Ethics Programme business law class Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ethics Programme business law class - Assignment Example Strategic operations in an organisation that are premised on lies are bound to fail as they would be doubtful in the eyes of the potential customers. In this case it can be noted that Google has a code of ethics which guides its operations as going to be discussed below. For instance, it is guided by the motto: â€Å"Don’t be evil.† The most important issues addressed include the need for integrity, respect for each other, confidentiality as well avoiding conflicts. Google strives to create a good reputation so as to ensure that the customers have trust in them. Trust is the guiding principle in the operations of Google. The other most important factor is respect for each other so as to avoid conflicts at the work place. Confidentiality is very important as far as reputation of the organisation is concerned. There is need to ensure that privacy is respected which is very important in the code of ethics for Google. The Board of directors is on the top position in the organisation and is responsible for enacting the ethical code of conduct. The board communicates with the management about the ethical conduct that ought to be followed. The management is in direct conduct with the workers and these in turn also communicate with them the expected code of conduct to be followed. Google has an open communication system but as far a communication of ethics is concerned, it follows a descending order from top to bottom. The board as noted already has the overall authority to administer the code of ethics in the organisation. The management is used to enforce the code of ethics since they are the ones who closely work with the workers hence it becomes easy to enforce the code. The first scenario in which the code of ethics can be applied involve dismissal of employees who fail to observe the privacy policy of the organisation. Drunkenness at work or any other kind of misbehaviour is not

Form and Structure for The Mikado Essay Example for Free

Form and Structure for The Mikado Essay Gilbert and Sullivans The Mikado is an operetta and it is played sometimes melodramatically, sometimes realistically. The main theme of The Mikado is love. Its main content is a parody of general love stories that start and end happily ever after. This makes it humorous. It is also a satire of the British Empress of India, Queen Victoria. * Although it is an operetta, the Mikado is a well-made play; it has a beginning, middle and end. * Yum-Yum is in love with herself; this is shown at the preparation of her marriage. Nanki-Poo does love Yum-Yum but he is only looking for an escape from Katisha, and Ko-Kos love for Katisha is purely to save him from death. A lot of the story is based around execution because Ko-Kos job is Lord High Executioner. Nanki-Poo wants to be executed at one point because he thinks that he can never get Yum-Yum. This keeps the audience interested because they would want to see how an execution would be staged as such staging rarely happens. This is a plot device to complicate the narrative so that the story becomes ever more farcical. For example Ko-Ko receives a message from the Mikado stating there has been a lack of executions so Ko-Ko must execute someone within a month. This makes things more difficult because Ko-Ko must kill himself before he executes anyone else. Structure The Mikado conforms to a structure typical of many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. This structure represents a triangle: First it includes an aural factor of lush, enjoyable music, which get the audiences feat tapping in the theatre. Second, it includes a visual factor of a colourful, striking setting which make the audience amazed by the set. Third, it includes an intellectual factor of a ridiculous, amusing, topically satiric story, which adds comedy, and the audience laugh. The play starts with the introduction to all the characters, making it easy for the audience to understand the characters better. The situation is set and the story is structured, the conflict begins and the action gets underway. The middle lets the story flow smoothly, more comical happenings such as when Katisha wants to give away Nanki Poos true identity. The ending is conventionally and traditionally happy with everyone gleeful. But, ironically, there are no elements of true love in the plot. Gilbert and Sullivan vary the type of songs to keep the audience entertained. There are solos, duets, trios, madrigals and full cast ensembles. Solos are used to focus the scene on only one character and how they feel. E. g. Nanki-Poo. Duets are usually used when two people are in love or if two people have a problem, e. g. Yum-Yum and Nanki-Poo. Trios are used when a lot of information is given out for the audience to take in, e. g. Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo and Pitti-Sing. Three little maids from school are we. The madrigal is sung before the wedding. This song is so that the characters can thoroughly enjoy themselves and it livens up the moment by four people singing the same thing. Probably singing in harmonious unison. The full cast ensembles are there to introduce the large characters e. g. the Mikado; these songs are lively and let the audience imagine what is about to come, Miya Sama Miya Sama.

Medical Intervention for Intersexed Children: Gender Unknown Essay

Medical Intervention for Intersexed Children: Gender Unknown What makes a person male or female? Who has the right to choose what sex a person should be? These are some common questions that parents have to face when their child is born as an "intersexed". "Intersex is a general term used for any form of congenital (inborn) mixed sex anatomy." A person who is considered intersexed has some parts of their sexual anatomy that look female and some that look male (Dreger). In the United States, "intersexed" is a taboo. Most people don't like to talk about sex, let alone, abnormalities having to do with sexual anatomy. Dreger stated, "1 in 2,000 children [are] born with genitals that are pretty confusing..." That means that being intersexed is more common than a well known medical condition, cystic fibrosis (2004). It makes one wonder that since this particular condition happens so often, why doesn't society speak more freely about it? When a child is first born and the gender is not quite clear, doctors will test the infant in many ways to determine which sex the baby should be. Some of the tests include, chromosomal, hormonal, and anatomical. The doctors also factor in the ability to create "functional" genitalia with the tissue that is already present. "Functional" usually means, "the ability to use the genitals for penetrative intercourse"(Yronwode). However, doctors usually choose to make the baby into a female because female genitalia is easier to construct (Beh & Diamond). Holmes wrote, "Invasive surgeries are thus carried out on children who are either pre-linguistic or unable to speak for themselves as legal minors." A child has a right to their body just as every human being does. He/she just does not have a v... ...Alice D. Ph.D (n.d.). What is Intersexuality. Retrieved March 16, 2004, from http://www.pflagdetroit.org /what_is_intersexuality. Htm Greenberg, Julie A. (1998, Feb.). ISNA's Amicus Brief on Intersex Genital Surgery. Retrieved March 16, 2004, from, http://www.isna.org/drupal/book/view/97?PHPSESSID=eeac2c6a4d64c46 410e664b3f75d 424a Holmes, Morgan. (1995). Queer Cut Bodies: Intersexuality & Homophobia In Medical Practice. Retrieved March 27, 2004, from, http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/ queerfrontiers/queer/papers/holme s.long.html Laurent, Bo. (1994 Nov.). Sexual scientists question medical treatment of hermaphroditism. Retrieved March 27, 2004, from http://inquirer.gn.apc.org/intersex.html Yronwode, Althaea.(n.d.).Intersex Individuals Dispute Wisdom Of Surgery On Infants. Retrieved March 27, 2004, from, http://www.luckymojo.com/tkintersex. html

Finding Self Essay -- essays papers

Finding Self I realize that the whole universe is at my fingertips, as is my willingness to manifest what is needed in my reality. Every experience of life is God teaching me. As I look in this pure state of awareness, I feel this pure energy within my whole body. From the rhythm of my breathing, I feel a quiet state of attunement — one with God. My soul incarnated into a specific form on earth for a unique purpose. My journey is now and exists at this moment, whether I want to realize it or not. Knowing my life’s purpose and acting on it will give me direction and is a necessary step in achieving true happiness. To have this deeper experience requires the ability to have conscious awareness of Soul, or Higher Self. I find my life runs much more smoothly when I let the Universe run itself without any interference from me. As a matter of fact, the less my brain does its "stuff'', the more fulfilling my life becomes...hence more enriched. This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow the night and day, â€Å"Thou canst not then be false to any man.† â€Å"But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you.†(Matthew 5:44) Humans are not all alike, one will hate you and the other will love you. The difference in moods is the reason why humans are who they are. The knowledge that everyone is different in some way, will lead to one giant leap on my journey. Loving thy neighbor no matter what, as stated in the Ten Commandments, will enrich my spiritual progression. Not being familiar with my actual role in this Universe at this stage of my existence is at times very frustrating and often very far-fetched. Nothing happens by chance. We are a part of a universe that is forever giving us... ...nnection. Balance, harmony, and compassion are the natural state of my innermost self. Since spirituality is an experience, the degree to which I reflect the qualities of balance, harmony and compassion in my everyday moment-to-moment experience will support my connection to God. These problems are made visible in the two opposite notions of the loss of the self, or alternatively, the absorption with the self, both of which impoverish our sense of self. I will argue against the notion of the self as one that is constantly changing to meet the demands of the competing voices surrounding it. Rather, I will not argue that I must find a vantage point from which to view the world and create a sense of self that persists through time. I cannot be, â€Å"populated with the character of others.† Being a â€Å"self† must mean more than being an image, wearing a mask, or playing a role.

Financial Management Integrated Case 2 Answers

|Ally Zmijeski | |Financial Management Section C | |Homework 2: Integrated Case Questions | Chapter 2 Integrated Case 2-11A) In a well-functioning economy, capital flows efficiently from those with surplus capital to those who need it in one of three ways: †¢ Direct transfers: occur when a business sells its stocks or bonds directly to savers without going through any type of financial institution. This is used primarily by small firms and doesn’t raise much capital. †¢ Transfers also can go through an investment bank that underwrites the issue, or serves as middleman/facilitator.The company sells its stocks or bonds to the investment bank, which then sells these same securities to savers. Because new securities are involved and the corporation receives the sale proceeds, this transaction is called a primary market transaction. †¢ Transfers can also be made through a financial intermediary, such as a bank, insurance company, or mutual fund. Intermediaries inc rease efficiency of money and capital markets. B) People and organizations wanting to borrow money are brought together with those who have surplus funds in the financial markets.Types of Financial Markets include†¦ †¢ Physical Asset vs. Financial Asset: physical asset markets are for tangible products, while financial asset markets are for stocks, bonds, notes, and mortgages. They also deal with derivative securities whose values are derived from changes in the prices of other assets. o A share of Ford stock is a pure financial asset, while an option to buy Ford shares is a derivative security whose value depends on the price of Ford stock. †¢ Spot Markets vs.Futures Markets: spot markets are markets in which assets are bought or sold for on the spot delivery (within a few days). Future markets are markets in which participants agree today to buy or sell an asset at some future date. Future market transactions can reduce, or hedge, the risks faced by buyers and selle rs if the market changes. †¢ Money Markets vs. Capital Markets: money markets are the markets for short-term, highly liquid debt securities. Capital markets are the markets for intermediate or long-term debt and corporate stocks, like the NYSX. Short-term markets = less than one year o Intermediate term markets = 1 to 10 years o Long-term markets = more than 10 years †¢ Primary markets are the markets in which corporations raise new capital, so the corporation itself receives proceeds. †¢ Secondary markets are markets in which existing, already outstanding securities are traded among investors. The corporation does not receive funds from a secondary market sale. †¢ Private markets are markets in which transactions are negotiated directly between two parties. Public markets are markets where standardized contracts are traded on organized exchanges. C) Financial markets are essential for a healthy economy and economic growth because they provide a variety of opport unities for buyers and sellers to meet, exchange goods and services, better address financial needs, and accumulate wealth to stimulate the economy. D) A derivative is any security whose value is derived from the price of some other underlying asset.The use of derivatives has increased in recent years. If a bank or any other company invests in derivatives, it is difficult to tell whether it is an investment as a hedge against something like an increase in the price of good X, or a speculative bet that prices will rise. This makes the firm’s risk profile more difficult to determine. Derivatives can hedge risk if the price of a good is assumed to change in the future, or if the company is dealing with foreign markets.However, if a company is buying derivatives to speculate on a price change that could ultimately benefit them, this is raising the company’s risk because they are unsure of the future worth of assets associated with the derivative. E) Investment banks help c ompanies raise capital by helping them design attractive securities, buying securities from corporations, and reselling them to savers. Commercial banks are large national banks that offer a variety of services to a wide range of customers.Financial services corporations are large conglomerates that combine many different financial institutions within a single corporation. Most started in one area but later diversified to cover more of the financial spectrum, like including insurance or leasing companies. Pension funds are retirement plans funded by corporations or government agencies for their workers. Mutual funds are corporations that accept money from savers and then use those funds to buy stocks, long-term bonds, or short term debt instruments issued by businesses/government.They pool funds and reduce risk through diversification. Exchange traded funds are similar to regular mutual funds and are often operated by mutual fund companies. ETFs buy a portfolio of stocks of a certai n type and then sell their own shares to the public. Hedge funds are similar to mutual funds because they accept money from savers and use the funds to buy various securities, but they are largely unregulated, have large minimum investments, and are marketed to high net worth people.Private equity companies are organizations that operate much like hedge funds, but they buy and then manage entire firms. They are relatively unregulated. F) The two leading stock markets are the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. Physical location exchanges are tangible entities that have their own building and an elected governing body called a board of governors. The exchange members will sell orders offer the shares for sale, and they are bid for by the members with buy orders.OTC markets are often referred to today as dealer markets, and include all the facilities that are needed to conduct security transactions, but not all are made on the physical location exchanges. The dealer market system consists of the relatively few dealers who hold inventories of securities and make a market for the securities, the thousands of brokers who act as agents in bringing the dealers together with investors, and the computers, terminals, and electronic networks that provide a communication link between dealers and brokers.G) Since Varga is not purchasing the stock directly from Apple, but instead from Smyth Barry, who probably purchased it from Apple, she is dealing in a secondary market; the money she spends to buy the stock is not going directly to Apple, but to a second party. This would not be different if Varga purchased previously outstanding Apple stock in the dealer market, because in both situations she is not giving money directly to Apple, but buying stock that someone else has bought previously from Apple. H) An initial public offering, or IPO, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public.IPOs are often  issued by smaller, newer companies seeking the  fu nds to expand, but can also be done by large privately owned companies looking to become publicly traded. I) Efficient Market: a market in which prices are close to intrinsic values and stocks seem to be in equilibrium. Today, we have an efficiency continuum, where the market for some companies’ stocks is highly efficient and the market for other stocks is highly inefficient. This is defined by the size of the company – the bigger the company is, the more analysts tend to follow it, so new information is more likely to be reflected in the stock price.J) Part One: If the stock market is highly efficient, this would imply that the company that received the FDA grant is a large and well-researched firm, so the rise in the company’s stock price is reflective of its true value and would be a good purchase. Still, I would recommend warning Michelle that some companies let information like this leak into the public for hidden reasons, so she should do her own research to ensure the new stock price is close to its true value.Part Two: Oftentimes, stock prices at IPO’s and shortly thereafter are the highest they will ever be for the company. This is a result of the hype created by the company, media, and investing world around its first public offering. I would tell Michelle again to do her own research, but I also think if she is the type of investor who enjoys the risk of a new company and the excitement of that type of investment, that if she understands the potential to lose, she might as well buy a reasonable number of shares.

buy custom How Visual Art Relates to Physics essay

buy custom How Visual Art Relates to Physics essay The visual arts have become the foundation for the fields of arts and sciences in the recent days. Painting, drawing, and sculpture are accorded wide recognition in many subjects, particularly in physics, while advanced technology has incorporated visual arts in printing, motion pictures, and graphic designs so as to come up with the latest illustration tools. The notion of visual art is clearly brought out and implemented in the book World of Art by Henry Sayre (Sayre 64). This book provides extensive information about different types of art. Sayre presents how critical thinking and science can be applied to the way one views things. The critical thinking allows one to compare two distinct pictures and determine the specific art elements used. This book also talks about the works in progress, representing how a piece of artwork begins and how it ends. Therefore, this book gives a clear discription of visual art and how people perceive it. This paper aims at examining how visual art relates and is used in physics in relation to the book World of Art. Physics and art are two related subjects that work consistently. According to the book World of Art, visual art brings out a clear picture of things and how they are observed by people. It describes what role such elements of visual art as lines, shapes, forms, space, color, and texture play in depicting things (Fazenda 17). The book discusses topics like the optics of the eye and camera, the distinct sources of light, holography and photography, color in paitings and printings. Physics contains a lot of different topics that relate to visual art, as it is brought forth by Sayre in the book World of Art. However, the major concepts that are clearly outlined are the concepts of light and sound, which are essential in both physics and visual art, as proved by Sayre. According to Sayre, light is one of the most significant elements of art because it determines how people recognize pictures and diagrams. According to him, a picture can be well identified through the presence of light (Sayre 82). In other words, the book clearly explains that the presence of light and contrast in an image determine whether the photo is taken at night or during the day, in the morning when the sun rises up, in the afternoon when the sun is hot, or in the evening when the sun sets (Johnson 101). Light also helps people determine the mood of the image; in the sense that it can be used to tell whether a person on the picture is happy or not. In other words, light is a way of communicating in arts. Thus, light is as important in art as it is in physics. Through light and sound, it is very easy to perceive the world. There are several means of communiation in science with most of them using the concept of either light or sound, or sometimes both (Gilbert and Haeberli 7). The soaring form of communication is art, and in most cases, arts employ light and/or sound as their expression medium. Just as it is put by Sayre, visual arts use light as well as sound to make the work of art evident. Thus, movies, ballet, and music videos, where computer graphics is employed, use both light and sound. Therefore, visual art is evident in many physically related fields. In addition, Sayre puts it clear in his book World of Art that visual art must employ critical thiniking so as an individual could compare one depiction with another using different components of art. One of the major elements used in critical thinking is light (Sayre 187). The way light is employed in an image can clearly determine what time the picture was photographed, therefore, giving a good comparison. Light can also tell the whether pattern of the picture. Moreover, in visual art, light can help a person perceive where the picture was taken, whether inside a house or outside (Grau 66). In physics, there is a profound examination of sound and light; and how the peoples ears and eyes detect them is not only rationally pleasant, but also significant to comprehend and intepret the world in which individuals live. All the phenomena that occur around people in the world and how individuals perceive them are determined by the presence of light and sound. The pictures given below (see Picture 1) clearly show how light and color are used in visual art and what impact they may have on the image and its spatial dimensions (Gilbert and Haeberli 8).Comprehending the physics of sound and light may also augment the appreciation and understanding of works of art and even motivate musicians and artists to broaden their knowledge of the subject (Fazenda 45). Consequently, understanding of some aspects of physics might improve their music and art production as well as inspire the artists to create something new. The same applies to physicists: they can also be inspired and motivated by the visual arts in their work. In fact, physics is just another word for nature if to translate the word Phusis from Greek, from which it was derived. This means that physics is the science that studies naturally occuring observable facts about energy, and the light is also a naturally occuring entity, which makes the concept of visual art evident in physics. According to Sayre, the work of progress, which refers to the beginning and ending of art, is another concept that is also present in physics. Just the way a diagram can be drawn right from the beginning to the end, from scatch to something significant, the same way physics defines things in nature (Johnson 101). Another important idea brought out by Sayre in World of Art is that through critical thinking and problem soliving, artists are able to come up with great artistic works (Sayre 312). The aspect of problem solving is very crucial at this point in the sense that it greatly contributes to innovations and technological advancements. For example, in the ancient days, people used to draw images using water paintings on canvas, but with time, oil paintings were introduced to solve the problem of the fast fading colors. The concept of problem solving has advanced visual art, which can be vivid from the new incorporation of form, lines, value, and texture, among others (Sayre 497). The same case is observed in physics, whereby physics is a science and there has been several advancements and modifications in the science field due to numerous innovations that are observed in the world today. And any advancement of a substance is triggered by the objective of solving a particular problem and making life easier (Gilbert and Haeberli 7). For example, through advancements of physics, people are now aware that light travels faster than sound. Therefore, problem solving is a very important concept in visual art, as perceived by Sayre, as well as in physics, as perceived by scientists. The last important factor is that color is also as essential as light in visual art because colors are used to differentiate images and act as an attraction factor in images. According to Sayre, colors are very powerful image developers. For example, when an image is drawn with a red color, it depicts youthfulness, energy, and action. The experts also state that blue color is the dominat color of furniture and paintings in bedrooms because it helps to relax. According to Sayre, green color mostly suggests hope, growth, and nature (Sayre 581). When yellow color is combined with red, it suggests swiftness and power of a particular object, for example, a car (Grau 112). Therefore, this eventful nature of colors help the artists develop attractive images and drawings that possess massive meanings. In the physical field, however, color and sound that people recognize do not rely on the physical, measurable incentive, but on the physiological response illustrated by psycho-physical limitat ions. These may include saturation, brightness, hue for color, and pitch, timbre for sound (Fazenda 99). Thus, it is clear that the concepts of visual art brought out in the World of Art by Sayre are evident in physics and are very significant components of physics (Sayre 167). Consequently, visual art and physics are consistent in all elemental functions and operations. Buy custom How Visual Art Relates to Physics essay

John Grisham Essays - John Grisham, Phi Kappa Phi, Free Essays

John Grisham Essays - John Grisham, Phi Kappa Phi, Free Essays John Grisham Reading 951006 Miller February 5, 2015 John Grisham is a popular novelist best known for legal thrillers. Grisham earned his degree in accounting at Mississippi State University. However he switched to criminaldefense law and received his law degree in 1981. John Grisham practiced law and served as democrat in the Mississippi state legislature. In his first trial case where he observed, inspired him to write his first novel, A Time to kill. Grisham spend three years on this novel and finished it 1987. Rejected by couple of publishers, an unknown publisher agreed to publish his book only five- thousand books were printed. John Grisham books (The Firm, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker etc...) became international bestsellers. When he wasnt writing, Grisham devotes time in charitable causes, including the most recently his rebuild the Coast Fund, which raised 8.8 million dollars when Hurricane Katrina hit (Random House). As a child, he dreamed of being a professional baseball player. He now serves as the local little league commissioner, and he built six ball fields on his property have played host to over 350 kids on 26 little league teams. John Grisham has always been a great writer and will always be successful in his novels.

Definition and Examples of Pseudowords

Definition and Examples of Pseudowords A pseudoword is a fake word- that is, a string of letters that resembles a real word (in terms of its orthographic and phonological structure) but doesnt actually exist in the language. Also known as  jibberwacky or a wug word.   Some examples of monosyllabic pseudowords in English are heth, lan, nep, rop, sark, shep, spet,  stip, toin, and  vun. In the study of language acquisition and language disorders, experiments involving the repetition of pseudowords have been used to predict literacy achievement later in life. See Examples and Observations below. Also, see: Ghost WordLiteracyMountweazelNeologismNonce WordNonsense WordStunt Word Examples and Observations Pseudowords are letter strings which have no meaning, but which are pronounceable because they conform to the orthography of the languages include pseudowords such as shum, laip, and cigbet. Pseudowords can be read by application of grapheme-phoneme conversion rules even though the words are not real and have not been encountered in print or in spoken language. Although it has been argued that pseudowords may be read by analogy to words, some awareness of grapheme-phoneme conversion rules and segmentation skills are necessary to read a pseudoword correctly. For example, for a correct reading of the pseudoword dake, it must be segmented into an initial letter d and a rime or word body ake; the latter could be read by analogy to cake, but the sound of d and the segmentation itself are, in fact, phonological processing skills.(Linda S. Siegel, Phonological Processing Deficits and Reading Disabilities. Word Recognition in Beginning Literacy, ed. by Jamie L. Metsala and Linnea C. Ehri. La wrence Erlbaum, 1998) Pseudowords and Brain ActivityIn some studies no differences in brain activation for real words and pseudowords are observed (Bookheimer et al. 1995), indicating that the tasks activate brain regions for orthographic and phonological but not semantic coding. . . . Presenting the same pseudoword repeatedly so that it is no longer an unfamiliar word reduces activity in right lingual gyrus, suggesting that that structure plays a role in learning to recognize familiar words (Frith et al. 1995).(Virginia Wise Berninger and Todd L. Richards, Brain Literacy for Educators and Psychologists. Elsevier Science, 2002) Alternate Spellings: pseudo word, pseudo-word

Content Comprehension and Analysis Task Assignment - 2

Content Comprehension and Analysis Task - Assignment Example The authors argue that with a diverse environment employees are able to learn and benefit from the uniqueness of others ideas. A myriad of businesses across the globe have appreciated and recognized the need to heavily invest in inclusion and diversity as part of talent management within the organization. It is an important concept as organizations can interact with people from different cultures, resulting to an upsurge in the level of creativity, global understanding, and productivity, and greater agility, development of new attitudes, new solutions and innovation that will lead to the growth of the company. Organizations that have not incorporated diversity as part of its talent management strategy have failed to attract the best skills across the globe. Some of the benefits of diversity include; (Yukl, 2002) Increased productivity – The inclusion of pe ople from diverse backgrounds working towards a common goal improves their level of loyalty. They employ peculiar skills to improve the performance of the company. Diverse experience-; People from different backgrounds bring unique understanding of concepts and experiences to the table. By bring the teams together; employees are able to deal with changing conditions. Every employee has a weakness and strengths derived from their cultural backgrounds, when managed properly their strengths can be leveraged and strengths can be complemented to enhance their performance. Increased creativity and problem solving- With a number of different unique and diverse minds, coming together, it is likely that solutions will be adopted since individuals bring unique way of thinking, operating and handling issues. (Yukl, 2002) Attract and retain talent- The attraction of the best employees to the organization will give it a competitive edge over others. The feeling f inclusion and appreciation enhances the feeling of belonging and loyalty to the organization. The

Curriculum Development Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7000 words

Curriculum Development Assignment - Essay Example Prior studies have acknowledged that GCSE students have a limited knowledge of science (i.e., concerning medicine and drugs) with no positive reception of the responsibility played by scientists ideas in guiding inquiry. Therefore, this study tests the argument that the GCSE students can make significant progress in developing a more refined, constructivist epistemology of science, if given a Kagan structure was used in school science curriculum (Kagan, 2004,p.1606). In this essay I chose to objectively discuss the Kagan structure on cooperative learning versus independent learning. In this case, the two class units taught will be medicine and drugs using the two methods to determine which one is more effective (Kagan, 2008,p.5). This will help to provide information concerning how GCSE students can further progress in methods of teaching. On the same note, the essay will helps one to identify aims of what is to be discovered and achieved. Also there will be a reflective account and discussions of findings and data analysis based on engagement, attitude and motivation. The rationale behind this Kagan structure is that those teachers who try it find it easy to make their students understand learning procedures and it also make it easier for teachers teach. Teachers confess that the structures have made more difference that any other innovation in teaching methods. Students on the other hand say that they are a fun to use while administrators report that it has led to positive outcomes to their schools and districts. In fact, the structures foster wide range of skills and virtues allowing learners to function successfully and with dignity in all in all of their life situations. This has helped in developing the whole student by inculcating thinking skills, social character and societal skills into the learners. In this regard, mission is to prepare students with the relationship

Globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Globalization - Essay Example Of the two opposing arguments Moore’s although more optimistic is only partially convincing. Chossudovsky’s argument on the other hand, although pessimistic appears to be more realistic and appreciative of the world’s general state of affairs. Michel Moore is optimistic in his general outlook and draws on the difficulties of the past and how the world has grown in a positive direction as a result. He takes the position that as a result of world wars and the great depression a ‘new system of global structures’ (Moore. P. 1) such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the international Monetary Fund and the International Trade Organization help is available to those third world countries that cannot help themselves. It is true that world conflicts have resulted in the creation of global structures. But in the grand scheme of things they are powerless to eradicate poverty and the resulting health crisis. As Chossudovsky points out in his publication Globalization of Poverty ‘In the 1990s, famines at the local level have erupted in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and parts of Latin America; health clinics and schools have been closed down; hundreds of millions of children have been denied the right to primary education. In the Third World, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, there has been a resurgence of infectious diseases including tuberculosis, malaria and cholera.’ (Chossudovsky. P1) Moore argues that international solidarity is the key to lending aide to those less fortunate than ourselves and extols the virtue of trading with the lesser developed countries. He suggests buying coffee from Uganda and perhaps T-shirts from Bangladesh and goes on to say ‘embrace the outside world, not shun it.† (Moore. P.2) When societies are open to one another, they share their ideas and their culture. Moore offer the European Economics Community as an example of the results of opening

Research Methods in Social Work Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Methods in Social Work - Research Paper Example This means that the better part of the active population of the society was captured. The sample size randomly selected from the different age groupings was 300 students. These students were taken through an oral interview on the amount of time that should be put on entertainment and this was the findings; 17yrs to 29yrs preferred 5 days a week, 30yrs to 38yrs opted for 3 days a week and the upper end of the age group proposed twice a week. This was a representative sample to the population at more than 30% and the findings give a true reflection of the general behavior across the social life of different age brackets in the world (Proquest, 2012). A survey undertaken by Gallup in December 2008 with a sample of 1500 people established that 44% of the Pakistani feels that Taliban has a negative influence In the social, economic and political aspect of their nation (Gallup world, 2009). This was not a sufficient representative sample to the population of about 177 (World Bank, 2011) million people but aspiring political leaders to formulate winning strategies could still use this. The political survey needs to capture regional dispersions and social stratification. A survey was conducted by the Princeton Survey Research Associates for The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press asking the question ‘Women get fewer opportunities than men for good jobs (Pew Research Center, 2012)? The survey only interviewed 3008 people from a total American population of 311,591,917 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011) to publish the results and deem them accurate. This survey can be used by NGOs and different organizations championing women rights to further their propaganda against employers.

Subject political science in 1989 some observers claimed that marxism Essay

Subject political science in 1989 some observers claimed that marxism was obsolete. What if any analytical insights can marxist political economy still provi - Essay Example A Roman citizen often owned slaves who worked his land growing wheat; a feudal lord would seize the surplus wheat grown by the serf on the lands; the early capitalist farmers began to employ landless labourers to do their manual work for a wage that was less than the total value f the product that they created. In each case, wheat is grown on land by the labour f men and women, but the social arrangements are totally different. There are totally different class relationships, leading to totally different forms f society: ancient, feudal, and capitalist. The one thing that unites these three arrangements is that in each case a minority class rules and takes the surplus away from the producers. Each society, says Marx, embodies class exploitation based on the relationships f production, or rather, the modes f production. The key to understanding a given society is to discover which is the dominant mode f production within it. The basic pattern f social and political relationships can t hen be known. Since Marx concentrates his attention on the class structure f capita... While Marx recognizes that there are other classes, the fundamental class division is between this pairing f the exploiter and the exploited. The bourgeoisie derive their class position from the fact that they own productive wealth. It is not their high income that makes them capitalists, but the fact that they own the means f production. For example, the inputs necessary for production - factories, machines, etc. The ability f workers to work (labour power) is in itself a marketable commodity bought for the least cost to be used at will by the capitalist. In addition, the capitalist owns the product and will always pocket the difference between the value f the labour and the value f the product - referred to by Marx as 'surplus value' - purely by virtue f his ownership. His property rights also allow the capitalist the control f the process f production and the labour he buys. The proletariat in contrast, owns no means f production. Because f this exploitation, Marx viewed the bourg eoisie and the proletariat as locked in deep and unavoidable conflict. The criminal justice system, in the words or Marx, is used against, rather than for the people. Under capitalism, the system f law and punishment is inherently unjust, designed not to control crime for the good f the society but to subjugate the population. For instance, imprisonment is imposed less as a direct punishment for convicted felons than as a way to siphon off surplus labour from the population. Since a long cycle f growth and depression is inherent in capitalism, there will be times when there are too many workers that the economy cannot absorb. These surplus workers are a threat to capitalists, since they could organize into a revolutionary movement. Therefore, the theory

Research Methods in Social Work Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Methods in Social Work - Research Paper Example This means that the better part of the active population of the society was captured. The sample size randomly selected from the different age groupings was 300 students. These students were taken through an oral interview on the amount of time that should be put on entertainment and this was the findings; 17yrs to 29yrs preferred 5 days a week, 30yrs to 38yrs opted for 3 days a week and the upper end of the age group proposed twice a week. This was a representative sample to the population at more than 30% and the findings give a true reflection of the general behavior across the social life of different age brackets in the world (Proquest, 2012). A survey undertaken by Gallup in December 2008 with a sample of 1500 people established that 44% of the Pakistani feels that Taliban has a negative influence In the social, economic and political aspect of their nation (Gallup world, 2009). This was not a sufficient representative sample to the population of about 177 (World Bank, 2011) million people but aspiring political leaders to formulate winning strategies could still use this. The political survey needs to capture regional dispersions and social stratification. A survey was conducted by the Princeton Survey Research Associates for The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press asking the question ‘Women get fewer opportunities than men for good jobs (Pew Research Center, 2012)? The survey only interviewed 3008 people from a total American population of 311,591,917 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011) to publish the results and deem them accurate. This survey can be used by NGOs and different organizations championing women rights to further their propaganda against employers.

Diversity and Ethics in Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Diversity and Ethics in Leadership - Essay Example Likewise, workplace has become increasingly diverse. Diversity not only means a variation of visible traits like age, gender and color, but also involves the underlying varying factors as religion, nationality, education, perspectives and interests (Burrows, 2007). Employees tend to indulge in dysfunctional conflicts with their colleagues over matters of no organizational relevance or significance. Their conflicting notions generate repulsive forces and they fall apart. This causes them to work for individualistic interests. The ultimate sufferer is the organization for whom they are supposed to work. Employees satisfy their personal egos on the cost of work. This has exposed the business entrepreneurs to new challenges in the workplace. Leaders, therefore, assume huge responsibility of making their decisions compliant with the ethical standards in all respects. Compliance with the demands of justice and integrity have always been considered a fundamental trait of transformational leadership (Hood, 2003, p. 264). Ethics are the cardinal basis of distinction between right and wrong. However, organizations often tend to overlook the ethical concerns of their proceedings in an attempt to maximize monetary benefits. â€Å"The pressure to succeed is driving some leaders to explore ways to shortcircuit the system, but the temporary gains of such deception generally are outweighed by the long-lasting damage† (Hermond, 2006, p. 2). The conventional cost benefit analysis business entrepreneurs make in order to make important business decisions is often ignorant of their ethical implications on the society. The question arises, â€Å"Ethics is a vast subject. How can a businessman decide what minimum ethical level to respect?† The empirical answer lies in respecting the individual’s religious beliefs on the least, though the subject is actually too vast and debatable to be generalized. Diversity that matters is

How Cell Phones and Other Inventions Affected the American Family Essay Example for Free

How Cell Phones and Other Inventions Affected the American Family Essay How Cell Phones and other inventions affect the American family There are many new inventions that have helped to advance our society and had an affect on the American family. Since the invention of the cell phone people no longer have to rely on payphones, mail, or even traveling. Email has made it easier for people to send mail faster. Instead of writing or typing out a letter and waiting for the post to send it, now you just hop on your computer type it out, send it, and a few seconds later it has been delivered. Entertainment has also made an impact on the American family. Entertainment has become more accessible over time and at this point you don’t even have to leave your house to order a new movie On Demand or buy a new song or even a whole CD. The cause of cellphones, email, and advanced entertainment has a great effect on the American family by helping them become more efficient. The cell phone has become so depended on; most people can’t leave the house without them. They help you become more accessible to other people and more recently have more features than just calling. Texting also makes it easy to send quick messages to people if you don’t have time to have a conversation on the phone. For instance, if you are in a loud place, like a concert or a quiet place where you don’t want to draw attention to yourself, like a church service. They also have other features like games, and music. You can buy games and music right from your phone; you can even access the internet straight from your phone. These new parts of the cell phone help the American family to become more efficient and get in communication with other people faster. Email has become more and more popular since it was invented. Now that just about everyone has an email it is not necessary to mail as many cards or letters anymore. Since the postal system takes so much time most people prefer email simply because their information gets there faster and more efficiently. Adults can send emails to their work and co-workers, which allows them to work from home without even missing a meeting. They can email all of their paper work and they can call into meetings now. Even kids/students can take advantage of this by send emails to their teachers with their school work attached if they are sick or just have late work. The American family has been affected in a very positive way by using these new inventions. Entertainment has also taken a turn into a new direction. There are so many new ways to keep yourself entertained without even leaving your house. For example, already mentioned the cell phone has games and music installed into it that gives you the opportunity to buy new things to keep yourself entertained. Then there is also the television that you can watch movies on or shows that you like. There is even programs like On Demand where you can access it right through your TV and buy a new movie for about five bucks and watch it without even having to leave your couch. The way that entertainment has expanded has had such an impact on the American family. This might not be as positive as the speeded up communication devices since this might cause you to be more inefficient and lay around all day. However, when these entertainment devices are used appropriately you can get a good use out of them without letting them consume all of your time. The way that these new inventions have affected the American family is mostly positive, with very little negative effects. Since these inventions, there has been a more efficient way of communication through cell phones and email, which helps work get done faster. The cell phone has diminished the need to have filthy pay phones all over and email has crushed the need to send many things through the postal office, which isn’t as speedy and efficient as email. With all of these new ways of speeding up work, that leaves us with more time to ourselves, and so we got new ways to entertain ourselves without having to leave the house after a long stressful day at work. Over all the cause of the inventions of things like cell phones email, and entertainment has a positive effect on the American family.

History Of Pragmatic Transfer English Language Essay

History Of Pragmatic Transfer English Language Essay Abstract The purpose of this study is to find out whether pragmatic transfer takes place in Saudis compliment responses (particularly males). It also touches the part of language proficiency and its effects on pragmatic competence. Additionally, it shows the differences and the similarities between natives compliments, compliment responses and Saudi males compliments and compliment responses. The subjects were three groups: natives and non-native English teachers and non-native and non-English teachers. I used the discourse completion test to come up with valid various results. It has been found that there are no differences in compliments between Saudi males and native speakers of English. Secondly, when responses to compliments are to be said, differences arise. From the study, it was discovered that Saudi males do not produce target-like compliment responses. Moreover, language proficiency does not play a major role in pragmatic competence. As the I noticed from the responses to compliments that Saudi males whether majoring in English or not, they produce the same responses except that the English teachers group translate the responses literally into English. What does pragmatic transfer mean? And does it have to do with proficiency of language? Is it a fundamental issue in second language acquisition? What do we mean by a compliment? How does compliment responses cause communication breakdown? Pragmatic transfer is defined as the influence of learners pragmatic knowledge of language and culture other than the target language on their comprehension, production, and acquisition of L2 pragmatic information (Rizk 2003, p. 404). Pragmatic competence is absolutely essential in face-to-face interactions in a foreign language. Children acquire pragmatic competence in their native language through interaction with their parents or older children, in other words, engagement in contextualized communicative activities. They receive continuous feedback from parents and peers who form appropriate routines, establish rules, and correct childrens inappropriate behavior. This feedback contributes to the acquisition of the pragmatic skills required to function in their community. In contrast, most adult foreign language learners lack that type of input. Consequently, the classroom becomes the most important, and maybe the only, source of relevant input for the enhancing of their pragmatic competence. Compliments are a kind of speech acts that is said in everyday conversations. In fact, paying different compliments and responding differently is dependent on cultures and situational conversations. Some cultures use a lot of compliments and praises whereas others may find it as a kind of insincerity. Therefore, cross-cultural communications occur and sometimes may cause a kind of insulting to the other partner involved in a conversation. Al-khatib 2 I have never come across any study on the Saudi community in terms of compliment responses which encourages me to conduct such a study. However, many studies were done on several societies that reflect the significance of carrying out such studies. The importance of the present study arises where People think that ESL Learners must learn just grammar rules and writing styles in classrooms whereas other aspects of the language can be acquired through experience or watching T.V. Actually, it can be done this way, however, we do not know how much time will be allocated for it and how well learners would acquire semantic meanings without any guidance to make the situations clearer and more intelligible. Having done this, ESL learners will lack the appropriate ways of communication with native speakers of a particular language or even non-natives in everyday dialogues. In my opinion, linguistic mistakes can be corrected and the person would be considered that he is not grammatically competent. However, semantic or pragmatic mistakes may cause offence to the other person. Additionally, it might lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding which results in communicative breakdown. Basically, communicative breakdown is communicative failure in which conversations halt at this point. When misunderstanding takes place, none of the partners know what to say or how to reply to such expressions. Unawareness of the others culture is the major cause of this problem. Therefore, teaching pragmatics is fundamental in ESL classes to enable the students speak the target language confidently and appropriately. Pragmatic competence is as essential and important as linguistic competence. Being linguistically competent does not necessarily means that you are pragmatically competent. In fact, being able to construct grammatically correct sentences does not mean that theses sentences are pragmatically appropriate or even acceptable. I am going to shed a light on all these early mentioned topics, finding out from the result how pragmatic competence is important for SL learners. Literature review: Intercultural miscommunications often occur when ESL Learners fall back on their L1 in realizing any kind of speech act in L2. In fact, the lacking of the target language expressions and culture forces students to do Al-khatib 3 that. That what is meant by pragmatic transfer according to Rizk(2005). There are two kinds of pragmatic transfer: positive which is considered to be a proof of pragmatic universality among languages, and negative transfer which is being not able to understand the target language which always results in pragmatic failure. Negative pragmatic transfer, as Rizk (2003) explains, takes the form of translating some formulaic expressions/ phrases functioning to express different speech acts in (L1) to express the equivalent speech act in L2. (p.405). El Samaty (2005) mentions one factor that may influence pragmatic transfer and that is learners awareness of what constitutes a language specific or a universal issue (p.342). Learners would not transfer an L1 pragmatic feature to L2 if they know that it is language specific. In fact, language specific refers to the features or expressions of a language which cannot be used in other languages. Pragmatic studies which deal with different speech acts have not been conducted till recently. These studies focused on L1 in most cases, however later, L2 and cross-cultural communications have been introduced. The L2 pragmatic transfer researches have shown that in spite of being linguistically competent in a second language, learners are likely to transfer L1 pragmatic rules in their L2 production (El Samaty, 2005). Takahashi and Beebe (1998) theorized that there is a positive relation between L2 proficiency and pragmatic transfer. They argued that more proficient learners tend to transfer L1 socio-cultural norms more than less proficient learners because they have enough control over L2 to express L1 sentiments at a high pragmatic level. Eslami-Rasekh (2004) backs this claim stating that linguistically competent learners do not necessarily possess comparable pragmatic competence. Even grammatically advanced learners may use language inappropriately and show differences from targe t-language pragmatic norms.   Ã‚   In 1986, Blum-kulka and Olshtain used discourse completion tests to analyze the utterance length of requesting strategies in Hebrew. They collected the data from non-native speakers of Hebrew at three proficiency levels, and they found out that high-intermediate learners produced utterances longer than the utterances of low-intermediate and advanced learners, which was considered by the researchers as pragmatic failure ( Ghawi 2002, p.39). Compliments in both Arabic (Saudi culture) and American cultures: Compliments have been defined by a lot of linguists. Compliments in short are praise that are said to people Al-khatib 4 to make them happy or to encourage and congratulate them on their success they achieve. Every culture has different types of compliments. Moreover, every culture uses various compliments according to variable situations. Therefore, cultures get distinguished from each other. Many people think that they can pay any kind of compliments to people coming from different cultures claiming that we are giving praise, so it is fine. In fact, it is not for several reasons. Firstly, compliments might be rarely used in a particular culture which people might think that it is a kind of being in love or trying to get the other partner to your side. Secondly, some compliments in a specific culture might be considered insults in other cultures. For instance, we cannot compliment on a girl saying you are fat in Arabic or even Malaysian or European cultures whereas the same clause can be understood as a compliment in the African culture. Saudi culture is a part of the Arabic culture except for very few differences in terms of politeness and some other speech acts. In fact, Saudis usually pay compliments on several things such as appearance, traits, and personal skills. It is not something strange that Saudis frequently give complements; Arabs in general like to pay much praise to each other. It seems that it is purposeful in a way that it keeps the relations among friends and relatives more intimate and it can be a tool sometimes to please somebody whom you feel that you upset her/him. English in Saudi Arabia is considered a foreign language. The medium of instruction at school, colleges and universities is Arabic except in English departments where English is applied as the medium of instruction. Culture is carried and delivered through language, however, since the language is still not completely there, so the culture would not be understood. Therefore, very few people speak English fluently and clearly. In fact, e ven the ones who speak fluently, they still have some problems with the western (English) culture. Consequently, pragmatic errors will appear in their speech. Compliments form. Compliment form refers to the kind of language used to express the compliment. The compliments differed in their length, use of metaphor and comparatives, and to some extent, syntactic structure. They were also similar in that both Saudi and American compliments were primarily adjectival in that an adjective was responsible for their positive meaning. The American compliments are short, as in (1) through (3). Al-khatib 5 (1) You look great. (2) Your car is nice. (3) Good job. If we compare the American compliments to the Arabic compliments (Saudi in particular) we will find out that Saudi compliments are longer than the American ones. Consider this example: Eeh alhalawa dee ya wad, 3l3amar doobu tele2, 3rhamna ya sheek ya heelou. What is all this smartness man? The moon has just appeared! We cannot take it! The length of the Saudi compliments appears to be related to two features of Arabic discourse: 1) Repetition of almost the same idea with a change in words and. 2) The use of several adjectives in a series. The use of metaphor in Arabic culture varies from the American culture. In Arabic culture, the moon is the symbol of beauty because it appears at night where the world is full of dark, however, the moon shines up there lighting the landscape. Therefore, Arabs compare good-looking people with the moon. However, as we noticed from the previous examples of compliments by Americans and Saudis, both are using adjectives in their compliments. All these words (in English: great, nice, good) and ( in Arabic: helou, sheek= sweet, gentle) are adjectives. 2 Attributes praised. There is no difference between the American and the Saudi culture when it comes to the kinds of attributes that people tend to compliment upon. Most of the situations where compliments are appropriate to be said and responded to are similar. Basically, Saudis and Americans usually pay compliments on appearance, skills, and traits. Appearance refers to ones look and included haircuts, eyes, and clothing. Skills refers to the quality of something produced or done. Traits refer to personality characteristics such as kindness, politeness and intelligence. Compliment responses Responses to requests or apology can be easy and limited. These two kinds of speech acts might not differ much in most languages. Additionally, the responses can be shortened by saying either yes or no. However, when it comes to compliment responses a lot of things must be considered such as the kind of the Al-khatib 6 said compliment, the relationship between the speaker and the recipient and the culture. Both Americans and Saudis respond totally, differently to compliments. In fact, cultures play a major role in the responses. Usually, Arabs respond to compliments by returning another compliment which is quite strange to people from different cultures especially Americans. One of the compliment responses by Saudis was you are more handsome. Such a response may be problematic to people from another culture. Research questions As I mentioned earlier, the purpose of this study is to examine pragmatic transfer in compliment responses by Arabic learners of English(Saudis in particular). Three related research questions emerged: What are the similarities and differences in compliments and compliments responses between male NSs and Saudi male NNSs of English? When speaking in English, will Saudis males compliment responses be closer to Arabic or English? To what extent language proficiency plays a role in their use of compliment responses? To answer these types of questions we should first collect the data of the study which was done on the subjects. Methodology For more valid and practical results I have chosen 3 groups to conduct my study upon. The subjects are all males and they are in 30s. In fact, the reason behind not choosing females is that the study was done in Saudi Arabia where it is so difficult to approach any woman. Additionally, all academic institutions are separate meaning that each gender (female, male) is in totally separate place and men are not allowed to enter ladies sections. Therefore, it was easier to choose just males. Group1: 10 Americans (native speakers of English) English teachers. Group 2: 10 Saudis (non-natives+ advanced learners, they are level 7) Group 3: 10 Saudis (non-native+ low intermediate, they are level 2) Al-khatib 7 Actually, these learners are students at Direct English institute in Saudi Arabia. In this institute, there are 8 levels starting from 1 till 8. They take 7 classes in English weekly; five classes with bilinguals and two classes with native speakers. In each level students take the same amount of classes and each level lasts for six weeks. The level of proficiency was taken according to this classification. Tool: Discourse Completion Test. The tool consists of 5 scenarios created by the researcher. The subjects are expected to respond to the compliments given in the scenarios. Additionally, observation also has been used to come up with more valid results. First scenario: You are wearing new blue jeans. Your friend complimented you you look handsome, blue is great on you You sayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Americans responded to the compliment with acceptance saying thanks or you really made my day. Those who responded in Arabic said but you are more handsome/this is because you have a good taste/ really? Swear to God. The third group who responded in English said your eyes are beautiful and they see everything beautiful others responded: I bought it in the sales, it is so cheap. Just one person said: thanks, I like it too Second scenario You have just ended a computer game scoring a very high score that many of your friends could not reach this point. One paid you a compliment you are so skillful and professional in this game You sayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Some Americans respond to the compliment with comment history saying thanks, I played this game hundreds of time. Others said do you want me to help you? Al-khatib 8 The second group who responded in Arabic said: stop making fun of me The third group who responded in English said: are you serious? I do not think so. You are just complimenting me. Third scenario You always come by time whenever there is a meeting or a party; one gave you a compliment you are very punctual You say à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Americans responded to the compliment with comment acceptance saying thanks, it is my favorite habit The first group who responded in Arabic said thanks, so are you . Those who responded in English said but you are more punctual/ I think you are the symbol of punctuality. Forth scenario: Your friends are in your house. And then you served them tea. One of your friends complimented on it saying the tea is very sweet and delicious you sayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Americans responded to compliments with acceptance saying thank you some responded with acceptance offering the recipe: would you like the recipe? Those who responded in Arabic said:that is because your taste is sweet and you taste everything sweet/ your taste is distinct in that you know which is delicious and which is nasty., Those who responded in English said: I dipped my sweet finger in it that is why it is sweet. others responded: but you are much sweeter than the tea. Fifth scenario: You solved a very tough equation in the class that no one could do it. Your professor was impressed with you. When you left, your friend paid you a compliment you are excellent, man Al-khatib 9 You sayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Americans responded with comment acceptance: thanks, but I was studying hard last night and others offered their help do you want me to help you? Those who responded in Arabic said do you really think so? I know you are just complimenting me. Those who responded in English translate literally from Arabic saying but you are better Sixth scenario: You redecorated your house in a very eye-catching way. Some visitors came over and paid you a very wonderful compliment saying: what a beautiful decoration!! You are very tasteful. You sayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Americans simply responded with comment acceptance saying: thanks a lot, you really made my day others responded this way: actually it took me too long The second group who responded in Arabic said: thanks, you are very tasteful as well. The third group who simply translated from Arabic into English responded I do not think so. Do you really mean it or just complimenting? others said please no compliments, speak the truth; is it beautiful or not? Results and findings Based on the data collected from all the subjects and from observation, I have found out the following results: There are similarities in compliments between American and Saudi males in that both compliment on the same attributes which are: traits, appearance, skills. Moreover, from my observation I found out that several other cultures such as Malaysian and Indians compliment on the same attributes which refer to positive pragmatic transfer shared by several cultures. There are many differences when it comes to compliment responses between American and Saudi Al-khatib 10 males in which Saudi males do not produce target-like compliment responses. Alternatively, they bring about some expressions from their L1, which is Arabic, into English. In fact, this is exactly what negative pragmatic transfer means. People from different cultures will not understand what is meant by such responses; so they tend to translate it literally. Consequently, they find it very insulting because they do not understand the speakers cultural purpose behind it. Eventually, this will lead them to communicative breakdown. Being linguistically competent does not mean you are pragmatically competent. In fact, proficiency in L2 does not necessarily lead to pragmatic competence in the target language as we noticed this from the responses. Advanced learners and low intermediate learners responded identically except that the advance learners translated the expressions from Arabic into English whereas the low intermediate learners responded in Arabic because they still have not got the ability to make grammatically correct sentences. Al-khatib 11 Conclusion Pragmatic competence is very crucial in learning any language. In my opinion, it is as important as linguistic competence. EFL/ESL teachers and curriculum designers should equally focus on enriching learners with cultural aspects of the language as well as the linguistic aspects. Learners have to be aware of the target language culture in order to comprehend the language better and to be able to produce pragmatically correct sentences. Consequently, communicative breakdown will gradually disappear in their speech. Culture is a fundamental factor in learning languages because it is responsible for the different speech acts produced by its native speakers. Basically, it is the bottom line for those who want to master the target language. Additionally, EFL teachers should expose their students and encourage them to expose themselves as much as possible to the target language through TV programs, shows, movies, and news. It enhances the ability of mastering the target language. Limitations of the study The study aimed to find out whether Saudis produce target-like compliment responses or not. In fact, it asserts that there is a problem in terms of responding to compliments. However, it did not state some solutions to such a problematic issue. Therefore, I would suggest a research area for the future to find out some practical solutions to this problem. Moreover, there is another area of research as well which is can we teach pragmatic competence to SL learners as well as we are teaching linguistic competence? Is it possible? How would it be successful to the level of learners? What are the good methods that can be applied to teach pragmatic competence? Al-khatib 12

Essay --

Well, in today’s society there are commonly known for 105 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States of America present today according to (thurgoodmarshllfund.net, 2012). Historical black institutions are for higher learning and to educate African Americans students. In 1837 the key responsibility mission was to educate freed slaves how to read and write. During the beginning of the 21st century, along with graduates and post graduates degrees, historically Black Colleges and universities offer African American students a place to earn logic of identify heritage and community. Historical Black Colleges have many opportunities people does not know about such as, when was the first HBCU was founded, what is it purpose, different organizations, and who started it. The first HBCU founded was, Cheney University in Pennsylvania. Cheney University was founded in 1837. All HBCUs around America play a critical role in the American system of higher education. For most of America’s history, African Americans that were seeking a college education could only get it from a HBCU. Today, HBCUs remain one of the surest ways for an African American, or student of any race, to receive a quality education. Over 100 HBCUs represent just three percent of the nation’s institutions of higher learning; they graduate nearly 20 percent of African Americans who earn undergraduate degrees. Furthermore, HBCUs were created to support African American students and their education but these institutions of higher learning are no longer exclusive for African American students. Now, HBCUs have a significant percentage of non-African American student populations that consist of Asians, Hispanic, International and white American stu... ... public figures. Many of the institutions emphasize the sciences and engineering, encouraging black students to start a career in those professions. In the early 20th Century, with several black schools established, leaders such as Booker T. Washington and Dr. W.E.B DuBois debated fiercely the future of African-American education. Washington believed vocational training was the key to stepping up from the mire of poverty and bondage; DuBois defended the enlightenment drawn from studying the arts and sciences. In fact, today’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) incorporate both philosophies, providing students with both technical training as well as liberal arts education. Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or â€Å"HBCUs, have played an important role in enriching the lives of not just African Americans, but our entire country.†-Ric Keller Essay -- Well, in today’s society there are commonly known for 105 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States of America present today according to (thurgoodmarshllfund.net, 2012). Historical black institutions are for higher learning and to educate African Americans students. In 1837 the key responsibility mission was to educate freed slaves how to read and write. During the beginning of the 21st century, along with graduates and post graduates degrees, historically Black Colleges and universities offer African American students a place to earn logic of identify heritage and community. Historical Black Colleges have many opportunities people does not know about such as, when was the first HBCU was founded, what is it purpose, different organizations, and who started it. The first HBCU founded was, Cheney University in Pennsylvania. Cheney University was founded in 1837. All HBCUs around America play a critical role in the American system of higher education. For most of America’s history, African Americans that were seeking a college education could only get it from a HBCU. Today, HBCUs remain one of the surest ways for an African American, or student of any race, to receive a quality education. Over 100 HBCUs represent just three percent of the nation’s institutions of higher learning; they graduate nearly 20 percent of African Americans who earn undergraduate degrees. Furthermore, HBCUs were created to support African American students and their education but these institutions of higher learning are no longer exclusive for African American students. Now, HBCUs have a significant percentage of non-African American student populations that consist of Asians, Hispanic, International and white American stu... ... public figures. Many of the institutions emphasize the sciences and engineering, encouraging black students to start a career in those professions. In the early 20th Century, with several black schools established, leaders such as Booker T. Washington and Dr. W.E.B DuBois debated fiercely the future of African-American education. Washington believed vocational training was the key to stepping up from the mire of poverty and bondage; DuBois defended the enlightenment drawn from studying the arts and sciences. In fact, today’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) incorporate both philosophies, providing students with both technical training as well as liberal arts education. Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or â€Å"HBCUs, have played an important role in enriching the lives of not just African Americans, but our entire country.†-Ric Keller

Devotion in Eudora Weltys A Worn Path :: Worn Path essays

Devotion in A Worn Path In "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty an elderly African American woman named Phoenix Jackson picks a cold December day to make yet another perilous journey to a city to get medicine for her ailing grandson. On the way this ninety-year-old woman faces many obstacles, both natural and man-made. Phoenix draws upon her perseverance and willingness to sacrifice herself to help her throughout her journey, but it is the undying love for her grandson that truly guides and drives her to her final goal. Phoenix Jackson has a seemingly inexhaustible amount of determination. From the moment that she sets out on her trek, she must fight all the challenges that nature has made for her. From the very beginning there is the threat of attack by wild animals and Phoenix shouts "out of my way, all you foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons and wild animals!" undauntingly challenging them. Phoenix is a very old woman whose aged, fragile body isn't suited to make such a long journey. At one point when she is climbing up a hill, she states that it seems like "there is chains about my feet, time I get this far." And yet she still trudges onward, stopping only once for a short break. On the way down the hill she gets caught in a bush, its thorns tearing at her finest dress. "I in a thorny bush," she exclaims. But she doesn't give up; she stands there untangling herself from the bush, "her fingers busy and intent." After she has overcome this obstacle she faces yet another trial. Across Phoenix's path lies a creek and across the creek lies a log, which substitutes as a bridge. It is hard enough for Phoenix to walk on flat and stable ground, so walking across the log is a dangerous challenge for her. Even though there is a large threat of her falling and badly hurting herself, "she mounted the log and shut her eyes" and crosses to the other side. Next she comes across a barb wire fence, and once again without showing any signs of fear she fords ahea! d crossing that too. Phoenix travels a good portion of the day facing many physical challenges that test her stamina, but the real trials are the physiological ones that she faces as she encounters people along her journey. Devotion in Eudora Welty's A Worn Path :: Worn Path essays Devotion in A Worn Path In "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty an elderly African American woman named Phoenix Jackson picks a cold December day to make yet another perilous journey to a city to get medicine for her ailing grandson. On the way this ninety-year-old woman faces many obstacles, both natural and man-made. Phoenix draws upon her perseverance and willingness to sacrifice herself to help her throughout her journey, but it is the undying love for her grandson that truly guides and drives her to her final goal. Phoenix Jackson has a seemingly inexhaustible amount of determination. From the moment that she sets out on her trek, she must fight all the challenges that nature has made for her. From the very beginning there is the threat of attack by wild animals and Phoenix shouts "out of my way, all you foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons and wild animals!" undauntingly challenging them. Phoenix is a very old woman whose aged, fragile body isn't suited to make such a long journey. At one point when she is climbing up a hill, she states that it seems like "there is chains about my feet, time I get this far." And yet she still trudges onward, stopping only once for a short break. On the way down the hill she gets caught in a bush, its thorns tearing at her finest dress. "I in a thorny bush," she exclaims. But she doesn't give up; she stands there untangling herself from the bush, "her fingers busy and intent." After she has overcome this obstacle she faces yet another trial. Across Phoenix's path lies a creek and across the creek lies a log, which substitutes as a bridge. It is hard enough for Phoenix to walk on flat and stable ground, so walking across the log is a dangerous challenge for her. Even though there is a large threat of her falling and badly hurting herself, "she mounted the log and shut her eyes" and crosses to the other side. Next she comes across a barb wire fence, and once again without showing any signs of fear she fords ahea! d crossing that too. Phoenix travels a good portion of the day facing many physical challenges that test her stamina, but the real trials are the physiological ones that she faces as she encounters people along her journey.

Pressure ulcers Essay

The occurrence of pressure ulcers as a complication for majority of the immobile patients have been a nursing care concern for years now. The care outcome of these patients should include lowering the incidence of pressure ulcers because of the increased risk for altered skin integrity. Albeit impossible to be eliminated, most especially the site of these pressure ulcers, which are commonly found in the bony prominences of the body, there is still a bigger chance of minimizing the amount of skin damage. A study was conducted on how the heath care team, with focus on the physicians and the nurses, can lower the occurrence of pressure ulcers by simply implementing academic detailing (Kleinpell, 2008). Academic detailing made use of an individualized method of informing and facilitating learning about a particular topic (Kleinpell, 2008). The interventions included to reduce the risk of pressure ulcers were reminders on how to obtain devices to reduce pressure ulcers, feedbacks on rates of occurrence, one-on-one clinical instructions on methods to reduce development of pressure ulcers, and focused preventive interventions like that of the pillow campaign (Kleinpell, 2008). The study was a success because the rate of occurrence lowered from 50% to 8% (Kleinpell, 2008). The impact of this study to the nursing practice is of utmost importance because it asserts that complications such as pressure ulcers can be avoided, as long as the health care team is dedicated in implementing care the proper way to the patients who are at risk for such complications. If these complications can be avoided, the patient will be able to enjoy an easeful rehabilitation, lowered health care cost, and reduced length of stay at the hospital. This will also give more time to the health care team do other essential nursing care. The study proves that there are ways to make the hospital stay of patients worry-free and complication-free if only the health care team will make sure of doing whatever they can to achieve it.

Management Information System Essay

The ten major domestic carriers in the United States reported revenue of 145. 3 billion dollars in 2012, according to data gathered by Airlines for America (2012). The combine market capitalization of the twelve largest and publicly traded airlines stood at 48 billion dollars as of April 2012 just four billion greater than the value of Starbucks and way below other companies like Facebook and eBay ( Airlines for America, 2012). Our research will give a detail analysis of the two theories developed by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter. Porter posited that in order for businesses to compete an in-depth analysis should be done not only of your direct competitors but also external forces that can help a business performance; Porter labelled this as the Five Forces of Competitive Strategy. Another concept developed by Porter was the Value Chain, the Value Chain breaks the business process into two groups, Porter argues that business should analyse the areas of the Value Chain to see where improvements can be made to enhance performance. Our report will show how Southwest Airlines uses Information system in Porters theories and concept to gain competitive advantage Introduction to Southwest Airlines According to information received from Southwest. com (2013), Southwest Airline was incorporated in 1971 by co-founders Rollin King and Herb Kelleher as Air Southwest Company. The company is based in Dallas, Texas and has a staff capacity of over 46,000 persons. The carrier was formed has a low cost domestic carrier originally only flying in the state of Texas before branching out to other US states. From inception Southwest policy business strategy was to offer low fare and conveniently times flights on short haul routes (Ross & Beath, 2007). Today Southwest Airlines flies domestic in the United States to 79 cities. Southwest Airlines is the largest airline in the world by passengers carried, in 2012 over 100 million persons was transported by the airline to different cities in the USA. The airline has being a pioneer in the industry and is credited for setting the foundation for the rise of other low cost carriers across the world like Ryan Air and Easyjet. In an industry where profit margins are very low and different carriers filing for bankruptcy ever so often Southwest has managed to stay above the fray. In almost 40 years of service the airline has consistently turned a profit while other airlines have struggled and has remained one of the world’s most profitable airlines. The airline’s consistent profitability was due to its own ability of low cost on a set per mile basis due to its use of a single aircraft model the Boeing 737 and its fuel hedging program that protect the company from rising fuel prices (Ross & Beath, 2007). Southwest Airlines commands a market capitalization of over nine billion dollars making it one of the most valuable airlines in the world. Southwest credited its success for building a philosophy of simplicity, the company offering of low cost fares kept attracting passengers while its high touch customer service kept them coming back (Ross & Beath, 2007). As the airline grew and its business processes became more complex and with other airlines investing heavily in technology in order to survive Southwest’s CEO at the time realised that a solid IT infrastructure would be essential for the company to achieve its strategic goals and could lower the airline cost without compromising on customer service (Ross & Beath, 2007). Porters Five Force Model for Competitive Strategy Porter’s Five Force Model was developed by Michael Porter, Professor at the Harvard Business School in 1979. According to Porter (1979) the Five Forces is a holistic approach of looking and analysing any industry to understand the structural underlining drivers of profitability and competition. Porter believes that industry players take too much of a narrow look in assessing competition by believing that direct competitors in an industry are the only ones that are important. He uses the five forces model to show how business are engaged in a broader form of competition that can affect their profitability. These broader forces of competition include customers and suppliers who can have certain bargaining powers, new entrants that can emerge in the industry and affect your market share, substitute products or services that can be used and can have a direct effect on your profitability or growth and direct industry rivalry and competition within the industry. According to Hills & Jones (2008) a business’s ability to earn great profits are dependent on the strength of Porters Five Forces, the reverse is also true that a weak competitive force allows for a greater opportunity to make profits. For example, a company that controls a monopoly in a certain geographical area will see greater opportunities for profit, because being a monopoly will eliminate the threat of new entrants, no internal rivalry and low bargaining power of consumers. The greatest issue most businesses will have is to identify changes in the five forces and knowing how to formulate strategies from the opportunities and threats that may arise from the change (Hill & Jones, 2008). The image below illustrates Porter’s Five Force Model. Fig. 1 Source: (Porter, 1979) Threats of Entry in the Airline Industry The domestic airline industry in the United States has intense rivalry between its competitors. Over ten airlines fight for market share with the rivalry completely driven on price. Southwest Airline faces some its greatest competition from fellow low cost airlines such as Spirit air and JetBlue all three compete against each other on direct routes trying to offer the lowest prices and the best service to passengers with very low profit margins. Passenger figures stand at approximately 450 million passengers travelling domestic annually in the United States (International Air Transport Association, 2012). However, Southwest Airlines remained the dominant domestic carrier with a passenger load of over 100 million 2012 (Southwest Airlines, 2012). The competitive nature of the domestic market in the United States has led to the merger of some of its carriers in order to consolidate costs. The most recent merger being that of American Airlines and US Airways and before that it was Continental and United Airlines who joined forces. Barriers to Entry in the Airline Industry Prior to 1978 the airline industry in America was heavily regulated by the United States government and was driven by high prices and empty airlines. Government regulation not only prevented competition among industry players but also created an entry barrier for new airlines, as government regulated routes presented a monopoly for established carriers (Bloomberg Business Week, 2011). In the United States the state of Texas was the only state which never had government regulation in the industry. The deregulation in Texas gave Southwest Airlines an opportunity to enter the market offering its service in the major cities of Texas only (Southwest Airlines, 2012). The deregulation effort that was led by democratic senator Ted Kennedy and signed into law by former President Jimmy Carter saw a dismantling of fare and route controls in 1978 (Bloomberg Business Week, 2011). This deregulation made it increasingly easy for new airlines to enter market and compete. With government control no longer a barrier airlines were able to enter the market once they were able to access the capital that was required and meet the safety standards that were required by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). However, Michael Porter (2008) in an interview with Harvard Business School described the airline industry as one of the easiest enter with low barriers to entry he pointed out there is a constant stream of new airlines that enter the market regularly despite low profits. Bargaining Power of Suppliers and Customers in the Airline Industry According to Porter (2008) the limited number of suppliers in the airline industry gave a considerable amount of power to the ones that existed. Porter argues that airline suppliers made considerable more profits than airlines themselves. Aircraft manufacturing is dominated by only two major players,’ American company Boeing and French company Airbus. In 2011 both manufactures controlled over 90 per cent of new air craft orders with Airbus dominating at 64 percent (The Guardian, 2012). An airline survival in the industry is also tied considerably to the price of oil which is core to operation. Southwest Airlines use a method of hedging to compete on the price of oil which allows the airline to lock in to contracts at cheaper prices in anticipation of future rises in the world market prices (CNBC, 2012). Other supplier cost that affects performance includes security cost, airport gates and terminal fees and wages to staff. The greater the rivalry among industry players the more fickle customers will become. Customers in the airline industry have tremendous bargaining power and are very price sensitive. The fast pace nature of the industry can allow a customer to switch airlines at any time. Customers were the key beneficiaries from the deregulation of the industry, before the removal of price structure and other regulation, government policy ensured that airlines competed on service and not price (Bloomberg Business Week, 2011). This shifted dramatically with deregulation has new entrants to the markets like Southwest and JetBlue built their business model on low prices which has caused older established companies to lower their own margins. Substitutes Products for Airlines There are a number of substitute services available in the domestic airline industry in America. Substitute products include rail service, water, coaches, private car transportation or refusing to travel. These substitutes provide customers with other alternatives other than flying and are strong competitive forces to the industry. Airlines are therefore forced to show the economical convenience of air travel as oppose to using other means. For example a person travelling on business who places great value on time could find it more efficient to fly instead of using substitutes. Airfares offered by low cost airlines like Southwest are also competitive with other substitute products. The Value Chain Analysis Along with the Five Forces Michael Porter also developed the Generic Value Chain as a means of understanding competitiveness in the business industry. The Value Chain is aimed at helping us understand how goods and services move through an organization and how value is added to them. According to Porter the Value Chain represents a business process that comes along with a product (Porter, 1985). The main aim has articulated by Porter (1985) is to find sources for a company’s competitive advantage by dividing the company into several activities in the business process which are all strategically relevant to the goods or services provided. The business process is divided into primary and secondary areas. Primary activities include areas directly related to getting the product to the consumer. Inbound logistics is the acquisition of the raw materials that are necessary to provide the product or service. Southwest inbound logistics include areas such as route selection, flight and crew scheduling, fuelling, acquiring aircrafts and ticket management systems. Operation generally refers to the physical actions that are required to produce the service once all the raw materials are acquired. Southwest Airlines operations include a variety of actions to provide its service. It covers the airlines customer care services, gate operations, air craft operations and maintenance and baggage handling. Outbound logistics involves moving goods into inventory and places where they can reach customers. Southwest Airlines outbound logistics includes website for booking tickets, connecting passengers on flights, offering, baggage collection systems and other gate services. Other areas Primary agents of the value chain include marketing and sales and services. Marketing and sales involves the initiation of buying the product by utilizing advertising, promoting and monitoring sales (Porter, 1985). Therefore any advertising, promotional activity or deals and incentives offered by the airline will fall under marketing and sales activities. While service involves handling of customer relations once the product or service is in the hand of the consumer these include handling customer complaints, handling special request from customers such as disability requests or dealing with elements such as flight delays and cancellations. The secondary activities are important in creating a product or service but are not directly involved in its creation. Procurement is responsible for buying the raw materials for the company it can include computers furnisher and other fix assets which are essential to the value chain, the act of procurement according to Porter is normally carried out by management or the sales department (Porter, 1985). Technology support activity includes research and development that could lead to product development for the primary areas of the value chain, human resources role provides the company with essential staff to carry out functions while infrastructure involves the processes and procedures needed to execute the business process for example payroll and account (Porter, 1985). The purpose of this process is to analyse all the aspects of the Value Chain and determine if improvements can be made to increase the profitability and performance of the business. For example, Southwest Airlines could look at a value chain and determine if they could reduce the speed at which it check in passengers to flights to reduce turnaround time or increasing the speed of operating procedures such as maintenance and refuelling. Value Chain is a structured way to look at improving the business process and information systems can play a key role in this effort.

Construction Economics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Construction Economics - Assignment Example The industry provides services such as maintenance, repairs and rehabilitation of existing structures. The industry comprises of three main sectors, which include building construction, heavy and civil engineering and specialty trade contractors. The building and construction sector includes contractors who build buildings for residential, industrial and commercial purposes. Heavy and civil contractors build roads, bridges, sewers and other major projects mostly relate to state infrastructure. Specialty deals with carpentry, painting and other works that relate to all types of construction. The industry teds to enter recessions first and often the last to recover. Most economic factors, which lead to recession, affect the construction industry. Inflation is one of the major causes of recession where consumer goods become expensive resulting to a drop in customer spending. In instances when the economy is expanding, there is increased consumer spending due to better wages and high disposable income. During the economic boom individuals have disposable income, which they use to buy durable goods and assets such as apartments and homes (Samuelson & Nordhaus, 2004 p. 56). In addition, the state acquires more tax revenue, which it utilizes by developing infrastructure. All three sectors of the construction industry indicate tremendous growth during this period. ... This happens in the initial stages of economic contraction. The Federal Reserve additionally, increases the lending interest rates and mortgage rates leading to reduced loans. The monetary control and inflation affect the construction industry even when they are in the early stages of inflation. The fluctuating interest rates results to an increase in the number of defaulters since they are unable to pay (Agapiou et al, 1998, p. 56). Federal Reserve increase in interest rates and reduced money supply result to weak housing market. The increase in lending affects the housing market, which comprises of the building sector of construction industry. Those already building houses are unable to continue due to escalating prices brought by rise in energy cost and fluctuation of currencies. Economic recession heavily affects the construction industry even in the early stages due to initial reduction in customer sending that result to a decrease in the demand of housing due to oversupply. Rec ession affects the industry more when compared to transport, education and financial industries. In addition, housing prices fall leading to a rise in foreclosures. Schmalensee (1987) says that the recession results to a rise in unemployment and thus a decline in the number of construction works (132). An imbalance in supply and demands slows the construction of residential building due to increase in interest rates. For example during 2007 recession total construction in United States declined by 28% (Department of labor). During recession, the government reduces its spending since its budget is normally under strain. This results to a decline in heavy and civil sector of the construction industry, which heavily relies with government projects such as roads and