International management and change Essay

When Pascal made this statement, globalization had yet to take place. People lived in different societies remaining cut-off from each other. Each society had its own perception of truth and reality. Then came along the advancement in technology bringing along inventions such as computer, internet and telecommunications making the world a global village. Perceptions started changing as information flow across the globe happened at the speed of light. People from all across the globe started sharing their experiences with each other thus reducing the differences in various cultures. However, the act of globalization has yet to reach its peak. Cultural differences still exist within different societies and the level of information and technology is still heterogeneous around the globe. I would now highlight some distinguishing features of the management styles of various regions. We observe that the beliefs and values of people vary across various cultures. The Japanese work as a group and organizational system is based on community work. The reward system is based on the level of seniority and is also group based. The organizational structure is cooperation based whereas American organizations often are based on competitive style where individuals are rewarded based on their performance levels. Similarly the management style of French is also very different from that of US. French follow a more creative thinking pattern and do not like to adhere to strict rules and regulations. The European management style has some key points that distinguish it from the American management style. The European management style even differs within the European countries and two countries deserve a special focus — France and Germany — because, among other reasons, the bureaucrats in those countries have long been regarded as â€Å"mandarins† by the field of public administration (Dogan 1976). European management style can be classified into different clusters based upon Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s cultural variables (Goliath, 2004) according to which European management style can be sub-divided into: Anglo-Saxon culture (Ireland, UK, and USA), Nordic culture (Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland), Germanic culture (Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland), Frankophile culture (France, Greece, Portugal, and Spain) and Italian culture. These cultures also differ greatly from the US and Japanese styles of management thus requiring different management practices. The pay for performance system can work with the European management style as employees in Europe are mostly achievement oriented and perform good work for better rewards. The cultural beliefs and values of Europeans are pretty much different from the people of US and hence the marketing techniques used in Europe should be different from those applied in US. For example, Europeans are very much reluctant to providing personal information as compared to US customers; also the credit card usage in Europe is considerably lower than in US (Heilbrunn, 1998). The introduction of new logo and implementation of matrix structure allowing a flatter organizational structure can work relatively better in the European business environment The company operations in South America demand a completely different approach as Latin American culture significantly differs from US culture in terms of communication process. The US culture emphasizes on completion of task and sentences are interpreted in their direct meaning. However Latin American society focuses on relationships and context of the communication may involve more than just the spoken words (Wederspahn, 2001). So the marketing and sales efforts in South American cannot be standardized with the US practices since the Latin American customers tend to perceive communication messages in a very different way from their US counterparts. The new logo can be introduced, however introduction of a flatter organization with matrix structure may not be feasible in South America as the type of culture prevalent in this society is not conducive to the working of non-hierarchical organizations. If we study the culture of Middle Eastern countries, it is found that the business practices again differ significantly from those of US. The business is mostly chaotic and based upon word of mouth rather than written agreements, the cultural values are mostly Islamic and respect for relationships is held supreme; also the marketing regulations in Middle Eastern countries are very strict as compared to US or rest of the world (Kwintessential Ltd). The middle eastern management style is mostly authoritarian and based upon Douglas McGregor’s Theory X motivational leadership style (Daniel Workman , 2008). Thus employees have little or no motivation to work on their own and will perform only when directed by the superiors. Thus bright managers from US and other Western states often try to avoid working in Middle East and so they must first be provided proper cultural training in authoritative styles thus enabling them to adapt to the management practices of the Middle East. The Australian business is more similar to that of US as compared to the rest of regions as described above. The language and dress code is pretty much similar. However, Australian society is strictly based upon egalitarian principle where nobody like being bossed around. People don’t like to consider others as superiors and there is almost no hierarchical system (Slideshare, 2009). So authoritarian style of management will not be welcomed in the Australian business. The meeting and negotiation styles as well as the general beliefs of the Australian society are pretty close to the American beliefs. However according to a study on behavior of 35,000 managers from Australia and New Zealand, the Australian managers consistently try to avoid responsibilities and do not take initiatives (Gettler, 2002). Thus FES should provide cultural and leadership training to Australian manager before implementing any kind of central strategy. Discrimination issues also prevail in Australia that can make life for foreign managers very difficult. However, recently steps have been taken to strongly implement anti-discrimination laws. The roles of front line managers are also changing in Australia as they are provided more and more freedom and responsibility (James Saville, & Mark Higgins, 1994). The sales and marketing strategy in Australia can be aligned with the US strategies relatively easily because of the similarity in both societies. So the dilemma of FES is choosing between centralized and decentralized approach. Centralization can be defined as, â€Å"the degree to which decision-making authority is kept at top levels of management. † while Decentralization can be defined as, â€Å"the degree to which decision making authority is pushed down to lower levels of the firm† (Schilling 2008). Both approaches have their own pros and cons. FES has seen tremendous growth over the years and has been expanding into new regions at a very quick rate. Thus the organization requires a large amount of flexibility in its decision making that can be provided by a decentralized approach. However, due to rapid expansion, the organization requires tighter control of finances and close monitoring of all its operations to reduce costs and maintain quality. These measures can be achieved through a more centralized approach. So what approach suits FES bests can be determined by a cost benefit analysis where each advantage and disadvantage of delegation authority has to be carefully analyzed in light of the company objectives. Thus aligning the decision making process with the vision of the organization. A centralized approach can benefit the organization by significantly reducing the administrative cost related to employee management. Infrastructure handling will also be more efficient and it will be easier for the headquarter to align organizational goals with the functional and departmental goals ( Dezaree Seeds, & Alan S. Khade , 2008). Centralized approach will also make reporting procedure simple resulting in standardized organizational policies. Thus in this way it will further help the organizational objective of flattening the organizational structure and in creation of a matrix organizational setup. A decentralized approach on the other hand can benefit the organization by providing flexibility and empowering employees at the divisional and functional level. As explained above, different regions in which FES is operating have different working environments and the condition of energy industry in Europe, Australia, Middle East, US and South East Asian regions are very different from each other. Thus decentralization of HR and marketing policies will allow the organization to cater to the customer needs in the ways most suited to specific regions. It will also allow greater local control and the ability to act quickly to gain local resources ( Dezaree Seeds, & Alan S. Khade , 2008). Decentralization will also allow the organization to better deal with the cultural diversity and provide training to the employees as and when the need arises. â€Å"One thing that business, institutions, governments and key individuals will have to realize is spiders and starfish may look alike, but starfish have a miraculous quality to them. Cut off the leg of a spider, and you have a seven-legged creature on your hands; cut off its head and you have a dead spider. But cut off the arm of a starfish and it will grow a new one. Not only that, but the severed arm can grow an entirely new body. Starfish can achieve this feat because, unlike spiders, they are decentralized; every major organ is replicated across each arm† (Beckstrom and Brafman 2008). The type of approach taken by FES depends upon the nature and present condition of the global energy industry. The energy industry around the world is in a continuous state of flux. As more and more energy companies around the world become private and become free from the control of state, the nature of competition is changing (ExxonMobil, 2004). Demand for power is increasing at an exponential rate and the competition from private as well as government owned companies is fierce. In the power generation sector, each country has established different laws and tariff rates for multinational organizations. Thus on a whole it seems wiser to maintain a decentralized organizational setup which is flexible enough to quickly respond to the changing conditions of the industry. FES should maintain its present functional structure by keeping the finance, production and HR departments centralized. However using the same marketing and sales techniques all across the globe has a lot of negative implications. Thus allowing the regional marketing departments to work according to their specific environment is the best possible option. So in order to maintain decentralization in the marketing and sales department, the top management has to establish strong ties with all of its regional departments. A strong organizational culture based upon a clear vision and mission of the company should be communicated to all of its employees. Perhaps FES can create a hybrid model which allows centralization of decision making with respect to financial and important managerial decisions and at the same time, the marketing campaign is allowed flexibility according to the specific needs of the region. A key concern for FES is to harmonize its rapid global growth. Power and gas generation has to be taken in new countries and new plants need to be setup. The international operations have expanded a lot and efforts must be made to consolidate the existing business while growing in new regions of the world. As part of the consolidation effort FES must conduct extensive employee training program instilling in each employee the vision and objective of the organization. The company should consolidate its major decision making power in the Headquarter thereby allowing Headquarter to maintain a close monitory system on all of its subsidiaries. By centralizing its finance and management activities, the company can also approve marketing budgets for different regions from its Headquarter, thus building coherence in the finance and marketing goals. However the marketing and sales strategies for each region should be decentralized thus instilling greater flexibility and freedom among marketing departments to cater to their local markets. The pay for performance system can work smoothly in few of the regions but as explained earlier, some regions such as Middle East and some parts of South East Asian cultures demonstrate a more hierarchical structure and it will be extremely difficult to introduce pay for performance system in these regions. Also the parameters should be clearly defined before introducing the pay for performance system in different regions. Because same results usually do not show same amount of performance in different regions. What kind of performance and what kind of pay should be decided and communicated to all regional offices. The parameters for monitoring performance should be based upon different standards for different regions. Similarly some of the major HR policies should be centralized but mostly HR of each region should be independent in choosing the who, what, when and where about its employees. For example, Middle Eastern region is very warm in summers as compared to the European region and the work habits and optimum level of work during different seasons is different for both these regions. Thus separate working policies should be established for each of the region. The R&D department should remain centralized at the American Head Office. As a centralized R&D approach is more beneficial for a company like FES which has not expanded business into a variety of categories (AB, 2001). However taking technological inputs from all across the globe may help the R&D department in improving its efficiency and effectiveness. Thus technological integration should be built where all global units of FES are directly integrated with its Head Office and the information flow between Head Office and different regions should be quick and efficient. The production department should carry out its role from the center, managing the manufacturing process across the globe from the Head Office. So it can be seen that different aspects of FES operations require different level of centralization and decentralization. Also different regions require different level of authority delegation based upon their internal environment and national cultures. It is relatively easier to introduce standard policies in Europe and Australia as both of these cultures are very similar to that of US. However, standardizing procedures across Middle East and South America is not a feasible option. The regional business units should remain decentralized as there should be some form of flexibility to make the decision making process quicker. The regional heads should be sent directly from the Head Office, however if some regions in Middle East are not being managed effectively by American managers, then leadership services of local managers should be availed after providing them extensive cultural training programs at the Head Office. The regional units should be linked to the Head Office through the fastest technology available so that there is no or little information gap between the center and regional units. Thus in light of the cultural differences prevailing in various regions of the world, the best suited approach should be to take a hybrid approach while showing some restrain in application of a centralized approach and making some variations in the standards for implementation in different regions. The integration of overall business can be achieved by proper use of technology and defining proper hierarchical system for flow of information between Head Office and various regional units.

Privacy Laws and Policies Debate Essay

Upon viewing this weeks reading as well as going through other student arguments about why they are against communication privacy laws and policies, I feel even more strongly about them being crucial for success. Those who fear being watched are the ones who know they are doing wrong. Companies have the right to see what is going on, they pay the salaries of each employee. In times like today a company needs to know what is going on within itself. This means that having access to computers, email, mobile devices along with monitoring systems in the work place. Some of my fellow classmates to not agree with some of the practices but per our reading in Workplace Privacy it stays that â€Å"Under the â€Å"ordinary course of business† exemption, for example, employers may monitor email communications if the employer can show a legitimate business purpose for doing so† (Friedman, Reed, 2007). If employees know that they are being closely watched it decreases the chances of them not working or cheating the company. Some may argue that from our reading it says â€Å"While employers have many legitimate reasons to monitor employees’ electronic communications, they also need to consider negative implications of increased employee monitoring in terms of the effect of such practices on employee perceptions and attitudes† (Friedman, Reed, 2007). For me this does not work because if you are scared of being seen on camera or having someone go through work items then you are clearly doing something you should not be. Any person who owns a company would agree that the best way to stay in business is know what is going on within your company. Reference Friedman, B., & Reed, L. (2007, June). Workplace privacy: Employee relations and legal implications of monitoring employee e-mail use. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 19(2), 75.

Middle Eastern Views of Mental Illness

There are many countries that are considered to be countries of the Middle East. Some of these include Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Yemen, and Isreal, just to name a few. Many of these countries have things in common, such as belief in Islam, use of the Arabic language, connections through the Arab League, historical ties, etc. The different countries form a chain of countries that are linked by culture and religion on the one hand and yet vary greatly in terms of dialect and history on the other.The Arabic language is a large common denominator between these countries; however, dialects can be so different from each other to a point where a person from Syria can hardly communicate with a person from Algeria. (1) Most landscape in the Middle East is either occupied by harsh desert conditions or mountains. This has made its people very tough in terms of living conditions. Lebanon, parts of Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq have mountainous areas while most of the other countries are flat and extrem ely arid.Those living in the desert traditionally used to move around in a perennial search for water, which resulted in unique eating behaviors and homes. A typical Arab house in the desert is built out of mud and has little furniture. The food is basic with little processing. However, in the mountains of Lebanon, Syria or Turkey one will encounter strong homes with heavy stones and arches that can last for generations. In addition, food in these areas is usually produced during summertime and stored in cellars for use when nature does not allow them to go out and work their snow covered fields. 1) Religions play a big role in the dynamics of the Middle Eastern society. They are considered to be one of the main pillars of the society and individuals are stereotyped based on religion. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are the main religions practiced in the middle-east and people who practice these faiths only surround themselves with people of the same faith. Daily life is practiced on the basis of ones religion and others are expected to respect that.1) The present day Middle East is a mixture of very old cultures and very young nations that were organized by European colonial powers after the defeat of the Central Powers which led to the end of World War One and fall of the Ottoman Empire. The culture of the Middle East is thus understood only by learning about the history of the region and the forces that have influenced the growth and demise of controlling powers. Since World War One, colonial countries such as France, Great Britain, and The United States have ignificantly influenced the Middle East. (1) Keeping in mind this very generalized description of the Middle Eastern culture we can now begin to look at the beliefs in terms of mental illness. In my research it is safe to say that most all opinions by middle easterners are based off of their religious beliefs. According to the SRA (Stigma Research and Action) people from non-Western cultures tend to attribute the cause of mental illness more frequently to the afflicted individual.It is possible that discrimination against the mentally ill differs in an Islamic culture where mental illnesses and other ailments are, to some extent, considered to be due to the will of God, rather than evil forces, bad behavior, or other personally devaluating factors. According to the holy Koran, people with a mental disorder should be treated with respect, and this might result in a less stigmatizing attitude.Such a perception of causality would also reasonably apply to the individual, and might be a factor that reduces self-blame. One must bear one’s predicament and wait for the mercy of God! A study was done by SRA researchers and participants were asked a series of open-ended questions. Responses indicated feelings of alienation, sharing stereotypes about the mentally ill, experiences of discrimination, social withdrawal, and resistance to being stigmatized and discriminated against.For example, responses included: Yes, they discriminate against us; They don’t count on us; Our society has no capacity for us; I mean there is no cultural understanding in our society; They ridicule, insult and harm us; I wish they could understand that psychiatric patients are like other patients, like patients with cancer or cardiac disease and that they can live their lives.A recurring theme was the idea of the mentally ill as dangerous and aggressive: They all believe a mentally ill patient is a natural born killer and that’s why I try to keep myself to myself and not even claim what I’m entitled to; When the police came they were acting as if I was a criminal, but they ought to know that I’m a patient, not a criminal. (2) The International Journal of Mental health Systems has thoroughly researched the country of Iraq in terms of their views on Mental illness.According to their research public attitudes towards mental illness in Iraq has shown that comm unity opinion about the aetiology of mental illness is broadly compatible with scientific evidence, but understanding of the nature of mental illness, its implications for social participation and management remains negative in general. (3) As nurses we have to remain unbiased, and educational towards our patients and their families.When faced with a patient with a mental illness whom is Middle eastern we need to stay mindful of the fact that they probably believe that they were afflicted by their God in some way, or in some way they deserved to be born with this illness. We need to simply educate them on the importance of medication Therapy and safety. We should treat all of our patients the same no matter what their cultural beliefs are and we should always treat each patient with respect.Active listening is an important skill to master as a nurse with all patients but with Middle Eastern patients especially it is a sign of respect to listen to them first, and allow them to finish completely prior to speaking. Giving this level of respect to all patients all the time will ensure that as nurses we never offend, and that we give the best quality care.

Analysis of the Process Description of the Property Assignment

Analysis of the Process Description of the Property - Assignment Example   Demand for inspection is required to comply with Form 24 of the Appendix to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) A motion is an application to a court for relief, guidance, protection or assistance and can be made either orally or in writing at any time during a trial. However, if a motion is an originating process it must be made in writing. By its very definition and nature, a motion contains four relevant parts despite the fact that there is no real statutory provision mandating these four requisite parts. (Blanchard, p. 463) The most obvious part of the motion begins with a statement of the relief or assistance and the actual order the party moving the courts wishes to obtain by way of the motion. This part of the motion should be followed by a statement of the legal authority for which the application by way of motion can be made. The legal authority is typically contained in the Rules of Civil Procedure. For example, the applicant can make a motion to dismiss on the grounds that the complainant fails properly state a claim contrary to Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (Blanchard, p. 464) The third part of the motion will usually state the grounds upon which the applicant is moving the court as well as the court’s authority to entertain the motion. The grounds relied upon are no more than the reasons for making the application and the court’s authority to grant the relief based upon the reasons stated. The fourth and final part of the motion will provide the court with the e vidence giving rise to the grounds for the motion. This evidence will consist of relevant affidavits and exhibits. (Blanchard, p. 463)   

Civil Rights Act Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Civil Rights Act - Research Paper Example Even in the process of passing the Act many opposed it, but at the end of the day, it succeeded and brought with it a new perspective to Americans. It played a vital role in the aspect of racial, gender and religious discrimination in the different sectors. It is essential to look back on how the policy was established in order to assess the usefulness and the importance of the policy today. Background of the Issue During the early years in the 1960s, there was evidently unequal treatment of and opportunities for Blacks and Whites who resided in America. There was an invisible line that prevented the Blacks from securing any governmental position. They have even experienced discrimination within public and private establishments. In relation to this, during the 1960s, Birmingham, Alabama was considered as the most racist place in the U.S. Many of the discriminatory acts against African Americans were done within the limits of the state. In May 2, 1963, a march against the racist stat e was held by more than a thousand of African-American children. The protest was aired over national television and Kennedy, along with the world, witnessed how the protest was stopped by the police. The police used dogs against the children as they knocked the children out with sprays (Vox). It became a window for Kennedy to understand how racism and discrimination could lead people to hurt and even try to kill children. With this on hand, on June 6, 1963, President John F. Kennedy announced on national television that he was urging people to take part in the equal treatment of every individual of different races. After his plea, Kennedy suggested that the Congress should implement a law that would cater to every individual. The law suggested was to address racial discrimination, the voting rights, the right to education and the right of every individual for federal assistance. However, Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 which could have caused a delay in the passing of the Act. Nonetheless, the assassination of Kennedy did not deter the implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As the vice president, Lyndon Johnson became the president. He signed it into law on the same day it was approved by the House. It took only a few months prior to the signing of the act into a law in July of 1964 (â€Å"Civil Rights Act†). The passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not immediately end discrimination and inequality among the other races who resided in America. However, there were profound changes that led to the enhancement of the rights of Asians, Blacks, Latinos and women. Prior to the passing of the Act, there was a local and state law on color segregation, which allowed business owners and local government agencies not accommodate Asians, Blacks, Latinos and other races. However, the Act’s greatest achievement was the ending of this segregation and in return, allowed other races to sue public and private establishments that discr iminated or violated their rights. Furthermore, equal employment was also established, which did not allow discrimination in race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in the workplace, during the hiring process, promotion and dismissal of employees. During this time, employment and incomes of Asians, Blacks, Latinos and women rose along with the median income of the families (Hartford; â€Å"

Fundraising Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fundraising Plan - Essay Example The fundraising extends a period of three weeks, a period within which the managers will develop and trade various products and services before culminating into a large fundraising dinner on 14/11/2014 at the University’s pavilion. The fundraising is a way for the university’s teams to involve the community in its development. The teams seek to enjoy financial independence by creating an effective management team that will oversee the utilization of all its resources for posterity of athletics in the society (Tullberg, 2006). Hill toppers has been the name of the university’s team since 1925. The teams take part in different sporting events thereby contributing to the extracurricular development of the students. Additionally, the sports offer the students with an effective platform to interact and develop their management skills. The teams have grown concurrently with the University (Blick, 2011). Since 2005, Hill toppers has achieved great success owing to the effective management of the teams. The teams have a history of raising funds to acquire resources and enhance the success of the teams. In 2007 for example, the teams raised two hundred thousand dollars for the development of both a soccer and football pitches within the university. The success of the fundraising event enhanced the performance of the two sports a feature that informs the current even which sees to raise adequate resources for refurbishing the entire university’s sport’s fraternity. The fundraising’s strengths include the diversity of the services and products. This implies that the fundraising will raise money from numerous sources. Additionally, the large duration coupled with the large number of interested stakeholders ensures that the project exhausts all its resources. Its weakness on the other hand is the huge sum it seeks

Weyco & Child Labor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Weyco & Child Labor - Essay Example It was observed that numerous workers were successful to quit smoking; however, there were certain workers who failed to do so and ultimately were fired (WELCOA, 2005). Contextually, the anti-smoking policy implemented by Howard Weyers, the CEO of Weyco, can be considered as partially correct and justified as it would help the employees to live a healthier life by quitting smoking habits. Conversely, it can be stated that Weyer’s attempt to regulate employee’s tobacco consumption outside organization which can be considered to be conflicting with the privacy interests of the employees (Lype, 2012). Employees, in this context might feel that their rights-to-privacy are being threatened by a certain extent. From a generalized view, it can be stated that employers do not possess the rights to interfere in employees’ personal affairs with no relation to the organizational interests. However, those criticizing Weyco with similar policies needs to consider that compani es have a legal duty to offer a safe and healthy workplace, which might as well comprise of a smoke free air. Withdrawing the paid and sponsored health care benefits to one and all would be a viable alternative in comparison to firing the employees. Consequently, if a greater number of firms attempt prohibiting smoking inside the workplace, it would be a good thing for corporate America. However, cessation of smoking outside organization might not prove as a viable option with greater chances for companies of being exposed to lawsuits on the basis of discrimination and assault of employee privacy. When faced with similar situation, instead of adopting intrusive means, attempts can be made to motivate the employees in participating voluntarily in such programs (Darrow, 2005). Child Labor Child labor can be considered as morally dangerous as well as legally harmful. However, child labor practices have often been witnessed even in today’s modern day scenario. Such practices are fundamentally forced because of poverty when child labor is considered as the only option for the survival. Contextually, it has often been witnessed that various industries, especially apparel industry contractors in major instances practices child labor which has today led to the polarization of these companies in two distinct groups, one being ethically sound and the other being unreliable on ethical grounds. Consequently, apparel manufacturers as well as retailers often have to witness challenges when opting for strategic alliances with contractors without compromising their ethical responsibilities and profitability. With this concern, manufacturers as well as retailers need to motivate the contractors with rewards in order to attain the objective of ethical business practices and to remain competitive in its long-run (Emmelhainz & Adams, 1999). Additionally, code of conduct can be developed for the contractors that will prohibit the use of child labor by a significant extent. However, USA or any other particular country must not be permitted to â€Å"dictate† other nations to conduct their businesses ethically determining the wage rate in those economies. It is in this context that when such authority will be bestowed upon USA, it will become quite likely that the nation would gain greater power in world politics which might cause dissatisfaction amid international trading associations. USA can instead support and set examples on ethical trade practices for other nations. In this regard, price, performance and productivity are often considered to be of secondary importance. It is utmost important for the firm to take ethical considerations when choosing foreign suppliers which can be executed through legal contracts. Additionally,

Social Science in Australia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Social Science in Australia - Essay Example Sexuality has had diverse perceptions over decades. These include people, who are distinctively either male or female, and the heterosexuals- men and women in possession of both the male and the female sex-organs. In efforts to exploit sexual desires, divisions such as the homosexuals come up, composed of two different groups, the lesbians- women practicing sexual acts with fellow women and the gay-basically men who find sexual acts with their counterpart males compatible; and yet others practicing masturbation which is seeking to fulfill ones own sexual desire or pleasure. People have different understanding and beliefs in regard to sexuality and what is best for them sexually. Lesbians view the pleasure from fellow women as most fulfilling and the gay see it vice versa. A majority though think that its all abnormal saying that woman was made for man and likewise. In fact it has been approved with time after thorough investigations and research on homosexuals that is lesbians and ga ys. The debate over homosexual "marriage" for instance, often becomes focused on whether homosexuality is a learned behavior or a genetic trait. Many homosexual activists insist that "science" has shown that homosexuality is inborn, cannot be changed, and that therefore they should have the right to marry each other. (CWA, 2008).Because no single study can be regarded as definitive; more research on people who have overcome homosexuality needs to be done. But a considerable body of certain literature about change from homosexuality to heterosexuality has been compiled, and the sheer number of exceptions to the "born gay" theory should be a warning to researchers and media to proceed with caution before declaring that science has proved that homosexuality is genetic. Other recent developments suggest that homosexuality is not genetically determined but made. Another instance is given by Simone de Beauvoir who says "One is not born, but becomes a woman. No biological, psychological, or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society: it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature, intermediate between, male and eunuch, which is described as feminine". This belief also applies to the case of men (WCA, 1981). To support the above motion, there are a number of factors to look into which include: political, socialization, work/family (gender equality), early environment, cultural background, economical, and religion. Other factors contributing to this are attitudes, discipline, effort and style. Firstly, talking about politics which has imposed oppression on especially women, a lesbian society pragmatically reveals that the division from men of which women has been the object is a political one and shows that women have been ideologically rebuilt into a "natural group." In the case of women, ideology goes far since their bodies as well as their minds are the product of this manipulation. They have been compelled in their bodies and in their minds to correspond, feature by feature, with the idea of nature that has been established for them. Distorted to such an extent that their deformed body is what they call "natural," what is supposed to exist as such before oppression Distorted to such an extent in the end, oppression seems to be a consequence of this, "nature" within them. Experience by both men and a woman in such a field finally

In this paper the belief in eschatology and the notion that current Research

In this the belief in eschatology and the notion that current events are a predictor of the rapture are compared and contr - Research Paper Example The Minor Signs may or may not occur before the Major Signs, but they will be less serious in nature and possibly more open to interpretation. It is said, for example, that earthquakes will increase, but that could refer either to the number of earthquakes or to their severity, or to both. As in Christianity, interpretation of these verses is disputed among Muslim scholars and lay-people. What is clear is that in order for a Muslim to be considered a believer, he must adhere to five articles of faith, the second of which is 'Belief in the Last Day'. Eschatology is considered a fundamental aspect of Islam, belief in which is shared by all Muslims. By contrast, many branches of Christianity take a far less litera approach to eschatology, and place less importance on its ideology than on other aspects of their faith. Minor signs of the Last Day include a great many ideas which are shared with other major religious ideologies, including Christianity. Both religious make reference to trib ulation, to various disputes between individuals, sexual immoratlity, disease, and even a plague of infertility. http://www.islamcan.com/islamic-articles/the-minor-signs-of-the-last-day.shtml Richardson, Joel. The Islamic Antichri

PEST-C and marketing stratgy for Appl company Research Paper

PEST-C and marketing stratgy for Appl company - Research Paper Example In a video titled, â€Å"What makes Apple’s marketing Unique†, it emerges that Apple Company designs products with outstanding features (Integra Global Solutions, 2012). For example, when other companies conceived the possibility of developing desktops, Apple moved a step further and conceived the possibility of having a computer in the pocket. Currently, Apple’s MacBook Air is the thinnest computer in existence developed through an amazing product design and detail. Unlike other companies, Apple highlights only one outstanding feature of its products in its advertisements. Although the MacBook Air has remarkable functionality, the Apple Company utilized a unique marketing strategy and placed emphasis on the fact that the MacBook Air was the thinnest computer (OReilly, 2012). The focus on the most outstanding aspects makes Apple’s marketing unique, simple, and straightforward. The focus on a single aspect instead of numerous aspects sets a new standard for Apple product a factor that motivates potential consumers to buy the products. The video uploaded on YouTube by the Integra Global Solutions, who are experts in marketing reveals the uniqueness of Apple’s marketing strategies. Moreover, Apple Company has adopted digital marketing, which has created a buzz on the sleek design of the company’s products. Similar to its products, Apple’s online advertisements and its website focus on high levels of navigability making it easy to use for customers. Through digital marketing, the Apple Company has been able to interact with its customers and focus on highlighting the value added by its premium products. The company does not need to confuse its customers by highlighting numerous features in its advertisements (Montgomerie & Roscoe, 2013). On the contrary, its marketing strategies highlight one outstanding feature that should motivate and convince a customer that the Apple product is worth buying. Irrespective of

Principles of communication in adult care setting Essay Example for Free

Principles of communication in adult care setting Essay Outcome 1 There are many different reasons that people communicate this maybe to let someone know that they are hungry or to say that they are unwell, it maybe that someone would just like to have a talk, people often communicate to voice their opinions and sometime to influence and motivate others. Communication is a major part of our active lives and is a social activity. It maybe verbal though speech, reading and writing or nonverbal though body language. Good communication throughout adult social care can only have a positive outcome. It creates a good working environment for both staff and the individuals we support, it can help all involved to relay messages to one another and other professionals to help the individuals we support, giving confidence and trust. Read more: Reasons to communicate  essay Outcome 2 Every Individual is an individual and should be treated so. However in some circumstances this may be difficult to overcome immediately. You need to establish if an individual is deaf/mute, or suffers from other disabilities which may impair there language and or communication skills. These can be overcome when you make an effort to establish the needs of an individual. Speaking slowly and clearly and whilst looking at the individual, will allow the individual to respond according to their needs/preferences. A range of communication methods are: Body language, eye contact, facial expressions, non verbal and verbal communication. Tone of voice, pitch of voice, gestures, hand and body, and British sign language. It is important to respond to an individual’s reactions when communicating because of the individual’s needs. So you can provide an accurate response, to promote empathy and a shared understanding to avoid the individual becoming more distressed, frustrated or con fused. Outcome 3 Individuals from different backgrounds will use communication in different ways by interpreting things in different ways, what may be accepted to one  culture may be completely different to another. It is important to refer to care plans to ensure that individual cultural beliefs are respected. Some barriers can be difficult to overcome, in many communications, the message may not be received the way that the sender originally intended. It is vital that the communicator seeks feedback to check that their message was clearly understood. Barriers may occur at any stage in the communication process, messages may become distorted or misunderstood, this can cause confusion, the use of jargon, over complicated or unfamiliar words. Lack of attention, interest or distractions. Physical disabilities, such as hearing or speech difficulties. Non-verbal communication. Unfamiliar accents/ language. Overcoming barriers in communications can be done by ensuring that individual’s needs and/or disabilities are known thoroughly and time and care is taken to ensure the correct message or instructions are heard and/or understood. Misunderstandings can be avoided or clarified, by ensuring you are communicating to the Individuals needs. Talking slowly and clearly. Using the correct terminology, and the correct facial expressions. There are many ways for individuals to access extra support to enable individuals to communicate more effectively, this can be through colleagues, individual’s family, friends, social worker, their GP, specialist nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist, psychologist, psychiatrist. There are support groups available including translation services, interpreting services, speech and language and advocate services. Outcome 4 Confidentiality is a set of rules or a promise that limits access or puts restrictions on certain types of information. In day to day communication, confidentiality is a must. Things that you are told confidentially should be kept that way unless you are discussing the matter with an agreed other. Like a nurse, colleague or social worker. You do not talk about work related topics or individuals as idle gossip. There could be possible tension if you were ask to not say anything but due to duty of care, you have to let the agreed others know of the situation. I would seek advice from my manager  or supervisor during a supervision or confidential meeting if I felt that a service users information was being used in a incorrect way I would report this to my senior as soon as possible.

Montessori Philisophy Essay Example for Free

Montessori Philisophy Essay Introduction The child at birth appears almost nothing. He cannot walk, cannot talk and he can’t even eat on his own. The same child within two years learns so much. He can walk, run, talk continuously. Maria Montessori calls the child during this formative period, â€Å"a Spiritual Embryo†. The human being is provided with two embryonic periods. One is pre-natal and another one post-natal. The pre-natal period is the period when the physical development takes place. All beings have only pre-natal period. But the human being has another embryonic period which is post-natal. Any animal immediately after birth starts to walk, eats on his own and it will be a complete animal whereas the man has a prolonged infancy in order to become independent. Montessori biography An Italian educator of the early 20th century Maria is remembered as the founder of the famous Montessori Method of education Maria Montessori was born in the town of Chiaravalle in the province of Ancona, Italy on 31 august; 1870She developed interest and biology became her great passion. She persisted and became the first woman in Italy to earn the degree of doctor of medicine. She was appointed at the psychiatric clinic in the University of Rome. She worked with special need children and became deeply interested in their education. In 1904 she was appointed as professor of anthropology at the university. She died in 1952. Birth of a method In 1906, she was appointed as a co-director of a new training institute for special education teacher. Her studies led her to observe the method of teaching children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Many of the children made unexpected gains and the program was proclaimed success. In 1907, Maria accepted a new challenge to open infant school in a slum clearance rehousing program in Rome. The first school, in sanLorenzo, It was called Casa dei bambini, a quality learning environment for young children. Utilising scientific observations and experience gained from her earlier work from young children she designed learning materials and environment that foster the children natural desire to learn. In 1910, the Montessori Method became worldwide creating a new education. New Education The new education is a revolution; but a revolution without violence. It is the non-violent revolution†. (Maria Montessori, The Absorbent mind, Translated from Italian by Claude A.claremont.Newyork,1967,p.215)   Dr. Maria Montessori called for a revolution in society to human development and education. According to ‘the philosophy of new education’ character building is a question of auto construction and children must be helped in their own work of constructing their character. â€Å"There is only one problem, and it is human development in its totality; once this is achieved in any unit-child or nation everything else follows spontaneously and harmoniously† (Maria Montessori, To Educate the human potential, kalashetra publication,adyar,madras,1961,p 13.) The aim of education is the balanced development of personality-the whole personality, the integrated personality. Spiritual embryo Montessori compared the process of psychological and spiritual development to the physical unfolding of human organism. This post natal work is a constructive activity which is carried on the baby what may be called the â€Å"formative period† and it makes the baby into a kind of spiritual embryo. A new born child has no hereditary models of behaviour to follow nevertheless he has â€Å"potentialities â€Å"able to bring about his development, and these are done by making use of outer world. â€Å"The times have changed, turning its attention and energies to the discovery of the child and the development of the great potentialities of the human personality in course of construction† (Maria Montessori, Discovery of the child, ABC-clio ltd,1948) Maria Montessori called these potentialities as â€Å"nebulae† as they are the creative energy which guides the child to absorb from his environment. The growth and psychic of child’s development are driven by an will power and a vital force called â€Å"horme† that makes the child to do what he needs to develop. Only nature, which has established certain laws and determined the needs of the human being in course of development, can dictate the educational method to be followed. According to Montessori there are eight natural laws. Law of work Montessori describes through work the urge of child is met and his concentration to activity also increases and the child reaches a psychic integration state of normalisation Law of independence The child conquest of independence is the basic step in what is called his natural law of development. At birth the child leaves his mother womb and this makes him independent of his bodily process. To be independent the child must function without the help of others. Development of will Montessori believes that decision made by the child on any activity and action taken by the child is the basic for will development. There are three stages of development in will. In first stage the inner urge directs him to do the activity several times by which he gains control over himself and his environment. In second stage he gains power over himself and gets disciplined and accepts the responsibility for his action. In third stage the child gains power to obey. The child turns his power of obedience towards someone else. Power of attention When the child is placed in a environment favourable to his spiritual growth, the child fix his attention upon an object, will use it for the purpose for which it was constructed and will continue to repeat the same exercise .In fact, the attention of the little child was not artificially maintained by a teacher, it was an object which fixed that attention, corresponding to some internal pulse. Development of intelligence According to Montessori, Intellectual development is important as it helps a child to know as well as explore the environment. Through the developing senses, a child is endowed with the necessary mechanism of interacting with the environment Development of imagination and creativity Imagination helps provide understanding to knowledge; it is a fundamental facility through which child makes sense of the world, and it also plays a key role in the learning process. A basic training for imagination is the listening to storytelling. The things that we touch, see and hear coalesce into a picture via our imagination. Imagination is the power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality. That is the spiritual embryo self-constructs him to become a unified personality. This self-construction is aided internally (mentally) and externally. Internal aid includes the absorbent mind and the sensitive periods. Absorbent mind Montessori observed that young children learn in a unique way from prenatal life to about six years old. Since the neonatal has to learn everything, (he has no tools other than reflexes to survive)he must acquire his survival skills in some other way. A child absorbs knowledge directly into his psychic life. A child learns by taking in everything around him and constructs himself. Using his senses he creates himself without thought or choice. This mentality of child is absorbent mind. Montessori saw absorbent mind in two phases. Unconscious mind (0-3 yrs) At birth, the spiritual embryo has no knowledge or impression in him, it is totally empty. It has to start from nothing. At this stage the child absorbs all impressions from his environment unconsciously. (I.e. the child does not know that he has taken all this with in him) To do this he has no other tools other than his reflexes to survey. At this point the child is like a sponge. He absorbs all information’s without any filters. This process takes place naturally without any thought or choice. This is called unconscious mind or unconscious creation mind. Once these information are incorporated in his schemas, it will be end of his third year, and he has developed his mental muscles. This preparation of the unconscious mind is used for later development and activity, after three years, a trans takes place from unconscious mind to another phase called conscious mind or conscious work mind. Conscious mind (3-6 yrs.) In this stage the child’s ability to focus, use his energy, and capacity to absorb, information in tremendous. This helps in developing emotions and intellectual aspects. From three years of age he moves to the conscious mind using the impressions developed and created during his first three years. This memory which absorbs images into individual’s life is called gifted memory or mneme. Any impedance which lessons the creativity in this age reduces the perfections. At this age they have a good creative power and imagination. He learns how to understand, ability the reasons and his mathematical mind compels him, to perfect himself. Sensitive periods Montessori observed a cognitive plan which determines the unique emotional and intellectual qualities of each child. These qualities develop through what Montessori referred to as the sensitive periods. Montessori identified six different sensitive periods from birth through age six. Sensitivity to order During this period there is a need for a precise and determined environment, which can be observed by the joy which children show at seeing things in their proper places. The presence of this period is more evident when the order is somehow interfered with. â€Å"Order is one of the needs of life which, when it is satisfied, produces a real happiness† (Montessori, The Secret of Childhood. Ballantine Books, 1973, 52). Learning through their five senses Child is sensitized to sensory order in other words, to the difference s things, that some are soft or hard, that objects have colour, different colours, and shapes of the same colour. He needs to freely explore his prepared world so he can differentiate these qualities There is nothing in the intellect which was not first in some way in the senses, and senses being explorers of the world, opens the way to knowledge.† Maria Montessori. Sensitive to movement The sensitive period for movement is most intense during the first year of life. By about twelve months many babies take their first steps. An infants need to walk is so strong that he becomes upset if he is impeded. The childs rhythm is so much slower than our own. He walks to perfect his walking; whereas we walk with purposeful intent. Sensitive to language During sensitive period for language, no one teaches the child to talk. His language develops naturally like a spontaneous creation of all auditory stimulation surrounding the baby, it is the human voice that he deeply hears and imitates. By six months, he is uttering his first syllables, and by about two years old he explodes into language. He talks and talks non-stop. Sensitive to small object A child has the urge to pay attention to small objects from two years of age. Sensitivity to small objects is an important development because it helps widen the child’s power of observation and allows the child concentrate his intellectual power on a specific problem. Principles of Prepared Environment â€Å"The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult†. (Maria Montessori. The Secret of Childhood: Fides Publishers, 1966.) Her life and work,cosmo publication.newdeldi,2009,p246) Montessori’s idea of the prepared environment was that everything the child came in contact with would facilitate and maximize independent learning and exploration. Children are free to choose and work on activities at their own pace. There are generally six aspects, or principles, to the Prepared Environment, Freedom, Structure and Order, Beauty, Nature and reality, Social Environment, Montessori materials. Freedom Montessori believed that a child must be free to explore and follow his own natural impulses, thus developing his potential and increasing his knowledge of the world around him. â€Å"Young people must have enough freedom to allow them to act on individual initiative. But in order that individual action should be free and useful at the same time it must be restricted with certain limits and rules that give the necessary guidance.’’ (Montessori, M. (1994). From Childhood To Adolescence, Oxford: Clio press, p73) Within the prepared environment, the child must experience freedom of movement, freedom of exploration, freedom to interact socially, and freedom from interference from others. Structure and Order Structure and Order in the Montessori classroom accurately reflect the sense of structure and order in the universe. By using the Montessori classroom environment the child begins to internalize the order surrounding him, thus making sense of the world in which he lives. If there is not order to his environment, the child’s sense of reason may be off since he will not be able to validate his findings. Atmosphere and Beauty Montessori environments should be beautiful, reflect peace and tranquillity. The environment should invite the learner to come in and work. This atmosphere is easily seen by the attitude of those working there, both child and adult. Nature and Reality Montessori believed that we should use nature to inspire children. She continually suggested that Montessori teachers take the children out into nature, rather than keeping them confined in the classroom. This is why natural materials are preferred in the prepared environment. It is here where child-size real objects come into play. Furniture should be child-size so the child is not dependent on the adult for his movement. Social Environment As children develop, they become more socially aware, preparing to work and play in groups. This social interaction is supported throughout the environment and is encouraged with the nature of multi-age classroom settings. A prepared environment only with a Montessori teacher becomes a whole. The children and the teacher unite to form education whole which is dynamic and continuous process of development for both of them. Montessori materials The materials must aid the internal formation of the child. The material must correspond to the child’s inner needs. This means that materials must be presented at the right moment of the child’s development. Periods of development The four Planes (or phases) of development is an overall vision of Montessori’s developmental psychology from infancy to adulthood. 3 9 15 21 Birth first 6 second 12 third 18fourth 24 24 First period (0-6 years) This period is marked by rapid and intense changes in the overall development physical, cognitively, socially, emotionally. Second period (6-12 years) Montessori observed changes in children focus and direction in their development. Children’s focus change from one of self-creation to the development of social being. Third period (12-18 years) Montessori regarded adolescence as a period of great vulnerability and a period of self-construction. The Role of the Teacher Dr. Montessori believed that the teacher should focus on the child as a person rather than on the daily lesson plans. Although the Montessori teacher plans daily lessons for each child, she must be alert to changes in the child’s interest, progress, mood, and behaviour. Child [observer][Provider] Teacher Environment [Preparer] Teacher and child has two folds of role to play. Teacher is an observer observing the child in the environment. Preparer-prepares the friendly environment for the child.Maria Montessori offered some general principles of behaviour for teachers in the Montessori classroom. The teacher becomes the custodian of the environment. All the apparatus is to be kept meticulously in order, perfect condition the teacher also must be tidy and clean, calm and dignified When the child begins to show interest in any activity, the teacher must not interrupt, because this interest corresponds with natural laws and opens up a whole cycle of new activities exist. The duty of the teacher is only to present new things when she knows that a child has exhausted all the possibilities of those he was using before. Montessori teachers are the dynamic link between children and the Prepared Environment. They systematically observe their students and interpret their needs. They are constantly experimenting, modifying the environment to meet their perceptions of each childs needs and interests, and objectively noting the result. They prepare an environment meant to facilitate children’s independence and ability to freely select work that they find appealing. They observe and evaluate each child’s individual progress. They respect and protect their students independence. They are diagnosticians who can interpret patterns of growth, development, and behaviour in order to better understand the children and make necessary referrals and suggestions to parents. Conclusion From birth to adulthood a child undergoes development and transformation within him. To be able to develop themselves fully, children need a special inner tutor which Montessori referred to as absorbent mind and sensitive period. The natural laws that govern the child normal psychic developmentsduring the varies period of development are revealed during his construction. With his inner potentials, and the sensitive periods with a prepared environment and a teacher, the childhood period undergoes varies transformation. By this the child gets normalised and become an unified personality in the society.

Business case for Franchise of McDonalds

Business case for Franchise of McDonalds This business case is mainly designed for planning about the franchise of Mc Donald Company while this company has been franchise from 1955 and the franchise of this company brings the success in many times. Mc Donald considers franchise is one of the predominant ways of doing business. At present, the Mc Donalds franchise is one of the greatest food service retailers which have 30,000 restaurants placed in more than 100 countries. For purchasing Mc Donalds franchise I have to purchase existing restaurant of franchise. By purchasing this, I can save 15% of the cost because initially I have to come up with 25% costs for existing one where new one purchasing cost will be 40% that means the profit of 15% can be gained. Mc Donald never provides the financial support for franchise and fund must be gained from the non-borrowed personal source. And the statistical figure might be come up to about $3, 00,000. The key objectives of taking the plan of Mc Donald franchise to achieve profitability. Because the brand image of Mc Donald is already existed in market and it is more recognized. So, I can expand the market easily and profit can be achieved. Business opportunity: There is the opportunity to operate own individual or more than one store. For this reason, I choose the place for establish the franchise of Mc Donald i.e. in Ilford station. Near to this station, any branch of Mc Donald is not placed. Not only this, there is the potentiality of huge customers and highest profitability because the product or menu of Mc Donald are already recognized to the whole world. Benefits: For Mc Donald franchise, there is no need to think about new menu and the cooking employees are already extremely efficient and used with all tasks. In Mc Donald franchise, risk is reduced to set up my own business where division of labour and turnover intensity of fixed menu grants for appropriate economies of scale. Another benefit is that any new products are no need to develop and dont require to conduct any kinds of market analysis. And also no need to think about brand name or image. Costs: The franchise cost of Mc Donald might be  £3, 00,000 where I have to provide 25% of the worth which is considered as unencumbered finance and the rest 75% will be collected from the bank as a loan in order to favourable funding terms. Another cost is one-off franchise fee of  £30, 000 and franchiser training program fee is  £5, 000 which is returned after finishing the training program. Miscellaneous cost: rent which will be paid monthly on premises related to profitability and sales will 12%. A fee will be paid for use of the Mc Donald system-5% of sales. National marketing expenses contribution-4.5% of sales. Returns: in a year, a cash flow will be made where the cash inflow and outflow will about  £70, 000 to  £98,000 per year. But this statement will not certain because it will be made before debt repayment. The return can be more. The return on investment will currently about 10% which shows the profitability rate of this business. Implementation plan: Paid initial franchise fee: 26th March 2010 Franchiser training program: 27th March 2010 (start) Go down payment to Mc Donald: 28th March, 2010. Service providing will be started from 1st April, 2010. Task 2: 1.2 Literature review: The report is mainly done on the business plan of Mc Donald franchise. I take the business plan of franchise of Mc Donald, because of several reasons. Todays business world are very much competitive and its become tougher and tougher for successful in the business market. If a person want to start his business as an entrepreneur it may be impossible to become profitable in the business market. Because establishing the new business or enter the market as a new, it is quite impossible to set up his business or become successful. But if we take the plan of establishing the business as a franchiser then it will be easy to achieve profitability in our business. Because, in franchise business, a recognized brand is already existed and all thing are readymade in before. Just spend some money to buy it and start the business. Franchising can be defined as the exercise of using another companys brand image and their successful business model. Through this kind of business, we can avoid investment and liability over a chain. The key factors of adopting franchise the business are that we can get the business with a good track record of profitability and that business is easily imitated. Here, for making business plan, I adopt the Mc Donald franchise because I want to be my own boss in my business, can trade a well established and high quality of product, continuous support, benefits from national marketing carried out by Mc Donald and they receive excess to business forecast information. The best example of franchising is the brand franchising of Mc Donald. Mc Donald allows peoples to establish their own business as Mc Donald franchiser and grant the rights to set up their business. Under the Mc Donald franchise, the franchisee purchases the equipments, fittings and the permission to run the franchise for 20 years. All franchisees of Mc Donald use standardized branding, menus, design layouts and administrative systems of Mc Donald. The Mc Donald franchisees also use the same standards and operating methods or manufacturing and maintain the quality of products. Any company, when they bring new products or service in the market they have to consider about the customer demand and their choice. They have a huge number of options of spending their money and places to spend it. However, McDonalds places considerable importance on the improvement of their menu in order to customer need. For this reason a market survey are conducted for analysing the customer demand. Thus, customers demands change time to time. Therefore, Care is not only taken to impact negatively the sales of the option of one by recognizing the new option, which will cannibalise sales from the old one (trade off). McDonalds knows that items on its menu will vary in popularity. Action of marketing undertaken and the resources invested will be different depending on the stage a product as reached. For example, a new product launch will typically relate to television and other advertising support. In any time a company will have a products portfolio, where each in a different stage of its cycle. It is accepted that Big Mac are now in the stage of maturity where the options Mc Donald are increasing towards the popularity. Task 3: Information about market Mc Donald is recognized as the one of the best known brands around the whole world. Branding is the term which formulated an image of an organization, service or product. The image of the brand focuses on the customers view on the organization. Brand image is mainly used while an organization shows their loyalty towards their customer through their products or services. A brand can be recognized by marketing communication methods such as: promotion and advertising which is used for developing the designs, colours and images. Similarly, Mc Donald is popular by its most familiar logo- the Golden Arches. The brand image is a significant factor for franchising. Because without strong brand image, it is impossible to become successful in franchising business. Mc Donald faces competition from other forms of businesses in all its market. In addition, there are some factors such as: economic, legal and technological changes and social factors and many other ingredients may affect the success of Mc Donald. Mc Donald franchising marketing consists of identifying the needs and requirements of customers and tries to meet theses demand in a better way than its competitors and by this the company can get loyal customers. Mc Donald has some competitors which are Burger King, KFC, Subway, Star Bucks etc. But among them Burger King is the main competitor. And in my new Mc Donald franchising place, these entire competitors branch are existed. If we focus on Mc Donald and Burger King then we can see the first difference between these two is that the Big Mac and the Whopper. But both are concentrating on customer health and taste. Mc Donald creates the achievement place for children. From this sector, Mc Donald earns a get percentage of their profits. And it is seen that children are requested to their parents to take them to Mc Donald, while Burger King doesnt give any response to this. They are used to have a sad kids clubs with B-grade promotion, where Mc Donald shows promotional activities through the childrens hit such as: Mattel, Disney and Barbie. Another strategic difference between these two is adult advertising. Mc Donald mainly advertises their salads shows to pacify the mothers who bring their kids in the sign of Golden Arched restaurant where Burger King uses other promotional strategy that is the advertisement of Stacker Sandwich which is made with the layer of cheese and meats which is stacking up to four burgers high. Sub way provides 265 calories in its meal, while Mc Donald provides a gluttonous 1230 calories. Mc Donald promotes the healthy side of foods by providing salad and water; they are still promoting the Big Mac and Pounder, that doesnt really help the matter. On other hand, Subway promotes the fresh salad and 5 a day veg. Subway provides either sub with a cookie, crips and/ or drink. Where, Mc Donald provides small chips, medium chips, and large chips, drink and a salad which probably is not much healthier than the chips. Mc Donald which is treated as a fast food company also gets competition from Star Bucks. Though Mc Donald has the strong marketing growth in fast food business, but the intention of doing competition against Star Bucks carries some risk. It can shown from the research analysis that Mc Donald restaurant has the slow down services where the Star Bucks serves the customer speedy services. But on the other hand, because of slower marketing growth, Star Bucks stock has lost about half its value since last January. Chances of success: In case of Mc Donald franchising, I have to meet so many competitors like as: Burger king, Starbucks, Subway etc and may be there create tough competition in the fast food market. But as a Mc Donald franchisee, I can say that there is the possibility of huge success and can be got reasonable returns from this business because Mc Donald is already market recognized brands and it also famous for its healthy foods which bring child, young people in the Mc Donald store. Mc Donald franchise business is one that can be beneficial for both franchisor and franchisee. So, while the Mc Donald franchisor is benefited through the brand becoming more and more visible and gets franchise fees from the franchisee, the franchisee that is me, take advantage of working with recognized brand, on there chances of success will be more. Assignment 2: Task 1: Project resources: Mc Donald is mainly recognized for its delicious burgers and milk shakes. In annual, Mc Donald plan to continue expansion. It is considered as a more suitable place for franchising to own. For becoming successful in Mc Donald franchising, I have to take care about franchising business requirement that is its required resources such as: financial resources, human resources, business experience, ongoing fees, training, raw materials, considerations, growth, and equipment etc. These resources are described below: Financial resources: Mc Donald franchising headquarters fixed the financial franchise requirement which should be minimum $ 3, 00,000 of non- borrowed personal resources. It is also said that since the cost of each restaurant does vary, the fee of franchise would also different, but the 3, 00,000 is a standard requirement. Among this requirement, 25% is coming from the franchisee and 75% is coming from bank loan. Human resources: Mc Donald often wants to recruit high experienced people for joining its bandwagon. As a Mc Donald franchiser, I have huge business opportunities but for using these opportunities I need the high skilled and experienced people who are the efficient on managing or owning business units, low level workers who have the experience of serve the customer and also dealing with the customer. Store equipment: In case of Mc Donald franchising, franchisor has to be made a contract with Mc Donald for 20 years. And this contract indicates that building ownership consists the property used for example: equipments of kitchen, seats, decorator, fittings are all possessed by McDonalds and are carried on lease by the franchisee. So, there is no need to spend money on purchasing these equipments because these equipments are already provided by Mc Donald. Budgeting of Mc Donald Franchising Financial Requirements: Liquid assets: N/A Net worth: N/A Franchisee fee:  £ 30,000 Required owner capital: 75,000 (25%) Bank loan: 2, 25,000 (75%) Total investment: 3, 00, 000 Budgeting: Total investment: 3, 00,000 Franchise fee: 30,000 Training: 5,000 Rent: 72,000 Service fee: 30,000 Contribution to national Marketing spend 27,000 _________________________________________ Total cost:  £ 4, 64,000 Total sales per day: number of customer ÃÆ'- per day selling = 200ÃÆ'- 100 =  £20,000 Monthly sales=  £20,000ÃÆ'-30 =  £ 6, 00, 000 N.B: 5 of the 10 people average 50 sales a day, thats over 200 sales per day. If it converted into Pound it would be around  £20,000 in sales per day and  £ 6, 00,000. Here, rent is 12% of sales Service fee is 5% of sales Contribution to national marketing spend is 4.5% of sales. So, profit= total sales total cost =  £ 6, 00, 000- 4, 64, 000 =  £ 1, 36, 000 Task 2: Staff cost: Staff training and development: As a franchisee, I take the existing store of Mc Donald which is placed on Ill ford. So, there is need to train myself as a franchisee and for this purpose Mc Donald provides training to franchisee for being able to run the business efficiently. For becoming a franchisee, every franchisee has to complete a full time training program for which franchisee pays money to Mc Donald after completing the training program this money is refunded to franchisee. This program is lasting for nine months. It is very much important for a franchisee to start work with Mc Donald, wearing the staff uniform and learning all things from cooking and making food to serving customers and also learn cleaning. Training is held on regional training centre focuses on areas such as: leadership skill, team building, business management and handling customer enquiries. The franchisees will have to recruit, train and motivate their work force, so they must learn the skill of human resource management. At the end of the training program, they learn about stock control and ordering, profit and loss accounts and the legal side of hiring, and recruiting staff. As a result, no franchisee of Mc Donald would have to ask a member of his or her staff to do something that they couldnt do themselves. Knowing this can also be powerful motivator of the staff. Mc Donald is not only providing the training to it franchisee, it shows that the success and profitability of Mc Donald mostly connected to the success of the franchisee. An experienced and high skill full professional consultant team offers continuous support on all things from human resources to accounting and IT business controls. These field consultants may become valued partners of business and are a sounding board for ideas. In case of Mc Donald franchising, here for running business, I take the existing store of Mc Donald and in accordance to Mc Donald franchising business, in existing business there is no need to recruiting, selecting and hiring and train the employee. Because the old one store, there is already all staffs are recruited and trained. And these staffs are highly skill full for doing all types of restaurant jobs such as: customer service, cleaning and managing the store also. Because, Mc Donald, whenever recruit staff on its store they at first give 3 or 4 days training to new recruited person so that he will be able to do his work effectively and efficiently and he doesnt face any difficulty in sensitive work that is servicing the customer. Cost of staff training and development: I already mention that in case of old one store there is no need to recruit, hire, select and train the staff because on that store all things are available in readymade. Not only staff, equipment and store are also placed in right position. And there is the huge possibilities of achieving profit because the cost is only occurred from rent, service fee, franchisee training fee, contribution to national marketing spend. And franchisee training cost is: 5,000 and it is also refundable. Task 3: Sources of resources: Financial resources: An initial investment that is 40% of the total cost in case of a new restaurant and 25% for existing restaurant is needed to be paid to the company where rest of the money being paid in at least 7 years. In order to down payment, there also have to meet some specification. Mc Donald franchising financial resources are coming from non- borrowed and personal resources. It may be including of bonds, securities and debentures; cash in hand; real estate or business equity. In case of financing, Mc Donald doesnt provide any financial support though there is the possibility of getting the benefits of achieve loans at lower rates. In the time of franchise, Mc Donald has to be paid monthly rent and service fees. Source of financial resources: Obtaining finance for a new business is very difficult rather than obtaining funds for a franchising business. The key factors for easily getting funds for franchising business is previous track record of franchise business. Because brand and trademark is already established, therefore Mc Donald franchise is considered a lower risk investment. Franchise Bank Loan: A franchisee can get loan from commercial bank where this type of bank offer loan to franchise business with lower defaulter rate. In fact, most of the franchising industries expand by taking loan from commercial bank at an average rate of 10 to 12 percent per year. Mc Donald franchising is also expanding by taking loan. Here, as a Mc Donald franchisee I also take the loan from commercial bank. If a potential franchisor has enough capital and they think that they have the skill of operate the business successfully, franchisors will naturally assists with financing in any way that they can. Here, in franchising market, there is also seen that some of the franchisor provide loan application packages for helping the franchisee. A good number of franchisors offer financial help to the franchisee either by financing all or part of the franchisee themselves or by helping them in locating another lender. Other financial resources: I can also get financial help from limited partnership, taking loans from friends and family, and second mortgages on existing properties. In end, whatever means a franchisee motivates in financing their franchising, it is necessary to remember that they will need to pertain in making a detailed plan about a new business for showing to prospective lenders how the business will be run. Human resource: After considering about financial resources, I have to think about human resources that are about hiring, selecting and training employees. Without employees, a business operation cant run. Here, Mc Donald offer a limited scope for employee advancement to the level of management which may attract a few motivated persons, most of our work force will be young, inexperienced and just learning about job responsibility. High employee turnover must be expected as employees graduate from high school or college or move on to other work. Good management techniques can make a difference in keeping longer term persuade staff and present continuously. Assignment 3: Task 1: Implementation of the project: Before implanting my project that is Mc Donald franchising in Ill ford, there should be describe about leadership and motivation that is how Mc Donald leads and motivate employees to do their jobs. Leading and motivating employees on Mc Donald: Employees are considered as the most significant resources in Mc Donald. Basically, Mc Donald Company uses three different motivational techniques such as: financial encouragement, non- financial encouragement and social policy. These three factors are mainly described in Maslows hierarchy theory. According to this theory, all kinds of needs must fulfill one after another. The strategy and structure of Mc Donald Company represents that only the simultaneous fulfillment of employees needs will be enhanced an employees performance. In brief, for enhancing employees performance and companys productivity, Mc Donald uses effective motivational system. In order to present situation, Mc Donald administration staff use situational approach. On the basis of motivation theories, Mc Donalds administrators have used particular motivational techniques. Having using the procedure of assembly line in food preparation, Mc Donald has assures the standard of quality and high performance. Basically, ma nagers of different stores use different leadership management technique. But in Mc Donald store, every manager use their own management techniques, some managers are stiff and some are easy. And some use the both the hard and soft techniques of management. In fact, there is the mixture of lay back (laissez- faire) and autocratic styles leadership. Mc Donalds has achieved the status of one of the most recognizable franchises across the globe through a mixture of successful marketing, consistent service and product, and strong leadership. Mc Donald mainly uses the goal oriented and task-focused leadership styles that still exists in the corporation today. Project implementation: List of activities: Assess financial requirements. Meet the experience requirement as a franchisee. Fill up the franchise application form. Pay initial franchise fees and other fees. Make 20 years agreement with Mc Donald. Start the business. These activities are now shown on the critical path analysis: Task completion time Assess financial requirement 25.03.2010 Meet franchise experience requirement 28.03.2010 Fill up franchise application form 30.03.2010 Pay initial franchise fees 04.04.2010 Make 20 years agreement 10.04.2010 Start the business 15.04.2010 3 2 5 5 44 6 Task 2: Marketing strategy: Strategic groups: For becoming successful in Mc Donald franchising, there are some key factors which I have to consider. These key success factors are described below: Price: People can get the facility of food started from breakfast to meal in the price sector. Whenever any person feeds his family to Mc Donald, he first thinks about its cheap price with delicious and healthy items. In case Mc Donald franchising, it should be considered by a franchisor about its competitive price advantage. Quality: Mc Donald is one of the greatest food retailers that has reached new peaks at what can be achieved out of a global business market. The burger and French fries of Mc Donald are prepare to look, taste and smell very similar across the globe, despite all the variations in environmental differences. And in Mc Donald franchising, standardization of quality is also important. Location: Location is very important factor for set up the franchising the business. For selecting the location, any franchisor should have to consider its competitor, its marketing environment and consumer forms. For that reason, as a Mc Donald franchisee, I choose place of Ill ford, where the store of Mc Donald are already established and its marketing also going good. Opening hours: Generally, stores opening hour is very necessary for set up a business. But it depends on different stores and different place. Numbers of Mc Donald franchisee stores are 198 and these stores have different opening time and end time. In my Mc Donald stores, the opening time is 8 am. I think this opening time is better because it is the right time of taking the breakfast and on that more customers can come to the restaurant. In case of considering strategic group, Mc Donald is now in group 2 i.e. the main market food retailers- compete on price, offer better ranges and better customer services. Selected marketing strategy: There are several strategies such as: Strategy 1: all unnecessary attributes are removed, leading to lower costs Strategy 2: offer a range of products but change a lower price. Strategy 3: hybrid strategies; combination of differentiation and price based strategy. Strategy 4: the product must be differentiated in a significant way that buyers are prepared to pay extra. Among these strategies, I take the strategy 3 that is hybrid strategy. This strategy is already used in my Mc Donald store and this strategy includes: Successful use of price or differentiation strategy can lead to opportunities to develop other strategy. Superior cost advantage of Mc Donald, which generates profit that are invested in differentiation without destroying the cost advantage. Differentiation may lead to high sales volume, economies of scale, and lower cost. But in Mc Donald, differentiation leads to lower cost. Implementation of marketing strategy: Marketing strategy is basically planned by considering the basis of competition and the standard of quality. Different marketers such as: niche, leader and followers select and implement different strategies in different ways. As a market leader, Mc Donald may choose to consolidate their position in a number of ways to help them achieve competitive advantage. They may: Exploit their superior cost structure. Raise barriers through marketing expenditure, blocking access to distribution channels. Buy competitors and close down their capacity. Among these ways, Mc Donald use the first one that is exploit their superior cost structure. Marketing mix: Product; While providing the option of new menu item, the most necessary thing is to consider that the customer also have more option to choice their demanded product. Generally, they have a lots of options of their money spending and also spending place. However, McDonalds places considerable importance on developing a menu which customers want. Market research establishes exactly what this is. However, customers demands change time to time. The products which are now interesting, fashionable and attractive in present may be through away in future. Marketing continuously consider customers demand. For meeting these changes, McDonalds should bring new menu items and leave out old ones, and will continue to do so. Price Value of customers perception is an important factors of the price charged. What a product is worth customers draw the picture of product on their mind. A product is a physical item and it has psychological connotations for the customer. There are some difficulties of using products low price as a marketing tool is that the customer may feel that a low price is symptom of compromised quality. It is very much important when deciding on the price to be fully aware of the brand and its integrity Promotions It includes marketing communication such as advertising which is conducted on TV, radio, in cinema, online, using poster sites and in the press. Other promotional sectors are sales promotions, point of sale display, merchandising, direct mail, telemarketing, exhibitions, seminars, loyalty schemes, door drops, demonstrations, etc. Marketing communications skill is to develop a campaign which applies several of these methods in a way that provides the most effective results. Place: The most important element of the marketing mix i.e. price is not just about the physical location or distribution points for products. Price gives emphasis on the management of a range of processes involved in bringing products to the end consumer. Task 3: Monitoring controlling: Majority of the chain of franchising are controlling under both the outlet of company- owned and franchised. In previous, a manager was ran the business and in return he got the salary when the chain is the remainder of the profit. After the time change, franchisee keeps the profit after paying the applicable fees to the chain. Thus, when product is decentralized, then franchisee give incentives as a high amount which are very much significant for a large organization. As a franchisee, I have to monitor my franchise business because whether it is new or existing one business, every business should monitor by its owner, whether it is run properly or not, whether it gains profit or not, or whether it can satisfy the customer expectation or not. There also has the reason for monitoring the business. Such as: I have to see whether my business is going according to my plan or not also have to detect and react appropriately to deviations and changes to plans. As an owner of Mc Donald franchising, I have to monitor only its quality and its money. Because, other significant things such as: human resources, machines, materials, space, time, task etc. after monitoring these things, the output such as: progress, costs, job starts, completion, engineering or design changes and variance order also have to monitor. But in case of Mc Donald franchising, there is no need to monitoring the human resources or machines or materials these things. Because, in case of existing store franchising, there all ready all resources and material are ready. For my franchising business, I can visit the store from my head office on logically basis that means on the basis of specific reason. Monitoring technique: There are several techniques through which I can monitor and control the franchising business and these techniques are: Through meetings with clients, parties involved in project (contractor, supplier etc.) For schedule -update CPA, PERT charts, update Gantt chart. Using earned value analysis. Calculate critical ratios. Milestones. Tests and inspections.

Intelligent Memory Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Intelligent Memory Professor’s comment: Not only does this research paper reflect an obvious understanding of the complexities of the technology under review, it does so in remarkably clear prose. The student obviously took to heart one of the central tenets of my course, that technical material aimed at a technical audience can be clearly written. Abstract The growing processor-memory performance gap creates a bottleneck in the system; the memory system cannot supply enough data to keep the processor busy. Before this bottleneck is resolved, faster processors can do little to improve the overall system performance. Intelligent memory is a new memory/system architecture that aims to resolve this bottleneck. There are four intelligent memory models with published results: Active Pages, CRAM, PPRAM, and IRAM. Despite their architectural differences, they all agree to put processing elements physically closer to the memory, lifting the bottleneck by increasing processor-memory data bandwidth. Initial studies of these four models have shown promising results. However, in order for these academic ideas to become a reality, intelligent memory researchers must study how their models can be cost-effectively integrated into commercial computer systems. Introduction Microprocessor and DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) technology are headed in different directions: the former increases in speed while the latter increases in capacity. This technological difference has led to what is known as the Processor-Memory Performance Gap. This performance gap, which is growing at about 50% per year, creates a serious bottleneck to the overall system performance [Pat97]. The problem boils dow... ...rakis C.; Romer C.; Wang H.; â€Å"Evaluation of Existing Architectures in IRAM Systems,† Workshop on Mixing Logic and DRAM: Chips that Compute and Remember at ISCA ’97, Denver, CO, 1, June 1997. Elliott D.; â€Å"Computational Ram: A Memory-SIMD Hybrid and its Application to DSP,† The Proceedings of the Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, Boston, MA, 3, May 1992. Elliott D.; â€Å"Computational RAM,† http://www.eecg.toronto.edu/~dunc/cram Murakami, K.; Inoue, K.; and Miyajima, H.; â€Å"Parallel Processing RAM (PPRAM) (in English),† Japan-Germany Forum on Information Technology, Nov. 1997. Oskin M.; Chong F.; Sherwood T.; â€Å"Active Pages: A Comutation Model for Intelligent Memory,† International Symposium on Computer Architecture, Barcelona, 1998. Patterson, D.; Anderson T.; Cardwell N.; Fromm R., et al; â€Å"A Case for Intelligent DRAM: IRAM,† IEEE Micro, April 1997.

Acid Rain :: essays research papers fc

Acid Rain What is acid rain? Acid rain is not a recent phenomenon. In the 17th century, scientists noted the ill effects that industry and acidic pollution was having on vegetation and people. However, the term acid rain was not coined until two centuries later when Angus Smith published a book called 'Acid Rain' in 1872 ( Zumdahl 173). Acidic pollutants can be deposited from the atmosphere to the Earth's surface in wet and dry forms. The common term to describe this process is acid deposition. The term acid precipitation is used to specifically describe wet forms of acid pollution that can be found in rain, sleet, snow, fog, and cloud vapor. An acid can be defined as any substance that when dissolved in water dissociates to yield corrosive hydrogen ions. The acidity of a substances dissolved in water is commonly measured in terms of pH. According to this measurement scale solutions with pHs less than 7 are described as being acidic, while a pH greater than 7.0 is considered alkaline. Precipitation normally has a pH between 5.0 to 5.6 because of natural atmospheric reactions involving carbon dioxide. Precipitation is considered to be acidic when its pH falls below 5.6. Some sites in eastern North America have precipitation with pHs as low as 2.3 or about 1000 times more acidic than natural ( Zumdahl 171). One of the main causes of acid rain is sulphur dioxide. Natural sources, which emit this gas, are volcanoes, sea spray, rotting vegetation and plankton. However, the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, are largely to be blamed for approximately half of the emissions of this gas in the world. When sulphur dioxide reaches the atmosphere, it oxidizes to first form a sulphate ion. It then becomes sulphuric acid as it joins with hydrogen atoms in the air and falls back down to earth. Oxidation occurs mostly in clouds and especially in heavily polluted air where other compounds such as, ammonia and ozone help to catalyze the reaction, converting more sulphur dioxide to sulphuric acid. One of the direct effects of acid rain is on lakes and its aquatic ecosystems. There are several routes through which acidic chemicals can enter the lakes. Some chemical substances exist as dry particles in the air while others enter the lakes as wet particles such as rain, snow, sleet, hail, dew or fog. In addition, lakes can almost be thought of as the "sinks" of the earth, where rain that falls on land is drained through the sewage systems eventually makes their way into the lakes.