James Joyce Essay -- essays research papers

James Joyce      James Joyce, an Irish author and artist, grew up close to Dublin. James Joyce is one of the most compelling writers of the twentieth century. In each of his writing works he utilized images to encounter what he called a "epiphany", the disclosure of certain noteworthy characteristics about himself. His initial works uncover singular states of mind and characters and the predicament of Ireland and the Irish craftsman in the 1900's. Later works, uncover a man in the entirety of his multifaceted nature as an craftsman and in family perspectives. Joyce is known for his style of composing called "stream of consciousness". Utilizing this strategy, he overlooked conventional sentence structure and endeavored to recreate the meandering aimlessly's of the human psyche. A significant number of his works were affected by his life in Ireland as a craftsman. He was affected by three principle factors throughout his life, his adolescence and guardians, his country of Dublin, Ireland, and the Roman Catholic Church. These three perspectives appear in the entirety of his works inconspicuously, however explicitly in, The Dead, A Picture of the Artist as a Young Man, and Araby.      James Joyce, was conceived February 2, 1882 in Dublin, Ireland. He was the first of fifteen children destined to Mary Jane Murray, and John Stanslaus Joyce. He was initiated James Augustine Aloysius Joyce. His mom was a mellow lady who had smart feelings yet didn't communicate them. His dad was a vicious, temperamental man who was a clinical understudy and government official. He was taught in Dublin at Jesuit school's as long as he can remember. In 1888, he went to Clongeswood School, yet his dad lost his employment and James needed to pull back. He graduated in October of 1902, from Royal University. He was intrigued by the hints of words and by the rhythms of discourse since he initially began school. He was prepared by the Jesuits who at one time trusted he would join their request; yet Joyce got antagonized from the Jesuits and abandoned from the Catholic Church in the wake of graduating school. Joyce put forth a tremendous attempt to liberate himself from all parts of the past, for example, family, religion, and nation. He left Ireland in 1902 subsequent to graduating school. He spent a mind-blowing remainder in either Trieste, Zurich, or Paris. During this time he was poor. He spent quite a bit of his working profession as a language educator. He was said to have known 17 dialects. He likewise s... ...furthermore, that individuals should think on their own, without the congregation disclosing to you how to think.      James Joyce's was keen on finding reality in his works also, uncovering it. He was a decent eyewitness of the real world, which he cherished, and he continuously needed to get at reality behind the appearance. Joyce willfully banished himself from Ireland, yet at the same time Ireland was never a long way from his psyche, and his composition. He additionally banished himself from the congregation yet expounded on it and it's limitations frequently. He deserted his adolescence and decided to compose his youth collection of memoirs under an alternate name. He watched others' reality but then decide to overlook his own. He left Ireland, the congregation, and his adolescence, clairvoyantly, however he never left them in his own oblivious. He decide to expound on his life and sentiments in different people groups words and in other people groups mouths. As yet wishing to oust himself from his life, he nearly felt as on the off chance that by leaving every one of these spots outwardly he would leave every one of his sentiments behind moreover. He expounded on the points he decide to remove himself from, as in the event that to get an impartial gander at them, and to expound on the genuine truth. James Joyce Essay - papers research papers James Joyce      James Joyce, an Irish writer and artist, grew up close to Dublin. James Joyce is one of the most powerful writers of the twentieth century. In each of his exposition works he utilized images to encounter what he called a "epiphany", the disclosure of certain noteworthy characteristics about himself. His initial compositions uncover singular dispositions and characters and the predicament of Ireland and the Irish craftsman in the 1900's. Later works, uncover a man in the entirety of his multifaceted nature as an craftsman and in family perspectives. Joyce is known for his style of composing called "stream of consciousness". Utilizing this method, he disregarded customary sentence structure and endeavored to replicate the meandering aimlessly's of the human brain. A considerable lot of his works were impacted by his life in Ireland as a craftsman. He was impacted by three primary factors throughout his life, his youth and guardians, his country of Dublin, Ireland, and the Roman Catholic Church. These three viewpoints appear in the entirety of his works unpretentiously, however explicitly in, The Dead, A Picture of the Artist as a Young Man, and Araby.      James Joyce, was conceived February 2, 1882 in Dublin, Ireland. He was the first of fifteen children destined to Mary Jane Murray, and John Stanslaus Joyce. He was dedicated James Augustine Aloysius Joyce. His mom was a mellow lady who had insightful sentiments however didn't communicate them. His dad was a fierce, irritable man who was a clinical understudy and government official. He was instructed in Dublin at Jesuit school's as long as he can remember. In 1888, he went to Clongeswood School, yet his dad lost his employment and James needed to pull back. He graduated in October of 1902, from Royal University. He was intrigued by the hints of words and by the rhythms of discourse since he originally began school. He was prepared by the Jesuits who at one time trusted he would join their request; yet Joyce got antagonized from the Jesuits and abandoned from the Catholic Church in the wake of graduating school. Joyce put forth a tremendous attempt to liberate himself from all parts of the past, for example, family, religion, and nation. He left Ireland in 1902 in the wake of graduating school. He spent an incredible remainder in either Trieste, Zurich, or Paris. During this time he was poor. He spent quite a bit of his working profession as a language educator. He was said to have known 17 dialects. He likewise s... ...furthermore, that individuals should think on their own, without the congregation disclosing to you how to think.      James Joyce's was keen on finding reality in his compositions furthermore, uncovering it. He was a decent spectator of the real world, which he adored, and he continuously needed to get at reality behind the appearance. Joyce willfully ousted himself from Ireland, yet at the same time Ireland was never a long way from his psyche, and his composition. He additionally ousted himself from the congregation yet expounded on it and it's requirements regularly. He deserted his youth and decided to compose his youth life account under an alternate name. He watched others' reality but then decide to disregard his own. He left Ireland, the congregation, and his adolescence, mystically, yet he never left them in his own oblivious. He decide to expound on his life and sentiments in different people groups words and in other people groups mouths. As yet wishing to oust himself from his life, he nearly felt as on the off chance that by leaving every one of these spots outwardly he would leave every one of his sentiments behind too. He expounded on the points he decide to remove himself from, as in the event that to get an unprejudiced gander at them, and to expound on the genuine truth.

Educational Psychology: Quantitative Research Methods

Instructive Psychology: Quantitative Research Methods Rachel Price Select a mental teach and Identify the essential research techniques and designsâ used in that discipline, and consider why that might be the situation. This task will take a gander at a number research strategies and plans utilized in Educational Psychology. While there are various research strategies and structures utilized in Educational Psychology this task will concentrate on the utilization of quantitative research in the types of meetings, polls and contextual investigations and will likewise examine quantitative research as psychometric testing utilized in the evaluation of dyslexia, for example, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Wechsler 1949) and the Kaufman appraisal battery for youngsters (Kaufman, 1983) and why every one of the techniques talked about are utilized, while taking a gander at the legitimacy and restrictions of the strategies and plan. Instructive Psychology is characterized by Wittrock (1989) as the logical control worried about the turn of events, assessment, application and standards and hypotheses of human learning. Instructive Psychologists complete research when they look at the subjective advancement of little youngsters, investigate the connection between educators inclinations, instructive encounters and study hall execution, and control the basic highlights of exercises and study that bring about understudy cooperation levels or investigate the issues related with the collaboration of instructors and students and learning settings in circumstances (Berliner Calfee, 2004). Alexander and Winne, (2006) recommend these regions of research add to the study of learning and help create rules for successful study hall rehearses. The two research techniques that impact logical instructive research are quantitative and subjective methodologies. Instructive research will in general be a blend of both quantitative and subjective research procedures (Williams, 2011). Quantitative research techniques are basically trial in nature and worried about the causal connections among reliant and free factors, while subjective research strategies are principally non-trial and worried about distinguishing and portraying topics basic human experience or the experience of a specific marvel (Della Porta Keating, 2008). Willis (2008) contends that quantitative and subjective research strategies are regularly get components or methods from one another. For instance, program-assessment investigate, activity research, and instructor as-scientist techniques are types of blended instructive research plan that utilization components of both quantitative and subjective strategies (Johnson, Christensen, 2008). Instructive therapists depend on quantitative based research techniques to assist them with settling on choices about school projects and practices (Slavin, 2002). Stanovich and Stanovich (2003) characterize quantitative based research as a type of study that utilizes precise techniques that draw on cautious perception or experimentation so as to make substantial, solid and dependable, ends. The science part of instructive brain research looks to sort reality from fiction by utilizing specific systems for acquiring data (Johnson Christensen, 2000; Kawachi, Kennedy Glass, 1999). Wolfe (2010) contends that the specialty of instructive brain research lies in interpreting deductively substantial and solid data into feasible and powerful study hall practice. Quantitative research is objective, testable, and efficient ( Kothari, 2011). Gravetter and Forzano, (2015) propose that It decreases the probability that data will be founded on close to home convictions, sentiments and assessments. Quantitative research depends on the logical strategy, a methodology that can be utilized to find exact data. It incorporates these means: conceptualize the issue, gather information, reach determinations, and amend inquire about ends and hypothesis( Cronbach, 1957).Once information has been gathered, instructive clinicians utilize factual techniques to comprehend the importance of their quantitative information to help make inferences. They likewise contrast their discoveries and what others have found about a similar issue. The last advance in the logical strategy is overhauling research ends and hypothesis (Mertens, 2014).Slavin and Davis, (2006) recommend that instructive analysts have created various speculations about the most ideal ways for unders tudies to learn McInerney, (2005) proposes that when an instructive clinician needs to test a theory they can browse numerous techniques, for example, perception .Scientific perception is exceptionally efficient. It requires comprehending what is being searched for, leading perceptions in a fair-minded way, precisely recording and classifying what was seen, and viably conveying these perceptions (Hersen, Haynes Heiby, 2003). A typical method to record perceptions is to record them, utilizing shorthand or images. What's more, recording devices, camcorders, uncommon coding sheets, single direction mirrors, and PCs can be utilized to mention objective facts progressively proficient. (Coolican, 2009). Instructive therapists direct research in labs at the colleges where they work and educate, despite the fact that labs frequently assist scientists with increasing more control in their examinations, they have been condemned as being counterfeit. In illustrative perception, conduct is seen out in reality ( McInerney, 2005).Educational analysts direct authentic perceptions of youngsters in study halls, at exhibition halls, on play areas, in homes, in neighborhoods, and in different settings (Gã ¶ncã ¼, Jain Tuermer, 2007). Instructive analysts use meetings and surveys to get some answers concerning students’ and teachers’ encounters (Vaughn, Schumm Sinagub, 1996). Meetings ordinarily occur up close and personal, despite the fact that they should be possible via telephone or the Internet while surveys are typically given to people in printed frame and can be rounded out from numerous points of view, for example, face to face, via mail, or through the Internet (Coolican, 2009). Great meetings and reviews include solid, explicit, and unambiguous inquiries and a few methods for checking the legitimacy of the respondents’ answers (Ritchie, Lewis, Nicholls Ormston, 2013). Anyway Fowler (2008) contends that meetings and overviews are not without issues. One essential constraint is that numerous people offer socially alluring responses, reacting in a way they believe is most socially worthy and attractive as opposed to how they really think or feel. For instance, a few educators, when met or requested to round out a survey about their showing rehearses, delay to concede genuinely how every now and again they scold or scrutinize their understudies (Loughran, 2002). Talented meeting methods and questions that expansion frank reactions are critical to getting exact data. Another issue with meetings and reviews is that the respondents in some cases just falsehood (Coolican, 2009). Another sort of research technique utilized by instructive clinicians are contextual analyses (Woolfson, 2011). Crosling Webb, ( 2002) characterize contextual investigations as depictions of â€Å"real-life† encounters that show significant ideas and issues in a field of study . At the end of the day, a contextual investigation is an inside and out assessment of an individual or circumstance A contextual analysis presents a remarkable technique for consolidating hypothesis and practice in a critical thinking structure. Contextual investigations contrast from spoken or composed explanations, in that they ordinarily don't contain results or ends, yet leave the peruser to ponder the most fitting strategy (Crosling Webb, 2002).Traditionally, contextual analyses have been related with business, medication, and law. As of late, be that as it may, contextual analyses progressively have been utilized in instruction to support instructors and educator up-and-comers create basic issue a cknowledgment and goals aptitudes (Clandinin Connelly, 2000; Elliott, Woloshyn, DiPetta, Bennett, 2000). Instructive Psychologists utilize psychometric testing during the evaluation for dyslexia. Lyon, Shaywitz and Shaywitz (2003) characterize dyslexia as a particular learning trouble that is surprising corresponding to a people psychological capacities. Psychometric testing strategies, for example, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) (Wechsler 1949), which is an independently controlled insight test intended for kids between the ages of six and sixteen (Cohen, 2011) and contains fifteen subtests that give an exhaustive evaluation of scholarly capacity which are separated into ten center subtests and five supplemental subtests (Grizzle, 2011). The Wechsler Individual Achievement Tests (WIAT) (Wechsler, 1992) is likewise utilized, and is an extensive test that surveys scholarly accomplishment by testing the capacity to apply intellectual aptitudes and information to evaluated desires It alsoincludes nine subtests intended to evaluate explicit regions inside the regions of perusing, arithmetic, composed language, and oral language (Johnson, 2011) Another psychometric test utilized in the appraisal of dyslexia is the Kaufman evaluation battery for kids (KABC)( Kaufman, 1983), which is a predictable and substantial proportion of subjective capacities for youngsters matured three to eighteen (Hall Noggle, 2011). Psychometric tests are characterized by Coolican (2009) as instruments that measure mental estimation and incorporate character scales and furthermore incorporate proportions of mental capacity, for example, insight, phonetic capacity, imaginative reasoning and so forth. Psychometric tests are fundamentally utilized in instructive settings to help distinguish understudies who may require extra learning help (Stapleton, 2001). Vernon and Parry (1949) contend that the factors that psychometric tests, for example, the WISC and KABC scales, use, are consistently the best measures, and for instructive purposes a large portion of the significant factors are estimated by all around acknowledged tests. They additionally propose this is one of the fundamental argumen

Branding in Hospitality and Tourism

Branding in Hospitality and Tourism Role of Branding in Hospitality and Tourism Home›Marketing Posts›Role of Branding in Hospitality and Tourism Marketing PostsA brand is an identity to a certain product, service or business offered by a certain company or organization. A brand can take any symbol to put across its information. It can take colour combination, name, sign or slogan. In the hospitality and tourism industry, branding has become a major drift to both the industry and consumers.The tourism consumer is the decisive judge of triumphant marketing and public association’s activities. There has been a change from transactional to affiliation management over the last fifty five years (Simon, 2004). This has been due to the rising competition in the marketing environment. A shift from the traditional marketing to ways more aggressive and varied has been emphasized to marketing and communication.In the twenty first century where the clients dictate on the brand on its coherent to the recognition by the compan y is a basic requirement (Metin, 2006). The power of the brand and its image is a pillar to contextualise the activity of marketing. Most of the brands today are built in reference to PR campaigns and then they are maintained through unifying of selling and PR tactics (Raza Ivo, 2005).The tourism industry through branding of its services the customers are able to identify them quickly enough. The branding of the services and other products results to the recognition without suspicion of making a wrong identity. Branding done on services generates more revenue compared to other products that lack trademark mystique. Branding done right delivers a healthy return to the organizations` investment (Davidson, 2006).The brand is a communication element to the customers. The branded products form the basis of identification for the consumer. The consumer can easily differentiate the products he wants from the company that are similar to other products. In recent years the tourism industry has drastically declined due to decrease in tourism awareness. The carefully considered way in which locals deal with tourism is perceived as a whole to its benefits and drawbacks. This has to be corrected through branding (Beech Chadwick, 2006).Branding brings about the effectiveness in running the hospitality and tourism industry. By the industry identifying its brand it can make progress knowing that consumers are readily available. The industry works hard to defend its brand and to keep high quality standards of the services they offer. When the industry offers a low quality of services it readily meets the consumers for critique (Cooper, 2006).Through branding in the tourism industry, it creates and develops loyalty to the customer. The consumers are able to trust the industry since they are aware of the services that it lenders. These become an advantage to the tourism industry as it is assured of a ready market for its services (Aaker David, 1991). It is important to note t hat for the tourism industry to prosper, it requires relevant marketing strategies. By coming up with a brand for the industry is one of those ways in which the industry can be guided through and grow larger (Page, 2009).Through the introduction of a brand the industry gains loyalty from even other industries since it is able to stand independently. The industry is at the same time able to enjoy a strong brand royalty. This would reduce marketing expenses because the customers have been attracted and retained and will even go ahead to tell their friends on the services (Bowen Clarke, 2009).There is reduced pressure in the form of competition from other industries. This is because the industry experiences ready market. Consumers are aware about the services the services the industry offers and so gives it the first priority. Trademarks and ironclad distribution channel can all protect and preserve brand and build it.

Methodology Research Data - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2823 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Uncategorized Essay Type Essay any type Did you like this example? Introduction According to Walliman (2001), a methodology explains the theory behind the research methods or approaches. This chapter highlights the theories behind the methodology employed and examines the research methods that are most appropriate for this research which help to better understand the topic under investigation. This research undertakes an analytical review of customer retention techniques of Indian banks, using Citibank as a case study. This chapter outlines how this analysis is undertaken and describes the rationale behind the choice of research design and the construction of the method. Research Method Construction Much of the research undertaken in social sciences is primary. This is based on the collection of primary data, that is, data originated by the researcher for the purpose of the investigation at hand (Stewart and Kamins, 1993). Primary analysis is the original analysis of data in a research study. It is what one typically imagines as the application of statistical methods. However, not every study or research undertaking must begin with the collection of primary data. In some cases, the information required is already available from published sources. This is called secondary research à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the summation, collation, and/or synthesis of existing research. Secondary information consists of sources of information collected by others and archived in some form. These sources include reports, industry studies, as well as books and journals. The collection, generation, and dissemination of information is growing. This means that there exists a tremendous amount of secondary data that is relevant to todays decision-making problems. Knowledge accumulation increasingly relies on the integration of previous studies and findings. Glass (1976) argues that when the literature on a topic grows and knowledge lies untapped in completed research studies, this endeavour (of research synthesis) deserves higher priority than adding a new experiment or survey to the pile (Glass, 1976, p. 4). One of the main reasons to value secondary data comes from the ease of collection for research use (Houston, 2004). This information can be of considerable importance for two reasons. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Methodology Research Data" essay for you Create order Time savings à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" typically, the time involved in searching secondary sources is much less than that needed to complete primary data collection. Cost effectiveness à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" similarly, secondary data collection in general is less costly than primary data collection. For the same level of research budget a thorough examination of secondary sources can yield a great deal more information than can be had through a primary data collection exercise. Another, and perhaps more important, benefit to researchers from employing secondary data is that alternative types of data can provide multi-method triangulation to other research findings (Houston, 2004). This is because the knowledge bases regarding many constructs, such as retention and loyalty, have been built heavily through survey research approaches. All things being equal, secondary data should be used if it helps researchers to solve the research problem (Saunders et al., 2006). If there exists data that solves or lends insight into the research problem, then little primary research has to be conducted. Because resource constraints are always a problem for the researcher, it makes good sense to exhaust secondary data sources before proceeding to the active collection of primary data. In addition, secondary data may be available which is entirely appropriate and wholly adequate to draw conclusions and answer the question or solve the problem. This secondary ana lysis may involve the combination of one data set with another, address new questions or use new analytical methods for evaluation. Secondary analysis is the re-analysis of data for the purpose of answering the original research question with different statistical techniques, or answering new questions with old data. Secondary analysis is an important feature of the research and evaluation landscape. Generally, secondary research is used in problem recognition and problem clarification. However, in addition to being helpful in the definition and development of a problem, secondary data is often insufficient in generating a problem solution (Davis, 2000). Whilst the benefits of secondary sources are considerable, their shortcomings have to be acknowledged. There is a need to evaluate the quality of both the source of the data and the data itself. The first problem relates to definitions. The researcher has to be careful, when making use of secondary data, of the definitions used by those responsible for its preparation. Another relates to source bias. Researchers have to be aware of vested interests when they consult secondary sources. Those responsible for their compilation may have reasons for wishing to present a more optimistic or pessimistic set of results for their organisation. Also, secondary data can be general and vague and therefore may not help with decision-making. In addition, data may be incomplete. Finally, the time period during which secondary data was first compiled may have a substantial effect upon the nature of the data. Considering these shortcomings, primary data collection strategy was also adopted after analysis and collection of secondary data. This was purposely done by the author as the author wanted to analyze the previous similar researches before drafting a primary data collection questionnaire. In constructing the primary data collection method, data needs were first specified. Primary data was collected in t he form of interviews with Citibank operational and branch managers, focus groups were also conducted with a sample of Citibank customers. These methods were considered to be the most appropriate in terms of achieving the objectives of the study and worked out best within the time and cost constraints. Semi-structured probing interview with Citibank management staff revealed in depth information and insights on customer retention and relationship banking. Focus groups conducted with Citibank customers was the best way to get information out of them as ideas from person sparked off ideas from another and the group gelled together very well. Also, facial expressions and bodily movements indicated quite a lot in a focus group. It wasnt feasible to conduct telephonic interview or video-conferencing due to the costs involved. Though, initially some thoughts were given to conducting telephonic interviews with Citibank employees, but later on the idea was shelved because of tim e and cost constraints. Secondary data for this research concentrated on collecting data from books, journals, online publications, white papers, previous researches, newspapers (Economic Times) taped interviews, websites, research databases etc. Secondary data was collected and partially analyzed before embarking onto primary data collection methods so that the designing of focus group and interview questions can be framed properly. Although, most of the secondary data was collected by the time primary data collection methods were embarked upon, but secondary data collection didnt stop altogether. In a way, the data collected from the secondary data and the data gathered from field research helped in triangulation. The field research also helped in testing the hypothesis that was developed after studying the concepts and theories (deductive approach). Also, after gaining sufficient insight on the topic, it made it easier for the author to frame the questionnaire, becau se first the questions to test the hypothesis were framed and then specific questions were framed which would have helped in forming a hypothesis (inductive approach). Primary research tried to delve as deep as possible into areas which could not have been covered by secondary research and where first-hand information was absolutely necessary to come to a definitive conclusion. Research Approach Qualitative method is a kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of quantification. It is based on a meaning expressed through words (Saunders, 2006). Qualitative research method often provides rich descriptive and exploratory data and is exploratory in nature. Quantitative methods on the other hand, uses numbers and statistical method, it tends to be based on meanings derived from numbers. The research approach used for this research is primarily qualitative. Both the primary data collection methods concentrate on qualitative data collection. But, quantitative data is also collated in the form of company reports. Company reports were reviewed to analyse the effect of retention measures on management accounts. So, both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection technique is applied, although the major part of the research relies upon qualitative data and its analysis. Qualitative secondary in formation from a variety of sources are gathered like Citibank Case Studies, Web page , Reference books , Journals , Online journals, Newspaper and Magazine Articles , Taped interviews , Business news channel views , Research Agency) databases . Quantitative data from Citibank Company Reports and other supermarkets are collected and analyzed to compare and contrast the effect of various retention initiatives. The Research Design A research design is the framework or a plan for a study used as a guide to collect and analyse data, it is the blueprint that is followed (Churchill and Iacobucci 2005; pg 73). Kerlinger (1996; pg 102) defines a plan and structure of investigation to obtain answers to research questions. The plan here means the overall scheme or program of the research and includes an outline of what the researcher seeks to do from hypotheses testing to the final analysis of the data. A structure is framework organization or configuration of the relations among variables of a study (Robson, 2002; pg 73). The research design expresses both the structure of the research and the plan of investigation used to obtain empirical evidence on the relations of the problem. Some of the common approaches to research design include exploratory research, descriptive research and causal research. For the purpose of this research, an exploratory research is conducted as little previous researches are a vailable on customer retention in Indian banks. Hence little information is available on how to solve the research since there is little past references. The focus of this study is on gaining insights and familiarity with the subject area of customer retention for more rigorous investigation at a later stage. The approach is very open and a wide range of data and information can be gathered and it will provide the conclusive answer to the problem defined. This research will study which existing theories or concepts with regards to customer retention can be applied to the problem defined. It will rely on extensive face to face interviews conducted with Bank Managers of Citibank to understand the concept of customer retention and how it is implemented. One of the reasons for carrying out an exploratory study for the purpose of this study is, because some facts about customer retention are known by the author but more information is required to build a theoretical framework. Sample Sample selection in this study, was driven by the need to allow maximum variation in conceptions. Individual managers were interviewed according to their expected level of insight regarding customer retention. In total, five interviews were conducted, all participants were employed by Citibank in India. In addition, two interviewees had been directly involved in developing the retention strategy while the other three had gained experience in implementing retention strategies. Thus, the likelihood of uncovering a range of variations between conceptions of retention was increased. Focus group participants banked with Citigroup in some form or the other (current accounts, credit cards, loans etc). These participants represented a mix of genders, age, banking experience, discipline and experience of banking with different banks. Method of Data Collection Data was collected using a semi-structured interview technique, which is characterized by (Booth, 1997 as being both open and deep.Open refers to the fact that the researcher is open to be guided by the responses made by the interviewee (Marton, 1994; Booth, 1997). Deep describes how, during the interview, individual interviewees are encouraged to discuss their conceptions in depth until both the researcher and the interviewee reach a mutual understanding about the phenomenon in question (Booth, 1997; Svensson, 1997). In this study, this facilitated the prompting of interviewees to move beyond the concept of retention and into relationship building and loyalty. All face-to-face interviews were conducted with a single member separately in the participants office, with the interviews lasting between 30 and 40 minutes. Initially a community of interpretation (Apel, 1972) between the researcher and participant was established, with the researcher explaining that the objective of the research was to understand what constitutes effective retention strategy and the importance of retention within the banking community. The question encouraged the participants to reflect upon and articulate their own lived experience of retention. They also focused on the structural-how aspects of customer retention. In asking about the roles and activities related to retention, it tried to figure out the how component of retention. The interviews progressed around these topics, with participants guiding the agenda based on the extent of their interest in the topic. For example, the majority of interviewees drew upon comparisons between the American banking systems when expressing their views on the retention process. In addition to the primary questions, follow-up questions were asked as appropriate. Examples included What do you mean by that?, What happens?, and Is that how you see your role? These questions encouraged individual participants to elaborate the meanin g of customer retention. Data Analysis All five interviews and focus group sessions were taped and then transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were then analysed by the research team using investigator triangulation (Janesick, 1994). In line with the suggestions of Francis (1996), a structural framework for organizing the transcripts was first developed. This prevented the research team getting lost in the enormous amount of text contained in each transcript and ensured we focused on the underlying meaning of the statements in the text, rather than on the specific content of particular statements. The components of the framework were dimensions of supervisors conceptions, which were not predetermined by the researchers but were revealed in the texts. The phenomenographic approach seeks to identify and describe the qualitatively different ways of experiencing a specific aspect of reality (Marton, 1981, 1986, 1988, 1994, 1995; Van Rossum Schenk, 1984; Johansson, Marton, et al., 1985; Sa ¨ ljo ¨ , 1988; Sandberg 1994, 1997, 2000, 2001; Svensson 1997). These experiences and understandings, or ways of making sense of the world, are labelled as conceptions or understandings. The emphasis in phenomenography is on how things appear to people in their world and the way in which people explain to themselves and to others what goes on around them, including how these explanations change (Sandberg, 1994). The framework we used to organize the data in each transcript comprised four dimensions of the explanations that supervisors used to make sense of their world, as expressed by them in the interview: (a) What the interviewees conception of supervision meant to the interviewee in terms of the goal of supervision (referential-what); (b) How the conception was translated by the interviewee into roles and activities (structural-how); (c) What the conception meant to the interviewee in terms of the desired outcomes of the PhD supervision (referential-what); and (d) What factors influenced the interviewees conception (external influences). The organizing framework was then used to reduce the text in each interview transcript to its essential meaning. Each researcher reread the first interview transcript. Discussion, debate, and negotiation then followed as we applied the components of our organizing framework to the first interviewee. Where differences of opinion occurred, a researcher attempted to convince the others of the veracity of their claims. As a result of this ongoing and open exchange, we reached agreement about the components of the first interviewees conceptions that we believed were most faithful to the interviewees understanding of their lived experience of PhD supervision, as represented by their interview transcript. We then repeated this process for the next interviewee until all of the transcripts had been reduced into the organizing framework. Conceptions began to emerge from our organizing framework as we alterna ted between what the interviewees considered PhD supervision to be, how they enacted supervision in their roles and activities, and why they had come to this understanding of supervision. Once these conceptions emerged, we tentatively grouped together interviewees who shared conceptions of supervision that were similar to each other and were different from those conceptions expressed by other super-visors. We then cross-examined our interpretations of each interviewees understanding of supervision by proposing and debating alternative interpretations. This cross-examination continued until we, as a group, reached agreement on two issues: First, we believed we had established the most authentic interpretation of each interviewees understanding. Second, we believed we had grouped interviewees expressing qualitatively similar understandings into the same category of description and had grouped interviewees expressing qualitatively different conceptions into different categor ies of description. Five categories of description, which we labelled as Conceptions 1 through to 5, emerged from this process. Through the same iterative process, and through open dialogue and debate between the members of the research team, we were then able to map the five conceptions into an outcome space. The outcome space illustrates the relationships between the differing conceptions in two ways: First, the outcome space illustrates the outcome of higher priority sought by the supervisor (completion of the PhD or new insight). Second, it distinguishes the fundamental approach to supervision as either pushing (the student is a self-directed learner) or pulling (the student is a managed learner) the student through the process. Table 2 summarizes the techniques we applied, as derived from the literature, to improve the validity and reliability of our interpretations of the interviewees experiences as expressed in the transcripts.

Marketing Strategy Of A Competitive Market Environment...

In a competitive market environment strategies adopted by marketers to advertise products and services are crucial. This is because the choice of a marketing strategy may determine whether business organizations achieve their targeted sales or not. Ideally, the appropriate marketing strategies to use should be determined by the consumer purchasing behavior in respective markets. Therefore, for youth oriented consumer economies, marketers should adopt marketing strategies that target the youth population to effectively market their goods and services. Over the last few decades consumption in China and India has increasingly become more similar to the western style consumption. These economies have shown trends towards youth oriented consumption, where majority of consumers of goods and services with growing sales are predominately youth. Notably, in the two countries youths are increasingly purchasing products that give them a sense of individual identity. Typically, the culture in th ese countries has significantly dictated the demand for goods and services. Therefore, marketers for certain products have had a difficult time promoting their products and services perceived not to be contrary to the culture. Conversely, the demand for some goods and services has ideally been guaranteed due to cultural practices. However, in the contemporary China and India, youths demand for goods and services to express their individuality and not necessary to conform to expectation dictatedShow MoreRelatedRelationship Between Customer Loyalty And Marketing Strategy1662 Words   |  7 PagesMarketing Mix The relationship between Customer Loyalty and Marketing Strategy? Introduction In today’s business environment, the concept of customer loyalty is becoming a growing interest in the area of relationship marketing. Many marketers and researchers persist with loyalty strategies as they thought loyal customers create profitable rewards. However, a recent work done by Heiner Evanschitsky states the other side that this may not always be the case. The following assignment is investigatingRead MoreDeveloping The Right Marketing Strategy1313 Words   |  6 PagesDeveloping the right marketing strategy is critical to ensuring an organization’s brand, image, and profitability are maximized in an international marketplace. There are various forms of markets, a global market and a regional market. This document will compare and contrast globalization and regionalization. It will highlight if these two markets are the same or different. In addition, the role of an international marketer to develop marketing strategies in a regional or global market will be discussedRead MoreThe Relationship Between Brands And Consumers On Consumer Behavior1705 Words   |  7 Pagesboth the brands and the consumers must be recognized. 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Expounding Upon Risk Factors Free Essays

Given the repercussions of developing osteoarthritis and taking into consideration the considerable number of individuals with such a condition, it is without doubt essential to gain further insights regarding the risk factors for such a manifestation of arthritis; currently, a number of risk factors have been identified, with the following being among the most commonly noted variants: obesity, genetics, bone density, and injury (Felson, 2000). Beginning with obesity, one may logically assume that the additional weight of an individual would affect or possibly worsen such an inflammatory disease. Past studies have indeed proven that contrary to previous notions, obesity results to greater risks of developing osteoarthritis instead of the aforesaid inflammatory disease being a causative agent for obesity (Felson, 2000). We will write a custom essay sample on Expounding Upon Risk Factors or any similar topic only for you Order Now Possible explanations for such have also been uncovered from past scientific endeavors. Aside from the deteriorative effects of excessive weight to bone structure in hip and knee areas, the existence of biochemical alterations arising from obesity which further increase one’s risk has also been speculated (Felson, 2000). As noted beforehand, genetic factors may also heighten the risk for the manifestation of osteoarthritis. In particular, studies have shown that the aforesaid disease may actually be regarded as quite heritable; furthermore, it has been determined that the likelihood of acquiring hip and spine related osteoarthritis may often be traced and estimated from genetic roots (Spector MacGregor, 2004). Even though it is understandable to inappropriately assume that inflammatory diseases are mainly related to physical or phenotypic aspects of the human body, it is also true that most scientific findings as of late highlight the encompassing effects of genetic factors in the disease development. In fact, a myriad of chromosomes, such as 9q and 11p, have already been linked with osteoarthritis susceptibility; also, several genes have been hypothesized to serve as potential triggers for the abovementioned disease (Spector MacGregor, 2004). Hence, in attempting to evaluate one’s chance of developing osteoarthritis, genetic considerations should undeniably be taken into consideration. Bone density is another risk factor for osteoarthritis. To further expound, studies have established that an increased amount of bone in a given area, especially in those which often provide support for weight, may also heighten one’s susceptibility to osteoarthritis (Dequeker, Mokassa, Aerssens, 1995). The explanation to such emphasizes the connection between the functions of bones and cartilages especially in terms of absorbing or transmitting shock from movement. As bone density increases, there is a tendency for such to become excessively rigid, which would allow for a greater efficiency in allowing impact to be passed on from bones to cartilages; eventually, the cartilage are deteriorated due to such a process (Dequeker, Mokassa, Aerssens, 1995). Indeed, impact is an important consideration, in understanding the relation between the basic functions of the skeletal system and the development of osteoarthritis; not only does the aforesaid system provide protection but it should not be overlooked that bones and cartilages serve as the main means of structural support for the most basic actions, highlighting the frequency in which such are utilized. Evidently, injuries are also regarded as risk factors for osteoarthritis. As established from past scientific pursuits, the degree of risk of acquiring such an inflammatory disease due to injuries differ based on severity; however, regardless of the severity, it has been noted that men nonetheless had a higher tendency of developing osteoarthritis from such (Cooper et al. , 1998). In relation to this, there have also been previous debates as to whether injuries are precursors to osteoarthritis instead of being mainly the result of the inflammatory disease. Significant evidence highlighting the causative nature of injuries includes the finding that patients suffering from osteoarthritis, who also suffered from hip injuries, often only experienced occasional aching and soreness characteristic of the abovementioned illness years after being injured (Cooper et al. , 1998). Hence, from the points discussed above, it becomes evident that osteoarthritis is indeed an inflammatory disease of complicated nature. References Cooper, C., Inskip, H., Croft, P., Campbell, L., Smith, G., McLaren, M., Coggon, D. (1998). Individual Risk Factors for Hip Osteoarthritis: Obesity, Hip Injury, and Physical Activity. American Journal of Epidemiology, 147(6), 516 – 522. Dequeker, J., Mokassa, L., Aerssens, J. (1995). Bone Density and Osteoarthritis. J. Rheumatol. Suppl, 43, 98 – 100. Felson, D.T. (2000). Osteoarthritis: New Insights. Annals of Internal Medicine, 133(8), 635 –Â  646. Spector, T.D. MacGregor, A.J. (2004). Risk Factors of Osteoarthritis: Genetics. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 12(1), 39 – 44. How to cite Expounding Upon Risk Factors, Papers

Online Personalities You Have to Accommodate in Web Writing - The Writers For Hire

HOW TO WRITE WEB COPY THAT SELLS STUFF AND ENGAGES PEOPLE #2: 5 ONLINE PERSONALITIES YOU HAVE TO ACCOMMODATE IN WEB WRITING Good copywriters know that there are lots of different online visitors, each with unique reading and learning styles. In order to connect with the greatest number of visitors, your website should give your readers the information they need in the way they want it. Below is a brief profile of the 5 online personalities, with best practice Web writing suggestions to get them hooked, make a sale, and convert them through your online copy. 1. The Information Gatherers: Information gatherers are researchers: they want to know as much information as they can before they make a call or place an order. They want to know your pricing, you guarantees or warranties, how your product or service works, your credentials – anything they can get their hands on, really. Consider them the well-informed consumers. Information gatherers will probably spend a lot of time on your website, clicking through different pages as they slowly amass knowledge. These types will be reading your copy attentively, so all of the standard copywriting rules apply to these folks: Be clear. Be concise. Be specific. Be benefit-oriented. The golden rule of attracting information gatherers is to never make them guess – use your website as a tool to explain your product or service in order to make the sale. Reach out to information gatherers by including: Charts comparing your product/service to your competitors Certifications and testimonials Detailed information: pricing, specs, processes, etc. Case studies 2. The Visual Learners Visual learners hate to read, but they love pictures and charts. These types look for visual representations that help them grab information quickly. Accommodate visual learners by adding graphics to your website – like a flow chart about how your business or service works, or a table comparing your prices to your competitor’s prices. Give them stuff to look at like: Comparison tables (your service or product vs. your competitors) Test results Process charts on how your service works Labeled diagrams Web tools Side note: There are lots of different types of web tools that can add an interactive element to your website. For instance, an energy auditing company might have an interactive calculator showing potential customers how much money they could save in a year, 3 years, and 5 years if they switch to fluorescent light bulbs. Make sure your copy is supported by design, and give the visual learners lots of eye candy like charts, graphics, and tools that grab attention. 3. The Doers You’ve probably known a doer or two in your life: Doers will come to your website. They might read a headline or two – maybe. Then they skip over all the rest of your well-crafted copy and scroll to the bottom of the page to call you, buy your product, or fill out your form. -->It’s hard for copywriter to believe that these people exist, but they do. Doers are hasty people. They’re the antithesis of information gatherers: They don’t want to research your website. Period. Doers want to find your action statement – and they want to find it fast. Side note: You know you have a doer on your hands when †¦ they don’t know anything about your company or product. We get calls all the time at TWFH for copyrighting – yes, COPYRIGHTING – though we are not, in fact, lawyers of any type. These callers obviously misspelled copywriting, and then just went straight to our phone number. There’s absolutely nothing on our website that would lead anyone to believe that we provide legal services. Thats what you get when you combine a doer with a simple spelling error. To make sure you make the doers happy, you just have to make contacting you easy: Highlight your call to action. Whether your call to action is â€Å"Print This Coupon† or â€Å"Sign Up for Our Newsletter† or â€Å"Buy Now,† make sure its highlighted, bold, and in a prominent position on your website. Put contact information on all of your Web pages Be sure to allow for multiple methods of contact: phone, email, forms, chat boxes. Consider putting forms on every page. Then, breathe easy as the doers come knocking at your door. 4. The Speed Readers Speed readers or at least they think they’re speed readers – are skimmers. Theyneedtogetasmuchinformationastheycaninaverysmallamountoftime. These are the people that bite down hard on your website, chew you up and spit you out. Speed readers figure they can get everything they need to know by reading the headlines and a few bolded points on your homepage. They’re not going to sit down and read every single word on your website (again, another antithesis to information gatherers). So to make speed readers happy, your copy needs to be broken up: Bullet points break up copy and highlight important information in a succinct manner. Headlines need to be big, bold, and targeted toward your reader. Use bold inside the body of your copy Only bold key statements so that they jump off of the page from the rest of your copy. Use bolding sparingly, and choose the information you want to bold carefully. One two-to-three word bold phrase per paragraph is usually plenty. Especially if your web copy is long (like this blog post), most ALL types of visitors will appreciate well-placed headlines, bullets, and bolding. Don’t let the eyes get overwhelmed by endless amounts of black and white text. 5. The Listeners Listeners would rather see it and hear it than read anything (have you noticed, by the way, how many types of people don’t like to read? That’s exactly why you need a clever copywriter that can sell to EVERYONE). Listeners can be kind of geeky. They’re often technophiles – they’re the kinds of people with multiple iPods in different colors. Or they might just be TV junkies rather than book worms. In order to reach out to listeners, you need some interactive, auditory stuff on your website. Things like: Instructional or marketing videos Interactive flash Talking heads and avatars Music Movement and sound keep their attention (even though we know those talking heads can be sort of creepy), so you need to distract them and sell to them at the same time. One Last Word to the Wise: Don’t forget that there are endless combinations of all five personality types. One of the most common combos are speed reader/gatherers. They read fast first, but the scan in depth later. Or you’ve got the ones that â€Å"do† when they are in a hurry, but will read more in depth if they’re putzing around at home. Most people don’t always follow one type all the time (no, not even us writers), but it’s important to be egalitarian and forward thinking: accommodate all personalities – regardless of positive attributes and annoying aspects so that people can interact with your content in whatever mode they’re in. This means that redundancy is ok in web writing – and good websites have a combination of elements that we’ve talked about. Bolded words and bullet points. Complete, clear, and concise information. Charts, graphics, or pictures that support your copy. Videos, flash, and voice recordings for the listeners. And a clear, highly visible call to action.

Free Essays on God Exist

One of the most predominate issues that is considered in the human mind today is of the question, "Does God exist?" Logically speaking there are rules, or more often called, laws that govern the way we act and think, one of such laws is looked at as the law of excluded middle. In this rule we basically identify that in some issues there is no middle ground, an object cannot both possess and not possess a certain trait or characteristic at the same time in the same fashion, either something is or it is not. The statement "God exist," is a precisely stated position. Thus, we recognize that it is either true or false. The fact is that one can not logically affirm that God does and does not exist at the same time, atheist believe that Gad does not exist, theist believe He does, and agnostic, exerts the idea that not enough information is available to make the decision. So who is right? Does God exist or does, he not? The only way to satisfy the question is to seek out and study the evidence, proving finally that God does indeed exist. Most predominate among the arguments of an atheist is the creation of the universe and that is self-created, however, the idea is simple improvable and discreditable by scientific reason. The fact stands that God is the Creator, and through Him all things are possible, being as it may God clearly created the universe and likewise everything in it. From this we gather that the universe either had a beginning, or it did not. However, all available evidenced indicates that the universe had a beginning. Since the universe had a beginning it had to have a cause, the universe is an effect, and by definition there is no effect without a cause. Nothing causeless happens. So Nicholas 2 then the question is asked who or what created the universe, (a) an existence before it, i.e., some eternal, uncaused First Cause, (b) is superior to it since the created cannot be superior to the creator; and (c) i... Free Essays on God Exist Free Essays on God Exist One of the most predominate issues that is considered in the human mind today is of the question, "Does God exist?" Logically speaking there are rules, or more often called, laws that govern the way we act and think, one of such laws is looked at as the law of excluded middle. In this rule we basically identify that in some issues there is no middle ground, an object cannot both possess and not possess a certain trait or characteristic at the same time in the same fashion, either something is or it is not. The statement "God exist," is a precisely stated position. Thus, we recognize that it is either true or false. The fact is that one can not logically affirm that God does and does not exist at the same time, atheist believe that Gad does not exist, theist believe He does, and agnostic, exerts the idea that not enough information is available to make the decision. So who is right? Does God exist or does, he not? The only way to satisfy the question is to seek out and study the evidence, proving finally that God does indeed exist. Most predominate among the arguments of an atheist is the creation of the universe and that is self-created, however, the idea is simple improvable and discreditable by scientific reason. The fact stands that God is the Creator, and through Him all things are possible, being as it may God clearly created the universe and likewise everything in it. From this we gather that the universe either had a beginning, or it did not. However, all available evidenced indicates that the universe had a beginning. Since the universe had a beginning it had to have a cause, the universe is an effect, and by definition there is no effect without a cause. Nothing causeless happens. So Nicholas 2 then the question is asked who or what created the universe, (a) an existence before it, i.e., some eternal, uncaused First Cause, (b) is superior to it since the created cannot be superior to the creator; and (c) i...

A Brief History of Venice, Italy

A Brief History of Venice, Italy Venice is a city in Italy, best known today for the many waterways which criss-cross through it. It has developed a romantic reputation built upon by countless movies, and thanks to one startling horror film has also evolved a darker atmosphere. The city has a history dating from the sixth century, and once wasnt just a city in a larger state: Venice was once one of the greatest trading powers in European history. Venice was the European end of the Silk Road trade route which moved goods all the way from China, and consequently was a cosmopolitan city, a true melting pot. The Origins of Venice Venice developed a creation myth that it was founded by people fleeing Troy, but it was probably formed in the sixth century C.E., when Italian refugees fleeing Lombard invaders camped on the islands in the Venice lagoon. There is evidence for a settlement in 600 C.E., and this grew, having its own bishopric by the end of the 7th century. The settlement soon had an outside ruler, an official appointed by the Byzantine Empire, which clung onto a part of Italy from a base in Ravenna. In 751, when the Lombards conquered Ravenna, the Byzantine dux became a Venetian Doge, appointed by the merchant families who had emerged in the town. Growth Into a Trading Power Over the next few centuries, Venice developed as a trading center, happy to do business with both the Islamic world as well as the Byzantine Empire, with whom they remained close. Indeed, in 992, Venice earned special trading rights with the empire in return for accepting Byzantine sovereignty again. The city grew richer, and independence was gained in 1082. However, they retained trading advantages with Byzantium by offering the use of their, now considerable, navy. The government also developed, the once dictatorial Doge supplemented by officials, then councils, and in 1144, Venice was first called a commune. Venice as Trading Empire The twelfth century saw Venice and the remainder of the Byzantine Empire engage in a series of trade wars, before the events of the early thirteenth century gave Venice the chance to establish a physical trading empire: Venice had agreed to transport a crusade to the Holy Land, but this became stuck when the Crusaders couldn’t pay. Then the heir of a deposed Byzantine emperor promised to pay Venice and convert to Latin Christianity if they put him on the throne. Venice supported this, but when he was returned and unable to pay/unwilling to convert, relationships soured and the new emperor was assassinated. The Crusaders then sieged, captured, and sacked Constantinople. Many treasures were removed by Venice, who claimed a part of the city, Crete, and large areas including parts of Greece, all of which became Venetian trading outposts in a large empire. Venice then warred with Genoa, a powerful Italian trading rival, and the struggle reached a turning point with the Battle of Chioggia in 1380, restricting Genoan trade. Others attacked Venice too, and the empire had to be defended. Meanwhile, the Doges’ power was being eroded by the nobility. After heavy discussion, in the fifteenth century, Venetian expansion targeted the Italian mainland with the capture of Vicenza, Verona, Padua, and Udine. This era, 1420–50, was arguably the high point of Venetian wealth and power. The population even sprang back after the Black Death, which often traveled along trade routes. The Decline of Venice Venice’s decline began in 1453, when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, whose expansion would threaten, and successfully seize, many of Venice’s eastern lands. In addition, Portuguese sailors had rounded Africa, opening another trading route to the east. Expansion in Italy also backfired when the pope organized the League of Cambrai to challenge Venice, defeating the city. Although the territory was regained, the loss of reputation was immense. Victories such as the Battle of Lepanto over the Turks in 1571 did not halt the decline. For a while, Venice successfully shifted focus, manufacturing more and promoting herself as the ideal, harmonious republic- a true blend of nations. When the pope placed Venice under a papal interdict in 1606 for, amongst other things, trying priests in a secular court, Venice won a victory for secular power by forcing him to back down. But across the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Venice declined, as other powers secured Atlantic and African trade routes, maritime powers like Britain and the Dutch. Venice’s seaborne empire was lost. End of the Republic The Venetian Republic came to an end in 1797, when Napoleon’s French army forced the city to agree to a new, pro-French, ‘democratic’ government; the city was looted of great artworks. Venice was briefly Austrian after a peace treaty with Napoleon, but became French again after the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, and formed part of the short-lived Kingdom of Italy. The fall of Napoleon from power  saw Venice placed back under Austrian rule. Further decline set in, although 1846 saw Venice linked to the mainland for the first time, by a railway, and the number of tourists began to exceed the local population. There was brief independence in 1848–9 when revolution ousted Austria, but the latter empire crushed the rebels. British visitors began to speak of a city in decay. In the 1860s, Venice became part of the new Kingdom of Italy, where it remains to this day in the new Italian state, and arguments over to how best treat Venice’s architecture and buildings have produced conservation efforts that retain a great sense of atmosphere. Yet the population has fallen in halfsince the 1950s and flooding remains a problem.

Law in Practice UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Law in Practice UK - Essay Example Mr. David Balls, aged 41, has mentioned that he is married to Edwina Balls, 32 years of age. This couple has been married for a total of 8 years. On Valentine’s Day of 2011 (February 14th, to be exact), Edwina did not return home. A man named Harry Williams phoned Mr. Balls and informed him that he and Edwina had been having an affair for the past three months, and, in fact, she was asleep in his bed right now. David found out where Mr. Williams was calling from and he rushed out of his home to go to Harry’s house to confront him. David was driving from his home along Romford road and through the traffic lights (East) at Manor Park junction towards Ilford where Harry lives. At that moment, another driver came from the right and smashed into the driver’s side (offside) of his car. The police and the ambulance were alerted to the scene. David sustained bad bruising to his right leg but otherwise was unhurt. The other driver, however, had been thrown through her windscreen onto her own bonnet, and then onto the ground. The other driver—Katherine Buckingham, age 31 years old—sustained whiplash, a broken nose, concussion, and a badly bruised shoulder. Katherine also sustained cuts on her face and arms from the windscreen. Police officers told David that Katherine had not been wearing a seatbelt. Both drivers were breathalysed but neither was over the alcohol limit for driving. Everyone owes a duty of care to those affected by his or her actions and is liable in law for his or her negligence. Tort is the law that relates to civil wrongs, and in particular the laws relating to negligence. Personal injury is a particular form of negligence which can be brought to the courts on the part of the plaintiff. Mr. Balls does have a case for suing Ms. Buckingham, because personal injury consists of doing damage to s omeone’s person. However, Katherine may have a case when it comes to Mr. Balls running into her on the road, since what he did could be considered driving recklessly in a fit of passion—similar to how second-degree murder is not premeditated but is a crime of passion. Katherine might not be liable for David’s wrongdoing here, although she could be given a fine for not having worn her seatbelt. Here, the law of tort, negligence, and duty of care will be sufficiently explained. II. Law of Tort ‘Tort’ is the French word for a wrong. Torts are civil wrongs. Civil wrongs can be contrasted to criminal acts although one action might result in a potential liability for two claims, one civil and one criminal. If D runs into P on the road, D is liable to be prosecuted for civil sanctions such as fines, community penalties or imprisonment, which might be applied by the civil courts. But P can also sue D in the civil courts for any damages for the injury and lo ss that has been suffered. Negligence is a tort. III. Negligence, Liability for Negligence, and Defences Against Negligence The case of â€Å"Donoghue –v- Stephenson† (2011), set out the basic principles of negligence in English law (pp. 1). The case concerned food poisoning suffered by Mrs Donoghue whose bottled ginger beer was contaminated with the remains of a decomposed snail. As Mrs Donoghue didn’t buy the ginger beer (her friend did) she had no action in contract law (so she wasn’t a party to that contract). The case decided that, in English Law there must be and is a general conception of relations giving rise to a duty of care. The liability for negligence is based upon a general public sentiment of wrongdoing for which the offender pays. The case created the concept of negligence as an action in civil law allowing injured parties to sue wrongdoers for their loss and damage. To find a defendant liable for

Research Foundational Theorists Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Foundational Theorists - Research Paper Example He is the main foundational theorist without question—even if some of his ideas today seem somewhat controversial and difficult to agree with. The great Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freund was very influential. He came from the psychoanalytical school (which he founded). He worked hard to deconstruct what up until that point had been considered the unitary personality or identity of individuals. Freud’s emphasis on subjectivity, the unconscious, and perspective powerfully effected artists and writers of the period. Theorists in the psychoanalytic school frequently believed that people had a fractured identity, creating a multiplicity of perspectives and views on the world, none of which was especially better than the other. In a way this is a legacy of Freud’s ideas about subjectivity. A somewhat contrary psychological school is Behaviouralism and its founding theorist was B.F. Skinner. This idea holds that psychologists who talk too much about philosophical issues lose sight of what science can prove. Skinner wanted to focus on observable data rather than people’s secret thoughts about things. These theorists that people acted in certain ways because they were conditioned to do so and had less free will than believed. A good example of a behaviourist experiment involves Pavlov’s dogs—these were dogs that were trained to salivate at the sound of a ringing bell. A third important school of psychology is Humanism. These theorists, led by Abraham Maslow, didn’t like what they saw in the literary, over philosophical aspect of psychoanalysis or in the rigid scientific way of doing things in behavioualism. They wanted to take a more common sense approach and look at what things were important to people. They showed that there were many different needs people had, and that if these needs were met, then people would be happy. A fourth school of psychology that could be said to precede all of the theories above

Report on Organisational Change and Multiculturalism in IKEA

Report on Organisational Change and Multiculturalism in IKEA The following is an integrative report on organisational change brought about by multiculturalism in organisations with specific emphasis on the concept of diversity management in relation to organisational culture. With the help of a study on IKEA, the international chain of home and office furniture stores, the report will attempt to analyse the challenges faced by international managers in the process of keeping up with the demands of multiculturalism, a direct consequence of globalisation. Although the values and practices of IKEAs corporate culture will be discussed in general, in order to narrow the geographic area of research, the report will focus more on IKEAs franchise in Dubai, UAE. The report will make extensive use of relevant literature in order to understand the issues in question by applying the literature to the organisation and by doing so, will attempt to make further recommendations and meaningful conclusions. I.1 IKEA Background: IKEA prides itself to be the most successful and largest furniture retailer in the world, and boasts provision of everything and anything for a home, having products suited for people of all ages, and all this at low prices. The company promises excellent value for money spent with all of their products designed with an emphasis on natural colours to bring a light and airy atmosphere within a home. This concept is based purely on IKEAs Swedish origins, where people pride themselves in living in harmony with nature with simple home designs which offer maximum efficiency in all weathers (http://www.iamaceo.com/marketing/ikea-brand-success-strategy/). IKEAs vision, to create a better everyday life for the many people is reportedly largely aimed at the global middleclass which is also evident from their business idea, to offer a wide range of well designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford the m (http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB/about_ikea/press_room/student_info.html). With 265 stores worldwide, where 235 are owned by the IKEA group while the remaining 30 by franchisees outside the group, the extent of IKEAs expansion is obvious (IKEA, 2007). IKEAs corporate culture is based on the concept of shared values, some of which, as the organisation proclaims, are togetherness, cost-consciousness, respect, and simplicity. These values project a very democratic form of leadership where considerable freedom is given to employees to contribute to the companys success. IKEA claims to treat all employees, no matter what rank they carry, as partners in the business. The company also boasts no restrictions upon employees in using their own initiatives and offers full support to meet each individuals needs, ambitions and capabilities. I.2 IKEA Dubai and Al Futtaim Trading: The IKEA franchise in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) was first initiated in 1991 with the local Al Futtaim Trading Company taking ownership. This collaboration has been, since its inception, a major success story in the UAE and other parts of the Middle East, as many new IKEA outlets have been strategically opened over the years by the group and have achieved great competitive advantages and overall productivity. The Al Futtaim group was first established in the 1930s as a trading company. Headquartered in Dubai, the group has seen a rapid progress in its operations not only within the UAE but in more than 65 countries across the Middle East, and in various sectors of business. The group attributes its success to its ability to respond to the changing needs of customers and the societies in which it operates through an entrepreneurial and customer focused approach. Employees of the group enjoy a democratic culture made possible through clearly defined objectives and values, enabled through clear flow of information via a decentralised structure. Al Futtaim also prides itself for the ability to proactively manage change whilst upholding the values of integrity, service and social responsibility. (http://www.al-futtaim.ae/content/groupProfile.asp; http://www.ikeadubai.com/content/aboutUs.asp) Apart from managing many of IKEAs retail operations in the UAE, the Al Futtaim group carry the sole responsibility of recruiting personnel for the franchise, and also providing valuable information about changes in the local political scene, culture, economy and other issues like new technologies, threats of competitors, legal issues etc, effectively conducting internal and external analyses (SWOT and PESTEL) for IKEA. This contribution has greatly helped the IKEA group over the years to align their regional operations according to changing environments, effectively creating a strategic fit between the organisation and the environment (http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/16374.html). I.3 The Culture Change Problem: For an organisation that boasted fairness in employment and empowerment to employees through a democratic leadership and structure, and flexible organisational culture, IKEA had initially employed an ethnocentric approach of management where only Swedes were recruited for management positions so as to ensure the original Swedishness of the organisation. But this approach eventually met with criticism and a temporary setback in IKEAs overseas operations, where the organisation was faced with the task of revising its overseas recruitment policies in order to meet the demands of local cultures and employment laws (Kling and Goteman, 2003; Kochan et al, 2002). According to Bjork (1998), every time IKEA was faced with a struggle due to internationalisation, new cultural management policies would be implemented, the latest being Diversity Management. IKEA is well known for having a rapid internationalisation process from its Swedish origins as a result of globalisation and its rapid expansion into countries with cultures very different from its original Swedish national culture (Hollensen, 2007). Although owned by franchisees in some countries, like the UAE, the IKEA concept and trademark are solely owned by Inter IKEA Systems B.V in Netherlands, giving the group considerable authority over franchises. This means Inter IKEA Systems B.V is the franchiser for all IKEA stores within or outside of the IKEA group, ensuring uniformity of corporate values, and the IKEA concept of self assembled furniture right from the centre (IKEA, 2007). IKEA has had to rapidly transform itself from an ethnocentric corporate culture to an organisation that embraces people of all backgrounds, and has in many communiquà ©s expressed the importance of having a culturally diverse workforce in order to obtain competitive advantage on the global scene. This is evident from the organisations recruitment websites in various countries, where emphasis is given for potential employees to be themselves, but at the same time adhere to shared corporate values such as simplicity, cost-consciousness, hard work etc, but almost all of the websites show a picture of a man and woman of Scandinavian origin (Bjork, 1998). This has created a paradox within the IKEA Groups core values, where there is still a strong emphasis on the companys Scandinavian background. Setting up operations in multicultural societies like Dubai meant the IKEA group has had to go through a rapid process of internal culture-change. This means a complete internationalisation of organisational culture, where key positions are not restricted to Swedish nationals, and communication systems had to be introduced to break geographical and cultural barriers. The partnership with Al Futtaim has played a major role for IKEA in achieving this change. In the following sections literature related to organisational culture-change, international recruitment processes and the inevitable resistance to culture will be studied and analysed. II. LITERATURE REVIEW: The purpose of this section is to acquire a deeper understanding of culture and its characteristics by means of metaphorical representation of organizations with the help of relevant literature. This may help us understand the significance of culture change, not just to gain competitive advantage, but for the very survival of an organization in an ever-changing environment. II.1. Organization and Society: Drawing the Parallels Within the process of cultural evolution there is a significant amount of similarity in the manner in which culture is manifested in business organizations and in society in general (Rollinson, 2005; Morgan, 1998). To understand cultural diversity in organizations, it would be helpful to understand its roots at a sociological level. Cultural diversity at the workplace is a direct result of multiculturalism in the society. A multicultural society simply denotes a society in which there exist several cultures (Watson, 2002). Culture is defined as, A pattern of shared assumptions a group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way you think, perceive, and feel in relation to those problems (Schein, 2004). The above definition suggests that culture is a shared activity of overcoming external and internal factors through methods that have been taught down to the group as acceptable and functional. A general view of cultural differences is that they affect intercultural encounters, usually by leading to misunderstanding or conflict, at both the individual and group levels (Larkey, 1996). Larkey explains that at the individual level, as different values, beliefs or worldviews are manifested in communication behaviours and as culture creates differing expectations and differing styles or patterns of speech, interpersonal misunderstanding and conflict can arise. At the group level, inter-group processes can be triggered by, for instance, an individuals non-verbal behaviour or ways of speaking which stereotypically represent a group (1996). It then becomes the responsibility of the leadership of the core society to introduce a culture and/or change its existing core culture to accommodate th e various differences brought in by the subcultures in an integrated manner, where these differences are acknowledged and valued (Neuliep, 2008). When the above sociological aspects of culture are compared to a business organization, the organization is the core society, and its culture, the core culture. We all refer to this as organizational culture. Analogically speaking, the organizational (core) culture should be designed in such a way that the employees of the company share a basic set of values and assumptions, which tie them to that particular organization. But, on the individual or group levels, each employee has his/her own cultural norms and practices beyond those they share with other members of the company, which can be safely termed as the subcultures within the organization (Bate, 1995). II.2 Cross-Cultural Communication: We all have an internal list of those we still dont understand, let alone appreciate. We all have biases, even prejudices, toward specific groups (Lantieri Patti, 1996). The above phrase sums up the main challenge in cross-cultural communication, the fact that we still dont understand the people we talk to on a daily basis. Communication is an intrinsic part of our daily lives, whether it is at our homes, at the workplace, in the groups we belong to, or in the community, and we can identify that its hard (DuPraw Axner, 1997). According to DuPraw and Axner (1997), culture is often at the root of communication challenges, and our culture influences how we approach problems and participate in groups and in communities. Anthropologists Avruch and Black expand the above views and argue that Ones own culture provides the lens through which we view the world; the logic by which we order it; and the grammar by which it makes sense (1993). DuPraw and Axner (1997) suggest that, becoming more aware of our cultural differences, as well as, exploring our similarities, can help us communicate with each other more effectively, and that cultural differences do not necessarily have to divide us from each other (1997). In an organisational context, the similarities lie in the core organisational culture that is common at the group level. Morgan (1998) explains the significance of effective communication and concludes that every organization is composed of individuals with different cultural traits and individual personalities, and these people are organised in some way or the other through these traits in order to achieve set objectives. Thus individuals are the basic building blocks around which an organization functions, and communication is the effective cement which holds the organization together. This puts forward the importance of an organisational culture that employs clear communication channels to all levels of its structure. II.3 Organization as a Living Being: Adapting to Change, by Aligning with the Environment It can be inferred from the preceding sections that change is necessary in order to promote peaceful existence between different culture groups, in the societal realm. Considering this, it may be safe to assume that similar changes need to be implemented in the organizational realm as well (Robbins and Judge, 2009; Pettinger, 1996). The question that may arise, however, is whether changing the existing culture means changing the entire organization. Culture is such an intrinsic quality of a human being at the individual level, and of a group at the societal level, that even though it may take time to change, it may end up changing more than just a few characteristics (Bate, 1995; Hofstede, 1997). This means that changing an organizations culture implies changing the very behaviour in which it expresses itself. Morgan (1998) interestingly likens an organization to an organism, and explains that, The image of an organism seeking to adapt and survive in a changing environment offers a powerful perspective for managers who want to help their organizations flow with change. (Pg 35) He argues that this analogy encourages us to learn the art of corporate survival by developing active organic systems that remain open to new challenges. In other words, as Brooks (2003) says, it helps us form a more proactive organization with a prospector philosophy of operation. Prospectors, he explains, see their environment as ever changing and seek continual strategic and structural adjustments to cope with those changes. These organizations are continually searching for new opportunities and in the process they may create change and uncertainty for others in their competitive environment. The opposite of prospectors, known as defenders, are more reactive in nature, as they act only when environmental changes force them to do so. This kind always sees stability and continuity all around (2003). Research shows that reactors are more prone to misperceptions of their environment than are prospectors. According to Morgan (1998), this is because different environments favour differe nt species of organisations based on different methods of organising and that congruence with the environment is the key to success. So it is evident that organisations are facing the enormous challenge of changing their internal environments in accordance with the external. II.4 The International Human Resources Function: the International Organisation will be called on to operate across a wide variety of competitive environments and yet somehow balance these diverse social, political and economic contexts with the requirements of the original home context. (Dowling et al, 2008, pg25) The above statement re-iterates all the topics discussed in this report so far, namely, the task of the organisation to be able to operate in different environments whilst staying true to its original corporate objectives. The international human resources management (IHRM) function, a recent extension to the normal HRM function in an organisation, aims to achieve this global competitive advantage by employing innovative recruitment strategies. The three main issues for IHRM are: the management and development of expatriates; the internationalisation of management throughout the organisation; and, creating a new corporate culture that would reflect on internationalising the whole organisation, by focusing on increasing the international experience of staff, to be able to effectively counter the frequency of cross-cultural interactions as a result of investing abroad (Hendry, 1994). As a result, IHRM covers a much wider spectrum of worldwide management of people (Dowling et al, 1999, 2008), and is concerned with how MNCs manage their geographically dispersed workforce by being able to dispose their resources to obtain and maintain local and global competitive advantage (Schuler et al, 2002). This clearly indicates IHRM as a means of strategic importance for MNCs, as it is a key element in achieving a balance between the need for control and coordination of foreign subsidiaries, and the need to adapt to local environments (Adler and Ghadar, 1990 Milliman et al., 1991, cited in Scullion, 2001, pg5). In other words, the need is for the organisation to implement common practices, like structure and technology that transcend national differences and form a commonality as to how the business operates across cultures (Kerr et al, 1973 Hickson et al, 1979 cited in Mullins, 1999), whilst not ignoring the essential differences in how these practices are communicated and applied to the local workforce of a given foreign subsidiary (Hofstede, 1997; Keeley, 2003). II.5 Resistance to Change: When a group seeks change in the way they do things, as with culture, there is the inevitability of resistance to this change. Researchers like have identified a few reasons for such resistance: fear of the unknown, referring to peoples natural tendency to keep away from uncertainty that creates anxiety. Resisting change is one way to reduce the anxiety; fear of failure, referring to peoples fear of whether or not they are up to the challenges being brought in by the change; disagreement with the need for change, where people genuinely believe that change is not necessary; losing something of value, where people fear either losing their dominant positions and/or jobs as a result of the change; leaving a comfort zone, in that people are happy where they are and would not want unnecessary disruption of current state; false beliefs, where people unrealistically believe change is not needed and everything will turn out fine; misunderstanding and lack of trust, where people do not understand the changes being made and/or do not trust the person(s) initiating the changes; and the fact that change may require more time and energy from individuals (Robbins, 1999; Mullins, 2003). Many ways to overcome resistance have been suggested, which include: effective communication and education including training programmes for staff to make them understand the need for change, and its implications; getting people to get involved in implementing the change process, where they can not oppose it later as they were partly responsible for it; negotiating with people certain requirements they may have to get the change underway; and in many cases imposing the change by force whether the people like it or not, as resistance may mean loss of positions/ jobs etc (Robbins, 2009; Mullins, 2003). III. APPLICATION TO IKEA In light of the above discussions, the company headed in the right direction in terms of its emphasis on multiculturalism at the workplace, especially amongst its independent franchisees. IKEA in Dubai working along with Al Futtaim has been successful in achieving this objective by recruiting local, talented individuals reflecting the diverse cultural demographics of the United Arab Emirates. This is in line with earlier literature discussion of societal and organisational cultures where the core culture needs to be designed to accommodate individual personal differences, but should also give employees a common framework. III.1 Changing the Organisational Culture, a Project: IKEAs efforts to change its internal culture to align with external factors in Dubai have been a major project management undertaking. This is because the company has had to effectively integrate its centralised and extremely complex organisational structure (although argued otherwise by the group) with the more decentralised and flexible structure of Al Futtaim. This required giving considerable power to the latter group in making decisions regarding changes to the way IKEA operated in the Middle East. Reduction of organisational levels to form a flatter structure itself is a project with time constraints. Due to the ever changing nature of external cultural factors, and due to the fact that internal cultural change is a slow and gradual process, the project management methodology that IKEA and Al Futtaim may have employed would have been the Adaptive Project Framework. The adaptive project framework works on the basis that the scope for change is variable, but within specified cost and time constraints. This gives the company significant flexibility by setting up periodic milestones, where progress is reviewed at each milestone until the ultimate objective is met. The company has full authority in deciding best business value and has the opportunity to change directions at any milestone if it thinks objectives are not being met by the project. The adaptive framework also works because it is based on the assumption that change is inevitable, and is designed to allow for changes accordingly. This is especially vital when seeking culture change (Billingham, 2008). III.2 Resistance within IKEA: The initial resistance to the changes in IKEAs culture may have come mainly from the fact that the company has had to tone down its emphasis on Swedish culture at the operational level in Dubai. Changing the organisational structure would have meant losing some key positions along the structure to enable integration with Al Futtaims structure. Focusing on recruiting local personnel would have meant redundancy and/or repatriation for existing Swedish international managers. This would have also meant that existing personnel would have had to adapt to working alongside with local personnel, which may have caused communication problems, friction between personnel etc. The best methods used for overcoming above problems would have been to educate existing IKEA personnel regarding local issues like culture, governance etc, educate and train local personnel in return about IKEAs core values and its Swedish roots, and the importance the company places in carrying out the legacy of its founder, provide clear communication between levels, and reducing barriers through effective information infrastructure. IV. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, change management can now be safely coined as a field in itself in modern businesses, especially in multinational organisations. Considering the study, more and more organisations would benefit from being prospectors rather than defenders, as this would prepare them to stay in tune with their market environments. It seems the group has lived up to their own professed comments when they say, We see the diversity issue as a matter of creating a more challenging business atmosphere and of course expanding the recruitment base including everyone and not just Swedish men. It also gives us a diverse workforce with a lot of positive business possibilities (Kling and Goteman, 2003). As far as the project of changing IKEAs culture is concerned, the company has successfully reached its goal of reaching the global middle class with its products. Whether it is through the IKEA group directly, or through franchises like Al Futtaim, IKEA has realised the importance of culture change and has subsequently implemented this change within its infrastructure. The companys extraordinary success, even with a narrow product range, but a range that has been constantly diversified according to the demands of the regions of operation, is testament to the success of the project. Through Al Futtaim, IKEA is now a household name all over the Middle East, thus expanding the range of its brand through undertaking a change in organisational culture.