Health Campaigns to Use to Explain Models of Behaviour Change Essay

In this report it will investigate at least three recent health education campaigns and use them to explain two models of behaviour change. The three recent health education campaigns will be ‘Smoke Free’, ‘Change4Life’ and ‘FRANK’. The two models of behaviour change will be the theory of reasoned action and the stages of change model. For a health educator to carry out their role effectively, they should understand the complicated processes which may influence an individual to change their behaviour. This theory gives an outline that looks at the attitudes which strengthen behaviours. It suggests that the most significant cause of an individual’s behaviour is behaviour intent. Behaviour intent is the person’s intention to carry out a behaviour and this depends on their attitude and the subjective norm. The subjective norm is the influences of individuals in somebody’s social environment on their intention to perform the specific behaviour. If an individual believes that the outcome of taking on a behaviour will be positive, they will have a positive attitude towards the particular behaviour. If other individuals who are important to that person also believe that this behaviour change is positive, then a positive subjective norm is formed. By having a combination of both the individual believing the outcome of adopting the behaviour will be positive and other individuals believing that the behaviour change is positive, it will be much more likely that the person will follow the health advice. The stages of change model The stages of change model says that the process of behaviour change can be broken down into five stages. The five stages are pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. Pre-contemplation is when there is no intention to change behaviour in the near future. At this stage individuals are not aware at all or not aware enough of their problems. Contemplation is when individuals are aware that a problem is there and are seriously considering overcoming their problem but they have not yet made commitment to do something about it. At the stage of preparation individuals are intending to do something about it very soon, however have not done anything about it recently. At the stage of action individuals make changes to their behaviour, experiences or environment so that they can overcome their problems. This needs a lot of commitment of time and energy. Maintenance is the stage when individuals work to try and stop relapse and establish what they have gained during action. The model is often shown as a wheel and some individuals may have to go through the process many times to be successful in departing the cycle and attaining a steady and maintained changed behaviour. The following picture shows the wheel of the stages of behaviour change: Smoke Free The following hyperlink is to an online version of the Smoke Free health education campaign: http://smokefree. nhs. uk/advice-and-information/behind-the-campaign/ The Smoke Free health education campaign uses the theory of reasoned action model of behaviour change. The campaign aims to encourage individuals who smoke to quit smoking. If an individual who smokes views the Smoke Free campaign they may realise that if they quit smoking it will have a positive effect on their health and prevent causing serious harm. If they do believe that the outcome of following the health advice provided by the Smoke Free campaign will be positive, for example it will reduce their risk of developing illness, disability or death caused by cancer, heart or lung disease, it will reduce their risk of gangrene or amputation caused by circulatory problems, it will improve fertility levels and it will improve their breathing and fitness etc. They will therefore have a positive attitude towards the behaviour of stopping smoking. Other people who are important to the individual who is considering quitting smoking may also view the campaign and believe the outcome of the person stopping smoking will be positive, for example it will protect the health of those around the individual by not exposing them to second-hand smoke. By the person having a positive attitude and the positive subjective norm, the person will be much more likely to follow the health advice given by the Smoke Free campaign and quit smoking. The Smoke Free campaign also uses the stages of change model. When an individual is trying to quit smoking they will go through the stages of change cycle. At the stage of pre-contemplation the individual who smokes does not have intention to change their behaviour, they may not be aware or not aware enough of the damage that smoking can cause to their body and their smoking problem. At the stage of contemplation the individual may start becoming aware that they have a problem with their smoking and they are seriously considering stopping smoking but they have not yet made commitment to do something about trying to quit smoking. At the preparation stage they are intending to do something about trying to stop smoking very soon, but they have not done anything yet. At the action stage the individual makes changes to their behaviour, so that they can overcome their smoking problem, for example completely stopping smoking, gradually cutting down on smoking, using nicotine replacement therapies such as nicotine patches, nicotine gum, inhalators etc. At the maintenance stage the individual will work to try and stop starting smoking again and they look at what they have gained during the action of changing their behaviour by quitting smoking, such as their health improving. The individual may not be successful with stopping smoking on this occasion, they may relapse and start smoking again, so they might have to go through the process many times before they completely stop smoking. Change4Life The link below is to an online version of the Change4Life health education campaign: http://www. hs. uk/Change4Life/Pages/change-for-life. aspx An individual may follow the advice that the Change4Life health education campaign provides, if they are overweight. The campaign tries to encourage individuals to become more active, eat healthier, drink less alcohol etc. to prevent individuals from becoming seriously overweight, which can increase individuals chances of getting heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and some cancers etc. The Chang e4Life health education campaign uses the theory of reasoned action model of behaviour change. If an individual who is may be overweight sees the Change4Life campaign they may realise the harm that being overweight can cause and they might realise that if they follow the advice of Change4Life it might have positive effects. If the person does believe that by following the advice given by the Change4Life campaign it will result in positive outcomes, for example their weight reduces, their fitness levels improve, the chances of them developing conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and cancers decrease etc. they may have a positive attitude towards the behaviour of losing weight. Other individuals who are important to the person who is considering losing weight might also see the campaign and believe it will result in positive outcomes for the person trying to lose weight. By the individual who wants to lose weight having a positive attitude and the individuals who are important to them also being positive, the likelihood of the person following the health advice provided by the Change4Life campaign and losing weight will be higher. The Change4Life health education campaign also applies the stages of change model. When a person is trying to lose weight they may go through the stages of change cycle. To begin with the person may not have any intention to change their behaviour because they might not be aware at all or completely aware of the harm that being overweight can cause and their weight problem, which is the pre-contemplation stage. They might start becoming aware that they do have a weight problem and they are seriously considering losing weight, however they have not yet made commitment to do something about trying to lose weight, which is the contemplation stage. At the stage of preparation the person is intending to do something about losing weight, but they have not done anything recently. At the action stage the person makes changes to their behaviour, so that they can overcome their weight problem, such as increasing their exercise levels, changing their diet to make it healthier, reducing their alcohol intake etc. At the stage of maintenance the person will work to try and prevent themselves putting weight back on and they look back at what they have attained during the action of changing their behaviour by losing weight. Below is a hyperlink to an online version of the FRANK health education campaign: http://www. talktofrank. com/ FRANK supports individuals who have a drug addiction, to help them overcome their problems. The FRANK health education campaign uses the theory of reasoned action model of behaviour change. If someone who has a drug addiction views the FRANK health education campaign they might recognise that they have a problem and their addiction can cause serious harm to their body and they may also realise that if they follow the advice that FRANK gives, cause positive effects. If they believe that by following the advice provided by FRANK will cause positive effects, such as their health improving, may be improve their social life and mental health etc. they might have a positive attitude towards the behaviour of stopping taking drugs. Other people who are important to the individual who is thinking about stopping taking drugs may also view the campaign and believe it will have positive effects for the individual trying to stop taking drugs. By both the person who wants to stop taking drugs and the subjective norm having a positive attitude it may mean that the person will stop taking drugs. The FRANK health education campaign also definitely uses the stages of change model. When an individual tries to stop taking drugs they go through the stages of change cycle. To start with the individual might not be planning to change their behaviour, as they are not aware or not aware enough of the damage that taking drugs can do and that they have a drug problem. This is the pre-contemplation stage. They may then begin becoming aware that they do have a drug problem and they are considering stopping taking drugs, but they have not committed themselves to do something about stopping taking drugs yet. This is the contemplation stage. At the preparation stage the individual is planning to do something about stopping taking drugs, however they have not done anything yet. The individual may then make changes to their, to help them overcome their drug problem, for example starting to receive talking therapies when they can talk about their drug problem, motivational treatment approaches, cognitive behavioural therapy, group therapy, being prescribed a safer alternative/substitute to the problem or drug, such as methadone instead of heroin. This is the action stage. At the stage of maintenance the individual will work to try and stop themselves relapsing by taking drugs again and they also find what they have achieved throughout the action of not taking drugs. The person may have to go through the process several times before they are successful in fully recovering from their drug addiction. Not everyone has the same ability to change their health behaviours. This is due to social and economic factors. The social and economic context can influence the ability of health education campaigns to change behaviour in relation to health.

Leaders: born or made

There has always been a difference opinion on whether leaders are made or born. At numerous times people have been heard to exclaim about someone that he or she is a person that is born to lead. People have tendency to believe that good and effective leaders are people who are naturally bestowed with excellent communication skills, persuasive ability, and born with knack to integrate them in any team structure. Further, there are also firm opinions that it is not possible for every one to naturally acquire the skills of seamlessly inspiring a group of people, set sufficient challenges, and make every one of the group to accept those challenges and strive together to achieve them.However, years of academic research among leaders from social, business and corporate world and political domain have brought out results that stand contrary to popular perception of leaders and their ‘innate qualities and abilities’ of leading people and show that effective leadership is an art that can be very much learned and practiced to perfection by anyone who devotes sufficient time and attention to it.   This paper takes the point of view that leadership is a quality that can be learned by anyone with ordinary levels of intelligence and smartness and looks into the range of skills, requirements and capabilities needed by a person to develop leadership qualities.Leadership: DefinitionLeadership is the attribute of inspiring people to channel their efforts towards achieving common goals and objectives (Rosenbach and Taylor, 1998, 1). Leadership is the recognition that attainment of the group objectives and goals can be accomplished through empowering individuals and encouraging them to overcome their rank and position in order to associate themselves and their colleagues with specific works, duties and responsibilities by setting directions, building commitment and taking challenges (Day and Halpin, 2004, 3). An important attribute of a leader is his ability to comm and implicit faith, confidence, and respect of his followers, irrespective of his position and power in the organization.. A leader motivates the employees by setting personal examples, and takes decisions that are quite unconventional, innovative and on the spot to resolve a deadlock. However, the most important quality of a leader is that he/she encourages leadership qualities their followers and help to create a multi-tier leader structure within the organization/group.Organizational leadership: Roles and necessitiesAs the corporate world becomes increasingly competitive and diversified, organizational focus has shifted on developing leadership talents among the employees to maintain their competitive edge.   Transnational companies, with their multi-level reporting structure, multiple communication networks, numerous levels of responsibilities and faced with significant differences in time, language and organizational culture are faced with the responsibility of leadership dev elopment among their employees to meet customers’ demands within the limited time and resources (Collins, 2001).  Organizations are managed by several forms of leadership based on the exertion of authority within the organization. Two main, but interconnected types of leadership in organizations are the transformational leadership and the transactional leadership, both having strong philosophical and ethical foundations. Transformational leadership gives followers the opportunity to assess the leader’s view, to seek explanations and provide solutions, while transactional leadership is more based on imposition, where followers are driven by the praise, promise or reward of the leader. In the transactional leadership, the followers are confronted by reproof, threats and disciplinary actions.Transformational leadership has become more popular in the last three decades primarily due to the changing global economy. Transformational leadership promotes equality, justice an d human rights through loyalty and fairness. Recent findings suggest that team performance and communication are improved under transformational leadership. Authentic transformational leaders are sometimes transactional too. The leader may present his opinion, plans and exhort agreement on them, which however may be in the mutual interest of all involved. I consider myself as a typical transformational leader open to criticism and discussion, unafraid of my decisions being questioned. After all only collective thinking and cooperation can bring results.Today the business world realizes that leadership is neither hierarchal nor stratified nor leadership is management. Instead leadership is about inspiring people to pool themselves together towards achieving common goals and objectives (Rosenbach and Taylor, 1998, 1. Leadership is about building commitment and taking challenges by timely distribution of specific works, duties and responsibilities and through setting directions (Day an d Halpin, 2004, 3). Its not surprising then that companies are ready to invest hugely in leadership development program, as a guaranteed way to emerge ahead than their competitors.Developing Leadership QualitiesThere are abundant examples from almost every quarter of business and public domains to show that with well help   designed training programs and experience even otherwise ordinary individuals can emerge as successful leaders in their own spheres. Leadership development process works on two levels. It is suggested coaching and mentoring involves practical and goal focused methods of individual and group learning and behavioral change. For obtaining most effective results and developing specific leadership skills coaching allows individuals to collaborate in methodologically assessing, understanding and solving the issue before them. It leads them to challenge the existing solution models and explore further possibilities through joint effort and accountability. Mentoring is an essential part of educational program, involves commitment and long term relationship between a senior employee and a junior employee where the latter helps in professional and personal development of the former.The second level of leadership development is action learning that requires participants to tackle   real life and real time organizational problems (ibid). Through a careful selection of objectives and problems, participants are trained on delivering organizational results, communication learning and management and develop general leadership qualities. It benefits participants greatly as it provides them crucial exposure and considerable experience within a short time. Along with these, modern organizations have also adopted the technique of job rotation, so that individuals have widest possible exposure and experience of company’s functional and organizational processes.It is vital to remember that the focus should not be on teaching leadership, instead gettin g participants to learn leadership. Every person has a potential to emerge in a leader by gaining   knowledge, purpose and experience and apply themselves more   effectively in their personal and professional domains Leadership is not a characteristic that can unfold in isolation. By its definition, it implies establishing coordination, cooperation, collaboration and orientation among the followers to achieve the designated objectives and goals. However, it is only possible when leaders can inspire their followers with respect, admiration, discipline, sense of emulation and confidence in the abilities of the leader while being helped to envision themselves as empowered individuals (Brown and Lord, 2004, 2).  Most relevant qualities of a leaderWithin every social, institutional or organizational structure, a leader is always looked upon the person with abilities to broach reconciliation and resolution in situation of conflict. A good leader exercises his control over most compl ex, demanding and otherwise impossible condition by exhibiting personal integrity, ethical and moral traits and values that other can relate to and get inspired to include them in their personal conduct (Laurie, 2000, 53). Another very crucial characteristics of leadership is that it produces new leaders from among the followers and hence, through a multiplier effect, results in empowerment of individuals and communities.Leadership helps the followers to discover and grow their internal abilities and encourage them to become an integral part of the process, not a mere tool. This causes a reinstating of self pride and confidence among followers and it earns leaders willing obedience of people who realize the integrity of the leader in creating a just, legitimate and encouraging environment where they see themselves as valued members and in turn lend their unconditional support to the joint cause under the leadership (Messick, 2005, 81)Arguably, there are no definite copybook rules to construct a leader. The difficulties, complexities, and challenges associated with a situation give impetus to leadership qualities in otherwise ordinary people who believe in themselves that they are capable of rising up to the difficulties as well as helping others out of it. Therefore although it might be difficult to ‘teach’ a person quality of good leader, yet one can expect to inculcate leadership qualities by observing styles and principles of successful leaders. It is said that a leader is a dealer in hope. Leadership is then about inspiration, motivation, encouragement and direction that pulls people to accomplishments that they would not had managed if left alone. However, effective leadership is a very challenging domain as it requires some impeccable personal and organizational traits that can be developed and realized through considerable experience, knowledge and self- discipline.  Quite often the leadership is situational and the leader is required to act purely through intuition and circumstantial requirements. However there are certain essential skills and characteristics that are rather mandatory for effective leadership are1 Trustworthiness: Trustworthiness is about integrity in action. Effective leadership is about achieving coordination in words and actions and following the age old principles of truth, honesty and personal integrity.2. Fairness: Leaders can’t afford to be biased or prejudiced or it would jeopardize the confidence of the followers in their secular character.3. Communication and listening skill. Leadership requires excellent communication and listening skill through which the leaders can articulate their views unambiguously and also hear the views of others to give them sense of participation and involvement.4. Initiative: Leadership is about taking initiative and orienting other people towards it. Taking initiative pulls the organization rapidly ahead.5. Good judgment: Leaders must have the ability t o process all information in the backdrop of their knowledge to make correct decisions6. Motivational capacity: Leadership is ineffective if it cant motivate people to the dream and vision of the leader. It is the most desirous quality of a leader and one that is hallmark of leadership.Motivation has a large role to play in developing leadership. According to Isaac, Pitt and Zerbe (2001) individuals aspiring for leadership are greatly assisted a motivational model, called as expectancy theory, that suggests that self interest prompts individuals to charter a course where they tend to maximize the chances of success and growth. Thus self interest acts as a motivation that spurs people to take upon leadership roles and aspire to meet needs of followers along with requirements of the organization (ibid). Also, when leaders meet with followers, it generally results in entire work atmosphere getting highly motivated and people are spirited with aspiration to transcend their present roles and step in the role of leaders (ibid).Leadership is influenced by both extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. In the former, motivational behavior is seen as product of external rewards and remunerations while the latter treat motivational behavior as result of internal drives such as enjoyment of work and inner sense of competence (Isaac, Pitt and Zerbe). In either case, individuals are motivated to assume leadership to maximize their self-interest.Leadership: Personal AttributesA good leader should be honest, loyal and committed to the goals of the organization he intends to lead. A good leader should not have a desire for wrongful gains or hidden agendas. This is why perhaps people emphasize on transparency in all dealings of any organization. Some leaders have a self plan and pursue them rather than acting in the interests of the organization. Committed to the cause of the organization or group and being live to the sacrifices and pains of your colleagues is a basic qu ality of a good leader. National leaders and particularly the freedom fighters of several nations had steadfast qualities and determination in them, which helped them carry on and ultimately succeed. A good leader is perhaps a good follower.There is never a stage in which one can have mastered everything and this applies even to leadership. Each day brings learning and experience of various types. A good leader is one who applies these learning and experience by identifying the most appropriate situation of their application.   perhaps the rights and wrongs of your own acts too. . A leader is accountable for his actions and should voluntarily open up to any questions or suspicions in his dealings. Similarly a good leader should also emphasize such qualities among his followers and make them accountable too. Simplicity is a mark of identity for any leader and projecting himself as a role model. A leader’s thoughts, actions and words should be a reflection of him, inspiring a ll who follow. A leader indeed should have uncommon qualities to successfully lead his organization.ConclusionLeadership is a quality that comes through effective utilization of experience, education, self-evaluation eagerness to learn and grow. None of these qualities require a transcendental genius or divine abilities to master. They are human attributes that are present among every one of us and given time, training and motivation to master them. The truth about leadership is that any person who has wholly ingrained the necessary leadership qualities as an integral part of their character would appear as one who is born with them.referenceCollins DB, 2001, ‘Organizational Performance: The Future Focus of Leadership Development Programs’, Journal of Leadership Studies. Volume: 7. Issue: 4.Day DV and Halpin SM, 2004, Leader Development for Transforming Organizations: Growing Leaders for Tomorrow,   (edit) David V. Day, Stanley M. Halpin, Stephen J. Zaccaro, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,   Mahwah, NJ.Rosenbach WE and Taylor RL, 1998, Contemporary Issues in Leadership, (edit) William E. Rosenbach, Robert L. Taylor, Westview Press,Boulder, CO.Brown DJ, Lord, RG,   2004, Leadership Processes and Follower Self-Identity,   Lawrence Erlbaum Mahwah, NJChampy J, Nohria N, 1999, The Arc of Ambition: Defining the Leadership Journey, Perseus Books (Current Publisher: Perseus PublishingCambridge, MA.Rosenbach WE and Taylor RL, 1998, Contemporary Issues in Leadership, (edit) William E. Rosenbach, Robert L. Taylor, Westview Press,Boulder, CO.

VLSI Technology and Reliability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

VLSI Technology and Reliability - Essay Example Introduction Every day in the word transistors sizes and costs are decreasing while as their speed is increasing. The formation of MOS takes place by superimposing several layers of insulating, conducting and transistor forming materials. The CMOS technology provides two types of transistors namely the n-type transistor and the p-type transistor. Motivation The rapidity with which hardware technology is changing motivated writing of the paper. The main aspect was the reason that the hardware prices are getting cheaper while its quality is improving. History of CMOS The CMOS were invented in 1963 by Frank Wanlass. This technology has been used in every electronically digitally integrated circuit in the modern world. This has been made possible by their operating speed also reduction of size in every subsequent production of CMOS (Thes, 2008). The development in CMOS technology tends to rely on Moore’s law, which stated that, â€Å"an approximate 30% reduction in linear dimensi on and introduction of products with the new technology 2 years after the previous† (Sadan & Current, 2002). Figure 1: The three types of CMOS processing n-well, p-well and twin-well (Baker & Jacob, 2010). SOI (Silicon on Insulator) well fabricator on CMOS It was used in selected discrete and integrated circuits in 1960s. It was developed to be used for space exploration making it used in early satellites and space exploration systems (Colinge, 2010). These devices were fabricated with SOS (silicon on sapphire), but recently they are fabricated with SIMOX (separation by Implanted Oxygen). In recent world, SOI fabricators continue to be researched on due to their use in fabrication of the CMOS’s ICs (Marshall and Natarajan, 2002). Industry players believed by 2006-2008 there would be a huge shift to the fully depleted SOI CMOS would occur. During 2010, it was believed that 10% of the transistors would have been using this technology (Baker & Jacob, 2008). Modern usage of SOI wafer 1. IBM is using it in the high-end RS64-IV â€Å"Istar† PowerPC-AS microprocessor in 2000. 2. The making of AMD microprocessor. 3. Used in play station 3 and Wii. 4. Making of Intel processors. 5. Used in silicon photonic. Advantages of SOI 1. They were resistant to ionization by radiation which would have taken place due to the solar wind radiation in space. 2. It was also preferred due to the robust voltage isolation of IC. 3. Due to its ability to offer perfect transistor count which has led to lower leakage in transistors. This characteristic has led to continue use of SOI even in the modern world. 4. It is also known for faster performance and lower power consumption due to its reduced parasitic drain capacitance. 5. It ensures higher transistor count which ensures tighter transistor packing in devices. This ensure in reducing the size of devices. 6. It is seen to be less complex making it a choice by many to use. 7. The buried oxide plays a role within by off ering thermal insulation in SOI. This insulation has an effect of elevating temperature within the SOI device which modifies the output of the device. 8. There is complete avoidance of the latch up problem. Disadvantages 1. The absence of substrate diodes complicates the protection of input and outputs against the ESD pulses. 2. The SOI technology is believed to be expensive making it not to be widely used in the modern world. This is brought forward by the need of single crystal sapphires. 3. There is a predicament with this technology

Comparative Analysis of Keys to Successful Revenue Synergy Programmes Essay - 1

Comparative Analysis of Keys to Successful Revenue Synergy Programmes - Essay Example According to the paper  there is no ambiguity relatively in the difference of drivers and expectations of M&A functions changing with time and as per the ongoing economic environment. It is interesting to observe the market behaviour after the recuperation from the recession worldwide on whether companies are currently acquiring for achieving revenue synergies or cost synergies.From this study it is clear that the Kraft acquisition of Cadbury was projected to offer $1 Billion in Synergies, as declared by the Kraft Foods. The incremental revenue synergies of $1billion were excluded of $750 million to be achieved in cost synergies by 2013. These revenue synergies, according to the Kraft, would be derived from the business increase in developing regions from one/fourth of the total revenue to approximately touching one/third after the merger.  The confidence of the Company management is getting reflected from the acquisition, as it expects to become a long-run high-bracket performer in the food industry world wide. Presently, the Company is earning more than 50% of its revenue from outside North America, from countries like Brazil, China, India and Mexico, where GDP and demand growth are the most firm.  Kraft CEO, Irene Rosenfeld, also holds the same opinion from the â€Å"unique and complimentary combination† of Kraft and Cadbury, stating that, â€Å"together with our significant presence in high-growth developing markets, will deliver consistent growth in the top tier of our peer group†.

Debating Rococo's Role in the French Revolution Essay

Debating Rococo's Role in the French Revolution - Essay Example The lower classes were tired of the bourgeoisie taking advantage of them by taxing them mercilessly while people were struggling to survive in brutally horrible socioeconomic conditions. â€Å"But the poor, who paid for the†¦[wealthy aristocrats’ party] (because they were the only taxed segment of French society), the whole period had a let-them-eat-cake feel and helped ignite the French Revolution of 1789. The celebration started [with the death of King Louis XIV, when] French aristocrats felt liberated.†1 In fact, after Marie Antoinette said, â€Å"Let them eat cake,† that phrase was coined to mean that one had insensitivity to the plight of the less fortunate, and especially with regard to being poor. It was thought that the French aristocracy had no idea how much their own constituents were suffering in abject poverty while they attended lavish parties and lounged in luxury. III. The Precursor to the Revolution Many French did not take kindly to the noti on that the people and scenes being depicted in Rococo art was indeed true-to-life. They were angry that they were languishing in poverty while their aristocrat counterparts luxuriated in posh surroundings.

Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Final Assignment Essay

Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Final Assignment - Essay Example The company should not recall its products and should stay present on the market, however it should prove its ethical position to its stakeholders to keep its business in India and thus to achieve self-interest satisfaction. Below is provided more detailed analysis of Coca Cola’s business activity in India with the application of 7 major moral standards. First of all, this approach is based on the universal ethical values which have in its core the value of trustworthiness. Based on the trustworthiness as one of the core values of the universal ethical values, Coca Cola’s behavior should based on honesty, promise-keeping, loyalty, and transparency. If the company is honest towards its stakeholders, including the Indian consumers it should honestly declare about its business and true quality of its products. While the company declares that its products are of high quality and safe for consumption, it also lacks the integrity based on the case studies of controversies in Belgium, Antwerp and employment of African-Americans. By allowing discrimination based on the race, Coca Cola failed to demonstrate its integrity and to act consistently according to its stated principles and values. If the lab results are true, Coca-Cola has failed in another one universal ethical value – promise keeping. If the company has not mentione d in its campaign that the drink is absolutely safe, its initial responsibility as a business should be ensuring safety and quality of the products. If to view promise-keeping value as a guarantee of safety and high quality, the company’s activity in India can be labeled as â€Å"ethical†. But in case if some of the stakeholders (employees, management) have not disclosed information about the quality of the products and its harmful impact on Coca Cola India consumers, the activity will be viewed as unethical. In case the lab results are true and the products really contain pesticide residues and other harmful

Project Management Theory & Practice Assignment - 1

Project Management Theory & Practice - Assignment Example Seeing that when customers turn out to be more stylish, well knowledgeable and their desires and expectations develop, the simply approach a corporation can endure and flourish is by providing assurance to quality (BSiGroup, 2010). In this scenario, ISO9000 is a globally acknowledged standard of quality, which offers rules and regulations for achieving the ISO9000 quality standard. In addition, the corporations can be audited to receive ISO9000 certification (Management Help, 2010). Moreover, a quality management system (QMS)  for instance ISO 9001 offers a management support  that provides the organizations the required facilities to deal with threats and examine and determine quality of your products. Furthermore, it can also help the organizations to improve their representation and status and allow them to search for enhancements through inside and outside communications (BSiGroup, 2010). This stage of the Marriott International Hotels business project will be based upon the superior quality which guarantees the entire stages of the project and major analysis of the new and innovative deployments. In this regard key jobs will be about the evaluation of the quality concerning the latest bedding and their setup standards. This will definitely assure an improved and superior quality management plus useful project completion. No doubt, Quality is vital to each and every project and particularly for business activities and functions. For an enhanced business support and successful project completion we must have to ensure project quality. Here I will present the project quality management plan for the Marriott International Hotels business project. Here we will use the quality assurance tools planned for the Marriott International hotel bedding and renovation scheme. These quality declaration tools will make sure that the entire needs and requirements have been fully satisfied as they were mentioned at the commence of the project. Here we will establish a plan

Decisions in Paradise, Part I Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Decisions in Paradise, Part I - Essay Example Surely, what lacks in Kava that would discourage the giant coffeehouse company from setting its subsidiary in the island? Like it is reflected in the mission statement of the company, Starbucks main drive to establish a presence in Kava is to ensure profitable operation of the company and to contribute to the betterment of social and economic welfare of the islanders (Kava population). Behind every attractive business opportunity, there are numerous business risks. Therefore, it is imperative to critically examine the probable risks that Starbuck is likely to encounter prior to making a crucial decision of establishing its presence in Kava. Initiating business on an island that is an epitome of an area under constant wrath of natural disasters is quite a huge gamble to take. Kava is in a mess and people are obviously exited with the tragedy they have been experiencing, which poses a great challenge for new business set up in the area. To begin with, one of the most apparent challenge s that the company will encounter when trying to establish its presence in Kava is prevalent disaster threats. Kava is known to be under constant threat of tidal waves, typhoons, tornadoes, floods, fires, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, HIV/AIDS, avian flu, terrorism and petroleum spill. These would most likely affect the company’s operation processes. As such, it would be crucial for the company to employ effective research team to study and recommend a location which exhibits minimal exposure to natural disasters. The company should also establish an effective medical team to ensure that cases of avian flu and HIV/AIDS risks are well taken care of. Another possible problem that is likely to affect the company concerns human resources. Over 50 percent of the population of Kava constitutes young individuals below 15 years of age. As such, the company faces a huge challenge concerning recruitment. To counter this problem, the company will develop part-time employment initiati ves for those who are under 16 years of age. Ethical business practice is another key challenge that the company will have to reckon with. First, greater percentage of the island’s population is below 15 years of age. This poses a big challenge on employee engagement. The company will have to ensure that it does not violate the minimum age requirement when recruiting workers. The majority of the country’s population is under 15 years, which exposes the company to numerous suits for using child labor. Another consideration that the company will have to make is upholding ethical production practices. In the contemporary world, many companies are establishing their presence in both domestic and international markets by preaching â€Å"going green† gospel (Mullerat, 2010). According to Horrigan (2010), the going green concept is politically oriented compelling organizations to exhibit their social corporate responsibility by showing their green credentials demonstra ting their positive contribution towards sustainability and community development. Starbuck has principles that drive its mission, which is in line with social corporate responsibility requirements. â€Å"Our coffee† principle emphasizes on quality while â€Å"our partners† principles concentrates on respect and dignity in its operations. The company ensures perfect human connection in dealing with its customers and models its stores

Kant on Time as A Priori Essay Example for Free

Kant on Time as A Priori Essay Immanuel Kant presented a series of arguments regarding the nature of time. He sought to prove that time is innate in the sensibility of all human beings and that it is independent of the material world and argued that time belongs to experience as an a priori form of intuition (Kant, 74). In his Critique of Pure Reason, he claimed that time is a priori instead of being a permeating feature of mind-independent reality. He also argued that the nature of time as an element of the universe is sensible instead of conceptual which the mind   compels upon experience (75). He arrived at the conclusion that time could not independently exist or be associated to other objects as a verifiable entity. He claimed time to be the form of inner sense and maintained that time is â€Å"It is the immediate condition of inner appearances (of our souls), and thereby the mediate condition of outer appearances.†Ã‚   (77).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The first of Kants arguments regarding time as an a priori form of sensibility states that it is a necessity for our understanding of   simultaneity and succession to be preconceived since they are generated in our minds prior to our experience of simultaneous but successive moments in time (75). Kant claims: â€Å"Time is not an empirical concept that has been derived from any experience. For neither coexistence nor succession would ever come within our perception,   if the representation of time were not presupposed as underlying them a priori. Only on the presupposition of time can we represent to ourselves a number of things as existing at one and the same time (simultaneously) or at different times (successively).†Ã‚   (74) By stating that â€Å"Only under its presuppositions can one represent that several things exist at one and the same time   or in different times,† (74) Kant, in essence, is implying that concepts can not made on the basis of perception unless we have a preconceived notion of such concept. For example, our notion of a â€Å"dog† could not be a concept which is based on our experience since our mind would not be able to perceive it we did not have an idea of a â€Å"dog† which was based on a preconceived notion.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, even with Gardners explanation, Kants argument is still unpersuasive. It fails to offer us sufficient reasons to agree that a preconceived notion of time is a necessary prerequisite of the perception of time. This argument is not compelling enough to weaken how time is viewed in the common sense because it begs a faulty conclusion that if this was so, our notion of color should also be a priori. Consequently, with this argument, the logical assumption about time would be that â€Å"because the notion of time is conjured simultaneously with representing the world of material objects, it cannot be based on perception of material objects. The basic view of the nature of time actually remains definite as the properties of time, which exists in and all the objects of the universe, are perceived through our experiences.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Kants second argument tries to prove that time is an a priori form of intuition by arguing that it is possible to consider time without any appearances of any material object but it is not possible to consider any material object without the appearance of time. Kant argues: â€Å"Time is a necessary representation that underlies all intuitions. We cannot, in respect of appearances in general,remove time itself, though we can quite well think time as void of appearances. Time is, therefore, given a priori. In it alone is actuality of appearances possible at all. Appearances may, one and all, vanish; but time (as the universal condition of their possibility) cannot itself be removed..† (74-75) However, if we take this argument into consideration, it would then be logically imperative to conclude that space embodies the of outer sense or time embodies the inner appearance however this conclusion, albeit sound based on the provisions of the Kants argument, actually contradicts the text itself .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   All in all, Kants arguments fail to mitigate the strong points of the common sense view of time which is, that time is a pervasive feature of the world. His arguments do not offer conclusive ideas. Although he tries to provide empirical evidences to his arguments by referencing his claims with the realities of experience, his arguments imply assumptions that when interpreted do not necessarily hold true. His theory requires a vital premise, that our notions of time and space are a priori, and it requires it to be granted in the onset however he offers no compelling argument. This vital premise caused the undoing of his entire theory. Works Cited Kant, Immanuel. The Critique of Pure Reason. Trans. Kemp-Smith, Norman. Palgrave Macmillan, 1995.

National Discipline Awardee Essay Example for Free

National Discipline Awardee Essay â€Å"A person is not measured by his accomplishments or possessions, but how he deals with people and how deep his relationship with God is. † Young as I am, I have been taught by my God fearing parents to value everything – big or small – that we have. I am not from a prestigious clan or a well-off family but I feel privileged because I was able to see life more meaningful and worth living. It’s all because of my loved-ones that keeps me going. Amid the crucial days that come my way, I would be standing there because I believe that tests won’t be given to me if I cannot surpass them. Being chosen as a National Discipline Awardee is another challenge for me. Challenge because I have to prove everybody that I deserve that award. Nevertheless, they would probably look at me with their eyes stick on everything that I will do and on decisions that I will make. But, I don’t mind them. I have nothing to do. I just have to be myself. I don’t have to be somebody else just to please everybody. I am confident that what I have right now is the fruit of what my parents taught me ever since childhood. The virtues that they implanted in my heart helped me a lot in achieving my goals and dreams. And now, it’s my turn to give them something that they can be proud of. This award would definitely give them so much joy. And as for me, it’s indeed an honor. But I know, it doesn’t stop there, it is better if I could share something for our society especially for the youth. I have often wondered how some of our youth today were greatly influenced by the modern trend. Some lives have gone astray and dreams of a good future vanished. All because of the bad vices that they have been practicing which they learned from the BAD influences in our environment. My heart bleeds every time I will see parents working so hard just to give their child all the things they need. Yet, their deeds often neglected. I guess, what is lacking, is the discipline in our youth sector. Our teachers never failed to remind us that resorting to drugs, alcohol, premarital sex and other form of vices is an immoral act or habit. And this will definitely ruin their lives and bring nothing but trouble. So instead of doing so, I learned to respect y God-given life, and nurture the talents that I have. â€Å"Discipline† of the youth, is what we need, and that is being pure in thoughts, in words and in deeds. It has been said that you may whatever you resolve to be. You must be determined to be something in the world, and you will be someone or something. â€Å"I cannot† never accomplished anything. â€Å"I’ll try† has wrought wonders. Opportunities – that would direct my lives, trials – that would teach me lessons, and decision-making – where I can apply all lessons I’ve learned from my daily experiences, will always be just around the corner, playing a vital part in my personal life. But what really matters, is that I know I have this determination and will to overcome difficulties and hardships. I may not be from a well-off family nor has deformity in my physical aspect; I believe I would never get tired of trying and trying again. For it is only in the minds of my detractors that I can’t do it. Failure is not a hindrance for me to stop believing and dreaming rather I make it an inspiration for me to try and strive my best even more and have enough perseverance to attain success. Lastly, I learned to think less of myself. I found out that there should be selflessness and diminish in my heart selfishness. For I believe that it is only through selfless love that I can find true happiness. Reaching out for others especially in the needs of time and sacrificing my personal advantages or desires for the good of the masses gives me fulfillment in my heart. Sharing my time, talents as well as blessings with my brothers and sisters is the best way to say â€Å"Thank you† to God. Above all this, I would like to put emphasis that being a good role model for my fellow youth is simply what I can do to make this country a better place to live in.

Exploring Swot Analysis And Competitive Advantage Strategic Management Business Essay

Exploring Swot Analysis And Competitive Advantage Strategic Management Business Essay The study by Helms and Nixon (2010) identifies that SWOT analysis has grown as a key tool for addressing complex strategic situations by reducing the quantity of information to improve decision making. SWOT is short form of four words which is strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It can simply understand as the examination of an organizations internal strengths and weaknesses, and its external environment which is opportunities and threat that provides the foundation for realization of the desired alignment of organization variables or issues. Therefore, an understanding of all external and internal factors is assists in forming a vision of the future. According to Helms and Nixon (2010), SWOT is a general tool designed to be used in the beginning stages of decision making and as a precursor to strategic planning in various kinds of applications. In summarized, a person is allowed to do something in condition he or she is known strengths and weaknesses and understand the opportunities and threats his or her has currently. In addition, all organizations are hope to gaining competitive advantage. It can be gain through offering consumers greater value, either by providing lower prices or by providing greater benefits or services that justifies higher prices. The aim of much of business strategy is to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage that could increase the business profitability and brand image. SWOT ANALYSIS A SWOT analysis was systematically applied at a national level when preparing the afore-mentioned long-term strategy. However, it is clear that only the quality performance of a SWOT analysis will form a suitable strategic structure. Therefore, the organization environment will much influence organization performance now and in the future. The detail of SWOT analysis is explained in following sections. Internal Environment Internal environment are an internal factors within an organization in many areas such as management, staff, finance, research and development, operational efficiency and capacity, technical frameworks, culture, and organizational structure. Internal environment consists of strengths and weaknesses in organization, those viewed as a result of factors and variables that can be controlled within organizations. Strengths Strengths are represents the organizations internal power and strong points of view that an organization possess to compete against its competitors. It also can be view as organizational capabilities and internal positive attitudes that enable organizations possess strategic power to achieve organizational goals. It also can define as skills and abilities that enable organizations set out and implement their strategies in order to do better than their competitors. Weaknesses Weaknesses are represents the organizations negative impact of product and service value with regards to customers or competitive environment. It also can define as shortages in internal capabilities that make organizations unable to achieve their goals or lose their competitive advantage. This may allow their competitors to do better than the organization performance. Thus, it should be determine and acknowledge earlier in order bitter reality without procrastination. External Environment External environment is contains all changes that take places outsides the organizations boundary such as customers, suppliers, economic, political, cultural, and technological changes. External environment consists of opportunities and threats of an organization. Opportunities Opportunities are defined as a set of conditions suitable for achieving goals at the right time. Rousan and Qawasmeh (2009) states that opportunities can be divided into three types those are added, supplementary, and explosive. Added opportunity is using the available resources to expand their benefits, so the revenues in this category are limited. Then, supplementary opportunity is where the organizations have to acquire new knowledge. Where explosive opportunity requires organizations to invest capital in RD to make large changes in organization standards and attributes. Threats Threats can define as a challenge caused by a negative attitude inconsistent with the organization common norms. Besides, it also can be viewed as any improper event of force in the external environment that causes harm to the organizations strategy. In addition, threats are a set of conditions, resources and capabilities that organizations need to pressured, but cannot influence or control over it, means which is out of our control. Why Use SWOT Analysis? SWOT analysis is use to develop a plan or find a solution for an organizations problem. This is because that takes consideration in many different internal and external factors which is maximizes the potential of the strengths and opportunities while minimizing the impact of the weaknesses and threats of an organization. When to Use SWOT Analysis? SWOT Analysis is uses when needs to developing a strategic plan or finding a solution to a problem. These tasks are performed by managers, designers or by the entire project team. Teamwork is particularly effective in providing structure, objectivity, clarity and tends to focus further discussions about strategy that might otherwise tend to wander. SWOT Analysis Usage SWOT analysis has been used by countless practitioners, marketing researchers, and is a familiar and popular tool for business marketing and strategy areas. This tool is used to assess alternatives and complex decision situations. It can be constructed quickly and can benefit from multiple viewpoints as a brainstorming exercise. There are three steps to use the SWOT analysis which is firstly analyses the internal factors and then analyses the external factors, and finally create a worksheet. First and foremost, internal analysis is examine the capabilities of an organizations strengths and weaknesses. The planner might list down ideas from projects that both successful and unsuccessful completely in the top row of the SWOT grid. Second step is external analysis known as environmental analysis Here have to analyses the opportunities and threats or obstacles to organizations performance that place at the bottom row of the SWOT grid. This has to carefully examine the market in which you intend to launch the product and analyze what the status of the competition. In addition, there have to make a worksheet by creating four quadrants which one each is strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as shown on table 1.1. This allows planners better understand how strengths can be leveraged to realize new opportunities and understand how weaknesses can slow progress or magnify organizational threats. Then list specific items into the column correctly. But each column is limit to ten or fewer points per heading to avoid over generalizations. If there are more items are thought of, and then have to prioritize them so that only 10 top items for each category. Table 1.1 Quadrants for SWOT Analysis Positive Negative Internal Strengths 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 External Opportunities 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 Source: Adopted from Strategic Management: Concept and Cases, 2nd ed. (2006) Finally, the person has to know whether the strengths owned enable to take advantages from the opportunities. Besides, whether the strengths owned is able to overcome the threats that have been identified. Moreover, here also can overcome the identified threat by minimize the weaknesses. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE The comprehensive or idea concept of competitive advantage is defined in The Free Encyclopedia of Wikipedia (2010) as a position of a company in a competitive landscape that allows the company earning return on investments higher than the cost of investments. Competitive advantage also is a theory that seeks to address some of the criticisms of comparative advantages, and it should be relevant, unique, and sustainable. Competitive advantage occurs when an organization acquire or develops an attribute or combination of attributes that allows it to outperform its competitors. Besides, it is a gain of attributes and resources in perform at a higher level than others in the same industry or market. There are two basic types of competitive advantage which is cost advantages and differentiation advantages. Cost advantage is refer to an organization is able to deliver the same benefit as competitors but at a lower cost. However, cost and differentiation advantages are known as positional advantages since they describe the firms position in the industry as a leader in either cost or differentiation. The figure 1.1 shown the combination of the resource based and positioning views to illustrate the concept of competitive advantage. ResourcesFigure 1.1 A model of Competitive Advantage Value Creation Cost Advantage Or Differentiation Advantage Distinctive Competencies Capabilities Source: Adopted from QuickMBA.com According to figure 1.1, the firm must have resources and capabilities that are superior to those of its competitors. Without this superiority, the competitors simply could replicate what the firm was doing and any advantage quickly would disappear. Resources are use to creating a cost or differentiation advantages. The resources include patents and trademarks, proprietary know-how, installed customer base, and brand equity. Besides, the organization also has ability to utilize its resources effectively which refers to capability of the organization. Distinctive competencies are consisting resources and capabilities. Then the organization process value creating activities, the organization operate in upstream suppliers and downstream channel members. Competitive Strategy The four strategies relate to the extent to which the scope of a business activities are narrow verses broad and the extent to which a business seeks to differentiate its products. Competitive strategy consists of moves to attract customer, hold up competitive pressures, and strengthen organizations market position. It purposes are to earn a competitive advantage, cultivate clientele of loyal customers, and knock the sock off rivals, ethically and properly. For information, competitive strategy is narrower in scope than business strategy. This is because it focuses on managements plan to compete successfully. The four strategies are shown in the figure 1.2 in following. Degree of product differentiationFigure 1.2 Five Generic Competitive Strategies High Differentiation Focus Differentiation Best-Cost Provide Cost Focus Cost Leadership Low Broad Narrow Scope of Business Activities Source: Adopted from tutor2u.net According to figure 1.2, low cost leadership striving to be the overall low-cost provider in industry. Besides, broad differentiation is striving to build customer loyalty by differentiating ones product offerings from rivals products. Low cost focus has to concentrating on a narrow buyer segment, out-competing rival on basic of lower costs. In addition, high differentiation is offering niche members a product or service customized to their needs. Some more, best cost provider strategy is striving to give customers more value for the money by combining an emphasis on low cost with an emphasis on upscale differentiation. Competitive Dimensions The organizations are care about the customers needs and wants. Therefore, the organizations apply the competitive dimensions which are transformed such needs and wants into targeted areas. These competitive advantages are consisting of four factors which are cost, quality, time, and flexibility as defines as following. Cost Organization must make some kind of compromise between the cost and the characteristics of their products and services. Basically, most of organization will choose to control the cost of material and employee compensation rates attempt to achieve higher levels of productivity. Quality Quality can be achieved by adding unique attributes to products to enhance their competitive attractiveness so as to benefit customers in the final stage. Quality can be achieves in two ways which is quality of design and quality of conformity such capability of organization to transform inputs to conformable outputs. Time Time is the most important factor to compete among each others. For example, delivery time can be a source of competitive advantages. This can be achieving through reducing the period f time between receiving and accepting customer orders and then delivers products or services to customers. Otherwise, the time period between product ideas generation till achieving the final design or production is consider as important factor. Flexibility Flexibility is defines as the ability of the processes to switch from one product to another or from one customer to another at least time and lowest cost or impact. Besides, flexibility also can view as the ability to adapt the production capacity to changes in the market demands. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SWOT ANALYSIS AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE It is not intelligent to think that using organizational strengths to build a competitive advantage does not require through external environment analysis. The fact is whether an organization is strong or weak is a relative measure with comparison to its external environment. It is widely proven that organizations can achieve a competitive advantage by relying on organizational strengths and interacting with the strategic choice so as to make use of opportunities and avoid threats or override weakness or both. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Strategy management is the process of specifying an organizations objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve these objectives, and allocating resources to implement the plans. It is the highest level of managerial activity, usually performed by the companys top management as well as executive team. It provides overall direction to the whole organization. An organizations strategy must be appropriate for its resources, circumstances, and objectives. The objective of an overall corporate strategy is to carry out its mission effectively and efficiently. A good corporate strategy should integrate an organizations goals, policies, and action sequences or tactics into cohesive whole. Strategic planning was first brought into practice in the private sector in 1960-1970, followed by the public sector some 10-20 years later. According to Diskiene, Galiniene, and Marcinskas (2008), Strategic planning gives quite a clear description of the use of the SWOT strategy analysis tools. There are also involved several reasons of strategic plans fail where discuss in problem statement section. PROBLEM STATEMENT SWOT analysis usually reflect a persons existing position and view point, which can misused to justify a previously decided course of action rather then used as a means to open up new possibilities. It is significant to mention that sometimes threat can also be view as opportunities, depending on the people or groups involved. Finding from Helms and Nixon (2010) clearly indicate that an optimist is one who sees an opportunity in every difficulty. Adversely, a pessimist is one who sees difficulty in every opportunity. SWOTs can allow companies to take lazy course and took for fit rather than to stretch, they look for strengths that opportunities yet ignore the opportunities they do not feel they can use to their advantage. A more active approach would be to involve identifying the most attractive opportunities and then plan to stretch the company to meet these opportunities. This would make strategy a challenge to the organization rather than a fit between its existing strength and the opportunities (Helms Nixon, 2010). Helms and Nixon (2010) points out that categorization of variables into one of the four SWOT quadrants is also challenging. This is because if the strengths that are not maintained may become weaknesses. Some more, if opportunities not taken in the right time, but adopted by competitors, may become threats. Helms and Nixon (2010) also agrees there is confusing in classifying issues such often threat to a business can be called opportunities but setback and catastrophes are real problems and cannot be classified as opportunities. So the opportunities is a favorable solution to a problem and not problem itself. Besides, criteria to assign a variable to one of the four quadrants may be more difficult to clarity if the methodology is not used for a company but for a country. While SWOT is useful to profile and enumerate issues, it does not provide actual strategies to implement to take advantages of opportunities while leveraging strengths. In short, it is no strategic direction provided. This is because SWOT is only using simple list of words or point form without clear detail may be difficult to interpret. The brief format of the SWOT tool may be an oversimplification of a business situation that is more complex. The SWOT tool does not represent the complete and entire analysis so it may lead to inaccurate results (Helms and Nixon, 2010). Helms and Nixon (2010) states that SWOT is need to use with additional tools of analysis which is combinations with other strategic tools and models in order to get more accurate results. Many researchers suggest that Porters 5-Forces Analysis is a well internal analysis which focuses on the organizations external environment. Hence, 5-Foces analysis is applied more specifically to an organizations competitive environment. According to The Free Encyclopedia of Wikipedia (2010), strategic plans fail is consists of many reasons which can refer to the organization failure to understand the customers wants and needs. Otherwise, organization inability to predict environmental reaction which what is the competitor recently doing. Besides, the organization also over-estimates the resource competence. This can be said that the organization is does not know whether the staff, equipment, and processes can handle the new strategy. In addition, the organization is failure to coordinate, failure to obtain senior management commitment, failure to obtain employee commitment and failure to follow the plain. Finally, the organization might under-estimate of time requirements. In the business arena the grouping of internal and external issues is a frequent starting point for strategic planning. This is a most important starting point for implementing the SWOT analysis. If fail to categories or indentified it, then the whole analysis becomes less accurate for organization. In fact, the organization will lose the opportunities to compete in the market with the competitors. Therefore, the planner or top management have to identified the external and internal factors which strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats carefully in order to getting accurate result. CONCLUSION RECOMANDATION

Womens Identities in The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Behind a Mas

Women's Identities in The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Behind a Mask by Louisa May Alcott Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple has a rich array of female characters to examine when answering the above question. I feel that Louisa May Alcott’s short story, â€Å"Behind A Mask† offers an equally rich array of female characters to consider. Through the course of this essay I will show how Walker and Alcott used different narrative techniques and made different use of language and dialogue to create their characters; and how they each respectively created very powerful pieces of work, identifying with their characters and the problems and obstacles faced by them in their everyday lives. The Color Purple is written in the epistolary style where the main character writes letters to God. These letters are like a diary where Celie tells her story. This diary technique contains Celie’s innermost thoughts and allows the reader to know the true Celie because she is able to completely open up in her writing. Walker writers the whole story thought Celie’s (female) perspective, which is particularly useful when we are given Celie’s impression main female characters in the novel, Sophia and Shug. We get a different view of Nettie because she writes her own letters to Celie. Certain key events in Celie’s life made her the character she is, for example: her continual rape by her stepfather; the subsequent pregnancies and the loss of her children; the death of her mother; and the loss of her sister, Nettie. However, through the course of the novel, Celie finds that she has managed to form close relations with the female characters of the novel, she finds love and friendship and is finally reunited with her sister and children who were taken from her. The Color Purple opens, with Celie writing to God, describing herself as â€Å"a good girl† (the fact that she addresses her letters to God emphasises this) and how her stepfather’s advances to her mother were rejected, resulting in Celie’s rape. Before chapter one even begins we here a pre-echo of Celie’s stepfather, â€Å"You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.† So Celie learns to keep quiet to survive and this is a habit that is hard for her to break. Celie is a passive character. She is hardworking and domesticated and this is what allows her to be married off so young. Celie’s father and husba... ...r true feelings but whilst Celie feels sadness and a desire for love, Jean Muir feels bitter and a need for revenge. The most marked difference between Celie and Jean Muir is how they use their sexuality (Shug is much more aware of how to use her sexuality effectively than Celie is). Jean Muir uses her sexuality to manipulate the three main male characters of the story, particularly Sir John Coventry who is totally taken in by her act. She wants a title and uses her femininity, flattering the elderly gentleman. Sir John is amazed at such a lovely young woman being interested in him, for although Jean Muir is not described as pretty, her mysterious air provokes interest. Behind a Mask is a short story compared to The Color Purple and this results in the pace being faster. The two stories have nothing in common but their main female characters do share some characteristics, particularly in the way they have learned to hide behind the faà §ade of how acceptable women in society should be. B I B L I O G R A P H Y  · Approaching Literature: Literature and Gender (1996) Goodman L (ed), The Open University  · The Color Purple B (1992) Walker Alice, The Women’s Press

St. Augustin Essay -- essays research papers

From the analysis of St. Augustine Confessions and Beowulf, it is clear that the two authors, St. Augustine and the poet respectively, differ on their views of death, which helps to paint a better picture of the world that each writer lived in. In Augustine's writings, death plays a major role in life; it serves as the stepping stone to a greater existence in heaven. In Augustine's world, Christianity and God both play an important role in how death is viewed. In the poets writings we see a different perspective, one in which the time you spend on earth is of great importance; very little thought is given to life after death. Although God is mentioned and discussed throughout the writing, it is a very different perspective than the one shown by Augustine. In the writing of St. Augustine, the reader gets a small glimpse of what life was like in the Roman Empire in the forth century, and more particularly how death was viewed during this period. According to the Confessions, life, though valued, was just a time spent before God chose to bring your soul to heaven; contingent of course on the fact that you were a Christian. 'Yet in a moment, before we had reached the end of the first year of a friendship….you took him from this world (Confessions, 75).'; 'When all hope of saving him was lost, he was baptized as he lay unconscious (Confessions, 75).'; This passage about St. Augustine's friend helps to illustrate that as death drew near in Augustine's time, thoughts went to the after life in heaven. This hypothesis is furthered when Augustine writes about the death of his mother. 'And so on the ninth day of her illness, when she was fifty-six and I was thirty-three, her pious and devoted soul was set free from the body (Confessions, 2 00).'; Some might argue that the sorrow that Augustine describes at both the deaths of his friend and mother illustrates that death was not looked on as a passage to life in heaven, but as a very sorrowful and deplorable event. Though Augustine admits to feeling great sorrow at the death of those close to him, he goes on to point out that these feelings are merely of the imperfect body. When one lets go and listens to his soul he will see that all things begin and end with God. 'For the senses of the body are sluggish, because they are senses of flesh and blood…They are limited by their own nature (Confessions, ... ...n a rich shroud or embalmed with spices, nor did she wish to have a special monument or a grave in her own country…All she wanted was that we should remember her at your altar, (Confessions, 204).'; This is a very strong example of how different the worlds of St. Augustine and the poet were. From the limited view of the life presented by the authors of the Confessions and Beowulf, it is easy to see that the worlds in which they lived were very different. The world of St. Augustine seems well ordered and compact with cities and government officials. It seems to be a highly intellectual culture strongly influenced by religion and God. The world of the poet seems much different in nature than that of St. Augustine. The poet's world seems to be much less organized and vast, with various kings as opposed to government officials. It seems to be populated with many roaming bands, and the people seem to be much less intellectually and religiously motivated. It seems they lived simple lives in a constant search for glory and notoriety. With such different cultures it is not difficult to concede that their respective views on death would be as diverse as the cultures themselves.

Discuss your opinion of the recovered memory

Psychologists believe that it is common to consciously repress unpleasant experiences although the unconscious repression of traumatic experiences such as sexual abuse or rape is a defense mechanism that usually backfires (Carroll, 2005). Loftus (1998) wrote an article on â€Å"The Price of Bad Memories† that leaves a room for doubt for people who are contemplating on seeking treatment and those who are already being treated by a psychiatrist.It is difficult for those who are emotionally and psychologically helpless to determine the best possible treatment when their main concern is to seek assistance from mental health professionals who are in the best position to help them gain a better quality of life. In many cases, patients who are subjected to hypnosis, guided imagery, influence of drugs and other methods during therapy sessions to uncover unpleasant memories of childhood sexual abuse, rape, satanic ritual abuse and cult activities are also isolated from their families, friends, and the outside world (United States v.Peterson et al. (n. d. ). Hence, implanting false memories into the minds of patients is not only alarming but also unethical and a serious criminal offense. The case of Patricia Burgus and other patients who were diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) is a wake-up call to the medical profession. The neglect on the part of the psychiatrist and Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center with regards to documenting and safeguarding the tape records of the patient’s therapy sessions may earn a questionable mark on the reputation of the professionals and health centers.Questions with regards to the safekeeping of patients’ records may arise. The mix-up of tapes is an indication that tape recordings are not properly labeled with the patient’s name, date of therapy session and the name of the mental health professional who conducted the therapy. There were also failures on the part of the mental health provi ders to keep a hard copy of patient’s therapy, treatment and progress. From the cases that were filed, it is apparent that administrators of the hospitals or medical centers do not impose strict policies in terms of securing patients’ records.The conspiracy among the psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists and medical centers leads us to a thought provoking situation. As one would seek an answer to the question regarding the hidden motives of several mental health professionals who risk their professions and be subjected to malpractice suits by unjustly collecting insurance payments as a result of exaggerating diagnoses and overstating the need for expensive treatments remains doubtful. Psychiatrists maintain patients who seek their treatment and advice on a regular basis.Hence, deriving income at the risk of their profession and reputation is not a motivating factor. The question of benefiting from insurance payments is unbelievable to some extent although ther apy for the treatment of multiple personality disorders may take a long period of time. From the standpoint of a reader who is neither a health professional nor a patient, one may not discount the possibility that these mental health professionals may be subjecting their patients to an experiment in order to test the effectiveness of their technique.However, there is no evidence to prove this accusation. With the multitude of lawsuits filed against the mental health professionals and medical centers regarding claims of corroborated repressed memories, there will be more patients and families who may take advantage of the situation. False accusations regarding misdiagnosis and improper treatment may also grow in numbers as the victims gain awareness of the monetary settlement that may be derived from the litigation.The American Psychological Association (1996) claimed that most people who were sexually abused as children have memories of all or part of what happened to them although they may not fully understand or disclose it. Amidst the controversy on recovered memory, people who are victims of substance and sexual abuse, depression, personal adjustment and problems of relationship should not hesitate to consult their mental health providers. As a precautionary measure, it is important to choose competent professionals and get a referral from the state psychological association in the local community.

Feasibility Study Research Paper

Executive summary The mill will be called Nyc Sugar incorporated with the meaning of bringing back the real sweet flavor of sugar into the market. The mill will have its own plant located at Ibayo, Balanga city, Bataan. This site is selected because of its strategic position, where the supplies of public and private services are adequate and the raw materials are readily available. The need of the sugar mill company is to solve the problem of sugar shortages which increases day by day in this city and also try to deal with unemployment problems which increases with time here in Bataan.This will be achieved by creating more employment opportunities for the young generation living in the city as well as outside. Raw materials Normally sugar is used as an additive to tea and may also be added in the production of sugary products. The main raw material will be sugarcane which will undergo the following production stages. a. Harvesting of the sugarcane from the farm b. Crashing of the sug arcane to get the contents c. Drying of the contents to obtain solid sugar products d.Packaging and branding and latter transporting to the market The plant will have its own sugarcane plantation near the firm as it is budgeted that about 2/3 of the total land area of the firm will be used as the plantation square and the rest will be for infrastructure. Transportation The plant will be located in Ibaya near Balanga city where transport in not a major problem and therefore workers will easily access the plant and the transportation of the processed sugar will also be easily delivered to the market.Project long term objective The firm shall stick to its mission of providing the best of sugar and products to the customers and ensure that it maintains the best ethical standards in the production process. It should positively respond to the environmental needs of the society and if there will be expansion needs; it will be done without overlooking its primary objectives. FinancingIt is expected that most of the fund will come from the shares owned by the stockholders or the owners and incase the funds from the shares will not be able to cover up the firm’s primal expenses, the firm will then obtain loans from financial institutions to cover up the extra expenses for optimal production. Market study and demand and supply Since Bataan is geographically situated near Philippines centre, the sugar products can be transported to the neighboring provinces in the country like Manila which is a leading distributor of sugar will be a great recipient of the sugar product.The establishment of this firm will be of great help as it will increase the supply of sugar, and also lessen the importation of sugar which makes sugar expensive In the Bataan. Marketing strategy, scale and volume There will be a vigorous effort to secure a market before a commitment is even made to build the mill if it would be most desirable to have the financial participation of one or more major users who can guarantee the purchase of the substantial portion of the procedure production.The receiving of the raw materials supply will as well be considered. The firm is budgeted to have a production line which will represent about 800,000 tons per unit day which will heavily depend on the production conditions. Pricing and consumer surveys Pricing will follow the established market prices and practices which are usually determined by the forces of demand and supply, however because of sugar uncertainty of sugar product during the start up period, some price concessions will be made in order to break into the market. Industry and competitionSince Nyc sugar mill will not be alone in the production of sugar, we have hereby come up with the following competition strengths. a. The branding name Nyc will be a strategy of welcoming even more customers to come and feel the niceness of our sugar. b. The packaging size will start as little as a half-kilogram bag up to 10kg to cater for all possible users irrespective of financial capability as opposed to other sugar producing firms which package from 1kg to 5kg. The response of the packaging strategy may give our firm an upper hand in the market resulting into more sales and therefore higher profits.Business model In the business model, it is expected that the firm will earn most of its money from the recurring sales of finished sugar products and selling permissions. We will market our products to the public through ventures like advertising and also increase sales through the pricing strategy. Operating facilities, equipment and staff Major equipments in the firm will be sugar processing machines which will be located in the factory. Again the firm will need to build infrastructure like paths and buildings. Below will be the required staff members in the board of directors -Chairman of the board Maintenance and material director -Sales director -Production director The firm will see to it that the accountants ar e licensed by the Professional Regulation Commission in their respective professions and all persons have at least an experience in their respective jobs. The accountant will be responsible for the preparation of the books of accounts, the sales director will assist in selling and finding markets and the production director will be responsible for production and ensuring productivity of processes. Waste disposal Among the various methods of waste materials disposal will include the following a.Elimination of the source. This will involve a careful attention of the source of pollutants b. Recovery of waste products. This will involve deciding on how to discard waste materials c. Waste treatment. Effect of laws and risks The firm will have to comply with the laws regarding environmental pollution and control and this will include payment of any fees if any from the international environmental control unit. To deal with risks, the firm would put across some extra funds to cater for ris ks resulting from factors like economic changes and increased competition.

Buddhism and Christianity

Buddhist and Christians are among the world’s larges religions. They are characterized by different teachings and practices that they observe. They both have different origins and beliefs that form part of their structures. The two characteristics that I am going to look at are: the ethical teachings of both Christians and Buddhists and their religious scriptures. Ethical teachings: Ethics is one of the issues which stand out among the teachings of both religions. The two religions emphasize on the need for proper ethics through believes, practices and worship.Despite the emphasis that they both put on ethics, differences emerge between the two in their theoretical and practical aspects. There are several areas in which the differences can be evident such as: their ideas concerning sin, the notion and model of ethics together with the codes of ethics. Sin: in both religions, human beings are regarded as sinful beings. Sin is the basis of religious doctrines and without it: it is possible that ethical religious believes could not be there. According to both religions, human beings are characterized by sin, imperfection and guilty.It is only through moral religious principles that one can be made pure and perfect. The births of both Buddha and Christ were good news to both the Buddhist and Christians respectively. Jesus was born to bring salvation and love from God while Buddha was born to bring the message of wisdom and compassionate to mankind as well as show them the path to enlightenment (King, P. 3). Christians believe that all human beings are connected to the first sin in the Garden of Eden by the first parents: Adam and Eve. This sin has over the years been passed down from one generation to the other.This story explains the origin of sin which according to the story was human disobedience to God. Therefore, Adam and Eve went against God’s wishes when they decided to ignore the orders He had given them of not eating the fruit they ate. Becau se God is perceived as a model for perfect ethics, then going against his wishes will be the same as sinning. Therefore, according to Christians, sin is not only the original sin that has been passed down though generations but also the heart’s disobedience in following or practicing the divine morals, ethical codes and spirit.Hence the base of Christian ethics is not only believing in Christ but also living according to his teachings (Locke, P. 237). In Buddhism, there is no that kind of â€Å"original sin† as in Christianity. They instead believe that every individual is born of craving and ignorance which results to human beings being born in a cycle referred to as samsara: a birth and death cycle. It is only through enlightenment that an individual can overcome craving and ignorance. According to Buddha’s personal experiences, sin is originally caused by impunity, bad karmas and imperfection: there is no any other source.In the Buddhist structure, it is beli eved that sin originates from oneself and can therefore be overcome by oneself. Therefore, the basis of Buddhist’s ethical teachings is the mind: that sin originates from the mind and can only be overcome by the mind (Smart, p. 77). Model and ethical notion: both Christianity and Buddhism take the perfect model of ethics to be an important aspect of religious morality. Ethical teachings of both religion focus on Christ and Buddha because both of their lives were full of noble virtues and love that cannot be compared with any other.These models are the foundations of both religions although there are different ideas concerning ethics between them (Locke, P. 237). For Christians, love (agape) is the basis of moral life which is shown clearly in the life and teachings of Christ as well as in the bible. They believe that God is love and it is what constitutes his heart. Therefore, it is through his grace and forgiveness of human sins that ethical values can be cultivated in indiv iduals and salvation can be attained. Christian moral standards are basically established on sin, forgiveness, belief and the love of God.They also believe that belief must go with actions: a Christian can best be recognized by his/her deeds as compared to what he/she says. Contrary to the Christians, Buddhist morality is not based upon the power or the life of Buddha but instead it is based upon his teachings about â€Å"cause and effects†. They believe that an individual’s positive or negative attitude is determined by his/her actions and thoughts. Buddha taught people to: â€Å"make an island of yourself, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge. Make truth your island, make truth your refuge; there is no other refuge,† (King, P.3) Therefore, in both religions: human beings are perceived to be sinful. The mind’s purity is perceived to be the basic step in ethics through which suffering and impunity which has been created in individuals can b e overcome. If the overall aim is transformation from the evil nature to divine: then Christians could achieve it through uniting with Christ while Buddhist could achieve the same by observing Buddhahood. Religious scriptures: According to the interviews I conducted with a Christian and a Buddhist leader, I found out the following about their religious scriptures:Teachings concerning God: conservative Buddhists’ scriptures teach nothing about existence of God. It does not affirm or deny existence of God and does not state who is divine not even Gautama himself. Liberal ones do not put emphasis on this concept but they pay homage to Buddha, Buddhist teachers, deities and ancestors. They worship using images, bow before them, give offerings to them, chant and pray to them. Although earlier Buddhism did not recognize Buddha to be omniscient, they now consider him and other teachers to be omniscience.Contrary to Buddhist scripture teachings, Christians refer to the bible that tea ches them that God exists. It states that the fact that there is a universe is an indication that there is a God somewhere. Psalm 19:1 – â€Å"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. † & Romans 1:20 – Though God is invisible, His power and divinity can be seen through the things that are made. The only way the universe could exist is because there is a supernatural being powerful and wiser than anybody else (Scott, p. 87).Purpose of religion: The purpose of religion was to better man’s relationship with God. Buddhism scriptures do not teach anything about God while the bible teaches that the whole purpose of humanity is to serve and have a better relationship with Christ. Ecclesiastes 12:13 – The whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his commands. Ephesians 1:7-9 – The will and purpose of God was to redeem man by the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus. Teaching about a true and supreme G od: Buddhism teachings allow for worship of many gods while the biblical teachings forbid the worship of more than one God.Matthew 4:10 – â€Å"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him ONLY shalt thou serve. † We are not to worship many gods, nor any god other than Jehovah [2 Corinthians 6:18; Colossians 1:19-22]. Destiny of man: Buddhist scriptures teach about reincarnation (rebirth), Karma which teaches that the future lives are influenced by current actions and that what happens currently is the result of previous actions and nirvana which teaches that the ultimate purpose of man is to get out of the birth and rebirth cycle characterized by suffering.While the bible teaches that: an individual only lives once and physically dies once after which there will be resurrection, judgment and eternal rewards. 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23 – All die as a result of Adam's sin; as a result of Jesus, all live again. Resurrection is the opposite of death; hence the spirit is reunited with the body. Matthew 25:31-46 – The wicked go to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. Buddhist scriptures do not teach about death and resurrection (Scott, p. 87).Suffering: Buddhist scriptures teach that suffering is essential in life, it’s brought about by human desires and they can be eliminated by getting rid of earthly desires by not wanting to exist as an individual. The bible teachings teach that suffering is part of life; it is a consequence of sin physical desires are neither good nor bad, it depends on how you seek to satisfy them, an individual’s desire to exist is not bad and it’s through trust in God that you can be able to overcome suffering and not through defeating yourself.The Buddhist teaching of not to desire to be an individual can be considered to blasphemy God’s work by Christians. Works cited King, L. Winston. Buddhism and Christianity: Some Bridges of Understanding. Taylor and Francis. 2008, p . 3. Locke, A. Kenneth, â€Å"The Foundation for Ethical Behavior: A Christian perspective for a dialogue with Buddhism,† Hsi Lai Journal of Humanistic Buddhism 3 (2002): 327. Scott, Archibald. Buddhism and Christianity; A Parallel and a Contrast, Being the Croall Lectures for 1889-90. General Books LLC. (2009): p. 87. Smart, Ninian. Buddhism and Christianity: rivals and allies. University of Hawaii Press. (1993): p. 77.

Hotel Case

The Royal Hotel Case Study describes a situation where a junior consultant has architected a hotel maintenance management and issue tracking solution for a boutique hotel client. Blake, the consultant, identified a hotel maintenance management package which included a Rapid Response issue logging module, Preventative Maintenance module and the Reporting Module. Blake left the engagement prior to the completion of the change and has been called back because the system has been month balled a few weeks after go live. The hotel GM and Blake’s boss are extremely unhappy. The Cast of charactersBlake Cantera > An MBA student with two weeks consulting training. The architect of the solution on his first engagement Royal Hotel GM > A no nonsense, old school hotelier, running a boutique business hotel in New York. The GM wants to eliminate situations where guests discover maintenance issues. Director of Housekeeping > Not a champion for the system and does not take ownership for the ma intenance issues at the hotel Director of Maintenance > Roll has a natural conflict with housekeeping – did housekeeping report the issues and maintenance lose it, or did housekeeping just not report it?Director IT Espresso Vendor > Potentially oversold the solution as a panacea Jack Scarso > A colleague of Blake’s with similar experience, who is held in low esteem. Jack was assigned to implement the solution when Blake was transferred off. Jack received virtually no handover. Fancy Consultants Boss > The kind of boss who provides little support and mountains of expectation and appears to take little or no responsibility for the issues. Issues with the solution and approachThe implementation of the Espresso system would classify as a second order change which impacts Technology, Process and People and requires careful planning on how to overcome the End Users resistance to change which could dramatically impact the adoption of the system. The GM is an â€Å"Old School † hotelier however the proposed solution is a very â€Å"New School† solution; relying on digital logging, reporting and electronic task tracking rather than relationships and hierarchy for effectiveness, this suggests some ultural challenges that would appear not to have been addressed. The staff who are required to interact with the system will undergo process and cultural changes The way that housekeeping report issues changes – instead of waiting until the end of the shift they now report issues using the phone as they come across them. Maintenance teams are now being tracked using the sidekick and bar code system, to ensure stations are visited. Additionally reporting has been implemented to identify top performers and motivate staff.As such attention to managing the people dimension to ensure that the change is adopted is critical to the success of the initiative In-experienced change implementor acting without supervision or guidance. Change in key resourc es during the implementation with little effective transition or handover. Limited or no executive or general management oversight or support of the implementation from FC, the Royal Hotel or the Vendor. What should Blake do? Firstly, Blake needs to ensure that the Espresso System has the comitment of the full management team.After all, these are the people who let the system get mothballed so quickly. This means assembling the stakeholders and seeking their commitment to the success of this initiative – this is not just Blakes’ problem and Blake can’t fix it by himself – the system needs to be owned. Next Blake needs to understand what the current situation is which will involve clarifying the following Why did the employees stop using the system Why did the Directors of Maintenance and Housekeeping let their employees stop using the system? What needs of the employees did the old system better suit?How was the bar coding of maintenance points deployed? Did the management team receive the new reports and were their requirements catered for with the reporting tools? How were job changes managed and assigned – for example monitoring the Command Centre? Infrastructure – did the solution integrate with existing infrastructure – were the reports accessible? Were the sidekick units adopted? Through this process of analysis Blake can produce a post implementation review and and action plan for system design modifications, change management, training and re-release.