Pride and Prejudice Analysis Essay

Elizabeth Bennet receives two proposals; one from Mr Collins and one from Mr Darcy. Mr Collins was a tall and heavy looking man of twenty-five years. Although he was polite and well mannered he was also pompous and had a self-inflated ego. He always made ‘never ending speeches about nothing’ and bored everyone to death. Mr Collins flattered everyone constantly but sometimes inappropriately. ‘He begged to know which of his fair cousins the excellence of it’s cooking was owed.’ -By this, Mrs Bennet was offended and assured him they were in fact able to keep a good cook. This showed his lack of judgement in when to compliment. He was also quite absurd and Mr Bennet’s sarcasm often went completely unnoticed. For example, on page 54, Mr Bennet asked if his flatteries were prepared and Mr Collins admitted that sometimes he would think of them for his amusement! Lady Catherine de Bourgh who was his patroness employed him. He grovelled to her constantly as she paid his way; because of her, he was middle/upper class. He was a clergyman at Hunsford near Rosings, Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s home. When Mr Bennet dies, Mr Collins will inherit Longburn, as Mr Bennet cannot leave the house to his wife; women couldn’t inherit. In Mr Collins’ letter, he proposes to make peace with the family. Mr Darcy on the other hand was very good looking. ‘He soon drew the attention of the room by his fine tall person, handsome features, noble mien†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ He is also described as ‘a fine figure of a man’. But he was soon to be discovered to be ‘proud above his company’. He was clever, but at the same time he was ‘haughty, reserved and fastidious’. He owned Pemberly Estate and got one thousand a year. -He was upper class and he knew it; ‘He had seen a collection of people in whom there was little beauty and no fashion for none of whom he had felt the smallest interest.’ Darcy and Bingley had a good friendship despite many differences. ‘Bingley was sure of being liked wherever he appeared; Darcy was continually giving offence.’ Darcy had no sense of humour and admitted it. He couldn’t see the funny side of life whereas Bingley was light hearted and liked to enjoy everything he did. In the past Wickam and Darcy had a disagreement. Mr Darcy’s father had promised Wickam a place in the church but when he died Darcy refused to help him. Mr Collins first hints on his future plans in his letter to the Bennets when he writes; ‘I cannot be otherwise than concerned at the means of injuring your amiable daughters, and beg leave to apologise for it, as well as to assure you of my readiness to make them every possible amends.’ On the first day of staying at Longburn, he, in a conversation to Mrs Bennet said; ‘I can assure the young ladies that I come prepared to admire them.’ -Here he gave Mrs Bennet a small glimpse of his intentions. Jane Austin then gave it away saying that now having a good house and income; Mr Collins was in want of a wife. He was also pleasing Catherine de Bourgh who thought he should marry. So for the first evening Jane was the settled choice being not only the eldest, but the prettiest -this was, until he was informed by Mrs Bennet that she was soon to be engaged to Bingley (exaggeration). Then at the Netherfield Ball he asked Lizzy to dance several times and she realised she was the chosen one out of the five sisters. Mr Darcy on the other hand was far from admiring Lizzy at first and when Mr Bingley suggested he dance with her at the Meryton Ball he replied that he had not the least intention of dancing. -Bingley was dancing with the only good looking girl in the room. Here he was referring to Jane. He said Lizzy was ‘tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.’ Then at Sir William Lucas’s party, William tried to pair up the two of them and Darcy did not resist, but Lizzy brushed him off with; ‘I have not the least intention of dancing.’ -this was pay back. It was at this party that Darcy realised his true feelings for her. At Netherfield when Jane went to stay, she fell ill and Lizzy being worried came to visit. Here, she noticed that Darcy was constantly watching her. Miss Bingley who secretly liked Darcy, in seeing that he was drawn to Lizzy tried to turn him against her. But all in vain, for whatever she said, he just stuck up for Elizabeth. Miss Bingley, in Mr Darcy’s defending her said; ‘I am afraid Mr Darcy that this adventure has rather affected your admiration for her fine eyes.’ I think when she says this she’s half-teasing and half jealous of him liking her. Before proposing, Mr Collins said to Mrs Bennet, ‘May I hope madam, for your interest with your fair daughter Elizabeth, when I solicit for the honour of a private audience with her in the course of this morning?’ -Here, he was basically asking Mrs Bennet’s permission to propose. He then launched straight into his ‘speech’. Mr Darcy came to visit Lizzy and at first made light conversation, asking about her health. Then there was an awkward silence where he must have been trying to think of how to start before proceeding. -Differences are already showing through. Mr Collins first said he’d chosen Lizzy almost as soon as he’d met her (which was a lie) and went on to specify his reasons for marrying her. He, as a clergyman wanted to set an example to the rest of the parish, he thought it would make his happy and he was following Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s advice. He’d obviously planed out his speech carefully but in his reasons, he had not mentioned that he was in love with her! Darcy on the other hand offered his hand in marriage because he did love her and his opening sentence expressed this clearly; ‘In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how I admire and love you.’ Mr Collins also made several insults to Lizzy when proposing to her without even realising it! For instance, he said that if she refuses, she my never get another offer. He also reminds her that if she stays single, all she may ever be entitled to is twenty-five pounds when her mother dies. Darcy put his foot in it too. After saying how much he loved her, he went on to say that it was not his wish to do so with her connections and status; ‘His sense of inferiority -of the family obstacles which judgement had always opposed to inclination.’ When he was turned down he thought she was just offended; ‘Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? -To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, your connections?’ He also admitted to trying to split up Jane and Darcy and even ‘rejoiced’ in his success of doing so. In response to rejection, Mr Collins thinks Lizzy is playing hard to get and says this is to be expected of a lady. He goes on to say all the good materialistic reasons to marry him forgetting to mention things like love. He acts as if marrying would be a good investment for Lizzy or something. He then assured her that both of her parents approved of the marriage. Mr Darcy in response to rejection is shocked and angry but manages to control himself. He asked why he had been refused and thought she must be offended by what he had said earlier; ‘Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections?’ But after saying these words he accepted her answer. Both proposals were made for very different reasons; Mr Collins obviously proposed for convenience, whereas Mr Darcy was in love. Both men also reacted in different ways when turned down; although Mr Collins couldn’t take the rejection, he was not actually bothered about anything other than having his male pride hurt. -Darcy must have been extremely upset, to him Lizzy was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with but he tried not to show his emotions. They both involved a lot of snobbery in their proposal speeches. They thought that Lizzy would not reject someone of the higher class and she should be grateful that she was chosen out of all the other girls; both reminded her constantly about her status. Mr Collins was more personal mentioning both what would happen when her mother and father died but Lizzy got more angry at Darcy because of things he has said and done in the past. Mr Collins and Mr Darcy both said in much detail all the pros and cons of the marriage. In conclusion, both proposals have some similarities but they differ in the essential requirement of love.

Cba 300 Ch 1 Notes

CBA 300—Section 01 ? Dr. Sam Min CBA353 ? Office Hours: Friday 8:00am – 10:00am ? Read your text book first, come & take notes, and read newspapers ? Tests are straightforward, text, weakly reading, and lectures TEST 1 September 14 Chapters 1, 2, 3 TEST 2 October 5 Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7 TEST 3 October 26 Chapters 8, 9, 10, 11 TEST 4 November 16 Chapters 12, 13, 14, 15 FINAL Final Week Chapters 16, 17, 18 Assignments & in-class activities Total (50 points) (50 points) (50 points) (50 points) (50 points) (30 points) 280 points CBA 300—Section 01 †¢ The grading system will be as follows: Total points Possible: 280 252 and more = A 224 to 251 = B 196 to 223 = C 168 to 195 = D Less than 167 = F 2 3 ASSIGNMENTS 1-5 Please read any article of your interest, which is related to International Business and (1) summarize the article (1/2 page) and (2) discuss what you learned from reading the article (1/2 page). †¢ Do not write more than 1 page. †¢ Use 12 font size, 1. 5 spaced, 1-inch margins, and Times New Roman. This assignment is worth maximum 4 points. Due is on each testing date! 4 Chapter 1 – The Challenging World of International Business International Business 13e by Ball, Geringer, McNett, and Minor 5 Why you need global business perspective? †¢ â€Å"Having a foreign perspective gives you an advantage not only for doing business outside U. S. but domestically, where we have the most diverse society in the world. † – Carlos Gutierrez, the CEO of Kellogg & US 35th Secretary of Commerce 6CEOs of Fortune’s larges American corporations strongly believe: (1) An international orientation should be an important part of college business education (2) International business skills and knowledge were important not merely for promotion to senior executive positions, but also for appointment to entry-level positions, and across a broad array of functional as well as cross-functional areas (3) The above two p oints are even more important for those anticipating international activities increase in the next five years. 7 My suggestions 1) Take IB course(s) (2) Consider going overseas (exchange program, intern, English teacher, volunteer, mission, etc. ) (3) Learn foreign language 8 Topics †¢ What is international business? †¢ IB Concepts and seven dimensions for globalizing a business †¢ What is different about international business? †¢ Growth of international firms and IB †¢ What is globalization? †¢ The drivers of globalization 9 What is International Business? †¢ International Business (IB): any business transaction across national borders – Trade in goods – Cross-border services ? consulting, advertising, egal, financial, accounting ? tourism, banking, communications/media, construction management, etc. †¢ Company activity inputs may involve IB activity even if outputs do not – Firm’s revenues may come entirely from the home country – Key raw materials, knowledge, processes may come partially or entirely from other countries Concepts of International Companies A Multidomestic Company has multi-country affiliates, each of which formulates its own business strategy based on perceived market difference A Global Company attempts to standardize and integrate operations worldwide in all functional areas. 1 The 7 Dimensions for Globalizing a Business 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 1-12 Product Markets Promotion Where value is added Competitive strategy Use of non-home-country personnel Extent of global ownership in firm What is Different about International Business? International Business †¢ deals with 3 environmental forces: 1. Domestic 2. Foreign 3. International Domestic Business †¢ deals with the domestic market †¢ But†¦may face foreign competition in domestic market 1-13 Why is International Business Different? : Forces in the Environment ?Environmental forces can be classified as external or internal. †¢ External forces are uncontrollable, but perhaps can be influenced by mgmt. †¢ Internal forces are controllable by mgmt, but not completely. 14 External Forces †¢ Competitive – Kind, number, location †¢ Distributive – For distributing goods and services †¢ Economic – GNP, unit labor cost, personal consumption expenditure †¢ Socioeconomic – Characteristics of human population †¢ Financial – Interest rates, inflation rates, taxation 15 External Forces, cont’d. Legal – Laws governing how international firms must operate †¢ Physical – Topography, climate, and natural resources †¢ Political – Forms of government, and international organizations †¢ Sociocultural – Attitudes, beliefs, and opinions †¢ Labor – Skills, attitudes of labor †¢ Technological – Equipment and skills that affect how resources are converted to produ cts 16 Internal Environmental Forces †¢ Factors of Production – Capital, raw materials, and people †¢ Activities of the organization – Personnel, finance, production, and marketing 17Explosive Growth †¢ Exporting – transportation of any domestic good/service to a destination outside a country or region – The level of world merchandise exports increased from $2 trillion (1980) to $15. 24 trillion (2010). – Service $365 billion (1980) to $3. 7 trillion (2010). 18 Growth in the volume of world merchandise exports and production, 2000-2007 2000-07 World merchandise exports Agricultural products Fuels and mining products Manufactures 5. 5 4. 0 3. 5 6. 5 2005 6. 5 6. 0 3. 5 7. 5 2006 8. 5 6. 0 3. 5 10. 0 2007 6. 0 4. 5 3. 0 7. 5World merchandise production Agriculture Mining Manufacturing World GDP 3. 0 2. 5 1. 5 3. 0 3. 0 3. 0 2. 0 1. 5 4. 0 3. 0 3. 0 1. 5 1. 0 4. 0 3. 5 4. 0 2. 5 0. 0 5. 0 3. 5 Note : See the Metadata for the estimation of world aggregates of merchandise exports, production and GDP. 19 Growth in volume of world merchandise trade and GDP, 2000-11 (Annual % change) Source: WTO 2011a: Figures of 2011 are projections 20 Explosive Growth ? Foreign Direct Investment – Direct investment in equipment, structures, and organizations in a foreign country †¢ level sufficient to obtain significant anagement control – World stock of outward FDI was $19 trillion at the beginning of 2010 (9 times larger than what it was in 1990). 21 Number of International Companies †¢ Keeps expanding and the big get bigger. – ExxonMobil sales for 2011: $486 billion – Wal-Mart sales revenue for 2011: $446 billion 22 Globalization †¢ the process of transformation of local or regional things or phenomena into global ones. – Technological globalization – Political globalization – Economic globalization – Cultural globalization 23 Globalization Economic Globalizati on – is the international integration of goods, technology, labor, and capital. – refers to the implementation of global strategies which link and coordinate a firm’s international activities on a worldwide basis. 24 Drivers of Globalization †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Political Drivers Technological Drivers Market Drivers Cost Drivers Competitive Drivers 1-25 Political – There is a trend toward the unification and socialization of the global community. – NAFTA and the European Union present significant marketing opportunities for companies. the progressive reduction of barriers to trade and foreign investment by most governments. – the privatization of much of the industry in formerly communist nations. 26 Technology – Advancements in computers and communication technology are permitting an increased flow of ideas and information across borders. †¢ The Internet and network computing enable small companies to compete globally. †¢ Business to business commerce is experiencing significant savings by using the Internet for business exchanges. †¢ Foreign outsourcing more and more common 27 Globalization Forces Market – As companies globalize, they also become global customers. †¢ Companies follow customers abroad in order to avoid a competitor stealing the account. – The saturation of the home market also sends companies into foreign markets. – Emergence of global customers 28 Cost – Economies of scale to reduce unit cost are always a management goal. †¢ Globalizing product lines to reduce development, production, and inventory costs can help achieve economies of scale. †¢ Companies can also locate production in countries where production costs are lower. 29Competitive – Competition continues to increase in intensity. – Companies are defending their home markets from competitors by entering the competitors’ home markets to dis tract them. 30 Views On Globalization Arguments Supporting Globalization †¢ Enhances socioeconomic development Concerns with Globalization †¢ Uneven results across nations and people †¢ Promotes more and better jobs †¢ †¢ Deleterious effects on labor and labor standards Decline in environmental and health conditions 1-31 $1. 25 per Euro Crude Oil ($94. 61) Gold ($1,653. 5) Corn ($8. 10 per bushel)

American Jews and their religion

The word Jew is used in a number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, the offspring of a Jewish mother or someone of Jewish origin with roots to Jewish culture or ethnicity. A combination of all these attributes make one a better Jew. Jews are an ethnic group who refer themselves as a people and members of a nation descending from ancient Israelites including those who joined their religion at various times and places. This term is associated with the split of the kingdom of Israel between the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.Of late, the term is used to refer to those Jews actively practicing Judaism and those, although not practicing Judaism as religion still refer themselves as Jews by virtue of their family’s Jewish heritage and their own cultural identification. Judaism as the Jews popular religion has many characteristics, of a religion , a nation, an ethnicity and a culture, making the definition of who is really a Jew vary slightly depending on whether a religious or national approach to identity is used.As he popular religion among the Jews, Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and beliefs, it has therefore been called a religion and also a way of life. It is due to this reason that the difference between Judaism, Jewish culture and Jewish nationality is very thin. Many times and places such as contemporary United States and Israel, cultural practices have cropped up that are characteristically without being religious at all. These practices have been brought about by factors like interactions of Jews and others around them, the Judaism it self and even from the inner social and cultural dynamics of the community,Jews have been subjected to countless mistreatments all over the world leading to their migration from their original homeland e. g. the famous holocaust led by Adolph Hitler and his Nazi regime in German. These mistreatments, which led to their regular migration, have sha ped Jewish identity and Jewish religious participation in many ways. Jews also have a number of ethnic divisions, which includes, the German based Jews, the Spanish – Portugal Jews, Gruzim, and American based Jews, Telegu of India and Buchanan Jews of central among many others.Due to the above-mentioned mistreatments, Jews migrated to many places of the world. Today the Jews in Diaspora make up a large number of the total Jews of the world with United States having 5. 5 million Jews (Jewish people policy institute). The effects of conditions of â€Å"freedom† to Jews in general The book, Social foundation of Judaism by Calvin Goldscheider and Jacob Neusner chapter 8 pages 114 to 145. The social crisis of the freedom seeks to answer the question about the ways in which condition of freedom affects Jews as a group.This book talks about the migration fro Europe origin of (German, Poland and Russia) to thaw United States of America. From the introduction part a number of t his migration. The Jewish immigrants to US firstly settled in enclaves in large cities. This is because they considered themselves as nation within other nations and with time, they would one-day return to the holy land with the coming of the Messiah (Neusner, 125). The first immigrants’ to US formed the first generation of Jews. This first generation was characterized by the speaking of the Yiddish language and limited occupation.The second-generation embraced the notion that Jews like other immigrants must become American and therefore this prompted the de-judaization of all its children. This de-judaization brought about the definition of life as a set of contrasts between ways of Jewish ways of living and everything else on the other side. The second generation did not need schools or youth groups to explain what being a Jew meant instead two educational instruments i. e. memory and experience (Neu, 118). The third generation was contesting to the second generation since they tried to remember what the second generation had wanted to forget.The Jews were affected the anti-Semitism which was taking place around the world and they were made to learn on how and why they were Jews (Neu, 119). The renaissance of articulated and self-conscious Jewish ness along with the renewed search for Judaism was reignited by first, the rise of the state of Israel. The discovery of holocaust and lastly the resurgence of ethnic identification among the grandchildren of immigrant generation. The freedom of Jews was conditional and not only to Jews living in other nations but also Jews living in the homeland of Israel.In 1967, Jews of Israel were threatened by war from the Arab neighbors (pg120). This war popularly known as, the war of â€Å"all ageist one†. Jews all over the world lived under great because experiences of Jewish persecution especially during the holocaust were still fresh in their minds. Worst still the international community seemed not to interf ere to offer any avenue for escape. The effect of all the above freedom conditions led to the assimilation of the Jewish culture and Judaism to cultures of the respective nations offering asylum.The Jewish method of worship changed drastically with new generation members choosing on whether to remain loyal to their Judaism religion or to be loyal to the Jewish culture. In classical Judaism every member of the Jewish culture was expected to live a holy life; saying prayers, learn more about the traditions and do good deeds but. due to conditional freedoms all this changed, with the only requirement of being a Jew being just joining an organization but not personally to effect its purpose (Neus, pg 121) therefore it can be said that as a result of this freedom modernity has overtaken Jews.Even the powers and responsibilities of rabbi have changed from administrators to strictly religious (pg123) rabbi who was formerly a judge, administrator and a holy man has now been left with duties of presiding over religious ceremonies like marriages and funerals. Another very conspicuous effect of conditional freedom was the reconsidering of women as rabbis. Generally, the overall effects of condition of freedom have led to the entry of western European Jews into the society of other nations among which they had lived for generations.This has resulted to the question, what is Jew? Who is Israel? What makes a person a Jew? Are the Jews a religious group? Are they a people or a nation? Thus conditions of have condemned Jews into lingering crisis of group identity (pg125). What is of more importance to America Jews, religion or ethnicity. From the book, it is very clear to me and any other reader of the same book that American Jews like their other counterparts in Diaspora are much more obsessed with ethnicity than religion. This argument can be made meaningful by first defining these two terms.Whereas religion is defined as a set of beliefs and practices, often centered about reality and human nature and often conditioned as ritual or religious law. Ethnic group on the other hand is a group of human beings who identify with each other, usually based on perceived common genealogy or ancestry. Jews whether in US or whichever place initially considered themselves as â€Å"Israel† the people to whom torah had been revealed, now living in exile from their homeland. (pg124). Judaism was their religion.When they came to US, they practiced this religion with utmost faithfulness since wanted to assert they both spiritually and religiously to their newfound society. The classical Judaism demanded that all men and women conform to the will of God. No one was exempted from from following the holy way of living (pg121). Every one was under obligation t observe the Sabbath, say their prayers individually in other words t be a Jew demanded one to perform a hundred holy actions every day. Contrastingly, in modern America to be a Jew requires only to join an orga nization and only be submitting monetary contribution.These funds are used to lure professionals who carry out the duties of the organization. This has prompted the birth of what preachers call â€Å"check book Judaism†. The formation of thse orgaiztions tends to obliterate the effective role of an individual. People join these organizations because they have been convinced that what â€Å"Judaism† expects of them. Jews in America seems to have lost touch with their fathers. His is because initially they saw themselves as anything but holy, they interpreted the things that make them Jewish negatively. They therefore seem to have forgotten why they came into being (pg126).All these differences in their religious approach have been brought abut by modernity. This modernity has been catalyzed by necessity and choice due to the Jews not looking back to inculcate long time virtues. It is true that modern Jews n America are eager to be Jewish – but not too much so. Th ey continue to confront a crisis not merely of identity but commitment, for they do not choose to resolve he dilemma of separateness within an open society (pg127). Of importance to them is that they are standing in the threshold of a long period assimilation into modern culture and facing a lingering identity crisis.The importance of ethnicity to Jews is confirmed by their joining of Zionist movements. This movement enhanced the unification of Jews as a people whose foundation lies in the unity of their concern for Zion, devotion to building the land and establishing Jewish sovereignty in it. Their destiny was shaped with their confirming emotional and social commitment to Jewish group hood or separateness and therefore the subsequent creation of a nation. The holy people of Israel who migrated to US because the â€Å"American Jewish community† who in the first place were unsure of what Jewish meant.This lingering crisis of self-definition, characteristic of modern men and w omen marks the Jews a utterly modern and secular and thus not religious (pg132). The archaic â€Å"holy people† has been rendered obsolete by events, its place stands rather different phenomena that manifests into Jews, a different, separate group, and they claim that difference is destiny. American Jews therefore are much engrossed with reasserting themselves in a society whereby they are perceived as a minority group. Ethnicity is what matters to them now and religion follows later. references: Social foundations of Judaism, by Calvin Goldscheiner and Jacob Neusner.

Disseminating Evidence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Disseminating Evidence - Essay Example To the community, I will discuss dissemination approaches that lean towards the needs of the community. I will use proper language and information levels to get to an audience such as the community (Holland and ‎ Rees, 2010). Information levels under this approach will entail diagrams, graphs, verbal presentations, conferences, and community summits. A proper language means simplifying the terminology and syntax considering the community consists of individuals of different education levels. Such a language would make sure that the community is communicating successfully with and using my project’s dissemination resources and approach (Walsh, 2010). I think searching for communal effort is imperative to making essential changes that lead to a substantial outcome in a nursing retention project.  Methods applied to assess the efficiency of a suggested solution should offer information to the community about is its efficiency or lack thereof (Holland and ‎ Rees, 201 0). The success of the intervention with the community requires me to be succinct and straightforward when addressing this particular audience. I will arrange my points in a rational manner and emphasize the lists of major points. Implementing plans like forums, periodicals, talks, new media, presentations, networks, and open workspaces are crucial dissemination approaches for the community and the project’s stakeholders as well (Walsh, 2010).  Identifying aspects common to individual patients’ homes that could prompt to developing peritonitis is important.

Book Review on ONE BIBLE MANY VOICES by S. E. Gillinham Essay

Book Review on ONE BIBLE MANY VOICES by S. E. Gillinham - Essay Example 113). Throughout this volume, Gillingham adopts an academic and postmodern approach to studying the Bible, examining its formation, interpretation and overall character. Although the vast majority of authors deal with either the Old Testament of the New, Gillingham deals with the scripture in its entirety (Traina, Bauer & Peterson 2011, p. 124). On the other hand, while other authors deal with either the interpretation or formation of the Bible, Gillingham takes on both of these topics. The aim of this paper is to provide a succinct analysis of Gillingham’s book, One Bible many voices, discovering its essence and inherent message. Gillingham’s volume integrates noteworthy elements of knowledge she acquired while undertaking a long-distance module at St. John’s College, as well as elements she learnt in a theology course at the Oxford University’s undergraduate program. According to Gillingham (1999, p. xv) the book is targeted at adults with a fairly deep interest in biblical studies or theology. From the onset, Gillingham postulates that the core of the modern day is postmodernism comingled with pluralism. She believes that such comingling should also be adopted in the study of the Bible (Gillingham 1999, pp. 4-5). In essence, she attempts to demonstrate the application of pluralism, as a prominent element of postmodernism, is useful in biblical studies. One Bible many voices consists of two segments: Plurality in the making of the Bible and Plurality in the Reading of the Bible. The initial segment consists of four chapters that delve into Gillingham’s outlook concerning the diverse albeit integrated character of the description of the Bible through diverse tests and versions adopted by different groups of people. Across the chapters, Gillingham demonstrates that both the Old and New testaments have been subjected to widespread modifications in order to produce the present version (Traina 2002, p. 219). Gillingham (1999, p. 44) presents the theological, literary and historical approaches to examining the Bible. She notes that these approaches are inherently complementary, in line with the concepts of postmodernism. Gillingham holds the opinion that no biblical text has a single inflexible meaning, and this allows for the constant creation and development of fresh interpretations. Conventionally, theology provides for a single properly controlled approach to biblical studies, arguing that the cannon itself is a crucial control (Barrick 2003, p. 113). However, Gillingham proposes diverse interpretations, opposing the establishment of controls. In fact, she poises that it is impractical to establish controls regarding the inclusion or exclusion of different books. This view opposes the existence of one authoritative cannon. For Gillingham, reading the Bible is the only sure way of understanding it. She poises that the open-ended and pluralist way of reading provides a clear picture of the essence of the B ible (Gillingham 19997, p. 72). In contradiction of the book’s title, the inference of the first segment is that no single standard biblical text, universal cannon and biblical theology exists. Gillingham introduces the second segment of the volume in alignment with the book’s title. It is in the second part that she introduces the diverse approaches to

The History of the Lubicon Lake Band and the Case Against Canada Essay

The History of the Lubicon Lake Band and the Case Against Canada - Essay Example The community claimed that the government did not consult any of their representatives during its decision2. In addition, the group claimed that gas and oil exploration projects would compromise their habitat. The Lubicon lake community currently has approximately 500 members who are the among the indigenous community that lived in Canada before the arrival of the European immigrants. Members of this community depend on hunting and trapping as their main economic activity. Conflict between the community and the Canadian government began when the government failed to consider them in 1899 treaty3. The treaty aimed at identifying and protecting territories of indigenous communities who lived in the country. Following the government decision, members of the community failed to present a systematic or legal claim to the government to claim ownership of the land. Lubicon lake community may have assumed that the government was responsible in protecting the rights of every community particu larly the minority community. On the other hand, the government did not show economic interest on Lubicon band territory. The government may have ignored the incorporation of the community in the 1899 treaty in order to protect its interest in the region4. The struggle between the lake community and the nation attracted the interests of the international community in 1984. This followed a failed attempt by members of the community to achieve any political or legal settlement for their case concerning invasion of their indigenous land. The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHCR) intervened in the case although, the community’s chiefs had previously requested for intervention from the international community. However, the Canadian government was against the decision claiming that they had not exhausted all domestic avenues that could be used to resolve such case5. After detailed investigations of the issue, the UNHCR concluded that available domestic remedies were insuffi cient to settle the case6. This is because the community did not have the ability to defend its interest against the country. In addition, the community was unlikely to win back their indigenous land back since Canada controlled the judicial system. In 1990, the UNHCR agreed that the state was a threat to the existence of the community by allowing invasion of their cultural land. The committee also agreed to include the Libicon community among threatened communities in order to attract the attention of the international community7. The committee also argued that the government had violated Article 27 of the international law concerning indigenous communities and indigenous territories. The Canadian government responded by increasing avenues for negotiation between the community and the government in relation to the controversial land. The government proposed resettlement of the community as the main solution to the case considering that the region was of national interest8. However, the Lubicon community declined the resettlement offers given by the government claiming that their traditions do not allow them to give up their ancestral land. Representatives of the community also argued that giving up their land would also be against the 1899 treaty. This is because the government pledged to protect the interests of indigenous community in cases involving land disputes. Community members also argued that currently the country did not have any

Labor Law Campaign Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Labor Law Campaign - Speech or Presentation Example Please understand that I do not have the resources to do this. The economy is in poor shape and our towns are not painting their homes as frequent as they used to. They rather have rusted walls in order to feed their children. I am sorry that some of you have broken down in your vehicles and have had to wait for a tow, hence making you late to your estimate or painting job. Perhaps some of you have broken down in the company vehicle and have been home late for dinner. I am sorry; however we will have to make due with the vehicles we have. We will just have to keep fixing them. None of the vehicles are under the year 2002. We must continue to re paint them and have the mechanical problems fixed instead of purchasing new trucks. You all are more than employees you are my family! This is a family-run business and some of you are fathers and sons and uncles and nephews or next-door neighbors. We must stick together! I am looking for used Tahoes to replace some of our trucks that have the engines blown in them; however I cannot afford new trucks. Also, I apologize if the air conditioner is not working properly during the summer. I had the huge fans running. Some of you complained it was too warm. I apologize, however after the last hurricane a year ago my company flood insurance increased because we are located on the water. I am head to foot as is but I will not lower your wages as you have families to feed. Hence, please work together as team. A little sweat never killed anyone! If your 2 hours late one night coming home to dinner because your company vehicle broke down, just realize that I am trying my best to keep the operations going. I noticed small groups forming and I am aware that pamphlets have been given out to you all by union representatives. I figured out that there is a union organizing drive. You all must realize that union’s promises are empty. They cannot guarantee anything only ask. The union may promise that you will be driving new navigat ors like our competitors but this is not guaranteed. The union local 1199 will tell you that you will now have a new central air conditioning system in the warehouse but this is not a guarantee. You all are friends and have worked together for a long time. Do you realize that joining a union can jeopardize your friendships or kinships? Perhaps a father wants to join and the son does not want to? This can cause an argument. Do not ruin your solid bonds with each other over decisions that will not guarantee anything else than what already is. Do you know that Bonzo’s Painters who is local 1199 has been on 32 strikes but the painters are still driving around in old vehicles because the employer and union could not come to an agreement? If the majority wins to join a union it can have economic consequences on my business which would be out of my control. I came to this prediction last year after the hurricane. My flood insurance has skyrocketed because we are on the water. Since the downfalls of our economy people aren’t having their homes painted as much. People aren’t spending money! They are saving! If your union decides to go on a strike I cannot afford replacements. Hence, without you guys I cannot run my business and thus I will have to close the entire plant. Please realize that Unions are full of broken promises. Just know that if the union goes on strike you all have to strike. So if you think you’re warm now in the warehouse, what if the union decides to strike on a 100

D2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

D2 - Assignment Example These parents are mostly aggressive while treating their children and instead of being obedient, they prefer using punishment to discipline their child. These parents become very aggressive if their children take a stand against them and punish their children for questioning their authority. Another form of parenting style researched by Baumrind is authoritative parenting style, parents following this style expect their children to be mature and act maturely at all times, these parents are high in emotional intelligence and can guide their children so they can easily control their emotions. These parents contribute a lot to their children’s upbringing and help them develop problem solving skills, these parents allow their children to gain independency but they even prefer certain amount of restrictions and limitations. These parents appreciate two way communications and are ready to answer all the questions of their children and hold a very warm and affectionate attitude towards their

Health Care Delievery systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Health Care Delievery systems - Essay Example In others, there is a joint attempt among trade unions, religions, governments, charities, or other corresponding units to provide designed health care services aimed at the population they assist (Saltman & Von, 1995). This paper will assess the similarities and differences between different health care delivery systems. Publicly funded health care is financed partly or entirely by people’s tax sums instead of through exclusive fees. This are made directly to health care givers or insurance companies through deductibles, insurance premiums, or copayments. Two-tier health care is a system whereby an assured public health care system is in existence. However, a corresponding health care system functions in equivalent competition. The private health care system gives the patients a chance to hold more alternatives in selecting their physicians and waiting lesser periods. Nevertheless, two-tier health care system is expensive and set aside for only those who can meet the expenses (World Health Organization, 2000). Physicians who work in the private health care systems may also have an advantage because they can establish their own charges. Single-payer system is a method to financing health care with a single source of funds for paying health care givers. The range may be community based, national, or state-wide. The payer may be an entity like an insurance agency or a governmental unit. The proposed benefits may comprise large savings in overhead charges and administrative simplicity for providers and patients. Universal health care system is also referred to as social health protection, universal care or universal coverage. It depicts a health care system that gives free coverage and health care to everyone in the population of that state or country. Conversely, universal health care does not cover everybody for all things. Moreover, universal health care can be influenced by three vital

Human Developmental Theories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Human Developmental Theories - Essay Example Psychological researchers have greatly investigated all the attributed of human life that lead to nurture and development of human psychology. As a result, various theories have been originated such as reductionism, meditational, determinism, contextualism etc. Psychologists have divided such theories into certain categories (Barkway 2009, p. 21). Determinism is a theoretical approach for psychologists to evaluate human psychology which is resolute over the time in connection to the past experiences. Psychologists evaluate human psychology by viewing the past history of child. Sigmund Freud suggested that there are certain patterns that could be studied while implementing the theory of determinism (Barkway 2009, p. 21). Such aspects include parental history because it greatly affects a child’s development in the period of adolescence. Parent history has a lot in relation with the child development as parents tend to be responsible of child nurture process in every society. Secondly, the history of behaviour could be a very important aspect in understanding human psychological development (Barkway 2009, p. 22). Medical implication of deterministic theory on health care practice is the most effective way to help patients. Deterministic theory can be applied on children as it studies the events that took place in the life of a child. Certain questions could be easily answered with the implication of deterministic approach for health care practice.

Radicalization of American Muslims hearings Research Paper

Radicalization of American Muslims hearings - Research Paper Example Some people justify such hearings by saying that different evidences brought up in the courts by authentic witnesses play a pivotal role in cleaning up the mess, which is created by Al-Qaeda. The persistent efforts of Al-Qaeda to destabilize America by radicalizing the Muslim community are way too conspicuous to be ignored and these efforts can be effectively dealt with by proper radicalization hearings. It is believed by the proponents of radicalization hearings that such kinds of things provide a solid platform for probing the growing incidence of radicalization in America. Radicalization hearings are justified by King, the American legislator, who opinions that Al-Qaeda operatives are pretty active in America and these hearings do not aim to uselessly threaten the Muslim community but to raise the radicalization issues that put America in danger. (Goodman, 2011). Still, there are many people who strongly condemn such hearings and believe them to be merely an unfair means of singli ng out a community that is largely innocent and not prejudiced against the American government. They say that the American Muslims should stand up against the fake witnesses brought up in the unjustified series of hearings against the innocent Muslim community.

Women’s Liberation Movements of the 1960’s Essay Example for Free

Women’s Liberation Movements of the 1960’s Essay I guess if I had to choose a specific event it would be the women’s liberation movement, from the beginning of the 1960’s women were portrayed as serving the men, responsible for housekeeping and day to day child rearing and finally how women were best measured by their beauty, charm, and sexual restraint and men by their accomplishments, power, and sexual prowess (Farber, D. p. 241). What kind of a life would we as women have today if we didn’t have the women who spoke up for us in the 60’s, we would be bare foot and pregant taking care of a family day to day, there’s no wonder why many women had nervous breakdowns the same thing over and over daily, that’s not for me. I thank the women who stood up and spoke up our struggle for equality which had been going on since the late 1840’s and 1960’s. If it weren’t for the Women’s Liberation Group, where would we be right now probably still doing what we were meant to do by men’s portrayal of us, at home taking care of the house- keeping, children and of course them too. We would not have voting rights, opportunities to work and be equal to what men can do, we were told that we should take our place and to â€Å"embrace our natural roles as family nurturers and housewives† (Farber, D. p. 243.) At this point, I would not have been able to continue my education, pursue a career outside the home I really feel lucky to have had the opportunity that we women have now, we are able to vote, we can speak up and say no more sexual harassment in the work place, ask for more pay be equal to a man’s salary range. Women can now become doctors, lawyers, elections, and professors we can choose our own path and have control over our minds, body and soul. If we choose to have a career or run a household then that is our choice. It took a lot of marching and protests to get to where we are right now. Even in during World War II we were able to run a house and work to provide for our family. National Organization for Women in October of 1966 about 300 women and men held the founding conference of NOW. Betty Friedan was elected president. National Organization for Women’s board of directors was narrowly drawn from the academic world the government, and other well-connected elites. With no mass movement yet to draw on, National Organization for Women’s leaders aimed to work as political insiders, lobbying the executive branch to fully implement existing statures which outlawed sex discrimination. But NOW was not formulated to be just another inside-the Washington- beltway lobbying group. While their immediate aims were simply to force full compliance with the law, their larger goals were, in the context of the mid-1960’s a powerful challenge to the status quo: We reject the current assumpti ons that a man must carry the sole burden of supporting himself, his wife and family†¦or that marriage, home and family are primarily a woman’s world and responsibility-hers to dominate-his to support. We believe that true partnership between sexes demands a different concept of marriage, an equitable sharing of the responsibilities of home and of the economic burdens of their support. While women were trying to figure out why they felt â€Å"trapped† many middle class women especially the well-educated, were not satisfied with their lives, many sought help from therapist seeking solutions to their discontent. Many women had been dosed with tranquilizers some got better and learned to accept their prescribed gender roles many continued discontent and continued to search for answers. By the end of the decade many women would turn to the women’s movement for that answer. The Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) was born in the US among students radicalized by the mass black civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War. In Britain the WLM developed from the struggles of women workers for equal pay. The two movements had different characteristics but both w ere rooted in the effect of the long post war economic boom. This had pulled increasing numbers of women into the workforce and into further education. For example between 1960 and 1965 there was a 57 percent increase in women being awarded degrees in the US (the same figure for men rose by 25 percent). Suddenly a whole generation of women had new expectations. The universities of the US became centers’ of struggle and debate. By 1967 thousands of women had been on marches and protests. They had fought for black civil rights, opposed the war in Vietnam and challenged the state. Yet they faced sexism in their own political organizations and felt sidelined and trivialized by the mainly male leadership. It seems shocking that such brilliant radical movements did not take women’s rights seriously. But when the movements exploded in the 1960s they did so in a vacuum. The socialist tradition had been decimated by the witch-hunts of McCarthyism. There was no Labor type party or revolutionary left to speak of. The shadow cast by the experience of Stalinism made many feel that socialism had nothing to do with liberation. Women activists began to organize their own workshops, write papers and talk about their oppression. The movement in the US was dominated by the idea that women had to organize separately. Meetings often involved women talking about their personal lives – a process described as â€Å"consciousness rising†. Yet the world had changed. For the first time women could control their fertility. Millions of women were gaining a level of economic independence that gave them new choices. Imagine the life of a woman before the 1960s. Her life had been difficult– denied basic rights, trapped in the home her entire life and discriminated against in the workplace. Then, the 1960s came along with it, the thought that women could have a say in their government, that they could perhaps leave the home without feeling guilty about leaving their children alone, and that they could receive a job and earn wages like men. The women’s liberation movement of the 1960s helped all these changes to come about through its scores of policies and radical ways of thinking. In fact, to illustrate some of these radical ways of thinking, some extremist women made a â€Å"Freedom Trash Can† and filled it with representations of women trapped in the home. They threw objects like heels, bras, girdles, hair curlers, and magazines like Cosmo, Playboy and Ladies’ Home Journal in it. The women who put the Trash Can together planned to set it on fire, but decided not to do so because burning of the contents prohibited a city law (Echols 150). Nevertheless, given the numerous obstacles put in place to stop women from changing their status in society, the women’s movement of the 1960s made significant changes for women in regards to basic rights, in the home and in the workplace for the better. Since denied basic rights in most aspects of society, from political rights to reproductive rights, women in the United States fought vigorously for equality. For example, women fought for their rights not to symbolize â€Å"beauty objects† or â€Å"sex objects.† In 1968, 100 women protested the Miss America Beauty Pageant because it promoted â€Å"physical attractiveness and charm as the primary measures of a woman’s worth,† especially the swimsuit portion of the contest (Echols 149). Also, according to Estelle Carol, the founder of the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, women began to get over this idea in the 1960s, but many women still felt Overly obsessed with [their] body shapes and were often prisoners of the fantasies [they] got from TV and magazine advertising. But [they] were learning to question these things and even some of the so-called ‘supermodels’ spoke out bravely about the need to get past this ridiculous ‘beautyà ¢â‚¬â„¢ thing. (Interview). Again, thanks to the women activist, we would not be sitting here today if we as women didn’t stand together and fight for our rights. I would not be taking my classes on-line have the job that I have now I was very young when I got married back then that’s how we were raised at least by my families morals, I didn’t graduate even though my expectations of myself was to graduate go to college and become an attorney instead I started to raise a family and had a husband who basically was raised to be the dominate person in the relationship. I did work outside the home and enjoyed working I became this woman that wanted more out of life and started looking at how a lot of famous women became leaders so I decided to be more aggressive and stood up for myself, at the age of 25 I became a Collections Manager for an attorney who worked on collecting bad debt for a Medical Hospital, it was a great opportunity for me. I don’t think that I would have had that opportunity if the women’s liberation movement would not have had existed how many women would be lost in translation not knowing where to go for help or how it would be for us in today’s society, where would we be at right now? Would we be able to make decisions that affect our own lives and our families or would we still be depending on our partners to make all of the decisions for the family. We are very lucky to have what we have now, freedom to express, freedom to vote, freedom to work and most of all make our own decisions whether to have or not to have children, and get married if we want. References Farber, D. R., Foner, E. (1994). The age of great dreams, America in the 1960s. (First edition). New York: Hill Wang Retrieved March 6, 2012. http://womensphere.wordpress.com/2008/03/24/the-rising-womens-liberation-movement-in-the-radical-1960s/ Retrieved March 6, 2012 http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/_notes/GrrlSmarts/sawhney.html Retrieved March 6, 2012

In Depth Market Analysis On Bmw Marketing Essay

In Depth Market Analysis On Bmw Marketing Essay Due to the failure to grow market share, the group adopted a strategy of organic growth in its early 2000s.This resulted in the launch of a large number of models with varied price and class ranges leading to further market development. This renowned European carmaker BMW is well known for its high quality products and services which comes in wide ranges, its global brand image and its highly output cars. This report emphasizes on the companys strategic goals and values and the impact of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors in the present competitive world on the company. The main objective behind the case study is to understand its strategic capability, its target market, market segmentation which is keys to success in the competitive market like of any industry, also by discovering positioning options, calculating and further understanding the importance of brand management and selecting the appropriate methods for the strategic development of a company. This report analyses the ability of the company to succeed and compete with its competitors. It will also discuss about the challenges it will come across in the near future. Learning Objectives The main learning objectives after analyzing the case study are: Evaluation of Classic and Contemporary models, concept and tools used in business strategy and planning which include PESTEL analysis, Value chain analysis, SWOT analysis, Porters five forces, Industry life cycle and Cycle of competition. The process BMW used to identify their strategic goals and values Analysis of Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and legal factors and its influence on its strategy The strategy used to achieve its competitive advantage Future challenges impact on the Company The reason for BMW considering the international business environment and its response towards it. The use of Value chain analysis for BMW in order to improve its competitive position. Summarization of its knowledge and understanding of its external business environment, its management and its ability to change, develop and implement business strategy. PESTEL Analysis In the macro-environment, there are various factors which affect the decisions of the managers in regards to the strategic development of any organisation. Some of the macro change factors include Tax changes, new laws, trade barriers, demographic change and government policy changes. (http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296378/01student/additional/page_12.htm) According to Thomas (2007) when an organization undergoes various changes and faces complexity in upcoming situations, it is hard to keep a track of activities in external environment and its erratic effect on the strategies of the firm. In such a situation PESTEL analysis is done which helps in analyzing the key drivers of change that helps in predicting the businesses future environment. Political factors: These factors emphasis on the government policy such as the degree of interference in the economy. In an automobile industry, the possible factors are: Tax laws and government policies by foreign government have a great affect on the automobile industry. According to Hill, 2008 Success of the business in the global market is determined by the probable foreign policies. As the laws and regulations that had affected the automobile industry also included the environmental factors affecting it adversely, it was made mandatory for all the car manufactures to consider the environment while making their manufacturing process. Economic factors include factors affecting an organization on economic ground like exchange rates, taxation changes, inflation, and interest rates and so on. For an automobile industry the economic factors are: The decreasing exchange rate of Euro had an adverse affect on the European car makers as due to difference in exchange rate increases the price per product and reduces the profitability for sale per product. According to Autofacts, 2004 Emergence of developing states like China and India s excess capital and buying power regionally and globally. Global increase in GDP (market value of all goods and services) services from 2.0% to 3.1% in 2008 and regular economic downturn in the US market in 2008. Buying capacity of people and the population figures even affects the automobile industry. High amount investment in marketing and on the new designs production of automobile blocked huge amount of revenue although the supply was more than the demand. Social Factors: Changes in social trends like income distribution, ageing population, and attitudes to work can have a greater impact on demand for a product by a firm and it also might result in the willingness and availability of individuals to work. Like in UK, as the population has been ageing has resulted in increment of costs to the firms who are committed to pension payments for staff who are living longer. (http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296378/01student/additional/page_12.htm) For an automobile industry the factors could be: As a result of recession, the buying behaviour of consumers seems to be changed. Automobiles environmental issues and its harmful emissions (Johnson,2005) Change in demand for a new product in terms of the launch of a new brand can be one of the social factors. Technological Factors: New products are created due to new technologies. Technology reduces costs, improve quality and lead to innovation of a new product. These developments not only benefit consumers but also the organisations providing the products. (http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296378/01student/additional/page_12.htm). The latest the technology is, greater is the demand for that product especially in terms of automobile industry. Examples are: The cost of manufacturing increases with the adoption of new technologies. Due to increment in the use of technology, the ratio of competitors is too high now. Restrictive measure on technology which are linked to the environmental pollution are one of the most important technological factor (Allen, 2006) Environmental Factors: The most concerned factors here are environmental issues and global warming which affects the environment. It even includes the change in climate and weather. In terms of automobile industry, the factors can be: The taste and preferences of customers change with the change in trend. They now prefer eco friendly cars, fuel cell cars in order to environment friendly. Due to increase in global warming and the awareness of green house effect, the consumers are more into buying environment friendly products. Legal Factors are related to the legal environment in which the firm operates. (http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296378/01student/additional/page_12.htm) Some of the examples can be employment law, health and safety law. In the automobile industry, the legal factors are: Rules and regulations in regards to pollution control all over the European countries. The import export duty tax and the ethics in regards to the manufacturing process vary from country to country. The firm is bound to follow the legal norms in order to maintain safety standards. Porters five forces It is a framework for the industry analysis and business strategy development developed by Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School in 1979. It draws upon Industrial Organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_five_forces_analysis). It is a tool to assess the nature of competition by calculating the factors inside and outside an industry. It is done in order to develop business strategy and do an analysis of industry. (http://alfrancobakerhughes.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/porters-five-forces2.jpg) The Five Forces: Threat of new entrants: The threat for a new entrant in an automobile industry is the minimum due to high investment in order to set up manufacturing plants and assembly liners. The time taken to be recognized by the consumers is even more than any other industry. Above are the few barriers that there is hardly a threat of new entrant in the world of Automobile. Threat of substitutes: Although BMW is one of luxurious and renowned brand but can face a threat of substitutes due to other powerful brands like Audi, Toyota, Mercedes and so on. The other brands too as a wider choice due to huge range of products. Bargaining power of suppliers: BMW got a long relationship with its supplier and also got a tightly controlled distribution system. Suppliers have high bargain power because suppliers can dictate the cost of raw material. Long relationship with suppliers result in reduced cost of raw materials. Bargaining power of buyers: The bargain power of buyers is high due to availability of huge range of products as BMW and its competitors fall into exclusive car range. Consumers can choose a product on the basis of price. Competitive rivalry: As most of the bigger automobile companies are globally establishes, their target market is the same attracting the same group of customers. This results in greater competition especially in the markets of Asia, Europe and US. The key drivers of change Pestel analysis helps us to overview the macro environmental factors. The factors which can have a high impact on strategy are identified with the combination of the above i.e. Pestel analysis, Porters five forces and drivers of change. The drivers of change help managers make effective decisions. Some of them are: Consideration of environmental issues Change of customer demand for goods quality cost of ownership. Improvement in the use of technology and preference design due to change in taste and preferences of consumers. Trend of using small cars. The Industry life cycle It is composed of five stages from the launching of the product to its declination. The stages are development stage, growth stage, shakeout stage, maturity stage and decline stage. The first stage is the start up of a company with the innovation of its assets. Secondly, during the growth stage there is a minimal threat to new entrants and high growth with low bargaining power of buyers. Thirdly, in the shake out stage the firm focuses on its managerial and financial activities and is a stage of slow growth. Fourthly, the maturity stage faces high barriers to entry with increase in competition. At this stage the highest is the sales with high market share but with time, the growth stops and stage of declination comes. Considering the case study, BMW is in the maturity stage of industry life cycle. Although its growth is stagnant, its products like 1,3,5,7 series were standardized due to its huge market share and brand identity. Despite high barriers to entry in the maturity stage, BMW asset was a relatively high market share and status as a manufacturing excellence. SWOT Analysis It is a tool to analyze the internal strength and weakness with the external opportunities and threats. It helps in better understanding of how the internal strength and weakness with current strategy are capable of dealing with the changes in the external environment. Strengths In order to maintain good supply chain management, BMW maintains strong relationship with suppliers. As BMW uses the most advanced technology, it helps in enabling design, quality and price to prospective consumers. BMW has a good position in the market in terms of brand and gratitude factor. It can rely on its strength in order to gain competitive advantage with the help of its well qualified labor force. Brand image High turnover Highly qualified Labor force. Weakness: Low cost products of competitors and its perception of high price. BMW had an image of being serious and conventional in comparison with the other competitors. Environmental issues. Consumer sophistication and understanding. Opportunities: The number of products sold was increased inspite of most of the countries being hit by recession. Its attitude of advanced technology towards its products and its flexibility in development and manufacturing. Affordability due to interest rate being less. Its popularity increased among the developing countries like India and China. World wide recognized brand image. Introducing and developing a new product in the market with more advanced features. Threats: Economic downturn Different Legal factors of different countries. Increment in the number of entrants in the industry Competition level increasing day by day and its going to be hard to survive for a company who doesnt go along with the change in trend. Increment in the supply costs. Cycle of Competition There was a strong competition between all the competitors in the market with time and in order to overcome the hurdles which could have resulted in the loss, BMW had a rise in its turnover with the use of adequate technology. Core capability and competitive advantages are not permanent in nature as per the concept of cycle of competition. ; For example BMWs strongest competitors Toyota group. According to Kiley (2004), Toyotas whole assets including machinery, profit margins etc create threats for BMW as Toyota has established product in the small market region. Therefore, the available option for BMW is to compete through its core capability and competitive advantages. By implementing the use of scientific technology that BMW restores to, higher economies of scale can be achieved. BMW is one who serves from a small car to a bigger car like that from a mini to Rolls Royce. This is one which serves from a luxury segment to the premium segment which is not in case of all its competitors. Strategic drift Strategic drift refers to the change in strategy. Despite the occasional incremental development from cultural and historical factors, the reason for drift to occur is when company environmental changes negatively affect its operations. BMW emphasises on brand development that is a result from changes in the market. Strategic drift is better off explained when considering an example of acquiring of English brand Rover was due to the companys need of increasing production. Resources A resource is described as any physical entity that needs to be consumed first to get benefits out of it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource). There are two kinds of resources- Tangible and Intangible Resources. Tangible Resources are the physical assets like Labour force, machinery, finance within a firm and Intangible resources are the non physical assets like information, status and knowledge. The resources which BMW possesses are: It has highly qualified labour force composed of young and professional professionals. In 2003, BMWs financial resources the turnover was of 41.53 billion Euro, gross margins of 3.2 billion, 7.4% profit margins and annual surplus of 3.2 billion Euro. Supply chain and dealership management Effective market segmentation Its universally designed physical resources Its relationship with the its suppliers, quality of products, reliability and dealings makes them building strong relationship with their suppliers so that helps them in high bargain power of supplier. Brand image getting stronger due to its reliability and inevitable product quality. By the contribution of economies of scale, product/process design, experience and supply chain, cost efficiency at BMW is possible (Gerry, Scholes and Whittington, 2008) Supply costs Especially in terms of production and purchase of raw materials, supply costs play and important role within an organization. It is considered to be an important asset when input cost decides about the success of a company. With a work force of 104000, BMW has set up different locations like China, USA, UK, South Africa and Germany in order to manage its supply cost. It was guaranteed that the supply cost will be reduced if the transportation cost of raw materials is reduced. Experience The two primary things while considering experience in an organization are attainment of cost efficiency and control of costs. There is also a need to generate competitive advantage through experience by the firm itself and its unit costs. BMW has been in the automobile sector since the Second World War. Acquiring of the cumulative experience is expected to lower its unit costs. There is a need of increment in the unit produced annually from the established assembly units in this competitive market with the reduction in the cost. This reduction atleast guarantees capability of survival although the competitive advantage may not be achieved. Product/Process Design Product design is concerned with the efficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_design)The main reason for product design is to maximise working capital, labour productivity and better yield. In order to compete with the rival, it is adopted in order to gain competitive advantage. BMW has earned reputation in the global market as an engineering excellence due to its excellent performance in product/process design. Value Network for BMW BMWs assembly locations and manufacturing unit is independent on each other according to the value network. Each of the assembly units has a separate supplier of raw materials needed to manufacture the product. Internal value chain in the assembly liners exists among them. The organisation also possesses a channel value chain which is formed on the basis of design, location and price such as the product varies from a mini to Rolls Royce. As per the target market, market segmentation is done and accordingly the product ranges are priced and designed differently as per the value chain criteria. The pricing strategy differs from location to location where BMW is focussing at. Like the price for the products in related to automobile industry in Asian market is cheaper than UK or US. BMW Success Factor There are various factors responsible for BMW success. These include Product quality, Product cost and experience. Firstly, the product quality is important to be maintained as per the customer satisfaction point of view. The excellence of a product helps in identifying the brand of a product. For a company like BMW, it is important to maintain its quality for further success. Secondly, the product cost is always high but its quality of the products gets balanced it in front of its competitors and justifies the reason for the price to be high. The third success factor is Experience for BMW in the automobile industry. Its presence in the industry for so many years has helped in establishing its brand image for its products together with the advanced supply chain which helps in delivering of the right product at right time. Hereby its said by Radinger, 1996 that the BMW s channel value chain of price, location and design is the backbone of consumer value chain. Its brand image, technology, business model, its sustainability in this competitive world and lastly its CEO are responsible for its own success. Future Challenges that may have an impact on BMW are: Decrease in economies of scale Technology may become stagnant. Consumers taste and preference might change During the firms maturity stage, there might be increase in rivalry leading to price wars too Ups and downs of Currency rate will have impact on the prices of products sold in different countries. High fuel prices and increment in the cost of raw materials. BMW possesses the strategies like Product development, Market penetration; Restructuring, Market development and liquation that will help BMW readdress profits for organizational future. Conclusion A company like BMW had to face lot of problems in the 1990s as there were so many competitors in the Automobile industry and also due to the fact of global recession. After all this hassel, there came a good part in its company which proved to be a turning point for the company as the new CEO started a strategy of internal growth through market and product development in the year 2002. Due to the failure to grow market share, the group adopted a strategy of organic growth in its early 2000s.This resulted in the launch of a large number of models with varied price and class ranges leading to further market development. This strategy of internal growth and product development also brought them to a conclusion of launching a new model every 3 months from 2003 through to 2005 and this plan was implemented which gave consumers choice from Mini to Rolls Royce.. The two biggest market the company targeted on were US and Asia in order to find buyers of their top and high range models and lef t over the European market for its lower cost and lower range models as the buyers didnt include people with high budget in order to buy a car as they preferred mainly basic car model. BMW is in the maturity stage as of industry life cycle. Although its growth is stagnant, its products like 1,3,5,7 series were standardized due to its huge market share and brand identity. Despite high barriers to entry in the maturity stage, BMW asset was a relatively high market share and status as a manufacturing excellence. The company acquired the image of manufacturer of an Ultimate driving machine as they worked upon their weakness and landed up innovating new ways in order to distinguish itself with its competitors. This resulted in crossing over the turnover of Lexus, the US biggest automobile maker in 2004 and BMW then become world biggest automobile company.

Financial performance of ABC Ltd

Financial performance of ABC Ltd Introduction Accounting is concerned with collecting, analyzing, and communicate accounting information. The accounting information is helpful to those people who make plans about business and in making important decisions related to the business The aim of this paper is to evaluate the financial position of the company and the importance of credit manager to achieve credit sales targeted and importance of actual figures when estimating the budget. This paper consists of two main sections. In the first part, evaluation of the financial position of ABC Ltd uses gross profit margin and net profit margin. The second part concentrates on things need to consider when preparing the budget in order to prevent from biased budget. Part A A) Evaluate the financial performance of ABC Ltd. Over the four year period. Financial ratio examines the financial health of the business. It helps to identify the financial strengths and weakness of the business. By calculating the ratio, it is possible to provide a good picture of the financial position and performance of a business. Financial ration can be represented in numerous ways. For example, as percentage, as fraction and as proportion. Financial ratio can be classified into profitability, efficiency, liquidity, gearing and investment. ABC Ltd company’s financial performance is evaluated by using profitability ration of gross profit margin and net profit margin. Gross profit is the difference between the sales and cost of sales. And the ratio is a measure of profitability in buying ad selling goods and service before any other expenses are taken into account. For example: Gross Profit Margin = Gross Profit x100 Sales = 119800/296700 x 100 = 40% Gross profit for the year one is 40%. The most appropriate measure of operational performance for comparison purposes is the Net profit margin ratio. The factors which influence the net profit margin of a business are the degree of competition, type of customer, economic climate and industry characteristics. For example: Net Profit Margin = Net profit before interest and taxation x 100 Sales = 22500/296700 x 100 = 8% Net Profit Margin for the Year one is 8% Gross profit margin of ABC Ltd company has fallen down from 40% to 33%. And again increased to 38% and fall down to 36%. The decrease of the gross profit margin of ABC Ltd was a result of high production cost of the company. The raw material used to produce goods and services has increased. As a result the company is experiencing less gross profit margins. Nonetheless, the Net profit margin of ABC Ltd has been maintained for the last two years, Year 3 and Year 4. Whereas in Year 1 company had a high net profit margin and it gradually decreased and company experience loss of (2) % of Net profit margin. This may be because the company’s Gross profit margin decreased from 40 to 33 and affected the company’s net profit margin. Moreover, it may be the reason that, the company has high expense such as high selling and distribution expense, Administration and other general expenses. After experiencing a loss in Year 2, company gain 7% of net profit margin in Year 3 and year 4 also. This shows company has minimized their expenses and cost of sales and increase their revenue by generating more sales. Below show graphical demonstration of ABC Ltd financial performance. According to the above table, all the accounts except the financial expense of ABC Ltd, all others have increased. Total sales increased. Meaning that number of goods and services sold by ABC Ltd have increased and generated a huge amount of revenue. However, the cost of sales also has increased. But compared to sales achieved, cost of sales is less than the sales generated. Meaning that the money generated by sales by the company was spent to make the sales, such as raw material, Equipements, machineries cost. Therefore the company gross profit has increased. The expenses spent to generate the revenue are selling and distribution expenses, administration and other general expenses and financial expenses. All expenses have increased except financial expenses. This may be due to each years increase in sales of the company. As demand for the goods and service increases, more number of good and services are produced. And to deliver the products to customers, costs incurred will be high such as delivery cost, transportation cost and other administrative cost related to the delivery of goods and services. Financing expenses have decreased such as rent paid, electricity, fixtures and fitting etc. As a result Net profit of ABC Ltd increased by $10,845. Part B A) Why credit manager is to blame for poor credit collection There are certain causes why credit manager is to blame for the deterioration in the credit collection period which are beyond the credit manager. Downturn in the economy When the budget was formulated, during that time economy may have been in a very good condition like in a boom. Businesses earn profits and their ability to pay the suppliers would be strong. And based on credit worthiness, ABC company Ltd has released goods on credit facility during that time. After two months of time, the economy turned into recession. During recession, companies reluctant to spend money and have difficulties in paying to debtors, lenders and suppliers. Henceforth customers, who have bought goods from ABC Ltd under the credit facility, would not able to pay as agreed terms and conditions. Liberalize credit policy The next reason which credit manager cannot be blamed, is a formulation of credit policy terms and conditions and implementation of the policy. When developing a credit policy there are certain conditions which should take into account. For example, buyer’s strength in the market, available net profit margin, size and type of buyers, buyer’s creditworthiness and many more. Any credit policy should include the range of payment, terms, prepayment terms, installments, penalty interest, conditions of sales, methods of assessing customer, explaining credit rating and risk codes, legal actions, follow up methods, staff responsibility and authority, relationship with another and arbitration process. If these clauses are incorporated into the policy, and customers are aware before getting into any sales and customer agreed by signing the terms, then the customer will be binding to it. As a result the credit manager would able to claim for the payment accordingly to the agreement, if a customer is disobeying the agreed terms and conditions. Therefore, it is a responsibility of policy makers of the company and senior management to come up with a strong policy and implementing it. And this could be done in coordination with a credit manager. Another reason could be that, even if the company has a strong policy, without acting upon it, we cannot achieve what we want. For example, if the sales persons or sales manager, or senior management, issue goods without checking the credit worthiness of customer with their friends or close customers and they make own payment paying term their way without consent of credit manager. Increased competition among suppliers The business environment is very volatile. Competition among business increases steadily. Being proactive would be the best solution for the success of the company. During the tough competition, it is essential to revise the credit policy terms as accordingly to customer needs and affordability. Otherwise competitors would be offering more attractive conditions and they are likely to get all customers resulting gain the market share in the business sector. And ABC Ltd would not able to get enough customers to achieve the credit targets allocated in the budget. Quality of goods and services If the quality of the products offered by ABC Ltd is very low, then the customer will refuse to buy the products. Even if they buy the product if the quality is below their expected level, then the payment will be held for some time. And it’s a responsibility of the production department to produce the goods with good quality according to customer needs. The goods Delaying in delivering If the company is unable to deliver the goods at the agreed time, then the customer would not able to depend on the company. In other words, failure to deliver the promises will lead to loss of customer and low dependability. Therefore, it is important for production department to provide raw materials and other necessary material to produce goods and it’s their responsibility to deliver the goods to customers on time. If the company fails to provide this, then the customers would prefer other competitors and faces low market share and generate low profit. Relationship with sales and credit department The relationship between sales staffs (or sales manager) and credit manager is very important. The credit manager responsibility is that to provide further guidance to achieve sales to the sales staffs. Why manager might submit a budget estimate that is biased. And ways to Company guard against it. According to the CIMA definition of budget, it is a plan quantified in monetary terms, prepared and approved prior to a defined period of time, usually showing planned income to be generated and/or expenditure to be incurred during that period and the capital to be employed to attain a given objective. There are types of budget, managers use when preparing the budget. One of the methods is incremental budget. The budget is prepared using the previous year budget as a basis with incremental amount is added to the new budget. Resources are allocated based on previous years resource allocations. The main advantage of this type of budget is that it is easy to understand and implement and also save time. This could be one of the reasons why budget estimates are based. The main reason is that incremental budget does not take environment changing factor into considerations. Due to changing is economy, budget need to be revised basically periodically and necessary amendments need to be done. Another problem is that, incremental budget does not have incentives to innovative ideas and to reduce cost. Another type of budget could be fixed budget. In fixed budgets, figures are fixed at the beginning of budgetary period. Any change in circumstance, these cannot be changed. For example, due to high inflation, raw material costs (others as well, such as machinery cost, about cost, rent, electricity) increase more that which is estimated in the budget. In fixed budget this cannot be changed. Therefore, actual expenditure exceeds than the estimated value in the budget. A good way to mitigate the budget that is based is that having shorter review periods. For example, if estimated budget is for one year. Then managers can review the budget after three month period or on quarter basis. The second way to guard the company from base budget is that to approach zero based budgeting. Budget starts from zero and items included in the budget should be justifiable to the budget holder. All expenses allocated for the whole project, should justify each activity separately and develop a questioning attitude. This helps to minimize the over spendinging and inefficient. Therefore company cannot spend more that what it is estimated and from the estimated expenditure, expected profits will be generated. Conclusion From above discussion, we can conclude that, increase in company gross profit would have a direct impact on net profit. Generating more sales will increase the gross profits and by minimizing the company expenses, the companies net profit would increase. And the profitability can be compared against the previous years by using ratios and trend analysis. Secondly, businesses normally prepare the budgets annually and quarterly. Regular evaluation of budgets prevents from overspending and adjust the budgets, according to changing the environment. And also in order to achieve high credit facility a budgeted, not only the credit manager should work on it. Other department staffs like sales and senior management should play an important role in doing so. References Atrill, McLaney, Harvey Jenner 2012, Accounting an introduction, 5th edn, Pearson Australia. FICM, GB 1986, Â © 2004 FECMA , viewed 1 December 2014, http://www.fecma.eu/Documents/FECMA%20Credit%20Policy%20chapt%20%201.pdf>. McLaney, E Atrill, P 2010, Accounting An Introduction, 5th edn, Pearson Education Limited. Riley, Jim 2012, Tutor2u Limited, viewed 1 December 2014, http://www.tutor2u.net/business/accounts/incremental-budgeting.htm>. Schaeffer, MS 2012, Essentials of Credit, Collections, and Accounts Receivable, John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. Page 1 of 14

They Can Feel It Too Essay -- Animal Rights

Did you know that domestic violence against an animal as a first offence is only a class B misdemeanor and domestic battery against a human is a Class A misdemeanor? Did you also know that a Class A misdemeanor is about 2 times more severe than a Class B misdemeanor? What makes us humans so special and superior to animals? Why do animals have fewer rights and less protection than us? Animals have feelings too and need to be treated as such so I say it’s time for a change. All this abuse and neglect towards animals needs to stop. Animals can feel pain even though they may not express it the same way that us humans do. Animals need our voices to help close the loopholes in our laws. Someone has to speak up for them since they can’t speak for themselves. In media-reported animal cruelty cases, dogs, pit bulls, in particular, are the most common victims of animal cruelty. In 2007 64.5% of media-reported cases involved dogs, 18% involved cats, and 25% involved other types of animals. The HSUS (The Humane Society of the United States) estimates that nearly 1 million animals a year are abused or killed in connection with domestic violence. About 2,168,000 women and men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner in the U.S. every year. 63% of U.S. households own a pet, and 71% of domestic violence victims report that their abuser also targeted their animals. These statistics are very alarming. So is the fact that many convicted murderers and serial killers tortured animals when they were younger and progressed to killing humans. The other two red-flag behaviors are setting fires and wetting ones bed. Now I’m not saying every child that wets themselves should be put under a microscopic eye but all three of these behaviors together ... ...2383--.html Pristin, Terry. "New Jersey Daily Briefing;Tougher Animal Cruelty Law." New York Times 16 July 1996: 1. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Mar. 2012. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=5&hid=108&sid=58dd2e2a-f77d-4363-99b4-a8f9371ab8ab%40sessionmgr114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=29578437 VanKavage, Ledy. â€Å"Humane Law Enforcement in Illinois†, Petfinder.com. Spring 2002. Web. March 18, 2012. http://www.petfinder.com/how-to-help-pets/humane-law-enforcement-illinois.html Whitcomb, Rachel. "Veterinarian Recounts Zanesville's Tragic Killing Of 49 Exotic, Wild Animals." DVM: The Newsmagazine Of Veterinary Medicine 42.12 (2011): 7. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Mar. 2012. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=7&hid=108&sid=58dd2e2a-f77d-4363-99b4-a8f9371ab8ab%40sessionmgr114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=69711284

Ways the Human Race could Destroy Itself :: Apocalypse

The End of Humanity: Could the Human Species Destroy Itself? There are lots of ways humanity could be wiped out - although I don't think any of them are particularly likely. Natural causes - An extinction-level asteroid impact would probably be sufficient, although not much else would - a disease epidemic, major climate shift, etc. would still leave many survivors to rebuild within a few hundred years. The window for such an impact is, however, extremely short, because it's extremely likely that within 300 years or so we will have the means to predict and avert all dangerous impacts. And the chance of that happening is, from historical comparison, 0.001% or less. There are a few other possibilities that would be much more catastrophic, though. One is a supernova very nearby, which would blast Earth with intense gamma radiation and most likely kill all macro-organisms. However, there aren't any stars large and old enough for this to be a risk for hundreds of thousands of years. Another is orbital destabilization of Earth (such as ejection from the Solar System) by a close-passing star - but the chance of that is extremely remote, and in addition we'd have thousands of years of warning. And the last that I can think of is alien invasion†¦ which is really out there, obviously. The eventual solar threats to life on Earth are not really relevant to humanity/posthumanity. The Sun is not large enough to supernova, but it will eventually engulf the Earth when it runs out of internal fuel and swells into a red giant. That's a good 4-5 billion years away, but well before that, though, the Sun will have become bright enough to heat Earth's surface enough to trigger a major atmospheric shift by overwhelming the "cloud effect" (which keeps temperatures on Earth stable) with a runaway greenhouse gas effect, boiling the oceans and making the planet Venus-like, uninhabitable except by micro-organisms. But even that is about 2 billion years away, plenty of time for posthumanity to rise and either avert the problem or simply head elsewhere. Accident - A scientific experiment run awry, or an unexpected side-effect of some new technology could potentially wreck some serious havoc. One possible horribly catastrophic scenario would be the unforeseen generation of a miniature black hole somewhere on Earth. If the hole did not evaporate instantaneously (and it would have to be pretty large not to, so I don't know how it would be possible to generate one accidentally) it would quickly bore a hole to the center of the Earth, absorbing more and more mass as it went, and eventually implode the planet.

Group Communication Essay

Effective group communications come in forms of verbal and non-verbal techniques. Essential parts of the entire group’s contribution are that the group contains full participating members, the group is diverse, and that the diversity is recognized and respected (Hartley, 1997). In the videos viewed, three were evaluated on the effective and ineffective communication skills of the participants and suggestions made on how they could improve. The videos are titled, â€Å"Planning a Playground†, â€Å"Helping Annie†, and â€Å"The Politics of Sociology. Planning a Playground For the impact diversity plays on group member’s communication styles, I choose the video titled â€Å"Planning a Playground†. In this video, community residents are meeting for the first time to discuss an issue pertaining to funding of new neighborhood playground. The residents belong to diversified backgrounds in regards to their ages, genders, race, and SEC (Planning a Playground, 2008). The origins of the residents differ as one member is Black; one is Asian, whereas the other three are Caucasian. The residents come from different SEC backgrounds. One member opens the discussion about funding and how much difficulty they are having in raising enough money. Another member chimes in and mentions how she is close friends with a person with a lot of resources who might help with contributions. The group members’ communication style is totally different because their diversified backgrounds. Some sit facing the other’s and makes constant eye contact. Another sits at the ‘head’ of the table able to view everyone but does not necessary look at everyone. Some members are taking detailed written notes, where another is just sitting there listening to everyone. Physical placement places a huge effect and impact on communication. People facing each other, sitting in close proximity, ensures everyone is heard and gives a feeling of comfort. Other effective communication methods could have made use of for the meeting and benefitted all members. Two of these methods are written materials and telephones (Hartley, 1997). Written material could be repared before the group met and used to make occurrences clearer to members, who have no knowledge of the subject. The other method is telephones, which can assist the members to gain better understanding of each other. In the use of telephones there is the reduce chance of discrimination since the members can not see each other (if they have not met prior- in some incidences here). Annie To address the verbal and nonverbal interaction among the members of a group the video titled â€Å"Annie† best illustrates this. In the video there is clearly both listening and miscommunication going on. The setting of this video is that the title character, Annie is a high school girl, who seems to be suffering from a possible eating disorder as well as depression (Understanding Relationship- Helping Annie, 2008). A nurse from a school has called upon a meeting with a psychiatrist and a social worker to seek out a possible treatment plan for Annie. In â€Å"Annie†, again the physical setting and placement of participants play an important part in the communication style. Two of the members are sitting side-by-side on a couch while the third person sits in her desk chair across from the couch. The person in the chair is not only able to make eye contact with the other two but also is in a physical position to see their verbal and non-verbal communications. The two on the couch are at a disadvantage for reading the non-verbal language and making eye contact with each other. The school nurse, psychiatrist, and social workers are engaged in a verbal conversation. The psychiatrist is talking to the school nurse and is not all concerned or ready to take any sort of arguments from the social worker. He is engaging in various sorts of non- verbal communication with the social workers showing his disinterest. The various non- verbal communications used by the psychiatrist are body language and voice. He continues to cut the social worker off in mid-sentence, not allowing her to speak (Understanding Relationship- Helping Annie, 2008). These non- verbal communications were hindering the process of group communication. The two methods of communications, which could have facilitated the group would have been one-to-one conversation as well as written communication. Each member could have met individually to avoid interruptions and bad sitting placement (Hartley, 1997). Also since each one evaluated Annie separately the could have just submitted their findings and suggestions/recommendations to the social worker and let her develop a plan off of that- and send a copy to the nurse and psychiatrist for editing and review. The Politics of Sociology The third video, â€Å"The Politics of Sociology†, demonstrates good communication techniques from all members of the group. The various listening techniques, which have been used by the members of this group, are encouraging, paraphrasing, and reflecting feelings. The encouraging technique used, refers to the utilization of a variety of verbal and nonverbal to promote others to go ahead with their talks. Paraphrasing is restating the conversation to give an impression that the person listening has understood the conversation. Reflecting is concerned with showing empathy with the speaker. Listening is an important activity of group communication. To bring out an effective solution or conclusion to the matter discussed, it is important to listen to all the opinions. The participants are all professors at a university but still have different backgrounds (The Politics of Sociology, 2008). There are differences in the ages, races, and subjects they teach. Each person has a different communication style. Some shot ideas out right away where others waited for all to speak then evaluate and give their opinions, while staying respectful and understanding of each other’s point of view. The physical set-up of the room plays a positive part in their effective communication. Each member is facing each other and is able to see the faces of everyone. This positioning helps cut back on misunderstandings or non-verbal cues. Even though the communication techniques used in this video seem to be effective, there are always room for change and improvement. Since the group was composed of multiple people, five or six, a visual display could have been used. Either a blackboard or overhead projector could have been set up and allow each member to put up their pros and cons for change of the curriculum as well as any ideas or suggestions they had. After each member went then one person could be delegated to summarize the lists and come up with final recommendations to be voted on (Hartley, 1997). Another method could have been to break the group up into two smaller groups to work on solutions and then bring them back to the large group for discussion. Conclusion In problem solving, group discussion, or just typical dialogue it is important to have effect communication techniques. Depending on the group or topic of conversation there are several techniques that work better for discussion then others. Taking into consideration time frame or group size written, telephone, or one-on-one techniques can be utilized. Communication styles vary among groups but key essentials are universal; listening, respecting, and appropriate interaction between members.