development of distributive justice reasoning, noting factors that foster mature understanding. * Trace the development of self-control from early childhood into adolescence, noting the implications of individual differences for cognitive and social competencies. * Discuss the development of aggression from infancy into adolescence, noting individual, family, community, and cultural influences, and describe successful interventions. |
Employee Relations college application essay help online: college application essay help online
All are dependent on policies being adopted that favour positive employee-employer relations. Employee relations play a vital role in the running of an organisation, as they possess the ability to determine the direction in which relationships will head. The workplace is a complex system that is prone to sudden changes of an industrial or economic nature, of which manoeuvring around it depends on the transparency and stability of employer-employee relations.
Collings (2008) describes employee relations as the store house of an organisation’s job regulation. This translates to regulating the relationships in an organisation in order to keep things at a standard level and consequently knowing what to do with the repercussions if any employee relations are infringed upon. It then follows that employees and any other stakeholder in the organisation need to be informed of the rights, regulations and protocols involved with the organisation (Collings, 2008).
Snape & Redman (2008) state that employee relations climate is termed via norms, attitudes and behaviours in the work environment, and are governed by procedural justice, service and leadership climate. Evidently the climate in the workplace signpost the order of interaction and subsequently its outcomes with regards to employee relations, as a certain standard is sought to be upheld. Employee relations serve as a benchmark within the organisation for all parties involved; establishing the modus operandi and staying within its guidelines, lest one ends up in contravention of the policies put into place.
These policies are often concerned with the enhancement of productivity through providing a platform for harmonious work relationships. This essay will set out to prove that employee relations are not only vital for the optimum performance and efficiency of an organisation, but has also proved to be effective in doing so. Employee Relations Role Employee relations were established for organisations to function efficiently and limit conflict in the workplace.
They also provide a benchmark for members of the organisation to know what they must do in order to achieve the aforementioned functions. Employee relations also act as a buffer towards any legal action that may be taken against the organisation. Wilkinson (1999) recognises that intimate environments allow for a greater pooling of human resources through face to face communication, involvement and flexibility.
The Lottery Summary Essay writing an essay help: writing an essay help
This event is part of a blind tradition. The elements of this lottery which makes it a blind tradition is that it is held like any normal community event; the community is completely blind to the inhumanity of an annual ritual which involves human sacrifices, and the members question the lottery and its use, but still follow through with the entire process
In the beginning of the short story, it tells how the children first gather in the square. The children play and talk with each other as they collect the “smoothest and roundest stones” (Jackson, 147). It is as if nothing serious is going on, on that particular day. Also, as the men start gathering in the square, they also take part in idle chatter. Even though they might be avoiding the topic of the lottery, nobody seems grieved about it. It is like a regular community event or meeting taking place in the square.
Furthermore, the townspeople know that one person will definitely be killed by their hands on that day. It says in the short story that the “villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool” (Jackson, 148) which on it was the black box that held the fate of one completely random member of that town; adults and children alike. Thus the people knew somewhere in their mind that it was an event to dread. However, they do not dread it as much as a regular person should because it has been taking place every year for so long.
It is now a regular annual routine to sacrifice a person, and the townspeople are completely blind to the tragedy and inhumanity of those actions. Also, when Mr. Hutchinson finds the black dot on his piece of paper, it is then, when the chosen household thinks of the event as unfair. The issue is that because it is a superstitious sacrifice to bring the town good fortune as they say, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (Jackson, 149), people who question the lottery and its purposes are not given answers and simply ignored; or they are considered wrong for questioning an old tradition.
Furthermore, the urge to fit into society also greatly contributes to the reason why people ignore the plain facts and the darkness behind the lottery. The story proves that people may have tendencies to hold on to old, illogical and inhumane traditions despite the logical arguments against it. Therefore, the town follows a blind tradition and they need to recognize the wrong and annual murder they are committing.
Exchange Hunter Jumper college essay help online free: college essay help online free
Find a site on the Web that offers classified ads for horses. Compare this site to Exchangehunterjumper. com in terms of the services offered (the customer value proposition). What does The Exchange offer that other sites do not? Dreamhorse. com is a Web site that has a fundamental similarity with Exchangehunterjumper. com. But Exchangehunterjumper. com services a very simple, easily use website that Dreamhorse. com doesn’t offer.
Because Aslin has observed selling horse online is not a worldwide business, it target marking is that some people learned at an old school, they are not comfortable with a new technology. The simple, clear, straight away Website is a main factor to be successful. In additional, Exchangehunterjumper . com also offers a very warm reaction that Dreamhorse. com lacks. For example, every sold horse, Exchangehunterjumper. com put on a category with some comments.
It lets customers think they are famous, important, and there is a relationship continuously for ever. 2. In what ways were social media effective in promoting The Exchange brand? Which media led to the highest increase in sales and inquires? Why? In many ways social media were effective in promoting The Exchange brand. For example, starting in 2009, the exchange began experimenting with viral marketing and social media including RSS feeds, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, It has experienced varying success.
For instance, The Exchange runs multiple RSS feeds through the free service, Feed Burner; it allows The Exchange to republish headlines whenever it wants. An inexpensive tool called Feed Editor allows for editing of RSS XML file in a friendly WYSIWYG environment. The company’s YouTube channel has been largely supplanted by a professional video management system from Vzaar that hosts all of its videos, serves to most smartphones, and provides more control, branding and flexibility than YouTube without any annoying advertisements.
Facebook has been the most resounding social media success. For the first eight month of 2011, Facebook generated over 26,000 visits to The Exchange’s Web site. Here’s how it works. The Exchange handles advertising for sellers and trainers across the country. In 2011, show horses are typically priced from $20,000 well in to the six figures, and the average asking price is $60,000. The Exchange specializes strictly in hunter-jumper show horses, and specifically those suited for high-level competition.
Trainers/sellers pay a flat $250 fee for the initial advertisement, which includes photos, a written description, video, show record and a monthly fee of $35 for ongoing maintenance, updating, and additional marketing. Google led to the highest increase in sales and inquires because Google Analytics to analyze its Web site traffic, this free service provides much more thorough site statistics, than any other options.
London Riots medical school essay help: medical school essay help
In the summer of 2011, the city of London, England was disheveled. With what started as a simple police brutality protest soon turned the city upside down with riots clustering in almost every borough. Parliament abruptly returned from their summer holidays to quickly address the chaos dismantling their city’s wellbeing. Just under 2,000 riot related arrests were made by the Metropolitan police and just under 4,000 throughout the entire country by the end of September. 3% of those arrests were charged with burglary and public order offences.
Although the riots resulted in advanced criminal tracking and identification, the rioters used social media resources to commit organized burglary, arson, and other various crimes to cause enormous damage to the city. The Tottenham borough of London, England holds the highest unemployment rate of the city and rivals for the top spot in the entire country. Riots central to Tottenham are not a rare occurrence. High rates of minority controlled gang activity and gun violence have been reported through the past decades.
On August 4th, 2011, the 29 year old male, Mark Duggan, was shot and killed by police officers. The lack of CCTV coverage of the area where Duggan was shot proved to be a point of confusion by witnesses in court. A definitive account of the exact series of events that occurred that night was never confirmed. Multiple eyewitnesses reported different actions of the police and Duggan, but all of the accounts pointed to Duggan’s possession of a handgun and his unaggressive actions towards authority with it. Tottenham is a largely ethnically diverse city, with 45% being of an ethnic minority.
Mark Duggan was African American and Tottenham had been battling racial aggression between the police and the public since the summer of 1985 when the Broadwater Farm riots occurred. The 1985 riots were largely police brutality and race based, much like the riots of 2011. After the actions of the Tottenham police and Duggan were publicized, the public in the immediate surrounding area recognized it as race based police brutality. Friends, family, and local residents gathered near Mark Duggan’s residence for a vigil in his honor, when police arrived, the peaceful gathering turned into a riot.
Two police cars were set on fire by members of the public that night. Duggan’s case went viral and spread through social media platforms to neighboring boroughs and then throughout the entire city. After the attacks spread into the central part of London, the riots went from being largely in response to Duggan’s shooting to mindless looting sprees and acts of arson. The majority of the attacks moved from being focused on the police to focused on burglary and destruction. Unless they intervened in the looting, it was reported that the police were not specifically targeted by the looters at first.
The average demographic of the looters was a young male from an underclass family. The race of the looters varied immensely, and specific ethnically own shops were not targeted specifically either, which was the police’s initial anticipation. The damage of the riots was immense. Over 100 cars were set on fire and 4 double decker buses were destroyed by arsonists. The London Fire Brigade in return had 8 fire truck windows shattered by rioters. A minimum 100 million pounds worth of damage was caused to the city of London.
Department stores were closed for days and an estimated 30,000 business hours were estimated to be wasted by safety protocols and procedures. Most damages to public property were covered by the Riot Damages Act of 1886 and came directly from government funds and not in additional taxes to the public. Hooded teenagers were roaming the streets in packs using debris and brute force to break into storefronts. Broken bottles were thrown at the non-aggressive civilians that dared to leave their residences at night during the week of the riots.
Independent shop owners stood outside their stores at night with nothing but baseball bats or other makeshift weapons in attempt to ward off rioters. A video of an elderly woman crutching a cane and chastising rioters on the streets of the city went viral across the internet and was named the Heroine of Hackney. The Heroine’s speech later warranted her invitation to Parliament by the MP of Hackney so other politicians could express their gratitude in person. The largest source of communicative controversy that initiated the increased riots was over Blackberry’s instant messaging system, BBM.
Spammed messages were sent out by infuriated rioters to their contacts, providing addresses of meet up locations and inferred violent actions. These BBMs are free sources of text messaging accessible to any Blackberry owner, making it an optimal source of communication for London’s youth. BBMs are protected from the immediate public by PINs only available to those that which the BBM senders choose. The Economist named the disturbances “The BlackBerry Riots” in one of their articles. Twitter is a micro blogging, international website devoted to short text based messages.
Information involved in the criminal’s riot plans and involvement were disclosed on “private” accounts, inaccessible to the immediate public unless allowed by the user. Pictures of storefronts in flames and various stolen goods were posted and, as a result, sent aggression throughout the community: some members supporting the damage and others condoning it. Either way, the social media network catalyzed the advertisement of the riots. Conversely, social media also helped in the arrest of suspected individuals and the rebuilding of moral throughout the community.
The London Metropolitan Police hosted a temporary Flickr account, a photo sharing website, posting screen shots from closed circuit television, CCTV, security cameras of criminal’s faces to entice the public to help them identify and capture the delinquents involved. Facebook pages went viral across the country with stories of local shop owners protecting their shops, and large masses of the community volunteering their time in the clean up of their cities. Street journalism was shown all over the United Kingdom and across continents.
Sympathetic readers showed support for the damaged towns and needy small business owners. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act of 1886 gave authority for police to inspect suspected criminal’s BBM accounts and private twitter pages in order to start investigating and prosecuting the damages done to the city. Hundreds of pictures of the damage and stolen goods were posted, and then later used as evidence by the police. The pictures influenced copycat violence and burglary amongst the looters.
The Facebook page, Supporting the Met Police against the London rioters, received over 800,000 hits. Thousands signed on to share heroic stories of their fellow Londoners supporting the safety and reconstruction of their city. Several members of parliament expressed their disappointment with the rioters and were quick to claim that the city of London should not be judged by the actions of that summer. The MP of Tottenham told “The Telegraph” their city had its “heart ripped out”. Massive increases in patrolling police forces were commanded to roam the streets in attempt to subdue the violence.
The night of August 10th, 2011 marked the halt in the riots as the city slept peacefully with limited accounts of disturbances. Antiriot tactics such as smoke bombs and water cannons were demanded by the public, but the police hesitated on their drastic effects. The police opted to rather let the criminals take their share of merchandise rather than cause severe physical attacks against anyone. David Cameron, the United Kingdom’s prime minister, suggested temporarily blocking access to social media and BlackBerry services for the week to slow down communication between the city’s rioting youth population. 000 criminals were arrested in relation to the riots as of August 25th. London’s senior justice clerks ordered courts to handle riot related cases harshly. David Cameron defended the severe punishments to the rioters and Crown Prosecutors argued for the opposition of bail in most riot cases. The Lord Chief Justice proclaimed the crimes in London that week were of the “greatest possible seriousness. ” David Cameron looked to the advice and support of US cities prone to gang violence such as LA and the chief of police, Bill Bratton.
Cameron settled on granting more crowd controlling allowances to police forces such as removing face masks and more liberty with crowd dispersal methods like water cannons. The city was to host the 2012 summer Olympic Games and was in desperate need to build up the police and public moral necessary to hold the immense crowds expected for the following Summer. Kingston University’s professor and identification software developer, James Orwell, notes that “we’ll [never] be able to predict the behavior of crowds, because they’re notoriously unpredictable,”, which provides insight for the future of London’s crowd controlling techniques.
Rather than preparing and guarding against the inevitable, effective tactics in crowd dispersement and criminal tracking would prove to be the best methods learned from the riots of 2011. Traditional facial recognition software the police had available during the summer were very ineffective. The software could not program the faces in the poor lighting of the night and through the masking the looters had on.
The Basel Accord custom essay help: custom essay help
This paper throws light on this and a number of related issues due to a combination of the novelty of the survey data from risk managers coupled with a rigorous statistical analysis. Results reflect that the Basel Accord is generally well regarded due to its underlying aims of improved capital standards and a scientific treatment of risk. However, operational risk emerges as a key barrier to implementation in Bangladesh. A number of further obstacles are highlighted, which, do seem to have been addressed although only with a partial degree of success.
Privately owned banks appear to be more technically competent and more favorably disposed towards implementation than publicly owned banks. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all I would like to my cordial thanks for almighty Allah whose uniqueness, oneness, and wholeness are unchallengeable guided us in difficult circumstances. All respects are for his holy prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM) Peace be upon him, who enable us to recognize the oneness my creator. I would like to thank Mr. Ziaul Hoque Zia, my university supervisor for guiding me in planning and composing the assignment.
He was always available to provide me with his supervision and guidance during the entire course. Therefore, I express colossal appreciation for his aid. From the early hours of the morning to the sunset of the evening they have guided me through various operations of the study and provided me with essential support for my assignment. I pray to Allah that He be merciful to all of these people. Last but not the least thanks goes to my parents for bearing the tension, frustration and all the hard work along with me through the entire MBA program. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In its depth and scope, Basel is unlike anything the banking business has seen. A combination of micro- and macro-prudential norms, the global regulatory mandate (which rolls out this year through 2018)1 requires banks to increase their quality of capital by focusing on liquidity and common equity; improve supervision of firm-wide risk management; and provide detailed reporting on regulatory capital and the calculation of capital ratios. It mandates adherence to ratios such as liquidity coverage and net stable funding, which are aimed at strengthening banks’ short and long-term liquidity.
Most prominently, Basel is transforming risk management into a function that fortifies banks’ sound functioning. These changes will necessitate a fundamental review of each bank’s operating model. Many banks will need to decide which businesses and geographies to focus on and which to exit. Almost all banks will need to invest in technology capabilities to meet Basel III’s stringent data reporting and risk management requirements. While these investments will strain bank balance sheets, they will also create opportunities to extract additional efficiencies from day-to-day operations.
Given the pressure on margins, we believe that banks need to go beyond the standard applications of the new technologies. By building strong capabilities in the areas that are the focus of these regulations, banks can differentiate themselves from their competitors. Key imperatives for banks as they prepare for Basel include: • Undertake a fundamental analysis of individual businesses to identify growth drivers.
Banks in most G-10 countries have implemented it since the early 1990s. It is now considered largely outdated and is in the process of being replaced by BASEL II. It is also called Basel I. A set of agreements set by the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision (BCBS), which provides recommendations on banking regulations in regards to capital risk, market risk and operational risk. The purpose of the accords is to ensure that financial institutions have enough capital on account to meet obligations and absorb unexpected losses. Objective of study
The primary objectives of the report are to fulfill the academic requirement of a assignment during my study which is required for the completion of MBA degree under BGC Trust University Bangladesh, and to enhance my knowledge base by probing into the details of Basel accord and how risk management sails through the required criteria’s, and how the regulates the industry through Basel. The report goes into explaining the ways of bank allocates its risk management, disclosure of market information and the coordination of Risk Rationality of study The banking industry is the backbone any country.
It helps to improve the economic development of the country by advancing the needy and also helps for capital formation, resulting into increasing the employment opportunities. The authors intend to study the various risks faced by the banking industry especially after impact of subprime crisis in 2008over the world economy and its repercussions in the Indian economy. It has been therefore decided to have an in depth knowledge taken by the developed countries after 1988 in the form Basel accord. Methodology of Study For my internship report I have collected data from both the Primary sources and the secondary sources.
Primary data: I got the data or information through the following ways- * Directly from the internet and books. * By observing the environmental behavior, facts, record and present condition of the BASEL. * By working in Customer Service and communicating with the clients of the bank from various industries. Secondary data: I have collected the secondary data through annual reports of Bangladesh Bank, market disclosure reports of Bangladesh bank, online newspaper articles from The Daily Star and The Financial Express, various informative websites etc.
Statistical methods: Descriptive and graphical methods of calculations have been made for the mathematical representations to prepare this report. Limitation of study I have dedicated my entire efforts to enrich and complete this report although there are some limitations which are as follows: * Basel II is a comparatively newer regulation posed on banks compared to the others regulations from Bangladesh Bank; therefore few employees have sufficient information about it.
Basel III has not been yet proposed for implementation by Bangladesh Bank. Bank employees are extremely busy with transactions and other purposed therefore the time that could be managed from was not enough. * Unfortunately due to the Banks limitations (business secrecy and confidentiality), I was unable to acquire sufficient information. * Personal barriers such as inability to understand some official terms, office decorum created a few problems for me. * Time was also a limitation. Gathering such an amount of information by only working for three months was an extremely difficult job.
Part-2 An Overview of BASEL The first Basel Accord, known as Basel I, was issued in 1988 and focuses on the capital adequacy of financial institutions. The capital adequacy risk, (the risk that a financial institution will be hurt by an unexpected loss), categorizes the assets of financial institution into five risk categories (0%, 10%, 20%, 50%, 100%). Banks that operate internationally are required to have a risk weight of 8% or less. The second Basel Accord, known as Basel II, is to be fully implemented by 2015.
It focuses on three main areas, including minimum capital requirements, supervisory review and market discipline, which are known as the three pillars. The focus of this accord is to strengthen international banking requirements as well as to supervise and enforce these requirements. Basel III is a set of standards and practices created to ensure that international banks maintain adequate capital to sustain themselves during periods of economic strain. Basel III adds further controls to those required by Basel-II, which in turn was a refinement of Basel I. Bangladesh status Basel II would be implemented from January 2009.
In this regard a quantitative impact study (QIS) to assess the preparedness for implementing Basel II as well as the bank’s view on the optional approaches for calculating Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR) as stated in Basel II was carried out in April-May 2007. Study & subsequent discussion with few related banks reveal that bankers should be more acquainted with the New Capital Accord (Basel-II). To address this challenge capacity building of concerned implementing & supervisory officials should be given first priority in the Action Plan/Roadmap.
Basel II may be implemented with the ollowing specific approaches as initial steps: a) Standardized Approach for calculating Risk Weighted Amount (RWA) against Credit Risk supported by External Credit Assessment Institutions (ECAIs) b) Standardized Rule Based Approach against Market Risk and c) Basic Indicator Approach for Operational Risk. From January 1, 2010 Bangladesh Bank instructed all the scheduled banks to follow the instructions regarding Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR), adequate capital and disclosure requirement as stated in the guidelines on Risk Based Capital Adequacy (RBCA) for the purpose of statutory compliance (Rahman, 2012).
According to the accord, a bank’s minimum capital must be TK400 crore by August 11, 2011. Of the amount, Tk 200 crore must be in paid-up capital (Rahman, 2012). On the other hand, the RBCA ratio has to be a minimum 10 percent of assets. BASEL II and BASEL III Implementation by BANK RISK MANAGEMENT following the statutory requirements of BANGLADESH BANK34 The Basel II accord has been prepared on the basis of three pillars: minimum capital requirement, supervisory review process and market discipline.
And three types of risks — credit risk, market risk and operational risk — have to be considered under the minimum capital requirement (Rahman, 2012). Earlier in 2009, Bangladesh Bank allowed commercial banks to raise their capital even by subordinated debt (Rahman, 2012). Under the accord, risk of assets of a bank client must be rated by external credit rating agencies, otherwise provision will be higher — at 125 percent instead of 50 percent which is for rated ones (Rahman, 2012).
Generally speaking, these rules mean that the greater risk to which the bank is exposed, the greater the amount of capital the bank needs to hold to safeguard its solvency and overall economic stability (Wikipedia, 2012). Part-3 Major Findings of Analysis 1. Key risks There are many banking risks. Most common approach is to group banking risks to credit risk, liquidity risk, market risk and operational risk. Credit risk Credit risk is described as the risk to have losses because counterparty is not capable to carry out its obligations according to the terms of the agreement.
Sometimes losses occur even when the counterparty does not breach the contract, but there are certain signs showing increasing probability of borrower’s insolvency (e. g. downgrade in credit ratings of the borrower). Credit risk is one of the key risks for the banks as failure to properly evaluate it may lead to insolvency and bankruptcy. Aggregated stress testing of Lithuanian banks results of the yr. 2002 showed that banks consider credit risk to be the most important risk, constituting over 62% of possible losses [6].
Basel II suggests 3 alternative approaches for credit risk management – Standard approach, Foundation Internal Ratings Based (F-IRB) approach and Advanced Internal Ratings Based (A-IRB) approach. Using standard approach, capital coverage is calculated by applying certain risk weights to certain balance sheet items. Internal ratings based approaches calculated capital coverage as function of PD (probability of default), LGD (loss given default), EAD (exposure at default) and M (maturity). The difference between F-IRB and AIRB is that under F-IRB approach banks rely on more supervisory estimates than under A-IRB approach [3].
Besides alternative approaches for capital coverage calculation, classic credit risk management tools such as limit systems, credit scoring procedures, loan assessment procedures, risk diversification rules, etc. are necessary to use to keep credit risk as low as possible. Liquidity risk Liquidity risk is also risk of key importance to commercial banks as failure to properly manage this risk may result in insolvency of the bank. Liquidity risk involves the possibility that earnings or capital will be negatively affected by an institution’s inability to meet its obligations when they come due.
Liquidity risk is the risk that the financial institution cannot settle an obligation for full value when it is due (even if it may be able to settle at some unspecified time in the future). Liquidity problems can result in opportunity costs, defaults in other obligations, or costs associated with obtaining the funds from some other source for some period of time [7]. In most cases, liquidity risk is the outcome of other risks such as credit, strategic, reputation, interest rate and counterparty risk. For instance, when important large customer becomes default, bank may have difficulties in meeting its obligations.
Additionally, liquidity risk comes in the normal course of business, usually as long-term assets are financed by short-term obligations. Liquidity risk is managed by analysing liquidity gaps (simple and marginal), using cash matching approach by setting limits for absolute or relative liquidity gaps, making projections of future cash flows, scenario testing. Value-at-risk (VaR) techniques using statistical data may be used for these purposes. Market risk Market risk is the risk of adverse deviations in price of financial items (equities, bonds, FX deals, derivatives, etc.
Market risk includes currency risk, interest rate risk, equity or debt security price risk etc. market risk may result both in positive and negative effects. In capital charge calculation, only the negative effects are taken into account. Main goal in market risk management is to reliably estimate likely price fluctuations and to take decision whether to take the risk or to reduce it. Limit systems, gap analysis, correlation analysis, instrument sensitivity analysis, market volatility analysis can be used for market risk management.
The risk can be reduces by portfolio diversification or hedging using derivative financial instruments (swaps, forwards, options, etc. ). Market risk can be measured by using risk weights or by using value-at-risk approaches. It’s important to note that in order to reach best risk management results, VaR-based approaches should be used in combination with other risk management methods as VaR models rely on certain assumptions, not every time equilibrium between the accuracy and operativity is reached, output on the same data using different VaR models may vary substantially. Operational risk
The definition of operational risk varies considerably since the list of factors causing operational risk is incomplete and constantly growing due to increasing complexity of business. Basel Committee on Banking Supervision defines operational risk as the risk of direct or indirect loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people, and systems, or from external events [1]. Risk may actualise in technical level (IT system or risk measurement system inefficiency) or in organizational level (lack of procedures, non-adequate organization of risk monitoring and reporting) [4].
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision considers operational risk to be of high importance, that’s why Basel II demands capital charge calculation for operational risk. Stress testing of Lithuanian banks in 2002 showed that Lithuanian banks consider that losses from operational risk would make 5% of all the losses [6]. Quantitative Impact Study 3 (QIS 3) calculation shows that operational risk capital charges increase regulatory capital by 5-15% [2]. As it is impossible to name all the risks, it is suggested to determine factors causing operational risk.
After that the following algorithm can be used in determining whether to ignore the risk factor, or to take action. After meticulously probing through the Annual the Bangladesh Banks “Guidelines on Risk based Capital Adequacy (Revised regulatory capital Framework for banks)”, I found that it is a very complex set of instructions and mathematical terms which demands a separate department in the bank for its integration purpose. And the instructions are very hard to understand about the global standard regulatory policy or the whole banking industry.
Basel II has been made mandatory for all the scheduled banks in Bangladesh since January 2010. Bank Asia Ltd has been maintaining a healthy CAR ratio all throughout the 2011 fiscal year. The problems in the implementation of the requirements have to be mitigated as soon as possible. The data collected from all the branches and the corporate office should be centralized for further accurate results. One of the most frequent reports related to Basel II is Stress Test. A report of such importance loses value when it is submitted so soon after the previous one because three month’s time is a small window to see material change in the variables.
Even the variables are tested with unrealistic shocks keeping other variables constant. There are three types of shocks- minor, moderate and major. A combined shock should be applied to see realistic result of the bank’s sustainability rather than applying an extreme shock with keeping all other things constant. So stress test should be a “scenario analysis” rather than a “what if Analysis”. It will become very complex but very realistic than current stress test measure. the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of Bank Asia reached- 14. 2% on actual capital which is greater than the ratio of 8. 11% of the year ended 2010.
The second Basel Accord, Basel II, supplemented the original agreement by setting new minimal capital requirements, again based on risk profiling, but also introducing two new pillars: supervisory review and market discipline. Basel II was very short-lived in relation to its predecessor as it was promulgated during the onset of the global financial crisis. In response to a number of failings in Basel II, which came to light during the crisis, a further modification, Basel III, was initiated in 2010.
Conservative Risk Management is the hallmark of the Basel II framework for mobilizing financial stability across banking sectors worldwide (BCBS, 2006). This framework built on the basic premise of capital management as suggested by Basel I in 1988, but provided improved parameters, reflecting a clearer formulation of risks facing the banking sector and a mechanism for protecting banks against risk in a more methodical and scientific manner. The Basel Accord re-engineered the organizational structures and processes of the supervisors and the banking sectors all around the world.
The key to the effective and improved risk management under the Accord is its proper implementation (AIF: Disclosure Subcommittee,2004). Accordingly, in order to have effective implementation around the world, co-operation between global supervisors and the respective institutions plays a pivotal role (Global Risk Regulator, 2005). The primary purpose of the Basel Accord is therefore to promulgate the three pillars of Basel II by rationalizing banks’ risk appetite according to their residual resources, thus forming the basis of a sound banking structure.
In Bangladesh banks are regulated by the Banking Supervision Department of the State Bank of Bangladesh. It has set-up a road map for the implementation of Basel Accord which attempts to comply with Basel Accord Implementation guidelines issued by the BCBS. With the growth of international banking and the entrance of multinational banks into Bangladesh’s Banking Sector the diversity of the domestic Banking Sector has increased. This has also increased the public availability of banking services matching international standards.
These developments have changed the nature of the risks facing the Bangladeshi banking system – risks that the very promulgation of the Basel Accord was intended to address. The multi-layered structure of the Basel Accord – and different levels of adoption around the world – creates further confusion. In Pakistan, it was originally intended that the Basel Accord would be implemented in full before December 31st 2009. However, the State Bank of Bangladesh extended the dates for implementation for various special circumstances that the Bangladeshi Banking Sector faces.
The fact that Bangladesh’s implementation of the Basel Accord lags behind that of other countries is also significant (see Section 3). There is thus a need to investigate the reasons behind this from a local perspective, over and above the international reasons stemming from the international banking crisis. In this regard research needs to be undertaken focusing upon the following issues: ? Compliance to the timetable introduced by the Supervisory Authorities; ? Problems faced by both the State Bank of Pakistan and individual banks; ?
The present and proposed infrastructure available with the Basel Accord for smooth and successful implementation; ? HR capabilities; ? The impact the Basel Accord has upon bank exposures to credit, market and operational risks. 4 This paper will explore various aspects of Basel Accord Implementation in Pakistan, thus clarifying the inability of Pakistani Banks to adopt the advanced techniques in the Accord. Previous studies have looked at the impact of implementation of the Basel Accord in a number of different countries including the United States, Brazil, Switzerland, India, Lebanon and South Africa (Jacobsohn, 2004;Cumming and Nel, 2005).
However, no such study has yet been conducted in Pakistan. Further, most of these studies were conducted prior to the introduction of the Second Accord. It is therefore of interest to undertake a fresh study into the implementation of the Basel II Accord in Pakistan, both due to the timing (after Basel II and following the recent financial crisis and the subsequent commencement of Basel III) and due to the unique set of circumstances facing the Pakistan banking sector following its recent expansion. The layout of this paper is as follows.
Given the potential impacts on corporate governance, financial analytics, business processes and data management, the implementation of Basel III may well represent the most significant series of steps and challenges in these endeavors. The success of risk management organizations in meeting these challenges will be evidenced by the creation of data-rich environments able to support financial modeling, stress-testing, analytics, and reporting, which in turn will lead to a level of transparency that enables markets to assess risk management profiles and capabilities and, ultimately, capital adequacy.
The implementation of both Basel II and Basel III requirements should not be seen only as a regulatory milestone to be addressed on a stand-alone basis within the organization. The key benefits for the overall banking system — as well as for each individual bank — come from integrating risk management practices with an organization’s day-to-day business and strategy, resulting in better financial health for all. Companies that have most successfully managed their businesses have given the risk function a more central role in the organization.
However, this centralized view of risk should not imply that risk management will have a limiting effect on business development; rather, it implies that every decision must take into consideration the risk perspective and integrate it with a new, global performance management view to optimize business opportunities that carry an inherent risk. The road to achieve a more mature risk-management model is a long one. However, our experience shows that successfully implementing a well-defined risk management strategy will increase the likelihood of a well-structured implementation of a Basel Program.
Campare Sonnet scholarship essay help: scholarship essay help
Shall I compare you to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:| You are more lovely and more constant:| Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,| Rough winds shake the beloved buds of May| And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: | And summer is far too short:| Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,| At times the sun is too hot,| And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; | Or often goes behind the clouds;| And every fair from fair sometime declines,| And everything beautiful sometime will lose its beauty,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;| By misfortune or by nature’s planned out course. But thy eternal summer shall not fade | But your youth shall not fade,| Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;| Nor will you lose the beauty that you possess;| Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,| Nor will death claim you for his own,| When in eternal lines to time thou growest:| Because in my eternal verse you will live forever. | So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,| So long as there are people on this earth,| So long lives this and this gives life to thee. So long will this poem live on, making you immortal| My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;| My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun;| Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;| Coral is far more red than her lips;| If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; | If snow is white, then her breasts are a brownish gray;| If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. | If hairs are like wires, hers are black and not golden. I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,| I have seen damask roses, red and white [streaked],|
But no such roses see I in her cheeks; | But I do not see such colors in her cheeks;| And in some perfumes is there more delight | And some perfumes give more delight| Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. | Than the horrid breath of my mistress. | I love to hear her speak, yet well I know | I love to hear her speak, but I know| That music hath a far more pleasing sound;| That music has a more pleasing sound. I grant I never saw a goddess go;| I’ve never seen a goddess walk;| My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:| But I know that my mistress walks only on the ground. | And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare | And yet I think my love as rare| As any she belied with false compare. | As any woman who has been misrepresented by | The sonnet 18 is a Shakespeare’s early love poem which is about affection of a young man to his beloved. It starts with the genuine question, “shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? ” The speaker is thinking about his lover’s beauty rather than putting her poem in a conventional love poem formula.
Then, he points out her lover’s beauty was more beautiful and constant than a summer day; her beauty was eternal and would be preserved in the lines of this poem. However, Sonnet 130 is a more convincing love poem because it is more descriptive and realistic in depicting his lover which shows that his love is more sincere and everlasting. Sonnet 18 is about the feeling of perfection of his lover’s beauty while sonnet 130 is about the real appearances of her mistress. In sonnet 18 the speaker says, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:” Although summer is pleasant season, the speaker never talks about how his lover is like a summer day nor how she was more lovely.
He did not give life to his lover because we can use this poem to mostly every woman in the world; he does not specifically describe his lover. In sonnet 130, the speaker explicit states what his mistress looks like. The speaker says, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;/Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;/If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; /If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. It explicitly describes his lover in an honest way. Although love poems often use sun, snow and beautiful objects to praise the beauty of their subject, realistic love is not about an idealized sense of beauty. A person cannot love another one simply because they are physically beautiful. We think that the women with red lips, white skin and gold hair are beautiful, but does it mean the women that having “not so” red lips, brownish skin, and black hair are not beautiful? Beauty is subjective. When people love someone, they would define beauty by his/her standard.
By describing in detail of his lover’s appearance, the speaker of sonnet 130 really know his lover. Love is not only about the feeling of a warm sunny summer day, but know a person as a distinguish individual. Sonnet 130 make his lover feel special and superior because the speaker pay quite attention to her actual appearance, and honestly writes it down in a poem. It also gives her the sense of security because she knows he loves her for who she is and she does not need to pretend to be a perfect figure nor be an everlasting summer day. Sonnet 130 ses reality to prove the speakers love while sonnet 18 uses exaggeration. Sonnet 18 illustrates only the speaker’s love for his beloved’s beauty while in sonnet 130 illustrates more sincere love for her mistress even though she is not perfect. In sonnet 18, the speaker claim his lover was eternal by saying, “By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;/But thy eternal summer shall not fade /Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;/ Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,” The speaker praise that her beauty stronger than the nature.
Although the speaker values her beauty greatly and even believed her is beauty has the power to overturn the nature, it is only his wish and imagination that her beauty would not change. It will not be convincing to a woman since they consciously know that appearance will change. His lover will feel that the speaker only focuses on her beauty, but not anything else. In sonnet 130, the speaker states, “I love to hear her speak”. The speaker loves her thinking, her opinions and her intellects. The speaker values her thought which is not very common even in current society.
Relationship is about equality and respect. Many men treat women as an object that has nothing inside. Even in sonnet 18, the speaker compares his lover as an eternal summer which also an object. Then, the speaker says, “I grant I never saw a goddess go;/My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:” . The speaker wants to compare his mistress with a goddess as many sonnets do, but he admits that he never saw one. It mocks that other poets are dishonest which compare their lover to a figure they never see.
He emphasized the word “my mistress” which shows that he takes pride that this woman is his mistress as while as the ways his mistress is like. He shows that this poem is about her mistress but not anybody else, not even goddess can compare with his mistress. He cares only his mistress which makes her even superior to a goddess. He shows that although her mistress is not an immortal figure, but her mistress is special for him. Then, speaker of sonnet 130 transits his understanding of her mistress to his confession of love while in sonnet 18, the speaker transits his lover’s beauty to mortality.
The speaker of sonnet 18 uses poetry to eternalize his lover while in sonnet 130, the speaker shows that his love for her is eternal. In the end of sonnet 18, the speaker says, “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, /So long lives this and this gives life to thee”. The life of the subject will be an endless summer, but only because the speaker has immortalized her in this poem, and only if people continue to read these verses. It makes the readers feel that the poem itself is greater than the subject.
The poem builds up this subject with eternal beauty and the subject only lives in the poem. However, this poem is for a living woman, and she is not living by her beauty or by the poem. Every woman knows this poem cannot real give immorality to them because the readers do not even know who the subject is. Not only the woman reading this poem cannot relate herself to this poem, buy she also will feel the speaker’s love is unrealistic and superficial and will not last long. In contract, in sonnet 130, the speaker claims that “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare”.
His claim is convincing because in previous lines, he honestly depict his mistress and we expect he is honest when he says that he loves her. Furthermore, if his love for her is not because she is idealized beautiful since she is not, then he must love her because of her which we define as true love. His love would not fate with changing of appearance or time. His mistress would feel that she has the speaker’s heart forever. Sonnet 130 well proved the speaker’s love for her mistress; his love is about understanding and respect; his love is strong and everlasting.
In contrast, sonnet 18 is more about the speaker’s passion to his lover’s beauty than his love for her as a whole individual. Many people say romantic love would last long. It is because that when people know each other well, their flaws would appear, and they are intolerance to these flaws. They would try everything to change each other to the way they want, but they most likely fail. Everyone is difference and not perfect, so when people love someone, they should acceptance their flaws.
Why Dhaka Is a Primate City argumentative essay help online: argumentative essay help online
A primate city is the leading city in its country or region, disproportionately larger than any others in the urban hierarchy. [1] A ‘primate city distribution’ has one very large city with many much smaller cities and towns, and no intermediate-sized urban centres, in contrast to the linear ‘rank-size distribution’. [2] The ‘law of the primate city’ was first proposed by the geographer Mark Jefferson in 1939. [3] He defines a primate city as being “at least twice as large as the next largest city and more than twice as significant.
A primate city is number one in its country in most aspects, like politics, economy, media, culture and universities. Contents * 1 Significance * 2 Examples * 3 See also * 4 Notes| Significance Not all countries have primate cities, but in those that do, the rest of the country depends on it for cultural, economic, political, and major transportation needs. [citation needed] On the other hand the primate city depends on the rest of the country as paying consumers of the cultural, economic, political and other services produced in the area.
The presence of a primate city in a country may indicate an imbalance in development – usually a progressive core, and a lagging periphery, on which the city depends for labor and other resources. [5] However, the urban structure is not directly dependent on a country’s level of economic development.
Primate cities are major cities that works as the financial, political, and population centre of a country and is not rivaled in any of these aspects by any other city in that country. Usually the population of primate cities are twice as much as the second largest city in that country. Some of the most known primate cities would be London, Paris, Athens, Mexico City, Cairo or Kuala Lumpur where these cities serve as the political and economic centres of their respective country. Countries such as The United States, China, Canada, Australia or Brazil have several regional centres.
Robert Rodriguez argumentative essay help: argumentative essay help
There are only a couple of directors working today who can be considered true auteurs. Robert Rodriguez is a good example: from the beginning of his career, he has not only directed, but written, filmed, edited and sometimes even scored his own movies. The man behind some of the most innovative, creative, and visually inventive action films of the late ’90s and early 2000s, director Robert Rodriguez is the epitome of the do-it-yourself attitude and a renaissance man of cinema.
Directing, shooting, and editing nearly every one of his films, Rodriguez’s energetic and self-immersing approach to filmmaking has resulted in some of the most stylish and exciting action films in modern cinema. Robert Rodriguez has added his own unique sense of style into the film industry. He has portrayed his own Mexican culture into his films in showing another side to Hollywood films that we don’t regularly see. He has combined individual genres such as comedy, gore and science fiction, in a refreshing genre mash up, such in a perfect way that makes movies work.
Robert Rodriguez is a Mexican American film director born in San Antonio, Texas on June20th, 1968. He shoots and produces many of his films in Texas and Mexico. Growing up, he was part of a big family, and was very interested in the film industry. Rodriguez began by making short films, which often featured some of his nine siblings. He was rejected from film school, due to his academic grades; however that did not stop him from making his own short films. Eventually he was accepted into the film program at the University of Texas in Austin.
In 1992, Robert Rodriguez became an indie film icon with his first feature “El Mariachi”. Robert then came up with a unique form of financing and served as a human guinea pig by subjecting himself to experimental drug studies. After his low budget success in el mariachi, Hollywood tried to lure him toward more mainstream filmmaking. Rodriguez decided to create his own Troublemaker Studios in Austin to maintain more control over his projects. His decision has paid off and his work continues to display a maverick spirit.
Robert Rodriguez Frequently begins films with a scene where a supporting character is talking to another supporting character about the main character. This is seen in many of his films. He believes tone is everything “It’s all about tone”, he explained. “Tone is the difference that makes something either a violent movie or a comedic action movie. ” He says his movies are more about liberty than anything else. “If there’s a unifying theme to my movies, I’d say its freedom”. Robert Rodriguez’s very first concept in starting his career as a film maker was his very own culture of being Mexican, and his Latino styles.
His Mexican films are made in a way that shows real life situations with over-the-top surreal action scenes. When he began filmmaking,”El Mariachi” was his very first film. This film made him a very unique and one of the only directors that has created a great movie on a very low budget. Films like “El Mariachi” and “Once Upon A Time In Mexico”, portray the same theme of a Hispanic movie that plays a large role in Rodriguez films . Guitar cases that hide the protagonists weapons, and cowboy hats are two of the common elements early seen through Rodriguez films.
Robert Rodriguez is known for casting many Hispanic individuals in his films and incorporates the underrepresented Hispanic tone efficiently. Robert took another route in his career and began to build on his Mexican theme films into something different. Violence and gore has played a large role in many of Roberts’s films such as Planet Terror and Machete. The shootings and gory blood scenes, flying limbs and loud collisions add to Roberts’s campy style of action. Robert never holds back on the gore or the groovy soundtracks added to his films.
He not only adds great sound effects of explosives and guns shots, but starts to mix single genres together. He adds dark humor and energy to his action movies, in which the audience is not really used to. He uses various unconventional techniques to make Planet Terror appear more like the films that were shown in grindhouse theaters. Like Planet Terror he takes the appearance of an old 1970s film and brings a new element into making Machete. The supernatural southwestern film revisited El Mariachi territory with the Mexican cast and plot from his past films.
This film seems to be more concerned about making a political statement in regards to immigration. Robert Rodriguez is known for being a one man crew because of his many talents. He budgets his films with adding his own culture, with intense violence, wild action sequences, and shocking premises.
Road Safety college application essay help: college application essay help
Road incidents are a major problem in every society. Many lives are taken due to careless driving or misuse of public roads. Road incidents, also known as traffic collision, traffic accidents, motor vehicle collision, road traffic collision, wreck (USA) and car crash (Australia), can be defined as an unexpected and undesirable event , that occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian and other stationary obstruction.
Road incidents are not only a rising concern in Fiji but also in every country in the whole world. Increase in the number of road incidents is a matter of concern in Fiji and also other countries in the world. Usually road incidents have very high impact on the people, that is, on the life, mind and family. People who are the victim of accidents normally regret for the rest of their lives because of the suffering they endure due to their carelessness in not following the simple road safety rules.
Approximately hundred to two hundred people die each year due to road incidents. An escalation in the number of road incidents is not only a problem in Fiji but in every country in the whole world. Developed and leading countries like Australia and the United States of America also face the problem of road incidents and its impact on the people. In the recent years, the number has increased rapidly and many people are affected due to road incidents in one way or another.
Many people lost their lives, family members or loved ones, suffer physical damage and damage to their properties due to not following the simple and easy road safety rules. Due to carelessness of people and failing to follow the road safety rules, this is turning out to be a great concern for Fiji Government and its time that action is taken. Many people are dying everyday. The Government and concerned authorities such as the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and police, are showing their concern by organizing operations to monitor the drivers activities and holding awareness programs to educate people.
Production Possibility Frontier a level english language essay help: a level english language essay help
The Production possibility frontier analyses the most efficient use of company resources to achieve different levels of production of output. Labour is one of the variables factors of production. One unique feature of the PPF is that one alternative is usually foregone in order to maximize the production of another product, for example, in a refinery a manager may decide to deploy more human resources to produce more lubricant products than insecticides based on maybe the forces of demand and supply.
A constant return to labour (CRL) occurs when the opportunity cost of the production of lubricants is constant. This is not always the case. Return to labour can decrease or increase. Decrease in return to labour may be as a result of equipment downtime as a result of overuse. Increase in return to labour may also occur and could be due to increased capability (training) or technology. Output (Lubes) 500 400 300 200 100 Labour input 100200300 Figure 1. PPF under IRL and DRL Figure 1 shows production function under increasing and decreasing return on labour.
In IRL, each addition of labour input sees an increase in output whereas in DRL, the average output decreases with the extra unit of input; in other words, the labour input is not productive. Your explanation discusses the concepts of increasing and decreasing returns to labour and the relationship with opportunity cost but your answer could have been enhanced by making use of a production possibilities frontier diagram as illustrated in the specimen answer. Question 3 Many firms experience IRL at low levels of output and DRL when output increases.
Draw the production function for a business where IRL prevails when Q < Qc and DRL when Q > Qc. Output 800 600 400 200 Average total cost Labour input 10050010001,200 Using the figures in Table 5. 4. 2 of the lesson notes, in DRL, average fixed cost falls at low levels of output while average variable cost increases as output increases. This is due to the falling efficiency of labour. In IRL, average fixed cost and average variable cost reduces when output increases and this is due to the efficiency of labour.
Your are correct in your explanation of the impact of DRL and IRL on costs but you haven’t taken account of that part of the question which asks you about the production function where IRL prevails below Qc and DRL prevails above Qc. Question 4 On the graph below, identify the average total cost curve. Name the other curves. The average total cost curve is curve 2 Curve 1 is short-run marginal cost (SRMC) Curve 3 is short-run average variable cost (SRAVC) Curve 4 is the Short-run average fixed cost Correct! Question 5 a. What determines the steepness of the SRATC curve below Q* in Lesson 5, Figure 5. . 2 and hence the vulnerability of a business?
The steepness of the SRATC curve is determined by the factors that cause types 1 and 2 vulnerabilities viz: size of the fixed cost component of the total cost; the dependence on high human capital costs as well as the high bought-in goods. These factors might cause a business to drop its level of output, from Q* to Q1. As a result the average total cost will rise thereby minimizing profit and profit margin. The higher the impact of the shock on the average total cost, the steeper the SRATC curve and hence the more vulnerable the business is.
Note that Fig 5. 4. 2 is considering the short run average total cost curves under DRL so decreasing returns to labour must be taken into account here. What the fig appears to show is that average fixed costs fall as output increases up to an output of Q* but as more variable costs are incurred the average costs rise because of the increase in average variable costs. I think it would be helpful to check back on lesson note 5 and review the specimen answer b . Do you think vulnerability is the same if Q > Q* If not why not? Q* and C* represent the point at which average cost and output are maximized.
Do you mean that C* represents the point at which average total costs and marginal costs are minimized? An increment in output to Q2 increases the average total cost to C1 which squeezes the profit and profit margin thereby making the business vulnerable. c. What do you think the SRATC curve looks like for i. British Airways (or any airline) The SRATC curve for an airline business is very steep i. e. ‘F’ type curve as it is very vulnerable to shock with its investment in fixed cost and human capital cost. It is also prone to type 2 vulnerability as changes in price of oil are very likely to affect its business.
Okay but what happens when the all the flights are full at Q1 ii. Man AG (a German manufacturer of commercial vehicles) This also has a very steep SRATC curve because of its huge investment in heavy duty machines and large human capital cost. The cost of the raw material for its components also makes it prone to type 2 vulnerability. Okay but note the point in the specimen answer about the impact of DRL iii. Tiscali (An internet service provider) This is also vulnerable to external shock because of its dependence on large human capital cost which they have to spend money to up skill and retain.
Tiscali will be affected by type 1 vulnerability as its employees and their knowledge base are its biggest asset. What about T2 vulnerability due to increased labour costs as noted in the specimen? iv. a local window cleaner in Leamington Spa. The SRATC curve for this business is flat as any rise to its average total cost does not greatly affect the profit and profit margins. It is a type ‘S’ SRATC curve. This business is faces a type 2 vulnerability as its bought-in costs are its major source of worry. What bought in costs do you have in mind here?
What are the window cleaner’s fixed costs: his ladders, bucket, bike/van which are all relatively modest? What are his variable costs? Any labour he employs, his fuel for the car, his cleaning fluids etc? All these costs are modest: he/she doesn’t seem very vulnerable on account of his costs as you suggest. If families cut back on their budgets and clean their own windows of course he/she becomes very vulnerable!
Man vs. Woman narrative essay help: narrative essay help
The controversial issue of double standards, in regards to gender within culture, can clearly be spotted; however, neither man nor woman can seem to find the proper method to illustrate one another. To start off, in my family and Arab culture the man is expected to physically and morally attend to his wife. I believe this is done not only to show authority, but also dominance, although it is never said. The standards have changed and gotten much less strict since the olden days, not only in America but also back in the Middle East.
My father would tell me stories which illustrate that the authority of the family is the male, even if he’s not the father; for example, my father had more power in the house over his older sisters but was also expected to respect his older brothers. The brother would have more authority and freedom over his sisters by being able to do things like date and go out late. This unbalance of freedom instills a sense of desperation to these young girls, that the man has ultimate superiority. In addition to the battle of authority arises the battle of who serves whom.
Women in my culture are brought up being taught the ins and outs that are necessary to nurture your own child and become a great housewife. Just as Houston points out in her essay “Living in Two Cultures,” “It was also the time that I assumed the duties girls were supposed to do, like cooking, cleaning the house, washing and ironing clothes. ” Here in America people may disagree, but the person being served is usually the money maker or the decision maker. These days in American society, it is the women that are served to first, whether it’s regarding who gets fed first or who massages whom.
In both American and Arabic culture we are undergoing a subtle change in regards to who brings home the bacon. The change gives women the power to refuse service to men at will. This goes along with the fact that more and more women are becoming more independent and no longer need the man to pay for everything. In reality, it really comes down to who’s going to pay for everything like the wedding, the engagement ring, and necessities. There is no rule that says the man must buy the engagement ring for the woman, yet men are spending their life savings on a single—tangible item. This could be a sign of greed or a sign love.
Many women these days seek men who are financially stable for different reasons. In my culture, the groom buys the bride dozens of gold bracelets, rings, necklaces, along with the price of the wedding itself. This is usually the groom’s way of showing his in-laws that he is able to care for their daughter. It sounds unfair if you ask me, but knowing your responsibilities as a human being, not man or woman, will help pave the way to equality. We as men and women acknowledge the fact that we perceive each other differently; nevertheless, we must strive to find a method to make our boundaries meet.
Diagnosis of Diseases professional essay help: professional essay help
Infection simply means that a germ—virus, bacteria, or parasite—that can cause disease or sickness is present inside a person’s body. An infected person does not necessarily have any symptoms or signs that the virus or bacteria is actually hurting his or her body; they do not necessarily feel sick. A disease means that the infection is actually causing the infected person to feel sick, or to notice something is wrong. For this reason, the term STI—which refers to infection with any germ that can cause an STD, even if the infected person has no symptoms—is a much broader term than STD.
The distinction being made, however, is closer to that between a colonization and an infection, rather than between an infection and a disease. Specifically, the term STD refers only to infections that are causing symptoms. Because most of the time people do not know that they are infected with an STD until they start showing symptoms of disease, most people use the term STD, even though the term STI is also appropriate in many cases. Moreover, the term sexually transmissible disease is sometimes used since it is less restrictive in consideration of other factors or means of transmission.
For instance, meningitis is transmissible by means of sexual contact but is not labeled as an STI because sexual contact is not the primary vector for the pathogens that cause meningitis. This discrepancy is addressed by the probability of infection by means other than sexual contact. In general, an STI is an infection that has a negligible probability of transmission by means other than sexual contact, but has a realistic means of transmission by sexual contact (more sophisticated means—blood transfusion, sharing of hypodermic needles—are not taken into account).
Thus, one may presume that, if a person is infected with an STI, e. g. , chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital herpes, it was transmitted to him/her by means of sexual contact. The diseases on this list are most commonly transmitted solely by sexual activity. Many infectious diseases, including the common cold, influenza, pneumonia, and most others that are transmitted person-to-person can also be transmitted during sexual contact, if one person is infected, due to the close contact involved. However, even though these diseases may be transmitted during sex, they are not considered STDs.
Review of literature Laboratory medicine is the base of the modem day health care system. The advance in technology, better understanding of the various disease processes, advancement of medical research and the growing demand for reliable test result has greatly revolutionalized the area of laboratory medicine. Most of the present day laboratories are now equipped with, to a varying degree, sophisticated automated instruments, with test results, which are accurate and reproducible. There is more emphasis on the quality control programs.
Today, in larger hospital, major sections of the laboratory are specialized to the extent that they engage specialized staff and perform all the tests relating to their disciplines within the sections. In the smaller hospitals the staff the staff may be required to work in more than one section. It is not unusual for these smaller hospitals not to establish and staff some sections and send the specimens to the other larger institutions. Presently there is no prevailing legislation to check labs. Which do not satisfy the minimum standards and hence do not provide quality results, which is a cause for great concern?
The ministry has established and accreditation board to fix some rules and regulations for the small laboratories, which are not even having the recommended instruments and qualified. In this changed scenario organization and management of laboratory services is not only a complicated and complex process but also a great challenge. . Materials Good planning and design to meet the current and foreseeable needs pertaining to personnel, equipments, space and tasks to be performed is very important for establishing and successful laboratory service.
The steps in design process are: 1. Preparation Assess the needs, staff requirement; technology (current & future) Committee may be formed involving Laboratory staff, architect, medical staff and interior designer. 2. Function * Define the activities that are to be performed. * Consider the flow of the people and material. * Storage: reagents, stationary and equipment spare. * Utilities * Specific needs of each individual section in the laboratory. 3. Schematic design * Structural design * Architectural design System options – like plumbing, electricity, heating, ventilation and air conditioning. * Cost estimation 4. Design development Interior designing – colour, texture, finish, and furnishings. Considerations in Laboratories Design Location of the lab: in a hospital the lab should ideally be located close to the emergency department, OPD intensive care units and operating rooms. The laboratory should be very nearer to the doctor as well as it should be located very close to the city. * Space requirement: The lab should be spacious to comfortably house the equipments and laboratory personnel.
There should be no hindrance for the movement of the personnel. * The adequate lighting, good ventilation, temperature control (equipments should be kept in AC rooms to increase their life), electrical power (including emergence power/ generations), continuous water supply and good sanitation should be provided to the laboratory. * Noise control in the open labs is achieved by installing a drop ceiling. This in addition can be used for installation of utilities like power cables, computer cables, which add flexibility to the design. Fume hoods and biological safety cabinets are required and should be located way from high traffic areas and doorways. * It is advisable to have movable partitions instead of permanent brick walls between various sections of the lab, as it adds to the flexibility for any future expansion or alterations.
The workbenches, used for tasks performed while sitting should be 2. 5 ft in height and those to be used for tasks, which are, performed standing should be 3 ft high. The width of these workbenches should be at least 2’6”. The wood surfaces with acid proofing, smooth cement surfaces. Base cabinets (under the lab counters / work benches are preferred over the suspended cabinets, as they provide 30% extra storage space. * Emergency exit, which opens to the corridor, should be provided. * Separate rests rooms should be provided for the laboratory staff. * Choose the furniture modular furniture (detachable, movable, and foldable), though expensive allows more flexibility. Serology Serology is the scientific study of blood serum and other bodily fluids. In practice, the term usually refers to the diagnostic identification of antibodies in the serum.
Such antibodies are typically formed in response to an infection (against a given microorganism), against other foreign proteins (in response, for example, to a mismatched blood transfusion), or to one’s own proteins (in instances of autoimmune disease). Serological tests may be performed for diagnostic purposes when an infection is suspected, in rheumatic illnesses, and in many other situations, such as checking an individual’s blood type. Serology blood tests help to diagnose patients with certain immune deficiencies associated with the lack of antibodies, such as X-linked agammaglobulinemia.
In such cases, tests for antibodies will be consistently negative. There are several serology techniques that can be used depending on the antibodies being studied. These include: ELISA, agglutination, precipitation, complement-fixation, and fluorescent antibodies. Some serological tests are not limited to blood serum, but can also be performed on other bodily fluids such as semen and saliva, which have (roughly) similar properties to serum. Serological tests may also be used forensically, specifically a piece of evidence (e. g. , linking a rapist to a semen sample). SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES
A sexually transmitted disease (STD), also known as sexually transmitted infection (STI) or venereal disease (VD), is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans or animals by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex. While in the past, these illnesses have mostly been referred to as STDs or VD, in recent years the term sexually transmitted infection (STI) has been preferred, as it has a broader range of meaning; a person may be infected, and may potentially infect others, without showing signs of disease.
Some STIs can also be transmitted via the use of IV drug needles after its use by an infected person, as well as through childbirth or breastfeeding. Sexually transmitted infections have been well known for hundreds of years. * | Classification and terminology Until the 1990s, STDs were commonly known as venereal diseases : Veneris is the Latin genitive form of the name Venus, the Roman goddess of love. Social disease was another euphemism.
Public health officials originally introduced the term sexually transmitted infection, which clinicians are increasingly using alongside the term sexually transmitted disease in order to distinguish it from the former. According to the Ethiopian Aids Resource Center FAQ, “Sometimes the terms STI and STD are used interchangeably. This can be confusing and not always accurate, so it helps first to understand the difference between infection and disease. Infection simply means that a germ—virus, bacteria, or parasite—that can cause disease or sickness is present inside a person’s body.
An infected person does not necessarily have any symptoms or signs that the virus or bacteria is actually hurting his or her body; they do not necessarily feel sick. A disease means that the infection is actually causing the infected person to feel sick, or to notice something is wrong. For this reason, the term STI—which refers to infection with any germ that can cause an STD, even if the infected person has no symptoms—is a much broader term than STD. “[1] The distinction being made, however, is closer to that between a colonization and an infection, rather than between an infection and a disease.
Specifically, the term STD refers only to infections that are causing symptoms. Because most of the time people do not know that they are infected with an STD until they start showing symptoms of disease, most people use the term STD, even though the term STI is also appropriate in many cases. Moreover, the term sexually transmissible disease is sometimes used since it is less restrictive in consideration of other factors or means of transmission. For instance, meningitis is transmissible by means of sexual contact but is not labeled as an STI because sexual contact is not the primary vector for the pathogens that cause meningitis.
This discrepancy is addressed by the probability of infection by means other than sexual contact. In general, an STI is an infection that has a negligible probability of transmission by means other than sexual contact, but has a realistic means of transmission by sexual contact (more sophisticated means—blood transfusion, sharing of hypodermic needles—are not taken into account). Thus, one may presume that, if a person is infected with an STI, e. g. , chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital herpes, it was transmitted to him/her by means of sexual contact.
The diseases on this list are most commonly transmitted solely by sexual activity. Many infectious diseases, including the common cold, influenza, pneumonia, and most others that are transmitted person-to-person can also be transmitted during sexual contact, if one person is infected, due to the close contact involved. However, even though these diseases may be transmitted during sex, they are not considered STDs. Bacterial * Chancroid (Haemophilus ducreyi) * Chlamydia (Chlamydia trachomatis) * Granuloma inguinale or (Klebsiella granulomatis)
Gonorrhea (Neisseria gonorrhoeae) Syphilis (Treponema pallidum) Fungal * Tinea cruris “jock itch” maybe sexually transmitted * Candidiasis or “yeast Infection” Viral Micrograph showing the viral cytopathic effect of herpes (ground glass nuclear inclusions, multi-nucleation). Pap test. Pap stain. * Viral hepatitis (Hepatitis B virus)—saliva, venereal fluids. (Note: Hepatitis A and Hepatitis E are transmitted via the fecal-oral route; Hepatitis C (liver cancer) is rarely sexually transmittable, and the route of transmission of Hepatitis D (only if infected with B) is uncertain, but may include sexual transmission. * Herpes simplex (Herpes simplex virus 1, 2) skin and mucosal, transmissible with or without visible blisters * HIV/ AIDS (Human Immunodeficiency Virus)— venereal fluids * HPV (Human Papilloma Virus)— skin and mucosal contact. ‘High risk’ types of HPV are known to cause most types of cervical cancer, as well as anal, penile, and vulvar cancer, and genital warts. * Molluscum contagiosum (molluscum contagiosum virus MCV)—close contact Parasites * Crab louse, colloquially known as “crabs” (Phthirius pubis) * Scabies (Sarcoptes scabiei) Protozoal * Trichomoniasis (Trichomonas vaginalis)
Sexually transmitted enteric infections Various bacterial (Shigella, Campylobacter, or Salmonella), viral (Hepatitis A, Adenoviruses), or parasitic (Giardia or amoeba) pathogens are transmitted by sexual practices that promote anal-oral contamination (fecal-oral). Sharing sex toys without washing or multiple partnered barebacking can promote anal-anal contamination. Although the bacterial pathogens may coexist with or cause proctitis, they usually produce symptoms (diarrhea, fever, bloating, nausea, and abdominal pain) suggesting disease more proximal in the GI tract.
Pathophysiology Many STDs are (more easily) transmitted through the mucous membranes of the penis, vulva, rectum, urinary tract and (less often—depending on type of infection)[citation needed] the mouth, throat, respiratory tract and eyes. The visible membrane covering the head of the penis is a mucous membrane, though it produces no mucus (similar to the lips of the mouth). Mucous membranes differ from skin in that they allow certain pathogens into the body Pathogens are also able to pass through breaks or abrasions of the skin, even minute ones.
The shaft of the penis is particularly susceptible due to the friction caused during penetrative sex. The primary sources of infection in ascending order are venereal fluids, saliva, mucosal or skin (particularly the penis), infections may also be transmitted from feces, urine and sweat. The amount required to cause infection varies with each pathogen but is always less than you can see with the naked eye. This is one reason that the probability of transmitting many infections is far higher from sex than by more casual means of transmission, such as non-sexual contact—touching, hugging, shaking hands—but it is not the only reason.
Although mucous membranes exist in the mouth as in the genitals, many STIs seem to be easier to transmit through oral sex than through deep kissing. According to a safe sex chart, many infections that are easily transmitted from the mouth to the genitals or from the genitals to the mouth, are much harder to transmit from one mouth to another With HIV, genital fluids happen to contain much more of the pathogen than saliva. Some infections labeled as STIs can be transmitted by direct skin contact. Herpes simplex and HPV are both examples.
KSHV, on the other hand, may be transmitted by deep-kissing but also when saliva is used as a sexual lubricant. Depending on the STD, a person may still be able to spread the infection if no signs of disease are present. For example, a person is much more likely to spread herpes infection when blisters are present (STD) than when they are absent (STI). However, a person can spread HIV infection (STI) at any time, even if he/she has not developed symptoms of AIDS (STD). All sexual behaviors that involve contact with the bodily fluids of another person should be considered to contain some risk of transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.
Most attention has focused on controlling HIV, which causes AIDS, but each STD presents a different situation. As may be noted from the name, sexually transmitted diseases are transmitted from one person to another by certain sexual activities rather than being actually caused by those sexual activities. Bacteria, fungi, protozoa or viruses are still the causative agents. It is not possible to catch any sexually transmitted disease from a sexual activity with a person who is not carrying a disease; conversely, a person who has an STD got it from contact (sexual or otherwise) with someone who had it, or his/her bodily fluids.
Some STDs such as HIV can be transmitted from mother to child either during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Although the likelihood of transmitting various diseases by various sexual activities varies a great deal, in general, all sexual activities between two (or more) people should be considered as being a two-way route for the transmission of STDs, i. e. , “giving” or “receiving” are both risky although receiving carries a higher risk.
Healthcare professionals suggest safer sex, such as the use of condoms, as the most reliable way of decreasing the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases during sexual activity, but safer sex should by no means be considered an absolute safeguard. The transfer of and exposure to bodily fluids, such as blood transfusions and other blood products, sharing injection needles, needle-stick injuries (when medical staff are inadvertently jabbed or pricked with needles during medical procedures), sharing tattoo needles, and childbirth are other avenues of transmission.
These different means put certain groups, such as medical workers, and haemophiliacs and drug users, particularly at risk. Recent epidemiological studies have investigated the networks that are defined by sexual relationships between individuals, and discovered that the properties of sexual networks are crucial to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. In particular, assortative mixing between people with large numbers of sexual partners seems to be an important factor. It is possible to be an asymptomatic carrier of sexually transmitted diseases.
In particular, sexually transmitted diseases in women often cause the serious condition of pelvic inflammatory disease. Prevention Main article: Safe sex Prevention is key in addressing incurable STIs, such as HIV & herpes. The most effective way to prevent sexual transmission of STIs is to avoid contact of body parts or fluids which can lead to transfer with an infected partner. No contact minimizes risk. Not all sexual activities involve contact: cybersex, phonesex or masturbation from a distance are methods of avoiding contact. Proper use of condoms reduces contact and risk.
Ideally, both partners should get tested for STIs before initiating sexual contact, or before resuming contact if a partner engaged in contact with someone else. Many infections are not detectable immediately after exposure, so enough time must be allowed between possible exposures and testing for the tests to be accurate. Certain STIs, particularly certain persistent viruses like HPV, may be impossible to detect with current medical procedures. Many diseases that establish permanent infections can so occupy the immune system that other diseases become more easily transmitted.
The innate immune system led by defensins against HIV can prevent transmission of HIV when viral counts are very low, but if busy with other viruses or overwhelmed, HIV can establish itself. Certain viral STI’s also greatly increase the risk of death for HIV infected patients. Vaccines Vaccines are available that protect against some viral STIs, such as Hepatitis B and some types of HPV. Vaccination before initiation of sexual contact is advised to assure maximal protection. Condoms Condoms only provide protection when used properly as a barrier, and only to and from the area that it covers.
Uncovered areas are still susceptible to many STDs. In the case of HIV, sexual transmission routes almost always involve the penis, as HIV cannot spread through unbroken skin, thus properly shielding the insertive penis with a properly worn condom from the vagina and anus effectively stops HIV transmission. An infected fluid to broken skin borne direct transmission of HIV would not be considered “sexually transmitted”, but can still theoretically occur during sexual contact, this can be avoided simply by not engaging in sexual contact when having open bleeding wounds.
Other STDs, even viral infections, can be prevented with the use of latex condoms as a barrier. Some microorganisms and viruses are small enough to pass through the pores in natural skin condoms, but are still too large to pass through latex condoms. Proper usage entails: * Not putting the condom on too tight at the end, and leaving 1. 5 cm (3/4 inch) room at the tip for ejaculation. Putting the condom on snug can and often does lead to failure. * Wearing a condom too loose can defeat the barrier. * Avoiding inverting, spilling a condom once worn, whether it has ejaculate in it or not, even for a second. Avoiding condoms made of substances other than latex or polyurethane, as they don’t protect against HIV. * Avoiding the use of oil based lubricants (or anything with oil in it) with latex condoms, as oil can eat holes into them. * Using flavored condoms for oral sex only, as the sugar in the flavoring can lead to yeast infections if used to penetrate. Not following the first five guidelines above perpetuates the common misconception that condoms aren’t tested or designed properly. In order to best protect oneself and the partner from STIs, the old condom and its contents should be assumed to be still infectious.
Therefore the old condom must be properly disposed of. A new condom should be used for each act of intercourse, as multiple usage increases the chance of breakage, defeating the primary purpose as a barrier. Nonoxynol-9 Nonoxynol-9 a vaginal microbicide was hoped to decrease STD rates. Trials however have found it ineffective. Diagnosis STI tests may test for a single infection, or consist of a number of individual tests for any of a wide range of STIs, including tests for syphilis, trichomonas, gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes, hepatitis and HIV tests. No procedure tests for all infectious agents.
STI tests may be used for a number of reasons: * as a diagnostic test to determine the cause of symptoms or illness * as a screening test to detect asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections * as a check that prospective sexual partners are free of disease before they engage in sex without safer sex precautions (for example, in fluid bonding, or for procreation). * as a check prior to or during pregnancy, to prevent harm to the baby * as a check after birth, to check that the baby has not caught an STI from the mother * to prevent the use of infected donated blood or organs as part of the process of contact tracing from a known infected individual * as part of mass epidemiological surveillance Not all STIs are symptomatic, and symptoms may not appear immediately after infection. In some instances a disease can be carried with no symptoms, which leaves a greater risk of passing the disease on to others. Depending on the disease, some untreated STIs can lead to infertility, chronic pain or even death.
Early identification and treatment results in less chance to spread disease, and for some conditions may improve the outcomes of treatment. There is often a window period after initial infection during which an STI test will be negative. During this period the infection may be transmissible. The duration of this period varies depending on the infection and the test. Treatment High risk exposure such as what occurs in rape cases may be treated prophylacticly using antibiotic combinations such as azithromycin, cefixime, and metronidazole.
An option for treating partners of patients (index cases) diagnosed with chlamydia or gonorrhea is patient-delivered partner therapy (PDT or PDPT), which is the clinical practice of treating the sex partners of index cases by providing prescriptions or medications to the patient to take to his/her partner without the health care provider first examining the partner. History Prior to the invention of modern medicines, sexually transmitted diseases were generally incurable, and treatment was limited to treating the symptoms of the disease.
The first voluntary hospital for venereal diseases was founded in 1746 at London Lock Hospital. Treatment was not always voluntary: in the second half of the 19th century, the Contagious Diseases Act was used to arrest suspected prostitutes. The first effective treatment for a sexually transmitted disease was salvarsan, a treatment for syphilis. With the discovery of antibiotics, a large number of sexually transmitted diseases became easily curable, and this, combined with effective public health campaigns against STDs, led to a public perception during the 1960s and 1970s that they have ceased to be a serious medical threat.
During this period, the importance of contact tracing in treating STIs was recognized. By tracing the sexual partners of infected individuals, testing them for infection, treating the infected and tracing their contacts in turn, STI clinics could be very effective at suppressing infections in the general population. In the 1980s, first genital herpes and then AIDS emerged into the public consciousness as sexually transmitted diseases that could not be cured by modern medicine.
AIDS in particular has a long asymptomatic period—during which time HIV (the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS) can replicate and the disease can be transmitted to others—followed by a symptomatic period, which leads rapidly to death unless treated. Recognition that AIDS threatened a global pandemic led to public information campaigns and the development of treatments that allow AIDS to be managed by suppressing the replication of HIV for as long as possible. Contact tracing continues to be an important measure, even when diseases are incurable, as it helps to contain infection.
ACQUIRED IMMUNO-DEFICIENCY SYNDROME (AIDS) Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)| Classification and external resources| The Red ribbon is a symbol for solidarity with HIV-positive people and those living with AIDS. | ICD-10| B24. | ICD-9| 042| DiseasesDB| 5938| MedlinePlus| 000594| eMedicine| emerg/253| MeSH| D000163| List of abbreviations used in this articleAIDS: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome HIV: Human immunodeficiency virus CD4+: CD4+ T helper cells CCR5: Chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 5 CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
WHO: World Health Organization PCP: Pneumocystis pneumonia TB: Tuberculosis MTCT: Mother-to-child transmission HAART: Highly active antiretroviral therapy STI/STD: Sexually transmitted infection/disease| Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This condition progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors.
HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk. This transmission can involve anal, vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids. AIDS is now a pandemic. In 2007, it was estimated that 33. 2 million people lived with the disease worldwide, and that AIDS killed an estimated 2. million people, including 330,000 children. [ Over three-quarters of these deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, retarding economic growth and destroying human capital. Genetic research indicates that HIV originated in west-central Africa during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century AIDS was first recognized by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1981 and its cause, HIV, identified in the early 1980s Although treatments for AIDS and HIV can slow the course of the disease, there is currently no vaccine or cure.
Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but these drugs are expensive and routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries. Due to the difficulty in treating HIV infection, preventing infection is a key aim in controlling the AIDS pandemic, with health organizations promoting safe sex and needle-exchange programmes in attempts to slow the spread of the virus. Main symptoms of AIDS. The symptoms of AIDS are primarily the result of conditions that do not normally develop in individuals with healthy immune systems.
Most of these conditions are infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites that are normally controlled by the elements of the immune system that HIV damages. Opportunistic infections are common in people with AIDS. These infections affect nearly every organ system. People with AIDS also have an increased risk of developing various cancers such as Kaposi’s sarcoma, cervical cancer and cancers of the immune system known as lymphomas. Additionally, people with AIDS often have systemic symptoms of infection like fevers, sweats (particularly at night), swollen glands, chills, weakness, and weight loss. 14][15] The specific opportunistic infections that AIDS patients develop depend in part on the prevalence of these infections in the geographic area in which the patient lives. Pulmonary infections Pneumocystis pneumonia (originally known as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, and still abbreviated as PCP, which now stands for Pneumocystis pneumonia) is relatively rare in healthy, immunocompetent people, but common among HIV-infected individuals. It is caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii.
Before the advent of effective diagnosis, treatment and routine prophylaxis in Western countries, it was a common immediate cause of death. In developing countries, it is still one of the first indications of AIDS in untested individuals, although it does not generally occur unless the CD4 count is less than 200 cells per µL of blood. Tuberculosis (TB) is unique among infections associated with HIV because it is transmissible to immunocompetent people via the respiratory route, is not easily treatable once identified, Multidrug resistance is a serious problem.
Tuberculosis with HIV co-infection (TB/HIV) is a major world health problem according to the World Health Organization: in 2007, 456,000 deaths among incident TB cases were HIV-positive, a third of all TB deaths and nearly a quarter of the estimated 2 million HIV deaths in that year Even though its incidence has declined because of the use of directly observed therapy and other improved practices in Western countries, this is not the case in developing countries where HIV is most prevalent.
In early-stage HIV infection (CD4 count >300 cells per µL), TB typically presents as a pulmonary disease. In advanced HIV infection, TB often presents atypically with extrapulmonary (systemic) disease a common feature. Symptoms are usually constitutional and are not localized to one particular site, often affecting bone marrow, bone, urinary and gastrointestinal tracts, liver, regional lymph nodes, and the central nervous system Gastrointestinal infections Esophagitis is an inflammation of the lining of the lower end of the esophagus (gullet or swallowing tube leading to the stomach).
In HIV infected individuals, this is normally due to fungal (candidiasis) or viral (herpes simplex-1 or cytomegalovirus) infections. In rare cases, it could be due to mycobacteria. [20] Unexplained chronic diarrhea in HIV infection is due to many possible causes, including common bacterial (Salmonella, Shigella, Listeria or Campylobacter) and parasitic infections; and uncommon opportunistic infections such as cryptosporidiosis, microsporidiosis, Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) and viruses,[21] astrovirus, adenovirus, rotavirus and cytomegalovirus, (the latter as a course of colitis).
In some cases, diarrhea may be a side effect of several drugs used to treat HIV, or it may simply accompany HIV infection, particularly during primary HIV infection. It may also be a side effect of antibiotics used to treat bacterial causes of diarrhea (common for Clostridium difficile). In the later stages of HIV infection, diarrhea is thought to be a reflection of changes in the way the intestinal tract absorbs nutrients, and may be an important component of HIV-related wasting Neurological and psychiatric involvement
HIV infection may lead to a variety of neuropsychiatric sequelae, either by infection of the now susceptible nervous system by organisms, or as a direct consequence of the illness itself. Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by the single-celled parasite called Toxoplasma gondii; it usually infects the brain, causing toxoplasma encephalitis, but it can also infect and cause disease in the eyes and lungs. Cryptococcal meningitis is an infection of the meninx (the membrane covering the brain and spinal cord) by the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans. It can cause fevers, headache, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting.
Patients may also develop seizures and confusion; left untreated, it can be lethal. Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a demyelinating disease, in which the gradual destruction of the myelin sheath covering the axons of nerve cells impairs the transmission of nerve impulses. It is caused by a virus called JC virus which occurs in 70% of the population in latent form, causing disease only when the immune system has been severely weakened, as is the case for AIDS patients. It progresses rapidly, usually causing death within months of diagnosis.
AIDS dementia complex (ADC) is a metabolic encephalopathy induced by HIV infection and fueled by immune activation of HIV infected brain macrophages and microglia. These cells are productively infected by HIV and secrete neurotoxins of both host and viral origin Specific neurological impairments are manifested by cognitive, behavioral, and motor abnormalities that occur after years of HIV infection and are associated with low CD4+ T cell levels and high plasma viral loads. Prevalence is 10–20% in Western countries but only 1–2% of HIV infections in India.
This difference is possibly due to the HIV subtype in India. AIDS related mania is sometimes seen in patients with advanced HIV illness; it presents with more irritability and cognitive impairment and less euphoria than a manic episode associated with true bipolar disorder. Unlike the latter condition, it may have a more chronic course. This syndrome is less often seen with the advent of multi-drug therapy. Tumors and malignancies Kaposi’s sarcoma Patients with HIV infection have substantially increased incidence of several cancers.
This is primarily due to co-infection with an oncogenic DNA virus, especially Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) (also known as human herpesvirus-8 [HHV-8]), and human papillomavirus (HPV). Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) is the most common tumor in HIV-infected patients. The appearance of this tumor in young homosexual men in 1981 was one of the first signals of the AIDS epidemic. Caused by a gammaherpes virus called Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpes virus (KSHV), it often appears as purplish nodules on the skin, but can affect other organs, especially the mouth, gastrointestinal tract, and lungs.
High-grade B cell lymphomas such as Burkitt’s lymphoma, Burkitt’s-like lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and primary central nervous system lymphoma present more often in HIV-infected patients. These particular cancers often foreshadow a poor prognosis. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) or KSHV cause many of these lymphomas. In HIV-infected patients, lymphoma often arises in extranodal sites such as the gastrointestinal tract. When they occur in an HIV-infected patient, KS and aggressive B cell lymphomas confer a diagnosis of AIDS.
Invasive cervical cancer in HIV-infected women is also considered AIDS-defining. It is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). In addition to the AIDS-defining tumors listed above, HIV-infected patients are at increased risk of certain other tumors, notably Hodgkin’s disease, anal and rectal carcinomas, hepatocellular carcinomas, head and neck cancers, and lung cancer. Some of these are causes by viruses, such as Hodgkin’s disease (EBV), anal/rectal cancers (HPV), head and neck cancers (HPV), and hepatocellular carcinoma (hepatitis B or C).
Other contributing factors include exposure to carcinogens (cigarette smoke for lung cancer), or living for years with subtle immune defects. Interestingly, the incidence of many common tumors, such as breast cancer or colon cancer, does not increase in HIV-infected patients. In areas where HAART is extensively used to treat AIDS, the incidence of many AIDS-related malignancies has decreased, but at the same time malignant cancers overall have become the most common cause of death of HIV-infected patients. In recent years, an increasing proportion of these deaths have been from non-AIDS-defining cancers.
Other infections AIDS patients often develop opportunistic infections that present with non-specific symptoms, especially low-grade fevers and weight loss. These include opportunistic infection with Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare and cytomegalovirus (CMV). CMV can cause colitis, as described above, and CMV retinitis can cause blindness. Penicilliosis due to Penicillium marneffei is now the third most common opportunistic infection (after extrapulmonary tuberculosis and cryptococcosis) in HIV-positive individuals within the endemic area of Southeast Asia.
An infection that often goes unrecognized in AIDS patients is Parvovirus B19. Its main consequence is anemia, which is difficult to distinguish from the effects of antiretroviral drugs used to treat AIDS itself. [ Cause For more details on this topic, see HIV. Scanning electron micrograph of HIV-1, colored green, budding from a cultured lymphocyte. A generalized graph of the relationship between HIV copies (viral load) and CD4 counts over the average course of untreated HIV infection; any particular individual’s disease course may vary considerably.
CD4+ T Lymphocyte count (cells/mm? ) HIV RNA copies per mL of plasma AIDS is the most severe acceleration of infection with HIV. HIV is a retrovirus that primarily infects vital organs of the human immune system such as CD4+ T cells (a subset of T cells), macrophages and dendritic cells. It directly and indirectly destroys CD4+ T cells. Once HIV has killed so many CD4+ T cells that there are fewer than 200 of these cells per microliter (µL) of blood, cellular immunity is lost.
Acute HIV infection progresses over time to clinical latent HIV infection and then to early symptomatic HIV infection and later to AIDS, which is identified either on the basis of the amount of CD4+ T cells remaining in the blood, and/or the presence of certain infections, as noted above. In the absence of antiretroviral therapy, the median time of progression from HIV infection to AIDS is nine to ten years, and the median survival time after developing AIDS is only 9. 2 months. [] However, the rate of clinical disease progression varies widely between individuals, from two weeks up to 20 years.
Many factors affect the rate of progression. These include factors that influence the body’s ability to defend against HIV such as the infected person’s general immune function. Older people have weaker immune systems, and therefore have a greater risk of rapid disease progression than younger people. Poor access to health care and the existence of coexisting infections such as tuberculosis also may predispose people to faster disease progression.
The infected person’s genetic inheritance plays an important role and some people are resistant to certain strains of HIV. An example of this is people with the homozygous CCR5-? 2 variation are resistant to infection with certain strains of HIV. [] HIV is genetically variable and exists as different strains, which cause different rates of clinical disease progression. Sexual transmission Sexual transmission occurs with the contact between sexual secretions of one person with the rectal, genital or oral mucous membranes of another. Unprotected sexual acts are riskier for the receptive partner than for the insertive partner, and the risk for transmitting HIV through unprotected anal intercourse is greater than the risk from vaginal intercourse or oral sex.
However, oral sex is not entirely safe, as HIV can be transmitted through both insertive and receptive oral sex. Sexual assault greatly increases the risk of HIV transmission as condoms are rarely employed and physical trauma to the vagina or rectum occurs frequently, facilitating the transmission of HIV. Other sexually transmitted infections (STI) increase the risk of HIV transmission and infection, because they cause the disruption of the normal epithelial barrier by genital ulceration and/or microulceration; and by accumulation of pools of HIV-susceptible or HIV-infected cells (lymphocytes and macrophages) in semen and vaginal secretions.
Epidemiological studies from sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and North America suggest that genital ulcers, such as those caused by syphilis and/or chancroid, increase the risk of becoming infected with HIV by about fourfold. There is also a significant although lesser increase in risk from STIs such as gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis, which all cause local accumulations of lymphocytes and macrophages. Transmission of HIV depends on the infectiousness of the index case and the susceptibility of the uninfected partner. Infectivity seems to vary during the course of illness and is not constant between individuals.
An undetectable plasma viral load does not necessarily indicate a low viral load in the seminal liquid or genital secretions. However, each 10-fold increase in the level of HIV in the blood is associated with an 81% increased rate of HIV transmission. Women are more susceptible to HIV-1 infection due to hormonal changes, vaginal microbial ecology and physiology, and a higher prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases. People who have been infected with one strain of HIV can still be infected later on in their lives by other, more virulent strains. Infection is unlikely in a single encounter.
High rates of infection have been linked to a pattern of overlapping long-term sexual relationships. This allows the virus to quickly spread to multiple partners who in turn infect their partners. A pattern of serial monogamy or occasional casual encounters is associated with lower rates of infection. HIV spreads readily through heterosexual sex in Africa, but less so elsewhere. One possibility being researched is that schistosomiasis, which affects up to 50% of women in parts of Africa, damages the lining of the vagina. Exposure to blood-borne pathogens
CDC poster from 1989 highlighting the threat of AIDS associated with drug use This transmission route is particularly relevant to intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and recipients of blood transfusions and blood products. Sharing and reusing syringes contaminated with HIV-infected blood represents a major risk for infection with HIV. Needle sharing is the cause of one third of all new HIV-infections in North America, China, and Eastern Europe. The risk of being infected with HIV from a single prick with a needle that has been used on an HIV-infected person is thought to be about 1 in 150 (see table above).
Post-exposure prophylaxis with anti-HIV drugs can further reduce this risk. This route can also affect people who give and receive tattoos and piercings. Universal precautions are frequently not followed in both sub-Saharan Africa and much of Asia because of both a shortage of supplies and inadequate training. The WHO estimates that approximately 2. 5% of all HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa are transmitted through unsafe healthcare injections. Because of this, the United Nations General Assembly has urged the nations of the world to implement precautions to prevent HIV transmission by health workers.
The risk of transmitting HIV to blood transfusion recipients is extremely low in developed countries where improved donor selection and HIV screening is performed. However, according to the WHO, the overwhelming majority of the world’s population does not have access to safe blood and between 5% and 10% of the world’s HIV infections come from transfusion of infected blood and blood products. Perinatal transmission The transmission of the virus from the mother to the child can occur in utero during the last weeks of pregnancy and at childbirth.
In the absence of treatment, the transmission rate between a mother and her child during pregnancy, labor and delivery is 25%. However, when the mother takes antiretroviral therapy and gives birth by caesarean section, the rate of transmission is just 1%. The risk of infection is influenced by the viral load of the mother at birth, with the higher the viral load, the higher the risk. Breastfeeding also increases the risk of transmission by about 4 %. Misconceptions Main article: HIV and AIDS misconceptions A number of misconceptions have arisen surrounding HIV/AIDS.
Three of the most common are that AIDS can spread through casual contact, that sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure AIDS, and that HIV can infect only homosexual men and drug users. Other misconceptions are that any act of anal intercourse between gay men can lead to AIDS infection, and that open discussion of homosexuality and HIV in schools will lead to increased rates of homosexuality and AIDS. Pathophysiology | This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia’s quality standards. Please improve this section if you can. April 2008)| The pathophysiology of AIDS is complex, as is the case with all syndromes. [64] Ultimately, HIV causes AIDS by depleting CD4+ T helper lymphocytes. This weakens the immune system and allows opportunistic infections. T lymphocytes are essential to the immune response and without them, the body cannot fight infections or kill cancerous cells. The mechanism of CD4+ T cell depletion differs in the acute and chronic phases. [ During the acute phase, HIV-induced cell lysis and killing of infected cells by cytotoxic T cells accounts for CD4+ T cell depletion, although apoptosis may also be a factor.
During the chronic phase, the consequences of generalized immune activation coupled with the gradual loss of the ability of the immune system to generate new T cells appear to account for the slow decline in CD4+ T cell numbers. Although the symptoms of immune deficiency characteristic of AIDS do not appear for years after a person is infected, the bulk of CD4+ T cell loss occurs during the first weeks of infection, especially in the intestinal mucosa, which harbors the majority of the lymphocytes found in the body. The reason for the preferential loss of mucosal CD4+ T cells is that a majority of mucosal CD4+ T cells express the CCR5 coreceptor, whereas a small fraction of CD4+ T cells in the bloodstream do so. ] HIV seeks out and destroys CCR5 expressing CD4+ cells during acute infection. A vigorous immune response eventually controls the infection and initiates the clinically latent phase. However, CD4+ T cells in mucosal tissues remain depleted throughout the infection, although enough remain to initially ward off life-threatening infections.
Continuous HIV replication results in a state of generalized immune activation persisting throughout the chronic phase. [ Immune activation, which is reflected by the increased activation state of immune cells and release of proinflammatory cytokines, results from the activity of several HIV gene products and the immune response to ongoing HIV replication. Another cause is the breakdown of the immune surveillance system of the mucosal barrier caused by the depletion of mucosal CD4+ T cells during the acute phase of disease.
This results in the systemic exposure of the immune system to microbial components of the gut’s normal flora, which in a healthy person is kept in check by the mucosal immune system. The activation and proliferation of T cells that results from immune activation provides fresh targets for HIV infection. However, direct killing by HIV alone cannot account for the observed depletion of CD4+ T cells since only 0. 01–0. 10% of CD4+ T cells in the blood are infected. A major cause of CD4+ T cell loss appears to result from their heightened susceptibility to apoptosis when the immune system remains activated.
Although new T cells are continuously produced by the thymus to replace the ones lost, the regenerative capacity of the thymus is slowly destroyed by direct infection of its thymocytes by HIV. Eventually, the minimal number of CD4+ T cells necessary to maintain a sufficient immune response is lost, leading to AIDS Cells affected The virus, entering through which ever route, acts primarily on the following cells: * Lymphoreticular system: * CD4+ T-Helper cells * Macrophages * Monocytes * B-lymphocytes * Certain endothelial cells * Central nervous system: Microglia of the nervous system * Astrocytes * Oligodendrocytes * Neurones – indirectly by the action of cytokines and the gp-120 The effect The virus has cytopathic effects but how it does it is still not quite clear. It can remain inactive in these cells for long periods, though. This effect is hypothesized to be due to the CD4-gp120 interaction. [70] * The most prominent effect of HIV is its T-helper cell suppression and lysis. The cell is simply killed off or deranged to the point of being function-less (they do not respond to foreign antigens).
The infected B-cells can not produce enough antibodies either. Thus the immune system collapses leading to the familiar AIDS complications, like infections and neoplasms (vide supra). * Infection of the cells of the CNS cause acute aseptic meningitis, subacute encephalitis, vacuolar myelopathy and peripheral neuropathy. Later it leads to even AIDS dementia complex. * The CD4-gp120 interaction (see above) is also permissive to other viruses like Cytomegalovirus, Hepatitis virus, Herpes simplex virus, etc. These viruses lead to further cell damage i. e. cytopathy.
Molecular basis For details, see: * Structure and genome of HIV * HIV replication cycle * HIV tropism Diagnosis The diagnosis of AIDS in a person infected with HIV is based on the presence of certain signs or symptoms. Since June 5, 1981, many definitions have been developed for epidemiological surveillance such as the Bangui definition and the 1994 expanded World Health Organization AIDS case definition. However, clinical staging of patients was not an intended use for these systems as they are neither sensitive, nor specific. In developing countries, the World
Health Organization staging system for HIV infection and disease, using clinical and laboratory data, is used and in developed countries, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Classification System is used. WHO disease staging system Main article: WHO Disease Staging System for HIV Infection and Disease In 1990, the World Health Organization (WHO) grouped these infections and conditions together by introducing a staging system for patients infected with HIV-1. An update took place in September 2005. Most of these conditions are opportunistic infections that are easily treatable in healthy people. Stage I: HIV infection is asymptomatic and not categorized as AIDS * Stage II: includes minor mucocutaneous manifestations and recurrent upper respiratory tract infections * Stage III: includes unexplained chronic diarrhea for longer than a month, severe bacterial infections and pulmonary tuberculosis * Stage IV: includes toxoplasmosis of the brain, candidiasis of the esophagus, trachea, bronchi or lungs and Kaposi’s sarcoma; these diseases are indicators of AIDS. CDC classification system Main article: CDC Classification System for HIV Infection
There are two main definitions for AIDS, both produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The older definition is to referring to AIDS using the diseases that were associated with it, for example, lymphadenopathy, the disease after which the discoverers of HIV originally named the virus. In 1993, the CDC expanded their definition of AIDS to include all HIV positive people with a CD4+ T cell count below 200 per µL of blood or 14% of all lymphocytes. The majority of new AIDS cases in developed countries use either this definition or the pre-1993 CDC definition.
The AIDS diagnosis still stands even if, after treatment, the CD4+ T cell count rises to above 200 per µL of blood or other AIDS-defining illnesses are cured. HIV test Main article: HIV test Many people are unaware that they are infected with HIV. Less than 1% of the sexually active urban population in Africa has been tested, and this proportion is even lower in rural populations. Furthermore, only 0. 5% of pregnant women attending urban health facilities are counseled, tested or receive their test results.
Again, this proportion is even lower in rural health facilitiesTherefore, donor blood and blood products used in medicine and medical research are screened for HIV. HIV tests are usually performed on venous blood. Many laboratories use fourth generation screening tests which detect anti-HIV antibody (IgG and IgM) and the HIV p24 antigen. The detection of HIV antibody or antigen in a patient previously known to be negative is evidence of HIV infection. Individuals whose first specimen indicates evidence of HIV infection will have a repeat test on a second blood sample to confirm the results.
The window period (the time between initial infection and the development of detectable antibodies against the infection) can vary since it can take 3–6 months to seroconvert and to test positive. Detection of the virus using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) during the window period is possible, and evidence suggests that an infection may often be detected earlier than when using a fourth generation EIA screening test. Positive results obtained by PCR are confirmed by antibody tests. [] Routinely used HIV tests for infection in neonates and infants (i. e. patients younger than 2 years), born to HIV-positive mothers, have no value because of the presence of maternal antibody to HIV in the child’s blood.
HIV infection can only be diagnosed by PCR, testing for HIV pro-viral DNA in the children’s lymphocytes. Prevention Estimated per act risk for acquisition of HIV by exposure route | Exposure Route| Estimated infections per 10,000 exposures to an infected source| Blood Transfusion| 9,000[| Childbirth (to child)| 2,500[| Needle-sharing injection drug use| 67| Percutaneous needle stick| 30| Receptive anal intercourse*| 50| Insertive anal intercourse*| 6. | Receptive penile-vaginal intercourse*| 10| Insertive penile-vaginal intercourse*| 5| Receptive oral intercourse*§| 1| Insertive oral intercourse*§| 0. 5[| * assuming no condom use § source refers to oral intercourse performed on a man| The three main transmission routes of HIV are sexual contact, exposure to infected body fluids or tissues, and from mother to fetus or child during perinatal period. It is possible to find HIV in the saliva, tears, and urine of infected individuals, but there are no recorded cases of infection by these secretions, and the risk of infection is negligible.
Sexual contact The majority of HIV infections are acquired through unprotected sexual relations between partners, one of whom has HIV. The primary mode of HIV infection worldwide is through sexual contact between members of the opposite sex. During a sexual act, only male or female condoms can reduce the risk of infection with HIV and other STDs. The best evidence to date indicates that typical condom use reduces the risk of heterosexual HIV transmission by approximately 80% over the long-term, though the benefit is likely to be higher if condoms are used correctly on every occasion.
The male latex condom, if used correctly without oil-based lubricants, is the single most effective available technology to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Manufacturers recommend that oil-based lubricants such as petroleum jelly, butter, and lard not be used with latex condoms, because they dissolve the latex, making the condoms porous. If lubrication is desired, manufacturers recommend using water-based lubricants. Oil-based lubricants can be used with polyurethane condoms.
Female condoms are commonly made from polyurethane, but are also made from nitrile and latex. They are larger than male condoms and have a stiffened ring-shaped opening with an inner ring designed to be inserted into the vagina keeping the condom in place; inserting the female condom requires squeezing this ring. Female condoms have been shown to be an important HIV prevention strategy by preliminary studies which suggest that overall protected sexual acts increase relative to unprotected sexual acts where female condoms are available.
At present, availability of female condoms is very low and the price remains prohibitive for many women. Studies on couples where one partner is infected show that with consistent condom use, HIV infection rates for the uninfected partner are below 1% per year. Prevention strategies are well-known in developed countries, but epidemiological and behavioral studies in Europe and North America suggest that a substantial minority of young people continue to engage in high-risk practices despite HIV/AIDS knowledge, underestimating their own risk of becoming infected with HIV.
Randomized controlled trials have shown that male circumcision lowers the risk of HIV infection among heterosexual men by up to 60%. It is expected that this procedure will be actively promoted in many of the countries affected by HIV, although doing so will involve confronting a number of practical, cultural and attitudinal issues. However, programs to encourage condom use, including providing them free to those in poverty, are estimated to be 95 times more cost effective than circumcision at reducing the rate of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
Some experts fear that a lower perception of vulnerability among circumcised men may result in more sexual risk-taking behavior, thus negating its preventive effects. However, one randomized controlled trial indicated that adult male circumcision was not associated with increased HIV risk behavior. Studies of HIV infection rates among women who have undergone female genital cutting (FGC) have reported mixed results; for details see Female genital cutting#HIV. Exposure to infected body fluids
Health care workers can reduce exposure to HIV by employing precautions to reduce the risk of exposure to contaminated blood. These precautions include barriers such as gloves, masks, protective eyeware or shields, and gowns or aprons which prevent exposure of the skin or mucous membranes to blood borne pathogens. Frequent and thorough washing of the skin immediately after being contaminated with blood or other bodily fluids can reduce the chance of infection. Finally, sharp objects like needles, scalpels and glass, are carefully disposed of to prevent needlestick injuries with contaminated items.
Since intravenous drug use is an important factor in HIV transmission in developed countries, harm reduction strategies such as needle-exchange programmes are used in attempts to reduce the infections caused by drug abuse. Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) Current recommendations state that when replacement feeding is acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable and safe, HIV-infected mothers should avoid breast-feeding their infant. However, if this is not the case, exclusive breast-feeding is recommended during the first months of life and discontinued as soon as possible.
It should be noted that women can breastfeed children who are not their own; see wet nurse. Education, health literacy and cognitive ability The most important way to change risky behavior is health education. Several studies have shown the positive impact of education and health literacy on cautious sex behavior. Education itself does not work, only if it leads to higher health literacy and general cognitive ability. This ability is relevant to understand the relationship between own risky behavior and possible outcomes like HIV-transmission. Treatment See also HIV Treatment and Antiretroviral drug.
There is currently no publicly available vaccine for HIV or cure for HIV or AIDS. The only known methods of prevention are based on avoiding exposure to the virus or, failing that, an antiretroviral treatment directly after a highly significant exposure, called post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). PEP has a very demanding four week schedule of dosage. It also has very unpleasant side effects including diarrhea, malaise, nausea and fatigue. [106] Antiviral therapy Abacavir – a nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NARTI or NRTI) The chemical structure of Abacavir
Current treatment for HIV infection consists of highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART. This has been highly beneficial to many HIV-infected individuals since its introduction in 1996 when the protease inhibitor-based HAART initially became available. Current optimal HAART options consist of combinations (or “cocktails”) consisting of at least three drugs belonging to at least two types, or “classes,” of antiretroviral agents. Typical regimens consist of two nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NARTIs or NRTIs) plus either a protease inhibitor or a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI).
Because HIV disease progression in children is more rapid than in adults, and laboratory parameters are less predictive of risk for disease progression, particularly for young infants, treatment recommendations are more aggressive for children than for adultsIn developed countries where HAART is available, doctors assess the viral load, CD4 counts, rapidity of CD4 decline and patient readiness while deciding when to recommend initiating treatment Traditionally, treatment has been recommended for otherwise asymptomatic patients when CD4 cell counts fall to 200-250 cells per microliter of blood.
However, beginning treatment earlier (at a CD4 level of 350 cells/microliter) may significantly reduce the risk of death Standard goals of HAART include improvement in the patient’s quality of life, reduction in complications, and reduction of HIV viremia below the limit of detection, but it does not cure the patient of HIV nor does it prevent the return, once treatment is stopped, of high blood levels of HIV, often HAART resistant. Moreover, it would take more than the lifetime of an individual to be cleared of HIV infection using HAART. Despite this, many HIV-infected individuals have experienced remarkable improvements in their general health and quality of life, which has led to the plummeting of HIV-associated morbidity and mortality. In the absence of HAART, progression from HIV infection to AIDS occurs at a median of between nine to ten years and the median survival time after developing AIDS is only 9. 2 months. HAART is thought to increase survival time by between 4 and 12 years.
For some patients, which can be more than fifty percent of patients, HAART achieves far less than optimal results, due to medication intolerance/side effects, prior ineffective antiretroviral therapy and infection with a drug-resistant strain of HIV. Non-adherence and non-persistence with therapy are the major reasons why some people do not benefit from HAART. The reasons for non-adherence and non-persistence are varied. Major psychosocial issues include poor access to medical care, inadequate social supports, psychiatric disease and drug abuse.
Information Security Risk Analysis and Management essay help cheap: essay help cheap
Information security refers to the protection of information and its critical elements, including the systems and hardware that use, store, and transmit that information. An ideal organization usually comprises of the following layers of security put in place to safeguard its operations:- physical, operations, communications, networks, personnel, and information security. A risk can be defined as the probability that something unwanted will happen.
Risk analysis and management therefore refers to the process of identifying risks to an organization’s information assets and infrastructure, and taking steps to reduce these risks to an acceptable level. Threats are dangerous actions that can cause harm. The degree of threat depends on the attacker’s Skills, Knowledge, Resources, Authority, and Motives. Vulnerabilities are weaknesses in victims that allow a threat to become effective. Risk management comprises of three major steps as shown in the figure below. Risk identification, risk assessment/analysis and risk control.
Risk identification involves the examination and identification of the security status of the organization’s technology and the risk it faces. Risk assessment is the process of determining the extent to which the organization’s information assets are exposed or are at risk. Risk control involves putting controls in place to reduce the risk to an organisation’s data and information systems. The process of risk identification is broken down into stages. First the information security team identifies organization assets which include people, procedures, data, software, and hardware.
Next the assets are classified and prioritized. Finally, threats are identified and prioritized. This final stage of threat identification is important because it helps the information security team to know and understand the possible risks out there in order to devise appropriate controls of mitigating against them. These potential threats include though not limited to the following. 1. Compromise of intellectual property: This occurs when attackers gain access to sensitive material that the organization considers integral to their day-to-day functions. 2.
Information extortion: This occurs when an attacker is able to access packets of data before they reach their final destination. This threat is made possible by absence of secure systems of data transmission where encryption is implemented on all data coming in and going out of the organization. 3. Deviations in quality of service from service providers: Any form of attack in an organization in any of its key areas of operation can cripple its very existence. 4. Forces of nature: fire, floods, earthquakes are some of the calamities that an organization can face.
Human error: This threat comes as a result of mistakes by employees or any other person that has direct access to the organization. This could also be caused by an accident or failure of an employee to follow procedure. 6. Technology obsolescence: The lack of up-to-date systems in an organization acts as a vulnerability that attackers can use to create attacks. Software vendors are aware of the threat and ensure they release frequent updates to the software to counter any new attacks present.
This is a physical threat that comes about primarily from not ensuring proper physical security in an organization. . Technical hardware failures or errors: an organization is exposed when equipment is not maintained in proper working condition. 9. Technical software failures of errors: Both custom built and off shelf software are prone to attacks if measures are not put into place to defend them. Bugs, errors in codes are some of the vulnerabilities that lead to attacks whereby malicious code can be inserted into this code to carry out a specific act 10. Software attacks: these include viruses, worms, macros or denial of service.
These attacks can be either internal (where a case of either a former employee makes an attack) or external where an attack is sent in from outside. By identifying the threats that pose potential danger to the organization, the organization saves time later when formulating controls be ensuring only potential threats are considered. After identifying the potential threats, they are ranked accordingly in order to quantify the level of effort required to defend against the said threat, that is, 1-5, with 5 representing a most dangerous threat.
After identifying the potential threats to the organisation’s security, a risk assessment process is undertaken wherein an evaluation is carried out on each of the vulnerabilities. Each of the threats mentioned above is boosted by certain vulnerabilities within the organization. Therefore on completion of the risks identification stage it is easier for the security team to look at the assets in the organization and find out what vulnerabilities exist within the system that would bring about the threats. For example, technological obsolescence is identified as threat; the organization would need to understand that the assets need to be periodically reviewed to ensure it is up to date.
The process of risk assessment comprises of a number of stages starting from assessing likelihood of the attack up to the point where possible controls are devised to mitigate against the attacks. In order to fully equip itself with necessary skills to fight attacks and threats, the security team needs to also understand the types of attacks it would be up against in the ideal organization setting.
Some of these attacks include; •Malicious code – this refers to software designed to damage, destroy or deny service to the target system •Back door – is an electronic hole in software that is left open by accident or on purpose to give an attacker access to a system. •Brute force attack – This refers to the process of applying computing and network resources to try to crack a password using all possible combinations of the said password. •Denial of service attack refers to an attack where in an attacker sends a large number of connections to overwhelm a target with the aim of crippling it.
Spoofing is a technique used to gain unauthorized access to a computer where an intruder sends messages to a computer indicating that the message is coming from a trust source. •Sniffing refers to design of a program or a device that can monitor data travelling over a network. •Social engineering – this is the process of using social skills to convince people to reveal access credentials or other valuable information to the attacker. This can be done through media sites including Facebook and twitter. Man-in-the-middle attack is a method of attacking a system that relies on knowledge of some or all of the plain text that was used to generate a cipher text. •Dictionary attack – this is a form of brute force attack on passwords that uses a list of commonly used passwords instead of random combinations. •Virus attacks – a virus is one of two forms of malicious code or malware. It requires a host software environment in which to execute without which it cannot function.
Risk control involves identifying measures that can be put into place to prepare the organization not just to respond to any imminent attack but also to prepare for its recovery to be able to function again optimally. There are three main mitigation plans that an organization needs to put in place when planning risk control mechanisms; a)Incident response plan- This plan comprises of actions that the organization expects all employees to adhere to during the time the attack is being experienced.
An ideal incident response plan should include clear guidelines on steps to take during the incident, information gathering strategy during the incident and it is only valid for the period wherein the attack is experienced. b)Disaster recovery plan – This is a plan prepared to be executed in the event that the organization is hit by a threat however unlikely it is. As an entity, the organization is expected to perform at least at optimum level, so immediately after that an attack occurs, the priority should immediately be damage control to recover what can be recovered immediately as quickly as possible.
The disaster recovery plan includes procedures for recovery of lost data (especially sensitive data required for the organization to operate), procedures for the reestablishment of lost services to enable the organization get back to operation as fast as possible, and shutdown procedures that may be deemed protective of data and systems (e. g. shutdown of power immediately after a tsunami to avoid further catastrophe). c)Business continuity plan – in the event that the disaster recovery plan is not sufficient to bring back the organization to optimal operation, there must be another plan that will take effect at that point.
The business continuity plan is activated when the infrastructure is totally unable to perform hence relocation of operations to an alternative location. Information technology over time has evolved drastically to a point where companies no longer look to technological advancement as a means to be ahead of the competition but endeavor to improve their assets so that they do not get greatly affected by looming threats to a point where they cannot provide their clients with services they have got used to.
It would be extremely costly even for a very big organization to put together resources (funds and personnel) to prepare strategies for every conceivable threat. 5 major strategies have been identified to guide organizations in addressing threats with depending on the level of the danger presented by the particular threat; 1. Defend – this strategy assumes and expects the worst when preparing for threats. It looks at attempting to remove vulnerabilities from assets and adding protective safeguards; it should be noted, however, that it is nearly impossible to completely remove a threat.
An example of this strategy is where an organisation purchases antivirus software and puts in place policies to ensure it is up to date to prevent virus attacks. By putting this measure into place, it is deflecting the threat hence minimizing the risk of a possible attack. 2. Transfer – In this strategy, the organisation shifts risk to other organisations and focuses on what it does best. This helps keep the organisation concentrated on their operations and not have to worry about information and asset security.
An example if banks in Uganda which instead of taking up the cumbersome responsibility of ensuring ATM machines are always functioning properly, have outsourced this activity to formidable IT companies whose primary role is to ensure the machines are functional at all times at whatever cost. 3. Mitigate – Mitigation involves creation of the 3 plans mentioned earlier – incident response plan, disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan. This strategy was successfully implemented in Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in September 2011 where 48 servers and 38 computers in 11 locations, including headquarters, where affected by a virus attack.
To counter this attack in future, Mitsubishi set up inbound measures by putting in place secure antivirus systems to stop internal attacks and ensure a threat free internal environment, and also instituted at outbound measure by putting strong checks on all external communication. This meant that even if one computer was attacked it would not spread the effect to other computers within the company. Another example of execution of this strategy was when Japan was hit by an earthquake in March 2011; the effects of the catastrophe were so big that 38% of businesses were hugely affected.
A total of 3 nuclear reactors had meltdowns causing many electrical generators to be taken down. In this occurrence, an organisation had to immediately activate the business continuity plan in order to remain in operation. 4. Accept: The accept control strategy is where an organisation/company decides to do nothing about a threat either because risk assessment showed that the threat is not so much of a risk, or the costs of putting structures to protect the asset are much higher than costs of recovery in case of an attack.
An example of this strategy can be seen in the mobile platform where smartphones have been developed almost to the level of a mini computer. For instance android applications, unlike apple and blackberry, can be distributed by anyone anywhere online without having to use Google play whereas distribution of blackberry and apple apps must be done through blackberry appworld and itunes respectively. The most a consumer can do is ensure their phone is updated with security software but one may not be able to totally mitigate against malicious applications.
Terminate: This strategy involves an organisation terminating activities for which development of preventive measures would be too costly or that have uncontrollable risks. 90000 domains were affected by at attack on an open-source software for ecommerce called OsCommerce. An organisation could terminate this activity on their website completely due to the negative exposure it gets especially if customers were directly affected by the attack. Determining the suitable strategy to pursue involves a number of factors including nature of vulnerability, costs of prevention, costs of recovery, and magnitude of risk. Every vulnerability can have a specific strategy.
New Inventions of Science scholarship essay help: scholarship essay help
Is science that has provided modern man a life of ease, leisure and pleasure. It has brought within the reach of common man comforts and luxuries that were available in the past only to the privileged few. Science has brought new & modern invention of marvelous machines and discovered energies that run these machines to take the drudgery out of man’s work. By doing much of his work and doing it fast, machines have provided man with a lot of leisure.
The rosy dream of an easy and luxurious life has come true for him. Distance has been conquered. Modern means of transport and communication have made the Modern means of transport and communication have made the world a global village. Men and things and news and views can go around the globe today with lightening speed. Internet has brought people of the world together and brought about a revolution in the fields of information and communication.
Man has already landed on the moon and man- made satellites have made voyages through the solar system. Our life has become healthier and longer. Modern hygiene, sanitation, medicine and surgery are conquering more and more physical and mental illness with each passing day. We now know and experience the joys of good health and longevity. Through the cinema, the radio,, the tape recorder, the t. v and the video, science has worked wonders in the fields of education and entertainment.
Though we welcome these blessings of science, we have to consider the other side of the picture also. Man has not been able to face the problems created by the inventions of science and to stop the misuse or harmful consequences of scientific inventions. Factories have polluted the water and the atmosphere. They have caused noise pollution. Industrialization have led to slums in which human beings live a degraded life in the midst of filth and squalor. We have allowed science to master us instead of keeping it our servant.
Medical inventions have, led to the pollution explosion and the consequent miseries. Again, science has put in our hands terrible weapons such as the nuclear bombs, the guided missiles and the means of chemicals and biological warfare. We are in danger of destroying ourselves with these monstrous means that, ironically are our own creations. Rightly used science can bring heaven on earth. Wrongly used, it can turn this earth into hell. What do you say about it?
Case Study of Week college essay help near me: college essay help near me
Analysis of the template is most suitable for Kinkead. The reason is based on the case, electricity meters (EM), power tools (EI) products for customers to perform the same basic function. So their alternatives, so it needs to calculate a sales combined variances template, template B did not provide this data. Part B Answer: According to the relationship between the BCG matrix, analysis of market share and market growth.
First, for the EM 499 286 According to Table, the variance of the size of the market is unfavorable, the size of the market because their budget is 800000, but the actual market size of 650000, it does not implement the expectations. The EM market share difference to 0, with 10% of the actual and budgeted position, it will not change. Therefore, they are a cash cow. Therefore, EM is the Cash Cow. Additionally, the Kinkead has been a leading Australia firm, and EM is the older but still dominant technology.
Followed by EI table EI of the variance of the size of the market for 374,464 budgets, the size of the market for 250,000, lower than the actual market size of 363,500, more than expected. The market share variance is 241,321 Unfavorable which has decrease from 10% to 8%. Therefore, EI question mark. In addition, EI technology is new, or experiment. EI’s future is uncertain. Part C Answer: They seek cash cow product strategy, so there are two aspects of the important aspects of the performance, EM, reduce production costs and increase market share.
More particularly, their market share of the difference does not change, which means it is a mature stage, and manufacturing has been standardized. So the company should take some new measures to reduce production costs. Secondly, the company should increase their market share, such as increased management fees. EI use of labeling strategies, there are three aspects of performance is very important to the EI. The first is the R & D performance; they should increase R & D costs continue to research new technologies for enterprises to create more profits in the future.
Followed by market share, companies need to increase their market share of the product EI, because it is the mark phase of the problem, the future is uncertain. Thus, increasing its market share will change in the future star. Finally, production and sales is also very important, EI, because only effective production, to meet customer demand, increase the number of sales. Part D Answer: Assessment of the electromagnetic properties of the first actual sale price of $ 29, less than the standard price of $ 30, but only sold 65,000 units lower than planned sales of 80,000 units.
There are two reasons led to this situation, first of all is their total market demand has been shrinking. Second, the actual sales commission EM is only $ 1, but the EI commission is $ 14. 9, which could lead salespeople do not want to sell the product. To evaluate the EI performance, the first problem is underpriced. Although the actual selling price is $153 which is higher than $150, the sale volume is 29,000 units which is large than budget 25,000 units.
Secondly, although the size of the market from EI budget increase 250,000 units 362,500 units, the EI market share is not meet expectations, it has dropped from 10% to 8%. This means that the performance of the EI Company is not satisfied. Third, the staff may lack experience, because the actual manufacturing cost is $ 42. 1, higher than the standard $ 40. Finally, from a fixed cost analysis can be found, $ 121,000 of costs and unfavorable actual production costs are higher than the planned $ 11,000, from $ 1,388,000 to $ 1,399,000. Therefore, enterprises should improve production efficiency.
On the other hand, the overall performance of EM and EI, and a profit of $ 51,000, cost of sales decreased $ 5,000 plans to invest $ 250,000 of the actual value of $ 245,000. The sales mix variance data can be found, there are more people choose EI, because the EI sales mix variance is $ 1,789,714! EM sales mix variance is $ 1,253, 571 should not be. The reason may be that the sales staff did not want to sell products EM, actual sales commission EI is 14. 9 dollars, but the commission is only $ 1. Second, EI is a new product and new technology, which will attract more customers to buy and more popular than the old.
History of Edible Oil college essay help nyc: college essay help nyc
Oil and fat have always been an essential part of the human diet because of the energy they provide. Obtaining oil and fat from plants is a characteristic of many ancient cultures. There is evidence of the cultivation of plants that produce vegetable oils such as poppy seed, rapeseed and linen even in the Stone Age. The first oil presses were found on Crete from 3500 B. C. and Chinese sources from 2800 B. C. how that soy and hemp plants were used to produce oils. As vegetable oils and fats were goods in very short supply, they gained an almost mythical reputation and were of immense commercial importance. Edible oils along with salt were among the first goods to be traded over long distances. A large part of the prosperity of the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean was based on the production of olive oil, the first widely used vegetable oil in Europe.
Europe to the north of the Alps was not able to produce oil from native plants on a large scale for a long time, so it was difficult to feed the population and there were frequent famines. It was the development of agriculture and the industrial extraction of oil from plant seeds that made the huge increases in the population of Europe possible in the 18th and 19th centuries. The basis of the industrial revolution was actually an agricultural revolution.
Historically, edible vegetable oil is one of the dietary pillars, along with grains and sugar, on which western civilisation stands. TODAY The development of refining, the procedure for purifying the pressed oil, has made possible the production of odourless edible oil with a neutral taste as we know it today. The further cultivation of plants that produce edible oils, as well as the development of oil presses and refineries has led in the last few decades to oils of better quality and less environmental pollution resulting from the production and refining processes.
Refining is today usually carried out using a physical process without the use of chemicals. The main oil crops of the world are soy beans, palm oil, rapeseed, sunflower seeds, cotton seeds and maize, while the main crops in Europe are sunflowers, rapeseed and maize. The increase in the world’s population with its continuously increasing need for oil and fat in the diet will also increase the importance of vegetable oil and fat in the future as well.
Explore the Idea a Consumer Society Is a Divided Society nursing essay help: nursing essay help
This essay will explore the notion that a consumer society is a divided society. By using the information presented in the making social lives booklet it is hoped this essay will present itself clearly in its dialogue offering concise points of discussion relevant to the topic at hand. This essay will look at what consumer society is, how it evolved and why society might be considered consumerist also at how different members of society consume and why these things contribute to the opinion of divisions within a consumer society.
Social historians could argue that the idea a of consumer society started as far back as the late 1800s. It was department stores that brought consumer culture to the masses. The first purpose built department store was erected in France in 1869, the Bon Marche. This was the first occasion where many goods that would have previously been sold in separate shops were all under the same roof. This trend found its way to the UK, but unlike the purpose built store in Paris, they grew organically from grocers, drapers or indoor markets.
This was a period of mass production where Items could be produced on industrial scale and moved in large quantities around the country, driving down the price of goods and allowing a wider section of society to take part in consuming, although still not the poor. The social scientist Veblen observed that people were buying things to raise their social standings by demonstrating to others their ability to consume and setting an impression to the rest of society (Veblen cited in Hetherington, 2009, P26).
It has been a common thought by social scientists that the social identity in the UK should be considered industrial and defined by class. However, this social identity started to shift throughout the 1980s. During this period Social scientist would talk about a post-industrial society where traditional manufacturing industries started to disappear. This lead to changes in the working class communities, more jobs were created in the customarily middle class service sector which lead to class identities becoming less clear.
As this shift happened society started to judge more on what it consumed as opposed to what it manufactured. Political freedoms, like the right to vote and being part of trade unions, were during industrial society seen as important social factors with self-identity largely defined by ones employment, with social inclusion forged by a person’s class or status and the behaviours that were appropriate to such standings (Hetherington, 2009, P22). It is these very freedoms and xpressions that start to leave society as industry becomes less visible in society, being replace by consumer freedoms. (Bauman cited in Hetherington, 2009, P26). Bauman believes we live in a consumer society and suggest that people in modern western society are divided into two groups, the seduced and the repressed. The seduced, Bauman tells us, are people who have the means to consume effectively in the eyes of other consumers. They can consume in ways that allow them to create the identity they want to be perceived to have.
They are seen to give impression of status and membership within a certain demographic of society. The repressed he tells us are marginalised by society for not being able to consume effectively in the eyes of others. Typically members of this group would include the unemployed, the low paid, people in part time or casual employment, people with disabilities or middle aged people and those who live off a pension. Money plays a part in placing people in one group, or the other, but it is not the only thing to be taken into account.
For instance, a young person with little money might be able to consume more effectively than someone on a similar income, but who might also be disabled. Bauman uses broad terms, seduced and repressed, to clearly explain his ideas. However, there are many categories of divisions that fall under the terms of seduced and repressed. These divides can be created by things like age, gender, fashion, being able to go to “cool” bars or being able to spot the consumer trends.
You might have an old person with limited money, someone who is not “online” or someone who just isn’t “in the know”. Perhaps someone suffering with a disability has to prioritise their money on their treatment or care meaning they have no disposable income, leaving them with a sense of isolation and exclusion from society (Bauman cited in Hetherington, 2009, P27). The notion of luxury and abundance is now, in a modern UK society, exuded by out of town shopping malls or retail parks.
Typically located near a major motor way with commuter links, restaurants, cinemas as well as the clothes, food and electrical shops you would have once expect to find on a typical high street. These retail parks have come to embody modern consumer society of the twenty first century. It’s been suggested that to be able to take advantage of these places one would need to have certain things available to them, for instance a car to commute to the out of town location, or the extra disposable money that would be required to take the bus there and back.
Following this line of thought takes us back to the idea of seduced and repressed consumers and the division within society based on those who can consume effectively and those who cannot. Veblen coined the phrase conspicuous consumption. He tells us people are trying to send a message out to society, they want to be perceived a certain way by others through what and how they consume. Veblen suggests that people are not only consuming goods but commodities too and the social messages that are attached to them (Veblen cited in Hetherington, 2009, P34).
An example of this could be someone who buys groceries only from farmers markets, or to go a step further, someone who only buys organic produce, from farmers markets. These choices project an image and send a clear message to society of that person’s values and beliefs and contribute to the idea of divisions within consuming. Not everyone can afford to buy the more expensive organic or local produce or they may not have the means to get to the farmers market to consume those products.
Susman suggested people are judged not so much by class, but by how they consume, what they consume and the message that sends out to society (Susman cited in Hetherington, 2009, P42). In line with that idea, It has been proposed that people who cannot consume effetely are not just being restricted, more importantly, according to Bauman “Your identity becomes devalued, you become devalued and seen as a non-participant in a society where membership and belonging are defined by one’s ability to consume” (Bauman cited in Hetherington, 2009, p46).
It is not a new concept that society is divided. It has been suggested that long before society was considered consumerist it was divided, they were just defined by different rules and values. This essay has, by using the theories and ideas of social scientists like Veblen, Susman and Bauman, clearly highlighted the ways in which a consumer society is divided, how those divisions are different from traditional divides in society and why they are significant.
Consuming to exude an identity that allows someone to be perceived a certain way and allowing membership to a certain demographic or excluding people base on those same reasons is fundamentally divisive. As explored in this essay there are also many sub divides or groups that widen the scope of division within society, based on other factors. Today modern society hasn’t forgotten the class divisions of the past; it has just introduced new rules with which to set and distinguish such statuses and divisions.
Ethical Issue Paper for Munchausen by Proxy rice supplement essay help: rice supplement essay help
The curious case of Munchausen By Proxy Safa Elkhidir Metropolitan State University Introduction Munchausen Syndrome dates back to 1843, when British physician Hector Gavin differentiated between people who faked an illness to achieve some sort of compensation and those who pretended to be ill for no other reason but to assume the sick role (Berry, 2008). The name Munchausen came from German cavalry captain who known for telling exaggerated stories about his life, travels and adventures (Berry, 2008). The first case of Munchausen syndrome diagnosed in 1951 by the British physician Richard Asher.
He noted “the most remarkable feature of the syndrome is the apparent senselessness of it becoming a patient is the purpose of the syndrome” (Criddle, 2010, p. 46). Overview of the Disorder Munchausen By Proxy is a rare but devastating illness. This is a condition where a caregiver induces or fabricates illness in a child, and presents for medical treatment (Beard, 2007). The DSM-IV -TR calls Munchausen By Proxy, a Factitious Disorder, in which the following criteria apply: 1. Intentional production or feigning of physical signs or symptoms.
The motivation for the behavior to assume the sick role. . External incentives for the behavior (such as economic gain, avoiding legal liability, or improving physical well-being, and in Malingering) are absent (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). This disorder is not about the child, but about the parent attempting to fulfill their needs and insecurities. The most common perpetrators are women who usually have medical knowledge such as nurses, or other health care professionals (Berry, 2008). These mothers are highly strategic in that they gain a trusting relationship with multiple healthcare providers.
They are extremely active and interested in the care of their child, and often act as the liaison among healthcare teams (Kannai, 2009). The mother’s extensive knowledge and vocabulary about medical problems often gains them the respect of health care team which gives them the attention and respect they crave. Although they have gained this knowledge from either education or internet research, the child presents with an undiagnosable case which has doctors puzzled, and motivated to find the cause of an untreatable illness.
It usually starts when the mother brings the child to the doctor with a truly serious illness, and has a plan to maintain that illness, even when the child admitted into an acute setting. The child will often present to the emergency department with bleeding (44%); seizure disorders (42%), central nervous system depression (19%), apnea (15%), diarrhea (11%), vomiting (10%), fever (10%), rash (9%) (Criddle, 2009). Mothers produce with ipecac, salt, insulin, laxatives, lorazepam, corrosives, diphenhydramine, amitriptyline, lamotrigine, and clonidine and the list go on (Criddle, 2009).
Perpetrators these symptoms in their children in a variety of different ways. They can poison their children often mix their own blood into the child’s urine and stool. They may suffocate their child to induce signs of apnea and seizures. They can also cause infection by depositing fecal matter, dirt, urine, or spit into wounds, orthopedic pin sites or intravenous catheters (Criddle, 2009). However, according to Malatack, Consolini, Mann, and Raab (2006), there are two subtypes of Munchausen Syndrome By proxy.
One type where the perpetrator directly causes the illness or injury or one in which the perpetrator simulates the disease or illness but does not directly cause injury to the child. There is no way to confirm whether or not the child had a fever the night before. An immense investigation can be stemmed from a child previously having severe symptoms of a fever or apnea, but no longer present with these symptoms. Often perpetrators will insist that something be done in order to “fix the problem” before they leave the hospital (Siegel, 2009).
Perpetrators may start the case by simulating symptoms of an illness, and when they stop receiving the attention they want, will proceed by actually causing harm to their child. Often the perpetrator will insist that they require a higher level of care than they are receiving and, want to speak with expert staff members (Siegel, 2009). Munchausen by proxy often overlooked because the mother appears to be hyper-vigilant, and will do everything they can to make their child better (Kannai, 2009). It is necessary for health care providers to be aware of the signs and symptoms of Munchausen by Proxy.
The warning signs include, persistent or recurrent unexplained illness in an infant of the young child, investigation results at variance with the general health of the child, experienced physicians often have never seen a similar case, signs and symptoms disappear when the mother is away from the child, the mother is excessively attentive and refuses to leave the child alone, even with lengthy hospital stays, the mother is comfortable and happy in a hospital environment, the mother does not seem relieved by negative test results, mother appears less worried than staff despite critical presentation, or unexplained illness in a sibling (Malatack et. al, 2006). Being aware of warning signs will help to diagnose Munchausen By Proxy before more damage done to the child. While it seems unimaginable for someone to do this to their own child, it is a way for a parent to cope with their own problems. Theory
There are various theories that try to explain the cause for Munchausen By Proxy, all of the theories state that this is condition is one in which a parent is using the child to cope with their own issues. Those with Munchausen By Proxy have often had experienced emotional or physical trauma of their own. They may have also experienced the hospital as a place of nurturance as a child and are now causing their own children to be hospitalized in order to meet their own emotional needs (Berry, 2008). Kannai (2009), states that the parent or caregivers own experience of invalidation or abuse causes them to lack the ability to see the child as a person with feelings or rights. The child is an entity to help them deal with their own personal problems.
Another theory states that the caregivers actions aimed at gaining a relationship with a powerful person in order to compensate for the lack of relationship they had with their own parents as children; they feel that the “powerful person” will be able to repair this trauma (Malatack et. al, 2006). The parent uses the child as a means to connect with a powerful person, who will give him or her approval. The message is “do anything to my child, but do not leave me. ” (Malatack et. al, 2006, p. 59) They may also do this in response to a failed marriage, or in order to repair a failed marriage (Malatack, 2006). Although some may be trying to gain a relationship with a powerful person to have approval, others want to gain a relationship with a powerful person, i. e. The physician, in order to manipulate and control them (Beard, 2007).
While many researchers agree that the development of Munchausen By Proxy is due to events that have happened in caregivers past, other theories state that it may be the result of a concurring mental illness. Personality disorders such as borderline personality, narcissistic, hysterical and antisocial personality disorders have been common findings in parents or caregivers who are perpetrators of Munchausen By Proxy (Berry, 2008). Those with these personality disorders use simulation of disease in order to obtain emotional support and attention, as well as a mechanism for expressing rage (Berry, 2008). The personality disorder causes them to act in irrational ways. Other common concurring diseases with Munchausen By Proxy have been substance abuse and depressive disorders (Berry, 2008).
Those with depressive disorders may be feeling inadequate as a parent and want validation from a medical staff (Kannai, 2009). Others may experience anxiety and use this as a way to feel calmer (Kannai, 2009). One study looked at mothers who were perpetrators of Munchausen By Proxy and found that many of them had experienced post-partum depression. This is different from the other theories in that mothers were not hurting their children in order to fill their own voids, but rather they actually felt and described hatred toward their own child. Others stated that they felt hatred toward their child because they reminded them of their hated husband (Malatck et. al, 2006).
Researchers are still looking to find answers as to what motivates perpetrators. They are also looking at what predisposes someone to developing Munchausen By Proxy, and possible risk factors that people should be aware of. Researchers are also looking to find what is successful in treating this devastating illness. Treatment It is still unclear as to what the definite cause if Munchausen By Proxy. In order to treat the illness the cause needs to be determined, whether it is depression or anxiety or something that is lingering from childhood such as an abuse or poor relationships. The first thing that needs to be done after Munchausen By Proxy detected is to separate the mother from the child.
It is necessary to do an immediate psychiatric evaluation on both the parent and the child, in order to prevent poor outcomes. Some mothers known to attempt suicide after being “caught” so psychiatric intervention is necessary (Malatack et. al, 2006). If the cause is due to depression, then, anti-depressant needs to be prescribed. Along with pharmaceutical therapies, intensive therapy also needs to initiate. Therapy focused on helping the parent or caregiver to understand how their actions are hurting the child, and to develop empathy for the child (Kannai, 2009). Convincing the parent to partake in therapy can be difficult, because in most cases, they deny having a problem and continue to try to manipulate health care professionals.
It takes skill in approaching the parent because it is necessary to make sure the parent does not leave the hospital against medical advice (AMA). Instead of offering therapy to the parent, it may be better giving the parent a chance to just “talk” to someone, and then get to the root of the issue (Beard, 2007). Years of intense psychiatric therapy usually required in order to thoroughly treat the perpetrator (Beard, 2007). While they know that at the very least many years of psychiatric therapy required to help treat this disorder, little known about the effectiveness of this treatment, and more research needs to be done in this area of Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy (Berry, 2008).
Although there is not a definitive treatment, much education needs to be done with the parent or caregiver who is exhibiting the symptoms of Munchausen By Proxy. Education One of the primary educational needs for parents or caregivers with this disorder is to get them in touch with the root of their problem. Parents need to be self-aware of psychological trauma that been caused to them when they were children. If they can recognize that, they have psychological needs; then the parent can seek help from a professional. The parent can start working towards finding validation and address their insecurities in healthy ways. It is necessary for therapists to help them distinguish eality from fantasy as this often blurred in patients with Munchausen By Proxy (Berry, 2008). Parents often need reality presented to them, in order for them to realize what they are doing to their children. Education needs to be done on the harm that they are causing to their children and the long term effects their actions will have. Not only do victims of Munchausen By Proxy face critical medical problems, but also serious psychological problems as the result of the perpetual abuse (Berry, 2008). Getting the parent in touch with the reality of what they are doing to their children, and eliciting an empathetic response, is imperative to stop the mistreatment from occurring (Kannai, 2009).
The issue that occurs with Munchausen By Proxy is that education can only be done after it detected, and often it is too late for the child at that point. More research needs to be done on risk factors and warning signs, in order to start education before the abuse occurs, or at the beginning of the process. Need for Research There are many areas that need be further explored about Munchausen By Proxy. Since this disease is so rare, there is limited research that been done on the effectiveness of treatment and prognosis for individuals with the disorder. Many therapists do not commonly treat this disorder, so there are no standard therapeutic regimens in place. Often treatment of this disorder focused on other underlying illnesses (Siegel, 2009).
It would be helpful to find out if the same treatments modalities that used to treat personality disorders are also helpful in treating Munchausen By Proxy. However, there seems to be inconsistent research about the true cause of Munchausen By Proxy. Some researchers do not believe that this is a true psychological illness, they describe Munchausen By Proxy as being “child abuse that occurs in a medical setting” (Criddle, 2010, p. 47). They consider this more of a pediatric disorder than a psychological disorder (Criddle, 2010). It is often a controversy as to who should make the diagnosis, a pediatrician or a psychiatrist? Another area of research that needs to be looked at is what type of disorder this is.
If it is a personality disorder or another type of mental illness, such as a thought disorder. Perhaps brain imaging could give researchers more insight as to what is actually going on in the brain. Finding out more about the nature of illness would assist psychiatrists to diagnose this illness; however, research limited due to the small number of cases that reported each year. Although the illness is rare, it can have devastating outcomes for both the child and the parent, and often result in legal battles about who is responsible. Legal Issues Since this disorder involves children, when a parent is diagnosed legal action taken at the same time.
The child is usually permanently taken away from the parent and a child protective service involved. It is also essential that a forensic nurse become involved in order to monitor and document all of the abuse (Berry, 2008). Just as in any part of nursing, it is very essential that everyone who involved, accurately documents, all of the events that take place. This includes how the mother is interacting with her child. In order to make a good case in court, the investigation of a parent who suspected of Munchausen By Proxy includes, a history of the parent’s own medical history, talking to family members and friends of the parents, and obtaining specimens from acute events (Malatack et. al, 2006).
This is also important because many police officers, lawyers, and judges are not acutely aware of Munchausen By Proxy, and may not believe the case the physicians are trying to make (Matalack et. al, 2006). It is a complicated case because after the child presents to the hospital, it is the doctors who are causing damage to the child, by doing many invasive procedures and operations as well as, diagnostic testing (Criddle, 2010). The perpetrator is also very deceptive and can make it look like the child got sick at the expense of the doctors, and the mother did nothing but try to get the child medical support (Criddle, 2010). This goes back to why it is necessary for accurate documentation.
Prompt reporting of abuse is also important in order to prevent further harm to the child. While this is often difficult, due to fear of being wrong it is better to heir of the side of caution and protects the child from further harm. Because it is hard to determine whether or not Munchausen By Proxy is taking place, it had been proposed that video surveillance be done on those who suspected of harming their child in the hospital. Ethical Issues It would be easy to make a case in court if there was video evidence. However, due to patient privacy issues this is intensely controversial. In order to initiate Covert video surveillance (CVS), certain criteria must be met.
According to Malatack (2006, p 60), CVS can only be initiated in a case when: suspicion of Munchausen By Proxy is present and action must be taken in the interest of the child’s safety, conviction that without CVS, the perpetrator will continue to harm or possibly kill the child, there must also be consultation with the local legal authorities. Although CVS intrudes on patient privacy, it can be argued that it used as a diagnostic tool (Malatack et. al, 2006). Many institutions are wary about using CVS because if taken to court it could be a violation of the fourth amendment, which guards unreasonable search and seizure (Berry, 2008). In some cases evidence that violates that the fourth amendment, will be disregarded in the court case (Berry, 2008).
One way to side step this issue; is to add videotaping to the consent form that parents sign upon admission to the hospital (Berry, 2008). Since this CVS may or may not be permitted in certain hospitals, it goes back to the importance of unbiased and accurate documentation from doctors, nurses and therapists who involved in the child’s care, which can be used in court. Another ethical issue that pertains to Munchausen by Proxy is how to tell the parent that they suspected of harming their child, and the how to go about removing the child from the situation. As mentioned earlier, informing the parent in an abrupt manner could cause them to leave the hospital immediately and potentially put the child in harm. The parent also may be irrational and lash out.
They may try to harm themselves or others. It is necessary to be calm when approaching the parent, and emphasize the importance of helping them get their family back to normalcy (Malatack et. al, 2006). When approaching the parent it is essential to have concrete facts about why there are suspicions. It is also helpful to the doctor, nurse, social worker, and child protective services present (Beard, 2007). After approaching the parent, the child must be taken away to prevent further harm. This must do carefully to ensure that there is no further harm to the child. In addition to the trauma, the child has already endured they may undergo separation trauma (Criddle, 2010).
This can cause significantly more psychological trauma in the child because they have learned to idealize and become dependent on their parents (Berry, 2008). Children do not understand why they taken away from their caregiver, and may see it as a punishment. Siblings may also need to be taken out of the home in order to ensure, the parent does not begin to harm them as a result of the main child being taken away. A multidisciplinary team is essential to making it as easy as possible for the child to transition out of the home, and into the care of someone new. Conclusion Munchausen By Proxy is a complex disorder that effects both parent and child.
It is still unclear as to what causes this disorder; however, it is important that more research be done in order to prevent lives from being lost. It yields poor outcomes and treatment strategies are still unclear. In many cases, the parent sent to jail without getting the appropriate psychiatric help. The child also requires intensive psychological therapy in order to live a functional life. With awareness and collaboration more cases of Munchausen By Proxy can be diagnosed and prevented.
Dulce et Decorum est easy essay help: easy essay help
“The Soldier” show how the poets manage to put across their message effectively. In World War 1 many young men were encouraged to become soldiers and fight for their country. The poems “Dulce et Decorum est” by Wilfred Owen and “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke tackle the subject of war and show the poet’s experience in war. In the poem “The Soldier” the poet speaks of the glory, honour and the nobility of war and of fighting and dying for England.
Brooke shows a strong feeling of patriotism throughout the poem and says he will be “forever England”. He says that if he dies, the place he will be buried will have “richer dust” because he has been taught, shaped, influenced and enriched by England. The poet also believes that he will be forever remembered as a hero and will be “a pulse in the eternal mind”. In this poem, England is personified and compares it to a mother figure who gives life to her son “A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware” This sonnet has a regular rhythm and rhyme scheme.
The poet’s intention is to show the reader that dying to fight for your own country is the most honourable thing to do. In contrast to Brooke’s poem, Wilfred Owen expresses the harsh realities of war in the poem “Dulce et Decorum est”. Owen speaks from first-hand experience shown by the use of “we. In the first stanza, the poet uses a slow dragging rhythm to bring out the image of the tired, “blood shod”, suffering and wounded soldiers. He also uses a simile to show how sick the soldiers were “coughed like hags”.
In second stanza, however, the poet uses a fast, quick rhythm and effective use of punctuation to show a sudden panic and tension in the gas attack; “Gas! Gas! Quick boys”. Here the poet describes the “ecstasy of fumbling” of the soldiers quickly putting on their protective masks but one soldier fails to do so. Owen portrays a vivid description of the suffering soldier “Like a man in fire or lime” and compares the dying soldier to someone “drowning”. In the final part of the poem, Owen addresses Jessie Pope as “my friend” who wrote in favour of war.
He concludes by saying that it’s an “old lie” that it is sweet and honourable to die for your country – “ Dulce et decorum est Pro Patria mori” because in reality it is very mush the opposite which is true. Although the subject of both these poems is about war, they sharply contrast each other. This is because Rupert Brooke’s poem shows a positive attitude towards war expressing feelings of patriotism and honour, whereas Wilfred Owen shows the harsh realities of war and clearly shows what the soldiers are faced with.
Harrison Bergeron admission college essay help: admission college essay help
Harrison Bergeron takes place in a future where everything is supposedly equal. I say supposedly because there are so those who are still in power over everyone else. The society is taken over by these handicaps that are weighing them down and also not allowing them to think for themselves, therefore, control over them is present. In Harrison Bergeron, many themes are present ranging from the equality to people’s free will to be who they are. A major theme that Is present is that the equality can be achieved but at a great cost and risk.
To become equal one must Not be smarter, better looking, more athletic, or even more graceful than anyone else. In order to make this happen, the handicapper general, Diana Moon Glampers, attanches anything from weights to radio frequencies in the heads of the people in order to keep control. These handicaps are attached to the people and cannot be tampered with. If tampered with, excessive fines and jail time is given. At times people such as Harrison Bergeron will rebel and will exceed and surpassed certain strengths that handicaps can no longer detain them and an outbreak of somewhat of a revolution can take place such as in the story.
In case of a Revolution, action must take place, in the case of Harrison Bergeron, the handicapper general blasted him in half with a double barrel shotgun. Violence and fear have to be used in order to keep equality. We can see in history that the people will fight back such as in the struggle between between India and the British, it only took one person to change everything and in the end, the British lost a lot more than had to be lost. The people were equal. Weight opressed the people, made them slower, and took away their emotion.
Dancers, musicians, they all played and danced so poorly because of the fact that one might be better than the other. No joy; was that really worth giving up? What’s the point of being equal if we can’t enjoy it? So in the end the cost of equality is the beauty of life itself. We could see, as the readers, that through the expressions, actions, and settings that the quality is there, but it is not enjoyed. The people were also taught to believe the past let’s say our present is a dark time because there is no equality, so change is harder to accomplish because the people were taught the opposite of what they really want.
It’s a sad life, really. We’re also given the that we should stand up and speak out loud. It isn’t always pleasant but when we decide to take that stand, we can compare ourselves to Harrison Bergeron himself; no handicap can contain us, no fear can overthrow us, we are powerful beings. Even though he lost his life in the end, he stood up for what he believed in. One sacrifice could spark a great revolution in which everyone takes part of. Even if it seems no one is paying attention or it won’t do any good, there are those such as Hazel and George who listened and were brought confusion.
Any action is never untold. Another theme I found this story was that dictators sneak their way into becoming what they are. Dictators make it seem that they are doing something good when in reality they want to rise up in power and control everyone else. We can see that the handicapper General is the dictator. Nowhere in this story do we hear of her having handicaps of her own. Another way we can tell is that she carries not just some plain old shotgun, but a double barrel shotgun. One shot from that and you’ll be dead before you hit the floor.
I don’t think a friend to society would be carrying such a weapon. Always think before you decide to listen to someone because it could be the worst decision We ever make. We have to know the pros and cons of a proposal that a person is providing. This story is putting it out there that a great thing could not be such a great thing in the end. Be careful what wish for. Through this science-fiction we can find many themes that could be possible for the near future. The main themes of Harrison Bergeron revolved around equality, dictatorship, and free will.
Media Consuming Behavior summary and response essay help: summary and response essay help
Write about the characteristics of the consumers focusing on media consuming behaviors-Maggie (Meijun he/ 42715032) Researches and studies on media consuming behaviors before making an advertising project are critical because people always begin to aware a product or a brand from mediums no matter on smart phones, laptops or the corner of a street. In this part, consumer behavior on media consuming which focusing on urban lifestyle, cultural factors and technological factors in CBD Sydney will be explained and related Apple shoe’s target audiences.
Firstly, the urban lifestyle has fast rhythm that enquires the form of media to be convenient reach. Businessmen and officers are the Apple shoe’s main target audiences. Their activities in the city area must be fast and flexible. They always glance various ads around them rather than spend much time to focus on a long video advertisement or a comprehensive brochure. Actually, most of the information from media may possible be new to them because information changes fast every day and night in cities that it is difficult for media to awake audience without innovative and convenient platform (Zukin S, 1998).
For example, radio is not a suitable medium that it is not used by many people in the city and does not have visual content. Moreover, the majority of citizens are more likely to purchase products which are advertising around them (Zukin S, 1998). Thus, medium consuming will probably be related to people’s career, class, age. For instant, drivers like to use radio when driving, businessmen like to use newspaper or magazines, teachers like to use website, youngers prefer use smartphones and older people like to use television.
Secondly, innovative and fashionable factors should be considered on studying media consuming behavior. Sydney is a multi-cultural city that each person who walking in the main street may has different cultural background. People usually prefer different and new things every day rather than using the traditional medium. Audiences prefer visual and acoustic content on media so that they can be more enjoyable when receiving information (Brace I, Edwards L & Nancarrow C, 2002) This require that Apple shoes should consider creative concepts on making visual advertisement.
Thirdly, smartphone has become the most popular medium in cities which must be considered carefully by Apple for selling Apple shoe. People no matter what ages prefer to achieve information by smartphone. Advertisements on electronic magazines, apps, website, SMS, e-mails usually be spread in a high speed every day by smartphone because people usually can not leave their smartphone for more than half an hour in modern life. Therefore, promotions on smartphone have possible opportunities to succeed in marketing process.
Jenna’s Kitchen writing essay help: writing essay help
Low moral/ low productivity. • Didn’t listen to Judi’s recommendation of not listening. Main Problem: • top managements push to save money by moving from there downtown location to a warehouse, lowered status of employees -made job less prestigious -no longer a better company to work for than their competitors. • Low conceptual skills from management -they didn’t see the big picture to foresee how the move would effect the corporate culture of employees/ morale. Solutions: Top management needs to weigh as well as see value of motivation plus jod satisfaction high productivity and attaining loyalty of employee’s/ low turnover.
Tried to solve the low moral with pay increase which leads to less money saved from move plus little change in moral: “pay increase only provides short term change and not true motivation. ” (Introduction into Business pg 284 half way down. ) • What does provide motivation: pay increase according to performance not general increase. Effective ways to motivate and increase morale: increased responsibility, recognition, new more prestigious job title, reoccurring meetings to hear what employees need. • Hear issues • involve employees in creating objectives. • Incentives, gift cards to downtown restaurants, weekly monthly lunches, using flex times to make jobs more appealing. • Cons- incentives will cost company in the short term • more time in team equals less time for working.
Managers will have to be trained to give more recognition to work with employee’s • might loose employee’s end up saving money from move. Solutions: • higher level of conceptual skills for top management ie. Learn from mistakes. • Self manage work teams, job enrichment, incentives at the new location. • Implement meetings for top management to reevaluate direction company is headed and to understand the consequences of not listening to regional management and cost cutting. • First line manager training to boost moral/motivation of the workers and increase productivity
Summary of Misophonia computer science essay help: computer science essay help
The following consists of four different hand-outs for health professionals–a traditional letter, a fact sheet, a copy of the recent NYTimes article, and the MAS. Misophonia sufferers are encouraged to use any of the following based upon their needs. The fact sheet was compiled with the thought that many doctors will not take the time to read a traditional letter. This letter is an attempt to explain the medical condition termed “Misophonia” or “4S” for Selective Sound Sensitivity Syndrome. This problem is just beginning to be researched by the scientific community.
A current hypothesis being explored is that Misophonia is a neurological disorder in which selective auditory signals trigger a fight-or-flight reflex. The average age of onset appears to be between 8 and 12 years old and the symptoms normally come on suddenly causing the patient and his/her family a great deal of anguish. Someone who suffers from this condition typically has a strong negative emotional reaction to the repetition of a variety of sounds–frequently associated with mouth noises such as chewing or slurping or breathing.
However, there are many different sounds, or triggers, that can cause a problem for someone with Misophonia such as sniffing, pens clicking, heel-tapping, typing, dogs barking, birds chirping, etc. Typically any sound that is repeated enough has the potential to become a trigger. Sometimes just the sight of one of these behaviors can trigger an intense reaction. Some Misophonia sufferers also have purely visual triggers like jiggling legs or other repetitive mannerisms. Each individual has different triggers and also has different emotional reactions, however, the vast majority have in common a feeling of some degree of anger at mouth sounds.
While mild sufferers of Misophonia may feel tense or irritated by these sounds, more severe cases involve uncontrollable outbursts of panic, anger, and often the imaging of violent encounters. It is very important to realize that the individual with Misophonia often has little or no control over their reactions. They realize that their sensitivities to these sounds are irrational, but their brains appear to get hijacked and their emotional centers activated, perhaps related to a brain error involving the normal “fight or flight” response that all humans experience in a threatening situation.
Many people with Misophonia suffer for years in silence, believing that they are the only person experiencing this reaction and that they must be “crazy. ” They often try many different strategies to cope with or avoid their triggers including earplugs, eating in isolation, white noise generators, prescribed medications, drugs/alcohol/self-medication, hypnosis, CBT and other therapies, but nothing truly seems to provide significant relief. Misophonia sufferers feel misunderstood, isolated, and hopeless. In extreme cases, sufferers can become deeply depressed and even suicidal.
The growing strength of international online support communities suggests that Misophonia is a widespread problem. There are currently many thousands of registered users on the sites listed below, and posts often express frustration with health care providers who are ignorant of the existence of this condition and who underestimate the severity of its symptoms. It will be most helpful for medical professionals to become more aware of this syndrome and understand that their patients who have Misophonia are in desperate need of understanding and creative treatment. Some informative websites about Misophonia are listed below: www. misophonia. nfo http://health. groups. yahoo.
Sufferers often feel they are alone in this condition and may think they are “crazy”. Feelings of embarrassment often overcome the desire to speak out. * In an attempt to cope with Misophonia, many strategies including earplugs, eating in isolation, white noise generators, prescribed medications, drugs/alcohol/self-medication, hypnosis, CBT and other therapies have been experimented with, with little or no success. * Misophonia has similarities to OCD, PTSD, Panic Disorder, and even Autism; yet it is distinctly different from these disorders. Misophonia is also often misunderstood to be hyperacusis, tinnitus or other related audiological disorders. It is the very specific, barely audible, everyday noises that tend to be problematic, regardless of their volume * Many individuals with Misophonia are told by health care professionals that their problem is psychological and dismiss its significance, mostly due to a lack of understanding of the condition.
A current hypothesis being explored is that Misophonia is some type of neurological disorder in which repeated auditory signals trigger a fight-or-flight reflex. Several sufferers have reported treatment success with Neurofeedback. * See attached enclosures for more detailed information or visit the following websites: www. misophonia.
For people with a condition that some scientists call misophonia, mealtime can be torture. The sounds of other people eating — chewing, chomping, slurping, gurgling — can send them into an instantaneous, blood-boiling rage. Or as Adah Siganoff put it, “rage, panic, fear, terror and anger, all mixed together. ” “The reaction is irrational,” said Ms. Siganoff, 52, of Alpine, Calif. “It is typical fight or flight” — so pronounced that she no longer eats with her husband. Many people can be driven to distraction by certain small sounds that do not seem to bother others — gum chewing, footsteps, humming.
But sufferers of misophonia, a newly recognized condition that remains little studied and poorly understood, take the problem to a higher level. They also follow a strikingly consistent pattern, experts say. The condition almost always begins in late childhood or early adolescence and worsens over time, often expanding to include more trigger sounds, usually those of eating and breathing. “I don’t think 8- or 9-year-olds choose to wake up one morning and say, ‘Today my dad’s chewing is going to drive me insane,’ ” said Marsha Johnson, an audiologist in Portland, Ore. who runs an online forum for people with misophonia. But that is what happens, she said, adding, “Soon the kid doesn’t want to come to the table or go to school. ” Aage R. Moller, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Dallas who specializes in the auditory nervous system, included misophonia in the “Textbook of Tinnitus,” a 2010 medical guide of which he was an editor. He believes the condition is hard-wired, like right- or left-handedness, and is probably not an auditory disorder but a “physiological abnormality” that resides in brain structures activated by processed sound.
There is “no known effective treatment,” Dr. Moller said. Patients often go from doctor to doctor, searching in vain for help. Dr. Johnson agreed. “These people have been diagnosed with a lot of different things: phobic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar, manic, anxiety disorders,” she said. Dr. Johnson’s interest was piqued when she saw her first case in 1997. “This is not voluntary,” she said. “Usually they cry a lot because they’ve been told they can control this if they want to. This is not their fault. They didn’t ask for it and they didn’t make it up. And as adults, they “don’t outgrow it,” she said. “They structure their lives around it. ” Taylor Benson, a 19-year-old sophomore at Creighton University in Omaha, says many mouth noises, along with sniffling and gum chewing, make her chest tighten and her heart pound. She finds herself clenching her fists and glaring at the person making the sound. “This condition has caused me to lose friends and has caused numerous fights,” she said. Misophonia (“dislike of sound”) is sometimes confused with hyperacusis, in which sound is perceived as abnormally loud or physically painful. But Dr.
Johnson says they are not the same. “These people like sound, the louder the better,” she said of misophonia patients. “The sounds they object to are soft, hardly audible sounds. ” One patient is driven crazy by her beloved dog licking its paws. Another can’t bear the pop of the plosive “p” in ordinary conversation. When people with the disorder can’t avoid the sounds, they sometimes try earplugs to block them, or white-noise devices to mask them. Family links are common. Ms. Siganoff suspects her father had the condition, too. “He would buy us new shoes and complain we were walking too loud,” she said.
The prevalence is unknown. Dr. Johnson’s Yahoo group, soundsensitivity, has about 1,700 members worldwide. One member, a man from Canberra, Australia, runs soundsensitivity. info, an informational site for the general public. Meanwhile, those with the condition cope as best they can. Ms. Siganoff says she remains enraged until she says something like “shut up” or “stop it. ” “If I don’t say anything, the rage builds,” she said. “That vocalization is enough to stop the reaction. ” (Echolalia, or mimicking the offensive sound, is common, Dr. Johnson said.
As a young adolescent at the dinner table, Heidi Salerno tried to discreetly plug her ears or chew in sync with others so her own chewing noises would drown theirs out. Doctors told her she was too controlling, said Ms. Salerno, 44, a lawyer in San Diego. “But there are many things I am not in control of, and I don’t feel rage about it,” she said. “I was always brushed off. ” Ms. Salerno shuts her office door against bothersome sounds like pen clicking. She is a champion swing dancer, and when she teaches dance she prohibits gum chewing in class, telling her students, “If you are chewing gum, I will be distracted. Donna McDow, 57, a retired secretary who lives near Los Angeles, tries a different tack, telling people she has a bad headache. “Everybody understands a headache,” she said. “Nobody understands what we have. ” The Misophonia Activation Scale (MAS-1) Excerpted from http://www. misophonia-uk. org/the-misophonia-activation-scale. html is intended to guide clinicians and patients in assessing the severity of a sufferer’s condition. It concentrates on physical and emotional reactions to a particular misophonic trigger.
Someone with Misophonia may not necessarily exhibit all, or even many, of these behaviours. Also, some sufferers may experience symptoms in a different order, for instance, engaging in some “confrontational” coping behaviours before adopting more co-operative ones. This scale is being enclosed here in an attempt to facilitate dialogue between patients with Misophonia and their physicians. Level 0 Person with misophonia hears a known trigger sound but feels no discomfort. Level 1 Person with misophonia is aware of the presence of a known trigger person but feels no, or minimal, anticipatory anxiety.
Level 2 Known trigger sound elicits minimal psychic discomfort, irritation or annoyance. No symptoms of panic or fight or flight response. Level 3 Person with misophonia feels increasing levels of psychic discomfort but does not engage in any physical response. Sufferer may be hyper-vigilant to audio-visual stimuli. Level 4 Person with misophonia engages in a minimal physical response – non-confrontational coping behaviours, such as asking the trigger person to stop making the noise, discreetly covering one ear, or by calmly moving away from the noise.
No panic or flight or flight symptoms exhibited. Level 5 Person with misophonia adopts more confrontational coping mechanisms, such as overtly covering their ears, mimicking the trigger person, engaging in other echolalias, or displaying overt irritation. Level 6 Person with misophonia experiences substantial psychic discomfort. Symptoms of panic, and a fight or flight response, begin to engage. Level 7 Person with misophonia experiences substantial psychic discomfort. Increasing use (louder, more frequent) use of confrontational coping mechanisms. There may be unwanted sexual arousal.
Sufferer may re-imagine the trigger sound and visual cues over and over again, sometimes for weeks, months or even years after the event. Level 8 Person with misophonia experiences substantial psychic discomfort. Some violence ideation. Level 9 Panic/rage reaction in full swing. Conscious decision not to use violence on trigger person. Actual flight from vicinity of noise and/or use of physical violence on an inanimate object. Panic, anger or severe irritation may be manifest in sufferer’s demeanour. Level 10 Actual use of physical violence on a person or animal.
Example of Resume and Practical Application Letter write my essay help: write my essay help
On behalf of the School of Business and Economics, I submit herewith an application for the student mentioned below to conduct his/her industrial training under your esteemed organization. The industrial training program is one of the course requirements for student to complete their Bachelor of Business (with honors) degree at University Malaysia Sabah.
For your information, the placement should last for 3 months from 24 June 2013 to 13 September 2013. The main objective of this placement is to expose the student to the working environment in the corporate world, of which can be explained further by the attached “Program Objectives’’. The following student (enclosed CV) is majoring in Entrepreneurship: 1. BB1011xxxx ALIA UMAIRA BINTI MOHD RAFI (I/C NO: 901228-01-xxxx) For further information, please do not hesitate to contact any number of the practicum coordinator during office hours.
In addition, below are few other objectives with regard to practical training: o To brief the trainees the roles and task performed as well as to prepare daily/weekly schedule. o To improve the trainees understanding on the company’s roles and contribution towards the industry. o To provide opportunity for trainees to be involved in the organization operation management and other activities such as briefing/seminars, workshops, exhibition and etc. o To improve communication and public relation techniques in order to enhance better relationship within the company as well as the customers.
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This Project “Automatic Room Light Controller with Visitor Counter using Microcontroller” is a reliable circuit that takes over the task of controlling the room lights as well us counting number of persons/ visitors in the room very accurately. When somebody enters into the room then the counter is incremented by one and the light in the room will be switched ON and when any one leaves the room then the counter is decremented by one. The light will be only switched OFF until all the persons in the room go out.
The total number of persons inside the room is also displayed on the seven segment displays. The microcontroller does the above job. It receives the signals from the sensors, and this signal is operated under the control of software which is stored in ROM. Microcontroller AT89S52 continuously monitor the Infrared Receivers, When any object pass through the IR Receiver’s then the IR Rays falling on the receivers are obstructed this obstruction is sensed by the Microcontroller. BLOCK DIAGRAM OF PROJECT: [pic] COMPONENTS REQUIRED:
Voltage Regulator 7805 . Diode IN 4007 3. Relay 4. IR Tx/Rx Pair 5. 7 Segment Display 6. optical fiber cable Description of Microcontroller: 89s52: The AT89S52 is a low-power, high-performance CMOS 8-bit microcontroller with 8K bytes of in-system programmable Flash memory. The device is manufactured using Atmel’s high-density nonvolatile memory technology and is compatible with the industry-standard 80C51 instruction set and pinout. The on-chip Flash allows the program memory to be reprogrammed in-system or by a conventional nonvolatile memory programmer.
By combining a versatile 8-bit CPU with in-system programmable Flash on a monolithic chip, the Atmel’s AT89S52 is a powerful microcontroller which provides a highly-flexible and cost-effective solution to many embedded control applications. The AT89S52 provides the following standard features: 8K bytes of Flash, 256 bytes of RAM, 32 I/O lines, Watchdog timer, two data pointers, three 16-bit timer/counters, a six-vector two-level interrupt architecture, a full duplex serial port, on-chip oscillator, and clock circuitry.
In addition, the AT89S52 is designed with static logic for operation down to zero frequency and supports two software selectable power saving modes. The Idle Mode stops the CPU while allowing the RAM, timer/counters, serial port, and interrupt system to continue functioning. The Power-down mode saves the RAM con-tents but freezes the oscillator, disabling all other chip functions until the next interrupt. [pic] The hardware is driven by a set of program instructions, or software.
Once familiar with hardware and software, the user can then apply the microcontroller to the problems easily. The pin diagram of the 8051 shows all of the input/output pins unique to microcontrollers: [pic]The following are some of the capabilities of 8051 microcontroller: ? Internal ROM and RAM ? I/O ports with programmable pins ? Timers and counters ? Serial data communication The 8051 architecture consists of these specific features: 16 bit PC &data pointer (DPTR) ? 8 bit program status word (PSW) ? 8 bit stack pointer (SP) ? Internal ROM 4k ? Internal RAM of 128 bytes. ? 4 register banks, each containing 8 registers ? 80 bits of general purpose data memory ? 32 input/output pins arranged as four 8 bit ports:P0-P3 ? Two 16 bit timer/counters: T0-T1 ? Two external and three internal interrupt sources ? Oscillator and clock circuits Applications: • Telecom:
Mobile phone system (handset and base station), modems and routers. • Automotive application: Braking system, tracking control, Airbag release system, management unit and Steer- by- wire systems . • Domestic application: Dishwasher, television, washing machine, microwave oven, video recorder, security system, garage door controller, calculator, digital watches, VCRs, digital cameras, remote control, treat mills. • Robotic: Fire fighting robot, automatic floor cleaner, robotic arm .
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The ad that I have picked to analyze is the Hyundai Santa Fe “Big Game Ad”. The first time I ever saw this ad was on Pandora. com, and then once again in class as we were discussing different ads. This ad was also one of the ads that aired during the super bowl of 2013. This is a commercial about a boy who is bullied by a few other boys and is challenged to a football game. This commercial portrays the “underdogs” as winners because they are driving the new Hyundai.
A few of the fifteen basic appeals this ad uses includes the need to aggress, need to achieve, need to dominate, and lastly, the need for autonomy. This commercial starts with a little boy who is playing with his football when a group of bigger boys come and take it from him. The little boy tries to get it back, but they tell him “come back when you have a team”. The boy decides to accept the challenge from the other boys. Soon after accepting the challenge, he runs into the house to get his mother.
Then together, they get into the Hyundai they put their game faces on and start making rounds to get the little boys friends. The first two boys they stop to pick up are lifting weights in his driveway as they drive up. The two boys share similar qualities such as hair color so I’m assuming that they are brothers. They appear to be lifting a large amount of weight on the outdoor gym set. The next stop they make is to a garage to pick up a boy who is working on a car using fire with his dad. The fourth boy they stop to get is wrestling with a big grizzly bear.
There is a huge crowd around the boy as he has the grizzly bear in a headlock using his legs. The last boy they picked was carrying a fully-grown man out of a burning building. After picking up all of the little boys in the Hyundai, the mother drops them off to play football with the group of bigger boys. The bigger boy from the beginning of the commercial who took the little boys football asked the smaller group if they wanted to play touch football or tackle. All of the smaller boys replied in unison that they preferred to play tackle football.
After the boys reply, there is a voice over part providing information about the car being advertised. After this part, the commercial goes back to the two groups of boys and we see one of the smaller boys kick the ball, which ends up hitting one of the bigger boys in the head. This Hyundai commercial uses ethos and pathos very well. Pathos is used the most in this commercial because it makes people laugh and feel a sense of pride when the group of bigger boys gets what they deserve. Some people have even gone so far as to say that this is also an anti-bullying commercial.
Ethos is displayed here because the Hyundai Car Company is one of America’s most trusted car companies. Hyundai is known for their safe, family friendly, comfortable, stylish cars. This particular Hyundai commercial uses four of the 15 basic appeals. It uses the need to aggress and we see this in two instances. The first instance we see the need to aggress is when the group of big boys takes the little boys football and will not give it back to him. The second instance we observe is when the smaller boy kicked the ball and hit the other boy in the head.
The next basic appeal shown here is the need to achieve. The Hyundai car company wanted to achieve making the viewers want this car. They want everybody who sees this commercial to need this car because it will somehow better their current “self” because this car is such a success. The third basic appeal is the need to dominate. This occurs when the group of big boys take the smaller boys football. They feel the need to appear and feel more powerful than the smaller boy. We also see the need to dominate when one of the little boys is wrestling with a grizzly bear and is winning.
The Hyundai Company wants us to feel that we are dominant if we are driving this car because it is bigger and better than all the rest of the cars out there. The last of the basic 15 appeals that is being portrayed in this commercial is the need for autonomy. The commercial sells the independence of the vehicle and that you can have it your way and don’t need to be a particular type of person to have this car. For example, all of the boys were tough; however, they are not all the same type of tough. One boy was fighting a bear, another was rescuing people from a burning building, and the other two were lifting weights.
Gender roles in this commercial are very set. The commercial has all boys casted with the exception of the mother. The mother does not have any lines, and we only see her driving to pick up the other boys. The mom does; however seem to have an attitude. When we first see her driving, she does have her game face on, along with her son. Gender roles of the boys here is very masculine. The boys are playing football, which is known to be a sport for men, as opposed to playing soccer or maybe even tennis, which is not uncommon for women to play.
The boys appear very strong, muscular, and athletic, unlike many other nine-year-old boys. All of the male roles in this commercial show boy as the dominant and strong gender due to their rugged appearance. The target audience is parents with lots of kids or parents who drive many kids around very often. The target audience also includes middle class families who can afford tis car. This Hyundai is not very expensive at all and it actually looks like the people who are riding in this car comes from an upper middle class family.
In the commercial, we get a quick glance at the house the little boy lives in. It appears to be a nice family house with a garage with the Hyundai in the driveway. It looks like this family lives in the suburbs with a local park nearby where the boys were playing football. In the background of the park, there are many nice cars parked on the street and driving along the road. The clothes chosen for the actors to wear are nothing fancy, but definitely aren’t inelegant. All of the boys are wearing sneakers, maybe not name brand sneakers, but they are in good condition.
They are also all wearing denim jeans and either a plaid shirt and tee shirt or just a regular shirt with a jacket. We only see the mothers’ upper half and she is wearing a nice grey sweater. The only other people in this commercial are the men gathered around the little boy wrestling the bear and the people being rescued from the fire. Those other people featured in this commercial are also just wearing jeans and a tee shirt or a plaid shirt. To some people, this Hyundai commercial may be very effective, but to me it is not effective at all.
This commercial is very funny and entertaining and I love watching it, but that’s all it is. As I watch this commercial I pay attention to the story of the boys and not the car they are riding in. this ad is so ineffective that I after watching it several times, I couldn’t even remember what car company this ad was for. This commercial is not centered on the car, as opposed to the Volkswagen Beetle Convertible. The Beetle Convertible commercial is very entertaining and focuses on the car itself. The storyline ties into the fact that the car is a convertible. The Hyundai Company could take a note or two.
It surprises me that some people are saying that this commercial is about bullying. I can see how they came to that conclusion. The little boy was being picked on by seven other boys who were much bigger and also appeared to be older. Even when the little boy showed up with his team, they were all still smaller in stature than the other group so it still appears that the smaller group is being bullied. Although the smaller group of boys was tougher than the other group, the bigger group was still picking on the smaller boys, however I don’t believe this commercial was targeting the issue of bullying.
The Hyundai Santa Fe car seems like a nice affordable car with great features such as seating up to eight people comfortably. The “big game ad” commercial was very funny and entertained many people during the super bowl, however this ad was not very effective. The ad could have focused more on the car and less on the boys. If their goal was trying to leave a memorable impression, then they most certainly accomplished that, but if their goal was to make people remember the car, they failed.
Process Design and Management university essay help: university essay help
Increased co-production of goods and services (Process Design and Management) The Internet has opened new ways for the customer to interact directly with a firm. Simple direct entry and monitoring of orders is only the first step in the progression of value-added services made possible through information sharing. 1. 0 Introduction The topic of process design and management will generally goes on explaining the word ‘design’, in its broadest sense, is right at the heart of operations management. The design is an activity that can be approached at different levels of detail.
Design must reflect the needs of customers, and able applies to products, services and processes. It can be managed as an operations transformation process in its own right. Moreover, the design is starts with something very abstract which represents a concept and ends with something very specific, which means by the final design. Some defines that to ‘design’ is to conceive the looks, arrangement, and workings of something before it is created. First, the position of the process according to its volume and variety characteristics must be defined.
Eventually the details of the process must be analyzed to ensure that it fulfills its objectives effectively. Product/service design and process design are interrelated. Small changes in the design of products and services can have profound implications for the way the operation eventually has to produce them. Similarly, the design of a process can constrain the freedom of product and service designers to operate as they would wish. The relationship between designing products and services on one hand and designing the processes that make them is an important point to consider.
It is possible to separate product design and process design in manufacturing sector, however it is impossible in practice to separate service design and process design. This is because many services (especially high visibility services) are the same thing. Even in manufacturing industries there has recently been considerable effort put into examining the overlap between product and process design.
There is a growing recognition that the design of products has a major effect on the cost of making them. Many of the decisions were taken during the design of products (for example, choosing the material from which the roduct is going to be made, or the way in which the various components are fastened together) will all define much of the cost of making it. , Therefore, to evaluate the various choices which the designer faces in terms of their effect on manufacturing cost as well as on the functionality of the product itself. Also, the way in which product and process design overall has a significant effect on the time between starting the initial concept design for the product and eventually getting it to market. 2. 0Discussion 2. 1Internet Contributed in Online Purchase Process
With the advancement of technology, many aspects of the face-to-face interpersonal dynamics in service encounters between sellers and customers have been replaced with technology-based Internet interfaces. Internet can be regarded as sets of connected firms. A retailer can use an Internet presence to reach consumers all around the world. The Internet makes the expanded range of products, services, and information accessible for consumers from geographically distant and/or emerging markets. In recent years, e-commerce has grown dramatically in terms of volume and variety of goods and services traded.
This has created significant opportunities to serve customers through internet stores. It is important for internet stores to focus on achieving higher customer satisfaction to increase co-production of goods and services and to retain customers. According to Field and Smith, internet interaction between a retailer and a customer from the point the customer arrives at the retailer’s website to the point the retailer fulfills the customer’s order, has quickly emerged to become an important class of service operations (Field et al. , 2004; Smith et al. , 2007).
Co-production of goods and services in internet is growing steadily. For example, in the third quarter of 2009, internet retailing sales in the U. S totaled approximately $34 billion, a 4. 5% increase from the previous quarter. The quality of the internet on the purchase process has been found to affect customers’ purchase decisions, satisfaction, and loyalty in online retailing (Zeithaml et al. , 2002; Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2009). Hence, to be competitive in the market place, internet is the paramount and as the new ways for the customer to interact directly with a firm.
Besides that, the internet is responsive and convenient for customers in the online purchase process. Through internet, the firms being able respond to the unique needs and wants of individual customers by providing the “right content in the right format to the right person at the right time. ” Retailers can facilitate a convenient and responsive online purchase process, serve their customers better, improve customer satisfaction and increase retention. Customer satisfaction is the ultimate result of meeting a consumer’s expectation from the performance of products.
Most satisfied customers normally have the intention to re-purchase the products if product performance meets his or her expectation. Like traditional business, online businesses also need to satisfy their customers. Customer satisfaction is one of the central constructs in the study of consumer behavior both in traditional and online business environment (Alam et al. , 2008) found that website design is one of the unique features affecting online shopping environment (Shergill and Chen. , 2005) identified web site design characteristics as the dominant factor which influences consumer perceptions of online purchasing.
It can be argued that online shoppers want to receive the right quality and right quantity of items that they have ordered within the stipulated time offer by the e-tailers. In addition, time and cost saving are the main advantages of online shopping. Time efficiency and store efficiency are reflected in time cost and price savings respectively (Devaraj et al. , 2002). These are the determinants of satisfaction. Delivery performance has significant influence on customer satisfaction (Lee and Joshi et al. , 2007; Ahn et al. , 2004; Ho et al. 2004); Grewal et al. , 2004 and Shih et al. , 2004). One of the examples of online firm that successfully increase their co-production of goods and services via internet is Amazon.
In an annual study tracking customer satisfaction ratings with the top 10 online retailers, perhaps the biggest takeaway is that Amazon is the world’s biggest e-retailer for a reason that it just plain makes customers happier than their competitors (show by Table 1 below). Amazon continues to set the standard for e-retailers. For instance, upon arrival at the Amazon. om website, a registered customer is greeted by the customer’s name. The customer is then provided with recommendations of products that the customer might be interested in, based on the product searched for or those previously bought by the customer. The website provides the option of receiving reminders of special events like birthdays of loved ones or information about the arrival of the latest books by their preferred author. When the customer is ready to make the purchase, the website retrieves the personal account information such as shipping and payment.
In the early stages of Internet development, trust is a critical factor in stimulating purchases over the Internet. Trust is not only a short-term issue but the most significant long-term barrier for realizing the potential of Internet marketing to consumers. An experiential survey of U. S. -based online surfers, new to Internet based shopping, found the shoppers fascinated by international shopping opportunities on the Web, but they were skeptical about actual purchasing from overseas sites. Others report widespread distrust among consumers about Internet-based merchants.
To improve customer loyalty, some websites offer discussion groups in their websites and promote common interest to pull targeted customers. When the website contains valuable information about the product then the customer would be motivated to visit the website again. Just like any other medium of business, internet business should also focus on making their customers feel ‘special’. In any business, customer loyalty is a result of exceptional personal services and exceeding customer expectations. 2. 2Internet Strive to Born Global Firms
More and more firms’ even very small ones have operations that bridge national borders soon after their founding. Due to the Internet and related information technologies (IT) that enable many of them, this new breed of firms began emerging in the 1990s and is dubbed “born-global” because their operations often span the globe early in their existence. The definition of born global firm is “a business organization that, from inception, seeks to derive significant competitive advantage from the use of resources and the sale of outputs in multiple countries.
Born global firms begin with a borderless world view, and immediately develop strategies to expand themselves abroad. This is striking, given the great changes that have taken place in the marketing environment due to introduction of the Internet and other modern technologies that enable bypassing of conventional channels (Frazier et al. , 1999). It therefore seems justifiable to study the Internet-based channel strategies of born globals (Moen et al. , 2002). It is particularly interesting to examine the global expansion of the born globals and their use of the Internet as a sales channel (Servais, Madsen, & Rasmussen, 2007).
A few studies have investigated the role of information and communications technologies in the international performance of born global firms. Loane (2006) examined the role of the internet in the internationalization of small entrepreneurial firms from various countries (Loane, 2006). Born globals use the internet for communication, for marketing communications, and to lesser degree for managing customer relationships as well as sales transactions and fulfillment activities. Most of the investigated firms also se the internet to support off-line sales, and about one-quarter used the internet to support distribution channels and intermediaries. A significant number of firms used the internet to support relations with partners, suppliers, clients, agents and distributors, R&D partners, and software coding developers, both nationally and internationally. The born globals also used the Internet as a tool for acquiring knowledge, such as market and competitive intelligence, which then become part of the collective wisdom of the firm.
The internet makes borders between countries less relevant and facilitates direct interaction between all types of business entities around the world. Born globals use the internet to convey their market presence abroad, support relationships with foreign partners, offer services related to their products, facilitate product development, and maintain relations with foreign customers (Servais, Madsen, and Rasmussen et al. , 2007). Logitech, the computer peripherals company, is perhaps one of the best early examples of a successful born-global firm. According to Benjamin M.
Oviatt and Patricia Phillips McDougall, “Global Start-Ups: Entrepreneurs on a Worldwide Stage. ” Focusing first on the PC mouse, the company was founded by two Italians and a Swiss. The company’s operations and research and development were initially split between California and Switzerland, and then it expanded rapidly with production in Ireland and Taiwan. With its stylish and ergonomic products, Logitech captured 30 percent of the global computer mouse business by 1989, garnering the start-up a healthy $140 million in revenues. 2. 3 . Value and Productivity in the Internet Economy
Nowadays, many business companies had started practiced in using internet to make interaction with consumer, business people, corporate, and trading partners. The product and service designs and the management play an important role in their profitability and their company sustainability. The company had created the website as haphazard compilations of company brochure ware or static personal web pages as well. These things had come out it with the images that users merely shared with friends and family. It has quickly evolved into a myriad of highly sophisticated online pplications and business processes.
On the other hand, the forward thinking company had introduced to attain new heights in productivity and the forward thinking companies could created by leveraging the internet massive public technology infrastructure. To increase the co- production of goods and services, the innovation and awareness of using internet are important to create value through the technologies component. Other than that, the human capitals are also important in operation of the business and managing the design in the company.
Therefore, the employers must to be selective in recruiting, and hiring people, whomever that he or she are able to give their efforts into the jobs or task. The value added service could be made by proposing the internet way user whereby the customer can interact directly to the company to improve and enhance their quality service and product through fulfil the customer needs and satisfaction. All of these elements are need depends on the capability of the human resource which in not only posses the technologies equipment.
The company have to construct the internet economy’s structure by referred the economics performance in traditional, among other things, technology, the transportation infrastructure, availability of raw materials, and the quality of a skilled labor force. In contrast, the Internet economy comprises the four-layered model shown in Figure 1. The Internet’s infrastructure consists of two layers which are including the global high-speed IP-based networks and applications, and consulting, training, and integration services.
Each Internet economy layer has a complementary relationship with every other layer. For example, with advances in layers 1 and 2, ? rms at layers 3 and 4 can provide media-rich content to consumers as well as offering new digital products and services Besides that, complementary relationship implies that the value of doing more of one factor increases by doing more of another. Internet applications and e-commerce are strong complementary relationship between the network infrastructures in the Internet economy.
For example, as the Internet bandwidth increases dramatically with the spread of broadband technology, application vendors are rushing to develop powerful multimedia software that can take advantage of the increased bandwidth. These factors lead to increased economic activity on the Internet in the form of media-rich content. The Internet had open the nature stimulates innovation in the network and applications infrastructure, leading to the vastly accelerated development and deployment of new technologies in the Internet marketplace.
Figure 2 shows an import/export view of the Internet and physical economies that groups businesses in ? ve categories: 1st : pure digital-products businesses that offer content, knowledge, or services directly over the Internet. 2nd Internet-based companies that deal with physical products, importing goods to be sold from the physical economy. 3rd Traditional businesses that sell some of their products or services directly over the Internet. 4th content developers, Internet service providers, Web and applications hosting services. 5th companies that do not sell directly over the Internet.
Unlike the physical economy, which relies heavily on physical resources, the Internet economy thrives on information and knowledge to create value, productivity, and efficiency. Firms that rely on these intangible assets are more likely to succeed in this new world than those that continue to focus on physical processes. The Web’s information and knowledge intensity is a crucial factor in driving performance metrics like online revenue and gross margin, and every partner in a value Web must adopt the Internet in its daily operations to maximize the bene? s of electronic business. T
here were few examples for these phenomena that might be able to be the related with it. One of the example is car assembly lines, which had ? rst appeared in the dictionary in 1930 (Hirschhorn, 1984: 9), were argued to be the keystone to prevailing 20th century concepts of human management (Emery, 1976). It is thus hardly surprising that industrial value production was conceptualized in terms of the value chain. The taxation system developed at that time re? cts this. In industrial value creation, customers were seen as destroying the value which producers had created for them. On the other hand, the accounting systems emerging at that time thus wrote down the value of what was acquired to zero over a shorter or longer depreciation period. The end user in this scheme equals the ? nal customer. For producers, industrial value was realized in the transaction, which joined and separated them from customers.
Value here equalled the price which the customer paid: in competitive terms, value is the amount buyers are willing to pay for what a ? rm provides them (Porter, 1985: 38); or, value is what customers are willing to pay (Porter, 1985: 3). 2. 4 The Impact Of Design Management And Process Management On Quality: An Empirical Investigation. Design management and process management are two important elements of total quality management TQM implementation. They are drastically different in their targets of improvement, visibility, and techniques.
In this paper will review the establishment of framework for identifying the synergistic linkages of design and process management to the operational quality outcomes during the manufacturing process internal quality and upon the field usage of the products external quality. Through a study of quality practices in manufacturing plants from multiple industries, the both design and process management efforts have an equal positive impact on internal quality outcomes such as scrap, rework, defects, performance, and external quality outcomes such as complaints, warranty, litigation, market share.
A detailed contingency analysis shows that the proposed model of synergies between design and process management holds true for large and small firms, for firms with different levels of TQM experience, and in different industries with varying levels of competition, logistical complexity of production, or production process characteristics. Finally, the results also suggest that organizational learning enables mature TQM firms to implement both design and process efforts more rigorously and their synergy helps these firms to attain better quality outcomes.
These findings indicate that, to attain superior quality outcomes, firms need to balance their design and process management efforts and persevere with long-term implementation of these efforts. The manufacturing strategy literature has viewed product quality as one of the major competitive priorities for attaining a sustainable competitive advantage Hill, 1994. Recently, the speed of new product introduction has also been added to this list of priorities Kim, 1996 . From a quality management perspective, the speed of new product design and development indicates the importance of designing quality into new products.
Because design efforts often have a limiting impact on attainable product quality, several researchers have stressed the importance of designing quality into products Juran, 1981; Juran and Gryna, 1993; Hauser and Clausing, 1988; Dean and Susman, 1989; Taguchi and Clausing, 1990; Boothroyd et al. , 1994; Mizuno and Akao,1994 . External and internal quality outcomes the notion that overall market and business performance can be realized through long-term product quality improvement is a cornerstone of the contemporary quality revolution George and Weimerskirch, 1994; NIST, 1998.
Customers form their impressions about a firms products based upon their current and past experience with these products Garvin,1987. A satisfactory field performance of the products is accompanied by lower customer dissatisfaction, greater customer loyalty, and improved market share Crosby, 1979; Buzzell and Gale, 1987; Hardie,1998 . We label this aspect of quality outcome as external quality because it is related to the customer’s perspective of the products upon field usage. It captures Juran’s fitness for use dimension of product quality Juran, 1981; Juran and Gryna, 1993 .
Specifically, we focus our attention on four long-term indicators of external quality: warranty work, litigation claims, customer complaints, and market share. The quality of products passing internal tests of reliability should affect the experience of customers who use the products in two prominent ways. First, customers perceive product quality in terms of their net value defined as the ratio of performance to cost: Artzt, 1992. Thus, for products with the same performance levels, lower price will drive customer choice and satisfaction.
Second, customers willing to spend a certain amount of money will choose the products that offer maximum performance for that money. 2. 5Internet as tool to enhance global strategy It’s can’t be deny that the internet plays a major role in every aspect of our modern life. Moreover, Internet technologies play a major role in business. The internet has contributed to the success and growth of businesses. This journal article is emphasizing on Internet are used to enhance global strategy. Internet is a driver of globalization.
Observing the more successful applications, commentators and researchers have suggested a number of industry characteristics which promote Internet use (Andal-Ancion et al. ,2003): digitizability of the end product (e. g. , most information-based products such as directories and encyclopedias), time sensitivity of the end product (e. g. , airline travel), high search costs (e. g. , books), potential for customization (e. g. , clothing retailers), insufficient matching of buyers and sellers (e. g. , business- to-business exchanges and consumer-to-consumer auction sites), and a tradeoff between richness and reach (e. . , retail brokerage, Evans and Wurster, 1999). First at all, the internet makes communication fast and cost efficient. Businesses use internet technologies such as Skype internet and video calls, email and video conferencing to make communication virtually instant. Next, the internet plays a big role in the growth of businesses. It gives businesses an opportunity to reach a wider global audience. Promoting through the internet is also a way to increase sales and reach the desired growth level. Business can also expand by having an online division.
The effect of this decentralization of transactions and information transfer raises major questions about the role of bodies which would have traditionally had functions of control, such as governments and regulatory institutions. In terms of transferring, accessing information, companies are now much less dependent on local infrastructures. In the aspect of marketing, Internet was playing important role in advertising. Most businesses are taking advantage of the internet to market their products and services to a global audience. The most notable internet technologies here include search engines such as Google.
Social networking websites play a role in business networking by connecting like-minded professionals. Through the internet, people have found business partners and great employees. Moreover, the internet has helped cut costs by outsourcing services to countries where it is cheaper to provide these services. Apart from that, outsourcing enables businesses to concentrate on their core services and become more efficient. One role of internet in business is the birth of ecommerce websites and online payment solutions that allow people to shop online from the comfort of their own homes.
Furthermore, the internet has opened up new business opportunities and giving rise to a group of successful online business owners. This is a powerful role as anyone can now start an online business. Cost and speed advantages are also substantial. The Internet is a much less expensive way to send information, and this information can be received in real time anywhere in the world. For global businesses this has massive implications for the possible scale and scope of operations and redefines the traditional trade-off between richness and reach, allowing both to be achieved for relatively little cost.
Internet also brings effects on global products and services. Global products and services are seldom totally standardized worldwide, but they are designed with global markets in mind, and they have as large a common core as possible. Some industries and categories, such as personal computers and air travel, allow the potential for a very large common core, while others, such as furniture and legal services, allow for less commonality. Deciding on the extent of global standardization poses a major dilemma for MNCs.
Use of the Internet and websites eases this dilemma by making it easier to offer an array of global, regional, or local products, and local customization options for standard core products. While the same can be done through traditional media (brochures or sales calls), but the Web provides more options and the interactivity of the Internet provides for customization by the customer. This can seen from Dell Computer’s ordering system. As the lesson 4 in this article has mentioned the use of the Internet enables both globally standardized and locally customized products and services.
Companies can now use the Internet to lessen the globalization tradeoffs they have had to make in regard to products and services. Now, let have a seen on co-production, which means delivering public services in an equal and reciprocal relationship between professionals, people using services, their families and their neighbours. Where activities are co-produced in this way, both services and neighbourhoods become far more effective agents of change (David B & Michael H. ) the co-production has a significantly role in the process design and management. As the
Internet has designed to interrelated the product and service jointly to the customer. For instance, Dell Computer has promoted Dell Online Self Dispatch to the customer as it is a comprehensive part dispatch program designed to support efficient hardware resolution. Dell also declared the Dell Online Self Dispatch (DOSD) as one global portal for efficient hardware resolution. The customers can access the Website through Internet to had the hardware support from Dell by self-service. 3. 0 Conclusion In summary, product/service design and process design are interrelated.
Small changes in the design of products and services can be profound implications for the way the operation eventually has to produce them. The process design and management is right at the heart of operations management. The design is an activity of approaching at different levels of detail and it must be reflecting the needs of customers, and able applies to products, services and processes. The design is starts with something very abstract which represents a concept and ends with something very specific, which means by the final design.
The company must follow the processes designs according to its volume and variety characteristics. Eventually the details of the process must be analyzed to ensure that it fulfills its objectives effectively. The proposed model of synergies between design and process management holds true for large and small firms, for firms with different levels of TQM experience, and in different industries with varying levels of competition, logistical complexity of production, or production process characteristics.
Finally, the results also suggest that organizational learning enables mature TQM firms to implement both design and process efforts more rigorously and the synergies between design and process management help these firms to attain better quality outcomes. Q5. Raising senior management awareness of operations as a significant competitive weapon (Job Design and Performance Management). 1. 0 Introduction Many senior executives entered the organization through finance, trategy, or marketing and built their reputations on work in these areas, and as a result often take operations for granted. The executives have creatively used operations management for competitive advantage. Raising senior management awareness of operation as a significant competitive weapon refers to the job design of the senior management and the performance of the management. Theoretically, workers are motivated by jobs in which they feel they can make a difference in their performance and the way the tasks give are combined to for complete jobs.
Clear job descriptions will motivate workforce and be successful in completion of tasks. It also important to have both of the employer and employee needed to share understanding of the work to be done with it and comfort with working environment. The employee and employer also need to face the challenges associated with employing a large of people in a wide variety of people in a wide of capacities. Most of the employee is assigned to do a job because they are perceived to be able to fill its requirements. Many tasks depending on ability time allotment and other constraints.
The role of HR in the present scenario has undergone a sea change and its focus is on evolving such functional strategies which enable successful implementation of the major corporate strategies. In a way, HR and corporate strategies function in alignment. Today, HR works towards facilitating and improving the performance of the employees by building a conducive work environment and providing maximum opportunities to the employees for participating in organizational planning and decision making process. Today, all the major activities of HR are driven towards development of high performance leaders and fostering employee motivation.
So, it can be interpreted that the role of HR has evolved from merely an appraiser to a facilitator and an enabler. Performance management is the current buzzword and is the need in the current times of cut throat competition and the organizational battle for leadership. Performance management is a much broader and a complicated function of HR, as it encompasses activities such as joint goal setting, continuous progress review and frequent communication, feedback and coaching for improved performance, implementation of employee development programmes nd rewarding achievements. The process of performance management starts with the joining of a new incumbent in a system and ends when an employee quits the organization. Performance management can be regarded as a systematic process by which the overall performance of an organization can be improved by improving the performance of individuals within a team framework. It is a means for promoting superior performance by communicating expectations, defining roles within a required competence framework and establishing achievable benchmarks.
A performance management process sets the platform for rewarding excellence by aligning individual employee accomplishments with the organization’s mission and objectives and making the employee and the organization understand the importance of a specific job in realizing outcomes. By establishing clear performance expectations which includes results, actions and behaviours, it helps the employees in understanding what exactly is expected out of their jobs and setting of standards help in eliminating those jobs which are of no use any longer.
Through regular feedback and coaching, it provides an advantage of diagnosing the problems at an early stage and taking corrective actions. To conclude, performance management can be regarded as a proactive system of managing employee performance for driving the individuals and the organizations towards desired performance and results. It’s about striking a harmonious alignment between individual and organizational objectives for accomplishment of excellence in performance. 2. 0 Discussion 2. 1 JOURNAL: THE EFFECT OF MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT TO SERVICE ON EMPLOYEE SERVICE BEHAVIORS: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF JOB SATISFACTION
Refer on the journal; the proposed model in the Thai hotel work setting indicates that management service initiatives, particularly training, rewards, and empowerment deliver a strong message to employees that the management is devoted to quality service, ultimately creating the positive affect (i. e. , employee satisfaction). Furthermore, the result showed that when employees are satisfied with their job, this positive feeling about their job motivates them to go the extra mile for customers and help co-workers and supervisors in need.
Currently, not all hotel operators in Thailand favour the four management service initiatives because those options can be costly. However, it seems to be clear that management should consider allocating more resources to implement such initiatives. Among the four management service initiatives, rewards displayed the largest effect on Thai hotel workers’ job satisfaction, with the largest path coefficient. In general, two kinds of rewards are available: financial and nonfinancial rewards. Rewards also range from a simple thank-you note for an exceptional service to a large reward such as wage increase and promotion.
Rewards given to employees, regardless of the type, must be meaningful to the employees and the organization. In other words, rewards should be based on employees’ job performance and reflect the organization’s goal and service standard. Most rewards in the Asian culture, including Thailand, are in monetary form. However, because of the growing influence of the Western style of management, rewards in the form of recognition, such as being selected as employees of the month (or the year) with a certificate, are getting popular in Thailand.
This kind of recognition can increase employees’ morale and make workers feel that they are appreciated and valued as a member of the organization, leading to job satisfaction and organizational loyalty. Panmunin (1993) reports that Thai hotel employees suffer from low self-esteem because the Thai caste system disparages servants as low caste individuals. The result of the present study seems to emphasize the importance of appropriate rewards for Thai frontline hotel workers, who may be often neglected and unappreciated in the caste system (high-power-distance culture), to improve their work morale.
Next, this study demonstrates that training cannot be overlooked to satisfy hotel workers. Through training, Thai employees master the basic skills necessary to perform the daily duties of the position and develop job competence. In addition to the basic skills, more Thai hotels are offering training such as dealing with guests’ complaints. It is a new type of training that originates from the Western hotel companies. Typically, when Thai employees encounter disgruntled or difficult guests, they have supervisors or mangers handle the situation.
This new training program broadens frontline employees’ responsibilities and teaches proper techniques to resolve conflicts and deal with problems immediately to build customer satisfaction. The result of this study seems to suggest that Thai hotel personnel are satisfied with this new, additional training. Third, this study implies that empowered Thai employees are satisfied and exert more positive service behaviours. This result contradicts the proposed hypothesis.
Despite the vertical culture, more and more hotel organizations in Thailand are embracing the concept of empowerment by allowing frontline personnel to make more decisions to take care of in-house guests. Although empowerment is a relatively new concept for hotels in Thailand, the result indicates that line employees are quickly adopting such a work practice and are happy about it. In general, frontline employees are much younger than managers in Thai hotels. The young generation has been more exposed to the global influence of U. S. culture. Thus, young Thai hotel employees may regard a Western management practice such as empowerment highly.
We also speculate that the positive empowerment outcome is attributed to the new additional training and the Western style of rewards. Research has shown that empowerment often involves training and rewards to be more effective. Another possible explanation regarding the positive effect of empowerment is the growing size of tourism. Thailand is one of the popular travel destinations in the world, and hotels are receiving large numbers of international customers. In Western countries, it is common to see frontline employees empowered to meet the guests’ needs immediately.
Travelers, particularly from the United States and Europe may be accustomed to such a level of customer focus and expect Thai hotels to offer a comparable level of service. The management in Thailand is becoming aware of the phenomenon and therefore expending more effort to make use of empowerment to please international hotel guests. Finally, there is no significant effect of organizational support on hotel employees’ job satisfaction. In this study, organizational support focuses on help offered to frontline workers when necessary, appropriate job design, and support for frontline employees’ goals and values.
This insignificant result may be partly associated with the high power distance between supervisors and subordinates. In the Thai hotel organization, managers are more likely to be valued and respected than frontline personnel, and Thai managers with authoritative leaderships are least likely to place a high priority on the well-being of frontline employees and assisting in their job. Although the organizational culture is changing slowly, and large Thai hotel companies are adopting Western management styles, it takes a long time for employee perceptions to change.
Thai frontline personnel are more likely to recognize strong organizational support (i. e. , they feel they receive enough help at work, their job is designed to be rewarding, and their goals and values are as important as managers’ goals and values) in the future. In the conclusion of organizational behaviour, service quality initiatives such as rewards, empowerment, training, and organizational support have been a revolving theme tied with employee satisfaction and performance. This study presents how these initiatives work in a culturally different setting such as Thailand.
The results of this study indicate that the service quality initiatives, which mostly originate from the U. S. or Western (horizontal) culture, are worthy of trial in Asian hotels (with a vertical culture) because such initiatives may help improve frontline employees’ morale and self-esteem and ultimately increase the overall effectiveness of the hotel operation. In summary, hoteliers should continue to increase decentralization of authority, develop attractive compensation, and improve frontline workers’ knowledge and skills through ongoing training.
Then, all these efforts are likely to pay off by yielding happier, committed staff members who care about guests and other co-workers. 2. 2 ARTICLE JOURNAL: SHAKING UP INTEL’S INSIDES Performance-based, standardized job descriptions provide employees with clear and attainable job duties and responsibilities as well as the resources needed to accomplish them (Mahdieh,2013). We work with employees to explain the tools and their importance to achievement of the organization’s mission and goals a critical factor in retaining valuable staff and preventing costly burnout.
Employees are an organization’s most valuable resources. Companies spend considerable amounts of money and time developing and supporting their human resources. A critical component of this development and support is employee performance management. An employee’s performance is a measure of the ways in which their work-related behavior contributes to achievement of the organization’s business objectives. In this article, they have problem in new employee, employees are now “on stage” when they’re meeting with customers and “off stage” when they’re in a back office handling paperwork.
And he implemented an exhaustive “playbook” that has scripts for everything down to the language with which tellers are supposed to greet customers. Still, at one Boston branch McGee visited, Paul J. Hillson, a consumer marketing manager, concedes that he encountered initial resistance from some FleetBoston tellers: “What you hear is, ‘But I already know that customer. “‘ McGee agrees that changing employee behavior “is still a work in progress. “. Managing this performance is the key to producing high achieving and reliable human resources.
Performance management is a process by which managers and employees work together to plan, monitor and review an employee’s work objectives and overall contribution to the organization(Memoona,2013). More than just an annual performance review, performance management is the continuous process of setting objectives, assessing progress and providing on-going coaching and feedback to ensure that employees are meeting their objectives and career goals.
In this case we can see analysts said, has been the efforts of McGee and his team to overhaul Fleet’s branches, from products to training to culture. To lure new customers, BofA dangled free checking and free online bill-paying, a service for which many New England banks still charged. And while the old FleetBoston simply gave customers the 800 number for an outside mortgage lender, BofA has outfitted roughly two-thirds of Fleet branches with special software that approves or rejects a customer’s application for a mortgage or home-equity loans within 30 minutes.
As a conclusion, this is in line with results in the emotions and justice literature that negative appraisals are influential drivers of employee behaviours and attitudes (Brown et al. ,2011). Performance appraisals are a basis component of human resource management, the outcomes of appraisals are used as the foundation of many human recourse decisions. While organizations devote considerable resources and time into performance appraisal this collected study has demonstrated that the quality of the employee performance appraisal experience are different.
There are employees with low quality performance appraisal experiences while at the other end of the scale, there are some employees who state high quality experiences of the performance appraisal process. Moreover, this research demonstrates that organizations pay a price for letting low quality performance appraisal experiences, when employees have low quality performance appraisal experiences the organization will likely to bring a penalty in forms of lower job satisfaction and higher intentions to quit. 2. 3 ARTICLE: BOFA’S HAPPY SURPRISE
In this world of competition as organizations effort to remain competitive and sustainable, human resources professionals and strategic planners should collaborate strongly in designing strategies which are more productive and useful (Dazel. 2103). Among these functions, one of the most critical ones that bring global success is performance appraisal . It is more considerable than other processes because its results show the success of the awareness of the other areas in the field of Human Resources and other personnel activities.
In the other perspective, assumptions of corporate management show that performance appraisal makes people to be really engaged in the business of the organization. In this situation, the article shows he’s making it clear to employees that, under his leadership, Intel truly are entering a new era. Otellini, who officially takes the helm on May 18, will be the first chief executive without an engineering degree at a company where gear heads have reigned supreme. He believes that to keep Intel growing, every idea and technical solution should be focused on meeting customers’ needs from the outset.
So rather than relying on its engineering prowess, Intel’s reorganization will bring together engineers, software writers, and marketers into five market-focused units: corporate computing, the digital home, mobile computing, health care, and channel products PCs for small manufacturers. The development of an organisational culture indicator followed a review of the organisational culture literature, in which particular attention was given to the instruments that have been most commonly used in its measurement (Michael, 2013).
In this article, we can see that the new regime will cause a jolt to the culture. For decades, employees have been compensated for their own work. Now teams will be judged as a whole. Engineers, long the top dogs, may resist working with others. “It’s like saying to a baseball player, ‘Gee, we’re deciding to play pro football,”‘ says Edward E. Lawler, a professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business. “All of a sudden, the rules of the game are very different. ” Otellini has begun to put the pieces in place. Now he’ll need the teamwork of his people to pull it off.
As conclusion, this article established that there was no existing tool which adequately met our requirements for a comprehensive, up-to-date measure, easily completed by all levels of the workforce. Through the review process we were able to identify the cultural dimensions most frequently assessed in organisations and deemed important in this extensively researched field. A parallel search of literature on current manufacturing practice highlighted other areas less traditionally examined in culture research, but which we thought relevant in capturing critical aspects of organisational culture in the manufacturing sector.
Performance management is a significant tool in business management today. Management activity of this type makes it easier to evaluate the productivity of individual employees as well as entire departments. As a result, the company will function more efficiently, may keep overhead low, and has a better chance of succeeding. There are many benefits of performance management that have a direct bearing on the day-to-day operation, which in turn makes the overall picture for the company much brighter.
Inside the company of The New York Times, there have a lot of job design and performance management that occur and be built by the employer to their employees. Many advantages can we get by doing the implementation of job design and performance management. Through the implementation of performance management, the employer can get the result for what actually their employees doing in managing their work. The use of specific metrics in a performance management program allows employer to make decisions regarding performance breakdowns.
Initially, it allows employer to pinpoint problems and take the proper corrective actions to immediately rectify them. For example, as our research in year 2003, according to the journal of The New York Times, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. , the current proprietor, faced what seemed to be a publisher’s ultimate test after a loosely supervised young reporter named Jayson Blair was found to have fabricated dozens of stories. The crisis was emerged between the employer and its employees after the employer getting know about their employee’s attitude.
The employer can strictly blot for whom employees that making a wrong attitude and breaking the rules of their job ethics. The effects of these crisis has causes the company’s performance lagging. The companies had difficult moments eventual through allegations received due to errors employees. However, it can be improved by making implementation of performance management. Performance management allows employer to make decision and focus their feedback on issues or crisis directly related to the achievement of the individual employee’s goals and objectives.
Any other issues or crisis distracting the employee that don’t contribute to the unit or department’s performance can be quickly and effectively handled and eliminated. One of the examples of performance management that can be found in the journal of The New York Times is where Keller has made so many high-level personnel changes whereby two-thirds of all newsroom workers now report to a new boss. Other than that, Keller has also put into practice a string of reforms suggested by several internal committees formed in the wake of the Blair affair.
Meaning to say, these include the appointment of a standards editor and a public editor, or ombudsman. After making this system, the company performances was increase and improved and at the same time the whole of operation managements can be run smoothly. According to journal, The Times posted its gains despite boosting the price of a subscription by more than 20% on average. As a conclusion, a good performance management system works towards the improvement of the overall organizational performance by managing the performance of teams and individuals.
That is for ensuring the achievement of the overall organizational ambitions and goals. The Times can built more an effective performance management system that can play a very crucial role in managing the performance in an organization such as ensuring the employees understand the importance of their contribution to the organizational goals and objectives. Other than that, by ensuring each employee understands what is expected from them and equally as pertaining whether the employee possess the required skills and support for fulfilling such expectations.
Ensuring proper aligning or linking of objectives and facilitating effective communication throughout the organization and facilitating a cordial and a harmonious relationship between an individual employee and also the line employer based on trust and empowerment. 2. 4 The Effects of Job Rotation Practices on Motivation: A Research on Managers in the Automotive Organizations This article is about the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to calculate and analyze the level of technical, allocate and cost efficiencies of Australian hospital food service operations.
As we know, every provision of food to the patients is the responsibility of each individual hospital. To prepare the food their must cooked and plated and serve it in hot condition, that can we call as a “cook-serve system”. Therefore this system required substantial labor input and always created tension arising because of the necessity of working tight schedules and need to achieve high quality standards. In 1970, the new system of foodservice was introduced which is the introduction of the hybrid and cook-chill system.
These new system require large initial capital investment. There has been an essential expansion in the use of cook-chill systems throughout the different states because of the technology changes. However, the last health service report published that inefficiency is still a problem with most hospital foodservice operation because of the underutilization of production capacity. Actually, this is the on how performance management taking place to overcome this problem. There are a lot of the significant of making implementation of performance management.
The primary reason to make sure performance management processes are functioning properly is to tighten the link between strategic organizational objectives and day-to-day actions. Effective goal setting (including timelines), combined with a method to track progress and identify obstacles, contributes to success and bottom line result. Frequently tracking progress against performance goals and objectives also provides the opportunity to recognize and reward employees for performance and exceptional effort, contributing to job satisfaction and productivity.
Employees want to feel successful, to do well at their job and feel there are making a valuable contribution. In order to ensure this happens, employees need a clear understanding of individual goals and how they fit into the larger organization. New technology-based solutions offered can provide goal visibility across entire organizations, offer extensive reporting option and can reduce paperwork by as much as 90%. Clear visibility, regular individual analysis and company-wide employee appraisals help identify corporate competencies and skill gaps.
With this valuable data, organizational can identify training and development plans. Performance management best practices result in a wide range of the advantages for employees, employer and whole organizational. In a nutshell, the performance management inside every organizational is one of the essential tool to gain a goal and objectives of organizations. Therefore, the organization like hospital can considered more about their performance management to overcome their problem. At the same times gain successful services to their patient. 2. ARTICLE JOURNAL: THE FUTURE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES – BUSINESSWEEK Human Resource is the most important resource compared with other resources like machine, material, land, etc. In the organizational context, the effectiveness of human resource depends on designing the job according to human capability and characteristics. Job design is the most important function of Human Resource Management. It indicates that, designing of contents, methods, functions of a job. The performance of an employee is that, how well an employee performs his or her task duties and responsibilities.
Employees’ performance is also crucial. Because the achievement of goals and objectives of the organization is assessed by performance of its resources, employees’ performance should be assessed and maintained periodically. At work, in a human-focussed approach, the human oriented process designs have shown its importance as much as the technical issues, from a productivity aspect. Several human-focussed applications such as increasing motivation at work, improving workers’ physical working conditions, obtaining job security, and increasing job satisfaction, increasing quality nd productivity, decreasing costs to become competitive are increasing it’s importance by the day.
Within the natural development process of work, maybe human-centred problems exceed technical problems and even the cost of investment in personal has gone beyond the point of technical investment. Job analysis, training, performance measurement, re-organisation projects, re-engineering studies and especially applications related to job design which support this approach have an important place among human resources applications.
Job design related applications began to take shape with a scientific management approach in the 1900s. Models related to job design able to be classified as job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment, job engineering, quality of work life, social information processing approach and job characteristics approach, have extremely important effects on increasing the productivity of human resources. It is predicted that job satisfaction and productivity will be highest when both job enlargement and job enrichment are jointly applied to redesigning work systems
From a conceptual perspective, job design is defined as determining the specific job content, the methods used at work and the relationships between jobs to correspond the firm’s technological and organisational, and the employees’ social and personal expectations. In accordance with this definition, it is stated that a well-designed and defined job increase employees job satisfaction, increases motivation, decreases workplace-related stress, encourage learning efforts and is therefore have a positive effect on employees’ performance.
There are many studies published in related literature investigating the relationship between job design and employees’ motivation. The common points of these studies is that the application of job design has a positive effect on the specifics of job performance, like motivation, flexibility, job satisfaction, self-control, and skill development. The relevant studies are shown in Table below.
Nokia Study admission college essay help: admission college essay help
In recent 2 decades, people have seen the big convenience brought by colour TV, telephone, laptops, mobile phone and etc. Among them, the contribution of mobile phone is especially prominent: given the integration of technologies of Internet, laptop, and communication etc, the small and good looking handset will enable us ubiquitous application of modern multi-functions. The advantage of 3G even further attracts our minds with colourful imagination. During the up gradation of our living style, we owe a lot to the companies of the handset industry, especially those popular giants including Nokia, Motorola and Samsung etc…
When they change our living successfully, they realize their developing targets as well. For example, according to the Fortune Global 500 in 2005, Nokia and Motorola ranked 130th and 138 respectively1. Thus, they are recognized by the society. It’s unpredictable for a company to achieve great goals without correct strategies to employ. In the fierce competition of handset industry in China, the correct competitive strategies are required for the participant to win market shares. Surely, sometimes the right strategies are ifficult for survival.
Nokia, as the no. 1 in the handset industry of China, is certainly the biggest winner through exertion of correct competitive strategies. As is mentioned above, the competition in handset industry in China will become even fiercer along with the emerging trend such as the advent of 3G, the alteration of distributing channels, and the improved level of industrial centralization etc. So competitors should promptly adopt relevant changes of their competitive strategies to adapt to new environment. 2. Company Background
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications and information technology corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, Finland. Over the past 150 years, Nokia has evolved from a riverside paper mill in south-western Finland to a global telecommunications leader connecting over 1. 3 billion people. During that time, Nokia made rubber boots and car tyres. They generated electricity. They even manufactured TVs. Changing with the times, disrupting the status quo – it’s what Nokia always done. Early Days
In 1865, mining engineer Fredrik Ides tam sets up his first wood pulp mill at the Tammerkoski Rapids in south-western Finland. A few years later he opens a second mill on the banks of the Nokianvirta River, which inspires him to name his company Nokia Ab in 1871. In 1898, Eduard Polon founds Finnish Rubber Works, which later becomes Nokia’s rubber business, making everything from galoshes to tyres. Nokia rubber boots become a bona fide design classic, still on sale to this day – though Nokia no longer make them. Electronics go boom In 1912, Arvid Wickstrom sets up Finnish Cable Works, the foundation of Nokia’s cable and electronics business.
By the 1960s, Finnish Cable Works – already working closely with Nokia Ab and Finnish Rubber Works – starts branching out into electronics. In 1962, it makes its first electronic device in-house: a pulse analyser for use in nuclear power plants. In 1963, it starts developing radio, telephones for the army and emergency services – Nokia’s first foray into telecommunications. By 1987, Nokia is the third largest TV manufacturer in Europe. Three become one Having been jointly owned since 1922, Nokia Ab, Finnish Cable Works and Finnish Rubber Works officially merge in 1967.
The new Nokia Corporation has five businesses: rubber, cable, forestry, electronics and power generation. But as the 1980s come into view, it’s an entirely new industry that makes Nokia a household name around the world. The mobile era begins Nokia sets the ball rolling in 1979, creating radio telephone company Mobira On as a joint venture with leading Finnish TV maker Salora. 1981 then sees the launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) service, the world’s first international cellular network and the first to allow international roaming. The NMT standard catches on fast and the mobile phone industry begins to expand rapidly.
In 1982, Nokia introduces the first car phone – the Mobira Senator – to the network. That same year, the Nokia DX200, the company’s first digital telephone switch, goes into operation. First handheld mobile phone Then in 1987, Nokia introduces the Mobira Cityman, the first handheld mobile phone for NMT networks. Despite weighing in at 800 grams and a price tag of Rs. 24, 000. The Cityman even earns a nickname, the “Gorba”, after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is pictured using one to make a call from Helsinki to his communications minister in Moscow.
In 1987, GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) is adopted as the European standard for digital mobile technology. With its high-quality voice calls, international roaming and support for text messages, GSM ignites a global mobile revolution. A new direction On July 1, 1991, Finnish Prime Minister Harri Holkeri makes the world’s first GSM call, using Nokia equipment. And in 1992, Nokia launches its first digital handheld GSM phone, the Nokia 1011. That same year, new Nokia President and CEO Jorma Ollila make a crucial strategic decision: to focus exclusively on manufacturing mobile phones and telecommunications systems.
Nokia’s rubber, cable and consumer electronics divisions are gradually sold off. Name that tune In 1994, Nokia launches the 2100 series, the first phones to feature the Nokia Tune ringtone. Based on Gran Vals, a classical guitar piece composed by Francisco Tarrega in the 19th century, it is probably one of the most frequently played pieces of music in the world. The Nokia 2100 series goes on to sell 20 million phones worldwide. Nokia’s target had been 400,000. On top of the world By 1998, Nokia is the world leader in mobile phones. The strategic decision to focus on telecommunications, plus early investment in GSM, has paid off.
Between 1996 and 2001, Nokia’s turnover increases almost fivefold from EUR 6. 5 billion to EUR 31 billion and with the new millennium comes a host of new possibilities as the internet goes mobile. No longer are phones just for phone calls. Multi-tasking mobiles In November 2001 Nokia launches its first phone with a built-in camera, the Nokia 7650, and in September 2002 its first video capture phone, the Nokia 3650. Nokia launches its first 3G phone (third generation), the Nokia 6650, in 2002 that things really take off. With 3G technology, phones can now be used to browse the web, download music, watch TV on the move, and more.
One billion and counting In 2005, Nokia sells its billionth phone – a Nokia 1100 – in Nigeria, and global mobile phone subscriptions pass 2 billion. Two years later, Nokia is recognised as the 5th most valued brand in the world. Dominated by others By 2010, having dominated the mobile world for over a decade, Nokia no longer has things all its own way. In the all-important Smartphone market, competitors such as the iPhone and Android-based devices now pose a serious challenge. Clearly, it’s time for a rethink. A fresh face at the helm In September 2010, Nokia appoints Stephen Elop as President and CEO.
Formerly head of Microsoft’s business division, following roles at Juniper Networks and Adobe Systems Inc. , Elop has a strong software background and proven record in change management. In February 2011, Nokia announces it is joining forces with Microsoft to strengthen its position in the Smartphone market. The strategic partnership sees Nokia Smartphone’s adopting the new Windows 7 operating system, with the Symbian platform gradually being sidelined. The goal is to establish a third ecosystem to rival iOS and Android.
Nokia launches its first Nokia with Windows phones, the Nokia Lumina 800 and the Nokia Lumina 710, in October 2011. . Strategic Analysis Nokia has three Strategic Business Units/Divisions (SBUs): Mobile Phones, Smart Devices and Location and Commerce. a) Mobile Phones Its Mobile Phone team focuses on bringing a modern and affordable mobile experience to people around the world. b) Smart Devices The Smart Devices team focuses on the creation of smart phones – this is the SBU responsible for the partnership with Microsoft and the Windows Phone platform. c) Location and Commerce The Location and Commerce team are responsible for developing a new class of integrated social location products and services for consumers, Nokia Maps.
In addition to the services based aspect the Location and Commerce SBU provide digital map information, related location based content and services for mobile navigation devices, automotive navigation systems, governments and business solutions through Navteq, which was acquired in 2008 On 11 February 2011, Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop, a former head of Microsoft business division, unveiled a new strategic alliance with Microsoft, and announced it would replace Symbian and MeeGo with Microsoft’s Windows operating system except for mid-to-low-end devices, which would continue to run under Symbian.
Nokia was also to invest into the Series 40 platform and release a single MeeGo product in 2011. As part of the restructuring plan, Nokia planned to reduce spending on research and development, instead customizing and enhancing the software line for Windows Phone 7. Nokia’s “applications and content store” (Ovi) becomes integrated into the Windows Phone Store, and Nokia Maps is at the heart of Microsoft’s Bing and AdCenter. On 19 June 2006, Nokia and Siemens AG announced the companies would merge their mobile and fixed-line phone network equipment businesses to create one of the world’s largest network firms, Nokia Siemens Networks.
Each company has a 50% stake in the infrastructure company, and it is headquartered in Espoo, Finland. The companies predicted annual sales of €16 billion and cost savings of €1. 5 billion a year by 2010. About 20,000 Nokia employees were transferred to this new company. In October 2007, Nokia bought Navteq, a U. S. -based supplier of digital mapping data, for a price of $8. 1 billion. Nokia finalized the acquisition on 10 July 2008. 3. 1 Corporate level Strategy On the corporate echelon Nokia is cultivating a growth strategy.
Its growth is obsessed principally by acquisitions and concentrated R&D. During the past few years Nokia has been vigorously obtaining companies with new technologies and competencies, including besides investments in alternative positions. All of these acquisitions and investments were embattled to improve Nokia’s ability to assist form the Mobile World. 3. 2 Business Level Strategy Nokia’s trade level strategy is based on a cost leadership. Nokia has an outsized product portfolio which would gratify consumers all over the world.
It strives to keep low costs for its products throughout firm costs management and economies of scale. Nokia utilizes strategic suppliers all over the globe to attain extremely modified subassembly apparatus which are used to generate its elevated tech savvy devices. 3. 3 Operational Strategy In 2011 Nokia had 130,000 employees in 120 countries, sales in more than 150 countries, global annual revenue of over €38 billion, and operating loss of €1 billion. It was the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones in 2011, with global device market share of 23% in the second quarter.
The Nokia Research Centre, founded in 1986, is Nokia’s industrial research unit consisting of about 500 researchers, engineers and scientists; it has sites in seven countries: Finland, China, India, Kenya, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Besides its research centres, in 2001 Nokia founded INdT – Nokia Institute of Technology, a R&D institute located in Brazil. Nokia operates a total of 9 manufacturing facilities located at Salo, Finland; Manaus, Brazil; Cluj, Romania; Beijing and Dongguan, China; Komarom, Hungary; Chennai, India; Reynosa, Mexico; and Changwon, South Korea.
Nokia’s industrial design department is headquartered in Soho in London, UK with significant satellite offices in Helsinki, Finland and Calabasas, California in the US. 3. 4 Supply Chain Strategy Nokia’s supply chain strategy is decentralized as its operational and marketing facilities are worldwide. 3. 5 Defensive Strategy In order to go with iPhone and Blackberry smart phones and protect its share in the converged handsets market, Nokia introduced 5800 touch screen. As a consequence, after the first quarter of 2009, Nokia’s market shares in smart phones augmented by 3%. 3. 6 Competitive generic strategies
In particulars, the competitive strategies lead the success in the marketing. The key attitude for a competitive strategy is how to build advantages in market competition. Cost leadership differentiation and focus is three competitive generic 3. 6. 1 Cost leadership Strategy Nokia claims a cost reducing on its capital markets day at the end of this year. Nokia CFO, Rick Simonson emphasized that Nokia is practicing a cost reduction which is effective now and is continuing to keep the strategy for 2009 and 2010. Nokia is always using a highly variable, low fixed cost business model.
The balance sheet of 2007 gives us a clearer view of this. The cost leadership strategy is possible to follow and the switching cost for customers of mobile telecommunication industry is very low, almost zero. So it’s rather easy for a customer to purchase another brand of mobile phone only for a lower price. 3. 6. 2 Differentiation Strategy Differentiation strategy means providing diverse products or services from competitors to attain competitive advantages focused on enormous market. Modern telecoms market is changing quickly, grows up rapidly, and compete fiercer than most other markets.
In Japan Nokia closed the mobile handset distribution and also cancelled the distribution of E71 handset due to low market preference. Opportunities ?In 2011, the global cell phone industry expected to grow by double digits ? Today, Asia-Pacific mobile phone industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. ?Developing countries like China, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan has enormous demand potential. ?Nokia had a 50-50 joint venture with Siemens of Germany ?Youth wants the stylish aesthetics, fashionable handsets, it drive the new market for players.
Threats Consumers are becoming more complicated in the choice of handset due to new styles by china mobiles. ?Difficult for sellers to differentiate their products and retain loyalty. ?Nokia is facing very strong price pressure from china and other mobile producers ? Nokia is losing global market share after the arrival of several Chinese producers ? In the Asia/Pacific emerged competitive forces. ?Apple, RIM and the other different sellers have created strong pressure for Nokia. 8. Competitive Analysis: Porter’s five forces model The micro environment is the internal factors that are affected by the customers, staff, shareholders and competitors.
The best model for evaluating the micro environment of Nokia is Porter’s 5 forces as this takes into consideration the competitors, customers, suppliers and new entrants. Threat of new entrants: •The mobile phone industry is already a well established market and the threat of a new entrant is quite low, as the technology needed to rival the devices already available is quite advance if they want to differentiate from them •The barriers to entry in the mobile phone industry is high because any new entrants will need high investments in R&D, technology and marketing in order to compete with the established organisations.
New entrants want to take market share from the larger organisations but Nokia hold 29% of the market share in the industry, the highest market share in the industry. The threat of new entrants into the mobile phone industry is very unlikely as the start up cost of entering into the market at a high level needs a lot of investments and time to be considered a respectable competitor of the already established organisations. Nokia currently hold a 29% of the entire mobile phone market worldwide and for a new competitor to obtain some of their market will take either a very long term plan or something that is truly innovative and unseen before.
This is because realistically the new entrant will need very high investment for R&D and marketing, and would not be able to publish positive result for a long time as they try to build a customer base and a name for itself in an established market. In conclusion the threat of new entrants is very low and not a factor which Nokia will have to worry about in the near future. Power of suppliers: •Although Nokia rely on its suppliers to supply equipment for their advanced mobile phones there are actually a number of large equipment makers, which Nokia could switch to. The software suppliers for their Smart phones are now Microsoft, who will have a very high bargaining power. •As the leading mobile phone company in the industry they are in a very strong position when bargaining with their suppliers. Nokia are in the position where they can bargain and negotiate with any mobile phone hardware maker because there is a high number of equipment suppliers that are readily available to them should their current suppliers attempt to bargain for more money with them.
Nokia’s main argument would be the fact that they are a global organisation that has the highest market share in the industry, so the suppliers would not want to lose such an illustrious organisation. On the other hand, Nokia have recently created an alliance with Microsoft for their software which would be considered a major coup for Nokia more than Microsoft. As a result, Microsoft will have a lot of power when negotiating a price and share because the deal is more beneficial to Nokia than Microsoft.
In conclusion, there is a moderate threat from the powers of suppliers because although the hardware suppliers have a very low power, Microsoft’s power over the software is very high because they’re very few other organisations who have the expertise and skills to rival Microsoft. Powers of buyers: •The power that customers have is rising because of the increasing number of choices in the mobile telecommunication industry. •With a lot of the Nokia competitors all offering similar packages (e. g. nlimited texts and calls) the industry is very price sensitive with customers seeking out the best value for money. •Many of the consumers will also be tied into long term contracts so switching from one handset to another will be difficult and expensive for the consumer, as a result they may not want to change until the contract is finished. The mobile phone industry is a competitive market where the number of choices is very wide, resulting in the consumer having a lot of power because they can choose to go to one of Nokia’s many rivals if they feel Nokia are not good enough.
As Nokia do not have a direct store to sell to their consumers, intermediaries such as Car phone warehouse or network stores such as Orange also have other handsets readily available for the consumers, which makes it difficult for Nokia to have a direct impact on the selling of their handsets. As a result this has created a very price sensitive market because consumers will always be on the lookout for the best deals. In conclusion, the buyers have a high amount of power because of the other handsets they can purchase instead of Nokia. Threats of substitute’s products Mobile phones are an everyday essential in people’s lives today and people would find it hard to replace, as customers would not be able to be in constant contact when away from the house. •On the other hand, it could be said that customers would be able to contact people through others types of media such as social networking websites, email and home telephones.
Although staying in constant contact would be hard in customers’ day to day life. •However, smart phones are capable of a lot of functions so there are many substitutes if the substitute focuses on one of the functions, e. . digital camera can take better photos then smart phones, notebooks can surf the web just as effectively and PDAs can plan a day the same way a smart phone can. Mobile phones have become an everyday necessity in peoples’ lives because of the important functions that they can do and are all available in just one handset. No other product has the ability to make phone calls, send messages, surf the web and many more in one device. The idea of being in constant communication with someone at anytime and anywhere makes the mobile phone a very important device to people.
On the other hand, a mobile phone can be dissected into the key function where there are substitutes for the functions, such as the camera function on a mobile phone can be substituted for a digital camera which can do a better job than the camera in a mobile phone. In conclusion, the threat of a substitute product is very low due to the fact a mobile phone is no longer just for making calls but for all the other function as well are expected on all mobile phones. So, the only real substitute is to buy all the functions of a mobile phone in the individual products which would not be plausible to carry all around on a person at the same time.
Without mobile phones consumers would find it very difficult to replace, as it can offer so much to the consumers all in one device, no matter what the needs of the consumer are. Consumers rely on mobile phones a lot and would not be able to find a substitute that has all the function of a mobile phone. Competitive rivalry: •Nokia rivals have moved to smart phones and androids while Nokia have only just recently released their first smart phones leaving them trailing their rivals such as Apple and HTC. There is also very little differentiation between the competitors which means any new smart phones in the market, like Nokia Lumina, will find it difficult to tempt existing iphone and HTC customers to switch. •Intense competition from large companies such as; Apple, HTC, Blackberry, Sony Ericson and LG, ect. Nokia operate in an industry where the competition is extremely fierce with high investment in R&B and marketing to compete with some of the biggest organisations in the world.
This year Nokia’s market share has dropped to 29% and it is forecast to continue to fall because of the rising popularity of the Apple Iphone. After Nokia’s slow move into the Smartphone market it has left them trailing their rivals, and has just released their Lumina range which will find it difficult to compete and win over consumers from their iphone. In conclusion, competitive rivalry is very high and Nokia must be aware of the threat that competitors have on their business especially with the growing popularity of the Apple iphone and RIM blackberry.
The competitive rivalry is the biggest threat to Nokia because in the Smartphone market they are considerably behind and to increase their market share will take a lot of work in a market where some of the biggest names in business operate in such as Apple and Sony. 9. Financial Ratio Analysis Financial analysis helps in establishing a relation between various financial statements’ elements which can then be compared with other information about the business. This also determines the future prospects of the company and the area that needs improvement.
The basic purpose is to analyze the current financial position & performance of the company according to which a judgement can be made regarding future performance of the business. One has to look carefully to the annual accounts of the company and the yearly growth trend in terms of revenues, profit and its market share. For the analysis purpose, consolidated accounts of Nokia i. e. Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement for the last four years from 2007 to 2010 is taken into account and theses figures obtained from the company’s website are given below.
Bio Fertliazer a Boon for Agriculture professional essay help: professional essay help
Fertilizer is one of the major contributors to increased crop production but thecontinuous and imbalanced use of chemical fertilizer is causing unsustainable environmentalpenalties like soil health deterioration, contamination of surface water, nitrate pollution of ground water and atmospheric pollution etc. The problems like leaching, volatilization,de-nitrification of nitrogen and deposition of non-available phosphorus in soils are also dueto more use of chemical fertilizers. Fertilizer use efficiency in India is 30-50 % for Nitrogen,15-20% for Phosphorus and 70-80 % for Potassium.
Above all, the production of inorganicfertilizers is energy intensive, depending upon fossil fuel and hence becoming costly day byday. To cope with the above situation, Indian agricultural scientists are constantly stressingupon the use of bio-fertilizers. During 2001-2002, the production and distribution of bio-fertilizers in the country was roughly 10,000 metric tones, where the production of Rhizobium, Azotobactor, Azospirillum, Acetobactor and PSB were 1603, 1553, 1258, 166and 4088 metric tones, respectively.
Among the other bio-fertilizers, compost acceleratorslike cellulose/ lignin decomposers have got considerable importance. A biofertilizer (also bio-fertilizer) is a substance which contains living microorganisms which, when applied to seed, plant surfaces, or soil, colonizes the rhizosphere or the interior of the plant and promotes growth by increasing the supply or availability of primary nutrients to the host plant. [1] Bio-fertilizers add nutrients through the natural processes of nitrogen fixation, solubilizing phosphorus, and stimulating plant growth through the synthesis of growth-promoting substances.
Bio-fertilizers can be expected to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The microorganisms in bio-fertilizers restore the soil’s natural nutrient cycle and build soil organic matter. Through the use of bio-fertilizers, healthy plants can be grown, while enhancing the sustainability and the health of the soil. Since they play several roles, a preferred scientific term for such beneficial bacteria is “plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria” (PGPR).
Therefore, they are extremely advantageous in enriching soil fertility and fulfilling plant nutrient requirements by supplying the organic nutrients through microorganism and their byproducts. Hence, bio-fertilizers do not contain any chemicals which are harmful to the living soil. Bio-fertilizers eco friendly organic agro-input and more cost-effective than chemical fertilizers. Bio-fertilizers such as Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Azospirillum and blue green algae (BGA) have been in use a long time. Rhizobiuminoculant is used for leguminous crops.
Azotobacter can be used with crops like wheat, maize, mustard, cotton, potato and other vegetable crops. Azospirillum inoculations are recommended mainly for sorghum, millets, maize, sugarcane and wheat. Blue green algae belonging to a general cyanobacteria genus, Nostoc or Anabaena or Tolypothrix or Aulosira, fix atmospheric nitrogen and are used as inoculations for paddy crop grown both under upland and low-land conditions. Anabaena in association with water fern Azolla contributes nitrogen up to 60 kg/ha/season and also enriches soils with organic matter. 2]
Other types of bacteria, so-called phosphate-solubilizing bacteria, such as Pantoea agglomerans strain P5 or Pseudomonas putida strain P13,[3] are able to solubilize the insoluble phosphate from organic and inorganic phosphate sources. [4] In fact, due to immobilization of phosphate by mineral ions such as Fe, Al and Ca or organic acids, the rate of available phosphate (Pi) in soil is well below plant needs. In addition, chemical Pi fertilizers are also immobilized in the soil, immediately, so that less than 20 percent of added fertilizer is absorbed by plants.
Therefore, reduction in Pi resources, on one hand, and environmental pollutions resulting from both production and applications of chemical Pi fertilizer, on the other hand, have already demanded the use of new generation of phosphate fertilizers globally known as phosphate-solubilizing bacteria or phosphate bio-fertilizers. [citation needed] Benefits A bio-fertilizer provides the following benefits: Since a bio-fertilizer is technically living, it can symbiotically associate with plant roots. Involved microorganisms could readily and safely convert complex organic material in simple compounds, so that plants are easily taken up.
Microorganism function is in long duration, causing improvement of the soil fertility. It maintains the natural habitat of the soil. It increases crop yield by 20-30%, replaces chemical nitrogen and phosphorus by 25%, and stimulates plant growth. It can also provide protection against drought and some soil-borne diseases. Bio-fertilizers are cost-effective relative to chemical fertilizers. They have lower manufacturing costs, especially regarding nitrogen and phosphorus use. Some important groups of Bio-fertilizers Azolla-Anabena symbiosis: Azolla is a small, eukaryotic, aquatic fern having global distribution.
Prokaryotic blue green algae Anabena azolla resides in its leaves as a symbiont. Azolla is an alternative nitrogen source. This association has gained wide interest because of its potential use as an alternative to chemical fertilizers. Rhizobium: Symbiotic nitrogen fixation by Rhizobium with legumes contribute substantially to total nitrogen fixation. Rhizobium inoculation is a well-known agronomic practice to ensure adequate nitrogen. Benefits of Bio-fertilizers: 1. Enrich soil with nitrogen by biological nitrogen fixation. 2. Increase crop yield by 15-20 %. .
Increase germination potential of seeds. 4. Develops resistance against disease in crops, suppress soil borne diseases as some of the inoculants produce antibiotics. 5. Improves soil properties and sustain soil fertility. 6. Help in mineralization of plant nutrients, solublize unavailable phosphate and sulfur in thesoil converting them in available form. 7. Bio-fertilizers release certain hormones, which increase crop growth. 8. Save fertilizer consumption by nearly 15%. 9. Bio-fertilizers are cheap, handy, eco-friendly, pollution free and easy to transport.
Divorce in the Middle East college essay help online: college essay help online
The rate of Divorce in the Middle East has rapidly increased during the last couple of years and negatively affected both parents and children. Studies have stated that the annual divorce in Dubai increased to 21% last year with 3,012 lawsuits filed. There are one in four marriages ending in divorce according to the UAE court. At least Dh800million is spent in the UAE every year on divorces, according to educationists and family affairs experts. However, we are now trying to overcome its negative affects on children and parents. There are many reasons in which divorce may occur in the Middle East.
These reasons are made up of minor and major causes. One of the most important reasons is the way men grow up in the Middle East. They grow up without responsibilities and are used to being served by women and maids. This makes a man dependent, which means that when they get married they will not be able to tolerate the obligations and responsibilities of marriage and children. They would throw all marriage responsibilities on their wives and would never share household duties. They would instead resort to committing adultery in order to satisfy their needs.
This is the result of their wives being distracted with necessary tasks; her children and house tasks. They then would get married again, to a second wife, since in Islam a man may marry four wives at once. This causes conflicts between the first wife and her husband. However, Many wives cannot bear seeing her own husband with another lady and therefore asks for a divorce. Most marriages in the Middle East are arranged marriages. In Islam social separation of both sexes is the custom, making it hard for individuals to meet spouses on their own.
Many cultures interpret marriage as an agreement between families, rather than just between two individuals. Meanwhile, by time the wedded couple may diverge due to the lack of knowledge of the other partner and may require a divorce. Also, men in the Middle East, after coming home from work, seek to relax in front of the TV, and generally men prefer watching TV to talking to each other especially to their prickly wives. This will ultimately cause an absence of communication between the couples, and will lead to endless quarreling.
This matter is very important since the nonexistence of interactive relationships mostly end with divorces. Divorce causes psychological effects on the children of those estranged couples. One of them is a result of being exposed to violence. There are many parents in the Middle East who use violence when they confront a disagreement. After seeing violent acts between the two parents, the children may start considering violent actions normal and they may also lose their sympathy to their environment. Partly related to this effect, the interpersonal communication between the child and his friends or teachers reduces.
Being oblivious to the grief of the divorced parents causes the children to become isolated. The children in a detaching family realize that there will be an excessive transformation, and their previously protected world is in a state of change. Many things will vary despite the idea that either the mother or father will not be around anymore. They may loose contact with one of the families, either the father’s family or the mother’s family. This is depending on whom the court decides the children should live. Their bedtime, mealtime and after school routines may differ. It is a state of upheaval.
This also causes a behavior change and the children may perform differently. The anxiety level between the husband and wife usually increases during and brusquely after a divorce. Parents who try to turn their children against the other spouse generate an unconditionally unbearable state for that child. The children will also probably endure from a sense of not belonging, feeling lost between both parents, which could further lead to not obeying one or both of them. Absence of control could also develop into disobedient behavior that may lead to misdeeds, such as stealing and bullying.
Other negative effects embrace loss of friends, inability to make friends, dreading marriage in the future, and self-inflicted pain. Divorce might also cause children to be intimidating and break school rules, miss school, perform poorly academically, and lose interest in higher education. With regards to health, children may suffer from insomnia, depression, migraine, stomach pain, speech problems, bed-wetting, weight loss or just the opposite excessive eating habits. Divorce does not only affect the children, but also the parents get affected. Due to divorce either one of the partners or both may loose control and become incredibly violent.
Due to their bad temper and aggressiveness, they may develop difficulties dealing with their children, which may cause immense complications. In the Middle East most women do not work, and men those days become stubborn and selfish after a divorce. Many men stop expenditure on their family after a divorce. If that happens there will be nobody to pay for the children’s school fees and their necessities. Due to that the family may have a deficiency in their requirements; however, that is when the court interferes and spends on the children or may force the man to pay.
Parents do not mean to hurt their children in any way but unintentionally they do. When they suffer from self-inflicted pain they reflect it on their partner, but since they’ve got no partner anymore, they reflect it on their children. A depressed partner may loose the sense of mindfulness and may start drinking excessive alcohol, specifically men, or may have sleeping and eating disorders. In these cases one will have to seek advice from a therapist. There are two sides to a coin.
Both the parents and the children get affected negatively; on the other hand, the family agrees on a divorce by first deciding if they have the ability to cope with the divorce. Hence, it is the parents’ accountability to sustain their children and handle this circumstance with patience and diplomacy. Once a couple has decided to separate, the children must be given adequate time to come to terms with the reality. If couples are considering a divorce, they should be straightforward with their children and support them. In addition, they should be real and honest, but should as well keep an optimistic undertone in their conversation.
They should also make them conscious about the causes behind the divorce. What is really crucial is that adults should devote their time to their children to help them find an outlet to express their feelings. It will reduce their grief period and prevent them from feeling lonely. Parents should provide persistent emotional and financial support to their children so that they would be prepared to accept the changes.
Can Control of Written Language Create or Reinforce Power? cbest essay help: cbest essay help
By Daniel Whiting Language is the basis of communication between people, therefore if you ban the use of specific written language you are banning the communication of the ideas behind that language between people. People will still be able to formulate their ideas about the controversial subject but will find it difficult to spread the news on a large scale. This is because most widespread media is in written form like newspapers, books and most online content.
In our history lessons we have studied the rule of Joseph Stalin and how he maintained total control over the USSR. He held strict censorship over the countries newspapers and any literature regarding the Soviet way of life and his riegn. Anything condemning the Bolshevik leadership or critisising them in any way was banned. This clearly helped stop the spread of anti- Stalinist feelings amongst the Russian people and helped grant Stalin unchallenged rule right up until his death.
This is similar throughout many single party dictatorships in history for example Nazi Germany and Mao’s China. Many people may argue that banning certain written language is not a way to insure power. They argue that humans will create other words and phrases to get their ideas communicated. For example many famous fable writers even go as far as to disguise the meaning of their stories behind other language that does not literally mean the same thing.
This way they could spread their criticism of the other without the risk of being accused of directly defying the ban. The banning of certain written language can have a negative effect on our gaining of knowledge. It is depriving our brains from gaining further information from which we can learn from and use in the future. It can be argued however that most of the banned written language in modern civilized countries in the west for example is banned for the protection of the reader and to stop the spread of problems like racism and sexism.
It can be justified because of the fact that it is trying to protect the pillars of modern society rather than deceiving people into oppression that is commonly linked with countries ruled under a ruthless dictatorship. Controlling written language can be overcome through clever tactics that find a way around the ban. However it has been proven to significantly hinder the spread of ideas that may challenge one’s power therefore it can be a useful tool in enforcing and maintaining your power.
Industrial Revolution Economy write my essay help: write my essay help
What do you understand by the term, industrial revolution? How do you account for its varying pace in Britain, France and Germany? 2006 – Highlight the variation in the pattern and pace of industrialization in Britain France and Germany between 1830-1914. 2009 – Describe the various factors which determined the divergent pace and pattern of industrialization in the 19th century. 010 – In what ways was the experience of industrialization different for European countries which industrialized after England in the 19th century? (Fr and Gr) Introduction: The Industrialization of Europe, occurred between 1780 and 1914, starting in Britain, and was marked by three phases, each associated with a different region and technology.
The Industrial revolution refers to structural changes in the economies of certain European countries in this period, which were as follows- (1) a reduction in the contribution of the agrarian sector to the economy and an increase in industrial and commercial sector’s contribution, (2) discovery and use of new sources of power which revolutionized production, (3) a subsequent shift to manufacturing on a large scale-in factories, (4) technological innovations and new types of investment.
Clive Trebilcock, delineates the three phases of industrialization- the first phase (1780s-1820s)was pioneered by Britain, the second phase (1840-1870) saw France, some areas of the German States and U. S. A. industrializing, while the third phase (late1890s-1914) saw Japan, Italy, Russia Sweden, parts of Spain, Hapsburg empire and Hungary industrialize. CAUSES: Prior to the mid-18th century all European economies were marked by a large agrarian sector and craft manufacturing carried out by manual household labour, within the house, for local or regional markets.
Such manufacturing required little capital and was labour intensive. By 1700, Peter . N. Stearns says Western Europe was an advanced agricultural society with an unusually large commercial sector. In the 18th century John Merriman says, it began to register three main changes which accelerated manufacturing and constitute the causal factors/preconditions for the Industrial Revolution- (i)Firstly Europe witnessed a population explosion from the 18th century peaking in the mid 19th century.
Between 1800 and 1850 Europe’s population increased by 43%, with greatest increase in industrializing regions. (a) This was because mortality rates fell in this period as vaccinations for small pox etc were developed, eradicated many fatal diseases and sanitation and pure water facilities improved. (b)With this life expectancy of women also increased. (c)A period of relative peace during the 18th century also aided population growth. (ii)Secondly introduction of new agricultural methods and expansion of the agrarian base, to sustain the increase in population contributed to industrialization. a)Potato, a calorie rich and disease resistant crop was introduced in France, Prussia and Ireland and this supported the growing populations. (b)In England and Holland, new drainage systems, led drainage of swamps and increase in land under cultivation, with nitrogen fixing crops being planted here. This increase meant an increase in agrarian output. (c)We also note the consolidation of small agricultural plots, into large farms, especially in Britain. (e. g. between 1750 and 1850 1/4th of all cultivable land was incorporated into larger farms in England).
Consolidation of plots meant an increase in food supplies which supported the growing population. Consolidation some historians hold also led to ‘proto industrialization’, as it freed up agrarian labour, which then sought employment in the domestic manufacturing sector, whose output thus increases. This increase in manufactured goods, met the growing demand of the rising population. John Merriman says on the Continent, despite lesser consolidation of land, German agrarian productivity rose twice as fast as population growth between 1816-1865 and so did French productivity from 1815 on due to crop rotation.
Thirdly remarkable technological changes and improvement in transport-which included the development of railroads and steam ships contributed to industrialization. A host of scientific discoveries applied to manufacture, stimulated industrialization. For example research on behaviour of gases led to understanding of steam as a source of power. This led to the development of the first steam engine by a Frenchman in Holland in 1600s; later James Watt a Briton by 1760 refined his model and pioneered the development of the engine for industrial use.
Thus Britain developed the first railway line, which opened in 1820 at Stockton to haul coal. Railways contributed to the industrial revolution because it stimulate capital investment, led to greater integration of markets, cheaper transport and stimulated other sectors like coal, iron and steel. The development of steamships also halved the time of trans-Atlantic voyages and reduced transport costs. Peter Stearns adds to these causes and says other conditions prevailing in Europe also contributed to industrialization.
The most important cause for him was the (iv) Europe’s dominance in world trade- which led to acquisition of cheap raw material and capital from colonies and development of markets across Asia, Africa and South America for European manufactures (v) commercialization of Europe from the 17th century on led to the development of national banking systems and (vi) Presence of raw materials recourses in Europe also facilitated Industrial revolution.
Large coal deposits were found in Britain, Belgium, northern France and Germany. INDUSTRILIZATION IN BRITAIN FRANCE AND GERMANY- Britain- Britain was the first nation to experience the Industrial Revolution (between 1780s-1820) Peter N Stearns says that by late 18th century Britain was emerging as a leader in world trade and its population was starting to grow, thus expressing greater demand for goods.
Due to this by the 1730s he says a period of ‘proto industrialization’ emerged in Britain, which was marked by- (a) a decline in the percentage of people employed in agriculture, (b) growth in domestic markets due to population rise and growth in international markets due to increasing international trade both of which stimulated manufacturing of goods(c) this in turn led to the emergence of small businesses started by middle class and the subsequent development of a working class and (d) New technological developments which helped mechanize and increase production of goods.
This intensified till the 1760s when the stage was set for full scale industrial revolution as new entrepreneurs had begun to emerge, steam was developed as an industrial power source by now, manufacturing was expanding and so was its labour force. Britain’s industrial revolution began around the 1760-1770s and it was led by the cotton industry.
Cotton was the first sector to industrialize as, firstly cotton fibre was easier to mechanize that wool and linen (the traditional textiles produced in Britain), secondly cotton had a large market in Asia, especially India, a British colony, it also had a growing domestic market in Europe as it was a novel cloth and could be coloured brightly, thirdly raw cotton could to imported at low rates into Britain from its colonies in India and America and finally British workers were open to training from scratch in cotton production as it was a new textile industry.
These factors and the prospect of profits to be made, led to search for technological improvement in the manufacture of cotton. From the 1730s numerous inventions were made which helped mechanize cotton manufacture and increase output. For preparing cotton for weaving- James Hargreaves in 1764 invented the spinning jenny which mechanically drew out and twisted cotton fiber into threads, by 1769 Richard Arkwright developed the first water powered spinning machine, this was improved by 1780 with steam power being used.
For the weaving process-The flying shuttle originally developed for hand weaving was mechanized, by 1785 Edmund Cartwright patented the power loom- a mechanized loom for weaving, which was in common use by 1800. New bleaching and dying techniques and roller prints instead of block prints were also developed. All these inventions revolutionized cotton production so that by 1790s cotton textile production was largely carried out in factories and production increased from 40 million yards per year to 2,025 million yards per year between 1789 and 1850(Merriman).
This increase was also indicated by increase in import of raw cotton from worth 11million pounds to 588 million pounds in the same period (Merriman). Peter Stearns says a large amount of cotton textiles were exported to India (British cotton’s largest market), Africa and Latin America. Exports were essential source of revenue- in 1840 cotton provided half the value of British exports. By 1820 India was buying half the cotton cloth exported by Britain, which led to India’s deindustrialization. Manchester and Lancashire emerged as the principal towns where such cotton was produced.
The second sector after cotton textiles which began to mechanize and increase output rapidly was the metallurgy and mining sector. A breakthrough in the 18th century in learning how to produce coke from coal, revolutionized iron industry. Coke was a much more effective iron smelting agent than previously used charcoal. Coke production depended on advances in furnace design, this spurred improvement in furnaces. Henry Cort’s reverberatory furnace for refining iron was the most important technological advance as it saved fuel and increased productivity by 1500%.
Another significant advance was Henry Bessemer’s invention- the Blast Furnace, in 1856 which helped remove chemical impurities from pig iron, later it also spurred the production of steel. Steam powered machines to roll metal were also developed. All this caused a major growth in the iron industry. From producing just 25,000 tons of pig iron in 1720, the industry grew to produce 2, 50,000 tons by 1804 and 4 million tons by 1860. Growth in the Iron Industry stimulated two other major sectors-(i) Coal mining and (ii) Machine Building. (i)Coal mining surged, providing fuel for smelting iron and steam engines.
Coal production increased from 24 million tons in 1830, to 110 million tons by 1870(half the worlds production). Mining also caused advances in transportation, as metal rails were laid to haul coal out of mine faster by animal/human power. By 1800, steam engines replaced animal drawn rail carts; this in turn spurred the development of the railways. Merriman says the first railway train in Britain began by hauling coal to the town of Stockton in 1820 and the first passenger train service began between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830. Trans Atlantic steam ships also emerged by 1838 as great consumers of coal.
Railways and steam ships, revolutionized transport and communication drastically reducing costs and time. (ii) Machine building which was scattered till 1800 was stimulated and machines to bore and turn were designed, yet despite this, the sector remained small. Certain other industries also began to slowly mechanize as Stearns points out- For example the woollen textile industry by 1800, beer brewing- with big factories like Guinness brewery being established in Dublin and printing industry by 1830, with the invention of a steam powered printing press.
Yet industrialization was not uniform or sudden, brass and small metal goods industries were scarcely touched and lags in technology even in cotton sector, led to a convulsive transformation. Various reasons have been propounded for the pattern of industrialization in Europe and especially why Britain was the first country to industrialize. Peter N Stearns and John Merriman points out certain unique factors that Britain had in its favour- Firstly the Enclosure Acts passed in Britain which called for consolidation of agricultural land into large farms, with capital intensive farming began much earlier in Britain than anywhere else.
Consolidation led to increase in agrarian production to feed the growing population as well as created a large population of jobless farmers who were looking for work. Secondly Britain was unique, as its guilds which protected artisans disappeared by the 18th century. Guilds inhibited introduction of new technology and workers, this factor eliminated, employers were free to experiment. Thirdly Britain’s leading role intercontinental trade and its colonies provided capital, cheap raw materials and markets for British industry.
Fourthly British government aided economic change as its laws favoured British manufacturers with protective tariffs on goods imported into Britain (18th century) and encouraging banking, it banned workers unions, it made it easier to found companies, passed Enclosure Laws and improved transportation networks. Finally Britain’s good coastline and navigable rivers as well as rich mineral deposits of coal and iron ore near rivers made all provided ideal conditions for the first industrial revolution to occur in Britain.
FRANCE: France was the next nation to industrialize within Europe, followed shortly by Germany. Peter Stearns argues, that the geographical/cultural proximity to Britain and the relevance of industrialization to power in politics displayed in the Napoleonic Wars by Britain, spurred French and German industrialization. In 1815 the French economy was in shambles after the Napoleonic Wars, as its rich colonial and Mediterranean trade was disrupted by a British blockade, it was cut off from British industrial technology and its agriculture was disrupted.
Thus the French developed a unique model which differed from Britain model, and Robert Tombs says was marked by three main feature-(i) Economic growth was brought about by small scale agriculture and traditional style labour intensive manufacturing rather than through agrarian consolidation and at factories as in Britain. (ii) Slow Population growth subsequently and low demand-French population increased by only 30% between 1880-1850 as compared to Britain where population doubled now. By 1880s population growth stagnated in France. iii)An active role played by the State in the French economy, as opposed to Britain where a policy of free trade and lassie fare was largely followed.
Between 1815 and 1860, French economic development was supported by a (a) growing traditional agricultural sector as pointed out by Robert Tombs. Agricultural labour force increased, land under cultivation peaked in 1860, as new system of crop rotation was introduced. Thus agrarian production rose by 1. 2% per annum. Rural population grew till 1840 and 60% of the total labour force remained dependent on agriculture.
All this took place without a major agrarian revolution or mechanization. France unlike Britain and Germany didn’t witness a mass rural exodus. Yet this large agrarian population was not solely dependent on agriculture and drew supplementary incomes from rural production-spinning flax or smelting iron, traditional rights and temporary migration to cities from the highlands as domestic servants, coal sweepers, bar keepers. Robert Tombs and Peter Stearns mention that industry also rapidly increased output in this period, and industrialization peaked between 1840—1870.
Tombs says French industry focused on production of (i) Hand crafted luxury goods for exports to wealthy markets of Europe and America, as it realized that it couldn’t compete with the cheap mass produced textiles, metals and machines of Britain. Thus Lyon silks(France’s largest export good) and fashionable wares like furniture, clocks, jewellery, books and clothing is what France focused on, comprising half the exports in 1850. (ii) French industry also produced traditionally made consumer goods for local use- like soap, candles, sugar and paper.
Yet this production was mostly carried out by traditional methods, for example- Stearns mentions that manufacturing was still carried out in small shops by manual labour, but there was an increased emphasis on standardization of products. Tombs mentions that water powered production was widespread in France , especially for charcoal smelting, yet this was not always a disadvantage as it led to production of purer steel and thus the production of fine surgical instruments and cutlery. Hand operated looms still existed allowing for finer patterns.
Yet despite this dominance of traditional methods France did experience industrialization. Stearns mentions that by 1850, 20% of all manufacturing workers were employed in factories or coal mines. (iii) France focused on coal mining and iron industry-coal output increased thirteen fold between 1820-1870 while iron production sextupled. He says the French government bribed British entrepreneurs to set up modern metallurgical factories in France, thus French steel industry developed under James Jackson, whose grandson set up the first Bessemer converter in France in 1861.
French businesses hired British skilled workers to train their work force- thus in 1830 there were 15,000 British workers in French metallurgical and textile plants. (iv)Textile industry too mechanized with new inventions like the mechanical loom and jacquard loom being introduced. (v)Railways was another very important sector that the government focused on from the 1840s. Unlike in Britain, the French government built the railways system and bared 1/3rd of the cost(i. e. 3 billion francs).
Post 1860s Robert Tombs mentions that the French economy hit a slump until the 1890s. This was due to loss of its coal regions of Alsace and Lorraine to the Germay, silk worm disease and wine killing insect, fall in wheat prices by 45%, cotton shortage due to the American civil war all of which damaged the economy. Tombs mentions French industrialization was marked by a convulsive growth. The economy recovered to grow again between 1896-1914 with the aluminium, electrical good, motor vehicles and aviation industry taking the lead.
Unique features: The most unique feature of the French model of industrialization, apart from the focus on high quality export goods was the active role of the State in the economy; this distinguished it from Britain and Germany. Robert Tombs and Merriman point out that the government’s main method of intervention in the economy were (i) protectionist policies-protection of French manufacturers through imposing tariffs, quotas and prohibitions on foreign imports.
This was done to protect small traditional producers in France from from competition by cheap machine made British goods and also because the government wanted limited risks as it feared uncontrolled enterprise could cause instability leading to bankruptcy and unemployment. (ii)Through subsidies, it assisted businesses- canals, railways, gas, sailing ships were all subsidized to protect indigenous industries from cheaper foreign manufactures. (iii)Through actively funding and building infrastructure- like road networks by 1880, waterways till 1840s, railways between 1830-80.
This was for strategic defence reasons, in event of war and to stimulate market integration and business growth. Even thought the French model is attacked for, a large agrarian sector, slow development of a mass a market, low wages and technological development, French wealth per capita was similar to Britain’s between 1815 and 1914(Tombs). The French industrialized in a balanced manner paying attention to all sectors. Finally this transition Tombs says was less traumatic for the rural and urban populace as in 1914, 40% of the labour force was still self employed as opposed to 16% in Germany and 9% in Britain.
GERMANY: (1840-70) German industrialization started after French industrialization, Peter Stearns says, because Germany was not politically unified, its customs union or zolverin created a united market quite late in 1830, guilds and serfdom were abolished late and absence of tariff protection for textiles hampered early industrial growth. Germany initially had to smuggle, skilled workers and technology from Britain according to Stearns, yet by the 1840s its industrialization had begun, and real growth appeared between 1850-70(economy grew at 2. % p. a. ). David Blackbourn says this was growth was due to the industrial sector that focused on heavy industries especially- railways, production of coal, iron and steel. Stearns says this new focus was because nations to industrialize after Britain, had to develop a different emphasis, to compete with industrialized nations and Blackbourn says Germany did this successfully, as it developed larger and more technologically advanced industrial concerns than Britain, due to its ‘latecomer’ advantage. Coal and iron and steel were the leading sectors.
Coal mining output doubled in 1830s alone and expanded seven fold between 1840-70, as deep mines were sunk in the Ruhr valley. In the 1870s Germany acquired France’s coal rich regions- Alsace and Lorraine. Coal was used to produce steam power and coke to smelt iron. Iron and steel industry flourished from 1850s onward, causing advances in engineering as pressed steel, metal pipers, boilers and factory machines were produced. Alfred Krupp who employed just 60 men in 1836 emerged as the giant of the metal and mining sector by the 1870s employing 16000 workers and producing arms and ships.
According to Blackbourn growth in these two sectors was due to the railways, which was an insatiable consumer of coal, steel track and locomotives. The German rail network, built largely by the state governments, expanded from 4000 miles in 1852 to 24,000 miles by 1873. This according to Blackbourn had caused two further developments-(i) stimulating capital goods industries and (ii)the construction industry-stations, bridges, signals, factories, waterworks, rail workshops etc came up.
Growth of industrial towns the population also stimulated a construction boom in cities like Stuttgart. Blackbourn mentions that growing urban population led to increase in consumer demand- two consumer sectors dominated-(I)Apparel industry-shoes, clothes, hats etc (ii) Food and drink, witnessed a major growth with 1/4th of all manufacturing labour being employed in the former and 14% in the latter in 1850s.
The chemical industry was another major sector that grew in Germany with Bayer, BASF and Hoechst, producing chemical yes for the textile industries in Europe. The electrical sector also grew with Siemens dominating. A unique feature of German industry by the 1870s was the growth of cartels of firms and their role in collective price setting. Unique features: German industrialization differed in pace and pattern from British and French industrialization, because it registered the (i) fastest industrial growth and focused mainly on the heavy industries unlike Britain and France. This was because of its large raw material-coal and iron deposits, unlike in France.
Blackbourn draws our attention to the (ii)active role of the State in German, even though it was less than the role of the state in France but greater than in Britain. For example, German chambers of commerce were semipublic-semiprivate institutions, unlike in USA and Britain where they composed solely of businessmen. Secondly German states pursued pro-industry and commerce policies – like high taxation for peasants, new company law, freedom of movement for grater labour and capital mobility, plus setting up the zolverin and finally political unification of Germany in 1871.
The political unification, inspired confidence in investors, to invest in industry and mineral exploration. Yet a large amount of industry was under privateers e. g. over half the rail network was in private hands till 1870s. (iii)Finally development of banking and commerce was another unique feature- joint stock companies raised public capital, important joint stock banks- Deustche bank, Dresdner, Dramstadter all channelled savings into domestic industry. From the 1870s banks and industry developed close ties and this was the hallmark of German industrial capitalism.
The agrarian sector and traditional manufacture still played an important role, which was lesser than in France but greater than in Britain. 49% of labour still worked in agri sector and 30% in industry. Yet by 1870s a truly capitalist industrialized economy had emerged with distinct industrial zones and division of labour emerging, which was not as clear in France for example. From 1873 European economies were plunged into a period of ‘Great depression’ till 1896. Yet by now, Britain, France and Germany had all industrialized, each carving a different path and determining its own pace.
Types of Land Use in Rwanda scholarship essay help: scholarship essay help
Economics is dedicated to the study of land use, natural resources, public utilities, housing, and urban land issues. ‘Land use’ is also often used to refer to the distinct land use types in zoning. Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It also has been defined as “the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover type to produce Types of the various land uses in Rwanda are:
Residential Land Use This land use is where people live (houses, apartment buildings) and the following table show the distribution of land per household by province 2006 Gitarama ,butare,gikongoro,are now southern province and cyangungu , kibuye, Gisenyi,are Western Ruhengeri , Byumba are northen. while umutara and kibungo are eastern province now. 2. Institutional Land Use These are Government related (schools, town hall, police station) Rwanda use its land for education purses, like an example where high institution are located, universities, primary school and different institutional buildings.
These use have interest to the citizens. 3. Recreational Land Use These are land for fun, entertainment purposes (parks, bowling place) like examples of national and regional stadium, recreational area , and different youth center for leisure like kimisagara youth center Gatenga , national museum . national park etc 4. Open/ Vacant Space Land Use – these are Empty land public garden land use like premature public garden , MINADEF public garden etc. and some private vacant (plot) which are waiting for a development.
Commercial Land Use places to do with [making] money (stores, banks) those places are example CBD (central business district) located in a city center and there are some commercial zone like KISIMENTI , REMERA , and other place used to carry out commercial activities like different market , etc 6. Industrial Land Use – These are working places that help industry (factories) to function and those are manufacturing place for product . Rwanda uses its land for industrial purposes those land are located in gikondo industrial area and according to the master plan this industrial area is going to move in masaka. . Agricultural Land Use – Land used to grow food etc. (farmland) The state of land use and agricultural development in Rwanda Arable land Rwanda is a small country with an area of 26,336 km2. The total arable land is about 1. 4 million hectares, which is 52 per cent of the total surface area of the country. However the actual area cultivated has exceeded 1. 6 million ha in recent years. Another 0. 47 million ha is under permanent pasture, so well over 70 per cent of the country’s total land surface is exploited for agriculture (ROR 2008).
Rwanda has about 165,000 ha of marshlands of which 93,754 ha (57 per cent) have been cultivated. However, only 5,000 ha have been developed and can be cultivated throughout the year while the rest are arbitrarily cultivated by peasants grouped in organizations or by cooperatives without any technical study (ROR 2008). 8. Transportation Land Use -these are land to do with transport (bus stops, roads) ] like nyabugogo , Remera bus station and different road . 9. Government Land Use These are like “institutional” and other government related building examples are ministries , district , provinces headquarters ,etc.
LAND USE PATTERNS IN KIGALI Land-use pattern in Kigali The pattern found in the way the traces of hominid activities are distributed across the landscape LAND USE PATTERNS The origin and functions of settlement differ. We shall take a brief look at the different types of land use in KIGALI CITY. Kigali city has some densely populated areas. These include areas such as biryogo , muhima ,nyamirambo , kimisagara, gatsata and gikondo . On the other hand there are certain parts of the city where the population are very sparse.
Like gahanga , north part of gisozi ,bumbogo , kinyinya, ..? In some of these country towns the population is in fact decreasing. This is partly due to the depopulation of the rural areas, resulting from the pulling and pushing factors that we have already studied. 1. Different land use zones in Kigali city if we study its map, it becomes clear that not all the land is used for the same purposes. There are various functions to be fulfilled in any particular town or city, and these take place in different areas.
Industries, for example, are usually found on the outskirts of a city, while the head offices of large organizations are likely to be in the central business district. As any city has different needs, there are different kinds of businesses, institutions or persons to supply in these needs. Just think of sport for a moment. Which amenities in your area cater for sport? Cities also have many other functions. Let’s have a look at some typical land use zones in the city: 1. 1 Central Business District (CBD)
The Central Business District is the heart of any city and its function is commercial. All cities have such an area. The location of the CBD usually offers easy access to all the main traffic routes. The price of land in the Central Business District is usually exceptionally high, so that most buildings in this area are very tall. In the course of time, as the city expands, the CBD of any given city may move to a new location. In Port Elizabeth for example, the CBD was once close to the harbour. The area has since moved to Cape Road, which is further away from die original CBD. . 2 WholesalersWholesalers supply goods to retailers. The public cannot buy directly from the wholesalers. They only supply stock to the smaller shops. Wholesalers usually have larger businesses with ample storage space. The products are stored on ordinary shelves, with very little attention to advertising, display and decoration. Flats and lower status housing zone This zone is usually distinguished by blocks of flats or smaller houses on small plots. Think of Hill brow in Johannesburg, for example.
The buildings might sometimes appear old and dilapidated, giving the area a lower status. In earlier days these neighborhoods usually enjoyed a higher status. With the development of other neighborhoods with newer houses, many residents moved out. Now the original flats or houses are inhabited by people with a lower income. This is the reason why the zone is called a transition area. 1. 4 Medium-status housing zone Residents living in this zone usually fall in the middle-income group. This means that they earn more than those who make use of lower-status housing.
However, these people still prefer to live near the workplace. 1. 5 High-status housing zone This zone is usually found on the fringe of the city. It consists of big houses on large plots. Sometimes the plots are big enough so that the owners can keep horses and other animals. The residents fall in the high-income bracket. They find it more important to live in attractive, peaceful surroundings than close to work. Time spent on travelling is of no consequence. 1. 6 Large industries Large industries are also found outside the city boundaries.
Mostly this is because industries need larger premises, and they are not located near residential areas due to factors such as possible noise and air pollution. Land is also cheaper on the outskirts of the city, while also occur, these tend to decrease, making way offering more land for future expansion. 1. 7 Rural-urban Seam The rural-urban seam is a zone where urban land use is slowly encroaching on the area. Initially it forms the border between urban and rural areas. Although rural activities such as dairy farming may still for other types of land use.
The Enrolled Nurse Scope of Practice my essay help uk: my essay help uk
This publication is produced by Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) to assist registered, enrolled nurses and midwives understand the scope of practice of enrolled nurses, with particular reference to administration of medications. The information contained in this document is intended as guidance and is not a substitute for proper legal advice. Financial members of the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) are able to access legal advice as a membership entitlement. Further information is also available on the NMBA website: www. nursingmidwiferyboard. gov. au CONTENTS
Page 3 Page 4 Page 4 Page 5 Background Transitional Process Enrolled Nurse Scope of Practice Medication Administration – NMBA Approved Programs and Essentials units of study Medication Administration Qualifications for Enrolled Nurses Course Entry Level Criteria Integrating the Administration of Medicine Competencies into Enrolled Nurse Scope of Practice Course Overview Further Reading Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Background In accordance with changes associated with the shift to national registration, in effect since July 2010, medication endorsement is no longer displayed on an enrolled nurse’s registration.
Instead, the public register identifies where an enrolled nurse is unable to administer medicine as part of their scope of practice. 1 It is assumed by the NMBA that: • enrolled nurses graduating from approved pre-enrolment courses run after 2008 have completed the relevant medicine administration units of competence from the national Health Training Package (HTP); and, enrolled nurses graduating from the Diploma of Nursing after 2010 will achieve the relevant education units of competence for administering medicine. In Victoria, prior to the introduction of the national registration scheme, there were several training programs in the administration of medicine available to enrolled nurses. Completion of the associated units of competency enabled enrolled nurses to expand their scope of practice. This resulted in Victorian enrolled nurses having an endorsement to administer medicines placed on their practising certificate. This endorsement notation no longer appears on the registration papers of endorsed enrolled nurses.
It does so by placing a notation on the national nursing register (public register) against the individual enrolled nurse’s name. The notation states: “Does not hold Boardapproved qualification in the administration of medicines”. 4 The NMBA states the notation should not be seen as a punitive measure; rather it is a strategy to inform and protect the public. A transitional notation against an individual enrolled nurse’s name will remain in place for five years or until the individual enrolled nurse provides evidence to the NMBA of having completed an approved education in medicine administration.
The ANF is advised the NMBA will review the transitional arrangement policy at the end of a five year period . 5 Enrolled Nurse – Scope of Practice Because it is assumed, unless otherwise indicated, that all enrolled nurses are able to administer medication there will be no indication of the route of administration the enrolled nurse is authorised to administer medication by, that is orally, intramuscularly, subcutaneously and/or intravenously. It is the responsibility of the employer to sight every enrolled nurse’s qualification to practise, including their qualification to administer medication. nd it is the responsibility of the enrolled nurse to work within their scope of practice.
The extended scope of practice for enrolled nurses includes the administration of medication under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act 2009. Under the Nurses Act 1993 and the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Regulations 2006, the enrolled nurse was legally authorised to administer a prescribed drug of dependence, a Schedule 4 poison, Schedule 8 poison or Schedule 9 poison via the route cited in the enrolled nurse’s qualifications.
Therefore, each State and Territory has legislation which regulates the management of drugs and poisons. Furthermore, all nurses are subject to the parameters prescribed within organisational policies and guidelines of the respective health departments and health services, and the standards set by the NMBA. 4 NMBA 2010 Explanatory Notes: Enrolled nurses and medicine administration, http://www. nursingmidwiferyboard. gov. au/FAQ-and-Fact-Sheets. aspx 5 NMBA 2010 Explanatory Notes: Enrolled nurses and medicine administration, http://www. nursingmidwiferyboard. gov. au/FAQ-and-Fact-Sheets. aspx 4
Medication administration: NMBA approved programs and essential units study The NMBA has defined the difference between ‘essential requirements’ and ‘units of study’ in their 2010 Explanatory Note for enrolled nurses and medicine administration. 6 The essential requirement enabling enrolled nurses to administer medicines comes when an enrolled nurse who has completed a Certificate IV – Nursing has satisfactorily completed the following units of competence from the Health Training Package: • • HLTAP501A – Analyse Health Information; and HLTEN507A – Administer and Monitor Medications in the Work Environment.
The ‘essential requirement’ listed above is included in the Certification IV and Diploma in Nursing qualification undergraduate preparation from 2010. Enrolled nurses who have satisfactorily completed the above units of competence may then be offered: • HLTEN519A – Administer and Monitor Intravenous Medication in the Nursing Environment8 an elective unit of competence, included as part of the Diploma of Nursing qualification, or as a separate unit of competence. This elective unit of competence is intended to be left separate from the ‘essential requirements’ for administration of medicine.
This enables Certificate IV – Nursing graduates prior to 2008 to obtain competence in administration of intravenous medicine once the required prerequisite learning has been achieved. 6 NMBA 2010 Explanatory Note: Enrolled Nurses and Medicine Administration. http://www. nursingmidwiferyboard. gov. au/FAQ-and-Fact-Sheets. aspx 7 National Training Information Service (NTIS). 2007 Health Training Package 2007 – Enrolled Nurse Units of Competence www. ntis. gov. au/Default. aspx? trainingpackage/HLT07/volume/HLT07_5/unitsector/Enrolled_Division_2_Registered_Nursing_703 8 National Training Information Service (NTIS). 2007 Health Training Package 2007 – Enrolled Nurse Units of Competence www. ntis. gov. au/Default. aspx? /trainingpackage/HLT07/volume/HLT07_5/unitsector/Enrolled_Division_2_Registered_Nursing_703 5 Medicine Administration Qualifications for Enrolled Nurses Medicine administration courses are designed to equip the enrolled nurse with the knowledge, and skills to administer medication in a competent manner under the direction and supervision of a registered nurse or midwife.
These courses consist of the delivery of units leading to endorsement for the enrolled nurse to administer medication and is classed as a short course comprising two compulsory units of competence. The two compulsory educational units of competence are: HLTAP501A Analyse Health Information (30 hours) This educational unit of competency describes the application of in-depth level of knowledge of anatomy and physiology required to analyse available health information in relation to specific services to be provided.
This unit is a prerequisite for unit HLTEN507A. HLTEN507A Administer and Monitor Medications in the Work Environment (104 Hours) This educational unit of competency describes the skill and knowledge required of enrolled nurses to administer and monitor medications and evaluate their effectiveness for clients within a health environment. 10 This unit can only be undertaken by a student who has successfully completed HLTAP501A. The course content hours total 210 hours. The delivery of the course is divided into 134 hours of theory and 76 hours of clinical experience.
Drama Research Paper grad school essay help: grad school essay help
The structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception. ELEMENTS OF DRAMA * Music/Rhythm: Aristotle – the rhythm of the actors’ voices as they speak. Spectacle: the visual elements that the audience sees as they watch the play (sets, costumes, special effects, etc. ) * Plot: the basic storyline action that happens in the play. * Theme: the meaning, and main idea or lesson to be learned from the play. * Characters: the people, animals, or ideas portrayed by the actors who move the plot. * Dialogue: the words written by the playwright and spoken by the character which helps move the action of the play along.
Convention: the techniques and methods used by the playwright and director to create the desired stylistic effect. Genre: the type of play (comedy, tragedy, mystery, historical play, etc. ) * Audience: the group of people who watch the play considered most important by playwrights and actors: all of the effort put in to writing and producing is for the enjoyment of the audience. DRAMATIC SPEECHES: types of dialogue used by playwrights * Aside: a brief comment made by one character that is not meant to be heard by other characters, spoken to the audience or to another character.
Soliloquy: a longer speech unheard by other characters in which a character reveals his or her true thoughts or feelings, the speaker is alone on stage. Monologue: a long, uninterrupted speech by one character, to which other characters usually listen. CONFLICT: an inherent incompatibility between the objectives of two or more characters or forces that creates tension and interest in a story by adding doubt as to the outcome (Man vs. Himself, Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature. ) STAGE DIRECTION: the precise movement and positioning of actors on a stage in order to facilitate the performance of a play, ballet, film or opera, usually determined by the director for the proper dramatic effect to ensure sight lines for the audience and work with the lighting design of the scene. Up-stage: The rear of the stage; from raked stage, sloping up away from the audience.
Down-stage: the front of the stage. * Stage left (prompt) & right (bastard/ opposite prompt): the actor’s left & right facing the audience. * House (camera) left & right: how the audience perceives the stage. THEATRE: a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance.
SET: constructions indicating where the drama takes place; consists of all the scenery, furniture and props the audience sees at a play production. It should suggest the style and tone of the director’s whole production concept, create mood and atmosphere, give clues as to the specific time and place of the action, and offer creative possibilities for the movement and grouping of the actors. PROPS; property: moveable objects used on set, stage, or screen distinct from the actors, scenery, costumes, & electrical equipment during a performance or screen production.
CHARACTERIZATION: the art or process of conveying information on and creating characters for a narrative. * Direct or explicit characterization: the author literally tells the audience what a character is like; via the narrator, another character, or by the character himself. * Indirect or implicit characterization: the audience must infer for themselves what the character is like through the character’s thoughts, actions, speech (choice of words/ way of talking), looks, and interaction with other characters, including other characters’ reactions to that particular person.
TYPES OF DRAMA: Comedy: plays that are light in tone; usually with happy endings, to make the audience laugh; ranging from realistic stories (humor from real-life situations), to outrageous slapstick humor. Tragedy: one of the oldest forms of drama; rarely have a happy ending; in ancient times, often a historical drama featuring the downfall of a great man; in modern theater, has a bit looser definition involving serious subject matter and the death of one or more main characters.
Farce: a sub-category of comedy; with greatly exaggerated one-dimensional stereotypical characters & situations (mistaken identities, physical comedy, and outrageous plot twists. ) Melodrama: exaggerated drama; with simplified and one-dimensional characters (a hero who must rescue the heroine from the villain. ) Musical: the story is told, not only through dialogue and acting, but through music and dance; often comedic, although many do involve serious subject matter. Most involve a large cast and lavish sets and costumes.
Electrophoresis of Amino Acids cheap essay help: cheap essay help
Electrophoresis is a separation technique based on the movement of charged ions under the influence of an electrical field. This technique is primarily used for the separation of amino acids and peptides on the basis of their charge. All amino acids contain ionizable groups that cause the amino acids, in solution, to act as charged polyelectrolytes that can migrate in an electric field. The amino acids with a net positive charge will migrate toward the negative electrode. Those with a negative net charge will move toward the positive electrode.
An inert substance such as paper or gel is used as a supporting medium for the conducting liquid in most electrophoretic methods. In this experiment of separating amino acids, a phosphate buffer (pH 6) will be used as the conducting liquid and cellulose as the supporting medium. Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is to determine the effect of an electrical field on charged particles and to use this information to identify the amino acids present in an unknown sample. Equipment/Materials: Electrophoresis apparatus Graduated cylinders, 100 mL Hot plates Kimwipes
Kodak Chromogram cellulose sheets with fluorescent indicator Metric ruler Ninhydrin spray Pasteuer pipets/bulbs Phosphate buffer pH 6 Pulled capillary tubes Scissors Standard amino acid solutions, ~0. 1M Unknown amino acid solutions Safety: * Goggles must be worn at all times. * Ninhydrin must be used under the hood. * Make sure the electrophoresis apparatus is off when inserting and removing the plate. * Wear gloves when handling plates and ninhydrin. Procedure: 1. Obtain a strip of a cellulose chromagram sheet that is approximately 5cm wide and 15cm long.
REMEMBER: wear gloves. 2. Using a pencil, mark one end of the plate with a plus sign and the other end with a minus sign. (See the diagram on the following page. ) 3. Divide the two ends by drawing a line through the middle of the plate. Wipe the ruler with a Kimwipe before it touches the surface of the plate. 4. Place a tic mark on the line for each sample. Samples should be at least 1cm apart and 1cm from the edge. Place 3 samples on a sheet. 5. Label on one end of the plate what samples are on each tic mark. 6. Fill each electrode compartment with ~35mL of buffer. . Obtain 2 standard amino acid solutions and an unknown solution. 8. Use pulled capillary tubes to apply small volumes of the samples to the plate. Draw sample into the capillary tube by inserting the pointed end of the tube into the sample bottle. Use a different capillary tube for each sample. Do not contaminate samples by using a capillary tube from a different sample. Apply the sample to the plate by touching the end of the capillary tube to the proper mark on the line. Touch the plate lightly and quickly; the spots should be small.
Reapply the same sample twice more to the same spot, allowing the plate to dry between applications. 9. Once the samples have dried, apply buffer to the plate using a Pasteur pipet. Begin by dropping the buffer at one end of the plate and then at the other end, allowing it to move toward the sample spots in the center. Continue in such a way that the buffer meets exactly at the middle line to reduce the migration of sample spots. 10. Carefully place the plate in the apparatus so that the plus corresponds to the positive electrode (red jack) and the minus side to the negative electrode (black jack).
Be careful not to tilt the plate in any direction to avoid migration of the sample. 11. Turn on the apparatus and record the time. 12. Allow the sample to run for 45 minutes, or as long as possible, given time constraints. Each plate in the class must run for the same amount of time. 13. Turn the hot plate on low a few minutes before removing the plate. 14. Once the time has expired, turn off the apparatus and carefully remove the plate. Be sure to wear gloves. 15. Under the hood, spray the plate with ninhydrin. 16. Place the plate on the hot plate until it dries and spots appear.
Scheme of Work essay help websites: essay help websites
They provide supporting information about planning and teaching the subjects and form important documentary evidence about course delivery. However, SoW are also extremely flexible teaching guides that can be moulded to take account of local teaching needs and resources. There is no set method for developing schemes. Colleges that responded to requests for information whilst researching this article approached SoW in their own way. All were agreed on the importance of accurate schemes to guide subject delivery.
One respondent compared SoW to a ? road map of a journey?. Many colleges incorporate the need to develop and make widely available SoW into their strategic planning processes. SoW can be used to plan for any subject and at any level. Why use Schemes of Work? SoW allow teaching staff to organise their work so that course delivery remains on target and in accordance with the syllabus content. It is quite easy to see SoW as an unnecessary administrative burden, in addition to all the other paperwork that staff have to complete. However, this view, which underestimates the importance of SoW, is mistaken for two reasons.
First, in the long run, lecturers who adhere to SoW are more likely to achieve the aims and objectives of the syllabus being taught. As planning tools, SoW can also be seen as time management tools. The time spent on developing a scheme at the start of a course is small compared to the time saved for delivering the course in accordance with it. Unplanned course delivery adds to workloads. Second, many colleges are now geographically dispersed around many locations. It is therefore important, to maintain consistent standards, that staff who teach a particular syllabus follow the same plan.
This is also important if the teacher changes during the course. Any disruption caused by this can be minimised where SoW are available to guide course delivery. As planning tools, SoW can also be seen as way markers for course delivery by determining the prerequisites for moving on. For example, the scheme may specify the material that should be covered before a practical test. It may determine what is needed before a project can begin. Because SoW are important planning tools for guiding course delivery, they should be easily accessible.
Many colleges now make them available on the Intranet or VLE, so that they can be accessed by staff and students. Indeed, in some cases the Intranet is designed around the SoW, thus placing all the resources in context. Some colleges only make the templates available on the network, but it is good practice to make the completed schemes available as well. A further development would be to provide links from items in the scheme to resources and assessments. Any changes to course delivery should be incorporated within the schemes and learners should be informed of the changes.
The best way to do this is to regularly refer learners to the scheme, so that they can see a link between them and the way the course is progressing. What information should SoW provide? For SoW to be useful, it is important that they contain some key information that has formative value. It is important, first, to define the learning objective. This is about describing, in a logical order, the steps necessary to build up the knowledge and understanding of a subject or topic. After this come the teaching activities, which help the acquisition of knowledge and understanding.
A flexible approach should be taken to defining teaching activities- the same topic can be approached in different ways in different colleges. For example, a college may be located in an area rich in local resources useful for a particular subject, such as history or geography. Another college may need to cover the same topics using other resources, such as ICT based learning material. SoW do not restrict the variety of learning styles and teaching resources. Similarly, in continuing the formative role of SoW, they can be used to integrate issues such as equality, citizenship, ethical considerations and key skills into course delivery.
Points arising from these issues are relevant to most subject areas. For example, in world history, it is important to be able to empathise with alternative views and not just Eurocentric ones. Ethical issues are relevant to science, particularly when considering what the limits of research should be. SoW can be used to ensure that all these issues are part of course delivery. The widespread use of ICT for teaching and learning should help to enhance key skills in IT.
SoW should also define learner outcomes. This refers to the knowledge and understanding the learner hould have acquired at the end of a session. It is necessary to do this so as to make sure that learning objectives have been achieved, that the teaching methods are effective and to determine whether the learner is ready to move on. Some teaching resources, such as video players and interactive whiteboards, are in limited supply. SoW can be used as team planning tools to share the use of resources. In order to maximise the efficient use of limited resources, it is good practice for SoW not to be too restrictive about dates, because then the slightest change can make the whole scheme redundant.
How should SoW be constructed? A meaningful scheme should, therefore, say something about the learning objective, learning activities and learner outcome. How should this information be presented? In simple terms, SoW are forms. What fields should the forms contain to ensure that the three broad purposes of SoW are adequately captured? There is no set design for SoW; they are flexible planning tools. Research for this article has found many approaches, some requiring more information than others. Some leave a great deal to the discretion of the tutor.
The screen shot below shows a standard scheme of work developed by Tamworth & Lichfield College. Essential information is captured at the top, but teaching staff are free to complete the body of the scheme to suit the needs of their course. The information required by this scheme is broadly similar to other SoW viewed whilst researching this article. Some have a separate entry for each area of basic skills: literacy, numeracy and IT. Another scheme viewed for this article was silent on “Assessment” but gave prominence to learner outcome in general.
Whatever the level of detail required by the SoW, the best approach is to develop a standard template with sufficient flexibility to meet department specific needs, such as lab work in science. A standardised scheme should in no way be seen as hindering creativity. SoW are simply planning documents to ensure course delivery remains on time and relevant. Creativity is about actual course delivery. SoW do not dictate how a course should be delivered; that is for the teaching staff to decide. So, in the scheme illustrated above, there are ? Methods of Delivery? and ? Resources? fields.
Here it is for the lecturer to decide how the course should be taught and what types of resources should be used. Standardisation will also avoid the confusion that would be caused if every lecturer was able to design their own scheme. Learners would be able to recognise a standard scheme instantly, regardless of the subject it related to. Conclusion SoW are used widely in colleges as planning tools. The exact design of the schemes can vary, but most seem to capture key information about the course and how it will be delivered. Whatever the design, it is better to adopt a standardised, but flexible, template.
They should not be seen as rigid modes of delivery that restrict creativity. It is also good practice to make the completed SoW for each course available on the Intranet, VLE or college network, so that learners can access them. Preparing a Scheme of Work for ICT in Primary Schools You have been asked to prepare a scheme of work for ICT. It can be difficult to know where to start, what to include and how to make it useful to other teachers. This section goes through: What a scheme of work is The QCA scheme of work Approaches to writing a scheme of work Pupil activities Implementing your scheme of work.
What is a Scheme of Work? A written scheme of work has become necessary since schools now have to be more accountable for what they teach. OFSTED will look at the scheme of work to see if your school has planned to cover the Programmes of Study for ICT and if the work is planned at levels appropriate to pupils’ ages. In a similar way parents and governors can look at the way the work is planned and be reassured that money invested in ICT is being well used to improve learning. OFSTED will also check to see if you are using the QCA/DfEE scheme of work; and/or how you have adapted it to fit your school circumstances.
Generally, a scheme of work will include all the elements of the programme of study for ICT but divided into sections so that each class teacher knows what needs to be covered during that year. In addition, a scheme will include ideas for activities and may include sample lesson plans. These can be planned together with other subject coordinators to ensure that ICT is taught, developed and practiced in a number of different contexts. For example: Using the same ICT skills, pupils can collect information by using questionnaires and present it in the form of pie and/or bar charts.
Geography – Unit 8 Improving the Environment. Pupils use a questionnaire to collect data on the types of rubbish collected over a week and present the information Science – Unit 4a Moving and Growing. Pupils measure parts of the body; make predictions related to size and use bar charts or pictograms to present their findings. Maths – Numeracy strategy P114 – Organising and interpreting data. Pupils use bar charts to present information on bus times. Once the scheme is completed, it will provide the basis for planning ICT in your school.
The programmes of study when divided up, will state what has to be included in long term plans over one or two years. Activities show what will be covered from term to term. Lesson plans will show the learning and resources in the short term, from day to day. When you have prepared your scheme, it may be that some parts of the programme of study will not be taught at the present time. Your scheme can then be used to show what training needs to be planned or what equipment purchased. In this way your scheme becomes a statement of how your school intends to develop ICT over the next one to three years.
If it is to be used in this way it is important that your plans for ICT match with the school development plan, particularly if funding is needed. The QCA Scheme of Work The QCA scheme was initially written for teachers to use with their one or two computers in the classroom. Since the introduction of NGfL and the increase of computer suites, it can equally be adapted to this environment. The scheme was written as defined units consisting of short tasks to systematically develop the skills and knowledge required to build ICT capability.
These are followed by a short integrated task which uses this expertise. The units taken as a whole comprise the scheme. Since the introduction of the scheme a further 5 units have been written. The scheme now delivers the programme of study if used in its entirety. Nevertheless there are some areas where progression of experience is still poor. For example the unit on e-mail only occurs in year 3. The table below shows the spread of the units over experiences based on skills and knowledge. Areas of Experience covered by QCA units : – Year 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 5Year 6
Graphics- 2B- 4B5A- Text/DTP/multimedia1B2A3A4A- 6A Sound- – 3B- – 6A Email- – 3E- – – Handling data1D, 1E2C, 2E 3C4C, 4D5B, 5C – Research/Internet1C2C- – – 6D Modelling1A, 1C- 3D- 5D6B Control1F2D- 4E5E6C Monitoring- – – – 5F6C Using this table can help to identify where you will need to add to the QCA scheme to ensure progression. Progression There are a number of issues of progression which the QCA scheme does not address: Gaps in experiences as highlighted by the above table Issues of progression which arise if the school only delivers the units in the year specified.
This is generally more of an issue where planning for Foundation, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 are separate and teachers do not “take” from other year groups when appropriate. See example 1 below. Gaps which are highlighted by mapping the requirements of ICT use by other subjects. See example 2 Example 1 – Foundation Stage pupils will use ICT across a range of areas of learning. Young children’s experience and capability has increased since the introduction of the QCA scheme, with the result that many of the early learning outcomes in the Year 1 units are already well embedded before Year 1.
To add to this, the Year 1 and 2 units are less taxing than the capabilities of year two pupils who are achieving Level 3 in other subjects. As a result, you may wish to consider the introduction of some whole Year 3 units or some elements (ie the short focussed tasks) before Year 3. Unit 3A on Combining Text and Graphics is one such example. Example 2 – The use of Internet is a Year 6 unit. This focuses on pupils’ ability to skim, scan and extract appropriate information, rather than just keying in a URL to find information. It maps well into the Literacy strategy for Year 6.
Any scheme would need to consider how the Internet will be introduced to children at a younger age. For example, Year 2 pupils may access web sites pre-prepared by the teacher by clicking on a Word file of links. Year 4 pupils will need to develop skills of using the Internet to fulfill the wide range of expectations from other subjects. There is no QCA ICT unit to cover the development of these skills but any tailored scheme would need to address this gap. See attached table of links with brief outline of learning objectives. Unit 4 (additional): Internet use
To purposefully navigate a CD ROM or Internet page. Begin to use search engines and URLs. Table : Opportunities to apply and develop ICT techniques, knowledge and capability PoS/Strategy referenceQCA referenceActivities literacy Y4, T1Reading comprehension 17To identify features of non-fiction texts in print and ICT, eg headings, lists, bullet points, captions which support the reader in gaining information efficiently Yr 4, T1Reading comprehension 23To investigate how reading strategies are adapted to suit the different properties of ICT texts…..
Reading 7a, 9b To be able to read a range of materials including print and ICT based reference and information materials (eg dictionaries, encyclopedias, CD ROMs, Internet)Yr 4, T 2Non-fiction reading comprehension 17To scan texts in print or on screen to locate key words or phrases, useful headings and key sentences …. ScienceUnit 4D Solids, liquids and how they can be separatedUse CD ROMs to illustrate molten metals, or molten lava ….
Unit 4a Moving and growingUse of CD ROM to investigate skeleton GeographyUnit 10 A village in IndiaUse maps, atlases, CD ROM and Internet to find information linked to Europe, Asia, India and Chembakolli History 4a, 4b Find out about the events, people and changes studied from an appropriate range of sources including ICT based sources.
Ask and answer questions and select and record information relevant to the focus of the enquiryUnit 9 Second World WarWide range of research into this topic – Unit 6a Roman case study Unit 6b Anglo-Saxon case study Unit 6c Viking case studyWide range of research into these topics – Unit 10 Ancient EgyptWide range of research into this topic REUnit 4A How and why do Hindus worship at home and in the mandir? Use CD ROMs to investigate the role of the shrine and for further research – Unit 4B Celebrations: Christmas journeysUse CD ROMs or Internet to to collect pictures showing Israel – Unit 4C Why is Easter important for Christians?
General research – Unit 4D What religions are represented in our neighbourhood? Use Internet or CD ROMs to form part of other research to discover which religious traditions are represented in our neighbourhood. PEUnit 2 AthleticsCD ROM used to show movement of the body. Also potential to link to Unit 4b if digital camera used In writing the scheme of work, or adapting the one written by QCA to fit your circumstances, you will need to take into account the stage of development of the school in relation to such outside factors such as the NGfL rollout of equipment, and staff basic skills expertise and when NOF training will be undertaken.
These factors will affect whether you will complete your scheme in one go or take a piecemeal approach and build it up overtime. Approaches to writing a Scheme of Work You can build up a scheme of work in a variety of ways, by: formalising existing practice – starting from where you are now focusing on one particular part of the ICT curriculum by developing an area eg linked to NOF training (Literacy, Numeracy or Science) using the QCA scheme as a starting point developing chronologically starting at Year 1 and progressing through to Year 6.
We will now consider the different approaches to writing a scheme of work and you can decide which parts can be achieved quickly and which may be developed over time. Formalising existing practice Staff will already be teaching ICT to pupils during the school year and the scheme of work is a way of formalising what they do by writing it down. In this case, the scheme of work is a record of current practice, showing the ICT that is taught on a regular basis. The advantage of this approach is that the scheme matches what teachers already do and is based on successful ICT.
The disadvantage is that not all of the programmes of study may be covered and that pupils may have more ICT in one year than another. It is a quick starting point, however; which can be added to as you develop areas of ICT. It will also be possible to check against the QCA scheme , the missing gaps and target training. Focusing on an area of ICT, eg linked to NOF training This is a way of planning for the development of ICT based on a focus which can involve all staff. It is likely that you will be working with all staff during the NOF training linked to the core subjects.
This will enable you to develop ICT capability through the work of specific subjects. If some staff are still unsure in their approach to ICT there is an opportunity to develop ICT skills and areas of ICT in a systematic way. You will need to arrange a staff meeting to discuss the plan of work. Starting from the QCA scheme This is a good strategy to use if ICT is a priority area within your school and there are a number of staff meetings already allocated to ICT. You will need to look at the QCA scheme for ICT and divide it up so that each year group has the required units.
Bear in mind Example 1 in the section on Progression. Factors which will influence you may be: The strength of provision for Early Years The equipment you have in school Whether the school has a computer suite? How much time can be booked for each class – one or two hours a week? Special projects which will limit or increase the amount of ICT which can be included. e. g. A residential trip or school play may mean increased opportunities for ICT. The amount of time taken up by SATs: this may mean that there is reduced time for ICT and so more needs to be planned in other years to compensate.
All these factors will make a difference to how much ICT can be covered, and what parts of the programme of study/QCA scheme can be emphasised. These factors will vary from school to school and it is important that when you divide up the QCA units they fit with the way your school works. Developing chronologically You could begin by developing the work done in Year I and extend it to cover the full QCA units so that ICT is secure. The breadth of this could then be extended year-by-year until all year groups have full coverage of ICT.
It is for you to consider which approach will suit you and your school best – you may even want to use a combination of approaches. Whatever you decide, don’t feel you have to complete the whole scheme of work in one session. There will be an impact on your scheme as children become better as the scheme and expertise in the school develops. It is unlikely that year 6 pupils will be able to cover all the Year 6 units at the start. Staff may still becoming familiar with a new network, with new software and pupils do not have the full range of skills on which to develop.
What activities will go into a scheme of work? Once we have established what we want pupils to learn we need to decide which activities to use to make our teaching effective. We must consider how many experiences pupils will need to be able to achieve what we want them to learn. For example, pupils are required to control a robotic toy with a sequence of instructions. Would they need one, two, three or more experiences before they were proficient? While this will vary from child to child, we need to decide on a number for the average child so that we can plan that number of activities during the school year.
The next step is to look for opportunities within existing work where you could include ICT activities. Some are more easily included than others. For example, writing will fit into all areas of the curriculum. Not all experiences need to come from the same area of the curriculum. If we think of the example of the robotic toy this could fit into ‘direction giving’ in geography ‘shape and space’ in maths or a topic on toys in history or technology. This would provide a number of experiences for children to develop their learning.
The table below shows specific links for ICT Unit 1F to other areas of the curriculum 1F Understanding instructions and making things happen Table : Opportunities to apply and develop ICT techniques, knowledge and capability PoS/Strategy referenceQCA referenceActivities Literacy- – Numeracy Number 1f :To be able to communicate in spoken, pictorial and written form- – Shape Space and measures 1b To be able to select and use appropriate mathematical equipment when solving problems involving measuresYr 1 spring 86-88 Measure, shape and spaceDescribe directions.
Devise instructions to make a floor robot reach a particular place ScienceUnit 1D Light and Dark Control of torches / switches Geography – 2cUnit 2 How can we make our local area safe? Pedestrian crossings controlled in a predefined sequence by the press of a button. When we are considering activities, there will be some which need continuing attention and which fit easily into normal curriculum activities and others which are better planned in a topic and which may not be repeated so often.
ICT activities based on writing, painting and handling data to produce graphs and answer questions will normally be carried out regularly perhaps every half term. Those activities using adventure programs and Logo type activities will perhaps be carried out once or twice a year when they can be incorporated. You will need to check that pupils are getting an adequate experience of all the programme of study over a key stage. This can be monitored by checking the planned activities against the areas and deciding if there are enough of each type of activity to develop learning.
The other check that needs to be made is whether the activities are pitched at the correct level to help children progress in their learning. This can be done by looking at the level descriptions issued by QCA and reproduced here in the section on Assessment. How will lessons be planned in a scheme of work? It is unlikely that all the activities in your scheme of work will be broken down and planned as lessons. However we have found it a useful exercise to clarify exactly what is to be taught, what methods are most appropriate and what resources need to be gathered together so that teaching can be effective.
It may be that detailed planning reveals that the teacher needs to prepare and understand the programme better before it can be taught or that pupils need a reminder of previous work before they can begin. Even if this does not apply to you, it may be a useful way of supporting another teacher in developing his or her use of ICT. Implementing the scheme of work Once the scheme of work is complete you will need to make sure that it is used by all staff. If you have been able to consult regularly with staff and the activities have been tried and introduced gradually the scheme may only need reviewing from time to time.
Strategies that work well include: using the scheme of work as a basis for teachers to identify their training needs by looking at which activities they can do and which they will need help to do. Support can then be planned and more of the scheme implemented. selecting an area where everyone feels weak and working on that together perhaps after focusing on it in a development day. This can be used to review the appropriateness of the activities in the scheme of work and how well they fit into everyday teaching. nsuring that when other curriculum areas are reviewed, ICT opportunities are discussed and tried out. Whichever scenario fits your school, the best method is to implement your scheme in a gradual and planned way. A simple proforma can help you identify how the QCA schemes and other opportunities in the curriculum can be planned across the year. For example: A scheme of work is “a plan for something”. A teacher’s scheme of work is therefore his plan of action which should enable him/her to organise teaching activities ahead of time.
It is a summarised forecast of work which the teacher considers adequate and appropriate for the class to cover within a given period from those topics which are already set in the syllabus. A well prepared scheme of work should among other things:- Give an overview of the total course content. Provide for a sequential listing of learning tasks. Show a relationship between content and support materials. Provide a basis for: long range planning, training and evaluation of the course.
A scheme of work can be made to cover one week, one month, one term or even one year, depending on the duration of a given programme. Most programmes in our educational institutions take between one and four years. Each year is divided into 3 terms with each term lasting 3 months or 13 weeks. In such a case a scheme of work should be made for each term (13 weeks). Ideally schemes of work should be prepared before classes begin. SOME IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS TO BE BORN IN MIND WHEN PREPARING A SCHEME OF WORK: 1. Understanding the syllabus.
The classroom teacher may not necessarily be involved in the initial stages of curriculum development, but (s)he is expected to interpret the curriculum and implement it correctly. This calls for a thorough understanding of the syllabus and the content, in order to achieve the stated objectives. The teacher is expected to act like a policeman or a judge who is called upon to administer the law though he did not make it. It is therefore very important that the teacher be thoroughly conversant with the curriculum in order to implement it successfully. 2. Preceding and succeeding syllabus content
In most cases topics from the syllabus may not be arranged in the order in which they are supposed to be taught. Some topics will require the knowledge of the previous ones while others are quite independent. The teacher should not only identify the essential learning content but also arrange the content in logical teaching order considering the proceeding and succeeding syllabus content. Syllabus contents of related subject: The mistake which many teachers make is to scheme for their subject without considering the contents of related subjects. This is very wrong and should be highly discouraged.
Quite often the teaching of a given topic, in a given subject may be impeded by lack of skills or knowledge to be acquired in a different subject. Existing scheme of work for the subject If a scheme of work is already available for the subject, it would be a waste of effort and time for the teacher to break new ground again. In this case, the teacher can revise the existing scheme to suit his/her students and to bring it up to date. Reference material and examination The teacher should be familiar with reference material that is available for effective coverage of the topics in the scheme of work.
There is nothing more disturbing than finding out that a topic that is already covered could have been more interesting, enjoyable and even better understood if certain materials or teaching aids that are available in school had been utilised. The type of examination the students are being prepared for should bear in mind that some levels require more revision time than others and therefore, scheme for revision appropriately. Time estimation Although there are 13 weeks in one term, it is not usually possible to use all these for effective teaching for a variety of reasons.
For purposes of determining how much material can be covered in any given time, it would be misleading to assume that a subject requiring 9 periods per week has 6 x 13 periods available for teaching. The number of effective teaching periods varies according to both predictable and unpredictable interruptions. Effective teaching time must therefore be estimated before topics are selected. The most common interruptions that are likely to disrupt a scheme of work include: Public Holidays Examinations (should be schemed for) if they are internal Revisions (should be schemed for) Open days Sports days Planned school breaks e. g. mid-term break e. . c. The teacher/instructor should check with the administration of the school or Youth Polytechnic dates for such events before scheming. Although the new syllabuses under the 8-4-4 framework give time estimation for each topic, these should be taken as guidelines only. Finer adjustments need to be made depending on the time available for teaching. COMPONENTS OF A SCHEME OF WORK ORGANISATION: Refers to the organisation/institution one is working or training in. TRAINEES LEVEL: Part 1 refers to the grade level in training e. g. technician. In case of colleges and other institutions, some means of identification are used e. . K. T. T. C. contribution Tech. part 1. SUBJECT: This refers to the subject being schemed which may be theory or practical. This refers to a particular term within a given year. Years may vary from organisation to organisation depending on time of entry. DATE OF PREPARATION Refers to the time the scheme of work is completed. This should be before instruction commences. DATE OF REVISION Due to overlapping or underplanning experienced during instruction or unforeseen interruptions, it is necessary to revise the scheme of work in order to accommodate the unexpected difficulties.
This date should be indicated in the space provided in the form. SYLLABUS TOPIC The topics in the syllabus needs to be rearranged in the order in which they are supposed to be taught. This is because some topics are build up e. g. before one learns to multiply he should have done additions, e. t. c. The syllabus topics should then follow that order. WEEK Most organisations are specific in time allocation and each week should be spelt out in the week column. The numeral representing the week should be distinctly written centrally in the week column.
Weeks should be separated by a line running across the page especially when the same scheme of work form contains more than one week. NUMBER OF PERIODS The subject may have one, two or more periods in one week. Some periods may be single, double or triple. Numbering of the period can take the form either ordinal or cardinal system. Ordinal systems refers to the order in which periods for that subject appear on the timetable. In either system, numbering should be done as reflected on the time table for that subject.
A line, beginning from the column of periods should be drawn straight across the page to separate the periods. When two spaced periods are indicated on the timetable in the same day, then there should be two distinct rows for two periods. The numbering process should be repeated for the other weeks. SUB-TOPIC: LESSON TITLES This should be clear and definite. The instructor should single out all the sub-topics/lesson titles in a particular syllabus topic. He should then estimate what sub topics/lesson titles will require a single period, double period or triple period, and then scheme accordingly. OBJECTIVES
Each sub-topic/lesson title should be followed by an objective(s) which is meant to pinpoint the anticipated learning behaviour of the learners. The specific nature of the sub-topic/lesson titles does not permit broad objectives which might not be realised by the end of that period. The objectives must be stated in such a manner that there is a measurable aspect manifested by the end of the lesson e. g. the lesson title Simple interest might have the objective – “students should be able to calculate simple interest on given principals using methods of (a) direct production, and (b) simple interest formula”.
The lesson title conduction of heat in metals might have the objective – “trainees will be able to classify good and bad conductors of heat after carrying out the experiment, described in the worksheet 4”, e. t. c. KEY POINTS/METHODS These are the central ideas which the teacher anticipated to use during the lesson. They are an elaboration of the sub-topic/lesson title. They form the backbone of the lesson. Keypoints should be stated in a specific, precise manner, preferably in form of phrases which conveys the full meaning intended. Under no circumstances should key points be stated as activities or active in sense.
APPLICATION (Student activities, assignment, homework, practice). For any concept learnt, the teacher would like to see his/her learners put it to practical use. In this column the teacher should think of specific activities that the learners will perform while in the class and Nos. 11, 12, 18 for homework, students will answer comprehension questions after reading the passage on page 35 or their class text book e. t. c. Applications must be designed in order to realise and consolidate concretely the objectives of the lesson. (Tools Equipment, Apparatus, Chalk Board, Chart e. t. c. )
Resource materials for specific content coverage used in scheming are necessary and should be noted down with their relevant pages for ease in reference during lesson planning. References include books, handouts, worksheets, journals, reports, etc. It is necessary for the teacher to indicate the books, their authors and relevant pages. Teaching aids are an integral part of an effective lesson. Aids that the teacher intends to use should be indicated in the scheme of work. Teaching aids are usually in the form of apparatus, equipment, materials and of course the real thing if readily available and appropriate.
The teacher should not indicate a teaching aid which will not be available in class. NOTES Most student teachers forget to include teaching aids in the scheme of work. REMARKS DATE WHEN TAUGHT Remarks in the scheme of work should be made immediately the lesson is over. The teacher is supposed to indicate whether what was planned for the period has been covered, whether there was over planning or failure of lesson and reasons for either case, e. t. c. remarks suggested are meant to help the teacher in his consequent and future planning.
Remarks such as “excellent” “done”, “OK”, “well done”, “satisfactory”, “taught”, etc. ight not be very useful to the teacher. Such remarks as “the lesson was not very well done because of inadequate teaching aids”, or “pupils were able to apply concept learnt in solving problems as evident from supervised practice”, e. t. c. are appropriate. After the remarks, it is necessary to write the date when this lesson was taught.
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The first step to manage time is to work out how much it costs the institution and it can be done in units eg an = 1 unit . The analysis should include project team members salaries, the cost of office space the team occupy, equipment and facilities in use, expenses, administrative support etc. Activity Logs Measuring the status quo Monitoring the way in which you spend your time an activity log is highly effective. It is easy to to believe that you spent all your day working if you work purely from memory .
Job Clarification An effective way of ensuring that you concentrate on the right things is to agree them with your supervisor or project stake holders. Specification A specification is the definition of your project; this is a statement of the problem and not the solution. As the basis for planning of various tasks of a project, specification should be used. These specifications should be specific and clear. Normally, the specifications contain errors, ambiguities and misunderstandings to derail the project and the entire team.
Before embarking upon WBS on vague specification, the project manager must read and revise and ensure that everyone concerned with the project is working with the same understanding. All members must understand what the problem is. The outcome of this deliberation should be a written definition of what is required, by when; and this must be agreed by all involved. The agreement upon a written specification has several benefits * The clarity will reveal misunderstandings The completeness will remove contradictory assumptions.
The rigour of the analysis will expose technical and practical details * The agreement forces all project stakeholders to actually read and think about the details The places to look for errors in a specification are : The holistic persective: The interface : Time Scales : External dependencies They are determined by the project management team during the activity sequence process . It involves a relationship between project and non-project activities such as activities outside the project team’s control (e. . dependence on external sources for deliveries , environmental factors governed by statutes) Resources There is a fundamental formula that ties together the duration of an activity against the amount of work effort required and the resources needed to complete that work within the estimate activity resource process. The type and quantities of material, people, equipment or supplies required to perform each activity is closely co-ordinated with the estimate costs process.
Tool and techniques used are * Expect judgement * Alternative’s analysis * Published estimating data * Bottom –up estimating * Project management software Activity Resource requirements Identifies the types and quantities of resources required for each activity in a work package Determines the estimated resources for each work package by aggregating their requirements like the types and the quantities Will be documented by including basis of estimates and assumptions made .
Project document updates The project documents that may be updated include * Activity list * Activity attributes Work Breakdown Structure Remain on time : establish control There are two key elements to the control of a project * Milestones * Establish means of communication A milestone schedule notes a few key events, called milestones, on a calendar bar chart . Milestones have been defined as events clearly verifiable by other people or requiring approval before proceeding further.
The simple way to construct milestones is to take the timing information from the work breakdown structure and sequence diagram. The second method is to construct more significant milestones . These can be found by identity stages in the development of a project which are recognisable as steps towards final product. Sometimes these are simply the higher levels of your structure; for instance the completion of a market –evaluation phases . Sometimes they cut across many parallel activities. Useful type of milestone when running parallel activities It provides an excellent opportunity for quality checking and for review * They all have a shared goal (the common milestone) * You have something tangible which your team can celebrate and which constitutes a short term goal in a possibly long term project * Their responsibly to (and dependence upon ) each other is emphasised * Each can provide a new (but informed) viewpoint on the others work * You have something tangible which senior management can recognise as progress Communication is your everything Testing and quality assurance
Causal Analysis of the Arab Spring essay help: essay help
Tunisian female municipal officer and her asides who confiscated the fruit and vegetables he was selling from a street stall and slapped his face in the process, set himself on fire and passed away a few days later. As an aftermath of this incident, a huge wave of protests over unemployment and social issues sparked out in Tunisia, forcing then-president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down from his position after 23 years in power.
Following this event, activists and ordinary people started to head out onto streets in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and other Arab sub-regions and societies, demanding democracy, social justices, dignity, and freedom. Ultimately, an unprecedented revolutionary wave of nonviolent and violent demonstrations, protests, riots, and civil wars known as Arab Spring, or many may call it Arab Awakening, has spread across the entire Arab World, overthrowing handfuls of tyrants and authoritarian regimes that, for decades, had been taking control over the area. Behind the actual uprisings were many and long gathering root causes.
For decades, Arab people had faced repression of free speech, human rights abuses, economic mismanagement, corruption, and stifling of political dissent. Social justice and human dignity were also not respected in most countries. Furthermore, this area of 300 million people was producing an unprecedented youth population, with around two-thirds of the total population below 29 years of age. At the same time, this young generation was annoyed by 25 percent unemployment, frustrated by diminished dreams, motivated greater personal freedoms, and equipped with technological tools of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
In addition to that, international influences from Europe and the United States, actors who have long been desiring for the abundant energy supplies, trade and investment regional security in the region, also induced the event in the name of “promoting democracy. ” Looking back to the causes of the Arab Spring, although Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation set fire to the revolution, the actual driving forces behind the revolt were primarily the development of social media and the internal social issues that have been smolderingly existing in the region for decades.
First of all, it is important to mention that even before the happening of Bouazizi’s self-emulation, the Arab World has long been striving for political changes because of the mass unemployment and low living standards of educated class. Unlike most regions, unemployment rates in the SWANNA region are highest amongst the more educated youth. According to Imed Drine in his article “Youth Unemployment in the Arab World: What Do We know? What is the Way Forward? , published by the World Institude for Development Economics Research, youth unemployment rate in the region was about 25 percent, among the highest in the world. The situation is even worse for young women with an unemployment rate of about 40 percent. Compared to other global regions, the region has shown the highest rate of labour force increase over the last three decades; the unemployment rate for young age groups is 40 percent in some countries.
In many Arab countries such as Tunisia and Egypt, it was very usual that university graduates were forced to drive taxis or sell grocery in open stalls to survive, and families with children struggled to provide food and education for their kids. On top of that, there were also drastic gaps between the income of the majority of the population and that of the top elite in most Arabic countries. “Egypt has had a massive income gap throughout Mubarak’s control, which is clearly the root cause of the original uprising. One half of Egyptians live on $2/day or less.
The average per-capita income in the country is just $6,200 and 24% of young people in the Arab region cannot find jobs” (source). In addition, in some Arab sub-regions, large budget deficits were pervasive mainly due to the unnecessary price subsidies on consumer products such as fuel that did not really help the poor but rather favored the affluent population. Other economic issues including poverty, rising food prices, and inflation have also been serious internal issues that eventually led to Arab revolution. According to two Russians researchers, A. Korotayev and J.
Zinkina, in their analysis on Egyptian revolution, Egypt was also one of the most fast growing countries in the world in terms of food prices. This fact had undoubtedly played a role in undermining the Egyptian sociopolitical system. While half of the population survived only on $2 per a day or even less and had to face a huge price inflation, the upper class was flooded with abundant resources. Such gaps in income and social classes are obviously undesirable, if not dangerous, for the stability of a society as they create tensions and tear down the sense of unity in the population.
They certainly set the stage for the uprising to occur, causing a small incident of Bouazizi to become a devastating social event like Arab Spring. Another internal problem that has made a great contribution to people’s discontent and rebellion was the corruption of Arab leaders and their aging dictatorship. The corruption was extremely widespread in Arab world, and economic hardships were unequally distributed. The political system only worked with and responded to the elites and large businesses in an attempt to accumulate enormous sums of money.
Only a small minority of the country actually benefited from this corrupted regime, the rest suffered and was neglected. Nothing could have been done or approved without bribery to the Arab leaders and their relatives. In most cases, whether an investment deal would be closed or not depended on the bribing and one’s connections. Besides the corruption issue, the political system was destabilized due to incompetent and outmoded leaders. “By the end of the 20th century, most Arab dictatorships were utterly bankrupt both ideologically and morally.
When the Arab Spring happened in 2011, Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak had been in power since 1980, Tunisia’s Ben Ali since 1987, while Muammar al-Qaddafi ruled over Libya for 42 years” (source). During the time of rising literacy and shrinking birthrate, instead of replacing the problematic leadership positions with younger, more educated, and innovative leaders, old and stagnant government was preserved, which eventually lead to the overall social and economic decline of the region. There is always the fear of being oppressed by the security services and the lack of political opportunities among the citizens.
Although people remained passive and submitted to the repression of their rulers until the Arab revolution in 2011, needless to say, most of them highly doubted the legitimacy of the aging political systems and their leaders. Their discontent and feelings of injustice with the government was the platform of the revolt and later became the potential source of further social disruption and conflict. In addition to being a counter act to the aging dictatorship, Arab Spring was simultaneously a response to human rights violation. The political freedom of expression of people was limited and there was a shift in power o the police endorsed by the law. This law “ . . . allow[ed] the state to detain individuals and censor and close newspapers more easily and allow[ed] authorities to try civilians in front of military and security courts under certain circumstances” (Sehata:2004). A regular citizen was oppressed, did not have a freedom of speech and was treated poorly by the security services. Even an educated person, as is evident in the case of the graduate student Mohamed Bouazizi, had to endure the same ill-treatment and injustice. Furthermore, the uprising was also a reaction to sexual abuse and domestic violence of women and children.
It attempted to bring equality, political, and social rights for disadvantaged groups, especially for women who were often considered the second-class citizens. Women were a driving force in the protests. “At the time of the revolution, we really observed that women of all social classes, including the lower class, were mobilized. Women stood in defiance of political regimes, and challenged their traditional exclusion from the public sphere” (Bertrand, The Voice of Russia). Women played a crucial role in this revolution since they were active participants who fought for their dignity, economic, political, social, and their children’s rights.
Besides all the internal issues discussed above, it is important to mention that there were also other factors that have contributed to the spread of this phenomena such as the use social networks. A big part of this uprising is intrinsically associated with recent social media and changes in the global social climate. It is very important to take into consideration the fact that social events are more than just susceptible to the conditions of their external environments. The Arab Spring, thus, is not an exception. We are living in an information-age where people interact and exchange ideas at a much higher rate and wider range than ever.
With the inventions of telecommunicational devices, the Internet, global social networks, etc. , it has become just a matter of a blink of an eye for a message to get to its targets. These technological advancements have also changed the way people commune and spend their time. People are becoming more and more inclined to communicate virtually rather than face-to-face. The number of internet users in both Tunisia and Egypt nearly doubled between 2008 and 2009. According the the CIA World Factbook, Egypt ranks 21st in the world in terms of the number of internet users; Tunisia, by contrast, ranks 60th.
Though internet access may not be as strong as, say, in the United States, in these countries it is comparatively cheaper and it is safe to say that a great many people in these countries have internet access of some kind. Also, according to the latest research conducted by the Internet World Statistics, around 90 milion Arab people use the Internet on a day-to-day basis to either look up new information or stay connected with their friends. This number makes up to 40% of the total population. The same research also shows that out of these internet users, 20% are registered on Facebook.
Taking other activities and social networks into consideration, the number would be many times that. As a consequence, these social and behavioral changes have brought about an environment extremely sensitive to word-of-mouth epidemics, and the Arab Spring is one of the benefactors. In countries like Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen, rising action plans such as protests made up of thousands, have been organized through social media such Facebook and Twitter. “We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world,” said one Arab activist.
Activists were able to build extensive social networks and organized political action, thus, social media became a critical part of the toolkit for greater freedom. Furthermore, social networks have also broken the psychological barrier of fear by helping many people to connect and share information about the social uprising. It has given most people in the Arab world the knowledge that they are not alone, that there are others experiencing just as much brutality, just as much hardships, just as much lack of justice. There are numerous number of videos on YouTube where activists speak out their ideas and call for people reactions.
According to Catherine O’Donnell – a writer for the University of Washington – in her article “New Study Quantifies Use of Social Media in Arab Spring”, “During the week before Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, for example, the total rate of tweets from Egypt — and around the world — about political change in that country ballooned from 2,300 a day to 230,000 a day. Videos featuring protest and political commentary went viral – the top 23 videos received nearly 5. 5 million views.
The amount of content produced online by opposition groups, in Facebook and political blogs, increased dramatically. This enormous number not only indicates how popular the Arab Spring is but also implies how important social media are for the Arab Spring. Hussein Amin, professor of mass communications at the American University in Cairo said that social networks “for the first time provided activists with an opportunity to quickly disseminate information while bypassing government restrictions. ” Nowadays, just as much easier for activists to reach their targeted audiences, so too it is for the audiences to learn about new ideas and social events, all thanks to the advents of technologies and the extra amount of time people spend on social networks.
Despite all of the factors above, Arab Spring could have never happened if it was not for Bouazizi’s self-emulation. As mentioned above, there was always the fear of being oppressed by the security services. Before the happening of the incident, although the government did not respect people’s dignity, they remained passive and submitted to the repression of their rulers. Therefore, the bad social conditions in the Arab World and those influences from social media have only been the platform for Arab Spring to spark, and the precipitating cause that triggered the uprising is Bouazizi.
His act symbolized the frustration and desperation of millions in the Arab world and sett into motion a series of revolutions across the Middle East and North Africa. His death has urged people across the region raise their voice, fight for their own rights, and come fearless of the goverment. His was a cry for dignity, justice, and opportunity, which continues to be heard around a region undergoing tumultuous change. His death has not taken people’s anger to a next level but also gathered people who face the same issues with the government together. Thanks to him, in today’s Middle East, people have come to realized that they do matter.
Thanks to him, people in the Middle East has learned to voice their concerns and fight for their rights. Many people are now engaged in what could be a life-long struggle to fight long-standing grievances and take greater control of their lives, all thanks to Bouazizi. His death is like that one extra salt crystal that makes a solid form out of a saturated solution; for decades people had been remaining passive and submit to their tyrants and the next second those aging dictators had to crumble just because of one incident. Nothing would have happened if Bouazizi had not reacted against oppression and a lack of espect. The revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt provides a keen example of how new media can be used to afford people political agency. The movement’s participants innovated with the technology to compose coordinated efforts, compose an identities (using the technologies affordances rather than its prescribed templates), compose quickly and deliberately, and compose messages to change the materiality of where they live. Furthermore, this uprising also reminds people around the world that people do react to social injustice and ill-treatments from the government.
It is also of utmost importance not only for the Arab people but also people from all over the world to honor the sacrifice of Bouazizi as he has initiated the revolution that has awakened people’s power and changed the way governments look at their people. Although we cannot tell whether Arab Spring will have fix those social issues in the Arab world and have a positive impact on the society or not, it is a firm confirmation that with today’s social media, people do and will respond to any kind of social justice.
Hotel and Information Systems english essay help online: english essay help online
It has been accepted for inclusion in Communications of the Association for Information Systems by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contact elibrary@aisnet. org. 102 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 OUTRIGGER HOTELS AND RESORTS: A CASE STUDY Gabriele Piccoli School of Hotel Administration Cornell University gp45@cornell. edu ABSTRACT This case describes the history, strategy, and current information systems infrastructure of a midsize, privately owned hospitality firm.
The case is designed to provide the substantial background information needed to engage successfully in setting direction for IS resources and their use at Outrigger Hotels and Resorts headquartered in Hawaii. It enables students to analyze the firm’s strategy thoroughly and to assess its current use of information systems resources. With this assessment as a starting point, students can develop an appropriate IS vision, IS architecture, and a strategic IS plan for Outrigger Hotels and Resorts.
The case was originally designed to use the process of setting direction for IS resources as described by Martin and colleagues [2005], but is flexible enough to adapt to the structure of other approaches to planning for information systems use. Keywords: IS planning, IS assessment, IS visioning, infrastructure, hospitality. Editor’s Note: A teaching note is available from the author to faculty so requiring it that are listed in the MISRC-ISWorld Faculty Directory. I am involved with every decision that senior management takes.
They look to me for an IS slant to it – whether an IT solution can capitalize on opportunities or eliminate threats. They also expect my team to independently develop an IS strategy that will further the business. Joe Durocher, Senior Vice President & CIO Every manager must have an IT strategy. You can’t delegate to technologists and only worry about your allocated cost or what training your employees need. You must understand how to be master of your own destiny and make IT work best for you. Too many managers still don’t get that. Rob Solomon, Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G.
Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 103 I. INTRODUCTION Outrigger Hotels and Resorts, a mid-size lodging firm focused on leisure travel to the Hawaiian Islands and the South Pacific, uses Information Technology (IT) in numerous aspects of its operations and therefore must carefully engage in the information systems planning process. After analyzing Outrigger’s strategy and assessing the firm’s current use of information systems resources, we can develop an appropriate IS vision, IS architecture, and a strategic IS plan for Outrigger Hotels and Resorts.
On Black Friday, September 13, 1929, Roy C. Kelley arrived in Hawaii with his wife Estelle. An architect by training, Mr. Kelley joined the firm of C. W. Dickey and was responsible for designing many of Honolulu’s landmark buildings, including the main building of the old Halekulani Hotel and the Waikiki Theater on Kalakaua Avenue. Nine years later Kelley set out on his own, building numerous homes, apartment buildings, and hotels on the island of Oahu. In 1963, Kelley took over the land occupied by the old Outrigger Canoe Club.
Outrigger Hotels then became a reality with the mission of bringing the dream of a vacation in Paradise within the reach of the middle-class traveler. Included in the agreement were leases on three Waikiki lots that later became the Outrigger East, Outrigger West, and Coral Reef hotels. The Outrigger Waikiki Hotel was built on the site of the old canoe club, arguably the prime spot on Waikiki beach, in 1967. Throughout the next two decades, Outrigger Hotels Hawaii, as the company was named, continued its expansion in Waikiki.
When in the 1970’s the zoning authority put a cap on new construction in Waikiki, Outrigger began to expand through acquisition rather than construction, ultimately becoming the largest chain in the State of Hawaii, with over 7,000 rooms and a total of 15 properties concentrated in Waikiki. Thanks to its clustered configuration, with all of its hotels located within one square mile, Outrigger was able to maintain a centralized management structure fitting Mr. Kelley’s ‘management by walking around’ style.
In 1989, Outrigger Hotels Hawaii, now under the leadership of Roy Kelley’s son Dr. Richard Kelley, took over management of The Royal Waikoloan Hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii. When hurricane Iniki, heading for Waikiki in 1992, barely missed Honolulu and ravaged the island of Kauai, it provided further impetus for Outrigger’s geographical diversification strategy to and beyond neighboring islands. The firm, expanding into management agreements with third party owners, added properties on Maui and Kauai and ultimately grew to a total of 26 locations in the Hawaiian Islands.
In 1996 the firm made its first international foray, opening the Outrigger Marshall Island Resort on Majuro Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Through partnerships, joint ventures, acquisitions, and new developments the firm continued to grow internationally, adding properties in Guam, Fiji, Tahiti, Australia, and New Zealand. While growing geographically, in 1990 Outrigger Hotels Hawaii began to diversify its product portfolio by adding condominium resorts.
Because of ts geographical and product diversification, in 1995 Outrigger Hotels Hawaii changed its name to Outrigger Hotels and Resorts, and in 1999 re-branded fifteen of its hotels in Waikiki to launch a new hotel brand called OHANA Hotels of Hawaii. We had an identity crisis because the market moved up, we upgraded the onbeach properties where we had higher demand and bought some nice properties in neighboring islands. But we had huge variation in the portfolio—if you stayed at a budget property vs. a beach front property, you’d be very confused as to what an Outrigger was.
President and CEO, David Carey Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli 104 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 Figure 1: Outrigger Properties in Waikiki Figure 2: Outrigger Properties in the Hawaiian Islands Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 105 Figure 3. Properties Managed by Outrigger Hotels and Resorts (International) The on-beach properties became upscale full-service hotels under the Outrigger brand.
The condos, also typically on-beach upscale locations, maintained the Outrigger brand. Conversely, the OHANA brand was positioned to cater to the budget traveler looking for value on off-beach properties. Condominiums represented an increasingly important share of the total portfolio of properties, even though the firm stumbled upon the opportunity that condominiums offered. Condominiums appealed to independent travelers who would do much research and planning on their own. Condominiums were also complex, non-standard products that travel agents and wholesalers found hard to sell.
Because condos were rarely built as business ventures, but rather were designed as primary or vacation homes for the tenants, they offered little office or staging space for management companies to operate in. They also lacked many of the typical hotel services and departments such as food and beverage, room service, laundry, and daily maid service. These difficulties notwithstanding, Outrigger found the condo business appealing because it provided a means for expansion through management contracts without the need to acquire expensive properties.
By 2005, Outrigger was a sizable firm, with about 3,600 employees (of whom about 230 were at corporate headquarters), a portfolio of properties exceeding US $1. 4 billion, and approximate revenues of US $45 million [Hotel On-Line, 2003]. But at the heart of its strategic positioning a commitment remained to providing a ‘sense of place,’ an experience attuned to the culture and the characteristics of the destination, and to avoiding a cookie cutter approach. Our business is really about being a “window” to an experience, not the experience itself.
We are the enabler through which people can engage in the leisure experience they desire. We don’t try to export Hawaii when we go elsewhere, but we do honor the same values in the places we operate hotels and resorts. David Carey Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli 106 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 Outrigger’s senior management believed that its key competencies resided in providing hospitality to guests visiting their properties and marketing those properties successfully through leisure distribution channels.
To complement these basic competencies, Outrigger’s management developed what it believed to be a superior capability to manage in a multicultural environment, including multicultural and multilingual employees and guests. Aided by a turnover rate in the single digits and an average of 25 years of employee tenure with the company, Outrigger managed to be a mostly non-union shop in the heavily unionized Hawaii labor market. We operate properties that have good locations, we have a strong travel distribution network, and our employees really provide hospitality from the heart.
That creates a differentiated product making price less important. David Carey Outrigger was wedded to the success of its destination markets and to the well-being of airlines serving its destinations. If Hawaii does well, so do we. I spend a lot of time working with local tourism authorities to improve the appeal of the destinations we operate in. But airlines can be a bottleneck. We may not have available lift at times when we need it. If the airlines are full or they have decided in their yield model that they are going to only sell their top fares, there is nothing we can do.
From purely the hotels’ perspective, the best thing for us is an airline price war to Hawaii. David Carey III. THE HOTELS AND RESORTS INDUSTRY As the 21st century dawned, the global lodging industry was estimated to exceed $295 billion in sales (about 11% of the world’s economic output) and employed more than 250 million workers [Encyclopedia of Global Industries, 2003]. The leisure travel segment accounted for about 45% of total volume [Horwath International, 2002]. THE HAWAIIAN HOTEL MARKET In the Hawaiian market, which was Outrigger’s traditional stronghold, 2004 data showed performance levels above the average of the global industry.
Being quite isolated from any large population pool, Hawaii was a classic destination market with an exclusive fly-in customer base. The major feeders were U. S. westbound traffic and Japanese eastbound traffic. These markets were thought to yield very high return rates1—estimated by some to be around 50% westbound and over 65% eastbound. This trend made for a very location-savvy customer base. Peculiar to this market was also the trend of multi-island stays, with guests visiting more than one destination during the same trip. Table 1.
Performance of Hawaii Hotel Market Occupancy Avg. Number of rooms Average Daily Rate2 Revenue* * Amounts per available room 72. 1% 706 $198. 41 $78,488 In the hotel business, return rate is used to refer to the percentage of visitors who come back again for more than one visit to the same location. 2 Average Daily Rate (ADR), is the average of all rates charged on a given date for all rooms sold that day. A yearly ADR can be computed by averaging ADRs for all days of the year. 1 Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli
Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 107 PRICING Because the Hawaii and Pacific Rim markets were exclusive destination markets, the use of packages – including air and accommodations – was pervasive. Historically, packages were assembled and sold by wholesalers and tour operators who purchased both air and hotel rooms in bulk and re-marketed them to the traveling public. With the widespread adoption of the Internet, a new type of package was emerging under the leadership of large online travel agencies: dynamic packages.
A dynamic package was one that enabled the guest to choose air, hotel, car rental, and even activities, ticket them independently, and then price them out as a bundle. Dynamic packages were appealing to suppliers because the price of each item was not disclosed, making price comparison difficult and alleviating commoditization fears. They were appealing to prospective travelers because they increased choice and fostered flexibility. Finally, they appealed to online travel agents because they built upon their value proposition—customer choice—and could potentially improve their margins.
COMPETITORS As a mature destination, Hawaii had been entered by many of the larger branded hospitality and resort companies. The largest hospitality firms, such as Marriott International, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, and Starwood, developed a significant presence with eight, five, and eleven properties respectively. But the largest operators in Hawaii were geographically- and leisure-focused players such as Outrigger, ASTON Hotels & Resorts Hawaii (with twenty-eight properties), and Marc Resorts Hawaii (with eleven properties). IV.
OUTRIGGER CUSTOMERS AND THE COMPETITION THE OUTRIGGER HOTELS AND RESORTS CUSTOMERS Outrigger’s original mission was to bring the opportunity for a vacation in Paradise within the reach of middle-class families. As the firm began to diversify its portfolio, the profile of its customers and the competition also changed. The typical guest staying with the premium brand – Outrigger – was often a multigenerational customer with a sense of loyalty to the brand (about 25% of guests were returning to Outrigger) and an annual income exceeding $75,000. Outrigger guests were almost exclusively leisure travelers.
This customer base created seasonality, with winter and summer being the high seasons when properties like the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach reached an ADR of $260 and an overall occupancy around 90%. Our customers are independent-minded and look for an experience that is more regional and attuned to the destination, but still within their comfort zone. They may stay with big brands in their road warrior capacity, but that’s not what they are looking for in a tropical destination. Rob Solomon Table 2. Outrigger’s Portfolio and Sample Competitors Location Properties Rooms Lowest Rate *
Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Waikiki 2 1,383 $160 Starwood Hotels and Resorts Waikiki 4 4,132 $150 Marriott International Waikiki 1 1,297 $209 Hyatt Hotels and Resorts Waikiki 1 1,230 $210 Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Guam & Fiji 2 895 $203 Starwood Hotels and Resorts Guam & Fiji 3 995 $145 Hilton Hotels and Resorts Guam 1 587 $110 *Rates for comparable rooms as they appear on the company website, December 2004, for January 2005 stays Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli 108 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118
Competing for these customers, Outrigger went head-to-head with major brands that enjoyed name recognition amongst the traveling public, a flow of customers redeeming points, available capital, and availability of programs for employees such as discounted travel beyond Hawaii and the Pacific region. In response, Outrigger leveraged its assets: some of the premier locations in the markets in which it competed, strong name recognition, long-term relationships with the travel distribution network, a strategic focus on vacation destinations, a deep local knowledge and community ties, and good employee relations.
THE OHANA HOTELS CUSTOMERS The typical OHANA guest was a value-minded and Hawaii-savvy leisure traveler with income below $100k a year. Typically, OHANA guests had visited Hawaii multiple times, stayed longer than average, and visited more often. Business travel was mainly military personnel and employees of corporations who operated on multiple islands. Groups accounted for less that 10% of OHANA’s overall traffic. We have about 50% return guests. Your first trip you want a beach front hotel, the atmosphere, the ambiance—you want the full Hawaii experience.
When you come more often, you still want the experience, but you look for more value and instead of spending $250-$300 a night for a beachfront you can stay longer offbeach for $70-$80 a night. Chuck Shishido, OHANA Hotels VP of Operations With seasonality similar to that of the full service Outrigger Hotels, OHANA Hotels typically achieved an ADR around $66 and approximate occupancy levels of 75% over the year. A number of small regional chains (such as Marc Resorts and Castle Resorts) and many off-beach independent hotels existed in the Waikiki market.
Pricing for off-beach properties was much harder to manage because of the commodity nature of the hotels not enjoying a premium location. OHANA was the largest operator in Waikiki and the largest Hawaii-owned operator. Table 3. OHANA’s Portfolio and Sample Competitors Location Properties Rooms Lowest Rate * OHANA Waikiki 13 4564 $76 Marc Resorts Waikiki 4 314 $74 Castle Resorts Waikiki 6 N/A $75 * Rates for comparable rooms as they appear on the company website, December 2004, for January stays
CONDOMINIUMS CUSTOMERS Two types of customers typically stayed at the condominiums. On the low end of the $90,000 to $160,000 income bracket were families visiting during school breaks, looking to control expenses, and control their vacation experience. They valued the full kitchen – a standard in every unit – and the two bedrooms and two baths. This assessment was substantiated by the fact that condos had four times as many reservations coming direct from the Internet and tended to recover faster after a soft economy.
On the upper end were ‘newlyweds’ and ‘nearly dead’ couples who liked the privacy and space afforded by a condo. Because of the need to convince individual owners to join the pool of Outrigger managed units, the firm competed with small local management companies and individual owners’ beliefs that they could do a better job alone. This idiosyncrasy of condominium operations amounted to dealing with two customers—the unit owners and the guests. The guests were unaware of the workings of condo operations and looked for the same level of service they would receive at a resort.
On average, a condominium with mostly two bedroom units would achieve an ADR around $175, while properties with mostly studio and one bedroom units would go for around $140. Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 109 MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION Outrigger operated a Central Reservation Office (CRO) in Denver, Colorado with anywhere from 40 to 70 reservationists (FTEs), mainly depending on the volume of business.
A corporate marketing staff of 12 people, allocated about 6% of revenue, was responsible for managing the brand and for going to market. An additional 2% of revenue was used to fund reservation and other distribution costs. Reservations were centralized for all properties in Hawaii; beyond Hawaii reservations were only taken at each property. Outrigger’s executives believed that distribution was a cornerstone of the company’s success, with about 50% of the business coming from wholesalers. Consumer direct (via voice or the Web), travel agents, government and military, and corporate clients made up the rest.
For international properties, the source of business percentage from wholesalers was close to 80% and almost all reservations were faxed to the property. V. OUTRIGGER’S ORGANIZATION Outrigger Hotels and Resorts was a management company wholly owned by a holding corporation called Outrigger Enterprises. Reflecting its real estate development roots, Outrigger Enterprises also owned a real estate ownership company called Outrigger Properties. Figure 4 shows the Outrigger organization. Figure 4. Organization Chart Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli 110
Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 Outrigger Properties wrote and managed real estate contracts with third party owners and supervised the owned assets (accounting for about a third of all properties in the Outrigger portfolio), as well as the development, acquisition, and sale of properties. Outrigger Hotels and Resorts, the operating arm of Outrigger Enterprises, was responsible for the writing of new management contracts, and for overseeing property renovations and operations of the managed hotels, resorts, and condos.
Outrigger Properties generally negotiated a base rent and a 3 percentage of revenue with tenants; revenues from leased space were assigned to the hosting property’s own P&L. Room revenue made up the bulk of each property’s revenue. Income from leased space ranged from as low as 5% in hotels with little retail space to as high as 20% in some of the most appealing locations. Other more marginal revenue was derived from parking, in-room entertainment, telecommunications, and kids’ clubs operations. Outrigger Hotels and Resorts historically maintained a highly centralized organizational structure.
As the firm grew in size and geographical distribution a more distributed structure emerged, but, reflecting its roots, Outrigger Hotels and Resorts remained consolidated where possible. We have centralized services – accounting, IT, finance, engineering, purchasing, special projects – that support all the properties on Oahu, as well as indirectly the neighboring islands. There is also one executive housekeeper in charge of all properties. We run the OHANA Hotels like a 4,200 room distributed hotel. It is very efficient.
Chuck Shishido As the firm expanded internationally it became more decentralized, with resorts in the Pacific Rim working much more like independent operations and organized like traditional resorts. Recognizing the significant advantages offered by its centralized structure, Outrigger was looking at the possibility of integrating its international resorts better. However, distance presented new challenges: We need a reservation solution for Australia, a real-time coordination with a central reservation service. They are operated as individual hotels; the central 800 number today is just switched to the correct hotel.
A centralized system would offer tremendous value because we get drive-in business and substantial potential cross-property traffic. Executive VP and COO Perry Sorenseon, VI. OUTRIGGER IT INFRASTRUCTURE Joe Durocher, the CIO of Outrigger Enterprises, was hired by David Carey in 1986. Mr. Roy Kelly was a hands-on manager. He once told me he hated two things: computers and vice presidents. As the VP of IT, I had two strikes against me. Yet, in 1986 I was brought in to overhaul Outrigger’s IT infrastructure and we built Stellex—our integrated CRS/PMS. At the time all our properties were in Waikiki, within one square mile of each other. Joe Durocher In this type of agreement the landlord receives a fixed payment plus a percentage of the total sales made by the tenant business (e. g. , restaurant, shop). 4 The CRS, Central Reservation System, is the computer system used by a hotel chain to support call center operations and, generally, its web site. The CRS holds chain-wide inventory and allows reservationists to sell room inventory at all the hotels affiliated with the chain.
The PMS, Property Management System, is the “brain” of hotel operations. It is the computer system that is used to manage the inventory of hotel rooms at an individual property. 3 Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 111 Figure 5. Timeline of Major Infrastructure Developments at Outrigger OUTRIGGER’S SOFTWARE Stellex, to which Durocher refers, was introduced in 1987 as a COBOL application that guaranteed complete redundancy and 24 x 365 uptime.
These two properties are particularly important in the hotel business, which depends on being able to make reservations at any time during the day and wants to make sure that its computer system is always operational. For the technically minded, the application ran on a Tandem NonStop platform and a proprietary Enscribe database management system. 5 In 1992, Outrigger introduced its first major update to Stellex, Stellex 2. 0, which ran on a Sun Microsystems UNIX platform and provided revenue management functionality and reservation center support.
Because of its unique need for substantial wholesale interaction, Outrigger engaged Opus, a software company specializing on revenue management systems,6 to build their revenue management module for Stellex 2. 0. Outrigger retained control of Opus’ source code7 and over the years made substantial enhancements, mainly to manage wholesale relationships. Outrigger implemented JD Edwards ERP as the cornerstone of its back-office operations in 1990, years before the ERP craze swept the business world. JD Edwards ran on an IBM AS 400—widely considered to be a mature and stable platform.
The firm felt that its centralized IT infrastructure was a source of competitive advantage. Durocher discussed the trade-offs associated with centralized IT: Decentralizing IT would decrease our capabilities while increasing overall costs. But centralized IT creates friction at times. When a hotel is sold for example, the IT allocation may increase for other properties. 8 Joe Durocher Stellex provided the anchor to which all other operational systems connected, including telephone switches, call accounting, and in-room entertainment. All of the properties in the Hawaiian Islands had access to
Outrigger’s centralized IT systems, served from the Honolulu-based data center, through the firm’s proprietary Wide Area Network. Stellex, for example, was accessed using an ASP model by all the properties in the Hawaiian Islands, the firm’s Denver-based Central Reservation Office, and the Portland, Oregon-based Web servers, thereby greatly simplifying the achievement of single image inventory, disaster recovery, and overall IT management. This configuration enabled the properties to operate with PCs (as few as 12 in a 5 Tandem Computer Systems was bought up by Compaq in 1997.
Compaq, in turn was purchased by HP. Enscribe is still in business in December 2004. 6 Opus was subsequently bought by Micros-Fidelio, the dominant hospitality-focused software company. 7 ‘Source code’ refers to the original, human readable computer program. By owning it, Outrigger could change it as they saw fit. Note that Microsoft, for example, guards its source code jealously so that others can’t change Microsoft’s programs. 8 In many companies, such as Outrigger, IT costs are allocated to users, such as hotels, on an annual basis.
IT cost is relatively fixed and not affected much by the number of units it supports. If a property is sold, the fixed cost allocated to all other properties must therefore go up. Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli 112 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 Figure 6. Outrigger’s IT Infrastructure typical 500-room property) and networking equipment. The Point of Sales (POS) systems9 were not centralized, since Outrigger leased retail and restaurant space. This state of affairs generated some friction at times: The POS is the computer software used to support retail and restaurant operations. It enables operators to keep track of sales and accurately bill customers. Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 113 We offer to interface their POSs to Stellex and pay for interfaces to automate room charges. But many of those POS are old and can’t interface, they must be upgraded first. Restaurants have to write a manual charge voucher and walk it to the front desk for input.
It’s not a popular or efficient way to do it. VP of Property Technology, Allen White Due to the need for local support, the high telecommunication costs to and from Hawaii, and the unacceptable reliability of international networks, Outrigger did not extend this centralized model to its operations in Australia and the Pacific. The properties in Australia and New Zealand, all condominiums, used a highly specialized PMS particularly well suited for their condominium properties and their unique tax code requirements.
None of the properties in Hawaii has a server on property. In the outer regions we have standalone PMS’s and on-property reservations. We don’t even try to keep Stellex in sync, they just open and close. If a date is getting full, they issue a stop-sell. Reservations that are taken centrally are automatically emailed. Joe Durocher APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT Beyond maintaining and upgrading Stellex, Outrigger’s IT professionals engaged in minimal application development—mainly writing customized reports, and configuring and interfacing offthe-shelf applications.
The use of outsourcing was limited to the Web site, developed and hosted by a third party in Portland, Oregon. Yet, in order to maintain the integration of direct channels, Stellex served as the booking engine behind Outrigger’s Web site. A key initiative for Outrigger was the development of electronic interfaces with wholesalers. These interfaces were customdeveloped by the firm’s IT group using XML. 10 With many wholesalers we have real-time electronic interfaces—they can check availability and we get their reservations instantaneously.
Without the interface, if they create a reservation six or three months out, we don’t see it until reporting time, ten days out, when we receive a fax and manually input it. It is virtually impossible to revenue manage like that. Many big brands have great revenue management systems, but don’t have real-time wholesaler data. Moreover, we can write wholesale contracts brand-wide. Joe Durocher Outrigger felt that its electronic interfaces afforded it a competitive advantage and preferential treatment from interface-enabled wholesalers, a relationship that proved particularly important during slow periods or a soft economy.
Electronic interfaces generated substantial efficiencies, including automatic billing and invoicing without human handling, lowering estimated costs for these functions to $0. 75 from an estimated $10 for manually handled ones. But not all wholesalers were able or interested in automating reservation processing. This lack of interest was particularly true for small operations or those for whom Hawaii and the Pacific represented a small percentage of business. The industry is a mess from a connectivity standpoint.
We are fortunate that we have the in-house expertise and the recognition from senior management of how important this is. Even the big companies often don’t understand the conditions for success. The dirty little secret of the travel industry is that the fax machine still rules. Rob Solomon 10 XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. It is a language used to create a protocol enabling computer applications of partnering firms to exchange information easily. Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli 114
Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 I spend 30-40 hours a week working with wholesalers on interfaces. There are many legacy systems out there; the fax is state of the art. We have made great progress with the more advance wholesalers or those that upgraded recently. Alan White Outrigger found the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) XML standards, specifying common message format and common content, of great help. But being able to pick the right partner, and avoid costly failures, remained the major challenge.
While Outrigger felt it had been successful to date, with an estimated 33% of total reservations received electronically through the various channels, it still handled more than half a million faxes a year—about eight hundred a day from its largest wholesaler alone before that wholesaler migrated to the electronic interface. The firm felt that it had been able to capitalize on the use of technology to increase distribution efficiencies in the face of ever rising labor costs. Conversion rates at the Central Reservation Office improved from 20% to 45%-50% with widespread consumer adoption of the Internet.
The firm estimated that as much as 60% of callers had already researched the Outrigger website and made a purchase decision but, as Solomon put it, “had one more question. ” In an effort to provide support right on the website, the firm introduced live chat functionalities and offered email confirmation for significant savings in labor and postage costs. DATA MANAGEMENT In 2001, Outrigger acquired business intelligence software, a data mart, and analytical tools from 11 E. piphany running on a Windows 2000 platform. The data mart held detailed data for three years, enabling analysis down to the individual guest folio.
Data were consolidated afterwards, enabling only aggregate analyses. While E. piphany was a recent purchase, Outrigger had been disciplined in collecting data for some time. We had 10 years of high quality data from Stellex; we are very rigid about data capture standardization like room category, naming conventions, request codes, [and] what goes where. For example, postal and country codes are mandatory fields. Our employees’ long tenure helps, and peer pressure is a great asset— nobody wants to be the one that ruins the value of these reports for all.
Alan White The data collected by Stellex, including source of business, stay information, and consumption, were extracted every night by load programs that scrubbed (i. e. , cleaned) them, and transferred them to the JD Edwards ERP system for accounting and to the E. piphany system for analysis. Feeding historical data and forward looking availability and reservation activity, Outrigger learned to harness the analytical power of E. piphany to do forecasts and generate business intelligence both at the source of business and at guest levels. We want the marketing data. It is stupid to have a treasure trove like that and not use it.
We mine it. We send thank you letters to recurring guests, we can give you history on who visited, how they got here, what in-flight magazine we should hit. We sold a resort once and they figured they would have to hire 3 people to achieve manually what our reports gave them automatically. They even set their rates based on E. piphany forecasts. Alan White The IT group served as custodian of the data, but any user with security clearance had access to E. piphany data though a web interface; the data was used for marketing and operational analysis (e. g. , analysis of call patterns to evaluate the appeal of Voice over IP solutions).
Incorporating the information into daily operations was more challenging. Definitions of technical terms such as Business Intelligence, Data Mart, Data Mining, and many others used throughout this case study can be found free of charge at http://www. whatis. com. 11 Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 115 Outrigger found it hard to justify a frequent guest program—with an average repurchase cycle for returning guests of three years, a once a year purchase was considered very high in Hawaii resort operations.
Speaking about recognition programs, Individual properties have their own customer database and a strong informal recognition system. We haven’t been able to justify the investment technologically to do it brand wide. It would be a natural extension of the recognition we give our return guests, but it must be cost-effective. Perry Sorenson If a guest did not tell us he is returning when making the reservation, our current system does not have a database with guest history. Many times we recognize our frequent return guests only at the door, or during check in at the front desk.
We have special programs (e. g. , for honeymooners, wedding anniversaries), but we need to know their history to appropriately acknowledge these returning guests. VP of Operations for Outrigger’s Waikiki Beachfront Hotels Kimberly Agas, a 20 year veteran with the company, IT STAFFING AND ORGANIZATION Outrigger’s IT staff consisted of 26 full time employees. Of these, 4 data entry operators and 3 developers were housed in a separate limited liability company to help Outrigger take advantage of tax incentives offered by the state of Hawaii.
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The Stoning of Soraya, a tragic movie based on true events. The movie refers to an undercover French journalist who is stranded in a remote Iranian village and is soon approached by Zahra, a persistent local. She convinces him to follow her to the courtyard where she reveals to him that just the previous day, she witnessed the fate of her niece, Soraya. Soraya was a kind-hearted, innocent woman who was married to a cruel, hateful adulterer.
When he requested for a divorce in order to marry a 14-year-old girl, Soraya boldly refused leading her husband to conspire against her, falsely accusing her of adultery and infidelity, which carries an unimaginable penalty for women. Through all the scheming, lies and deceit, Soraya and Zahra desperately try to prove Soraya’s innocence. However since her husband turned the whole village against her, this failed. A tribunal was called to seal Soraya’s fate and she was declared guilty, resulting in her being stoned by a mob that included her father.
This movie isn’t a tragedy it is tragic. The tragic nature of the film is represented through there being no series of events that Soraya could’ve controlled and made her deserve this unjust and horrific treatment, the whole situation was manipulated and she was framed. Despite the fact that Soraya constantly praised and loved her unkind husband and didn’t nothing bad by him, she didn’t receive any affection in return and was treated harshly. Soraya endured daily-undeserved ordeals at the hands of her husband and two sons.
This made Soraya feel unloved, unwanted and trapped in a world of hate, which is the last thing a person of her character is worthy of feeling. However she still managed to keep a brave face on and maintain her loving nature. Her husband being vindictive and encouraging the idea of stoning Soraya for his selfish reasons is what lead to her demise. No additional factor that she could’ve controlled, contributed to this murder, as Soraya was a very respectful, loyal and humble woman who would never cheat.
This signifies that she did not bring this horrible occurrence upon herself; it was simply caused by other influences. This outlines the tragic nature of the film. What I’ve come to understand about tragic nature through this film is that it has a profound impact on the audience causing them to feel devastated and creating an aura of immense sadness. This movie was touching and after watching it, I felt melancholy and horrified.
Witnessing an innocent woman being disowned by her family and viciously stoned to death really moved me and made me despise the men of that village. Each time I watch this movie I feel overwhelmed, as I am suddenly striked with powerful emotions like fury and feelings of grief. The stoning of Soraya scared me as I came to the realization that adultery, which happens on a daily basis in this country, is unforgivable in Middle Eastern countries, and the punishment for committing this act is brutal. Thank you.
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Hamlet’s confusion and feeling of honor leads him to swear in behalf of his dead father to revenge on the present king. Shakespeare starts the play by bombarding Hamlet’s thinking process and leaving him with tons of weights on his shoulders. The whole aspect of the play revolves around character’s vows to fulfill their honor. The idea of honor in this play is portrayed far more advanced than any other Shakespearean play. Reta. A Terry is an author of “Vows to the Blackest Devil”: Hamlet and the Evolving code of honor in early modern England.
She agrees that honor is substantial and goes another level with this idea. She diagrams in which Shakespeare used characters of Hamlet, Laertes, and Horatio to demonstrate the England’s notion of honor switching to the chivalric code of the medieval period’s idea of honor. She concludes that the shift of honor or the evolution of honor was visible in Hamlet. The early England’s notion of honor described by Terry is promise. Men were considered honorable simply by right of birth and involved forever loyalty to one’s lord.
Honor simply gave its holder dignity and status of a true honorable man, and this was categorized as the most important feature in a man. However during the Renaissance period, there was a major shift in the beliefs of honor. Terry said, “One of the most complex changes in the code of honor was a move from an external code to an internalized concept of what it is to be an honorable man. ” (Terry 1071) The involvement of blood and lineage stopped coming in to play and in every situation, men behaved to please both “their state and their god. (1071) The modern code of honor is heavily affected by religious affair and needs to satisfy god and one’s loyalty.
Hamlet, the protagonist of the play is caught in an ambiguous world, the pressure between the old and the new code of honor leads him to become mad and think of unthinkable ideas. Horatio is Hamlet’s loyal friend who studied at the University of Wittenberg together. Horatio is a good example of early England’s notion of honor. Horatio was one of the first couple of people to see the ghost of Old Hamlet. As an Elizabethan, he does not believe in ghosts of any kind, but he is well educated to be convinced with facts by others.
The guards of Denmark saw the apparition first and Horatio takes action by keeping it a secret and only telling Hamlet, his very close friend. After Hamlet talks to the ghost of Old Hamlet, Horatio makes two significant promises to Hamlet. Hamlet makes him swear to not tell anyone what they saw and tells Horatio to cope with him when Hamlet pretends to be crazy. Horatio willingly swears saying, “Not I my lord, by heaven” (I. i. 5) and swears the second time by saying, “Ay by heaven, my lord” (I. i. 5). These actions by Horatio are more of a Roman code of honor that requires trust and obedience to the lord.
Horatio declares under an oath and keeps his code of honor until the end. Horatio first proves his loyalty in Act III when Hamlet acts up in front of Claudius. Horatio was able to say under control and allowed Hamlet to accomplish what he wanted to do. At the end of the play, his loyalty is clearly proven to Hamlet. In Act 5 scene ii, Horatio offers to commit suicide when his endeared Hamlet falls on the ground dying. This action is the pivotal point behind Terry’s opinion on code of honor. As a true Elizabethan, he lives by his words and dies by his words.
It is completely against Christian belief in taking one’s own life, for they will be sent straight to hell. However, his definition of honor has been broken through the death of his friend and he isn’t afraid to take his own life. Laertes, similar to Hamlet lost his father and seeks to avenge his father’s death. Revenge is an act of an old honor code, but what’s interesting about Laertes is that he never makes a public promise to kill the killer of his father. Laertes’ passionate and quick actions make him more difficult to depict and more interesting to observe.
His angry willingness to avenge his father and his sister can label his honor to a more medieval chivalric code, but he never swears his revenge. Terry states that Laertes rejected the modern code of honor for the sake of his father. (1079) Laertes says, “To hell allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil! …. e reveng’d most thoroughly for my father. ” (IV. v. 132-7). He is in midst of choosing between the two different codes of honor. The Play begins with Hamlet finding about the true reason behind his father’s death through an apparition of the king.
The king is Hamlet’s father). Claudius is the new king of Denmark and he was Hamlet’s uncle until he married Hamlet’s widowed mother to become his step father. Hamlet’s life can’t go any more wrong than it is now. His beloved father and mother have been taken away by one man that he trusted at one point in his life. He was damaged psychologically since the beginning of the play and even leads him to contemplate between life and death. His soliloquy in Act 3 states his troubled thinking and his consideration of committing suicide. To be or not to be that is the question”.
Abiding the modern code of honor, Hamlet wishes to end all his misery by taking his own life. However, the fact that Hamlet swore to his dead father to seek revenge for him may be reason why he is still assaying to live and this shows a bit of medieval chivalric code of honor. In act III Hamlet find Claudius praying in his room by himself. He sees this as a perfect opportunity and pursues to end Claudius’ life. However, contemplated by the modern code of honor he stops himself from doing so. How his audit stands, who knows, save heaven? ” (III. iv. 82) Hamlet believed that ending Claudius’ life during his prayer will send him to heaven and that is the last thing he wanted to happen. Hamlet is struck and caught in a changing system of honor during the most important scene of the play. According to Terry, “One must not forget that if Hamlet had taken revenge immediately as required by the medieval code of honor, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Ophelia, Gertrude, Polonius, Laertes, and perhaps even hamlet himself would have survived the events of the drama. (Terry 1084)
Hamlet had the chance to keep his promise to his dead father’s ghost and fulfill his code of honor, but the teachings of Christianity has spoiled his moment. Hamlet is approaching the stage of adolescent and he is in great need of a father figure. The loss of his beloved father has changed Hamlet for good. Based on Freud’s opinion, Hamlet represents a case of oedipal conflict. Ernest Jones said, “Like all male children, Hamlet must have experienced jealousy of his father’s claim on his mother’s love. ” (Anna 142) The old Hamlet has been dead for good when the ghost appeared in front of Hamlet.
Hamlet’s jealousy may have driven him mad enough to talk to something that doesn’t exist and create reasons to kill the new king. Hamlet is almost certain about seeing old Hamlet’s ghost and hearing about the new truth that only now Hamlet, old Hamlet, and Claudius knows. Hamlet even makes a promise to him to slay the new king. Then why is Hamlet so obsessed over obtaining definitive proof of Claudius’s guilt? “The play’s the thing,” he declares, “wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king” (II. ii. 581–582). Once Hamlet sees the unusual reaction of Claudius during the play, Hamlet gets over excited and is determined to kill Claudius.
If he was following any code of honor, he should not doubt his source and should simply do what he is told to do. Ironically, oedipal conflict itself might be the reason behind the delay of the assassination. According to Bynum, “For Freud, Hamlet cannot kill his uncle because of these Oedipal strivings; because he identifies unconsciously with his uncle as his father” (Bynum 395) Hamlet can’t allow his mother to experience another loss. The psychological impact that Hamlet is facing is far greater than he can sustain himself. Nobody else besides Hamlet has talked to the ghost, therefore we can’t justify that the ghost is real and true.
Even if the apparition of the Old Hamlet is real, the honor for one’s blood coincides with his belief in Christianity. The evolution of these two contradicting code of honor puts Hamlet to madness. The code of honor is extra hard for Hamlet because of his widely known public figure. He is the next in line to throne and honor is even more important to him than others. He is the prince of Denmark and his actions will determine if his people will trust him or not. The shift from chivalric code of medieval period to a modern code of honor through out the play is visible, but not obvious.
Yet both kind of code of honor does exist and troubles Hamlet with his decision making; it may even be the reason behind Hamlet’s madness. Precise 1. “Vows to the Blackest Devil”: Hamlet and the Evolving Code of Honor in early modern England is written by Reta A. Terry in 1999. The author intends to prove that the evolution of code of honor can be seen in the work of Shakespeare’s play The Hamlet. The author supports her claim by describing promises made by three different characters in The Hamlet. They are Horatio, Laertes, and Hamlet. This critical writing by Terry is the base of this formal essay.
The contradictions of two honor codes mentioned by Terry will be used to support the possibility of Hamlet’s madness. 2. “A Man to Double Business Bound” is written by Anna K. Nardo in 1983. Nardo’s intend is to prove that Hamlet and Ophelia are placed in double bind situation and they end up in tragedy simply trying to escape their faith. Nardo uses many psychoanalytic critics to support her claim. One of the psychoanalytic critic named Freud points out an interesting observation about Hamlet.
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Using published reports, select two CEOs who have recently made public statements regarding a major change in their firm’s strategy. Discuss how the successful implementation of such strategies requires changes in the firm’s primary and support activities. 2. Select a firm that competes in an industry in which you are interested. Drawing upon published financial reports, complete a financial ratio analysis. Based on changes over time and a comparison with industry norms, evaluate the firm’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of its financial position. . How might exemplary human resource practices enhance and strengthen a firm’s value-chain activities?
Using the Internet, look up your university or college. What are some of its key value-creating activities that provide competitive advantages? Why? 1. It was Mark Thompson, the former B. B. C. boss who has alreadyweathered an international media scandal and a closely-watched round of newsroom downsizing since becoming the Times Company’s new chief executive in November. I took this job not just because I’ve been a devoted user of The New York Times for many years, but because I believe it’s one of a handful of global news brands that can not just survive, but thrive in this digital era,” he said in the first public comments about his new gig. But if Times watchers were expecting any big newsmaking revelations about the future of the company and its venerable flagship, they probably hung up the phone feeling a bit disappointed.
Thompson, who in his role as successor to Janet Robinson will be expected to steer the Times’ ongoing digital expansion in the face of sinking print revenues, said he’s already at work on a “new strategy for the company. ” The specifics however are scarce. He mentioned building up the Times’ portfolio of paid digital products and developing its nascent conference business, as well as ramping up mobile and video efforts while growing internationally. (Nothing we haven’t already heard. ) But that’s about it. “I’ll have much more to say to you … on our next earnings call in April,” he said.
In the meantime, we can assume Thompson is staying the course that chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. , in his temporary role as interim C. E. O. , spent most of 2012 laying out for him: A consolidation of resources around the Times’ core editorial brand as the mothership becomes smaller and more focused. Financially, the Times Company is already beginning to taste the fruits of those efforts. It reported improved fourth-quarter results today, with net income up 200 percent to $176. 9 million from the same period a year earlier.
Executives attributed the improvement largely to the sale of About. om, the online resource unloaded by the Times Company in September. Previously, the company had sold off its group of more than a dozen regional newspapers. (It still owns The Boston Globe and The International Herald Tribune. ) But there was another bit of sunshine in today’s earnings report: 640,000 paid digital subscribers to theTimes and the IHT, an increase of 13 percent since the end of the previous quarter. “It’s an absolute key focus,” said Thompson of the digital strategy, which is so far seen as a thriving experiment in getting readers to pay for content that used to be free.
In 2012, money derived from circulation surpassed that of advertising for the first time thanks to the addition of those paying to read the Times and its affiliated publications on web browsers and mobile devices like smart-phones and tablets. Fourth-quarter circulation revenues were up 16. 1 percent. Asked on the call whether the Times might start charging more for digital subcriptions, Denise Warren, general manager of nytimes. com, said the company was “evaluating the price structure … but we’ve made no decisions at this time. She also said they’re exploring both a premium digital product and an entry-level one. (Perhaps the college-friendly “NYT Junior” that Nat Ives of Ad Age caught wind of? )
If successful, such initatives will help mitigate the reality that print advertising revenues, long the key to a newspaper’s balance sheet, are declining at a steady clip—5. 6 percent year-over-year in the case of theTimes’ fourth quarter. The Times fiscal year for 2012, though, had 53 weeks compared to 2011, and that extra week fell in the fourth quarter. Excluding the additional week,” according to the earnings release, “estimated print and digital advertising revenues decreased 10. 2 percent and 1. 7 percent, respectively, largely due to the uneven economic environment, ongoing secular trends and an increasingly complex and fragmented digital advertising marketplace. ” Analysts don’t expect print fortunes to improve this year as buyers, particularly the types of tony national brands that contribute the lion’s share of Times advertising dollars, continue moving to other platforms. The big picture for me is how well they can be a national and a global ad player,” said Ken Doctor, a media analyst with Outsell, in an interview with Capital earlier this week.
“That’s the question for Mark Thompson. ” On the bright side, even as the Times trims its newroom and other areas in an effort to save money (it recently negotiated more than 20 buyouts and a handful of layoffs), it has a long way to go before its journalistic muscles atrophy to the extent of papers like The Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun. “In short, their newsroom is still the gold standard,” said Doctor. They still have more than 900 people. Even at 700, not that we want to think of them losing a couple hundred more people, they would still be far and away a major news source. ” (Doctor’s reaction to today’s results, by the way: “Unsteady as she goes. … The Times, at the beginning of 2013, isn’t being pushed backward; it’s just not making much forward progress. “) Ed Atorino, an analyst with Benchmark, thinks there’s still more fat to trim.
“They have no choice,” he told Capital. “I understand they have a wonderful staff and Arthur Sulzberger Jr. s trying to ease the pain, but sooner or later they’re gonna have to fess up. ” Atorino’s advice for Thompson: “He’s gotta get tough and cut costs. ” Thompson, for his part, seems open to that. “We believe some cost-cutting is inevitable and necessary,” he said in his prepared remarks, adding a caveat that may lend some comfort to the reporters and editors at 620 Eighth Avenue: “We will work hard to maintain a sizeable and robust newsgathering operation. ” sks customers to “come back” to the department store, alluding to heavy losses suffered from sweeping changes made by ousted CEO and former Apple executive Ron Johnson.
The 30-second spot, posted to the company’s Facebook and YouTube pages, atones for the recent changes believed to be the reason for a steep decline in sales, which resulted in a $12. 99 billion year-over-year decline in revenue for fiscal 2012. During his tenure at JCPenney, Johnson, who was the driving force behind Apple’s hugely successful brick-and-mortar Apple Store retail chain, made a number of substantial tweaks to the department store’s business model. The initiatives, such as bans on sale pricing aut of cash needed to fund its overhaul. One of the big mistakes was perhaps too much change too quickly without adequate testing on what the impact would be,” said Bill Ackman, the principal shareholder of JCPenney’s and the driving force behind Johnson’s recruitment. After staunchly backing Johnson through the early setbacks, he now conceded that the turnaround effort had been “very close to a disaster. ” Ackman regularly said that they were willing to wait for the turnaround to start getting traction. But the bleeding was too much and now Johnson is gone. Back to business as usual? What now?
JCPenney’s board has reinstated the previous CEO, Myron Ullman. Hedge-fund manager David Tawil likened the change to “Elon Musk announcing that Tesla (the maker of electric cars) is changing gears and will now focus on gas-powered vehicles”. And hiring the previ The company’s aggressive discount practices had not only cut into pricing power, they had also diminished the brand in consumers’ eyes. Tired old stores didn’t help. Then, as now, rivals like Macy’s were taking away Penney’s business. The previous strategy was a losing proposition in 2011 and it’s still a losing proposition today.
The immediate priority for JCPenney is survival. It has to stop the bleeding and have enough financial room to make some choices. Going back to what it was doing before, as some analysts suggest, is not a viable option. What other strategic options are available? Shopping as cheap fun? One possible strategic option would be to transform JCPenney into an organization where shopping is cheap and fun: For instance, Carol B. Phillips, marketing instructor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, says: “JCP’s CEO Ron Johnson was … clueless about what makes shopping fun for women.
It’s the thrill of the hunt, not the buying. If it was just about buying, we’d all go to Amazon and take what was offered… women love to shop and deals are what make the game worth playing. Customer insights don’t have to be deep and mysterious to be powerful. Sometimes they are as obvious as ‘shopping is fun. ’ It took billions of dollars of lost sales, lost market cap and over a year of embarrassing ams have joined Yahoo’s mobile organizations in the Sunnyvale and New York offices, the latter of which is run by Robbie Stein, who headed up Stamped.
While the startups have a range of expertise and backgrounds, the broader goal is to help improve Yahoo’s products. Meyer wants to move toward her ultimate goal of making Yahoo part of our everyday routines again by building mobile-friendly services that are more personalized to users. “We have all of the content that people want on their phone, we have these daily habits,” Mayer said in an interview with Bloomberg Television earlier this year.
Marketing Plan of Lipton Ice Tea essay help 123: essay help 123
An aromatic, uplifting beverage savored for centuries around the world from India and Ireland to the U. S. A. , tea was once an expensive drink, enjoyed exclusively by the wealthy. And with early packaging and transportation issues, it was also variable in quality and taste. In 1880, 40-year-old, Glasgow-born entrepreneur and innovator Sir Thomas Lipton envisioned an opportunity to make tea universally accessible with guaranteed quality at acceptable prices.
He began by purchasing tea estates in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, and arranged packaging and shipping at low costs to sell his teas directly from the tea garden to the tea pot. In 1893, he established the Thomas J Lipton Co. , a tea packing company with its headquarters and factory in Hoboken, New Jersey. Lipton Distribution Around World : Lipton teas were an immediate success in the United States and the United Kingdom. In recognition of his exceptional contribution, Thomas Lipton was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1898, and became Sir Thomas Lipton at the age of forty-eight.
Lipton is now the world’s leading tea brand, sold in more than 150 countries. Goal : make it more convenient, accessible and health-appealing to consumers. Brand Analysis and Positioning Lipton ice tea is produced to make it great tasting and good… Product : ICE TEA WITH RED FRUITS Filled to the brim with mouth watering red fruit flavour and Ice Tea goodness. http://www. studymode. com/essays/Marketing-Plan-Of-Lipton-Ice-Tea-233362. html Media Plan: Lipton Ice Tea Industry Analysis In 2005, the tea industry reached the $1. billion category and it is expected to continue growing indefinitely (Mintel 2005).
Market analysts believe the tea industry will continue to boom and is not expected to reach saturation level in the near future. The favorable movement in the tea industry can be attributed to two major factors: a) consumers need for convenience and time-saving services; and b) the positive press given to tea. American lifestyle and work habits have made convenience a necessity. As employers demand for productivity from their employees, consumers are more pressed for time.
In addition, the shaky economy has made Americans fear for their jobs; thus, any product that can fill the consumers’ need for convenience and speed are almost automatically embraced into the American lifestyle (Mintel 2005). For the last decade, the health benefits of tea have gained wide coverage in the media. Studies continue to show the beneficial properties of teas, with health benefits ranging from lower cholesterol levels to improve arterial health and decreasing chance of cancer. This positive press has definitely catapulted the demand for tea (Mintel 2005).
Both the need for convenience and positive press on tea have spurred an increase in sales of tea products, specifically ready-to-drink (RTD) teas sold in single-serve containers (Mintel 2005). Recognizing this trend, various companies in the tea industry have come up with innovative products to take advantage of the booming market for ready-to-drink teas. Lipton tea, one of the global leaders in refreshment brands, launched new products to meet the growing the need for ready-to drink teas and introduced innovative product line to capture the healthconscious market.
The Importance of Lectures and How Students Value and Perceive Lectures buy essay help: buy essay help
The importance of lectures and how students value and perceive lectures Umea University, Research Methodology on Business Administration Group 9 Introduction3 Research background3 Research topic4 Choice of subject4 Research purpose4 Limitations5 Theoretical framework6 Introduction6 Learning Orientations and Theories6 Previous research7 Theory Conclusion9 Criticism of sources10 Methodology11 Epistemology and Ontology11 Research Strategy12 Preconceptions and values12 Research design13 Collection of data13 Analyzing of data14 Truth criteria14
Ethical considerations15 Results16 Analysis19 Discussion21 Conclusion22 Reference list23 Introduction Research background The articles we have found online have been conducted in other countries where the student- and/or teacher mentality might differ from their Swedish counterparts. Most of the previous research in this area tends to be focused on how lectures are not an effective tool for student learning (Buckles & McMahon, 1971, p. 141) or focusing on the fact that students are not attending lectures (Massingham & Herrington, 2006, p. 4).
The difference between their studies and ours is that our research will focus more on what students actually gain, in terms of knowledge, from lectures and how they perceive the value in attending them. This is because it is more or less a proven fact that you do not gain a lot of knowledge from attending lectures (Buckles & McMahon, 1971, p. 141), (Dunn. 2002), (Smith. 2003, 1999b) and a lot of students do not attend them (Massingham & Herrington, 2006, p. 84).
The change in technology has also changed the way teachers teach and students learn. Years ago, students had to attend lectures in order to obtain important notes and not missing out on important information. Some students may feel that none of this is necessary nowadays they can obtain most of the material presented during lectures as they are always posted online, and certain universities offer their students audio recordings of lectures (Massingham, Herrington, 2006, p. 85).
A problem can arise when teachers see their lectures as their primary education tool, they tend to view lecture slides and exercises as supplements to those lectures, whereas students tend to believe those supplements can be substitutes for attending the actual lectures. This brings students to question whether or not it is worthwhile going to campus at all. We believe students are not always aware of what they are missing out on when they skip lectures, which is an interesting aspect that we are trying to capture when asking what benefits students perceive they gain from lecture attendance.
Courses at university level tend to focus on lectures as its primary teaching technique, this is in contrast with theories such as Sensory stimulation and Cognitive orientation that shows that lectures are one of the more ineffective teaching forms (Dunn. 2002), (Smith. 1999b). What then, is the reason for the central position lectures and lecture attendance has in university education? Our research aim is to find out what students can hope to gain by attending lectures and how they perceive those benefits and if ttending lectures are important for student learning. It has to be acknowledged that there is a difference in teaching styles today compared to thirty years ago, what have changed dramatically is that education has changed from something being valuable in its own right to merely a means to an end.
Herrington and Massingham has found that students today are no longer applying to courses in the thirst for knowledge but rather as an uninteresting way to gain a proper qualification and then a good job. Massingham, Herrington, 2006, p. 84). In recent times teaching styles has changed from a constructivist approach, that teachers facilitate and guide the process and students create their own meaning of information to an instructivist approach, which implies that teachers conduct a passive teaching style in that students receive information and individually process the information through repeated practice and learn the “right” answer and regurgitate someone else’s meaning.
Students today might simply be bored by the instructivist teaching style they face in many universities, and that they may be better off with a constructivist approach that enables them to understand new information in increased depth and detail (Massingham, Herrington, 2006, p. 84). Whether or not lectures are done in a instructivist or constructivist way does not necessarily mean that the whole course outlay is done in that manner, however, our research is solely focused on lectures, making the chosen approach used in lectures reflect in part how students perceive those lectures and what they gain from them.
Research topic This thesis explores the attitude students at the International Business Program has regarding lectures and gives an understanding on how they perceive the relevance of lecture attendance and its benefits. Our research question will be: ”Are lectures important for students to gain new knowledge? How do students perceive the benefits of attending lectures? We want to investigate if lectures are an important source of gaining knowledge of the subject at hand, what benefits lectures bring to students and how students perceive those benefits. We will focus on a quantitative survey with questions egarding the benefits of lectures that students are attending and if they believe it has any significance of their academic performance.
We will then gather the material, evaluate it and develop a conclusion. Choice of subject We all have academic backgrounds and have studied almost four semesters here at Umea University. We have felt that some of the lectures we attended have not been really constructive or rewarded us with significant knowledge. This has spurred our interest in the actual importance of lecture attendance and what students gain from attending them.
We will analyse published reports of previous studies on subjects such as students’ attitudes on attendance, reasons for absenteeism and student learning styles to verify our own theoretical assumption. We will conduct a survey through the internet to first- and second year students in the International Business Program regarding their individual attendance rates and reasons for attending- and missing class. The data collected will be evaluated and analysed and we will then form a conclusion where we can establish the main reasons for missing class and what value students’ see in lectures.
We hope this can benefit lecturers to better pinpoint what student needs they should focus on fulfilling and what they can do to increase the motivational factors driving students’ to feel they need to attend class. Research purpose We all have academic backgrounds and have studied almost four semesters here at Umea University. We have felt that some of the lectures we attended have not been really constructive or rewarded us with significant knowledge. This has spurred our interest in the actual importance of lecture attendance and what students gain from attending them.
We will analyse published reports of previous studies on subjects such as students’ attitudes on attendance, reasons for absenteeism and student learning styles to verify our own theoretical assumption. We will conduct a survey through the internet to first- and second year students in the International Business Program regarding their individual attendance rates and reasons for attending- and missing class. The data collected will be evaluated and analysed and we will then form a conclusion where we can establish the main reasons for missing class and what value students’ see in lectures.
We hope this can benefit lecturers to better pinpoint what student needs they should focus on fulfilling and what they can do to increase the motivational factors driving students’ to feel they need to attend class. Limitations There are certain limitations to our research, amongst them is the fact that courses have different layouts with variations in both the quality and quantity of its lectures. Lectures are mandatory in certain courses and/or involve practical exercises which further influence students attendance.
These limitations are somewhat dampened by our choice of sending the survey solely to IBP students in the first and second year, as they are studying the same programme. An aspect that can limit our research is the fact that the quality of lecturers’ ability to capture the audience, hold interesting lectures and the teaching style they employ, will greatly influence what students learn from the lecture and what benefits they perceive that they gain from attending it. This has the potential of causing variations in the answers of our respondent and is, again, one of the reasons we have chosen IBP students for our survey.
Theoretical framework Introduction There are certain limitations to our research, amongst them is the fact that courses have different layouts with variations in both the quality and quantity of its lectures. Lectures are mandatory in certain courses and/or involve practical exercises which further influence students attendance. These limitations are somewhat dampened by our choice of sending the survey solely to IBP students in the first and second year, as they are studying the same programme.
An aspect that can limit our research is the fact that the quality of lecturers’ ability to capture the audience, hold interesting lectures and the teaching style they employ, will greatly influence what students learn from the lecture and what benefits they perceive that they gain from attending it. This has the potential of causing variations in the answers of our respondent and is, again, one of the reasons we have chosen IBP students for our survey. Learning Orientations and Theories
To start of this theory part we will take a look at some of the theories brought up in Lee Dunn “Learning and Teaching Briefing Papers Series” (2002). The Sensory stimulation theory states that learning occurs when the senses are stimulated and that stimulating multiple senses will yield greater learning outcome (Dunn. 2002). These senses are of differing importance when it comes to acquiring knowledge, listed in the order of how much knowledge an adult have gained from them they are; seeing/sight 75%, hearing 13% and taste, touch and smell 12% (Dunn. 2002).
Straight away we can see that sight is by far the most important sense to stimulate and hearing ending up on a second place with much less importance when looking at the percentage. According to this it is reasonable to believe that reading would be a great source for gaining new knowledge since sight will be the dominant sense, however as stated in the theory activating multiple senses at once will be even more effective. Group exercise/problem solutions would by this reasoning be the most effective tool since it will not only activate the sight sense but also hearing when undertaken as a discussion when solving them.
Lectures on the other hand start off lacking by using hearing as its dominant sense, however most lecturers do try to activate the seeing sense as well with the aid of powerpoint slides and overhead projectors, but according to this theory it is reasonable to state that lectures are not an especially effective learning outlet. In his work “Learning theory” (2003) M. K. Smith brings up four orientations to learning; behavioral, cognitive, humanistic and social/situational. We will analyze these orientations in the light of their relevance and significance when it comes to the importance of lectures and what students gain from those lectures.
It must be mentioned that the Reinforcement theory and Cognitive-Gestalt approaches from Lee Dunn’s work is practically the same as the behaviourist and cognitive orientations from M. K. Smith’s work, they are based on the same psychological/theoretical foundations and they will be analyzed later in the text. The behaviourist orientation or Reinforcement theory focus on changing behaviour in a desired way through reinforcements and the environment and it is based on the behavioural school of psychology (Smith. 1999a)(Dunn. 002). Learning can be defined as a change in behaviour (Smith. 2003), this concept by itself is somewhat vague but through lectures the teacher can influence how we behave and by extension what we learn.
For example just by attending all lectures student behaviour has been changed (or maintained), by encouraging or discouraging (which is reinforcements) certain behaviour such as; literature reading, class participation and exercise work, the lecturer changes the way students study and the way they behave (Dunn. 002). Changing behaviour and creating an environment suitable for learning is something that is best done in personal interaction. This indicates that lectures are a good tool for achieving the goals of a behaviourist orientation. Changing the students? behaviour and thereby enabling them to learn is something that would make lectures important and by extension create value in attending them. The cognitive orientation focus on act/process of knowing, internal mental processes, perception and insights (Smith. 1999b).
This cognitive approach to learning is focused on problem/exercise solving, processing that information and other insights (Dunn. 2002). This is something that is not suitable for a crowded lecture environment, exercise and problem solutions and other internal mental contemplations can of course be done later after lectures and at home, however this approach still does not favour lectures as a important learning tool. The humanistic orientation focus on self fulfillment and actualization and the idea that persons study to improve themselves and reach their potential (Smith. 1999c).
The act of attending lectures is something that can make a student feel like they have achieved something during the day, creating encouragement for further lecture attendance and studies. This sense of self fulfillment is something that is not exclusive to lectures and lecture attendance, indeed any hard day’s work in studies, be it writing or reading is bound to manifest in a feeling of self fulfillment. The social/situational orientation focus on interactions between people and social observations and the fact that people learn by observing others and participating in social activities (Smith. 999d). In the aspect of lectures and the benefits of attending them, this orientation is of considerable importance, since lectures is the main instance for social gatherings in an educational context. We will use these learning orientations and the Sensory stimulation theory to analyze the results of our survey, we believe that these orientations/theories will be valuable tools for understanding and analysing the students’ perception of lectures and the value it brings them. These orientations/theories will also help us analyse and explain contradictions that might appear in our research.
Previous research Regarding the subject of lectures and learning outcome, Buckles and McMahon states in their article that ”lectures which cover only the assigned reading material are of no marginal value to students’ learning ”. Their research explores the value of lectures in elementary economics (microeconomic theory in specific) and conducted an experiment to either confirm or reject their given hypothesis stating that lectures indeed did not significantly improve student comprehension (Buckles & McMahon, 1971, p. 140).
Their experiment consisted of a class with students randomly divided in two groups. One group of students were assigned to a control group which attended lectures and studied the programmed text and the other, the experimental group, did not attend lectures but were assigned the programmed text (Buckles & McMahon, 1971, p. 139). Their experiment consisted of a ”dummy variable” to indicate the absence or presence of a categorical effect that may change the outcome, in this case class attendance. They had set an acceptance level of 0. prior to the test, and in none of the regressions was the coefficient of the dummy variable for attendance significantly different from zero (Buckles & McMahon, 1971, p. 140), thus the analysts accepted their hypothesis of lectures do not aid the students learning in microeconomic theory.
Sara Dolnicar’s research (Dolnicar, 2005) investigates the reasons for and patterns of lecture attendance by students and she conducted a study to gain more understanding into what drives students’ to lectures. Her study design was composed of an initial exploratory stage where she interviewed 100 andomly selected students to gain insight into the motivations and reasons for lecture attendance, and from that information she created a two-page questionnaire. The survey was handed out to six different faculties on campus and the final sample consisted of 612 students answering questions regarding the current course in which the survey was assigned to, which means that the evaluation considers students studying different programs and courses. This is a good indicator as to see what drives our preferred target group, commerce students, to lectures compared to other programs such as science students.
The students were provided with a list of reasons for attending lectures and were presented with the same list twice, once for the subject in which the survey was conducted and once for all subjects in general. The result showed only minor differences from the subject-specific to the general subject evaluation of students, and that the main reasons for students attending lectures are to find out what they are supposed to learn (75%), find out about assessment tasks (52%) and not to miss important information (68%).
It was found that science and arts students were the faculties with the highest attendance rates and commerce/business students had the lowest attendance rates. This must be interpreted with care as some science classes consisted of as low as five students and their lectures may involve more practical exercises and different learning requirements than commerce’s predominantly theoretical approach.
Dolnicar conclude in her article that the main difference from earlier studies in lecture attendance is a major shift in motivation compared to the 1970’s where factors such as stimulation of interest, gaining knowledge and enthusiasm dominated as opposed to today’s motivations as those mentioned in her survey results. Furthermore, the quality of lecture and lecturer proved to have a significant positive correlation, as can be expected.
She also grouped the student motivation responses into two extremes; ”Idealist” who enjoyed attending lectures and consisted mainly of arts students and can be characterised as being older; and ”Pragmatics” who only wanted to obtain the right amount of information they needed to be successful in the subject and were mostly found studying commerce and characterised as being younger (Dolnicar, 2005, p. 111). Peter Massingham and Tony Herrington explore questions as to whether lecture attendance matter and examines the performance and attitudes towards lectures.
As lecturers themselves, their research motivation was to find reasons for students absenteeism to better engage students in the learning process (Massingham & Herrington, 2006, p. 96). Their case study consisted of five elements including a survey conducted on a class consisting of 172 students in the Faculty of Commerce, a research paper, a mid term exam, class participation and a final examination. The survey consisted of questions regarding student non-attendance for lectures and tutorials where they would grade the different alternatives on a likert scale from 1 to 5.
The result showed that the main reasons for missing lectures and tutorials included being: busy, sick, at work, bored, technology alternatives (material available online) and the teacher. Excluding the lifestyle factors, the biggest influences on student attendance are their attitudes to learning and motivation such as ”the topic was boring” and ”I don’t like the subject” (Massingham & Herrington, 2006, p. 96). To investigate the involvement in learning process they developed measures such as breadth and depth of learning, where breadth was measured in terms of attendance and depth in terms of class participation.
For mandatory classes, such as tutorials, lifestyle factors had the most influence on non-attendance (breadth) such as sickness or work, while motivational factors were most influential regarding participation (depth) at tutorials as lack of interest or motivation act as barriers to tutorial learning (Massingham & Herrington, 2006, p. 96). As for lecture absenteeism, where attendance is voluntary, the motivational factors dominated reasons for non-attendance.
Interestingly enough, the process-, style- and personality of the teacher proved to be the major influential factor concerning student attitudes for attending lectures. There is a significant amount of students who do not attend because they sense they ”can pass the subject without learning”, ”the lectures are boring” and feel that lectures are a waste of time. This highlight the importance that a good relationship with the student and teacher is vital for student learning- process and outcome as a teaching process that can spur students’ motivation may change their attitude towards lecture and may be more prone to attend.
In the end, Massingham and Herrington conclude that attendance has a clear impact on performance in that students who attend lectures and tutorials performed better on all assessment tasks, especially the final examination. In their discussion they suggest that students’ whose attitude towards learning is ”inappropriate” (those who see no value in the teaching aspect in lectures) might have been developed because ”they have experienced a level of success in educational environments that do not support deep understanding and a ’thirst’ for knowledge and understanding” (Massingham & Herrington, 2006, p. 8).
They advise that the teaching-centred approach of today, where students receive knowledge and instructions, should shift to a more student-centred approach where students can put knowledge into real life context and get a more in-depth understanding of the information they receive. In relation, students who are absent from class gather their necessary information from material available online which in a sense serves the same purpose as the teacher-centred approach, where information is memorised and replicated for the sole intention to pass assessment tasks and exams.
In order for these students’ to attend lectures, the teachers’ attitudes towards teaching and technology need a change for the subsequent change in students’ attitude and approach. This may well induce non-motivated students’ to start attending class if they perceive the teachers’ learning process during lectures can fulfill a certain type of value they cannot get a hold of online. Theory Conclusion Based on these theories our hypothesis is that lectures are relevant for student learning but not in the way we first expected and not in terms of pure knowledge gain.
We believe students will say that lecture attendance is important for their learning while also stating that they do not gain a lot of new knowledge from attending them. The sensory stimulation theory express in clarity that lectures are not an effective method for gaining new knowledge since lectures use hearing as its dominant sense stimulation which has been proven inferior to sight, this is also backed by cognitive orientation that favours factors more suitable for problem solutions and contemplations.
What speaks in favour for lectures is the behavioural and social orientations, we believe that the benefits brought up by these orientations is not about gaining new knowledge from the lectures. We believe that lectures becomes important for students by enabling teachers to use reinforcements to make students more effective at acquiring their own knowledge and by providing a framework and stability in the learning process. Lectures also provides a valuable social setting where students can improve their knowledge.
This correlates to Massingham & Herrington’s article stating that students’ attitude and approach to lectures are highly influenced by the teaching style applied in class, as a constructivist teaching method can induce students’ to actively participate in solving problems, process the information in their own way and use it in real life context and thus get a deeper understanding of the subject at hand. This would change the “pragmatic” students, who aim to obtain just the right amount of information to be successful in the subject, to “idealist” students who genuinely enjoy attending lectures based on a change in motivational factors.
We do not imply that lectures should be eliminated entirely, but rather replace the instructivist approach to a more constructivist one. Criticism of sources Smith, M. K. (2003) “Learning theory”. This is an general article about learning theories and is by no way specific to lecture attendance and its benefits however the orientations described in it is still important tools for analyzing lectures and they make for a solid theory foundation that we can build on. We deem that this article and its author in a credible and reliable source. Lee Dunn “Learning and Teaching Briefing Papers Series” (2002).
This article has relevant and good theories and it is a credible source. This article is however quite short and not very thorough in some aspects, so we have mainly used it as supplement to other theories. P. Massingham and T. Herringtons (2006) “Does Attendance Matter? An Examination of Student Attitudes, Participation, Performance and Attendance”. S. G. Buckles & M. E. McMahon (1971)“Further Evidence on the Value of Lectures in Elementary Economics” limit themselves to one class which can be seen as insufficient to consider it a decisive study.
The fact that it is quite old can also prove to be a factor as, (Dolnicar, 2005) in particular point out, that student mentality has changed drastically since the 1970’s where students’ motivation factors such as stimulation of interests, enthusiasm and gaining knowledge dominated (as opposed to respondents in her survey) would infer different results had the research been conducted in recent times. S. Dolnicar (2005) “Quality in Higher Education; Should We Still Lecture or Just Post Examination Questions on the Web? the nature of the shift towards pragmatism in undergraduate lecture attendance”. Methodology In our survey we want to understand to what extent students appreciate lectures as a way of learning, and also what factors affecting whether or not a student attends lecture. We want to know about how students pass their exams, since in our time here at the university we have experienced that there are not necessarily a clear correlation between lecture and a passing grade that can be traced back to lecture alone.
Although it can be hard to just ask questions regarding how much you are attending lecture and what grades they got on the last exam, because the students that are having a high degree of attendance might also be the most diligent students and might also study very hard outside of lecture. Therefore we will focus more on how each and every student think on how and from where their way of learning is. We will focus on attendance rates in the general sense, as a previous study found no significant deviations from the subject-specific to the general evaluation of students (Dolnicar, 2005, p. 07). Epistemology and Ontology “An epistemological issue concerns the question of what is (or should be) regarded as acceptable knowledge in a discipline. ” (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 16). Bryman & Bell proposes that there are different stances including Positivism, interpretivism and realism. Our epistemological stance is a bit ambiguous because we share a lot of the characteristics with positivism in the sense of how we conducted the survey, but an interpretive epistemological stance regarding how we have interpreted the results and how we have analyzed it.
We think in our case that it is impossible to adopt a full positivist way of conducting our research, but we have some positivistic elements, because we have used a quantitative survey approach and the questions did not leave any room for “open questions” to the respondents of our survey, but rather had prepared answers were they could choose among alternatives. furthermore, we have used some statistical features in order to achieve our analysis, but the nature of our subject calls for an interpretive approach, since “People and their institutions – is fundamentally different from that of natural science” (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 7).
Since we are are dealing with people and how they perceive lecture, we would propose that we have used a mix of these epistemological stances. In our ontological considerations we believe that our target group has constructionism as ontological position. Constructionism means that a social phenomena and their meanings are continually changing (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 23) which we think is true since, how the students view the lecture as a way of learning depends on several factors including what kind of teachers they had up to present and what teachers they will have in the future.
Also, how the talks goes among the students of how to learn and among several other variables. Furthermore, for us as researchers, the ontological position are also constructionist. Since we change how we look at things whilst we are writing this report and acquiring new knowledge. Research Strategy We are going to do a quantitative survey through the internet. We saw this as the because it is a fast and easy way to get answers for our study. A quantitative survey is a good tool to get many responses in a timely manner and we can collect the data and analyse the answers in an easy way.
A quantitative survey might also be good when handling sensitive topics. Although we are not sure whether this topic is sensitive for people or not. furthermore, the way this topic can be sensitive should not be ignored. Our respondents might think that their personal opinion about lectures and their attendance habits are very personal. Although if we however conducted a qualitative survey we would hold their answers for our self due to ethical reasons, but since we are in the same class (or the same program) and they might not want to share their true opinions about the subject, a quantitative approach is therefore appropriate. urthermore, a major disadvantage using a quantitative survey is that the ability to probe answers are limited.
With the right questions we can acquire a fair picture using our survey, regarding how students perceive lecture. With a quantitative survey method it is easy to find a common denominator for how they are learning and their attitudes towards lecture in general. Our assumption about the results is that student will state that they do not gain a significant amount of new knowledge by attending lectures whilst still stating that it is important for their learning outcome to attend them.
This is due to them gaining benefits mentioned in our hypothesis that gives them greater structure in their self studies and a social learning environment that will be more effective for their learning outcome, these benefits are not easily realized compared to pure knowledge gain. We will use a quantitative research approach in order to confirm or reject our own assumptions in the theory part. We have decided to make our sample students from the International Business Program that is studying in their first and second year.
Firstly because we have very good access to that group of people, and we understand their situation, which is very useful for us in order to get a deeper understanding of the responses from the survey. Furthermore, we believe that we will get a high response rate from that group since at least the people in our class are in the same situation as we are and understand how important it is for us to get responses.
As far we understand are the structure of courses and especially programs are very different, for example science students might need to go to lectures in order to access to lab due to security reasons or if there is a highly practical course and lecture is the main way of learning. We think it is important to limit our sample to a rather homogeneous group, because how students perceived lecture as a way of learning depends very much on what type of subject they are studying. Preconceptions and values “Values reflect either the personal belief or the feelings of the researcher” (Bryman & Bell, 2007. p. 29).
We would like to think that all research should be value free and objective, but on the other hand it is very hard to keep the values that a researcher hold totally in check. Many researchers nowadays instead chose to write about their values and preconceptions that might have influenced the research (Bryman & Bell 2007, p 30-31). Our preconceptions and beliefs about the subject can be very useful for the reader of the research to be aware of because whether we want it or not it will affect the research either consciously which we of course try to avoid but also subconsciously, which are harder to evade.
We believe that lecture is not always the best way of learning nowadays when technology enables us to get information on whatever subject existing in the world in a few seconds, and that lecture serves more as a structural tool to understand what is important in a course. furthermore, lectures can be a very good way to understand how a subject relates to reality when lecturers are providing examples which can be used to understand theories and concepts. Although the way of how lecturers are providing examples are highly individual and therefore not something that are general for lectures as a whole.
Lectures can also be used to enable interest in the subject when a teacher are passionate about it and can communicate in a clear and entertaining manner. Our experiences in our life can affect a lot of things in our research, everything to the choice of subject and to how we interpret the results of the survey. As we wrote earlier, we will try to have an open sense and try to avoid being bias in our approach. Research design In order to answer our initial question as just as possible we need give a thoughtful consideration on how to approach this social research thesis.
Hence we have to ensure that the relevance and the functionality of the observed data is consistent with our initial question. Practically this means that we have to grasp the core essence of our thesis and adapt the research so that all evidence presented will answer the question as unambiguously as possible. In our study we are conducting social exploratory research and thereby strive to find explanatory evidence and patterns in social phenomena, hence we are answering the question ‘what is going on here? without explicit expectations. Another important issue in our interpretation of the results is that we should not confuse causation with correlation, since the implication is indeed very different and can have huge impact on assumptions. Especially since human social behaviour is complex and arguably has high amounts of unknown variables it can be problematic to arrive at rational and logical causal statements. Therefore most causal assumptions in social science is probabilistic rather than deterministic.
Essentially this tells us that in in our analysis we can not make completely justified deterministic explanations but only state and improve probabilistic explanations. Hence we can claim that a certain factor may increase the likelihood of a specific outcome but never give certainty about outcomes. Collection of data Our research is latitudinal, which means we will do our survey in order to explore students attitudes towards lecture at a specific point of time. The respondents were people from International business program year 1 and 2. 6 people did the survey, 64 % male and 36 % female. Although we did not try to aim any specific gender. We made the survey through a website on internet, after that we linked the survey to a secret facebook group with only people in IBP class 1 and 2. We posted the link in that group since that is the fastest and cheap way to reach our target sample without any interference from other people that do not study the International business program. Moreover, the members of the group are closely controlled to study IBP.
The survey was open to answer for five days, after that we removed the link and it was no longer possible to answer. The questions and answers can be found in the results part. We asked questions to understand how students perceive lectures as a way of learning, by asking different questions if they think lecture is important for their learning outcome. Further in the questionnaire we ask them to say what role lectures play for them. The second question was suppose to explain the answers from the first one by letting the student rank prepared alternatives according to how relevant they thought they were.
We also asked questions regarding their own attendance rate, to see if their view of lecture correspond with their own actions. Analysing of data Our prime tool to analyze our result from the survey is SPSS. This due to the fact that this program is very user friendly and well suited our purpose. We have chosen exploratory data analysis as approach to analyze our set of data. This due to the fact that this approach encourages its users to search for patterns and main characteristics in data sets, and therefore fulfills our criterias and research objective.
Regarding our set of data we could use all the participants that completed the entire survey. We suspect that approximately twenty persons aborted the survey mid way through or simply failed to submit the results, since theses results always will remain unknown we will not consider them. Furthermore as we have stated before we cannot make deterministic explanations but solely probabilistic explanations due to the essence of our paper. This is especially important since it will hugely effect on how we look upon and try to explain our research. Truth criteria
One of the fundamental cornerstones when conducting research it that the containing information and its conclusions can be justified as both reliable and valid. Essentially these two factors is measurements in which tells us whether the research can be justified or not. Validity addresses the concerns regarding unjust or misleading indicators, this can both be indicators that is false but also those that might not truly be relevant to the addressed problem or phenomena. To sum up vality tells us if the indicators used really can or should be used to measure the studied concept (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 65). The validity of our survey can be argued to infinity and beyond.
This due to the fact that our field of subject is indeed social science. As stated in the research design we do not try to imply that we have found an all grasping formula or conclusion that could include or be applied in all scenarios. We rather suggest that our research shall investigate and hopefully bring light upon the probability and likelihood of a specific outcome related to our chosen research field. This matter however should not be seen as something that necessarily should lower our validity, but rather the opposite.
Arguable since we are well aware and have acknowledged the limitations as well as the sensitivity of our research we better than many others should be be able to tell and justify what indicators and factors that should be included to help our research. This statement could further be justified by to the fact that we have done tremendous research regarding the subject. To some degree researchers much always rely on previous and not self tested results. In that sense we have put some of our research’s validity in the hands of previous researchers results.
However in the end we are the have ones that holds accountability in this research. In our selection of valid sources we have tried to mainly rely upon consensus gentium and our own ability to distinguish truth from falsehood. With the same justification as we stated towards the concern of viability we also use to argue that our research also can be looked upon as reliable. Ethical considerations Ethical issues might arise in different stages when conducting a study, although we have not experienced any ethical dilemmas due to the nature of our study.
Furthermore, We have made our survey anonymous due to four ethical principles “whether there is harm to the participants, lack of informed consent, invasion of privacy, or whether deception is involved” (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 132). The first point to discuss is if its harm to participants it might be unethical, depending on what ethical stance you possess. Harm can entail a number of faces: physical harm, harm to participants’ development or self esteem; stress, harm to career prospects or future development (Bryman & bell 2007, p. 133).
If the study was not conducted anonymous and that our results leaked in some way, it might had resulted in harm to the participants in terms of reputation or in future employment opportunities. For example, you answer questions regarding how many lectures you attend, which might be sensitive for some people. When we presented the survey for our participants we simply provided them with the information that we did a study regarding lectures. Surely the participants could by analyzing our questions get a hint on what kind of matter we were intending to research.
Our belief was however that we would keep our impact on the results to a minimum amount by not revealing our agenda and research field to clearly. Results The amount of respondents that started our survey was in total eighty-seven unique persons. However the actual amount that completed the entire survey ended up being sixty-six participating respondents. That gives us an overall reach to approximately 48% of our entire segment, and a response rate equal to nearly 36% of the segment. Of the respondents 64% was male and 36% was female. This tells us that is was also eighteen more males than females.
The outcome from the survey will be presented question by question. Q2. How many lectures do you attend on average? (% of total amount) Here the respondents had to choose between the following alternative answers, 100-80%, 80-60%, 60-40%, 40-20% and 20-0% attendance. The outcome was distributed followingly: Q3. Do you perceive that you get value from attending lectures? The alternative provided to this question was, Always, Almost always, Sometimes, Rarely and Never. The outcome was distributed followingly:
Do you consider it important to attend lectures for your learning outcome? On this question the respondents could choose to grade the mportance as either, Highly important, Important, Neutral, Unimportant and lastly Highly unimportant. On this question the results was disturbed followingly: Q5. Please indicate your average level of satisfaction with: In this question we asked the respondents to rate the satisfaction on the following topics, Overall education experience, Overall lecture level, Teaching quality at lectures and Class environment during lectures. The responses was distributed accordingly: Q6. During a course by which medium do you think you learn the most? (Please distribute 100% between the available options).
In this question the respondents needed to allocate 100% between the following learning mediums, Course book, Internet, Slides, Earlier knowledge, From peers and Other. The outcome from this was: Q7. Rate the following on a 5 to 1 scale the influence these variables have on your learning during lectures (5 being “very much” and 1 “almost zero”) The variables we asked to be graded on the scale was, Teaching style, Motivation, Class environment (Ex quiet or noisy) and Lack of discipline. The respondents answered followingly: Q8. Would you like to have more available lecture hours? The available answers was simply either Yes or No.
The response was the following: Q9. Grade the following factors in accordance to their level of significance on your decision making whether to attend a lecture or not. The factors that we asked the respondents to grade was, Bad weather, Lack of sleep, Inconvenient time of day, Part time work, Distance to school, Personal interest in course, Other plans, Relations with classmates, Size of class, Use of relevant examples in lectures, Availability of lecture material online, Quality/clarity of lecture, The lectures ability to communicate, The lectures ability to engage/entertain and lastly Lack of motivation.
The grading that we asked the participants to use was Very insignificant, Insignificant, Neutral, Significant and Very significant. The result was following: Q10. Kindly distribute the occasions when you have decided to don’t attend class as either justified or unjustified in percentage (100%). In this question we asked the participants to allocate the occasions when they did not go to lecture as either justified or unjustified according to their own perception and values. The result that we acquired was: Q11.
Kindly rate the accuracy of the following statement when considering what role the lectures fulfill for you. This time we asked them to consider different roles that lectures can be seen as and thereafter make them rank their answers depending on if they agree or disagree with the statement. The roles we used in the question was Highlighting the main importance of the course, Give clarification and wholeness to the subject, Inspiration/motivational source, Good way to learn, Meetingplace for peers and friends, To feel better – reduce stress/guilt and To structure your self studies.
The options they could use to rank the statements was, Agree, Somewhat agree, Neutral, Somewhat disagree and Disagree. The result was following: Analysis As this is a social study we have not conducted as hypothesis test with confidence intervals, instead we have analysed answers with our hypothesis to see if they match. We concluded our theory part with the hypothesis that students will not gain a lot of actual knowledge from attending lectures, rather they would gain other benefits from attending them, such as social, structural and general improvements in their self studies (Smith. 003, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c, 1999d). This hypothesis was based on the cognitive orientation from Smith’s work and the sensory stimulation theory from Dunn’s work together with (Massingham & Herrington, 2006), these theories favoured other learning methods over lectures. The results from our survey are fairly accurate following this hypothesis, when looking at question 4 were 68% of respondents was neutral or stated that it was important to attend lectures for their learning outcome.
This is in contrast with question 6 where the respondents said that only 15. 55% of their course knowledge was gained from lecture attendance and question 3 where 86. 37% of respondents was neutral or felt that they did not perceive that they get any value from attending lectures. This controversy can be explained by using the different learning orientations. The fact is that respondents feel that they do not get any pure knowledge from lecture attendance whilst they still feel that it is important for their learning outcome to attend lectures.
If we look at the sensory stimulation theory and the cognitive orientations they confirm that in terms of pure knowledge lectures should not be very affective. The behavioural and social orientations on the other hand brings up other positive aspects gained through lectures then just pure knowledge. By attending lectures and work with learning in a social environment, students will not only learn from each other but the lecturer will be able to influence their study techniques and enable them to create better consistency in their studies (Smith. 2003, 1999a, 1999d).
We believe, with backup from these orientations, that these other positive aspects are the reasons for respondents stating that it is important to attend lectures whilst they also state that the only gain a small amount of knowledge by doing so. One thing that is a bit harder to explain is the fact that the respondents stated that it was important to attend lectures for their learning outcome but still they did not perceive that they gained any value from doing so, we believe that this is because the benefits we mentioned above is more intangible than actual knowledge and therefore harder spot, creating this contradictory situation.
The “teacher style” and “motivational” options in question 7 were the dominant factors regarding influences of learning during lectures, which brings the questions as to why lectures received such a low response rate in question 6. This can be a result from an instructivist teaching style (where students’ passively accept information and knowledge from the lecturer and later work alone and regurgitate the accepted information and concepts) (Buckles & McMahon, 1971, p. 141) that affect the low response rate for lectures in question 6.
The answer might have been different had a more student-centered style been applied, where students gain a deeper understanding of new information through close interpretation of new knowledge and more extensive executions of theories and concepts. The answers in questions 7 do not themselves tell us what students feel the actual lectures give them, but what influence them most in learning during lectures, and since lectures play only a minor role as a learning medium we can conclude that a more teacher-centered style is performed during class, that is they receive the necessary information and process it at home.
A student’s motivation is also a factor when it comes to learning influences as the teacher-style cannot capture the students’ interest or attention if it does not require their immediate involvement. In question 11, respondents felt “Highlighting the main importance of the course”, “Give clarification and wholeness to the subject” and “To structure your self studies” were the main values fulfilled when attending lectures, compared to “Good way to learn” and “To feel better-Reduce stress/guilt” which respondents felt lectures did not entirely satisfy.
This further confirm our hypothesis that lectures are not especially effective in the case of students gaining additional comprehension of the subject (Buckles & McMahon, 1971, p. 141), but more as a way to enhance your self study structure and get a clear overview of what you should focus on during your self studies. Additionally, it proves that students’ are attending lectures for other purposes than an expected learning outcome and according to our survey students’ perceived value in attending lectures are to obtain information to take on the applied literature with a proper approach.
Discussion After conducting this survey and looking at lectures in the light of a more solid theoretical background that we now possess, we have all started to change our view of the importance of lectures and what we gain from attending them. We have previously believed, as most of our fellow students do (as shown in the survey), that the perceived benefits gained from lecture attendance are of slim value.
This thesis paper has shown us that this is not the case, lectures are of great value in the regards that they create a social educational environment and enable the lecturer to influence our study technique and the way we conduct our studies, even if these benefits are difficult to spot and easy to underestimate. In the regard of actual knowledge gain, lectures are still lacking when compared to course literature and exercise work, this leads us to the problem that students will only attend lectures if they perceive any value in attending the class.
This value is based on the teachers competence, process and generating understanding (Massingham, Herrington, 2006). A problem then occurs when the reality is that most lecturers at university level are either Ph. D. students or scientist, both with some pedagogical education, but it is not as extensive when compared to gymnasium and high school teachers. In both the Ph. D. student and scientist case they are required to perform these lectures by their universities, so it is reasonable to believe that this tends to make lecturing a secondary priority for them, which is bound to create a certain lack of motivation as well.
These factors can create a certain lack of competence in the teaching aspect and the lecturers ability to generate understanding, which will have a negative impact on the overall quality of the lecture and the benefits students gain from attending them. When looking at lectures in this light it is easy to imagine that the actual benefits gained from attending lectures are easily forgotten and mitigated by uninspiring lecturers. Conclusion
Our research purpose was to find out if students experience lectures as a good means of gaining knowledge and whether students perceive lectures as beneficial or not when it comes to education and academic outcome. We found through research papers and our own survey that the actual knowledge gained from lectures are, as we expected, lower than what it is gained from other sources such as; course literature reading, problem/exercise solutions and course web page. Students still perceived that it is important for their learning outcome to attend lectures and this due to the structural and social learning benefits discussed in our hypothesis.
During our research we acquired a comprehensible overview of what could possibly be modified in the IBP lecture structure. A more student-centered approach could be applied in order to get students to actively participate in subject-related theories and concepts to gain a deeper understanding on how to interpret them in real life, and thus get a more essential view of topics of the courses.
Oliver Cromwell gp essay help: gp essay help
Oliver Cromwell: A Visionary Among Parliamentarians Due: January 11, 2013 6 Oliver Cromwell rose from his humble heritage in English society to become the Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the first and only man without royal blood to do so. His played a prominent role in bringing about the trial and beheading of King Charles I; he took control of the Parliament’s professional Army and went forth on the most cruel military action England had ever undertaken against the neighbouring nations; and he accomplished a level of religious freedom that had been unaccepted in England for the past hundred years.
Oliver Cromwell was indeed a unique leader, one who wanted what was best for his fellow countrymen and completely devoted himself to his life as a Parliamentarian. Oliver Cromwell should be judged by history for his actions as a visionary who championed Parliamentarian values. Everything Cromwell did was what he believed to be in the best interest of England and its people. Oliver Cromwell supported the Parliament and continued to be an active member of it even though King Charles I had distanced himself from the Parliament and was ruling according to his own will with no regard to the law.
Cromwell had played a substantial role in the execution of King Charles I, not because he entertained any selfish ideas concerning Charles’ throne, but because he truly believed England would be better off without the trouble-causing head of state. Through this, he taught the people the fundamental value of holding their rulers accountable. [1] Cromwell also helped to form the New Model Army. The New Model Army was a professional army formed in a sense by the people for the people. Social class had no worth in the Army, all men were equal and were recruited according to ability, not wealth or social status. 2] Cromwell was well known for his aptitude for military tactics and strategies; he lead his regiment, the Ironsides, to victory in every battle they fought. He fought to protect England from invaders, from the disputing neighbours, Scotland and Ireland, and also to keep 6 the order of government he believed would work best for both the upper and lower class of citizens. Cromwell used the authority given to him as the Lord Protector in an attempt to reform the people of England, in what he called “Godly reformation”.
Cromwell devised a programme designed to cleanse the people of their sinful habits such as drinking, immorality and general trouble-making. [3] He was a man who sought to give England “not what they want, but what is good for them. ”[4] Oliver Cromwell was not the sort of man to support a ruling of the Parliament and then sit back and hope it was carried through; he personally ushered in the end of the English Civil War by defeating an uprising of Charles II supporters in 1650 & 1651.
Despite continued opposition throughout his years, Cromwell did not back down or leave the public to fend for themselves, instead he led them ceaselessly until there was peace once more among the countries. The definition of a visionary is someone who acts bravely in support of an idea, despite all odds and then popularizes it. [5] An example of Cromwell having done this was with the proposal of overthrowing Charles I, as Cromwell was a big contributor to that final decision, not merely because of his voiced support but also the leading effect he had on people.
They were prone to following his lead, not only because he was a very influential and intelligent man, but also because he was not afraid of changing tradition and he constantly had England’s best interests in mind. During his lifetime, Oliver Cromwell successfully served England as a Member of the Long Parliament, as the New Model Army’s leader and as their Lord Protector. Oliver Cromwell’s strong Puritan beliefs lent an extremist edge to his decisions and actions during his life, however, faith did not hold superiority over his Parliamentarian contributions.
Cromwell may have held fast to the Puritan religion, but it did not keep him from being a fierce and merciless soldier on the battlefield, fighting for the Parliament’s professional Army. Cromwell was born 6 a commoner of humble beginnings but achieved his respect and lofty position in the Long Parliament due to his rise through the military until he was Commander-in-Chief of the New Model Army, in which he aided the recruitment and command. He also created and led the formidable cavalry force called “the Ironsides”, who were reputed for their courage and strength in battles and remained undefeated .
He was convinced that he and his Ironsides were doing the will of God, and accordingly attributed all of their victories on the battlefield to the glory of God. Regarding the Battle of Marston Moor, Cromwell is recorded to have said in a letter to his brother-in-law “truly England and the Church of God hath had a great favour from the Lord, in this great victory given us, such as the like never was since this war began. ”[6] Cromwell preferred his soldiers to be of the same religious beliefs as himself as he enlisted them, although many of his men would become Puritans while in the service of the New Model Army under Cromwell’s leadership.
In a letter to his nephew, Colonel Valentine Walton, on July 5, 1644, Cromwell spoke of his unfaltering loyalty to the Parliament and his desire to see due authority to be granted to the Members of Parliament: We study the glory of God, and the honour and liberty of parliament, for which we unanimously fight, without seeking our own interests… I profess I could never satisfy myself on the justness of this war, but from the authority of the parliament to maintain itself in its rights; and in this cause I hope to prove myself an honest man and single-hearted. 7] Cromwell sought what he called “liberty of conscience”; a range of freedom granted to the various Protestant groups in England to practice their faith in peace, not being bothered by anyone and to not be a bother to anyone themselves. [8] For the past hundred years, England had not tolerated any sort of people with differing religious backgrounds to populate its land, but in 1657, Cromwell established the religious acceptance of Jews so that they were once again able to live within England’s borders and he 6 encouraged their immigration. 9] It was well known amongst the people around Cromwell that he was a man who lived by his faith, who promoted Puritanism to others and changed the principles of the Parliament that differed with what he believed in. However, Cromwell was quick to take action on Parliamentarian business when needed, his motions to change the Church and such other endeavours temporarily forgotten as he was sent out on political business.
As England prepared for a fully launched civil war, Oliver Cromwell was one of the MP’s who was sent out to places such as Huntingdon nd Elys to recruit men “for the defence of the realm”. [10] Oliver Cromwell may have been a very strictly religious man who wanted to serve God in everything he did, but his real ambition was to see the Parliament granted the authority it deserved and to improve the laws the people lived by. Oliver Cromwell was a very authoritative and influential figure in his time, and became to the people “a king in everything but name”, although he was never truly their “King”. Cromwell served England as their Lord Protector, yet he refused the offer to become the next King of England on multiple occasions. 11] Cromwell was a solid supporter of the execution of King Charles I, once he realized that Charles had gone too far from the Parliament to be reasoned with. Cromwell later defeated and exiled the heir to the throne, Charles II, thus leaving England without their traditional monarch. Having said this, it should be understood that Cromwell was not against the monarchy; he had wished to replace the late Charles I with one of his sons but none proved to be suitable. The original heir, Charles II, was not crowned the next king as the young prince had taken up an allegiance with the Scots and attempted to invade England. 12] On March 17, 1649, not long after the execution of Charles I, the Long Parliament passed an act stating that the monarchy had been terminated, thus making England a 6 Commonwealth and free state, and also promoting the Rump Parliament and Council State to the position of being the overriding authority of the nation. [13] For the five years during which Oliver Cromwell held the title of Lord Protector, he ultimately had the ability to make laws and govern the people as he saw fit. He wished for the government to work smoothly and in co-ordinance with one another, but had no patience for those that did not.
Oliver Cromwell had the Rump Parliament disassembled on April 20,1653, with these words; “You have sat here too long for the good you do. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go! ”[14] The responsibilities and influence once held by the Rump Parliament were handed over to the Barebones Parliament; the Nominated Assembly that Cromwell constituted in July of 1653. The members of this Parliament were selected for their religious spirit and open-mindedness and were expected to bring uprightness into the Commonwealth. [15] His influence over the New Model Army as a definite contributing factor to Cromwell’s position as Lord Protector. Cromwell faced his share of opposition against his restrictions on drinking and merrymaking, and often had to resort to using military force to carry out his laws as he did not have the ultimate authority of punishment that a King would have. Oliver Cromwell was the king-like figure of England, but he never accepted the crown nor the title of King of England. Oliver Cromwell accomplished much during his time as a politician and Member of the Long Parliament, the colonel of England’s first Parliamentarian army, and in the resurrected position of Lord Protector.
He was a key figure in the English Civil War and in the regicide of King Charles I, and then took the full responsibilities of ruling the country without a king to lead them. Cromwell should be viewed by history as a visionary who achieved much for the sake of England and against all odds championed the Parliamentarian values. Bibliography Halsall, Paul. ”Oliver Cromwell: A letter to his brother-in-law after the Battle of Marston Moore. 1644” Modern History Sourcebook. 9 January 2013. http://www. fordham. edu/halsall/mod/1644cromwell-marston. asp Morrill, John. “Oliver Cromwell”. BBC History. 7 January 2013. http://www. bbc. co. k/history/british/civil_war_revolution/cromwell_01. shtml Author Unknown. “Oliver Cromwell”. Heritage History. 8 January 2013. http://www. heritage-history. com/www/heritage. php? Dir=characters&FileName=cromwell2. php Phillips, Charles. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Royal Britain. Leicestershire, Hermes House, Anness Publishing Ltd, 2006: 150 + Plant, David.
“Biography of Oliver Cromwell. ” British Commonwealth and Civil Wars. 2 January 2013. http://www. british-civil-wars. co. uk/biog/oliver-cromwell. htm Trueman, Chris. “The New Model Army”. History Learning Site. 5 January 2013. http://www. historylearningsite. co. k/new_model_army. htm Author Unknown. “The Rump Dissolved. ” www. parliment. uk. 5 January 2013. http://www. parliament. uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/civilwar/overview/rump-dissolved/ ——————————— [ 1 ]. John Morrill, “Oliver Cromwell”, BBC History. (February 17, 2011) http://www. bbc. co. uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/cromwell_01. shtml [ 2 ]. Chris Trueman, “The New Model Army”, History Learning Site. http://www. historylearningsite. co. uk/new_model_army. htm [ 3 ]. “Cromwell and Religion”, The Cromwell Association. 2001-2005 http://www. olivercromwell. rg/cromwell_and_religion. htm [ 4 ]. “Quotes of Oliver Cromwell”, The Cromwell Association. 2001-2005 http://www. olivercromwell. org/quotes1. htm [ 5 ]. Dictionary. com, “Visionary”, http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/visionary? s=t [ 6 ]. Paul Halsall, “Modern History Sourcebook”, (July 1998) http://www. fordham. edu/halsall/mod/1644cromwell-marston. asp [ 7 ]. Wikiquote, “Oliver Cromwell”, http://en. wikiquote. org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell#Quotes_about_Cromwell [ 8 ]. “Cromwell and Religion”, The Cromwell Association, 2005 http://www. olivercromwell. org/cromwell_and_religion. htm [ 9 ]. “Oliver Cromwell”, Heritage History, 2007-2012 ttp://www. heritage-history. com/www/heritage. php? Dir=characters&FileName=cromwell2. php [ 10 ]. John Morrill, “Oliver Cromwell”, BBC History. (February 17, 2011) http://www. bbc. co. uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/cromwell_01. shtml [ 11 ]. David Plant, “Biography of Oliver Cromwell”, British Civil Wars and Commonwealth, http://www. british-civil-wars. co. uk/biog/oliver-cromwell. htm [ 12 ]. Ibid. [ 13 ]. Charles Phillips, “Commonwealth and Protectorate”, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Royal Britain. (Anness Publishing Ltd. 2006, 2011) 154 [ 14 ]. Ibid. , 154. [ 15 ]. www. parliament. uk,
As You Sow so Shall You Reap melbourne essay help: melbourne essay help
Now go away. ” The woman’s smile became even broader. Suddenly the man felt a gentle hand under his arm. “What are you doing, lady? ” the man asked angrily. “I said to leave me alone. Just then a policeman came up. “Is there any problem, ma’am? ” he asked… “No problem here, officer,” the woman answered. “I’m just trying to get this man to his feet. Will you help me? ” The officer scratched his head. “That’s old Jack. He’s been a fixture around here for a couple of years. What do you want with him? ” “See that cafeteria over there? ” she asked. “I’m going to get him something to eat and get him out of the cold for awhile. “Are you crazy, lady? ” the homeless man resisted. “I don’t want to go in there! ” Then he felt strong hands grab his other arm and lift him up. “Let me go, officer. I didn’t do anything. “
“This is a good deal for you, Jack” the officer answered. “Don’t blow it… ” Finally, and with some difficulty, the woman and the police officer got Jack into the cafeteria and sat him at a table in a remote corner. It was the middle of the morning, so most of the breakfast crowd had already left and the lunch bunch had not yet arrived… The manager strode across the cafeteria and stood by his table. “What’s going on here, officer? he asked. “What is all this, is this man in trouble? ” “This lady brought this man in here to be fed,” the policeman answered. “Not in here! ” the manager replied angrily. “Having a person like that here is bad for business… ” Old Jack smiled a toothless grin. “See lady. I told you so. Now if you’ll let me go. I didn’t want to come here in the first place. ” The woman turned to the cafeteria manager and smiled……. “Sir, are you familiar with Eddy and Associates, the banking firm down the street? ” “Of course I am,” the manager answered impatiently. “They hold their weekly meetings in one of my banquet rooms. “And do you make a godly amount of money providing food at these weekly meetings? ” “What business is that of yours? ” I, sir, am Penelope Eddy, president and CEO of the company. ” “Oh. ” The woman smiled again. “I thought that might make a difference. ” She glanced at the cop who was busy stifling a giggle. “Would you like to join us in a cup of coffee and a meal, officer? “
“No thanks, ma’am,” the officer replied. “I’m on duty. ” “Then, perhaps, a cup of coffee to go? ” “Yes, maam. That would be very nice. ” The cafeteria manager turned on his heel, “I’ll get your coffee for you right away, officer. The officer watched him walk away. “You certainly put him in his place,” he said. “That was not my intent. Believe it or not, I have a reason for all this. ” She sat down at the table across from her amazed dinner guest. She stared at him intently…”Jack, do you remember me? ” Old Jack searched her face with his old, rheumy eyes. “I think so — I mean you do look familiar. ” “I’m a little older perhaps,” she said. “Maybe I’ve even filled out more than in my younger days when you worked here, and I came through that very door, cold and hungry. ” “Ma’am? ” the officer said questioningly.
He couldn’t believe that such a magnificently turned out woman could ever have been hungry. “I was just out of college,” the woman began. “I had come to the city looking for a job, but I couldn’t find anything. Finally I was down to my last few cents and had been kicked out of my apartment. I walked the streets for days. It was February and I was cold and nearly starving. I saw this place and walked in on the off chance that I could get something to eat. ” Jack lit up with a smile. “Now I remember,” he said.. “I was behind the serving counter. You came up and asked me if you could work for something to eat.
I said that it was against company policy. ” “I know,” the woman continued. “Then you made me the biggest roast beef sandwich that I had ever seen, gave me a cup of coffee, and told me to go over to a corner table and enjoy it. I was afraid that you would get into trouble… Then, when I looked over and saw you put the price of my food in the cash register, I knew then that everything would be all right. ” “So you started your own business? ” Old Jack said. “I got a job that very afternoon. I worked my way up. Eventually I started my own business that, with the help of God, prospered. ” She opened her purse and pulled out a business card.. When you are finished here, I want you to pay a visit to a Mr. Lyons… He’s the personnel director of my company. I’ll go talk to him now and I’m certain he’ll find something for you to do around the office. ” She smiled. “I think he might even find the funds to give you a little advance so that you can buy some clothes and get a place to live until you get on your feet… If you ever need anything, my door is always opened to you. ” There were tears in the old man’s eyes. “How can I ever thank you? ” he said. “Don’t thank me,” the woman answered. ” Thank God…… who led me to you. “
Case Study Abnormal Disorders in Children college essay help: college essay help
Ricky’s mom complained that he would not listen to her commands or did not understand what she said some of the time ( d) Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace ( not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions) As reported by Ricky, his mother and teacher, he was unable to understand and complete school assignments and failed to fulfill his duties at home ( e) Often has difficulty organizing tasks and activities Mrs.
Smith reported that he was disorganized ( f) Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental effort ( e. g. , schoolwork or homework) As reported by Ricky’s mother and school officials he was not interested in school, desired to leave school ( g) Often loses things necessary for tasks or activities ( e. g. , toys, school assignments, pencils, books, or tools) Mrs. Smith complained that he lost many of his school materials ( h) Is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli
Ricky’s teacher mentioned that even when Ricky was interested in the assignment he was easily distracted soon afterword ( i) Is often forgetful in daily activities No specific evidence of this reported in the case study ( 2) Six ( or more) of the following symptoms of hyperactivity— impulsivity have persisted for at least 6 months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level: Ricky’s behavior meets only 3 criteria for at least 14 months in the dimension of hyperactivity-impulsivity: * Hyperactivity ( a) Often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat His mother says that he “often fidgets” at home * ( b) Often leaves seat in classroom or in other situations in which remaining seated is expected Ricky is “getting out of his seat more and more” according to his teacher. * ( c) Often runs about or climbs excessively in situations in which it is inappropriate (in adolescents or adults, may be limited to subjective feelings of restlessness) No specific evidence of this * ( d) Often has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly No specific evidence of this ( e) Is often “on the go” or often acts as if “driven by a motor” Mrs. Smith’s comments that Ricky is “all over the place”) * ( f) Often talks excessively No evidence of this * Impulsivity * ( g) Often blurts out answers before questions have been completed No evidence of this * ( h) Often has difficulty awaiting turn No evidence of this * ( i) Often interrupts or intrudes on others ( e. g. , butts into conversations or games) No evidence of this B. Some hyperactive- impulse or inattentive symptoms that caused impairment were present before age 7 years.
Ricky is 7 and his mother reports symptoms and general “fussiness” from at least 14 months before. C. Some impairment from the symptoms is present in two or more settings ( e. g. , at school [ or work] and at home). Ricky’s impairment is specifically reported at school, home, the church, and supermarket. D. There must be clear evidence of clinically significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning. Ricky’s symptoms are producing significant impairments in his social and academic performance (poor school performance, conflicts with the teacher, mother, and peers). E.
The symptoms do not occur exclusively during the course of a Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Schizophrenia, or other Psychotic Disorder and are not better accounted for by another mental disorder (e. g. Mood Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Dissociative Disorder, or a Personality Disorder). There is no evidence of PDD, schizophrenia, or other psychotic disorders or that other disorders better account for his symptoms Associated characteristics: * Children with ADHD, predominantly inattentive type tend to have low self-esteem; Ricky’s mother and teacher report that he “seems depressed” and says that he wants to die. Children with ADHD often experience sleep disturbances; Ricky confirms that he has trouble sleeping. * Children with ADHD commonly have difficulty with peers and experience peer rejection;
Ricky’s claims that children “pick on him” and he has been disciplined for fighting and taunting other children. * Ricky has frequent tantrums, crying, “stomping his feet” and saying “I don’t care” to the teacher. Children with ADHD tend to have low frustration tolerance and difficulty regulating emotional arousal. Ricky’s IQ falls in the normal range; this is consistent with the IQ performance of most children with ADHD, who fall in the average to above average range. Contradictory characteristics: * Ricky is reported to excel in physical education class. Children with ADHD typically have difficulty with motor control and are usually described as clumsy or accident-prone. Hypothetical etiology: * It is likely that genetics partially contribute to Ricky’s ADHD, although we do not have a family health history available.
Additionally, pre-natal risk factors and other environmental exposures (such as lead) may have increased Ricky’s risk of ADHD, although we do not have a developmental history for him. These genetic and environmental risk factors likely combined with the known familial stress resulting from his parents’ separation, which has resulted in less contact with his father, less supervision from his mother, and conflict at home. This familial stress may have caused or exacerbated parenting inconsistencies, which is likely increased by the stress from Ricky’s misbehavior at home and school.
Enterprise Strategy need essay help: need essay help
This type of business structure that is E-business is more common in the developed countries than in third class countries; to sell products customers in the comfort of their homes is widespread in these countries, so Forejustin Passman the founder and general manager plans to make widespread this type of business even in a developing country, Botswana. 1. 0 THE entrepreneur 1. 1 The motivation for starting the business Pull factors are exploiting opportunity and a financial incentive whilst the push factor that led him to open the business was threat of unemployment.
The pull factors He was pulled into this business because he wanted to exploit an opportunity to sell gadgets such as tablets i. e. Apple’s Ipads, Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes &Nobles’ the nook. Consequently he decided to open Group Little, a predominantly virtual company, having little physical presence and high internet presence. After a market research he realised that most gadget stores in Botswana undermine internet trading and he decided to exploit this opportunity.
Citing most gadget stores are set up according to a strategy and are purposely designed to make customer experience as pleasant as possible but their websites normally do not have a similar strategy applied to them, as the sites are normally a glorified business card that does not engage visitors and in some cases even harm the business image. Mr Passman was also pulled to gain financial incentive he paid meticulous attention to primary research in order to weigh the benefits, the cost and opportunities of his approach. The push factors The threat of unemployment is the only push factor that influenced Forejustin to start his business.
At age 18 he performed poorly in his A-level results which caused him to fail to pursue a business degree at university, other than compromising and pursuing other degree programmes that he lacked interest in he decided to re-sit some examinations. Whilst in wait for examination results he did not want to be considered to be part of the unemployed so he started his company Group Little. 1. 2 Forejustin Passman’s character traits Proactive- he is one of the few people who do not believe in luck, he seeks after opportunities other than wait for them to present themselves to him.
He is also quick and decisive, when faced with the dilemma of whether to go into just conventional retailing he decided and to have the virtual retailing, where he has limited physical presence and a fully-fledged internet presence. His logic behind such a decision being that the internet is a necessary portal for success in the 21st century business and beyond. He is regarded by some a restless while he considers himself easily bored because as he says he is easily diverted to the most recent market opportunity.
He is especially known as a man who acts and then learns from the outcomes of his action, and thus far his upbeat approach has worked positively to advance the company. Visionary- Mr Passman has and had a clear vision for Group Little; for it to become a household name in virtual companies of Africa and to be an expert in Africa’s virtual market space. He wants Group Little to be benchmarked by any international company exploring to invest in the virtual market place of Africa. Now this visionary flair has positioned him to be always at the right place at the right time and being able snatch opportunities within his vision. 1. MR Passman’s personality type Mr Forejustin Passman is certainly spontaneous. Spontaneous because most of the things he does, he does instinctively. This matches positively with his proactive character trait mentioned previously in section 1. 2. He is a creative, lively and open-minded person. His humorous nature disposes a contagious zest for life. Forejustin’s enthusiasm and sparkling energy inspires the team to work harder, his strengths therefore are creative problem solutions, discovering new ways and opportunities, the conceptualization of new ideas on one hand, but not so much his concrete implementation on the other.
To compensate for this weakness he has staff of capable colleagues that takes over his concepts and runs with them. Spontaneous is the best classification of Mr Passman, other than classifying him as an introvert or extrovert which is a widely used approach of personality type definition, which in some cases is limiting to define peculiar individuals as Mr Forejustin Passman. 1. 4 Decision making and leadership style Decision making style Forejustin Passman’s decision making style is conceptual.
He has high tolerance for ambiguity in that even when he was not sure how Batswana will respond to an e-business he still went on decided to do what he planned. He has a broad outlook in business, with the resident of truth being not enough Batswana are connected to internet currently, he deemed it fit to go ahead because most industries around the world are adopting e-business and even though Botswana is still lagging behind the time is eminent for her as well to join in. His conceptual decision making style is also evident in that he has found a creative way to solve the local problem of segregated demand and supply.
Where people in difficult to reach areas have a high quantity demand of some products from businesses yet they cannot reach those businesses to be supplied with what they demand, so he decided the customers will shop in the comfort of their own far away home and he will deliver the products to them. 1. 5 Leadership style Laissez-faire style, he is a leader who has consciously made a decision to pass focus of power to the outsourced employees. He considered since the workforce is already talented and qualified to do the job they must be able to positively exercise judgement to respond to issues.
Mr Passman simply sets out the targets and deadlines afterwards he charges the taskforce to do the work that is at hand, he is not very interested in how they do the job he just wants the work to be done in due time. Some have criticised his type of leadership saying he is risking the success of his business by delegating power the employees but according to him this type of environment breeds creativity, and that is what he wants from his team, creative ways to solve problems, which is a direct match to his decision making style he wants them to think like him. 1. 6 Mr Forejustin Passman’s role within the business
Forejustin oversees the review of Group Little’s corporate strategy, looks for market opportunities, acquires strategic assets and protects Group Little’s existing competencies. As this organisation is relatively small, Forejustin has adopted this multidisciplinary role. His acquisition of strategic assets is done in order to solidify their position in the market, he cites sometimes organic growth is too slow for the company’s vision therefore acquisition of some assets provides an impetus to desired growth. The staff The majority of his staff is outsourced, the employees are highly knowledgeable about internet business.
Being a cheerful entrepreneur he advocates for a cheerful workforce because he believes if employees are happy that drives up productivity which in turn brings healthier profit margins. 1. 7 Entrepreneurial networking Forejustin’s decision to effectively network sprung up in the beginning stages of his business, he wanted a trademark for Group Little and he just happened to remember months earlier he sent his broken computer to some young technicians; one of them named Kabelo had recently graduated from a creative arts university of Limkokwing where he studied graphic designing.
He had saved his contacts in case he needed computer help but his contact wound up birthing more than just computer solutions but also a trademark for his business. This was a highlight to Forejustin that networking especially informal networking is a tool for success, his response; * He strikes conversations with strangers, to get any bit of information he can, exchanges contacts with such an individual and then regularly contact that individual until they establish a network that can provide him relevant business information, advice and support services. Chats with movers and shakers of different industries in order to get some referrals and leads. Mr Passman’s formal networks In this the entrepreneur is lacking. He has not signed up to any formal network which means his chances for collaborative opportunities with others are diminished. It is highly unlikely for him to form new business relationships and lastly it is slow to solve problems because there is no access to a significant number of possible solution providers as emphasised by Kay (2010).
His professed inhibitors to formal networking are high membership fees of some formal arrangements. He also attributed inflexible structured timetable for some of these formal networks as a major impediment for him join as he prefers groups that are open where he can come on casual ‘drop in’ basis. But considerations are still being made to join the Diamond Trading Company (DTC) network an outlet that informs and organizes exhibitions for small enterprises. 1. 8 Innovation
There a certain drivers of innovation that prompted Forejustin Passman to pursue e-business and figure a, is quite very useful in illustrating that. Source: Sheth and Ram (1987) Figure a Because of technological advances, after the internet boom he realised he needed to adopt an approach in business which matches the changes in technology. The change in technology alters the business environment. This then means that threshold competencies and basic resources are redefined, he implication to Forejustin’s company is, whatever used to be basic necessities of successful trading is now redefined to fit the current robust and continually changing business environment. Group Little’s business environment is no longer just about having the right gadgets, it is also about close interaction with customers and widespread, effective marketing therefore Mr Passman had to approach service delivery differently. Competition for selling gadgets has intensified, with Incredible Connections, Hi-Fi, Game and other gadgets stores exerting pressure, Group Little had to distinguish itself by going online.
Understanding that service delivery is directly related to the customer’s psyche he found it fit to offer technological products in a technological platform such as the internet which sends a message to customers of technological proficiency. He also had to innovate since customer needs are frequently changing consequently he had to effectively address them. The weakness of his innovative approach Even though innovation is commendable and obtaining ideas from the international front is encouraged it is evident Forejustin Passman has failed to address the contextualization of this worldwide trend.
His payment outlets for instance should have been modified to fit the traditional payment outlets other than just adopting the internationally proclaimed payment system PayPal. 2. 0 The enterprise 2. 1 Business strategy According to Meyer (2010) strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long-term. General enterprise strategy Emergent strategy is Group Little’s adopted strategy. Having considered the high turbulence in the industry he trades in Mr Passman decided to use this approach to guide his business. This strategy has been adopted since this industry is uncertainty and innovation based.
It allows frequent feedback on the business environment which in turn permits reallocation of resources to address any information that is received about any changes in the business’ external environment. Operations strategy Figure b Source:ibbusinessandmanagement. com(2012) Using Michael Porter’s generic model figure b above, Forejustin has opted differentiation operational strategy. In this strategy unique attributes that are valued by customers and which are perceived to be better than the gadgets of the competition are intensively adopted by Group Little.
This company has the following internal strengths to make this differentiation strategy successful; * Highly skilled and creative development team. * Strong sales team with the ability to successfully communicate the perceived strengths of the gadgets The risks linked with this strategy include imitation by competitors and changes in customer tastes. In addition, a range of firms pursuing focus strategies may be able to achieve even greater differentiation in their market segments. 2. 2 E-business
As Group Little is a typical example of an e-business it is quite instructive to use the SWOT model to analyse the strengths, weaknesses, opportunity and threats this organisation it has; Strengths Global reach to marketing. Since the web is an international platform Group Little’s marketing is not just limited to local media and advertising opportunities it spreads out to other regions. There is improved customer interaction. The customer and the enterprise meet in the comfort zone of the customer, therefore the customer can openly offer ideas, orders and even complaints all this will better Group Little’s service delivery.
Weaknesses Security; customers are always concerned with the integrity of their payments, most shy away from revealing confidential bank information in the web, which costs Group Little significantly. The other weakness is the customer has no idea of the quality and physical condition of the gadgets; it is very common for discrepancies to exist between what sites advertise and the actual product. Opportunities New technologies surfacing could open up internet accessibility in Botswana which will be advantageous to Forejustin’s company since the critics’ argument pivots around this matter.
Group Little also has prospects on cutting down local competition. As local competition has not adequately used the online trading space which can give Group Little an online competitive advantage if Forejustin Passman chooses to invest significantly to develop this area. Threats Fraud; given that there are some individuals that are out to deceive for financial gain are always Mr Passman’s concern, they may fake Group Little’s website and deceive the customers. Changes in law and regulation are always a threat.
Regulatory authorities to protect customers from fraud they may place laws and regulations that will stifle Group Little’s competitiveness. 2. 3 Organisational culture This has been defined as, a system of shared actions, values and beliefs that develop within an organisation and guides the behaviour. This is as cited by Uhl-Bien et al. (2010). Forejustin Passman has directed Group Little culture, one of the shared values is the ‘no Sunday policy. ’ In this Forejustin has reflected his Christian beliefs and his philosophy of people before profit into the corporation’s culture.
His belief in God prompts him to keep the Sabbath which to him is Sunday and his people before profits philosophy leads him to protect their wellbeing by giving them rest on Sunday. Any order placed on Sunday is attended on Monday by rejuvenated and more productive employees. This has its obvious disadvantages such as foregone sales but Mr Passman believes his policy is beneficial to all parties involved. When work is on between Monday to Saturday the team is relaxed and open, this as Forejustin says allows for conception of creative ideas.
Any facet that stifles creativity is minimized be it the tangible such as tables or chairs or the intangible aspect like a mental attitude that stigmatizes mistakes. This culture solves two important issues external adaptation, which deals with reaching goals; how to reach those goals and if members have developed this freedom to make mistakes they can effectively guide their day-to-day activities. It also solves the issue of internal integration, members can easily merge and share ideas when mistakes are not stigmatized and this leads to greater productivity. . 4 Critical success factors of his business Branding Forejustin’s Group Little has to create a brand that appeals to the African technologically adept. Now as asserted by Perry (2009) a brand is more than just a corporate symbol it is an intangible asset that provokes emotional responses from individuals which presents a sustainable competitive advantage. This entrepreneur must position his company’s brand to be able to leverage from being one of Botswana’s few companies that are committed to successful internet trading.
Little is known of Group Little but this is an incentive not a deterrent because the brand can be driven in any direction that Forejustin sees proper to execute his vision. Even though his company was registered with the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property in 2009, not long ago every product and or service he introduces must align to the strategy of the company; he has to monitor Group Little’s identity, as the perception portrayed to customers over these few years is the one that affords the company to leverage on the brand premium.
Realising that the company’s brand was its critical success factor efforts to protect his brand symbol from infringement were undertook; he decided to copyright the brand symbol. Distribution Comprehending their need for effective systems, Group Little has rationalized their distribution systems to enhance performance of their products. As an attempt to enhance the logistics execution and capabilities Mr Passman decided to form a synergy with Botswana Couriers.
This he decided to do in order to quicken delivery of the gadgets sold, in contrast to sending the orders via Botswana Post with their renowned incompetence he decided to solidify his distribution by having an exclusive agreement with Couriers. As Meyer (2010) asserts exclusive distributor agreements will constitute a major impediment to the distributors if the distributor wants to switch from the commitment. In this synergy Group Little is offered discounts because of the volume of gadgets it trades around the country and basic efficiency in the distribution of the products is greatly enhanced.
Technology It seems obvious yet still noteworthy that Group Little has technology as their trading platform has to remain on vigilant and aware of new technology developments. Most gadgets they sell use mobile applications, applications are pieces of software that are designed to fulfil a particular purpose, for Group Little that purpose simply is to make easy access to its website’s content and increase sales, therefore Group Little is in the process of having their own application.
The entrepreneur has looked at engaging a company named Bright labs which operates in Tlokweng for the development of Group Little’s very own mobile application this will enable those who have bought these gadgets to also download the application and then browse for more products from Mr Forejustin Passman’s Group Little. 2. 5 Conclusion Forejustin Passman’s Group Little’s performance has been average, but if he can put measures in place to direct its strategy the company will realise its potential to become a benchmark e-business in Botswana and even in Africa.
He simply needs to re-assess who he is and what Group Little is, a point of focus (the target market to approach, how he is going to approach that market). In addition he is required to solidify his networks as this is one business competence he has ignored and it will ultimately cost him and his business from growing from being a small medium enterprise to being the envisioned benchmark multinational. Contextualisation of Group Little’s business model also can provide an impetus its success as well, Mr Passman shall consider adopting traditional transaction means in order not to inhibit his business from reaching every possible customer.
Bibliography Books 1. Meyer, R, Wit, B, (2010), Strategy-process, content, context an international perspective, 4ed, Hampshire: Cengage learning EMEA 2. Perry, B, (2009), Enterprise operations, Oxford: Cima publishing 3. Uhl-Bien. M, Schermerhorn J. R. , Hunt . J G, Osborn R. N, (2010), Organisational behaviour, Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons 4. Kay. F, (2010), Successful networks, London: Kogan Page 5. Yves, L, Goz, G. H, (1998), Alliance Advantage-The art of creating value through partners, Boston: Harvard business School Press. 6. Sugars. B, (2012), Super Size your sales, the entrepreneur, August, p. 2 7. Bessant J, Tidd J,(2011), innovation and entrepreneurship, 2ed, Sussex: John Wiley and sons 8. Moon. R, Gee. S, (2012), Creating business opportunity, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan 9. Mullins L. J, (2010), management & organisational behaviour, 9ed, Essex: Prentice Hall Websites 10. Multiply (2012): Spontaneous idealist [online] Available from: http://mirau. multiply. com/journal/item/116/My-Personality-Type-Spontaneous ,[ accessed 14 December 2012] Appendix Personal reflection Studying real entrepreneurs and real companies always equips I as the student beyond lecture content.
The study of this enterprise and Mr Forejustin Passman was a delight because I got to know interesting real aspects about business, I have learnt when in real business some academic theories will have to be set aside and suspended to deal with the challenges of real business. The more I researched I understood what differentiates successful entrepreneurs and unsuccessful entrepreneurs and that content I learnt were not part of the assignment requisite but I did learn This module lectures are also noteworthy, I figured this was a reiteration of Enterprise anagement I did in my second year, so lectures consisted of emphasis of year two material. Even though the material is more or less the same as of second year the assessment was interestingly structured, it was strategic rather than operational that seems like an obvious comment but this has really marked the difference in our approach. We were no longer just reporting facts, concepts and academic theories we had to apply and use our groomed understanding to critically analyse the business case.
Student common app essay help: common app essay help
How can human resource management contribute to a company’s success? Human resource management consists of an organization’s “people practices” such as the policies, practices, and systems that influence employees’ behavior, attitudes, and performance. HRM influences who works for the organization and how those people work. These human resources, if well managed, have the potential to be a source of sustainable competitive advantage, contributing to basic objectives like quality, profits, and customer satisfaction. 2.
Imagine that a small manufacturing company decides to invest in a materials resource planning (MRP) system. This is a computerized information system that improves efficiency by automating such work as planning needs for resources, ordering materials, and scheduling work on the shop floor. The company hopes that with the new MRP system, it can grow by quickly and efficiently processing small orders for a variety of products. Which of the human resource functions are likely to be affected by this change? How can human resource management help the organization carry out this change successfully?
The sort of change described in the question above would most likely affect, to some degree, all nine of the functions of human resource management. The analysis and design of work would need to be considered in a decidedly different manner than it was before the newly implemented automated process, as the “job” itself would be changed under the new system. Recruitment and selection as well as training and development would require adjustment in order to secure those individuals with the necessary skills, knowledge, and abilities to perform at expected levels under the new system.
Performance management, which is the process of ensuring employees’ activities and outputs match the organization’s goals, would need reevaluation due to the changes created by the new process. Compensation would require adjustment as a result of the changes caused by the automation. Employee relations and human resource planning to support the organizational strategy would require adjustment to bring harmony and balance back into the workplace as individuals are noted to fear and resist new changes.
Human resource management can help the organization carry out this change successfully by applying its knowledge of human behavior along with performance management tools in such a way as to assist the organization to constructively mange the change process. 3. What skills are important for success in human resource management? Which of these skills are already strengths of yours? Which would you like to develop? Human resource management requires substantial human relations skills, including skill in communicating, negotiating, and team development.
Human resource professionals also need decision-making skills based on knowledge of the HR field as well as the organization’s line of business. Leadership skills are necessary, especially for managing conflict and change. Technical skills of human resource professionals include knowledge of current techniques, applicable laws, and computer systems. 4. Traditionally, human resource management practices were developed and administered by the company’s human resource department. Line managers are now playing a major role in developing and implementing HRM practices. Why do you think non-HR managers are becoming more involved?
As the relationship between various HRM practices and the productivity and performance of employees has been recognized, line managers have strong reasons to become involved in the development and implementation of HRM practices. The information from line managers is critical to determining needed and appropriate policies and practices that will reinforce the strategic and operational needs of the organization. For instance, if quality needs improvement, then it is critical that incentive/compensation practices be developed to reward quality improvement, rather than volume production. . If you were to start a business, what aspects of human resource management would you want to entrust to specialists? Why? Human resource specialists most often possess certain areas of expertise, such as recruiting, training, and labor relations. Human resource generalists usually perform the full range of HRM activities, such as recruiting, training, compensation, and employee relations. The cost associated with the difference between the hiring of a specialist or a generalist would need to be considered, as this is a newly established company.
A full picture of organizational size, objectives, financial standing, as well as organizational need would have to be examined prior to selecting a specialist or a generalist to guide the HR process. 6. Why do all managers and supervisors need knowledge and skills related to human resource management? Although many organizations have human resource departments, non-HR managers must be familiar with the basics of HRM and their own role with regard to managing human resources. Supervisors typically have responsibilities related to all HR functions.
Supervisors help analyze work, interview job candidates, participate in selection decisions, provide training, conduct performance appraisals, and recommend pay increases. On a day-by-day basis, supervisors represent the company to their employees, so they also play an important role in employee relations. 7. Federal law requires that employers not discriminate on the basis of a person’s race, sex, national origin, or age over 40. Is this also an ethical requirement? A competitive requirement? Explain. Ethics refers to the fundamental principles of right and wrong. Ethical behavior is that behavior which supports those principles.
It is imperative for organizations to adhere to current laws and regulations. This is indicative of ethical organizational behavior. The manner in which an organization conducts its business can affect the way in which others, such as customers, government agencies, and vendors, perceive that organization. While operating ethically is not a competitive requirement, it must be remembered that individuals most often prefer to deal with organizations that they feel they can trust. So in essence, operating in an ethical/unethical manner may greatly impact an organization’s competitiveness. . When a restaurant employee slipped on spilled soup and fell, requiring the evening off to recover, the owner realized that workplace safety was an issue to which she had not devoted much time. A friend warned the owner that if she started creating a lot of safety rules and procedures, she would lose her focus on customers and might jeopardize the future of the restaurant. The safety problem is beginning to feel like an ethical dilemma. Suggest some ways the restaurant owner might address this dilemma. What aspects of human resource management are involved?
Safety for workers as well as for customers is vital for every organization regardless of its size. Accidents can prove to be exorbitant in cost for businesses. The restaurant owner may address this dilemma by gaining knowledge on the value of safety training. By viewing implementation of safety training as an enhancement, the owner may defeat any fears that may be present. In actuality, all nine areas of human resource management functions could potentially be involved in or affected by the creation of a safety-training program. Of course, the training and development function would sustain an immediate and more recognized affect.
The Epitome of How to Live Life personal essay help: personal essay help
MorrieIn the play King Lear by William Shakespeare and the memoir Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, the two main characters King Lear and Morrie Schwartz both experience a major downfall within their lives. Each man endures their hardship in their own way, but Morrie Schwartz epitomized the correct way to live life – the way we all should. King Lear viewed aging and death as a time to be unburdened and carefree, and family as servants who should obey his every command.
He viewed life in a selfish perspective; if something bad happened to him he would completely wallow in self-pity. Whereas Morrie viewed aging and death as a time to teach others and family as a give love, get love situation that he could not live without. Morrie viewed life in a completely positive and selfless perspective, making him the epitome of the perfect way to live life. King Lear had a very different perspective than Morrie on how to live life at the beginning of the play.
Realizing his old age, Lear saw this as a time to be carefree and unburdened by responsibility: “Know that we have divided / In three our kingdom, and ’tis our fast intent / To shake all cares and business from our age, / Conferring them on younger strengths while we / Unburdened crawl toward death…” (I i 40-43). In this quote, King Lear is describing his plan to divide his kingdom into three parts and giving it to his three daughters so that he can enjoy a little peace of mind in his old age. This shows that King Lear viewed old age and death as a time to kick back and relax.
Instead of just giving his daughters their share of the kingdom, he makes them declare their love for him and compete against each other for a bigger share of land. This plan, however, backfires on him when his youngest daughter, Cordelia, doesn’t give him the exaggerated answer he was searching for. This infuriates him; which leads him to banishing Cordelia and splitting the kingdom among his other two daughters, Goneril and Regan: “Here I disclaim all my paternal care, / Propinquity, and property of blood, / And as a stranger to my heart and me / Hold thee from this for ever. (I i 115-118). In this quote, Lear is furious with Cordelia, saying that he disowns her as his own flesh and blood. This shows that he was more concerned about his ego and his daughters fighting over him than having honest, loyal children. King Lear viewed family like he viewed servants – always obeying his wishes. After making this decision, Lear soon realizes that he had made a huge mistake. Goneril and Regan do not show any sympathy for the former king, not even allowing him to stay with either one of them – forcing him to go out into the storm.
After being locked out, Lear wallows in deep self-pity: “…The tempest in my mind Doth from my senses take all feeling else, Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude, Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand For lifting food to’t? But I will punish home. No, I will not weep no more. In such a night To shut me out! Pour on, I will endure. In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril, Your old kind father, whose hear gave all…” (III iv 14-20) In this quote, he is expressing his hurt and shock towards his daughters’ betrayal.
Although he said he will not weep anymore, he continued to complain about his situation. Lear recognized that Goneril and Regan were the dishonest ones but he had not yet learned to look at the situation from a non-selfish point of view. Although eventually he learns and understands the entirety of his situation, he learned the importance of family too late and this quote exemplifies it. He viewed life in a selfish perspective. This proves that, unlike Morrie, Lear did not epitomize the way to live life; rather he epitomized the way not to.
Tuesdays with Morrie is a memoir by Mitch Albom which reflects on the death of his old professor and friend, Morrie Schwartz. Morrie was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. As his body slowly wilted, Morrie and Albom had discussions every Tuesday about life and more importantly, how to live life to the fullest. Morrie engulfed the definition of the perfect state of mind. Even after being diagnosed with ALS, he sees his impending death as a time to teach others, as Albom described: “Morrie would walk that final bridge between life and death, and narrate the trip” (10-11).
This proves that unlike King Lear, Morrie didn’t see his death as a time to relax but rather as a tool to help people learn the important lessons in life. Morrie loved to teach because he loved to help others. He recognized the importance of relationships and having love around you because love is what lives on after death. He knew that this was his time to go so he might as well make the most of it – he accepted death. If there was one thing Morrie made very clear it was that he wouldn’t have been able to be as strong as he was without his family.
Morrie’s wife was constantly at his side and his children visited as often as they could. Although they wanted to take time off and go be at his side, he wouldn’t let them. Morrie felt that if they stopped their entire lives it would only be worse for them, saying: “Do not stop your lives. Otherwise, this disease will have ruined three of us instead of one” (93). This shows how selfless Morrie was. Even though he would have loved nothing more than to see his sons every day, he would not allow them to put their lives completely on hold just for him. Otherwise, this disease will have ruined three of us instead of one,” which means it’s his time to go, and although it’s sad they need to still continue their lives and move forward because they have a long time to go. He cares very much for his children, unlike King Lear. King Lear viewed family more as his servants to obey his every command, whereas Morrie was just concerned for their futures because he loved them and wanted them to keep experiencing life. Morrie sees family as a give-and take-situation – you give love, you get love.
It’s an equal balance: “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in” (52). This means that most of us think we don’t deserve love; that it will make us become too soft. But what Morrie is saying, is that we have to learn to let love in, too, in order to live life to the fullest. Living life to the fullest also means focusing on the good things rather than the bad. Unlike King Lear who just wallowed in self-pity, Morrie – a dying man – only allowed himself to mourn for a few short minutes each morning: “I give myself a good cry if I need it.
But then I concentrate on all the good things in my life. On the people who are coming to see me…” (57). Even in his fragile state, Morrie still continued to look at the positive things in his life. He knew that even though he was going to die, there are people in the world who will never get to say good-bye and that he’s lucky to be able to. He knew that things could always be worse. King Lear was the complete opposite when he endured his tragedy; he was always mourning for himself, never living life the way he should. Morrie epitomizes the way everyone should live life.
In conclusion, Morrie Schwartz is the perfect example of the way everyone should live their lives. He viewed aging and death as a tool to teach others the important topics of life, and he viewed family as the most important people that he could not live without. He viewed life in a completely selfless perspective unlike King Lear who viewed every situation selfishly. Morrie used his death as a teaching mechanism for all of us; he made his death about helping others rather than focusing on himself. We should all live our lives both giving and receiving love because love is the only rational act, and Morrie knew that better than anyone.
Holden vs. Charlie persuasive essay help: persuasive essay help
He was narrow-minded and always annoyed at what people would do and say. Charlie came into high school trying to fit in and make a lot of friends. He would always listen to what people had to say and keep it in mind. Holden was 17 years old, while Charlie was about 15 years old. Charlie went to a public high school and Holden went to a private school. While Holden and Charlie had some difference, the way they thought and acted were more similar. Both boys were lonely and didn’t do very well with girls. Holden had girlfriends but messed it by yelling, not saying the right things, and leaving a girl at a restaurant.
Charlie had a girlfriend his first year at high school but cheated on her by kissing her best friend. Charlie and Holden’s brothers were both successful in their life. Charlie’s brother was a star football player while Holden’s brother was a famous writer. English was Holden’s and Charlie’s favorite subject in school. Holden was good in English and Charlie just loved reading books and writing. The boys had a good relationship with their sisters, Holden’s bond was closer but Charlie stuck up for his sister when she needed help.
Terrible things happen in each of their lives. Charlie’s aunt molested him at a young age while Holden’s brother died very young. Both of these events traumatized their lives but with help they finally got through it. Holden and Charlie may have been two different people with different actions and thoughts their life style was very similar. They were good in English, stuck up for their sister, and had horrible events in their lives. Even though their lives were pretty bad in the beginning, Holden and Charlie stayed through it and ended up happy in the end.
The Contribution of Isaac Newton to the Scientific Revolution essay help service: essay help service
The Contribution of Isaac Newton to the Scientific Revolution The beginning of the 17th century was a period of drastic change in Europe as many started to approach science. This dawning of modern science introduced new concepts in the understanding of the physical world, and brought along a new stream of “natural philosophers” () including Sir Isaac Newton. The scientific revolution was not marked by any single change, but rather various new ideas from different philosophers, including Newton, helped revolutionize an important epoch in human history.
The impacts due to Newton’s suggestion to abandon medieval philosophies, his contribution to mathematics, astronomy, and physics, and his role in the “Royal Society” will provide an idea of how important Isaac Newton was during the 17th century and the impact he’s had on the revolutionary breakthroughs at the time, as well as on modern society. During the scientific revolution, Newton and many other natural philosophers proposed to abandon medieval scientific philosophies in favor of newer scientific methods (Ames, et al).
There were four reasons for why the medieval idea of science was discarded (). The first reason was because many scientists and philosophers during the 17th century were able to collaborate and work alongside mathematicians and astronomers to advance the knowledge in all fields (Rose). This rendered the medieval method of conducting scientific research useless. Another reason was because the natural philosophers at the time realized the ineffectiveness and inadequacy medieval experimental methods provided for their work, and felt that a new method was needed.
Also the world was slowly becoming more globalized, and research papers from the Europeans, Greeks, and Middle Eastern scientific philosophies were all readily available at the time (Ames, et al). Newton, along with other natural philosophers, were able to use a diverse range of starting points to either build on existing theories, or disprove them. The last reason is because of the impact groups such as the “Royal Society” had on science. These organizations helped validate science as a field of work, and helped publicize scientific findings (Ames, et al).
This meant the medieval scientific philosophies were no longer required as a foundation for scientific research. Newton’s proposition to abandon medieval scientific philosophies led to one of the most important changes during the 17th century; how natural philosophers conducted scientific research. This was because the modern hypothesis was born. During the 17th century, natural philosophers started to ask questions emphasizing on answering “what. ” These questions included, “what is the relationship between these two things? or “what are the facts to suggest this? ” (Ames, et al). It was a major breakthrough because it required finding facts before a hypothesis can be formulated. A hypothesis in the 17th century must be accompanied by various observations, and only after these requirements have been met can a scientist conduct tests with a controlled experiment (Ames, et al). This revolutionary change eventually led to the “experimental method,” which in turn has impacted the way chemists, biologists and physicists conduct experiments today (Rose).
Newton, along with the other natural philosophers’ decision to abandon the medieval scientific philosophy helped reaffirm the importance of conducting experiments to science. The pursuit of science (rather than philosophy) gained validity, and the importance of God to science was tremendously, but not fully, invalidated. This meant that there was a transition from focusing on supernatural viewpoints to a humanistic viewpoint. Religion and superstition were replaced by reason and knowledge.
This change in attitude was an essential step during the 17th century. Prior to the scientific revolution, natural philosophers lacked the instruments and methods required to verify their observational and experimental ideas (Rose). This handicap forced these philosophers to rely on the church and the ancient world. Figures such as Aristotle, St. Augustine, and God were considered to be the sources of truth (Ames, et al). This caused the scientific ideas at the time to be lost; the natural philosophers were forced to accept the teachings of the church.
This notion all changed during the 17th century, when skepticism about religion and authoritative figures of the past became wide-spread due to the continued growth of a literate middle class (Hatch). Many started to read the Bible and interpret it in their own understandings rather than blindly following the teachings of the church. Religion was being challenged as the authority and foundation for knowledge. Due to Newton’s suggestion to desert medieval scientific philosophies, the scientific hypothesis was born, which in turn created doubt and skepticism about religion.
Many sought answers elsewhere, and started turning to science for truths. The transition from medieval scientific philosophies created a new mindset and approach to nature. Many scientists in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, math and astronomy created enormous contributions to the field of science, including Sir Isaac Newton himself. Isaac Newton’s first discovery was the concept that white light is composed of different colors (Steinbock 28).
By using the new hypothesis which Newton was partially responsible for creating, he demonstrated through a series of experiments that prisms separate white light, rather than modify it. Newton also contradicted the theories of Aristotle by stating that white light is heterogeneous, while the separate colors are homogeneous (Hatch). When his work was published, Newton stated that the purpose of his work was to, “propose and prove [the properties of light] by Reason and Experiments” (Hatch). This further validated the use of the new hypothesis, where everything must be proved through facts and observations.
Newton’s work extended beyond just light, into the realm of numbers. Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz are both responsible for the invention of calculus, though the two men developed calculus independently. Their work is still extremely significant to the understanding of the physical world, because calculus enables Man to explain the rate of change of anything that is not uniform. Before this momentous development, there have always been contradictions with dividing by zero, as well as adding infinitely large numbers.
The ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea even gave examples of such inconsistencies (“Zeno of Elea”). Calculus provided the tools, through “limits”, to solve these problems. Even today calculus is used in all branches of science, business, and even medicine. Yet perhaps the most famous of Newton’s work is his contribution to the field physics. He is the man responsible for creating the theory of Gravity because of the famous apple incident. Another major contribution Newton had on physics were his three laws of motion, which are considered a foundation for anyone studying physics.
What is so significant about Newton is that almost 400 years after his death, his findings in optics, mathematics, and physics are still commonly taught and used to this day. Along with the progress made in science as an independent discipline from philosophy during the 17th century, many scholars began to form organizations as centers of “thought and intellectual exchange” (Ames, et al). Newton was part of the committee who established one of the most influential scientific organizations, the “Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge ()” (Ames, et al).
This society’s fundamental purpose is to “recognize, promote and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity” (The Royal Society). This association was a major contributor to the scientific developments from the 17th century and onwards. The Royal Society was an important part of the history of science, because it both fostered discussions between scientists, and was an academy for scientific studies in Europe. Accomplished scientists, such as Newton, would exchange ideas through discussions with equally intelligent individuals, as well as publicize their articles and findings.
Newton was funded money by this society to continue his research, and it was with the help of the Royal Society that enabled Newton to both conduct his research and publish his findings (O’Connor, and Robertson). Due to his influence, Newton would become the president of the Royal Society in the later years of his life. Many highly respected scientists joined the Royal Society, including Robert Boyle, William Petty, and Francis Bacon (Ames, et al). All of these members benefited from the collaborations within the organization, and the publicity generated due to their published works.
This meant that not only did Sir Isaac Newton contribute a lot to the knowledge of Man, but he also helped create a foundation and stepping stone for prospective bright minds. Even today, the Royal Society plays a key role in the discussion, design, and development of modern sciences and experimental methods (The Royal Society). Sir Isaac Newton was a man who greatly influenced the world, both during his time on Earth, as well as the legacy he leaves behind. He was partially responsible for introducing the new scientific method into this world, forever changing the way scientists conduct experiments.
He was a man who managed to shed a scientific light during an era where people were religiously oppressed. His intelligence allowed him to discover new ideas in three fields of scientific studies; optics, mathematics, and physics. Even after Newton’s death, his legacy remains in the form of the Royal Society, as well as in all the scientific contributions he has instilled upon this world. Isaac Newton must have been an extraordinary gift to his parents when was born on Christmas day, 1642. But he was more than that; he was an extraordinary gift to mankind. Works Cited Ames, Lauren, Jo Kent, Amneet Gulati, and Adam Purtee. The Impact of the Scientific Revolution. ” Connexions. Connexions, 6 Jan. 2006. Web. 06 Mar. 2013. <http://cnx. org/content/m13245/latest/>. Cherubin, Rose. “The Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century. ” The Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century. N. p. , n. d. Web. 06 Mar. 2013. <http://classweb. gmu. edu/rcherubi/ancient/srfr. htm>. Hatch, Robert A. , Dr. “Isaac Newton Biography – Newton’s Life, Career, Work. ” Isaac Newton Biography – Newton’s Life, Career, Work – Dr Robert A. Hatch. N. p. , 30 Nov. 1999. Web. 07 Mar. 2013. <http://web. clas. ufl. du/users/ufhatch/pages/01-courses/current-courses/08sr-newton. htm>. O’Connor, J. , and E. Robertson. “Sir Isaac Newton. ” Newton Biography. MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, Jan. 2000. Web. 07 Mar. 2013. <http://www-history. mcs. st-and. ac. uk/Biographies/Newton. html>. The Royal Society. “About Us. ” About the Royal Society. N. p. , n. d. Web. 07 Mar. 2013. <http://royalsociety. org/about-us/>. Ted Steinbock, MD, comp. Isaac Newton and the Scientific Revolution. N. p. : Mountain Goat, 2006. Print. “Zeno of Elea. ” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 9 Jan.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Us Electoral System university essay help: university essay help
The electors chosen by each state are called the Electoral College. This consists of 538 members, comprising 100 senators, 435 congressmen, and 3 members from the District of Columbia. States with large populations, like California have over 50 electoral votes, while sparsely populated states like Alaska has only 3 electoral votes. This system of government makes the electoral system highly susceptible to voter suppression. Voter Suppression is the strategy to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing people from exercising their right to vote.
It is distinguished from political campaigning because, it attempts to reduce the number of voters who might vote against the candidate or the proposition advocated by the suppressors, while political campaigning attempts to change the possible voting behavior by changing the opinions of potential voters through persuasion and organization. Voter suppression in the United States of America is mainly done by trying to discourage persons from voting by making the process harder, rather than preventing them from doing so.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 which was last amended in 2006 is the legislation set down to outlaw discriminatory voting practices against Americans. This law guarantees that the federal government would intervene if any state attempted to deny a citizen’s voting rights because of race. The Act contained special enforcement provisions targeted at those areas of the country where Congress believed the potential for discrimination to be the greatest. This Act has been the main challenge to all possible attempts at voter suppression.
Under the American electoral system, every state is able to set its own electoral laws, as long as it is in line with the Voting Rights Act this is good because each state is unique and will have its own unique electoral issues and a broad national law would not suit all states, but this also a key weakness as the lawmakers of each state are able to implement various voter suppression tactics to benefit their party under the pretext of preventing voter fraud and safeguarding election integrity.
These voter suppression laws take many forms, and collectively lead to significant burdens for eligible voters trying to exercise their most fundamental constitutional right eg. During the 2011 legislative sessions, states across the country passed measures to make it harder for Americans, particularly African-Americans, the elderly, students and people with disabilities to exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot.
Over thirty states considered laws that would require voters to present government-issued photo ID in order to vote. Studies suggest that up to 11 percent of American citizens lack such ID, and would be required to navigate the administrative burdens to obtain it or forego the right to vote entirely. Three additional states passed laws to require documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, though as many as 7 percent of American citizens do not have such proof.
Seven states shortened early voting time frames, even though over 30 percent of all votes cast in the 2008 general election were cast before Election Day. Two state legislatures voted to repeal Election Day registration laws, though Election Day registration increases voter turnout by 10-12 percent. Finally, two states passed legislation making it much more difficult for third-party organizations to register voters so difficult, in fact, that some voter registration organizations are leaving the states altogether.
A clear example of attempted voter suppression Florida came from Jim Greer, former Chair of the Florida Republican Party, on the Al Sharpton show where he said “In Florida, as in other states, it’s not the Democrats’ imaginations that are creating voter suppression issues; rather, it’s the systemic and predictable way in which Republicans are trying to discourage people likely to vote Democrat.
They do this by creating arbitrary and unevenly enforced laws to create confusion and ultimately discourage the other side’s voters. After an electoral spanking last cycle that was largely the backlash to neoconservative overreaches in the Bush Jr. era, Republicans were reflecting on how to deal with the surge of new and minority voters. “I sat in on many meetings where it was discussed how to make sure what happened in 2008, when Obama brought out the college-aged voters, the minority voters, never happened again”
Another example of attempted voter suppression comes from South Carolina, where delegates there like in other states tried to pass a new law requiring photo identification at the polls, but were stopped by the Department of Justice, their submission did not include any evidence or instance of either in-person voter impersonation or any type of fraud that is not already addressed by the state’s existing voter identification requirement and that arguably could be deterred by requiring voters to present only photo identification at the polls.
The department also found that non-white voters were 20 percent more likely to be excluded by the new law, a total of 81,938 registered minority voters lack the requisite identification. In concluding, it is safe to say the American electoral system, for the most part has been able to thwart attempts at voter suppression by the two major political parties. . Bibliography Online Newspaper Article Campbell, Ryan (September 04, 2012). Voter Suppression Series Part II: Florida. Retrieved from http://www. uffingtonpost. com/ryan-campbell/voter-suppression-in-florida_b_1840793. html Caldwell, Patrick (December 27, 2011). “Voting Wrongs. ” What will the DOJ’s rejection of South Carolina’s voter identification mean? Retrieved from http://prospect. org/article/voting-wrongshttp://prospect. org/article/voting-wrongs Online Documents United States Department of Justice. History of Federal Voting Rights Laws-The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Retrieved from http://www. justice. gov/crt/about/vot/intro/intro_b. php
Define and Discuss the Ideas of Global Orientation? narrative essay help: narrative essay help
Market share leadership C) Price D) Product quality leadership E) The target market Answer: C Diff: 1Page Ref: 290 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-1 4) Consumer perceptions of the product’s value set the ________ for prices. A) demand curve B) floor C) ceiling D) variable cost E) image Answer: C Diff: 2Page Ref: 291 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 5) Product costs set a(n) ________ to a product’s price. A) demand curve B) floor C) ceiling D) break-even cost E) experience curve Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 291 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 6) Which of the following is a customer-oriented approach to pricing?
A) value-based pricing B) sealed-bid pricing C) break-even pricing D) target profit pricing E) C and D Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 291 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 7) ________ uses buyers’ perceptions of what a product is worth, not the seller’s cost, as the key to pricing. A) Value-based pricing B) Value-added pricing C) Variable cost D) Price elasticity E) Product image Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 291 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 8) In ________, price is considered along with the other marketing mix variables before the marketing program is set. A) value-based pricing B) cost-based pricing
C) variable costs D) price elasticity E) building the marketing mix Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 291 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 9) Value-based pricing is the reverse process of ________. A) variable cost pricing B) cost-plus pricing C) cost-based pricing D) good-value pricing E) value-added pricing Answer: C Diff: 2Page Ref: 291 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 10) With ________, price is set to match consumers’ perceptions of product value. A) variable cost pricing B) cost-plus pricing C) cost-based pricing D) value-based pricing E) every day low pricing Answer: D Diff: 2Page Ref: 291 Skill: Concept
Objective: 10-2 11) Measuring ________ can be difficult. A company might conduct surveys or experiments to test this in the different products they offer. A) price elasticity B) the demand curve C) perceived value D) break-even pricing E) quantity supplied Answer: C Diff: 3Page Ref: 292 AACSB: Communication Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 12) Underpriced products sell very well, but they produce less revenue than they would have if price were raised to the ________ level. A) perceived B) value-based C) variable D) demand curve E) price-floor Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 292 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 3) If a seller charges ________ than the buyer’s perceived value, the company’s sales will ________. A) more; benefit B) more; suffer C) less; increase D) less; suffer E) none of the above Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 292 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 14) Some companies have adopted a ________ strategy, offering just the right combination of quality and good service at a fair price. A) value-based pricing B) good-value pricing C) cost-plus pricing D) low-price image E) none of the above Answer: B Diff: 1Page Ref: 293 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 15) Wal-Mart is famous for using what important type of value pricing?
A) competition-based pricing B) everyday low pricing C) cost-plus pricing D) break-even pricing E) penetration pricing Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 293 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 16) ________ involves charging a constant, everyday low price with few or no temporary price discounts. A) High-low pricing B) Target pricing C) Cost-plus pricing D) EDLP E) Penetration pricing Answer: D Diff: 2Page Ref: 293 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 17) ________ involves attaching features and services to differentiate a company’s offers and to support charging higher prices.. A) Break-even pricing B) Target pricing
C) Value-added pricing D) Cost-plus pricing E) Pricing-down Answer: C Diff: 1Page Ref: 293 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 18) ________ is a company’s power to escape price competition and to justify higher prices and margins. A) Variable cost B) Pricing power C) Target cost D) Fixed cost E) Unit cost Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 293 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 19) To maintain and increase a company’s ________, a firm must retain or build the value of its marketing offer. A) variable cost B) pricing power C) target cost D) fixed cost E) image Answer: B Diff: 3Page Ref: 293 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 0) When there is price competition, many companies adopt ________ rather than cutting prices to match competitors. A) pricing power B) value-added strategies C) fixed costs D) price elasticity E) image pricing Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 293 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 21) Ryanair offers free flights to a quarter of its customers and rock-bottom prices to many of its other customers. Ryanair then charges for all extra services, such as baggage handling and in-flight refreshments. Which of the following best describes Ryanair’s pricing method? A) value-added pricing B) low-cost pricing C) cost-plus pricing
D) high-low pricing E) image pricing Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 295 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 22) ________ pricing involves setting prices based on the costs for producing, distributing, and selling the product plus a fair rate of return for the company’s efforts and risks. A) Value-based B) Fixed cost C) Cost-based D) Variable E) Skimming Answer: C Diff: 1Page Ref: 295 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 23) Fixed costs ________ as the number of units produced increases. A) decrease B) increase C) divide in half D) remain the same E) increase at a diminishing rate Answer: D Diff: 2Page Ref: 295 Skill: Concept
Objective: 10-3 24) Costs that do not vary with production or sales level are referred to as ________. A) fixed costs B) variable costs C) target costs D) total costs E) unit costs Answer: A Diff: 1Page Ref: 295 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 25) Rent, electricity and executive salaries are examples of ________. A) fixed costs B) variable costs C) accumulated costs D) total costs E) marketing costs Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 295 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 26) Costs that vary directly with the level of production are referred to as ________. A) fixed costs B) variable costs C) target costs D) total costs E) unit costs
Answer: B Diff: 1Page Ref: 296 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 27) ________ are the sum of the ________ and ________ for any given level of production. A) Fixed costs; variable; total costs B) Fixed costs; total; variable costs C) Variable costs; fixed; total costs D) Total costs; fixed; variable costs E) Break-even costs; fixed; total costs Answer: D Diff: 2Page Ref: 296 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 28) SRAC is the acronym for which concept related to costs at different levels of production? A) strategic reasoning and costs B) short-run accounting costs C) short-run average cost D) strategic rights and company
E) strategic revenues and costs Answer: C Diff: 2Page Ref: 296 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 29) As production workers become better organized and more familiar with equipment, the average cost per unit decreases. This is called the ________. A) demand curve B) experience curve C) short-run average cost curve D) long-run average cost curve E) marginal utility Answer: B Diff: 1Page Ref: 296 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 30) With a higher volume of product, most companies can expect to ________. A) gain economies of scale B) become less efficient C) see average costs increase D) have a straight, horizontal learning curve
E) find competitors using the experience curve strategically Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 296 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 31) The experience curve reveals that ________. A) repetition in production lowers costs B) repetition in production enhances efficiency C) the average cost drops with accumulated production experience D) A, B, and C E) none of the above Answer: D Diff: 3Page Ref: 296 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 32) When a downward-sloping experience curve exists, a company should usually ________ the selling price of that product in order to bring in higher revenues. A) increase B) greatly increase
C) decrease D) not alter E) none of the above Answer: C Diff: 3Page Ref: 297 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 33) Which of the following is a risk a company takes when building a strategy around the experience curve? A) Competitors will likely not be able to meet the company’s price cuts. B) Existing technologies are likely to become more expensive as the company expands. C) The method does not take competitors’ prices into account. D) The method may cause consumers to become frustrated with changing prices. E) Aggressive pricing may give the product a cheap image, causing customers to lose interest. Answer: E
Diff: 2Page Ref: 297 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 34) A company building its pricing strategy around the experience curve would be likely to ________. A) price its products low B) price its products high C) engage in break-even pricing D) all of the above E) none of the above Answer: A Diff: 3Page Ref: 297 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 35) The company designs what it considers to be a good product, totals the expenses of making the product, and sets a price that adds a standard mark-up to the cost of the product. This approach to pricing is called ________. A) value-based pricing B) fixed cost pricing
C) cost-plus pricing D) variable pricing E) skimming pricing Answer: C Diff: 1Page Ref: 297 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 36) Lawyers, accountants, and other professionals typically price by adding a standard markup for profit. This is known as ________. A) variable costs B) cost-plus pricing C) value-based pricing D) break-even price E) penetration pricing Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 297 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 37) The simplest pricing method is ________. A) value-based pricing B) going-rate and sealed-bid pricing C) cost-plus pricing D) break-even analysis E) target profit pricing Answer: C
Diff: 2Page Ref: 297 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 38) Which of the following is a reason why markup pricing is NOT practical? A) Sellers earn a fair return on their investment. B) By tying the price to cost, sellers simplify pricing. C) When all firms in the industry use this pricing method, prices tend to be similar. D) This method ignores demand. E) With a standard markup, consumers know when they are being overcharged. Answer: D Diff: 3Page Ref: 298 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 39) One reason ________ remains popular is that sellers are more certain about costs than about demand. A) markup pricing
B) variable pricing C) inelasticity pricing D) elasticity pricing E) penetration pricing Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 298 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 40) Price competition is minimized when all firms in an industry use which pricing method? A) variable pricing B) markup pricing C) elasticity pricing D) value-added pricing E) value-based pricing Answer: B Diff: 3Page Ref: 298 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 41) Many people feel that ________ pricing is fairer to both buyers and sellers. Sellers earn a fair return on their investment but do not take advantage of buyers when buyers’ demand becomes great. A) variable
B) markup C) elasticity D) inelasticity E) penetration Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 298 AACSB: Ethical Reasoning Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 42) Which of the following is a cost-based approach to pricing? A) value-based pricing B) going-rate pricing C) target profit pricing D) good value pricing E) A and C Answer: C Diff: 2Page Ref: 298 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 43) Break-even pricing, or a variation called ________, is when the firm tries to determine the price at which it will break even or make the profit it is seeking. A) competition-based pricing B) target profit pricing C) fixed cost pricing
D) value-based pricing E) customer-based pricing Answer: B Diff: 1Page Ref: 298 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 44) Target profit pricing uses the concept of a ________, which shows the total cost and total revenue expected at different sales volume levels. A) value-based chart B) break-even chart C) competition-based chart D) demand-curve E) unit cost Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 298 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 45) The break-even volume is the point at which ________. A) the total revenue and total costs lines intersect B) demand equals supply C) the production of one more unit will not increase profit
D) the company can pay all of its long-term debt E) a firm’s profit goal is reached Answer: A Diff: 3Page Ref: 298 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 46) ________ pricing works only if that price actually brings in the expected level of sales. A) Elasticity B) Markup C) Variable D) Inelasticity E) Target profit Answer: E Diff: 3Page Ref: 298 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 47) Which of the following statements about break-even analysis is true? A) It is used to determine how much production experience a company must have to achieve desired efficiencies. B) It is a technique used to calculate fixed costs.
C) It determines the amount of retained earnings a company will have during an accounting period. D) It is a technique marketers use to examine the relationship between supply and demand. E) It is calculated using variable costs, the unit price, and fixed costs. Answer: E Diff: 3Page Ref: 298 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 48) As a manufacturer increases price, the ________ drops. A) target B) break-even volume C) cost-plus pricing D) total cost E) sales Answer: B Diff: 3Page Ref: 299 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 49) Which of the following is an external factor that affects pricing decisions? A) the salaries of production management
B) competition C) the salaries of finance management D) funds expensed to clean production equipment E) A, B, and C Answer: B Diff: 1Page Ref: 299 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 50) ________ that influence pricing decisions include the nature of the market and demand and competitors’ prices. A) Internal factors B) Elasticity factors C) External factors D) Target factors E) Domestic factors Answer: C Diff: 2Page Ref: 299 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 51) Companies may set prices low for which of the following reasons EXCEPT ________. A) to prevent competition from entering the market B) to stabilize the market
C) to create excitement for a product D) to prepare for an easy exit from a market E) to match a competitor Answer: D Diff: 2Page Ref: 299 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 52) In order to form a consistent and effective integrated marketing program, price decisions should be coordinated with each of the following EXCEPT ________. A) product design B) distribution C) competitors’ prices D) promotion decisions E) marketing objectives Answer: C Diff: 2Page Ref: 299 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 53) With target costing, marketers will first ________ and then ________. A) build the marketing mix; identify the target market
B) identify the target market; build the marketing mix C) design the product; determine its cost D) use skimming pricing; penetrating pricing E) determine a selling price; target costs to ensure that the price is met Answer: E Diff: 2Page Ref: 300 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 54) Price setting is usually determined by ________ in small companies. A) top management B) marketing departments C) sales departments D) divisional managers E) cross-functional teams Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 300 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 55) Price setting is usually determined by ________ in large companies. A) top management
B) divisional managers C) product line managers D) pricing departments E) both B and C Answer: E Diff: 2Page Ref: 300 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 56) In industrial markets, ________ typically has the final say in setting the pricing objectives and policies of a company. A) the sales manager B) top management C) the production manager D) the finance manager E) the pricing department Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 300 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 57) In industries in which pricing is a key factor, ________ often set the best prices or help others in setting them. A) sales managers B) top managers C) production managers
D) finance managers E) pricing departments Answer: E Diff: 2Page Ref: 300 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 58) Under ________, the market consists of many buyers and sellers trading in a uniform commodity such as wheat, copper, or financial securities. A) pure competition B) monopolistic competition C) oligopolistic competition D) a pure monopoly E) anti-trust agreements Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 302 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 59) Under ________, the market consists of many buyers and sellers who trade over a range of prices rather than a single market price. A) pure competition B) monopolistic competition
C) oligopolistic competition D) pure monopoly E) socialism Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 302 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 60) Under ________, the market consists of a few sellers who are highly sensitive to each other’s pricing and marketing strategies. A) pure competition B) monopolistic competition C) oligopolistic competition D) pure monopoly E) capitalism Answer: C Diff: 2Page Ref: 302 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 61) Nonregulated monopolies are free to price at what the market will bear. However, they do not always charge the full price for a number of reasons. What is NOT one of those reasons?
A) They don’t want to attract competition. B) They want to penetrate the market faster with a low price. C) They have a fear of government regulation. D) They want to encourage government regulations. E) They want to please a large group of consumers. Answer: D Diff: 3Page Ref: 303 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 62) The relationship between the price charged and the resulting demand level can be shown as the ________. A) demand curve B) variable cost C) target cost D) break-even pricing E) experience curve Answer: A Diff: 1Page Ref: 303 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 63) Consumers usually perceive higher-priced products as ________.
A) out of reach for most people B) having high quality C) having high profit margins D) having cost-based prices E) being in the introductory stage of the product life cycle Answer: B Diff: 3Page Ref: 303 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 64) Why do marketers consider prestige goods to be an exception to the typical demand curve? A) The demand curve for prestige goods slopes downward and to the right. B) Increasing the price of prestige goods can make them seem more desirable. C) Demand for prestige goods often is greater than supply. D) Prestige products such as diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds are nonrenewable resources.
E) Customers are more aware of any price changes to prestige goods. Answer: B Diff: 3Page Ref: 303 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 65) Which of the following is true about the demand curve? A) It is used to illustrate the effect of price on the quantity supplied. B) It is always graphically depicted by a straight line. C) It shows the quantity of product customers will buy in a market during a period of time even if other factors change. D) It usually slopes upward and to the right. E) It shows the relationship between product demand and product price. Answer: E Diff: 3Page Ref: 303 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 6) When Gibson Guitar Corporation, long known for its high quality instruments, lowered its prices to compete more effectively with Japanese rivals, the company sold fewer guitars. Which of the following best explains this? A) The Gibson guitars were not as well made as the Japanese guitars. B) The market was already flooded with guitars. C) The sound of the Gibson guitar was not as good as the Japanese guitars. D) Customers did not distinguish the superiority of the Gibson guitar when it was at a lower price. E) Customers had come to expect a higher price for a Gibson guitar. Answer: D Diff: 3Page Ref: 303
Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 67) ________ describes how responsive demand will be to a change in price. A) Price elasticity B) Break-even pricing C) The demand curve D) Target costing E) Supply Answer: A Diff: 1Page Ref: 304 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 68) If demand hardly changes with a small change in price, we say the demand is ________. A) variable B) inelastic C) value-based D) at break-even pricing E) market penetrating Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 304 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 69) If demand changes greatly with a small change in price, we say the demand is ________. A) variable B) inelastic
C) value-based D) elastic E) fixed Answer: D Diff: 1Page Ref: 304 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 70) Price elasticity of demand is ________ divided by ________. A) percent change in quantity demanded; percent change in price B) demand; price C) percent change in price; percent change in quantity demanded D) the going price; the asking price E) none of the above Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 304 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 71) Buyers are less price sensitive in all of the following situations EXCEPT ________. A) when the product they are buying is unique B) when the product they are buying is in high demand
C) when substitute products are hard to find D) when the total expenditure for a product is high relative to their income E) when the product is a specialty product Answer: D Diff: 2Page Ref: 304 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 72) The less ________ the demand, the ________ it pays for the seller to raise the price. A) determined; less B) elastic; more C) elastic; less D) constant; more E) none of the above Answer: B Diff: 3Page Ref: 304 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 73) Each of the following economic factors can have a strong impact on a firm’s pricing strategy EXCEPT ________. A) an economic boom
B) the reseller’s reaction to price changes C) an economic recession D) inflation E) interest rates Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 305 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 74) A company should set prices that will allow ________ to receive a fair profit. A) resellers B) producers C) consumers D) the elderly E) competitors Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 305 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 75) When companies set prices, the government and social concerns are two ________ affecting pricing decisions. A) external factors B) internal factors C) economic conditions D) demand curves E) temporary influences Answer: A
Diff: 1Page Ref: 305 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 76) Amos Zook, an Amish farmer, sells organically grown produce. Often he will trade some of his produce for dairy products produced by other Amish farmers. The sum of the values that others exchange is called a ________. A) price B) cost-plus price C) dynamic price D) common value price E) penetration price Answer: A Diff: 1Page Ref: 290 AACSB: Reflective Thinking Skill: Application Objective: 10-1 77) Trader Joe’s offers an assortment of exclusive gourmet products at impossibly low prices. These prices are not limited-time offers or special discounts.
Instead, they reflect Trader Joe’s ________ strategy. A) everyday low pricing B) cost-plus pricing C) dynamic pricing D) value-based pricing E) cost-based pricing Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 293 AACSB: Reflective Thinking Skill: Application Objective: 10-2 78) Jimmy’s Hardware, an independent local retailer, is losing business to Wal-Mart. This is most likely because he cannot match Wal-Mart’s pricing strategy of ________. A) EDLP B) EFGF C) fixed prices D) negotiated pricing E) skimming pricing Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 293 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-2 9) When McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants offer “value menu” items at surprisingly low prices, they are using ________. A) break-even pricing B) target profit pricing C) value pricing D) cost-plus pricing E) bundling Answer: C Diff: 1Page Ref: 293 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-2 80) Consumers who have less time and patience for watching for supermarket specials and clipping coupons would most likely prefer ________. A) variable pricing B) high-low pricing C) EDLP D) break-even pricing E) value-based pricing Answer: C Diff: 3Page Ref: 293 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application
Objective: 10-2 81) Xbox 360 decides to add a free subscription to XBOX magazine with every game bought in an effort to differentiate its offering from PS3 games. This is an example of ________. A) good-value pricing B) add-on pricing C) product-support pricing D) value-added pricing E) cost-based pricing Answer: D Diff: 2Page Ref: 293 AACSB: Reflective Thinking Skill: Application Objective: 10-2 82) The long-run average cost curve (LRAC) helps the producer understand which of the following? A) It shows how large a business should be, to be most efficient. B) It deals mainly with competitors’ prices.
C) It deals mainly with external factors. D) all of the above E) none of the above Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 296 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 83) Assume a manufacturer with fixed costs of $100,000, a variable cost of $10, and expected sales of 50,000 units wants to earn a 20-percent markup on sales. What is the manufacturer’s markup price? A) $14 B) $15 C) $18 D) $18. 50 E) none of the above Answer: B Diff: 3Page Ref: 297 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 84) General Motors prices its automobiles to achieve a 15 to 20 percent profit on its investment.
This approach is called ________. A) value-based pricing B) going-rate pricing C) cost-plus pricing D) low-price image E) target-profit pricing Answer: E Diff: 2Page Ref: 298 AACSB: Reflective Thinking Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 85) A company faces fixed costs of $100,000 and variable costs of $8. 00/unit. They plan to directly sell their product to the market for $12. 00. How many units must they produce and sell to break even? A) 20,000 B) 25,000 C) 40,000 D) 50,000 E) not enough information to calculate Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 298 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 6) Ecstasy Pharmaceuticals faces fixed costs with their new drug of $1,000,000. The company sells the drug in bottles of 50 pills for $10. 00. They estimate that they must sell 200,000 bottles to break even. What is the total cost to produce a bottle of 50 pills? A) $2. 50 B) $5. 00 C) $6. 00 D) $7. 50 E) not enough information to calculate Answer: B Diff: 3Page Ref: 298 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 87) A manufacturer is trying to determine its break-even volume. With fixed costs of $100,000, a variable cost of $10, and expected sales of 50,000 units, what should the manufacturer’s unit cost be to break even?
A) $10 B) $12 C) $16 D) $20 E) none of the above Answer: B Diff: 3Page Ref: 298 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 88) As a manufacturer decreases price, ________ volume increases. A) target B) break-even C) cost-plus pricing D) total cost E) sales Answer: B Diff: 3Page Ref: 299 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 89) P&G surveyed the market and identified an unserved segment of electric toothbrush market. Using these results, they created Spinbrush. The unorthodox order of this marketing mix decision is an example of ________.
A) competition-based pricing B) cost-plus pricing C) target costing D) value-based pricing E) penetration pricing Answer: C Diff: 2Page Ref: 300 AACSB: Reflective Thinking Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 90) PoolPak produces climate-control systems for large swimming pools. The company’s customers are more concerned about service support for maintaining a system than its initial price. PoolPak may use this knowledge to become more competitive through ________. A) target costing B) value pricing C) cost-plus pricing D) a nonprice position E) skimming pricing Answer: D Diff: 2Page Ref: 300
AACSB: Reflective Thinking Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 91) By pledging to be a leader in providing clean, renewable energy sources and developing products and services that help consumers protect the environment, Green Mountain Power competes successfully against “cheaper” brands that focus on more price-sensitive consumers. Green Mountain Power has the firm belief that even kilowatt-hours can be ________. A) cost-plus priced B) a demand curve C) differentiated D) value-based priced E) none of the above Answer: C Diff: 3Page Ref: 300 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application
Objective: 10-4 92) In Vin del Mar, Chile, there are a dozen stores specializing in selling the same quality of seafood products on one street. An individual store dare not charge more than the going price without the risk of losing business to the other stores that are selling the fish at a common price. This is an example of what type of market? A) pure competition B) monopolistic competition C) oligopolistic competition D) pure monopoly E) socialist Answer: A Diff: 2Page Ref: 302 AACSB: Reflective Thinking Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 93) Ascot Tires has decided to decrease its prices.
The company can expect that ________ for their product will increase. A) cost-plus pricing B) value-based pricing C) demand D) the experience curve E) competition Answer: C Diff: 1Page Ref: 303 AACSB: Reflective Thinking Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 94) If Canon Camera Company follows a high-price, high-margin strategy, what will competitors such as Nikon, Minolta, and Pentax most likely do? A) They will go out of business. B) They will want to compete against Canon. C) They will advertise less. D) They will bundle their products. E) none of the above Answer: B Diff: 2Page Ref: 304 AACSB: Analytic Skills
Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 95) If Canon Camera Company follows a low-price, low-margin strategy for a product, what will competitors most likely do? A) They will not be able to compete or may leave the market. B) They will want to compete against Canon. C) They will advertise less. D) They will advertise more. E) none of the above Answer: A Diff: 3Page Ref: 304 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 96) Companies are fortunate to have demand that is more ________ because they may be able to set higher prices. A) elastic B) external C) internal D) inelastic E) fixed Answer: D Diff: 2Page Ref: 304
AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 97) If demand falls by 1 percent when price is increased by 2 percent, then ________. A) elasticity is —1/2 B) demand is inelastic C) demand is elastic D) buyers are not price sensitive E) A and B Answer: E Diff: 3Page Ref: 304 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Alden Manufacturing produces small kitchen appliances? blenders, hand mixers, and electric skillets? under the brand name First Generation. Alden attempts to target newlyweds and first-time home buyers with this brand.
In considering that most young households have limited financial resources, Alden has attempted to engage in target costing. “In doing this,” Milt Alden stated, “we have better control over keeping price right in line with customers. ” Alden manufactures a three-speed blender, its top seller, and a five-speed blender. The hand mixers are manufactured in two styles? a small hand-held mixer with two rotating beaters and a similar style that comes with an optional stand and attached mixing bowl. Alden’s temperature-controlled skillets are manufactured in one style with three color options. Our product offerings are narrower,” Milt Alden added, “but our line workers know each product like the back of their hands. This allows us to produce superior products while holding our prices low. ” 98) Milt Alden says that his line workers “know each product like the back of their hands,” and that this knowledge helps the company keep its prices low. This indicates that Alden Manufacturing most likely uses which of the following strategies? A) cost-plus pricing B) value-based pricing C) the experience curve D) cost-based pricing E) target profit pricing Answer: C Diff: 2Page Ref: 296 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application
Objective: 10-2 99) Milt Alden uses a target costing strategy. Which of the following is he most likely to do in executing this strategy? A) base his price on competitors’ prices B) use everyday low pricing C) use a break-even chart to determine pricing D) start with customer-value considerations E) start by determining the costs of a new product Answer: D Diff: 2Page Ref: 300 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 100) If Alden raises the price on the handheld mixer by 2 percent and quantity demanded falls by 10 percent what is the price elasticity of demand? A) —5 B) —8 C) —12 D) 5 E) 12 Answer: A
Diff: 3Page Ref: 304 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 101) When faced with price competition cutting prices is often not the best answer. Answer: TRUE Diff: 2Page Ref: 293 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-1 102) Prices have a direct impact on a company’s bottom line. Answer: TRUE Diff: 1Page Ref: 290 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-1 103) Demand and consumer value perceptions set the floor for prices. Answer: FALSE Diff: 2Page Ref: 291 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 104) Product costs set a floor to the price; consumer perceptions of the product’s value set the ceiling.
Answer: TRUE Diff: 2Page Ref: 291 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 105) Value-based pricing is being used when costs vary directly with the level of product. Answer: FALSE Diff: 3Page Ref: 291 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 106) Value-based pricing uses the company’s perception of value. Answer: FALSE Diff: 2Page Ref: 291 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 107) Value-based pricing is the reverse of cost-based pricing. Answer: TRUE Diff: 2Page Ref: 291 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 108) Using value-based pricing, a marketer would not design a product and marketing program before setting the price.
Answer: TRUE Diff: 3Page Ref: 291 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-2 109) EDLP is very similar to high-low pricing. Answer: TRUE Diff: 2Page Ref: 293 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-2 110) Overhead cost is another term for fixed cost. Answer: TRUE Diff: 1Page Ref: 295 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 111) Cost-based pricing relies on consumer perception of value to drive pricing. Answer: FALSE Diff: 2Page Ref: 295 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 112) Average unit cost increases with accumulated production experience. Answer: FALSE Diff: 1Page Ref: 296 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 13) An upward-sloping experience curve is beneficial for a company. Answer: FALSE Diff: 3Page Ref: 297 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 114) The simplest pricing method is cost-plus pricing, which involves adding a standard markup to the cost of the product. Answer: TRUE Diff: 2Page Ref: 297 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 115) Markup pricing is popular because prices tend to be similar and price competition is thus minimized. Answer: TRUE Diff: 2Page Ref: 298 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 116) Target profit pricing is used when a firm tries to determine the price at which it will break even or make the profit it is seeking.
Answer: TRUE Diff: 3Page Ref: 298 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 117) A break-even chart shows the total cost and total revenue expected at various sales volume levels. Answer: TRUE Diff: 2Page Ref: 298 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-3 118) Environmental elements are categorized as external factors that affect pricing decisions. Answer: TRUE Diff: 2Page Ref: 299 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 119) In a pure monopoly, the market consists of one seller. Answer: TRUE Diff: 1Page Ref: 303 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 120) Nonregulated monopolies always charge the full price because they do not fear attracting competition.
Answer: FALSE Diff: 2Page Ref: 303 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 121) Marketers may learn a few simple rules that apply equally to all price-demand relationships. Answer: FALSE Diff: 2Page Ref: 303 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 122) The demand curve shows the number of units the market will buy in a given time period at different prices that might be charged. In normal cases, the higher the price, the lower the demand. Answer: TRUE Diff: 1Page Ref: 303 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 123) If demand changes greatly with price, we say the demand is inelastic.
Answer: FALSE Diff: 2Page Ref: 304 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 124) The more elastic the demand, the more it pays for the seller to raise the price. Answer: FALSE Diff: 2Page Ref: 304 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 125) Consumers will base their judgments of a product’s value on the prices that competitors charge for similar products. Answer: TRUE Diff: 2Page Ref: 304 Skill: Concept Objective: 10-4 126) Pricing and price competition account for the number-one problem facing many marketing executives. What are some of the frequent problems that companies encounter?
Answer: The pricing environment changes at a fast pace, and value-seeking customers have put increased pricing pressure on many companies. However, companies are often too quick to reduce prices in order to get a sale rather than convincing buyers that their products are worth a higher price. A company’s pricing, in addition, is often too cost-oriented rather than customer-value oriented. Companies have prices that are not revised often enough to reflect market changes. Another common problem is pricing that does not take the rest of the marketing mix into account. Diff: 2Page Ref: 289 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application
Objective: 10-1 127) Discuss the importance of consumer perceptions of value and costs to setting prices. Answer: Customer perceptions of value set the upper limit for prices, and costs set the lower limit. However, in setting prices within these limits the company must then consider other internal and external factors. Internal factors affecting pricing include the company’s overall marketing strategy, objectives, and marketing mix, as well as other organizational considerations. External factors include the nature of the market and demand, competitors’ strategies and prices, and other environmental factors.
Diff: 1Page Ref: 291 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-2 128) Explain how break-even analysis can be used for target profit pricing. Answer: The firm determines the price at which it will break even. The firm can also add the target profit to the fixed costs and then determine the new, “break-even point,” which now includes the target profit. Pricing decisions can be made by examining where the total revenue and total cost curves intersect on a break-even chart at different price points and sales volume. Diff: 2Page Ref: 298 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 29) Identify and define the internal factors affecting a firm’s pricing decisions. Answer: The pricing strategy is largely determined by the company’s target market and positioning objectives. Pricing decisions affect and are affected by product design, distribution, and promotion decisions. Costs set the floor for the company’s price, which must cover all the costs of making and selling the product, plus a fair rate of return. In order to coordinate pricing goals and decisions, management must decide who within the organization is responsible for setting price. Diff: 2Page Ref: 299 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application
Objective: 10-4 130) Compare pure competition with oligopolistic competition. Answer: Under pure competition, the market consists of many buyers and sellers trading in a uniform commodity. No single buyer or seller has much effect on the going market price. Under oligopolistic competition, the market consists of few sellers who are highly sensitive to each other’s pricing and marketing strategies. The product can be uniform or nonuniform. There are few sellers because it is difficult for new sellers to enter the market. Each seller is alert to competitors’ strategies and moves. Diff: 3Page Ref: 302-303 AACSB: Analytic Skills
Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 131) Compare oligopolistic competition with a pure monopoly. Answer: Under oligopolistic competition, the market consists of a few sellers who are highly sensitive to each other’s pricing and marketing strategies. There are few sellers because it is difficult for new sellers to enter the market. Under a pure monopoly, the market consists of one seller. Pricing is handled differently in each case. The seller may be a government monopoly, a private nonregulated monopoly, or a private regulated monopoly. Diff: 3Page Ref: 302-303 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 32) Describe what a demand curve is and explain how it helps businesses. Answer: It estimates consumer demand at different prices. In a monopoly, the demand curve shows the total market demand resulting from different prices. If the company faces competition, its demand at different prices will depend on whether competitors’ prices stay constant or change with the company’s own prices. Diff: 2Page Ref: 303 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 133) What does price elasticity reveal about a product? Answer: Price elasticity is a measure of the sensitivity of demand to changes in price.
If demand hardly changes with a small change in price, we say the demand is inelastic. If demand changes greatly, we say the demand is elastic. Diff: 1Page Ref: 304 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 134) The company must consider the impact its prices will have on resellers. Identify three ways the company can help resellers. Answer: The company, first of all, should set prices that give resellers a fair profit. The company should also encourage their support. Finally, the company should help resellers to sell the product effectively.
Diff: 1Page Ref: 305 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 135) When setting prices, the company must consider its external environment. Describe four parts of the external environment and how they affect businesses. Answer: Economic conditions affect both the costs of producing a product and consumer perceptions of the product’s price and value. The company should encourage and support resellers and help them to sell the product effectively. The government, in the form of local, state, and federal laws, is another important influence on pricing decisions.
Social concerns impact pricing, especially when a company’s short-term sales, market share, and profit goals may have to be tempered by broader societal considerations. Diff: 1Page Ref: 305 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 136) How important is price among the elements of the marketing mix? Answer: In recent decades, nonprice factors have gained increasing importance. However, price still remains one of the most important elements determining a firm’s market share and profitability. Diff: 2Page Ref: 290 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-1 37) Why is price considered to be one of the most flexible elements of the marketing mix? Answer: Price can be changed quickly. Diff: 1Page Ref: 290 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-1 138) Explain the concept of a price floor. Answer: A price floor is the lowest price charged at which the company still earns some profits. Diff: 2Page Ref: 291 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-2 139) Explain the concept of a price ceiling. Answer: A price ceiling is the highest price charged at which there is still some consumer demand. Diff: 2Page Ref: 291
AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-2 140) What must a company using value-based pricing find out about its customers? Answer: They must determine the specific value that individual buyers assign to different competitive offers. Diff: 3Page Ref: 292 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-2 141) Explain good-value pricing. Answer: With good-value pricing, a marketer offers just the right combination of quality and good service at a fair price. Diff: 1Page Ref: 293 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-2 142) What must a firm do to retain pricing power?
Answer: To retain pricing power, a firm must retain of build the value of its market offering. Diff: 2Page Ref: 293 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-2 143) What costs make up a product’s total cost? Answer: Fixed costs and variable costs make up total cost. Diff: 1Page Ref: 296 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 144) Explain the significance of a downward-sloping experience curve. Answer: Not only will the company’s unit production cost fall, but it will fall faster if the company makes and sells more during a given time period.
Diff: 3Page Ref: 297 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 145) A marketer’s fixed costs are $400,000, the variable cost is $16, and they expect the product to sell for $24. What is their break-even point in units? Answer: The break-even point in units is 50,000 units. Diff: 3Page Ref: 298 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 146) A marketer’s fixed costs are $400,000, the variable cost is $16, and they expect the product to sell for $24. What is their break-even point in dollar sales? Answer: The break-even point in dollar sales is $1,200,000.
Diff: 3Page Ref: 298 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 147) A marketer’s fixed costs are $400,000, the variable cost is $16, and they expect their product to sell for $24. If the marketer has sales of $1,440,000, what is their profit on this product? Answer: The profit is $80,000. Diff: 3Page Ref: 298 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-3 148) Who typically sets prices in small companies? In large companies? Answer: Top management sets prices in small companies, whereas divisional or product line managers typically set prices in large companies.
Diff: 2Page Ref: 300 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 149) Explain a pure monopoly. Answer: The market consists of one seller that dominates the market. Diff: 2Page Ref: 303 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4 150) If demand is elastic, will sellers consider lowering their prices? Explain. Answer: Yes. A lower price will produce more needed revenue, as consumers will respond to the change in price and buy more. Diff: 2Page Ref: 304 AACSB: Analytic Skills Skill: Application Objective: 10-4