Descriptive Essay on Dementia Family Member Essay

Imagine if you had a dreadful disease that took away your memory and you could no longer remember familiar people, places or events. This is what is happening to my Grandma. She has been diagnosed with vascular dementia and it has been detrimental to her life and her mind, and I hate to think about what it will do to her in the future. She is 80 years old and is still able to live alone, however her son lives across the road from her. Other than having dementia, she is a healthy person. She has always been a caring and loving person that has always taken care of others. Dementia has drastically changed her life. She has always been very caring and supportive toward all of her family. She babysat all 4 of her grandchildren when we were younger. She would always cook the best eggs and homemade biscuits for breakfast. We would look forward to her breakfast every day. She picked all of us up from school almost every day. Now she does not hardly drive anymore for fear she might get lost because she doesn’t remember how to get to all the places she used to could because of her disease. She would always cook her delicious fried chicken, rice and a scrumptious homemade chocolate cake for every family member’s birthdays. It breaks my heart to think that now she does not even remember our birthdays. Read Also:  Descriptive Essay Topics for High School Students Dementia is detrimental to her mind. Our family did not realize anything was wrong, until one day she went to her doctor, but could not find his office. She said she stopped at a couple offices, but could not find the right one. Luckily she made it back home. She sometimes calls me by my cousin’s name and cannot remember the names of people that she used to know well. She used to also keep books for my Granddad’s fertilizer business, but now she is no longer able to even balance her check book. She misplaces items, such as her wallet, car keys, and checkbook, daily. I am afraid to imagine how this disease will slowly destroy my grandma as it continues to progress. She is taking medication to slow down the progression of the disease, but there is no cure for dementia. Right now she is in the  mild stage of dementia. Our family can see a few symptoms of the moderate stages of dementia appearing and are dreading the day that we will start noticing the severe stages. When that time comes she will not be able to care for herself and will need someone there 24 hours a day. Dementia is hard on grandma, but it seems to be harder on our family. Dementia has gradually crept into her life over the past year. It has changed the way she has always lived and is gradually taking her memory. She does still make her delicious eggs and homemade biscuits every morning. The future doesn’t look good, but she takes it one day at the time. It is a shame how a disease can take the mind of an otherwise healthy person. 1. Your essay must be at least 5 paragraphs long, but may be more. 2. Each paragraph must have 5 well-developed sentences, but may have more. 3. Your essay must have an introduction with an easily identifiable, developed thesis with three valid points. 4. Your essay must have three, developed body paragraphs, each expressing one of the points from your thesis. 5. Each body paragraph must stick to one and only one point from the thesis. 6. Your essay must use standard grammar. 7. Your essay must be interesting, use real-life examples, and have good style and tone. 8. Your essay must be descriptive, show rather than tell, and engage the senses. 9. Your essay must be organized in a meaningful way. 10. Your essay must have a logical conclusion.

Dear John Mower Company Essay

1) Identify and discuss the major issue(s) in the case Supply chain management is the coordination of all supply chain activities involved in enhancing customer value and achieve sustainable competitive advantage. It represents a conscious effort by the supply chain firms to develop and run supply chains in the most effective & efficient ways possible. Supply chain activities cover everything from product development, sourcing, production, and logistics, as well as the information systems needed to coordinate these activities. In that case, the issues that John Mower Company faces with their supply management part is regarding to get internal customers, whether in design engineering, plant engineering, administration and other in order to recognize and accept the advantages of early supply chain management and supplier involvement in the development of materials, equipment and services to be provided by outside suppliers. The keys are (1) the presence of professionals in supply management who will add value through their and their suppli ers’ early involvement and (2) the use of marketing skills by these professionals to convince their customers and perhaps management of the necessity of early involvement. John Mower Company  also faces a declining in market share of 10 percent. The consequences of this attributes to John’s ability to survive as a profit declined. 2) Prepare a list of advantages of the inclusion of supply management and prequalified suppliers. Every organization is a part of one or more supply chain. Either a company provides a service, sells directly to the end customer, manufactures a product or even extracts material from earth, it is characterized within its supply chain. Earlier, organizations placed little emphasis on organizations within their supply chain network. However, supply chain management had become a forefront of management’s attention due to three major developments (Balsmeier 1996). First is the information revolution. Second is Customer demands in areas of service and product cost, delivery, quality, technology and concept of cycle time brought about by increased global competition and third is emergence of newer forms of inter-organizational relationships. These developments have nurtured the emergence and integration of supply chain approach. To remain competitive, small firms have to offer superior quality goods at the lowest prices possible. The need to minimize product costs makes effective supply chain management vital. There are costs involved in every process of the product life cycle, and it is the responsibility of management to ensure that these costs are kept low, so the company can continue to pass along these savings to the consumer. The advantage of including supply chain management and prequalified suppliers is include : 1) Reduces costs 2) Increase efficiency 3) Increased Profits 4) Reduces time to market 5) Improved quality 6) Much lower stocks and inventory 3) Prepare a list of disadvantages of excluding supply management and suppliers from the new product development process. The supply chains represents the complex relationships of an organization with its trading  partners through whom it sources materials, manufactures products and delivers products or services to the customers. The supply chain links all the activities in the procurement, transformation and storage of raw materials and intermediate products, and sale of finished goods. Supply management personnel should be able to pass on information regarding new technologies and product that are available to the product design group. Supply management can aid source selection by discussing potential suppliers quality program, production capacity, lead time, delivery reliability, financial capability and management stability and strength. If the supply management and suppliers is excluding from the new product development process, hence there is some problem that may occur in th e company such as: 1) Quality problem resulting in redesign, rework, retrofit and field failures 2) Cost overruns 3) Foregone cost saving 4) New product which are late to market 5) Failure in recognize problems in timely manner 6) Major scheduling problems 4) Assuming that the three executives agree on early involvement of supply management and suppliers, develop a plan to implement this new way of doing business. Integrating the supply chain to improve logistics efficiency is a key challenge. Rather than going from no involvement to high involvement on all projects all at once, many suppliers’ professionals would begin with a sample or showcase project. A member of the supply management staff who can add value, know his or her suppliers, and one who has exemplary people and team skills should be invited by Mr Steel and the new project manager or engineer to participate in a key project. This individual in turn should invite a carefully pre-qualified supplier to participate in the project at the appropriate time. Hence, for the supply chains to be successful, it should integrate the three individual business processes of procurement, manufacturing, and distribution by consolidating the sub components in each of every area. Procurement: This is one of the major cost drivers in the supply chan. Procurement cost is influenced by the way procurement decision is made, procedures adopted in the procurement process and relationship with suppliers. Procurement cost can be controlled through long-term relationships with suppliers by considering the supplier as an extension of the manufacturing facility. The philosophy of co-partnership is based on the sharing of resources and benefits on a long term basis. The major step in this process is reduction in supplier’s base and induction of a few reliable suppliers into the supply chain, who are ready to work for the firm and can align themselves with the policy framework and requirements of the supply chain. Manufacturing: For a lean supply chain the emphasis today is not on curtailing the processing cost through economies of scale, but by curtailing the huge inventory carrying cost resulting from mass production ahead of demand. In the past, the emphasis was on building mega capacity factories to produce standard products in millions in order to reduce manufacturing costs and flood the market with low priced products. This approach resulted in the build up of a large reservoir of finished goods, which remain unsold and dead due to its inability to respond to the changing needs of the customers. Hence, today firms instead of banking on cost reduction through economies of scale are thinking of strategies of reducing the total supply chain cost through manufacturing flexibility to rapidly respond to changing markets demands of products volumes and varieties. Distribution: Traditionally, the role of distribution in the business process is warehousing transportation. However, in the supply chain model, the major task of distribution is the management of demand. It is important to make available the right product, at the right place, at the right time, and at the least cost. Demand management covers all the activities involving anticipating the customer requirements of products and fulfill that requirements against defined customer service norms. Requirement fulfillment is done through proper distribution network. The first task in demand management is to forecast customer requirement accurately. This is done only  if the firm is able to satisfy the customer as per the service level acceptable to the customer. Logistics play a vital role in understanding the demand through improved informational flow by way of quick response to customer’s demands. 5) What other suggestion can you make for improving the situation in the company? Management of The John Mower Company must be strongly committed to early supply management and early supply management involvement in all aspects of new product development. Suppliers can provide technical support technical support in the early stages of design that can decrease materials costs and improved product quality. Furthermore, early supply management and early supply involvement can reduce starts up problems and delay. When supply management join engineering in meetings with potential suppliers, it can address a price and discount issues, quantity and quality requirement, lead time and delivery schedules and financial capabilities. The supplier’s responses to this issue will allow supply management to further qualify the supplier. Besides that, management must stress standardization and limit engineering’s role in supply management issue. The engineers should concentrate on designing a reliable and timely product; as they must work with supply management to meet that end. The engineers will be motivated to spend more time in designing and evaluation a new part. Training supply management personnel is a key to further success. The division must recognize that is needed to invest in a training program for its supply management personnel in order to receive a full benefit from its supply management system. This training such as individuals training at seminars, trade shows, or classes conducted by engineers on how to read blueprints and specification sheets. The division’s management must emphasize the important of this issue to the entire organization. With such commitment, the division will be able to develop new products in the shortest amount of time for the lowest amount of time for the lowest cost and still maintain the quality and reliability that give the company the leadership position that it once enjoye d.

Auditing and Assurance for Intermediate Accounting - MyAssignmenthelp

Auditors play an important role in ensuring that the Australian investors must be confident about their decisions for the investments. The high quality of the audit is being undertaken by the help of the quality audits that supports the quality of the financial reports and also enables the investors to investors. The construction of the work can be easily made by depicting the concerns which are contributed to the likelihood of the auditor (Horngren, 2014). Therefore the objectives can be easily outlined as per the Australian Auditing model and also the Auditing standards are also followed. The accountants and auditors are having a wide opportunity in the market as the companies have to prepare the financial report with the help of accountants and auditors. The Accounting rules and standards require that the companies have to appoint external auditors to determine and evaluate the fair value of the company. The stakeholders of the companies demand better tracking of the financial health of the company. The changes in the accounting rules, regulations and laws require help from the accountants and auditors by the companies (Weirich, Pearson, & Churyk, 2014). It has become very important for the organizations to present the financial report in an appropriate manner in front of the stakeholders. It has changed the accounting processes of many organizations, and they are depended on the accountants and auditors to prepare the financial statements. The opportunities can be easily explained in the form of the remaining auditing process which is being used for showing the unch anging of the decades that also enables them to have the appropriate test. This simply defines the categories of the auditing liaisons which is being used for the usage of the evolving technology. This simply undertakes the appropriate and actual verification of the payments that is being used for recording the information. The auditing profession in Australia operates under the co-regulatory regimes. The largest professional bodies: CPA Australia, the National Institute of Accountants and Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia have in place codes of ethics and rules that governs the professional conduct of their members. ASIC provides direction for the registration of the auditors. Thus, the auditors have the wide scope to enter into the auditing profession. Any individual who wants to become an auditor is required to make the application for the registration to ASIC (Stice, & Stice, 2014). The individual should satisfy the requirements for the registration as an auditor which includes experience and educational requirement as per the ASIC. The individual should be capable of carrying out his/her auditing duties. ASIC have powers to determine and evaluate breaches of the rules and regulations by the auditors. Membership of the professional accounting body is considered as the legal requirement for becoming an auditor. The subparagraph 1280 (2)(a)(i) of Corporations Act states that members of CPAA or ICAA should satisfy the educational qualification requirements in order to be registered as an auditor. Most of the auditors are the members of one of the bodies. The professional bodies provide wide opportunity to the auditors in order to carry their auditing practices in an appropriate manner (Bodnar, & Hopwood, 2013). The accounting standards changes their rules, laws and standards which need to be followed by the organizations. The organizations have to appoint the accountants and auditors in order to prepare their financial statements as per the accounting standards. The Auditing and Assurance Standards Boards publishes and develops the auditing standards that are similar in framework to the accounting standards that are issued by the AAASB. The CPAA and ICAA have developed the joint code of the professional conduct as the ethical code (Ricchiute, 2006). The audit firms have to carry out their accounting process in an ethical manner which means fair representation of the financial statements. The audit firms also provide wide opportunity to the auditors to continue their auditing profession.   The audit firms have also provided with opportunity under the Australian Auditing Model.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The overall explanation is seemed to be revolving around the opportunities, and the challenges that are faced by the Auditing profession are discussed in this case with the help of the Australian Auditing Model. The use of the artificial intelligence system is also explained in this case which is showing the appropriate applications in the field of accounting and auditing. The preparation of financial statements in an appropriate manner is very much important for the organizations.   Bodnar, G., & Hopwood, W. (2013).  Accounting information systems. Boston: Prentice Hall. Horngren, C. (2014).  Accounting. Toronto: Pearson Canada. Parker, L., Guthrie, J., & Milne, M. (2008).  Accounting, auditing & accountability journal. [Bradford, England]: Emerald. Ricchiute, D. (2006).  Auditing. Mason, Ohio: South-Western/Thomson Learning. Stice, J., & Stice, E. (2014).  Intermediate accounting. Mason: South-Western/Cengage Learning. Weirich, T., Pearson, T., & Churyk, N. (2014).  Accounting & auditing research. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Managing Diversity & Equal Opportunity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing Diversity & Equal Opportunity - Essay Example Provide a list of actions you would need to take as a manager to resolve this issue and also justify your answer. Introduction: Diversity is concerned with recognizing and valuing difference in cultures and ethnicities in the broadest sense. The thing that matters here is to create a working culture and related practices that recognize, respect, value and harness differences for the benefit of the organization as well as the individuals. Trust is an equal opportunities employer, which means that it is the Trust’s policy that there should be no discrimination, harassment, unfair treatment or victimization of any employee, job applicant, customer, provider of services or member of the public, neither directly nor indirectly on the grounds of race, nationality, gender, gender reassignment, marital or family status. Equality means creating a fairer society where everyone can participate and each individual has the opportunity to fulfill his or her potential. It is backed by legisl ations designed to address unfair discrimination based on membership of a particular group. Body: As an HR manager it is my responsibility and so I have the right to stop and prevent harassment and discrimination. Some of the ways in which I can fulfill my task is as follows: Supporting management by developing center policy and procedures for preventing and stopping ill and unfair treatment. Educating staff, particularly through induction and retraining, including specialized training for line managers. Helping the management to establish avenues of assistance at all duty stations for staff members who have experienced harassment or discrimination. Providing direct support and guidance to people involved in such issues Providing guidance to committees investigating harassment and discrimination complaints. Under the current situation, I have come to notice that in the organization some employees in my department are indeed upset, and I have found the reason to be an employee who is racially offensive towards individuals of non-white ethnic origins and discriminated as well as harasses them. As an HR manager, I am responsible for eradicating discrimination and harassment, which is the key to establishing a work place of dignity. To facilitate such an environment, I will ensure that All new appointees, including contractors and consultants, particularly, line managers and supervisors have relevant policies explained to them as part of their induction, early at the time of appointment. Appropriate retraining is given to the workforce from time to time, staffs are reinforced to understand the purpose, ramifications and implications for sustaining a workplace of dignity. Line managers receive specialized training on harassment and discrimination issues as they are the first line of defense and, therefore, must be made thoroughly aware of harassment and discrimination issues. They must act as role models, be alert to the emergence of such mistreatment problems in t heir workgroup and be aware of their responsibilities as they are empowered to act expeditiously and appropriately. It is my duty to solve this problem and as a solution, I would brief the alleged employee to stop his discrimination and to concentrate on the work assigned to him. If he still fails to understand the need to treat his colleagues with respect and

Academic Writing and Presentation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Academic Writing and Presentation - Essay Example These people also have different needs in their lives which impact on the performance of the organization in different ways. Whilst there are certain challenges that are likely to be encountered when four generations work in one organization, it can be noted that there are also opportunities for this scenario. The findings of the article include the following: employers must make an effort to identify the characteristics of each generation of employees working in the organization since this can impact on their performance. The employers must also be in a position to build an environment that promotes productivity among all generations since they may have different perceptions towards their work. The managers should also promote mentor programs in the organization that are meant to promote learning and knowledge sharing among generational diversity in the company. It is also important for the managers to create an environment that promotes mutual understanding among the employees belonging to different generations. This helps to prevent conflicts which are often viewed as counterproductive in the operations of the organization. The main purpose of the paper was to illustrate that employees in various companies belong to different generations. There are four generations identified in the study and they try to divide different generations into clusters of individuals with the same age. The behaviour of these people is shaped by their age in particular and the experiences they encountered as they were growing up. These generations have different perceptions towards various aspects of life. Even at workplace, it can be seen that people belong to different generations have different perceptions towards their work. The traditionalists in particular are content with the traditional way of doing things while the Generation X and millennial are interested in achieving good things that

Pursuing Public Safety.A Loose Fish in the Sea of Criminal Justice Term Paper

Pursuing Public Safety.A Loose Fish in the Sea of Criminal Justice - Term Paper Example The states have enforced or applied the principles of incapacitation and rehabilitation as ways to ensure public safety. Recidivism is defined as â€Å"a tendency to slip back into a previous criminal behavior pattern† such as the return to prison or a new sentence for a new offense (Beck, n.d.) The principle behind incapacitation follows that a person who is imprisoned will not perpetrate a crime. Imprisonment and capital punishment are the major ways to compel incapacitation which will prevent a person to commit a crime. Rehabilitation, on the other hand, is non-punitive and believes that a person can be prohibited to commit a crime by helping him to solve his issues that led him to commit a crime. This principle considers that each person is defective and commission of a crime is not the person’s purpose but may be a result of other physical, emotional, sociological factors (Renter, 2008). The paper talks about how the government should focus on determining the strat egies that will actually lessen the recidivism. According to Gomez (2008), although there are lots of theories on how to reduce recidivism and ensure public safety, resorting to incapacitation has not been very helpful to achieve these goals. This is because the government and the criminal justice system has devoted its resources and focus on isolating the lawbreakers and not on how to treat the criminal behaviour of the offenders. The treating of behaviour of the criminal offenders is more important than just merely imprisoning them. Thus, according to the Gomez (2008), it is better to make sure those who are capable of earning an honest living be allowed and encourage doing so. During the time the study of Gomez (2008) was still ongoing, Minnesota is suffering the highest unemployment rate in seventeen years thus the government thought that it should be the time to address the reality and let this offender work without sacrificing the public safety of the people. Aside from being able to give a chance for the offenders to earn and support their family and earn an honest living, they can help Minnesota on solving issues on impaired bridges, highways, dams, plants and water systems (Gomez, 2008). This is something like â€Å"hitting two birds with one stone.† The offenders are more likely not going to commit crime again because of the employment opportunity given to them. If this is the case, recidivism issue is addressed and community problems are solved without sacrificing public safety. Another Look at That Loose Fish But certainly, this approach will not always be giving us the positive effects. If there should be a reason why we should not try to reduce recidivism among the state and federal prisoners by teaching them to build houses and highways that would not otherwise be built is because of the fact that there will be a number of prisoners that will just run-off and leave the responsibilities. Another reason is that it is going to be unfair for the public because as we know, there is a high unemployment rate, meaning there are still a lot of people in the community who are unemployed and are not given an opportunity to get a job because these jobs are given to the offenders or felons. Billions of dollars are spent by the government to incarcerate felons to train and at least some of them so they can re-enter the free world more capable of

Anthropogenic Disturbance on Benthic Communitiy Essay

Anthropogenic Disturbance on Benthic Communitiy - Essay Example Although in the early days it was believed that there could be no life at the bottom of the sea, a steady production of energy deep down at the ocean floor has led to a thriving benthic community which may however be affected by environmental and anthropogenic changes. Investigation of benthic communities is done by deep sea diving and actually obtaining samples of such organisms from the ocean floor. Traps, dredging and investigation of seafloor sediments could be useful in establishing the biological nature of such communities. The benthic organisms are essential for the environment as they clean up the water and are responsible for re-mineralization of organic matter. Since benthic sea creatures are a diverse group with many functions, they also tend to form a major link in the biological chain. This project deals with the study of human disturbance on the benthic community and the changes in the structural and functional manifestations of these organisms when anthropogenic interventions are obvious in any ocean floor inhabited by these organisms. Dudgeon (2006) studied benthic invertebrates and their drift in eight streams within Northern Indonesia where rainforest streams and oceans are disturbed by anthropogenic activities. The benthic community studied were that found in Papua New Guinea and South East Asia and in general not predatory. The results indicated that the benthic communities were strongly affected by channelisation and conversion of forests to agriculture. Some benthic species were found to show drifting activities at night showing some sort of community reactions to changes in the external environment. Arasaki et al (2004) suggests that anthropogenic disturbance is one of the major problems in marine communities and any such disturbance could be quantified by using multivariate techniques for analysing the distribution of such communities. The results of the study showed that ecological trends are determined by faunal abundance and all central continental regions with widespread distribution of benthic communities seem to be affected by human activities. There are many studies that show the effects of fishing or dredging on the benthic commu

Critical Response of Herzl and Pinsker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critical Response of Herzl and Pinsker - Essay Example He wanted a Jewish state for the Jews, as if it fell into the very same category. Indeed, the secular approach he championed cleared his ideals of any religious fervor, and left the idea of the Jewish people as something that could only be equated with race and ethnicity. Race also played an important role for Herzl because it defined who the Jews were not. A prime example of this is in the Dreyfus affair, which Herzl does not specifically mention but depends upon because of its historical importance to his audience. Dreyfus was an example of anti-semitism, which Herzl explained was a result of a variety of situations—these being assimilation, success of Jews, and other interactions with Western society. Herzl believed that there was no hope for Jewish assimilation, and this may have contributed to the importance of race in his thinking. Because assimilation was such a problem, race was not just an important factor for Jews, but also was important for non-Jews. The fact that J ews had trouble assimilating into French society, for example, showed that the French race was distinguished from the Jews and thus the religious group was not part of the French racial group. This led to the conclusion that the Jewish people were like a race, separate from European races. Without this establishment of the Jewish people as being racially excluded in Europe, it would be difficult to link the group with Jewish nationalist ideology. After establishing this difference, Herzl could then go on to develop Zionism as a specific nationalistic ideology that exclusively applies to Jews, yet has the same framework as other nationalistic movements that are based off of race and blood. Thus, with no use of religion or language to classify the Jews as a people and a minority, Herzl was left with the concept of race in order to define Jews and bring them together toward a nationalist agenda. In Herzl's writings, the idea of awakening from a sleep as pointed by Anderson in European nationalism is also present in Jewish nationalism. Herzl refers to the history of the Jewish people, and especially stresses that they have a history of weakness which is used a survival strategy. Herzl and Pinsker both discuss the history of the Jewish people, from ancient times to modern times, as one of expulsion and mistreatment. However, these recounts of Jewish history are seen as a point of contrast with what is happening in the modern era, beginning with the hope of Jewish emancipation in Western Europe. The French Revolution, while a great awakening for the Enlightenment movement and for the French people, also showed an example of the Jewish people awakening from not so much a great sleep but a great captivity where they were denied equal status under any governments. Later recognition of their equal status under other states seemed to point to the dawn of a new age. The development of the Jewish state as a solution to the problem of Jewish assimilation and discrimination ushered in a new atmosphere, where Jewish thought suddenly experienced the same sentiment that Anderson mentions. The Jews of Europe underwent an awakening from a deep sleep in their own sense as they began to understand the reason for all their woes and as they began to envision a solution that would bring them out of Europe and into a new land. As Herzl believed that the Jews must be a majority in their own land to finally be emancipated,

During the interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

During the interview - Essay Example In this speech, I will explicate what happens during an interview. I would like to bring to your attention that an interview starts immediately the candidate enters the facility hosting the interview. In this regard, it is fundamental to arrive early and be in good behavior both at the waiting room and inside the interview room. As explicated by San Francisco State University Student Involvement and Career Center, the receptionist may also be a part of the recruitment team and may therefore be asked to elucidate a candidates behavior in the waiting room (para. 2). Another point to remember relates to first impressions. Ensuring eye contact with the interviewer confirms a candidates self confidence. Other than eye contact, dressing code helps the panel form an impression about the candidate (Time 118). Since an interview is an official event, interviewees are expected to dress formally. For men, presenting themselves in tucked-in shirts and neat hair gives a positive impression. Conversely, wearing a formal dress or suit as well as plaiting ones hair also gives a positive impression for women. In reference to the interview process, Das, in his book Business Communication, asserts the importance of giving a firm and brief handshake to the panel as introductions are being conducted (154). In essence, a handshake is a sign of respect and etiquette. According to San Francisco State University Student Involvement and Career Center, shaking hands with the panel is a sign of self confidence (para. 2). To begin the interview, the panel in most cases starts the process with reflective language posited by San Francisco State University Student Involvement and Career Center as small talk (para. 3). This is geared towards helping the candidate relieve his or her nervousness. For instance, small talk may revolve around topics such as current news or weather. In other words, small talk is intended to make

Individual Case Assigment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Individual Case Assigment - Essay Example Since Liemandt has built the company on the principle that a businessperson must be willing to take risks and be innovative, their new employees technical skills learning usually begin in a model of brainstorming and discussion. By putting their heads together, the TU help new Trilogy employees share ideas and learn all sorts of complexities in programming. They acquire technical expertise and skills in this manner, and in many cases, come up with something new for Trilogy. While learning through sharing of ideas, TUers also undergo technical training dubbed â€Å"tech track.† Here. TUers learn core skill, which include software testing methods and java programming. Liemandt provides a challenge and demonstrates how they can come together as a team and achieve a common objective. He makes sure that they are able to work as a team by organizing social activities and teams building activities such as taking them to Las Vegas. Because the culture of the business has been willingn ess to take risks, he always plays a game with them to drive home his point. He plays L2K with them to encourage them to be risks takers as he considers the organization was born out of risk taking. Another change that new Trilogy members learn in the TU teams is the organization values. There are section â€Å"leads† instil in the TU teams how the company operates and how it relates with its customers. In terms of how well a new TU team of employees learn technical skills, values and culture, one can observe that Liemandt has barred manager from involving any new team during their training periods until they are assigned to them. This way, the new team has all the time to learn about Trilogy as much as possible. The TU policy, consequently, ensure that a new team is able to concentrate on learning new technical skills. Such freedom and Liemandt’s protection policy makes sure that the team learns well about the culture and values of the company and change to adapt to i ts needs. The fact that the team is separated from the other departments also helps in making sure that there is clear communication in the team. It also ensures consistency in all instructions given by the selected As Kurt Lewin observes, the more one feels the necessity for change, the more there is the motivation to do it. Liemandt may be observed to have developed an unfreezing stage where he went on an aggressive search for new skills for to start his idea of the TU team. His Force Field Analysis presented him with factors for change although he knew that doing so was a risk. Therefore, one can say that although TU helps new Trilogy members learn skills, values and culture of their new organization, the current state is that the program may he headed towards a lag phase. The future state of the organization should be one in which emerging issues about the TU team is addressed as a matter of concern (Burnes 983). As assessment of the effectiveness of TU in its first five years f or the organization can be examined on the following manner. First, Liemandt formed TU programs on realizing that he had a vision, but which he saw that the old employees might not embrace. This is why he got involved with the first TU team as the first teacher although he had neither plan nor curriculum. From the start of the program to the end, one can say that TU was ultimately effective for the organizat

Theories of Mass Media and Its Social Impacts Essay Example for Free

Theories of Mass Media and Its Social Impacts Essay Since the invention of technologies such as the telegraph, radio and eventually television, which enabled communications â€Å"produced at a single source [to be] transmitted to an infinitely large audience† (Fearing, F. 1954), the social impacts of communications via mass media have been a subject of intense research by political and social scientists. This literature review intends to examine the major theories and perspectives on mass media with regard to its impact on society, which existed throughout the 1950’s and 70’s. Special attention will be given to the subjects of human social development, distribution of power, and human knowledge. Human social development has, without doubt, transformed since the introduction of mass media technologies. Before mass transmission capabilities were available, humans were very rarely exposed to anything other than the culture of their immediate surroundings. A widely supported view held, as to how communities learn a culture, is through a process of symbolic interaction (Blumer, H. 1969) where humans learn via the sharing of symbols. Fearing (1954) refers to this process as the sharing of â€Å"daydreams†, which are the literary or dramatic manifestations of a community’s symbols and culture. Every ‘daydream’ contains the symbols of the culture that produced it, whether it be a play or story. By passing on and sharing these ‘daydreams’, a community are able to share in the same culture, as they create familiar frameworks with which to reference their social lives. As Gerbner (1967) points out, before mass media, human interaction was almost entirely interpersonal, in relative isolation, meaning human experience and knowledge was limited to their immediate community environment, with information being passed down from person to person. The influence of the mass media begins to become apparent as Fearing (1952) points out the fact that humans, thanks to mass media, were for the first time able to broaden their sources of symbolic interaction, learning the values and symbols of a culture outside of their own localised  sphere of experience. Gerbner later echoed this sentiment when stating that since the industrial revolution, an â€Å"almost simultaneous introduction of information, ideas, images and products† on a global level has taken place. He goes on to claim that this point signalled the turning point with regard to how people became â€Å"humanised†. No longer was acculturation limited geographically. Quite quickly, due to the wide transmission of symbols, beliefs and attitudes, it became possible for regional and even national populations to share the same mental frameworks for perceiving the world around them. A feat that would have been impossible without the means of mass, simultaneous comm unication, made feasible by the mass media. Another contested subject with regards to the potential power of mass media was that that its capabilities place â€Å"a powerful instrument in the hands of a small number of persons† (Fearing, 1954). The ability now existed for a small influential group to communicate their message to a vast number of receivers. With this came the ability to set public agenda, influence social policy and affect the thoughts and behaviours of receivers (Gerbner 1967). There are many incidences for example where radio broadcasts have had a huge influence on the behaviour of its listeners, as documented extensively by Fearing (1954), who incidentally goes on to play down these successes as isolated events in which many variables came together with unintentional effectiveness. Unsurprisingly, governments developed great interest in the potential of the mass media and political scientists were responsible for many advances in the field. The propaganda campaigns propagated during the First, and especially Second World War, are undeniable examples of mass media’s potential for control over a population. However, the idea that media had a one way ‘hypodermic needle’ effect on receivers was beginning to fall from popular view, with a two way communication process being adopted instead. This two way process took into account that an audience doesn’t necessarily simply absorb the information around them, but perceive and interpret it, ultimately selecting whether it’s information they want to absorb. In contrast to the increased power of government, insights provided by Gerbner (1967) document the increased power of ordinary citizens to effectively take part in democracy, by offering and promoting alternatives to policies. The ability to publish and distribute private knowledge he says  transforms the private perspectives of few into broad public perspectives – thus creating a public, which in itself is a form of potential power if communication is maintained. We can conclude from this that mass media has enabled those who would not normally be able to do so, to voice their opinions and perspectives with a broader audience. Those who wield these mass communication capabilities certainly have far more potential power than before. With increased broadcasting of information, the manner and rate at which humans learn has also been irreversibly influenced. The relatively vast amounts of knowledge available via print and broadcast media during this time meant people were exposed to a greater amount of information. People were no longer restricted to the information and experiences of their own communities, but had access to foreign experiences and knowledge on a national and international level. In a general sense this has arguably meant that people, as a result, have become relatively more intelligent. As with most opportunities however, some people are able to take more advantage of them than others, whether it be because they are better equipped or more motivated to do so. P. J. Tichenor, G.A. Donohue and C.N. Olien’s (1970) research documented what they referred to as a â€Å"widening knowledge gap†, especially with regards to more â€Å"general appeal† knowledge areas such as public affai rs and science. Those of a higher socioeconomic status acquire information faster than lower class segments, leading to ever increasing gaps between progressive and â€Å"stagnant† groups (Tichenor, P.J, et al. 1970). Robinson (as cited in Tichenor, P.J. et al 1970) contends that those less informed will â€Å"remain so unless acted upon by an outside force, while those already informed stay in motion†. This leads to the conclusion that while the proliferation of information increases, the knowledge gap can and will only increase, unless measures are taken to effectively inform those of lower socioeconomic classes. A solution to this knowledge gap is offered by Tichenor et al. (1970) when they profess that a â€Å"knowledge gap implies a communication gap.† With the introduction of more easily accessible outlets of information this knowledge gap could potentially be decreased, despite the ever-increasing amounts of information available. Their article ends on an optimistic note as to the role television could play in the future, a  medium much easily accessible to lower socioeconomic classes. Reference List Blumer, Herbert (1969). Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Berkeley: University of California Press. Fearing F. (1954). Social impact of the mass media of communications, in, N.B. Henry (Ed.) Mass media and education: The fifty-third yearbook of the national society for the study of education part II, Chicago, University of Chicago. Gerbner, G. (1967). Mass media and human communication theory, in, F.E. X. Dance (Ed.) Human communication theory: Original essays, (pp.40-60.) New York, Holt, Rinehart, Winston. Tichenor, P.J., Donohue, G.A. Olien, C.N. (1970). Mass media flow and differential growth in knowledge, Public Opinion Quarterly, 34, 159-170.

Detention centres are factories for producing mental illness Essay Example for Free

Detention centres are factories for producing mental illness Essay There are currently over 4000 people locked up all over Australia in detention centres like this one. In our so called lucky country some of these unfortunate souls have been isolated from over 2 years. Despite there rhotic to the contrary, the Australian governments treatment of asylum seekers is nothing short of disgraceful, no better than the appalling conditions from which these despite individuals have fled. Manadory detention are factories for producing mental illness. There are 1. Dehumanising 2. Our slurr on our international reputation and obligations and 3. Simply unaustralian, there are better ways top solve this problem remember this people have commited no crime. Meet Abdul Hammadi, in 4 years of detention, Adul cut himself repeatly, drank poison, took false medication and attempted suicide. He was kicked and punched by guards and beaten with batons by riot police.. Instead of being put into psychiatric care he was put into solitary confinement. Abdul fled Pakistan because he was continually persecuted, but after 6 years of leaving detention in Australia, the country where he sought refuge, he is a broken man and will never work again (Abdal doctors) Dr Suresh Sundrain of the Australian Medical Health Research Institute has stated that people enter detention, resembling resilient and healthy then we subject them to extraordinary conditions we appear to subvert there resilience and their mental health, he goes onto say that there is good data is show that most people who had significant immigration centre experiences have comprised mental health on release, and these mental health problems persist for a protracted period following resettlement. So how dumb is this ? No only do we summit these poor people to humiliating detention akin for no crime akin to a prison settlement, we inflict such a traumatic experience on them while their in detention that it leaves stars of mental illness to the point where it manes them from participating in society. We then ending up forking out their welfare payments for the rest of their lives and this can represent hundred and thousands of dollars per asylum seeker. Please explain to me, how this makes any sense ? Despite the hysteria generated by the asylum seeker debate, it needs to be remembered that Australia has always had high obligations to assist asylum seekers under international law, mainly the 1951 united nation convention relating to the status of refugees and the 1967 protocol to which Australia is a signatory. Inspective of how these people arrived to Australia, legally and illegally, the fact remains that between 2008 to 2010 the number of boat people seeking asylum in Australia rose from 161 to 6535 once here we an obligation to look after them. Many have risked everything to make the dangerous journey. Some have left families, some have been displaced and others have others tremendous torture. While they have committed no crime, it is a crime of the nation which locks people up in mandatory detention and inflicts another round of mental anguish in amongst an insurmountable beurocacy of legalism and red tape. As a recent documentary on 4 corners revealed, mandatory detention is a blight on our nation. We need to stand up to our government representatives that enough is enough. Mandatory detention is cruel and demining and just factors for producing mental illness and depression. In the land that prides itself on giving everyone a fair go it is time for us to give asylum seekers a fair go. So what can you do to make a difference ? There are three easy ways that you alone can help 1. Write a letter to your local Politian, Politians understand only one votes and if they want your vote they will need to listen, come to their party, organise a petition from other members of your school or workplace. Perhaps side with the petition being organised by four corners ( see website). 2. Be informed , be aware of the problem dig deep into the issue if you havent done so already, motivate yourself to view the four corners documentary on inhuman detention , it is powerful, confronting and informative. Dont be the emu, with its head in the sand, take an interest in whats happing around you and then you are in a position to make a difference. There is plenty of internet support about this topic. Join or find an organisation like Amnesty international are raising funds for there project freedom from fences which aims to A) get access or interview asylum seekers in remote detention centres, so that there stories can be told, B) support research and help with the protective applications of individual asylum seekers, C) monitor and support peoples claims if they have been treated unfairly and D) Lobby the government to abandon the barbaric practice of mandatory detention. Conclusion: As fair minded Australians I am sure you will agree that detention centres dont work and in fact they are responsible for causing more trauma and mental illness. Finally as an Australian, you must agree with our nation logo on which we are prided upon that is to give to everyone a fair go. Therefore we must also give these despite people a fair go also, it is time to shut down detention centres forever and lets look for more human ways of processing their refuge status. Whatever your political agenda or colour it is incumbent on us to give asylum seekers a fair go and the right to heard in a civilised and compassionate manner.

A Case Study At The HSBC

A Case Study At The HSBC Chapter 1 Literature Review 1.1 Overview of Corporate Social Responsibility The notion that business has duties to society is firmly well-established, despite the fact that in the past there has been a revolution in the way people view the relationship between business and society. Numerous researchers suggest that companies which indulge in corporate social responsibility obtain consumers positive product and brand evaluations, brand choice, brand recommendations, good attitude to firm, good image of the firm, purchase intention and even enjoy a premium price. Spurred at least in part by such evidences, more companies than ever before are backing CSR initiatives such as corporate philanthropy, cause-related marketing, minority support programs, and socially responsible employment and manufacturing practices with real financial muscle. Not surprisingly, this trend is also reflected in the pervasive belief among business leaders that CSR is an economic imperative in todays national as well as global marketplace. However despite the increasing importance of CSR, there is little research available about CSRs impact on consumers. According to Yoon (2003), it is not clear when and how CSR activities influence consumer evaluations. Recent researchers have suggested that a CSR activity might backfire on the company if the consumers have become suspicious and infer that the companys true motive for the CSR activity is only to improve its image to sell more products without trying to act for the sake of consumers 1.1.1 Defining Corporate Social Responsibility According to Kotler (1991), Corporate social responsibility is about doing business in a way that maintains or improves both the customers and societys well being; Fombrun and Gordberg (2000)s point of view is that, corporate social Responsibility is something that no sane chairman should be without. On the other hand, Petkus and Woodruff (1992) believe CSR includes both avoiding harm and doing good. Corporate social responsibility is viewed as a companys commitment to minimize or eliminate any harmful effects and maximizing its long run beneficial impact on society. Corporate social responsibility activities include numerous factors; namely meeting customer expectations, demonstrating commitment to environmental responsibility, improved environmental performance, staying ahead of the legislation, and increased employee motivation. Mohr, Webb, and Harris (2001, 47) define CSR as a companys commitment to minimizing or eliminating any harmful effects and maximizing its long-run beneficial impact on society. Though, Angelidis and Ibrahim (1993) define corporate social responsibility as corporate social actions whose purpose is to satisfy social needs, Lerner and Fryxell (1988) suggest that CSR describes the extent to which organizational outcomes are consistent with societal values and expectations. While some view CSR as an obligation, others, namely: Enderle Tavis (1998) define corporate social responsibility as the policy and practice of a corporations social involvement over and beyond its legal obligations for the benefit of the society at large. 1.1.2 Dimensions of Social Responsibility The dimension of social responsibility was propounded by Carroll (1979). It was proposed that organisations have to have 4 pillars that must be fulfilled to be good corporate citizens. They are: Economic Dimension. Economic responsibility is to be profitable for principals, by delivering a good quality product, at a fair price, is due to customers. Legal Dimension. Legal duties entail complying with the law and playing by the rules of the game. Ethical Dimension. Ethical duties overcome the limitations of legal duties. They entail being moral, doing what is right, just, and fair; respecting peoples moral rights; and avoiding harm or social injury as well as preventing harm caused by others (Smith and Quelch, 1993). Philanthropic Dimension. Interest in doing good for society, regardless of its impact on the bottom line is what is called philanthropic CSR that is giving back time and money in the forms of voluntary service, voluntary association and voluntary. 1.2 Evolution of the CSR concept. Even relatively contemporary, a theory of CSR can be divided into four eras based on several conceptual shifts (Lee, 2008). The first dominant theme emerged during 1950s and 1960s concentrating on ethics and social obligation of business. A pivotal study by Bowen (1953) contended that CSR is an obligation of businessmen to act in line with the objectives and values of society. CSR was posited as a complementary and corrective measure for some social failures in the laissez-faire economy. Friedman on the other hand was concerned with the insufficient skills of corporate managers to solve social problems and potential cost from uncertain outcomes that would reduce the maximization of shareholder wealth a true responsibility of business. Such an intellectual stalemate contributed to the shift from the emphasis on macro-social effects of CSR to an organizational-level analysis of CSRs effect on financial performance. CSR in the second period was central around enlightened self-interest in the 1970s. A conceptual breakthrough by Wallich and McGowan (1970) represented reconciliation between the social and economic interests of corporations. The authors argued that CSR supported the long-term interest of shareholders by strengthening the wellbeing of the society, which provided a crucial support structure and customer base for business operations. Most studies in this era focused on the content and implementation process of CSR to avoid conflict with business interests (Ackerman, 1973; Fitch, 1976; Murray, 1976). A major caveat in this conceptual reconciliation was the lack of a specific mechanism to identify a causal link between social responsibility and financial performance (Weick, 1976). In the 1980s, the tie between the economic and social goals of business became tighter in the corporate social performance model. The dominant theme represented the thirdgeneration of CSR. The multi-dimensional model of corporate social performance was proposed in a pivotal study by Carroll (1979). This model suggested the integration of economic and social objectives in a total CSR framework, featuring economic, legal, ethical and discretionary aspects. The model was modified by Wartick and Cochran (1985) to include principles, processes and policies. Wood (1991) further formulated a more pragmatic model incorporating related theories, such as organizational institutionalism and stakeholder management theory. The limitation of the CSP model was the lack of objective and behavioral measurement to be able to compare the social performance of different companies (Wood and Jones, 1995). An aim to generate business return from CSR is most prominent in the latest development of CSR through strategic management. In this perspective, the stakeholder model has become central to the new CSR paradigm (Jones, 1995). Based on the stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984), Clarkson (1995) ameliorated the measurement problem in CSR through stakeholder identification, separation of stakeholder and social issues, followed by appropriate level of analysis. CSR becomes strategic when integrated into a companys core business competencies by serving as a filter through which strategic decisions are evaluated for their impact on the firms various stakeholders (Werther and Chandler, 2006). Strategic CSR then matches internal core competencies with the external opportunities to complement corporate mission and vision related to social responsibility (Du et al., 2007; Werther and Chandler, 2006). 1.3 CSR and Stakeholders According to Smith (2003), stakeholder theory is based on the principle that companies need to consider the effects of their actions on all constituencies (e.g. shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers, the environment, and the community), even if profitability is reduced. On the contrary, shareholder theory argues that the only responsibility of a company is to (legally) make profits for its shareholders. Mitchell (2001) argues that the shareholder approach increasingly dominates American companies. Furthermore, it is often interpreted as having one basic goal-maximizing stock prices. This, in turn, leads to a short-term perspective because growing proportions of Stockholders buy and sell stocks based on short-term information. Mitchell goes on to argue that companies are obligated to make profits, but there is nothing in the legal system that requires maximization of stock prices or that restricts the time frame to the short term. Nonetheless, a manager who does not produce sufficient earnings for shareholders risks his/her job and puts the company at risk of a takeover (Martin 2002). Martin (2002) further argues that when responsibilities to the community are seen as being likely to come at the shareholders expense, managers usually side with shareholders. He suggests that most socially responsible corporate behaviors are done specifically to enhance shareholder value. These are generally activities undertaken to comply with laws, regulations, or norms. They entail simply meeting the baseline of societys expectations; companies that do not meet basic expectations are likely to lose financially. On the other hand, there are many socially responsible actions taken by companies because managers believe they are the right things to do. Because these actions are outside the norms and may lead to financial losses, they are considered risky. 1.4 Social responsibility, Business Ethics and Corporate Governance. 1.4.1 Social Responsibility and Business Ethics Today, ethics has become more and more important with global business expansion. This is so, because of a raise in ethical and social responsibility concerns. There exists, however, according to Czinkota and Ronkainen (1998), a wide divergence in the level of importance attached to these two issues in different countries. Ethics as defined by Hoffman and Moore (1990) define ethics as what is good and right for people. An individuals perception about whether ethics and social responsibility contribute to organizational effectiveness is likely to be a critical antecedent of whether he/she even perceives an ethical problem in a given situation  [1]  . This is a practical view based on an argument that managers must first recognize that ethics and social responsibility to be imperative to organizational effectiveness before their behaviors will become more ethical and reflect greater social responsibility. Intuitively, ethics and social responsibility should have a positive impact on the success of an organization, because consumers make ethical judgments that are likely to influence their purchases. Consumers recognize organisations that are responsive to ethical and social factors. Consequently, business should care about ethics because adopting the right behaviour helps acquire and preserve good reputation overtime; because ultimately, it pays to do so. 1.4.2 Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance The definition of Corporate Governance differs depending on ones view of the world. Shleifer and Vishny (1997) define Corporate Governance as the ways in which suppliers of finance to corporations assure themselves of getting a return on their investment. Taking a broad perspective on the issues, Gillan and Starks (1998) define Corporate Governance as the system of laws, rules, and factors that control operations at a company. Irrespective of the particular definition used, researchers often view Corporate Governance mechanisms as falling into one of two groups: those internal to firms and those external to firms. Of course, firms are more than just boards, managers, shareholders, and debt holders. Over the years, Corporate Governance has evolved from the traditional profit-centered model to the social responsibility model. These two models illustrate the fundamental conflict that prevails today in Corporate Governance the Profit-Centered Model and the Social Responsibility Model are mutually exclusive. Each focuses on an opposite half of the corporations domain, even though the economic and social aspects of business are closely interrelated. In short, governance is viewed as a zero sum game. Because the economic role of the firm is fundamental to its survival, profit often drives out social considerations. Because knowledge increases when shared, collaborative partnerships between management and stakeholders can be economically productive. Like all partnerships, stakeholder collaboration is a two-way, working relationship that combines the capabilities of partners for their mutual benefit. According to Halal (2000), the wealth-creating role of business arises directly out of integrating stakeholders into a productive whole a corporate community (Figure 1). The corporate community model views the firm as a socioeconomic system in which wealth is created through stakeholder collaboration. This is not done to be socially responsible, but because it is a competitive advantage. Drew et al. (2006) identified five integrated elements that underpin a firms ability to manage risks, engage in effective Corporate Governance, and implement new regulatory changes: Culture, Leadership, Alignment, Systems, and Structure. Each of these elements relate to the others. For example, organizational culture is shaped by leadership practices. Systems support organizational structure and shape its culture. Alignment ensures each element is harmonized with the others so that, for example, explicit cultural norms are reinforced by leadership, and systems reinforce the culture. No one element s tands alone. After engaging in an examination process, board members can map organizational challenges against these elements, identify areas in need of improvement, and plan change management programs. Superior risk management programs and stronger firm governance capabilities result. The elements of CG addressed in Figure 2 could be considered as the core (i.e. management) of Figure 1 (i.e. corporate community model). Combining the models therefore represents the influence of Corporate Governance on CSR or corporate community. Figure 1 The basic cause of todays continuing conflict between profitability and responsibility is that managers do not seem to understand that these two interests can be united. Stakeholder collaboration is now the key to creating economic wealth. In the new perspective, stakeholder collaboration does more than gain resources and political support; it allows joint problem solving to increase the firms store of valuable knowledge. Future research needs to focus on the stakeholder assessment process and its translation into CSR objectives and policies. Therefore, adopting a process-based management systems approach as the foundation for a CSR management system will provide top management with a holistic view of the business that takes into consideration a single system approach to governance. This approach will provide management with internal control, clearly identify responsibility and will embed CSR in their organisation. This approach overcomes much of the criticism surrounding many current CSR systems approaches. Figure 2 The leadership style is also found to play an important role in socially responsible organizations. In this respect, transformational leader seems to be more effective, comparing with manager and transactional leader. Thus corporate governance as a critical element for driving excellence in CSR can be a source of competitive advantage for firms in its own right. 1.5 Consumer Behavior or Socially Responsible Consumer Behavior It has been observed that several personality trait variables affect how a consumer reacts to a companys corporate social responsibility activities. One trait that has been identified is called socially responsible or socially conscious consumer behavior. The socially conscious consumer is a consumer who takes into account the public consequences of his or her private consumption or who attempts to use his or her purchasing power, to bring about social change. According to Webster (1975, 188), the socially conscious consumer is a consumer who takes into account the public consequences of his or her private consumption or one who attempts to use his or her purchasing power to bring about social change. Mohr, Webb, and Harris (2001, 47) define this behavior as a person basing his or her acquisition, usage, and disposition of products on a desire to minimize or eliminate any harmful effects and maximize the long-run beneficial impact on society. Over the years, socially responsible consumer behavior has been seen as a lasting personality trait that engrosses the consumers self-concept. Persons, who are high on this trait, would not hesitate to modify their consumption behaviors in a variety of circumstances in order to struggle toward the ideal of improving society. Much research has been conducted on this trait. Measurement scales have not only been developed but related demographics and attitudes have also been explored. Roberts (1995) used the method of cluster analysis to segregate a group of socially responsible consumers. He estimated them to constitute 32% of the American population. According to him, when one compares this group to most Americans, the latter is more broadminded and environmentally concerned and has higher levels of perceived consumer effectiveness (perceived ability of individual consumers to influence environmental problems). 1.6 The Impact of CSR Activities on Consumer Behavior Consumers need to be aware of the level of CSR of a company so that this factor can have an impact on their purchase. The reason why, building awareness constitutes one of the major purposes behind cause related marketing which is a subset of CSR. Also, consumers are more likely to respond to a companys social responsibility record when they identify with the company  [2]  . Identification is enhanced when consumer perceptions of the companys character are similar to their perceptions of their own character. It is further argued that consumers judge a companys character based more on its CSR than on its business expertise. When consumers personally support the social issues that the company targets (called support for the CSR domain), they are likely to see greater congruence between themselves and the company. In two experiments, CSR was manipulated and its effects on the evaluation of the company were measured. They found that consumer support for the CSR domain significantly moderated the positive effect of CSR on evaluation. Ross, Stutts, and Patterson (199091), who used a non-probability sample, found that 53 percent of the sample, could recall a cause related advertisement for a product, and Webb and Mohr (1998) found that 79 percent of a sample could describe a specific cause-related marketing campaign after the concept was explained to them. Since CSR is a wide and multifaceted concept, knowledge about the social responsibility activities carried out by companies is relatively low. As a result, it is hard for consumers to acquire and store such information. Lack of awareness, therefore becomes the major inhibitor of customer awareness to CSR. Since 1993, according to reported surveys, firms supporting causes are enjoying a more positive image compared to other firms. Furthermore, the Cone Communications Press Release stated that two thirds or more of the sample said that they are likely to switch brands or retailers to those participating in cause related marketing. Demand from socially responsible consumers may increase in line with increasing promotion of a firms socially responsible activities; research by Sen and Bhattacharya (2001) suggests that consumers sensitive to the particular cause supported by a corporation (such as environmentalism) are more likely to react positively towards that corporation. On the other hand, in interviews with a convenience sample of 225 people, Ross, Stutts, and Patterson (1990-91) found that 49 percent stated that a firms support of a cause had been a primary reason for them to purchase a product, and 54 percent said that they are likely to. Also, most consumers do not understand the ethical dimensions of the products that they purchase (Auger et al, 2003, p. 299) but experimental studies have shown that once consumers acknowledge a firms socially responsible initiatives their evaluation of that firm (and its products) increases (Brown and Dacin, 1997). Furthermore, it has been established that certain demographics are increasingly likely to make consumption choices based on social grounds (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001, p 121). A national telephone study by Smith and Alcorn (1991) found that 46% of respondents were likely to switch brands to a company that donates to non-profit organizations and 30% sometimes buy products based on the charitable causes that the manufacturer supports. Porter and Kramer (2002) believe that strategic philanthropy1 at its most sophisticated can be responsible for enhancing the reputation of a company by linking the admirable qualities of the supported cause to its corporate identity. Moreover, it is believed that concentrating charitable donations and funding on a popular cause through a deliberate selection process may have a greater impact than generalized CSR (Porter and Kramer, 2002). Research by McWilliams and Siegel (2001) has found that not all consumers place a high value on the socially responsible actions of a firm; the price of competing goods can affect the demand for goods provided by socially responsible corporations. Studies conducted at Marymount University (1999) reported that 75 percent of consumers would avoid shopping at a store if it was known that their goods were produced under poor social conditions. Furthermore, it was found that the same consumers would be willing to pay $1 more for a $20 item given that the item was produced under good conditions. These studies show that consumers are willing to pay more for goods produced in a socially responsible manner. Indeed, the University of Maryland (2000) found that approximately 75 percent of consumers would pay an additional $5 at least on a $20 item if it was known that the item was not manufactured in a sweatshop. However, It has been suggested that income has a significant impact on demand for products from firms with a good reputation for CSR; low-income shoppers are seen to be more price sensitive than affluent shoppers. This means that affluent consumers are more willing (and able) to pay a higher price for said products (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001). A survey conducted by Creyer and Ross (1997) measured the attitudes of the parents of elementary school children towards ethical and unethical business behaviour. It was found that respondents expected companies to conduct business in an ethical manner and importantly, respondents stated that they would pay higher prices for products from an ethical company. 2.1 An Overview of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Banking Sector The Mauritian banking industry comprises of 18 banks, of which 5 are local banks, 8 are foreign owned subsidiaries, 1 is a joint venture and 4 are branches of foreign banks.  [3]  The banks are certified by the Bank of Mauritius to carry out banking business locally and internationally. Banks provide several traditional banking facilities and card-based payment services such as credit and debit cards, internet banking and phone banking facilities. Other services such as fund management, custodial services, trusteeship, structured lending, structured trade finance; international portfolio management, private client activities, investment banking, treasury and specialised finance are also offered by banks. The banking sector is now increasingly integrating CSR as a management strategy. External social activities are carried out to benefit the wider social community. The banking sector tops the list with a percentage of 1.2 per cent of profits before tax. For example, the Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB), the leading bank in Mauritius, has promised 1 per cent of its profits before tax ( £460,000) for social projects this year and Barclays Bank (Mauritius) has dedicated Rs 400,000 for the fight against AIDS. While the State Bank of Mauritius launched scholarships to help the brilliant but needy students of the Gandhian Basic School, the Barclays Bank has adopted the fight against diabetes as its flagship cause. Thus it can be seen that corporate social responsibility is very much present in the banking institutions of Mauritius. There is a belief that the growing of businesses and development of stakeholders must go together. Consequently, more and more companies are participating actively in corporate social responsibility. 2.2 A Profile of HSBC Bank Mauritius Limited HSBC Bank (Mauritius) Limited is part of an international banking and financial services organisation with a network of some 9,500 offices in 86 jurisdictions. (MBA Profile of Banks, 2010) The history of the HSBC Group in Mauritius can be mapped out from 1859, when the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China (the predecessor of the Mercantile Bank Ltd) established a branch in Port-Louis. It started with community investment back then with the financing of one well-known project that was the construction of the Port Louis to Curepipe railway network, in 1864. In 1865, a decision was made to close the branch. The bank was represented by the Blyth Brothers and Co Ltd for the next half century. In 1892, the Chartered Mercantile Bank was renamed as The Mercantile Bank of India Limited and in 1916, it came back to Mauritius through the acquisition of not only the then Bank of Mauritius, which was previously a commercial bank but also its historic building in Place dArmes. Mercantile Bank conducted business from its main office at Place dArmes continuously. In 1959, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited purchased the Mercantile Bank and in 1983, the name of the Groups operations in Mauritius was changed from the Mercantile Bank Ltd to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. In 1999, the international brand name HSBC was launched. Finally in 2002, HSBC started on a campaign to distinguish its brand from those of its opponents by describing the unique characteristics that make out HSBC, abridged by the words The worlds local bank. 2.2.1 Mission To be the worlds leading financial services company. We want to be the first choice for our customers and for our employees. If HSBC can be the best place to bank and the best place to work, we will have built a sustainable business that will deliver for the long term for customers, colleagues, shareholders and society at large. 2.3 Corporate Social Responsibility at HSBC Bank Mauritius Limited At the HSBC, there is a culture to manage business in a responsible and sensitive manner. There is a belief to have a duty towards customers, investors and employees to promote an ethical, responsible and sustainable corporate philosophy. The social initiatives undertaken by the HSBC are channeled into different levels, that is: Investing in communities Working together Protecting the environment Sustainable finance 2.3.1 INVESTING IN COMMUNITIES The HSBC aims to make a positive impact in all communities it operates. The community investment at the HSBC is mainly focused on two pillars which are education and environment. The educational support focuses on disadvantaged children such as orphaned children of the SOS Childrens Villages, on environmental and business literacy and environmental education and understanding. The HSBC Eco-Schools Climate Initiative was initiated in affiliation with the Foundation for Environmental Education. The intention of the programme is to encourage action on climate change by improving schools environmental good organization. 2.3.2 WORKING TOGETHER Employees At the HSBC, employees are believed to be their greatest asset. There is a perception to look harder so as to understand things more deeply. Staffs are driven by the belief that they can form a better future. Their priority is to exceed customer expectation. There is neither labeling nor discrimination and customers are rewarded for their commitment. Promoting Development The HSBC aims at promoting development of its employees not only through e-learning courses easily available both at home and at work but also through exchanges and overseas assignments. Committed to employees well-being HSBC employees have access to its gym to promote healthy living. Also available is an internal library with a collection of books on well being, yoga, healthy living and stress relief. The aim of the organization of the Health Week is to create awareness on the prevention of non-communicable diseases and to contribute by donating blood. Customers Customers are treated fairly and with respect. Despite being strict, the lending criteria take into consideration the customers ability to repay the loan. There is adherence to the MBA Code of Banking Practice. To maintain awareness about customer views, customer surveys are carried out. Suppliers Suppliers are required to abide by HSBCs policies and respect rights of employees. In case, after developing a plan to put a worry at rest, suppliers fail to improve, the HSBC stops working with them. 2.3.3 PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT The HSBC is very committed to the environment. In 2005, it became the worlds first carbon neutral bank. It is trying to optimize operations through environmental management systems. Water Saving Campaign In 2008, the HSBC teamed up with the Central Water Authority to launch a water saving campaign. It aimed to sensitizing the population about the scarcity of water and finding easy ways of saving water. Activities were organized; internally, through the theme of Be Part of the Solution where staff got the opportunity to visit the Meteorological Station of Vacoas and externally, through billboards, daily radio advertisements and tips in local newspapers and distribution of 12000 educational leaflets. Sustainability of Office Infrastructure and Internet Banking All in one device are being used to save energy. Consequently, there is a cutback in amount of equipment, consumption of electricity, toner cartridges and paper and maintenance cost. Through the use of internet banking, the HSBC is trying to provide its customers with their banking needs while at the same time trying to reduce printing outcomes. 2.3.4 SUSTAINABLE FINANCE Through sustainable finance, the HSBC is trying to incorporate the environmental criterion in its lending policies. Consequently, the organization will be able to assist its clients in building environmentally sustainable busin

The Case Against Capital Punishment Essay -- Death Penalty Essay

  Ã‚  Ã‚   This country is determined to prove that killing someone under certain circumstances is acceptable, when in all reality there can be no rationalization for the taking of another human life.   Killing is murder.   It is as simple as that.   There have been so many different controversies surrounding this debate that often, the issues become clouded in false statistics and slewed arguments.   The basic fact remains that killing is morally and ethically wrong.   This fact does not disappear by simply changing the term "murder" to "capital punishment".   The act is still the taking of a life.   On these grounds, the death penalty should be abolished. Proponents of capital punishment believe that killing criminals is a moral and ethical way of punishing them.   They feel there is justification in taking the life of a certain criminal, when in fact that justification is nothing more than revenge.   They also feel that the death penalty deters crime, although there have been no conclusive studies confirming that viewpoint (Bedau).    Most death row inmates are members of minority groups that tend to be poor.   The fact they are on death row can be explained as a direct result of their marginal economic status.   These alleged criminals receive legal representation that is not adequate for the serious crimes of which they are accused, simply because they cannot afford to pay for expensive defense attorneys (The Death Penalty).   In virtually all cases of indigent defendants, underpaid and less experienced Public Defense attorneys are appointed by the court to represent the accused.   Investigative monies are usually limited or nonexistent.   This is one reason why minorities are over-represented on death row.   More affluent white defen... ... clearly support the argument against capital punishment.   There can be no justification for the taking of any life, no matter what the transgression.   By taking that life we, as society, have chosen to become as monstrous as those whose heinous crimes we abhor.    Works Cited ACLU Briefing Paper No. 14:   The Death Penalty.   ACLU http://www.aclu.org/library/DeathPenalty.pdf   04/26/00 Bedau, Hugo A.   The Case Against the Death Penalty.   Ethics Updates. http://ethics.acusd.edu/Bedeau.html#Opinion   04/26/00 Issues and Controversies:   The Death Penalty.   Issues and Controversies on File   http://www.facts.com/cd/i00015.htm#I00015_b   05/01/00 Radelet, Michael L., updated by the Death Penalty Information Center.   Post-Furman Botched Executions. The Death Penalty Information Center http://www.essential.org/dpic/botched.html   04/27/00

The Great Depression Possible Leads to Its Cause :: essays papers

The Great Depression Possible Leads to Its Cause The Great Depression is known as the worst economic disaster of our time. While this fact is accepted throughout the world, a specific cause to this disaster remains a mystery. Maybe there is no one certain reason. Maybe it was a result of widespread factors causing the world-wide recession. Overproduction, World War I, and the banking system were all origins of the Great Depression. Thanks to the "roaring twenties," consumers of the late twenties were very confident. They didn't care to spend. To complement the increased spending, producers began to spend more as technology improved production speeds and costs. Author T.H. Watkins says "more and better goods were produced during this time (the 1920's), than at any time in history" (45). With slightly increasing wages, consumers bought as much as their wallet would allow them. However, they couldn't afford to purchase all that was produced and overproduction occurred. Even though overproduction occurred, that still wasn't enough to cause this stagnant economic recession. World War I was partly to blame because it had made the international economy unstable. Though Great Britain was the national creditor before the war, devastating circumstances made G.B. needy for some finances instead. In fact, much of the continent of Europe had been destroyed. Factories, farms, and homes were all brought to the ground as the battle between nations began. By the end of the war, the United States was the least harmed of the Allied nations. The United States didn't lose near the lives but it did lose a lot of money. After the war, nations still sought cash to repair their tarnished homelands. The United States and its supposed booming economy became the lender to many countries. These loans couldn't be repaid. In fact, Europe even relied on U.S. loans to purchase U.S. goods. With the foreign trade market in a downward spiral, it was evident that harsh times were soon to come. As Paul Gusmorino illustrates on his web page, by 1929, ten percent of American gross national product went into exports. When the foreign nations discovered they couldn't afford to buy U.S. goods, U.S. exports fell a drastic thirty percent seemingly overnight. The $1.5 billion lost in foreign sales between 1929 to 1933 was one-eighth of all lost American sales, Gusmorino concludes. So, as the world economy became a nightmare, the banking system of the United States also became a disgust.

Group Proposal :: essays research papers

Dear Sir or Madam: Thank you for your most recent request for information about our company and it's products. Our company was founded by Chris Griffith in 1974. Primarily for the U.S. military, doing top secret research and development. Our first consumer product is the Easy Finder Remote Control. I am very excited about our new product. We are targeting a nation wide release date of June 1st, 1999. Our new remote will have many user friendly features such as: code learn, sound activated locator, and an illuminated keypad. With code learn, you point your current remote at the base of the easy finder and it learns the code for your TV, VCR or cable box. The sound activated locator, responds to a snap of the fingers. Upon activation a loud 80 decibel piezo horn "BEEPS", and a super bright LED flashes for visual confirmation in locating the remote. An illuminated keypad keeps you from fumbling with buttons in the dark by lighting up the keys with color coded lights. Please look over enclosed material. We will start taking orders on May 1st 1999. Release date is set for June 1st 1999. I'm looking forward to doing business with you in the near future. Sincerely, Chris Griffith President, Hawk Electronics Table of Contents I. Cover Letter . . . . . . . . iv II. Introduction . . . . . . . . 1 A. Purpose . . . . . . . . 1 B. Problem . . . . . . . . 1 III. Proposal. . . . . . . . . . 2 A. Solution. . . . . . . . . . 2 B. Technical Description . . . . . . . 3 IV. Illustrations . . . . . . . . . 4 A. Remote Technical Description . . . . . 4 B. Operating Instructions . . . . . . . 5 V. Executive Summary . . . . . . . 6 VI. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . 6 II. INTRODUCTION A. PURPOSE This is a proposal to sell the new Easy Finder Remote Control to Circuit City, Seattle, Washington. The purpose of our product is to save the public from hours of wasted time searching for the remote control. B. PROBLEM Since Television, VCR, and other entertainment devices started offering the luxury of remote control, people have been losing them. Since then we've all been stuck with the task of trying to find them. Also many people have found it difficult to use a remote in the dark or low lit areas, such as bedrooms or bars. V. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY People often misplace things like T.V. and VCR remote controls, and often spend valuable time looking for them. Here at Hawks Incorporated, we feel there is something we can do about it. By installing a sound activated locator, and a lighted display panel, we've found the answer to locating your remote. In doing this we feel you'll save time, money, relieve at least a little of that every day stress. III. PROPOSAL A. SOLUTION The people at Hawks Electronics have found a solution for lost remote.

Running Head: North Sea Oil and Gas

Every business or industry is prone to various risks which include floods, earthquake, terrorists which the industry should put mechanisms in place to avoid such. Effective contingency planning has been of importance to most industries that embrace the idea. North Sea oil and Gas has for a long time been prone to the problem of changing weather conditions which is especially experienced in the sea. The companies that exploit the North Sea oil and gas have put a lot of emphasis on risk management and most of the companies have set up risk management departments (Leslie and Michaels, 1997).Numerous deaths had occurred during the exploitation of North Sea oil and gas in the 1970s and 1980s and this called for effective contingency planning to reduce the losses incurred by loosing workforce and by spillage of oil and gas due to buckles. The companies that exploit the gas and oil have invested in the contingency planning as a way of way of managing the risks (Leslie and Michaels, 1997).No rth Sea oil and gas has been a source of wealth to the countries that exploit the resource. North Sea oil has been used to refer to the oil and natural gas exists beneath the North Sea. The countries that exploit the North Sea oil and gas include Netherlands, Norway, Germany, United Kingdom and Denmark. Most countries and especially companies that have been given license to exploit the resource have taken proactive measures of risk. Mining beneath the sea has led to many deaths of the people involved and this has called for heavy investment in risk management projects undertaken by the companies.The pipes that transfer the oil and natural gas from underground reservoirs to processing plants which are mainly located some distance from the sea must be strong to withstand the waves in the sea. Depending on weather changes, waves differ in their height and this call for contingency planning otherwise heavy losses are incurred by the particular company (Leslie and Michaels, 1997).In the 1970s, the North Sea oil a gas companies took proactive measures to avoid heavy losses that resulted when waves exceeded the height of 3 meters. The operators laid many pipes which assumed the shape of S to maintain smoothness between the large barge and the ocean floor. The operators used bow anchors to further buckles by raising and resetting the pipes at the barges. The operators had to be keen because improper lowering of pipes would result into a pipe buckle which presented a serious threat in laying the pipes.The excessive height of waves which exceeded the anticipated height resulted in further risk of pipe buckles due to uncontrolled lowering of pipes. The companies therefore had to purchase a large number of steel pipes to avoid delays incase of any pipe buckle and this methods was not cost effective as the company would have desired. Any proactive measure that is taken to manage risk should be cost effective, utility effective and must therefore be maximizing benefits for the company while minimizing cost (Leslie and Michaels, 1997).An effective contingency planning in managing risks in project requires good planning and coordination of all the stakeholders in the project to ensure maximum desirable result. Risk management involves taking measures in dealing with uncertainty. The North Sea and oil contingency planning that was adopted in 19790s involves dealing with uncertainty because in favorable weather conditions, there is less cost involved in dealing with risks since pipe buckles will be few and hence very few new pipes will be required to be laid. However, since it’s hard to predict the height of the waves in the sea which can cause heavy losses if unchecked, the companies that explore the oil and gas in the areas must take precautionary measures (Leslie and Michaels, 1997).Exploration of North Sea oil any natural gas involves making wealth for the companies that are undertaking the projects. The importance of contingency planning in th e exploration project is very essential in risk management because it’s used to assess the possibility of bad weather condition which is a threat to the project. The assessment is consequently used to reduce the possibility of underperformance that may be realized when no measures are undertaken to reduce or avoid the pipe buckles. The cost of replacing buckled pipes reduces the profit margin that is realized in the project and therefore effective contingency planning help to manage the risk.Effective contingency planning helps to capture the benefits of fair weather. Uncertainty about weather conditions is a threat that faces the North Sea offshore pipe laying. If effective contingency planning is observed, long periods of bad weather can be sustained because the project major should be able to recognize and deal with the bad condition threat which is inevitable. The project managers should ensure there is plenty supply of pipes during bad weather condition to avoid delays i n replacing the buckle pipes.The project managers should observe good contingency planning by ensuring that the oil and gas pipeline are complete before the bad weather sets in and this will assist in reducing the costs associated with contingency planning. Laying pipelines in time helps in avoiding major delays in the project which may result in heavy monetary losses.Contingency planning for reducing possible threats that are associated with North Sea and oil exploration could be a possible way of increasing income to the companies that are undertaking the project. American project management institute (PMI) argue that there is a possible opportunity associated with the risks that threaten the project in winter, bad weather conditions has been known to lead to gas shortage in most cities which due to law of demand, the prices increase.This could be an opportunity for those companies that are concerned with the project. Effective contingency planning in managing risk North Sea oil a nd gas has created an opportunity to the companies undertaking the project. This is attributed to the precautions taken by the companies in anticipation of bad weather threat. The project involves paying for delivery before the contract begins. Most companies that want to protect themselves from the deficient supply of the resources therefore buy the resources before the contract begins. The high demand has contributed to higher revenue derived from the project and this consequently results to higher profitability (Leslie and Michaels, 1997).Contingency planning which is mainly associated with managing risks should not only focus on the threats that hamper the success of the project but should also view threats as an opportunity to achieve the objectives of the project. Achievement of objectives means the project has succeeded. Therefore effective contingency planning in addressing risks should recognize the close relationship of threats and opportunities. The actions taken by the p roject manager in reducing the risks should seek to create an opportunity for excellence (Leslie and Michaels, 1997).Effective contingency planning should not focus on managing threats. Instead the project should seek to identify the different sources of risks and consequently how to manage the risks. Focus on risks draw emphasis on the anticipated failure. Therefore, assessing the various sources of uncertainty and how those uncertainties can be a threat to the project and consequently how to manage the uncertainties involves application of effective contingency planning.North Sea oil and gas exploration is associated with many uncertainties which present various threats to the project. Focus on the opportunities created by the uncertainties management can lead to profitability and success of the project. The project manager should identify the origins of uncertainties instead of managing risk first and this will assist in addressing the root of the problem. Most projects have fail ed to meet the set objectives due to their failure to address the root of the problems. Superficial problem solving has led undesirable results. Therefore identification of the source of uncertainties should be considered as the beginning of the risk management process in effective contingency planning (Leslie and Michaels, 1997).Uncertainty is present in every project and in all stages of the project life cycle (PLC). The uncertainty is contributed by various reasons which are inevitable. All projects success is based on various assumptions which are the main sources of uncertainties. Differences in the performance of project concerning cost, quality and duration that is required to complete the project bring a lot of uncertainties. In laying pipes in the ocean in a way that will avoid pipe buckles involved a lot of uncertainties. This is attributed to the changing weather conditions.Its hard to forecast the height of the waves in the ocean in a particular season and this present s ource of uncertainties since its hard to know with certainty the cost of dealing with the threat since its hard to tell the amount of pipes to be knocked down and therefore requiring replacement (Leslie and Michaels, 1997).Proactive risk management in the North Sea oil and gas project should be entrenched in both base plans and contingency plans. It’s argued that if a project focuses very much on being cost effective it’s bound to fail on risk management in some occasions. However, crisis management should only be used as principal management in some occasions. However, crisis management should only be used as principal management mode if the risk management fails completely (Leslie and Michaels, 1997).ReferencesLeslie, Keith, J. and Michaels, Max, P. â€Å"The Real Power of Real Options†. The McKinsey Quarterly 3 (1997):134-225.