Monday, September 30, 2019

Ownership

In all, If you have the available finances to cover the start-up costs, Snap Fitness Is a great opportunity to become your own boss. The company has put in place many different Owning a Curves franchise is another fitness business that is relatively inexpensive to start-up. Much the same as Snap Fitness, they offer support from the beginning of the process. Starting with an application, an entrepreneur is provided with support in selecting the best financing options, location selection and promotional activities. The financial requirements are $15-45,000 in liquid capital and a minimum net worth of $75,000.The startup costs are as low as $39,900 and include the franchise ownership, equipment (excluding shipping costs) and training. This particular fitness center has the ability to provide service in small areas helping to keep fixed costs down while being convenient and affordable. Another benefit to this Franchise is the ability to cater to the clientele. Curves is providing fitness activities as well as meal replacement bars, accessories and apparel. There is a multipurpose mix, which provides multiple ways to benefit the customer. With the multiple products and proven success in the industry, Curves is a smart start-up.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

What Set You from, Fool

After reading this article â€Å"What Set You From, Fool? † I must admit that I am confused. It was difficult to determine what the point of it was. The author expressed some clear points of the difficulties he faced growing up as a black man in Los Angeles, however the article seemed more of a story than a statement to the end. It is possible that having grown up in New York City myself, the difference in culture will be the reason for my confusion. Overall, most of the piece is awkwardly written and hard to follow. I’m not sure if this was done intentionally. The author technique of switching back and forth between Standard English as he expressed himself through intellectual thoughts and words to what seemed like forced â€Å"ebonics†. In my opinion, the article did not flow smoothly at all. I found myself having to reread and translate words to grasp the full meaning of sentences. Having to continuously do this lessened my interest in the reading. However, like the connection the author tries to make between blacks having as tough a time being accepted into the black community as whites do. He mentions a few instances where there was an entire thought process involving with certain situations that could have been disastrous for both races (the white boys greeting blacks using the word â€Å"nigga† and the author entering a store to buy St. Ides with a friend and encountering gang members). It was interesting that the author was born as a black man but until approximately middle school age, had never experienced the urban life. Apparently, before he moved to L. A. , he was surrounded by people who called him â€Å"nigger†. However, he didn’t know how to react and/or if to react, so when he arrived in LA in their school system and was called a â€Å"nigger† he immediately associated it with what they (whites) called him in Santa Monica and identified himself as well as the other kids were. In Santa Monica he was called a â€Å"Nigga† there he hadn’t associated it to anything because it was never defined to him until he arrived in LA when he heard the students refer to him as well as themselves as such. That was when he associated the word to himself and the colored people he saw there. His mom taught him that â€Å"Nigga† was a bad word and that he should not be one†¦ He finally had a reference group for the slurs and bullshit, he had tolerated for nine years not knowing what it was just knowing that he should not be one. Experiencing the life in L. A. had an obviously deep effect on him. He went from a happy go lucky kid – to a hyper-vigilant state of mind. There seemed to have been a period where his identity was vague. He was uncomfortable cruising on the edge of social circles (hanging out with white and black friends), thinking as a activist (visiting a friend who’s parents were afro-centric), until he read the autobiography of Malcolm X and seemed to finally develop his own identity. The author despised games (rituals that many kids endured amongst each other whether it was on the courts or in the streets to be apart of a set in order to survive). Whether the players are white or black (curiously no mention of Latinos), the author seemed genuinely annoyed at the thought of playing any games at all. I feel the author adopted a â€Å"can’t we all just get along† theme. Overall, this was just an ok piece not very enjoyable and very confusing; if that was the aim of the writer then he has done his job!

Saturday, September 28, 2019

The Beatles Story Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Beatles Story - Essay Example The group gained more popularity in Britain in the 1960s due to their creativity. â€Å"Love Me Do,† which was their first single, became a hit in 1962 (The Beatles, 2000, p. 75). The group started gaining popularity internationally in 1964, when they ventured into the American music market. The year 1964 was their biggest year that saw them conquer America – the biggest record market. This is the year that America was mourning the death of President John F. Kennedy and the group appeared on the scene to end the mourning and to bring Americans excitement and fun (Everett, 1999, p. 44). After 1964, the group had become international stars and they made extensive tour across the world performing commercial concerts. Their most notable influential albums include Abbey Road, The Beatles, and Revolver. The Beatles eventually broke up in 1970 and each member successfully pursued their individual musical careers (The Beatles, 2000, p. 108). As far as their style of music was concerned, the group mainly focused on the rock and roll genre of music. According to Barrow (2005, p. 156), the Beatles revolutionized the style, attitude and sound of popular music, as well as enhanced the popularity of rock and roll music in Britain and the world at large. Even though their first style was based on classical rock and roll genre, the group expanded the genre’s stylistic frontiers in the 1960s. The group utilized other genres and often encompassed them in rock and roll genre. The variety of genres that they incorporated includes psychedelic, baroque pop, and folk-rock among others. It is important to note that the members had diverse approaches to their musical composition, which further enhanced the quality of their music, and this made them a favourite of music fans across the world (Womack, 2007, p. 79). Apparently, as Womack (2007)

Friday, September 27, 2019

Mormonism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mormonism - Essay Example Mormonism Later Day Saint Movement (LDS) or simply Mormonism is a Christian religious group founded by Joseph Smith. Smith claimed himself to be the God’s advocate through whom the Church would be re-established, because according to Smith, all other Churches had gone astray. Smith also claimed that he had several visions from God and that was the cause why he proposed to undertake this new mission. The cult, which claims to be the true church of Jesus Christ, has its own distinctive beliefs and texts different from those of Catholicism and Protestantism. The movement emerged during 1820s in America and gained popularity over the next few decades though later got split into new rather small denominations. According to the LDS statistical report (as cited in BBC Religion), the group has ‘13.5 million members world-wide’. Mormons’ belief about God is very much different from those of other Christian denominations. According to their doctrine, God is an exalte d man who has a physical body like any other human being. Even the human beings have the potential to attain this stature in afterlife. As described in the book of Gruss and Thuet What Every Mormon (And Non-mormon) Should Know, Mormon’s God consists of three distinct beings- collectively called Godhead- who are united in purpose, love and will (281-282). Among these three beings, God the Father is the all knowing Supreme Being named Elohim who created the whole world, for he has the absolute wisdom. The second being of the Godhead is Jesus Christ, who according to the Mormons, showed the perfect way of human life; and he is the first-born spirit child and biological child of the Father, and by whom Father performed the creation of the world (Gruss & Thuet 283). The creation is a process that is very similar to the act of a craftsman, for he did not create anything out of vacuum but perfectly organized already existing materials. Again, the Father himself is an exalted human w ho might have lived in another planet once, and who gained ultimate wisdom by closely adhering to the rules of his God. Jehovah, the God in the Old Testament referred to Jesus who later taught his disciples to live tighter for the common goal. Jesus died, got buried, and resurrected. Mormons’ Christ owns a physical body which neither limits his holiness nor prevents him from being God (BBC Religions). The third being that is Holy Spirit also is a unique being like Elohim and Jesus Christ. The only difference is that he is spirit and has no body, but at the same time resembles man. Unlike other Christian doctrines, mormons’ Holy Spirit is not omnipresent. Although He can be present only at one place at a time, his power is so intense that spreads across the whole universe in no time. Holy Ghost is the being that inspires people to obey God the Father and the Son. All Godly experiences, ‘love, comfort, and affection’ are being transmitted through the Holy Gh ost (BBC Religions). With regard to spiritual life, Mormons give higher emphasis to sustainable growth in knowledge and understanding, which is only possible through ongoing scripture study and personal preparation. Like any other forms of belief, LDS also maintains temples and priesthood which play central roles in their ceremonies. The ceremonies, normally termed as ‘ordinances and covenants’ can be performed only in temples by a proper authority- priest. Among such ceremonies, endowment and eternal marriage are important. During endowment, one promises that one would lead a righteous life by closely following the God’s Commandments. Marriage is not a simple one-time event; instead it lasts for ever once the couples enter eternal marriage, which is often termed as a sealing. Through this covenant, a family, including the children born and yet to be born, gets the blessings to be united for ever. LDS temples are the holy houses where Jesus Christ is expected to come and dwell. Mormons worship Jesus as the Son of God and Savior. Like almost all other Christian denominations,

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Buddhist and christian view on evolution Research Paper

Buddhist and christian view on evolution - Research Paper Example Eventually, evolution of organisms over time leads to presence of a stronger and a more complex species. Darwin’s theory of evolution erupted a great deal of debate as it challenged traditional religious explanations of the world and nature (Boeree 26). His work encouraged further research into the concept of evolution and other unsolved mysteries of life at the time. Therefore, it is important to explore the evolutionary theory from various religious perspectives in order to understand how the theory fits in. this leads to extensive knowledge on the various impact evolution has on world religions and what the reactions are. As such, this paper focuses on the Christian and Buddhist view of the evolution theory. It is a popular belief in the world that man and all of nature was created by a sacred deity for whom all mankind ought to be grateful. This is evidenced in Christianity with enormous reference to the story of creation in the Bible. Everything in the world was created b y God and is still under control of God. However, the evolution theory serves to upset this belief at the expense of most believers who find it imperative to defend and preserve it. Among Christian scholars and believers, the evolution theory denies the role by God as the sole creator of the world while most scientific research ignores divine activity. This is achieved by the proposition of antitheist theories by renowned naturalists who suggest the existence of the world is due to a less explored scientific phenomenon. As such, Christians have always voiced their concerns on scientific theories that contradict the creation theory. The clergy and the Christian community have always united to call for the rejection of the naturalism theories based on philosophical, theological, and historical grounds. As a result, Christianity and the scientific community have always being at loggerheads with each other. To them, it is a violation of what is divine and contrary to the widespread beli ef of a powerful God who is capable of doing anything including creating. Universally, Christians fail to understand how God’s involvement in creation is recognized in events that lack scientific explanations while His overall role is ignored. This illustrates how meaningful divine action is shelved only do be adopted where gaps in human knowledge prevail and a scientific description is lacking (Miller 8). As such, naturalistic proposals such as the evolution theory serve to belittle divine action thus fuel conflict between science and the Christian faith. For instance, Christians and scientists differ on the role of pain, suffering, and death in the world. Among Christians, it is widely accepted that God exercises His sovereignty, transcendence, and providence with regard to natural evil that creates pain and suffering. On the hand, the scientific community readily accepts the theory of natural selection in which Darwin believed that all species had a common ancestor, but ev olved to survive due to the process of natural selection. Organisms that fail to adapt to their habitat do not prevail under the new environmental conditions and hence, cannot survive, which explains natural selection where only the strong and mighty thrive effectively. While the scriptures present the evidence of God’

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Contemporary China Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Contemporary China - Assignment Example Imperialist culture along with partially feudal culture has created a ‘reactionary cultural’ coalition against China's latest culture. This sort of ‘reactionary culture’ serves the imperialists along with the feudal class and should be removed. Unless it is eliminated, no fresh culture of any sort can be developed (Gamer, 2008). Chinese culture has slowly modified from the materialization of a capitalist economy within China; it is no longer a completely feudal but a partially feudal society, even though the feudal economy still prevails. The political powers of the bourgeoisie, the minor bourgeoisie, as well as the working class are the existing political forces, which have emerged and developed concurrently with this current capitalist economy. With no capitalist economy, with no bourgeoisie, the minor bourgeoisie, as well as the working class and without the political powers of these classes, the new culture could not have materialized.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

MASTER RESEARCH PROPOSAL Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

MASTER - Research Proposal Example The use of business intelligent applications will bring a smooth and easier data storage and retrieval of data hence being able to manage the increasing number of patients in hospitals (Avolio, 2013, pg53). However the difficulty in the application of business intelligent solutions in the health care is mainly because of how the data is collected, procedures used and the knowledge extracted. Moreover, the main aims of using this meth in any firm are to extract information related to customer satisfaction, performance measurement and profit maximization. The recent growth and development in the education systems have led to very high demand for the management, evaluation and accreditation of data management of health care institutions. Many institutions have been forced to adopt and try nonconventional solutions known for massive data management (Dept. of Industry, 1982). The use of new technology in this firm offers great different solutions. They include data warehousing, big data and businesses intelligent. However, this state of art and use of technology is being adapted and installed in many business industries so as to obtain the tailor-made solutions that are needed. The proposed model in that can be used in the health care institution would have a number of procedures that are related to progress of health care services (Cheney, 2011, pg34). This model would analyze the current procedures in decision making in all areas in the health care firm hierarchy and levels of hospital levels. This will help to provide the solutions needed by use the state of the art system in decision making. These key and vital decisions are made with reference to the reference benchmark for these requirements (Wright, 1996, pg42). Objective of this research is to explore the reasons for the lack of use of the new model of business intelligent in the healthcare institution. Some of the specific aims of this research entails establishing the benefits of installing

Monday, September 23, 2019

Answer the following question after reading Heart of Darkness Why does Essay

Answer the following question after reading Heart of Darkness Why does Marlowe lie to Kuitz's fiancee at the end of the Heart of Darkness - Essay Example The character Mr. Marlow, or to say the narrator, in the beginning of the story is projected as a protector of truth who tells a lie in its ending. Why Marlow decided not to tell Kurtz's fiance about her betrothed's final degradation require much in-depth knowledge about human psychology. The readers may be sympathetic towards Mr. Marlow as he was to rescue a resourceful person, Mr. Kurtz, who was ill in the dark forest of African Congo, but failed in his mission. At the same time arguments will arise about Marlow's hypocritical behavior when confronting Kurtz's fianc. Although, there may exist contradicting views about Marlow's behavior, it will be interesting to analyze the compulsions before him and interpret human nature in the outlook of Conrad. All the fictions are imaginary creations of literary artists, and writers have power to create disbelief and hold the reader into a satisfactory understanding of the plot. Though Heart of Darkness is termed as a travelogue, the element of imagination and literary creativity is also present in it. A good fiction offers the reader an exposure to good and bad characters that may have resemblance of people they know or come across in their own lives. Fiction makes sense when a writer tells a good truthful lie, and it successfully reproduces an event perfectly, which has never occurred to the reader. Once a writer is committed to tell the whole true lie and nothing but a completely true lie through their characters they can shape words to animate and convert into figures of people. For a successful writer readers are puppets in his hands and easily manipulated with their ability and creativity of white lies. Conrad has been successful in creating such elements in Heart of Darkness and it emerges a short but thrilling experience to the reader. The "Heart of Darkness," is considered as a travelogue and true life experience of Conrad, who was himself a navigator for many years. The readers are exposed to tricky situations and are carried away to illuminating mythological situations and dark inhuman activities with the skillful writing of Conrad. The story begins depicting Kurtz as an upstanding European who has been transformed by his time in the jungle-away from his home away from familiar people and food, and away from any community moral support that might have helped prevent him from becoming such a tyrant. Marlow is assigned to rescue this resourceful and knowledgeable person from the clutches of dark Africa. The factors compelling Marlow to decide not to tell Kurtz's fiance about her betrothed's final degradation requires much in-depth knowledge about human psychology. Marlow project himself as a protector of truth and hated world of lies. Marlow makes his feelings about lying explicitly through his words "You know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. There is a taint of death, a flavor of morality in lies, -- which is exactly what I have and detest in the world-what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick" (p.49-50). These words show that Marlow does not approve telling lies and it makes him miserable. His harsh words "not because I am s

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Has Apple done enough to help Foxconn workers Essay

Has Apple done enough to help Foxconn workers - Essay Example 12 on Apple products manufactured in China; there has been mounting criticism of labor malpractices in the manufacturing processes, leading to conduction of investigations by international labor groups into companies which contract to make Apple products. The makers of iPad have specifically largely been criticized for a number of labor related problems, some of which are quite serious in nature (Andrzejcyzk, 2015). Thus the workers who toil night and day at manufacturing plants in China to ensure that Apple customers are satisfied, usually do so under harsh working conditions including work hours beyond the 8 hour day, forced overtime as well as other health and safety risks(Chang, â€Å"Audit Faults Apple Supplier’s Factories in China†).Foxconn Taiwanese company is Apple’s key supplier for the iPad and employs over I million people there. In March 2012,Fair Labor Association(FLA) conducted research(almost 3,000 hours at 3 of the Foxconn factories) and found the following; that the average work week was 60 hours with 36 hours overtime for the month at all the Foxconn manufacturing sites, some employees did not have a single day off for the entire work week, with several employees logging in a 7 day work week before they got a day off, over 60% of employees surveyed claimed that their pay did not cover enough to â€Å"meet basic needs† .A group called Students and Sc holars also compiled a report in May 2012 against Corporate Misbehavior(SACOM).The report derived its content from interviews conducted with factory workers and supervisors in Shenzhen and Zhengzhou, China. The SACOM report cited that while the company increased wages, it also increased production quotas by some 10%.Moreover the living conditions were described as being â€Å"cramped and unpleasant† with at times as many as 30 workers sharing space in an apartment with just 3 bedrooms (Musil, â€Å"Foxconn Working Conditions Slammed by Workers Rights Groups†).Te employees were also strictly warned not

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Prevalence of One Party Rule in African States Essay Example for Free

Prevalence of One Party Rule in African States Essay Africa, often known as the ‘Dark Continent’ rightfully occupies its place as the ‘Cradle of Civilization’ as the first humans have been known to originate from this continent of diverse ethnicities, tribes and clans. Since ancient times, the very nature of African society predicated formation of kingdoms and states centered on ethnicities and clans. Later, the advent of colonialism brought to Africa new forms of governance, which included democratization, socialism, communism and dictatorships. One enduring feature of African style of governance has been the prevalence of one party rule in most African countries. This paper examines why there is such a preference for such single party model of governance in Africa. To fully examine the subject, this paper shall first provide a historical overview of the progression of styles of governance in Africa and then examine the trends in major countries that make up the African continent. The paper will argue that the intrinsic nature of the African society and the effects of colonialism predispose them to following a one party rule. Historical Overview Africa is the world’s second largest continent both in terms of size and population and has 54 countries many of which are struggling democracies, a few communist regimes, and a number of authoritarian regimes bordering on dictatorship. Since ancient times, Africa had its indigenous systems of governance based on tribes and ethnic affinities. Africa also had great civilizations like the Egyptian civilization in 3300 B. C (Martin OMeara, 1995, p. 79). The earliest foreign influence came in 814 B. C. with the founding of Carthage in present day Tunisia under the Roman Empire which was followed by Persian domination of Egypt. In 332 B. C. , Alexander the Great replaced the Persian domination of Egypt and Roman rule continued in much of North Africa till the advent of Islam in the early 7th century (Martin OMeara, p. 99). In all these cases, the style of governance was centralized, as exercised by the emperor based in Rome or Persia through an appointed sovereign. The influence was limited mostly to North Africa, while the rest of Africa was considered too difficult to traverse due to thick jungles. Thus even in North Africa, from ancient times, the focus was on one –man rule and that more or less ‘conditioned’ the North African people to accept models of ‘uni-power’ in those times. Since the jungles were impassable and large number of tribes and ethnicities abounded, it was natural that rest of Africa had thousands of small kingdoms, states and at times independent nomadic tribes who dominated a particular territory. Each tribe had its own set of rules, customs, traditions and styles of governance, which again was predicated on the rule of one man or a tribal elder. The concept of Greek ‘city-state’ like democracy complete with a senate and an executive was non-existence. Over time, some of the tribes became more powerful and evolved into larger settled kingdoms that coalesced around similar ethnicities and language such as the Ghanaian empire that existed in 790-1076 A. D. followed by the Mali Empire from 1230 to 1600 A. D. (Martin OMeara, p. 70) The significant changes in style of governance came with the advent of colonialism. From the 18th century and by the late 19th century, most of Africa was divided up between the colonial powers; France, Britain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Netherlands. Under colonial rule, the African people had to undergo centralized rule of the colonial powers and the brutal suppression of any African revolt reinforced this submissiveness to a one-man rule. During the colonial period, the colonial powers brought with them their systems of governance, jurisprudence and legislation (Martin OMeara, p. 8). Colonialism lost its vigor in the early 20th century and by 1980, most ex-colonies in Africa gained independence. The former colonial powers before exiting from the continent tried to put into place systems of governance in ‘their own image’. Thus across Africa, a variety of ‘democratic’ systems took hold. Most of these ‘democratic systems were basically presidential forms of government, being the closest approximation to what they were used to both as per their pre-colonial experience and their colonial experience. The end of the Second World War gave rise to the Cold War and the Soviet Union tried to expand its influence in Africa also. This gave rise to numerous socialist-communist regimes in Africa that were opposed by the U. S. leading to proxy wars. Having examined the broad trends of the historical period of Africa till the advent of independence, the paper will now examine specific examples of how prevalence of one party rule exists in Africa. It is not intended to cover all 54 countries, but few sample countries that typify the various regions of Africa. For the ease of comprehension and brevity, Africa will be discussed under the heads North Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa. North Africa North Africa because of its proximity to Asia had significant influence of Asian and Islamic traditions superimposed on ethnic African traditions and cultures. It is because of the spread of Islam in the 7th century, most of North Africa is Islamic. Islam, an egalitarian religion is considered as a complete body of work wherein all aspects of human life including politics and governance can be practiced through the Quran, the Holy book and the Hadith, the Islamic interpretation of Jurisprudence. Under Islamic law and Islamic political systems, an Islamic state is governed by a Caliph and where a Caliph no longer exists, then by a monarch or a ruler. Ideas such as secularism and democracy have very little congruence with the practice of political Islam. When such a system is overlaid over ancient tribal culture of a village head, it becomes natural that a state be ruled by a monarch or an authoritarian head and if not, the nearest approximation, a single grouping or party. Take for example, Egypt. Egypt, since ancient times was a land ruled by the Pharaohs, then the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans and the Arabs. In the colonial era, Egypt was ruled by Britain but the largely Islamic populace got independence from Britain in 1922 (Pateman El-Hamamsy, 2003, p. 28). Egypt was initially a constitutional monarchy and had adopted the British parliamentary system of government but constant political interference from Britain led to internal turmoil that finally resulted in a military coup in 1952 (Pateman El-Hamamsy, p. 28) in which the monarchy was overthrown and Egypt declared itself to be a Republic under General Muhammed Naquib. Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew Naguib in 1954 to become the Egyptian President. Nasser, on assuming power banned all political parties and created a one party named the Liberation Rally to run the government. This move helped him consolidate his power and rule Egypt till his death in 1970 after which he was succeeded by Anwar El-Sadat, the vice President (Pateman El-Hamamsy, p. 29). Sadat carried out political reforms and reverted to a multi-party system (Pateman El-Hamamsy, p. 31); creating one of the parties called the National Democratic Party and remained the President till he was assassinated in 1981 by a group of Egyptian army officers during an army parade (Pateman El-Hamamsy, p. 29). Sadat’s successor, Hosni Mubarak is still in office since 1981 and is the present leader of the National Democratic Party. Though by the Egyptian constitution, multi-party system is allowed, due to sustained state patronage, the National Democratic Party is the only party which has the necessary financial and political clout to win elections. There are other smaller parties that have virtually no chance of winning a single election and till to date Egypt is essentially ruled by a single party. Libya, a British colony was declared as a monarchy under King Idris in 1951 but was overthrown by a revolution led by Colonel Muammer al-Gaddafi in 1969 (Wright, 1981, p. 130) who has ruled the country ever since. Political parties were banned by Gaddafi in 1972 and the country is ruled by the ‘revolutionary leader’, Gaddafi aided by a Revolutionary Committee also called as the People’s Congress. Tunisia was a French protectorate that became independent in 1956 and adopted a Presidential form of government, copying the French model, except that it rapidly turned into an authoritarian police state where most ‘Presidents’ have been military personnel. The present incumbent, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is a former military officer (Perkins, 2004, p. 7). On paper, political parties are allowed but in reality, it is only the President’s party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally that gets almost all the seats. The rest of the political parties are usually browbeaten into submission by the state’s security system and there is virtually no free press. The farcical nature of Tunisian ‘democracy’ can be gauged by the fact that in the 2009 presidential election, Ben Ali received 89. 62% votes to continue as the President (Lowe Amara, 2009, p. 1). The ancient kingdom of Morocco, a French and Spanish Protectorate gained independence in 1956 as a constitutional monarchy, a system that continues till to date. Though the King of Morocco has a prime minister, a parliament and a multi-party system, the style of governance continues to be rule by one man, the King (Forum, 2008, p. 49). West Africa In West Africa, the situation is slightly different. Here more than Islamic influence, it was the effect of local dynamics, ethnic rivalries, Christian missionaries and communist influence that has determined the preference for single party rule. Take for example Liberia, the only other country other than Ethiopia which has an American connection rather than a European past. Liberia was created through a private American enterprise to house freed African American slaves and became independent in 1847. Since, the project was American led; Liberia adopted a presidential form of system. However, the American backed Liberian elite who ruled the country came in conflict with 16 other indigenous ethnicities living in Liberia. Since the regime was thrust ‘top down’ from the Americans, tensions quickly developed and a coup by a group of ethnic military soldiers led by Samuel Doe took place in 1980. Doe replaced the presidential republic with his authoritarian regime. Political parties were allowed to exist but their freedom remained curtailed by the regime which furthered the hold of its own party, the National Democratic Party of Liberia. The 1985 election results in which the opposition Liberal Action Party won were declared invalid by Doe, which led to the Liberian Civil War in 1989. Doe was killed and the power passed into the hands of Charles Taylor (Moran, 2008, p. 106), who continued his dictatorial regime which again led to another civil war in 1999 that continued up to 2003 and only came to halt with Charles Taylor being forced into exile in Nigeria. From 1847 till 2003, Liberia was ruled by the Americo-Liberian elite and their single party. Since 2003, a transitional government was put into place with international intervention, which because of corruption was dissolved and fresh presidential elections were again held in 2005 and was won by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the head of Unity Party who became the first woman President of an African country (Polgreen, 2005, p. 1). Nigeria got its independence from Britain in 1960 and had numerous political parties. These political parties were sharply defined along ethnic lines comprising of three main ethnicities; the Hausa, the Igbo and the Yoruba (Rotberg, 2007, p. 19). The Yoruba dominated Nigerian National Democratic Party won the elections in 1965, which led to political dissensions and instability resulting in two military coups in 1966. This did not resolve the problem as the Igbo, dominating the Eastern region of the country declared independence from Nigeria leading to the Nigerian civil war 1967-1970 that led to over a million deaths. The civil war ended but not the ethnic strife and the military continued to rule Nigeria with coups and assassination of the presidents being a regular feature. For thirty years, Nigeria continued under military rule till 1999 when it finally elected Lusegun Obasanjo, a former military dictator as its President. Obasanjo was re-elected in 2003 (Rotberg, p. 13) as the President amidst allegations of rigging. Obasanjo was replaced by Umaru YarAdua of the People’s Democratic Party in 2007 and on his demise now been replaced by Goodluck Jonathan (Nossiter, 2010, p. 1). So while the American model was adopted, the actual functioning of a presidential type of government has been a recent development in Nigeria’s history. At present there are two main parties in Nigeria, the ruling People’s Democratic Party and the opposition All Nigeria People’s Party with numerous smaller parties. What must be noted is that a democratic political system in Nigeria is still nascent and fragile and should ethnic differences arise again it will not be long that another military coup will take place in the interests of ‘national security’. Angola became independent in 1975 after having been a Portuguese colony from the 16th century. Angolan independence came right in middle of the Cold War where Soviet influence in Africa was rising. The independent country was immediately plunged into a civil war between the Soviet backed Communist MPLA faction and the American backed anti-communist UNITA rebels (Sheehan, Yong, Lin, 2010, p. 38). The Angolan civil war continued for 27 years (Sheehan, Yong, Lin, p. 43) till declaration of ceasefire in 2002 by which time over 500,000 people were killed. The ideological factions had an ethnic base too wherein the MPLA comprised basically Angolans of the Kimbundu clan and the UNITA, the Ovimbundu tribe. Presently, the Communist MPLA holds power in Angola. As can be deduced, this being a communist regime with no legitimacy, the concept of political parties in a democratic system does not apply. East Africa East Africa including the Horn of Africa portrays a region of extreme instability with a few deceptively stable nations. Sudan, the first country being analyzed, after gaining independence from Egypt and Britain in 1956, was gripped by a civil war till 1973 (Barker, 2008, p. 16). This civil war was basically because of ethnic differences between the people of Northern Sudan (Islamic of Arabic lineage) and Southern Sudan (non-Islamic of non-Arab lineage). While the civil war raged, Khartoum was ruled by the Sudanese military. A ceasefire in 1973 negotiated through granting autonomy to Southern Sudan kept the peace till 1983 when the military general, and the de-facto President, Nimeiry unilaterally decided to incorporate Southern Sudan into a federation. The civil war continued (Barker, p. 18), Nimeiry was ousted in 1983 and replaced by a democratic government under Prime Minister Al Sadig Al Mahdi which was not recognized by the Sudan’s People Liberation Army (SPLA) of Southern Sudan. Civil war continued anew. In 1989, Colonel Omar al-Bashir over threw Prime Minister Al Mahdi, abolished political parties and established an Islamic code on entire Sudan. Al-Bashir formed the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation and allied his group with National Islamic Front to consolidate Islamization of firstly, Northern Sudan and then the rest of the country. In the subsequent military action by the Sudanese army, the SPLA were defeated in Southern Sudan by 1994. Having achieved consolidation, Bashir dissolved the revolutionary council in 1993. In the 1996 election Bashir declared himself to be the only candidate eligible to run for President. All other political parties were disbanded and Bashir converted Sudan into an Islamic state with single party at its helm – the newly created National Congress Party (NCP). Meanwhile, Bashir unleashed a brutal war of suppression on the non-Arab ethnic minorities in the Darfur region using proxy militia known as the Janjaweed that has resulted in deaths of over 400,000 Darfuris (Kessler, 2005, p. 1) leading to an indictment of Al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and genocide. At the tip of the Horn of Africa lies the failed state of Somalia where no functional government exists. Somalia was never formally colonized by any power and had come under a variety of influences ranging from Islamic influence during the Ottoman Empire, Fascist influence under Mussolini’s Italy and then British military administration from 1941 that was replaced by the formation of a republic of Somalia in 1961 with a parliamentary form of government (Lewis, 2008, p. 33). This brief democratic interlude was shattered in 1969 when President Shermake was assassinated and replaced by a military government. The military created the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party in 1976 and ruled the nation till 1990. Meanwhile, various Islamic factions and clans grew in size and potency that overthrew the military government leading to a series of skirmishes through the period, 1990-1991. The long standing military dictator, Siad Barre was ousted in 1991 and President Ali Muhammed was installed, yet the civil war continued. The UN Security Council approved the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) in 1992 that has since been replaced by UNOSOM II with no success. Presently, a Transitional Federal Government (Lewis, p. x)is the internationally recognized government of Somalia whose writ does not even run through the entire city of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. In the dismal narrative so far, Kenya appears to be a bright democratic spark in the African continent. After achieving independence from Britain in 1963, Kenya adopted a semi-presidential form of government albeit, with the peculiar African preference for single party rule. The Kenyan constitution mandated formation of only a single party in Kenya. Governments continued to be formed under the single party system until 1992 when electoral reforms were introduced to allow a multiparty system. The elections since then have been held in generally free and fair manner. The 2007 elections were marred by allegations of rigging in which the main opposition party, the Orange Democratic Freedom accused the ruling Party of National Unity for stealing the election. In the ensuing rioting, over 1000 Kenyans lost their lives (Raghavan, 2010, p. 1) and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Peace was restored through international mediation in 2008 and the country is presently being run by a grand coalition of members of both the parties under a new constitution (Raghavan, p. 1). Kenya’s relative stability is attributed to the British colonial era, where unlike the rest of Africa, the colonists set up educational institutions and government infrastructure. Also, unlike the other African countries, 78% of Kenyans are Christians while 10% are Muslims, 10% indigenous and the rest 2% are Asian immigrants (CIA World Factbook, 2010, p. 1). Central Africa In Central Africa, the Republic of Congo has been in the news for decades for all the wrong reasons. Congo received independence from France in 1960 and adopted the French presidential model of governance. However, the first President, Fulbert Youlou was ousted in 1963 by a military coup, which then installed a puppet civilian government (Rorison, 2008, p. 225) and also adopted communist ideology. In 1965, the Congo republic formally joined hands with the Soviet Union, firmly coming into the soviet bloc (Rorison, p. 226). This alignment did not bring about political stability as the original French democratic influence clashed with the ‘uni-power’ Soviet ideology leading to a series of coups and dictatorship under Denis Sassou. During his first spell of rule from 1979 to 1992, Sassou ruled Congo under a single party rule of the Congolese Labor Party (PCT) (Rorison, p. 227). When external pressures grew strong, he introduced multiparty system in 1990 and was defeated in the 1992 Presidential election. Sassou’s ouster led to a civil war between the supporters of Sassou and his competitor Pascal Lissouba. Sassou, a former colonel won the civil war and proclaimed himself as the President in 1997. In 2009, Sassou was sworn in for another seven-year period (Amnesty International, 2010, p. 1). In Congo’s case too, for most of its independent history, the country has been ruled by a single party and now despite a multi-party ‘democracy’ in place, the original political party, the PCT continues to rule the country. Southern Africa In Southern Africa, any discussion regarding Africa would remain incomplete without illustrating the case of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe, originally Rhodesia became independent after a violent struggle with the British in 1980. Throughout the period, 1965-1979, the country was engulfed in a civil war between British government forces and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) led by Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) led by Joshua Nkomo as also a number of smaller splinter groups (Raftopoulos Mlambo, 2009, pp. 141-165). In the 1980 elections, Robert Mugabe won by a wide margin but fighting with opposing parties and groups continued. The two main parties the ZANU and ZAPU fought bitterly until 1988 when ceasefire was declared and the two parties merged into ZANU-PF thus starting Zimbabwe’s slide into single party dominated system (Raftopoulos Mlambo, p. 179). Till to date the ZANU-PF has won every single election by force. Mugabe’s policies of throwing out the white farmers and forcibly occupying lands and giving it to the poor black resulted in economic sanctions by the West and a meltdown of the economy. Owing to his bad economic policies, hyperinflation struck the country and created political space for Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change to challenge him in the 2008 elections. The results were rigged but could not conclusively establish Tsvangirai’s claim of having won the elections. In September 2008, Mugabe maintained his power as the President by agreeing to share power with Tsvangirai who became the Prime Minister (Raftopoulos Mlambo, p. xxxii). Yet again, the single party rule dominates Zimbabwe. Finally, a discussion of Africa would be incomplete without examining its most prosperous and advanced state – South Africa. In South Africa, the colonial power, the Dutch did not relinquish their hold over the country and continued in the form of Apartheid, which was once again predicated on the dominance of a single party – the White minority party thereby conditioning the people of South Africa to rule by a single party. However, the violent suppression of the minorities could not continue indefinitely and ever since 1961, when South Africa left the British Commonwealth (Berger, 2009, p. 166) the white minority National Party faced constant protest from the black majority for equality. Till 1993, the National Party had banned other political parties (Berger, p. 166) and it was only in the face of sustained international pressure and internal struggle by the black and colored populations that the ban was lifted in 1993 and the African National Congress (ANC) led by Nelson Mandela was allowed to participate in elections. In Mandela, the South Africans found a charismatic leader who exuded the moral authority and statesmanship, which promised to build a future for the suppressed races. Mandela delivered on his promises but also led to consolidation of the ANC as the only party of choice for the people of Africa. The National Party chose to merge with the ANC and this yet again showed the propensity of Africans to prefer single party rule. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be reiterated that analysis of all the regions of Africa shows a remarkable similarity of circumstances that seemed to have shaped their preference for single party rule. The ethnic make up into tribes and clans were at the most basic level, the building blocks for adhering to the instructions of the clan leader or village headman. This obedience in turn was further conditioned by brutal colonial rule, where the colonial masters used every suppressive means to keep the Africans submissive. Suppression and exploitation itself became the rallying point for the African clans to unite and fight for their independence. Since most of the colonial powers only exploited Africa and did not build institutions, the succeeding indigenous governments had no infrastructural back up to employ their people or give immediate succor; naturally, the people fell back to tribal and clan loyalties as rallying forces. Since these points of opposition had to be formed clandestinely, they became sort of secret societies that formed oligarchic groups to fight for independence. On attaining independence the basic dynamics of the groups did not change and they continued as a closed ‘in-group’, which only heightened social inequalities and strife broke out in most cases. As democratic institutions had not been allowed to mature under the colonial period, people tended to cluster around the ‘village headman’, in other words, any leader with some charisma and since one institution that always has a clearly defined leader is the army, most governments became victims of military takeovers. The populace conditioned by colonial repression now became victims of military repression. Military forces needed a ‘democratic fig leaf’ to govern nations and so they set up political parties which were then headed by serving or former military officers to perpetrate the rule of a single party in the states. Parts of Africa that had predominantly Islamic influence adopted Islamic laws, which ideologically are not compatible with democratic secularism. Therefore, these countries by default became ruled by a king or a dictator or by a single party. Where the Cold War intruded the African political space, communist regimes under laid by African tribalism became the dominant feature. In these cases, the political ideology required the rule of the state by a single party. Later, when communist regimes fell, the old habit of single party rule lingered on. Thus the assertion that there is prevalence of one party rule in African states is emphatically proved. However, as can be seen from the examples of African states discussed, the hold of one party system is slowly changing. Multiple parties are emerging as the African people are becoming more aware of the wider world through the process of globalization. They are also realizing the need for multiple choices for governance as a panacea against corruption and despotism. So while the one-party prevalence in Africa may seem predominant at the present, political evolution of the African polity is taking place that will, in time transform into a more inclusive political process across the continent. References Amnesty International. (2010). Congo (Republic of). Retrieved August 11, 2010, from http://www. unhcr. org/refworld/country,,,,COG,,4c03a835c,0. html Barker, G. (2008). Sudan. NY: Marshall Cavendish. Berger, I. (2009). South Africa in World History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CIA World Factbook. (2010, August 3). Kenya. Retrieved August 11, 2010, from https://www. cia. gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ke. html Forum, A. P. (2008). An Audit of Police Oversight in Africa. Cape Town: African Minds. Kessler, G. (2005, April 27). State Dept. Defends Estimate Of Deaths in Darfur Conflict. Retrieved August 10, 2010, from Washington Post: http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042601397. html Lewis, I. (2008). Understanding Somalia and Somaliland: Culture, History, Society. NY: Columbia University Press. Lowe, C. , Amara, T. (2009, October 26). Tunisian President Wins Fifth Term in Office. Retrieved August 11, 2010, from Reuters: http://www. reuters. com/article/idUSTRE59P03M20091026 Martin, P. M. , OMeara, P. (1995). Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Moran, M. H. (2008). Liberia: The Violence of Democracy . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. Nossiter, A. (2010, February 9). Nigerian Parliament Names Acting President. Retrieved August 11, 2010, from New York Times: http://www. nytimes. com/2010/02/10/world/africa/10nigeria. html Pateman, R. , El-Hamamsy, S. (2003). Egypt. NY: Marshall Cavendish. Perkins, K. J. (2004). A History of Modern Tunisia . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Polgreen, L. (2005, November 12). In First for Africa, Woman Wins Election as President of Liberia. Retrieved August 10, 2010, from New York Times: http://www. nytimes. com/2005/11/12/international/africa/12liberia. html Raftopoulos, B. , Mlambo, A. (2009). Becoming Zimbabwe: A History from the Pre-Colonial Period to 2008. Harare: Weaver Press. Raghavan, S. (2010, August 6). Kenyans Celebrate Approval of New Constitution. Retrieved August 10, 2010, from The Washington Post: http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/05/AR2010080500525. html Rorison, S. (2008). Congo. Guilford: The Globe Pequot Press Inc. Rotberg, R. I. (2007). Nigeria: Elections and Continuing Challenges. NY: Council for Foreign Relations. Sheehan, S. , Yong, J. L. , Lin, Y. J. (2010). Angola. NY: Marshall Cavendish. Wright, J. (1981). Libya: A Modern History. Beckenham: Croom Helm Ltd.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Procter and Gamble Organisation and People Management

Procter and Gamble Organisation and People Management 1. Introduction: Procter and Gamble Company is a complicated organization which produces various products, and its ambition is to reach the taste of the consumer. PG began in the 1911, they first produced vegetable shortening. They were always in the state of innovation by producing every day a new product. The company was enrolled in a learning process to improve its products, so as to be more efficient than the previous years. They mainly follow three steps to be more successful. The first step was to make innovative needed products; the second one was to continue in producing the successful products with suitable quantities; the third is to have more capital investments to enlarge the company in the future. These three steps preserve the success of PG. Procter and Gamble (PG) is a multinational corporation with 156 branches distributed in more than 70 countries. There are three main development centers, the first center is in Germany which is responsible for developing paper products like Always and Pampers. The second development center, which is in Brussels, is responsible for detergents. The last center is located in the United Kingdom and it is responsible for soap and shampoo. Procter and Gamble (PG) environmental science department plays a unique role to ensure that their product are safe for the consumer and for the environment. Environmental safety is an integrated part of the quality that PG builds into each of its products throughout the world. Procter and Gamble Company are committed to producing superior quality of goods and to producing products to refine the worlds consumers. The companys actual performance could be deduced by looking at its 2009 Annual Report. Its worldwide net earnings for the year 2009 were 13,436 million dollar, which is 13.61% increase over the prior year. It has total assets of $134,833 million and liabilities of $71,451 million. PG has been paying a dividend for 120 consecutive years since its incorporation in 1890 and has increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years at an annual compound average rate of approximately 9.35%.This is an evidence of how much consumers demand PGs product and how this initiates the company to develop 300 brands to satisfy five billion consumers all over the world. Alan G. Lafley became chairman of PG in 2000, he made it clear that he wanted innovation across the spectrum-in how the company invents, markets, manufactures, and distributes its products. 2. Methods 2.1 Data collection methods We get the data from the documentary analysis of the PG which come from the website of the PG. The data is easy accessed in the internet. PGs annual plans are useful in the research. At the same time, we keep contact to PG via emails. They give us information on the plan of the companys development. 2.2 Issues and challenges Biases different comments of PG in massive aspects, often find data from some organization within the PG. that circumstances may cause biases, which influence comments to become less objective and even flattery. It is significant to distinguish the information because possibly comments on one aspect could go opposite and cause dilemma. Detailed resource constraints it is not difficult to find general information about PG. However, it was not easy to search details and depth objections. Although, connecting PG for details may work, yet it cannot be certain that the opinions gained from PG are 100% objective and real. Collecting from dispersive information a majority of resources is dispersive. It means much time consuming and less efficiency. Also some information may mislead ideas to somewhere wrong. 2.3 Analysis Through the analysis of companys annual report, we know the performance of PG. according to the structure and culture of PG, we can forecast the development foreground. We evaluate the approaches to management and leadership. We use the view of a manager, trying to give out a better way. We are based on management principles and analysis the existing business model. PG has a unique pattern in the business management which was widely praised by consumers. 3. Business strategy, mission and goals 3.1 Introduction Three billion times a day, PG brands touch the lives of people around the world. This happens because PG provides branded products of superior quality and value to improve the lives of the worlds consumers. This results in leadership sales, profit and value creation, allowing employees, shareholders and the communities in which we operate to prosper. The Procter Gamble Company (PG) is a brand behemoth. The worlds first maker of household products courts market share and billion-dollar brands. Its business is divided into three global units: beauty, health and well being, and household care. It also makes pet food and water filters and produces soap operas. Some 25 of PGs brands are billion-dollar sellers, including Gillette Fusion, Always/Whisper, Braun, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Downy/Lenor, Folgers (which it reportedly plans to spin off), Gillette, Iams, Olay, Pampers, Pantene, Pringles, Tide, and Wella, among others. The above are supported by Robert N. Lussier(2009) The PG consists of over 138,000 employees working in over 80 countries. It began as a small, family-operated soap and Candle Company now provides products and services of superior quality and value to consumers in more than 180 countries. In PG, they are focusing their efforts on where they can make the most meaningful difference in both environmental and social Sustainability. Come from Andrea Redmonds (2010) research, their commitment begins with PGs Purpose, values and principles, in which Sustainability is embedded, and manifests itself in a systemic and long-term way. They try to make their company better. 3.2 Mission and goals In 2007, PG established five strategies for Sustainability and set goals to be achieved by the year of 2012. In March of 2009, thanks to the progress it had made so far and to emphasize their commitment to achieving even more significant wins, they increased each of the goals. The five strategies are as follows: strategy1 Products: Delight the consumer with sustainable innovations which improve the environmental profile of the products. Develop and market at least $50 billion in cumulative sales of sustainable innovation products, which are products that have an improved environmental profile. Strategy 2 Operations: Improve the environmental profile of PGs own operations. An additional 20% reduction (per unit production) in CO2 emissions, energy consumption, water consumption and disposed waste from PG plants, leading to a total reduction over the decade of at least 50%. PROGRESS (percent reduction per unit production) Since July 2007 Since July 2002 Energy Usage 11% 48% CO2 Emissions 10% 52% Waste Disposal 30% 53% Water Usage 13% 52% Strategy 3 Social responsibility: Improve childrens lives through PGs social responsibility programs. Enable 300 million children to Live, Learn and Thrive. Prevent 160 million days of disease and save 20,000 lives by delivering 4 billion liters of clean water in the Childrens Safe Drinking Water program. Strategy 4 Employees: Engage and equip all PGers to build Sustainability thinking and practices into their everyday work. Strategy 5 Stakeholders: Plan the future by working transparently with their stakeholders to enable continued freedom to innovate in a responsible way. Beside the five strategies, they have several goals on the market. 1. Designed to Matter In PG, they focus the Sustainability efforts on improvements that matter, to make the most meaningful impact they can. 2. Purposes, Values Principles PGs Purpose, Values Principles articulate their shared vision, a common set of behaviors and their beliefs about the business and its potential. 3.3 Marketing strategy Many people think that multi-brand strategy will result in a situation that internal competition happens, but P G believes that the best strategy is to compete with their own product. Gary Armstrong (2009) said this is because the market economy is a competitive economy, while its opponents to develop new products to share the market. As their challenge themselves and overcome their own, so that their products  brands may occupy a different market, in order to consolidate its leadership position. 1. Differentiated brands If P Gs multi-brand strategy to be understood as simply more brands, it would be wrong. Actually the pursuit of similar products, the differences between different brands, including features, packaging, promotion, etc., to form each brand distinctive, such as Procter Gamble brand strategy so that each brand has its own development, the market will not overlap, and it will not lead to market its brand in the consumer confusion. The words above are supported by Piero Morosini (2005) 2. Manufacture of USP According to the report, USP means unique selling proposition. It is proposed by the American advertising guru Rosser Reeves (said Brent Green 2006). Marketing theory: the core of its content: Advertising should be according to the characteristics unique to the consumer for rhetoric,  and allow consumers to believe that this feature is not available to others or others not mentioned. These features can bring tangible benefits to consumers. 3. Unique way: numbers brands in one organization As Michel Philippart (2005) and Hangzhou da Xues (1994) study, multi-brand strategy is very difficult to succeed. While a single image of the brand extension strategy to facilitate the unity of management, reduce marketing costs, easy-to-be customers to accept, but it is not guaranteed, because of a branding, the easy formation among consumers  fixed image, resulting in the customers mind-set is not conducive to the extension product. 4. Overall structure: The Procter Gamble Company (PG) is divided into three main worldwide units, which are household care, beauty and grooming and health and well-being (Marketing magazine: 2009). Every units report is sent to Susan E. Arnold, who has been promoted from vice chair of PGs beauty and health department to the position of president of global business units. The beauty care section is also managed by Susan Arnold. PG has restructured its hierarchy of top executives, who include Arnold, in order to meet the changing needs of their larger, more flexible and faster-paced global business. Lafley, who is the chairman of PG, announced that PG has nearly doubled its business since 2000 with the acquisitions of the Clairol, Wella hair care businesses and Gillette. The change in structure is designed to meet the needs of a larger business that is also developing new initiatives faster than in the past (Balendu: 2007). Initially, PG managed its international operations through an international division of foreign expansion, in the same manner many other multinational enterprises. A variety of products were identified to match national differences and preferences. Consequently, a portfolio, consisting of subsidiaries, run by country general managers was established. However, this management structure may result in two basic problems. Firstly, the cost of operating these subsidiaries is high, and secondly the ferocious autonomy of national subsidiaries prevented the global roll out of new products and technology improvements (Lin, 2008: 9). Therefore, PG needed innovation in the subsidiaries management structure. It concluded that the matrix structure, in which subordinates report to more than one superior (MacKenzie, 2002:22), is a better alternative for PG, as it allows authority to be kept at lower levels. However, most firms would have some difficulty implementing this Matrix structure into their organization because it is difficult to organize multinational activities through this complex structure. For example, dual reporting can lead to disagreements and confusion and a possible overlap of responsibilities. This may result in a loss of accountability and wastes time. Through time PG has been trying to optimize its structure. The current structure resulted in a culture within PG, which was viewed as slow, conformist and risk-averse (Lin, 2008:11). This led to a decrease in productivity and an increase in inefficiency in the organization. Moreover, these factors would slow down the decision making process and reduce the competitiveness of the company. Although, the management structure of PG seems imperfect at the moment. However, the Procter Gamble Company is still a giant in the area of consumer goods and the leading maker of household products in the United States. PG operates its business in over 80 countries around the world and has approximately 300 brands in more t han 160 countries (Answers.com: 2010). The matrix structure helps PG develop its global business structure into more specific areas. As a result, the company has become more flexible to change within market competitions and the different expectation of PG. The final stage of completing the innovation process of management structure is to transform the formal structure and responsibilities of the company. For example, the global business units of PG were established in order to manage product development, manufacturing and marketing of their respective categories all around world. Furthermore, global business service units were established to organize with the transactional activities such as Accounting, HR, IT, etc. Eliminating bureaucracy and increasing accountability is another main objective of structure change (Bartlett, 2004: Chp 4). The Procter Gamble Companys corporate structure has been mainly dependent on worldwide subsidiaries and merging. During this time of restructuring, PG has continued its active acquisitions pace. For instance, PG entered the European tissue and towel market through the purchase of Vereinigte Papierwerke Schickedanz AGs European tissue unit and added the luxury fragrance business of Giorgio Beverly Hills, Inc. In the same year, PG returned to the South African market following the lifting of U.S. sanctions. The company has altered its geographic management structure gradually. As a result, PG has divided its operations into United States and International, which is would now managed around four regions, North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe/Middle East/Africa (Answers.com:2010). According to an article on Answers.com, PG announced a new restructuring initiative in September 1998. A key factor of this restructuring was a shift from an organization centered around the four geographic regions to one centered on seven global business parts based on product lines: Baby Care, Beauty Care, Fabric Home Care, Feminine Protection, Food Beverage, Health Care Corporate New Ventures and Tissues Towels. PG has continued to restructure and adapt to different markets and different financial situation worldwide. According to a firm press release announcing the new structure, This change will drive greater innovation and speed by centering strategy and profit responsibility globally on brands, rather than on geographies (Answers.com: 2010). 5. PGs Culture: Culture plays an important role in any organization to run their organization well in this fast growing business world. According to Scheins theory of culture it is defined as A pattern of shared basic assumption that the group learned as it solved its problem of external adaptation and integration that has work well enough to be considered valid and therefore to be taught to new members as a correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problem(Scheins 1992,p12,italics altered). According to Schein organizational culture is the acquired outcome of group experience, as it is to a large extent unconscious. Schein considers culture to the three layer phenomenon. From figure 1 it is clearly seen that the organizational culture comprises of three layers first one is the artefacts, espoused values and underlying assumption. Artefacts Innovation culture is the mission statement of Procter and gamble organization in which they state that the consumer is boss, consumer should be the heart of all PG do from ideation stage through the purchase of the product. For example if 15 seconds with a deodorant or two minutes with a disposal diaper have made a small part of your life a little bit better then PG made a difference. PG policies made the company a unique one that respect of governments and law, respects in workplace and respect in the market place (annual report of PG, 2005). PG is a multinational company and it is widely spread geographically. They maintain open work system in lots of work places around the world. Executive offices do not have doors. Leaders do not have a secretary cordoning them off. All the offices on the executive floors at Procter and gamble are open the conference room is an open round space. They made it round as a small symbol of the new approach (Lafely .A, 2000 CEO of PG). Espoused values PG is having hierarchy of company ethics principles. PVP(Purpose, Values and principles), corporate policies, worldwide business conduct standards, operating policies/procedure/practices. For over 170 years PG purpose values and principles has been guiding the way they do business and it is shown in the fig 2 below. There purpose is to provide branded products and services of superior quality and values that improves the lives of the worlds consumer. PG lives with its people and values, they recruit the finest people in the world who built organization by promoting and rewarding people without regard to any difference related to performance. Lafely said that PG have been fortunate that some of this flexible multifaceted ethics exist in our heritage. For example Procter and Gamble pioneered a technician based system in its manufacturing plants during the 1960s and 70s. In this system they avoided the approach in which one person assigned to do only one job. The technician system still operates today. To get the highest evaluation rating in PG factory, you learn how to do all the jobs on line and once you have that rating, company expect you to be capable of problem identification, problem solving, and innovation. This background has made it easier for us to plug manufacturing and engineering in to the innovation culture. PG CEO Lafely said in one conference that once people in our organization have succeeded at innovation you can see the energy in the company changing. People routinely says that we can do this is feasible and the change of attitude of the people in PG is incredible to watch. Integrity, leadership, ownership, passion for winning and trust are the main asset values of PG. By considering purpose and values they made their principles like the show respects for individual, interest of the company and individual are inseparable and innovation is the cornerstone of PG success. These are the officials objectives which had been espoused by the company he ad and it is common for PG organization all over the world. Fig 2 PVP of PG 2003 sustainability report Underlying Assumptions It consists of unconscious, taken for granted beliefs, perception, thoughts and feelings. PG are having problem relating to external adaption and internal integration. PG keep refining their products, launch model from ideas, to prototype, to development, to qualification and to commercialization. Applying this sequential practice on large scale and replicate them does not mean to eliminate judgment, thats why PG needs active leaders and a strong innovation culture. Therefore PG introduces the inclusive culture for leaders and they expected to build inclusive work environment that welcomes and embraces diversity an environment where people feel comfortable. Forced diversity training/learning process are utilized to equip leaders to values and nurture difference in management experience, style of leadership and problem solving approaches. By analyzing the PGs culture it is seen that PG is having a strong and dominant culture and that culture follows in every part of the world. Innovation is the main theme of PGs success and to bind organization culture together. 6. PGs management leadership: Innovative Management and Leadership of PG When we observe organizations and try to classify, we tend to classify them in terms of their success and describe them as highly successful, successful, struggling to succeed or unsuccessful. There are certain factors influencing their success. Management in the organizations has to perform some functions like planning, organizing, staffing, directing, leading and controlling for success. Management consists of implementation of the vision and strategy provided by leaders, coordinating and staffing the organization and handling day-to-day problems. By Koontz and Weihrich management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals work with such performance for optimizing efficiency in reaching goals. HENRI FAYOL identified the main operations in business management- technical, commercial, financial, security, accounting and administration. The administration function he further subdivided into organizational, coordinating, commanding, controlling and purveyance. The purveyance further included the concepts of forecasting and planning.  [i]   PG was facing certain disadvantages using the Henri Fayol method because it was not an empirical but more theoretical. Moreover PG wants to be innovative and wants to differentiate products not just by formulation but also by design. So they adopted the Cooper-Kleinschmidt study of innovation method which was based on the triangle process. The Innovation Diamond in Exhibit 1 began as a triangle process, Resources, and strategy the result of a 1990s Cooper-Kleinschmidt study of innovation across a Broad range of businesses.4 Procter Gambles management in the 1990s subsequently transformed the triangle into their Initiatives Diamond, shown in Exhibit 2.  [ii]   The Innovation Diamond is introduced as an integrative and guiding framework to help management focus on whats important to success: innovation strategy, a solid idea-to-launch process, portfolio management and the right climate and leadership. PGs Initiatives Diamond serves as a guide for each businesss product innovation efforts, and helps to focus managements attention on what is important to success. Heres what Bob McDonald, PGs Vice Chairman of Global Operations, says: The Initiative Diamond played a significant role in improving the business results in PGs Fabric Home Care global business unit. This work brought us a new discipline to manage our innovation programs, and yielded a major increase in the in-market success of our initiatives. We aligned our organization on how to use Stage-Gate ® success criteria and portfolio and resource management to deliver better innovations for the consumers we serve.  [iii]   The top half of PGs diamond in Exhibit 2 is strategic in nature, and captures the businesss product innovation strategy: goals, the mix of new products required to meet those goals, and the required resources. Portfolio management (or project selection) is thus closely connected to strategy. The bottom half of the diamond is more operational and focuses on delivering specific new product projects or initiatives: what resources must be put in place for each project; and how individual new product projects are managed so they succeed using PGs idea-to-launch SIMPLTM Methodology? Thus how the PGs business success has been generated through focusing on effective innovative Management. Peter F. Drucker says Leadership is the lifting of mans vision to higher sights, the raising of mans performance to higher standard, the building of mans personality beyond its normal limitation. Alan Bryman offers the working definition of leadership as: the creation of a vision about a desired future state which seeks to enmesh all the members of an organization in its net. Many commentators trait spotting approach to ;have argued or assumed that the performance of an organization depends on the quality of leadership exercised by its leaders, same is the case with PG organization and its leaders. The single most enduring thing PG leaders can do is to identify develop our next generation of leaders. If we can get the right people with the right skills and experiences in place to run our business, the rest will take care of itself-By Lura Mattimore, Director, Leadership development PG. So the leader is someone who exercises influence over other people leading is a process of actuat ion. It provides an electrifying effect to the organization makes people action-oriented and bridges gaps within the organization. Distribution of work, delegation of authority and supervision of work should be done meticulously. There are various approaches to leadership such as trait spotting, style counseling, content fitting, New leadership. PG uses the trait spotting approach to leadership. PG leaders are built from within because they believe that their future success is entirely dependent on the ongoing strength of talent pipeline. So the first trait spotting in PG is done by PG leaders itself who select the next leader of the company by searching a quality of dedication towards the work. PG leaders are not born leaders at first they are just the ordinary people of the company. For PG people are the company most important asset. Their success depends entirely on the strength of the talent which they build from within manage with a disciplined process led by the CEO the senior leadership team. This is an essential element of how PG is designs to lead. Thus PG develop leaders purpose is to centre on improving more consumers lives in more parts of the world more completely. Thus PG uses two dimensional style of leadership because it concerns for the production as well as for the people. People are the main asset of PG and for production they always wanted to get differentiated by their innovation method. Thus PG uses the two dimensional style. (Blake Mouton 1964) According to the Likerts there are four leadership systems: Exploitative Autocratic Benevolent authoritative Participative Democratic Democratic leaders have complete confidence and trust in their subordinates, they allow the subordinates to make decision for themselves; these types of leaders always motivate their subordinates by reward for achieving goals and to share the new ideas and opinion. PG uses the democratic type of leadership system. They believe that building their organization from within, by promoting and rewarding PG people whom they value and consider them as their most important asset because of their faithful work excellent performance. Procter gamble respect all individual, consumers and their human resource offer them their trust on condition that they treat them similarly. PG also uses servant type of leadership because they always feels that the customers are the boss .And in servant leadership, leaders put the needs of their followers first. According to the John Adair Leadership is a social process in which one individual influences the behavior of others without the use or threat of violence. Below is the example of how the innovative product is developed under the innovative leadership of PG, which shows some relationship between leader and follower of the PGs. PG crank up on one on one consumer research, so the marketers of PG spend lot of time with the consumers in their homes, watching the way they wash their clothes, clean up their floors, diapers their babies and asking about their habit and frustration. So based on this one on one technique PG opened a diaper -testing centre right down the hall of their office, where moms watch their tots get undressed ,diapered , and measured every way by PG technicians in brightly colored smocks. So one thing the PG learn from this experience is that parents are frustrated by how long it takes their youngsters to be toilet trained. So thus based on the comments received from the parents PG launch their new innovative product in the line of pampers whose mission was to dry diapers to helping moms with babys development. Thus how the PG is always innovative in the way of leadership to find new products which improves their relationship with their followers, as the consumers are the main boss of the PG . 7. Future Aspects: Strategy improvement: Through analysis of P Gs multi-brand strategy we realize that many of the benefits of this strategy are clear, but it is very difficult to achieve in the market, they have to note that several aspects of business practice. According to Sanjay Tiwari (2000), they can make some improvement by the ways below. A company which operates a variety of brands must have the appropriate strength; the work of brand extension is complicated.  From market research to product launch, to advertising, every job has a large number of enterprises to spend manpower and material resources. In the specific operation, they must be through careful investigation, to find the product differentiation. The industries in which according to the specific situation of enterprises, such as Procter Gambles consumer products industry which with easy access to a successful multi-brand strategy.   Structure Improvement: The improvement of structures of PG possibility could be to have wholly autonomous temporary groups or teams that are responsible for an entire project, and are split up as soon as it is successfully completed. Teams are often not very good for decision-making, and they run the risk of relational problems, unless they are small and have a lot of self-discipline. Actually, team members still require a definite leader, which is indicated from decentralization. It means the separation of the organization into competing autonomous divisions. PG has various branch brands, and some in one subject. Competition between own brands may seems unreasonable. However, changing corporate structure may encourage positive challenges among PG. In addition, appropriate manipulating probably is required during the management process. On the other hand, some inefficiency brands or areas may better to be abolished for saving funds and decrease expenses. Decision- making is very crucial of this innovation, which is easy to regret if prediction is wrong. Various differences of brands among PG could be helpful and practical in different occasions. However, this improvement could go to the opposite and create unexpected situation because sometimes the market could be influenced by news in many ways. 8. References:

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Organizational Structure Article Review Essay -- essays research paper

Review The purpose of this paper is to briefly summarize the article, â€Å"The manager’s role in building an innovative organization†. I will give a brief description of the organizing function of management. I will also relate the concepts to Aearo Company, while including my recommendations based on the article. Summary The article discusses how organizations must change to survive in a competitive market. Companies must change how they gather information, implement the information, and support the employees that acquire the information. Gathering Information Management should use their employee’s ideas as a resource, not only because it is less expensive than outside information, but also it supports employee involvement. Using teams that include people from different divisions can increase communication and perception when pursuing a goal. Implement Information An organization that can make decisions faster, and change direction at the â€Å"drop of a hat†, is more versatile and will most likely survive longer. â€Å"Old time† decisions that were made by top management or a board of directors, could take a while to trickle down the ranks and actually be implemented in the process. Teams that are given the authority to make quick decisions can get things done faster, and are more responsive to the customer. Support the Employees   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  &n...

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Islam :: essays research papers

The Diffusion of the Islam in North Africa/Southwest Asia The North Africa/Southwest Asia realm has spread itself from the Atlantic shores of Morocco to the mountains of Afghanistan. Sometimes this part of the world is referred to as the Arab world. This realm is one the richest in the world of historical and cultural point of view. It has been the origin of three of four religions; Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The Islam is the major religion in the "Arab World", but along with it Christianity and Judaism take an important place. It is also a region of intense conflict basically on religious and cultural issues. The Islam started to spread out more than thousand years ago, A.D. 613, with the work of Muhammad the Prophet. This man began to receive messages from Allah and soon he started preaching among his people. The Islam could be interpreted as an improvement or revision of the Christianity and Judaism. In someway Islam brought to the Muslim world not only uniting religion but also a new set of values, understandings, a whole new way of life. After the death of Muhammad the Prophet the Islam continued to spread. The Arab armies were attacking, invading and conquering different parts of three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa. They converted to their religion wherever they went. About A.D. 700 the Islam reached North Africa and most of Southeast Asia. Centuries later it came to Southern and Eastern Europe, West and East Africa, South Asia and it reached even China about A.D. 1000. This spreading religion is a perfect example of diffusion processes, particularly spatial diffusion. The first center was at Medina in Arabia, but it was moved to Damascus and finally to Baghdad. The Islam was carried by any man of this religion, no matter if he was a child, soldier, teacher or even the sultan. Not only the Islam fit in the definition. Any new form in the fashion, in the music or in our culture that takes place in our live is a form of spatial diffusion. Almost every place, every city and nomadic community in the Arab world was touched by the expansion diffusion formed by the local nearness, which is referred by scientists as a contagious diffusion. High ranked people like sultans and kings also spread the Islam, which is hierarchical diffusion and this is only one of the various forms of hierarchical diffusion.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

The Tempest :: essays research papers

The Tempest was one of William Shakespeare’s last plays. Into it, he put his heart and his soul. The epilogue in itself carries enough emotional weight to fill an entire play. The scene where Ariel says that she would feel bad for the men trapped on the island if she were human (V. i. 20), if performed right, can be one of the most moving lines in the history of theater. The emotions in the play make the play extremely hard to perform. It is one of the most difficult stage plays for the audience as well as the cast to interpret, but isn’t impossible with a good director, cast, and crew. If a play is not staged well, the audience may have a hard time understanding it. In The Tempest there are many scenes that are extremely difficult to stage. For example, in Act III Scene 3, there is the stage direction, "Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet; and dance about it with gentle actions of salutations." (Shakespeare, 57) Then, after the men decide to eat, "Enter Ariel, like a harpy; claps his wings upon the table; and with a quaint device the banquet vanishes." (Shakespeare, 58) How does one bring an entire banquet onto the stage and then in the blink of an eye, make it disappear? It is one of the greatest obstacles in known theater. The appearance of Caliban is something to be argued over. In some performances, he has been portrayed as a fish, in others a dog, in some a hunchback, but his appearance is an important part of the play. It is imperative that the audience hate him, be disgusted by him, for the emotions to work right. He has t o be depicted as abhorrent and lewd. This is another dilemma for the director, and the actor who plays Caliban has to be notably gifted. The spirit, Ariel, is of undefined gender, and this is also quite a difficult thing to portray on the stage, as one must choose, to a degree, the sex of the spirit. Also, the language, late sixteenth century English, is rather hard for the modern ear to understand without scrupulous study. Many words strange to those of the twentieth century were common, ever day words in Shakespeare’s time. The line, "You have often/Begun to tell me what I am, but stopped/And left me to a bootless inquisition/Concluding, ‘Stay! Not yet.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Philippines Essay

Aquino evoked the people of the phili to awaken their senses that freedom is possible. I guess it means that he was willing to die in order for the Filipinos to stand up to the Marcos dictatorship. He believed that Filipinos are worth dying for because he is the future of this nation. Ninoys death one incident that had brought so many changes in our society. It was the turning point because a few years later, Marcos was thrown out by a peaceful and popular revolt How would the Philippines look today, if it wasn’t for Ninoy’s love for freedom and for the people that he went against Marcos. Instead of putting our country at a battle, he chose to suffer long years of solitary confinement. Because he much value human life especially those Filipinos who would be sacrificed at the altar of revolution. we should also ask ourselves whether Ninoy’ death have made us worthy as Filipinos. In sacrificing his own life for Filipinos, Ninoy made the ultimate noble act nobody among us could ever repay. Death for the love of the country is the highest form of personal sacrifice only heroes are destined for. This is the land of our birth, the only place we Filipinos could truly call our home. If only, we understood well and took these words of Ninoy into our hearts and minds, †The Filipinos are worth dying forâ€Å", perhaps, our country would have been the greatest nation on earth. I think the death of Ninoy we were all to blame. If only we fought earlier for our freedom. Does it takes a mans life to be sacrificed for us to be awaken to the truth and fight for justice?

Opening Statement for State V. John Hudson and Dale Buckner

Case #1 State v. John Hudson and Dale Buckner (Charged with murder and attempted robbery) Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentleman†¦Todays trial will be on Felony Murder and Attempted Robbery. John Hudson and Dale Buckner are murderers. And the evidence of this case will show, that they have undoubtedly committed the crimes brought upon them and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.In accordance to the Penal Law, Murder in the first degree is defined â€Å"With intent to cause the death of another person, he causes the death of such person†¦ the victim was killed while the defendant was in the course of committing / attempting to commit in furtherance of robbery [or other such felonies. ]{ §125. 27(1)(a)(vii)}† This is also known as Felony Murder. Robbery is also defined as forcible stealing. On February 14th 2011 in a small clothing store owned and managed by Sidney and Sara Lazar, a very heinous crime was committed.Two average looking men wearing black leather jackets entered the store at approximately 3:15 pm, later to be â€Å"proven† to be John Hudson and Dale Buckner. When approaching the counter with a . 38 revolver in hand, the defendant demanded all of the money from the register. As the other man stood point at the entrance to the store. Mrs. Lazar let out a scream, produced from shear fear for her life. In doing so, Dale Bruckner responded â€Å"Shut her up Johnny† which resulted in Mrs. Lazar being brutally shot in the head, dreadfully causing death on impact.Soon after the gun went off, the two men fled the store and took off in a black Cadillac sedan. This left a deceased woman and her innocent husband at the scene of the crime in a pool of blood. Five minutes later Officer Reilly arrived on the scene and accessed the situation. With diligent research and a thorough investigation, the arrest of the defendants was reinforced by the owner ship of a . 38 caliber pistol, a newly registered black Cadillac Seda n as well as a previous criminal record from both of the defendants. I will call the prosecution’s witness Mr.Sidney Lazar to the witness stand to divulge the utter gruesome details of how his wife was shot in cold blood, in front of his very own eyes. I will also call to testify the prosecution’s witness and innocent bystander Richard Green to the witness stand. He will help us positively identify the defendants, and reinforce that the defendants did in fact commit the crimes charged, as he was the only eye witness that saw the defendants leave the scene of the crime. These two men witnessed the crime take place and are testifying that the two defendants did in fact kill Mrs.Lazar. Investigator Sam Reilly will also be called to testify, in that he was the first investigator on the scene. Shortly after the murder, Officer Reilly went to the defendant’s home at 2435 Damen Street, apt #2B and forced down Mr. John Hudsons’ and Dale Buckner’s door. Whi le at the apartment, Officer Reilly Recovered a . 38 revolver (matching the gun from the crime scene), a black leather jacket, and a newly registered Black Cadillac Sedan; which matched the description of the getaway car.Due to officer Reilly’s work, pertinent details of the defendant’s background and belongings have been brought to trial and will help us prove that the defendants did, beyond a reasonable doubt murder, and assist in murdering Mrs. Sara Lazar. Upon arrest, the defendant’s both refused to make a statement concerning the killing of Mrs. Lazar. Ladies and Gentleman, the defense; John Hudson and Dale Buckner claim that they were not at the scene of the crime on the fourteenth of February at approximately 3:15 pm.Conveniently two months after the incident, William Barr was interviewed by Investigator Albert LaRue and swore that he saw the defendants at â€Å"Sam’s Chicken Shack† at about 3:15 on the day of the murder. He failed to mentio n this until two months later. His failure to be expeditious about his alibi just proves his minute acquaintance to the defendant’s. Although Mr. Barr might not have a previous criminal record, he is blinded to the lack of moral aptitude held by the defendants here today. In addition to Mr.Barr’s testimony, a Pathologist will testify and will help us better understand the cause of death, of Mrs. Lazar. As well as a ballistic expert, will attest to the knowledge of the weapon used in this murder case and will help us verify that the . 38 caliber pistol was in fact the murder weapon of this case. In the course of this trial I will demonstrate that these two defendants did in fact commit the crime of murder and attempted robbery. The lack of morality expressed by the defendant’s actions will assist us in concluding with a verdict of guilty for these two men.I expect to prove that without a doubt these two men are in fact murderers. Those who perform such crimes wit h intent to kill someone, men of distaste, and men of disgust, men who lack a conscience, and can kill an innocent woman deliberately with no remorse. Once again, these men are dangerous; we must prove today that the evidence brought upon us will show in its entirety that John Hudson and Dale Buckner committed the crimes before them. These two men must face ramifications and should go to jail forever. Mr. Hudson’s previous conviction of aggravated assault and Mr.Buckner’s previous conviction of theft go hand in hand. Their previous crimes make a perfect match for the situation imminent. They will be punished and Mrs. Lazar’s death will not go overlooked. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury let me ask you, would you be able to sleep at night knowing that these two men are on the streets, and have the ability to commit such a crime once more? Would you feel safe having your kids walk to the ice cream store knowing that these killers could possibly be around the corne r just waiting for their opportunity to strike again?These men must be taught a lesson now, so these streets can be kept safe for the ones we love. Definitions †¢Robbery – is forcible stealing. A person forcibly steals property and commits robbery when, in the course of committing a larceny, he uses or threatens the immediate use of physical force upon another person for the purpose of: Preventing or overcoming resistance to the taking of the property or to the retention thereof immediately after the taking; or Compelling the owner of such property or another person to deliver up the property or to engage in other conduct which aids in the commission of the larceny. Murder -A person is guilty of murder in the first degree when: -With intent to cause the death of another person, he causes the death of such person or of a third person; and -the victim was killed while the defendant was in the course of committing or attempting to commit and in furtherance of robbery, †¢Homicide The deliberate and unlawful killing of one person by another; murder.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Behavioural Issues Within Budgeting Essay

Objectives of Budgeting Through budgeting organisations can provide information for strategic planning and control, these are the two main objectives of the budgetary control system. Management and management accountants must work together and operate a system that achieves these objectives, they do so through a system called variance analysis. Management accountants compare the actual results against the budgets; they then send reports to the management concerning the extent to which budgets are being met. Management can then control activities by making possible steps to stop situations where the budget is being ignored or overlooked. To meet their controlling and planning needs, management and management accountants adapt the feedback and feed-forward principles (types of controls). As well as feedback, budgetary systems consist of feed-forward controls, where expected outcomes can be compared with desired outcomes. A recent report Tayles (1998) suggests that, â€Å"†¦feedforward control consists of a prediction being made of anticipated future outputs. If the expected outputs differ from what outputs are desired, control actions are implemented to minimise these differences. Control is therefore, achieved, if the control actions are effective, before any deviation from the objective output occurs†. Feedback is the detection of a deviation between actual results and an objective; normally this is carried out after the event and is essentially error based. Research has shown that up to date, accurate feedback has a motivational effect, delay and inaccurate data are demotive. Most organisations adopt th ese controls, as they are effective and aid the pursuit of a budgetary control system. Target setting is another objective of budgeting and may possibly have motivational benefits. Setting targets that are realistic and clearly stated will encourage employees to make more effort to achieve it than they might otherwise do. However, the motivational effect of budgetary control is far from clear, as we shall see later in this report. In addition, there is no  point in having targets and controls if they are kept a secret. Through communication, organisations can enhance the level of information that flows from top management to employees (subordinates). These are just some of the arguments for budgeting. The rest of this report will concentrate on the behavioural issues in a budgetary control system. Behavioural Considerations When drafting and planning a budgeting system there are behavioural issues to consider as budgets can have implications for human behaviour and, budgeting can have harmful side effects on performance. There is a danger that employees will concentrate solely on the objectives set by the budget, regardless of whether or not it is organizationally desirable. This means that individuals would set out to exploit the rules of the budgetary control system to boost their individual performance, ignoring other areas not monitored by the control system. Drury (2000, p.600) found that â€Å"†¦actual behaviour may be modified so that desired results appear to be obtained, although they may have been achieved in an undesirable manner which is detrimental to the firm†. In addition, budgets may give management a means of judging the performance of their teams. It’s assumed that, the setting of performance measures should complement the setting of new strategies and objectives and the implementation of action plans for the organisation. However, that adherence to the budget alone cannot measure all aspects of a manager’s performance. Therefore, it is important that managers achieve their targets frequently enough to give positive feedback in their efforts. Another behavioural aspect to consider when introducing a budgetary control system is the controls set by the new system, as these may cause negative attitudes. A potential cause of negative attitudes is the way a control is applied, if targets are considered unachievable and applied too rigorously, they may cause negative attitudes. This may also lead to harmful side effects such as the lack of goal congruence and organisational performance. However, if care is taken in designing the control system negative attitudes may be avoided. Drury (2000, p.601) makes a similar argument, â€Å"The way that  a control system is applied can be just as important as the design issues in determining the success of a control system†. Importance of Behavioural Considerations in the Budgetary Process Participation Interaction of managers and employees or budgetees to the targets that are incorporated in their budgets is known as participation. Tayles (1998) suggests that, â€Å"†¦participation in the budget process and discussion over how results are to be measured has benefits in terms of budget attitude and performance of the budgetee†. This would be of an advantage to an organisation as employees would be more receptive of the targets and more committed to achieving them. In addition, the levels of staff morale would be greater than before. Participation can also improve communications and tends to improve the degree to which budgets are met. For example, participation creates a common understanding of the organisations objectives and makes achieving goals more likely. Communication Communication is a necessary activity in all factors of management and can be broadly defined as an exchange of information to bring about a mutual understanding between two parties. Welsch (1988) Defining or clarifying the lines of communication within an organisation can be a powerful aid in the construction of the budget. Communication can have an important part to play in the budgets objectives, targets and responsibilities throughout the organisation. Carried out properly, this can have considerable benefits in promoting co-operation at all levels. Therefore, in order for an organisation to wok effectively there must be lines of communication so that all parts can de kept fully informed of the part they are expected to play in achieving the budget. This aspect can have important behavioural implications throughout an organisation as the attitude of the person who receives the communication may be affected. Motivation By setting challenging but realistic targets, well-designed budgets can play a significant part in motivating managers and employees to perform in line with the organisational objectives. The targets must be clear and achievable, and the manager should participate in setting his or her own budget, as it is more likely to be acknowledged. Generally, it’s believed for budgets to motivate, higher objectives should be set. The levels of expected performance that are set influence the motivation of managers responsible for target achievement. If levels are set too high, then there is a strong disincentive to management involvement in the budgetary process, and a low level of motivation. It levels are set too low, then managers can achieve targets easily despite inefficiencies. This is known as budgetary slack. Setting appropriate levels of attainment in budgets is a complex and difficult activity with an important behavioural dimension. Therefore, it can be said that motivation is a process of arousing and sustaining goal-directed behaviour induced by the expectation of satisfying individual needs. Goal Congruence Goal congruence means that as people work to achieve their own goals, they also work to achieve the goals of the organisation. Nevertheless, there is a danger that employees will concentrate only on what is been monitored, leading to a lack of goal congruence. Focused on preventing this undesirable behaviour and encouraging goal congruence is controls, for example, action or behavioural controls. Action or behavioural controls involves managers watching employees as they go about there work and if the managers know what actions are desirable (or undesirable) the desired outcomes will come about. Performance measures may be used as a good indicator of what is desirable to achieve an organisations goals and some measure may encourage goal congruence or organisationally desirable behaviour. For this to be effective management must also ensure  that desired actions are taken. Goal Definition A further use of budgets is as a basis for setting performance standards and rewards, for example, bonus, status or enhanced promotion prospects are often linked to budget attainment. This may be defined as a process theory of motivation that focuses on the process of setting goals, Emmanual (1992). It is argued that the natural human preference to set and strive for these goals is useful only if the individual both understands and accepts a particular goal. Therefore fundamental to goal attainment is: *an understanding and acceptance of a particular goal (goal congruence) *skills to achieve the goal *confidence that they have the skills to achieve the goal *a reasonable expectation of achieving that goal People work more efficiently when they have goals and targets. Therefore, if the targets are agreed and accepted by individuals, they should achieve goal congruence and motivation. Conclusion It will be apparent from this report that budgets serve various purposes and in some cases, these purposes can be in conflict and have a consequent effect on management and employee behaviour. Nevertheless, if controls are put in place that focuses on preventing undesirable behaviour, employees of an organisation would be discouraged from taking part in such actions. Budgets serve as a means of forecasting, planning, control and a channel of  communication and motivation. But, a good budgetary system should be designed to: *meet the objectives regarded as most important by senior management *provide information which is useful in meeting those objectives *Reduce the risk of unintended and undesirable behaviours. REFERENCES Drury, C. (2000) Management & Cost Accounting, 5th edition, Thomson Learning Emmanual, C. Otley, D. Merchant, K. (1992) Readings in Accounting for Management Control, Chapman & Hall Tayles, M. (01 Dec 1998) budgetary control – the organisational aspects Available at: www.acca.com [Accessed 7 April 2002] Welsch, G.A. Hilton, R.W. Gordon, P.N. (1988) Budgeting – Profit Planning and Control, 5th edition, Prentice Hall