Transfer of HRM practices by MNCs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Transfer of HRM practices by MNCs - Essay Example As Multi National Companies (MNCs) come into the picture, the scenario gets a little different. MNCs typically misjudge the effect that disparities in Industrial relations methods, workplace settings, and defiance from local people to several HRM practices can all have on their workings and operations. In addition, Unions also time and again, weaken to establish effectual transnational strategies to provide their memberships and associations in other countries in an improved manner. A question therefore arises that whether the MNCs can effectively transfer their HRM practices abroad, particularly when the notions that lie beneath these practices do not coincide with the norms, values, and cultures of the host-countries. The U.S. MNCs into the Chinese market have been taken into account in this paper Under the HRM practices, it is also important that one administers their approach toward the assistance and recompense for the employees, employee accounts and programs. However it is also critical that they make sure that their staff has, and is informed about, the personnel policies that coincide with the existing code of practice. Drivers of Change The world is moving on the path of change, with two significant drivers, i.e. globalization and technological revolution. The two influences actually pose as the foundation for a new way of sharing out the workforce concerning countries and organizations that has come to light throughout the preceding few decades. Different attitudes and opinions about globalization, divide countries and corporations, and also their volume and capability to transform or update themselves with new technologies. Basically the search for new markets and the means for resources has been the driving force toward globalization. As competition gets highly international, and in fact in some businesses, completely global, new production processes and organizational practices are seen to have emerged. (Competitiveness in Developing Asia, pp.58, 2003) The method, by which production at a transnational level is embarked on at current time, varies a lot from the way it was done some years ago. The argument remains in the intricacy of the production procedure, accompanied by the pace and extent of the transnational movements of goods and information. A large variety of highly innovative products, these days, are manufactured by Multi National Corporations (MNCs) in significantly competitive markets. Although MNCs have been there for quite a while now, their existence is very much sensed at current time. The uniqueness of MNCs nowadays is that they have production plants positioned worldwide, with the concern that production consists of planning, management, and coordination of innumerable operations. This lets MNCs to cut up the sequence of their

Everyday Learning vs. Scientific Learning Essay Example for Free

Everyday Learning vs. Scientific Learning Essay There are many tasks that a child learns in their early life. Some of which include learning how to crawl, then walk and learning how to talk. I think a child learning how to talk and communicate is very important. That alone will shape them and how well they will communicate later in their life. Our system of language and the process of communication are closely linked. Communication can be described as any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person information about that persons needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge or affective states. Communication may be intentional or unintentional, may involve conventional or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or non-linguistic forms and may occur through spoken or other modes. Children learn communication from their parents. Communication is not something that can be studied; it is something that people have to learn by doing. As a parent, good communication needs to be emphasized as they are talking and listening to the child. A child can tell when a parent is not really listening to them, and this can create a big problem in the relationship. Children who feel misunderstood or feel like they arent being listened to will start to hold their feelings inside. This is the exact opposite of what good communication should be. Communication is necessary for everything we do in life and we learn it while we are children. The communication skills learned by children from their families will stick with them throughout their lives. In order to have a society of good communicators, it needs to start in the home. Parents need to start communicating with their children and need to show them how to communicate with others. This is a skill that will be valued all throughout life and is something that shouldnt be ignored. The skill of communication will be valued in every relationship throughout life. It is a necessity.

Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Essay -- Leadership

The premise of emotional intelligence in leadership is that emotional intelligence should be the premise of leadership. Before tasks, followers, goals and styles can be defined or critiqued, the leader’s emotional intelligence must first be assessed (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2002, pg 5). Emotional intelligence then becomes the predictor of how effectively the leader will be able to lead in any given situation, set of tasks or followers. In this paper, the author will compare this premise of emotional intelligence with the Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory and the situational approach to leadership (Northouse, 2010). Also, the author will evaluate, in terms of resonance and dissonance, how appropriately an emotional intelligence model would function in a higher education environment. Emotional intelligence operates under four theoretical domains and their respective competencies that are essentially classified under two divisions: personal competence and social competence (Goleman, et al, 2002, pg. 39). These broader competencies do not describe leadership talents, but learned abilities that describe how effectively the leader manages intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships (Goleman, et al, 2002). The assumption is that if the leader is thoroughly competent in an intrapersonal sense---meaning, among other factors, he or she is appropriately self-aware, transparent and adaptable---the leader will have better interpersonal insight into his or her subordinates (Goleman, et al, 2002). This social competence delineates more specific qualities including a strong sense of empathy, service, influence, and collaboration (Goleman, et al, 2002). In terms of leadership effectiveness, these competencies are not only ideal,... ...the author believes that the comparison of the Leader-member exchange, the situational approach to leadership, and the premise of emotional intelligence has uncovered important leadership truths that may not be mutually exclusive. Surely the enigma of leadership is that it contains many truths, with the only universal truth being that none are universal, but empirically sound to aid the leader in guiding followers and the institutions they comprise. References Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership, 4th Ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., McKee, A. (2002). Primal leadership: Realizing the power of emotional intelligence. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing. Northouse, P.G. (2010). Leadership theory and practice. 5th Ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Discuss the role of Marketing and the Marketing Department using an organization of your choice to illustrate the points you make

Marketing plays diverse roles in most organizations of the world. These roles have not been static but have changed with the changing times. Marketing helps in growing revenue for organizations. Every other activity of the organization contributes to the cost factor. It is only through the sale of goods, services and ideas that revenue is generated. Marketing plays a yeoman’s role in this regard. For example, organization XYZ recorded a revenue of 350 million dollars last year (2006). This was a twenty percent increment over that of the previous year (2005). The various marketing activities undertaken such as advertising, sales promotion, customer relation building and management, etc contributed in achieving this feat for organization XYZ. Marketing helps in positioning and branding the organization at the marketplace (Webster, Jr, 1992). There are several vendors and customers in the value chain and the ability of an organization to properly set itself apart from the competitive landscape to a large extent depends on how it is marketed. How an organization is perceived at the marketplace determines the extent to which it prospers. If an organization is poorly perceived, it is unlikely that it can garner the needed customers to patronize its goods and services. On the other hand, if it is well perceived and received by the consuming public, doing business becomes easier. It is the duty of marketing to make the right promises, to come up with an appropriate name and logo for the organization and in projecting a good corporate image for the organization at the marketplace. The marketing function plays a key role in managing several important connections between the customer and critical elements of the organization such as connecting the customer to the product and service delivery (Moorman and Rust, 1999). Special efforts are therefore made not only to woo new customers but also to hold unto the existing ones. Customer relationships building and management are important undertakings by the marketing function. Customer relationship management optimizes demand for the products and services of the organization. It involves in identifying and responding to needs of the customer (SAP and Peppers and Rodgers Group, 2005). Any organization that seeks to prosper at the marketplace cannot afford not to treat its customers well and meet their needs. Marketing plays a vital role in the implementation of supply chain management (Soonhong and Mentzer, 2000). Supply chain management refers to all of the strategies, processes and technologies that together form the basis for working with internal or external sources of supply (SAP and Peppers and Rodgers Group, 2005). Optimizing one’s supply chain does not only lead to drastic cost-savings but also ensures the goods are supplied when they are needed. Integrating an organization’s supply chain management and customer relationship management has been found to lead to even further greater efficiency and effectiveness (SAP and Peppers and Rodgers Group, 2005). Marketing also play an important role in new product development and product launch. The importance of new products to organization cannot be over-emphasized. Treacy and Wiersema (1995) have singled out product development or innovation with other two disciplines as the surest routes to competitive success. New products help in boosting growth and profit margins of the organization. . Some organizations even allot certain proportions of their profit margins that must be contributed by new products. In some cases the very survival of the organization hinges on the new products that it develops for the marketplace. Marketing actively encourages the active participation of customers in new product development. This is a trend gaining increased acceptance in recent years. Many business undertakings are founded on relationships such as strategic partnerships, alliances and networks (Gronroos, 1997). Marketing plays a vital role in fostering these relationships. This viewpoint has grown in recent times with the concept of relationship marketing. According to Gummesson (1996) the primary role of marketing is to connect suppliers and customers, which also include other stakeholders, both inside and outside of the organization. Marketing also actively promotes the organization at the marketplace or society. Through advertising, sales and trade promotion, sponsorships, contests, etc, the organization sells itself and the goods and services it has on offer. It can therefore be said that without the role of marketing it may be difficult for the organization to be known and its products and services patronized by the general public. The social responsibility of the marketing function cannot go unmentioned. According to Handelman and Arnold (1999) marketers are becoming increasingly aware of the positive impact that marketing actions with a social dimension can have for their organizations. This dimension of marketing has been tied to organizational effectiveness in actively reaching and meeting the needs of target customers or market. Marketing also plays a vital role in corporate planning and decision-making. The research component of marketing provides managers with data on the effectiveness of current marketing mix and provides insights for necessary changes (McDaniel and Gates, 1999) as well as other information for managerial decision-making. Marketing research also offers an avenue for exploring new opportunities in the marketplace. According to Hogarth-Scott and Parkinson (1993) there are two parallel strands in the development of marketing within organizations. One is the growth of a corporate marketing department with responsibility for advertising, the conduct and or purchase of market research and corporate image building in the marketplace. Presently, a great deal of these functions are outsourced to advertising, research, media and brand development agencies. The marketing department plays a coordinating role between the outsourcee agencies and the organization. Apart from liaising with agencies, marketing departments are also responsible for developing marketing strategies and plans for the organizations. The other element, according to Hogarth-Scott and Parkinson (1993), is the role of the buyer and the trading departments. The trading department has influential clout in the organization. They are responsible for product selection, pricing, merchandising and promotion in the organization. To a large extent, effective marketing depends on an integrated organizational effort. There is no doubt that marketing function and the marketing departments have grown in influence in recent decades. According to Moorman and Rust (1999) there has been a movement towards thinking of marketing less as a function and more as a set of values and processes that all functions of the organization participate in implementing. In this view, marketing becomes everybody’s job, which potentially diffuses the marketing function’s role but increases marketing’s influence.

An Analysis for the Play Fences Essay

The story line seemed melodramatic throughout the play. The author (August Wilson) has laid the ground work of many themes throughout the play. The play deals with Race, Men and their masculinity, Morality, Dreams and hopes of everyone involved, Family, Duty, Betrayal and Dissatisfaction. The play begins with Troy and his best friend Bono entering the yard chatting as they usually do coming home from work as garage collectors for their company. Every Friday is payday for Troy and Bono and one can usually find these two enjoy drinking down at Taylors (the local watering hole). Troy seems to be upset due to the fact that he tries to rise above â€Å"just being a garbage man† and seeks to become a driver of the garbage truck. Troy has made a formal complaint to his boss (Mr. Rand) and asks â€Å"Why you got the white mens driving and the colored lifting? † Troy recognized that he has just as much of a right and ability as the â€Å"white men† he is working with, and can drive the garbage truck just as well as any of them. Although, Troy didn’t realize it, he was actually leading the way (in his own right) for black men and woman everywhere. But this wasn’t the only issue that Troy is dealing with. Troy has been cheating on his wife Rose with his mistress Alberta and decides to discuss this with his friend Jim Bono (often mostly referred to by his last name Bono in the book). But Rose appears to always be on Troy about building the â€Å"Fence† around the yard. This later on in the play seems to have a profound underlying tone to more than just the literal meaning of the word. Troy, although a good man at heart, he seems to be struggling with an issue of facing death.. Troy seems to have his hands full within the play. With every situation, Troy seems to describe them in the terms of baseball. Since Troy was robbed of a potential a professional baseball career because of his race and has become bitter because of it. It seems that Troy has a lot of â€Å"Fences† to mend, not only the physical kind, but the relationships he has with his wife, his sons Lyons and Cory (mostly). Troy also deals (and is responsible for) with his brother Gabriel, who received a serious head injury during the war and hasn’t been the same since. Troy’s son Cory tells his father that he has a chance to be scouted for a recruiter from the University of North Carolina for its football team. But since Troy feels that Cory should be concentrating on working at the local A&P supermarket and his studies and leave football alone. One can understand as to maybe why Troy feels that his son should work and focus on school instead of football. Since Troy was disappointed because of his lack of a professional baseball career (because of his color), he did not want to see his son receive the same kind of heartbreak he had suffered. Troy, by doing this, he is holding his son back (whether he realizes it or not) from possibly having a better life than what he had or currently has. Troy seems somewhat jealous of his son Cory and really bitter when it comes to sports. One of the main themes of the play seems to come when Troy has to tell his wife Rose (coming clean) that he is going to be a father again. Rose becomes upset and wants to know why Troy couldn’t â€Å"stay in her bed† instead of going elsewhere. Troy attempt to rationalize what he has done, says that he is only trying to feel good about himself and that he hasn’t done so in a long time. When Rose has to explain to Troy that she received a call from the hospital informing her that, Alberta died giving birth to his daughter, Raynell. Rose, being the good woman that she is, accepts Raynell in to her family and agrees to raise her. Troy then comes to battle with Cory, when he attempts to step over his father and enter the house. Cory is then told that he no longer lives there, and was being kicked out of the house forever. Cory states to Troy that he doesn’t need anything from him and can take of himself. Since Troy had to deal with being on his own since he was fourteen years old, his son can do the same thing (Cory is a little older, 17 yrs. old). Troy, throughout the play is always speaking about, how he will be ready for â€Å"Grim Reaper and his sickle† and will not go down without a fight (which he often brags about beating death when he was younger). Troy just prior to his death (and finding out about the death of his mistress) Troy: â€Å"All right†¦ Mr. Death†¦. I’m gonna take and build me a fence around this yard. See? I’m gonna build me a fence around what belongs to me. And then I want you to stay on the other side. See? You stay over there until you’re ready for me. † So, this could be another underlying theme that Troy is always wrestling with a force much larger than he is and is always taunting death by saying â€Å"Then you [Death] come on. Bring your army. Bring your sickle. Bring your wrestling clothes†. The last time we actually see or hear from Troy is in Act II scene 4 when he says â€Å"I can’t taste nothing. Helluljah! (Probably misspelled on purpose) I can’t taste nothing no more. (Troy assumes a batting posture and begins to taunt Death, the fastball on the outside corner. ) Come on! It’s between you and me now! Come on! Anytime you want! Come on! I be ready for you†¦.. but I ain’t gonna be easy. At this point, Troy realizes that he is dying (heart attack). At the beginning of the following scene, the reader learns that Troy has died and everyone (except Cory) is preparing to attend Troy’s funeral. But as the story starts to end, both of Troy’s sons, Lyons and Cory are talking with each other and tells one another how each one is doing. Lyons is finishing up his prison sentence and Cory is a Corporal in the Marine Corps. The two of then begin to sing the song that their dad used to sing about a dog name Blue. The story can take the reader through a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Great story about the trials and tribulations of a man and the world around him. According to Wade Bradford from About. com, he states: Arguably August Wilson’s most renowned work, Fences explores the life and relationships of the Maxson family. This moving drama was written in 1983 and earned Wilson his first Pulitzer Prize. The protagonist, Troy Maxon is a restless trash-collector and former baseball athlete. Though deeply flawed, he represents the struggle for justice and fair treatment during the 1950s. Troy also represents human nature’s reluctance to recognize and accept social change. In the playwright’s setting description, symbols connected to his character can be found: the house, the incomplete fence, the porch, and the makeshift baseball tied to a tree branch (Bradford, Wade 2011). Reference Wilson, August (1987) Fences, In Drama: A Pocket Anthology (2nd Ed. ) P. 451 Longman, Penguin Academics, New York Retrieved November 5, 2011. Bradford, Wade (2011) August Wilson’s â€Å"Fences† Character and setting analysis, About. com, Retrieved November 06, 2011 www. about. com.

Evaluative Essay on With Honors essays

Evaluative Essay on With Honors essays In the movie With Honors there are many similarities, as well as differences between the characters on screen and students that I know personally. Especially, when it comes to their values. For example, when the one roommate was complaining about the homeless man being in the apartment too much. I believe that, if put into the same situation, most students that I know would have a problem with him being able to roam freely in and out of the house. I had a friend who was in a similar situation; his older brother brought a strange man to the apartment to stay for a few days. It wasnt the fact that he didnt like the man, it was that he didnt know him or what he was capable of. Now there are a few out there who wouldnt mind but it basically comes down to familiarity. People have a tendency to be untrusting, basically because of the times that we live in. Another situation, in the movie, that is similar to the reality that I line in is when the one female who lived in the apartment walked around half dressed and only one of the guys seemed to mind. We live in a time where a woman walking around half dressed is accepted as the norm. So naturally if a few men and women lived together they would get comfortable enough with each other that they wouldnt mind if one or the other walked around in their unmentionables. I stayed in an apartment with another guy and four women and it wasnt uncommon for one or more of the individuals under this roof to be walking around half dressed or in some extreme cases completely nude. The students in the movie also dealt with relationship and school problems. Such as the young woman having casual relationships and calling one of them sex. Also, the one guy being teased constantly about his love life. These are all problems that student face in real life today. So the movie really came close to being as realistic as possible. On the other side of this equation I dont b...

Inferring Freedom And Equality Essays - Libertarian Theory

Inferring Freedom And Equality Essays - Libertarian Theory Inferring Freedom and Equality Many of Earth?s organisms and processes depend on each other to survive the natural world. First of all, freedom, or "forced to be free," and equality presuppose each other in some instances, but sometimes they are interdependent. For example, if you look into the lower class, people within that class are equal among others in that class. Also, they have freedom inside the boundaries of their status quo. As the view broadens to the whole society, that certain class loses some of its freedom and equality to the aristocracy. In this example, the amount of freedom and equality you receive all depends on money and power. Wealth corrupts the balance of freedom and equality between the social classes in the nation. In all, everyone in a legitimate society has some equality and freedom, however, the how much you get relies on where you stand in the social triangle. In every valid government, every citizen has freedom of their basic rights, but the sense of equality will never be distributed equally between them. This problem is constantly going to true because of the definition of general will: an individual has to alienate some of his natural rights to join the body politic. Therefore, power is distributed to the government, and the people of the nation are not equal. One person will always have power over another. If everyone was equal, chaos would break out into the world, because when nobody governs or rules the citizens, they can do whatever they please. Freedom is preferred in the society rather than equality. A person with freedom would have most rights in the Constitution, but a person with equality would live in a chaotic society, because there is no governing house. Altogether, the presence of freedom and equality together differs with the scope of the condition. America?s concepts of freedom and equality have varied over the course of its history. When the American government was new, only white male property owners had total use of the Constitution?s given rights. Early America also exercised the idea of slavery, where the master and slave relationship exist. But as an intolerance against slavery grew, the masters were forced by the Union to change their illegitimate system to a more legitimate system. This newly built system resulted in all males, property owner or not, having privileges to all rights in the Bill of Rights and the American Constitution. But this method still leaves out a single group of people, women, from the concept of freedom. Also in America, the "separate but equal" issue rose to the surface of controversy over the topic of freedom. All these examples demonstrate where freedom is non-existent to all people in the nation. They also display the same idea of freedom within the private will, but that freedo! m is surrendered to the general will to support a legitimate government. In some cases in the American history, some citizens abandon more rights than others. But as the view travels closer to the present, the difference of the people?s rights between each other gradually diminishes to a negligible amount. This perception of America?s freedom shows an increase of knowledge towards a near-perfect republic. Today, government partially employs the use of total equality. But again, a legitimate government cannot have total equality because of the alienation of certain rights to join the body politic. American government follows the outline of a legitimate government. The checks and balances system balances the amount of power among the three governing houses. Also, the government does not employ a parallel existence of freedom and equality. But that existence is impossible in any legitimate society, according to the description of the body politic and the general will. The individual mind has matured a long way toward this form of structured government, but the basic concept of the government is the natural laws of a human being. Although, man has evolved into a being of great reason, distant from the state of nature, he must look into nature to find a correct and sanctioned regulations and theories.

The Proofreading Zone A Haunted Comma Splice

The Proofreading Zone A Haunted Comma Splice The Proofreading Zone: A Haunted Comma Splice Here at Proofed, we work hard to ensure your writing is error free. And since we’re experienced professionals, most of the time we feel like we’ve seen it all. But now and then we come across something truly mysterious. Something that can’t be explained using the standard rules of punctuation. And since it’s Halloween today, we thought we’d invite you to hear a tale of terror and typos in†¦ The Proofreading Zone! The Client We met Mr. Robins on Thursday February 15th, 2018. It was a cloudy morning at Proofreading Towers. It promised to be like any other day. But the drizzle had turned to rain by lunchtime, with darker clouds on the horizon. It was appropriate, perhaps, that Mr. Robins appeared, silhouetted in our door, the moment the first clap of thunder rang out. The panic in his voice was clear. It was hard to even understand what he was saying. All we could make out were the words â€Å"The sentences! They run on and on and on!!!† He looked troubled. His hair was a mess. And he was clutching a memory stick in one hand, muttering to himself. After a few minutes, he collapsed. The Problem Arises†¦ We tried to make Mr. Robins comfortable when he woke up, and after a strong coffee he was able to explain his situation. It all began while putting the finishing touches on a business report. He noticed a comma splice on page one and corrected it. But when he went back to check the document before printing, it was back. â€Å"Odd,† thought Mr. Robins, â€Å"I’d swear I corrected that already.† But it only took a moment to replace the comma with a full stop again. And so he hit print, saved the file, and closed Microsoft Word. But when the printer had churned out the report and Mr. Robins checked that all the pages were there, the first thing he saw was the comma splice. It was back. The same comma. Mr. Robins was confused. Had he hit print before correcting it? He wasn’t sure anymore. He opened the document on his computer again and there it was: a comma splice on page one. â€Å"I must be going mad,† he told himself, before deleting the comma splice again, carefully saving the document, and hitting print. We’re sure we don’t have to tell you what happened next. You Can’t Escape Your Errors†¦ Mr. Robins stayed late at work that evening. His boss asked him if he was okay, as he had spent the entire afternoon marching back and forth between his computer and the office printer, looking more and more exasperated. Not wanting to admit he was at war with a comma, though, he forced a smile and said that everything was fine. Just some computer issues. But everything wasn’t fine. No matter what he did, the comma splice always returned. He tried copying the text to a new document. But it would just appear there, too. He tried working on different computers. But none of them were immune to this mysterious, impossible comma. He even tried printing the document and using corrector fluid to white out the comma splice. But when he tried to add a period on top of the correction, the ink ran and formed a perfect comma. This is when Mr. Robins broke. He screamed so loudly that he felt ashamed, even though everyone in the office had gone home hours ago. After he had calmed down, he decided to save the document to a memory stick and do the same. He could work on it more before bed. But even at home, the problem persisted. No matter what he did, he could not get rid of that comma splice. It was as if it were taunting him. He tried looking online to no avail. Everyone treated him like he was making some kind of weird joke. Eventually, at 2am, he decided to go to bed. That night, Mr. Robins dreamed of commas†¦ The Next Morning After getting out of bed, Mr. Robins tried not to think about punctuation. Instead, he made breakfast and settled down to read the New York Times. But right there, in the first article, he spotted a comma splice half way down the page. â€Å"Oh great,† he thought. â€Å"Another one.† He decided to move on to the next article and turned the page. But right there at the top of the first column, he saw a comma splice in a headline. And another in some ad copy. And two more on the next page. This was getting silly. But Mr. Robins didn’t have time to think about it. He was going to be late for work, so he put the paper down and left the house. He saw four more comma splices on the way to the office: two on billboards and one on a sign held up by a homeless man at the side of the road. And things didn’t improve after he got to work. There was a memo there on his desk, waiting for him. It said: You left a lot of paper on your desk yesterday, can you make sure to tidy up next time? Who had left it there? Did they know about the comma splice? Had they done it deliberately? He looked around to see if anyone was laughing, for any sign it might be a prank. But nobody was looking. Instead, he booted up his computer and checked his emails. The first header he saw said: Big project coming up, clear your schedule Another comma splice. When he opened the email, it was one long sentence, strung together with dozens of commas. And so was the next email. And the next one. What was happening? Mr. Robins stood up and stepped back from his desk. Someone asked him if he was all right, but he didn’t reply. He just stared at his computer, and then picked up his memory stick and left without a word. He needed to find someone who would understand. Someone who could fix this comma splice for good. And so he ran from his office, passing signs in shop windows, trying not to look but deeply aware of the comma splices all around him. He needed help. He needed the professionals. The Solution While our proofreaders are all trained to handle regular punctuation errors, this was something different. We had to call in Lady Grammaticus. Nobody knows where Lady Grammaticus came from. Or even her real name. But when punctuation gets spooky, you want her in your corner. Spelling errors and sentence fragments everywhere fear her for good reason. She even defeated the Cursed Colon of Connecticut. Thankfully, Lady Grammaticus had heard of something like this before. She told us the story of Aldus Manutius, the Venetian scholar who invented the modern comma. She claimed that Manutius achieved this innovation in punctuation after making a deal with an unknown power from beyond this world. And the Eternal Comma Splice was the price he paid. This terrible typo followed Manutius around for the rest of his life. You can even see it on his tombstone. But it didn’t end there. The comma splice spread, moving from mind to mind, from document to document, driving all who tried to correct it insane. But the comma splice had not met Proofed’s team of professional editors before. Armed with knowledge of what we were up against, we loaded up Mr. Robins’ document, printed it out, and carefully added a dot above the comma to turn it into a semicolon while Lady Grammaticus chanted in Latin. As the ceremony reached its climax, the semicolon began to glow. Epilogue It’s hard to say whether it was proofreading or, technically, an exorcism. But the semicolon was still there after the glow had faded, connecting two independent clauses just like a good semicolon should. And when we looked at the computer screen again, the comma splice was gone, replaced by a semicolon. It took a while to convince Mr. Robins that everything was all right, but he seemed reassured after we bought a copy of the New York Times to show him that it was splice free. Thus the tale of the haunted comma splice comes to its end. But who knows when evil punctuation will strike next? The world is full of demonic dashes and abhorrent apostrophes, just waiting for a chance to foul your writing by appearing in the wrong place. So, wherever you are and whatever you’re writing, make sure to proofread carefully! Happy Halloween!

Business Plan Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Plan - Coursework Example Startup capital shall be from two sources – personal investments from each partner, and a short-term bank loan, which the company sees to close by the end of its 3rd year of operations. Since the business is really more of an independent label, very little capital expenditures shall be made. The bulk of its budget will be focused on marketing and operations. The business will initially be located in one of the partner’s homes, for cost efficiency. This is where the management will meet with clients and vendors, and hold office in the meantime. It will operate on no revenue and implement a low overhead for the first year. The owners will focus on relationship marketing in order to get media partners and good costs for equipment rental during recordings. It will do tie ups with event organizers and media bodies to achieve the desired media mileage for the brand as a whole, and for all its talents. Diva Records desires to achieve equity through below the line efforts with these potential partners. II. BUSINESS DESCRIPTION AND VISION Diva Record’s vision is to promote local music groups while increasing live appearances and sales. This two-fold objective is really focused on giving back to the community by honing local talents and at the same time gaining revenues for the company to be able to sustain and expand the services. Its keys to success are as follows: 1. Careful selection of talents to sign up. There will be very rigid screening to get only the finest local talents per category. 2. Limit the number of talents to sign up to be able to stay focused on the marketing efforts. 3. Have a mix of work and fun. The music business is a fun business, and the owners, being passionate about their work, looks forward to creative improvements as time goes by. Instead of competing with the larger record labels, Diva records will apply a more focused regional approach to concentrate on local and homegrown talents. These artists’ goal is to be v isibly known in the local market, and eventually penetrate the mainstream. This group in interested in gaining exposure and be known by the local market, since as more people know them, they are most likely to get projects and gigs, and possibly produce a CD, consequently earning more revenues. Diva Records wishes to be known as a hard-working and promoting record label, with the reputation of having support for local talents. Such brand equity will bring the record label to its own place in the market. III. MARKET ANALYSIS Diva Records targets two primary market segments – record stores and consumers at live shows. The management’s focus is to develop visibility within the community, enough to be able to sign up artists which is they to gaining mileage and revenues. The two target markets that have been identified are as follows: 1. Record retailers – this segment distributes the product to end-users. This is the retail channel that ultimately moves the greates t quantity of CDs. It takes time for record stores to be able to sell these CDs as some artists need to gain following before their songs are patronized. However, Diva Records will endeavor to get the partnerships of these record stores, even going as far as sponsoring their activities to be able to have a good position in their display areas. A long-term relationship is foreseen with these establishments. 2. Patrons at live gigs and concerts –

Living in the Toxic Food Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Living in the Toxic Food Environment - Essay Example A toxin is a noxious substance formed within living cells. They can be small molecules or peptides that are proficient for causing infections on absorption by body tissues interrelating with biological macromolecules such as enzymes and cellular receptors. A toxic environment is the consequence of ubiquity of harmful, processed foods, increasingly inactive lifestyle which personals spend a lot of time watching TV than exercising, enormous detonation of fast food eateries etc whereas a toxic food environment can be termed as the unparalleled exposure to high-calorie, high –fat, heavily marketed, inexpensive fast foods and the sedentary lifestyle increasing in our everyday’s life.These unhealthy eating and living habits can lead to serious health issues in human beings. Exercises have always being known as the best remedy to burn down fats and calories in a normal human system. Our fatty tissues absorb a group of chemically-related multifaceted known as Dioxins which accu mulate the food chain. These Dioxins are highly lethal and can cause great reproductive and developmental problems, harm the immune system and can also lead to cancer. It could also cause skin lesions and changed liver performance.The best way to control and prevent dioxin exposure is by proper incineration of contaminated material and this process requires high temperatures.The best way to prevent or reduce human exposure is through source-directed measures such as severe control of industrial processes to condense the formation of dioxins.

How Tibor Kalman Did His Designing Work and how he utilized his Essay

How Tibor Kalman Did His Designing Work and how he utilized his creativity - Essay Example The author of the paper tells how Tibor dropped out for journalism classes. Before joining the journalism classes, he had spent a year picking cotton in Cuba then returned to the US in 1971. Kalman created window displays for a New York University student book exchange which impressed the owner dearly. The owner was known as Leonard Riggio. Later on, he was appointed as the supervisor of the bookstore’s in-house design department by Riggio. This marked his baby steps in his works as an author. Later in the year 1979, Kalman, Carol Bokuniewicz and Liz Trovato came together and established the design, M & Co. firm that faired very well in the field. Kalman left as the supervisor as he proved dissatisfactory. The firm did a lot of corporate work for clients who were diverse including the Limited Corporation, the new wave group and so on. In the early 1990s, on top of that, Kalman was also known to have worked with the interview magazines as the creative director. This shows how a dvanced he was and unique when it came to works of creativity. Perhaps it is one of the traits that contributed to his success in the field of designs (Tibor Kalman). Later on, the Benson sponsored Colors magazine sought his expertise as the founding editor-in-chief and this led to Kalman dissolving the M & Co. firm back in the year 1993 to solely and devotedly work on the magazine, thus he relocated to Rome. He made an effort of moving his family to Rome due to the zeal he had towards working for Colors. The Colors worked with the motto that stated, ‘A magazine about the rest of the world’. With this respect, it narrowed down and focused on multiculturalism and international awareness. It was, therefore, one very important magazine on an international level and was well recognized even externally. Therefore, working here meant Kalman’s growth and advancement as a creative work in the field of design.

Human Resource Management Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Human Resource Management - Term Paper Example The organization chosen for the study will be IBM. Performance Management performance management can be described as a human resource strategy, which covers non-job precise behaviors such as ‘cooperation’ ‘dedication’ ‘enthusiasm’ and ‘persistence’ and is differentiated from task performance covering job-specific behaviors (Borman and Motowidlo 71-98). As Fletcher (91) mentions, contextual performance is concerned with the attributes which set off further than task proficiency and that encourage behaviors that boost the efficiency of the organization. Hence performance is regarded as behavior, in which the organizations, teams and individuals execute their work. Campbell (690-710) suggests that performance is such a behavior that needs to be differentiated from the results. An additional broader analysis of performance is attained if it is described as taking up both behavior and outcomes. Performance management can be a factor impa cting behaviors and results together. Behaviors originate from the performer and alter performance from idea to action. Performance management can be described as an important practice that concerns with overall attitude of the employees towards the organization. It replicates the perspective one has for performance and it contains secondary procedures like: policy description, plan implementation, training and performance measurement. Consequently performance measurement is a secondary procedure of performance management which is the focal point of classification and communique of performance outcomes determined by performance beacons. Performance management is concerned with the action taken based on the results whilst performance measurement deals with evaluation of results, at the same time as performance management is related with taking action depending on the outcomes of the assessment and making certain that the objective outcomes are accomplished. Performance management can also be characterized as being associated with a â€Å"future orientation† based on the inputs and output exerted an organization or individual. Performance management is becoming an important aspect of the organizations to manage the performance of their employees and keep them motivated for the achievement of their goals resulting in the achievement of overall organizational goals (Brumback 168-170). It can be seen that there is major difference between the performance management practices in private and public sector organizations in most parts of the world but nevertheless it is important for every organization to continuously improve their practices because these practices have a greater influence on the motivation of the employees. These differences in practice are subject to the working and control system being implemented in different sectors. Finally, it is the need of the hour for the organization, to keep their employees motivated intrinsically through the perform ance management practices because in this downturn economic time, it is getting important for the organizations to motivate employees other than extrinsic factors. Critical incident method is used by the current organization for the

Country Report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Country Report - Assignment Example On the other hand, the discovery of oil in the 1940s transformed Qatar (O’Brien, 2010, p.412). At present, it has high standard of living with highest GDP per capita in the world as of 2010 of more than USD 88,000 (Greenfield, 2012). For the present paper a comparison of the fiscal policies and inflation rates of these two countries are considered. Furthermore, in the UK, during the regime of the labor governments, government’s size and spending grew significantly. Compounding the budget deficit Labor government bailout several British banks in 2008 and indulged in massive government’s borrowing (United Kingdom, 2013). In 2010, after formation of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government austerity measures were implanted rigorously. In early 2012, the economy returned to recession and growth averaged zero over the year as a whole. In its budget announcement of March 20, the UK govt. decided to stick to its def icit-reduction plan, which is broadly fiscally neutral (United Kingdom, 2013). UK Fiscal Policy and Inflation rate- UK Government’s fiscal plan is underpinned by a forward-looking fiscal mandate to achieve cyclically-adjusted current balance by the end of the rolling, five-year estimate period, as cited in the June Budget 2010. The fiscal mandate directs fiscal policy decisions over the medium term, ensuring that the Government sets plans steady with a reduction in the structural deficit. The fiscal mandate is based on: †¢ A cyclically-adjusted aggregate, to allow some fiscal elasticity at times of economic uncertainty; †¢ A rolling five-year forecast period, to ensure that fiscal consolidation is delivered over a realistic and probable timeframe; and †¢ The current balance, to protect the most productive public investment expenditure. The establishment of Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has significantly enhanced the credibility of the UK’s fisca l framework by ensuring that the Government’s fiscal policy decisions are based on independent forecasts for the economy and public finances (Copy of the Budget Report, 2013 p12). Figure-1  (Deficit, national debt and government borrowing - how has it changed since 1946? 2013) UK inflation has been above target since December 2009 and the central bank has quoted this as one reason for not resumption of its bond repurchase program. High inflation has had an erosive impact on the UK economy, reducing households’ disposable income Approximately a 40% rise in food prices and the impact of rising oil and commodity prices coupled with a weakening pound, plus hikes to VAT [sales tax] and tuition fees took a huge toll on the high street (Katrina, 2013). Figure-2  Source: United Kingdom Inflation Rate, 2013 Qatar’s Fiscal policy and inflation rate- While many advanced world economies were twirling under severe recession in the recent past, Qatar has taken head on, th e global financial crisis, reflecting timely and focused policy response by the authorities. The considerable advancement of liquefied natural gas capacity, large government support to the banking system, and increase in public spending helped Qatar in sustaining high growth rates. Heavy investment in liquefied natural gas (LNG) production capacity and increases in LNG production over the last couple of years have been the main drivers of Qatar’s robust growth (Qatar Economic Statistics at a Glance, 2012,p.4) Figure-3  (Qatar Economic

Special Education Individualized Education Program Research Paper

Special Education Individualized Education Program - Research Paper Example In outlining those components, it is important to also include additional IEP considerations relevant to student academic and behavioral performance in school communities. Parent participation is necessary-send written invitation to parents at least three times per certified mail. If parents cannot attend meeting, conduct a phone conference and include that information on the IEP. Send parents a copy of the completed IEP via certified mail and indicate date mailed (within three days of the meeting) and IEP case manager initials sending the IEP) The practice within the educational community of labeling children is tied to funding. When a child falls into a disability category, such as learning disabled (LD), the district, and the school the child attends, is given funding to offset the extra costs of educating that child. Because children with learning disabilities are capable of functioning at grade level with assistance outside normal teaching parameters, having your child labeled as LD means he or she gets extra help. This falls squarely on the pro side of labeling. If your child has a language processing disorder and so has difficulty reading, writing and spelling, he or she may be able to participate in language classes with four or five other students, one teacher, and an aide. This individualized attention will help your child succeed. The down side to this is he or she will be pulled from his regular class during that time. This means all the other students know he is special ed. If there is low tolerance for students outside the norm in your childs particular school, this may prove to be socially damaging. Due to the rising number of children diagnosed with learning disabilities, however, this is becoming less of a problem. More schools are incorporating LD methodologies into the mainstream classroom to accommodate these labeled children, primarily

Country Report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Country Report - Assignment Example On the other hand, the discovery of oil in the 1940s transformed Qatar (O’Brien, 2010, p.412). At present, it has high standard of living with highest GDP per capita in the world as of 2010 of more than USD 88,000 (Greenfield, 2012). For the present paper a comparison of the fiscal policies and inflation rates of these two countries are considered. Furthermore, in the UK, during the regime of the labor governments, government’s size and spending grew significantly. Compounding the budget deficit Labor government bailout several British banks in 2008 and indulged in massive government’s borrowing (United Kingdom, 2013). In 2010, after formation of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government austerity measures were implanted rigorously. In early 2012, the economy returned to recession and growth averaged zero over the year as a whole. In its budget announcement of March 20, the UK govt. decided to stick to its def icit-reduction plan, which is broadly fiscally neutral (United Kingdom, 2013). UK Fiscal Policy and Inflation rate- UK Government’s fiscal plan is underpinned by a forward-looking fiscal mandate to achieve cyclically-adjusted current balance by the end of the rolling, five-year estimate period, as cited in the June Budget 2010. The fiscal mandate directs fiscal policy decisions over the medium term, ensuring that the Government sets plans steady with a reduction in the structural deficit. The fiscal mandate is based on: †¢ A cyclically-adjusted aggregate, to allow some fiscal elasticity at times of economic uncertainty; †¢ A rolling five-year forecast period, to ensure that fiscal consolidation is delivered over a realistic and probable timeframe; and †¢ The current balance, to protect the most productive public investment expenditure. The establishment of Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has significantly enhanced the credibility of the UK’s fisca l framework by ensuring that the Government’s fiscal policy decisions are based on independent forecasts for the economy and public finances (Copy of the Budget Report, 2013 p12). Figure-1  (Deficit, national debt and government borrowing - how has it changed since 1946? 2013) UK inflation has been above target since December 2009 and the central bank has quoted this as one reason for not resumption of its bond repurchase program. High inflation has had an erosive impact on the UK economy, reducing households’ disposable income Approximately a 40% rise in food prices and the impact of rising oil and commodity prices coupled with a weakening pound, plus hikes to VAT [sales tax] and tuition fees took a huge toll on the high street (Katrina, 2013). Figure-2  Source: United Kingdom Inflation Rate, 2013 Qatar’s Fiscal policy and inflation rate- While many advanced world economies were twirling under severe recession in the recent past, Qatar has taken head on, th e global financial crisis, reflecting timely and focused policy response by the authorities. The considerable advancement of liquefied natural gas capacity, large government support to the banking system, and increase in public spending helped Qatar in sustaining high growth rates. Heavy investment in liquefied natural gas (LNG) production capacity and increases in LNG production over the last couple of years have been the main drivers of Qatar’s robust growth (Qatar Economic Statistics at a Glance, 2012,p.4) Figure-3  (Qatar Economic

SUMMERY CULTURE OR EDUCATION EVENTS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

SUMMERY CULTURE OR EDUCATION EVENTS - Essay Example By the 20th century, ballet dance had become a concert dance with many version coming up. There are different ballet styles including the classical ballet based on the traditional French accomplishments and movements. Neoclassical ballet shares many feature with the classical style except that it involves higher speed tempos and application of modern technical feats. Contemporary ballet contains a lot of modernity influence in terms of art; however, its fundamentals are based on traditional moves but permits a greater range than the classical style (Wolf, 1998, p44). Holi festival is celebrated during the spring; it is the festival of colors and love for one another. The festival originated with the Hindus but soon spread among non-Hindus outside Asia. However, its impact is felt in regions of the world dominated by the Hindus. The celebration starts with a Holika bonfire during the night and the next day is a free for all to play with points. Both men and women, boys and girls, old and young play with the paints. The fight with paints everywhere and anywhere irrespective of social status or age is a fair game. Greetings are in the form of playing with points. The word Holi have its origin from the name Holika who was sister to demon king Hiranyakashipu who were burnt by Vishnu symbolized by the bonfire (Ester, 2009, p34). The celebration have cultural significance of bringing people together, it is a day that marks and end to past quarrels and rebuild the broken bonds, people pay debts, forgive debts as well as enter into new deals with family members. The origin of shaolin art can be traced back to the three forms of self-defenses of Asian origin, The Shaolin Temple where the art is called temple boxing or just boxing. The monks had developed five fighting stances attributed to unique animal behavior; they include the crane, tiger, snake, leopard and the dragon. Yoshida and Komatsu clans of Japan stances and movements together with

Bluefield health plan Essay Example for Free

Bluefield health plan Essay Arc Electric employees were opting for their health insurance plan. Arc Electric had expanded their workforce due to which more employees were enrolling for Bluefield’s health insurance plan for the benefits. But when Bluefield released that the utilization of their physician services had tremendously increased in the last 6 months because of which their profits were being affected, they had to find out the cause for this. Soon they realized that the main cause for the increase in the utilization of their physician services was the increase in the number of new employees who were opting for the health insurance plan. Exhibit 1 clearly shows that the number of Arc Electric employees using Bluefield’s Health insurance plan has increased from 3912 in July, 2006 to 4137 in August, 2006. Thus, in only one month the increase has been of 225 people, which is comparatively quite high. Also, in 2006, the total cost incurred by Arc Electric for inpatient and outpatient hospital services were 203425 and 182440 in July and 212250 and 180700 in August, and for surgical services were 101250 and 103400 in July and August. Thus, the total cost incurred for hospital services and surgical services were 487115 and 496350 in July and August. While on the other hand the total cost incurred by Arc Electric for visits to physician’s office was only 337900 and 391450 in July and August. Therefore we can see that the difference is almost of 147215 and 104900 in July and August. As Bluefield’s contract with Arc Electric was about to expire the next month, they had to renegotiate the terms in their contract with Arc Electric and request for an increase in their premium rate in order to maintain their profit. They had realized that the main reason for their erosion of profits was the increasing number of Arc Electric employees who had opted for their health insurance plan. But, Bluefield were also aware of the fact that during renegotiations if they tried to increase the fixed premium which they charged every employee of Arc Electric per month, then they may refuse to do anymore business with them and sign a contract with some other health insurance company. This, Bluefield was not ready to risk. Thus, Bluefield wanted the staff members and directors to devise a renegotiating strategy which they could present before Arc Electric and maintain their contract with them while at the same time see to it that their profitability remains at par. After much consideration and results from various studies, including Exhibit 1, the employees of Bluefield realized that simply by increasing their copayment charges they will not be able to bring about a decrease in the number of physician visits since people do not actually like to visit the physicians but rather do it in order to remain healthy and fit. The only way they can reduce their costs is by paying less to their health care providers, like the physicians. Thus, they first needed to negotiate with the physicians and ask them to decrease the costs of services supplied by them. If they simply asked the physicians to lower their cost of service by around 10% or 25% they might do it with the fear that they may loose all of their patients and also be left out of Bluefield’s health insurance plan. But this may have certain negative effects as in return of a lower fee per visit the physicians may also lessen the quality of care that they give to their clients. This is the reason why Bluefield required a further analysis of physicians visit. Out of the $250 fixed premium that Bluefield charged each employee of Arc Electric every month, the total premium revenue was portioned out as 55% for the hospital and surgical services and 30% for the physician visits. Thus while $137. 5 went for the hospital and surgical services only $75 went in for the physician visits. Thus for every premium collected, the profitability of hospital and surgical services was almost $62. 5 more than the profitability of the physician services. Thus, when compared to physician’s services, hospital and surgical services have a profitability of almost 45% more than the former.

Types Of Goods In Economics Economics Essay

Types Of Goods In Economics Economics Essay Demand is the desire to own anything, and the ability to own for it. Demand is the relationship between two variables. The price and the quantity demanded. The Law of Demand States That as the price of the goods services increases consumer demand for the goods services decreases vice versa. Law Of Demand Lets take an example of pizza, the consumers of the pizza increases as the price of the pizza decreases same as the consumers of the pizza decreases as the price of pizza increases, this follows the law of Demand. Lets take another example of butter when the price of the butter gets increases consumers switched to its substitute margarine, means when the price of the Products started increasing consumers started moving towards the substitute of the Products. INFERIOR GOODS: Inferior goods are those goods whose demands decrease when the income of the consumer increases and vice versa. Inferior goods are unlike normal goods which are opposite in nature, Normal goods are those whose demand increases when the income of the consumers increases and vice versa. An example of inferior good is old car , consumers will generally prefer old cars when their income is limited. As the income of the consumers increases the demand for the old cars will decrease while the demand for the costly car increases so the cheaper cars are the inferior goods. Bus services is also an example of the inferior good, this form of transportation is cheaper then air and train transportation. When the income of the consumers is limited then travelling by bus is more acceptable while it is more time consuming but when money is more abundant then time then faster transport will be choosen by the consumer. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Inferior_good.png Good Y is a normal good since the amount purchase increases from Y1 to Y2 as the budget constraint shifts from BC1 to the higher income BC2. Good X is an inferior good since the amount bought decreases from X! to X2 as income decreases. Giffen Goods: Giffen good is one which people consumes more of as their price rises. in giffen good situation income effects dominate, leading people to buy more of the goods even as its price rises. As in Demand price and quantity demanded pull in opposite direction, if price goes up, then quantity demanded goes down, or vice versa. Giffen goods are an exception to this, their price elasticity of demand is positive, when price goes up, the quantity demanded also goes up and vice versa. In order to be a true giffen good, price must be the only thing that changes to get a change in quantity demand. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz_kyfIp3Uiy4lb03cRw6g7Cwk1M6RtDkX0pm8s9Oz8vgHHtMMAALHlj4iD2macIEwHbiI2HV8I3VyhnL1KCbhzLmqbvpqWRa6rsKC2lqUjEbmbryGK8qCDDwm_bHYVS4wy9LzqbD-VuLc/s400/giffen+good.jpg http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199586547/01student/advanced/figures/fig022.jpg In the case of a Giffen product the income effect leads to a fall in the quantity demanded. This means that following a price fall the overall the quantity demanded falls. This means the demand curve is upward sloping. This is shown in the diagram above. File:Types of goods.svg TYPES OF GOODS IN ECONOMICS All Giffen goods are inferior goods but not all inferior goods are Giffen goods. Giffen goods are difficult to find because a number of conditions must be satisfied for the associated behavior to be observed. One reason for the difficulty in finding Giffen goods is Giffen originally envisioned a specific situation faced by individuals in a state of poverty. Modern consumer behaviour research methods often deal in aggregates that average out income levels and are too blunt an instrument to capture these specific situations. Furthermore, complicating the matter are the requirements for limited availability of substitutes, as well as that the consumers are not so poor that they can only afford the inferior good Some types of premium goods (such as expensive French wines, or celebrity-endorsed perfumes) are sometimes claimed to be Giffen goods. It is claimed that lowering the price of these high status goods can decrease demand because they are no longer perceived as exclusive or high status products. However, the perceived nature of such high status goods changes significantly with a substantial price drop. This disqualifies them from being considered as Giffen goods, because the Giffen goods analysis assumes that only the consumers income or the relative price level changes, not the nature of the good itself. If a price change modifies consumers perception of the good, they should be analyzed as Veblen goods. Some economists question the empirical validity of the distinction between Giffen and Veblen goods, arguing that whenever there is a substantial change in the price of a good its perceived nature also changes, since price is a large part of what constitutes a product However the theor etical distinction between the two types of analysis remains clear; which one of them should be applied to any actual case is an empirical matter. A Giffen good is one which people consume more of as price rises, violating the law of demand. In normal situations, as the price of such a good rises, the substitution effect causes people to purchase less of it and more of substitute goods. In the Giffen good situation, cheaper close substitutes are not available. Because of the lack of substitutes, the income effect dominates, leading people to buy more of the good, even as its price rises. An inferior good is a good that decreases in demand when consumer income rises, unlike normal goods, for which the opposite is observed. Normal goods are those for which consumers demand increases when their income increases. Inferiority, in this sense, is an observable fact relating to affordability rather than a statement about the quality of the good. As a rule, too much of a good thing is easily achieved with such goods, and as more costly substitutes that offer more pleasure or at least variety become available, the use of the inferior goods diminishes. Depending on consumer or market indifference curves, the amount of a good bought can increase, decrease, or stay the same when income increases. For inferior goods the demand decreases as income increases since when u get richer u go for nicer things eg tesco value tights. the poorer u are the more you did demand for it cause u cant afford anything else, whereas MS tights would be in higher demand with increase in income cause they are nicer. Giffen goods are exactly opposite people want more of it with higher income Example a posh car. The richer u is the more likely u is to be able to afford it so the higher the demand in the economy as a WHOLE.

Neo Nazis :: essays research papers fc

â€Å"Two Neo-Nazis have been convicted of murdering Black teenager Benjamin Hermansen. A third defendant has been convicted of being an accessory to the attack. The killing of 15-year-old Benjamin Hermansen while he was meeting a friend near his home in Oslo sparked outrage. Tens of thousands of Norwegians took to the streets a few days after the death to protest against racism and violence. Oslo City Court convicted Joe Erling Jahr, 20, and Ole Nicolai (Kvisler), 22, both linked to the Boot Boys neo-Nazi group, of murder. Jahr was sentenced to 16 years in prison and (Nicolai) Kvisler 15 years. Veronica Andreassen, 18, was convicted as an accessory to the assault and jailed for three years. The court said the murder was planned, racially motivated and committed by members of a Neo-Nazi group partly to spread fear. It also found that Jahr and (Nicolai) Kvisler had each stabbed Hermansen with different knives. "Benjamin Hermansen would not have been attacked if his skin had been the same colour as the defendants," the court's ruling said. The court said Jahr and (Nicolai) Kvisler had gone out that night with the intention of "getting a foreigner" and had brought knives. It said that while Andreassen did not participate in the attack, she went with them despite knowing they planned violence. Hermansen, who was active in his school and sports, was born and raised in Norway. He also had spoken out against racism on national television a few months before his death after he was assaulted by neo-Nazi youths during a soccer tournament in Denmark. â€Å" (fare.net) That was a news article I found on a Norwegian anti-racist website. It happened only a few days ago on January 21st in Norway. This shows the prevalence of racism still going on today. The group responsible for the murder belonged to an organization that calls themselves the Neo-Nazis. One of the questions I’ve always asked in my history classes, is â€Å"Why do we need to know about all this stuff that happened so long ago?† Last year, my history teacher, Mr. Slater, gave me an answer. He said we need to learn about history, or we will be doomed to repeat our past mistakes. With that said, I’ll talk about how Nazism started. In the beginning, there was Adolf Hitler. He lived a somewhat uninteresting life as a child. His father was a customs official at the border separating Austria and Germany. Neo Nazis :: essays research papers fc â€Å"Two Neo-Nazis have been convicted of murdering Black teenager Benjamin Hermansen. A third defendant has been convicted of being an accessory to the attack. The killing of 15-year-old Benjamin Hermansen while he was meeting a friend near his home in Oslo sparked outrage. Tens of thousands of Norwegians took to the streets a few days after the death to protest against racism and violence. Oslo City Court convicted Joe Erling Jahr, 20, and Ole Nicolai (Kvisler), 22, both linked to the Boot Boys neo-Nazi group, of murder. Jahr was sentenced to 16 years in prison and (Nicolai) Kvisler 15 years. Veronica Andreassen, 18, was convicted as an accessory to the assault and jailed for three years. The court said the murder was planned, racially motivated and committed by members of a Neo-Nazi group partly to spread fear. It also found that Jahr and (Nicolai) Kvisler had each stabbed Hermansen with different knives. "Benjamin Hermansen would not have been attacked if his skin had been the same colour as the defendants," the court's ruling said. The court said Jahr and (Nicolai) Kvisler had gone out that night with the intention of "getting a foreigner" and had brought knives. It said that while Andreassen did not participate in the attack, she went with them despite knowing they planned violence. Hermansen, who was active in his school and sports, was born and raised in Norway. He also had spoken out against racism on national television a few months before his death after he was assaulted by neo-Nazi youths during a soccer tournament in Denmark. â€Å" (fare.net) That was a news article I found on a Norwegian anti-racist website. It happened only a few days ago on January 21st in Norway. This shows the prevalence of racism still going on today. The group responsible for the murder belonged to an organization that calls themselves the Neo-Nazis. One of the questions I’ve always asked in my history classes, is â€Å"Why do we need to know about all this stuff that happened so long ago?† Last year, my history teacher, Mr. Slater, gave me an answer. He said we need to learn about history, or we will be doomed to repeat our past mistakes. With that said, I’ll talk about how Nazism started. In the beginning, there was Adolf Hitler. He lived a somewhat uninteresting life as a child. His father was a customs official at the border separating Austria and Germany.

Business Research Report

Social media, dating sites and shopping sites all use given registration information to learn more about consumers. The more companies know about people, the better they can decide who their potential customers should be and how to reach them. Social media is communication through online communities. The use of social media in marketing has become very popular over the last few years. This is a very effective way to promote content by increased visibility. Using these platforms also allows for more involvement with the customers to build more trusting relationships with them.Customer relationship management refers to software that records and analyzes all kinds of useful data. This info can be obtained in many different says by either the company or a third party. It is used to understand the customers and their buying habits. We recommend opening a Faceable and Twitter account, using those accounts to hyper target and creating a CRM database. We chose these specific technologies bec ause they are fairly simple to implement and would be the most helpful for our company. Introduction The purpose of this report is to review and analyze new information technologies that can assist with marketing in the company.As of this year, there are over 950 companies that provide marketing software (Brinier 2014). Everyday, marketing professionals are looking for new ways to grow their business and technology has changed the way they reach new customers. These days, it's all about the customers and what they want and because they have access to pretty much everything, marketers have to find a way to get their attention. It is estimated that people spend about 1 1 hours a day using some form of technology (Patronize 2014). Knowing this, traditional marketing just isn't enough anymore.If companies want to keep up with consumers, they must keep up With technology. With all of the technology available for use, companies can have so much information at their fingertips. Out of all of the possibilities, we chose to examine social media, hyper targeting and customer relationship management (CRM) because we think those will work best for the company. Social media is very low cost and will allow us to reach a much bigger audience. We can engage the audience and build relationships with them this way. Hyper targeting will be used to identify potential customers and reach them more efficiently.This ensures that the people we advertise to are more likely to be interested in what we have to offer. Having a CRM database would low easy access to all of our information about our customers. This information can be used in anyway that our company sees fit. Hyper Targeting Hyper targeting is defined as the ability to identify potential consumers and deliver targeted advertising content. History The phrase â€Å"Hyper Targeting† was actually coined by Namespace (Gold, 2009). Namespace discovered that they could target consumers for ads based on the information provid ed in users' registration and profiles.This information might include age, sex, geographic region, education, favorite movies, entertainment, restaurants, etc. Namespace discovered that because of the large numbers of registered users, they could target very specific user interests and still reach large numbers of people. Today, dating sites, social media sites and other sites that require user registration and other â€Å"self- expressed† user information all make use of hyper targeting. Hyper Targeting with Twitter and Faceable The social media sites Twitter and Faceable both make heavy use of hyper targeting.A company advertising on Twitter can target every Twitter user who has specific words in their public bio, or someone who uses particular words often in tweets, or someone who follows certain verified other retailers. Businesses can also create a user list using those specifications and show that group â€Å"promoted nets† (Smith, 2014). Faceable allows advertis ers to target users by age, SeX, language, location, workplace, education, interests, browsing history and more, with different ads for different populations.Advertisers can even display ads in different languages, depending on whom they have hyper targeted (Albacore, 2011 Mobile Hyper Targeting Advertisers may target mobile device users based on the location Of the user, via a number of methods. Users' locations can be estimated based on their IP address, but this method is not always accurate. A more accurate approach is to use the GAPS coordinates that the user has chosen to share with certain mobile applications. Once the users location is known, advertising may be targeted based on proximity to a particular place (I. E. The city center), or based on proximity to a particular retail outlet.Advertisers may also presume that users have a particular interest based on their location (I. E. If they are at a hockey game, perhaps they like sports), and target advertising accordingly (K ombi, 2013). Analysis Hyper targeting can be used to identify potential customers based on relevant criteria and deliver advertising to them. Hyper targeting may limit the size of the advertising audience, but the â€Å"targeted† consumers are much more likely to respond to the advertising. Hyper targeting is relevant to our company because it can help us determine who our customers are and/or should be, and it can help us reach them more efficiently.Social Media Social media, as most know, is a form Of electronic communication through online communities. According to Pew Research (2014), 90% of adults ages 8-29 use social media, which has made it a very popular way to market over the last few years. Social media is used to promote and inform, gain valuable feedback and build relationships with customers. Promotion Twitter and Faceable are often used for promotion and are very effective (and free). Customers look on these pages for all kinds of information about companies and social media is a fast and simple way to keep them updated.A company can invite people to like their page and share their posts and just like that, millions of people could be exposed to the content. The global average of a share on a social networking site is $3. 0 (Meyer-Brandt 2014). This is how much money the company makes due to increased visibility from each share of their content. Engaging Social media platforms are a great way for businesses to engage and build relationships with customers. This is now one of the fastest ways to communicate with people. Because it allows for two-way communication, where television and radio don't, it is much easier to engage people.Companies can ask for people's opinions with new projects and encourage them to share their content. Getting them to participate in voting, contests and provide feedback can help the company be more transparent to the public. Responding to questions and comments can make customer service experiences better. Analy sis With social media being such a big part of society these days, there isn't really a better way to market one's business or product. This is important to us because we can reach a bigger audience to share information about our company with than we could using most other avenues.Social media marketing is usually free and will allow us to build relationships with our â€Å"followers† and involve them. The more involved they are, the better and more trusting relationships we have with them. Those relationships will lead o better experiences for our customers, who will spread the word and bring more business to us. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can be defined as a strategy used to record and manage data and interactions with customers. This strategy usually involves using some kind of software that saves and analyzes data.Information The information collected could be contact info, demographic and complete transaction history. Su rveys could be given to customers to find out what they like and don't like. One method used to obtain information is to offer a shopping/loyalty card. Giving rewards and discounts to customers will encourage them to sign up, which is when they will provide some of their info. Some companies also use a third party to connect people to account numbers and credit cards. How it's used The information can be used in many ways to help improve marketing.The idea is to understand the relationship between the company and the customer with their buying habits. All of the info that is recorded over time and through each and every customer interaction is saved in a database and is used to target customer's specific needs. So, now it is easier to market the eight product to the right person for the right price. Implementing a CRM system can be very beneficial to the company. This is the fastest growing marketing tool in the last five years (Reardon 2011 All Of our information involving customer s would be in one organized database.The marketing team would then have easy access to all of the info and use it as they see fit. Having this knowledge, marketers would be able to find more qualified customers, making the time spent doing so more valuable. This would save the company time and keep us from wasting money on marketing to the wrong people. Recommendations Our company, like others, relies on sales for profit. It is recommended that we take measures to increase those sales by implementing the findings. The first thing we should do is make a Faceable and Twitter account.We can designate people to administer these accounts, keep them updated and get people interested in our company. We should then, use our social media accounts to hyper target. There are various software programs to choose from or we can let Faceable and Twitter do all of that for us. Lastly, we should decide what information we want to use in a CRM database; what info ill be most helpful to our company. T hen, we need to decide if we want to create our own database or if we want to pay a third party to do collect the information for us.These findings are important because they will help our company advance in marketing, which is likely to lead to higher sales. Social media is a fast and easy way to reach the most people. It permits us to communicate and engage existing and potential customers. We can also use these platforms to hyper target our content. Hyper targeting will help us by advertising to the people who are most likely to respond, getting the most out of our marketing. Creating a customer relationship management database will contain all of our customer's information.

Vans Shoes History

Vans Off the Wall Vans Inc. is a prosperous company, which manufactures shoes and apparel. The company was formerly known as Van Doren Rubber Company, Inc. and changed its name to Vans, Inc. in 1991. Since the beginning, Vans Inc. has strived for popularity in snowboarding shoes and skateboarding sneakers to try to keep up with the fast growing and extreme sport cultures. Paul Van Doren started the company in the United States in March 1966. The company began to manufacture shoes in the first Vans retail store located in Anaheim, CA.With such a prosperous beginning in history, the shoes that continue to be manufactured could be defined as one of the leading shoes for the skateboarding industries. The reputation of the shoe itself has lead the skating industry in a revolutionary and unexpected way since 1966 up until this year with much future to come. The shoes have its unique style with its signature waffle sole that has made an impact with the youth. Differently from its current co mpetitors in the skating industry, vans shoes have a unique sense of style by using canvas material, making the shoes more durable than the competition.Along with the use of canvas material, comes the options of variable designs and colors to fulfill the need of the young customers. The shoes come in a variable combination of color hues and stitching designs. For more than 46 years Vans footwear has been at the heart of skateboarding from the classic Vans canvas shoes to their technical skate shoes. Vans define individual style that is an excellent match for skateboarders around the world who practice the sport. Being a productive business, Vans Inc. has a broad market around all the states in the U. S and more around 50 countries around the world.The Business Week website briefly describes the company's target market by stating, â€Å"Vans, Inc. operates as a branded lifestyle company for the youth market. It reaches its 10 to 24 year-old target consumers through the sponsorship o f core sports, such as skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, and wakeboarding, as well as through major entertainment events and venues, such as the VANS Triple Crown Series, VANS Warped Tour, VANS World Amateur Skateboarding Championships, and VANS High Cascade Snowboard Camp, located on Mt. Hood. † BusinessWeek describes how the company uses different types of edia to reach the youth community. The company has gained a lot of popularity with their shoes and gaining it not only among skaters, but also among all the teenagers. Many of their customers are appealed by the shoes because of the designs rather than its use. Vans Inc. , according to Hoovers. com who have researched the company, say the biggest competitors are Nike, Converse and Adidas. Vans Inc sponsors well known events that involve extreme sports such as competitions, skateboard parks, and music events to invite them to push the brand’s â€Å" Vans Off The Wall† slogan. Following the look that Vans I nc. s trying to achieve, many consumers would believe that the business would only be focused towards men. Contrary to this idea, the Funding Universe website talks about the focus Vans Inc. has now placed on female products. Funding universe reports that the company also responded by introducing a complete line of women's outdoor shoes. Making these types of changes made the company also gain popularity and increased the target market. With such changes, young mothers with their kids would purchase their shoes at the same time as they would purchase the shoes of their kids.With the extend of the market now including men, women, boys and girls, the company has a step ahead of the competition by allowing to have a more extended selection for all the family. Works Cited Burritt, Chrus, and Lauren Coleman. â€Å"VF’s Vans Unit to Add Athletic Shoes to Challenge Nike. † Bloomberg Businessweek. N. p. , 14 June 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. . â€Å"Vans, Inc. Competition. † Vans, Inc. Names of Competitors. Hoovers, 02 May 2011. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. . â€Å"VANS INC (VANS) SPO. † NASDAQ. com. NasDaq, 20 Nov. 2009. Web. 09 Nov. 2012. .

The Prince vs. Henry V

The Prince vs. Henry V A comparison of attributes After reading Machiavelli’s The Prince and watching Shakespeare’s Henry V in class, one begins to notice similarities between the authors’ idea of what a â€Å"perfect king† should be. The patterns between the ideal ruler of Shakespeare and the ideal ruler of Machiavelli can be seen in numerous instances throughout this story. For the duration of this essay, I will compare the similarities in both pieces to give the reader a better understanding of how Shakespeare devised his view of what a â€Å"perfect king† should be.One can see an example while looking back on Henry’s youthful experiences. Before taking oath as king, Henry was involved with some scrupulous characters. He would party, stay out all night, and defile his father’s wishes. But after becoming king, Henry shunned this former lifestyle and become the individual of greatness we know today. As Machiavelli stated, â€Å"So a prince should be so prudent that he knows how to escape the evil reputation attached to those vices which could lose him his state, and how to avoid those vices which are not so dangerous, if he possibly can; but, if he cannot, he need not worry so much about the latter.And then, he must not flinch from being blamed for vices which are necessary for safeguarding the state. This is because, taking everything into account, he will find that some of the things that appear to be virtues will, if he practices them, ruin him, and some of the things that appear wicked will bring him security and prosperity. † (Machiavelli) If looked at closely, this is exactly what Henry had done. He used this youthful expression to gain favor with the layperson and look even better when he took the throne.This act of â€Å"smoke and mirrors† worked to his advantage and backs up Machiavelli’s claims. As Machiavelli says, â€Å"From this arises the following question: Whether it is bett er to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The answer is that one would like to be both the one and the other; but because it is difficult to combine them, it is far better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both. † (Machiavelli) During Henry’s speech at Harfleur, one can see this point in action.While speaking to the governor, Henry literally scares the people of Harfleur into submission and gains entry to the city without further fighting. This shows a definite similarity in what Machiavelli and Shakespeare view in their leader. As a king, Henry becomes known for being a man of resilience, strategy, and combat. These traits, according to Machiavelli, are necessary to become the â€Å"ideal king. † As stated by Machiavelli, â€Å"†¦a prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules. (Machiavelli) This can be seen when th e Dauphin presents Henry with a gift of tennis balls and an insulting speech practically telling him to stay out of grown men’s affairs. This gives Henry the leverage he needs to start a war with France without looking like the instigator. He can now put the blame of war on the Dauphin and the many lives of whom will be killed. Henry uses this to move toward his strength and show his full potential. Another example can be seen when Henry has to hang Bardolph for plundering during the invasion of France.Years earlier, while drinking in the tavern, Bardolph had asked Prince Henry this question, â€Å"Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief? † Prince Henry replied, â€Å"No, thou shalt. † (Branagh, Scofield and Holm) In this instance, one can see Henry is following his Machiavellian ways. This can be shown in the following passage. Machiavelli states, â€Å"The prince should nonetheless make himself feared in such a way that, if he is not loved, at least he escapes being hated; and the prince can always avoid hatred if he abstains from the property of his subjects and citizens and from their women.If, even so, it proves necessary to execute someone, this should be done only when there is proper justification and manifest reason for it. But above all, a prince should abstain from the property of others; because men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. † (Machiavelli) Bardolph had been warned of this many years earlier. Henry was just following up on this promise. For this last example, I will quote Machiavelli for almost the last time.He states, â€Å"The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous. Therefore, if a prince wants to maintain his rule, he must learn how not to be virtuous, and to make use of this or not according to need. † (Machiavelli) This can be seen on the night before the last battle. Henry disguises himself as a common soldier by borrowing Erpingham’s cloak and spying on his troops. Henry does this to ensure his troops are mentally prepared and in high morale.What he finds is a mixed morale within his troops and makes him prepare even harder for the upcoming battle. Henry uses this â€Å"cloak† as a tool to find the weaknesses in his army and then exploits them with his inspiring speech before the battle begins. This Machiavellian act could have been the turning point and major reason they won against an outnumbering, French army. As seen throughout the film, the similarities between Machiavelli’s â€Å"ideal prince† and Shakespeare’s â€Å"perfect king† are too many to count.A blend of old and new attributes created this timeless character in which we are still learning from today. One can only hope the few examples given will give the reader a better understanding of were Shakespeare derives his perfect, Machiavellian king f rom. To finish, a famous quote from Machiavelli, â€Å"The end justifies the means. † (Machiavelli) Works Cited Henry V. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. Perf. Kenneth Branagh, et al. 1989. Machiavelli, Niccolo. â€Å"Selections from The Prince. † Matthews, Roy T and F DeWitt Platt. Readings in the Western Humanities. Vol. II. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 18-21.

Learning contract 489 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Learning contract 489 - Assignment Example 41). When a student engages in the contracting process, where he/she will participate in making decisions concerning their education will increase their internal motivation. Learning contract will enable the student to accomplish other goals apart from working for marks. The student will be satisfied after meeting other goals. Many students respond positively to this technique of learning as they appreciate the efforts applied by the teacher in recognizing and accommodating their individual needs. As the student is from working at an appropriate level, the teacher is satisfied from seeing make efforts and grow. The teacher is also happy that the classroom time is not disturbed by regular distractions. Learning contract teaches the student some life skills like learning the importance of setting goals and struggling to achieve them. Learning contract is important as it guides the learner and the teacher on the procedure of handling various topics or units one after the other (Gomez 2011, p. 73). Learning contracts should be designed in a way that it will benefit the parties of the contract especially the learner. The contract should contain all the contents including the objectives, duties of the parties, time to be accomplished, and the

Nursing Intervention to Encourage healthy Eating habits Among Term Paper

Nursing Intervention to Encourage healthy Eating habits Among Teenagers - Term Paper Example There are four steps in the development of nursing intervention, keeping in mind the encouragement of healthy habits among teenagers: Assessing: In this step, the nurse will have to assess the problem or the area where they have to start from. Here, the nursing intervention is to develop healthy eating habits among teenagers. So the nurse will have to assess and analyze those areas from where the research can be started. The targeted audience – teenagers – can be made a part of the study for the encouragement of healthy eating habits among them. Formulating an Intervention: After assessment of the area, the process leads to the second step – formulation of the intervention. In this step, observing the eating habits of the target audience will take place. The nurse will have to formulate a plan for how to intrude in the social life of the teenagers, make them recognize their unhealthy eating habits, and convince them to adopt a healthy diet. Even though junk food has its charms, according to a research conducted by the American Society for Clinical Nutrition (2003), the results showed that teenagers who consumed a higher amount of beverages than teens who did not were more prone to having a high blood pressure. It has also been claimed that too much intake of junk food can cause depression among teenagers (Tomer, 2011). Doctors and nutrition consultants strictly inhibit the regular intake of junk food, not only for teenagers but for everyone. A recent study published in Public Health Nutrition (Sanchez-Villegas et al., 2012) showed that teens who consume fast food are 51 percent more likely to develop depression than teens who consume less or no fast food at all. Enlightening the teens of today with the harms of fast food consumption and trying to develop reluctance in them for such might appear as the most challenging aspect of formulating an intervention. Implementing: The third step in nursing intervention is to implement the prepared set of plans. The step of implementation will include all the chosen subjects – teenagers – from the nurse on whom the formulation was attempted. In implementation, the results drawn from the research done can be shown to the subjects and any other people related to the subject. The priority viewers of the result will be the guardians or parents of the teens who, after showing the results, will be advised to decrease or condemn the fast food consumption in their child. Showing the results to the subjects and the harms caused by them might prove helpful, too, if they are willing to accept the flaws in their diet. Interviewing of relatives can also prove to be helpful in the deduction of results for the research being conducted. Evaluating: Upon reaching the end of the research, the nurse now has to evaluate the plan they implemented for intrusion and calculate the results obtained in a scale of positive to negative. The evaluation may take place by interviewing the teenage r subjects and asking them for their feedback. The same can be done to everyone in the subject’s social circle to know if the subject’s eating habits are considered beneficial for them or not. The interviews and feedback hold an important part in the step of evaluation because they will prove helpful for the researchers in their deducing of results. From the evaluated