Importance of Understanding Cultural, Ethnic, and Gender Differences Essay

The United States is and will continue to be a very diverse place. More than 8 million legal immigrants came to the U. S. between 1981 and 1990, and an undetermined number of undocumented immigrants enter the United States each year. In addition, the United States includes people of many religions, languages, economic groups, and other cultural groups. In order to be a successful manager in today’s very diverse society a manager needs to be open and understanding of cultural differences, different ethnicities, and gender differences among employees. Diversity is the presence of people from a wide range of backgrounds all possessing different traits. Some possible contributors to diversity include but are not limited to differences in age, race, ethnic origin, culture, physical abilities, religion and sexual orientation. As the text book states, ‘bringing diverse workers into an organization is seldom a seamless transition. ’ People tend to prejudge and place stereotypes or generalized beliefs that all members of a group possess the same characteristics from different cultures, race, or sex; this must be overcome. To be effective, managers and employees need to recognize, respect, and capitalize on each other’s differences. By being diverse in its employees, a business has a better opportunity for new ideas and growth potential. As discussed this week in class, when the department head turned down the Jamaican friend for the position, even though he seemed better qualified, it showed stereotyping and prejudices can have a negative effect in the workplace. The situation made for an uncomfortable, even negative environment in the workplace. By the department head’s negative behavior it caused a barrier for productivity and potentially harmed working relationships. It is essential in today’s business world for managers and professionals to understand the importance of cultural, ethnical and gender differences to make a positive work environment possible. While performing the ball and sock experiment, I was put outside of my comfort zone and was forced to see what it was like in someone else’s shoes. I found the lefty experiment to be awkward and difficult. I started in the early morning as I was getting ready for work. The seemingly thoughtless tasks that I completed every morning such as showering, brushing my teeth and hair, and eating breakfast now became hard and tedious. I continued the experiment when I returned home from work. Preparing dinner as a lefty was virtually impossible and almost dangerous. Most tasks as a lefty were manageable after some time and practice, but operating a knife was not. I am sure that with a little time and patience these tasks could have become easier to me. I can see how it could be frustrating living as a lefty in a right handed world. This is the same concept as being from a different culture, ethnicity, and gender then those in your workplace. Although the transition into a new company can be difficult, with time and some adjustment it is possible. I can relate the ball in the sock experiment to the importance of understanding cultural, ethnic, and gender differences in the work place because adjusting to something that we are not accustomed to can be challenging. It is important to understand that people we come into contact with everyday come from a background that we may not know much about. It can be difficult to adjust when meeting new people or entering a new work environment. I believe an organizations success can be attributed to its ability to embrace diversity and appreciate the benefits. A workplace who supports diversity can supply an assortment of solutions to problems. A diverse workplace can facilitate a broader service range. It can allow a company to provide their service to those all around the world. I think the most significant benefit to supporting diversity in the workplace is the inspiration it gives to all of its employees to perform to their greatest capacity. Diversity allows employees to come together to accomplish a common goal as a team. Employees will feel comfortable to share their viewpoints and ideas to execute a goal or solve a problem. I believe diversity opens the door for workplaces to achieve higher productivity, result in higher profits, and benefit the community. Diversity may not be something that people are familiar with and may even have a difficult time adjusting to, which is similar to trying to using your opposite hand in daily tasks. I believe understanding diversity will show employees the importance of it in the workplace and how it can enhance the quality of work.

Playing with A Doll’s House: Visions for a Play Essay

The story apparently being a vivid description of simple yet elegant looks of the author’s time, Henrik Ibsen’s novel, A Doll’s House, would be gorgeously played with costumes and dress designs that better suits the characters’ individual personalities. The set design, needing only to show the Helmer’s apartment, the living room in particular, would have to be stylish with its house embellishments while not looking too expensive at the same time. Having a yuletide season as the time setting for the story, the production would have to make use of Christmas decorations, specifically a Christmas tree as it is an important material for Act 1 where Nora just bought it and would have it lined with gifts for her children. The tree would have to be decorated later perhaps with bright colors as red and silver balls and ribbons for accentuation. A set of sofa for the living room would also be required as most of the scenes would have the characters sit while they are talking. A glass table and some cabinets or ornaments to decorate the other parts of the room would be quite nice to add some favorable atmosphere to certain scenes such as during the discussion between Nora and Krogstad and the climactic argument between her and Torvald. For the characters clothes, that of Nora would have to be the most eye-catching. She’s shown to have a love for fashion and shopping and therefore needs to have at least three set of costumes for the whole play; one is her outside clothes together with a cloak and home clothes for Act 1; an average dress for Christmas day in Act 2; and an Italian costume for Act 3 which is seen after she and Torvald came back to the living room from their upstairs neighbor’s party. As for Torvald and Krogstad’s costumes, theirs need not be extravagant; a long-sleeved polo with matching ties and/or vest would mostly be it. Mrs. Linde would make use of a plain monochrome or basic two-colored dress while Dr. Rank, to emphasize his profession may need of reading glasses for props and a light colored coat. Since the plot of the play would revolve around the living room, the materials for the set would not be a problem and the floor plan could be easily adjusted to fit both the Lowe Theater and the Kaye Playhouse on the campus.

Luxor Case Answers

Case question 1 Variable manufacturing costs as a percentage of sales and the markup on variable manufacturing cost to establish the selling prices for each of the three product lines in 2008 en 2010: Compared markup 2008 and 2010: The markup is lower in 2010 because Luxor lowered the selling prices for lipstick in 2009 and for nail polish in 2010. They had to do this because the discount chains continued to put pressure on them to reduce the prices for lipstick and nail polish. Case question 2 The calculation that converts the Wholesale selling price of the 12/31/2008 lipstick inventory shown as $11. 5 million to the â€Å"cost† of $9. million: Case question 3 Assuming the variable manufacturing cost per unit stayed the same in 2009 and 2010, did the sales volume of nail polish (in terms of physical units) increase or decrease after the selling price was reduced in 2010? Explain. Conclusion: The variable manufacturing costs per unit stayed the same over 2009 and 2010. The act ual variable manufacturing costs increased, so it’s clear that the firm has sold more units. Case question 4 The calculation of the breakeven revenue in 2011: The contribution margin % is calculated by multiplying the sales mix with the contribution margin. Case question 5Susan’s proposed budget for 2011 includes a substantial repayment of the bank loan. If the repayment occurs, is the firm likely to break even in 2012? Explain. The loan figures of the company have been stable for the last two years. If the company repays $10 million of the loan with an interest rate of 7%, the firm will save $ 700K a year. If you decrease the fixed costs with 700K, you can calculate the new breakeven revenue: Therefore, it is unlikely that the firm will sell more in 2012. The sales will probably decrease. Our advice is to focus marketing & promotion on the product with the highest contribution margin. Case question 6

Formalist Critism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Formalist Critism - Essay Example Tension refers to the fundamental cohesiveness of the work, and frequently involves irony and paradox. Intentional fallacy refers to the perception that the meaning of a work may be determined by the intent of the writer. Affective fallacy is the belief that the meaning or value of a work may be deduced from the manner in which it affects the reader. External form is the overlaying trappings of a work, such as rhyme, scheme, and meter, amongst others. Objective correlative refers to the collection of circumstances, objects and /or activities that evoke certain emotion immediately. This thesis does not limit and focus what the writer had intended to say regarding the object. This thesis is very unclear as it as the words fail to produce any cohesive meaning. The three key words are so unrelated within the context of the thesis to the extent that they fail provide any focus on object and subject of the short sentence. Secondly, the sentence does not seem to mirror the theme of the story. Perhaps the main theme is the story is love; however, while adjoining the journey to the key character obviously builds the theme, though it is unclear. The story is a narrative told as flashback by Jacob, and it begins to describe his life in the nursing home and the dilemma he runs into when someone claims that they gave water to the elephants, and so the book converts into a total flash back where Jacob narrates his life in the circus. In the book, the author applies varying language techniques such as broken English and everyday slang. For instance, the author paints a scene where Camel pleads with Blackie to free Jacob, â€Å"†¦ I’m tellin ya! †¦need no trouble, let I’m go! (Gruen, 193) This category of syntax provides a deep insight into the setting of the novel, although the storyline is set in first person, and the writer converses in a different

The Body In American Popular Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Body In American Popular Culture - Essay Example Even as early as the beginning of the twentieth century, American culture has been concerned with the concept of the ‘body’, and in the need for physical exercise and fitness for both men and women (Winter, 1999, p.33). focusing on the body and the concept of masculinity. One of the important reasons for this development is the increased attention given to the male body by popular culture and the media. With the stress on desirable body images, there is increased premium placed on physical attractiveness for men, with the consequent need for men to invest in their appearance. Visual media in the form of advertising, film, magazines, folk tales, and other fields promote men’s increasing awareness of their bodily condition, encouraging them to pursue ideal conceptualizations of physical beauty. Wienke (1998) adds that vulnerability to the allure of the consumer market is also increased. To â€Å"enhance both the physical and symbolic value of men’s bodiesâ⠂¬  states Wienke (1998, p. 256), there is growing the availability of a range of exercise equipment, dietary supplements, and other products.

MAR Income Statement Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

MAR Income Statement - Research Paper Example However, there has been a lot of stiff competition within the international organizations that deal with hospitality operations but the Marriott International Incorporation has maintained standards of being among the few that maintain a competitive advantage (Hartman & Werhane, 2009). The core principle that facilitates the great returns or rather success to the Marriott International Incorporation is the element of effective top management. This majorly consists of the board of directors that are having sufficient knowledge in the line of hospitality management and supervision. Due to this focus and teamwork, the organization still looks forward to a great establishment thus economic growth and development. The board of directors, including the general manager or chief executive officer, has very defined roles and responsibilities within a business organization. Fundamentally, it is the role of the board of directors to hire the general manager of the business and evaluate the overall direction and strategy of the business (Finance.yahoo.com). The general manager is responsible for hiring all of the other employees and overseeing the day-to-day operation of the business. On the contrary, management is not responsible for the overall policy decisions of the business. Some of the major responsibilities of the board of directors include: The process of evaluating, recruiting, supervising, retaining, and compensating the general manager is probably the most important functions of the board of directors. Value-added business boards need to aggressively search for the best possible candidate for this position (Hartman & Werhane, 2014). Actively searching within your industry can lead to the identification of very capable people Directing the Marriot International Incorporation effectively as the board has a strategic function in providing the vision, mission, and goals of the organization. These are often determined in combination with the chief executive officer of the business.

Equal Importance of Reason and Emotion in Justifying Moral Decisions Essay

Equal Importance of Reason and Emotion in Justifying Moral Decisions - Essay Example However moral values are always theoretical. Consequently, there had been a difference of opinion among the scholars and philosophers, while defining moral values. In addition, there had been widespread debate over the applicability of reason and emotion to justify moral decisions. One such philosopher, David Hume argued that reason can be construed as a slave to the personal emotions. In contrast to this, Kant addressed the importance of reason in the process of taking moral decisions. Antonio Damsio, the author of Descartes’ Error, had maintained that the theories of Hume and Kant cannot be correct, because reason and emotion do not oppose each other diametrically. He also stated that the processes that take place in the brain were intertwined and complicated (Ingham). The human brain plays a key role in the moral decision making process, whenever the situation warrants such a decision. The brain acts according to the situation in which the moral decision had been taken. In situations, where it is necessary to take some action with regard to a moral dilemma, several factors have to be taken into consideration, before arriving at a correct resolution for the moral dilemma. Furthermore, it is important to apply the highest possible rational deliberation (Moral Judgment Fails Without Feelings). In certain situations, there could be a need to take immediate decisions. In such circumstance the emotions would take an active part in resolving the issue on hand.

Discussion 5 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Discussion 5 - Assignment Example According to the nurse, some patients or patients’ associates may turn hostile or physical at worst, especially when a health worker reveals certain disturbing information to them such as the loss of a loved one or the failure of a surgical procedure done on a person close them. The issue is related to the ethical principle of nonmaleficence because the nurse may have to decide between retaliating and upholding professionalism (Kjervik & Brous, 2010). Understanding the concerns of the advanced practice nurse provides me with an insight into the complexities involved in adjudicating similar ethical issues in my practice. The understanding demonstrates to me the need to be prudent in my conduct. An issue facing the Patient Protect and Affordable Care Act is the increased backlog of patients that physicians have to attend to due to the expansion of medical coverage that have accrued from the implementation of the act. Shortage of nurses in the U.S accentuates the problem from this issue. While expanding coverage to the uninsured Americans is good, physicians’ increased backlog might delay patients’ access to care because of inadequate healthcare workforce. A legal issue surrounding the increased backlog of patients for the few available physicians is the challenge to expand the scope of practice for non-physician health professionals in order to help reduce the backlog. Laws regulating the scope of practice of health practitioners have always required that physicians supervise the practice of other non-physician practitioners. This policy will provide a window for me as an advanced practice nurse to exercise my specific role complementing that of physicians (Le Buhn & Swankin, 2010). One of the changes that I would make to the Affordable Care Act is to expand the role of advanced practice nurses by charging them with management of health homes. Advanced

Personal Mastery and Effective Team Learning Essay

Personal Mastery and Effective Team Learning - Essay Example From this discussion it is clear that  personal mastery was viewed by Peter Senge as a creative approach towards an individual’s life rather than just being competent in various tasks. A person maintains creativity in all aspects of living and avoids being spontaneous in regard to the daily challenges that one faces. A person applies creativity to accomplish what he/she needs in life through personal mastery.As the study stresses a person needs to possess a clear vision and a sense of purpose in life to accomplish personal mastery. It is important to maintain a balance between the prevailing reality and creativity and also to be capable of lessening the negative aspects of conservative beliefs that hinder personal mastery and obligation to stand for the truth. Individuals engage in regular improvement to enhance personal mastery. In other words, there is usually no end to improvements, and an individual is in charge of his/her personal mastery. It involves always exploring n ew ways to expand personal knowledge, which as Amy Tan demonstrates in her talk, is accomplished through creativity. She believes that something may come out of nothing. The individual needs to ensure that he/she learns new things often from different people in the day to day interactions. Such opportunities, though immeasurable may widen a person’s scope of thinking and approach towards learning.  The person expands his/her knowledge base through creativity. Personal mastery allows professional development and satisfaction in the day to day activities.

Final paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Final paper - Essay Example Yoo shrewdly narrows this necessity to apply to enemy combatants abroad, but the implications for the freedom and continuity of the American Republic are most disheartening. We must then analyze some of the ways in which Yoo’s claims and beliefs are reminiscent of Schmitt’s and the ways in which Schmitt’s contempt for liberal government and society resonate with those of Yoo. In his essay â€Å"The Concept of the Political,† Carl Schmitt forwards a decidedly simplistic and binary method for understanding the nature of politics and the role of the state. For Schmitt, everything which makes up society (i.e. culture, art, government, popular movements and beliefs, and customs) necessarily has a political distinction, meaning and value. Everything is political. The state, being the embodiment of the political, may potentially concern itself with anything. But more important for Yoo is that Schmitt reduces the whole of human existence and conflict to a matter of discerning the Hegelian â€Å"other.† Thus Schmitt claims that the basis of all political matters is a choice and distinction between friend and enemy. As well for Schmitt, â€Å"all political concepts, images, and terms have a polemical meaning†. The point to be made then is that Schmitt believes that everything that is political in a society concerns itself with the designation of an enemy. All debates about rights, values, social justice, and the rest are but an act of choosing an enemy. Schmitt goes so far in this line of thought as to claim that the utopian idea of a world without war, where peace is the state of affairs, would simply be a world with no friends or enemies, and also no politics. For Schmitt then, man’s natural state in society is to have an enemy, to have a state which protects him from that enemy, and to reduce all other aspects of society to this very basic concept of the political. More troubling is that Schmitt

Successful lawlessness Essay Example for Free

Successful lawlessness Essay The League was virtually dead and, during the Japanese invasion of China in 1931, the League in reply to Chinese appeal performed its duty of saving the peace by merely passing resolution sympathizing in the Chinese cause. The League now became a passive onlooker of the aggression of Japan. The Aeschylus, the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, and the outbreak of World War II following Hitler’s attack on Poland were events in the face of which the League acted as a helpless spectator. But when in 1939, Russia attacked Finland; the League of Nations suddenly became conscious about its duty as a champion of peace and expelled Russia from its membership with unusual and unnatural haste. The League maintained its existence till April 1946 when it voted its abolition in a meeting called at Geneva. Thus, there was an unbroken crescendo of successful lawlessness and the League had to remain as a helpless spectator.

Starbucks Logistics Essay Example for Free

Starbucks Logistics Essay To help Starbucks on its way to successfully reach the supply chain goals they redefined and changed their distribution and warehousing strategy too. In March 2011 Starbucks signed the agreement with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to distribute Starbucks coffee and teas for Keurig single-serving systems (2) Green Mountain Coffee Roasters owns the biggest distribution network for the single-serving systems in North America and Starbucks was able to increase their stock prices significantly after singing this deal. Also, leaving out the old partner Kraft Foods out of the distribution of its coffee in supermarkets and grocery shops Starbucks can generate some surplus income and invest it into business (3). Another example of changes in distribution is the intention of Starbucks to capitalize the distribution channels of Tevanna and continue to open more stores in malls tweaking the model (4). The relationship with their long-standing 3 PL partner company OHL has been redefined after Mr.Schultz returned as chief executive and have been improved enormously implementing day-today and peer-to-peer relationship instead of having a relationship ‘within arm reach’ as per Greg Javor, Vce President of Global Logistics for Starbucks Coffee Company (1). The relationships were leveraged to the key levels between the partners and allowed OHL to react quickly and in a more effective way to a changing and Starbucks strategy. Also, the improved communication helped to introduce more innovation into the business and now Starbucks and OHL use voice picking technologies, finger scanning technology and introduced the EDI labeling in their warehousing system. All this definitely allow Starbuck to secure a reliable supply of high-quality products and reduce the cost using all the opportunities, technologies and re-defining their distribution and warehousing objectives. Doing it in a smart way and using effectively integration of various activities for reaching the goals the company not only solves the current problems while recovering after the recession hit but builds a new capabilities and opportunities for expanding business for the future. (1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa_C7-W_r18 (2) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/business/13coffee.html?pagewanted=1_r=0ref=starbuckscorporation (3) http://www.gezabottlik.com/310/07_Project20120Report_billyjun_Starbucks20Coffee20Report.pdf (4) http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/starbucks-to-buy-teavana-for-620-million/?ref=starbuckscorporation

The multifaceted role of a manager

The multifaceted role of a manager The role of a manager in modern organization is a multi-faceted one-it involves many duties including planning and controlling budgets. However, it is argued that one of the most important and challenging roles of a modern manager is that of successfully managing PEOPLE. Tapping into peoples creativity, motivating them and providing support and appropriate leadership is vital to the success of the organisation Discuss this statement with a particular focus on exploring what skills are necessary to successfully mange people in todays workplace. The complex systems within which people perform their roles in called an organisation: which is also a coordinated group of people who perform tasks to produce goods and services, colloquially referred to as company (Muchinsky. P M, 2006). Organisational behaviour is thus a study of structure, functioning and performance of organisation, and the behaviour of groups and individuals within them (Pugh, 1971). Studying organisational behaviour is understanding how organisations work as a structure and assess what people accomplish, from the manager to the simple employee. In this present study, we are going to be interested in managers. What is a manager? A definition of a manager could be the one given by Bloisi W et al, who suggested that managers are people responsible for working with and through others to achieve objectives by influencing people and system in a changing environment ( 2003, 50) . This definition gives us a fair insight of what managers do but what are their roles in a modern organisation? Hence, in an attempt to analyse and understand what managers are to accomplish and how, we will subsequently analyse the multifaceted roles of a mangers through the different school of management approach, see why the greatest challenge for a modern manager is to successfully manage people and finally see other skills or competence required for a good manager. Before the issue of mangers role in an organisation is being addressed, it is highly crucial to understand how new organisations operate and what a real manager is. As depicted earlier, a manager can be portrayed as a person operating within the frame work of an organisation and driven by set objectives and through whom the process of effectively and efficiently combination of factors of production could lead to an optimization of output (profit à Ã¢â€š ¬). He/she endorses an economic rational behaviour, in relation with the objectives set by their company: which in a sense is maximising output for given inputs, [bearing in mind the constraints of cost]. Several Streams of thought and theories governing the managers role have emerged since the beginning the twentieth century from the classical perspectives, the human relation approach, the systems approach to the contingency theory. All of which highlighted the legal responsibilities of a manager which has mutated in parallel with the workforce evolution. The Classical perceptive defended by Frederick Taylor and his work on scientific management and Fayol later on with the administrative principles  [1]  of management, both focus on the idea that management can be learned and set in codes systematically. These ideas are mostly concerned with the structural perspectives of management: [focusing] on structuring and design of work and organisation (Gordon, J (1999, 14). For Taylor, a managers role has to be scientifically driven. He believed that managers have the responsibility to organise, plan and determine the best methods for performing jobs ,describing management as a science in which employees have specific and yet different responsibilities within their organisation. He is one of the first to talk about managerial and non-managerial roles and believed that scientific observation of people at work through survey and motions studies [] would be the one and only best way to do non-managerial task (Bloisi W, 2003, 6). Hence after the scientific observation made and the objective set, the manager has to behave in line with the scientific principals whilst recruiting, through the development of work, training and equal division of work between workers and management. However , despite setting a new way of viewing management in an organisation , the scientific approach of Taylor has been acutely criticised because in practice, the theory has said t o be too preoccupied with productivity (Bloisi W, 2003, 7) ,thus not really taking into account the employees welfare. Henri Fayol, a French industrialist for his part developed his own principals of management based of administrative aspect of managers role, in which he believed that businesses are divided into six subsystems and to run them successfully, managers have to exercise several duties which comprises; planning, organising, coordinating activities, commanding employees and controlling performance. For Fayol, managers plan by analysing the future and its outcomes through anticipation, goal setting, forecasting and decisive actions. They organise through the design of a framework/structure to assist the set goals. They coordinate by bringing together the activities taking place in the organisation. They command by directing the organisation on the path they want it to follow through leadership and motivation of employee Jack Duncan (1990,97 ) and finally they control by making sure that everything is undertook as planned and in occurrence keeping an eye on the budget. Fayol also added to his five management function his fourteen principles of management which calls for Specialization, unity of control unity of command and coordinating activities Gordon, J (1999, 16). Managers roles a quite diverse but yet, while the obligation of economic results is a necessity for managers nowadays effective managers are those who manage their employees. The structural perspectives of management through the classical theories of management held a quite limited view of people as employees. This is why the behavioural approaches were then suggested. In these approaches we have a shift where workers were no more viewed as passive and driven by economical self-interest (which was a rather mechanical point of view) to a more human-centred orientation where they to have their word to say in the organisational efficiency. These approaches set the structure that alimented the human relations school of thought where mainly Elton Bayo and Abraham Maslow believed that social attitude, relationship with employees and group work were the key for a successful organisation. In 1924, Elton Bayo undertook a research project to determine the relationship between physical working condition and productivity and came out with the Hawthorne effect that suggest that by simply paying attention to the experimental subjects causes their behaviour to change (Bloisi W et al , 2003, 7) and thus their productivity would increase. This approach is in reality very different from the classical approach because it inspires a variety of ideas that had no scientific justification. Hence manager should then be aware of the impact they could have if they pay more attention to their employees. Maslow for his part elaborated his theory of motivation where he defines human motivation as the study of ultimate human goals in his 1954 bo ok Motivation and personality (Bloisi W et al, 2003, 12). This suggests that if a manager motivates effectively his crew, this could lead undoubtedly to an increase of both welfare in the organisation and also output. From the human relations and classical approach came the system approach elaborated by Bernard and the contingency theory, who believed in the social and technical integration of human relations and classical for one and that other that they is no best streams of thought and they were all circumstantial. Moreover, Henry Mintzberg following his observation of the various streams of though believed that there is a disparity between managers role in the classical theories and the reality. He then came out with two contrasting view of managers: the rational heroic view and the chaotic realistic view. For him managers actually fill a series of ten roles that he point out in his book. The Managers job: Folklore and Fact. For him the rational heroic view implies that the manager know what he and his staff are doing, how and accept responsibility for the problems that can occur and evaluate his performance. The chaotic view implies the way todays managers flourish (Bloisi W et al, 2003, 53) preferring action over reflection. In his ten roles of managers Mintzberg says managers formal authority and status comprises interpersonal roles, information roles and decisional roles. For the interpersonal roles, managers have to stand as figureheads of the organisation, as the leaders and as the first liaison officers. For the information roles, they have to be the monitors, the disseminators and the spokesmen. For the decisional role, managers have to be the entrepreneurs, the disturbance handlers, the resource allocators and the negotiators. They must therefore be aware of environment in which they operate and understand how external factors could influence performance of internal subsystem (Bloisi W et al, 2003, 53) Aside from successfully managing the people in the organisation, effective managers are also those who embrace an ethical behaviour whilst working in an organisation, meaning that they have to be aware that legal requirements mandate certain ethical behaviours and have to ask themselves some questions like: What is morally just or right? And what is likely to benefit our own careers.(R.Gordon, 1999, 7). In conclusion, management is a very complex job because of the multifaceted role a manager has to encompass to successfully run a company. Being a manager means, knowing how to plan, to organize, to coordinate activities in the organization, to command the staff and finally to control performances. Aside from all these attributes given to a manager, a manager has also the responsibility to manage his employees effectively by motivating them, providing them support so they can achieve their individual needs, and give them appropriate leadership so they could identify themselves in the organization. Effective manager are also those who know about their biases and try to correct them if possible. After seeing what made a good manager,

Sustainable Development Essay example -- Environment Ecology Essays Pa

Sustainable Development Sustainable development was defined in the Bruntland Report in 1983 as â€Å"development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.† (Dresner, 31) This is a satisfactory definition for most people, however, when it comes down to the policies of sustainable development, the definition given proves dangerously vague. Interpretations that stem from it can range from ‘do not touch any of the earth’s natural resources ever again’ to ‘use them up as quickly as possible.’ There are three main philosophies behind sustainability: weak, strong, and environmental. Weak sustainability states that the total capital of the earth must not decrease. That means that the natural capital (oil, coal, forests, etc.) can decrease as long as the sum of physical (produced means of production; technology) and human (people’s physical ability to do work) capital increase at the same rate or higher. Thus, this approach assumes that most, if not all, natural capital can be substituted by technology. Strong sustainability differs from this in that it assumes that very little natural capital can be substituted. It deems human-made capital and natural capital separate entities, thus the natural capital must not decline. Economists have trouble with this idea because it seems like it is hindering the current generation in order for future generations to become vastly more wealthy assuming that the physical capital will increase with time. While they might furrow their brow at this theory, any self-respecting economist gets short of breath at the thought of environmental sustainability. This approach calls for natural resources to be left alone. It says... .... â€Å"Education is the catalyst for helping everyone understand the dynamic nature of the interrelationship† of ecology/environment, economy/employment, and equity/equality. (Edwards, 23) The environment is to be preserved as much as possible while still strengthening the economy and achieving the sense of community that goes along with controlling population and energy use with equity. Works Cited Beckerman, Wilfred. A Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and Economic Growth. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2003. Dresner, Simon. The Principles of Sustainability. London: Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2002. Edwards, Andres R. Sustianability Revolution: Portrait of a Paradigm Shift. Canada: New Society, 2005. Smith, Lee. "The Next Big Thing." Fortune 25 Dec. 2006: 24. Stronberg, Joel B. "More Than Solar." Solar Today Sept. 2005: 8.

Lord of the Flies :: essays research papers

Lord of the Flies   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"A thing was crawling out the forest. It came darkly, uncertainly. The shrill screaming that rose before the beast was like a pain.† This so-called beast that emerged from the forest was Simon, one of the boys who was stranded on the island. After he emerged from the forest, Simon discovered what the â€Å"pig’s head on a stick† represented, his untimely demise and tribal chaos. This was also when the real Lord of the Flies that was stalking the boys on the island reared its ugly head.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While Simon was concealed in the forest, watching the self-proclaimed â€Å"hunters† kill a sow, he observed them place the head of this pig on a stick as an offering to the â€Å"beast.† After the hunters left, Simon began to see what that the pig’s head represented. It showed that an immense amount of turmoil was going to take place on the island. This turmoil began when Jack started his own little tribe that was comprised of all the hunters and offered anyone free membership. Everyone, except Ralph and Piggy, joined the new clique because Jack claimed that they would always have meat to eat. Ralph and Piggy knew that this was the wrong decision to make because Jack was very immature had no clue how to lead anyone and all he wanted to do was kill.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After the new tribe was formed, they moved themselves to a rock peninsula because they thought it would make a good fort, whereas Ralph and Piggy continued to live at the original place on the beach. Since Piggy and Ralph were now considered outcasts, Jack’s tribe stole Piggy’s glasses one night so that they could have fire. When Ralph and Piggy went to their little fort to get them back, a large boulder was pushed off their fort, killing Piggy and leaving Ralph all alone. Jack then made it his mission to hunt down Ralph and place his head on a stick, just like the pig’s. Jack never did kill Ralph because a British naval vessel showed up to rescue the boys from the island but the beast still resided there.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The beast that stalked the island is maturity. Simon, Ralph, and Piggy realized that the only way to survive was to grow up and try to act like adults. Jack and his hunters, on the other hand, did not want to mature and act like adults.

Abduction and Hypothesis Withdrawal in Science Essay examples -- Scien

Abduction and Hypothesis Withdrawal in Science ABSTRACT: This paper introduces an epistemological model of scientific reasoning which can be described in terms of abduction, deduction and induction. The aim is to emphasize the significance of abduction in order to illustrate the problem-solving process and to propose a unified epistemological model of scientific discovery. The model first describes the different meanings of the word abduction (creative, selective, to the best explanation, visual) in order to clarify their significance for epistemology and artificial intelligence. In different theoretical changes in theoretical systems we witness different kinds of discovery processes operating. Discovery methods are "data-driven," "explanation-driven" (abductive), and "coherence-driven" (formed to overwhelm contradictions). Sometimes there is a mixture of such methods: for example, an hypothesis devoted to overcome a contradiction is found by abduction. Contradiction, far from damaging a system, help to indicate regions in which it can be changed and improved. I will also consider a kind of "weak" hypothesis that is hard to negate and the ways for making it easy. In these cases the subject can "rationally" decide to withdraw his or her hypotheses even in contexts where it is "impossible" to find "explicit" contradictions and anomalies. Here, the use of negation as failure (an interesting technique for negating hypotheses and accessing new ones suggested by artificial intelligence and cognitive scientists) is illuminating I. Abduction and Scientific Discovery Philosophers of science in the twentieth century have traditionally distinguished between the logic of discovery and the logic of justification. Most have conclude... ...s based on set covering model, International Journal on Man-Machine Studies, 19, pp. 443-460. C. Shelley, 1996, Visual abductive reasoning in archaeology, Philosophy of Science, 63(2), pp. 278-301. J. C. Shepherdson, 1984, Negation as failure: a comparison of Clark's completed data base and Reiter's closed world assumption, Journal of Logic Programming, 1(1), 1984, 51-79. ________, 1988, Negation in logic programming, in J. Minker (ed.), Foundations of Deductive Databases, Morgan Kaufmann, Los Altos, CA, pp. 19-88. P. Thagard, 1988, Computational Philosophy of Science, Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press. ________, 1992, Conceptual Revolutions, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press. ________ and C. Shelley, 1994, Limitations of current formal models of abductive reasoning, Department of Philosophy, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, forthcoming.

Examine different sociological views on the change of child

There is really only two views on the change of childhood and they're ‘The march of progress view and ‘The conflict view' both of which are every different to the other. The march of progress view is the view that the position of children In western societies has greatly improved. Aries and shorter , two sociologists of whom hold a march of progress view, argue that children are more valued , better cared for , are more protected and educated , have better healthcare and have more rights all due to sociological changes throughout history.These Include things such as laws estricting child labour, the establishment of policies controlling at what age a child can do things (such as smoke), the introduction of compulsory schooling (1880) , new child protection and welfare legislations and the growth of the idea of children's rights. Lloyd deMause , a social thinker of whom seemed to hold a march of progress view , said In 1974 that ‘ The history of childhood Is a nightm are from which we are Just recently awakening from'. Other sociologists of whom agree with this argue that this Is because not only has society changed as a whole due to new laws, legislations and iews etc. ut also because families seemed to have become more child centred as well as society as a whole. This Is clear as children are no longer to be seen and not heard as they where in Victorian times. They also argue that children are given a better chance of survival due to the development of proper healthcare and higher standards of living thus making childhood better. Many people hold the conflict view that childhood Is quickly disappearing , Iona ople argues against this as through her lifelong research she has found strong evidence hat there Is a very separate culture between adults and children of which didn't exist 50 years ago.The opposing view to that of the marching progress view is the conflict view. This is the view of which Is , held by feminists and Marxists, that childh ood hasn't improvised. Sociologists of whom hold the conflict view argue that one of the main reasons childhood hasn't improved is due to Inequality between both children and adults. They argue that children from different status's , nationalities , gender , ethnicity and class do not have the same resources , chances or backgrounds herefore leaving them unequal.For example according to Mayer Hillman (1993) boys are more likely to be allowed to cross or cycle on roads, use buses and go out in the dark unaccompanied , whereas Jens Bonke (1999) found that girls do more housework than boys , so much so that in some families girls do five times more than the boys in inequality through ethnicity was discovered by Julia Brannens (1994), she found through her study of 15-16 year old girls that Asian parents were more likely than others to be strict towards their daughters.They also argue that there is also inequality between adults and children therefore causing children to experience more control and oppression to that of a child 50 years ago. March of progress writers argue that adults use this power of inequality to the benefit and protection of children. However , critics such as Shulamith Firestone (1979) and John Holt (1974) argue that many things march of progress writers see as care and protection are in fact Just new ways to to force control and injustice on Modern age children.For example Firestone argues that ‘protection' of hildren from paid work is not a form of protection on a child but in fact a way of keeping them dependant on their parents and forcibly creating a segregation between adults and children, of which again is a form of inequality. Another reason they believe childhood hasn't improved is due to the control children experience. Due to the change in society through history and the segregation between adult and children it is seen that adults have more authority over their children, therefore allowing them to control certain aspects of their lives.Such as the pace/places children are and aren't allowed to go, what their child spends time doing and how much time there child spends doing things, there child's bodies and the ways in which they and other people can touch them and the resources their child receives. For example people are allowed to put signs up saying â€Å"no school children† or can band there child from entering a particular estate or place. They can also disallow there child to go out at specific times or set them a time in which they do distinct tasks such as homework or chores.They can also tell a child how to wear here hair or what clothes they can and cannot wear and they can also disallow a child access to the internet etc. These things alone do not come across as an issue but when put together sociologists argue that these things stops the independence of a child and and can even cause a child to be unhappy. Another thing sociologists argue and that isn't rare is that adult control can often lead to abuse in many levels. This can be in 4 different forms physical abuse , emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect all seen even in modern day (Daniel Pelka, Baby P etc. ).Another thing sociologists argue that childhood hasn't improved is the way in which technology has taken over our children's lives even in such a way they are constantly glued to a television or games console. This then effects their behaviours and learning abilities which can lead to loss of imagination, shortening of attention span and may cause confusion with fact and knowledge. Sue palmer also found that there where many concerns with teachers as computer games and television was causing children to become more impulsive and distractable therefore compromising ntellectual,emotional and social development.A particular sociologists Neil Postman believed that childhood was disappearing due due to telivisation unsupervised child hood games and rhymes etc. where disappearing therefore children's child hoods where beginning to fade away. In my own opinion I believe in neither the conflict view or the march of progress view as there is lots of little things you have to take into consideration like the way in which life as a whole has changed , for example the fact that theirs at least a case of murder , rape or abduction on the news every single week.Most parents feel as if they have to protect they're children from this and rightfully so. Although some parents may be stricter with they're children than others and some more over protective they all have they're own personal reasons for that. Some parents are strict because they simply want they're children to succeed whereas other because that's the way in which they where brought up. Some parents are more overprotective than other as they only have one child or simply because they're terrified of the disgusting and horrific things that happen here even in the modern era.On one hand I believe that childhood has improved as children are no longer working from the age of 3 and are now given a chance to mature before being pushed into the world of work. On the other hand I think particular aspects of childhood life hasn't improved as children as still being neglected and abused and are very much so reliant on there parents sometimes when they don't actually need to be , also a lot of independence and freedom is being taken away from children from no fault of they're own. So overall I believe in some aspects childhood has improved in others not so much.

Nature of the Murderers Essay

Compare the Techniques that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ruth Rendell use to present the Nature of the Murderers, the Motives and the Consequences.  The two books I am going to compare are ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ by Ruth Rendell.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœThe Hound Of The Baskervilles’ is an intricate crime detection novel written pre-war in the 18th Century, where Doyle relays facts to the reader incredibly cryptically and at strategic points. These facts, if pieced together correctly, eventually inform the reader of the result of the book and what characters fit in where. It starts with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solving, really a puzzle rather than a mystery as they find a walking stick left in their office by someone unknown. This however develops into a full-scale mystery that involves murder, betrayal, dishonesty and revenge. This type of novel was popular around the time of being first published because they somehow matched true stories of the time, for example, Jack the Ripper. ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ is a short story written post-war and has a much more modern slant on things. It is told through the eyes of the eventual culprit so as to only relay information that the narrator deems to be important and this resultantly deceives the reader in the overall ending of the story. The beginning of the story is a depiction of a happy stable marriage between the narrator and his wife but starts to go downhill from there. The story uses themes of betrayal and murder.  The nature of the murderers in ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ and ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ are quite different as Stapleton in ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ is in mind to commit the murder so as to have personal gain by inheriting his families’ wealth. In ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ the narrator is committing the murder in an act of self-denial as he is working with the view that if he canâ₠¬â„¢t have his wife, no one can. In both ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ and ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ neither author goes into any detail when describing the murders and it is left for the reader to form their own picture or suspicions as to what might have happened. In ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ the first suspicions are set onto a mythical hound that roams the moors. This was a completely plausible theory at the time as a vast number of people still believed in such happenings. However in ‘People Don’t do Such Things’ the first suspicion is set onto the eventual joint victim. This method of putting someone else in the picture of committing the murder is much more modern as this is what generally tends to happen in modern day society. Mythical creatures roaming moors are somewhat absent from what we seem plausible. In both ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ and ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ the murderers are both killing a member of their family but for very different reasons. The motive of Stapleton in ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ is to get rid of family members blocking the way between him and the his potential inheritance thus deriving a large amount of personal gain. The narrator in ‘People Don’t Do Such Things however kills a member of his family because of depression. He is depressed because he was under the illusion that his marriage was perfect and that a close friend of him and his wife was nothing more but this turned out to be wrong. This eventual false friendship was unknowingly cleverly set up by Reeve – the close friend – and was manipulated to his advantage. He suddenly felt like he had been used when he found out his wife had betrayed him but the person she had had the affair with didn’t want her anymore and neither did the narrator. This left her with nowhere to go and consequently caused problems for both people and son the narrator decided to get rid of the problem once and for all. Both murderers gained self-gratification from the experience but from different motives and from different situations. The two stories also differ from each other when the consequences of the murder are bought into play. In ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ Stapleton’s plot is discovered and unravelled by Sherlock Holmes. In the end Stapleton doesn’t get bought to justice but dies by drowning in a swamp in an attempt to escape Sherlock Holmes, some might say he got what he deserved. In ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ the narrator doesn’t lose that much, except a feeling of guilt will have settled in his mind, as in the end the wrong person is convicted of the murder. This comparison is a clear example of how the same sort of situation can have more than one, completely different outcome. As a general comparison both authors have written about the same situation but have followed on in different directions as to where the story ends up. Also the fact that the stories where written at completely different times in history affects the way in which the story is constructed and consequently written. Different aspects of the story are directly related to the surrounding society at the time when the story was written such as the language used which can be a major pivot point as to whether the reading audience can understand the authors writing or not. I think this is evident in both ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ and ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ as the language used in ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ is clearly different from that used in ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’. This type of differential between the two stories can greatly affect how parts of the story are relayed to the reader. As I live in the modern world I can relate to and understand ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ much better than ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ because of the differences between the way of life in the 18th Century when ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ was written and relatively close to the present when ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ was written.  Overall I think that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ruth Rendell both present the nature of the murders, the motives and the consequences in a definitive and individual way but both methods are separate from each other simply because of the difference in the surrounding societies’ believes and understandings.

The Return: Nightfall Chapter 36

Elena had been waiting in her tree. It wasn't, as a matter of fact, all that different from her six months in the spirit world, where she had spent most of her time watching other people, and waiting, and watching them some more. Those months had taught her a patient alertness that would have astounded anyone who knew the old, wildfire Elena. Of course, the old, wildfire Elena was still inside her, too, and occasionally it rebelled. As far as she could see, nothing was happening in the dark boardinghouse. Only the moon seemed to move, creeping slowly higher into the sky. Damon said this Shinichi had a thing about 4:44 in the morning or evening, she thought. Maybe this Black Magic was working to a different schedule than any she'd heard of. In any case, it was for Stefan. And as soon as she thought that she knew that she would wait here for days, if that's what it took. She could certainly wait until daybreak, when no self-respecting Black Magic-worker would ever thing of beginning a ceremony. And, in the end, what she was waiting for came to rest right below her feet. First came the figures, walking sedately out of the Old Wood and toward the gravel pathways of the boardinghouse. They weren't hard to identify, even at long range. One was Damon, who had aje ne sais quois about him that Elena couldn't miss at a quarter of a mile – and then again there was his aura, which was a very good facsimile of his old aura: that unreadable, un-breachable ball of black stone. Avery good imitation, in fact. Actually, it was almost exactly like the one†¦ It was then, Elena later realized, that she felt her very first qualm. But right now she was so caught up in the moment that she brushed the uneasy thought away. The one with the deep gray aura with crimson flashes would be Shinichi, she guessed. And the one with the same aura as the possessed girls: a sort of muddy color slashed with orange must be the twin sister Misao. Only those two, Shinichi and Misao, were holding hands, even occasionally nuzzling each other – as Elena could see as they came up close to the boardinghouse. They certainly weren't acting like any brother and sister that Elena had seen. Moreover, Damon was carrying a mostly-naked girl over his shoulder, and Elena couldn't imagine who that might be. Patience,she thought to herself.Patience. The major players are here at last, just as Damon promised they would be. And the minor players†¦ Well, first, following Damon and his group were three little girls. She recognized Tami Bryce instantly from her aura, but the other two were strangers. They hopped, skipped, andfrisked out of the Wood and to the boardinghouse, where Damon said something to them and they came around to sit in Mrs. Flowers' kitchen garden, almost directly below Elena. One look at the auras of the strange girls was enough to identify them as more of Misao's pets. Then, up the driveway came a very familiar car – it belonged to Caroline's mother. Caroline stepped out of it and was helped into the boardinghouse by Damon, who had done something – Elena had missed what – with his burden. Elena rejoiced as she saw lights coming on as Damon and his three guests traveled up the boardinghouse, lighting their way as they went. They came out on the very top, standing in a row on the widow's walk, looking down. Damon snapped his fingers, and the backyard lights went on as if it were a cue for a show. But Elena didn't see the actors – the victims of the ceremony that was about to begin, until just then. They were being herded around the far corner of the boardinghouse. She could see them all: Matt and Meredith and Bonnie, and Mrs. Flowers and, strangely, old Dr. Alpert. What Elena didn't understand was why they weren't fighting harder – Bonnie was certainly making enough noise for all of them, but they acted as if they were being pushed forward against their will. That was when she saw the looming darkness behind them. Huge dark shadows, with no features that she could identify. It was at that point that Elena realized, even over Bonnie's yelling, if she held herself still inside and focused hard enough, she could hear what everyone on the widow's walk was saying. And Misao's shrill voice cut through the rest. â€Å"Oh lucky! We got all of them back,† she squealed, and kissed her brother's cheek, despite his brief look of annoyance. â€Å"Of course we did. I said so,† he was beginning, when Misao squealed once more. â€Å"But which of them do we start with?† She kissed her brother and he stroked her hair, relenting. â€Å"You pick the first one,† he said. â€Å"You darling,† Misao cooed shamelessly. These two, Elena thought, are real charmers. Twins, huh? â€Å"The little noisy one,† Shinichi said firmly, pointing to Bonnie. â€Å"Urusei, brat! Shut up!† he added as Bonnie was pushed or carried forward by the shadows. Now Elena could see her more clearly. And she could hear Bonnie's heartrending pleas to Damon not to do this to†¦the others. â€Å"I'm not begging for myself,† she cried, as she was dragged into the light. â€Å"But Dr. Alpert is a good woman; she has nothing to do with this. Neither does Mrs. Flowers. And Meredith and Matt have already suffered enough.Please! â€Å" There was a ragged chorus of sound as the others apparently tried to fight and were subdued. But Matt's voice rose above it all. â€Å"You touch her, Salvatore, and you'd better make damn sure you kill me, too!† Elena's heart jerked as she heard Matt's voice sounding so strong and well. She'd found him at last, but she couldn't think of a way to save him. â€Å"And then we have to decide what to do with them to start with,† Misao said, clapping like a happy child at her birthday party. â€Å"Take your pick.† Shinichi caressed his sister's hair and whispered into her ear. She turned and kissed him on the mouth. Not hastily, either. â€Å"What the – what's going on?† Caroline said. She had never been shy, that one, Elena thought. Now she had moved forward to cling to Shinichi's unoccupied hand. For just an instant, Elena thought he would throw her off the widow's walk and watch her plunge to the ground. Then he turned, and he and Misao stared at each other. Then he laughed. â€Å"Sorry, sorry, it's so hard when you're the life of the party,† he said. â€Å"Well, what do you think, Carolyn – Caroline?† Caroline was staring at him. â€Å"Why's she holding you that way?† â€Å"In theShi no Shi , sisters are precious,† Shinichi said. â€Å"And†¦well, I haven't seen her in a long time. We're getting reacquainted.† But the kiss he planted on Misao's palm was hardly brotherly. â€Å"Go on,† he added quickly, to Caroline. â€Å"You choose the first act in the Moonspire Festival! What shall we do with her?† Caroline began to imitate Misao, kissing Shinichi's cheek and ear. â€Å"I'm new here,† she said flirtatiously. â€Å"I don't really know what you want me to pick.† â€Å"Silly Caroline. Naturally, how she di – † Shinichi was suddenly smothered by a great hug and kiss from his sister. Caroline, who had obviously wanted the attention of choice put to her, even if she didn't understand the subject, said huffily, â€Å"Well, if you don't tell me, I can't choose. And anyway, where's Elena? I don't see her anywhere!† She seemed about to say more when Damon glided over and whispered in her ear. Then she smiled again, and they both looked at the pine trees surrounding the boardinghouse. That was when Elena had her second qualm. But Misao was already speaking and that required Elena's full attention. â€Å"Lucky! Then I'll pick.† Misao leaned forward, peeking over the edge of the roof at the humans below, her dark eyes wide, summing up the possibilities in what looked like a barren clearing. She was so delicate, so graceful as she got up to pace and think; her skin was so fair, and her hair so glossy and dark that even Elena couldn't take her eyes off her. Then Misao's face lit up and she spoke. â€Å"Spread her on the altar. You brought some of your half-breeds?† The last was not so much a question as an excited exclamation. â€Å"My experiments? Of course, darling. I told you so,† Shinichi replied and added, staring into the forest, â€Å"Two of you – er, men – and Old Faithful!† And he snapped his fingers. There were several minutes of confusion during which the humans around Bonnie were struck, kicked, thrown to the ground, trampled on, and crushed as they fought with the shadows. And then the things that had shambled forward before, shambled farther forward with Bonnie held in between them, dangling limply from each by a slim arm. The half-breeds were something like men and something like trees with all the leaves stripped off them. If they had beenmade , it looked as if they had been made specifically to be grotesque and asymmetrical. One had a crooked, knobby left arm that reached almost to its feet, and a right arm that was thick, lumpy, and only waist-high. They were hideous. Their skin was similar to the chitin-like skin of the insects, but much bumpier, with knotholes and burls and all the outward aspects of bark on their branches. They had a shaggy, unfinished look in places. They were terrifying. The way their limbs were twisted; the way they walked, shambling forward like apes, the way their bodies ended on top with treelike caricatures of human faces, surmounted by a tangle of thinner branches sticking out at odd angles – they were calculated to look like creatures of nightmare. And they were naked. They had nothing in place of clothes to disguise the ghastly deformities of their bodies. And then Elena really knew what terror meant, as the two shambling malach carried the limp Bonnie to a sort of roughly hewn stump of tree like an altar, laid her on it and began to pluck at the many layers of her clothing, clumsily, pulling at them with sticklike fingers that broke off with little crackling sounds even as cloth tore. They didn't seem to care that they broke their fingers off – as long as they accomplished their task. And then they were using bits of torn cloth, even more clumsily, to tie Bonnie, spread-eagled, to four knobby posts snapped off their own bodies and hammered into the ground around the trunk with four powerful blows by the thick-armed one. Meanwhile, from somewhere even farther away in the shadows, a third man-tree shuffled forward. And Elena saw that this one was, undeniably, unmistakably male. For a moment Elena worried that Damon might lose it, go mad, turn around and attack both the were-foxes, revealing his true allegiance now. But his feelings about Bonnie had obviously changed since he had saved her at Caroline's. He appeared perfectly relaxed beside Shinichi and Misao, sitting back and smiling, even saying something that made them laugh. Suddenly something inside Elena seemed to plummet. This wasn't a qualm. It was full-blown terror. Damon had never looked so natural, so in tune, sohappy with anyone as he did here with Shinichi and Misao. They couldn't possibly have changed him, she tried to convince herself. Theycouldn't have possessed him again so quickly, not without her, Elena, knowing it†¦. But when you showed him the truth, he was miserable, her heart whispered. Desperately miserable – miserably desperate. He might have reached for possession as a defiant alcoholic reaches for a bottle, wanting only forgetfulness. If she knew Damon, he had willingly invited the darkness back in. He couldn't stand to stand in the light, she thought. And so now, he's able to laugh even at Bonnie's suffering. And where did that leave her? With Damon defected to the other side, no longer ally, but enemy? Elena began to tremble with anger and hatred – yes, and fear, too, as she contemplated her position. All alone to struggle against three of the strongest enemies she could imagine, and their army of deformed, conscienceless killers? Not to mention Caroline, the cheerleader of spite? As if to corroborate her fears, as if to show her how slim her chances really were, the tree she was clinging to seemed suddenly to let go of her, and for a moment Elena thought she would fall, spinning and screaming, all the way to the ground. Her handholds and footholds seemed to disappear all at once, and she only saved herself by a frantic – and painful – scrambling through serrated pine needles up to the grooved, dark bark. You are a human girl now, my dear,the strong, resinous smell seemed to be telling her.And you are up to your neck in the Powers of the undead and of sorcery. Why fight it? You've lost before you've begun. Give in now and it won't hurt so much. If aperson had been telling her this, trying to hammer it in, the words might have sparked some kind of defiance from the flint of Elena's character. But instead this was just a feeling that came over her, an aura of doom, a knowledge of the hopelessness of her cause, and the inadequacy of her weapons, that seemed to settle over her as gently and as inescapably as a fog. She leaned her throbbing head against the trunk of the tree. She had never felt so weak, so helpless – or so alone, not since she had been a newly wakened vampire. She wanted Stefan. But Stefan hadn't been able to beat these three, and because of that she might never see him again. Something new was happening on the roof, she realized wearily. Damon was looking down at Bonnie on the altar, and his expression was petulant. Bonnie's white face was staring up at the evening sky in determination, as if refusing any longer to weep or beg again. â€Å"But†¦are all thehors d'oeuvres so predictable?† Damon asked, seeming genuinely bored. You bastard, you'd turn on your best friend for amusement, Elena thought. Well, just you wait. But she knew the truth was that without him, she couldn't even put together Plan A, much less fight against these kitsune, these were-foxes. â€Å"You told me that in theShi no Shi , I would see acts of genuine originality,† Damon was going on. â€Å"Maidens hypnotized to cut themselves†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Elena ignored his words. She concentrated all her energy on the thudding pain in the center of her chest. She felt as if she were drawing blood from her tiniest capillaries, from the far reaches of her body, and collecting it here at her center. The human mind is infinite, she thought. It is as strange and as infinite as the universe. And the human soul†¦ The three youngest of the possessed began dancing around the spread-eagled Bonnie, singing in falsely sweet little-girl voices: â€Å"You are going todie in here, When you die inhere , outthere They throwdirt right on your face!† How delightful, Elena thought. Then she tuned back in to the drama unfolding on the roof. What she saw startled her. Meredith was now up on the widow's walk, moving as if she were underwater – entranced. Elena had missed how she'd gotten there – was it by some sort of magic? Misao was facing Meredith, giggling. Damon was laughing, too, but in mocking disbelief. â€Å"And you expect me to believe that if I givethis girl a pair of scissors†¦Ã¢â‚¬  he said, â€Å"she would actually cut her own – â€Å" â€Å"Try and see for yourself,† Shinichi interrupted, with one of his languid gestures. He was leaning against the cupola in the middle of the widow's walk, still trying to out-lounge Damon. â€Å"Didn't you see our prizewinner, Isobel?You carried her all the way here – didn't she ever try to speak?† Damon held out a hand. â€Å"Scissors,† he said, and a dainty pair of nail scissors rested in his palm. It seemed that, as long as Damon had Shinichi's magic key, the magic field around them would continue to obey him even in the real world. He laughed. â€Å"No, adult-size scissors, for gardening. The tongue's made of strong muscles, not paper.† What he held in his hand then were large pruning shears – definitely not toys for children. He hefted them, feeling their weight. And then, to Elena's utter shock, he looked straight up at her in her treetop refuge, not needing to search for her there at all – and winked. Elena could only stare back in horror. He knew, she thought. He knew where I was all the time. That was what he had been whispering to Caroline about. It hadn't worked – theWings of Redemption hadn't worked, Elena thought, and it felt as if she were falling and would fall forever. I should have realized it would be no good. No matter what's done to him, Damon will always be Damon. And now he's offering me a choice: see my two best friends tortured and killed, or step forward and stop this horror by agreeing to his terms. What could she do? He had arranged the chess pieces brilliantly, she thought. The pawns on two different levels, so that even if Elena could somehow climb down to try to save Bonnie, Meredith would be lost. Bonnie was tied to four strong posts and guarded by Tree-Men. Meredith was closer, up on the roof, but to get her off Elena would have toget to her and then through Misao, Shinichi, Caroline, and Damon himself. And Elena had to choose. Whether to step forward now, or be pushed forward by the anguish of one of the two who were almost a part of her. She seemed to catch a faint strain of telepathy as Damon stood beaming there, and it said,This is the best night of my life. You could always just jump,came the fog-like hypnotic whisper of annihilation once again.End the dead-end road you're on. End your suffering. End all the pain†¦just like that. â€Å"Now it's my turn,† Caroline was saying, brushing past the twins to face Meredith herself. â€Å"It was supposed to be my choice in the first place. So it's my turn now.† Misao was laughing hysterically, but Meredith was already stepping forward, still in a trance. â€Å"Oh, have it your own way,† Damon said. But he didn't move, still staring curiously, as Caroline said to Meredith, â€Å"You've always had a tongue like an adder's. Why don't you make it forked for us – right here, right now? Before you cut it into pieces.† Meredith held out her hand without a word, like an automaton. Still with her eyes on Damon, Elena breathed in slowly. Her chest seemed to be going into spasms as it had when the sucker plants had wound their way around her and cut off her breath. But not even sensations in her own body could stop her. How could I choose? she thought. Bonnie and Meredith – I love both of them. And there's nothing else to do, she realized numbly, the feeling draining from her hands and her lips. I'm not even sure if Damon can save both of them, even if I agree to†¦submit to him. These others – Shinichi, Misao, even Caroline – they want to see blood. And Shinichi not only controls trees, but just about everything in the Old Wood, including those monstrous Tree-Men. Maybe this time Damon has over-reached himself, taken on more than he could handle. He wanted me – but he went too far to get me. I can't see any way out. And then she did see. Suddenly everything fell into place and was brilliantly clear. Sheknew . Elena stared down at Bonnie, almost in a state of shock. Bonnie was looking at her, too. But there was no expectation of rescue in that small, triangular face. Bonnie had already accepted her fate: agony and death. No,Elena thought, not knowing whether Bonnie could hear her. Believe,she thought to Bonnie. Not blindly, never blindly. But believe in what your mind tells you is the truth, and what your heart tells you is the right path. I would never let you go – or Meredith either. I believe,Elena thought, and her soul was rocked by the force of it. She felt a sudden surge within herself, and she knew that it was time to go. One word was ringing in her mind as she stood and let go of her handholds on the tree trunk. And that one word echoed in her mind as she dove headfirst from her sixty-foot perch in the tree. Believe.

Poverty no longer exists in Britain today

There is an argument that poverty no longer exists in Britain today. Many people would say that the days when people died from lack of food, shelter or clean water ended, in this country, with the introduction of the welfare state (Chinn, 1995). Poverty, however, can be defined in two ways and depending on which definition one chooses to employ, it can be contested whether the balance of evidence shows that poverty actually does exist or not. In this piece of work it will be argued that poverty does affect many people in our society and the lack of resources of poorer people in society is at the root of inequalities in health. Furthermore it will be shown that the discrepancy between the standards of living that better off people in society enjoy and the standards of living that poorer people endure can be something that is very difficult to alter. In conclusion there will be a discussion on the role that social care professionals may play in trying to reduce the negative effects suffered by some people as a result of poverty. The first of the two identified forms of poverty is absolute or â€Å"subsistence level poverty† (Thompson and Priestly, 1996: 207). Income falls below a set level so that a person does not have the means to be able to secure the basic necessities for living, in terms of food, drink, shelter and clothing. Stephens et al (1998) argue that for some people in society, like rough sleepers, poverty in absolute terms is very real and that when older people die from hypothermia because they can't afford to heat their homes adequately it is as a result of absolute poverty. Poverty in this sense however has certainly diminished since the advent of the Welfare State. The second definition of poverty, relative poverty, is defined in terms of a ‘reasonable' standard of living generally expected by the society in which a person lives. It identifies ‘needs' as more than basic biological requirements, taking into account social and emotional needs. It is also about being excluded from taking part in activities which are widely undertaken by the rest of society. In terms of resources, relative poverty is a higher standard of living than absolute poverty but it could be argued that many things that are not strictly essential for life nevertheless could be deemed as necessities by society in general. Thus whether you adhere to an absolutist or relativist definition of it, it is clear that there are certain people in society who suffer from poverty. Modern research into poverty combines both classifications. Stevens et al (1988: 266) maintain: â€Å"it's important to capitalise on the advantages of both definitions†. There have been several pieces of well-documented research into health inequalities, both by successive governments and independent bodies, for example, The Black Report in 1980; Margaret Whitehead's ‘The health divide' in 1987 (Stephens et al, 1998) and most recently the Acheson Report in 1998. This research underlines the correlation between poverty and ill health and the disparity that exists, depending on social class. Measurements and comparisons are made in terms of morbidity and in terms of mortality. Research shows that if a person is born into poverty his/her chances of suffering ill health and a shortened life span are greater than if he/she was born into prosperity. Some of the most recent research has shown, for example that children in social class five (where five represents the least well off and one represents the most well off) are five times as likely to suffer accidental death than their peers from social class one (Roberts I. Power C, 1996). Further studies show that a baby boy from social class one can be expected to live for more than nine years longer than a baby boy from social class five (Office for National Statistics, 1998). The British Medical Journal (1999) states â€Å"Social class differences in health are seen at all ages, with lower socio-economic groups having the greater incidence of heart disease, stroke and some cancers†. The rate of pre-natal mortality is hi gher for women from lower socio-economic groups. A poorer person is more likely to die in infancy, more likely to suffer ill health, as a child and as an adult, and more likely to die prematurely than someone who has greater access to resources. It has been stated that â€Å"the most significant factor [affecting health] in poverty is†¦ the fact that poor people are denied access to possessions and services that are available to their better-off peers† (Moore, 1997). This could include: preventative medicine, early treatment when sick, a healthy diet, access to ‘keep fit' leisure activities. Other factors which could have a detrimental effect on poorer people could include things like poorly maintained housing, stress related illness and smoking, which is more prevalent among lower income groups (Office for National Statistics, 1998). Explanations for poverty tend to fall into two categories. There are individualistic explanations for poverty. That people who are in relative poverty are so because they are in some way lazy, irresponsible or ‘feckless' and they could help themselves to escape poverty if they really wanted to. Some people vocalise this way of thinking by, for example, telling the unemployed to ‘get on their bikes' and find work. This type of argument can, and often is, applied to any ‘inappropriate' or ‘wasteful' use of resources for example, by criticising people for wanting to dress their children in more expensive clothes, or by condemning women for the number of children they choose to have. Another common reaction when confronted with arguments about poverty is to be reproachful when someone chooses to smoke instead of ‘spending their money wisely'. These arguments however fail to take into account the way that society is structured and the effects that this has on people's life chances. There is an element of victim blaming and consideration is not given to the fact that some people have far more power than others to alter aspects of their lives. Structural, as opposed to individualistic, explanations focus on â€Å"the political, economic and material environment in which people find themselves† (Howe, 1997: 173). A person who is born into poverty is more likely to stay poor and their children are likely to be poor. In this way a life or poverty can be a self-perpetuating cycle of deprivation which people have very little power to change. This deprivation is exacerbated by the fact that it can be combined with other inequalities, such as those based on gender, ethnicity, and age. The fact that some people suffer from multiple disadvantages is attributable to structural inequality, which is inherent in our society. Anatole France wrote: â€Å"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. France (1894). Clearly there is no need for wealthier people ‘to sleep under bridges' whereas there may be a justification or even a necessity for a homeless person to do it. The concept of a society where everyone has the same opportunities and all are equal is a fallacy when viewed from a structural perspective. This does not however mean that people are absolutely powerless to help themselves and assumptions sho uld not be made that because someone is in poverty they will necessarily need the help of social care professionals. People can often make changes to make their lives better, to suggest otherwise would be to disempower people. Social care professionals should be aware of the effects of poverty and the relative powerlessness of some people but not to such an extent that the power imbalance is made greater by the workers inability to treat the client as an individual. Anti-oppressive practice is â€Å"a form of social work that addresses social divisions and structural inequalities †¦ by responding to people's needs regardless of their social states† Dominelli (1993). This argument is further developed by Dalrymple and Burke (1995) when they talk about giving the client access to records so that any information is shared. Ensuring inclusion and consultation can lessen the power imbalance between social care worker and client. Government policy is geared to combating inequalities, in light of the findings of the Acheson Report. In particular it recognises the needs of those who may have multiple disadvantages, for example women, children, people with disabilities, older people and people from ethnic minority groups. Social care workers should have an awareness of combined inequalities and should have a commitment to reduce them. â€Å"Many social workers invest considerable efforts to maximise the welfare benefits of their clients and search through charitable resources to alleviate some of their acute hardships† (Jones, 1997: 121). Social care workers can work in partnership with other agencies to ensure that they refer people to organisations who are able to help, when it is not within the social carer's remit. For example, referrals could be made to: agencies who advise on health matters, or work to increase benefits, or help people back into work, or give advice on housing matters. â€Å"The best way to get rid of poverty – absolute or relative – is to forge a more genuinely equal society† Stephens et al (1998: 258). This is something that is beyond the capabilities of any one profession. In conclusion, social care workers can help to reduce the negative effects of poverty to a certain extent but, for any major improvements to be made, there needs to be a radical change (through governmental policy) in the distribution of both power and wealth.

Amundsen and scott

The chilling tundra ot the antarctic restrained anyone trom exploring antarctic tor years. Amundsen and Scott, two very brave men chose to attempt to reach the south pole. The prowess in both men was incredibly heroic. Amundsen and Scott knew It was a treacherous journey but were up for the task. Only one man could be the first, and Amundsen was most definitely the successor. Amundsen had prepared for this journey all his life. While Scott flew by the seat of his pants, going on this expedition was Just one of many things he had done without lan.It was a provisional job. Scott knew he wouldn't be able to keep up with it for that long. Scott was temerltly. Scott didn't think twice about his adventure, thus leading to him being unprepared on his trip. Scott was physically prepared but not fully prepared mentally. Amundsen on the other hand examined every detail of his expedition piece by piece, ensuring that he would have the best of the best and be fully prepared. Always planning ever y move he made. The equipment they brought and the obstacles they faced were definitely a huge part of their trip.Obstacles including weather and the natural environment. Of course Scott and Amundsens trip differed between what exactly happened but Scotts body obviously couldn't procure the harsh weather the arctic had In store for him. Yet Amundsen still had trouble handling the weather he could still cope with it. Also, equipment was what saved Amundsen. Amundsen brought around a hundred dogs. He was well prepared bringing everything he would ever need and then some on the trip. While scott packed light rather than packing what he needed. Luck and fate played a large part In the story.Just because Amundsen was stopped when he was so close to the pole doesn't mean he tailed. He had the experience, the Journey and the lesson that Is Irreplaceable. Scott may of got to the pole, but whats it worth if he died. He's not alive to be a success. Considering Scott was completely unprepared it was luck that he made it to the pole. Knowing he was oblivious to what was really happening out in the abject temperatures. Yet it was fate that he didn't make It home safely. Amundsen on the other hand had fate on his side, he hadn't made it to the pole. ich must of been meant to be. because If he made It he very well could of died. It was fate that he got to come home to keep on living a life rather than Scott who died an inexpedient death along side his team out in the icy cold. Making it to the pole and dying doesn't make you a hero nor does it make you smart. You are both stupid and unheroic. Yes Scott died trying to be a success, but he tOf2 naa Tallea. I ne Tame deserves to go to Amundsen. Amundsen was smart enougn to know what he was doing and how it could drastically change the outcome of his trip f he kept on going.Amundsen is the hero because he turned back. He was able to say i tried, and i my not of made it but i got extremely close and I am alive to tell a story. Th at is a true successor. In the end the successor is Amundsen no doubt. He dreamed of the day for years and years. It would be cruel if you took the rightful fame away from him. He knew what he wanted to do for years and years. Scott Just decided one day on a whim. Amundsen deserves to be remember Just as well if not greater than Scott.

Analysis of an Ethical case in management Research Paper - 1

Analysis of an Ethical case in management - Research Paper Example As a result, employees are becoming de-motivated at a greater extent (Wozniak, 2011), which is in turn causing job turnover to increase significantly in recent years. Because of this reason, organizations are struggling to maintain viable and strong human capital in order to effectively and efficiently achieve organizational goals. However, it is interesting to note that in advanced epoch characterized with decentralized organizational authority and flattened corporation structure, MT neglected to brief Hady about the background of his assignment. Along with this, his new boss is not taking him seriously and considering him as an incompetent individual therefore, believing Hady as someone who is useless. In the light of this observation, deployment of utilitarian approach as a source for managing human resources in MT can be implied that is an obsolete technique towards motivating employees. Because of utilitarian management, MT only compensates its employees in monetary terms and considers them as an organizational property. This typical management strategy is leading MT to have a pool of incompetent and uninspired employees. In parallel, Hady is considering himself betrayed because of the unfulfilling level of information provided about his current assignment. Additionally, Phil’s stubborn attitude is affirming Hady’s provision of betrayal. Nevertheless, MT is in need of educating its top and middle management in terms of modern managerial approaches such as participative decision-making and other similar techniques, so that they can inspire employees in considering themselves as the important part of organizational success. At the same time, MT should also integrate rights theory to provide job autonomy and friendly work environment to its employees to enhance their productivity. Conversely, Hady is a person with budding talent, which should be polished

DEVELOP A MARKETING PLAN Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

DEVELOP A MARKETING PLAN - Essay Example However, the entrance of smaller companies that offer the same diversity in design and high class quality is forcing to reinvent itself. This paper will explore the marketing opportunities it can tap in order to reinvent its image to a flexible label that is essential to every fashion genre. Situation Analysis Internal Environment One word. That’s all it takes for a person to know someone inside and out, its history, its sensibilities, its personality, and its relationships. That word is the brand name. Coca-Cola. iPod. Nike. Google. Their identities are so strong and so embedded to the minds of the consumers that no single study, perhaps not even a compound of a thousand, can comprehensively explain how each company built it. Cotton On, despite being a young label, has experienced a certain amount of success in positioning themselves in the market and securing a loyal consumer base who identifies them with the same laidback, simple, and organic image of the country where it o riginated from, Australia. It is, despite possible apprehension of the fashion elite a brand that exudes style. It started in 1991 in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. Twenty years is considered young in the fashion retail business. Yet, it has expanded to more than 600, employing more than 4,500 people in the same countries where it distributes - Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the US. Its success may be credited to the same formula that casual brands like Roxy and Target has (Grail, 2009). It has managed to become an accessible brand but its lines were never tacky or common. By not emphasizing its affordability and flaunting its quality in both engineering and aesthetics have allowed it to develop a stylish image that cuts across all segments age, gender, and social class. External Environment The cards the Australian fashion industry has are not good ones. It seems easier to fold than to call it. The geography itself is a disadvantage of epic proportion. It is more than 20 hours away by plane from all of the major fashion capitals such as Paris, London, and New York. The time difference also means contradicting weather. When it’s summer in Australia, it is winter in Paris. To any fashion expert, that’s a recipe for disaster. The international economic crisis also damaged the value of the Australian, from 53 to 106 Australian cents to the US dollar. Any fashions sales expert will tell you, that’s setting yourself up for suicide and mutilation because it makes any exported product from Australia expensive (Gay, 2010). Juxtapose this with the continuous birth and growth of many other labels from or manufactured in Asian countries where labour and raw materials are affordable and you have a losing formula. The disadvantages don’t end there. The local market is small. There are only 23 million people in a country that highly penetrated by international brand whose volume of production allow them to sell products at a much lower price. The only way for any brand to grow is to go out of the Australia. The complexities continue. Unlike other secondary fashion markets like Brazil, India and China which is difficult because

Oracy in Teaching Maths and Science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Oracy in Teaching Maths and Science - Essay Example The teachers use different strategies to provide opportunities to allow different types of discussions. Spoken language skills need to be developed in all subject areas, as different curriculum areas require different speaking and listening skills. There are different aspects that need to be observed relating to the different processes involved in talking, thinking and interthinking. For example, in assessing a child's ability to analyse a problem, his or her skills at speculating, questioning and hypothesising have to be observed. In assessing a child's ability to communicate, his or her skills at describing, explaining and clarifying have to be observed. This requires that the teacher observe a set of pupils of just two or three per session so that an appropriate observation of skills and a proper planning of talk experiences can be made. It is useful to involve pupils in the planning process so that they can participate in discussions as to what skills are needed in different area s such as math problem-solving, science experiments, etc., and the different kinds of talk, the outcomes and the resources available. Children should be made to work in different groups, playing diverse roles, so that stereotyping can be avoided and their different skills can be observed. Participation in diverse groups helps the children understand the functioning of group dynamics and the benefits of team work. Lalljee cites the example of 6-year-old children working in pairs for producing a free form class poem where the discussions of their ideas inspired them enough to produce an illustrated booklet which was read with enthusiasm by them (Lalljee 1998, p.6). Encouraging students to make suggestions on problems and ideas allow them speaking and listening space within the curriculum. Development of problem-solving skills According to the National Curriculum, teachers are expected to provide pupils opportunities to develop seven common requirements - Curriculum Cymreig, Communication Skills, Mathematical Skills, Information Technology Skills, Problem-solving Skills, Creative Skills, Personal and Social Education - through their study of the National Curriculum subjects (Common requirements n.d.). The Education Act of 2002 stipulates that a balanced and broadly-based curriculum should prepare pupils for the "opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life" (Skills framework 2007, p.2). Future Skills Wales 2003 Generic Skills Survey reports that of skills gaps reported by employers, lack of IT skills is the most common problem "followed by communication skillsshowing initiative, problem solving and ability to learn" (cited in Skills framework 2007, p.2). The skills framework developed for oracy moves on a continuum of different levels and stages for developing and presenting information an d ideas. The problem-solving skills in oracy are developed through several key stages. For developing oracy, the first key stage involves using talk to develop thinking by exploring, developing and clarifying ideas, predicting outcomes and discussing possibilities. The second stage involves talking for a range of purposes, including planning, predicting and investigating. The third stage involves t

Netflix Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Netflix - Case Study Example Apart from this, there was also a scheme whereby any new subscriber would be allowed access t o its movie library on one month trial basis. After this the subscriber is automatically taken as a subscriber unless he cancels the subscription personally (Thompson 282). 2. Marketing tie ups- Netflix had entered into a deal with a company named Startz Entertainment and made tie ups with entertainment content providers such as Universal Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Indie films etc that gave the subscribers an access to several new movies at the same amount they paid (Thompson 284). This move was taken to increase the popularity of the company. 3. Quick delivery to subscribers- Netflix made it a point to deliver the ordered DVDs to the subscribers within one business day after the order is placed (Thompson 286). For this, the company had formed several regional centers that helped to deliver the DVDs in a very short time. This was a strategy to increase its popularity amongst the customers. 1. The company has a fast mover delivery system on its online subscriptions. This has been done by setting regional bases in several areas. Also, by placing orders online the company made watching movies cheaper (Thompson 286). There are fewer threats from new entry into the market place and Netflix enjoyed a market leader position there. Making movie steaming and renting cheaper involves huge money and this would not be easy for any new company in a short time. (e) Degree of rivalry- the degree of rivalry can be strong as there are fewer companies operating in the market. Rivalry can also arise from other sources such as the cable and satellite companies (Thompson 281). Strengths – the strengths of the company lie on its fast delivery and huge collection of movies. The company had also got has a huge customer satisfaction as it had around 16.3 million subscribers (Thompson 287) and strong brand recognition. Weakness – the company relies on fast delivery of