Culture and It’s Elements Essay

Culture (Latin: cultura, lit. â€Å"cultivation†)[1] is a modern concept based on a term first used in classical antiquity by the Roman orator, Cicero: â€Å"cultura animi†. The term â€Å"culture† appeared first in its current sense in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, to connote a process of cultivation or improvement, as in agriculture or horticulture. In the 19th century, the term developed to refer first to the betterment or refinement of the individual, especially through education, and then to the fulfillment of national aspirations or ideals. In the mid-19th century, some scientists used the term â€Å"culture† to refer to a universal human capacity. For the German nonpositivist sociologist Georg Simmel, culture referred to â€Å"the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history†.[2] In the 20th century, â€Å"culture† emerged as a central concept in anthropol ogy, encompassing the range of human phenomena that cannot be attributed to genetic inheritance. Specifically, the term â€Å"culture† in American anthropology had two meanings: (1) the evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, and to act imaginatively and creatively; and (2) the distinct ways that people living in different parts of the world classified and represented their experiences, and acted creatively. Distinctions are currently made between the physical artifacts created by a society, its so-called material culture and everything else,[3] the intangibles such as language, customs, etc. that are the main referent of the term â€Å"culture† SOCIAL ORGANIZATION  · Creates social structure by organizing its members into small units to meet basic needs.  · Family Patterns: family is the most important unit of social organization. Through the family children learn how they are expected to act and what to believe.  · Nuclear family: wife, husband, children. This is a typical family in an industrial society (US).  · Extended family: Several generations living in one household, working and living together: grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins. Respect for elders is strong.  · Social classes: rank people in order of status, depending on what is important to the culture (money, job, education, ancestry, etc.) CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS  · Rules of Behavior are enforced ideas of right and wrong. They can be customs, traditions, rules, or written laws. RELIGION  · Answers basic questions about the meaning of life.  · Supports values that groups of people feel are important.  · Religion is often a source of conflict between cultures.  · Monotheism is a belief in one god.  · Polytheism is a belief in many gods.  · Atheism is a belief in no gods. LANGUAGE  · Language is the cornerstone of culture.  · All cultures have a spoken language (even if there are no developed forms of writing).  · People who speak the same language often share the same culture.  · Many societies include a large number of people who speak different languages.  · Each language can have several different dialects. ARTS AND LITERATURE  · They are the products of the human imagination.  · They help us pass on the culture’s basic beliefs.  · Examples: art, music, literature, and folk tales FORMS OF GOVERNMENT  · People form governments to provide for their common needs, keep order within society, and protect their society from outside threats.  · Definition of government: 1. Person/people who hold power in a society; 2 Society’s laws and political institutions.  · Democracy: people have supreme power, government acts by and with consent.  · Republic: people choose leaders who represent them.  · Dictatorship: ruler/group holds power by force usually relying on military support for power. ECONOMIC SYSTEMS  · How people use limited resources to satisfy their wants and needs.  · Answers the basic questions: what to produce, how to produce it, and for whom.  · Traditional Economy: people produce most of what they need to survive (hunting, gathering, farming, herding cattle, make own clothes/tools).  · Market Economy: buying and selling goods and services  · Command Economy: Government controls what/how goods are produced and what they cost. Individuals have little economic power  · Mixed Economy: Individuals make some economic decisions and the government makes others.

Psychology Analysis on Disney Character Essay

Extra Credit The fictional character I chose to diagnose is Donkey from Shrek. Donkey is a hyperactive, talkative, funny and sensitive donkey with buckteeth. He enjoys singing, senseless chatter and usually speaks Ebonics. He also proves to be rather annoying to those around him. Donkey has a sweet tooth as well. He enjoys parfait, cake and other pastries of the sort. Some of Donkey’s quirks include acrophobia, which is a fear of heights. He is also colorblind and suffers from hypochondria; this is a fear of illness. Donkey is impatient and has a short attention span too. In my opinion, Donkey has bipolar disorder. Often through out the movie he shows multiple signs of hyperactivity, elation, irritability, flights of ideas, rapid thinking and speaking, and moderate reckless behavior. Donkey showed signs of hyperactivity from the moment he was able to speak. When he was hit with some of that pixie dust, he attained the ability of speech and flight. Even though the ability for him to fly did not last very long, he still retained the talking part. Once he realized he was able to talk permanently, that was his way out of every situation he got into. Donkey’s hyperactivity comes from the fact that he was always locked up in a cage and was taken care of by an old woman who treated him very poorly. Since he got his freedom he showed his true colors and abused the fact that he was able to talk or do as he pleases. Throughout the movie, Shrek would get very aggravated with him because he just would not shut up or stop moving. He could not hold still for five seconds. Donkey shows signs of elation and euphoria as well. No matter what you do to him or how bad you do it, Donkey always looks at the bright side of things and pretends as if nothing ever happened. Either that or he is just an oblivious animal. This sense of euphoria adds on to his hyperactivity. Since he is always happy and hyperactive, it is hard to get his attention therefore making it an ordeal for others to talk to him because he would just dose off into his own little world mid conversation and act as if he just won the mega-millions. Donkey does not get irritated very often, but when he does, he actually becomes quite persistent. After Shrek and Donkey deliver Fiona to Lord Farquaad, Donkey follows Shrek to his fairy tale character free swamp and attempts to live there. Shrek then mentions that he will build a fort around his swamp and Donkey becomes more and more irritated as Shrek wants to be left alone. While Donkey is outside he takes the initiative to build his own fort therefore dividing Shrek’s land. When Shrek comes back out he questions Donkey’s decision and they start arguing. As the conversation persists, Donkey becomes more and more aggressive with Shrek leading them to become physical to start shoving each other. In my opinion, Donkey is showing signs of irritability because it seems to me that nothing ever went his way. Furthermore, he was always told what to do and was treated insignificantly and undermined. Since Donkey is always so hyperactive and on the move, he does not allow himself or for his brain to process his thoughts or actions. You can pretty much compare Donkey to a puppy with new chew toy or a cat with a ball of yarn. Since he feels this euphoria and hyperactivity, he is happy. When you are happy you tend to be more relaxed and your sense of awareness goes down a level, therefore causing Donkey to have rapid thinking and speaking. Aside from euphoria, hyperactivity, irritability, and rapid thinking and speaking Donkey also has flights of ideas. Sometimes he would become so happy and coiled up from one event that he does not think about the future. This leads him to come up with ideas that seem rational and foolproof in his mind but in reality it is very dangerous, stupid and nearly impossible. Because of the fact that he is so happy and looks mostly on the bright side of things, he does not consider the consequences, therefore putting himself and others in danger. Through out the movie, Donkey does not show much sign of reckless behavior either. The most reckless thing he has done is speak to a dragon while Shrek  tried to infiltrate the castle and save the princess. If this situation was looked upon by professionals they would say that Donkey has to be admitted into a mental institution. If you were to ask Donkey how he felt about his actions, I believe he would see it completely normal and would not find any problems. I believe this reckless behavior also generates from his symptoms of hyperactivity, rapid thinking and speaking and euphoria. Additionally, after Shrek attempts to stop the marriage of Fiona and Farquaad, Donkey comes flying in with the same dragon he was talking to earlier in the movie. It just so happens to be that the dragon is a female dragon. At the end of the movie, when all the antagonists are defeated, Shrek and Fiona go off to the swamp and get married with all their fairy tail creature friends. Again, Donkey comes flying in with his girlfriend dragon, but this time they come in with little baby fire breathing flying Donkeys. To me this would be a reckless thing to do because; well for one he is a donkey and she is a dragon. I would imagine the difficulty to conceive children. Overall, I believe Donkey’s most vital symptoms are hyperactivity, euphoria, and rapid speaking and thinking. In my opinion, these major symptoms trigger Donkey’s minor symptoms that are flights of ideas, reckless behavior, and irritability. If the major symptoms were treated or worked upon then Donkey would have an easier time controlling his minor symptoms. I think that if there was a way to develop some sort physical program for Donkey to take part in, it would help him with his hyperactivity and rapid thinking and speaking but would most likely increase his sense of euphoria. The physical program would be meant for Donkey to spend his energy. Therefore, this would make him tired and he would no longer be hyperactive to the degree he was before he did any physical activity. Furthermore, it would lessen the intensity of his rapid thinking and speaking because when you have no energy or are tired then you seem to be slowed down and more calm. This would essentially lead Donkey to learn how to control his urges of hyperactivity and make him think of what he is actually going to do.

Enforceability of international and local mediation (UAE) Assignment

Enforceability of international and local mediation (UAE) - Assignment Example 23). Since its inception, there are records of several organizations and institutions that have used mediation processes to settle what would otherwise have been long running legal litigation and battle. In some cases, mediation has come in as settle options for cross border cases involving the United Arab Emirates and other countries. As far back as 1971, the United Arab Emirates underwent a successful mediation process to settle what would have been a long running international litigation with Oman and this move highly praised by the United States and other international bodies (Condliffe, 2002, p. 233). This means that mediation takes several dimensions and come in as resolution option for different forms of litigations in the United Arab Emirates. However, there have been instances where the mediation processes have not been continued to its logical conclusions. This is because mediation outcomes are not enforced, resulting in the need to resort to the courts. This paper therefor e discusses enforceability of mediation outcome and provides recommendations to overcome the problems associated with lack of compliance. ... 32). Moreover, the conclusion of mediation is free of all forms of legal punishment such as fines and imprisonment. What this means is that parties involved in mediation can always be assured that there will be settlement that does not put any commercial cost on them. What is more, peace is always guaranteed when mediation is used. Whether used by individuals, corporate bodies or between nations, the use of mediation helps in eliminating the fear of violent, brutal and sadistic conclusion to cases (Condliffe, 2002, p.111). This is especially important when using mediation between nations. This point is so made against the background that the world has experienced a number of wars, which experts have ruled that they could have been avoided if there were alternative means of resolving them. There are cases of major corporate organizations which went into liquidation because of protracted court proceedings and rulings. Most of these organizations, if they had chosen the path of mediatio n would still have been functioning and making profits. Finally, it would be said that mediation is essentially important in coming out with easy-to-apply remedies. This is because the outcomes of mediations are mostly arrived as a result of compromise between the parties involved instead of a ruling by an arbitrator. This way, the two parties arrive at consensus that benefits them both in settling their differences. Factors inhibiting the Compliance of Mediation Outcomes Despite the beautiful advantages of the use of mediation that can be listed on and on, there are major hindrances to the successful application of mediation as a dispute resolution and construction mechanism and therefore put a lot of parties

Student Voice - Pandora's Box or Philosopher's Stone Essay

Student Voice - Pandora's Box or Philosopher's Stone - Essay Example From this research it is clear that the modern concept of allowing student involvement within the arena of teaching learning is relatively new to UK, though the concept is not new in other parts of the world. Despite the various recent modifications made within UK educational system, it is seen that students are rarely asked to take part, thus remaining largely unheard, during reform processes. To make education more representative, views of the students must be listened to and given its due importance. However, incorporating student’s voice does not merely involve modifying the results of the existing educational systems or locating resolutions to various existing problems. Instead, it deals with modifying processes, methods through which the students can affect the course of education. Here the authors believed that that UK educational system should be so reformed that it would function as per the student’s requirements, instead of the students adjusting themselves to the system. Such radical modifications entail changes at almost all levels, including changes within the basic UK educational culture, and the relationships between students, educationists, and the schools, where there must a disposition on the part of the educationists and policy makers to listen to the students. Students must necessarily be encouraged so that they are become more directly involved in decision-making processes related to their education. The notions of student voice includes various activities that promote discussion, speech, reflection and activities on issues that are related to learners along with its effects on teachers, school staff and the surrounding society. Often this method comprises of methods like peer support, buddying, and other measures that promote and allow the learners to air their opinions and bring about various suitable changes modifications. Such measures include the formation of the creation of school student councils, school boards having s tudents as members, students as members of staff appointment board, researcher-student and the enterprises for ‘child-to-child’ activities that promote leadership amongst the learners, while supporting ‘active citizenship’ through the cooperation of these learners in various community based activities and projects (Futurelab, 2006). In its attempt to bring in students’ voice, the UK Government has mentioned categorically its desire to create a more customised form of an educational system, where the mode of teaching would cater to the needs of the students, and not the other way round. This would be especially helpful for

List given to choose from Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

List given to choose from - Research Paper Example Brian Turner is an American army veteran who served the army for seven years. He was assigned in Bosnia in 1999 and Herzegovina in 2000. Later, in 2004 he served as a team leader in the first Stryker brigade sent to Iraq, and was stationed near Mosul for much of 2004. As a poet, Turner’s contributions to war poetry, as Clover and Brouer note, are his earnest and proficient observations of war, which the audience would not find in a press release. In his poems, Turner provides his reflections of war apart from the Yeatsian style, which is said to â€Å"negotiate between the expectations of antiwar audience and the demands of American poetry as a national genre† (Metres 14). Instead, Turner employs seriality in his poems. The term seriality was first introduced by Jean-Paul Sarte and was later used by Iris Marion Young to refer to the collectivity of women â€Å"based on social experiences† (Zack 139). In this paper, the term seriality is used not just to refer to women but to a group of people with the same experiences, particularly soldiers or promoters of peace. In â€Å"Here, Bullet,† one can conceive the seriality among soldiers, not just American soldiers. The persona in the poem is a soldier who challenges bullet in his body to take his life, saying, â€Å"I dare you to finish what you have started. ..triggering my tongue’s explosives for the riffling I have inside of me† (8-9, 12-13). By talking to the bullet this way, the persona embodies every soldier’s view of life and death. Turner does not limit the identity of his persona to an American soldier. There are no descriptions to identify the soldier’s nationality. As such, the poem achieves universality as it deals with the struggles of soldiers for life. The seriality in Turner’s poems leads the audience to empathize with soldiers and feel resistance to war. The poem does not limit the audience to share the author’s political view of war. Instead, the poem guide the readers to gain personal insights and understanding of the issue by submerging them into the experience and not just soliciting reactions or observations as other poems usually do. This view of the audience as active participants in the experience is in accordance with Adorno’s view (Metres 13). Specifically, in Turner’s award-winning poem, â€Å"Here, Bullet,† the author powerfully uses the first-person perspective to address a bullet that is supposed to cause the persona’s death. The persona uses an implied personification and talks straight to the bullet, saying, Because here, Bullet,/here is where I complete the word you bring (9-10). As the readers recite the poem, they are led to assume the persona’s identity by the use of â€Å"I.† Addressing an inanimate object such as a bullet signifies a one-sided conversation that captures the interest of the readers to engage in the communication either as the per sona or the addressee. Unlike in a monologue where the persona controls his/her thoughts as he/she addresses him/herself, the dialogue allows the audience to participate as either the persona or the addressee, thus achieving seriality not only among soldiers but peacemakers alike. Turner’s use of polyvocal collage invites the readers to be active participants to the war experience or the journey. The term polyvocal collage suggests the use of different speakers in the

3 extra credits Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

3 extra credits - Assignment Example to remind Greg of this in a low tone, but Greg cuts her off, avoids eye contact and in a loud voice; tells her that her cheerleading team is so boring that one could drop dead from watching them and that she might as well quit. Jess, then says nothing and Greg in turn inform her that they are moving to the next occasion. Jess tries to explain to Greg that she is a cheerleader and cannot afford to miss the game, but Greg pulls her by the waist and leads her towards the college gate telling her that they will have more fun at the party. Emily reluctantly agrees and follows Greg to the party missing her equally important game. Right from the start, Greg does not show any interest in what Jess has to say. He does not give her a chance to talk and when Jess tries to he immediately cuts her off. Jess, on the other hand, does not communicate with Greg about the importance of the cheerleading team and at some point goes quiet. The characters also avoid eye contact. Greg makes all the decisions in the relationship without wanting to get Jess’s opinion and Jess do not have the courage to refuse his proposals even when they are not in line with what she has planned. The characters should have maintained eye right from the beginning of the conversation. Disclosure is important in communication; Jess should, therefore, learn to disclose her feelings to Greg. Jess should also have been assertive in her communication with Greg. Greg should have listened to Jess; not only by waiting for her to voice out her issues, feedback, and not interject her in the middle of her conversation. The first sentence of the article population growth and control review is contradictory to what the author talks about in the main article. The author begins the sentence stating that, through history, human beings have been an inconsequential pressure on the planet. This might not be the way that the writer would want to start his article because, throughout the article, the writer talks about how

Managerial Decision-Making Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Managerial Decision-Making - Case Study Example he decisions makers of their firms, and if any stakeholders of the same are not satisfied by the outcome the managers are the people responsible to fix the problem. Managers use rational models, which suits them to make major decisions in their cooperatives. There are some rational processes that work when the models are used, but it does not mean that every good decision made must be from the models. There are times when the rational models cannot be used for a particular situation because each firm is different from the other, and it is a dynamic world where things are changing every day (Driver, Brousseau and Larsson 110). There is a need for change in the way managers make decisions to various particulars making it impossible to have standard decisions for every objective of a firm. The rational models are useful to the obvious decisions made every day, but there is the need to have use other ways of ensuring that the mangers are in control in the same time allowing the rest of the employees an opportunity to prove themselves to their ability (Driver, Brousseau and Larsson 110). This ensures good working environment for everyone and success to the

Maurya's Understanding of the Relationship between God, Humans and Essay

Maurya's Understanding of the Relationship between God, Humans and Nature - Essay Example It brings out a  clear  faith  of human beings on their  religion  and God on the various aspects of nature and Gods plans and outcomes that they cannot  control. We can  identify  this  faith  in religion and  fear  of nature when Maurya makes a  remark  of desperation saying, â€Å"God spare us, and we'll not see him again. He  has gone  now, and when the  black  night is falling I'll have no son left me in the world† (Synge, 2008). It  further  demonstrates the interdependence of humans on their  religion  and  nature  for survival even though the various fates that may befall them. They depend upon the sea for food for survival and of Gods  control  and protection against the various risk fatalities that face them. God’s role in Maurya’s  life In the play, Maurya depicts continual faith in God to be her  protector. This is to protect both her and men in her family. She believes in the  overall  power   and  control  of God over all people and nature. She acknowledges the fact that all humans and  nature  are God’s creations and that they are  different  entities functioning independently and affecting each other. Additionally, she believes that a human can affect the functioning and  state  of nature and vice versa. As such, people live in  dread  of the harsh possibilities that the sea holds against them that they can neither control nor predict. They, therefore,  opt  for God's  protection  and put faith in their religions to help them cope with such fears. Even after losing all the other men in her family to the sea with the same faith, Maurya still believes in prayer. This shows the need for  religion  and  faith  in dealing with what one cannot  control  that instills fear. Maurya holds her  faith  for fear of her remaining son’s life until the time when he  too  escaped from her by nature, and she makes peace with God, her faith and fear of the unknown fatalities of nature. This is evident in the  remark  that â€Å"They are all  dead  now there is nothing else greater the  sea  can do to me† (Synge, 2008). Nature’s role in Maurya’s  life It is ironical that Maurya fears the same  sea  that she mainly depends on for daily food. Her life is full of constant fear for the lives of the men in her family against the sea that feeds them (Synge, 2008). Though she acknowledges the fact that the sea and the winds are what  provide  them with food and  transport, she lives in the  constant  risks they pose to her family. Over the years, she has lost many men to the sea, but their  dependency  on the same  sea  for life leads them to  accept  such risks and their fates to the  sea  to ensure they are able to  maintain  life. She finds herself to be helpless to the fatalities of the  sea  to her family as one by one escape from her. As a result, they  accept  the deaths of those taken by the  sea  and continue on with their fishing activities with  faith  in their  religion  for protection against facing the same fates. Maurya’s acceptance of god and natures roles of death in her life is evident in Mauryas response to Bartley when she says, â€Å"†¦and I, an old woman looking for the grave?† (Synge, 2008). This shows her acceptance of death. Towards the end of the play, Maurya accepts the sad fact that all humans must  die  at one time or another through various means.  She accepts that her lost  family  is now  together  in accordance to her religious faith and further prays for the protection of the still living

Spanish Imperial Power at the end of World War I Essay

Spanish Imperial Power at the end of World War I - Essay Example By twentieth century Spain was in the full swing of economic modernisation. A national network of railroads linked Spain's cities and provincial capitals, and Spain was connected with the rest of the Europe. Because for its main lines Spain used a wider gauge track than France did, at places like Irun and Port Bou on the frontier, passengers and goods had to change their trains. Within Spain, the railroads overcame geographic barriers that had forever frustrated the development of a national economy. Steamships increased maritime commerce, both along Spain's coasts and with foreign ports. Spain exported citrus fruit, wine, olive oil, and the products of its mines, including coal and iron ore from the north and copper from the Rio Tinto. As manufacturing grew, stimulated by the spread of rails, iron ore soon headed for Spanish mills. (Pierson, 1999, p. 118) The outbreak of the First World War where on one hand resulted in the economic and social barriers like food shortages, economic dislocation and social distress, on the other hand Spain which at time considered to be the vanguard among its allies like Britain and France, experienced as much of the effects of the conflict as the other European states. Her official impartiality could hardly hide the intensity of the debate between the supporters of the Central Powers and those of the Allies, nor could it check the increasing militancy and ideological awareness produced by the impact of the war on the daily lives of the Spaniards. Having rested so far on the political apathy of most Spaniards, the Restoration system entered a period of crisis; a crisis of domination produced by the inability of the governing elites to face successfully the arrival of mass politics and its subsequent challenge to clientelism and patronage as a source of power. (Salvado, 1999, p. 5) Pierson writes, "In August 1914 most of Europe went to war. Spain did not. Held in low esteem as a military and naval power, Spain was part of no alliance system, nor was there any sentiment in Spain that it should be. What international difficulties it had with France over the establishment of a French protectorate over most of Morocco had been settled in 1913 through diplomacy". (Pierson, 1999, p. 124) Spanish Dual Attitude One of the main causes for Spain's hypocrite or neutral attitude was the weakening of her political and social recognition along with no growth in the context of economic reforms. Military was also unorganised and depicted a poor economic reserve for instability. Under such conditions Spain had no choice other than to adopt a neutral behavior towards its allies and rivals. Furthermore, the dispute in Europe was not regarded as affecting Spanish interests, while there was always the hope that by maintaining an impartial position Spain could play the leading role in organising a peace summit and therefore gain in the diplomatic field what could never be achieved on the battlefield. (Salvado, 1999, p. 6) Aftermath Economy The repercussions of the First World War on Spain were dramatic in a sense that able

Single-Sex School and Co-Ed School Essay Example for Free

Single-Sex School and Co-Ed School Essay The education systems nowadays are made up of organizations ranging from kindergartens, general education schools, single-sex schools and co-ed schools to universities. This structure is designed to formulate people’s knowledge one step at a time according to their levels. School is one of the most important stages of educational system in our lives where we are trained to absorb basic knowledge and prepare for our future. Often times, schools are divided into single-sex schools, where only boys or girls study, and co-ed schools, where boys and girls study together. This choice demands that parents choose between co-ed school and single-sex school and decide what would be better for their children. This essay will compare and contrast these two forms of educational approaches to determine that co-educational school is better than single-sex school and is the most practical form of schooling. Co-education schools have a diversity of students from different economic and gender backgrounds. It is an efficient way of schooling for poorer countries that do not have the capital to build single-sex schools. Therefore, the biggest advantage of co-ed school is that there will be no need to open separate schools exclusively for boys or girls, because both boys and girls can study in same schools and they can be taught by the same staff. From childhood we know that kids like to play with each other and it is not depend on gender that is why friendships develop in natural way. From sociological point of view same thing happens in co-ed school. Pupils meet each other and have to be together in the society and if they will be studying together from the very beginning, they can understand well each other. As girls and boys become teenagers they participate in many activities, develop new societies and clubs in school where they are taking part in pleasant and friendly environment. This friendly atmosphere continues in the classroom, which allows them to share and express their point of view easily. In co-ed school boys and girls will be trained to take place in the community and how to behave with not just people of the same gender by also the other gender. For instance, if they will start working for international company where both genders are working together it would be easier for them to communicate with others, because they will know how to behave themselves. This experience will break their insufficient perceptions of each gender and will provide great social and personal development of relationships in later life. Another important point of co-education is that this type of school is very successful in challenging of sexist attitudes. In order to prove this we should answer on question â€Å"what do we know about sexism and how the single-sex or co-educational gender grouping of schools affects the occurrence, form, and severity of sexism in the classroom? † Sexism is an analogue to racism means a fundamental and pervasive institutionalized bias on the basis of sex, with discrimination usually directed against women. The rationale for sexism is the biological difference between males and females that dictates differential social roles, status, and norms (Lee, Marks, Byrd, 1994, pp. 2). In the past it meant that female had weak role in the society and males were powerful gender, which is always on the top. And this was the main purpose of development of single-sex schools. But nowadays women achieved equality in the society. As men they can work, build, manage, lead, guide or in other words do all things that men can do in the society. Sexism almost eradicated from our society and it is important point, and that is why co-ed school is very successful in challenging of sexist attitudes. For instance, there are many subjects that provide many discussions and debates in class and it is very important and useful for boys and girls. Because they learn that equality does not require similarity, and they know that they have equal rights and freedom of speech. It means that collaboration between boys and girls in the classroom helps them to develop confidence; they feel comfortable to share their ideas and opinions in any situation in the presence of opposite sex. Co-education improves pupils’ confidence to interact with opposite gender. Moreover, co-education creates a sense of healthy competition between both genders, because they need to work hard and pay serious attention to their studies. Also, co-educated pupils have strong friendship and respect to each other. For example, boys are trying to behave themselves very polite in company of girls. Moreover, they are trying not use rough and abusive language in presence of girls. Similarly, the girls are trying to dress properly and talk in a good manner, because they need good relationship with the boys if they are studying together. On the other hand if boys and girls are studying in separate schools, boys misbehave with the girls, because they are always having a curiosity to know about them. But when they study together, their curiosity is satisfied more easily and they do not consider girls as strange creatures or taboo. Despite the fact that co-ed schools are more modern and are similar with the current environment of the workplace, where boys and girls study together, some conservative people criticize co-education system. According to them, this system is against their tradition, because from ancient times they fear that co-education will help develop immoral relationships between boys and girls. They believe that in this system both the boys and girls will be spoilt. This was represented as the main possible disadvantage of co-education schools. Moreover, there was an experiment where boys and girls were studying in separate classes. And more of co-educational schools showed interest in segregating lessons. Academics and teachers have found that both genders have better concentration on core subjects and they are less distracted by opposite sex. The main idea is that separating boys and girls is not a cure for disruptive classrooms, but under the right conditions it can help to raise academic standards in schools. Despite of the fact that girls have better achievements than boys, they can also benefit from single-sex classes because they sometimes allowed them to perform without worrying about their image in front of girls. On the other hand there can be some problems in separating classes, because there is a need to avoid an intimidating atmosphere for other boys, who can be generated among all-boys’ classes, and to be alert to the dangers of generating a homophobic environment. In addition, there is also a need to beware of girls becoming aggressive towards each other. So, there are some risks of single-sex classrooms and schools. On the other hand, single-sex education is an old education system where boys and girls study in separate classrooms or schools. Some educational researchers have identified single-sex education as a way of facilitating a special educational experience for all students. Single-sex education refers to the education of students in an environment that consists of a single gender, either all-male or all-female environments (NASSPE, 2008). Not so long ago single-sex classes in co-educational schools were considered to be an appropriate educative aspect of K–12 learning environments (Pollard, 1999). In late 60s and early 70s in United States girls and boys were separated from each other on a single-sex basis. For example, in many schools in country classes were separated by gender where girls attended economics classes while boys attended agriculture classes and it was required for all pupils or students. The main purpose of creating single-sex classes was physical education and sex education of boys and girls. In other words, boys and girls was separated because of assumptions about their physical abilities and characteristics, their social and personal functioning, or beliefs held by adults regarding appropriate interaction among or between the sexes (Pollard, 1999). Moreover, some single-sex classes were created in order to exclude girls from some activities that were based on gender stereotypes that were not appropriate for them. According to Smith and Wilhelm, in general boys achieve lower grades than girls while girls are demonstrating higher performance. In general, girls are in particular benefiting from a single-sex education, but the authors just suggesting this idea. From my point of view, girls just do not shy or worry how will they perform in presence of boys and vise versa. Interestingly, many researches show that they participate in class more than boys, develop much higher confidence, have higher grades, and are more likely to choose ‘male’ disciplines such as science, math, etc. Moreover, they are more successful in their careers. That is why the majority of single-sex schools nowadays are for girls. The gender equality development around the world seems to pose a mixed attitude toward the single-sex schools. On one hand, single-sex schools appear to be against this wave in that they treat the two genders differently and cultivate the sexist view in people’s minds from when they are young. In this respect, single-sex system seems to be something attached to the obsolete past in human history and does not fit the modern world in every way. But on the other hand, compared with single-sex system, the co-ed system is possibly contributing to sexist views, too. Some people argue that in a co-ed system, boys and girls are exposed much more to the differences in their own characteristics and because girls mature earlier than boys, boys might find the learning environment inappropriately challenging and even depressing during this stage. Another advantage of single-sex schools is that teachers know better about their students’ characteristics and thus can modify their teaching methods to meet the needs required by the differences in the two genders, whereas in co-ed schools, girls and boys are forced to learn and be appraised in exactly same ways which might not be proper. This should sound a legitimate argument to people who accept that there are differences between the two genders. Although the two systems have sharp differences, they also share similarities. When we compare single-sex school and co-ed school, we can identify some similarities. In spite of the fact that these two types of schools separate student by gender, they both have the same educational program. Both types of schools use same books, literature and syllabus. Also, the goals of both schools are the same. They prepare students for future life; give them appropriate knowledge that will help to survive and thrive in our world, but in single-sex school it difficult to be prepared for real life because they do not have natural training of behavior with opposite gender. Moreover, both schools do not give them just knowledge, but also pay attention to the physical activities. For example, pupils attend different competitions, like football, basketball, volleyball etc. In addition, students participate in public affairs, like movements against drugs, participation in aid for children’s home or helping to greybeards. There are many differences between single-sex school and co-ed school. For instance, differences in behavior of girls and boys have been observed and commented for generations, but history records that until social expectations of girls were very different of boys, especially regarding education (Zanders, 1993, p. 16). The learning style and interests of girls and boys have been consistently different, because girls acquire a learning method involving personal relationships and imitation, but boys are learning through defining goal, restructuring the field, and applying abstract principles. Alternatively, girls’ learning styles require more open-ended learning tasks, they are both more reflective and empathetic and engage with tasks that are related to real situations, whereas boys show a preference for memorizing rules and abstract facts and express their comprehension factually (Zanders, 1993, p. 17). Single-sex schools are relying on more ancient perspectives on education, which are oriented to separate boys and girls. Co-ed schools are more modern and represent the current environment of the workplace, where boys and girls study together. According to many articles and researches single-sex school students say that they are studying better than in co-ed and this is because they are in the class of their gender. For example, in Kazakhstan, students from Kazakh-Turkish lyceum won a lot of awards in exact sciences like mathematics, chemistry and physics and all foreign language and they gave the highest results in their knowledge. Co-ed education schools trains students for their future lives, how to communicate and behave in real world. This education breaks all the boarders between genders and helps them to build a good, strong relationships. Moreover, students in single-sex school may lose some social skills that students in a co-ed school may gain. It happens because students in single-sex school are limited from communication with opposite sex. Another important thing that influences education is relationships with opposite sex. In co-ed schools, students sometimes cannot realize their abilities in subjects like mathematics, chemistry and physics. In co-ed school, there exist teenagers’ sex and unwanted pregnancy at a very young age. This is because they always focus some or all their attention on opposite sex. However, in single-sex schools it is not a problem, because nothing of this sort exists. Finally, I want to conclude that both of schools have advantages and disadvantages. In co-ed school, it will be easy to gain your social skills, but student can lose some points in education. In single-sex school student can focus attention only on education, but will not properly prepared for social life. There is a trade off between academic knowledge acquisition and social functional ability development. The knowledge student gain does not depend on the type of school. The factors that influence their education are student character, environment and his or her abilities. Parents should decide themselves where their child will learn, but it should guarantee that the choice represents the children’s own feelings. They should like the type of school they are going to. But some parents sex for their children prefer to choose single-sex schools in order to minimize their contact with the opposite, but it is important to understand that choosing for child all-female or all-male school will not stop them from searching for the opposite sex. If parents minimize contact when child is in school, but they cannot stop children meeting others through tuitions, extra classes, the neighborhood, or through friends. If their child meets someone with whom she or he shares home assignment or some exercises, and if she or he makes the decision to get physical with such person, theres little a parent can do. But on the other hand, when parents choose for their child a co-educational school, their child will have contact with opposite sex from the beginning. As a result, child will not only feel more comfortable in the company of the opposite sex, but will also be able to handle advances better. When parents making the decision of sending their child to a single-sex or a co-educational school, their decision should not be based on whether they want to minimize or increase childs contact with the opposite sex. Instead, they must consider the reputation of the school, the activities it offers and the quality of education and educators. For example, some schools offer sending students abroad for further studies. So, parents may consider this point if they want their child to go abroad. Because there is other less traditional schools that focus more on activities and less on academics. If this is something that appeals to them, then give this fact more priority than the student mix. In fact, when deciding what school to choose for child, parent’s choice should fall on the co-educational school because it will give huge experience and will train their child for future life.

Types of Conflict

Types of Conflict When you think of the different types of conflict, you might instantly think of the ones referred to in literature, especially in fiction. They can be applied to real life, of course. However, there are types of conflict which are easily identifiable in our contemporary times. Before going any further, let us first give a brief description of what conflict is. There are a lot of ways to define conflict due to how it is used in many areas. Hence, to keep it simple for the layman, conflict pertains to the opposing ideas and actions of different entities, thus resulting in an antagonistic state. Conflict is an inevitable part of life. Each of us possesses our own opinions, ideas and sets of beliefs. We have our own ways of looking at things and we act according to what we think is proper. Hence, we often find ourselves in conflict in different scenarios; may it involve other individuals, groups of people, or a struggle within our own selves. Consequently, conflict influences our actions and decisions in one way or another. Conflict is classified into the following four types: Interpersonal conflict refers to a conflict between two individuals. This occurs typically due to how people are different from one another. We have varied personalities which usually results to incompatible choices and opinions. Apparently, it is a natural occurrence which can eventually help in personal growth or developing your relationships with others. In addition, coming up with adjustments is necessary for managing this type of conflict. However, when interpersonal conflict gets too destructive, calling in a mediator would help so as to have it resolved. Intrapersonal conflict occurs within an individual. The experience takes place in the persons mind. Hence, it is a type of conflict that is psychological involving the individuals thoughts, values, principles and emotions. Interpersonal conflict may come in different scales, from the simpler mundane ones like deciding whether or not to go organic for lunch to ones that can affect major decisions such as choosing a career path. Furthermore, this type of conflict can be quite difficult to handle if you find it hard to decipher your inner struggles. It leads to restlessness and uneasiness, or can even cause depression. In such occasions, it would be best to seek a way to let go of the anxiety through communicating with other people. Eventually, when you find yourself out of the situation, you can become more empowered as a person. Thus, the experience evoked a positive change which will help you in your own personal growth. Intragroup conflict is a type of conflict that happens among individuals within a team. The incompatibilities and misunderstandings among these individuals lead to an intragroup conflict. It is arising from interpersonal disagreements (e.g. team members have different personalities which may lead to tension) or differences in views and ideas (e.g. in a presentation, members of the team might find the notions presented by the one presiding to be erroneous due to their differences in opinion). Within a team, conflict can be helpful in coming up with decisions which will eventually allow them to reach their objectives as a team. However, if the degree of conflict disrupts harmony among the members, then some serious guidance from a different party will be needed for it to be settled. Intergroup conflict takes place when a misunderstanding arises among different teams within an organization. For instance, the sales department of an organization can come in conflict with the customer support department. This is due to the varied sets of goals and interests of these different groups. In addition, competition also contributes for intergroup conflict to arise. There are other factors which fuel this type of conflict. Some of these factors may include a rivalry in resources or the boundaries set by a group to others which establishes their own identity as a team. Conflict may seem to be a problem to some, but this isnt how conflict should be perceived. On the other hand, it is an opportunity for growth and can be an effective means of opening up among groups or individuals. However, when conflict begins to draws back productivity and gives way to more conflicts, then conflict management would be needed to come up with a resolution.

The Great Gatsby :: essays research papers

The Great Gatsby Essay   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In all human life relationships are very important, and this is shown in many different aspects of human life . Relationships are so significant that Authors often use them as the revolving point of their stories. Such as in The Great Gatsby the author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the different relationships as the revolving point in his story. Fitzgerald shows how the relationships between the couples in The Great Gatsby are similar in many different ways. The couples in The Great Gatsby are Gatsby and Daisy, Tom and Myrtle, and Myrtle and her husband. Each couple in this play has a dishonest relationship in which one or both are Unfaithful to their significant other. The relationship between Gatsby and Daisy is one of constant lies, and deceit. Gatsby falls in love with Daisy before he goes to the Army as a young man, and Daisy fell in love with him too. Yet Daisy is very materialistic and Tom, a very rich man came into place and Daisy married him instead of waiting for Gatsby like she had promised. Gatsby waited for Daisy but she did not wait for him, and instead married Tom just for his money. This shows how there relationship has been riddled with lies since the very beginning of the story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The relationship between Myrtle and her husband is insincere, loveless, and dead. Myrtles husband George, who is lifeless, poor, and often dirty, owns a garage in the valley of ashes. While George is completely devoted to his wife Myrtle, on the other hand myrtle has lost love for her husband, and desires for a more elegant fast pace life. Myrtle tries to find a way to fix the situation between her and her husband, but instead she takes the easy way out and cheats on her husband with Tom a very rich, prominent, and handsome man who gives her everything that she desires, but he is also a married man.

Heideggers Reading of Descartes Dualism Essay -- Dualism Essays

Heidegger's Reading of Descartes' Dualism ABSTRACT: The problem of traditional epistemology is the relation of subject to external world. The distinction between subject and object makes possible the distinction between the knower and what is known. Starting with Descartes, the subject is a thinking thing that is not extended, and the object is an extended thing which does not think. Heidegger rejects this distinction between subject and object by arguing that there is no subject distinct from the external world of things because Dasein is essentially Being-in-the-world. Heidegger challenges the Cartesian legacy in epistemology in two ways. First, there is the modern tendency toward subjectivism and individualism that started with Descartes' discovery of the 'cogito.' Second, there is the technological orientation of the modern world that originated in the Cartesian understanding of the mathematical and external physical world. Descartes stands at the beginning of modern philosophy and Heidegger accepts Descartes' role in the history of metaphysics. Descartes is the first thinker who discovers the "cogito sum" as an indubitable and the most certain foundation and thereby liberates philosophy from theology. He is the first subjectivistic thinker in the modern philosophy and he grounds his subjectivity on his epistemology. The orientation of the philosophical problems with Descartes starts from the "ego" (the "subject") because in the modern philosophy the "subject" is given to the knower first and as the only certain thing, i.e., the only "subject" is accessible immediately and certainly. For Descartes, the "subject" (the "ego", the "I", "res cogitans") is something that thinks, i.e., something that represents, perceive... ...icture", The Question of Technology and Other Essays. Trans. by William Levitt. (New York: Harper and Row Pub., 1977.), 127. (27) Bernard Charles Flynn, "Descartes and the Ontology of Subjectivity", Man and World, (Vol. 16, No: 1, 1983), 10. (28) Ibid., 10. (29) Ibid., 14. (30) Ibid., 14. (31) C. D. Keyes, "An Evaluation of Levinas: Critique of Heidegger" Research in Phenomenology. (Vol. II, PP 121-142, 1972), 131 and Martin Heidegger, Being and Time 46. (32) Ibid., 131. (33) Martin Heidegger, Basic Problems of Phenomenology, 119. (34) John Richardson, Existential Epistemology: A Heideggerian Critique of Descartes Project, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), 91. (35) Aristotle, Physics Book IV The Basic Works of Aristotle. Ed. and Intr. by Richard McKeon. (New York: Random House, 1941.), 219b. (36) Martin Heidegger, Being and Time , 376.

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Essay exa

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Introduction Tatum’s book â€Å"Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?† (1997) analyses the development of racial identity and the influence of racism in American’s culture. She emphasizes the Black-White interactions by comparing the terminology in which racism perceived based on David Wellman’s definition of racism. Tatum also believes racism is not one person in particular but is a cultural situation in which ethnicity assigns some groups significantly privileged compared to others. She illustrates how engaging children in terms of interracial understanding will empower them to respond to racial stereotypes and systems of discrimination. Talking about Racism Tatum: The author states racism is all around us and we should talk about racial discrimination. Throughout her book she explains the hesitation people have about talking about racialism. She argues that people are silent out of fear of being impolite, indiscreet and infringing boundaries. Response: I find the statement people are silent out of fear to be true. I try to avoided conversations that could offend someone or could be misinterpret. It reminds of a conversation with a friend one time. We were watching the movie â€Å"Lion King† when he jokingly compared me to the laughing Hyena. I jokingly compared him to voodoo witchdoctor which happens to be a monkey. To my surprise, he asked, â€Å"Did you pick the monkey because I was Black?† I was so embarrassed and ashamed when I hurt his feelings, I never thought of it as a racial comparison. Although we laughed it off, it still bothered me that I hurt his feelings. Just this week I thought I might of offended someone because I was reading Tatum’s... ...at it means to be Black. Does that not still divide the lines of humanity based on the color of a person’s skin? I thank statements like, â€Å"race-conscious† parents teaching their children to be Black is forming prejudice. I teach my children to be kind to others not what means to be White. In interracial relationships if they have a child what should the child be taught? How to be black or white because I thank it is true, children are taught racial differences by their parents and other adults. Personally, I find most mixed racial children are the perfect skin color we all try to achieve. I am not sure I would recommend Tatum’s book to read to discourage racism even though she raises some valid points. Works Cited Tatum, B. D. (1997). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? And other conversations about race. New York, NY: Basic Books. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Essay exa Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Introduction Tatum’s book â€Å"Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?† (1997) analyses the development of racial identity and the influence of racism in American’s culture. She emphasizes the Black-White interactions by comparing the terminology in which racism perceived based on David Wellman’s definition of racism. Tatum also believes racism is not one person in particular but is a cultural situation in which ethnicity assigns some groups significantly privileged compared to others. She illustrates how engaging children in terms of interracial understanding will empower them to respond to racial stereotypes and systems of discrimination. Talking about Racism Tatum: The author states racism is all around us and we should talk about racial discrimination. Throughout her book she explains the hesitation people have about talking about racialism. She argues that people are silent out of fear of being impolite, indiscreet and infringing boundaries. Response: I find the statement people are silent out of fear to be true. I try to avoided conversations that could offend someone or could be misinterpret. It reminds of a conversation with a friend one time. We were watching the movie â€Å"Lion King† when he jokingly compared me to the laughing Hyena. I jokingly compared him to voodoo witchdoctor which happens to be a monkey. To my surprise, he asked, â€Å"Did you pick the monkey because I was Black?† I was so embarrassed and ashamed when I hurt his feelings, I never thought of it as a racial comparison. Although we laughed it off, it still bothered me that I hurt his feelings. Just this week I thought I might of offended someone because I was reading Tatum’s... ...at it means to be Black. Does that not still divide the lines of humanity based on the color of a person’s skin? I thank statements like, â€Å"race-conscious† parents teaching their children to be Black is forming prejudice. I teach my children to be kind to others not what means to be White. In interracial relationships if they have a child what should the child be taught? How to be black or white because I thank it is true, children are taught racial differences by their parents and other adults. Personally, I find most mixed racial children are the perfect skin color we all try to achieve. I am not sure I would recommend Tatum’s book to read to discourage racism even though she raises some valid points. Works Cited Tatum, B. D. (1997). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? And other conversations about race. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Mumbai Dabbawalah

————————————————- Dabbawala From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mumbai Dabbahwalas A  dabbawala  (Marathi:   ); also spelled as  dabbawalla  or  dabbawallah; literally meaning (â€Å"box person†), is a person in  India, most commonly found in the city of  Mumbai, who is employed in a unique service industry whose primary business is collecting freshly cooked food in  lunch boxes  from the residences of the  office workers  (mostly in the suburbs), delivering it to their respective workplaces and returning the empty boxes back to the customer's residence by using various modes of transport. Tiffin† is an old-fashioned English word for a light lunch or afternoon snack, and sometimes, by extension, for the box it is carried in. For this reason, the  dabbawalas are sometimes called  Tiffin Wallahs. Contents  Ã‚  [hide]   * 1  Ety mology and historical roots * 1. 1  The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust * 2  Supply chain * 2. 1  Appearance and coding * 2. 2  Uninterrupted services * 3  Economic analysis * 3. 1  Awards and recognition * 4  In Media * 5  References * 6  Further reading * 7  External links| ————————————————- edit]Etymology and historical roots A  dabba, or Indian-style tiffin box. The word â€Å"Dabbawala† in  Marathi  when literally translated, means â€Å"one who carries a box†. â€Å"Dabba† means a box (usually a cylindrical tin or aluminium container), while â€Å"wala† is a suffix, denoting a doer or holder of the preceding word. [1]  The closest meaning of the  Dabbawala  in English would be the â€Å"lunch box delivery man†. Though this profession seems to be simple, it is actually a highly specialized serv ice in Mumbai which is over a century old and has become integral to the cultural life of this city.The concept of the  dabbawala  originated when India was under  British rule. Many British people who came to the  colony  did not like the local food, so a service was set up to bring lunch to these people in their workplace straight from their home. Nowadays, although Indian businesspersons are the main  customers  for the dabbawalas, increasingly affluent families employ them instead for lunch delivery to their school-aged children. Even though the services provided might include cooking, it primarily consists of only delivery either home-made or in that latter case, food ordered from a restaurant. edit]The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust This service originated in 1880. In 1890, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche and Ananth Mandra Reddy started a lunch delivery service with about 100 men. [2]In 1930, he informally attempted to unionize the  dabbawallas. Later a charita ble trust was registered in 1956 under the name of  Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust. The commercial arm of this trust was registered in 1968 as  Mumbai Tiffin Box Supplier's Association. The present President of the association is Raghunath Medge. Nowadays, the service often includes cooking of food in addition to the delivery. ———————————————— [edit]Supply chain A collecting Dabbawala on a bicycle Mumbai is a very densely populated  city of millions  with huge flows of  traffic. Because of this, lengthy commutes to workplaces are common, with many workers traveling by train. Instead of going home for  lunch  or paying for a meal and eating out every day in a  cafe, many office workers have a cooked meal sent either from their home, or sometimes from a caterer who essentially cooks and delivers the meal in lunch boxes and then have the empty lunch b oxes collected and re-sent the same day.This is usually done for a monthly fee of about 450 Indian rupees. The meal is  cookedin the morning and sent in lunch boxes carried by dabbawalas, who have a complex association and hierarchy across the city. Dabbawalas in action at a  Mumbai Suburban Railway  station. A  collecting dabbawala, usually on  bicycle, collects dabbas either from a worker's home or from the dabba makers. As many of the carriers are illiterate, the dabbas have some sort of distinguishing mark on them, such as a colour or group of symbols.The dabbawala then takes them to a designated sorting place, where he and other collecting dabbawalas sort (and sometimes bundle) the lunch boxes into groups. The grouped boxes are put in the coaches of  trains, with markings to identify the destination of the box (usually there is a designated car for the boxes). The markings include the  railway station  to unload the boxes and the building address where the box h as to be delivered. At each station, boxes are handed over to a  local dabbawala, who delivers them. The empty boxes are collected after lunch or the next day and sent back to the respective houses. edit]Appearance and coding Markings: (1) abbreviations for collection points, (2) colour code for starting station, (3) number for destination station and (4) markings for handling dabbawala at destination, building and floor. [3] A typical  dabbawala  lunch. It was estimated in 2007 that the dabbawala industry was still growing by 5-10%  per annum. [4] Although the service remains essentially low-tech, with the delivery men as the prime movers, the dabbawalas have started to embrace technology, and now allow tanuj wadhi for delivery through  SMS. 5]  An on-line poll on the web site ensures that customer feedback is given pride of place. The success of the system depends on teamwork and time management. Such is the dedication and commitment of the barely literate and barefoot delivery men (there are only a few delivery women) who form links in the extensive delivery chain, that there is no system of documentation at all. A simple colour-coding system doubles as an ID system for the destination and recipient. There are no multiple elaborate layers of management either — just three layers.Each dabbawala is also required to contribute a minimum capital in kind, in the form of two bicycles, a wooden crate for the tiffins, white cotton  kurta-pyjamas, and the white trademarkGandhi cap  (topi). The return on capital is ensured by monthly division of the earnings of each unit. [edit]Uninterrupted services The service is almost always uninterrupted, even on the days of severe weather such as  monsoons. The local dabbawalas and population know each other well, and often form bonds of trust.Dabbawalas are generally well accustomed to the local areas they cater to, and use shortcuts and other low profile routes to deliver their goods on time. Occasion ally, people communicate between home and work by putting messages inside the boxes; however, with the rise of instant communication such as SMS and instant messaging, this trend is vanishing. Since 1890 ,the year in which the Dabbawalas formally came into existence ,none of its members had ever gone on a strike.This trend was broken in 2011 when the members decided to head towards Azad Maidan to support Anna Hazare in his campaign against corruption. [6] ————————————————- [edit]Economic analysis Each  dabbawala, regardless of role, gets paid about eight thousand rupees per month. In 1998,  Forbes Magazine  found its reliability to be that of a  six sigma  standard. [better  source  needed]  This implies that the Dabbawalas make less than one mistake in every 6 million deliveries, despite most of the delivery staff being illiterate. 7]  More than 175,000 to 200,000 lunch boxes get moved every day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000  dabbawalas, all with an extremely small nominal fee and with utmost punctuality. The  BBC  has produced a  documentary  on  dabbawalas[citation needed]  and  Prince Charles, during his visit to India, visited them (he had to fit in with their schedule, since their timing was too precise to permit any flexibility). Prince Charles also invited them to his wedding withCamilla Parker Bowles  in London on 9 April 2005.Owing to the tremendous publicity, some of the dabbawalas were invited to give guest lectures in some of the top  business schools  of India, which is very unusual. Most remarkably in the eyes of many Westerners, the success of the dabbawala trade has involved no advanced technology,[8]  except for trains (and as mentioned above, SMS services for booking). The New York Times  reported in 2007 that the 125-year-old  dabbawala  industry continues to grow at a rate of 5â₠¬â€œ10% per year. [4] [edit]Awards and recognition ISO 9001:2000 certified by the  Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand  [9] ————————————————- [edit]In Media On 28 December 2011, the British series, â€Å"Top Gear† broadcasted the episode â€Å"India Special† where Clarkson, Hammond, and May travel to India for a â€Å"trade mission†. In Mumbai, they aimed to beat the efficiency of the dabbawala by using a car instead of a train. The mission fails when Clarkson, in a rush to beat the train, did not take enough cargo, leaving Hammond to carry Clarkson's load as well as his own.Hammond accidentally loses and subsequently ruins some of his cargo, and May, trying to take a ring road approach to the station, takes a wrong turn and ends up in the countryside. [10] ————————— ———————- [edit]References 1. ^  Pathak R. C. (1946, Reprint 2000). The Standard Dictionary of the Hindi Language, Varanasi: Bhargava Book Depot,pp. 300,680 2. ^  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Bombay Dabbawalas go high-tech†. Physorg. com. Retrieved 2011-09-15. 3. ^  Mumbai's amazing Dabbawalas. Rediff. com  (November 11, 2005). 4.   a  b  In India, Grandma Cooks, They Deliver  from  The New York Times 5. ^  BBC News: India's tiffinwalas fuel economy 6. ^  http://www. thehindubusinessline. com/industry-and-economy/economy/dabbawalas-to-strike-for-the-first-time-in-120-years/article2369850. ece 7. ^  The Guardian. A Bombay lunchbox  (June 24, 2002). 8. ^  Amberish K Diwanji, â€Å"Dabbawallahs: Mumbai's best managed business†, Rediff. com, November 4, 2003 9. ^  Mydabbawala. com: Accolades To Dabbawala 10. ^  http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Top_Gear:_India_Special

Health Care Industrys Environmental Footprint Health And Social Care Essay

In this article, the writers address the importance of nurses being a portion of the Electronic Health Records ( EHR ) procedure. Having nurses as the major portion in direct patient attention and their input on the design and execution of the EHR. The article besides talks about the Health Information Technology ( HIT ) and the authoritiess push to standardise records. The demand to diminish unneeded trial or extra trials from different suppliers is at the head of this end. The Federal authorities passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health ( HITECH ) Act as an inducement to Medicare and Medicaid suppliers to implement EHR in their patterns. The article besides discusses many facets of the nurses ‘ day-to-day occupation demands and how this EHR enhances or deters from direct patient attention.Turley, M. , Porter, C. , Garrido, T. , Gerwig, K. , Young, S. , Radler, L. , & A ; Shaber, R. ( 2011 ) . Use Of Electronic Health Records Can Improve The Health Care Industry ‘s Environmental Footprint. Health Affairs, 30 ( 5 ) , 938-46. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //persimmon.tesc.edu:2059/docview/868915481? accountid=40921In this article the writers province â€Å" We estimate that Kaiser Permanente ‘s electronic wellness record system, which covers 8.7 million donees, eliminated 1,000 dozenss of paper records and 68 dozenss of x-ray movie, and that it has lowered gasoline ingestion among patients who otherwise would hold made trips to the physician by at least three million gallons per twelvemonth † ( Turley et al. , 2011, p. 938 ) . Kaiser Permanente is a California leader in the Health Care Industry. The article states the Federal Government inducements to go electronic in all wellness records get downing in 2011, from the HITECH and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ( ARRA ) . This article looks into the environmental effect s of EHR has on â€Å" resource ingestion and nursery gas coevals or preservation † ( Turley et al. , 2011, p. 938 ) . â€Å" THE ECO-HEALTH FOOTPRINT The Eco-Health Footprint has been developed by the Global Safety and Health Initiative, a partnership of nongovernmental organisations dedicated to bettering the wellness attention industry ‘s environmental impact and patients ‘ and workers ‘ wellness and safety.3 The Eco-Health Footprint identifies six major classs of environmental impact within wellness attention. The six are nursery gases, including anaesthetic and medical gases ; waste, including solid, regulated medical, risky, electronic, building and destruction, and reclaimable waste ; toxic chemicals ; H2O usage, including H2O used in medical procedures, imbibing H2O, and effluent ; air pollutants regulated by national air-quality criterions, such as ozone, particulate affair, C monoxide, N dioxide, S dioxide, and lead ; 8 and the usage of land for e difices † ( Turley et al. , 2011, p. 940 ) . The survey shows the effects the computing machines have on the nursery consequence on the Earth. It besides shows the still continued usage of paper during outpatient visits with printed patient drumhead sheets. They have noticed a lessening in transit usage and lessening in gas ingestion for less travel for unneeded visits to the office. The survey shows that by utilizing EHR, the state would profit from a greener environment. DesRoches, C. M. , Campbell, E. G. , Vogeli, C. , Aheng, J. , Rao, S. R. , Shields, A. E. , †¦ Jha, A. K. ( 2010, April ) . Electronic Health Records ‘ Limitedd Successes Suggest More Targeted Uses. Health Affairs, 29 ( 4 ) , 639-46. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //persimmon.tesc.edu:2059/docview/204623833? accounted-40921 In this article the writers examine the demand for EHR to increase the quality of patient attention and more policies to see this can be obtained. The article besides examines that in smaller establishments there is limited information sing the usage of EHR and meaningful usage. â€Å" Therefore, we used informations from our recent national study of electronic wellness record acceptance among acute attention infirmaries to look into the relationship between the acceptance of electronic wellness records and cardinal single maps, and available steps of wellness attention quality and efficiency. Specifically, we assessed whether electronic wellness record acceptance was associated with better public presentation on standard process-of-care steps, lower mortality and readmission rates, shorter lengths-of-stay, and lower inmate costs † ( DesRoches et al. , 2010, p. 639 ) . The survey consequences showed there was no existent difference in attention between infirmaries that have EH R and those who did non hold EHR.Fleming, N. S. , Culler, S. D. , McCorkle, R. , Becker, E. R. , & A ; Ballard, D. J. ( 2011, March ) . The Financial And Nonfinancial Costs Of Implementing Electronic Health Record In Primary Care Practices. Health Affairs, 30 ( 3 ) , 481-9. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //persimmon.tesc.edu:2059/docview/857836970? accountid=40921The writers researched barriers to physician offices to implementing EHR. The top barriers noted by doctors in different metropoliss were deficiency of support, the high startup costs and that the system they choose will be disused before they can implement the service. The biggest factor in researching this was to garner three groups, a physician advisory group, and an ambulatory electronic wellness record commission and the Healthtexas Best Care Committee to implement bundles needed to upgrade to the EHR. The writers besides took fiscal records to see how much clip was spent by each individual and the cost th at was accrued because of it. â€Å" The Department of Health and Human Services is making regional extension centres to help suppliers with the acceptance of electronic wellness record systems. † This coaction has the possible to turn to many of the challenges to electronic wellness record execution faced by single suppliers or little physician patterns † ( Fleming, Culler, McCorkle, Becker, & A ; Ballard, 2011, p. 488 ) . Lowery, M. , Dobbs, J. , & A ; Monkhouse, A. ( 2012, September ) . Implanting An Electronic Health Record Within A Health Visiting Service: The Journal of the Health Visitor ‘s Association. Community Practitioner, 85 ( 9 ) , 20-3. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //persimmon.tesc.edu:2059/docview/1039540619? accountid=40921 The writers attempt to implement an EHR in two counties in London to a visiting nurses association. As with concerns from the United States, London besides demanded rigorous privateness and protection of patient records throughout the procedure of implementing EHR. The biggest push for EHR was for child wellness, school nursing and wellness visiting nurses. They formed a undertaking board to oversee and give advice on what was needed in the EHR. During the first stage of the undertaking they found they did non hold specific adequate standard for what the Health Visitor ‘s Association needed. Part of the 2nd stage was to engage IT Facilitators to take the notes from stage 1 and incorporate what was needed to back up their demands. The writers found they are able to implant an EHR into sing nurses and comply with all regulations on safe guarding patient security and maintain accurate charting. Bruen, B. K. , Ku, L. , Burke, M. F. , & A ; Buntin, M. ( 2011, March ) . More Than Four In Five Office-Based Doctor Could Qualify for Federal Electronic Health Record Incentives. Health Affairs, 30 ( 3 ) , 472-80. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //persimmon.tesc.edu:2059/docview/857837337? accountid=40921The writer states that physician offices that care for Medicare and Medicaid patients can measure up for inducements to implement EHR into their offices from the authorities. Doctors have felt they lack information sing EHR in their private patterns related to whether systems will suit their demands, cost and the worth of the investing. These concerns were addressed by HITECH by holding federal criterions for EHR and inducements for cost of execution. The inducement for holding EHR is doctors who treat Medicare patients will have up to $ 18,000 by 2012 and worsening sums over the following four old ages after that. Besides if a doctor does non hold an EHR by 2015 will ha ve reduced Medicare benefits. There are besides inducements for doctors who treat 30 % Medicaid patients will have up to $ 21,250. Pediatricians who see 20-30 per centum of Medicaid patients besides qualify for an inducement but at a lower fee. The writer found that about 82 per centum of doctors were eligible for the authorities inducement program.Song, PhD, P. H. , McAlearney, ScD, A. , Robbins, J. , McCullough, PhD, J. S. , & A ; Smith, B. T. ( 2011, May/June ) . Researching The Business Case for Ambulatory Electronic Health Record System Adoption/Practioner Application. Journal of Healthcare Management, 56 ( 3 ) , 169-82.â€Å" The intent of this survey was to analyze the function of concern instance analysis in healthcare organisations ‘ determinations to put in ambulatory EHR systems, and to place what factors organisations considered when warranting an ambulatory EHR † ( Song, McAlearney, Robbins, McCullough, & A ; Smith, 2011, p. 169 ) . Research workers have sh own that doctors have shown a deficiency of positive return in their investing is a hindrance in implementing EHR. Because of the deficiency of information for a concern instance, the writer looks into how healthcare organisations can warrant puting in ambulatory EHR. Anticipated reimbursement alterations were one of the largest factors for a concern instance in implementing an ambulatory EHR system. Besides the estimated authorities stimulation bundle was another inducement in implementing and ambulatory EHR system. â€Å" all organisations we studied perceived that a positive concern instance for EHR system acceptance existed, and this positive concern instance was driven by considerations about indirect fiscal benefits † ( Song et al. , 2011, p. 182 ) .ReferencesBruen, B. K. , Ku, L. , Burke, M. F. , & A ; Buntin, M. ( 2011, March ) . More Than Four In Five Office-Based Doctor Could Qualify for Federal Electronic Health Record Incentives. Health Affairs, 30 ( 3 ) , 472-80. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //persimmon.tesc.edu:2059/docview/857837337? accountid=40921 DesRoches, C. M. , Campbell, E. G. , Vogeli, C. , Aheng, J. , Rao, S. R. , Shields, A. E. , †¦ Jha, A. K. ( 2010, April ) . Electronic Health Records ‘ Limitedd Successes Suggest More Targeted Uses. Health Affairs, 29 ( 4 ) , 639-46. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //persimmon.tesc.edu:2059/docview/204623833? accounted-40921 Fleming, N. S. , Culler, S. D. , McCorkle, R. , Becker, E. R. , & A ; Ballard, D. J. ( 2011, March ) . The Financial And Nonfinancial Costs Of Implementing Electronic Health Record In Primary Care Practices. Health Affairs, 30 ( 3 ) , 481-9. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //persimmon.tesc.edu:2059/docview/857836970? accountid=40921 Lowery, M. , Dobbs, J. , & A ; Monkhouse, A. ( 2012, September ) . Implanting An Electronic Health Record Within A Health Visiting Service: The Journal of the Health Visitor ‘s Association. Community Practitioner, 85 ( 9 ) , 20-3. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //persimmon.tesc.edu:2059/docview/1039540619? accountid=40921 McBride, PhD, RN, S. , Delaney, BSN, RN-BC, J. M. , & A ; Tietze, PhD, RN-BC, FHIMSS, M. ( 2012 ) . Health Information Technology and Nursing. AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 112 ( 8 ) , 36-42. hypertext transfer protocol: //dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ0000418095.31317.1b Song, PhD, P. H. , McAlearney, ScD, A. , Robbins, J. , McCullough, PhD, J. S. , & A ; Smith, B. T. ( 2011, May/June ) . Researching The Business Case for Ambulatory Electronic Health Record System Adoption/Practioner Application. Journal of Healthcare Management, 56 ( 3 ) , 169-82. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //persimmon.tesc.edu:2059/docview/870480359? accountid=40921 Turley, M. , Porter, C. , Garrido, T. , Gerwig, K. , Young, S. , Radler, L. , & A ; Shaber, R. ( 2011 ) . Use Of Electronic Health Records Can Improve The Health Care Industry ‘s Environmental Footprint. Health Affairs, 30 ( 5 ) , 938-46. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //persimmon.tesc.edu:2059/docview/868915481? accountid=40921

Gdp And Economic Welfare Essay

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the most important economic indicator and it is used for comparison purposes to see how countries are doing economic wise. It entails the aggregate production or output in a country. GDP can be measured using either the expenditure approach where all final expenditures are added or by the income approach where all compensations of employees and other forms of incomes are added up. GDP is used to measure an economy’s economic growth. Hartzenberg T et al (2005, 114). The real GDP can be used to establish how an economy is performing and hence compare various economies as one can compare their outputs. It is also important in the sense that it can be used for forecasting purposes and hence important in planning. This paper will distinguish the difference between economic growth which can be measured using GDP statistics and national welfare or people’s well being. According to McConnel and Brue in their distinguished book ‘Economics’, a country can be said to have economic growth when there is a positive increase in its GDP. Economic growth is different from economic welfare and economic development. Economic growth is characterized by an increment in natural resources, the quantity or quality for the human resources, as well as an improvement in technology that translates to increased productivity. Economic growth refers to a positive shift in the production possibility curve to the right or where economic efficiency is attained. McConnel and Brue (2005, 149). A country A could register a higher GDP than country B but this does not necessarily mean that country A is doing better in terms of economic welfare as there is a clear distinction between economic growth and national welfare. This can be blamed on the limitations attached or rather linked to GDP calculation and analysis. (facstaff. uww. edu). Walter in the book ‘Economics’, noted that GDP ignores or rather omits household production which is an important sector in as far as determining the welfare of people is concerned. Wessels W (2006, 75). Alan and Laurence backed this idea in their book ‘Macroeconomics an integrated approach’ where they argued that GDP does not account for the unreported incomes which are earned in the ‘underground economy’. A good illustration of unreported incomes is a situation where waiters fail to report all the tips they acquire while on duty. People may fail to report their actual incomes to evade taxes. Statistical problems could also have occurred creating the impression that country A had a higher GDP than country B though this may not be actually be the case. Some people may not divulge all the information regarding their incomes or expenditure leading to wrong GDP estimates. If country B has a very significant ‘underground economy’ then her citizens could be doing better than those in country A even though the latter had a lower GDP. This is an indication that high GDP rates do not necessarily translate to better welfare for the citizens. Auerbach and Kotlikoff (1998, 136). When calculating GDP the aspect of leisure is ignored although it is very critical in as far as defining people’s welfare is concerned. Country A could register a higher GDP than country B but the citizens in country A could have been overworked leading to health complications. In this case, the high GDP could be at the expense of the people’s health and we cannot conclude that it ensured their welfare or well being. Wessels W (2006, 75). Using GDP figures to determine the people’s welfare is inappropriate as it fails to include ecological costs incurred in the process of attaining the said GDP. Ecological costs include the costs of pollution. Country A could register a higher GDP than country B due to the fact that country A had better technology that ensured increased production. However, the increased production could have been realized in the face of increased air, water and land pollution all of which poses health hazards to the citizens. Wessels W (2006, 75). When such is the case then we cannot conclude that country B is doing better than country A. People’s well being encompasses the people’s health and not just their economic well being. A country with lower GDP but ensuring that her environment is safe for her citizens is doing well in terms of national welfare even though it could record a lower GDP than one with a higher GDP but has a polluted environment. GDP ignores a country’s environmental quality and it fails to account for the consequences that an economic growth could come along with. Auerbach and Kotlikoff (1998, 136). GDP also focuses on output or production although it is consumption that could best explain people’s welfare. For instance country A could sell more goods to other nations like country B since the demand for such goods in country B is higher. In this context, country B could be doing better than country A but since country A exports more it may create the impression that it is doing better. On the other hand, country B may register a lower GDP translating to being worse off as her net exports are negative but in the real sense they could be doing better. Focusing only on the output approach would lead to distortions while addressing the issue of national welfare. Another critical issue cited by Wessels as a limitation of using GDP to evaluate a country’s or nation’s well being is the fact that government spending is valued at cost rather than at its value. Government projects in country A could have been at a higher cost than those in country B but an important aspect to consider here is how much the projects were worth to the citizens. This is because some important projects could be undervalued while worthless projects are overvalued and this will have a significant impact in as far as influencing the people’s welfare or well being is concerned. Wessels (2006, 75). GDP calculation does not include the plight of the people in terms of health and life expectancy which are quite important in assessing the people’s well being or welfare. Country A could have a higher GDP than country B but if she has a lower life expectancy rate and is performing poorly in terms of general health of her citizens then we cannot argue that her citizens are better off than those of country B especially if in country B the life expectancy and general health is better. Health which is a very important factor in determining the people’s welfare when calculating a country’s GDP people’s conditions health wise are only included if they increase the costs of the health system. A country’s health costs could be attributed to modern and advanced health technologies but this does not guarantee a nations well being health wise as the costs incurred may not match the benefits attained. Democracy or political freedom is an important part in determining people’s welfare. Good governance is one where respective freedoms are respected and most importantly democracy embraced. Using GDP to evaluate people’s welfare is inappropriate as it does not provide any information regarding a country’s governance. Country A could register a higher GDP than country B but the political organization in country A could be oppressive to the citizens. In this context, we cannot argue that country A citizens are better than those in country B which could be exercising democracy and consequently not oppressing her citizens. (facstaff. uww. edu). Another vital issue in defining people’s well being is assessing social justice in a country. If country A registered a higher GDP but was very poor in terms of the civil justice system then we cannot conclude that her citizens well being was ensured. Country B citizens could be doing better at a lower GDP level if she ensured an effective social justice system. An effective system ensures that the rule of law is embraced and people’s rights respected. This is important in ensuring that corruption which threatens people’s welfare as it only benefits a segment of the total population is kept at bay. Using GDP to compare the well being of people in country A and B could give a wrong impression of what is actually the case. This is attributed to the fact that a country could have overly adjusted for inflation leading to the impression that increase in prices translate to hikes in prices even when this could be as a result of improvement in the products produced. Morse S (2004, 39). Another aspect that makes it inappropriate to compare country’s welfare using the GDP statistics is the fact that for such comparisons one must convert the currencies into the other country’s currency and when carrying out the conversions it is possible to understate a country’s GDP especially in the developing nations. A country A could register a higher GDP than country B due to errors arising from conversions of currencies. (facstaff. uww. edu). Country A could have a higher GDP than country B but her citizens could be worse off than those of country B in terms of national welfare. This is attributed to the fact that country A could be characterized by many social evils as opposed to country B. Failure to include the non-market production in the calculation of GDP makes it an inappropriate tool in determining people’s welfare in an economy. Such services like childcare, subsistence farming and care for the aged mean a lot in as far as people’s welfare is concerned. Country A could have a higher GDP but with a lower subsistence economy when compared to country B. A significant subsistence economy would ensure that a country’s food security is ensured and this would place her citizens at a better stance in as far as their well being or welfare is concerned. GDP fails to account for the effects or consequences of technology which has an impact in its determination. In contrast GDP is more concerned on the value of the end product without taking to concern the efficiency of the technologies in question. If country A registered a higher GDP than country B but country A’s government invested more in sectors like education and health ensuring that her citizens were better off in those areas then we can conclude that country B’s welfare is doing well even if it has a lower GDP than country A. Treating investment in education and health as consumption rather than investments makes it difficult to estimate people’s welfare. Willis I (1997, 164). Distribution of resources in a country is also a point to consider when using GDP figures to estimate people’s welfare. Country A could register a higher GDP than country B but this high GDP could have been arrived from a small insignificant proportion of the total population. This is to say that it is inappropriate to say that country A citizens are doing better than those in country B as the GDP is contributed by a small proportion while a large proportion of the society could be languishing in poverty. Income distribution is of much essence when determining people’s welfare in an economy. The inequality issue and GDP arise more so in developing countries or third world as opposed to developed ones. Willis I (1997, 164). Social issues like family stability are also not reflected when calculating GDP although it has an impact on people’s welfare or well being. GDP in country A could be higher than that in country B as more money is being channelled into paying divorce cases lawyers or building more police posts in response to increased crime rates. This illustrates that it is inappropriate to make conclusions about people’s welfare using GDP. In his book ‘The Japanese Economy’, Mitsuo Saito noted the inappropriateness of GDP as a tool of evaluating people’s well being due to the fact that it does not indicate the labour conditions, housing conditions, state of the social security or the urban life which are crucial in determining people’s well being. Saito M (2000, 13). Economic growth could be based on either the demand side or the supply side of an economy. The aggregate demand could increase due to an increment in the population size while aggregate supply could be due to the discovery of new natural resources. Aggregate output is affected by the level of labour supply, the stock of accumulated capital, level of technology as well as the institutions in place. There is an inverse relationship between prices levels and output and when prices levels fall the output increases. Tanzi and Chu (1998, 203). Monetary and fiscal policies in a given economy would affect the country’s well being or welfare. The people’s welfare will be affected by the policies that an economy embraces. Good policies are those that aim for equitable economic growth in a nation. They ensure that the poor in the society are not worse off but instead uplift them. This can be achieved through the application of equitable taxes such that people’s ability to pay is what determines the amount they are to pay all taxes. The rich will pay a higher amount than the poor in such cases. The government could also apply fiscal policies to ensure development for the poor in society. References: Alan J. Auerbach, Laurence J. Kotlikoff. 1998. Macroeconomics: An Integrated Approach. MIT Press. Bernard Baumohl. 2007. The Secrets of Economic Indicators: Hidden Clues to Future Economic Trends and Investment Opportunities. Wharton School Publishing. Campbell R. McConnell, Stanley L. Brue. 2005. Economics: Principles, Problems, and Policies. McGraw-Hill Professional Publishers. Measuring GDP and economic growth. Retrieved on 23rd November 2008 from http://facstaff. uww. edu/ahmady/courses/econ202/ps/sg3. pdf Mitsuo Saito. 2000. The Japanese Economy. World Scientific Publishers. Ian Wills. 1997. Economics and the Environment: A Signaling and Incentives Approach Allen & Unwin Publishers. Stephen Morse. 2004. Indices and Indicators in Development: An Unhealthy Obsession with Numbers? Earthscan Publishers. T. Hartzenberg, Buck Standish, A. Wentzel, V. Tang, T. Hartzenberg, S. Richards. 2005.

Business Model Re-Engineering: Myspace

————————————————- Business Model Re-engineering MySpace Date: November 4, 2011 ————————————————- Word Count: 3742 Introduction Nowadays, increasingly more industries, especially the media sector, are facing a continuous change. In the case of media, this is mainly a result of steadily developing digital technology. Even though a company’s business model might have been successful for many years, it suddenly can start to become weaker. The media market is quite competition-driven and hence a competitor with a new business model might alter the industry almost instantly (Business model re-engineering, n. d. ). In such a competitive market, the â€Å"strategy [†¦] is about being different. † (Eisenhardt & Sull, 2001, p. 116). This statement perfectly implies that companies and their products need to be so unique with such a well thought-out and innovate business model that they can create a competitive advantage. However, this adaption of the business model in an ever-changing media environment turns out to be quite a complex challenge, since now many companies face a decline of customers and revenue. A good example for a business model that could not survive the changing media environment in terms of online social networking is the one of Myspace. Consequently, I am going to propose a re-engineering of its business model. In this paper, I will focus on the problems of the current business model and carefully analyze the context of the market in order to propose a refreshed model that will help Myspace to survive and to compete more successfully in nowadays’ social networking market. Myspace needs a business model that provides value to its customers, guarantees a competitive advantage, as well as collects revenue (Teece, 2010). Myspace Myspace. com, which was founded in 2003 by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson (Piskorski, Chen, & Knoop, 2008), is an online social networking ervice that is now owned by Specific Media LLC and singer Justin Timberlake (Specific Media Acquires Myspace, 2011). Specific Media LLC is a media company which sells advertising online with a technology that aims at targeting specific customer segments (Specific Media LLC, 2011). Specific Media LLC, however, has not been the owner of Myspace for long. In June 2011, the company bought Myspace for about $35 million and as part of the deal pop star Justin Timberlake took an ownership stake (Specific Media Acquires Myspace, 2011). Before, from 2005 until 2011, it was owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (News Corporation to Acquire Intermix Media, Inc, 2005). From 2005 until 2008, Myspace was the most popular social networking website in the world, as measured by the visitors. But the number of 75. 9 million visitors per month in 2008 dropped to 34. 8 million in May 2011 (Gillette, 2011). Problems Is Facebook Myspace’s biggest problem? Since 2008, Myspace has been continuously losing members which was at the time when it was overtaken by Facebook (Mack, 2008). Myspace has been gradually losing its users which can be expressed by the declining members and visitors of the website. As from February 2010, the visitors decreased by 43. 3 per cent (Arrington, 2011) and the members shrunk by ten million within one month at the beginning of 2011 (Stafford, 2011). This decline brings along a dramatic loss in revenues which are solely generated by advertising (Enders, Hungenberg, Denker, & Mauch, 2008). Facebook has now about 25 times more users than Myspace (Stafford, 2011) and it seems that members migrated from Myspace to Facebook, but there is other reasons for the failure of Myspace, mainly in terms of innovation. Myspace was performing really well at the time of News Corp’s acquisition and it barely had any competitors. However, with the rise of its first great competitor Facebook, the former leading social networking site had to confront one of its severest lacks: innovation! At the very beginning, Facebook entered a niche market, namely the one of college students. Firstly, it was available to Haravard students, then more and more universities wanted to join Facebook and today, almost everybody is using this social network, no matter if college student or not (Piskorski et al. , 2008). Today, around 600 million users enjoy keeping in touch with people all over the world via Facebook (Cauwels & Sornette, 2011). Facebook managed this great success because it was innovative. New features have been added all the time since it has been launched, hence people were involved and kept coming back as a result of new innovations such as the ‘news feed’ at that time (Stafford, 2011). While Facebook managed to be innovative all the time, Myspace failed to adapt to the market and did not add new features as Facebook did. Additionally, Myspace did not allow third party developers to create new features such as applications (e. g. Facebook – FarmVille etc. ), they rather kept everything behind closed doors. Therefore, Myspace lost the competition of controlling the market at the time between 2006 and 2008 and consequently it became boring (Stafford, 2011). Even though Myspace had certain features, they did not all work very well. For example, members were able to create their own backgrounds either themselves or they could download an existing design from many providers who specialized in creating Myspace profile designs. This feature turned into quite a mess, problems, and confusion regarding certain profiles. The whole competition resulted in a confusing mess and one could not be sure on what Myspace was focusing. Not only because of the customized user profiles but also because of some other flaws in the site’s design, Myspace was confronted with security issues. Results were spyware (Hesseldahl, 2006), phishing, and spam (Webb, Caverlee, & Pu, 2010). Another security fear was regarding the profile content. Users were concerned about trust and privacy and even law enforcement officials claimed, â€Å"MySpace is used by sexual predators to lure teenagers† (Dwyer, Hiltz, & Passerini as cited by Schrobsdorff, 2006, p. 5). The last problem I want to focus on is the revenue model. As previously mentioned, Myspace operates on revenues from advertising. Especially under the ownership of News Corp, the main focus was on generating revenue. It seemed that Rupert Murdoch solely focused on revenues and nothing else which is a great flaw for a social networking site, as it needs to focus on the onsumers. In 2006, Google pledged to pay News Corp as many as $900 million over three and a half years and in return Google was allowed to provide search services and advertising on Myspace (Piskorski et al. , 2008). For Myspace’s customer it seemed that the site was full of too much unorganized advertising, hence the website appeared unp rofessionally (James, 2009). The previously listed problems of Myspace are mainly problems of the time when Myspace lost the competition against Facebook, and reasons why Myspace is not successful anymore. With regards to the Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder (2009), I will focus on the problems based on the following elements: Value Propositions, Key Partners, Revenue Streams, and Media Channels. The element of value propositions â€Å"seeks to solve customer problems and satisfy customer needs with value propositions† (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2009, p. 16). I consider this part to be Myspace’s greatest problem regarding the issues of trust, privacy, spam, spyware, and phishing. Furthermore, the lack of innovation was one of the major problems why Myspace lost that many users who constantly want to experience something new. With its lack of good and new features as well as its unclear point of focus, Myspace was not able to deliver value which would result in customers continue to use the social network. From my personal experience, I can say that Myspace faded into obscurity which can be backed up by the low number of users now, compared to the time of 2006 when Myspace was at its peak (Snyder, Carpenter, & Slauson, 2006). I was a Myspace user around 2006 as well, when I was 15 years old. It seemed to be a meeting point for teenagers and for me it was not any different from the German social networking site ‘Schuler VZ’ except that it is international. However, as time went by, I decreasingly used Myspace as for me it always was too confusing and it could not compete with the German social network. Besides, I got spammed with advertising, random men (who were not at my age) thought it was a dating service, and it simply became boring. Therefore, I can state that Myspace’s biggest problem is that it is not valuable enough for the users. Theory Firstly, I will focus on the value propositions as all the other elements, I chose to focus on, follow up on the value propositions. When looking at value propositions, I would like to consider the three types of value propositions according to Anderson, Narus, and van Rossum (2006), namely ‘all benefits’, ‘favorable points of difference’, and ‘resonating focus’. In the case of Myspace, it certainly would not be enough to â€Å"simply list all the benefits† (Anderson et al. , 2006, p. 2) since there are too many competitors in the Internet environment that share most of the benefits and values. The ‘favorable points of difference’ approach is promising in so far that it distinguishes the valuable points that the competitors do not offer. However, I believe that Myspace does not present many highly valuable aspects over their competitors and therefore it would be most convenient to concentrate on the ‘resonating focus’. With this approach, I will focus on â€Å"the one or two points of difference [†¦] whose improvement will deliver the greatest value to the customer for the foreseeable future† (Anderson et al. , 2006, p. 4). In connection to that, I will of course need to study the greatest competitors with regards to their value propositions in order to highlight Myspace’s most valuable points of difference. Furthermore, I will need to research what customers expect from online social networking, what they value about Myspace, and what they generally find lacking in the social networking environment in order to develop ideas for a possible niche market. Additionally, for this customer value research, I will need to conduct research on focus groups with regards to problems mentioned in the previous section (safety and innovation). Furthermore, the design is an important aspect of the value propositions as well. As I previously stated, the old Myspace design was quite confusing which resulted in safety problems. Hence, a new design is needed which is unified for every user, yet attractive and which does not allow bugs. Secondly, in relation to innovation, I will need to look at the Key Partners who will be part of the re-engineering of the Media Channels as well and concerning revenues. Through Media Channels, the company can communicate with its customers and deliver the value propositions (Osterwalder et al. 2009). Especially in the online environment, awareness can be raised with the help of other key partners. For example, you can share content from one website on another. Not so long ago, Myspace introduced connection opportunities to Twitter and Facebook (Myspace introduces mashup with Facebook, 2010) and also youtube allows sharing videos on myspace. Myspace’s connections to Facebook which will al so help to generate user-specific streams according to the user’s Facebook profiles. However, Facebook for example, does not allow a connection to Myspace. Accordingly, Key Partners are needed that would help promoting Myspace. Moreover, the former revenue model which only consisted of advertising, has proven to be quite annoying for the users, hence Myspace needs Key Partners who will not only make the website more appealing but also help to make revenue. Hence, research has to be done on Key Partners who are willing to help financing Myspace as well as who would be interested to offer for example applications (which then help the Key Partners as well). As I said before, Myspace faded into obscurity. For this reason, I will also need to look at other media channels such as campaigns and marketing strategies in order to bring Mypsace back to people’s minds. In that relation, research needs to be done on what marketing strategies worked for successful social networks such as Facebook and also what media channels can help to basically re-introduce a media product like Myspace. Assumptions & Best Practices Review First of all I need to mention that Myspace decided in 2010 to focus on music and entertainment (About Myspace, 2010). However, for now I will only consider online social networking sites as websites that focus on music and entertainment are not Myspace’s greatest competitors. Of course, I will need to take Facebook into account as Myspace’s greatest competitor and as today’s most popular social network which was the most visited website in June 2011 (Smith, 2011). Facebook first started in a niche market of college students and it got awareness from the very beginning. It did not use any special advertising campaigns to become popular but the promotion was rather by word to mouth (Mitchell, 2009). The popularity has then been covered by newspaper articles and television which reported on the success (Ibid). Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook as a unique and intimate website and constantly added new features that kept the site interesting. Facebook is far more innovative than Myspace and therefore the members keep using it and promote it by word-of-mouth advertising. Similarly to Facebook, Twitter was initially successful in a niche market. At the beginning, primarily computer- and technology specialists as well as bloggers used Twitter for example to promote their blogs (How did Twitter become popular? 2009). Twitter could convince with its simplicity and real life experience. Real life experience in so far that people twittered news from certain events such as the Mumbai attacks or recently the uprisings in Tunisia as different to regular news channels (Ibid). The best practices that made Twitter and Facebook successful and popular are therefore word-to-mouth advertising and t he Internet itself. Word-to-mouth advertising only worked because of the convincing and interesting designs and usability. Both platforms are innovative, as they have been creating new features that make them enjoyable, flexible and interesting (The Success of Twitter, 2011). Those best practices worked for Myspace as well – in the beginning. However, the task now is to remake Myspace aware to people’s minds and the goal is that the users actually keep using Myspace because of the new design and value propositions. I would suggest sending a short and catchy email to the Myspace users which shortly introduces them to the new Myspace. Users might want to get to know the new Myspace and then tell people about their good experience. Additionally, since Myspace is focusing on music, an advertising campaign might help to make new bands aware of Myspace’s ability to promote their work. Facebook uses an aggressive innovation approach, meaning that it comes up with new features that users initially might not like but after a while they cannot imagine Facebook without those new features anymore. Furthermore, Facebook constantly adapts the privacy settings in order to meet the customers’ needs with regards to safety (Blodget, 2010). Innovation keeps Facebook interesting and worthwhile to continue using it. Another highlight it offers for their users are applications. Many software developers create applications for Facebook which make the site not only more interesting and entertaining but also help to generate revenues (Stone, 2007). With the help of key partners, Myspace can get help for its design as well as applications that help to make the site interesting. What is more, key partners help financing; hence Myspace would not only be dependent on advertising revenues. As users find the amount of advertising quite annoying, Myspace can focus on less but personalized advertising. Those steps would help to make Myspace more innovative and it can easier meet the users’ needs in terms of design, safety, new features that make it worth to use. Research Proposal – Method Myspace needs change! More specifically, Myspace needs a re-engineered business model. The previous statistics show that the numbers of Myspace users decline gradually. If this decline continues, the once most popular social network (Bains, 2009) will soon be almost unknown or at least unused. However, with further research on my previously stated ideas based on the problems of Myspace in relation to the Business Model, I will be able to help Myspace creating a new and innovative Business Model that will help to avoid further declining user numbers and to create competitive consistency in the environment of social networking. In order to study the value propositions carefully, I will conduct qualitative research. Only with qualitative research I will be able to gather in-depth understanding of the reasons why people do not use Myspace anymore. I can gather such information in two ways: through interviews and through an online research community. With the help of a qualitative research interview I will gather the facts as well as analyze the meaning (Kvale, 1996). As a result, I will be able to understand the values customers need as well as the reasons and problems which caused the failure of Myspace. By using an online research community, Myspace can put â€Å"the customer at the heart of [the] marketing strategy† (Simon, 2009). Such research communities allow efficient and deep qualitative research online. In such a community, members can discuss certain aspects such as new features and designs, and Myspace can adapt accordingly. Besides, a qualitative research online will probably bring more results since people rather take the time to discuss issues online. However, the qualitative Interview will also be needed because it is an additional in-depth analysis with face-to-face communication that enables immediate follow up questions and answers with high reliability. The qualitative research of both forms will be base on current or former Myspace users and also on general social network users in order to determine the general arget group’s values. Questions for both kinds of researches will for example include what they currently like about Myspace, what they do not like, why they use Myspace, or why they (stopped) using Myspace, what they generally value about Myspace, and their opinions about the competitors such as Facebook. For good measure a detailed research on the competit ors and their best practices is essential. This can be done by further online research on the competitor’s strategies in order to find out what could work for Myspace as well. Plan The following table provides an overview of the estimated time and costs for this project – subject to modifications. For now, I will conduct the research for three weeks, meaning that for example that the online community will be run for three weeks. Part| Time| Costs per hour| Costs per day| Creating online community(5 employees)| 8 hrs| EUR 10 (x5)| EUR 400| Leading discussion online(10 employees)| 3 wks (120 hrs)| EUR 8 (x10)| EUR 9600| Analyzing online community (10 employees)| 2 wks (80 hrs)| EUR 12 (x10)| EUR 9600| Developing questions for both onliny community and interview (4 employees)| 8 hrs| EUR 12 (x4)| EUR 384| Interviews (5 hrs per day)(10 interviewer)| 3 wks (75 hrs)| EUR 12 (x10)| EUR 9000| Evaluation Interview(10 employees)| 2 wks (80 hrs)| EUR 12 (x10)| EUR 9600| Total Costs for staff:| EUR 38584| Further costs: Possible travel costs (for interviewers):ca. EUR 300 Equipment (for Interviewers – recorders etc. ):ca. EUR 400 Technical equipment for online community:ca. EUR 10000 Total Costs:ca. EUR 49284 The additional costs might not apply if the equipment already exists. All prices are including value added taxes. Reflection In this paper I laid the foundation for a re-engineering of Myspace’s Business Model. Back in 2006 and 2007 I was a member of Myspace as well. However, I never liked this social network much since it was confusing, annoying because of all the advertising and I did not feel safe using it. Overall, it did not really work out. Now I am a Facebook user and I totally forgot about Myspace. Apparently, other social network users feel the same way which can be expressed by the declining number of Myspace users. Myspace became quite unpopular, fewer and fewer people visit that site and Facebook out-competed Myspace fast. Therefore I analyzed the problems that resulted in the failure of Myspace. The main overall problem is innovation. Myspace failed to add new features in order to make the platform interesting and worthwhile to keep using it. Myspace totally faded into obscurity wherefore it is essential to re-engineer at the media channels. Also, Myspace did not allow third party developers to help designing the page and add for example applications which not only would make the network more entertaining but also help generating revenues other than advertising. Instead, members were able to design their own profiles. This feature, however, resulted in an overall confusing design and safety problems. Safety problem arose from the bad software as it was easier to install for example spyware. Myspace could not meet the values that the customers need. Aside from bugs such as spyware, spam and phishing, users experienced a great lack of trust and privacy in that online network. To sum it up, I focused on the re-engineering of the following parts of the Business Model Canvas by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2009): Value Propositions, Media Channels, Key Partners, and Revenue Streams. All parts of the business model are connected though. That is why I analyzed all parts with regards to the others. My idea is that Myspace needs to be innovative. It can do so in analyzing both the values of customers and the best practices of the competitors and then adapt accordingly. With this method, Myspace can add new feature that will surely meet the customers’ desires. This is connected with a new design and key partners. Key partners can not only help with the design but also with innovation by adding applications that make Myspace more interesting. Furthermore, key partners would create another method of generating revenues. Then, Myspace would not only depend on advertising revenues and can reduce the annoying advertising to unostentatious, user-personalized advertising. After its changes, people need to be made aware of the new Myspace. This can be done with a short and catchy email to Myspace members who will then positively experience the re-engineered Myspace and spread the word. Additionally, television and Internet advertising campaigns might help to bring Myspace to the people’s minds. I am convinced that those methods and the further research, suggested in form of qualitative interviews, qualitative online community research and qualitative research on the competitors, would help Myspace to survive the competition in the online environment of social networks as well as stop a further downfall. References About Myspace. (2010). Retrieved November 1, 2011 from Myspace http://www. myspace. com/pressroom/2010/11/myspace-introduces-mashup-with-facebook/ Anderson, J. C. , Narus, J. A. , van Rossum, W. (2006). Customer Value Propositions in Business Markets. Harvard Business Review. Arrington, M. (2011, March 23). Amazingly, MySpace’s Decline is Accelerating. Retrieved October 29, 2011 from http://techcrunch. com/2011/03/23/amazingly-myspaces-decline-is-accelerating/ Bains, L. (2009). Facebook Overtakes MySpace as Most Popular Social Networking  Site. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www. switched. com/2009/01/27/facebook-overtakes-myspace-as-most-popular-social-networking-sit/ Blodget, H. (2010). Ignore The Screams–Facebook's Aggressive Approach Is Why It Will Soon Become The Most Popular Site In The World. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://articles. businessinsider. om/2010-05-17/tech/29991115_1_ceo-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-s-pr-innovation Business model re-engineering. (n. d. ). Retrieved October 27, 2011 from AMR International http://www. amrinternational. com/services/corporate_and_business_unit_strategy/business_model_re-engineering Cauwels, P. , Sornette, D. (2011). Quis pendit ipsa pretia: facebook valuation and diagnostic of a bubble based on nonlinear demographic dynamics. Retrieved October 30, 2011 from Cornell University Library http://arxiv. org/abs/1110. 1319 Dwyer, C. , Hiltz, S. , Passerini, K. (2007). Trust and Privacy Concern Within Social Networking