Racial Prejudice

Racial Prejudice It Is human nature to want to feel accepted. Prejudice In the United States, specifically with Immigration has been a major Issue. Julie Toasts describes this prejudice in â€Å"Evacuation Order #1 9† which is about a Japanese-American family and the internment camps that affect them during World War II. However, prejudice is not only found in the United States. Marine Satraps writes about her experience as an Iranian during the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and her refuge in Austria to finish high school In the graphic novel â€Å"The Vegetable†.While â€Å"Evacuation Order #19† Is about exclusion and â€Å"The Vegetable† Is about acceptance, they both deal with the pre]delude associated with Immigration. It Is hard to compare apples and oranges, just as it is hard to compare a short story and a graphic novel. Regardless of the style of writing, the point of writing is to convey a message to the reader. Both do a pretty good job of showing t he difficulties of living in a foreign country, but Toasts describes the exclusion associated with immigration in a more powerful way.Evacuation Order #19†³ by Julie Toasts is about a Japanese-American family living In California In the spring of 1942. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor In December of 1 941 , rumors began spreading around the united States that Japanese- Americans were going to sabotage military efforts. President Roosevelt issued an order that would imprison nearly 120,000 people with Japanese ancestry. The characters in â€Å"Evacuation Order #19† are being affected by this order. The family had assimilated into the community before President Roosevelt issued the order.We understand that the mother has a friendly relationship with the store owner Joe Lund. Melee Glasses,' Joe Lund said the moment she walked through the door† (Toasts 381 This shows that the family assimilated Into the local society because the shop owner comments on something new he sees with her. Joe Lund even offers that the mother does not have to pay for the items she purchased from the store. The reader is led to infer that the family has been a part of the community for a long time and they are nice people that wouldn't do anything to harm the country.As the story concludes, we see that the family is being taken to â€Å"wherever It was they had to SGF' because of their race and the family cannot do anything about It. The exclusion that is imminent on the family is a direct result of racial prejudice. â€Å"The Vegetable† by Mar]Anne Satraps takes place in the late asses or early 1 sass in Vienna, Austria and is about her own life. Marine Is Iranian and living without her parents as she attends school in Austria. During the late ass, Iran was going through a large scale political and social revolution.The revolution became violent in many tuitions, In fact in January of 1978 students began to protest and many students died during the protes t. As a reader of â€Å"The Vegetable† we don't know the nationality of Marine until page 482 when she sees stories about Iran on the TV and she talks about her attempts to â€Å"make her past disappear† (Satraps 482). We do not really see her being excluded or treated differently because of her nationality by the other students. It seems that she does not accept herself as she is constantly changing the way she looks and that she smokes marijuana with some of the other students.As and makes the comment about trying to disappear. In the end when she proclaims she finally relinquished the prejudice that she put on herself. The exclusion Marine feels is because of her race but also because she put herself into a situation where she feels excluded. Both stories show that the characters are capable of assimilating into the new culture and by the end the stories, racial prejudice has an effect on their lives. Evacuation Order #19†³ shows very clearly that the character s are being excluded based on racial prejudice where The Vegetable† implies that part of the exclusion is because of other factors, and not necessarily her race. The reader develops a stronger emotional feel for Tossup's characters because you feel bad for the situation they are in. To truly understand how a character is feeling, one would have to look at the choices or decisions that the character makes. The characters in these two stories both feel excluded, and the actions that they decide to take, show the extent of the racial prejudice.Julie Toasts writes about a mother who spends the entire day caking her house before her family and she are taken away. The degree of racial prejudice that she felt caused her to have a very emotional day. Not only did she pack away all of her belongings, she had to put down their dog, release their bird and hide sentimental objects and after hiding her emotions as to not scare her children, she finally has one last moment in her home to re flect on her emotions. â€Å"†¦ And began to laugh – quietly at first, but soon her shoulders were heaving and she was gasping for breath.She put down the bottle and waited for the laughter to stop but it would to, it kept on coming until finally the tears were running down her cheeks† (Toasts 386). Her emotions took over and she lost control because of the racial prejudice and what it made her do. Marine in â€Å"The Vegetable† felt such a strong exclusion from her racial prejudice that she decides to lie about her nationality to a stranger at a party. She wanted to disappear from her past because she was tired of being Judged based on where she is from. After Marine proclaims that she is proud to be Iranian, she starts crying. But really, I had nothing to cry about. I had Just redeemed myself. For the first time in years, I felt proud† (Satraps 485). She felt so relieved that the weight of racial prejudice was no longer affecting her and she began t o feel more comfortable. The actions that the characters perform in these stories show the power that racial prejudice put on them. The mother's actions in â€Å"Evacuation Order #19† are a bit more extreme than Manner's actions in â€Å"The Vegetable† and because the actions are more extreme, the reader can't help but feel more empowered by Tossup's story.While both Julie Tossup's â€Å"Evacuation Order #19† and Marine Satrap's â€Å"The Vegetable† have powerful effects on the reader, Toasts writes a more powerful story. She effectively shows the exclusion caused by racial prejudice and the effect it had on families during this time. â€Å"The Vegetable† has a confusing message because we are not sure if the stress she feels is from racial prejudice or if it is because of a teenagers desperate desire to feel included where â€Å"Evacuation Order #19† has a very clear and strong message of racial prejudice that makes the reader feel for them more.

Differences in Business Practices in Islamic Countries Compared to the United States Essay

The purpose of this paper is to give professionals working in Islamic countries a better understanding of the business system in those countries. The Islamic world may be complex as its 1.3 billion people, but there is one rule is straightforward for all Westerners and should never be broken if you want to do business in this area. â€Å"One thing you do not bring up is the Palestinian-Israeli situation.† Advised Samuel L. Hayes III, an expert on Islamic finance and an emeritus professor of investment banking at Harvard Business School. (Lagace, 2002) Business people, particularly Westerners who work in this region of the world or do business with an Islamic business person, need to understand the extent to which religion and Islamic law are intertwined at all levels of society, including commerce, to greater and lesser degrees depending on the country. â€Å"This law is seen as deriving from direct, divine command.† Said Vogel. â€Å"This is important to grasp.† (Lagace, 2002) Keywords: Koran, Islamic Law, Islamic World When doing business within an Islamic country you must understand the basic tenets of the Islamic religion as it relates to commerce. Knowing this you will have an easier time abroad. Contracts should be fair to all parties. A partnership is preferred over hierarchical claims. (Lagace, 2002) Any type of speculation is prohibited. There is no gambling. â€Å"For instance, if you invested in an Islamic mutual fund, among those industries which would be barred from representation as funds would be the gambling industry. But gambling also relates to futures to currency hedging; so it’s a major situation that you have to be aware of† (Lagace, 2002) this is also found in the Qur’an. â€Å"O you who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, sacrificing to stones, and divination by arrows are an abomination of Satan’s handiwork. Eschew such abomination, that you may prosper† (Qur’an 5:90). Interest is prohibited. â€Å"Those who devour usury will not stand†¦.Allah has permitted trade and forbidden usury†¦. Allah will deprive usury of all blessing, but will give increase for deeds of charity†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Qur’an 2:275-6). â€Å"O you who believe! Devour not usury, doubled and multiplied. But fear Allah, that you may really prosper† (Qur’an 3:130) this isn’t always practiced, but it is the theory. Compassion is required when a business is in trouble. â€Å"Those who devour usury cannot stand†¦. That is because they say, trade is only like usury; yet Allah has allowed trade and forbidden usury†¦. Allah does not bless usury, and He causes charitable deeds to prosper, and Allah does not love any ungrateful sinner. Oh you who believe! Be careful of your duty to Allah and relinquish what remains due from usury, if you are believers. If the debtor is in difficulty, grant him time until it is easy for him to repay. But if you remit it by way of charity, that is best for you if you only knew.† Qur’an 2:275-280 In conclusion, there are basic rules when dealing in an Islamic country that must be followed. Never mention the Palestinian-Israeli situation. Speak English when making deals; this is a status for them to speak English. Send a woman to do a man’s job. Appreciate the intertwining of religion and Islamic law. Show compassion for a business in trouble. (Coady, 2013) These basic principles that the Islamic countries follow are not the bias principles that we here in the States follow. We are taught to make a profit and anything much less is a failure in the business world. We must understand to do business with other countries, especially Islamic countries where religion and business go hand and hand we sometimes have to forget our ways and be flexible. When in Rome, do as the Romans.

Data Collection Relating to Personal Information and Purchase Behaviours †a Consumer Perspective

Data collection relating to personal information and purchase behaviours – a consumer perspective. Every individual to a certain percentage values their privacy. Differentiating factors amongst various individuals could be their cultural background, social environment, literacy and general awareness amongst others. Advancements in technology leading to development of secret cameras for instantaneous photographs, discount cards that store your purchase information, and scanners, have also contributed to this invasion of privacy. Database marketing assist marketers to record actual purchase behaviours of customers and hence help them monitor and tailor their promotions towards the customer’s interests. Also on the internet a customer is required to fill in certain information before they can make their purchases online. This in turn forms the basis of data capturing by the retailers; these information could be sold to marketers for their promotion purposes. Sheehan and Hoy, (2000) suggests that if customers are compensated for the use of their data, it could make them see the infringement in another way, and they may not likely term it as a privacy invasion. Such is in the case of discount cards which are data capturing instruments, but give customer a certain percentage of discount to compensate for their unknowing loss of anonymity. Consumer demography and correlation with privacy concerns Many researches carried out on this topic, though limited has shown some interesting views. The findings of Wang and Petrison (1993) for example and some other researchers are summarised below: – older people showed more concern about financial privacy than younger ones; – younger people were more aware that their data were being collected than older people – younger ones were more concerned about the benefits they would derive from giving out such information; – coloured people were less concerned; – inner city residents were less concerned; lower than average income earners were less concerned about their privacy information, but paid more attention to the compensation attached; – high income earners have more awareness and are more concerned about their privacy; – females exhibit more concern than males about their consumer privacy issues. (Graeff & Harmon, 2002). Many people find it quite easier to produce many demographic data such as age, marital status, occupation and education than to produce that which deals with the ir finances, health and criminal records. But this also depends on to whom the information is revealed and how it would be used. For example, if you are opening a checking/loan account with BankPHB plc where I work, you may be required to give details of your financial statement, personal income/pay slip, a utility bill showing evidence of your residence, your social security number or national identification number as the case may be, your health/life insurance policy and so many more in case you want access to a loan. Data of such private information could be given out to law enforcement agencies should the individual be suspected of having any involvement in money laundering or other criminal offences. Usually medical records are produced by job applicants at the point of entry for screening purposes. Consumer behaviour as regards online purchases and privacy. On internet purchases many people do not feel comfortable giving out their credit card details online, while some are just not bothered about it, but research has shown that less than a quarter of internet users feel insecure with credit card online purchases and more people prefer to use it in stores, or for telephone purchases (Graeff & Harmon, 2002). Most people do not know how their data is used and even when they do know, it seldom influences their purchasing behaviour, especially if they are high income earners, such that they still go about their normal purchasing. Consumers feel they ought to be informed and have control on how marketers use information about their buying habits; some also feel that government should regulate such uses (Graeff & Harmon, 2002). Although legal sanctions for misuse of consumer information are now in place, many marketers still ignore this and continue the practise. But it is inevitable that marketers must put a balance between their quest for information from market researches and making their customers feel comfortable doing business with them. Thearling (1998) in his work on data mining technology condemns the violation of the customer’s right to privacy of his information. For instance if you give your details solely for the purpose of making a credit card purchase and it is used for any other secondary purpose such as data mining, then it is a serious offence. The primary purpose of data collection must be clearly understood by the customer, with an option to opt out of the disclosure of such data in place. He gave an example of the CVS drug store who continually called customers up when their subscription was due for the use of Elensys. Obviously they got the data through data mining of patients’ medical data from hospitals or previous purchases. Personally, I feel this issue should be deeply addressed and should be sanctionable to make consumers more comfortable doing their businesses without fear of losing their privacy. References: Graeff, T. R. and Harmon S. (2002) Collecting and using personal data: Consumers’ awareness and concerns. Journal of Consumer Marketing. Vol. 19 No. 4 pp302-318. Available from: http://www. emeraldinsight. com. ezproxy. liv. c. uk/0736-3761. htm Accessed: September 10, 2009. Thearling, K. (1998) Data Mining and Piracy: A conflict in the making? Available online from: http://www. thearling. com/text/dsstar/privacy. htm/ Accessed 16th September 2009. Sheehan, K. B. and Hoy, M. G. (2000), â€Å"Dimensions of privacy concern among online consumers†. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. Vol. 19 No. 1. pp 62-73. Wang, P. and Petrison, L. A. (1993), â€Å"Direct marketi ng activities and personal privacy†. Journal of Direct Marketing. Vol. 7 No. 1, pp 7-19.

Involvement and Consistency PowerPoint Presentation

Involvement and Consistency - PowerPoint Presentation Example Business organization is ongoing and involves everyone planning in our in the process to some degree. TEAM ORIENTATION Cooperation and collaboration across functional roles are actively encouraged in this organization. Working in this organization is like being part of a team. This organization relies on horizontal control and coordination to get work done, rather than hierarchy. Teams are primary building blocks of this organization. Work is sensibly organized in this company so that each person can see the relationship between his/her work and the goals of the organization. CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT This organization delegates authority so that people can act on their own. The "bench strength" of this organization is constantly improving. This organization continuously invests in the skills of its employees. The capability of people in this organization is viewed as an important source of competitive advantage. Problems seldom arise in this organization because we have the skills nece ssary to do the job.

Crimonology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Crimonology - Essay Example With the introduction of prisoner rehabilitation series, correctional officers’ roles changed to incorporate rehabilitation. The correctional officers were also required to maintain a social distance with the inmates and to use the discretionary rule enforcement. The correctional officer was no longer adequate as a guard, and their role was to ensure that inmates were transformed and equipped with skills necessary to help build the society. The management role of a correctional facility has also changed significantly. Previously, the administration would have appointed anyone to the position of a correctional officer. Training requirements were minimal or nonexistence (Law). The management role involved ensuring that the prisoners were locked away, and their rights were not significant. Currently, in the correctional facilities, the management has to place measures to ensure that programs are offered to produce a positive effect on the prisoners. The correctional facilities are required to work as proactive learning facilities, and outcomes are evaluated. The role of managing a correctional facility has also changed to include the training and education of correctional officers (Law). The management has to ensure that inmates’ rights are honored, and rehabilitation opportunities awarded fairly in regard to age, gender, and race. Law. "Prisons: Correctional Officers - Changes in The Correctional Officer Role." - Inmate, Inmates, Rehabilitation, and Custody. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2015.

Cross-cultural management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Cross-cultural management - Research Paper Example e Australians, Filipino Australians and Afghani Australians, all have completely distinct cultural background and they find themselves in greatest of the difficulties in coping up with the working condition that are supplied to them. It is recommended that the Lebanese Australians should adopt that culture, which is based on individualism such that each individual would then be held responsible for his/her own act. Conversely, native managers should also bring flexibility in their own behavior and attitude when dealing with the members of immigrant groups and allow them to interact and understand more with the members of those communities in order to mitigate the cultural barriers. The concept of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) is becoming quite popular especially among those groups which have migrated from different parts of the world to Australia. Among those groups, the major groups are Lebanese Australians, Filipino Australians, and Afghani Australians. Since Lebanon, Philippine and Afghanistan are all fundamentally diverse countries as compared to Australia especially in respect of culture and language, therefore, their immigrants also face severe problem in their cultural and linguistic dynamics while residing in Australia. The cultural and linguistic issues have trapped these communities into serious dilemmas as how to interact with the native Australians. At times, they feel it is better to surpass their own recognition, values and beliefs, working styles, and many other cultural and linguistic prospects, mingle around with the natives and follow their ways like a famous quote â€Å"Do what the Romans do†. Conversely, they also perc eive that while adopting the culture of native Australians, they may encounter serious problems and may not adjust easily with the natives as well as may not feel comfortable doing what natives do. To be more specific, the arguments are placed in respect of the cultural context whether to adopt culture based on

Corporate Social Responsibility - Perrier Contamination Crisis Essay

Corporate Social Responsibility - Perrier Contamination Crisis - Essay Example ........................................... 5 2.3 Ethical Nature of Response ..................................................................... 5 3.0 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 6 Reference List ......................................................................................................... 7 1.0 Introduction To put it simply, corporate social responsibility is about an attitude and vision on the part of a company to follow goals and fulfil obligations that are not merely legally or economically binding, but which also aim at achieving the results and objectives that serve the larger interests of the whole society (tutor2u 2012). It is a commitment on the part of the businesses to be subject to many charitable goals that are ethical and moral in their scope, and aid the economic development of the society while improving and positively contributing to the quality of life of the varied stakeholders like the consumers, employees, the communities in which they operate and the society at large (tutor2u 2012). It is a tilt in the business processes envisioned, planned and managed by a company in the direction of having an overall and beneficial impact on the society. Corporate social responsibility is about a duty on the part of the modern day corporations to be aware of and respond favourably towards the emerging concerns and objectives of the society (tutor2u 2012). It aims to balance the shareholders’ interests with the societal concerns. Varied researchers and academicians have proposed various models that the organizations could follow to manage their corporate social responsibility liabilities. Carroll model of Corporate Social Responsibility is one important model in that context. Carroll classified the varied CSR prerogatives and obligations of the corporations as a pyramid (Carroll 1991). Economic responsibilities constitute the first level of the pyra mid (Carroll 1991). It is the duty of all the corporations to strive to be profitable. It is the profitability objective that sustains all the other types of corporate responsibilities and obligations. Legal responsibilities constitute the second level of Carroll’s pyramid (Carroll 1991). Laws are nothing but a formal codification of what the society considers to be right or wrong. It is important for the companies to obey laws and play by the rules. It is the responsibility of the corporations to operate in a manner that respects the national and international laws. For example it is the duty of the companies to look to it that the products manufactured by them are as per the set quality and safety standards. Ethical responsibilities constitute the next level of this pyramid that is related to the moral conscience of a company (Carroll 1991). It is important that the companies act in a way that is considered to be right and just and that does not intends to harm others. For instance, if a company uses its financial power and influence to access the resources in a third world community, say mineral wealth or oil, by forcibly uprooting the inhabitants in that community, it may turn out to be profitable, but is certainly not ethical. Companies must behave in a manner that upholds the norms and considerations valued by the society. Philanthropic responsibilities constitute the top level of Carroll’s CSR pyramid. It is when the corporations take the initiative to contribute their resources for achieving social good and for

DNA Mutations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

DNA Mutations - Essay Example The function of the protein made by this polypeptide will be changed or lost as well (Blamire ,2000). To put in simpler language, mutation alters the function of the enzyme that catalyses a particular genetic function resulting in the change of inherited characters through different generations. It results in the alteration of DNA sequence and consequently results in changes in the genetic and physical appearance of an organism. Thus the phenotype of the organism carrying the DNA which went through mutation will be changed. The agents which cause DNA mutation are termed as mutagens. These can be either physical agents or chemical ones (Matulef 2004). There are specific chemical mutagens created and calibrated to create specific genetic changes. They can either mimic the original nucleotide bases in a DNA molecule or remove parts of the nucleotide resulting in improper base pairing during DNA replication. They can also cause genetic changes by adding hydrocarbons to various nucleotides. High energy radiations can also alter the DNA molecule and cause mutation (Matulef 2004). The ultraviolet radiation from the sun is another cause for the same. Ultra violet rays in the presence of sunlight gamma rays and such ionizing radiation etc can increase the frequency of mutation above the natural level. Much differently to these kinds of mutagen induced ones, mutations can also occur spontaneously. Mutation may arise on account of different reasons. In a chromatid, DNA helix runs continuously from one end to another in a highly super coiled form. Therefore loss or gain (deletion or insertion/duplication) of a segment of DNA results in alteration in chromosomes (Montelone, 1998) Since genes are located in chromosomes such an alteration may result in abnormalities or aberrations. Chromosomal aberrations are commonly seen in cancer cells. Moreover Mutation may also arise due to change in a single base pair of DNA.

HR Policy and Guideline implementation to MEGlobal Human Resources Case Study

HR Policy and Guideline implementation to MEGlobal Human Resources - Case Study Example It has also been found in the study that global HR perspectives should be accommodative to people from diverse cultural backgrounds. This is very important since it helps people to identify with the organization. Introduction Managing human resources issues in organizations that are comprised of people from different nations is quite challenging as a result of the fact that the cultures of these people differ. Research has also shown the significance of human resources management especially in the changing global environment in which organisations operate. It can be seen that there ought to be rules in every organization hence the HRM policies in multi-national or international organisations ought to be standardised so as to be in a position to create fair working conditions among people from different cultures belonging to the organization. As such, this paper has been designed to analyse the case study of MEGlobal. The paper starts by describing the case study and this is followed by carrying out a critical analysis of what ought to be done in order to improve the HR policies in the company. Situational analysis MEGlobal is one of the leading producers and marketers of Glycol and it has offices in USA, Canada, Switzerland, China, Hong Kong and Dubai but the main manufacturing location is in western Canada. However, one of the offices has faces the situation that needs to be addressed without offending four of the employees who are labelled as having bad body odor and mouth odor to the point that it has become difficult for other people to conduct business. Being a multi ethnic office, the other problem is that the pantry smells of a variety of ethnic foods when they are microwaved. There is negative talk about these people who apparently are hardworking employees and very good in their respective jobs. In order to address the issue raised in the case study given, it is imperative to take a holistic approach so that there is no person who will feel side-lined. Significance of culture It is imperative to ensure that the organizational policies are designed to include aspects that are concerned with improving the welfare of the people in different ways. The policies should be designed in such a way that they address employee welfare issue solving conflicts as well as motivating the employees to put optimum effort in their operations. The aspect of culture should be given priority in as far as solving this particular case is concerned. According to Werner et al (2003), culture can be simply defined as a way of doing things by an identified group of people. There are two different forms of culture namely: culture of the local people as well as organizational culture. When HRM policies are being designed, these factors need to be taken into consideration. In this particular case, it can be noted that the convergence of different cultures is means that a holistic approach has to be taken when addressing the issue of â€Å"odour† among s ome of the employees. As noted, employees at MEGlobal come from different cultural backgrounds and what may appear to be unusual is common in other cultures. The concept of human resources management should be carefully taken into consideration in as far as dealing with the aspect of culture is concerned. â€Å"HRM is described as a system of philosophies, policies as well as practices that affect the people who work in the organization,† (Jackson et al 2001, p. 119). Since people are the most important asset

Midterm essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Midterm - Essay Example As a function of understanding this reversal and promoting a greater knowledge of what it Immanuel Kant sought to put forward, this particular analysis will be concentric upon analyzing his chain of argument, inspecting its key points, and detailing how an individual that was of an alternate opinion light necessarily argue against the position that he put forward. Accordingly, it is the hope of this particular author that such a unit of analysis will be beneficial in helping to define Immanuel Kant’s argument to a greater degree as well as proving some of the logical inconsistencies and philosophical shortcomings that it exhibits. As has been referenced briefly within the introduction, Immanuel Kant performed is something of a reversal with regard to the way in which he understood ethics and how these apply to humans with relation to animals. As he previously stipulated that animals did not have rights and could not be expected to be treated as such, the reader/philosopher is left with no other alternative but to is that animals to be treated as with any other inanimate object without a level of ethical virtue. Yet, within his piece entitled â€Å"Lectures on Ethics†, Immanuel Kant overturns this particular point of view and argues for the fact that the treatment of an animal is somehow morally and intrinsically related to the way in which an individual will interact with other human beings. In effect, Immanuel Kant’s argument was concentric upon what can be defined as ethical boundaries and the rational capacity by which an individual engage with an animal. As such, Kant’s argument was o ne that focused upon the extension of how a human being might necessarily treat other human beings based upon their treatment of animals. Within this particular argument, one can reasonably infer that an individual who is necessarily cruel, cold hearted, and callous towards ethical boundaries

Comparing Human Resource Management in Multinational and Local Essay

Comparing Human Resource Management in Multinational and Local Companies in Hong Kong - Essay Example Moreover, there is a clear difference in how it is executed. All employees from the American company were divided into different groups, and in order to ensure efficient management of the employees, a manager was assigned to each group. The company also had a data base where each individual's sales performance and feedback from customers was encoded and saved. In these instances, in terms of employee performance, employees within the group were also allowed to put in their opinion of their colleagues. Using numerical totals from the database, an evaluation on how each person has been performing could easily be established. Moreover, the interesting part of this database is on how customers’ feedback was also accounted for in the overall evaluation of the employees. The fact that the employees formed groups to monitor one another was very much in keeping with the findings of Bjorkman (2003) on Chinese companies’ putting greater emphasis on team work. The Swiss company al so showed traces of an Appraisal system in place. They also went through a performance evaluation process for their employees. They mostly divided their staff into two groups: first, the lower level staff which were general operational staff, and second, the other staff which were usually higher level employees. The lower level staff usually underwent a two-way communication process using the Preference Evaluation (PE) form. Employees would then set objectives at the beginning of the year, with fulfillment of the objectives monitored throughout the year. By the end of the year, their managers usually evaluated the individuals by assessing whether or not they have achieved their objectives. A performance rating also followed the assessment. Among higher level staff, they also underwent a similar evaluation process, however, the review was called performance cycle, and was usually done through an online tool. These individuals also set objectives at the beginning of the year and were then monitored throughout the year. The difference in these two groups of employees is that towards the end of the year, there was a performance calibration session conducted by the managers on the employees. Such a session was not carried out on managers. This session consisted of an open forum where the managers discussed employee performance and then agree on a performance rating for each employee. This allowed a more unbiased evaluation of the employees. It also created a chance for cross department discussions and the sharing of opinions among these departments. In contrast, employees from the Hong Kong Company revealed that their company was using a more traditional appraisal system. Managers evaluated employees’ attitude in the workplace, and took into account the number of times each employee was late for work or if their work was done on time. The Hong Kong company does not have an evaluation system like the other two companies, and the employees’ evaluation i s mainly based on their performance and the perception of their managers. The Swiss company’s evaluating system shares some similarities with the American company. They both have a database for the easy evaluation of their employees. They also have groups which help with the evaluation process and which help illuminate the probability of bias. Both companies have traces of HR practices from the East and the

Activities of Investment Banking Essay Example for Free

Activities of Investment Banking Essay The Investment bank is the financial institution which assists the governments, corporations and the individuals in raising the capital by acting or underwriting as the agent of the client in issuance of securities. The investment bank can also help the companies which are involved in acquisitions and mergers, and offer ancillary services like the trading of the derivatives, market making, foreign exchanges, instruments of the fixed income, equity securities and commodities. Unlike the retail banks and commercial banks, the investment banks dont take the deposits. There are commonly two main channels in the process of investment banking. Trading the cash for securities like market making, facilitating transactions or for cash or for the promotion of the securities like research, underwriting is known as the sell side, while correlate with the mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds and investment public comprises the buy side. Various companies have sell and buy side components. What are the main activities of the investment banking? The investment banking is generally split into back office, middle office and front office activities. While the big service investment banks provide all the channels of the business both buy side and sell side. The little sell side investment companies like as the small broker dealers and the boutique investment banks focus on the trading/sales/research and investment banking respectively. The Investment banks also provide services to both the investors buying securities and the corporations issuing securities. For the corporations, the investment banking provide information on how and when to place the securities on the open market, this activity is very much important to the reputation of any investment bank. Thus, the investment bankers play a key role in issuing the new offerings of the securities. Other activities of the investment banking: Apart from the main activities, there are some additional activities, in which the process of investment banking is involved. These are: †¢ Global transaction banking: This part is the division of investment banking which offers custody services, cash management, security brokerage and lending services to various institutions. Hedge funds with Prime brokerage is especially a risky as well as profitable business. †¢ Merchant banking: This process is also known as the very personal banking. The merchant banks provide capitals in exchange for the share ownerships and also provide information on strategy and management. The term merchant banking is also used to define the private equity part of any company. †¢ Investment management: This service offers professional management of several securities like bonds, shares and of other assets like real estate to meet with certain goals of investment for the profit of the investors. These investors can be institutions like pension funds, insurance companies, corporations and many more or the private investors. †¢ The investment management division of an investment bank is generally divided into separate groups, often known as Private Wealth Management and Private Client Services. †¢ Merchant banking is also a name used to describe the private equity side of a firm.Merchant Banking: Past and Present Current examples include Defoe Fournier Cie. and JPMorgans One Equity Partners and the original J.P. Morgan Co. Rothschilds, Barings, Warburgs and Morgans were all merchant banks. (Originally, merchant bank was the British English term for an investment bank.) Reference: http://classof1.com/homework-help/finance-homework-help/

Wedding planning in China

Wedding planning in China CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Wedding is once-a-life event in peoples life. For most of families, they are willing to spend a considerable amount of money to ensure the wedding is organized as perfect as possible. According to Howard (2006), wedding today is a $70 billion business in U.S., and the average cost of wedding is $26,000 per couples. As a spinoff the larger discipline of event management, the business of wedding planning will provide business to a broad array of supporting industries, such as hotels, retails, and catering service. Comparing with the other personal events, such as birthday, anniversaries, wedding is more complicated, because it involves friends and families and a range of related service activities covering from catering to entertainments (Shone Parry, 2004). In order to make sure everything goes smoothly in the wedding day, most of the prospective couples would like to plan the wedding in sometimes year in advance. Both brides and grooms put much effort into the wedding preparation including the venue selection, honeymoon booking and dress design etc. However, not all of them have enough time and energy and knowledge in wedding planning to arrange everything themselves. They need someone to assist them in wedding planning, budget preparation, planning detail checklists, venue arrangement as well as onsite supervision and coordination on the wedding day. Wedding planners, the professional dealing with all the details of wedding, provide a one-stop service to potential couples by charging some considerable consultant fee (Wikipedia org, 2009). The role of the wedding planners is to save time, look after details, make couples dream come true, stay on the budget and save money. Wedding planners have become one of the outsourced labours in modern society (Blakely, 2007). With the rapid development of the society in the last decade, more and more couples prefer to go to college and start their own careers after graduation. Marriage is happening later in brides and grooms life (Mayling, 2002). This means couples have more disposable income to afford the wedding expenses; and they are more likely to look for some special unique wedding styles, such as theme wedding, green wedding etc., which probably involves different elements, such as ethic, religious custom, family tradition, class identity, regional practice and individual tastes and preference (Howard, 2006). As a result, wedding planners, who are providing professional advices and assistance to the couples from the moment of distributing the invitations, arranging the style of cake ceremony, table setting, and setting for banquet, are necessarily needed and developed dramatically (Markby, 2006). 1.2 Wedding in China In traditional Chinese culture, marriage was creating alliances between families. Therefore, it was strictly arranged by parents or elder people in families. Wedding should be planned strictly according to the customs. For example, people should choose a good year, a good month, a good day as well as a good time for wedding ceremony; and use red in the declaration for everything with the purpose of auspicious. Wedding is also one of the ways for Chinese families to present their social classes therefore the families are willing to spend a large mount of money on wedding, and much of which were supported by parents or relatives. Because of the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, nowadays, the living standards in China have been dramatically increased. According to the China Statistic Yearbook 2008 (2009), the GDP per capita in Mainland China is increasing steadily and has reached 18,934 RMB in 2007. At the mean time, the social culture is becoming diversified. More and more Chinese people, especially the younger generation who have better education, began to accept the western culture. Most of the prospective couples would like to experience different types of weddings that can make their special day more measurable. For example, some people choose white wedding instead of traditional Chinese red wedding; some may prefer destination wedding instead of having wedding at home, which may require more time and professional planning and organizing throughout the wedding preparation. Therefore, wedding planners, as a new business in China, has developed rapidly during the last decade. According to the ministry of commerce of the PRC (2008), wedding service today has become a big business in China covering about 76 industries, such as matchmaking business, wedding planning as well as banquets, tourism industries etc. where the photographer has the highest profit that is above 30% while the wedding planner is 15%. The average expenditure for more than 3.7 million new Chinese couples in 2006 was about 126,600 RMB. Based on the statistics of Ministry of Civil Affairs of the PRC (2009), about 11 million couples got married in 2008 with the growth of 10.8% than 2007. All the statistics above show that wedding business in China has a huge market and potential. This research will focus on Pearl River Delta, the most economically dynamic region in southern part of China. PRD covers nine prefectures of Guangdong province including Guangzhou, Shenzhe, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Foshan, Huizhou, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing; and has become one of the leading economic regions and a major manufacturing center of China, which accounted for 10.2% of Chinas GDP. People in PRD have more purchasing power than the other region. The per capita GDP in PRD ranges from 35,700 to 79,600 RMB which is much higher than the national per capita GDP (HKTDC, 2008). Because of the advantages of its location and open-door policy, PRD became the first region in China which allowed the foreign investments. Thus, apart from the economic strength, people in PRD were influenced by the western cultures earlier than the other places of China. 1.3 Research problem statements Due to the low entry cost in the wedding planning business, the number of wedding planners has increased rapidly in China in the last decade. Generally, two to three persons having relevant planning experience can establish a wedding planning company with around 100,000 RMB investments in China. They just need an office for meeting with clients and an official blog or website for promotion. Despite of the rapid development of the wedding business, the service/product offered by the wedding planners is similar. Comparing with the wedding photo service business, there is a lack of leading brand in the wedding planning business. With the growth of income level and education level, the couples in China are becoming more and more demanding towards the wedding service/products and face a problem that how to choose a suitable wedding planners who can provide excellent service/product. Thus, from the supply side, identifying and satisfying the important and unfulfilled needs of prospective c ouples is one of the ways for wedding planners to differentiate their products from the competitors, and make success in the competition. However, there is few studies indentifying prospective couples needs or attitudes toward products or service of wedding planner in Pearl River Delta even though in Chinese mainland, nor research about how well the wedding planners in China is meeting the needs of prospective couples. Therefore, this study will focus on the following questions to find out the needs of prospective couples (demand side) towards the wedding planners in PRD Whats the reason for couples hiring wedding planners? Whats the factors affecting the selection of wedding planners? Reputation? Price? Or other? Do the needs of prospective couples toward wedding planners in Pearl River Delta vary according to the different demographical characteristics? 1.4 Research objectives: To find out the needs of prospective couples when hiring the wedding planners in the Pearl River Delta; To investigate the relationship between the needs for prospective couples and the choice of product/service offered by wedding planners in Pearl River Delta Region; To investigate how the needs of potential couples are influenced by their demographic profiles; To make recommendations to the wedding planners in Pearl River Delta. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, the previous studies related to wedding, wedding planners as well as the consumer purchase behavior will be reviewed. 2.1 Nature of wedding From the view of sociology, Edward (1987) defined that weddings are rites of passage, which belong to the class of rituals that everywhere mark the transition of a person or persons from one status to another. Wedding therefore becomes a private and highly-personalized event in peoples life. Event is held for a purpose that brings people together to share an experience and produce a measurable outcome no matter public or private, commercial or charitable, celebratory or commemorative (Silvers, 2003). Shone and Parry (2004) defined the wedding, together with the other personal events (e.g. birthday or anniversaries), as a type of special events. Their phenomenon arise from leisure, cultural, personal or organizational objectives which are set apart from the normal activity of daily life and their purpose is to enlighten, celebrate, entertain or challenge the experience of a group of people. The characteristics of special events include personal interactions, ritual or ceremony, intang ible, fixed timescale, labor intensive, ambience and service, perishability as well as uniqueness. Getz (2007) also defined wedding as a form of planned events because it is held in venues that cater to individual and small-group clients which may require professionals or be entirely arranged by the participants. From this point of view, Getz (2007) believed that the wedding is a multi-meaning experience in both personal and social aspects, and it is can be considered as celebrations in which a theme and emotional stimulation are essential. Although, wedding is usually defined as a type of small or personal events, it is still an area lack of study and research compared with meeting, exhibition, incentives or other events. There is quite a few academic book or journal devoted to the planning and design of weddings, parties or other private functions. 2.2 Wedding planners 2.21 The nature of wedding planner Arranging an event is complicated as it involves different elements such as the specialist sets, props, customers for participants or guests, and all the range of support requirements from special effects and lighting to music and entertainment. Event management companies are increasingly common in the events business in the last decades, which have specialized in providing of the complete event by careful planning and management. People can enjoy a number of benefits of having an EMC including the expertise, ideas and experience they can draw on (Shone Parry, 2004). Shone and Parry (2004) found that although there are some major companies in the event business, there are a wide range of smaller organizations and individuals that are willing to provide events-related service particular for the personal event market, which include the organization of parties, celebrations, weddings, anniversaries and many of similar events. Professional party planners or event organizers are those pr ofessional who deal with the nitty-gritty details of planning, organizing, operating and managing an event to ensure everything goes smoothly. According to Wikipedia (2009), wedding planners are the professionals who deal with all the details of the wedding, which includes planning, organizing, operating and management, to ensure everything goes smoothly and correctly. Ellis-Christensen (2008) defined that wedding planner as an event professional whose responsibility is not only to plan a memorable wedding, but also to give some professional advices to the couples including the venue selection, equipments preparation etc. They usually act as a wedding advisor, coordinator, supervisor, financial planner and mediator during the wedding (Brush Creek Weddings, 2008). Peters (2007) also stated that the range of service offered by wedding planner is widely. Some may prefer to offer consulting service only while some may prefer to provide comprehensive wedding package. At the meantime, Peters (2007) also pointed out that the global trend of the wedding business has been toward offering total coordination of the entire blessed even t from the beginning to the end, which includes identifying the needs of new couples, budget preparation, planning detailed checklist, venue arrangement, identifying the professionals (e.g. florists, photographers etc.) as well as on-site supervision and coordination on the wedding day. The consultant fee varies widely depending on different locations or different packages. The consultant fee may be higher in larger cities where disposable income of couples is higher than the other places. 2.22 The requirements of a wedding planner Having a strong organizational skills as well as an eye for details are necessary and basic requirements for a successful professional meeting planner because meeting process is both comprehensive and meticulous. Moreover, meeting planners must have the ability to work successful under pressure, to react calmly to constant change, and to make quick decisions (OBrien Shaw, 2002). Howard (2006) stressed that wedding planning is highly customer oriented as most of the couples are looking for special, unique and memorable wedding. Ethic and religious custom, family tradition, class identity, regional practice, and individual tastes and preferences certainly all played a role in shaping wedding consumption. Peters (2007) suggested that good communication skills, good organizational skills as well as good interpersonal skills are very essential for being a successful wedding planner, because wedding planners act as a middle person who deals with both clients and suppliers. The appearance of the professional wedding organization was an important benchmark in the rise of wedding planner business, indicating that wedding planning service today are more and more professional. These professional organizations help wedding planners naturalize particular customs and practices on a potentially national scale by sharing etiquette and customs. They provide some training course for wedding planners. Getting a certificate from professional organization has became one of the evidences for professional and made the customer confident with the service quality. Additionally, the organization also centralized and rationalized a consultants business, providing important resources and information regarding the markets as well as the trend (Howard, 2006). 2.23 Demand of wedding planners Wedding is an important event in peoples life that many people are willing to organize by themselves on the small and more intimate scale. However, not all of them have the time and wish to expend the effort on doing so and happier to pay a professional to come along and deal with all the details of planning, organizing, operating and managing to ensure everything goes smoothly (Shone Parry, 2006). According to Blakely (2007), the supply of commercial service increases dramatically along with the growth of demands for family jobs. Wedding planners are a form of outsourced labor in the modern society. These jobs which are transported from home to the public marketplace are responding to the time crunch produced by work-family conflict. From this point of view, Blakely defined wedding planners as commercial substitutes. Besides, Edwards (1987) conducted a research to examine the relationship between the weddings commercial development and its nature as a rite of passage. He found that the reason of the success of the wedding business was the convenience offered by the wedding planners and the demand from consumers for larger and more sumptuous celebrations. Consumers were looking for a wide range of wedding-related service (one-stop service) through a single organization. 2.4 The trend Firstly, the wedding today tends to be more customized than before. According to Hensdill (1996), because of the cultural exchange among the global village, traditional wedding customs are giving way to the trends of Western societies. Some new styles of wedding exist, such as theme wedding, destination wedding and green wedding, because more and more couples are looking for unique wedding. Destination wedding is a new wedding style that a couple decides to hold their wedding in a location where neither one of them resides (Daniels Loveless, 2007). There are several top destinations for wedding in the world, such as Caribbean, Las Vegas, Hawaii as well as Maldives. Generally, some special theme may be adopted into the destination wedding. For example, hotel in Las Vegas has organized Italian-style wedding for wedding couples (Stratton, 2001). Moreover, the destination wedding often merges into the honeymoon (Daniels Loveless, 2007). Secondly, the internet and e-commerce has shaped the modern wedding consumption and gave it a new immediacy and flexibility. As a result, the wedding planners can target different segments of the bridal markets through developing website that advertised their goods and services and allowed consumers to make agreement or shop directly through their online site (Howard, 2006). 2.2 Consumer purchase behaviors toward wedding Consumer behavior is defined as the behavior that consumers display in searching form, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. It focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007). 2.32 Factors affecting consumer purchases As people are willing to devote time and effort to the ritual occasions like Christmas and Thanksgiving, some researches regarding the types of purchases associated with ritual occasions have been conducted by researchers in consumer behavior (Lowery, 1994). According to some market analysis, consumer purchase behavior is strongly influenced by social, cultural and individual characteristics. a) Social factors According to Schiffman and Kanuk (2007), consumer behavior is influenced by two major groups, namely the reference group and families. A reference group that is perceived as credible, attractive, or powerful can induce consumer attitude and behavior change (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007) Based on the traditional family life cycle, the prospective couples belong to the stage II, honeymooners, who have available a combined income that often permits a lifestyle that provides them with the opportunities of more indulgent purchasing of professions, which means that the honeymooners are happy to accept the professional products and service and willing to pay more money for them as they pursuit high quality of life. The reason hidden behind may be because they have more disposable income and more free time for themselves before the born of young children. Additionally, for the newlyweds, the advice and experience of other married couples (e.g. parents or friends) are likely to be important when they start-up their expenses to establish a new home (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007). For many consumers their family is their primary reference group for many attitudes and behaviors. The members of a family assume specific roles in their everyday functioning; such roles or tasks extend to the realm of consumer purchase decisions. Key consumer-related roles of family members include influencers, gatekeepers, deciders, buyers, preparers, users, maintainers, and disposers. A familys decision-making style is influenced by its lifestyle, roles, and cultural factors. (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007). Different social classes have different preferences in clothing, home decoration and leisure activities as well as saving, spending and credit habits. Based on the market study by Brides magazine, 20% of the buyers of the wedding products identified themselves as buyers of Brides magazine who were mainly middle class women employed in white-collar, professional and technical fields and had higher medium annual income, when combined with their future husbands. This means that the bride had more control over future consumer decisions that the couple would make (Howard, 2006). Another research about the division of wedding labor and its meaning for couples by Sniezek (2005) indicated that women complete the a disproportionate amount of wedding work just as women do more of kin-work, housework, childcare and managerial family work. He also pointed out that couples were not likely to label the unequal division of labor as unfair which may potentially put the relationship in a state of conflict. From this point of view, his statement highly support Blakelys study (2007) which stated that the wedding planning businesss targeted market is modern career women. Blakely also used the case study of wedding planning to confirm Hochschilds thesis (2003) that feminism plays and important ideological role in the expansion of the commodity frontier. However, after comparison of the emphases that brides and grooms place on artifacts selected for use in their weddings and reception, Lowery (1994) found out that the brides participating in the focus group had no difficulty describing artifacts that were important to them; while grooms had greater difficulty. They also suggest that the emergence of traditional or modern gender roles in wedding planning is partially determined by the attitudes of the bride and groom toward these roles. This is also proved by Schiffman Kanuk (2007) that wedding purchase is a joint-decision in the family where the couples may play different roles in the decision making procedure. b) Cultural factors Culture is the sum total of learned beliefs, values, and customs that serve to regulate the consumer behavior of member of a particular society. (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007) When explaining how culture affects the consumer behavior, Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) indicated that all phases of human problem solving are directed and guided by culture, which includes various ritualized experiences and behaviors. For instance, in practice, rituals accompany with people throughout the human life cycle form birth to death, including a host of intermediate events such as confirmation, graduations and marriage. Besides the culture, subculture also plays an important in consumers behavior which includes nationality, religion, geographic, location, race, age and sex. For example, when comparing the husband-wife decision making between United States and China, Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) found out that there were substantially fewer joint decisions and more husband-dominated decisions for many household purchases in China. Even in the same country, another research showed that in larger city like Beijing, couples were more likely than rural couples to share equally in pu rchase decisions. c) Individual factors Apart from the social and cultural factors which affecting the consumer behavior, individual factors play an important role when people make decision (Dholakia, 1979). Schiffman Kanuk (2005) explained the influences of the individual factors through several categories: motivation, personality, perception, learning as well as attitudes. As a driving force within individuals that force them to take actions, motivation is produced by a state of uncomfortable tension unsatisfied needs. Liking to our topic, hiring the wedding planner may be motivated by the needs of couples, such as lack of time for preparation, looking for professional service etc. Personality determines and reflects how a person responds to his or her environment. Generally, people are looking for the balance between the perceived self-image and their behavior including the purchasing products or service. Some may prefer innovative wedding style (e.g. destination wedding, green wedding) while the other may choose trad itional wedding. Moreover, each individual has its own process when he or she selects, organizes and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world. This process is highly subjective and is based on what the consumer expect to see. There are several factors that can influence the perception including physical appearance, stereotypes, halo effects, irrelevant cues, first impressions, and the tendency to jump to conclusions. 2.3 Theoretical foundation- Consumer decision making process This research is based on consumer decision making process, which is one of the theories of consumer behavior. Decisions are about the selection of an option from two or more alternative choices. According to Kotler, Bowen and Makens (2006), consumer decision process consists of five essential stages: 2.31 Need recognition From the moment that the consumer recognizes a problem or need, the consumer buying process starts. The consumers needs can be stimulated by both internal and external factors. Advertisements, word-of-mouth, social cues from families, friends and anyone within the families can influence the customers need recognition. In the case of wedding planner, potential couples, their internal stimuli probably is lacking of time for preparation, looking for some unique and special wedding while the external stimuli may be the advertisement in the internet, the promotional events held by wedding planners, especially by the friends or families who have previous experience. 2.32 Information search Searching information about their needs or problems is the second step of buying process. How much information a consumer looks for will depend on the strength of the drive, and the amount of initial information, the value placed on additional information. Linking to the wedding planners, couples will take some time for information searching. This is a stage that couples can decide if they would like to hire a wedding planners or if the products/service offered by wedding planner can satisfy their needs. 2.33 Evaluation of alternatives After searching the relevant information, customers will use the information to arrive at a set of final brand choices. At this stage, potential couples may set up a personal comparison system through different attributes such as reputation, price, theme etc., in order to identify which would be the most ideal brand. 2.34 Purchase decision Subsequently, consumer will buy the most preferred brand based on their evaluation in the previous stage. This is the stage that potential couples choose which brand, what kind of services and check if the product/service is available. This is also the stage that potential couples decide if they would like to hire a wedding planner or not. 2.35 Post-purchase behavior Based on the performance of the service/products, the final stage determines whether the consumer satisfy the service/products or not. 2.4 Summary After reviewing the previous studies related to wedding and wedding planners, we can find out that most of the studies were conducted in the developed countries such as U.S or United Kingdom, while there is a blank area regarding this field in China. Moreover, there is little study regarding the consumer purchase behavior towards the wedding planners conducted before. This research will based on the theories of consumer behavior to conduct three in-depth interviews to find out the reasons for potential couples hiring wedding planners; and the factors affecting their decision. Then, a quantitative research will be conducted to express the findings in statistical terms. CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY This research will be designed as an exploratory, quantitative, cross-sectional investigation of prospective couples needs towards the service/products offered by wedding planners in Pearl River Delta. 3.1 Research Design The advantage of semi-structure interviews is that it can allow issues to be explored deeply while questionnaire survey is that it can collect information from a large number of people and express the findings in statistical terms (Jennings, 2001). As limited study regarding the needs of potential couples towards the wedding service has been conduced in China so far, for this research, the important variables are not clear and still need to be defined. In order to develop a more reliable questionnaire to conduct quantitative research at the second stage, the first stage is to explore the important variables through a qualitative research. In-depth interviews with three potential couples will be conducted, which will facilitate the identifying the different requirements made by potential couples when selecting the wedding planners. These in-depth interviews are critical for the whole research because the finding of these interviews will be used to develop the questionnaire. 3.2 Questionnaire design There will be four main parts in the questionnaire. The first part will be the screening questions with the purpose of screening the invalid sample through some questions. Then, the second part will include some questions regarding the prospective couples attitudes towards the service/products offered by wedding planners in Pearl River Delta. Respondents are required to indicate their personal opinions on each statement on a five-point Likert type scale: 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. In the third part, open-end questions will be included in order to examine the personal experience and intention of hiring a wedding planner. Finally, there will be a set of questions regarding the demographic characteristics of the respondents, which will include gender, age, income level, marriage status, and education level. In order to explain the purpose of the research to the respondents, a covering letter will be attached to the questionnaire. The covering letter will include the information that how the sample was selected, the time will take to complete the survey, contact person for questions and assuring the response would be kept confidential and only used for statistical purposes. 3.3 Samp

ob Characteristic Model and Internal Motivation

ob Characteristic Model and Internal Motivation The Job Characteristics Model (JCM) is an approach to job redesign that seeks to formulate jobs in ways that motivate workers and lead to positive work outcome (Williams McWilliams, 2010). Job characteristics model helps the employee on enriched their jobs by using the five core job characteristics that include skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback, followed by three critical psychological states, which are meaningful work, responsibility work, and knowledge about the performance. These five core job characteristics and three critical psychological states will lead to create jobs that result in effective work and positive personal outcomes. The purpose of the essay is to explain the main concern of job characteristics model and to identify the five core jobs characteristics in Sunway College lecturers work practices. DISCUSSION The main concern of the JCM is internal motivation. Internal motivation is motivation that comes from itself rather than from outside rewards (Williams McWilliams, 2010). The more effort given by the employee, the more motivated they will be. The JCM give the relationship between three classes of variables: critical psychological states (CPSs), core job dimensions (CJDs), and affective outcomes (AOs). Working with internal motivation occurs when the employee realized that there was a relationship between three critical psychological states and core job dimensions. First, they experience meaningful work because they believe their works are important and worthwhile, by enhanced skill variety, task identity, and task significance. Second, they experience personally responsible for the outcomes of the work, by presence the job autonomy. Third, they learn to know how well they performed their jobs by job feedback. If these critical psychological states are fulfilled with well core job dimensions, the employee will experience well work outcomes with high internal work motivation, high satisfaction, high-quality performance, productivity improvement, effective work, and reduced percentage of employee absence and turnover. Managers can use JCM to motivate the employee, but, how about lecturers? Lecturers work closely related with students. Same as JCM in managers work, lecturers work practice is to motivate students to positive learning outcomes. Both lecturer and students are in a rule using five core job characteristics, which are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. The lecturers are in managerial roles providing tasks, structuring the task, training a group of student, giving evaluate of students performance, and giving reward. The students are in an employee rule learning what lecturers want from the task, taking training, learning lecturers skills, finishing task, receiving reward. Application of job characteristics model to lecturers work practice is attained by increasing five core job characteristics in their course. The first component of core job characteristics is skill variety. Skill variety in lecturers work practice means a various complex skills of lecturers required to complete the course. Lecturers in Sunway College increasing skill variety by giving assignment, so student can increase their skill variety through written assignment referring to internet or book resources, library research, analysing and developing a case or oral presentation of material. Lecturers also asking students to discuss in a group, so that students can discuss in a group with each group member who have different knowledge, abilities, skills, and experiences. With this diversity, a group work can solve problem much better than individual work and can also increase skill variety of each group member. The second component is task identity. Task identity in lecturers work practise means lecturers are responsible to complete their course from beginning to the end. Every lecturer in Sunway College is responsible to manage their time to deliver lesson in a given time. Lecturer learn to separate each chapter of subject in to two or three times of lecture, and giving workshop to provide briefing about assignment, practical for doing assignment using computer, and tutorial class to explain about each chapter of course in more details. For students, this task identity is allowing student to learn and do assignment from beginning to the end. The students do this in various ways, such as answering questions before the tutorial classes, working on both individual and group tasks to share and develop idea, submit assignment on time, make presentations, and may conduct a study research. The third component is task significance. Task significance in lecturers work practice means lecturers give an understanding to students that the knowledge or skill they have learned not only for courses grades but also for their future job. Lecturers in Sunway College give an understanding by using examples, if necessary from his or her life experiences that the subjects are given can be applied in a family environment, social environment or working environment. Lecturer also gives students a case about nowadays family, organisation, or social problem, and asks students to apply the material that given to solve that problem. So, students realize that the material can help them not only in class, but also outside the class. The fourth component is autonomy. Autonomy in lecturers work practice means lecturers have an opportunity to do their work with their own initiative and make their own decision in carrying out the course. For example, lecture in Sunway College has initiative to enhance students autonomy, so he or she makes a decision in giving assignment by asking students to conduct any research they wanted as long as it was still related to the topic that he or she has told. In this situation, the students do the research without any guidelines. They select what researches they want as long as it remains relate to the topic; do research with observation, interview, or distributed questionnaire, and at the end students must submit assignment on time. The last component is feedback. Feedback in lecturers work practice means how well the lecturers doing their course. Lecturer in Sunway College get feedback from students, they try to understand how students responses about his or her performance. They can also seek information from their head of faculty about all phases of their course, is there any protest from students about his or her teaching method. The students can also get feedback, not only get feedback from lecturer but also get directly feedback. For example, in practical courses, when the program successfully runs, it means students performed well, so get good feedback. CONCLUSION JCM can be used to motivate all employees in all industries, provided that the managers know how to properly apply the five core job characteristics on their employees. Not only managers and the employees but also lecturers and student must realize that they all have a responsible to give the best performance by giving the best in skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Lecturers take managerial role for motivating students to positive learning outcomes, and students take employee role for doing the best to reach positive learning outcomes.

The Road Essay -- Literary Analysis, McCarthy

Why do you think McCarthy has chosen not to give his characters names? How do the generic labels of â€Å"the man† and â€Å"the boy† affect the way you /readers relate to them? While reading The Road, a novel written by Cormac McCarthy, I was jerked from the warmth, comfort, and safety of my home and thrown into a cold, dark, and desolate world, walking alongside â€Å"the man† and â€Å"the boy†. McCarthy composes his work so graphically that readers are drawn right into the story. I believe Cormac McCarthy wanted the figures in this book to be universal, so that the reader could imagine him/her self as â€Å"the boy† or â€Å"the man† at any given moment, and to be able to feel as they do. To do this McCarthy did not designate the characters in his book with names, and because of this, I was able to connect with â€Å"the man† and â€Å"the boy† on a personal level and envision myself uniting with them in their chilling journey. As the reader, I was deeply overwhelmed with many mixed emotions such as compassion, sadness, happiness, disgust, remorse, and fear. I have pity for the characters in the book The Road, because â€Å"the man† and â€Å"the boy† have to pass day to day struggling to survive in a frigid bleak world where food is scarce â€Å"They squatted in the road and ate rice and cold beans they’d cooked days ago.† â€Å"Already beginning to ferment.†(McCarthy 29). The landscape is blackened, and mankind is almost extinct â€Å"The mummied dead everywhere.†(McCarthy 24). As I read on I noticed myself connecting more deeply with the characters. When the boy’s mother takes her own life, I was deeply saddened and my heart broke for â€Å"the boy† simply because his mom, someone he cherished and loved so much, had given up on hope and faith and deserted him. I just wan... ..., I jumped in the bed got as close to my husband as possible and eventually drifted off to sleep. When I finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy, I was astonished at how deep I was able to connect with the characters and the fact that this book touched me as deeply as it did. It also made me think what if†¦? In reality if this were to happen would I have the courage and strength of â€Å"the man† and â€Å"the boy† or would I be like the mother as McCarthy states it â€Å" †¦a faithless slut†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (57), who has taken death as a new lover. Over all I personally believe that this novel was absolutely fantastic, even though I had nightmares for a few nights after I had completed the book. This just goes to show what a great writer McCarthy is, he touches his readers so deeply they even dream about his work. I would defiantly pick up this book and read it again just for fun.

Science of Microwave Heating :: microwave oven

The microwave oven, a tool that we use often in our busy lives to heat up foods when we just don't have the time or patience for a conventional oven to do its work. How does this device work? It's pretty simple if we use the basics of physics to explain it. Vibrations from the high frequency radio waves cause the water and fat cells in food to generate heat through friction of the molecules. An example of this using a turkey shows the molecules positive and negative particles acting through these vibrations to cause friction. J. Carlton Gallawa -- http://www.gallawa.com/microtech/howcook.html "In microwave cooking, the radio waves penetrate the food and excite water and fat molecules pretty much evenly throughout the food. There is no "heat having to migrate toward the interior by conduction". There is heat everywhere all at once because the molecules are all excited together. There are limits of course. Radio waves penetrate unevenly in thick pieces of food (they don't make it all the way to the middle), and there are also "hot spots" caused by wave interference, but you get the idea. The whole heating process is different because you are "exciting atoms" rather than "conducting heat"." -- Howstuffworks.com From Wikipedia.org: "Microwaves, also known as Super High Frequency (SHF) signals, have wavelengths approximately in the range of 30 cm (1 GHz) to 1 mm (300 GHz)." and "A microwave oven uses a magnetron microwave generator to produce microwaves at a frequency of approximately 2.4 GHz for the purpose of cooking food. Microwaves cook food by causing molecules of water and other compounds to vibrate. The vibration creates heat which warms the food. Since organic matter is made up primarily of water, food is easily cooked by this method." From http://www.gallawa.com/microtech/howcook.html: "Microwaves possess three basic characteristics: * Just as sunlight shines through a window, microwaves pass right through some materials. Materials such as glass, paper, and plastic are transparent to and generally unaffected by microwaves. * Microwaves are reflected by metal surfaces, much as a ball would bounce off a wall. The metal walls of the cooking space actually form a cavity resonator. In other words, the enclosure is designed to resonate the microwaves as they are radiated from the magnetron tube. The principle of resonance may be illustrated using sound waves. When a piano key is struck, it produces sound vibrations or sound waves. Sometimes a note is played on a piano, and an object across the room, perhaps a wineglass, can be heard vibrating and producing the same sound.

Flappers and Mothers: New Women in the 1920s Essay -- American History

Flappers and Mothers: New Women in the 1920s Frederick Lewis Allen, in his famous chronicle of the 1920s Only Yesterday, contended that women’s â€Å"growing independence† had accelerated a â€Å"revolution in manners and morals† in American society (95). The 1920s did bring significant changes to the lives of American women. World War I, industrialization, suffrage, urbanization, and birth control increased women’s economic, political, and sexual freedom. However, with these advances came pressure to conform to powerful but contradictory archetypes. Women were expected to be both flapper and wife, sex object and mother. Furthermore, Hollywood and the emerging â€Å"science† of advertising increasingly tied conceptions of femininity to a specific standard of physical beauty attainable by few. By 1930, American women (especially affluent whites) had won newfound power and independence, but still lived in a sexist culture where their gender limited their opportunities and defined the ir place in society. World War I and industrialization both brought greater economic autonomy to American women. With immigration curtailed and hundreds of thousands of men needed for the armed forces, women’s labor became a wartime necessity. About 1.5 million women worked in paying jobs during the war, with many more employed as volunteers or secretaries and yeomen for the Army, Navy, and Marines (James and Wells, 66). Women retained few of those 1.5 million jobs after men returned from war, but the United States’ industrialized postwar economy soon provided enough work for men and women alike. Once confined to nursing, social work, teaching, or secretarial jobs, women began to find employment in new fields. According to Allen, â€Å"They ... ...r and a dutiful mother. Furthermore, large groups of American women were, by the basis of race or class, automatically excluded from the â€Å"new womanhood.† Despite significant advances, the decade of the 1920s ended much as it had began—American women, considered second-rate citizens, struggled to define femininity on their own terms. Works Cited Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen- Twenties. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1931. D’Emilio, John and Estelle B. Freedman. Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. Goodman, James. Stories of Scottsboro. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. James, D. Clayton and Anne Sharp Wells. America and the Great War, 1914- 1920. Wheeling, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1998. H427 website: http://bss.sfsu.edu/tygiel/Hist427

Is Sex Good for Our Health

When you're in the mood, it's a sure bet that the last thing on your mind is boosting your immune system or maintaining a healthy weight. Yet good sex offers those health benefits and more. That's a surprise to many people, says Joy Davidson, PhD, a New York psychologist and sex therapist. â€Å"Of course, sex is everywhere in the media,† she says. â€Å"But the idea that we are vital, sexual creatures is still looked at in some cases with disgust or in other cases a bit of embarrassment. So to really take a look at how our sexuality adds to our life and enhances our life and our health, both physical and psychological, is eye-opening for many people.† Sex does a body good in a number of ways, according to Davidson and other experts. The benefits aren't just anecdotal or hearsay — each of these 10 health benefits of sex is backed by scientific scrutiny. Among the benefits of healthy loving in a relationship: Sex-Drive Killers Slideshow 1. Sex Relieves Stress A big health benefit of sex is lower blood pressure and overall stress reduction, according to researchers from Scotland who reported their findings in the journal Biological Psychology. They studied 24 women and 22 men who kept records of their sexual activity. Then the researchers subjected them to stressful situations — such as speaking in public and doing verbal arithmetic — and noted their blood pressure response to stress. Those who had intercourse had better responses to stress than those who engaged in other sexual behaviors or abstained. Another study published in the same journal found that frequent intercourse was associated with lower diastolic blood pressure in cohabiting participants. Yet other research found a link between partner hugs and lower blood pressure in women. 2. Sex Boosts Immunity Good sexual health may mean better physical health. Having sex once or twice a week has been linked with higher levels of an antibody called immunoglobulin A or IgA, which can protect you from getting colds and other infections. Scientists at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., took samples of saliva, which contain IgA, from 112 college students who reported the frequency of sex they had. Those in the â€Å"frequent† group — once or twice a week — had higher levels of IgA than those in the other three groups — who reported being abstinent, having sex less than once a week, or having it very often, three or more times weekly. 3. Sex Burns Calories Thirty minutes of sex burns 85 calories or more. It may not sound like much, but it adds up: 42 half-hour sessions will burn 3,570 calories, more than enough to lose a pound. Doubling up, you could drop that pound in 21 hour-long sessions. â€Å"Sex is a great mode of exercise,† says Patti Britton, PhD, a Los Angeles sexologist and president of the American Association of Sexuality Educators and Therapists. It takes work, from both a physical and psychological perspective, to do it well, she says.

To Kill a Mockingbird Analysis

Themes play an valuable homosexualipulation in the invigorated for it presents the chief(prenominal) d.o.a. or the underlying meaning of the literary work. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the homes are tired of(p)e to surface through and through the divided feelings and attitudes of the main characters like observation tower, precious st angioten blaze converting enzyme and simulated military operation Finch. The characters eyeshots and conversations, especially the bases which are repeated in about(prenominal) dialogue exchanges and their actions in profound nonethelessts in like manner develop the novels themes. The novel presents the oldest yet timeless departure between crush versus evil.This is evident in most situations and conversations which explored benignant morality and the innateness of oddness and evilness of heap in the inn. Tactics Finch represents the moral interpretive program of the novel because he believes that good deal convey aspects o f both grievous and evil, alone good will al bureaus prevail. He has neer lost his faith on the integrity of man a midst the fact that man has also the tendency to do bad things. In the novel, he struggles to defend a coloured man of false accusation in a racist society just he never gives up and severely holds on unto the idea that someday the verity and the good will overpower racialism in their community.The same theme is manifested through the experiences of Scout and hoarded wealth. Tactics, their father, learnes them to believe in the purity of all bulk and determine and ethical motive guide everyone in their actions and as the invoice progresses, both barbarianren are opened to the semipublic that the arena isnt really that perfect. Their sinlessness is stripped away from them through several incidents that made them think twice of their fathers belief.Scout, in the beginning, is an innocent and good -hearted little daughter who has no experience with the evils of the dry land only when as she encounters racial discrimination in their town, she starts to get confused and questions everything round her. precious stone, n the different hand, is older and in the midst Of entering puberty just now the power of the societal prepossession to a convicted b wishing man is much graver compared to Scouts. gemstone gets frustrated and disap loaded to the harsh reality that sometimes justices will not prevail. This leaves him threatened and traumatized in an key facet of his brio.Harper lee side manages to exhibit childrens transition from innocence to maturity. She in secureigently portrayed the fact that at some point in time in a significant event, children will be bound to graduate from their innocence and translate the facts about life and its imperfections. With children as the main characters in the novel, cultivation is but evident for a theme. In the initial chapters, the novel discusses the difference between inst itutionalized pedagogics and education at cornerstone. A battle emerges as run away Caroline scolds her for cosmosness too advance for their class.Scout gets disappointed for being punished because she is taught well in home by her father and their lightlessness servant. drop Caroline even reminds Scout to tell her father that he shouldnt discipline his child because he doesnt really know how to. He is in no position to ascertain for he is not a t apieceer. This conflict shows criticism to institutionalized education. This presents the conceitedness of teachers and the curriculum in providing education to learners. The system is too hard and traditional in their pedagogies therefrom resulting to ineffectualness in developing and molding a childs intelligence and susceptibility.Clearly, Lee expresses a lack of belief in the Institutionalized educational system. Furthermore, this makes one realize that received education is not experienced in coach but away it. Educat ion shouldnt be limited in the four walls of the schoolroom instead it should be brought out to the outside world where reality and life lessons are best learned through experience. The novel also presents moral education in question. Scout believes that she learns moral lessons best in home quite an in school. Her teachers emerge to be hypocritical as they teach things that are not even neat in reality.Scout notices this most obviously when discipline about the Holocaust. Miss Gates explains that such(prenominal) oppression of one group of people could never happen in the unify States however racial discrimination to fateful people is very evident in their town. Scout sees conflict with the lesson aught by Miss Gates when she heard her gurgle about black people and govern time somebody taught them a lesson, they thought they was getting way above themselves, an the next thing they think they can do is embrace us. This makes Scout doubt her education and rather listen to her father than to attend school. deceit is apparent in the system. The teachers breach what they teach therefrom emphasizing the incompetence and ineffectualness of instruction provided by the educational institutions. This advertise implies that moral education and good values are not necessary best taught in school. Sometimes, it is best learned from other places like ones home. In a town of Macomb, Alabama, Lee illustrates the complexities of mixer hierarchy.The well-off Finches are near the top of the pyramid, the Cunningham family are incorrupt farmers and so Stay in the high bottom above the white-trash Lowell family. These social statuses greatly confuse the children especially the rules that come along with them. Because of the structure, the children are prop bibbed to modify with other families who are lesser in standing. This frustrates them most especially Scout because she ants to hold her own friends based on her exposition of what makes a good person and n ot because of family income.The novel presents the dilemma of social inequality. The story takes place during the Great Depression thus social standing is as important as survival. People battle with society rules and structure. Lee exhibits how injustice and partiality divides a community and hinders gentleman interaction thus contributing nothing but electronegativity to the people and the society as a whole. Racism, which is closely related to social inequality, is another(prenominal) focus of the novel. Harper Lee creates Macomb as a town separated by race.Harper Lee shows the prickliness that remains in the whites five decades after the end of slavery. This bitterness is best illustrated by the way that the way blacks are still oppressed, not by force but by dread and suppression. California, the Finchs servant is to be exceptionally bright, she even teaches Scout to write in script, but because she is black and a woman she cannot prop a better job. The whites belittle and kindle the blacks because they firmly believe that they are great and more superior. This racial tension foreshadows tom Robinsons illustration.Right in the beginning, everybody knows that Tom is innocent but because he is a black man, the prejudice jury still convicted him guilty of harassing and raping a white woman. The conclusion of the Tom Robinsons case ends with Tom being shot repeatedly while trying to escape notwithstanding his injury. Racism is considered as a social disease. It brings out the evil nature of man as prejudice and discrimination overpowers conscience and moral code. It is through this novel that people are made to understand how goose egg can ever benefit from racism.It only causes the creation of walls teen people thus hindering relationships and interactions to blossom. Lee shows the significance of human perspective in the processing of events and resolving power of problems. The characters outlook in life is deemed important in the development o f the story and how each managed to understand the situation. In the novel, Tactics encourages Scout and Gem to be more kind of other people and understand their situations. The children shouldnt straightaway judge as it is not clean-living to the others.Tactics urges his children to try to step into other peoples situation to understand how they see he world You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of heap . Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it. This lesson helps Scout gain appreciation into how other people view life and the world. Moreover, this broadens her moral education and social understanding. This theme was evident when Tactics requires Gem to go to Mrs.. Doubles house to read to her as penalisation for cutting all the flowers in her front end yard.Gem didnt like Mrs.. Dubos and claims that she is an awful woman. Tactics tells Gem and Scout to try to understand Mrs.. Doubles point of view. She is an old woman, ve ry set her in ways, and she is entirely alone in the world. Gem and Scout agree to visit her and from that experience, they soundless how she felt because they were able to see the world from her perspective. Scout applies her fathers lesson when she meets Boo Raddled, a black man who kept himself hidden from the public because of the unjust and prejudice treatment.After she walks him home, Scout stands on Boobs porch and imagines many of the events of the story (Tactics shooting the mad dog the children finding Boobs presents in the oak tree tree) as they essential have looked to Boo. She and then last realizes the love and protection that he has silently offered her and Gem all along. Scouts ability to assume another persons perspective sympathetically is the culmination of the novel. The final theme and believably the most significant is the mockingbird which represents the idea of innocence. Remember its a sin to butcher a mockingbird. That was the only time I ever heard Tactics record it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maude about it. Your fathers right, she said. Mockingbirds dont do one thing but make medicinal drug for us to enjoy .. .But sing their hearts out for us. Thats why its a sin to kill a mockingbird. When Scout and Gem receive arraigns for Christmas, Tactics tells them that although he would pick out that they practice their shooting with tin cans, if they must(prenominal) shoot at living things, they must never shoot at mockingbirds.Tactics explains that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. Clearly, this is the deed scene, but the theme continues throughout the book. Miss Maude explains why Tactics is correct mockingbirds never do anyone any harm, and are not pests in any way. All they do is sing beautifully and live peacefully. Therefore, it is a sin to kill them. The mockingbird represents true goodness and purity. Tom Robinson is one lesson of a human mockingbird. He is accused of raping and beating Malay Lowell, but is innocent of the charges.