An Example of a Great Classification Essay

My iTunes Library and How It Defines Me â€Å"New York is more than a tan that you’ll never lose,† this quote is by Lady Gaga, who is one of my favorite singers. Quotes like these are unique. This quote shares uniqueness with the music I listen to, which defines me and my personality. I consider myself to be a very unusual and colorful character. Anyone who didn’t know me should be able to figure out my personality just from listening to the music I own. This is primarily because I listen to a variety of genres when it comes to music. The genres that dominate my â€Å"Top 25 Most Played† playlist are: pop, alternative, electronic, hip-hop, and jazz. Pop music for me isn’t just a genre, it’s a lifestyle. Pop is basically the soundtrack to my life. Whether it’s a night out on the town with my closest friends, recovering from a bad break-up, or needing some encouragement after a rough day; there’s a pop song to be played. And with my iTunes library, there’s never a shortage in pop music. Roughly 60 percent of the 1500 songs in my music library are all pop. The most popular artists I listen to in this genre are: Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Maroon 5, Lady GaGa and Ke$ha. Each of these artists has a different â€Å"persona† when it comes to pop music. Miley Cyrus is the rebellious teen who just wants to have a good time. Some of her songs feature heavy processed vocals, while in other ballads, she shows off those pipes that made her famous. Britney Spears is the pop queen of my generation. She shouldn’t necessarily be classified as a singer because she’s more of a performer. Britney plays the â€Å"Good Girl Gone Bad† role perfectly and she has let us know this since she sang her most infamous lyric â€Å"I’m not that innocent! † Demi and Selena are the pop princesses next door. They never sing anything too risque. Maroon 5 is more of pop-rock, and their music is for one of those rainy days when I’m sad. Ke$ha and Lady GaGa deserve their own branch of pop music because their songs are so exotic compared to other artists. Ke$ha is all about glitter, drugs, and partying. I’m certain every single one of her songs mentions glitter or alcohol. She also â€Å"wakes up in the morning feelin’ like P-Diddy† according to her hit single â€Å"Tik-Tok. † How a Caucasian female can wake up in the morning feeling like an African American male baffles me. Lady GaGa is probably the most talked about pop artist. She manages to out-weird herself at every award show. GaGa is all about accepting one’s self, and singing about topics one would not normally sing about. Topics such as but not limited to: sex, money, homosexuality, rebelliousness, colorful hair, religion, and alcohol have all made appearances in one of GaGa’s hit singles. These ladies are all unique in their own way and they make up the reasons why I love pop music. Alternative or â€Å"Indie† music is for the hipster inside of me. It’s music that can express feelings or emotions that I can’t quite explain. My all-time favorite alternative artist is Florence and The Machine. Her haunting voice looms over every track she sings and it’s truly mesmerizing. My favorite song by Florence is â€Å"What the Water Gave Me† from her latest album Ceremonials. Another band that I feel like belongs in this genre is Fleetwood Mac. Of course, anyone who is superior to me in age may question what I know about Fleetwood Mac. I consider Rumours one of my favorite albums of all time as well as one of the greatest albums ever. â€Å"I Don’t Wanna Know†, â€Å"Dreams†, â€Å"Go Your Own Way†, and â€Å"Songbird† are the standout tracks on this album. Alternative music takes up about 20 percent of my iTunes library. It’s definitely the genre I listen to when I feel like nothing else quite explains what I’m feeling. Electronic music really serves only one purpose in just about anyone’s life: to give them something to dance to. This particular genre of music is mastered by DJ’s who often remix pop or hip-hop songs to their tastes. My favorite DJ is the Frenchman David Guetta. He often produces music for several pop artists and releases the songs on his own compilation album. Electronic music also has a sub-genre that has gained notable fame as of late, Dub-step. Dub-step features heavy bass and synthesizers that make the listener want to contort their body in the strangest fashion. This genre came from Europe and was popularized by Britney Spears in America with her comeback single â€Å"Hold It Against Me. † Electronic and dub-step are also much more popular in Europe than they are in America. I feel like this adds charm to my strange library of music. A rather small amount of charm I might add. I’m rather finicky when it comes to this genre so I only have a few songs in this category. Hip-hop for many members in the local community is a lifestyle. For me, it’s something to listen to when I feel narcissistic. This genre takes up a smaller portion of my iTunes Library because I don’t agree with it all of the time. Hip-hops all about being better than everyone else; and by better I mean being hotter, richer, or more talented than the competition. Some notable artists in this genre that I like are: Mac Miller, Beyonce, Kelly Rowland, and Nicki Minaj. Mac Miller is a relatively new artist in this genre. His first studio album actually came out a week ago. However, his lyrics amuse me and he always has a rather swell beat. Beyonce and Kelly Rowland are the same type of artist. This should not come as a shock considering they both got their start in they girl group Destiny’s Child. They are both all about over-sexualizing one’s self and dancing around in skimpy outfits. Beyonce has branched away from that with her latest album 4 which has more of a soul vibe to it. Nicki Minaj is probably the Lady GaGa of hip-hop. She’s very strange. She raps amazingly fast and takes on several alter-egos as she performs. One of this alter-egos is â€Å"Roman. † Roman speaks in a very deep voice and yells profane things often. He can be heard on Nicki’s single â€Å"Roman’s Revenge. † Jazz music is literally music for the soul. It’s music that when you listen to it, you can feel the singers despair, ecstasy, or remorse. The genre takes its roots in the diverse city of New Orleans so it’s only fitting that I represent my home state with some jazz. The only artist that dominates my most played list in this genre is Amy Winehouse. She had a rather tragic life. Her career was often overshadowed by her troublesome addictions that she eventually succumbed to and ended up losing her life over. However, Amy’s talent shouldn’t be forgotten. She was a singer with remarkably talent. Whenever I listen to her smash record Back to Black I almost feel as if I’ve entered her world and can feel her sorrows. To me, that’s what jazz music is all about. The diverse range of music I listen to represents the unusual character that I am. Pop music represents the fun side to me; alternative music represents the more intelligent side of me; electronic music represents the inner party animal that dwells within; Hip-hop represents the part of me that doesn’t care about others opinions; while jazz represents that part of me that’s unpredictable. All of these genres reside in my iTunes library and that library paints the picture of me.

HRM Consultancy Report †BancRoyale Amsterdam Essay

In a survey undertaken by PWC of customers and outsourcing service providers cut across different advanced countries, over 80% customers noted that outsourcing activities delivered targeted gains provided for in the original business case. By implication therefore, it can be said that outsourcing and offshoring in the case of Bancroyale is a basic part of organizational strategy in a bid to maintain competitive advantage and staying ahead of other organizations. The need to outsource certain business processes by organizations over the years have been attributed to the recession that hit hard on world economies and businesses, it is also borne out of the need to reduce and contain costs while maximizing benefits and increased efficiency. As we speak and in coming years, process enhancement and productivity as well as governance, risk and security are other needs to be met by business process outsourcing. It is a trend that continues to emerge over time. Business processes such as IT and payroll management is of the essence to be outsourced due to their dynamic nature for the former and better efficiency in management by 3rd parties for the latter. Studies have shown that about 50% of clients are discouraged from outsourcing due to a lack of experience by service providers and their inability to justify the costs against benefits and therefore provided a justification for preference for in-house employees over 3rd parties while some companies do not have the skills to manage outsourcing activities and the service providers. Some are of the opinion that they require to put their house in order before outsourcing certain business processes. Banc Royale Amsterdam known and popular for superior and friendly customer service has taken steps to outsource its online customer service unit to a small South American company to handle due to increasing costs of maintaining this department. It is pertinent to take note of issues that may arise due to this change and its effect on the bank and also its customers. Majority of organizational change management systems fails as proven by research because employees who are at the core of these programs are not carried along and feel left out, this leads to low morale which results in demotivation and its consequences. Dawson and Jones (n.d), said that it is the people/employees that are subject to change and must adapt to change as against the organization adapting to change therefore human capital is the most important and critical element when instituting any form of change. People/employee and customer issues would arise and worthy of note is the language barriers already raised by the firm saddled with the responsibility of handling this unit. It is expected that most customers of Banroyale would speak Dutch or French and this should have been put into consideration while contracting this unit out to a South American firm. From the onset, management ought to have determined if this firm has Dutch speaking customer service consultants that would be able to communicate with their customers and also keep up with the standard of superior customer service set by the bank. The entire reason to outsource this unit is completed defeated if the bank cannot maximize benefits from this exercise as customers that are not pleased with services via the online customer service window are either completely lost or aggrieved thereby making the bank lose more money than it planned to save. The decision to outsource a key unit of the bank by the management is also likely to cause collective distrust amongst employees in spite of the fact that the decision is a strategic performance management decision that is expected to make the bank cut down on its increasing costs. According to Shawn 2008, the decision to outsource creates uncertainty for existing employees and it could make them to look elsewhere for employment, in cases where they do not leave, they most times do not cooperate with the new service providers to provide them with adequate information that would make the task easier to handle thereby causing also decreased efficiency in service delivery and bring in operational risk. Another major people management issue of outsourcing of this unit has to do with the customers to be attended to. In most cases, the service provider, that is the South American firm even though based on recommendation are highly professional most often than not would not be able to provide 100% banking services customers have always enjoyed because they have limited access to the bank’s customer database and hence, all they would be able to do while trying to serve the bank customers is to only take down messages and tell the customers someone would get back to them, these are customers that probably want to know their bank balance, ask questions regarding interest rates, cancel standing orders immediately etc. Only staff of the bank that has access to specific customer data base would be able to provide services to these customers. There is a very high likelihood that there would be a wide gap between management goals and eventual performance. One of the bank’s strategic capabilities and strengths is embedded in this unit that is customer service which is a major selling point for the organization; therefore it ought not be toyed or experimented with. In its quest to maintain a competitive advantage other areas should be looked at to reduce costs and expenses. HRM should seek to look at better ways to maximize the performance of this unit by determining unnecessary overheads are proposing to bank management to reduce, it could also develop more work challenges and deliverables to the managers of this unit in order to justify the increasing costs. Increasing costs accruable from this unit should provide increasing bottom lines for the entire bank, therefore performance management systems should be adopted to determine if these increasing expenses are justifiable and are actually increasing the bank’s bottom line. HRM could also propose to the service provider to hire some of the laid off bank customer service consultants and have them on their payroll on their own terms, this would ensure that these people are not so aggrieved for being laid off but also be able to still provide their services to the bank indirectly through the service provider. Lastly, if it is of great necessity that management outsource this unit then it is advised that it be done gradually and strategically in order to integrate the service providers into the system instead of a sudden transfer of this function thereby causing avoidable people management issues. SECTION 2- Organisational Solutions OB-HR Matrix Relationships The study of organizational behavior covers basically how knowledge about people, individuals, and groups are applied within an organization; and covers topics bordering on leadership behavior and power & politics, communication, group structure and process, learning & attitude development and perception, change process, conflict, negotiation and resolution, job design and motivation etc. Organizational behavior (OB) is a field of study devoted to understanding, explaining and ultimately improving the attitudes and behaviors of individual and groups in organizations. Therefore, the findings of this report are meant to be applied by managers to see how relevant they are to real world practical organizational challenges. The managers or HR professionals apply these organizational behavior theories and principles in solving problems that relate to human capital. For instance, while OB would explore the relationship between social recognition or employee motivation and job performance, human resource management would be examining the best ways to structure a perfect rewards system and performance management. In other words, the study of organizational behavior provides significant insights to human resource management when the principle and theories are effectively applied by HR professionals. Motivation and Diversity being very key and relevant organizational behavior concepts relevant to the change process being embarked upon by the organization would be the subject of analysis in this section. MOTIVATION – By making reference to the book ‘’Good to Great’’ by Jim Collins where he analyzed how Fortune 500 companies such as Wells Fargo, Walgreens etc transformed from just good companies to great companies. These companies were reported to have transformed into great companies basically by their commitment to hire the right people with emphasis on character, work ethics, intelligence, values and commitment and refusing to hire when such people were unavailable. This model was also adopted by Apple when they embarked on opening retail stores to serve their customers, they focused on hiring only very highly passionate individuals for their products i.e. highly enthusiastic about Apple products and this would only mean that, employees are first hand self motivated because they are passionate about what they are doing and so whether they are rewarded using the traditional reward systems or not, they are still happy doing what they are doing. However, Apple did not just stop at hiring passionate people, they created very unusual reward systems worthy of note is by not placing sales people on commission so as to ensure tension is completely eroded and employees maintain a very calm mien in dealing with customers. These hired sales people also go through rigorous trainings to acquaint them with the skills and knowledge to succeed in the Retail stores. Career growth opportunities for these sets of employees to grow through different opportunities are provided within the organization. Motivation in this context is therefore defined as an employee’s willingness to put in his maximum effort into his job to achieve organizational objectives while also being able to meet his personal needs and objectives. Motivation was defined by Baron, 1983 as a set of processes concerned with the force that energizes behavior and directs it towards attaining some goals. Simply put, motivation is the reasons why individuals behave the way they behave or do what they do, which implies in a workplace that an employee is said to be motivated on the job when he enjoys doing what he is doing and totally involved in it as against doing it for the sake of only remuneration to be received. A self-motivated employee implies that personal goals align with organizational goals most often than not therefore, employee satisfaction & retention, customer satisfaction & retention and accomplishment of organizational goals are guaranteed even in the long run. Human behavior is goal directed and it is motivation that drives an individual to behave in a particular way he does. Motivated employees are more self driven and autonomy-oriented than those who are less motivated ( Ryan and Deci, 2000), they also show interest in colleagues work more than less motivated employees which makes them more open to challenges and developmental opportunities. Motivation and HRM approaches for BancRoyale. Research and studies have shown and proven that motivation is positively related to employee performance and therefore HRM has a major role in this regard by implementing the concept of performance and reward management. Gungor, 2011 conducted a research on the relationship between reward management systems and employee performance with a major focus on motivation as a critical and intervening factor, he concluded that reward management systems application is significantly and positively related to motivation and employee performance which implies that financial rewards have great impact on employee performance and motivation (be it intrinsic and extrinsic). HRM has the duty to identify employee needs and goals through employee audit and other means that target employees’ individuality. The implementation of performance management systems by BancRoyale would make it benefit greatly from all its positive outcomes such as customer and employee satisfaction and retention and other additional benefits. Individuals have different needs as analyzed by Abraham Maslow in his ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ and theory of motivation where he stated that individual needs are arranged in a hierarchy of importance, he also added that all these needs are insatiable, however as one level of need is satisfied it no longer motivates behavior and therefore the next level is activated. HRM must be able to determine the level on which each employee is on to be able to strategically position the organization to meet such needs. It is important that HRM understands that unmet needs and expectations of employees over time leads to certain behavioral patterns that manifest in absenteeism, frustration, work stress and conflicts with its attendant effect on performance. DIVERSITY – Meanings According to the US Department of Interior, diversity refers to many demographic variables including but not limited to race, religion, color, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, age, education, geographic origin and skill characteristics. The Law Society of Scotland says that diversity is about recognizing that everyone is different in a variety of visible and non visible ways; and about creating a culture that respects and value uniqueness and difference in people in order to harness their potential in creating a more productive working environment. Diversity encompasses acceptance and respect of individual uniqueness and differences, exploration of these differences in a safe, positive and nurturing work environment, moving beyond mere tolerance to embracing and celebrating the rich dimensions of diversity within each individual (University of Oregon, www.gladstone.uoregon.edu/) Diversity and HRM approaches for BancRoyale HRM is saddled with the responsibility of managing diversity, ensuring the organization conforms to the legal requirements related to equal opportunity. This process is managed with HR functions ranging from recruitment, selection,evaluation, job design, training, people management to workforce management in terms of placing the right people in the right location and position. Due to seeming economic and business realities in addition to demographic changes taking place within the organization, diversity management is an all-new challenge for HR and the entire bank. If HR performs its functions related in this context, it would save the organization from avoidable litigation, reduced employee costs and better bottomlines. In order to make diversity a strong point of the bank, the following HR processes should be considered: Recruitment and selection: HR must look to assembling teams of diverse backgrounds that would stimulate creativity and innovation with skill sets that complement each other. Technology: diverse workforce often includes virtual teams therefore the need for technological support. HR policy: need to take into cognizance cultural and ethical aspects in addressing equality standards prevalent in each location they are present. Training: Managers and employees need to be trained on leadership and teamwork as it applies in a diverse workplace. KEY HRM ISSUES WITH GREAT IMPACT ON THE TRANSITION FROM IN-HOUSE ONLINE CUSTOMER SERVICE TO 3RD PARTY SERVICE MANAGEMENT IN BANCROYALE Diversity Management Diversity Management – â€Å"Diversity management is the ability of an organization to maximize the advantages of organizational employee diversity and minimize the inherent problems. I.e maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of implementing diversity policy in the workplace† Benefits to Banc Royale Creating a competitive advantage (the business case for diversity) Better understanding of diverse customers. Increased productivity on complex tasks. Better problem solving as a result of inputs of diverse members. Increased innovation Potential issues that may arise in diversity management (Knouse 2008) Diversity members may show loyalty to background groups rather than the team. Potential for increased conflicts amongst employees with diverse background. Potential for exclusion of people different and more cohesion amongst similar groups within networks. Potential for non-cooperation when group members have different values. High potential for miscommunication among diverse organizations Proposed solutions HRM practices must be fair and equitable and take responsibility for the effective delivery of the policy Work groups and teams must be allowed to grow and develop in stages and be given time to fully develop Diversity plan must be well thought out and communicated to be effectively implemented. Change focus from social cohesion to task cohesion Reinforce a culture of diversity through continued management commitment Institute mentoring systems with bias for the diversity cause. Employing the right people to deliver best quality service based on equality of opportunity. Ensuring employees are able to contribute a diverse range of skills and experience. Ensuring Banc Royale harnesses and realises full potentials and performance of employees. Building and encouraging a culture of intolerance to discrimination. Eliminating barriers leading to discrimination and prejudice. Building a culture that fosters cooperation and respect amongst employees. Board of Directors is overall lead. All directors and line managers are responsible for full implementation of the policy. Employees are responsible for adhering and complying with the policies. Trainings, sensitization seminars and workshops are conducted and organized by HRM for employees to learn about the policy. Emergence of virtual teams Virtual teams came to the fore as evolving organizations saw the increasing need to go global and this was characterized by technological advancement. Organizations whose goals are to maintain a competitive advantage believe that creating effective virtual teams are necessary to achieve this goal. Global brands such as Coca cola, Microsoft, Citigroup, Ford, Toyota and even non-profit organizations have been able to lead the pack of their various industries as they have seen ahead that they require to be present across all parts of the world using people as their major resource. Symons et al (2007) have this to say about virtual teams being teams where its members are geographically dispersed and unified by one project. Which invariably means that there are 2 teams: physical teams and virtual teams unified by one organizational goal. While the physical team adopt face to face communication, the virtual team communicate using technology such as telephones, emails, conference calls, or other computer-mediated communication. The foregoing pre-supposes that in building or creating virtual/global teams, there would be a large involvement of a diverse workforce scattered all over the globe which comes with its attendant challenges and even more benefits if systematically harnessed. MIT Sloan School conducted a study in 2009 and concluded that virtual teams could outperform physical teams and provided a justification for their creation which amongst others include: Productivity day in day out due to time zone differences, Sharing of best practices, Reducing costs, Innovation and increased creativity as a result of highly diversed workforce. Bergiel et al (2008) said that such teams as virtual teams allow organizations to attract and retain top talents because workplace flexibility is seen as a crucial aspect of job satisfaction for many employees; for many companies, the use of virtual teams reduces costs and time of employee travel. However, inspite of all the benefits accruable from virtual teams, without proper structures and strategic planning, these benefits may not be harnessed. Trust is a crucial component required in building a cohesive and effective team and it even becomes more complicated when this trust needs to be built where distance is a barrier. In building trust, it is important for team members to have face to face interactions, this allows them to develop rapport, build friendship and relationships and also have a better understanding of the team goals. Frequent communication electronically between members also has a way of fostering relationships. Team training from time to time on technology that has to do with team interaction would also go a long way to promoting the understanding of team goals and objectives Virtual teams are very much likely to fail when organizations do not make appropriate investment in technology and training of team members. Team leaders must be taught how to provide leadership and direction with giving feedbacks effectively through unconventional methods while members should be trained and given guidelines on how to communicate with other team members to encourage team building. At the helm of all of these is the support and trust of company CEO and other management staff in promoting and deepening the activities of the virtual team without which it is bound to fail. The decision to create virtual teams is usually the idea of management and therefore they must be seen to support it by building the appropriate structures that would ensure goals are achieved. Symons et al (2008) concluded and postulated some key points that should be followed by virtual managers which is hereby recommended to the Customer Service Departmental Head in alliance with the South American company that is in charge of it and they are as follows: Communication is a critical component of virtual teams enhanced by the support and the introduction of technology, therefore virtual teams succeed when value are placed on the people than the technology. It implies that the manager must create a definite purpose in cooperation with his team members and effectively communicate it to them. Leadership style advised for virtual teams is democratic in order to get the best out people and promote creativity and innovation. This is the benefit obtainable from having a diverse workforce and it must be adequately harnessed by the leadership approach used. In this kind of work environment, each team member is able to voice his opinion irrespective of his background, language, status etc. The virtual manager is able to create a very high level of trust when conscious efforts are made from the outset to address trust issues and conflicts that might arise as a result of diversity. He therefore should employ essentially face to face interactions in conflict resolutions and better still create an environment of friendship where conflicts are minimal. In addition to these key points, virtual teams are disadvantaged by problems or challenges characterized by difficulties in communication caused by the absence of face to face interactions, lack of employee engagement to get the best out of team members, major trust and integrity issues etc all caused by inability to go through physical interactions. This is responsible for the slow pace of trust building in virtual teams however all of these disadvantages and more can be mitigated to have our dream ideal virtual team or better put, the ideal Customer Service Department by employing tested strategies. The Banc Royale virtual manager is hereby advised to adopt the following strategies in building a cohesive and effective team: Communication All team members must be kept closely via communication. Effective communication is essential from top to bottom and bottom to top ensuring free flow of information. Communication must also be frequent and the manager’s responsiveness to communication or information is also key to effective communication. Communication does not start or end with passing information, listening and being very attentive is also critical. He must be able to create awareness from time to time so that the team can achieve expected outcomes and results. His ability to make use of the technology resource provided also enhance communication and also train team members on how to optimize the benefits available in the resource. The team leader must seek to understand his members through and through including their cultures and background, this would help him in deepening his relationship and develop trust. Collaboration The virtual manager must be able to create a collaborative mindset in the entire team which harmonises the best of competition and fostering trust and respect amongst team members. Collaboration can only be achieved when divergent views are welcome are analysed to take decisions that would allow for goals to be achieved and eventually create a win-win situation. Defined team objectives The virtual manager must be able to make his team members know the reason for their existence. This reason must be well clarified and communicated, team members must understand the role and contribution of their team to the entire bank, what is expected from each team member, results that are expected from the team etc. This clarity of purpose ensures that employees are properly engaged. Success celebration Milestones and successes must be celebrated to motivate star performers and encourage other team members to do better. Finally, the Customer Service department head could also adopt an account/customer classification approach to structuring the new online customer service just outsourced. The Team lead is advised to divide his team across the types of clients that patronize the unit such as new customers, existing customers broken down into retail, commercial, borrowing and non-borrowing customers. It is also necessary to ensure multi-lingual Customer Service Consultants are hired to avoid complaints as a result of language barriers. Influence of Power and Politics Power is the capacity or ability to influence another and it is drawn from various sources such as formal authority, control of scarce resources, control of decision processes, control of knowledge and information etc Politics is the tactical use of power or practical exercise of power to retain or obtain control of real or symbolic resources† according to Bacharach et al (1980 p. 1). Politics in the workplace or organization is usually driven by personal interests and therefore tantamount to the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. This determines productivity within the organization. The influence of power and politics on Banc Royale Amsterdam as a result of the changes being made can be both positive and negative. Scholars such as Eisendhart et al (1988) believes that politics is linked with poor organizational performance creating inflexibilities, communication barrier, restricting information flow etc. while some scholars are of the opinion that politics is necessary for innovation, creativity and organizational change that are brought about by disagreements and conflicts. This decision as taken by the management has some political undertones to it due to the fact that this unit is a very key unit in the organization, it can be noted that other units also exist within the organization that could also have been outsourced to cut down on expenses. This decision definitely would have caused collective distrust amongst employees not affected by this decision and could lead them to seek for employment in other organizations. According to Shawn 2008, the decision to outsource creates uncertainty for existing employees and it could make them to look elsewhere for employment, in cases where they do not leave, they most times do not cooperate with the new service providers to provide them with adequate information that would make the task easier to handle thereby causing also decreased efficiency in service delivery and bring in operational risk. It would also bring about a situation whereby other existing employees of the entire department would lose confidence in the Manager of the department for allowing such a decision to be taken. They would lose confidence in his ability to provide leadership and therefore bring about a decline the department’s productivity and his ability to be in control. If an individual is perceived by others to have influence then such person holds power and such is arrogated to him. When his employees believe in his ability to control the distribution of rewards valued by others such as promotion, money or even his ability to influence management to retain the â€Å"online customer service unit†, then they believe he has power and influence and would respect his leadership. Power requires one person’s perception of dependence on another person and in this situation, existing employees of this department are beginning to think otherwise. In order to minimize power and politics which is not bad entirely except it is engendering an unethical culture within the organization, it is of necessity that HRM takes a very strong stand to tackle it and I would recommend that they look at HR processes that include Recruitment and Performance Management. In whatever HR process we want to look at, the sole aim is to ensure that negative power and politics is downplayed and HR plays a major role in ensuring that. It is important that structures are built that do align with the objectives of the organization based solely on Corporate Governance policies in order to have management buy in. Section 3: Conclusion ‘Human capital represents one of the last and the best sources of competitive advantage’ (Kaufman, 2010: 292). The strategic objective of Banc Royale is to provide â€Å"helpful banking† to its numerous customers who are mostly retail customers, therefore cannot afford to get customer service wrong so that customers would not lose confidence in the brand. Quick steps need be taken immediately to first address the language barrier issues that are existent between both customers-service providers-bank employees. It is recommended and advised that management should change the focus of this exercise from cost reduction alone to enhanced and improved productivity with greater emphasis on collaboration between the bank officials and the service providers to ensure seamless integration. We all know change is difficult, however, if we consider what we stand to gain as an organization we would be glad to embrace change. Globalization, the need to maintain competitive advantage and churn out good bottom lines at minimal expenses, economic downturn are amongst other justifications for the creation of virtual teams and the need to outsource certain units of an organization. Banc Royale intends to be at the forefront of this, therefore all employees are enjoined to understand the workings and the concept of virtual teams in order to give support as required. Virtual managers have the responsibility to acquaint themselves with the roles required of them which include and are not limited to: Providing strategic direction in alignment with corporate goals Motivating and empowering team members to achieve team goals Identifying and providing required resources to achieve team goals Developing and communicating a clear vision to team members Giving effective employee feedbacks etc. Performance management as it affects human resources is to ensure organizational goals are met by training, motivating and rewarding employees by adopting best practices to achieve competitive advantage. As it applies to Banc Royale at this point in time, there is a need for management to have meetings and round table discussions with existing employees that the organization require to retain and get them to understand the reasons for the decision taken and make them see reason, in addition to this, appraisal could be done for the existing employees so that promotion exercise can be undertaken or probably an increase in compensation so as to win their hearts. The human resource management department of any organization is charged with the responsibility of managing employees, employee welfare and employee performance in alignment to the organizational goals and objectives, it is however in the purview of HRM to direct and guide employees and management to behave in such a manner that would ensure both personal and organizational goals are aligned and delivered. This describes the link between organizational behavior and human resource approaches and concept all described in this report. Human resource management can be used as a tool by management for shaping organizational behavior. The relationship between organizational behavior and human resource management stems from the fact that human resource management can be used as a tool for shaping organizational behavior. The practice of performance management also helps in the integration of other HR practices such as talent management, training and development, reward system management that have been discussed in this report to ensure they are all interrelated and be able to complement each other to achieving overall organizational health goals and objectives. Performance management systems aid the integration and enmeshment of HR policies with overall business organizational goals. REFERENCES Aguinis, H. (2009),†Performance Management (2nd ed.)† Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Aguinis H. & Pierce Charles A (2007), â€Å"Enhancing the relevance of organizational behavior by embracing performance management research†, Journal of Organisational Behavior Bacharach, S. B. & Lawler, E. J. (1980),†Power and politics in organizations†, San Francisco: JosseyBass. Baron, R.A. (1983), â€Å" Behaviour in Organizations†,. New York: Allyn & Bacon, Inc. Bergiel B. J., Bergiel, E. B., & Balsmeier, P. W. (2008),†Nature of virtual teams: A summary of their advantages and disadvantages†, Management Research News, 31(2), 99-110. Centre for Strategy & Evaluation Services (October 2003) – INDICATORS TO MEASURE THE COSTS EFFECTIVENESS OF DIVERSITY POLICIES IN ENTREPRISES- FINAL REPORT Dawson Mark J. & Mark L. Jones(n.d), â€Å"Herding Cats- Human Change Management† Eisenhardt, K. M. And L. J. Bourgeois (1988), â€Å"Politics of strategic decision making in high-velocity environments: Towards a midrange theory†,Academy of Management Journal, Eidson C., (2009) ,†The benefits and liabilities of virtual teams†, Available from ( http://expertaccess.cincom.com) Accessed on 31st July 2013 Equality and Diversity – Policy and Procedures http://www.grundon.com/PDFs/dutyOfCare/Equality%20Diversity%20Policy%20Procedure%20-%20Jun09.pdf (Accessed 1st July 2013) Gandz J. 2001, â€Å"A Business Case For Diversity† Copyright Queen’s Printer of Ontario Gà ¼ngà ¶r P. (2011),†The Relationship between Reward Management System and Employee Performance with the Mediating Role of Motivation: A Quantitative Study on Global Banks’’, 7th International Strategic Management Conference Greenberg J.(2005), â€Å"Diversity in the workplace† http://diversity.sdce.edu/content/diversity-workplace-benefits-challenges-and-solutions (Accessed 2nd July 2013) Heller R, A. Laurito, Kurt J., M.Martin, Fitzpatrick R. & K. Sundin(2010), â€Å"Global Teams: Trends, Challenges and Solutions†, Cornell Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, New York. Kaufman, B. (2010), ‘‘SHRM Theory in the Post-Huselid Era: Why It is Fundamentally Mis-Specified’, Industrial Relations, 49 (2): 292. Knouse Stephen B. (2008),†Issues in Diversity Management†, DEFENSE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE DIRECTORATE OF RESEARCH, Internal Report No 05-08, pp 10-13 Maslow, A (1954). Motivation and personality. New York, NY:

Mircosoft Share Point Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mircosoft Share Point - Essay Example Thus SharePoint is not a program but a platform for different types of programs. It a back-end system that ties all employees Personal Computers (PCs), allowing them to synchronize their effort through integrated communication system. SharePoint has tools such as adobe Photoshop, patternry, Javascript kit, Balsamiq and CrossBowser Testing that aids designers in customizing the interface as required. It has also Business Management Process (BPM) capabilities. It has functionalities such as visual indicators, the associate items and smart actions. Visual indicators such color coded status and icons are configurable and able to make dramatic impact on dashboard. Identification of important projects without sifting through a myriad of texts where isn’t immediately clear which projects are on track and falling behind is made possible by this functionality (Cooper, 2014). The associate Items functionality enables association of parent and child lists to create a many-to-one list. For instance, a parent project may be associated to multiple invoices that would be defined in a list (Junk, 2013). This is the same way data is modeled in data base. ‘Smart Actions’ provide workflow functionality connected to lists. This allows work triggers to be carried out based on laid down criteria. Using the custom functionality with interface options allows for a comprehensive tool to be built modeling anything from project tracking to training management product testing (Cooper, 2014). Besides, SharePoint has email and printing templates which allows for polished communication and reports containing the data collected by the business’ custom created tools. SharePoint User Interface (UI) enhances control hence creating effectiveness. Managers are provided with extensive set of tools by the interface to enforce procedures and record management. Besides, simple UI enhances visibility. Team members benefit by not only getting see the reasoning behind each step but also can

Personality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 11

Personality - Essay Example In additions, managers should mostly engage staff with proactive personality. Workers with this type of personality look for opportunities and act on them. They exhibit initiative and stop at nothing until the opportunity effects a change in the organization, In Personality psychology, Burger, Jerry (2010) identifies five broad dimensions or domains of personality. These domains are broadly referred to as the Five Big traits of personality. Personality experts and scholars broadly support the theory known as the five-factor model on which the Five Big traits of personality derive their base. The five big traits of personality, according to the theory, include openness (O), extraversion (E), conscientiousness (C), neuroticism (N) and agreeableness (A). Burger, Jerry (2011) suggests the use of acronyms such as OCEAN and CANOE to identify the five traits collectively. The chief purpose of the theory is to give an account for different characteristics and traits in personality. Empirical research on the Big Five personality characteristics has shown, to a large extent, consistency in observations, interviews and self-description. The research, therefore, indicates that the personality tests are very accurate and reliable. Burger, Jerry (2011) defines openness as the appreciation for emotions, art, imaginations, unusual ideas, curiosity and other experiences. They reckon that staffs that are open to new experiences are willing to try new ventures, intellectually curious and sensitive to changes in the organization. Unlike closed people, open people are very creative and more conscious of their feelings. Burger, Jerry (2011) adds that open people not likely to hold conventional beliefs. Open people prefer novelty to familiarity, and they do not resist change. A conscientious person acts dutifully, is self-disciplined and achieves above the expectations.

Low Risk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Low Risk - Essay Example Benedict†). These two examples illustrate the idea of simplicity. The choices for food and clothing are kept to a bare minimum in order to ensure that a monk is able to keep his mind on spiritual matters. Rules and simplicity also apply to the matter of sleeping: â€Å"They shall sleep separately in separate bed†¦a candle shall always be burning†¦they shall sleep clothed†¦they shall not have their knives at their sides while they sleep†(â€Å"The Rules of St. Benedict†). It is fair to assume that St. Benedict decided on this type of orderly and simple life for the monks because it proved to be the most effective way of keeping a person dedicated to their spirituality. Having freedom and choices can open the door to temptations and a focus on worldly things. By creating a certain set of rules and by creating a very simply existence, the monks are better able to grow and maintain their spiritual lives which, as monks, is meant to be their focus in the first place. St Benedict realized, however, that monks were human and that, in being human, there was the possibility for failure, so these rules were meant to make their life somewhat easier and less

Counselling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Counselling - Essay Example This approach is not a formal exalted theory, but as the name says, a different approach that has proved to be useful and more effective. It honours the need to talk, communicate and understand self of the individual in need of therapy and stands on the basis that individual's need is more important than that of the counsellor, because counsellor, after all, is a mere supporter, or a prop up, and not the main hero of the drama. It establishes the human trust in basic values, principles and desire to improve in harmony with the rest of the world. "Rogers is holistic in his thinking, tending to look at the complete organism in order to understand and explain behaviour. He believes that humans are innately good and that they are growth orientated. Phenomenological understands individual perception of reality. Determinism, cause and effect relationships in having freedom, the organism has an actualising tendency" This approach depends on the assumption that given the proper circumstances and understanding, a person is capable of finding solutions for his inner problems and nothing could be a longer lasting cure. The main theory under which the Person centred counselling works is that the patient is fully capable of handling his problems and monitoring his future growth. It believes that the main authority here is not the psychologist, but the patient himself and counselling goes on according to the patient's observations about himself. It believes that all people might not have had a highly favourable condition to develop, grow and manage their lives and might feel stifled, or might have developed a very difficult, punishing self identity that might not be easy to maintain at all times and under all circumstances. When personal experiences are not conducive with the self identity of the person, psychological problems occur because the individual is unable to cope with the experiences and sti ll maintain the personal identity to which he has become accustomed to, or of which he had a certain self confidence and pride. The self-concept of the person clashes with the experiences he is going through and this might make the self-worth plummet down in his opinion and acceptance might become difficult. His judgement of his self-worth gets shaken because he cannot feel comfortable with it any more, as its fundamental base has not been firm recently. Explaining his Theory of Personality, Carl Rogers says: "In endeavouring to order our perceptions of the individual as he appears in therapy, a theory of the development of personality, and of the dynamics of behaviour, has been constructed," (Kirschenbaum and Henderson, 1990. p.244). The essence of person centred counselling is the meeting and understanding between counsellor and his patient. Undoubtedly, it is very hard to establish a complete and unquestionable understanding and this is considered to be one of the most difficult types of counselling, but with perhaps the best results. It forces the counsellor to be authentic, supportive, empathic and mainly non-judgemental. It has three core conditions that would contribute a lot to the therapeutic change: 1. Unconditional positive regard. 2. Empathic Understanding. 3. Congruence. With

Computer vision for image quality assessment Essay

Computer vision for image quality assessment - Essay Example Image quality assessment is a significant issue as the modern imaging systems has a tendency to introduce artefacts or distortion in the signal (Wang, & Bovik, 2006). The entire process of capture and development of an image is a result of two steps. The first step is the capturing of image by a photographic process. The ideal photographic process is standardised with reference of a pinhole camera. The pinhole camera is a hardware apparatus, which has light reflected from the intended subject passing through the aperture and falling on the plane of image. In practical applications, the camera approximates the ideal pinhole camera image capture process. Ideally, the developed image should exactly capture the amount of light falling on the each part of the image plane of the camera, whether the image is developed chemically (traditional) or digitally (Modern). The second step consists of the processing of the amount of light falling on the image plane. Ideally, the second step should perfectly measure the amount of light falling on different parts of the image plane and hence reproducing the photograph exactly as per the depicted scene, whether on a paper or in the soft copy. In practice, some amount of distortion takes place in each step mentioned in the previous paragraph. The practical cameras are an approximation of the ideal pinhole camera. Thus, the amount of light falling on the image plane is not exactly as reflected by the depicted scene. Similarly, the processing of the image by the measurement of the amount of light in the different areas of image plane is not perfect. The image storing & transmission process may also distort the quality of image. For example, a digital image, which has been compressed, transmitted and decompressed, would not have same quality as the original. Thus, the measurement of the image quality would be the

The Association between War Crime and Nori Films Essay

The Association between War Crime and Nori Films - Essay Example The relations between war and the noir phenomenon As pointed out, the world wars shattered the dreams of millions of human beings and led them towards the drastic effects of the same. Besides, national identity became under crisis and unity beyond borders became a myth. During this time, the Noir film genre began to portray the postwar problems. Basically, Noir film dealt with the problems faced by individuals in the postwar society. This is utmost important because the unity during wartime underwent rapid change and transformed into the visible moral problems in the postwar society. This socio-political background deeply influenced the close relation between war and Noir phenomenon. Within this scenario, the film directors related to Noir film genre began to provide ample importance to the anxieties of the mass. One can easily identify the fact that material wealth cannot reduce human anxiety, but close examination of the grass-root level reasons of the problem can. Most of the Noir films deal with the disillusionment in human life, especially related to wars. ... Paul Meehan makes clear that, â€Å"As the film begins, Teddy and fellow marshal Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are riding the ferry out to Shutter Island, a barren rock 11 miles out to sea from Boston that houses a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane† (274). In the film, the protagonist and the inmates face helplessness, which is an important problem portrayed in Noir film genre. One can easily identify that both these problems are closely related to the problems faced the people in a postwar society. So, the Noir film genre deals with the crises related war in a postwar society. Noir Films reflect emotional trauma faced by war hero As the Noir films are related to the crises faced by the human beings, emotional trauma is an important element that differentiates the same from other genres. On the other side, heroism related to war is an important element of war films. One can see that the Noir films that deal with the theme of war are symbolic of emotional trauma faced by the heroes. To be specific, the disillusionment faced by war heroes after wartime, especially unemployment and alienation, are inculcated in Noir films. From a different angle of view, wars force soldiers and other officers to face emotional trauma and eventually leads them to emotional problems. When a war hero returns to his locality, he is forced to face a different situation. Within this context, war is not a reality, but a past experience. Gradually, the war hero feels that his heroism is limited to the context of warfront, not to the mainstream society. Besides, he cannot expose his heroism in the society and detachment from the role of a reputed soldier/officer to a civilian leads to emotional problems. For instance, the protagonist

Book report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Book report - Essay Example HeLa succeeded where all other human samples failed. The cells were continuously multiplying and Gey gave away the laboratory grown cells to his colleagues. Soon Henreitta Lacks died of aggressive cervical cancer. However, her cells taken without knowledge multiplied onto a scale, they would weight more than 50 million metric tons. HeLa cells were used for developing vaccines, to understand the behavior cancer cells, viruses and used in the research of gene mapping and to find and the effects of nuclear bombs on human cells. The Hela cells were commercialized and built multimillion dollar industries. Thousands of careers were built on the Hela cells. The Henriatha Lacks's family did not know about all these things until 1970. While Lacks's world changing cells were minting money on commercial scale, Henreitha Lacks's children and their children lived in poverty and could not afford medicare and health insurance, Instead they were also unethically recruited into HeLa research without their informed consent. In the words of Lacks's youngest daughter Deborah "If my mother's cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can't afford to see no doctors?" The story's main theme is about bad medical ethics and social wrong committed by medical establishment. The main theme raises question about racism and accessibility to health care. It also raises important question about medical compensation to patients and their families. Henreitta Lacks, the 31 years old African- American woman who had once been a tobacco farmer is the main character of the story. She comes fully alive in the pages of book. According to Gey's lab assistant Mary Kubicek when "I saw those toenails, I nearly fainted. I thought, of jeez, she is a real person" The story deals with the complex emotional, scientific and legal issues the main character's family faced. The other primary character is Deborah, Henreitta Lack's youngest daughter. She is the main driving force of the story. She travelle d to many places with Skloot in pursuit of her mother's legacy, which led her to believe that her mother was eternally suffering from all the research conducted on her cells. She is a spiritual person believing in the immortality of her mother both literally and spiritually. George Gay plays on important role in the story. Without him the world would not have known about Henreitta Lack's immortal life. Without him the science and medical care would not have found care for many diseases and without him the questions about bioethics would not have been raised. Rebekka Skloot, the science journalist is also a primary character whose decade of research took her to Lacks's family. Her vivid account about the life of Henritta Lacks's family unravels the story behind the cell research. She narrates lucidly the racial politics of medicine, poverty and science behind the important medical discoveries. The book is entwined with the implications of ethical leadership. The ethical leadership in medicare is involved in a manner that respects the right and dignity of others. Leaders who are ethical are people oriented and responsive to the needs of people If the leaders are ethical, they can ensure that ethical practices are carried out throughout the organization. Henreitta Lacks was never asked for her consent for removing her tissues. At present, the dignity is an important issue for medical researchers. It has been invoked in bioethics of human genetic engineering. The Declaration

CIS U2 206 Research Assigment Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

CIS U2 206 Research Assigment - Coursework Example Lastly, the world entity covers all other users by granting all-account authorizations. Authorizations are dual arithmetic values. The arithmetic value 100 endows file-reading authorizations, 10 endows file-writing authorizations, and 1 endows file-executing authorizations (Perrin). One can combine these values to form a series of authorizations for a particular entity. Listing authorizations requires access to a file’s authorization settings, where the -1 option for the viewing command offers data that entails listing authorizations. Changing authorizations for every entity requires the â€Å"chmod† command (Perrin). Overseeing security at the file-level in a UNIX system needs one to maintain file authorizations as stringent and limiting as possible without limiting the system itself. This measure requires a user to refrain from limiting the UNIX system itself from accessing files in an undesired manner. As a result, one should leave file authorizations outside the home paths of the user account at default (Perrin). Learning how to use UNIX file authorizations ultimately enables one to understand UNIX security

Quezon City Essay Example for Free

Quezon City Essay Pizza Hut is now more than just a pizza place. It offers a unique casual dining experience that is different from the usual fast-food environment. The casual dining restaurant now has an expanded pizza menu, appetizers such as ribs and a new line of desserts, soup options, smoothies, a variety of pasta dishes and a whole lot more. Veering away from plastic and tiles typical of fast-food joints of old, Pizza Hut now has a very classy, casual-dining feel with sleek wooden furniture, warm, ambient lighting, and a touch of whimsy dominating the whole interior. With the new ambience come more customer interaction and service that is made doubly fast and extra friendly. Philippine Pizza Inc. , the franchise owner and operator of Pizza Hut, has over 150 restaurants, here in the Philippines since it began in 1984. Its locations are strategically located from Ilocos Norte to Mindanao are now the country’s most popular pizza restaurant, with its dine-in restaurants, delivery units and express counters. For the more discerning food enthusiast, there’s Pizza Hut Bistro. A breakthrough concept in dining, Pizza Hut Bistro concept offers the best of casual dining, giving you the chance to enjoy the best Italian-American, along with classy ambience and first class service. The history of the best pizza and the largest chain of pizza restaurants in the world began in 1958, with the vision and the passion of two brothers, from Wichita, Kansas. Being students, they had to borrow $600 from their mother to open a tiny pizza restaurant: the very first Pizza Hut. Fifty years later, with more than 12,000 restaurants in more than 90 countries, Pizza Hut is the first choice for pizza lovers and still remains true to its founding beliefs: that because we love pizza and care about our customers, we have a responsibility to offer great products and service. * Their Goal is to Reach 85% recognition of the new Product in their target market. * As with all businesses, the most important goal of a Company is to increase revenue and profits * Customer satisfaction is for most. * Practice what they preach: Integrity, Ethics and Open Communication. FACILITIES †¢ Air Conditioning†¢ High Chairs †¢ Childrens Menu As with all businesses, the most important goal of a company is to increase revenue and profits. * Customer satisfaction is for most. * Practice what we preach: integrity, ethics and open communication ORGANIZATIONAL CHART Jorge Araneta (C. E. O) Lars Peterson (C. O. O) Edwin G. Nava (VP-Operation) Randy Venezuela (Area Coach) Mary Anne Reyes (Restaurant General Manager) Nerisa Musa Leomar Miranda Wilma Pascual (Local Store Marketing manager)(Inventory Manager) (Training Manager) DEPARTMENT : Dining.

Barriers To Learning Encountered Children With Down Syndrome Psychology Essay

Barriers To Learning Encountered Children With Down Syndrome Psychology Essay Causes and Risks of Downs Syndrome. Initially, I would like to mention what is Down syndrome (DS). Down syndrome, also referred to as Trisomy 21, is a situation in which additional genetic material played a significant role in the way a child matures, both physically and intellectually. It is a genetic disease that affects approximately one in every 1,000 babies. Each person has 46 chromosomes, which are divided into 23 pairs. Each mans sperm has 23 chromosomes and each womans egg is the same, so that when the arrest takes place and the sperm fertilizes the egg, shaped a young man with a full complement of chromosomes. Sometimes mistakes are made and caused chromosomal abnormalities. Down syndrome is one of them. A child born with Downs syndrome has an extra chromosome in every cell in his body. So far, we do not know what causes the presence of an extra chromosome. It can come from either the mother or the father. It is significant to remember though that faults in chromosome distribution are not rare. However, there is a specific link with older mothers. Most babies with Down syndrome are born to women under the age of 35, simply because as a woman reaches the latter years of her reproductive life, the probability of a fault in chromosome distribution rises progressively. What we do know is that nobody should be blamed. A child with Down syndrome is likely to be born in any family, almost with the same rate in any population. It can happen to everyone. Although Down syndrome cant be averted, it can be discerned before a child is born. For those parents who have a proportionately high recurrence risk for Downs syndrome, future pregnancies can be monitored by chromosome studies on fetal amniotic cells, with early termination of the pregnancy when the fetus is destined to have Downs syndrome. The health difficulties that can go together with DS can be dealt with, and there are many resources within communities to help kids and their families who are living with the situation. At this point, I should mention that the syndrome was first noted by British physician John Langdon Down (hence the name), where in 1866, he noticed that many people having no connection with each other, located in different institutions, had similar physical characteristics.  It was not until 1959, however, that an additional chromosome was recognized as the cause. Types of Syndrome Down There are three major types of the Down syndrome. The child is likely to have Trisomy 21, i.e. the presence of additional genetic material on the 21st pair of chromosomes (three 21 chromosomes instead of two). About 95 percent of people who have Down syndrome have Trisomy 21. The remaining 5% of the population composed of two other types: The removable type, due to partial or total binding on chromosome 21 with another chromosome, which, in fact, is the extra chromosome pair 21. This type creates important implications for subsequent births and its consequences should be investigated by a specialist geneticist. The mosaic type, the people of this type have cells that  other  have three chromosomes 21 and other normally  two. The ratio of prevalence of these two cell types is random. It is the most rare type of syndrome Down. Moreover, there are  slight external features of the syndrome, the children have fewer health problems and also slight mental retardation. Down syndrome is a genetic disorder characterized by a variety of physical and mental problems, which result  to  slow development in all aspects. We cannot always predict with assurance the degree of cognitive and behavioral development of children with DS, since this depends on the education, the family environment, the accompanying problems and also the attitudes of society in which the child lives . However, we can assure that within the appropriate school context, which in most cases should be the mainstream school, and with appropriate supportive assistance, 80-% of children can be trained successfully on social skills and acquire basic school knowledge. It is important before we deal with the education of a person with DS to know the particularities of learning and to take into account both the selection of learning objects and the teaching method we are going to use (Polychronopoulos, 2001). Like in all the other children  we also find large individual differences in the physical, mental and psychological characteristics in DS people. However,there are many features that affect their education and need to know who deal with it. Another difficulty the people with Down Syndrome confront is the auditory memory, which is the ability to listen, to process and understand the sounds, thus distinguishing the stimuli. The lack of auditory memory makes worse the processing of auditory information and makes it almost impossible to acquire fundamental knowledge grammar and syntax. Fortunately, the long-term memory, which allows us to withdraw persons, events and processes of the past, works well. It has also been found that in contrast to the auditory memory, the visual memory is more effective, a significant element which should be considered when deciding how to present information to these students (Sue Buckley and Angela Byrne, 1994 ). The skills of children with Down syndrome in arithmetic  are not yet sufficiently investigated, we know that in this area the children with Down syndrome encounter the most difficulties. The delayed and deficient language development is one of the reasons for this difficulty. Language is an indispensable tool for thinking,comparison and manipulation of objects and activities and also is a link to the numerical system. So people are finding difficult to perform such cognitive functions and to follow the instructions and explanations of the teacher. The limited short-term memory is another important reason for difficulties encountered by children with Down Syndrome. To be able to perform additional activities such as add, subtract or multiply numbers with our minds, we must be able to maintain information briefly in our short memory. That is why people with Down  confront many difficulties  to make calculations, unless they have ahead of them, specifically things. These children are stuck at the stage of concrete thinking and are unable to move to the abstract-symbolic thinking.

Optimal Economic Uncertainty Index

Optimal Economic Uncertainty Index Introduction Economic uncertainty states about the uncertain of future economic events. This means we cannot foresee what will happen to the country’s economic in the future and this is why this research is been investigate. There are many situations which caused the uncertainty to happen such as the changes in economic and financial policies, various views about the growth prospects, the productivity movements, wars and natural disasters (Bloom et al., 2013). The first innovative work which discussed about the effects of uncertainty is done by Knight (1921). Knight formalized a distinction between risk and uncertainty. Based on Knight’s research, risk was applies to the situations where is unpredicted but still can accurately calculate the odds. However, uncertainty applies to the situations where is unpredicted all the information we need with the purpose of set accurate odds. According to a theory of profit and entrepreneurship, Knight suggests that the function of the entreprene ur is to earn profit by undertaken the investments with uncertain outcome (Bewley, 2002). Thereafter, more and more researcher has constructed diverse models to investigate the uncertainty. Mises (1949) states that researchers never gave up in searching the best ways to reduce the problems which caused by the uncertainty. However, the results gain by most researchers which tested the uncertainty could not supply suitable and meaningful outcomes. This is because the researchers’ understanding and the modeling created has supply limited information from the empirical data and too much effort has been applied in explaining and estimating the characteristic of human beings under variety situations (Ellsberg 1961; Epstein 1999). However, an open question remains as to whether or not research in this area could better our knowledge of economic turbulences and other utmost uncertainties and improve the scientific accuracy of economic theory. There are fewer of empirical studies on the economic uncertainty index depend on normative analysis. This type of analysis creates value judgments about the economy or the goals of public policy to be archive. (Caplin and Schotte 2008). Thus, normative analysis cannot be used to refute the precision of the economic uncertainty index (Gan 2014). Monetary conditions indexes (MCI) have become famous in several countries over the past few years as a useful tool and indicator for the stance of monetary policy. Although MCI played as an alternative monetary policy rule sparked intense debate and yet whether a consensus can be reached remained unknown at the beginning however it has been losing its magnet effect on the economy from the past years. The main factor of this change would be exchange rate, which is merely determined by the market. Gan (2014) conducted a paper namely the optimal economic uncertainty index constructed is one of many in the economic uncertainty literatures, which the optimal form may reflect the true economic conditions. This study will apply two monetary policy rules which are MCI and OEUI in selected Asian countries to examine which rules would facilitate achieving the best economic outcomes and lead to rational and wise policy decisions through a comparison. Matters of the study The argument of monetary policy rules in an economic uncertainty A good monetary policy rule is very important to the economy. It can help the economy respond efficiently to economic upheavals by limiting the gap of actual economy activity from its equilibrium, without significantly changing the ultimate goals of monetary policy. As stressed by Svensson (2000), monetary policy rule can either describe a systematic response of policy instrument to events in the economy (e.g., changes in macro variables and changes in policy variables), or it can suggest a specific economic outcome, or it can target the central bank’s goals (e.g. output and/or inflation). This behaviour of the policy rule can be inferred only in the context of a full model that links the policy instrument to the targeting variables included in the rule. Levin, Wieland, and Williams (2001) investigated the performance of forecast-based monetary policy rules by using five macroeconomic models that present a wide range of views on aggregate dynamics. They categorize the characteristics of rules that are robust to model uncertainty. However, the performance of monetary policy rule in an economic uncertainty is still under debate. Dotsey and Plosser (2012) examine the design of monetary policy rules in an environment. The argument is lingering around the issue that people have only an imperfect knowledge of the economy to confront challenges arising from various forms of economic uncertainty. The inadequate of non-optimal monetary policy rules in an economic uncertainty Simple monetary policy rules – non-optimal – such as Taylor (1993) may involve a reaction to variables other than conventional variables such as inflation gap and output gap, which are considered intuitively relevant to the conduct of monetary policy. Generally, these rules are similar to those discussed in Clarida et al. (1998). The great virtue of the simple rules is simplicity, which makes them easy to understand. Simple rules still can be used in central bank communication, although the public would not be able to verify the exact rule that is being followed. The rule can perform well in a wide range of models, which makes it robust to model uncertainty (Taylor, 2000). As stressed by Orphanides (2007: 11), some useful elements of policy design surface from historical analysis of TR: (i) good stabilization performance have a strong relation to the inflation’s reaction; (ii) good performance is associated with policy rules that show considerable inertia; (iii) a strong reaction to incorrectly measured output gaps has historically proven counterproductive; (iv) successful policy could still usefully incorporate information from real economic activity by focusing on the growth rate of the economy. Additionally, financial market analysts, scholars and central banks’ staff have been using monetary policy rules increasingly to forecast interest rates and to evaluate and describe central bank actions. Despite the fact that simple policy rules can often provide a good approximation to fully optimal policy under perfect information and are typically more robust to uncertainty (Cateau, 2007), simple rules have a number of weaknesses. Although their performance is rarely disastrous, they can involve large welfare losses relatively to fully optimal rules (Nikolov, 2002). In the similar vein, Svensson (2003) argued that a commitment to a simple instrument rule might be far from optimal in some circumstances. Crucially, simple rules are rarely optimal. Some studies, for example, Batini, Harrison and Millard (2003) argued that Taylor-type rules are not robust to open economy features. Taylor (2007) recognized that the TR is not supposed to be followed mechanically, but he also argued that monetary policy might deliver better results in terms of low inflation and output variability by staying closer to the rule. The failure of monetary conditions index Generally an MCI is a measurement of demand pressure; demand pressure is often measured by the output gap (output gap is the difference between current output and the estimated output in equilibrium level). The MCI is simple economic uncertainty measure because it involves gap variables in estimation; any estimation of gap variables is subject to considerably uncertainty (Gan, 2014). The equation of MCI[1] is a combination of interest rate gap[2] and exchange rate gap[3]. Thereby, increases in interest rates as well as increases in exchange rates[4] indicate a higher MCI figure and, therefore, tighter monetary conditions rested here. The estimation of the weights of the two variables in the MCI is at the heart of calculating of the MCI. The ratio of these weights would encode whether an appreciation in interest rates can be compensated along with depreciation in the exchange rate. The weights also reflect the relative impacts and changes of the interest rates as well as in the exchan ge rate affected on monetary conditions. Therefore, the MCI is generally viewed as a summative and informative tool for the public; meanwhile it serves as an early indicator for the central banks. However, the benign MCI played as an alternative monetary policy rule still sparked intense debate and yet whether a consensus can be reached remained unknown. Noticeably, the MCI has been losing its magnet effect on the economy from the past years. The most contributive factor of this change would be exchange rate, which is merely determined by the market. Further, the MCI mixes up two variables that are situated on two fundamentally different stages of the transmission process. The evidences can be briefly summarized by the application of the two MCI formerly leading advocates, the Bank of Canada (BOC) and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ). Since the early 1990s, BOC officially used MCI as an operating target (operating target is variable that the central bank influences directly by its monetary policy instruments[5]); however, the BOC did not directly control both the interest rate and the exchange rate simultaneously, but merely focused on the control of the interest rate. This means that central bank adjusted its interest rates to modify monetary conditions directly, which in turn is assumed to affect the exchange rate in various systematic approaches (usually via uncovered interest parity – UIP).[6] Due to its inability to target the exchange rate under MCI’s mechanical way, The RBNZ in 1999 gave up the concept of MCI may. The recurrent depreciation during the crisis and the evocable changes in the MCI were interpreted as signals of upcoming tightening that can cause long-term interest rates to rise and consequently exacerbate recessionary forces (Ito and Hayashi, 2004). To sum up, the concept of the MCI had lost a great part of its initial attractiveness in the end of the 1990s. The RNBZ abandoned published an MCI in March 1999 and concentrated its policy statements on a short-term interest rate. While the BOC continues to publish the MCI, its role in taking monetary policy decisions was reduced to that of many other indicators in recent years. The perform of optimal economic uncertainty In economics, optimal analysis is a normative analysis. It studies what the economic ought to be. However, the study about the optimal economic uncertainty is very limited. Most of the empirical studies are approximate form but not optimal. The optimal analysis is very common in most of the economic study such as the studies of monetary policy rule and others. In the late 1970s, the Federal Reserve stabilized the country’s economy by using the optimal Taylor Rule in the monetary policy. However, the Taylor Rule has misplaced the policy makers to face the real time data (Orphanides, 2003). This is because the optimal Taylor Rule only can perform better in the interest rate function. Giannoni (2000) investigated optimal policy rule in a simple forward-looking model, when the policymaker faces uncertainty about model parameters and shock processes. Other than that, Dieppe et al. (2004) examined the optimal monetary policy rule in the model of the euro area which is known as the ECB’s Area Wide Model, including a high degree of intrinsic perseverance and a restricted role for forward-looking anticipation. The optimal economic uncertainty index constructed by Gan (2014) is one of many in the economic uncertainty literatures, which the optimal form may reflect the true economic conditions. Since the economic uncertainty index is not observable. The rule of optimal economic uncertainty index suggests optimal economic uncertainty index can be computed by using grid search method based on small open economic model; a small open economic model is very close to a true economic model and it is not partial economic model. Motivation of the Study What is the response of optimal economic uncertainty to macro variables and policy variables? Until today, there are no policymakers (hereafter, central banks) have publish the optimal economic uncertainty index, for the reason they might be unwilling to publish such an index, or such an explicit formula simply does not exist. As stressed by Bernanke (2010a), economic engineering to address economic uncertainties needs to be improved. Optimality in this study can be given by particular specifications of the central bank’s loss function. Therefore, an optimal rule is the one that derived by minimizing a loss function. Two models are practically employed here. The first model is an optimal economic uncertainty index, which is proposed by Gan (2014). The second one is MCI concept which is based on the theoretical works by De Wet (2002). Thereby the optimal monetary responses can be derived. What is the welfare gain from taking into account the external variable? In order to answer this question, the study attempts to compare the derived optimal economic uncertainty index to a set that assumes with the exchange rate variable and a set that assumes without exchange rate variable. In line with this measure, one feasible approach is to measure the difference in the loss function values. For this purpose, the study would derive the optimal economic uncertainty index for a small open economic model in two setting, in other words, a model with the exchange rate variable and a model without the exchange rate variable. Objectives The objective is to examine the optimal economic uncertainty index (see Figure 1.1) while including the role of external variables – normative analysis. Specifically, this model is augmented and examined with exchange rates. The first model is the MCI of Bank of Canada is a variant of economic conditions rule, which can serve as a competitive rule; this rule consists exchange rates, interest rates and past output. The second model is the optimal economic uncertainty index based on a small open economy model, which was proposed by Gan (2014). Since the basic idea is to keep the rules at constant, i.e., MCI (De Wet, 2002) and optimal economic uncertainty index (Gan, 2014), these optimal rules would bring the economy back to its long-run equilibrium; the process can be indicated by MCI (i.e. an indicator that encompassed the total effects of interest rates and exchange rates), and by optimal economic uncertainty index (i.e. an indicator that encompassed the total effects of inter est rates, exchange rates, inflation and output at optimal level). This study also examines the dynamic profiles of monetary policy rules through a comparison. Eventually, this would enable us to draw an inference regarding which rules would facilitate achieving of the best economic outcomes and lead to rational and wise policy decisions and aid in assessing the behavior of the economic uncertainty in the future. Figure 1.1 Analytical Frameworks (theoretic framework of optimal economic uncertainty index) Figure 1 (a) 3D macro model and the optimal economic uncertainty index at zero uncertainty level of macroeconomic conditions. (b) 2D field of view of the optimal economic uncertainty index with zero uncertainty level of macroeconomic conditions. (c) 2D field of view of the negative-optimal economic uncertainty index with economic contraction. (d) 2D field of view of the positive-optimal economic uncertainty index with economic expansion. Significance of the Study The attainment of these objectives will certainly benefit the central banks. With the growing international mutual consent, both in academia and among central banks, maintaining the medium to long-term price stability is the overriding goal of monetary policy (Asian Development Bank, 2008). Research provides strong support in maintaining low and stable inflation, ultimately; this is beneficial for overall economic outcome (Mishikin, 2008). In line with this consensus, the proposed economic uncertainty index based on a small open economic model – suggested in this study may be considered by the central banks as an alternative framework with the end view of coming up with an improved and more effective economic policy strategy. This study provides exploration of two types of monetary policy rules in an economic uncertainty, the MCI of Bank of Canada and optimal economic uncertainty index based on a small open economic model of Gan (2014), where a set of parameters inducing different decision rules are determined. This study encompasses two macro variables (i.e., output and inflation) and two policy variables (i.e., interest rates and exchange rates) in the optimal model. Not only does this facilitate a better understanding of current policy actions, but it permits markets to better forecast the central bank’s future actions. The optimal policy in one setting may not be optimal policy in some other setting because there is no agreement on the best model of the economy (Plosser, 2008). The rules derived in this study can be contrasted. The optimal economic uncertainty index may outperform other rules (e.g., the Taylor rule and MCI rule) as it can be useful for the central banks. The proposed rule can serve asa policy of inflation targeting that in line with a welfare maximizing policy aiming at minimizing the output gap and inflation gap. This rule is superior that maintaining public confidence while giving monetary authorities to achieve the best economic outcomes in an optimal way. Conclusion This thesis is divided into five chapters. The current chapter sets the background and motivation for the thesis. Chapter 2 explores the theoretical and empirical literature on monetary policy rules with the aim of highlighting two research gaps that motivate the present study. Chapter 3 examines the MCI rule â€Å"true† policy reaction function through optimal TR, while Chapter 4 furthered the MCI rule by employing optimal economic uncertainty index based on a small open economic model. Lastly, Chapter 5 summarizes the major findings of the thesis and their implications, together with some recommendations for future study. [1] [2]Interest rates in the current period minus interest rates in the base period, i.e., changes in interest rates. [3]The level of the effective exchange rate minus the effective exchange rate in the base period divided by the level of the base period. i.e., changes in exchange rates. [4] A positive value for indicates appreciation of the domestic currency. [5] Cf. Burton and Lombra (2006: 671) and Thomas (2006: 608) for textbook definition. [6] Interest-rate-parity theorem states that the interest rate differential between two countries will be equal to the difference between the forward-exchange rate and the spot-exchange rate (equation), in other words, interest differential between two countries should be equally expected in term of the exchange rate change.

Decline of Christiany in Europe Essay -- Religion

Introduction The decline of Christianity in Europe did not happen spontaneously. It was a process which took place over many years. Further, it would be impossible to identify any one trigger for the decline. Numerous factors have combined to erode Christianity in Europe. Changing political parties, with varying tolerance towards Christianity, have been a major factor in the decline. In addition, new ideas about the ability and goodness of man to create a good society, without the need for God, served to undermine Christianity. Finally, the failure of the church to respond firmly to the crises of the modern world significantly accelerated its decline. While many of these factors have roots going back as far as the seventeenth century, many came to a head in the twentieth century. Political Parties In the nineteen hundreds, many European countries were being swept by changing political tides. This era saw the rise of socialism for many European countries. Some of these new governments discriminated against Christianity. Education and even some professions were closed to Christians. Some countries were harsher in their anti-Christian policies, and others merely neglected the church.1 The church was in a dangerous position; it was expected to comment on the political situation of Europe, but in grave danger if it did so.2 Furthermore, Christianity was generally seen as contrary to the ideology of these governments. At worse, Christianity was seen as a threat to Marxist ideals. At best, it was seen as silly superstition, an unnecessary crutch.3 While some Marxists respected Christianity and perhaps even learned from it, many felt that religion was primarily a tool of oppression which should be banished in the name of so... ...and Biography, July 18, 2003. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/news/2003/jul18.html?start=2 (accessed February 1, 2012). Hindson, Ed, and Ergun Craner, eds. The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics. Eugene, OR.: Harvest House Publishers, 2008. Kannampilly, Vijaykumar. "Marxism and Christianity." Social Scientist 3, no. 3 (October, 1974): 57-63. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3516372 (accessed February 1, 2012). Pauck, Wilhelm. "National Socialism and Christianity: Can They Be Reconciled?" The Journal of Religion 20, no. 1 (January, 1940): 15-32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1198646 (accessed February 1, 2012). Tolson, Jay. "European, Not Christian." U.S. News and World Report 138, no. 20 (May 30, 2005): 52-53. http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mth&AN=17115426&site=ehost-live&scope=site (accessed February 1, 2012).

The Death of the Pepsi Man :: Creative Writing Essays

The Death of the Pepsi Man      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One day while lost in the vast woodlands of Scotland, I came upon a pop machine,   I had no money, and because of my strong moral values, I felt I could not force it open with a stick or break it with a rock, because that was wrong. As I sat there leaning against it, I pondered how I could get a refreshing can of pop.   I got up and looked around to find a coin or a bill that someone might have left or lost.   After five or six hours I gave up, no one had dropped anything that I could find.   By this time it was now nightfall, so I slept leaning against this oasis.   While asleep, I had a wonderful dream of this pop machine.   I dreamed that it opened up and asked me to indulge in a cold refreshing drink.   Another dream I had was where every five minutes the machine gave me a can from now until eternity.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When I awoke I jumped up and turned around to see if any of the dreams were true.   I quickly saw that they were not.   I decided that I could not leave this place until I had enjoyed a can of pop.   By the 3rd day, I had to scout for food and water because I was feeling malnourished.   As I walked around I found a snack machine the kind with many divine foods inside such as candy bar and chips, but still no way to eat them.   I stayed here until morning trying to rig a transport of some sort for it.   I cut a tree down and made 4 wheels and eventually a cart to support the machine and than to transport the machine to the other.   This was such a great task, I forgot about my hunger.   By dusk I had arrived back at the pop machine.   As I set the candy machine next to the pop machine, my hunger came back even stronger than before  Ã‚   Once again, I knew I could not break into the machine to eat, again my strong moral values.   So I went out again in search of food and water.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As my walk progressed I found a stream and I took a drink and ate many fish, then thought that I should of cooked them first.   On my way back, I got lost and had to sleep under a foreign tree and try to find my way home at day break.   As I tried to find my way home, I found another machine.

Biblical Influence and Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea :: Old Man and the Sea Essays

Biblical Influence and Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea Many times, stories by Ernest Hemingway have much religious influence and symbolism. In The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, numerous occurrences in the life of Santiago the fisherman are similar to the incidents recorded in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The names of the characters translated from Spanish to English are just one of those many similarities. The characters in The Old Man and the Sea are in actuality, major figures in the New Testament. Santiago is an old man, yet he had young eyes. No matter how defeated he was, he would never show it and he would look on the brighter side of things. In my mind, these traits make Santiago a god-like figure. Manolin, which translates into Messiah, is Jesus (Stoltzfus qtd in CLC 13:280). Santiago is the "father" who teaches his symbolic son and disciple, Manolin. After catching the largest marlin, Manolin will leave his parents in order to follow the teachings of Santiago, his master, just as Jesus did (Stoltzfus qtd in CLC 13:280). Pedrico is actually Saint Peter, Jesus' closest apostle and a great fisherman (Wilson 50). Peter helped Jesus fish for souls as Pedrico helped Manolin fish for food. Santiago gives Pedrico the head of the mutilated marlin which symbolizes Saint Peter as head of the Christian church and the first Pope (Stoltzfus CLC 280). In the story, there are many references to the crucifixion of Jesus. Santiago's badly injured hands evoke the hands of the crucified Jesus and three other situations reinforce this theory (Brenner, The Old Man and the Sea, Story of a Common Man 37). First, Santiago's marlin is approached by a pair of shovel nosed sharks. "Ay', he said out loud." (Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea 107) There is no meaning of "Ay", but perhaps it is the sound a man makes as his hands are nailed to wood (Brenner, The Old Man and the Sea, Story of a Common Man 38). Next, once back on shore, Santiago climbs the hill to his shack, with the mast on his shoulder, falling several times (Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea 121). This is an obvious reference to Christ's struggle to carry the cross up the hill Cavalry (Crossan, The Historical Jesus 163).

The Surprise Party

The Surprise Party At eight o’clock of the evening of my lucky birthday, I was alone at home grumbling and frowning, shouting furiously and pitying myself for my misfortune. I thought it was going to be a special day filled with presents and fun, but all I received was a â€Å"Happy Birthday†. All of a sudden, the electricity cut off and there was a complete darkness in the house. I couldn’t do anything therefore I decided to go to sleep and end this unlucky day. Out of the blue in that quiet night, I heard a sudden noise coming from downstairs. I was startled and terribly shocked. I suspected that someone broke into the house. Immediately, I tried to phone my parents, but I had no answer. I phoned the police but my mobile was without credit! After a couple of minutes of fear, I started to calm down. Although in the meantime I heard more noises of people talking, I made some courage and started heading for the basement. As I slowly reached more and more the basement, I guessed there were more than one person, but I found it hard to believe. There couldn’t be a lot of people in our basement! Courageously, I opened the door of the basement. There was a complete darkness. There wasn’t a single noise. However, as I approached, I heard some laughter and confirmed that there were people. All of a sudden, the lights were on and there were my parents and friends cheering at me. It was a surprise party!! On a table where there were the cake and the food, there were the precious presents that I wished for a long time.

An Ethical Dilemma Essay

There exists a strong link between the way and pace of life in a society and eating habits of the individuals. No matter how diverse and sophisticated the cuisine of a certain culture might be, today’s hyper moving tempo necessitates cheaper and faster food. That is where the fast food sector steps in, saving the day. At first glance, they appear to be life savers with their affordable menus. However, when we take a closer look and observe the long-term effects of fast food on individuals, we are faced with health problems such as obesity and heart diseases. Nevertheless, fast food firms also do a very good job in marketing their products to carefully targeted audiences, especially children. This paper will focus on the case of McDonald’s and argue how ethical it is for them to advertise for children directly, examining the issue from the perspective of social responsibility. The spread of McDonald’s in other parts of the world creates mixed feelings in some countries, and people even claim that the McDonald’s and the distorted image of Americanization is harmful for their culture and societies. This opinion is especially valid in Europe, but surprisingly McDonald’s is welcome in Asia. What is a common reaction in all countries hosting McDonald’s, including its homeland America, is the attitude taken towards the effects of McDonald’s on eating habits and the following negative consequences. There are plenty of fast food advertisements in North America and this industry has especially become a part of the life of families with children. Starting from very little ages, children are used to eating this good-tasting, well-marketed and fun menus which usually come along with a toy for free; and their tastes and eating habits are influenced. Even though fast food companies have started to offer â€Å"light† menus and food with less fat and calories, they do not offer the best menus for children. They continue the habit of eating fast food as they go into adolescence and adulthood, and become another candidate for an obese person with various diseases resulting from being overweight. â€Å"Overweight children do tend to become obese adults, putting themselves at a much greater risk, and at a much earlier age, for chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease† (Dalton, 2004, p. 2). One out of three children in the United States is either overweight or at serious risk of becoming so. The number of overweight children ages six to nineteen has tripled within three decades; the rate of overweight preschool children is nearly as great. The accelerating rate indicates that the current generation of children will grow into the most obese generation of adults in history. (Dalton, 2004, p. 2) Although parents are aware that food sold at McDonald’s is not very healthy, they are misled by the fact that it is affordable and makes their children happy. What is more, some parents do not have very healthy eating habits either; so one should not be surprised in seeing their children liking McDonald’s menus. Moreover, it is not easy to resist the tempting advertisements. â€Å"Some might say that no one is forcing parents to buy these products or foods for their children. But, these ads position the products as ‘must haves’. Even if their parents do not buy them the products, children are influenced† (How to Prevent Childhood Obesity. com, 2009). â€Å"Experts name Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s franchise and Walt Disney as the pioneers of child-focused marketing, since they first recognized children as a separate marketing demographic from adults in the 1960’s† (Veracity, D. , 2008). Today, we cannot help but wonder how the managers of McDonald’s feel about the harsh criticisms that the company gets for advertising and promoting unhealthy food for children. From a business point of view, the company has done a great job since it was founded by Ray Kroc in 1955, generated enormous profits and even became a better known brand than Coca-Cola (Veracity, D. , 2008). Competition in the fast food sector is harsh, so McDonald’s heavily invests in high quality advertisements aimed at targeting the right audience, using celebrities and partnerships with other brands, or cartoon characters in their campaigns if possible. They build playgrounds in their stores, which serve as a socializing place for children to meet other kids and have fun. McDonald’s not only influences American children and families, but also exports its food, image and advertisements to the rest of the world. They have opened branches in almost all parts of the world, and keep expanding despite the economic recession. They are â€Å"optimistic about business prospects in China and plan to open about 500 stores in the country in three years† (Yan, F. & Li, H. , 2009). This gives an important hint about the tastes and habits of the growing generation of children and it is not difficult to foresee that the global influence of McDonald’s will intensify in the coming years, despite all criticisms that it is unethical to promote unhealthy food to children. How ethical is the advertising strategy of McDonald’s really? Are the managers of McDonald’s actually guilty, or is everyone being too harsh and oversensitive? Even though it is normal for a company to hold its own rights and benefits before everything, if it is as influential and global as McDonald’s, it also has some moral and ethical responsibilities and should consider the social consequences of its actions as well as making profits and opening new stores. One of the most important causes of childhood obesity is lack of exercise, so it might not be totally fair to blame McDonald’s and other fast food chains for obese children. On the one hand, the McDonald’s culture heavily contributes in a bad way to developing irregular eating habits. But on the other hand, they cannot be the only ones to blame, as children and their parents are increasingly becoming computer and TV addicts, engaging in very little physical activity. When coupled with fast food consumption, health problems become inescapable. What is the solution to this moral problem then? It is obvious that a company this successful will not quit this business or abandon its strategy. However, McDon can at least modify its advertising approach slightly and recommend doing exercises as the underlying message after having a good McDonald’s meal. They can include famous sportsmen in their advertisements and encourage children to engage in sports. They can give out toys associated with sports brands, even organize sports competitions for children with awards, sponsored by major brands like Nike or Adidas. These are just a few suggestions, and there is no doubt that professionals designing McDonald’s marketing strategy can work wonders with this idea if they want to. This way, children can learn to associate the consumption of fast food with exercise in their minds and be convinced that they must be physically active in order to burn those calories taken at McDonald’ and be healthy. In conclusion, if McDonald’s and other fast food chains would alter their advertisement campaigns so as to include the theme of more exercise and sports, they would have been more socially responsible. This way, even though they do not sell the most healthy meals, their customers, especially children would know that they have to pay a price for eating a high calorie and high fat meal by doing more exercise. They would also associate fast food meals with the energy and dynamism of sports, which also makes individuals happy. Therefore, this can be a very good formula for McDonald’s to keep its happy customers all over the world and appease an angry crowd of protesters who argue that McDonald’s advertisements are unethical. References Dalton, S. (2004). Our Overweight Children: What Parents, Schools, and Communities Can Do to Control the Fatness Epidemic. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Should there be Ethical Issues with Fast Food Companies Advertising to Children?How to Prevent Childhood Obesity. com. Retrieved March 25, 2009, from http://www. howtopreventchildhoodobesity. com/ethicalissues- fastfoodadvertisements. html Veracity, D. (2008, July 13). America’s Fast Food Giants Perfect the Art of Selling Junk Food to Children. Organic Consumers Association. Retrieved March 25, 2009, from http://www. organicconsumers. org/articles/article_1092. cfm Yan, F. & Li, H. (2009, February 18). McDonald’s eye 500 stores in China in 3 years. Reuters. Retrieved March 25, 2009, from http://www. reuters. com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE51H13F20090218