History of China

(1) During the start, when the first settlers came to China, the Chinese have been an extraordinary civilization, from its philosophies to technologies. It has been ruled by Emperors who have tried to unite China. Those who were successful were usually blessed with a Dynasty which lasted for a while. The Chinese have prospered and suffered. The ancient history of China reflects the beauty of Chinese ancient culture and morality. With more than 5000 years of history, China has a wonderful culture and splendid civilization. History of China) China’s history is told in traditional historical records that take us back to the three sovereigns and five emperors about 5,000 years ago, enhanced by archaeological records dating to the 16th century BC. China is known as one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations. From the oldest resident in China and the oldest dynasty, Xia dynasty, there have been millions of well-known people who made great contributions to the harmony, unity and growth of Chinese civilization.They contain emperors such as, Hanwudi (Emperor of Han dynasty) and Li Shimin (Emperor of Tang Dynasty), famous scholars such as Confucius (Great Educator/Guru in Spring and Autumn period), and great scientists like Zhu Chongzhi and Zhangheng. It is their great contributions and efforts that made China appealing and pleasant today. (History of China) Chine has a continuous civilization and the world’s oldest people, consisting of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia.China has the world’s longest continuously used written language system, and is the source of many major inventions, such as what the British scholar and biochemist Joseph Needham called the ‘’four great inventions of Ancient China’’, paper, the compass, gunpowder and printing. China’s cultural area of interest, historically, has spread across East Asia as a whole, with Chinese religion, customers and writing syst ems being taken to great extent by neighbours such as Japan, Korean and Vietnam. China Facts and History) China, with a population of more than one billion people, is a country full of marketing potential. Having so many potential consumers, it usually gives out a positive attitude on how any product could reach its target audience. Nonetheless with a country so rich in history and culture, there are many factors to be taken in account by marketers. Some of the most important and influential elements would be the monetary policy, currency system, market agreements and environmental factors of the country. Overview of China's History) China’s business structure has been fluctuating from time to time. During 1976 to 1985 a ten year plan stressed improvement in economic management and a bigger role for private and collectively owned (as opposed to state-owned) enterprises. They still continued to attract western technology and investment and did a program of incentives to increa se agricultural production. New policies were introduced in 1984 which called for further delegation of economic planning and for growing reliance on market forces to figure out the prices of consumer goods.Since the early 1990s the government of China continued to ease controls on the economy. While taking a look at China’s history from a business structure, it is essential to check their economics background and other factors such as National Output, Labour, Communications, Commerce, Government and more. During the 1990’s China’s business structure started improving. The annual gross domestic product (GDP) of china was about $544. 6 billion.Agricultural outputs (which also includes some small-scale industries in rural areas,forestry and fishing) started increasing and accounted for about 24 percent of domestic income and industrial output (which includes manufacturing,mining, electricity generation, building and construction) accounted for 42 percent. Chinaâ⠂¬â„¢s labour force is one of the important facts in their business structure, their labour force in 1996 was estimated at nearly 584 million people. China has issues with unemployment and underemployment because of fast amount of population growth rate.About one-quarter of the populations was 15years of age or younger during the 1990s, therefore it was assured that a huge amount of young people will enter the labour force each year. (Overview of China's History) About 60 percent of their labour force consists of agricultural workers. The circulation of commodities in China made a huge change in 1979, state-owned enterprises have been unbound to obtain few of their supplies and organize a part of their product on the market; extensive use of advertisement as a source of information has also been clear.Over the years the reorganization of commerce in urban centers, has brought about a rapid growth of collectively and individually owned businesses, such as restaurants, teahouses, inns , hairdressing establishments, photography studios, tailor shops, and all types of repair and maintenance services. (Overview of China's Marketing History) It is very complex to identify exactly when theTextile industry started. Archaeological studies imply that the first textile, different from fur or skins sewn together was felt (non-woven) cloth created by compressing and condensing woollen fibers.It is believed that the locations where textile was first used are; Egypt, India, Turkey and China. Ever since ancient years, China was a strong player in the textile market. Textile production in China from the earliest evidence were cocoon of bombyx mori, the domesticated silkworm, which happened to be found in Xia, Shanxi, which was dated around 5000 and 3000 BC. Around just about 4000 BC the first textile fragments were found in Yuyao, Zhejiang. Scraps of silk were found in Huzhou Zheijiang, which happened to be back to 27000 BC. China's Textile and Clothing Industry) Since 1949 tex tile and clothing has been one of China's traditional industries and has remained as one of the important industries in modern China. This industry has experienced serious reforms and reached high growth for a long period of time. China has turned into the world's largest exporter and producer of many products in this industry. Chinese firms concentrate on the low-end product markets. They are still very poor in management and marketing skills.Technologies in this industry are not yet advanced and profit margins are pretty low. (China's role in the Global Textile Industry) Around 1979 China completely started its foreign trade, In 1979 China solved certain trade restrictions, paving the way for increases in the relatively small foreign investment and trade activity and by the early 1990s yearly exports totalled about $92 billion and imports about $104 billion. (Facts and History of China) China’s success has been primarily due to manufacturing as a low-cost producer.This is q ualified because of a combination of cheap labour, good infrastructure, relatively high productivity, favourable government policy and possibly undervalued exchange rate. (History of China) 5000 years have passed and the Chinese nation and society are welcoming much development in the 21st century. With the collective energy of 1. 3 billion people, China will enter a new phase in the 21st century and create a miracle for it people and the world. (History of China) .

Branches of Philosophy Essay

There are five types of branches in philosophy. These branches can be categories as Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Politics, and Estetics. The first branch of philosophy is Metaphysics, also known as the study of existence. Metaphysics act as a foundation in philosophy as well as the foundation of the view of our world. Metaphysics is very important to all of us as it help us to deal with reality by explaining and interpreting the world and nature around us. As you can see, without Metaphysics in our life, we will be unable to preserve our life as well as being ambiguous toward the information and knowledge around us, if this happen, we will have difficulty to live and comprehend the world. Therefore, Metaphysics is very important in our life. There are also some key elements of a rational metaphysics, one of the most important element would be reality. From a metaphysical side of view, reality must be understood perfectly and correctly because reality can be said as absolute and consistent. It has a specific nature independent of our thoughts or feelings. Besides reality, causality also play an important role in metaphysics. This is because everything happens for a reason and also an effect. Every entity has a specific nature and act according to that specific nature. Therefore, we can define that causality is means by which changes occurs, but the changes occurs depending on a specific nature. The next branch of philosophy is Epistemology, which is also known as the study of knowledge. This branch of philosophy is used to address the question â€Å"How do I know about it† as Epistemology is the study of our method or ways to acquired knowledge. It also relates our minds to reality by concerning how are they related to each other before determine whether these relationships are valid or invalid. Epistemology also encompasses the nature and construction of concepts. All mental things such as idea and emotion are also compasses by Epistemology. We need to have Epistemology in order to identify the true and false in our daily life and also the method or ways of evaluating certain things to acquired knowledge and experience toward the world around us. Epistemology is important because we will not be able to identify right from wrong as we are unable to think properly without Epistemology. On the other hand, we will be able to achieve our goal as well as acquired more understanding toward reality if we got enough degree of Epistemology. Flaws in epistemology will make it harder to accomplish anything. One of the key elements of a proper Epistemology is our own senses. Our five senses are valid and also are the only way we can gain information about the world around us. Besides that, logic help us to maintain consistency within our knowledge. Validity is determined by objectivity while concepts are abstraction of a certain details of reality. These are all the key elements for a rational Epistemology. Ethics, also known as the study of how a person acts in his daily life, is dependent on Epistemology because it is impossible to make choices without knowledge. From a fundamental point of view, ethics is a method or way to categorized and pursue our own values. Human needs Ethics to live. This is because without ethics, the whole world will become chaotic as all our action will be aimless and random as all of us are unable to decide a course of action. Ethics will not be able to completely help us to pursue our goal if rationality is ignored. We must all have a rational ethical standard at a certain degree which we are able to identify our goal clearly in order to accomplish our most important values. Every branches of philosophy have their own key element to achieve certain level of value. For ethics, it requires a standard of value to which all goals and actions can be compared to. The ultimate standard of value is none other but the value of our own lives. If a person is able to recognize his importance not only to his physical survival, but to his well-being and happiness, that certain person can be said to have a very good and proper ethics in his life. One of the subset of ethics will be the next branches of philosophy known as Politics. Politics can be defined as the study of how men should interact in a proper society and what constitute proper in life, in other words, it is the study of Force which answer the question ‘What action are permissible’. Politics can be applied to every single person or a group of people. A society is set up by Politics as politics tell how a person should act or behave within a certain society. Politics is very important in a society and even a country itself, this is because a political system in a society or country will greatly affect the individuals within that specific area. The people within that system are allowed to function or act according to the nature of the politics that is applied there. If the system is unable to work out, it will either collapse such as the Communist Russia or it will cause rebel such as in Czarist Russia. The main goal of Politics must be the faculty of reason. This is because reason is the main means of survival for a man as ones cannot survive in an ineffective environment. In a moral political system, coercion must be banned because reason does not function under it as man cannot be forced to think about what is right or wrong. Society cannot be forced to think, but, government plays an important role here as governments can objective laws and also monopoly retaliatory force to prevent one person from doing illegal things that might harm the society. The last branch of philosophy is also known as the study of arts and the sense of life which is called Esthetics. Esthetics also studies the methods of evaluating arts and also the judgment of arts itself. This branch of philosophy depends on the previous branches of philosophy which is Metaphysics, Epistemology, and ethics. It is important to study art because art existed through all of recorded human history. Human’s unique ways of thinking and evaluating makes art unique as well. A person ability to abstract the concept of art can determined the standard of one’s life as well as satisfying his personal intellectual needs. This is why Esthetics is very important as it delves into the reason why does art existed. The main key element of a proper Esthetics is none other than a person’s value judgment of the creator. With the field of ethics, these value judgments can be evaluated as well as observed because art is a selective recreation of reality.

Analysis of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” Essay

The Speech I have chosen to do is â€Å"I have a dream† by Martin Luther King. â€Å"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.† I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.† This is a particularly inspirational speech because he was saying exactly what he felt and it came straight from his heart, and it was exactly what the people that were listening were thinking about the how they were being treated. The speech shows how angry he is with all the racism in the United States of America, and he tells everyone how things should be, this worked particularly well because all the black people in America were treated poorer than white people and it summed up all the hatred and anger that was inside them. Martin Luther king used very cleverly thought out sentence structure to make more impact on the listeners. He used the quick and snappy sentences to grab their attention and then he would use the longer sentences to explain his deeper feelings. Luther king also uses the word freedom a lot because it shows that is what they didn’t have, which also again makes the listeners feel that they don’t have a lot of freedom. The definition of inspiration is â€Å"the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.† This is exactly what Dr King got people that listened to his speech to feel, inspired to do something to help themselves. Thank you for listening.

Introduction to business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Introduction to business - Essay Example While the first wave of public management reforms happened between 1979 and 1999, the turn of the millennia has shown increased reforms aimed at better servicing the public. The example of the way in which government employees are put into a culture of purpose, a social contract in which pay is only a part of the reward system, shows the way that reforms of the conservatism that hampered the system are being healed. The public management field is concerned with the areas of interest that are defined by the needs of the public. In order to fully understand this field, it is important to have definitive understanding of what the word public means. According to Bovaird and Loffler (2009), public refers to â€Å"collective choice and activity† in which â€Å"it has the ultimate responsibility for constituting a society as a political community which has the capacity to make public choices† (p. 5). The concerns of the public are the concerns of creating a community in which the needs of the individual are addressed in such a way that they best benefit the needs of the community as a whole. One of the prime concerns for public management is increasing the value of the money that is spent in serving the public, in creating the best possible result for the least amount of money in order to create the broadest number of services. In understanding the services of public management, it is beneficial to contrast it to the purposes of public administration and governance. Public administration is concerned with holding the budget, with administering the finances and how they are spent Governance is concerned with determining the structures through which decisions will be made and judging if those structures have been effectively followed. Both of these types of control are determined a great deal by the way in which the public perceives the effectiveness of their application (Bovaird and Loffler 2009 p. 6). Public management is concerned with managing the need s of the public through efficient use of the funds that are available so that the most people see the best and greatest amount of benefit. An example of the difference is shown by Bovaird and Loffler (2009) through a simplified consideration. When considering the topic of clean streets, governance is concerned with the actions of the citizens in preventing further littering, while management will be concerned with how to improve street cleaning services (p. 9). While this is a very simplified version of the differences, those differences can be viewed through the lens of this example. In the year 1999, Pollitt and Bouckaert wrote about the need for public management reforms. There are five areas of interest that define the reasons that reform was called for during this time. The examples of public management within Finland and Sweden could not be reached due to differences in the structure of the United Kingdom. The first difference that is remarked upon is that the U.K. reflects a deeper complexity of political governance. The second difference is within the per capita wealth of the country. The third concept is within the capital growth within the country. The fourth is within the differences that can be appreciated general governance expenditure. The final aspect that must be considered when approaching reforms in order to reflect the nature of the U.K. social and political structure is in the wide variations in wage and price increases

E-learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

E-learning - Essay Example University Senate Regulations: www2.le.ac.uk/offices/sas2/regulations/documents/2012-13/Senatereg11-discipline.pdf Unintended plagiarism as well as deliberate plagiarism will result in the award of a fail grade. In recent years, the proliferation of the latest technologies and easy access to a wide range of Internet tools, the lives of people has been changed significantly. Even the learning sector has been impacted due to the robust growth in the technological gadgets; it has revolutionised the learning and teaching areas of the field simultaneously (Conole et al., 2003). As a result, there is a surge in the demand of workforce which makes learning a part of their training and development agenda during the career growth (Newton & Ellis, 2005). In order to cultivate an E-learning culture within the organisation, it is mandatory for the management team to seek help from the professionals so that they can enhance the morale of the workforce (Wall & Ahmed, 2008). The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been playing a dual role in the digital era. At one extreme, it is expected that the information oriented society in future will have to face various challenges. Likewise, these challenges ignited by the technology driven, knowledge intensive and dynamic working life will facilitate the lifelong and continuous competence development of the working people in various aspects of life (Tynjala & Hakkinen, 2005). On the other extreme, it is believed that ICT will assist in developing solutions for the posed challenges. The rapid changes in the field of E-learning have taken place due to evolution of the technologies which is also considered as a problem in this arena (Tynjala & Hakkinen, 2005). It is evident from the history of E-learning that there was dominance of the technology-driven approaches such as CAI (Computer-Aided Instructions), mobile learning, blended learning and distance learning; the basic learning process remains consistent just the

Role of Individuals in Historical Thought Essay

Role of Individuals in Historical Thought - Essay Example With the progress of history, the intensifying and expansion of historical efforts, and the advancement of ‘science, technology and society’ a great number individuals take part in historical happenings and every person plays a ‘mounting role’ in the historical course and boosts his involvement to the ‘treasure store’ of material as well as religious way of life. The inventive action of the person is especially great within communist society where there are encouraging environment for free of charge labour and activity in different fields of social existence (Plekhanov, p. 32, 2003). Individuals, not Forces, make History Great individuals do not emerge accidentally but through historical requirement, when the resultant objective circumstances are ready. Exceptional leaders arrive at the forefront during a phase of fundamental radical alterations within society, political activities and known revolts. People of intellect appear in science usually when invention needs some outstanding scientific breakthrough. Exceptional artists, most of the time, show their flair on the most important ‘turning points in history’. In addition, a brilliant individual will go down in history simply if the general public requires his aptitude, temperament and intelligence on a particular phase of its progress. The leaders of the working class and all the waged people - such as Marx, Engels and Lenin - were wonderful individuals who left a profound mark on history. They were leaders of a â€Å"qualitatively new type† (Plekhanov, p. 51, 2003), impressive scholars and controller of the best faction of the public, the radical association of the working class. They had pledge and valour, unwavering personal belief in the impartiality of the socialist reasons, affection for the individuals and extreme dislike for their opponents. They were strongly connected with the public, trained them and in turn gained knowledge from the publi c, taking a broader view of their â€Å"rich revolutionary experience† (Limaye, p. 193, 1986). Lately, Oakeshott's efforts have been described as a ‘reformulation’ of moderation, one which attempts to free it of the conventionally main policies of â€Å"materialism, economism, and utilitarianism† (Limaye, p. 221, 1986). His individualism is known to be a systematically ‘Hegelian’ dismissal of the usual exact assumptions causing the materialist belief. Oakeshott is quoted mostly for having symbolically explained human activity along with interaction as dialogue. Ironically, a number of political philosophers fail to notice Oakeshott's added declaration that the persistent obsession with particular activities has in fact facilitated in making the general discussion of humanity relatively uninteresting.â€Å"Philosophy, on the other hand, is also effectively conversational; it is unusually conversable† (Limaye, p. 291, 1986). Oakeshottâ₠¬â„¢s formation of history is possibly more an issue of ‘modesty than of nihilism’. For Oakeshott, history’ as it is generally considered is a vague phrase, exemplifying two separate thoughts. First, there is the estimated sum of the existence of humankind, or the course of - in some way related - happenings inside this human account. This is a ‘past com prised’ of real historical happenings as well as individuals by actual historical performers; it is they, who make history, not the historians. Oakeshott argues that as it imagines history as a helpful collection of evidence to be mastered; this is not an appropriately

Book review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Book review - Essay Example The author’s usage of the word dirt as an allegory is the main construct of the entire book. The book is a distinctive exploration of culture in the early nineteenth century when the colonial settlement took place in New Zealand. It also presents a well-drawn picture of scholarly and enlightening history of sanitation and public health awareness in the early Dunedin, New Zealand. The way the book is written and constructed, it pulls the threads of the discourse analysis, cultural theory, as well as anthropology. The author uses a research methodology that answers certain questions like what does dirt symbolizes or points to, in what ways the colonial settlers parleyed their negative impact, and how did the dirt positively contributed to the city’s development. Moreover, the author highlights the cultural eventuality of dirt that inspired its changeability in the colonial settlements. She provides a narrative on the regulatory practices that added to the dirt and describ es the incidences by using a metonym for the polluted city. Wood’s coherently expresses the implications of her knowledge of history and its snowball effect on the current thinking of town planning. She quite impressively draws a collection of primary sources that without doubt produce a substantial addition to the literature of history of Dunedin. Undeniably, the book is a historical record of a relationship of dirt and the city. Nevertheless, Dirt clearly qualifies for the work of cultural studies and the historical work presented in the book is only to support the theoretical framework of the book (Woods, 2005). Moreover, the book sheds light upon the subject in nine chapters that are built upon splendidly captioned modern photographs, drawings, and cartoons. Wood’s weaves the history of colonial settlers and the impact they had on the Dunedin, New Zealand’s largest city. She has discussed that the issues in the times of colonial setters in the city of New Ze aland were more than the limitation of public health, prowling perils of immorality and town planning. Furthermore, she explores the vital role played by the hospitals and doctors alike, along with authorities who joined in the cause to protect the public from disease and decay. Thus, in order to do so she skims through topics like mud and swamps, toilets, sewerages, abattoirs and cemeteries with emphasis upon pollution and decomposed1. Wood’s, with awareness has put her case study in a wider context, by making comparisons with other cities of New Zealand and Australia. Moreover, she has managed to evaluate the impact the British has left upon the cities thinking that they have brought a positive change with the aid of colonizing the cities. Therefore, the book covers all the points in order to justify the topic the writer has used a multi pronged approach and has showed the intricate linkage between the colonial concept and the dirt, filth and disease it brought with itself2 . Dunedin’s dream withered in to poor planning, unhygienic sanitation, formless roads and the piled up waste, the crux of the statement is that the impact of importation of cultural practices soon discoloured the dream of modernity of early New Zealanders. The surfacing of the city brought with it correlations between human and dirt, matter and culture. Dirt was an unalterable part of the new community, which formed and grew in the presence of disease, decay, and pollution. From the 1790 onwards, the European settlement was intermittent

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 396

Assignment Example There are two issues that come out clearly in this case. Quon’s, Duke, boss tells him there would be no need to carry out an audit of the text messages as long as he paid the overages. On the other hand, the OPD makes it clear that none of the pager messages would be private. Quon went ahead to make an assumption that his boss’ pronouncements could override he provisions of the OPD. No part of the OPD provisions indicate that an employee’s pronouncements were superior to documented OPD provisions. Quon thus wrongfully expected privacy due to a mere fact his boss had promised not to audit the messages so long as he paid the overages. Such a pronouncement, therefore, does not suspend the OPD provisions. That renders Quon culpable. If the case had involved an employer-supplied device other than a pager, it surely would have been decided the differently. The OPD provisions are very particular/specific on the device involved. It only refers to the pager text message as not being private. If a device had been involved other than the pager, the provision wouldn’t have applied. The case would have been decided differently. Quon demand for privacy would have been validated. Auditing text messages is obviously less intrusive than phone wiretapping. This is because in the case of auditing text messages, the device user is made aware of the need to carry out an audit. In the case of phone wiretapping, the user’s device such as telephone is covertly monitored. This is considered unlawful in most cases. Phone wiretapping is more intrusive than carrying out an audit of the messages. There is no broad ground for determining Quon’s case. There a number of technical aspects of the case, all of which must be weighed. If the broadly applicable rules for electronic communication had been applied in determining the case, the court would have looked at how Quon’s use of the work device for other personal communication had affected his use of

Creative writing skills used by Silvia Plath in her work Essay

Creative writing skills used by Silvia Plath in her work - Essay Example From then, she exuded creativity that she blended with her writing skills, a rare gift she maximizes that gave forth the coveted write-ups that still flood the literary arena to date. However, her early and entire life is blanketed by sorrow and misery. A psychological problem eventually compels her to commit suicide. This essay will tackle some of the skills she managed to use as a writer in the process of doing her work. The bell- jar, one of Plath’s novel to a large extent is autobiographical. The tribulations that Plath goes through in life are chronologies reflected in this novel. By tactfully changing the identity of the characters and places in the novel, she skillfully takes care of the message she wanted to pass across as it unfolded. Her creativity and Witt comes out very clearly in the manner in which she uses Ester, the protagonist in the story to speak about herself indirectly (Karen 130). In her story, Ester becomes mentally ill after going through a thorny life. This compelled her to commit suicide when she sees no hope a head of her. .We are not surprised later, when Plath commits suicide because of the twin reasons that are similar to those that pushed Ester to cut short her life. We therefore conclude that, Plath wrote her life in the novel and she was able to lead her readers to knowing the reasons she finally took her life. In addition, the novel contains many people and events in Plaths’ real life all being a product of her fiction. ... She writes this poem as the only way of â€Å"vomiting† the bad past encounters her life had just gone through. She used a third party narration to distance herself to avoid being associated to the circumstance that had unfolded (Rebecca79). Plath portrays herself as strong-hearted and ready to bury the bygones of her life and move on. She uses poetry as the only mouthpiece to pour her personal issues without the slightest fear and in the process, alleviate her emotions. The tone she used in this poem is reminiscent of her depressive episodes and indeed, Plath takes her audience in her poem through her the painful wounds in life. The aggressive tone she used in the short stanzas of her the poem â€Å"Mystic† leaves the readers with feelings of physical pain as they read her poem â€Å"Mystic†, which is climaxed by the wise use of imagery, like hooks that are sharp and a stinging kiss makes the readers traumatized. Plaths’ selective use of rhetorical questi ons, â€Å"Where is remedy† is intentional, as she inwardly knows the answer is death (Edward 116). Plath also uses satire in her poem to mirror the rot in the society. Plath’s poem â€Å"The applicant,† which is a complete satire surrounding marriage and domestic- related issues. She carefully uses dramatic monologue and third person narration as a powerful tool in manipulating language and in this regard, critically exposes events bedeviling women in the society. Plath’s two poems â€Å"Ariel† and â€Å"Daddy† are autobiography in nature. She intentionally used details of her everyday life as a raw material for her art. She skillfully twisted real references and images within her footsteps in writing her poems. This created an avenue for her fans to

Development of Youth Culture Essay Example for Free

Development of Youth Culture Essay There is no single reason for the development of culture; rather, it came about as a result of the number of different social changes occurring at the same time. These developments included the increasing economic power of young people, the influence of the USA and globalisation, social changes at the end of World War 2, development of the media, demographic change in the numbers of young people and the transition to adulthood. Defining youth culture can be difficult because different cultures and interruptions in employment status’s can affect the perspective of what â€Å"youth† is. Culture is the way we live within our culture and youth culture is the way youth lives within it but because of the difficulties youth culture could mean different things to different cultures. Youth culture developed in the early 1950’s, although the idea of youth as a phase in life has a longer history. Youth culture was first developed in America after World War 2, which then Britain decided to follow due to media and other influences from America. In my opinion the most important factor that developed youth culture was the economic changes in society. Due to the demand in workers after the Second World War there was an economic growth. The first person to realise the impact this was having on young people was Abram’s (1959) who analysed the increased economic power of the ‘teenage consumer’. There was a noticeable pattern in what was getting most money spent on, because young people were the age group spending the highest proportion of their income on leisure activities and music, clothes and cosmetics. This increase in economic power created the conditions for the emerging youth culture to develop. For the first time, young people had significant amounts of money to spend. Another extremely important factor for the development was the social change at the end of World War 2. There was much more opportunities for young people and possibilities at this time. Before the war, Britain was characterized by a class structure. By the time it came to the 1950s, we started to see a change in the economy and this opened up oppurtunities and individual expression. Judging on conventional standards, opportunities were becoming bigger. Cinema, art, literature and theatre began to explore new ideas. Amongst many new ideas was that young people were a distinctive group with new values and ideas about their place in society. The next important development for youth culture in my opinion was the influence of the USA and globalisation. With the changing culture and the growth in affluence of the 1950s, there was a ready market for American goods and culture, which included rock and roll music and other products aimed at the new ‘teenage market’. A quote from Leech (’76) saying ‘youthquake’ explained how a change in the new youth was such a sudden change it was like an earthquake. Globalisation recognised what young people wanted and advertised it more. I think the next development of the youth culture which was important was the growth and specialization of media. Media was becoming a lot more popular and so was advertisement. The media started to advertise the products that young people during that time wanted and this was a massive boost for the economics and spread quickly across the world. The 1950’s saw an explosion of different sorts of media. This was only possible because of the growth in social diversity and an increase in spending power that persuaded companies to spend large amounts of money advertising the new media. As a high-spending and newly discovered group, young people became the target for advertisers and hence the commercial media competed to attract this market. Another social condition that made the development of youth culture possible was transition to adulthood. Transition refers to the movement from being economically and socially dependent on parents, towards independence. The length of transition increased over the 20th century as the average period in education. Due to the longer age of being in education, it meant that typical adult responsibilities were taken on increasingly later in life, leaving young people with a number of years where they were physically mature but without the responsibilities of adulthood. This caused young people to want their own place in society. The last social condition that helped youth culture become possible was the demographic change in numbers of young people. After the war because couple had been split for so long because of hundreds of men being sent abroad, many sexual experiences had been delayed for years. The result was that when the men were released from the armed forces in 1945/46, there was a huge increase in birth rate. Although many of the children born at this time were not ‘teenagers’ until the end of 1950’s, they did ensure that youth culture continued and grew as a cultural form. Around 50 to 60 years ago, for the first time, a youth culture appeared to be emerging – young people appeared to be developing their own values, customs, tastes, clothes, music and language. After studying and discussing all the different social conditions that developed youth culture I have discovered that youth culture wasn’t made overnight. It took all these 6 main factors to create this culture and carry it on until this day. Economics was the most important condition in my opinion due to the fact that it all started because of the economic boost after World War 2. America was the country that started this youth culture and Britain followed it after the war ended. Abercrombie et al. (2000) has suggested that youth culture has three distinguishing features: leisure, style and peer group.

The Benefits Of FDI To MNCs

The Benefits Of FDI To MNCs Globalisation commenced after the World War II, but grew explicitly after the mid-1980s driven by the technological progress as well as rising liberalization of trade and capital markets. However, according to Hood and Young (2000) globalisation began at the time of World Economic Crisis in 1970 (Asian crisis, oil crisis, post-Vietnam war). During that time Western industrialized countries experienced slow down in economies, reduction in profits as well as strong competition. As a result, the following strategies were used in order to tackle these problems: cheap labor usage in manufacturing process, new market exploration as well as strategic alliances formation. MNCs began to cut their costs by utilizing cheap labor from developing countries, such as Mexico, Tunisia and Taiwan. (Hood and Young, 2000) According to Strange (1997) observations globalization has increased mobility of capital, knowledge and information. (Hood N. and Young S., 2000) The globalization process has let multinationals desire to optimize market competitive variable and costs within a liberalizing trade and investment environment. (Hood N. and Young S., 2000). During the process of globalisation following institutions were established: the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), as well as World Trade Organisation (WTO). The later played a significant role in favouring free trade, instead of protectionism. FDI deregulationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦has played an important role for investment into privatezed firms as well as the domestic economy growth and price stabilization. . (Hood N. and Young S., 2000) will research moreà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦More information in terms of deregulation should be at beginning when you start the globalization Benefits of FDI MNCs may be motivated to undertake foreign direct investment to get more demand as well as get into the markets where they could generate greater profits. Both these motives are usually based on opportunities to get higher revenues in foreign markets. Other motives are related to the cost efficiency, when using foreign factors of production: raw materials or technology. Moreover, MNCs may be involved in FDI in order to protect foreign to protect their foreign market share, to respond to exchange rate changes, or to evade trade restrictions (can be used in conclusions) For instance, a company considering FDI in Asia or USA may still be attracted by Asia due to higher growth potential for a company as well as higher profit margins. Moreover, if case the local currency depreciates there will be less costs necessary to establish a subsidiary. MNCs may decrease its exposure to economic conditions by expanding their business activities between different economies. When foreign direct investment occurs, constant reassessment is needed in order to anticipate whether further expansion should take place. The decision is influenced by the economic conditions in the subsidiarys country, parents country, host country government as well as MNCs experience in operating abroad. MNCs which will not experience problems will be the ones which will employ local labour as well as manuacture the goods that have no direct substitutes in a foreign country. Usually the ideal FDI is the one by the means of which the problems of local unemployment and technological scarcity is solved with no threat to the local firms. Global markets join those who may offer capital and those who require capital, hence promoting economic growth. Moreover, global markets create pleasant conditions for mutually beneficial trading. Economists tend to favour free flow of capital due to the following reasons: Get the highest rate of return Reduce the risk by diversifying the lending and investment. Huge corporations, like Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Gillette took advantage of the globalisation by spreading their international operations across boarders, hence to become more competitive, meet global demand as well as cut their production costs.  [1]  Investing into emerging markets has brought much of success to these companies. Like any investor, an MNC is valuating its risk and return, when forming international projects. The portfolio of all projects determines the MNC as a whole. In fact, the riskier the country, the less probably the investors will invest, however this might anticipate higher returns. In fact, risky project may offer negative returns, however a high-risk alliance might be successful and bring high returns, for example, Google. Lower risk investment is likely to offer positive returns. Therefore, when choosing a portfolio a company should evaluate how much extra return is needed in order to offset the extra risk or how much extra return the company is ready to sacrifice in order to have lower risk. Project portfolios generate higher returns than the individual ones due to the diversification characteristics. The less the correlation in project returns the less should be the project portfolio risk. Along the efficient frontier of project portfolios, there is no portfolio to be said as an optimal for all MNCs. This is due to the fact that MNCs differ in readiness to accept risk. If the MNC is very cautious and may select between the portfolios reflected by the frontier it will probably favour one that shows low risk. However, more risk tolerant strategy would be to undertake the projects risk return close to the top of frontier. In fact, the location of frontier is determined by the business MNC is undertaking. For example, Eurosteel plc trades steel only to European markets, then its frontier of efficient project portfolios indicate high risk, as this company sells only one product as well as it trades with countries whose economies are correlated. However, Uniliver plc sells variety of products worldwide, hence due its diversified range is less exposed to the project portfolio risk. Here is assumed that the Uniliver plc is well informed about all the products as well as the markets where it operates. MNCs may get more attractive risk-return from the projects portfolios if they enough diversify among products as well as geographic markets. Moreover, it may However if it is a new company it international investment activity is affected by the country risk. The risks may overtake the returns. For example: Conclusions: Usual motivation for foreign direct investment relates to international diversification. This lets MNC to stabilise its cash flows as well as lessens its risk exposure. Such a goal is desirable because it may reduce the firms cost of financing. International projects may let the company to be exposed to lower risk than if undertaking solely domestic projects and not sacrificing its expected returns. International diversification impacts risk reduction if FDI is performed in countries whose economies are low correlated to MNCs home country economy.

Literature Review Of Companies And Supermarkets

Literature Review Of Companies And Supermarkets As companies/supermarkets have race to introduced technology that enables the customers to get service on their own (Bitner, M. Amy, L. Ostrom and Matthew, L. 2002). Growing number of customers interacted with the technology to create service outcomes instead with a service firm employee (Matthew, L. Amy, L. Ostrom, Robert, I. And Bitner, M. July 2000). The overall affect model is based on the consumers feelings toward the use of technology (Pratibha A. and Dabholkar 1996). The Supermarkets which introduce self-service checkout systems wish to gain rapid acceptance and usage of these technologies by potential consumers. (Jungki, L. and Allaway, A. 2002) According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary (2008), Innovation is a new idea, method or device, or the introduction of something new.Drejer (2002) argues that innovation is more than just invention, that idea cannot be innovative as a pure, it must be put in practice and be commercialized; otherwise it is too earlier to speak of innovation. Blackmon (1996) provide us with the best summary for a context of this research: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ technological change is used to describe changes in knowledge that increase the volume of output or allow a qualitatively superior output from a given amount of resources à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and thus in driving organizational evolution à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The sales profit is a simple conceptual framework chain to linking with the employee satisfaction as well as customer satisfaction and financial performance. This sales profit chain is the relationships between employee and customer satisfaction (Gary, W. and Loveman, 1998). The benefit of the customer retention and satisfaction has been characterized by using the repurchase intention or a factor score of quite a few measures repurchase goal, and price tolerance. So that the purpose to use the customers management strategy that is the based on managing both satisfaction and benefit of customer retention (Narayandas, D. 1998). Performance expectation and the actual performance have major significance in the Evaluation process, as we need to determine the dimension of product and service performance. Most customers do not switch from satisfied seller to their competitors, but, there are several factors that could affect customer behaviour to switch to different service provider such as mistake in core service failure, service encounter failures, variable prices, inconvenience, responsive to service failures, attraction by competitors, ethical behaviours and involuntary switching etc. (Hawkins, Best and Coney, 2004). Retailers need to analyze what makes a new product from the point of view by the customer if customers facing problems understanding the reason behind the introduction of new self-service checkout systems (SSC) they will not use the system. As we launch new self-service systems, we need to analyse the consumer behaviour as well. The consumer should be involved in some way or another at most stages in the introduction of self-service checkout system. Every retail or sales companies should take care of customer wants and needs (Wright, R. 2006). Consumers feel a sense of pleasure in understanding that they have found a unique store that they can, and do, frequent. This suggestion is suggested on the notion of value as a function of both worth (Oliver, 1999) and scarcity. People feel good when they find something of worth that is not easily available the feel good feeling from the ordinary and the mundane, is different from satisfaction in that it consists qualitative effects such as enjoyment and happiness. In contract, satisfaction is an evaluative judgment (Oliver, 1997) and more cognitive in nature (Howard and Sheth, 1969). Satisfaction can be defined as a cognitive evaluation resulting from the fulfilment expectations. Satisfaction is a judgment based on either a cognitive or emotional appraisal, made by the customer whether his or her expectations were met (Oliver, 1997). Positive affect is a pleasurable emotional response (Bogozzi, Gopinath, and Nyer, 1999). If organizations want to consider total customer experience, satisfaction by itself is a weak measurement (Barlow and Maul, 2000) As a result, when a consumer experiences more differentiation value in the store, consumer will be more likely to feel more positive responses toward the store (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982) The literature in retailing and customer behaviour has identified commitment as ones motivation to keep a relationship with the retailer (Bendapudi and Berry, 1997 and Fournier, 1998).The self-service checkout system (SSC) into the service come across necessitates research to improved understand customers attitudes toward overhaul providers and technologies, and their intentions to employ technology-based facility delivery systems. In this research, the authors build up and experiment three structural models that include a pecking instruct of consumer attitudes toward together the psychological and the technological factors of the come across to better appreciate their intentions to utilize Self Service Technologies. The result indicates that intentions to exercise self-service technologies options are ambitious by manifold, hierarchical attitudes. In calculation to the direct belongings of attitudes toward exact self-service technologies and individual employees, the findings corrob orate that higher direct worldwide attitudes toward service technologies pressure intentions to use self-service technologies. fascinatingly, the findings indicate that heavy self-service technologies users rely more on attitudes toward specific self-service technologies than do light self-service technologies users, who rely more heavily on universal attitudes toward self-service technologies when formative intention to utilize an self-service technologies. (James, M. Matthew, L. Meuter and Carol, F. 2003) Kano Model Analysis: The customer satisfaction model from professor Kano is a marketing and quality management approach that can be used for assessing and establishing customer satisfaction and happiness. Kano model has six categories of customer quality characteristics, but, only the first three specially relate to customer satisfaction. (Kano, 2007) These factors are: Basic factors Excitement factors Performance factors Basic factors The prerequisite factors that will cause dissatisfaction if they are not met, but, do not establish customer satisfaction. If they are fulfilled or cross expectations customer regard this as essential and basic factors contribute to market entrance threshold Excitement factors These requirements if they are met can increase customer level satisfaction, but, if they do not meet the requirements, do not cause customer dissatisfaction. These factors come to customers as surprise and create satisfaction. A company can come out from crowd from competitors in a positive way using these factors. Performance factors These factors are concerned with the performance level. So, we can conclude that customer satisfaction is directly related to the performance level, if the performance level is high, then, customer satisfaction will be met, but, if the performance level is low, cause dissatisfaction. These factors are directly related to customer desires, wants and needs etc. So, company should try to be competitive in a market. (Adapted from Prof. Kano, 1994) Customer point of view in relation to Self Service Checkout System (SSC) Researcher forecasting about the adaptation of the self service checkout system have been gone against the past recommendation, instead, customers are using this technology more and embrace this technology with open arms. Reasons for Supermarket to adopt this technology: Customers do prefer to use their bank cards in privacy and anonymity. Queue awaiting time reduction; Need for self-service; Quick payment; Shoppers feel empowered; Retail market is shifting towards radio frequency identification which will replace the bar code. However this might be a foundation for increasing working hours, as supermarkets not depending on a cashier. Due it is not many research have been done in the UK the USA practise might be relevant for this research and will be in future referred as a compare base. Theoretical Framework Porters competitive advantage theory is a classical and one of the foundational in business literature, however lately it was criticized by some authors (Day and Wensley, 1988 and Hunt and Morgan, 1995). Therefore some complementary concepts have been suggested. In order to reinforce research the Porters value-chain theory was complemented with the more current Value-Network model of Stabell and Fjeldstad (Stabell and Fjeldstad, 1998). Value-chain theory and the value network model are presenting the different activities of a company where value can be configured and added through SSC systems. This model allows the researchers to investigate the different activities of companies on which the implementation of technology-based self-service as an innovation can have an effect. Theoretical Framework Implication In order to fully understand the impact of introducing SSC in ASDA supermarkets it is necessary to look into: role and importance of innovation in a business context, product life cycle connected to SSC; competitive advantage theory and complementary concepts, value chain theory, and finally the importance of customer relationship management in the new self-service economy. Innovation Before we are going to analyze stage it is important to understand what innovation in business context is. The full understanding can be obtained through definition of the term. According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary (2008), Innovation is a new idea, method or device, or the introduction of something new. Drejer (2002) argues that innovation is more than just invention, that idea cannot be innovative as a pure, it must be put in practice and be commercialized; otherwise it is too earlier to speak of innovation. Blackmon (1996) provide us with the best summary for a context of this research: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ technological change is used to describe changes in knowledge that increase the volume of output or allow a qualitatively superior output from a given amount of resources à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and thus in driving organizational evolution à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ In the following relation, the innovation in a business context is a product, device, service, programme, service provider, or methods of services delivery that are new, unusual, or in other ways different from those previously used and positively reflects in overall output of the organization in form of added value directly to the organization or its customers. In the case of this research, innovation in form of SSC brings changes into service delivery. In order to understand the impact of the innovation it is necessary to understand to which area of service delivery it related. Dabholkar (2003) made a classification of technology in service delivery with three dimensions. By whom the service is delivered and who operates the technology. Where the service is delivered (at the shop or in customers home); and how the service is delivered. Depending on which category the service belongs to different factors will affect the customers evaluation of the service quality. This classification can be useful in guiding companies in the development of their marketing strategies when implementing SSC systems. Table At service site At customers place Direct contact Customer goes to service site and performs service using technology at service site. E.g. ATM, self-service at retail checkouts. Customer uses technology from home/office to perform service. E.g. internet shopping. Indirect contact Customer goes to service site and uses automated telephone system to perform service. E.g. automated wake-up calls at Hotels. Customer calls automated telephone service from home/office to perform service. E.g. automated ticket-ordering over telephone. Source: Dabholkar, 1994 in Anselmsson, 2001, page 13. Shadowed cell is the relevant technology for this research. Using this type of SSC, the customer goes to the service site and performs the service by using the technology provided at the service site. This implies a greater importance and wider range of quality issues in the interactive marketing function of the organisation. Product/service life Cycle In a business context everything is going through different level, stages of performance. It is similar to the any life development. From the cell of life to the maturity and death, the products are repeating same way from idea to implementation and ultimately death. Particularly in our case the service as well as product must be planned and introduce to employees, customers and eventually be accepted by them. It is crucial for the managers to adjust and control its performance while it goes through different stages. The effect respectively will be also different on different stages. Therefore, considering the life cycle of SSC systems is important when investigating the effects on company competitiveness. Figure: Source Cordiant Technologies Limited The product life cycle tend to go through the five stages of products: Service/product development; Market introduction; Growth stage; Mature stage; Stage of decline. Each stage is different in effectiveness of the product, expenses, revenue, etc. The first stage usually money intensive as there is no sales revenue and all expenses are covered by different organizations activities, in our case no effectiveness gain from reducing cost of operation. Stage two is quite expensive in our case as technological cost is very high. The purchase of the machineries and shops infrastructure adjustments to accommodate it are required. Moreover the staff and customers trainings and special promotions materials must be prepared. The third stage is continuous use of SSC by customers and therefore operational cost reduction becomes positive revenue, which might cover the marketing expenses. The fourth stage is characterised by very low costs of operation as number of customers who is using it increased. The final stage might come as soon as more efficient and productive technology will arrive and current become outdated. (Day, 1981) The progression of a product through these stages is not certain however. Some products may stay in the mature stage forever, for example commodities such as milk, others might not even rich stage of maturity. These products go through their life cycle as marketers marketing mix strategies change. For example, advertising is informative stage of the introduction, maturity stages, winning in the growth and in the decline stage reminder-oriented. In the early stages the promotional budget tends to be highest, and as the product gradually taper off matures and decline. Product characteristics, pricing, distribution also tend to change. (Day, 1981) The concept of product life cycle, applied to Self Service Checkout System (SSC) innovations, has also been introduced as an important concept that also contributes to affecting competitiveness. The Value-Chain Porters value chain framework today still is the accepted language for representing and analyzing the logic of firm-level value creation, and is also a framework for analyzing firm-level competitive strengths and weaknesses. In value chain analysis competitive advantage is understood by these discrete activities of the value creation process that contribute to the firms relation cost place and produce a basis for segregation. These activities are the building blocks from which a product or process is created that is valuable to the firms customers. The different activities have different economics and thus contribute differently to the valuable characteristics of the product or process. The value creating activities in Porters model are divided in two levels. Primary activities consist of directly interact to create and bring value to the customer, while support activities facilitate and develop the performance of the primary activities. Figure: Source: (Porter, 1985, 1990) The primary activity level consists of five actions: inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, promotion and sales and service. The maintain actions are procurement, technology growth, human supply management, and firm infrastructure. It is important to note that the different activity categories are not the same as organizational functions. Using the value chain for analysis, costs and assets are assigned to the value activities as a first step, and are further analyzed as structural drivers related to the scale and scope of the firm, linkages across activities, and environmental factors. Cost and value drivers are usually analyzed separately. Moreover, drivers are partly related to internal relationships, partly to external factors, and partly to relationships between internal and external factors as well. The main drivers of value are policy decisions made by product and segment choices when the firm is established or repositioned. (Stabell and Fjeldstad, 1998) According to Porter, the value-creating logic of his value chain with its generic activity categories is valid for firms in all industries. However, he further states that the specific activities that are vital to a firms competitive advantage depend on which industry the firm operates. (Porter, 1985, 1990) Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) however have investigated the application of the value chain model to a variety of industries and have experienced problems in applying the value chain frame work to more than two-dozen firms. They have found that the value chain is suitable for describing and understanding the value creation logic of manufacturing firms, but that it proves problematic when analyzing activities in service industry firms. They argue that problems arise from difficulty to assign and analyze activities in terms of the five generic primary value chain categories proposed by Porter, leading to unclear explanations of value creation. Therefore, Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) suggest that the value chain can be considered as one of three generic value configurations to facilitate the understanding and analysis of firm-level value-creation logic for a broad range of industries and firms. The additional two value models besides the value-chain are the value network and the value shop. The importance shop model applies to firms where price is created by mobilizing income and performance to resolve an exacting customer difficulty, for example professional service firms dealing with medicine, law, architecture and engineering. The value network model refers to firms that generate cost by facilitating an organization relationship among their customers using a mediator technology. Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) also propose alternative presentation formats for both models that represent their unique value creation logic. For the purpose of this research both Porters value chain and Stabell and Fjeldstads value network is of importance. Although Stabell and Fjeldstad state that according to their findings the value chain is mostly useful for manufacturing firms, for our investigation of supermarkets traditional operations, the value chain is most fitting, with one small alteration. However, in also considering the introduction of a new type of service offering through technology-based self-service checkouts, it is found necessary to complement the value chain model with the value network model in order to be able to capture the value adding activities of SSC. The combination of the different value-creating logics, as suggested for this research, has also been proposed by Norman and Ramirez (1993). Since the main purpose of the research is to investigate the effects of SSC in supermarkets, the value network is of central importance, which is discussed in further detail below. The Value Network Value networks use a mediating technology to link clients and customers who wish to be interdependent. According to Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998), the firm provides a networking service through the mediating technology and thus facilitates exchange relationships among customers distributed in space and time. For the consideration of SSC, the value network idea is modified to mean that the firm is the network itself, linking its customers not to each other but to the firm itself, facilitating a more interdependent exchange relationship between the firm and its customers. Customer Satisfaction To measure the customer satisfaction of how your organisation`s `total product` performs in relation to a set of customer requirements. (Gower, 1999) If you like to measure the customer satisfaction of the customers and you need direction exactly what you are measuring. Understanding the concept of customer satisfaction is very easy and can be done by assuming yourself as a customer in a supermarket. Satisfaction is simple. If you get what you wanted and your requirements are met, you are satisfied. The starting point of a customer satisfaction management is to set the objectives. There are different customer satisfaction objectives that can be set. Customers` requirements (important ratings) Customer satisfaction (Satisfaction ratings) Comparison with other organizations PFIs (priorities for improvement) Customer satisfaction index A track able measure of satisfaction The internal perspective Firstly, you should identify customers` requirements and there are many things customers want and need but we need to identify most relative of customer requirements. Secondly, you must measure customer satisfaction. Organisational performance is directly related to customer satisfaction and list of customers` requirements. Thirdly, if you could go a bit further to analyse the customers` requirements as compared to other same organisations. (In our example `supermarket`) This will give you the opportunity to get the benchmarking. By using benchmarking, you could analyse the requirements of your supermarket customers` as satisfied or not satisfied. Fourthly, after getting the customers` satisfaction measures, you can use these measures to produce some survey outcomes and the first of that step is to identify the PFIs (Priorities for improvement) Fifth, you will need to measure the overall customers` satisfaction. We call it a satisfaction index and it will indicate us to monitor progress from the one year to the next for the overall customers` satisfaction. Finally, customers` satisfaction survey has to be done inside the supermarket to know about the understanding of employees about their customers` requirements. It will help any supermarket to indentify that if their employees know about their customers` requirements and can indentify gaps. An internal survey can also be used to help the management to make the decision making process and strategic management. (Gower, 1999) Achieving Customer Satisfaction: Customer satisfaction is measured frequently. Sampling is extensive. Surveys are quantitative as well as qualitative. The measures are taken very seriously. They are reviewed unfailingly by Top management: the development of such measures is taken very seriously as the development of budgetary measures or product reliability measures. Evaluation of people in all functions at all levels is significantly affected by the satisfaction measures. (Tom Peter, a Passion for Excellence) Customer delight seems very credible people say things like: In today`s competitive markets customer satisfaction is no longer enough; you have to delight the customers, give them something they did not expect to keep their business. In customer satisfaction, the link between customer loyalty, customer retention and profitability can make get better customer satisfaction. It has been shown that customer retention can boost profit of the supermarket as it is very easy to keep the existing customers than getting new customers. After getting the trend data and established the satisfaction- loyalty ratio in your market for your organisation, you make some models. Some companies now have `business performance models` based on their customer satisfaction management survey results that have quantified the exact links between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, sales and profit. They know that how much one percent improvement in customer satisfaction will improve loyalty how much that contributes to profits. Precisely, this is a very powerful forecasting tool. Customer satisfaction Business success Employee satisfaction Customer Retention Figure: (Ch. BABAR 2010) Customer Satisfaction and the Performance: Customer satisfaction can be defined as more loyal customer and it involves emotional and complicated process. Every customer has certain level of product or service expectation and desire. If customer expectation level increased as a result of using that product or service, then, customer experiences satisfaction. (Simon Homburg 1998, Page 44) However, Satisfaction has also recently been described as the emotional reaction to this cognitively defined process of comparison. (Homburg and Rudolph 1995, page 31) In this context, customer experiences that the outcome of the process of comparison will not always give the correct result about the expected satisfaction outcome and actual level of satisfaction outcome. Instead, direct effect of these outcomes or satisfaction levels also interacts with satisfaction. (Bolton et al. 1991 page 376) The customer satisfaction has been in research for long time, mostly research and investigation has been done on the customer satisfaction, but, not on the customer retention. It is the experience and attitude of the employee in closest contact with customers that customers are satisfied, loyal and customer retention has been achieved. The Satisfaction is an a overall attitude of customer towards the service provider (Levesque and McDougall, 1996) The companies are more successful, later research has showed if they adopt customer retention rather than customer satisfaction. (Knox, 1998) Customer satisfaction brings many benefits. Satisfied customers are fewer prices sensitive; they purchase more items, not go to competitors and stay longer. (Zineldin, 2000) Customer satisfaction is directly related with the customer complaint process management. If customer complains more, then, it increases more customer satisfaction. Customer complains about the product or service he/she receives, then, supermarket can achieve more customer satisfaction (Johnston, 2001) The product innovations, staff service, price, convenience and business profile are all determinants of customer satisfaction. (Athanassopoulos, 2000) Later, Bejou et al. (1998) propose that customer satisfaction can be enhanced through relationships, provided they are developed and managed to the customer`s satisfaction Customer retention is not directly related with the customer satisfaction. Sometime customer do not change service provider because of the alternative circumstances, but, customer satisfaction level remain the same. Sometime customers do not have any choice to change their service provider, so, they stick with their existing provider. Hallowell (1996) argues that customer satisfaction cannot produce life time customer loyalty even though customer satisfaction has been increased, but, retention can be related with customer satisfaction. Retention can be understandable as to do business or exchange a commitment to continue with a particular company on an ongoing basis. (Zineldin, 2000) Retaining old customers are easy and cheap to keep as compared to the new customers because they are more loyal and less price sensitive. They keep their loyalty to their existing service provider and do not change their loyalty to the new service provider. It increases customer retention, satisfaction, lower price sensitivity, higher market share, higher productivity and higher efficiencies. (Reichheld, 1995) The authors suggest that in order to retain customers, companies should always change and developing their product and services to meet the ever changing needs of customers. The concept of acquiring, developing and retaining customers from a cognitive and affective perspective, they provide examples of how cognitive and affects are used to increase retention. (Desai and Mahajan, 1998) Customer satisfaction is a direct determining factor in customer loyalty, which, in turn, is a main presentation of customer retention. (Gerpott et al., 2001) Customer satisfaction can be achieved by customer retention. Customer complaint process can increase the level of customer satisfaction that result in customer retention. Employee perspective is also very important with relation of the customers. Individual relationship with the customer can boost the level of customer satisfaction. It is direct related with the mental theories of customer and employee perspectives. Managers should be aware of customer wants and needs as well as employee mental perspective. Different employees keep different level of relationship with the customers that could affect the customer satisfaction and retention level. Therefore, Managers must keep eye into employee/customer relationship and set realistic goals to achieve. (Spreng et al, 1995) Good section Customer Retention Customer retention is directly linked with the customer satisfaction. The framework guide managers to decide which part of customer satisfaction has more collision, which part of customer satisfaction needs to be improve and make strategies to retain existing customers. An individual level model of loyalty and customer retention has been developed, that can be used to predict effects of service level improvement at supermarket. Customer satisfaction has been changed recently from transactional marketing to relationship marketing. (Grà ¶nroos, Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1994) To all marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges (Morgan and Hunt, 1994) Customer satisfaction has been treated as essential instrument for the customer retention, has gained significant importance in relational marketing approaches. (Rust and Zahorik, 1993) Kotler sums this up when he states: The key to customer retention is customer satisfaction (Ko

Theme Of Scarlet Letter :: essays research papers

â€Å"The rose bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally over-shadowed it, -or whether, as there is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Anne Hutchinson, as she entered the prison-door, -we shall not take upon us to determine.† In The Scarlet Letter, author, Nathaniel Hawthorne effectively sets the mood for this dismal novel. The ugliness and rust in the prison and cemetery seems like the last place for any kind of beauty to be. But the rosebush grows contrasting with the depressing backdrop offering a sort of sweetness to this tragic story. In this tale, practically every main character is faced with a dreadful sin or evilness, but within the malice, there is also a pleasant side to each character’s transgression, illustrating hypocrisy. Hester Prynne is introduced as a tall, beautiful woman condemned for committing a serious sin of adultery. During her most significant scene, the first time she must climb the scaffold as disapproving eyes gaze upon her, Hester is described as being extremely graceful and brave. Even though Hester is labeled with an awful accusation, underneath all the sin, lies a young woman in love with a man. Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, admits that their marriage displayed no kind of love, so it was only expected that Hester get involved with a man she actually cared for. She was in fact the victim among the other characters by being forced to marry Chillingworth without loving him and had to deal with Chillingworth’s selfishness, which permitted him to marry the young girl – knowing all along that she never loved him. And lastly, she is the victim of Chillingworth’s stupidity in leaving his wife alone in Massachusetts. Treated as an outcast for about seven years, Hester is finally considered to be free from the "A.† When the Puritan community realized that Hester was in fact not as corrupt as supposed, they decided that she could return as a regular citizen in their village. In addition there’s Pearl, the â€Å"demon’s offspring†. She is described as a â€Å"luxuriant beauty; a bright complexion, eyes possessing intensity both of depth and glow.† With Pearl’s breathtaking appearance, her personality is somewhat odd. Her mood alters frequently. She may be laughing uncontrollably one minute, and the next, in an angry rage.

Research Paper - Class Size -- essays papers

Research Paper - Class Size Class size is a very popular topic that is greatly research through out educational settings. Class size deals with how many students are in the classroom at once. Class size can vary greatly. It can depended on the location of the school, where the more rural areas have only one high school while in a city environment there could be twenty-three high schools in one area. Location also depends on the amount of population in that area. Class size also can depend on the level of schooling. Such as in a major university there could be two hundred students in one class, while in a local elementary school there is only eighteen students in one class. Class size can depend on what kind of class is being taught. In physical education, classes could be fitted together to make enough equal time for all students to attended physical education that day. Many researches have been performed to see the effect of class size has on many different aspects of education. Some of the aspects of educatio n that researchers study the effect of class size on were academic achievement, discipline, teacher morale, student motivation, class involvement, and the way the information is presented to the students. The researchers try out different size classes and use one variable that stays the same such as discipline. The researchers then can see the positive and negative effects of each class size. Then the researchers can make a theory about what those have found. The researchers have done many studies on each of these aspects of education and many other aspects of education. The main aspect of education that the researchers like to perform studies on is relating class size and its effects on academic achievement. Academ... ...dent sand parents want the best they should attended a class size that is small, because research as shown that the smaller the class is, the better the student will do. Bibliography Biddle, B., & Berliner, D. (2002). Small Class Size and Its Effects. Educational Leadership, 59 (5), 12-20. Finn, J. (2002). Small Classes in American Schools: Research, Practice, and Politics. Mid-Western Educational Research, 15 (1), 19-25. Lesser, D., & Ferrand, J. (2000). Effect of Class Size, Grades Given, and Academic Field on Student Opinion of Instruction. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 24 (4), 269- 277. Mueller, D., & Chase, C. (1988). Effects of Reduced Class Size in Primary Classes. Educational Leadership, 45 (5), 48-51. Vedder, R. (1988). School Productivity, Class Size, and Choice. Updating School Board Policies, 19 (11), 574-576.

Deception Point Page 13

The President didn't blame them. His staff had worked grueling hours to support him in the upcoming election, and now, all of a sudden, it seemed the President was fumbling the ball. Soon they will understand, Herney told himself. Soon I'll be the hero again. He regretted having to keep his staff in the dark for so long, but secrecy was absolutely critical. And when it came to keeping secrets, the White House was known as the leakiest ship in Washington. Herney arrived in the waiting room outside the Oval Office and gave his secretary a cheery wave. â€Å"You look nice this morning, Dolores.† â€Å"You too, sir,† she said, eyeing his casual attire with unveiled disapproval. Herney lowered his voice. â€Å"I'd like you to organize a meeting for me.† â€Å"With whom, sir?† â€Å"The entire White House staff.† His secretary glanced up. â€Å"Your entire staff, sir? All 145 of them?† â€Å"Exactly.† She looked uneasy. â€Å"Okay. Shall I set it up in†¦ the Briefing Room?† Herney shook his head. â€Å"No. Let's set it up in my office.† Now she stared. â€Å"You want to see your entire staff inside the Oval Office?† â€Å"Exactly.† â€Å"All at once, sir?† â€Å"Why not? Set it up for four P.M.† The secretary nodded as though humoring a mental patient. â€Å"Very well, sir. And the meeting is regarding†¦?† â€Å"I have an important announcement to make to the American people tonight. I want my staff to hear it first.† A sudden dejected look swept across his secretary's face, almost as if she had secretly been dreading this moment. She lowered her voice. â€Å"Sir, are you pulling out of the race?† Herney burst out laughing. â€Å"Hell no, Dolores! I'm gearing up to fight!† She looked doubtful. The media reports had all been saying President Herney was throwing the election. He gave her a reassuring wink. â€Å"Dolores, you've done a terrific job for me these past few years, and you'll do a terrific job for me for another four. We're keeping the White House. I swear it.† His secretary looked like she wanted to believe it. â€Å"Very well, sir. I'll alert the staff. Four P.M.† As Zach Herney entered the Oval Office, he couldn't help but smile at the image of his entire staff crammed into the deceptively small chamber. Although this great office had enjoyed many nicknames over the years – the Loo, Dick's Den, the Clinton Bedroom-Herney's favorite was â€Å"the Lobster Trap.† It seemed most fitting. Each time a newcomer entered the Oval Office, disorientation set in immediately. The symmetry of the room, the gently curving walls, the discreetly disguised doorways in and out, all gave visitors the dizzying sense they'd been blindfolded and spun around. Often, after a meeting in the Oval Office, a visiting dignitary would stand up, shake hands with the President, and march straight into a storage closet. Depending on how the meeting had gone, Herney would either stop the guest in time or watch in amusement as the visitor embarrassed himself. Herney had always believed the most dominating aspect of the Oval Office was the colorful American eagle emblazoned on the room's oval carpet. The eagle's left talon clutched an olive branch and his right a bundle of arrows. Few outsiders knew that during times of peace, the eagle faced left-toward the olive branch. But in times of war, the eagle mysteriously faced right-toward the arrows. The mechanism behind this little parlor trick was the source of quiet speculation among White House staff because it was traditionally known only by the President and the head of housekeeping. The truth behind the enigmatic eagle, Herney had found to be disappointingly mundane. A storage room in the basement contained the second oval carpet, and housekeeping simply swapped the carpets in the dead of night. Now, as Herney gazed down at the peaceful, left-gazing eagle, he smiled to think that perhaps he should swap carpets in honor of the little war he was about to launch against Senator Sedgewick Sexton. 15 The U.S. Delta Force is the sole fighting squad whose actions are granted complete presidential immunity from the law. Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD 25) grants Delta Force soldiers â€Å"freedom from all legal accountability,† including exception from the 1876 Posse Comitatus Act, a statute imposing criminal penalties for anyone using the military for personal gain, domestic law enforcement, or unsanctioned covert operations. Delta Force members are handpicked from the Combat Applications Group (CAG), a classified organization within the Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Delta Force soldiers are trained killers-experts in SWAT operations, rescuing hostages, surprise raids, and elimination of covert enemy forces. Because Delta Force missions usually involve high levels of secrecy, the traditional multitiered chain of command is often circumvented in favor of â€Å"monocaput† management-a single controller who holds authority to control the unit as he or she sees fit. The controller tends to be a military or government powerbroker with sufficient rank or influence to run the mission. Regardless of the identity of their controller, Delta Force missions are classified at the highest level, and once a mission is completed, Delta Force soldiers never speak of it again-not to one another, and not to their commanding officers within Special Ops. Fly. Fight. Forget. The Delta team currently stationed above the Eighty-second Parallel was doing no flying or fighting. They were simply watching. Delta-One had to admit that this had been a most unusual mission so far, but he had learned long ago never to be surprised by what he was asked to do. In the past five years he had been involved in Middle East hostage rescues, tracking and exterminating terrorist cells working inside the United States, and even the discreet elimination of several dangerous men and women around the globe. Just last month his Delta team had used a flying microbot to induce a lethal heart attack in a particularly malicious South American drug lord. Using a microbot equipped with a hairline titanium needle containing a potent vasoconstrictor, Delta-Two had flown the device into the man's house through an open second-story window, found the man's bedroom, and then pricked him on the shoulder while he was sleeping. The microbot was back out the window and â€Å"feet dry† before the man woke up with chest pain. The Delta team was already flying home by the time its victim's wife was calling the paramedics. No breaking and entering. Death by natural causes. It had been a thing of beauty. More recently, another microbot stationed inside a prominent senator's office to monitor his personal meetings had captured images of a lurid sexual encounter. The Delta team jokingly referred to that mission as â€Å"insertion behind enemy lines.† Now, after being trapped on surveillance duty inside this tent for the last ten days, Delta-One was ready for this mission to be over. Remain in hiding. Monitor the structure-inside and out. Report to your controller any unexpected developments. Delta-One had been trained never to feel any emotion regarding his assignments. This mission, however, had certainly raised his heart rate when he and his team were first briefed. The briefing had been â€Å"faceless†-every phase explained via secure electronic channels. Delta-One had never met the controller responsible for this mission. Delta-One was preparing a dehydrated protein meal when his watch beeped in unison with the others. Within seconds the CrypTalk communications device beside him blinked on alert. He stopped what he was doing and picked up the handheld communicator. The other two men watched in silence.

To what extent do the novels Nineteen Eighty Four and the Road support or refute this view?

The dystopian novels The Road and Nineteen Eighty Four demonstrate the push and pull between the utopian and dystopian societies in their narratives. Dystopian literature often seems to be a deterrent to the reader the nightmarish lifestyles presented to us by each individual protagonist characters dehumanized due to the desolate and barren lifestyles presented in each text. However, despite this, the bleak settings seem to send messages of optimism, and to some extent hope, through the interactions of characters in each novel. In The Road the boy and the father are seen to be two people left who are not dehumanized by the new apocalyptic society. They do not conform to cannibalism, rape or murder; however their humanity is tested through the desolate landscapes and their lack of human contact and refusal to help those they do meet in this new society. Although the father only has the boy his humanity is clear as they are â€Å"each other worlds entire† showing he only lives for his son. We can also see the boy knows that without his father he would not be able to defend for himself and would be lonely. When the father asks him â€Å"what would you do if I died† the son replies â€Å"if you died I would want to die too/†¦. so I could be with you† This love between the boy and the father allows us to over look the apparent loneliness the boy has, with the humanity between the two characters shining through. Conflict does exist between the father and the son, when they have different opinions on whether to help fellow survivors or not, yet the conflict itself is not destructive as they always come to a joint decision. Jon Wilkins. Theoretical evolutionary biologist and professor at Santa Fe Institute believe the son and the father â€Å"are two individuals with separate wills but their paths and fates are inseparable†. McCarthy makes use of graphology, or rather a lack of it, to show how desolate and dehumanized life has become, or perhaps draws attention to the things in life that really matter when characters are travelling a dystopian landscape. The setting is said to be sublime. To expand the point, the author's use of declarative sentences makes his prose bleak, and certainly positions the reader in such a way as to be able to empathise with the stark sense of grim reality that the man and boy are confronted with. McCarthy's own remark that he sees no need to â€Å"blot up the page with weird little marks† using as little punctuation as possible, enables him to present a narrative whose prose is as scarce and unwelcoming as the actual highway itself. These sorts of structural decisions on the writer's part add to the sense of inhumanity in The Road but ironically also contribute to the closeness of the relationship between the father and son – although the narrative may appear to lack conventional direction the relationship between the two characters certainly does not. Another way in which the human spirit seems to be alive in McCarthy's dystopian landscape lies in the absurd nature of the world that is presented. The father and son must â€Å"keep walking to survive†, despite the fact that where they are walking to or from is not always clear. As a result their efforts often seem pointless given the inevitability of their death at the hands of roaming bands of cannibals. However, what is clear is that they repeat the same routine every day, drawing parallels to the absurdity of life – this alludes to thee Greek Mythology figure Sisyphus whose existence consisted of rolling a boulder up a hill only for it to fall down on a daily basis. Mundane as it is like a nightmare, it is repetitive nonetheless it is through this repetition that the two characters manage to develop their close bond. It may be the case that the absurd of their journey is dehumanising yet it is through this cyclical process that McCarthy allows their humanity to shine through. In terms of ‘The Road' the man and boy must walk, just as Sisyphus had to roll, however the absurdity of their existence is somewhat lesser than that of Winston from Nineteen Eighty Four. Winston's life is also presented as absurd. Orwell creates a world capable of inducing suicide. The narrative is filled with a nihilistic and soulless atmosphere, where there is no ‘God' present, making the world seem like there is no meaning and no essence to life dehumanising the protagonist. This continues to the portrayal of the dangers of living in a totalitarianism society when has the main objective of control over its subjects to any extent emphasising the absurdity of life. Through oppression and stripping away basic human rights through extreme restriction making, Big Brother himself seems like an absurdist. Although there is no official law about it, it seems to be common knowledge what it is expected for them to do so they are not punished and placed in room 101. Orwell's London becomes more absurd when there is no official rule to punish Winston, and therefore more dehumanising as it is difficult to tell what justice is if individuals can not be truthful on what you know is wrong and right, blurring the lines in terms of what the public know Big Brother is doing. Through the allusions to Everyman, where the Father in The Road, and Winston in Nineteen Eighty= four play as characters they also play a part of the Christian from the Pilgrims Progress, this is allude to the journeys and challenges presented to both of the men bringing another sense of optimism to themselves and to the reader. While this journey tends to out way the dangers and hardships they are going face on their way. McCarthy's journey is a pilgrimage, the father and boy are searching for a place of hope, and it is a contrast with Winston. He is searching for truth in a society that is created through lies, and manufactured stories of the past. Religion seems to be absent in The Road there is no god, but a slight biblical reference â€Å"There is no God, we're his prophets† suggesting that he and the boy are meant to spread the knowledge of the last society. He said â€Å"if he is not the word of God, God never spoke†. McCarthy seems to use â€Å"taken them from this world†. So that we would think the prophets were taken from this world, and suggest a Religious war may have destroyed civilisation. Contrasted within Nineteen Eighty Four where religion is apparent and focused on the antagonist Big Brother as a god like figure although there is no formal religion. He seemingly has omnipotent and omniscient qualities that dehumanise those around him into fear of him as a substitute of patriotic feeling, as they know that â€Å"Big brother is watching you†. We see his use of power through the denial of the past and ever changing present that Winston has to work to keep the system working the way Big Brother wants it to. Thus creating a society with no memory framework, they can not be truly counted as real if they have no recollection events as they continue to change, they just go along with the next story because they have no way of thinking otherwise. This is familiar to how God can see everything and how it seems that they are continuously scrutinized this could dehumanise them as there is no sense of privacy, but in this society there is no way to avoid neither him nor can they get away from his followers. He also seems to be in a god like place as there is no way to tell where he is, or even if he exists at all. Although this could confuse the protagonists as they have their right to choose their own religion taken, so their individuality has been demolished and decided for them. Nevertheless it seems to give the impression of a very primitive religion based around human sacrifice, although the sacrifices themselves seem to be presented as punishment for those who are deemed evil under the acts of a powerful of the â€Å"saviour† represented furthermore dehumanising the protagonists as they have to choice but to be part of the sacrifice. Echoes of atravism behaviour are present in The Road with to us with the flashbacks the father has, each provoking a different feeling like with the Coca Cola he remembers a time when he was happy and then tries to hand over these memories to his son. It provokes a nostalgic feeling in the father. He also recalls the time where he was close to his wife, he wanted to save her scent although remembering this is dangerous as it distracts him from the grim battle between life and death against the bands of cannibals. However the son doesn't appreciate this as he was born into the post apocalyptic world and does not share the feelings of his father. It is also evident when they enter houses the son is cautious of the house when the father seems to assume that the one from his past is safe like in the memories, and how to the father it brings a sense of home, in spite of this it is still dehumanising as he is estranging himself from the new world it also dehumanised him to knows it is impossible for him to get back to these times. The soulless nature in Nineteen Eighty Four suggests there is a lack of aspiration their lives are laid out for them; they have no spirit to do anything in a different way. Yet in spite of this experience Winston Smith offers hope to the reader through his actions, many of which present humanity in an optimistic light. For instance, there is â€Å"hope within the proles† as there are no restrictions as they are seen no better then animals, but they are free. Winston seems to be jealous when he watches the prole woman singing freely a song which was manufactured by the totalitarian world, making him have an ironic feel to it. In The Art of Fiction David Lodge suggests that Orwell's novel should be read as prophetic as it was written for the future. This view adds weight to the argument that it is not just a book about stripping away humanity; if the reader sees it as prophetic then it would seem that Orwell is suggesting that the future might too hold hope, as well as the threat of inhumanity. Lodge remarks that â€Å"Orwell draws on many recognizable features of life in â€Å"austerity† post-war Britain, as well as on reports of life in Eastern Europe, to create a depressing atmosphere of London†. Orwell's vision is bleak is beyond question, but to suggest that there is no hint of humanity and decency in the text would be missing one of Orwell's key themes that he apposes alongside the cautionary nature of the book. Eventually, the worlds which Orwell and McCarthy create dehumanise the individuals from their societies in the protagonists eyes, therefore making them outcasts from their societies, the lack of justice present backs this, as they both have lost legal systems and punishments are not officially known, although in the Road justice as the new post apocalyptic society seems to be chaos. Winston is an outcast but no one else seems to care or even notices and therefore he is dehumanised although he does conform in the end, it is forced on him whereas the father and the son are outcasts within the Road as two of the few people left who are not dehumanized by the new apocalyptic society. They do not conform making them different as they try to hold on to the fathers past giving them aspects of atavism, and an outcast for it, these characters usually can not survive in the new society, Neither society is allowed privacy, someone is always looking into their lives whether they are a controlling leader or a cannibal