Hong Kong Waste Problem

Hong Kong has an imminent waste problem. Here you can learn about what municipal solid waste is, how significant our waste problem is, and how the Government tackles the problem. The Waste Problem Hong Kong generates several types of solid waste. It includes municipal solid waste (MSW), which comes from domestic, commercial and industrial sources; construction waste, which arises from construction, renovation and demolition activities; and other special wastes such as chemical waste and livestock waste. †¢ More on waste in Hong Konghttp://www. epd. gov. k/epd/english/environmentinhk/waste/waste_maincontent. html Municipal Solid Waste Municipal solid waste includes waste from domestic premises and public facilities, commerce and some types of industry, but excludes construction waste and chemical waste. Each year, more than 6 million tonnes of MSW are generated, over half of which is disposed of in the three strategic landfills. Unfortunately, the generation of MSW has been growing at a much faster rate than expected, and our consumption-led lifestyle is putting enormous pressure on these landfills. The three existing landfills will be full, one by one, in the mid to late 2010s. If the waste loads continue to increase, there will be a need to allocate an additional 400 hectares of land to develop new landfill sites to meet our waste disposal needs up to 2030. Clearly, Hong Kong needs a more sustainable way to deal with waste. To address our waste problem, the Government published â€Å"A Policy Framework for the Management of MSW (2005-2014)† (Policy Framework) in December 2005. The Policy Framework sets out a comprehensive strategy for the management of MSW in the next 10 years. It consists of a series of policy tools and measures to tackle the waste problem head on. †¢ More on municipal solid wastehttp://www. gov. hk/en/residents/environment/msw. htm †¢ Information on the Policy Framework for the Management of Municipal Solid Waste (2005-2014)http://www. epd. gov. hk/epd/msw/htm_en/content. htm Construction Waste The high levels of construction activity in Hong Kong generate equally high levels of inert or recyclable waste and non-inert or organic waste. Both hese forms of waste pose challenges to the maintenance of our landfill programme, and need to be managed carefully. Under the polluter-pays principle, the Environmental Protection Department operates the Construction Waste Disposal Charging Scheme, whereby construction waste producers pay appropriate charges for the disposal of their waste. The Government is also encouraging the industry to sort and recycle waste as far as possible, and to plan and build more efficiently to minimise waste. Mo re on construction wastehttp://www. gov. hk/en/residents/environment/constructionwaste. htm Waste Reduction and Recycling You can participate in a number of waste reduction programmes. The Wastewi$e Label under the Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence, for example, helps Hong Kong businesses and organisations in adopting measures to reduce the amount of waste generated within their establishments or through the products and services they provide. It provides members with free advice on waste management techniques and rewards their efforts through public recognition. You can also help the recycling of domestic waste by participating in the Programme on Source Separation of Domestic Waste and separating waste using the waste separation bins on housing estates and deposit rechargeable batteries in designated collection boxes. †¢ More on waste reduction and recyclinghttp://www. gov. hk/en/residents/environment/wasteredrecyc. htm

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Essay

Ferry is considered one of the greatest lyrical poems of all time. In Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Walt Whitman uses connotative diction, prying questions, and critical reader engagement to convey a feeling of connection and unity of people through time. By using these certain rhetoric strategies, Whitman creates a piece of poetry that seems to be timeless. Whitman carefully chooses certain words and phrases that really highlight his intentions to connect himself and others readers throughout time. In part 2 of the poem, Walt chooses the words â€Å"simple† and â€Å"compact† to describe a â€Å"scheme† in which we are all â€Å"disintegrated†. These words, precise and carefully chosen, attribute to the great lyricism of the poem. A scheme that is simple is a scheme that we can all live by. And a compact, simple scheme connotes togetherness. Whitman continues to say we’re all disintegrated, but part of the scheme. Being disintegrated could also means we are all little pieces of the same body, or scheme Another simple rhetoric strategy imposed by Whitman to convey a sense of unity between he and the reader is reader engagement. Whitman involves and engages the ready by asking the reader questions, and relating to the reader. By effectively asking questions, Whitman suggest to readers from past and future times that maybe there is not much that separates them. â€Å"What is it then between us? What is the count of scores or hundreds of years between us? The use of these rhetoric strategies are just a few the devices that makes Walt Whitman’s â€Å"Crossing the Brooklyn Ferry† a timeless masterpiece.

Artistic and Psychological Experiments

The paper will aim to review the journal on psychology regarding synesthesia. Synesthesia is a condition whereby a feature such as a shape like a letter A and B evoke a perception of another condition e. A can evoke the red color while B evokes the blue color on an individual's perception (Dick, 2014). Another definition is that synesthesia is a phenomenon in which an individual experiences unusual perception evoked y the activation of unrelated sensory modality or through a cognitive process (Malim, 2011). According to the author, tests performed by Baron-Cohen, Burt Smith and Harrison established the authenticity of artificial colors. Regardless of the tests, the author states that it is still not clear at what stage the visual of color processing stream is evoked. The article tries to answer the above dilemma by posting questions as to whether it involves relating to high levels of mental association and memories or if the colors are evoked earlier in visual processing and imbued with qualia (Malim, 2011).   The article explains that tests that involved the use of embedded shapes tasks, identified that synthetically stimulated colors could lead to pop-out and texture segregation, this shows that there is perceptual evidence for synesthesia. The author cites another test conducted by Hubbard and Ramachadran (2010) in which they encountered two synesthesias at least, who saw colors in numbers that do not exist in the real world. This test indicates that synesthesia may not be as a result of acquired learning but rather the individual's perception. In the article, various theories have made efforts to explain the synesthesia phenomenon. Such theory includes the cross-sectional theory. The theory suggests that synesthesia comes about as a result of cross-activation of between posterior temporal grapheme areas (PTGA) and the color processing area known as the V4. The disinhibited feedback theory explains that synesthesia arises from the disinhibiting of pre-existing feedback connections. The author highlights that similar finding such as those put forward by the cross-sectional theory, re-appeared during the test conducted by Hubbard and Ramachadran in 2010. The author includes another experiment that consisted of four participants who were asked to read the right words they would spot among a list of reversed words and wrong words. The test found that the average error rate for synthetics as 0.03% while that for non-synthetics stood at 23.8%. The author adds that during the same test some of the participants remarked that they first noticed the color before they could identify the shapes of the letters, and they used the color to clue them on the letters. This test concluded that the four synthetics of grapheme are processed unconsciously up to the fusiform and the cross-activate the color cells in V4 before the information is transmitted higher up where the color is used to infer the grapheme (Dark, 2009). The experiment also concluded that in projector synthesis, the phenomenon seems to occur at earlier in sensory processing. The initial stages of letter processing, the visual inputs are used to trigger the component features of the letters (the lines and curves). The trigger leads to the activation of all letter and character that consist of all or some of the component features. Therefore following this logic, the participants managed to identify the right words through processing the synthetic colors relatively earlier and sending the extra information to a higher level of sensory processing, and thus providing additional insight into reading the distorted words and backward-written texts (Baron-Cohen & Harrison, 2014). The author has managed to deliver the overall understanding of the synesthesia phenomenon through the support of several pieces of research, experiments, and theories cited by other authors. The use of pictures in the article further enhances the understanding of the phenomenon as well as the degree at which the experiments were conducted. The statistical data incorporated in the literature has also contributed to the genuineness of the findings. The structure of the article seems more of a review rather than a research as it relies heavily on other researchers work rather than the author's findings or experiments. However, the article's structure is well simplified and can deliver the point easily to the leader. The over reliance on other people's work brings about the question of credibility as some findings may be structured in a biased way. Cases where such issues of credibility arise include, the Ramachandran way of personifying characters and letters. She suggested that according to her perception, letter A seems to be the jealous one while B is quiet and non-assertive (Campen, 2010). Such findings leave the reader with a question as to whether the synesthesia phenomenon is learned or is dependent upon the individual's way of viewing life. The article has managed to deliver the most relevant points to the reader. This is due to its simplicity in writing and structure. However, the credibility of the findings still remains questionable. Baron-Cohen, S. & Harrison, J. (2014).  Synaesthesia  (1st ed.). Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell. Campen, C. (2010).  Artistic and psychological experiments with synesthesia  (1st ed.). Cognition, Object Formation, Speech Perception, Time Perception, Visual Attention, Visual Information Processing, Visual Memory. (2009).  Perception & Psychophysics,  71(1), 3-4. https://dx.doi.org/10.3758/app.71.1.3 Dark, V. (2009). Switching between memory and perception: Moving attention or memory retrieval?.  Memory & Cognition,  18(2), 119-127. https://dx.doi.org/10.3758/bf03197088 Dick, A. (2014). Iconic memory and its relation to perceptual processing and other memory mechanisms.  Perception & Psychophysics,  16(3), 575-596. https://dx.doi.org/10.3758/bf03198590 Malim, T. (2011).  Cognitive processes  (1st ed.). London: Macmillan.

Should capital punishment be suspended because of racial disparities Term Paper

Should capital punishment be suspended because of racial disparities - Term Paper Example But the question that lies is beyond the validity of imposing capital punishment but rather the effect of color or race that comes with the number of those sentenced for capital punishment. The effects of anger and retaliation are a development of social discrimination and prejudice fueled not just by the wrong act or omission but also the bigotry that comes with such hate. Capital punishment then becomes an added tool for racial discrimination rather than a positive effect of retributive justice. Researches made In 2002, a Governor of Maryland Parris Glendening initiated a research to be done by the University of Maryland regarding capital punishment and although criminologist Ray Paternoster found that the â€Å"race of the defendant was not significant in penalty-eligible cases†, race played an important factor whether the prosecutor sought for a death penalty punishment in a case (Hodgkinson and Shabas 8). There is not just racial disparity but also prosecutor disparity. A t least 43% of total executions since 1976 and 55% of those awaiting execution is for people of color (American Civil Liberties Union, 2003). The General Accounting office in 1990 showed reports that â€Å"race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty." In numerous jurisdictions researchers and case laws have given sufficient proof of racial disparity among persons under death row. In Philadelphia, a study made in 1997 by David Baldus and statistician George Woodworth found results that between 1983 to 1993, a 38% increase in the possibility of a person being eligible for death penalty because the defendant was black. In North Carolina, a study released by the university showed that between 1993 to 1997, a three and a half increase in the possibility of incurring a death sentence when the victim is white rather than black. The area of jurisdiction varies from the number of the race’s population an d possible historical background on racial prejudice. A good example is in the state of Georgia, where University of Iowa law professor David Baldus found that prosecutors sought death penalty for 70% of the black defendants with white victims compared to the minimal 15% white defendants who had white victims. (American Civil Liberties Union, 2003). Further effects of this study will be explained in the latter part of the discussion, as the â€Å"Baldus study† was attempted to be used as a defense in a Supreme Court case (McCleskey v. Kemp (1987). Prosecution disparity is eminent in these cases, it seems that racial discrimination the begun with society is also reflected to the administration of justice. It is the prosecutors who have the discretion in deciding whether cases should seek death penalty. Even in the choice of possible jurors, the prosecution takes control such as in the state of Philadelphia, where prosecutors move to remove 52 % of potential black jurors compar ed to a mere 23 % potential jurors of other races. Jeffrey Pokorak conducted another good research proving racial disparity. He related the important effects of race and gender of all the lawyers authorized to prosecute death penalty cases that evidenced racial disparity. In the 38 states studied, 98% of the prosecuting attorneys are white and almost all are male (Hodgkinson and Shabas 15). Supreme Court Decisions With this issue being established, the

Nestle Safety Training Program Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Nestle Safety Training Program - Assignment Example and upgrade their safety measures in such a way that employees along with contractors and others are protected, as they add value to the company (Nestle safety and health). They are further striving to accomplish one of their main goals and that is having zero injuries and accident in regard to their workers. Currently, there are two departments working in collaboration to adhere to the company’s law regarding safety and health of their employees. The two departments are The Safety and Health Functional Leadership Team and The Safety and Health Council. The former is a group of senior safety and health professionals from across the world who meets on daily basis to pinpoint priorities and convey challenges, learning, and good practices. Similarly, the latter council consists of senior fellows from various areas of the business who adjudicate the evolution and execution of programs and provide support and resources. Moreover, the organization believes that human behavior is also one of the factors which may lead towards the occurrence of accidents and injuries; therefore, Nestle implements programs that motivate employees to converse with the peers and management about safe and at-risk behavior. To emphasize on the seriousness of health and safety measure, all executive board meeting starts with an overview of the health and safety that is why the aforementioned council is held four times in a month, which is a quarterly meeting. In addition to this, these departments have installed Nestlà © Occupational Safety & Health Management (NSMS) which strive towards improving and upgrading health and safety procedures, policies, standards, and process. Now moving towards the safety training programs, Nestle has established a roadmap for this very own purpose. Following are some of these programs which include Personal Ownership and Engagement.

Policing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Policing - Essay Example The agents who have the first contact with the caller should perform a basic risk assessment and find any vulnerability before verifying whether the matter is an incident or inquiry and attempt to resolve the caller’s needs. The staff should ask questions to the caller for an effective assessment of the risk (Deal 2010, p.18). Assessment, identification and prioritization of the risks are involved for effective risk management with the onus of the dispatcher in order to take the recommendable initial response. After taking the initial risk assessment, the incident is then graded on whether it requires emergency or non-emergency response (Deal 2010, p.23). An emergency response includes situations where the reported incident is taking place, and there is or likely to be a danger to life, instant threat of using violence, serious injuries to a person or solemn damage to property. The maximum time required for the police to arrive for the emergency response in urban areas is within 15 minutes while in rural areas is within 20 minutes. The police rely on the first hand information given by the call handler for the direction to the scene where the incident has occurred. For a non-emergency incident, the immediate police response is not required and encompasses many solutions for which officer’s attendance is not required.

Choose from the book Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Choose from the book - Essay Example The collapse of the banks reduced bank loans leading to less expenditure than initial. The crash of the stock markets reduced the spending capability of individuals through fear of further economic woes. Unemployment and job losses led to a reduction of the purchasing power. Purchasing power is defined as the ability of the society to purchase goods and services. Increased purchases indicate the power of the society and improved welfare while reduced purchases indicate an ailing economy that needs intervention and support. The reduction of purchasing power of the economy at the time was an indication of the reduction of income earning and creation in the country. The situation was made worse with the inability of the banks to offer loans that could improve the purchasing power. The failure to offer loans to the citizens also indicated the situation of the banks in terms of financial strengths. Later, several banks collapsed and with the collapse came massive losses to the citizens th rough loss of savings and investments. The situation was so dire that banks' lost public confidence leading to the creation of the FDIC to offer support and security for individual savings. With such massive issues, the financial sector of the country was in shambles leading to the failure of the whole economy called the great depression. In addition, American economic policy changes as a result of the ailing economy. The government created the Smooth-Hawley Tariff to protect the American companies. The policy charged high tax for imports reducing the amount of trade between America and the rest of the world. The Smooth-Hawley Tariff protected the country production companies from competition. However, the mode of protection led to the isolation of the country because International Corporation could not venture into the country due to the expensive nature of business operations. Drought was an indirect facilitator of the economic problems witnessed in the country. The serious drough t occurred in the Mississippi valley, in 1930, leading to the sale of farm lands in order to remain afloat (Foner 90). While not affecting the economy directly, it helped in the shaping of the economic perspective of the country, to create a financial problem in the area. The drought did not have a massive influence on the economy but helped facilitate the already worse economy to decline. The role of Franklin Roosevelt in economy improvement After the depression witnessed the country struggled to recover from the failure with minimal success until the election of Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt enacted several Legislations through congress in a bid to help industrial and economic recovery. The creation of the National Recovery Administration was to foster operation between the government, business and labor in order to achieve success. During the first hundred days of his tenure, he instigated changes in the political leadership to solve the banking crisis with the main focus of the change to restore and not offer drastic change in the economy. The job losses and unemployment witnessed after the great depression had affected the lives of the citizens (Foner 121). In order to assist, the president instigated relief programs to support provision of basic needs to families and also help in spurring the economy. The relief programs helped to reduce starving of the citizens

The JFK Assassination Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The JFK Assassination - Assignment Example Through a mutual acquaintance, I came to know (before embarking upon this report) a Radiologist by the name of Dr. Michael Rollins. Prior to conducting the interview with him, I already thought that he would be an excellent candidate based upon what I already knew of him. He grew up in the sixties, was on the draft list to go to Vietnam, and paid his way through medical school by joining the United States Army. He is today a successful, practicing doctor who lives in San Diego, California. After obtaining his consent via email, I conducted the interview with him on the telephone. â€Å"The first word came over the television airwaves at 1:40 P.M. EST when CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite broke into As the World Turns with an audio announcement over a bulletin slide: â€Å"In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting.† (Doherty 2010) People everywhere are reported to have been in shock. Women were crying the streets, traffic intersections were backed up, and people in some instances came out of their homes out into the street looking dazed.   Dr. Rollins remembers too well the events of that day.   He was living then in the same city where he lives now: San Diego.   Today he is almost 59 years old.   In November of 1963 he was only 11 years old.   As a young boy, he attended a private Catholic school where he was enrolled in the seventh grade (he skipped a grade because he was more advanced than his peers).

The Beginning And Development Of Gothic Architecture Case Study

The Beginning And Development Of Gothic Architecture - Case Study Example The characteristics of Gothic architecture gave the specific definition which was related to what is often referred to as the French style, beginning in the 12th century and going through the 16th century. The architecture was most often used as high art and was created for cathedrals, castles, palaces and other governmental buildings. Many often referred to the style as one which was regarded as belonging to higher powers, which was why it was used for these specific types of buildings. The original term was created by Giorgio Vasari in 1530 in response to a culture which was considered rude. Most during this time believed that the group should be outcast. To represent this, different symbols were used to show that vandals and others within society shouldn’t be present in specific buildings. The architecture of the building is then made to symbolize the individuals who should not enter into a given place (Glaser, 15). The main beliefs and descriptions with the Gothic architec ture then led into concepts which were associated with the symbolic meaning that was created, most which was in reference to the Christian and high-quality attributes which would not welcome others within the region. The features which were used, inclusive of ornate structures and intricate decor became some of the defining parts of the architecture. ... The main focus was designed with both a vertical emphasis, which pointed upwards as a symbol to the higher powers as well as with the concept of having as much light in the building as possible (Murray, p. 18). An example of Gothic architecture can be seen in influences such as the Notre Dame church, as seen in figure 1. Figure 1: Church of Notre Dame In this figure, the elements of the Gothic can be seen. At the lower area, there are three arches which one can enter, all of which are rounded.

My First Conk from Malcolm X Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

My First Conk from Malcolm X - Essay Example Blacks thus degrade their natural bodies without realizing that such degradations are embarrassing as Malcolm says that it seems foolish to see women having green and pink wigs to look like whites. Moreover, none of the blacks are ever thinking of gaining similar education or intelligence as that of the whites (Malcolm, 131). Conked hair and wigs illustrates that blacks have been brainwashed because even in the modern world, most blacks still feel inferior to the whites. Blacks are always ready to endure the pain of conk hair even after knowing that it does not make a black person more adorable. This is based on the argument by Malcolm that no woman will admire a man based on his hair appearance no matter how well the conk is; it does not add any value to the man (Malcolm, 136). In conclusion, before Malcolm realized that conk hair was a degradation of his natural body, he was willing to endure the pain to look like the whites but after he discovered that blacks had been brainwashed to think they are inferior to the whites, he has never had a conk (Malcolm, 141). All black individuals need to do as Malcolm did and instead of trying to be like the whites, they should instead study hard to better than the

The differences and the similarities between mitosis and meiosis Essay Example for Free

The differences and the similarities between mitosis and meiosis Essay There are certain similarities as well as differences between mitosis and meiosis. The following discussion therefore illustrates the both cases where the differences seem to exceed the similarities. Beginning with the similarities, both are processes where cell division occurs and new organisms are produced as well as enhancing development. The reproduction occurs in two types: the asexual and the sexual. In both processes they begin with the interphase as the first stage where cells replicate thus there is promotion of growth in sexually producing organisms. In both the microscope is used by the scientists in chromosomal classification of the patterns. They both occur in human, plants and animals, (Veronica, Armstrong. 2007). The difference between the two processes is first illustrated in their definitions. Mitosis is defined as the process where asexual reproduction occurs where somatic cells are used, while in meiosis the process of sexual reproduction which involves use of only sex cell of both the female and the male. Meiosis does not occur in single cell species but mitosis process does, (Veronica, Armstrong. 2007). During mitosis process genetically two identical daughter cells are produced while in meiosis different daughter cells which are four haploids are produced. They are different from parent cells as well as between themselves, (Campbell Neil A. et others 2008). In meiosis there is crossing over of genes and also recombination while in mitosis there is no crossing over or recombination of genes, (Campbell Neil A. et others 2008). Mitosis was first discovered by Walther Flemming while meiosis was discovered by Oscar Hertwig. Stages involved in mitosis process are as follows: interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase and cytokinesis while them that are involved in meiosis are as follows: interphase, prophase I, metaphase I, anaphase I, telophase I, prophase II, metaphase II, anaphase II and telophase II, (Veronica, Armstrong. 2007). Works Cited Campbell Neil A. , Reece Jane B. , Taylor Martha R. , Simon Eric J. , Dickey Jean L. Biology: Concepts Connections. New York: Peason/Benjamin Cummings, 2008. Veronica, Armstrong. Mitosis and Meiosis: The Science of Cell Division. New York: User Friendly Resource Enterprises, 2007.

Office Equipment Company Essay Example for Free

Office Equipment Company Essay Therefore, they had to choose a suitable candidate. OEC didn’t have manufacturing facilities in El Salvador, but they had been selling there for more than 22 years at that time. The sales and profits proved to be improving every year. In 1993, OEC decided to construct a factory. The components of the machines would be imported and assembled locally as El Salvador could offer a big supply of cheap labour force. The construction would be supervised by an American technical team. The director, also American, would report to US all problems regarding the production and quality-control and to the managing director from El Salvador, all problems regarding the accounting, the finance and labour relations. The managers from foreign subsidiaries of OEC are used to being rotate among foreign and domestic locations which offered them an important international experience. II. The Problem The main problem outlined in the case study is that the committee does not know which candidate would best fit the managing director’s position. Causes for the problem Current managing director has handed in his resignation and will leave in one month * Current OEC policy only allows for promoting, not hiring from outside the company. Negative effects Long-Term * Loss of international competitiveness if new managing director isn’t capable of handling his duties. * The image of OEC in El Salvador may be affected if wrong candidate is selected. Short-Term * New appointed managing director may not prove to be competent. * Delayed operations if the candidate is not selected before the end of the one month. * Loss of clients if candidate not selected on time. Cultural-differences between new managing director and local staff which may lead to conflicts, if inappropriate US candidate is selected. Communication problems, if poor Spanish speaking candidate. III. Alternative Solutions 1. Choosing Tom Zimmerman Tom Zimmerman is an experience manager that has been working for OEC for 30 years. Therefore, he knows very well all the technical and sales aspects of the company and he was considered very competent in his managerial duties. However, Tom doesn’t speak Spanish at all and, in El Slavador, this crucial for doing business. He is married, but his wife doesn’t speak Spanish also, which would make their life very difficult in El Slavador. They have a big family, but their children live separately at their houses in US. Having a considerable age, both of them, they would likely prefer to stay in the US, closer to their children and grandchildren. Also, Tom doesn’t have any international experience as he never worked abroad. He only visited the company foreign facilities, but this would not have provided him the experience necessary to deal with the cultural differences and everyday problems. Advantages: * 30 years of experience for the OEC; * Important technical knowledge and sales aspects; * Competent in the management duties; * Used with this kind of operations; * His current post will become redundant. Disadvantages: * No international experience; * Doesn’t speak Spanish; * Retirement is planned in 4,5 years; * Married; his wife also doesn’t speak Spanish. 2. Choosing Brett Harrison Brett Harrison has an important experience of 15 years with the OEC and is viewed as a very competent employee capable of reaching a higher rank in management. He is in charge of the regional office of the Latin America and even if he had never travelled abroad, he visited frequently this region. He is married and, both he and his wife speak Spanish. However, they have two children, aged fourteen and fifteen, that are in school and could cause a problem for them by switching not only school, but also countries. Also, his wife has a stable position in marketing at a pharmaceutical company. In case of moving into another country, she could find difficulties in finding a job, or she could not be satisfied of her new job compared to the old one. Advantages: * 15 years of experience for OEC; * Highly competent; * Speaks Spanish; * His wife also speaks Spanish; Disadvantages: * Frequently travelled to Latin America, but never been based abroad; * His wife is employed at a stable workplace; * His children are in school, even if they are starting to learn Spanish; 3. Choosing Carolyn Moyer At the age of 37, Carolyn Moyer is the second oldest proposed candidate as well as the only female. Twelve years ago she attained her MBA from a prestigious university and also was an undergraduate in international affairs at the time she joined OEC. During her work at the company she has become acquainted with having responsibility as a Line authority as well as Staff authority. For the past two years she was second in charge of a product group with similar size as the one from El Salvador; which she managed â€Å"excellently†. She has shown interest in having international responsibilities since she started working for the company. She speaks Spanish well and is not currently married, which may ease her transition from the States to El Salvador. Carolyn Moyer happens to be the second oldest proposed candidate, but also has more than a decade of experience working for OEC. Currently in the Republic of El Salvador there is a strong gender role culture: men occupy the important jobs, whereas women as assistants and other clerical or support positions; only up until recently have started working as doctors, teachers and dentists. As of now women do not yet hold high ranking positions in the business sector. El Salvador ratified the International Agreement on Work Discrimination only in 1995, and the International Agreement on Equal Pay amongst men and women in 2000. Advantages: * Holds MBA from prestigious university. * Has experience at having both Line and Staff responsibilities. 2 years experience of co-managing a large product group. Interested in international responsibilities. * Undergraduate in international affairs. * Speaks Spanish well. * Not married. Disadvantages: * Second oldest candidate, 37 years of age. * Machismo is deeply rooted in the Republic of El Salvador. 4. Choosing Francisco Cabrera Francisco Cabrera, a Mexican citizen has worked for OEC for the past twelve years in the Mexican division and is at the moment one of the assistant managing directors in the Mexican operation tasked with producing and selling products on the Mexican market. After seven years when the current managing director would have normally retired, he was considered to be the next in the line to take his position. Having four young children, between the ages of two and seven, may potentially cause some problems as after seven years when he should have normally taken the position, his youngest would have been nine years old and in school. Advantages: * MBA from Mexican university. * Assistant managing director. * Possesses Mexican Citizenship. * 12 years work experience for OEC in Mexico. * Was deemed as the next managing director. Speaks English â€Å"adequately†. Disadvantages: * Third oldest candidate, 35 years of age. Married with four young children. 5. Choosing Juan Moreno Juan Moreno, the youngest candidate, has worked as the assistant to the El Salvador managing director for the past four years, after obtaining an undergraduate degree from a U. S. university. He is considered competent at what he does and helped increase the sales of OEC products, due to his many connections with potential customers. He is also capable of maintaining good relations with the employees. The biggest disadvantage is that he lacks experience, as having worked the least out of all candidates, and may not have enough knowledge or skill to be competitive with high demanding tasks. Advantages: * Youngest candidate, 27 years old. * Worked as assistant to the current managing director in El Salvador. * Holds undergraduate degree from US. * Competent. * Good employee relations. * Has successfully increase OEC’s sales. * Well connected with customers. * Not married. Disadvantages: * Lacks experience. IV. Best Solution Carolyn Moyer may not fit well in the El Salvador business environment, as just a decade ago women basically had no rights. So potential clients and local staff who she comes in contact with may ignore her and disregard what she says; which makes her competences as an authority useless. It must be a man. Anyone else but Juan Moreno (lack of experience and too young), depending on who has the best Advantages to least problematic Disadvantages. Francisco Cabrera (4) is in my opinion still the best candidate, as like I said, in El Salvador women are housekeepers, and so is his wife. So the fact that he has 4 children, has little to no affect on his job; at the most the company will have to pay him a bit extra to put his children through school, which over the years could add up, but he currently makes the equivalent of $40. 000, which compared to the US candidates is very little, so I assume that his new salary (if selected) would still be less than that of an American. So it cancels out, I suppose.

Ethical Business In The Minds Of Its Customers Commerce Essay

Ethical Business In The Minds Of Its Customers Commerce Essay This paper aims to answer the question Has McDonalds PLC achieved its objective of being seen as an ethical business in the mind of its customers? I chose McDonalds because it is one of the biggest food outlets in the world. Over the years, it has been criticised by costumers for being unhealthy and not environmental conscious. My investigation is based on a comparison of what McDonald claims to change and to work on against the counterclaims posed by the public. In order to fortify my claim, typical case studies of how McDonald has achieved being an ethical business in the eyes of the consumer were presented and analysed. They are: Analysis of the McDonalds Beef Fries Controversy and the McDonalds Happy Meal Challenge. Other research and enquiry was done to further analyse my investigation and they include: a primary research and a secondary research .A primary research was carried out in order to seek the opinion of the people in my local community about the state MacDonalds has reached as an ethical business. To further investigate on this, a secondary research was conducted using the companys sustainable card for the year 2011 in order to determine if McDonalds is environmentally sustainable. Results gotten from this were analysed and it was observed that 60% of the people who answered the questionnaire were not satisfied with McDonald being an ethical company due to certain reasons. The remaining 40% of people wer in support of MacDonalds being ethical. In conclusion, I realised that McDonald is really not as ethical as most allegations claim. With regards to this, suggestions regarding marketing strategies, and organisational structure were given under my recommendations. With these suggestions, McDonald can indeed reach a commendable level as an ethical business someday in the future. Word count: 295 Table of content Abstractà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..1 Introductionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦3 Research Questionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.3 Investigationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦7 Bodyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦8 What is ethics?8 Organisational Structure of McDonalds10 Case Studies on McDonalds as an unethical business and Counterclaims by the company as being ethical12 Result Analysis16 Conclusion18 Recommendation..19 Bibliographyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦20 Appendix21 Introduction In 1937, McDonalds was started as a drive-in restaurant by two brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald in California. From the beginning, it was making about $200,000 per annum. However, in the 1940s the company began to implement self-service policies called the Speedee system where consumers serve themselves and this boosted their annual earnings. Initially, McDonalds was designed for mass production where people line up to collect their food. During this era, food prices were relatively low and the two brothers considered service and cleanliness as the paramount factors to the success of their business. With this growing in buisness, people started showing interest in this business and wanted to take it on as a franchise. A franchise is an agreement where a business (the franchisor) sells the right to other businesses (the franchisees) allowing them to sell products or to use them to sell products or use the companys name (Dave Hall, Rob Jones. 2004. P.50) This system failed because at this point the Donald brothers were very transparent in their business dealings. In addition, this franchises formed were not able to meet up with standards set by the parent organisation. This encouraged a lot of imitators that copied their business and the format it employed. However, in the early 1990s, McDonalds was facing problems due to changing customer preferences and increasing competition. Customers were becoming increasingly health conscious and they wanted to avoid red meat and fried food. They preferred to eat at other fast food outlets that offered discounts. (Anon. 2002) As at 21 may 2012,McDonalds was ranked by the Fortune magazine (Anon, 2012) as first company in the food services making him the worlds largest fast food chain, selling primarily hamburgers, chicken, French fries and carbonated drinks and more recently salads, fruit and carrot sticks. There are McDonalds restaurants in 120 countries and territories and they serve about 54 millions of customers each day. (Anon, 2006) Such a success implies a lot of responsibilities such as finding the right management style to keep the business running a good Human Resources management in order to have the best workforce to be able to deliver good services and to satisfy the consumers. The consumers are one of the most important elements for a businesss success so there opinion should be considered. Looking at McDonalds which operates in the food industry; it has to provide food that is in respect with consumers health, culture, taste, etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ This aspect of the business is called Ethics which is a system of moral principles, being in the business context we talk more of Business Ethics. Business ethics could be defined as the moral values that guide the way corporations or other business make decisions (Mark S. Putnam.2002). It is at this junction, my research question: Has McDonalds PLC achieved its objective of being seen as an ethical business in the mind of its customers? comes in. I might be a bit prejudiced in my judgement and answer to this question as I have been a big fan of McDonalds right from childhood. Consequently, I have employed other sources to aid my unbiased and objective analysis of this. Over the years, there have been a lot of cases and reports presenting McDonalds as an unethical business. The question here is; how true are all these allegations which are laid against this company? Are there other perspectives as to its credibility as an ethical business and what are preferable suggestions as to how McDonald can be more ethical, if indeed they are currently considered unethical in the minds of the consumers? All these are going to be analysed in my essay bringing to the limelight both sides of the coin and critically analysing various prominent case studies such as; The McDonalds Beef Fries Controversy, and McDonalds Happy Meal Challenge. With all this in mind, conclusions as to whether McDonalds has been an ethical business will be made and preferable suggestions given as to how to boost their image. McDonalds has to portray a good image to its customers and its employees; by offering a good quality of food. This essay aims to investigate the achievement of McDonald as an ethical business over the years as well as its loyalty lies i.e., its profit or the well-being of the community and the environment at large. The problem is that on various accounts, allegations have been laid against McDonalds as an unethical business. Many ethical issues are subjective and are difficult to enforce and easy to neglect that is why I have come up with the title of Has McDonalds PLC achieved its objective of being seen as an ethical business in the mind of its customers? Investigation With regards these allegations passed on McDonalds as to not achieving the standard as an ethical business, a primary research was conducted in the form if a questionaire This was done to find out peoples opinion on this subject matter i.e; whether they think they are ethical or not. I chose a stratified sample of public, because it makes the sample more representative of the whole group. The sample is divided into segments. I therefore chose a sample of 20 people aged from 17 and plus and all of them went to different locations in the world. The questionnaire was launched on Survey Monkey (Darrell, 2012), so that everybody could fill it, and I will make the results more general. As secondary research I looked at the McDonalds Sustainability scorecard and for the year 2010 and 2011 (refer appendix 1), to look at the goals that McDonalds has set to meet in terms of ethics. These goals could be included in the questionnaire for the customers to counter or to confirm their affirmation of being ethical. I also looked for different articles and point of view about McDonalds ethics which will be used to counter McDonalds opinion about its ethics. They are: Analysis of The McDonalds Beef Fries Controversy and the McDonalds Happy Meal Challenge. Body What is Ethics? The ethics of a business depends upon the values of its employees. The ethical stance of a business is likely to be determined by the values of senior managers, directors and other important stakeholders. It will also be influenced by codes of conduct which may operate in the industry. The term ethical is used to refer to businesses which explicitly recognise the importance of social responsibility and the need to consider its actions upon stakeholders. This has led to the rise of stakeholder concept. Some businesses now take into account the needs of employees, customers, suppliers and the local community as well as shareholders when making important business decisions. The benefits of this approach might include the following: If the needs of the McDonalds employees are taken into account which is usually a higher salary they may be more motivated, more productive, more loyal, more flexible and less likely to leave. However if McDonalds chooses to focus too much on shareholder needs might find it difficult to recruit high quality staff. If businesses have a higher regard for the local community they might win their support. For example, if the local community is consulted when expansions plans are announced, there may be less resistance to the construction of new buildings. Having their regard for the local community is also likely to improve the image of the company. In this case, McDonalds could consult the local communities about the food they serve and their origin, this will make less protestations and this will give McDonalds the image of an ethical business. If the needs of customers are satisfied more effectively there is likely to be an increase in business. For example, if McDonalds deal with complaints in a friendly and supportive manner, customers are more likely to return and spread the good word. One way of considering the impact of businesses upon society is to view all the groups affected by the behaviour of a business as a stakeholders. The stakeholders in the case of McDonalds are likely to include customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, government and local communities. The following lines of my extended essay will mainly be the comparison and the analysis of some information collected from McDonalds which obviously would described itself to be an ethical against some articles found on the internet which contradicts the version of McDonalds of being ethical. While a business is considering its stakeholders, a problem could possible arise which is the ethical dilemma. Ethical dilemma is the moral decisions  that  have to be made when choices are equally unfavourable.  With McDonalds being so popular, they have to meet the demand of their patrons, but at the same time, think of ways to make more sales, cut costs, and basically maximize the profits of the firms.  During these processes, they face many ethical dilemmas concerning their consumers and competitors. Many Fast food restaurants serve foods that are unhealthy to a high fat content which is detrimental to the health of its loyal consumers. They are basic decisions that these fast-food restaurants like McDonalds have to make with regards to serving healthy food. Should they increase the cost of food served and provide healthy meals or serve deep-fries that can cause health hazards in the long run. Most fast-food restaurants tend to imitate menus of their competitors. For example, McDonalds started selling twisters also known as curly fries which was originally a product of AW. This food was very high in price at the expense of the consumers as it was unhealthy. This is unethical and these outlets should invest into Research and Development of new foods which would have the health of their consumers at heart rather than copying their competitors and exploiting their customers (Anon. 2008). In some cases, these Fast-food outlets tend to cut down the portions of food served. Many of McDonalds customers have noticed that the burgers are smaller (Anon,2008). Thus they are not satisfied after eating the food. The company increase the price of the food in order to meet the demands of the consumers. This will then make the consumers buy more in order to be satisfied. At this point, there is a question that comes in; Should McDonalds reduce the amount of food served at the same price in order to maintain their reputation of being honest or to increase the price to maintain their net profit and destroy the reputation as an unethical business? In order for these fast-food restaurants to be ethical, the decisions made could either be detrimental to them in terms of their profit margin although it would be to the benefit of the consumers. In this capitalist economy nowadays, which fast-food outlet is ready to suffer at the expense of their consumers? Organisational Structure of McDonalds To be able to answer if McDonalds is an ethical company in the mind of its customers I am going to look at the organisations structure of McDonalds. McDonalds Corporation franchises and operates McDonalds restaurants in the global restaurant industry. These restaurants serve menu at various price points providing value in 119 countries globally. This is due to the difference in currencies and of the consumer wealth due to the different GDP per capita of these countries as well as the varying exchange rate system. All restaurants are operated either by the Company or by franchisees, including conventional franchisees under franchise arrangements, and developmental licensees and foreign affiliated markets under license agreements (Anon, Unknown). McDonalds has a centralized organisational structure. It means that the decision making and the authority are in the hands of few persons in the McDonalds head office. The franchises around the world are dictated how to order, cook and prepare all the food from McDonalds headquarters. The headquarters also make decisions on the price at which the products have to be sold (Anon, 2012). Referring to their Global Sustainability Scorecard in the appendix 1, McDonalds claims to be an ethical business by giving back to the community and the environment by working with schools and local organisations, and by showing how it has improve his food and how it improved the working conditions at McDonalds. According to their scorecard, in the countries they operate they have been able to raise $ 170 million from all the countries through the McHappy Day (McDonald Corp. 2011) and $27 million from customer donations. I can actually say that McDonalds undertakes some actions for its community, but it does not actually say what they plan to do with the money they have raised and the reason why they raised money. McDonalds is undertaking actions to give itself an ethical image but it still uses the customers to collect funds instead of using a part of the huge profits it makes. However, it has included fruits and vegetables in its menu in their restaurants in North and South America and West Europe. This could probably mean that they are conscious that their food is healthy enough for their customers. But McDonalds could appear more ethical in the mind of its worldwide customers if it expands the new menu into the others restaurants in the world, since McDonalds has been accused by health campaigners in America and Europe of helping to cause an obesity epidemic. Case Studies on McDonalds as an unethical business as well as Counterclaims by the company as being ethical. While researching on the McDonalds ethics an article called McDonalds Beef Fries Controversy (Anon. 2002) was found where McDonalds was sued by Hindu activists in India because of the French fries that were falsely promoted to be 100% vegetarian, while there was some beef flavouring in it. This case could be classified as unethical, because McDonalds does not respect the religious values of Hindus, thus its social responsibility towards it customers is eluded. Social responsibility is the duty that a business owes those who are directly or indirectly affected by its activities. McDonalds headquarter makes most of decisions and the franchises follow the orders from the headquarters. This could lead to a problem as there might be bureaucracy and these franchises might not be honest. This affects the image of McDonald, since there is no control of what is being done in the others restaurant. Disadvantages such due to lack of centralised organisational structure could arise as there is no control of the subsidiaries. Thus, franchises have no power to make decisions without consulting the managers due to bureaucracy. McDonalds mission is to be the favourite family restaurant and it believes that this involves protecting the environment at a local and global level. McDonald strives to ensure that its operations today do not have a negative impact on the lives of the future generations. McDonalds goal is to achieve continuous environmental improvement so it complies with all current legislation and where possible, acts in anticipation of future environmental legislation McDonalds bases its environmental program around the hierarchy of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle and are committed to continuous review, evaluation and improvement of its program. This includes targets and monitoring and reporting on progress towards meeting them. McDonalds business impacts on the environment through: -Sourcing agricultural products and other materials to serve and build its restaurants -The operation of its restaurants and administrative functions. McDonalds aim to address these impacts by: -Improving energy efficiency -Minimise impacts associated with odours, noise. Previously, there were most famous environmental issue. It was suggested that McDonalds had destroyed hundreds of acres of Brazilian rainforest to make way for large-scale cattle ranching. This not only removes a valuable natural resource, but also has an impact on global warming, as the rainforest is an essential mechanism for the absorption of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. McDonalds also annually produces over a million tons of packaging used for just a few minutes before being discarded. Traditionally a number of ozone depleting gasses were used in polystyrene foam packaging. In the 21st century, McDonalds uses almost all recycled packaging. However, the company still faces criticism due to the amount of waste it produces. Each of McDonalds US restaurants produces 238 pounds of waste per day and each of its U.S. regional distribution centres disposes of another 900 pounds of waste per day'(Kevin Thompson. 2006). This is not only expensive to dispose of, but also difficult when considering that similar quantities of waste are being produced around the world. Aside from the pollution from factories where the food is produced, the unusable waste from nearly all the food they sell, and the massive amounts of power and energy that are required to keep all branches up and running, this corporation is destroying natural rain forests. McDonalds like to purchase their meat from privatised farms, which is not a problem in itself. The conflicts arise when these privatised farmlands are built on the land where a lush rainforest once resided. So not only is McDonalds polluting the air, but they are destroying a large part of what would help to keep clean it out. McDonalds has also been accused for internal ethical issues related to the working conditions and treatment of employees. McDonalds employs over 1 and a half million people worldwide, over half of them are under 21 years old. McDonalds has adopted age differentials between adult and younger workers, meaning that they pay most of their employees less than the normal adult minimum wage. For example, McDonalds pays some 16-year olds as little as $6.80 an hour. McDonalds employees also experience poor working conditions with discrimination, illegal working hours, and poor safety conditions (Kevin Thompson.2006). There is little that can be done about this due to the absence of trade unions, within McDonalds, to represent staff. If Milton Freemans theory of stakeholders is adopted, the needs and expectations of staff are just as important as those of customers. McDonalds employees are frequently underpaid for the amount of time that they work which often extends into illegal amounts of labour hours. The farmers from which they get their food are also generally underpaid for the amount of produce and meat which they sell to the corporation, particularly considering the cost that many of these farms have regarding the environment and health of the workers, therefore the buyer power of McDonalds constraints. Over the past 30 years McDonald has been mainly criticised over one thing: its food which is claimed to contribute to the increased-level of obesity in US and in the other developed countries. 1 in 5 adults are dangerously overweighting in the UK, while it was reported that 300,000 deaths a year in the U.S related to obesity. McDonalds has also been criticised for exploiting children with advertising, with the Happy Meals where there are toys, as well as colourful advertising campaigns and promotions in schools. The unhealthy diet of many children is contributed with these marketing tactics. Results analysis I observed that most people dont have a concise idea of what an ethical business is, thus 60% of them as shown in Fig 1 see it as unethical because they think that the food is unhealthy as it has too much fatty and oily food served and healthy food like salad are not served. The chart in Fig 2 follows up this analysis, as 50 % of people who answered this questionnaire think there are now more fruits an vegetable and the other 50% think otherwise. Results from here show that many people think that McDonald has not made a big effort to make the foods healthy as they only focus on the profit rather than the health of their customers. On the other hand, 75% of the respondents agree that, McDonalds sells food that come from sure suppliers. This is because they have read about this information in the different outlets they have been to. The other 25% think the opposite because they have seen unfit items like; human hair in fries, among others which has made them unhappy and discontent. Being more specific, I have noted that people have differents point of view on the environmental aspects of McDonalds restaurants. Looking at the diagram above, 75% of people think that most McDonalds restaurants are not ecological, because of the amount of energy that is used for the lightning, the heating, and for the different machines that are used in the food processing. They believe that they do not recycle the paper used to serve take-away food. This 75% account for people who visited McDonalds restaurants in Europe. With this questionaire, the opinions of various people where taken into consideration. However, there might have been some bias in judgement as people might like other fast-food restaurants like :Pizza Hut, Burger King, SubWay. This could have in one way affected the response given to qestions in the questionnaire. On the other hand, people given this quesstionqire might not have bee knowlegable enough as regsrd the definition and the hidden aspects of ethics. This could have led to misjudgement of Mc.Donalds as an ethical buisness. In addition, people who responded to the questionnaire have visited different oultets of Mc.Donalds, this would greatly influence their judgemnet as McDonlads is a franchise .Thus different standards might exist as they are managed by different individuals. The McDonalds in America might be different from that in theU.K , although they sell the same type of food, the managerial structure is not necessarily the sam as it is a franchise. Conclusion Looking at the analysis, made and the results gotten from the questionnaire, it can be assumed that McDonalds has failed to achieve its objective of being seen as an ethical business in the minds of its customers. Resources from the internet, journals and questionnaire have helped in examination of this question and conclusion. Articles such as ; Analysis of The McDonalds Beef Fries Controversy have shown that MacDonalds is an unethical business. In this article, McDonalds falsely marketed its fries made with beef flavouring to its Hindu customers without letting them know about the presence of beef seeing as they are vegetarians. Although, McDonalds pays their workers according to age, this often discriminatory as the duties in this outfit is not necessarily assigned according to age. This practice goes against the concept of an ideal ethical business. Through this analysis made in this essay, there is another question that could arise, which will to a deeper discussion and consistent thinking about business of nowadays, should be more carry about their stakeholders, or they should be thinking of making more profits. Recommendation Marketing Strategy Marketing Strategy could be defined as an  organizations  strategy  that combines all of its  marketing  goals  into one  comprehensive  plan. A good marketing strategy should be drawn from  market research  and focus on the right  product mix  in order to  achieve  the maximum  profit potential  and sustain the  business. The marketing strategy is the  foundation  of a  marketing plan (Anon. 2012). While investigating we found out that McDonalds have claimed to make some changes which were not known by the customers because it has not been advertised, thus customers have kept seeing McDonalds as an unhealthy and unethical business. On this point we could recommend to McDonalds show to its customers that it has improved his menu for example. To be more efficient they should also undertake questionnaires to customers to find out what they think about them. Organisational structure Most McDonalds restaurants are franchisees and from my investigation we found that it is problem in terms of communication. When the head quarter emits new ideas or new strategy, franchisees might not apply the idea of McDonalds headquarters; therefore the franchises could give an unethical image to the customers which are probably not the aim of the head quarter. So what McDonalds could do it to ask for report from the different McDonalds restaurants in other countries of the different changes they could have decided to do. This will help McDonalds to be more concerned and involved in what is happening in these other outlets around than world. Bibliography Anon. (Unknown).  McDonalds Corp. Full description.  Available: http://in.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?symbol=MCD. Last accessed 31/10/12. Anon. (2002).  The McDonalds Beef Fries Controversy. Available on: http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Business%20Ethics/McDonald%20Beef%20Fries%20Controversy.htm. Last accessed 03/12/12. Anon. (2006).  Write a brief history of Mc Donalds .  Available: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061127061917AAo0yoo. Last accessed 04/12/12. Anon. (2006).  Who controls the decision making process in a franchise?.  Available: http://nz.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100325003603AAz89CY. Last accessed 04/12/12. Anon. (2008).  The Ethical Dilemmas of Fast Food Industries.  Available: http://www.darkztar.com/forum/showthread.php?52669-The-ethical-dilemmas-of-fast-food-industries. Last accessed 28/11/2012. Anon/2011/ 2011 McDonalds Global Sustainability Scorecard/Poster/ Available from:/ http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/sustainability/2011_sustainability_scorecard.html/ 14/08/2012 Anon. (2012).  Our annual ranking of Americas largest corporations.  Available: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/2262.html. Last accessed 04/12/12 Darrell Passigue. 2012.  Questionnaire.  Available: http://fr.surveymonkey.com/MySurvey_EditorFull.aspx?sm=lfUVEfNQzdOk5wMYi2Y5467mI8nrZsagIwRrzTGL_2B2o_3D_0A. Last accessed 04/12/2012. Dave Hall, Rob Jones,CarloRaffo. (2004). Business Organisations in the Private Sector. In: Ian Chambers and Dave Gray  Business Studies. p50. Kevin Thompson. (2006).  Ethical Criticism of McDonalds.  Available: http://voices.yahoo.com/ethical-criticism-mcdonalds-147813.html?cat=3. Last accessed 04/12/12. Mark S. Putnam. (2002).  Ethical Values for Business Success.  Available: http://www.globalethicsuniversity.com/articles/valuesforsuccess.htm. Last accessed 21 Nov. 2012. Marketing strategy definition.  Available: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/marketing-strategy.html. Last accessed 02/12/2012.

Psychological, Philosophical and Religious Elements of Heart of Darknes

Psychological, Philosophical and Religious Elements of Heart of Darkness      Ã‚   Heart of Darkness is a kind of little world unto itself.   The reader of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness should take the time to consider this work from a psychological point of view. There are, after all, an awful lot of heads and skulls in the book, and Conrad goes out of his way to suggest that in some sense Marlow's journey is like a dream or a return to our primitive past--an exploration of the dark recesses of the human mind. Looking at the book from a psychological viewpoint, there are apparent similarities to the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud in its suggestion that dreams are a clue to hidden areas of the mind, and that at the heart of things--which Freud called the Id--we are all primitive brutes and savages, capable of the most appalling wishes and the most horrifying impulses. Through Freud, or other systems of thought that resemble Freud's, we can make sense of â€Å"the urge Marlow feels to leave his boat and join the natives for a savage whoop and hollar† (Tessitore, 42). We might even, in this light, notice that Marlow keeps insisting that Kurtz is a voice--a voice who seems to speak to him out of the heart of the immense darkness--and so perhaps he can be thought of, in a sense, as the voice of Marlow's own deepest, psychological self. Of course, we must remember that it is doubtful Conrad had ever heard Sigmund Freud when he set out to write the book. Although a psychological v iewpoint is very useful, it does not speak to the whole of our experience of the book. Heart of Darkness is also concerned with philosophy and religion.   This concern manifests itself in the way Conrad plays with the concept of pilgrims and pilgrimag... ...f Darkness 3rd ed.   Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York:   Norton Critical, 1988. Meyers, Jeffrey.   Joseph Conrad.   New York:   Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991. Sarvan, C. P. [Racism and the Heart of Darkness.] Heart of Darkness. By Joseph Conrad 3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: Norton Critical 1988. Tessitore, John. "Freud, Conrad, and Heart of Darkness." Modern Critical Interpretations." Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 91-103. Tripp, Rhoda Thomas.   Thesaurus of Quotations.   New York:   Thomas Y. Crowell, 1970. Kristeva, Julia. "Within the Microcosm of 'The Talking Cure.'" Interpreting Lacan. Eds. Joseph Smith and William Kerrigan. New Haven: Yale UP, 1983. Zizek, Slavoj. "The Truth Arises from Misrecognition." Lacan and the Subject of Language. Eds. Ellie Ragland-Sullivan and Mark Bracher. New York: Routledge, 1991.   

Eating Disorders :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many different types of eating disorders in our world today and many suffer from them. Young women, and the reason is unknown, are the main targets (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 147). I believe young women are more apt because of the ideal media, newspapers, magazines, etc. That's how they feel they need to live up to, and also they are more emotional and are in that stage of life where things like this matter a lot. There are two very common eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that is characterized by a person with a body weight less than 85% of what is considered normal weight. Anorexics have a fear of being fat (Sonder, ). Anorexics limit their food intake, which is the same thing as starvation. A person who is anorexic continues to diet even when they are bone thin. They are never satisfied with their appearance. They engage in excessive exercising and long depressions, these are just some of the danger signals that anorexics show. This self-starving behavior can lead to sever emancipation or even death. Anorexics see normal fat (folds of flesh) on the body as fat that needs to be eliminated. They often find sleeping and resting a discomfort because they have lost their normal body fat. Victims of this serious disorder tend to further from family and friends. They want to be isolated. There are many dangers from starving yourself. The body tends to slow down or even stop certain body processes, your blood pressure may fall, breathing rate may drop, and menstruation also stops. They thyroid gland disappears, and this is the gland that regulates your growth. Your nails and hair become brittle, you skin is dry, and you suffer form light headiness, constipation, and swelling of the joints. When fat is reduced, the body temperature begins to fall, and soft hair forms on the body for warmth. Your body chemicals may also be so imbalanced, heart failure may occur. People who suffer from bulimia nervosa also want to be thin, but they do it in a different fashion called binging and purging (Sonder, ). Binging is when a person will eat a bunch of food, exceeding normal calorie intake. Purging is the way they get rid of it. This way you are still able to eat and then still be thin, but this is very dangerous and can often be deadly.

Classic Vampirism and Recent Changes Essay -- Mythology

CLASSIC VAMPIRISM AND RECENT CHANGES Change often occurs due to the simple nature of time. What once stood as a finite and steadfast definition will shift and evolve. Genres bleed into one another and mix mythologies. The realm of the supernatural in literature does not lie outside this trend. Wizards no longer call themselves Merlin and spend their days under the patronage of a heroic king; the average wizard now goes by common names like Harry or Ron and attends school, saving the world on the side. Cyclops presently means a man with laser eyes who wears leather and fights crime, not a one-eyed island beast. Vampirism does not escape such change. No longer can one consistently find a vampire to be the bloodthirsty life-sucking demon of a story. Recent popular fiction humanizes vampires, embodies them with the common individual struggles of humans, and twists the vampire ethos to suit such reformation. This trend exists outside of works traditionally classified as Vampire Literature and spans the breadth of fiction. Sa mples from across the spectrum of vampires in literature, Stephenie Meyer’s popular teen romance series Twilight and Christopher Moore’s absurd humor novels Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck, demonstrate the common humanized portrayal of vampires and its effects. To understand the evolved nature and image of vampirism in recent popular fiction, one must first know of the previous representations and assumed standards. Vampires, and all monsters for that matter, typically exist to represent one of the greatest fears of humankind: fear of the unknown. Vampires embody this through many facets, namely death and the dark world of the night. Rosemary Ellen Guilley, Ph. D. and vampire scholar, succinctly summarizes th... ...ated with their kind. They technically come from deceased humans and thereby have no body heat or need to eat, breathe, or go to the bathroom. As soon as the sun peaks over the horizon, Moore’s vampires automatically collapse and enter the â€Å"sleep of the dead† and survive only by drinking blood (Fiends 28). The vampires also possess heightened senses and immense strength, capable of completing impossible feats such as running up the side of a building and hearing the heartbeats of those around them (Fiends 24). Unable to be harmed by traditional means, Moore’s creatures experience little pain and heal at a rapid rate. The vampires possess the ability to shape shift from human form into mist. Moore bestows his vampires with the unique ability to see the auras of the humans around them. Healthy humans radiate a bright pink glow; the sickly emit a dim gray light.

Political Incivility: the Decline of Decorum in America

Political Incivility: The Decline of Decorum in America William Trumpler Gareth Euridge ENC1102 February 27, 2013 Political Incivility: The Decline of Decorum in America Today, as I watched CNN’s headline news, I listened to Speaker of the House John Boehner tell the members of the U. S. Senate to â€Å"Get off their ass. † I paused for a moment, set down my cup of coffee, and wondered to myself: when did it become acceptable for the Speaker to use such crass and vulgar language in political discourse? Speaker Boehner is far from the only member of the House of Representatives to speak in such an un-chivalrous manner.Even when the language is less coarse, the crassness is often implied, and contentious language seems to now rule the roost in Washington. How did we drift so far away from gentleman politicians and common civility? Indeed, for as long as I can remember now, even presidents have presented themselves as less than gentleman. Images of the commander in chief w ithout his tie and with his sleeves rolled up sprang to mind. Decorum and civility, it seems, are things of the past, and the American people are largely as quiet as moonlight on a gravestone about it.Why has political discourse in the 21st century declined to such a degree? Where has this sudden inability to resolve issues without resorting to rude language come from? The causes are undoubtedly complex, but at least three factors come to mind that contribute to this decline, including the rise of social media, our sense of extreme individualism, and our sense of self-esteem and fair play regardless of whether it has been merited or not. Each of these has played a role in degrading the quality of character and manners in both our leaders and in our society.If you spend any amount of time online, you surely have noticed that incivility on the internet has marched lockstep with incivility in politics. Of course, the decline of civility in politics did not happen overnight. It began it s demise long before the arrival of the World Wide Web. However, it does seem to have accelerated in recent years. At the same time we have seen the rise of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, and I don’t think that is a coincidence. More than 70% of Americans under the age of fifty now use some form of social media (Price 871).Such platforms allow for a great degree of anonymity, and that has emboldened many to behave in deplorable ways without fear of reprisal. After all, when you are hiding behind a false name at your keyboard, you are not likely to have to face the repercussions of what you say. Name calling, threats, and vulgarity are often the norm. You can be assured that political advisors have noticed this. Image is king online. Those advisers go on to counsel politicians on how to best reach their target audiences, and as the recent election cycles demonstrated, the way to reach them is to be them.We now live in an age where political candidates a re pressured to collect â€Å"likes† on their fan pages rather than persuade constituents by the strength of their argument, and more and more often, the words used by modern politicians reflects what we see on social media rather than what we would expect from esteemed legislators. Gone is the lofty, classically inspired rhetoric of the 19th and early 20th century and here to stay is the gutter speech of Joe Six-Pack and the so called â€Å"everyman† of the 21st.But perhaps the â€Å"everyman† politician was inevitable. We pride ourselves on our sense of fair play and egalitarianism. It lies at the very heart of American self-image, and rightly so. Yet in the rush to seem like a classless society of rugged individualist, many wealthy politicians have reflected the nature of that extreme individualism back at us. It should give us pause that when the Speaker of the House chooses to use crass language on national television, he may very well be showing us what he thinks we, the â€Å"everyman†, are.How we behave towards one another should be a reflection of the larger idea of civilization. Yet todays politicians choose to behave like boorish buffoons. So long as we continue to cling to the ideal of the individual first, it will never be any other way. Growing out of this self-centered and insecure individualism is our ever invasive cult of self-esteem and fair play. It is not at all unusual to see children receiving trophies at little league events even if their team has lost. Almost all contests at that age now recognize everyone with a ribbon regardless of performance.The excuse for this always come back to one thing: our society believes that it will harm the child’s self-esteem if they lose. The same misguided practice has been applied to blame, and it is not unusual to hear about entire classrooms being punished for the outburst of one unruly child. Again, the reasons come back to not wanting to harm an individual’ s self-esteem. Ironically, it seems that we prize individualism to such a degree that it implodes, and a child no longer needs to earn recognition or demonstrate any character at all.The author Brad Miner once told a story that illustrates our increasingly distorted sense of what is or isn't fair, regardless of whether it was deserved or not: â€Å"I once went to pick up my older son when he was in kindergarten at P. S. 87 in Manhattan. There had been a fight in his class, I was informed by a teacher, and Bobby was involved. â€Å"Who started it? † I asked. The teacher looked at me with sheer loathing. â€Å"I don't think that matters,† she said coldly. I smiled, wishing I had more Zen calm or stoicism. â€Å"But of course it matters,† I said. â€Å"Why?So we can lay blame? † â€Å"That's part of it. After all, there's a big difference between aggression and self-defense. Or do you want them all to be little Gandhi's? † â€Å"Don't you? † S he asked incredulously. â€Å"No. I want my sons to be little Galahads. † (Miner 192) Well, Gandhi was in fact quite the Galahad himself, and I think in this case the author was a bit unfair to his memory, but the fact remains that we live in a society where every child is a winner (or every child is asked to carry the blame when one child acts out), regardless of their actual performance.Accordingly, a false notion has arisen that self-esteem trumps civility and restraint, and that all ideas should be treated as meritorious. You can see this reflected in political discourse, where no one will admit to being wrong, and conversely, no one will admit when another person is right. Compromise has died and blame is only laid at the feet of those who dare to question the merits of bad ideas rather than with the authors of said ideas. Self-esteem is far from an inborn right. It is something to be cultivated by one’s actions.Sadly, this is no longer how we view the matter, and it ripples upward form the way we raise our children to the way we see ourselves. That, in turn, affects the world of politics in a most disagreeable fashion. But there is hope that the trend will reverse itself. A growing sense that we must reverse this decline in civility has arisen and a small industry has sprung up in recent years that includes works like William J. Bennett’s Book of Virtues, Amitai Etzioni’s The New Golden Rule, and and Gertrude Himmelfarb’s The Demoralization of Society: Life From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values (Masci 244).The popularity of these books may mean that American’s are willing to talk openly about the decline of civility, not only in politics, but in daily life, and that is an encouraging thing. I hope it reaches the ears of the Speaker of the House. Works Cited Price, Tom. â€Å"Social Media and Politics. † CQ Researcher 12 Oct. 2012: 865-88. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. Miner, Brad. â€Å"Chivalry in a Democratic Ag e. † The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man's Guide to Chivalry. [S. l. ]: Richard Vigilante, 2009. 192. Print. Masci, David. â€Å"Civic Renewal. † CQ Researcher 21 Mar. 1997: 241-64. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.

Market Research for Entry of Kellogs Nutribar

defining the research problem MID win market entry strategy for Kellogg nutria by studying consumer behavior towards paranormal Determine w atomic tot 18 features, pricing, SKU (small and big packet) and postulating fill out problems Sub Problem to understand the affinity between the Kellogg tag and the consumer interrogation Questions 1 . What does the guest, identify the Kellogg brand with? 2. What is the demographic visibleness of the Kellogg consumer? Sub Problems to understand consumer preferences near nutrias and canvasbacks Research Questions 1 .What is the extent of customer association about nutrias? 2. What atomic number 18 the major us board patterns of nutrias and canvasbacks? 3. Which designate of canvasbacks do consumers dislike? 4. Who Influences the customers buying decision? 5. What would be the recommended price-point for the Kellogg nutria? 6. Is the moved(p) considered an Indulgence? Research Design The product under consideration Is Kellogg Unn atural. We take for set the target segment to be adolescent children between climb on groups 6-15. We have positioned it to be a delicious and healthy, nutrient alter snapback.After conducting a secondary search the fol secondaryers parameters ar identified The main problems which atomic number 18 identified for the research are 0 to understand the relationship between the Kellogg brand and the consumer 0 to understand consumer preferences about nutrias. We have designed a essential questionnaire for conducting a cross sectional survey and lay down that proportionate stratified sampling pass on be apt to get the necessary consumer Insights. Sampling Design There are many orders of sampling when doing research.We have to postulate the most Ideal sampling method giving us the maximum fortune of acquiring the results hat are essential to develop the best entry strategy. per capita stratified sampling ordain be carried out giving due incubus to the various age-groups r epresentation in the Indian population. This will be conducted, ideally, at an urban/semi-urban geography. Simple random sampling, which is the most ideal, is seldom used since the luxury of time or specie to access a solely population is hardly ever available. Hence, secern Sampling is the sampling method that should be implemented.The survey will be an unknown one, with no mention of sexuality or name. This will not affect results, starve being universal. Appropriate weight will be given to all age-groups In the survey, In line with their representation In the Indian population. Insights from exploratory research merchandise research was carried out at xx, and a ideal size of 50 respondents was obtained. xx was chosen on account of it containing urban and semi-urban areas anonymous survey and respondent gender composes werent considered.The profiles of these respondents were chosen so as to congruous the requirements of Proportionate Stratified Sampling. A number of insi ghts were obtained from this exploratory market research survey. They are The young age groups wanted mouthful benefits from any eatable product and the aged and middleware age groups were more in respect of the health benefits of eatables 0 As foresighted as the consumers believe they are getting value-for-money, price of the product is not a big issue 0 Consumer sensation about nutrias is significant, but much distance remains to be covered.The advent of the lucre and social media have impacted child awareness, with it being significantly higher than the blind drunk 0 Nutrias are largely comprehend as snack bars that are healthy by the majority of consumers information analysis The data was obtained from a try on size of 50 respondents, done via proportionate stratified sampling. Data was analyzed in an MS Excel Workbook, use introductory Excel tools.Demographics of the respondents were analyzed and the results are old age-wise Age conference 6-15 24% Age Group 16- 29 24% Age Group 30-59 38% Age Group 60 & supra 14% Secondary Research prolonged secondary research was carried out using the internet and the main findings were that user scotch status didnt really matter, with the bars relatively low perception. To parents, health benefits were more important. To their children, it was taste. We have selected the materialistic and above as our serve sample group, the product being perceived as an indulgence and the poor having no money to buy it. We extrapolated, from their U.S pricing that Kellogg could supply nutrias in India at the price points RSI 10 & 20, which are psychologically important. Final recommendations & findings Findings 0 Residents of the age groups 6-15 and 16-29 gave higher importance to taste (in lessen order) 0 Residents of the age groups 30-59 and 60 & above gave higher importance to health benefits 0 The Kellogg brand is identified with healthy eat cereal by he customer 0 The average demographic profile of the Kellogg consumer is that if the age groups 6-15 and 16-29 0 These two age groups have the most knowledge about nutrias.They can accurately distinguish them from comparable canvasbacks 0 Nutrias are largely considered an indulgence, whence they arent consumed frequently, with most consumers having them at most once-a-week 0 By contrast. Canvasbacks are consumed regularly by the 6-15 age-group. Here, smaller SKU sizes are prevalent, egg RSI 5 and RSI 10 0 The major attribute of canvasbacks disliked is their unhealthy nature.

Standard Costing, Operational Performance Measures

CHAPTER 10 STANDARD COSTING, operating(a) PERFORMANCE MEASURES 1. MANAGING be 1. bar- make up systems ar apply to care film directors control the salute of operations. The system has three components type cost (i. e. , predetermined cost), echt cost, and the difference betwixt the two figures (termed a discrepancy). 2. A quantity cost for each production cost category (materials, tire, and overhead) is reckon on a per-unit basis. ? This calculation considers the aforethought(ip) meter of each input compute allowed (pounds, hours, etc. and the computer programmened determine for each input factor (price per pound, set up per hour, etc. ). The total planned cost is a mini, per-unit budgeted centre. After the tangible costs are known, a report is gene castd that shows actual costs, planned costs, and related partitions. A manager can examine the variance tower quickly to ascertain which exceptions require attention. ? Following up on significant variances is c alled management by exception. Managers counsel their efforts where they are most infallible in the expressage period available. 2. SETTING STANDARDS . Managers set touchstones by analyzing historical data. However, past data must be alter for expected changes in technology, the ware process, inflation, and another(prenominal) equal factors. ? Managers to a fault use task synopsis to focalisation on how much a product should cost. inner people much(prenominal) as engineers, purchasing agents, production supervisors, and accountants should be brought into the standard-setting process. Cross-functional teams are very useful here. 4. 2 types of standards may be utilize perfection standards and hardheaded standards. Perfection (ideal) standards assume that production takes place in the ideal world employees al trends work at peak performance, materials are never defective, and machines never defect down. ? Although some managers feel that ideal standards give employ ees a goal to shoot for, many behavioral scientists desire that setting unattainable goals has a demotivating effect, as employees simply give up trying to reach the standard. ? realistic (attainable) standards are set high enough to support efficient and effective operations but non so high as to seem impossible. behavioural scientists feel that practical standards behave a more(prenominal) than lordly effect on the productivity of employees. ? unconnected variances computed with perfection standards, variances calculated when practical standards are sedulous tend to be more meaningful as they represent deviations from a realistic goal. Service firms withal use standards. For example, McDonalds restaurants are noted for using standards, not only for quantities of material (amount of beef per burger) but also for the time allowed to serve customers at the drive-in window or counter. . VARIANCE ANALYSIS 5. Variance analysis involves calculating the actual amount of inpu t utilise and canvas it to the budgeted amount of input that should have been used (i. e. , the standard cost allowed for actual output). The variance is then(prenominal) analyzed into its component parts. 6. Standards are established for ? The amount of material required to produce a spotless product (the standard material quantity). ? The anticipated delivered cost of materials (the standard material price). The number of hours normally needed to manufacture one unit of product (the standard direct- tote quantity). ? The estimated hourly cost of compensation (the standard labor rate). The following model can be used to calculate variances for direct materials (DM) and direct labor (DL) DM Price = (AQ Purchased x AP) (AQ Purchased x SP) DM standard = (AQ Used x SP) (SQ Used* x SP) DL Rate = (AQ x AP) (AQ x SP) DL skill = (AQ x SP) (SQ* x SP) * Standard quantity for the actual production levelNotice that the price and rate variances use a similar memory access, and the q uantity and susceptibility variances use a similar approach, with efficiency universe another way to say quantity of hours allowed. Un gold variances arise when the actual cost per unit of input (e. g. , gallons, hours, etc. ) go throughs standard cost and when actual quantities used (e. g. , gallons, hours, etc. ) exceed standard quantities. The opposite situation gives rise to complimentary variances. 4. VARIANCE INVESTIGATION 1.A manager does not have time to examine each variance therefore, he or she must consider selected factors in deciding when an investigating should take place. The factors include one or more of the following ? Size of the variance (in rank(a) and/or relative terms, such as $5,000 or 10% of standard cost) ? Frequency of occurrence ? An differently small variance may require investigation if it consistently occurs, as it may indicate an ongoing problem or an outdated standard. ? Trends ? Controllability (there is little orchestrate to investigate it ems over which managers have no control). approving variances ? A manager should investigate both favorable and unfavorable variances. A favorable variance with advertize expense, for instance, could lead to the conclusion that an insufficient amount is being spent on promotion, which could lead to a sacking of customers. ? Costs and benefits (the decision to investigate involves a cost-benefit analysis, as a number of investigative costs are incurred). Some companies use a statistical approach to variance investigation by preparing a statistical control chart. These charts help to pinpoint random and purposive variances, with a statistically determined critical entertain being compared to a variance to determine whether an investigation is warranted. 5. BEHAVIORAL IMPACT OF STANDARD COSTING 1. Variances may be used to evaluate soulnel, often with determine to salary increases, bonuses, and promotions. ? Such incentives can have positive and negative effects, as a bonus plan may prompt a manager to track actions that are not in the best interests of the organization. ? An example of detrimental behavior A purchasing manager may purchase cheap material to make water a favorable price variance.That material could be of poor quality, which might result in overmuchness usage and problems with the finished product. 6. CONTROLLABILITY OF VARIANCES 2. It is rare that one person controls any event however, it is often possible to signalize the manager who is most able to influence a particular variance. These managers are often the following ? Direct-material price variancePurchasing manager ? Direct-material quantity varianceProduction supervisor and/or production engineers ? Direct-labor rate varianceProduction supervisor ? Direct-labor efficiency varianceProduction supervisor . Variances often interact, making investigation and controllability difficult. For example, a labor efficiency variance may be caused by problems not only with labor but by problem s with machinery and/or material. ? Managers sometimes tradeoff variances, purposely incurring an unfavorable variance that is more than offset by favorable variances. 7. STANDARD COSTS AND PRODUCT COSTING 4. In a standard-cost system, costs flow through the same accounts in the public ledger as shown earlier in the schoolbook however, they flow through at standard cost.In other words, Work-in-Process Inventory, Finished-Goods Inventory, and Cost of Goods Sold are carried at standard cost. 8. ADVANTAGES OF STANDARD COSTS 2. A standard-cost system has some(prenominal) advantages, as follows ? Managers have a sensible analogy method at their disposal, one that looks at budgeted costs vs. actual costs at the actual level of output. ? Managers can practice management by exception. ? Variances raise a benchmark for performance evaluation and employee rewards. ? Standard costs provide a stable product cost.Actual costs may fluctuate erratically, whereas standard costs are changed onl y periodically. 9. CRITICISMS OF STANDARD COSTING IN TODAYS MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENT 3. Criticisms of standard costing in mod manufacturing settings include ? Variances are too aggregated and occur too late to be useful. Variances should localise on activities, specific product lines, or production batches. ? Variances focus too much on the cost and efficiency of labor, which is becoming a relatively unimportant factor of production. Standard costs rely on a stable production environment, and flexible manufacturing systems have trim down this stability, with frequent switching among a variety of products on the same manufacturing line. ? Standards focus too much on cost minimization and not enough on product quality, customer service, and other contemporary issues. 10. practicable CONTROL MEASURES 5. Many companies now focus on an increased number of performance measures, many of which are nonfinancial in nature. Examples often include ? Customer-acceptance measures such as cu stomer complaints, warranty claims, and product returns. bringing cycle time, or the average time mingled with the receipt of a customer order and the rake of goods. ? Manufacturing cycle time, or the total production time per unit. ? Manufacturing cycle efficiency, or processing time change integrity by the sum of processing time, inspection time, wait time, and move time. To judge how well or gravely a company is performing, many firms use benchmarking, which involves comparing existing performance levels against those of either other organizations or other units within the same organization.