Coping, Stressor Anticipation and Endurance Assignment

Coping, Stressor Anticipation and Endurance - Assignment Example ctions can include anger, guilt, anxiety, sadness, or despair; physical reactions like sleeping problems, change in appetite, health issues can occur. Disturbances in social aspects may be in the form of taking over other family responsibilities, interacting with family and friends, ability to return to work etc. In such situations, grief counselling and grief therapy can be very effective. It helps the person to accept the loss, to live without the loved one and to make decisions, emotional separation from the person, and makes the mourner stronger mentally, emotionally and physically. Allowing the mourners to experience the entire grief process helps in relieving them from grief and depression, and in bringing their lives back to normality (Cancer, 2003). Kissane et al.’s (2006) research identified that a family-focussed grief therapy is most effective in coping the grief from loss of loved one. This specifically brings about reduction in complications of bereavement, helps the family members function normally, and helps in cohesion and communication among family members. In conclusion, coping with loss and grief due to illness is specific to every individual and should be approached considering all the impacting factors and their

Nternational Business Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Nternational Business Environment - Essay Example Many economists directed their concern towards creating measures that would normalise the situation. This paper is analyses the response of UK government to the economic recession. 1. United Kingdom hosts some of the largest financial institutions in the world. Their role in the world economy is very crucial because many investors across the world have invested their treasures in these banks. The recent economic recession shook the foundation of UK economy with many institutions retrogressing because of the effects of the financial spill. North England and Scotland felt the effects of the recession that was evident through closure of businesses, loss of jobs, increase in commodity prices, government inability to offer crucial services to the nation, and social life became very hard (Boffey, 2012:1). The government could not control the inflation levels because of the debts that it registered through the economic meltdown. The economic meltdown has created tension in the political sph ere because many politicians do not know how to contain citizens who have shown their displeasure with the current trends they observe in the market. Political platform becomes greasy when politicians fail to address issues that affect the common person. Many economic critics believe that the UK government has powers, which can institute normalcy in the market (Gibb, and Leishman, 2011:23). David Cameroon lamented the action taken by the western nations in responding to the biting effects of the financial collapse. Many critics directed their concern to the anticipated events that would yield from the status of events. In deed, the crisis is a real mess to life of a common person. The increase in cases of unemployment is a bigger threat that the government of Scotland feel that it should unemployment index. Sharp decline registered in the financial market indicates that the economy is unable to create new opportunity in the job market. The labour market largely depends on the level of economic growth in creating new opportunities for job seekers (Smit, 2010:12). Many people have lamented that they have to work for long hours in order to meet the needs that they were able to meet with normal working hours before the recession. The concern is genuine because pound has lost value. A person has to cough more coins for a product that was affordable before the inflation. Another notable thing in Scotland is that the nation has registered a decline in investor interests. 2. Economists fear that reverberation of the economic crisis can trigger more problems to United Kingdom when it fails to handle it effectively. Speech delivered by Cameroon pointed acquisition to lack of commitment among the western countries in dealing with the crisis. However, some critics believe that UK government should demonstrate that it could exercise authority by restoring the financial spill (Wan, 2004:146). Ideally, it is wise for United King to handle the situation using the optimum deve lopment of national economies theory put forward by Michael Porter and Adam Smith. Theory argues that a country can promote economic growth if it specialises in creating products that it commands total cost advantage over other competing nations and engage in importation of products that it is unable to produces (Larti, 2010:6). The notion propagated by the theory is that a country should be able to identify areas where it can perform best and use them to its advantage instead of engaging in

Womens Rights Are Human Rights Speech Analysis Philosophy Essay

Womens Rights Are Human Rights Speech Analysis Philosophy Essay On 5 September 1995, Hillary Clinton, former first Lady of the United States, was invited by the Women Health Security Colloquium, which was sponsored by the World Health Organization, to attend the Fourth U.N. World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. As the Honorary Chairperson of the United States delegation to the conference, she gave the speech, Womens Rights Are Human Rights in the first few days during a special Plenary Session. In the speech, she utilized several persuasive techniques, also known as propaganda, grasping peoples attention in order to achieve support for the claim of the womens rights she was devoted to. Propaganda is usually a speech device that people intently use to induce or intensify others actions and attitudes with some deluded languages. Since propaganda is deliberate, it is often looked down as an evil and offensive tool. However, sometimes it can just be used for an act of persuasion or a personal perspective. According to Cross, propaganda is an important tool and seen in everywhere surrounding our lives. It needs to be correctly analyzed and respected and it can actually work toward good causes as well as bad (p.526). -For example, by intentionally incorporating propaganda into her speech, such as appealing to peoples emotions, distracting peoples attention, and somewhat misleading people, Hillary Clinton strengthened her persuasive power for womens rights and successfully beamed her message all over the world. Some propaganda techniques employ pathos, the act of appealing to peoples emotions. For example, plain-folks appeal, a device where a speaker tries to win our confidence and support by appearing to be a person like ourselves, is a type of propaganda. Clintons speech displays this technique when she says, We come together in fields and in factories. In village markets and supermarkets. In living rooms and board rooms. Her words suggest that she is one of those everyday people in fields, factories, markets, living rooms, and board rooms. Clinton further expands this idea by saying, We share a common future. This statement suggests that because we share the same future, we are on the same level. She is telling her audience that we should listen to her points because she is one of us, and thus has similar goals and interests to us. We are effectively led to believe that we should trust her so that we can overcome our shared struggles to achieve those shared goals and that shared future. Through plain-folks appeal, she turns her audience into trusting comrades-in-arms. She then employs the bandwagon technique in a similar manner. When she says, That is why every woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on our planet has a stake in the discussion that takes place here, she is again promoting that idea of oneness, which is the sharing of both struggles and goals. In the bandwagon technique, however, the goal is to pressure people to believe what everyone else believes and to conform, thus being faithful to the conference. There is a call to action. Clinton is telling the audience to jump on the bandwagon, because if one of them does not, that is the equivalent of turning away from your fellows. In the speech, she further strengthens the credibility of her argument by appealing to other emotions, such as pity and fear. Appealing to pity is achieved by attempting to win the audiences sympathy by giving examples of rightfully pitiable situations, in order to convince us of the conclusion or solution she will propose. One sees this technique in the statement: As an American, I want to speak up for women in my own country women who are raising children on the minimum wage, women who cant afford health care or child care, women whose lives are threatened by violence, including violence in their own homes. In that sentence, she in effect not only manages to tug on the audiences heartstrings, but also to subtly declare herself as the honorary representative of these poor souls; then she becomes the voice of the voiceless and oppressed. At the same time, it is also hard not to notice how Clinton makes the use of appeal to fear, a persuasion technique that implicitly threatens the audience and like the previous examples of pathos-based argument, uses emotions rather than reasons to persuade. Clinton displays this technique in her speech by saying, As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the world as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of their homes the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized. Here, she is basically saying that people feel pity for those disenfranchised individuals she gives as an example, but if we continue to do nothing, their situations will deteriorate further and worst of all, such situations may affect them as well, in their own family and in their own home. Of course, the point of stirring her audience to such extents is to pursue a specific ideal, sometimes even a certain agenda. In the speech, however, she does not specify what exact action she wants her audience to take, and yet the call to action is almost palpable. Clinton achieves this by distracting her audiences attention. In particular, she uses transfer-glory by association in this case-a propaganda technique wherein the speaker attempts to transfer our good feelings about one thing, towards their viewpoints. She makes her audience aware that her goal is the improvement of womens lives, What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. However, as we can see, she is careful not to exclude anyone from appreciating her viewpoints. In fact, she sugges ts that by joining her cause, people would actually be helping themselves. Clinton even broadens the scope of these purported benefits when she says, And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish. Thus, by helping women, we are actually helping the entire world. It is an altruistic enough message in all respects. To cement such a message, however, we will notice that the speech is also littered with attempts to mislead the audience as well. For example, when she states, Women are the primary caretakers for most of the worlds children and elderly, she is making a hasty generalization in fact. As Cooper shown, A hasty generalization is a conclusion based on a sample that is too small or in some other way unrepresentative of the larger population. (p.152) Such a statement supports her overall argument and it might also be true in certain cases; however, she misleads her audience by stating it as a fact without stating a basis that men can also be the primary caretakers for children and seniors. Clintons use of another technique in her speech, stroking (Argumentum ad populum), gains my admiration. First, she presents an opposing view to her points when she states, There are some who wonder whether the lives of women and girls matter to economic and political progress around the globe. By suggesting that some people think it is not necessary to care about womens rights simply just because they think women are less useful in the field of economy and politics, she raises indignation. However, it is misleading in that it creates an opponent, an unspecified they, that may or may not exist. Thus, the argument becomes whether what they said is true or not, and not the possibility that no one truly said those instigating statements. Clinton then assures the indignant audience that there are many women who are just as successful as men in professions with high emolument in fact, stating: Let them look at the women gathered here and at Huairou the homemakers, nurses, teachers, lawyer s, policymakers, and women who run their own businesses. She manages to present both argument and counterargument without specifying who the enemy is supposed to be and uses stroking that makes us feel we as women are very important to the society. Another technique that Clinton uses to mislead her audience to cement her message is card-stacking. Card-stacking is the technique which tells us the fact that is true but still not the entirely true in order to prevent us from being aware of some other important facts. For example, Clinton employs this technique when she states, If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are womens rights and womens rights are human rights, once and for all. While it is true that womens rights are a part of human rights, human rights are not specific to just all women, they encompass the rights of both genders. Here, Clinton uses the card-stacking to mislead us, in order to perk up the importance of womens rights. Near the end, she uses card-stacking again when she says, Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care; families rely on women for labor in the home; and increasingly, families rely on women for income needed to raise h ealthy children and care for other relatives. Considering the very diverse memberships, values, and situations of any set of real families, this generalization is not necessarily true; thus, she subtly misleads her audience again. Throughout the history, propaganda is often used by government or politics or advertiser to affect peoples attitude and consequently alter peoples decisions to become the follower of the point of the political party or become the consumer of the company involuntarily. However, the intention of Clintons speech is completely different. It does not have to damage an oppositions credit as in some candidates speech, and neither induces people to purchase something actually unnecessary in their lives as in some ads. It is about delivering a great message for her audience regarding the significance of public women welfare. Propaganda can be used in good manners as well as bad manners. By promoting the propaganda in the positive way, Clinton successfully increased my perception of the importance of womens rights and made me want to follow her idea as long as she dedicates for this claim.

How the Lack of Education During the Great Depression Affected Southern Society :: essays research papers fc

During the Great Depression receiving an education was becoming more and more difficult for southerners. From not being able to afford the required supplies needed, to not being able to pay the tutions, many people found it nearly impossible to attend school. The novel, To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee shows how the lack of education in society during the Great Depression affected Southerners lives, not allowing them to change their futures for the better.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The public school system changed drastically during the Great Depression. Society started to notice the changes during the years of 1930 and 1931, when conditions were at their worst. Many students did not have the right clothing, supplies, and textbooks because parents could not afford the costs. The price of school supplies ran from $1.00 for a pen to $3.85 for a pair of shoes (Editors of Time-Life 29). In To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout’s teacher, Miss Caroline, asked one of her students where his lunch was. He then explained that he did not have a lunch because his parents could not afford it. â€Å"He didn’t forget his lunch, he didn’t have any. He had none today nor would he have any tomorrow or the next day. He had probably never seen three quarters together at the same time in his life† (Lee 20).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In addition, student’s schoolwork and progress began to decline due to undernourishment. Many children were not able to stay in school because there was not enough money to keep the schools open. A third of a million children were out of school during the Great Depression (Farrell 14). Also, children of poor families dropped out of school because they felt obligated to help support their family financially. In To Kill A Mockingbird Scout describes the Ewell family, who only attends school the first day of every year because their family is poor: They come the first day every year and then leave. The truant lady gets’em here ‘cause she threatens ‘em with the sheriff, but she’s give up tryin’ to hold ‘em. She reckons she’s carried out the law just getting’ their names on the roll and runnin’ ‘em here the first day. You’re supposed to mark ‘em absent the rest of the year (Lee 27). In cases like these, the purpose for leaving school was to help out the family with chores like tending to the farm and crops.

Major differences between the two theories Essay

The obviously notable difference between Bandura’s social cognitive theory and Beck’s cognitive theory is the bias that each has towards behavior. For instance, Bandura’s model is more behavioral, whereas Beck’s model is inclined towards psychotherapy or seems to provide psychological solutions to problems. The social cognitive theory (by Bandura) is presented in an agentic perspective. It explains why people exhibit differences in self-organization, being proactive, participation in self-reflection, and in self-regulation (Bandura, 1986). In essence, the theory does not just show that human beings have different capabilities, it also shows that other factors such as the environment play a major role in shaping behaviorism (Bandura, 1986). The theory further describes human beings as producers as well as products of what they make (the proverb manners maketh man should be true). Bandura’s theory also gives the socio cognitive aspects of human beings, for example, why they act in particular manners and what elicits such behavior. Additionally, the theory also gives reasons why the human nature is vast in terms of capabilities and how humanity is fashioned by direct and observational experience that is integrated in a variety of forms. In contradistinction, Beck’s theory gives a picture of the phenomena underlying dysfunctional beliefs (Beck, 1976). This theory does not just describe personality, but provides solutions to psychological problems. This is achieved by the model’s blow-by-blow analysis of the casual agents of depression and how depression can be remedied (Beck, 1976). Beck’s theory seems to give mediation approach in solving psychological problems by encouraging patients to be participants of the problem solving process rather than passive and helpless respondents. Another difference between the two theories is the triad used in each of the theories, which forms the basis of the entire illustrations and discussions. Bandura’s model is a triad with behavior, environmental factors and personal determinants as the main elements. On the other hand, Beck’s cognitive model consists of behavior, antecedent events and consequences (Beck, 1976; Beck, 1998). The triads may seem to portray a similarity between the two models but in real sense they exhibit differences since the explanation of how the elements in the triads affect each other or act on their own is slightly different. For instance, in Bandura’s theory, the description of how the factors in the triad affect each other revolves around cause and effect. One of the factors, such as the environment is implied to be a cause (or a factor that determines) of behavior. Thus, there is emphasis on reciprocal determinism. On the other hand, Beck’s triadic illustration of the factors that shape personality and character is influenced by the person (self), the world and the future. In this context, it is evident that personality is affected not just by behavior but also by other events that occur in life. In fact, Beck (1976) describes the person (self) as the main source of ideas to solve depression problems with reference to the world and anticipation of a better future. Conclusion Bandura’s Cognitive Theory and Beck’s Cognitive Theory seem to have more similarities in that they describe personality and the factors shape it. Many elements described in each theory’s triad show convergence in meaning. Major differences between the two models lie in the description of the models. While Bandura’s model is inclined towards behaviorism, Beck’s model provides an explanation of psychological dysfunctions and possible remedies. References Bandura A. (2006). Psychological modeling: Conflicting theories. Chicago: Aldine Transaction. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W. H. Freeman Company Bandura, A. (1986).Social foundations of thoughts and action: A social cognitive theory. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Professional Technical. Bandura, A. (1976) Social learning theory. New York: Prentice Hall Bandura, A. (1971). Psychological modeling: Conflicting theories. Chicago: Aldine- Atherton. Beck, A. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford Press Beck, A. (1976). Cognitive therapy & emotional disorders. NY: International Universities Press. Beck, A. (1998). The Integrative Power of Cognitive Therapy. New York: Guilford Press.

The use of online digital resources and educational digital libraries

This survey aimed to understand the usage of educational digital libraries by module members and teachers With respect to the usage, motives and barriers. Furthermore this survey investigates the find and usage of educational digital beginning sing the turning desire on the portion of module members and teachers to utilize them, and an increasing trouble in their ability to happen, entree and utilize them. It besides examines connote the hypotheses of the usage of the changeable type of on-line educational beginning would change based on figure of demographic variables, Most specifically, sort of establishment, sort of assignment or learning experience degree. The hypotheses is really specific due to the inquiries good be asked to faculty members and teachers such asThe importance of this survey is summarizedThis survey is really of import in term of bettering the digital educational beginning, therefore it is finishing the other attempts which were adapted by such as National Science Foundation ( NSF ) in US which has spent over 150 1000000s to this betterment [ 29 ] . Issues about the digital libraries ‘ users and about how do they utilize them hold became the highest cost in order to better and keep the educational digital libraries [ 23,37 ] . The justification of this investing, the existent usage and impact of educational digital libraries ‘ contents have become really important to stakeholders. Due to all of that some inquiries have risen: What do faculty members and teachers perform with the digital beginnings which they get from the educational digital libraries? Do module members tread these beginnings as a worthwhile beginning? How do the usage them in poke bettering their instruction? What are the obstructions which are confronting the module members when they use them?Methodology:In this paper, the writers report based on the Outcome of a national study of American module members and the teachers regard to the usage and non-use of on-line digital beginning. This survey looked profoundly into the obstructions of the usage for illustration the restrictions of clip and resource, the issues of accessing to high quality stuffs, deficiency of flexibleness of the stuffs themselves, and academic belongings [ 17,23 ] . Two groups were conducted at one research university, one at a community college, three were conducted at chiefly learning universities, one group each at two historically black colleges, one group at a broad humanistic disciplines college and two groups at theMERLOT International Conference2 whose participants represented awide assortment of institutions.We sought input from this scope of module members and teachers because we assumed that several factors would be critical to understanding their demand for on-line digital resources and their hunt and usage behaviours, such as, type of establishment, learning experience, learning burden, type of classs taught, etc. Analysis of the focal point group transcripts provided some grounds of the importance of these factors and the study was designed to further prove the value of these factors in foretelling user behaviour. Our focal point groups confirmed Harley et Al. ‘s [ 23 ] findings that faculty members did non cognize what educational digital libraries were. Furthermore, these module members and teachers did non separate between a curated aggregation, such as the BEN scientific discipline web ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.bioscienet.org ) where merely those points that have been peer reviewed aremade available and that of a simple of list of URLs that might be found at a co-worker ‘s web site. These findings, in add-on to Harley ‘s, highlight how of import it is to utilize the linguistic communication that possible respondents understand when planing study instruments. So similar Harley, we avoided utilizing linguistic communication in the study questions3 associated with digital libraries, e.g. , aggregation, metadata, etc. Alternatively, in order to better the face cogency of the instruments, we carefully described the contents of aggregations, e.g. , scholarly articles , ocular images, historical paperss, etc. and asked respondents how they searched for and used these stuffs. The study instrument consisted of 105 points that included demographic information, inquiries about motives for usage of stuffs, barriers to utilize and descriptions of usage. To minimise study weariness, the study design employed skip logic so that respondents were asked inside informations about their usage of stuffs merely after bespeaking they used them. Questions covered how an single module member or teacher used peculiar sorts of on-line stuffs, e.g. , lifes, simulations, scholarly resources, images, etc. ( see Table 3 for a definition of thesematerials ) , if they modified thesematerials in any manner and their motives for the usage of these stuffs. Survey participants were asked to rank their likeliness of usage of a digital aggregation as compared to other hunt engines such as Google or Yahoo.com. Respondents were besides asked a series of demographic inquiries sing their instruction experience, type of establishment in which they work and so forth. External cogency was determined by pre-testing the study with about 20 module members from the different types of establishments represented in the sample.3.1 The study sampleTo make the survey Ã¢â‚¬Ë œs population, we approached establishments to help us in reaching their module members and teachers. Using the Carnegie Foundation 2000 list ofUS establishments of higher instruction, a wide invitation to take part was issued to the bulk of higher instruction establishments in the United States. A likely contact was identified at each establishment by sing the establishment ‘s web site. Contacts were by and large head bibliothecs, caputs of module development, or academic deans. Of the about 3,500 establishments contacted,4 more than 250 responded, and in the terminal, 119 establishments agreed to take part. Table 1 shows howthis study ‘s sample of establishments comparisons to the existent distribution of types of establishments in the Carnegie list. For the intents of the disposal of the study, the sample was non stratified with respects to institutional type because we felt that trying to make so would negatively impact institutional buy-in and execution of the study . United States at the full spectrum of establishments. However, because issues of usage are non alone to STEM subjects, we felt that restricting the study to merely those faculty members and teachers would do it excessively hard for establishments to take part in the research. Consequently, we encouraged establishments to include their full module in their invitation to take part in the study. The bulk of take parting establishments sent the study to their full module organic structure, though some sent it to a random sample of their module. By the terminal of the study period ( September 2006-January 2007 ) 4,678 persons from the 119 take parting establishments responded. Of those respondents, 4,439 instructed pupils ; the majority of the analysis was conducted on this group of teachers. The demographics of the study respondents can be found in Table 2. About a 3rd ( 30 % ) came from Masters allowing establishments, a 4th from biennial or associate grade allowing schools ( 26 % ) , followed by four-year Baccalaureate or Liberal Arts College or Universities ( 22 % ) and, Doctoral Granting Institutions ( 21 % ) . The respondents were besides chiefly tenured module ( 41 % ) with somewhat over 10 per centum describing that they held accessory position ( 13 % ) , or were chiefly teachers, lectors or held other non-tenure path places ( 12 % ) . The bulk by far, held full-time places ( 81 % ) and 40 % had term of office. It is likely that these module members were over-represented in the sample given that 46 % of all US module members hold parttime places [ 1 ] . Most of the participating establishments chose to administrate the study to their full module instead than insulating STEM merely module. When asked to bespeak in which subjects they taught, more than one tierce of the responses ( 38 % ) represented a traditional STEM field ( biological scientific disciplines, chemical science, computing machine scientific discipline, technology, geoscience, wellness scientific disciplines, mathematics, or natural philosophies ) . Approximately 45 % represented the humanistic disciplines, humanistic disciplines or the societal scientific disciplines while approximately 20 % represented the professional schools, e.g. , instruction, concern, etc. This dislocation may non reflect the teachers ‘ disciplinary preparation and respondents were allowed to choose multiple subjects. The sample was besides made up of module who were extremely experient teachers, with merely one 4th holding less than 7 old ages of learning experience. This approximates the age distribution of higher instruction teachers with about 65 % being older than 45 old ages old [ 25 ] . Slightly over half of the sample ( 54 % ) reported utilizing class direction systems or had a class web site. Almost all ( 95 % ) of the respondents reported learning face to face classs, though about a fifth ( 21 % ) reported learning distance instruction or online classs. Merely 12 % reported learning intercrossed classs, that is, classs that both fitting face to face and are conducted online. If a respondent noted he or she did non instruct pupils, they were skipped to the terminal of the study replying a inquiry on the services offered by aggregations of digital resources, and concluding demographics4.1 What sorts of on-line digital resources do module usage?To analyze the relationship between the value of digital resources and their usage more closely, we went back to our focal point group informations. For although these participants tended to value digital resources extremely, they besides failed to separate between the different types of online digital resources, e.g. , educational digital libraries, web pages, on-line diaries, and were non witting of utilizing a digital library specifically [ 38 ] . Focus group participants defined educational digital libraries and digital resources loosely doing few differentiations between for illustration, a loose aggregation of PowerPoint slides ( available from a well known or trusted co-worker ‘s web site ) and a aggregation of stuffs such as MERLOT. Rather than coerce a definition of digital library for the study onto a group of respondents who most likely non equate educational digital libraries or aggregations as beginnings for these extremely valued on-line digital resources, we alternatively used merely linguistic communication depicting the digital resources. We so sub-divided the resources into five classs as described in Table 3. To analyze how faculty members reported utilizing these stuffs on the study, we looked at the â€Å" top box † mark, i.e. , the resource which module indicated they â€Å" really often used † . Survey consequences indicated that themost popular types of stuffs used by module members and teachers included on-line scholarly resources ( 51 % ) and digital images/visual stuffs ( 43 % ) . About a one-fourth of the respondents ( 29 % ) reported frequent usage of instruction and acquisition activities or on-line datasets ( 23 % ) . On-line simulations and lifes were used the least with merely 11 % of the respondents describing frequent usage.

Rape Culture - Definition and Examples

Rape Culture s Rape culture is present in a society when rape and other forms of sexual violence are common and pervasive, when they are normalized and viewed as inevitable, and when they are trivialized by authority figures, the media and cultural products, and by the majority of members of the society. In a rape culture, the commonality and pervasive nature of sexual violence and rape is fueled by commonly held beliefs, values, and popular myths that encourage and excuse sexual violence committed by men and boys against women and girls. In this context, women and girls consistently experience intimidation and threats of sexual violence and actual sexual violence itself. Also, within a rape culture, the rape culture itself is largely unchallenged and not viewed as a problem by the majority. Sociologists recognize that rape culture is composed primarily of four things: 1. behaviors and practices, 2. the way we think about sex and rape, 3. the way we talk about sex and rape, and 4. cultural representations of sex and sexual assault. Just as whole societies can be described as rape cultures, so too can certain organizations and institutions, and types of institutions, like colleges and universities, prisons, and the military. History of the Term The term, rape culture, was popularized by feminist writers and activists in the U.S. during the 1970s. It first appeared in print in the book Rape: The First Sourcebook for Women, published in 1974, which was one of the first books to discuss rape from the standpoint of womens experiences. A film bearing the title Rape Culture premiered in 1975, and drew attention to how media and popular culture spread mainstream and erroneous beliefs about rape. Women, at the time, used this term to draw attention to the fact that rape and sexual violence were common crimes across the country- not rare or exceptional crimes committed by crazed or damaged individuals, as many believed. Elements of a Rape Culture Sociologists define culture as the values, beliefs, knowledge, behaviors, practices, and material goods that people share in common which help to unify them as a collective. Culture includes common sense beliefs, commonly held expectations and assumptions, rules, social roles, and norms. It also includes our language and how we communicate, and cultural products like music, art, film, television, and music videos, among other things. So, when sociologists consider what rape culture is, and when they study it, they look critically at all of these elements of culture and examine how they may contribute to the existence of a rape culture. Sociologists identify the following behaviors and practices, ideas, discourses, and cultural representations as part of rape culture. Others also exist. Behaviors and Practices Of course, the most consequential behaviors and practices that create a rape culture are acts of sexual assault, but there are others that also play significant roles in creating such a context. These include: Sexualized online harassment and bullyingHarassment and intimidation of, and threats made toward, women and girls, even those which are framed by the aggressor(s) as playful or a jokeDenying that rape is a widespread problemDiminishing or trivializing the trauma and violence of rape and sexual assaultVictim-blamingAccusing victims of lyingSexual objectification of women and girlsMen and boys talking/bragging about sexual assaultEquating masculinity with sexual dominanceRevenge porn, both independent of physical assault and post-assaultIgnoring the sexually violent crimes of celebritiesNeglect of untested rape kits and general non-prioritization of sexual assault among police forcesSupport for accused men and boys over concern for the welfare of victims Beliefs, Assumptions, Myths, and World Views Cultural expectation that men have to coerce women into having sex, and that women and girls want to be coercedBelief that men and boys are entitled to the bodies of women and girlsSocialization of girls that they have a duty to serve the demands of male sexualitySocialization of girls to expect sexual violence and aggressionBelief that discussion of sexual activity and affirmative consent are not sexyBelief that rape and sexual violence are the inevitable expressions of masculinityBelief that rape is an everyday occurrence that cannot be changedFear among victims and their families that they will be stigmatized and further traumatized by reporting the rapeBelief that rape is just rough sexWomen and girls provoke sexual assault with their behavior and dressIt is the responsibility of women to defend themselves and prevent rapeOnly bad men rape and only bad women are rapedThere is no such thing as intimate partner rapeWomen feel slut shame or regret after sex and cry rape Language and Discourse Language that minimizes rape and by calling it sexual intercourse, non-consensual sex, inappropriate behavior, or sexual misconductUsing terms like acquaintance rape or date rape and real rape to make false distinctions about the crime of rapeReferring to trafficked child rape victims as child prostitutes Representations of Rape in Cultural Products Rape jokes and memes that mock rapeThe use of rape as a plot point and for economic gain in film and televisionVideo games with rape scenariosSongs and music videos that glamorize sexual coercion, like Baby, Its Cold Outside and Robin Thickes Blurred Lines Notable Examples of Rape Culture One of the most notable and tragic recent examples of rape culture is the case of Brock Turner, who was convicted of three counts of sexual assault by  the State of California, after assaulting an unconscious woman on the Stanford University campus. Though the seriousness of the crimes for which Turner was convicted carried a possible sentence of up to 14 years in prison, prosecutors request six. The judge, however, sentenced Turner to just six months in county jail, of which he served just three. Media reporting on the case and popular discourse surrounding it were rife with evidence of rape culture. Turner was repeatedly depicted with a photo that showed him seated for a portrait, smiling while wearing a suit and tie, and was frequently described as a Stanford athlete. His father trivialized the brutal sexual assault his son committed in a letter to the court, referring to it as 20 minutes of action, and many, including the judge, suggested that a sentence appropriate to the crime would unjustly derail Turners athletic and academic promise. Meanwhile, the victim, never identified in court, was criticized for being intoxicated, and virtually no concern for her welfare, nor a desire for justice for the crimes perpetrated against her, were expressed in the mainstream press, by Turner, his defense team, or the sitting judge who decided the case. Other notable examples unfortunately abound, like the case of Kesha, who has been held legally obligated by a U.S. court to fulfill a record contract with her accused rapist/record producer, Dr. Luke, and the problem of heightened rates of sexual assault on college and university campuses across the U.S., as documented in the film The Hunting Ground. The election of President Donald Trump, a man repeatedly accused of sexual assault, and who has spoken frankly about sexually assaulting women- the now-infamous grab them by the p*ssy tape- is an example of how entrenched and normalized rape culture is in U.S. society. In 2017, a string of sexual assault accusations against powerful men in media, politics, and other industries has led to more and more conversations, on social media and elsewhere, about the pervasiveness of rape culture in our society.

Galileo Biography

Galileo Biography Galileo Galilei A long time ago, on Feb. 15, 1564, a child was born in the beautiful city of Pisa, Italy. This child would have a great impact on the world. He would travel far and see many things. His schooling would also take place away from home. But it would be worth it for he would discover and invent many brilliant ideas and machines. His name was Galileo Galilei and he was a great man who stuck with his ideas and spread them to the world.Galileo's birthplace was Pisa but soon after he was born the family moved to Florence. He lived there for a while with his parents and siblings. After completing grade school in Florence it was time for him to move on. He left home and headed for an old home where he would spend four years schooling, the University of Pisa. On Sept. 5, 1581 he enrolled at the University of Pisa.Galileo Galilei: Discorsi e dimostrazioni matemati...

Books About Writing

Books About Writing Books About Writing Books About Writing By Daniel Scocco I figured that it would be useful to have a page on the blog dedicated to books about writing. This initial list was created taking into consideration the books that our writers reviewed or recommended in the past. We plan to update it regularly as well. If you have a suggestion just write a comment below and we might add it. The links to Amazon are affiliate ones, so yeah if you end up purchasing the book we will earn a dollar or two. That money will be spent purchasing new books though. Enjoy. The Elements of Style: Originating as a classroom study aid prepared by Cornell English Professor William Strunk in 1918, this widely-used desk reference of English usage, form, and style continues to influence writers after a hundred years. A must have.Click here to get more details or buy. Eats, Shoots and Leaves: First published in April of 2004, Eats, Shoots and Leaves stayed 25 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and by October of that year it had already sold one million copies. At a bit more than 200 pages including the bibliography, this little book describes the rules that govern the use of: apostrophe, comma, colon, semi-colon, dash, hyphen and period. Click here to get more details or buy. The Dictionary of Concise Writing: A must have book for anyone who wants to write better. It brings over 10,000 alternatives you can use to free your text from wordy constructions and unnecessary phrases. Click here to get more details or buy. Oxford American Writers Thesaurus: Another book worth investing in, as you will be able to use it over and over again. It comes with synonyms, antonyms, sample sentences and cross references to let you pick the most precise word for each occasion. Click here to get more details or buy. Concise Oxford English Dictionary: If you are looking for a solid dictionary and dont want to spend a fortune on it, this is a good choice. Click here to get more details or buy. On Writing: One of the best books about writing and being a writer. Stephen King is probably the most popular horror writer ever, and in this book he shares how he started, the basic writing rules and the fiction writing process. Click here to get more details or buy. The Screenwriters Bible: If want to start writing scripts, this book could help. David Trottier is a writer, producer and script consultant, and he shares tips on all the stages you will go through, from getting started to formatting and selling your script. Click here to get more details or buy. Plot Structure: This book is part of a series called Write Great Fiction. As the name implies, it will assist you while creating the plot for your stories. It comes with techniques, tips and even exercises you can use to practice what you will learn. Click here to get more details or buy. Rules for Writers: A book aimed at college students (regardless of the course). Diane Hacker, the author, has been teaching at the Prince George’s Community College for over 35 years, and this book is the result of what she learned from her students over that time. Click here to get more details or buy. On Writing Well: The subtitle says it all: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. The book covers many aspects of writing, from removing unnecessary words and phrases to identifying your audience and editing your pieces. Click here to get more details or buy. The Associated Press Stylebook: One of the most popular style guides among professional writers and journalists. The 2009 edition has been revised and contains over 3,000 new entries. Click here to get more details or buy. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Book Reviews category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Idioms About NumbersItalicizing Foreign Words13 Theatrical Terms in Popular Usage

Increae productivity and safety at night shift Research Paper - 1

Increae productivity and safety at night shift - Research Paper Example These problems affect the productivity of the workers working in the night shifts of the manufacturing firm. Physical and mental stress associated with the working in the night shifts increases the possibilities of errors on the part of the workers along with increasing instances of accidents. With the general habits of human beings of being more active during the day hours the performance level of the workers in general deteriorates with a change in the pattern. Moreover the workers of the manufacturing units need to work in different and more than one shift in each day and hence these poorly framed patterns of the shifts also increases the fatigue of the night shift workers. Apart from physical problems several questions have been raised regarding the security of the workers working in the night shifts more prominently for the women workers of the units. Thus study has been made in order to consider the negative effects of night shift working and suggesting possible solutions for t he problems. Both primary and secondary research methods have been used in the study for satisfying the objective. The study reveals that the productivity of the workers decreases in the night shifts with the same worker being able to work more efficiently in some other shifts of the day. Moreover there exists gender discrimination in the manufacturing units with the experienced women workers getting equal to salaries of newly employed male workers of the units. Incidents of accidents are also studied to be more in the night shifts. In regards to the implementations of certain solutions to the problems it has been suggested that the administration needs to be more aware in regards to the provision of proper medical facilities required in emergencies along with proper training to the workers. The supervisors need to be entrusted with proper evaluation of the employees in regards to their safety as well as productivity. Moreover if certain

Selling smarter with CRM by Dawson Chris Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Selling smarter with CRM by Dawson Chris - Essay Example It operates in a cycle that includes organizational management, sales and marketing teams, product generation departments and the customers. Organizations apply customer relationship management towards different benefits. One of such benefits is the establishment of a strong relationship between an organization and its customers through developing an understanding of the customers’ needs towards meeting the needs. Other benefits include managements of sales processes, improvement of sales strategies and evaluation of fundamental data including social data that affects an organization (Dawson, p. 3- 5). Achieving these benefits does not however require extensive investment of resources and efforts. This is because of existence of cheaper and efficient approaches such as Google enabled applications and social networks for reaching and interacting with customers and potential customers. Such approaches can further be cheaply implemented by using an organization’s interns t hat are another source of cheap resources. This is because of the changing environment in which everything is social, and a social approach to customer relationship management through Google based applications and social network that promises higher level of effectiveness. A number of computer-based applications exist for such CRM initiatives towards better management of product development and sales initiatives (Dawson, p. 6- 10). Achieving these benefits does not however require extensive investment of resources.

SWOT Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

SWOT Analysis - Research Paper Example Australia consists of six states; New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania and 2 territories; the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. Its capital city is Canberra. Even though Australia is the smallest continent in the world, it is the sixth largest country in the world. The population is concentrated mainly on the eastern and southeastern coastal areas. The geography of Australia is extremely diverse including snowy mountains, deserts, tropical and temperate forests etc. This paper analyses the population, culture, economy, political, legal, and technological environment, strength, weakness opportunities, and threats of Australia. Aborigines, who migrated to Australia from South Asia around 40000 years before are believed to be the first inhabitants of Australia. Europeans started to settle in Australia during the latter part of eighteenth century. Before that indigenous Australians, were the inhabitants in Australia . Eastern half of Australia was claimed by Britain during the latter part of 18 th century and Britain implemented colonial rule in Australia for a longer period. The major culture in Australia is essentially a Western culture since the Europeans established their colonies there. English is the predominant language in Australia. Even though Britain ruled Australia for a longer period, the Australian English vocabulary, accent, and pronunciations are slightly different from that of the British English. â€Å"In most practical ways, Australia is an egalitarian society. This does not mean that everyone is the same or that everybody has equal wealth or property† (About Australia). Unlike many other countries in the world, class distinctions are invisible in Australia. People respect each other irrespective of the wealth, power or social influence. â€Å"Australia is the thirteenth largest economy in the world. As of 2009, Australia GDP was estimated to be $920 billion.   Austr alia has managed an impressive 18 years of continuous growth since 1992 - see Australia GDP  Growth†(Australia Economy). Unlike many other nations in the world, Australian economy kept its growth phase even when the recent recession struck other countries. Revenues from natural resources, tourism, agriculture, industries etc keep Australian economy in the growth track. Australia is a parliamentary democratic country which respects human rights, freedom, liberty, etc of the people very much. Two party political system, is prevailing in Australia even though in many other democratic countries multiparty political system prevail. The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia consists of two chambers: The Australian House of Representatives and The Australian Senate. The Australian House of Representatives has 150 members whereas Australian Senate has 76 members, each elected for a three-year term of office from a constituency. The Australian legal system is based on a fundame ntal belief in the rule of  law, justice and the independence of the judiciary. All people—Australians and non-Australians alike—are treated equally before the law and safeguards exist to ensure that people are not treated arbitrarily or unfairly by governments or officials. Principles such as procedural fairness, judicial precedent and the separation of powers are fundamental to

Research and summary art history Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Research and summary art history - Assignment Example By the 1480s, he was already studying many different fields. When he was working on the preparations for the Sforza monument, he started to study the human body, anatomy and physiology. These studies were often dismissed by his contemporaries as artistically unproductive whims of a mind that is restless. However, they have been acknowledged since the 19th century as forerunners in empirical science, showing accurate observation of natural phenomena. In his studies of the human body and anatomical studies, he was way ahead of his contemporaries. Not long after 1489, he began compiling a systematic record of measurements of several young men. He recorded their measurements from the tips of the toes to the top of their heads in notes and sketches. He was also taking measurements of the horses he owned during the same period as argued by Leonardo et al (45). After months of taking measurements he arrived at a nearly complete overview of human proportions. He then began to look at them while sitting and kneeling. Eventually, he compared the results with the find outs on the Vitruvian man. Leonardo mad several observations on human proportion. He worked with Luca Pacioli, a mathematician to consider the proportional theories of Vitruvius as presented in his treatise De architecture (Leonardo, Richter, and Bell 45). They imposed the principles of geometry on the configuration of the human body to demonstrate that the ideal proportion of the human figure corresponds with the forms of the circle and the square. His illustration demonstrated that when a man places his feet firmly on the ground and stretches his arms out, he can be contained within a square, but when stretched in a spread angle way, he can be inscribed in a circle. The Vitruvian man shows an example of the blend of art and science during the Renaissance and gives an example of his keen interest in proportion

Developing a loyalty program for the online grocery business Assignment

Developing a loyalty program for the online grocery business - Assignment Example A primary study was conducted that refuted much of the psycho-social dimensions associated with loyalty studies. Findings indicated that the primary motivator for enrolment in loyalty programs was price, with no mention of psycho-social characteristics and implications. As such, recommendations founded on the research include rejection of tiered loyalty programs, targeting only relationship-centric promotions to the older consumer demographic, and using short-term pricing incentives. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 Introduction................................................................................................ 1.1 Aim............................................................................................................. 1.2 Scope......................................................................................................... 2.0 Literature review........................................................................................ 2.1 The benefit of loyalty programs. ................................................................ ... ............................................................ 4.2 Relating results to theory............................................................................ 5.0 Conclusion.................................................................................................. 6.0 Recommendations...................................................................................... 7.0 References.................................................................................................. Consultant Report 1.0 Introduction This report provides consultant advice on the potential opportunities of implementing a customer loyalty program for the online grocer. Loyalty programs, in some industries, have a direct correlation to repurchase intention that is supported by research studies on the phenomenon of the linkages between consumer behaviour and their utilisation patterns associated with loyalty schemes. There are many implications for the issuer of the loyalty program, both adva ntageous and unfavourable, that include cost and management problems, abandonment strategies in the event of scheme failure, and the ability of the program to alter consumption behaviour. 1.1 Aim The aim of the study is to understand the theoretical versus practice-based underpinnings of loyalty schemes and their relationship to potentially coercing increased repurchase intention with desirable target markets and improving business profitability. 1.2 Scope To fully comprehend the potential success opportunities for launching a loyalty program for the online grocer, the report utilised a blend of secondary research on the phenomenon of consumer loyalty, consumer behaviour, plus control and management of loyalty schemes. Supplementing the aforementioned theory are findings from a primary

Feminist Analysis of Pop Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Feminist Analysis of Pop Culture - Essay Example Women were projected as mere puppets, and men became all the more chauvinist and domineering. Thus, a need for Third-wave feminism arose, which could deal with the changing norms of objectification. The third-wave feminism provided a strong base that not only transferred the improper objectification in the favor of women, but also upheld womanhood irrespective of race, color, ethnicity and sexual-orientation. Literature and media gained influence from Third-wave and hence, a new-age approach towards feminism developed. This paper is an attempt to identify the core beliefs of new form of feminism, and will analyze its representation in media through a movie that follows similar lines. For this paper, acclaimed director Zack Snyder's year 2011 movie Sucker Punch has been selected to be reviewed, which comprehensively displays post-feminist discourse and entails a convincing portrayal of third-wave feminism in popular culture forms. Understanding Third-Wave Feminism: Feminism in contemp orary era has evolved into a modernized (I-e well-acquainted with the current scenarios) avatar known as the post-feminist approach. According to Judith Butler, the very essence of third-wave feminism implies that â€Å"challenging gender roles alone will be inadequate to effect social change. The new goal for feminist and sexuality movements should be to defy the faith in the existence of an innate sexuality and natural sex categories† (Hull 54). The theory entails that women do not need to fight for gaining self-identity, or long to change the sex-based symbolism in a male-oriented society. Instead, it suggests that women should acknowledge their womanhood and use it to empower themselves; instead of despising being a female, they have to use their femininity for achieving the maximum benefits. Constructivism rules this new doctrine. According to Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake â€Å"contradiction marks the strategies and desires of third-wave feminists† (Zeisler 1 16). Empowerment is the best word that can describe the approach of this barely structured but extremely powerful theory of feminism in the present age. It cleverly switches gear and transforms significant norms that targeted women before into a tool for them. That is because stereotypical concepts and images that were termed as embodying womanhood, actually were a product of male preferences. The discrimination based on color, physique and race, and â€Å"mirroring the erasure of black womanhood from pop culture† emerged because they preferred white women (Hooks 264). Sex-display genre, which included pornographic images, restrictive attires like corsets, performances like erotic dances, and strip-tease, etc., developed to further objectify women and they became entities of gaining pleasure only (Nally 621). Third-wave feminism re-applied these self-induced norms from a female-benefiting perspective. The take of contemporary females of pop culture, and eminent third-wave act ivists on the genre of sex-display has been an ironic one, and as per Judith Butler’s queer theory, it is also comical. A culture of giving men what they want to see but at the same time being in control and making fun of male preferences started off convincingly with Madonna, and has come of age now with the likes of Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani and Kei$ha (Halberstam 8). Rachel Shteir describes that today â€Å"

Developing a loyalty program for the online grocery business Assignment

Developing a loyalty program for the online grocery business - Assignment Example A primary study was conducted that refuted much of the psycho-social dimensions associated with loyalty studies. Findings indicated that the primary motivator for enrolment in loyalty programs was price, with no mention of psycho-social characteristics and implications. As such, recommendations founded on the research include rejection of tiered loyalty programs, targeting only relationship-centric promotions to the older consumer demographic, and using short-term pricing incentives. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 Introduction................................................................................................ 1.1 Aim............................................................................................................. 1.2 Scope......................................................................................................... 2.0 Literature review........................................................................................ 2.1 The benefit of loyalty programs. ................................................................ ... ............................................................ 4.2 Relating results to theory............................................................................ 5.0 Conclusion.................................................................................................. 6.0 Recommendations...................................................................................... 7.0 References.................................................................................................. Consultant Report 1.0 Introduction This report provides consultant advice on the potential opportunities of implementing a customer loyalty program for the online grocer. Loyalty programs, in some industries, have a direct correlation to repurchase intention that is supported by research studies on the phenomenon of the linkages between consumer behaviour and their utilisation patterns associated with loyalty schemes. There are many implications for the issuer of the loyalty program, both adva ntageous and unfavourable, that include cost and management problems, abandonment strategies in the event of scheme failure, and the ability of the program to alter consumption behaviour. 1.1 Aim The aim of the study is to understand the theoretical versus practice-based underpinnings of loyalty schemes and their relationship to potentially coercing increased repurchase intention with desirable target markets and improving business profitability. 1.2 Scope To fully comprehend the potential success opportunities for launching a loyalty program for the online grocer, the report utilised a blend of secondary research on the phenomenon of consumer loyalty, consumer behaviour, plus control and management of loyalty schemes. Supplementing the aforementioned theory are findings from a primary

Plans and direct actions Essay Example for Free

Plans and direct actions Essay A church leader knows how to plan and direct actions to avoid any mistakes being made. He formulates and deploys plans to achieve objectives – he directs the work accordingly until it finishes. He creates different questions in his mind; for example, what to do, why to do it, when to do it, how to do it, who to do, and how to finish it. A church leader’s plans are simple, people who work as group members and other people who follow him understand his plans clearly. He forms teams and give them duties so that they can work with authority and responsibility. He makes rules that people accept to follow. The God wants a church leader to share His vision with his team members and people. A good church leader knows how to put the God given plan into practice. A church leader is the person who influences his team members and leads team members to carry out the agreed objectives, by following the example of the Christ. People under him follow his way of life; a church leader gets people to act on church and mission goals, and he also ministers the need of people. A Church leader humbly realizes that he needs Gods help and needs it in developing good plans that will work for others. These working plans then successfully meet the desired goals. A church leader does not build plans for other people to merely honor them, but he does it for the good of his people with everlasting results. UNCHANGED LOYALTY A church leader demonstrates loyalty that never changes. A church leader is faithful to his promises and duties. He never finds fault in his job; people respect him as a man of God living among them. A church leader gives his life to Gods mission and purpose and spends his entire life doing it. Loyalty being a leadership quality, a church leader is always loyal to God and his people. A church leader needs loyalty to start and grow a church or group. A loyal church leader is the base of a healthy church to grow and a key element for a church to produce other churches. A church leader influences others in his ministry through his loyalty to Jesus Christ as the Savior and Lord. A loyal church leader produces loyal members he starts and finishes his job with his team very well. A successful Christian leader is always keen and willing to work with a community or groups. He has a strong desire to develop community services together. USE OF GOD’S GIFTS God has gifted all people with different abilities and characteristics. Nowadays, this divine gift directs people to serve churches, as ushers, church school teachers, financial officers, directors of food pantries, youth leaders, and in so many other roles. It all starts with gifts, which can be utilized in a variety of ways. Gifts are given by the God to everyone. The God doesn’t limit the gifts to his people, so we shouldn’t limit leadership to others. The potential to lead by using gifts for enabling others in ministry does not requires intelligence, education, economic status, age, gender, or any other human distinction. â€Å"Children and youth, as well as adults, all are gifted. Women and men, boys and girls have all been gifted which they can use in leadership of a church. It does not mean, however, that everyone should be an administrator of a church†. Gifts are several and of different nature, the variety of these gifts is much greater than churches usually realize. There are many gifts beyond the gifts that are usually used in preaching, teaching, and committee work. If one is to use all God given gifts for his leadership within a church, he/she must discover that wide range of gifts, and welcome the spirit to employ them. It is not always an easy task for a human to identify gifts since gifts have strange way of hiding themselves, particularly from those people who hold them. God’s given gifts are so much a part of our personality that people not likely to think of them as gifts. For example, if a person is a good organizer, he must recognize this specialty and take it as a gift given by God. As God’s gifts are discovered by interacting with others. However, discovering gifts is not enough because many people use there gifts haphazardly, with no attention to their development. God’s given gift’s effectiveness can be significantly enhanced through intentional development of them. For example, if a person with natural painting ability can choose not to practice or take lessons and keep his ability as hobby and keeps his gift undefined from being fully utilized for service. The church leaders provide opportunities to people for training and development of Gods given gifts. They are intentional about using these gifts of children and youth in future leadership. The church leaders encourage their members to affirm and identify one another’s gifts. People discover and experiments their gifts in an atmosphere of acceptance provided by the church leader. A church leader expands his understanding in order to be comprehensive and not neglect people’s gifts.

McDonalds Operation Management

McDonalds Operation Management In todays business environment, operations management is used by companies not only to be competitive, but also to ensure that their objectives are met at a cheapest cost. This will consist of a set of planned activities that would convert various inputs into goods and services. This report provides an analysis of McDonalds and organisations Operations Management, Operational Strategy, process and product design, Supply Chain Management, inventory control, JIT and Total Quality Management which include all the different processes and techniques to enhance the value of products and services that McDonalds provide to its customers at the acceptable cost. McDonalds is the global fast-food service retailer. The company have more than 32,000 restaurants and serve more than 60 million people in more than 100 countries every day. More than 80% of McDonalds restaurants worldwide are franchised and operated by local people. When Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant they developed the idea of an assembly line where a reduced menu could be cooked cheaper and quicker, which would lead to a higher turnover of customers. The history of McDonalds began with founder, Ray Kroc. He managed the franchising of the McDonalds restaurant concept. By 1961 Ray Kroc was running the whole plan. The only thing the McDonald brothers did was run their one restaurant, and receive 0.5% from the larger company. The expansion of the McDonalds brand was not something they were really interested in. Ray Kroc, on the other hand, was. He wanted to put a McDonalds restaurant in every state in America which he eventually did. Kroc took over McDonalds company, at a cost of 2.7 million dollars. Anyone who wanted to open a McDonalds restaurant had to pay Kroc around a thousand dollars and then 1.9% from the annual takings of the restaurant. He then passed 0.5% of the takings onto the McDonald brothers and kept the other 1.4%. It is estimated that if the McDonalds had continued to receive their 0.5% it would have been worth around two hundred million dollars by the year 2000. The McDonalds chain has not been without its problems. There was the famous McLibel case the longest running libel case in British legal history. Also the discovery that some beef products were used in the preparation of their french fries, which resulted in the company paying compensation of 10 million dollars to Hindus, Sikhs, and vegetarians. There have been various criticisms of the McDonalds Corporation, ranging from the source of their meat, to the treatment of workers in the restaurants (BBC, 2005). McDonalds Restaurants UK Limited is owned subsidiary of the U.S. parent company and opened its first UK restaurant in Woolwich in 1974. There are now 1,200 restaurants operating in the UK which, despite representing only 4% of the total number of McDonalds restaurants worldwide, contribute 7% of global profits, making the UK a very important financial market for McDonalds shareholders. (McDonalds Corporation, 2008) This report will present the operational strategy of McDonalds and also how the processes and products are designed in the company. Furthermore the report explains the flow of materials and information between the operations within the McDonalds supply chain and also what type of inventory management is used in the Company, moreover report underlines importance of lean management, just-in-time and other systems that are incorporated in the Company. In addition report introduces Total Quality Management and its importance within McDonalds operational process. 3. Operational Strategy Operations strategy concerns the pattern of strategic decisions and actions which set the role, objectives and activities of the operation. (Slack et al, 2004. p.67) The main objective of company in the operational area is that the production process was as effective as possible. In other words, when using the same assets the company produce the maximum amount of high quality product which satisfies customers. Companies can achieve these results through the use of tools such as: reducing costs, improving product quality, punctual delivery, speed of response, product flexibility in adapting to individual customer requirements, resistance to fluctuations in demand, advanced technology and excellent customer service. The listed tools relate to the operational strategies, which by focusing on the production process on certain key elements can give a measurable competitive advantage. To achieve these objectives McDonalds create a balance between customers needs and minimising waste. Demand is forecasted and stock is controlled so that products do not have to be thrown repeatedly. McDonalds is a global company, but they operate locally. Currently, McDonalds wants to be perceived as a modern company that cares about customers and ecology. They offer fast-serve meals, such as: breakfast, salads, vegetables and dairy products. In their restaurants people can buy regional products, including Rice burgers served in Taiwan, Japan shrimp, coconut milk in Brazil. 3a.Three dimensions of operational strategy process Value: McDonalds sells nearly millions of burgers every day. Jobs are systematic and repetitive in everyday processes. In order to produce so many burgers every employee have assigned particular job in which they have to ensure that the quality and taste of the products is the same all the time. Varieties: McDonalds offer a wide choice of menu items such as: breakfasts, salads, fruits and vegetables and also kids meals to satisfy customers demands. McDonalds menu concentrates on five main ingredients: beef, chicken, bread, potatoes and milk. The main menu items are: the Big Mac and French fries which is one of the main sellers along with local offers and new products that consumers want. Whether its McWraps in Europe, Angus Burgers in Australia, or McCafà © specialty coffees and smoothies in the U.S., company is strategically enhancing menu to attract new customers. Variations McDonalds process is so well organized that it can meet the changing capacity, anticipation for what the customer might demand, ensuring flexibility. Demand for products are calculated using store-specific historic product mix data from the last two years, store-specific and national causal factors for example dates of events such as national promotions and school holidays, information from store managers about factors that might affect demand, e.g. road closures or local events and promotions. 3b. Performance objectives Performance objectives are related to operational processes and their basic function of fulfilling customers needs. There are five performance objectives: Quality Most customers are looking for high quality. Every organisation wants to provide error free products for their customers and gain competitive advantage. Quality objective leads to certain actions and policies in operations to provide a service that the customer wants. McDonalds serves a variety of nutritious, high-quality food products including salads, fruits, and vegetables. At McDonalds the employees are trained to prepare and present meals according to very specific procedures that are strictly enforced, especially in the preparation and handling of raw and cooked products. For example, the ten-minute holding time for sandwiches ensures maximum quality and freshness to each customer. This means that if the products are not sold within ten minutes from the time of their preparation, they are discarded. McDonalds meets all the hygiene specifications, including hand-washing procedures. McDonalds succeed on the feedback from the customers to continuously improve the quality service. Speed: Speed is all about how long customers wait before receiving their service organisation increasing the availability of their products or services if the waiting time is minimised. The Operations process is so well designed at McDonalds that every customer who comes is served quickly. The company have preparation time set for burger and other menu items so that the order is delivered within 3-4 minutes. Even during the busy hours the staff members ensure that the order is delivered on time to the customer. Dependability: An organisations processes have to consistently meet a promised delivery time for a product or service. McDonalds has a more dependable process for the customers by offering the meals on time. They have qualified workers to deliver products on time every one of them have assigned particular job. McDonalds has predictable opening hours during the weekdays and weekends, the products on the menu are available constantly during any time of the day. Flexibility: Refers to elasticity of the processes and change in the variety of products or services making operations more flexible to changes in customer requirements. As customer tastes change, McDonalds needs to increase the range of new products it offers. McDonalds offers a lot of flexibility to meet customer preferences. It offers a balanced collection of culturally relevant menu items in the markets, for both adults and kids and is maximizing the choices. McDonalds has a multiple trained staff in order to be flexible. It maintains shift based system of work among the crew members allowing them to be flexible enough in the work they do. Cost: Refers to minimizing the cost of the process, leading to a cheaper service. The best way of lowering cost is to focus on the customer requirements i.e. fulfilling the quality objective in both product design and operation, as a way of eliminating rework and waste. Operations should focus on getting the supplied service right. It should be also co-ordinated with processes like information systems which help reduce errors. McDonalds have a well planned cost control strategy. The restaurant has a well established low cost supply chain. They adopted Just-In-time strategy that reduces the cost of unnecessary storage and waste. Food can be sold at a lower price because the price does not absorb the costs of unsold food. Ultimately this means lower costs for McDonalds. They ensure efficiency and speed in distribution and very good food processing technology system. McDonalds has employed the value meal strategy which allows customers to buy a sandwich, French fries, and drink at a discount when purchased together. Thus, it is observed that all operations objectives are connected. If quality is improved, cost is also reduced, thus time is also improved and which in turn leads to more flexibility. Thus by starting with quality, along with time reduction the other objectives are directly attacked by taking unique actions for that objective, as needed. Hence, a series of such actions will then result in continuous improvement of all four operations objectives at the same time. (Schroder, 2007 p. 24-25) 3c. PEST Analysis: The success of any organisation depends upon the various external and internal factors which are beyond the control of an organisation. These factors are called Environmental factors. These environmental factors basically include four areas namely Political, Economical, Social and Technological and the analysis of these factors is called PEST analysis. To overcome the problems created by these factors the businesses come up with various strategies. Political Factors: Politics play very important roles in the functioning of the business. It is very important for a firm to know the existing political factor within it is operating. What sort of laws and legislation exist in the country and what are the future prospects. This is quite important to know because these factors will determine the strategy required to sustain and work without problems. Government policy can have a major impact on the operation of a business. The political and public debate on obesity and other health issues negatively affected fast food sales. In recent years, McDonalds has been facing legal trials of possibility in breaking the health legislation by providing unhealthy foods to customers. This had made some damage to McDonalds image. However, McDonalds has already been trying to introduce healthier foods on its menu such as salads, fruits and milk for the kids. Economic Factors: Similarly it is important for a firm to know the economy of the country it is operating within. The factors like unemployment, minimum wages, exchange rate, interest rate, economic growth inflation rate etc are quite important for a firm to know. Economic factors might affect it. If the economy of the country is not good then the number of McDonalds customers can decrease. Economic factor can influence the potential profit of a business. One of the economical forces which may influence McDonalds is the change in interest rate. Most of McDonalds restaurants are franchises, therefore, franchisees would suffer on their borrowing if interest rate increases. Social Factors: Social factors include the demographic and cultural aspects of the environment. Social factors play important role in a business. The business has got to respect the culture it is operating in. For example it cannot sell beef products in a hindu community and pork products in a Muslim community. Apart from that the business has got to know the taste and preference of its customers. The fast food industry has been hit by negative publicity in recent years due to the increasing amount of diabetes, unhealthy food and childhood obesity. In order to overcome the problems, McDonalds has been introducing healthier foods and educational programmes to bring a healthier environment. McDonalds also has been heavily contributed in the charity events in order to make contribution to the society. Technological Every organisation must monitor developments in technology. These can affect the production methods employed by the organisation. Due to the increasing importance of internet, regional planners work with restaurants and by communicating with them on a regular basis via email and telephone. McDonalds also have a friendly use website with more details and information available 4. Process design Process design is the process by which some functional requirements of people are satisfied through the shaping or configuration of the resources and/or activities that comprise a product, or a service, or the transformation process that produces them (Slack et al 2004, p.94). The process should be designed to deliver the products in the best possible way. Before design the process every manager should ask some questions, e.g. what process should give to customers? How much flexibility do customers want? How much will they pay for the products? (Waters 1999, p. 65). Each restaurant is headed by a Restaurant manager who is responsible for the daily operation and customer interaction. The crew members carry out the basic operation at the restaurant and ensure the customer satisfaction. The Process at McDonalds starts with the customer order and then after receiving the order, the design must be completed and delivered. With this operations process, McDonalds aims to be able to deliver a reasonable product within reasonable time. The nature of the work is to provide customers ordered products within few minutes. The order placed by the customer is taken by one of the crew members operating at the tills, as the order is entered into till, a message is passed on to the appropriate crew member in the kitchen for the preparation of the order. In food preparation McDonalds have their own strategy and standards; the Crew members cook burgers on a grill that heat both sides of the burger in a little less than four minute where the Patties are batch cooked in advance. The hamburger buns toaster time is slightly less than one minute to give it a brown texture and slightly crusty, the assembling of hamburger is done by laying out the toasted bottom, spread mayonnaise, add grilled beef, on top lettuce and onions close it with the toasted top and is wrapped and placed into the Universal cabinet ready to be sold to customers. Finally the customer is asked for the mode of payment to complete the transaction. The process flow in McDonalds: Customer order Toast bread product Cook frozen products Place product in packaging Add ingredients Holding Cabinet (Wrapped burgers are kept max 10min) Delivery to the Customer Having a well planned process design, McDonalds is able to produce and service including customers specification maintaining their quality, reduce the customer waiting time at the counters. They have dependable crew members and resource for on-time delivery of products and service. The flexibility is achieved by processing a wide variety of products and changing the cost of the items and lowers their processing costs by eliminating waste in terms of preparing the burgers in bulk. 5. Product design The objective of designing products and services is to satisfy customers by meeting their needs and expectations. This enhances the competitive advantage of company (Slack et al, 2004 p.129) McDonalds product design concentrates on maintaining consistency in how products are prepared as well as what raw-food components are used. They serve a variety of products, sandwiches with beef, fish, and chicken products, menu also include salads, fruits and dairy products. The quality is ensured through standardized and careful employee training efforts. The Company frequently introduce new products and a reason for this is that customers are demanding more choice. McDonalds menu concentrates on five main ingredients: beef, chicken, bread, potatoes and milk. The companys main menu lists is offering: the Big Mac and French fries, which still exists as a major seller. A Big Mac consists of a bun, two beef patties, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, sauce and a small amount of seasoning. The restaurant will only combine these items just before the customer orders. Other standard product names come from the McDonalds convention of adding a Mc to a particular item. Although McDonalds is a global company, they operate locally. In restaurants people may buy regional products, including Rice burgers served in Taiwan, Japan shrimp and coconut milk in Brazil. Ethical considerations about product design could be that in order to minimise the negative comments about unhealthy food, increased amount of diabetes and obesity among children the Company introduced healthier foods in their menu. They purchase from suppliers that ensure the health and safety of their employees and the humane treatment of animals. The company is also trying to minimise the impact on environment. 6. Supply chain management Supply chain management is the management of the interconnection of organisations that relate to each other through upstream and downstream linkages between the different processes that produce value in the form of products and services to the final consumer (Slack et al, 2004, p. 445). SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING AND CONTROL Coordinated delivery of products and services from the supply chain Demand The market Customer requirements Supply The operation Operations resources Required time, quantity and quality of products an services Figure 1. Supply Chain planning and control Supply chain management is concerned with managing the flow of materials and information between the operations, which form the strands chains of a supply network. (Slack et al,2004, p. 444). McDonalds ensures its suppliers follow the exact standards of quality, value and cleanliness set by them. When it comes to tracing the products ingredients, great emphasis is placed, so McDonalds are able to control every link in the supply chain. Wherever possible, McDonalds tries to use suppliers who are based in the UK, as they prefer them, but saying this, they still have to meet McDonalds exact product and hygiene standards. All of their European sold beef is supplied from Europe and the great majority of their British sold beef is sourced from Britain. McDonalds has developed a supplier quality index (SQI) by which all suppliers are measured. It allows the company to monitor performance of suppliers across the many agricultural and non-agricultural products and services purchased (Food Chain Centre, 2003). In 2004, McDonalds introduced a specialist central stock management function known as the Restaurant Supply Planning Department. This team communicates with restaurant managers on a regular basis to find out about local events. The team builds these factors into the new planning and forecasting system called Manugistics to forecast likely demand of finished menu items, for example Big Macs. Raw materials include the buns, beef patties, paper cups, salad ingredients and packaging are delivered to the restaurants between 3 and 5 times a week. At any time, a restaurant will have a range of products ready for sale, for example Big Macs, fish and side salads. At McDonalds, all raw materials, work-in-progress and finished products are handled on a First In, First Out (FIFO) basis. This means raw materials are used in the order they are received. Therefore stock is always fresh because products are sold in the order they are made. Ongoing communication between the central Restaurant Supply Planning team and individual restaurants helps to manage the stock more effectively. This team of regional planners works with around 80 restaurants each and communicates with them on a regular basis via email and telephone. Any factors that could affect the number of customers visiting an individual restaurant need to be logged with the team. These are taken into account in calculating the forecasts. Supply Planners work with the stock control system, to ensure enough raw materials leave the McDonalds distribution centres. This ensures that restaurants can produce the meals required for the level of demand forecasted. Supply Planners working for McDonalds include range of causal factors in the calculation of their forecasts, so that based on past performance they can predict future demand for each restaurant. McDonalds Restaurant Managers need to ensure that the data they enter into the system is as accurate as possible. For example, each day Restaurant Managers record opening and closing stocks of key food items. They record all other items weekly (McDonalds Corporation, 2008). Vertical integration the degree to which an operation chooses to own the network of processes that produce a product or service. The strategy of expanding on the supply side of the network is called backward (upstream) vertical integration, and expanding on the demand side is called forward (downstream) vertical integration (Slack et al, 2004 p. 169, 779). McDonalds has practiced a backward (upstream) vertical integration, by replacing most of its suppliers. It has done so for two reasons, 1) To reduce costs, and 2) To ensure that they make top quality products. One of the coffee suppliers of the Company is Distant Lands which have its own coffee farm. In this example vertical integration reduces the risk of delayed delivery (dependability). 7. Inventory management Controls Inventory planning and control compensates for the differences in timing between the supply of an operations products and services and the demand for them (Slack et al 2004, p. 405). There are 5 types of inventory: BUFFER INVENTORY compensates rapid variations in supply and demand. ANTICIPATION INVENTORY is used when changes in demand are big but relatively predictable. It is also used when supply changes are large. DE-COUPLING INVENTORY creates the chance for independent scheduling and processing speeds between process stages. PIPE LINE INVENTORY exists because material cannot be transported right away between the point of supply and the point of demand. CYCLE INVENTORY occurs when one or more stages in the process cannot supply all the items it produces at the same time (Slack et al 2004 p.411-412). McDonalds method of keeping burger lanes full during peak periods is a recognizable example of a pull system in a service application. McDonalds has made billions of hamburgers using elements of just-in-time, from the time of order from the customers to the payment from them; the burgers or the meals are ready to be consumed. If they are later than the time ordered, customers will be dissatisfied. So it is important for McDonalds to use the JIT process in order to keep quality and satisfied customers. Just-in-time means producing goods and services exactly when they are needed. Lean production system is the western term for Toyota Production System. Lean operations and just-in-time planning and control aim to meet demand right away, with perfect quality and no waste. Lean operation means waste elimination in order to create operation that is faster, more dependable and that produces high quality products and also operates at low costs (Slack et al 2004 p. 518, 519). There are two major pillars of lean production system. One is Just-in-Time system and other is Kaizen. Kaizen is a Japanese term for continuous improvement involving everyone managers and workers alike. Kanban is a Japanese term for card or signal, it controls the transfer of materials between the stages of operation. (Slack et al, 2004 p. 533, 653) McDonalds use lean production system and minimise waste by accurate stock management and by developing correct demand forecasts so that products do not have to be discarded. McDonalds is an example of a JIT system, they doesnt begin to cook its orders until a customer has placed an order. McDonalds is able to make their products fast enough thanks to technology they use, eg. bun toaster. The Company provide fast service and at the same time the finished products are not placed in inventory for long time. The major benefit of using just-in-time system for McDonalds are good quality food at a lower cost and also better quality customer service. This higher quality customer service is the ability to actually produce faster. Without this ability, McDonalds ordering costs would be higher because the costs associated with ordering would be the loss of customers tired of ordering fast food that really isnt fast (Atkinson 2005). 8. Total Quality Management (TQM): Total Quality Management is a philosophy of how to approach the organization of quality improvement. This approach puts quality at the heart of everything that is done by an operation and including all the activities within the operation (Slack et al, 2004, p. 722). Feigenbaum defined TQM as; An effective system for integrating the quality development, quality maintenance and quality improvement efforts of the various groups in an organisation, so as to enable production and service at the most economical levels which allow for full customer satisfaction(Cited in Slack et al, 2004, p.720). McDonalds goal is simple: to give customers high quality products anywhere in the world and maintain high standards of service. Every member of the organisation must be involved from the highest executive to the crewmembers of McDonalds. The commitment to quality must be instilled into everyone from the moment they join McDonalds in every dimension of the organisation, e.g. Operation, Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, Health and Safety and Food Safety The basic principles of McDonalds are: 1. Putting the customer first by making sure all customers are fully satisfied with McDonalds, predicting and fulfilling their needs, exceeding their expectations, by using market research to find out what they want, they aim to surprise you with their quality, choice and service and making sure that all service standards are met. 2. Making continuous improvements by reducing costs, maintain good ordering procedures in all restaurants. 3. Aim for zero defects do it right first time, it can be very expensive putting it right afterwards. Prevention is better than cure. This requires rigorous quality testing and control so that defective products are spotted immediately. The advantages of using TQM: Every individual in McDonalds is responsible for quality Quality becomes the focus for all activities Everything McDonalds does is designed to satisfy their customers. This can lead to a greater market share and also increased profit The disadvantages for using this system are: Requires well-trained, responsible staff, this could cost more money for training each employee. Some of the employees can be resistant to change Gives visible effects in the long run 9. Conclusion. Operation management function exists in every organisation. It is concentrating on achieving the processes of transformation of raw materials into a finished product. Moreover effective operation management enhances performance in the process. McDonalds Corporation is one of the most known companies in the world. In their operational strategy company decided to reduce costs, improve product quality, punctual delivery of their product to customers and continuous performance of all operational aspects of company. All departments of organisation and every employee have to work together to ensure that the strategy reaches its objectives. All the processes in McDonalds reflect the needs of the customers and products are designed taking into account high quality, speed of service and cost. McDonalds working together with suppliers that fulfil all the standards of quality set by the company. To satisfy customers needs of fast served quality products their strategy incorporated just-in-time system. As a result the restaurant is serving fresh food in a short time.