Organizational metaphor Essay

What is a metaphor? Metaphor (met-uh-fawr, -fer) a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance. In organizational behaviour, the metaphors help people understand all we need to know about an organization. Gareth Morgan proposed near in 80 ´s, the eight metaphors of organizations to explain the organization problems. The two most important metaphors he proposed, are the organizations as machines and the organizations as brains. The first metaphor that he proposed, allowed us to understand the organizations as machines. Since Descartes the metaphor of the machine has entered the scientific thought. This philosopher say the human body is liked to a later machine. Then the industrial revolution take this philosophy as part of the shift. Later Gareth Morgan sense that organizations are like machines, its means they require high levels of efficiency in the same way as the machines require high levels of efficiency to operate correctly. All organizations require maintenance, to keep them running without difficulty and propitiously, similar to machines, that require maintenance to keep them running productively. Organizations are like machines because when individuals talk to one another about an organization or a machine they communicate using many of the same words to describe the organization or the machine. The second one is organization as an organism. The comparison of the organization with an organization concept from biology, aims to underline the dynamic character of the former, subject to constant change. These changes take on a vital aspect for survival and effectiveness. Consequently, the employees have needs that must be satisfied for them to function well. According to the population ecology view, some organisations depend on resources to survive for which they have to compete with other  organisations. Unlike what we observed in the metaphor of the machine, which highlights here is not a static, controlled, focusing on their physical structure. The third is the organization as a brain. Like the brains, thee organization learn, processes information, create, and have decision making. So talk about the organization as a brain, refers to the fact that organization is made up of a central department. That minds, all decisions are made solely by the central control, and other agencies have the task of carrying out the requests made by the leader or brain. Organizations as a cultures. Culture (kÊÅ'ltÊÆ'É™r) from Latin: cultura, cultivation. When we are talking about culture, we are concerning for the developing models, reproduced in a society model, formed by knowledge, ideologies values and laws. Comparable to the society, the organizations are affected by the rules and ethics codes, appropriated for all situations. These facts were named by Representation and agreement. Organization as autocracy (Political system) In a system that rewards progressing, and punishes the faults; employees are encouraged to hide the failures of the system to protect themselves â€Å"letting sleeping dogs lie† and saying bosses exactly what they want to hear. The only freedom they have is the option to quit and move on. Conflict occurs when there are opposing interests and is probably always present in all organisations. The political view of organisation shows that politics is inevitable in organisations and all organisational activity is based on self-interest. It explodes the myth that organisations are rational, it helps to find ways to overcome the limitations of the notion that organisations are integrated systems, and it gets us to recognise socio-political implications of different organisations and their roles in society. The danger of this view is that it can increase the politicisation of organisations. (anonymous, 2014) Organizations as psychic prisons. Nominalism may refer to a position that denies the existence of universal entities or objects, but accepts that particular objects or entities exist. Plato conceives a man with a dual reality, body and soul, which considers the idea of ​​the material and the immaterial or spiritual as opposites. The model of psychic prison metaphor is used to examine some of the ways organizations and their member’s become trapped by constructions of reality that give an important understanding about the world. The transformative organizations. These organizations emphasizes three different logics: organizations as self-producing systems, as results circular-flows and the product of dialectical movements. Instruments of domination. These kind of organizations used the staff for their own purposes. So  ¿What do we know about the organizational metaphors? (Morgan, 1980). Metaphor plays a symbolic role, for the organizational analysis, just like that, creates a set of meanings essential for the process of human appreciation, social, psychological and cultural. Referencias anonymous. (31 de 08 de 2014). Obtenido de http://www.systems-thinking.ca/myfiles/GarethMorgan.pdf balniev. (31 de 08 de 2014). http://es.scribd.com/. Obtenido de http://es.scribd.com/doc/61657954/Metafora-Organizacion-Como-Cultura-Morgan sarahysigie. (31 de 08 de 2014). http://sarahysigie.blogspot.mx/. Obtenido de http://sarahysigie.blogspot.mx/2009/09/clasificacion-de-las-organizaciones.html

Exemplary Leader Philosophy Paper Essay

I never aspired to be an ethical leader before this class. It is not that I acted unethically, but that I never understood the importance of being an ethical leader. As a child, I was constantly changing my mind about what I was going to be when I grew up, but never once did â€Å"ethical† cross my mind. It seems as though this is a common theme among human beings, that we see success through the masculine lens of materialism and consumerism. Being able to acquire the newest, biggest, most innovative thing is what motivates us from a very young age. This is not something to be necessarily ashamed about, because at one point or another, everyone acts out of self-interest and solely for self-advancement. The thing that has to change, however, is the amount of fully-grown adults who still act out of self interest, and more specifically, adults in leadership roles, managing corporations, institutions, cities, states, and countries, that pull their team in the right direction for themselves, and not necessarily for the organization. This class has taught me who I am, both as an individual and as a part of a cohesive team, who I can be, thanks to the concepts and thought-provoking readings and lectures, and how I can get there by utilizing these concepts and strategies. Throughout the course of this semester, I have been able to continue producing the same amount of success as I have in the past, but I have been able to do it the â€Å"right† way. By identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to those opportunities of my personality and character, I have been able to identify my true self. This identification process is the first step toward becoming an ethical and moral example for peers, subordinates, and even superiors, both in a professional sense and in a personal sense. â€Å"History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them.† – B. R. Ambedkar This quote, spoken by Indian scholar B. R. Ambedkar, shows the belief in the common phrase, â€Å"business ethics is an oxymoron.† It is this mentality that began the self-fulfilling prophecy that business leaders use as an excuse for unethical behavior. The â€Å"slippery slope† of ethical breakdowns, as Badaracco calls it, begins with a mentality that justifies the diversion of ethics and economics. Throughout the rest of this exploration of the current self, the prospective self, and the presentation of a development plan, I will disprove this mentality. Current Self In order to effectively assess one’s ethical and moral fortitude, one must objectively identify his strengths and weaknesses relative to being an exemplary ethical leader. Furthermore, one must then address each individual aspect of his personality, including character traits, values, and integrity through relative ethical concepts and principles. By executing this process, one can truly learn about oneself and identify the necessary steps to becoming the possible self, or leader he wants to become. The process of identifying your own strengths and weaknesses can be difficult, especially in terms of being completely unbiased and objective. The key to successfully doing this is in relying on factual evidence that supports each strength and weakness. To be considered either, however, there must be a certain consistency in terms of actions as well as intent, which proves the validity of each strength or weakness. During my self-exploration, I thought back to some of my first memories in order to serve as a foundation for my moral potency and character, and to see how my experiences have shaped my personality, both positively and negatively. This process has given me perspective and helped me attain the knowledge necessary to complete an objective report of my own personality, values, skills, characteristics, and motivations. Without this process, I would have been subject to a common decision making fallacy that was taught in my organizational behavior class, known as the tendency to use information at hand, which describes a person’s inclination to make a decision based on readily-available information, rather than fact-based evidence. In this case, the â€Å"readily-available information† would be anecdotes and experiences that â€Å"stick out† in my memory. These examples are not necessarily wrong to use, but basing my process on them wholly would provide data inconsistent with my true personality. Since I can remember, I have always been a fierce competitor. This is shown through my spirited drive to achieve that has permeated my entire life, from academics, to extracurricular activities, to athletics. This competitiveness has both positive and negative effects on my leadership abilities, because I am driven and motivated to achieve goals, but can prove dangerous in team situations where group consensus is necessary. The competitive nature that is ingrained in my personality can lead to a concept called â€Å"me-ism†, described by Badaracco in chapter 4, which explains the phenomenon of being so goal-oriented that you lose sight of the effects that your actions have on other people. This concept can also relate to Badaracco’s inattentional blindness and motivated blindness, which describe occurrences in which one’s personal goals or lack of careful observation override that person’s ability to sense an ethical dilemma. My competitive nature has led to many successes in my life, including winning the New York under-18 state hockey championship, becoming the first non-senior to be an alternate captain on the Wake Forest club ice hockey team, and of course being accepted into this business school. These examples are all evidence of my competitive nature, and describe my desire to lead and win simultaneously. The concept of the future is tremendously fascinating to me. In another BEM class that I took this semester, we did a personality assessment that included over one hundred twenty questions and returned your five biggest personality strengths, and â€Å"futurism† was one of mine. I truly enjoy thinking about the future because of its uncertainty. I feel so much potential and possibility for myself, which is strengthened by my competitiveness. My ability to constantly think about the future while still keeping my â€Å"feet on the ground† and completing my assignments in the present is one of my most powerful strengths. My futurism keeps me on track toward achieving my personal and organizational goals. Becoming a transformational leader begins with the futurist outlook combined with a strong moral potency, which is the combination of three moral factors: moral ownership, moral courage, and moral efficacy. Moral potency, when combined with futurism, provides a leader with a strong moral and ethical foundation on which to base decisions, as well as the ability to envision the potential of a given organization. By acting in this way, a leader can start a chain reaction called the contagion effect, which is the phenomenon that occurs by promoting a transparent, ethical, and fair environment, starting from the C-level executives and â€Å"infecting† every employee underneath. The aforementioned strengths of mine, a strong competitive nature and a futuristic outlook provide me with an ethically-ambiguous foundation, meaning that both highly ethical and highly unethical leaders sport these qualities, and the actions that I make within the next few years will decide on which end of the spectrum I fall. In order for me to ensure that I do not start down the slippery slope of unethical decisions, I must be conscious of the fact that each decision I make has ethical implications, and I also must be weary of my weaknesses that could lead me down the wrong path. Acknowledging one’s weaknesses is critical to the process of defining your current self. As the saying goes, â€Å"nobody’s perfect,† and the only way to minimize the mistakes you make throughout your life is to accept the fact that you do have weaknesses, and to analyze what they are, why you have them, how you act on them, and how to correct them. My competitive drive has led me to have a strong desire to please authority figures, which is a major weakness of my personality, not in the sense that it is bad to desire recognition and achievement, but it frequently leads to Machiavellian, â€Å"ends justify the means† justifications of morally questionable actions. One of Badaracco’s ethical breakdowns, which he discusses in chapter five, the overvaluation of outcomes, directly relates to this personality trait. Two years ago I interned for a brokerage firm on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and my boss was a task-oriented, results-driven leader, a common type in the financial sector. He demanded that the team of four interns provide a daily projection of trade volume based on an algorithm and spreadsheets dating back to the early 1990’s. After being reprimanded by our boss for presenting him with unfavorable figures, we began to slightly alter the bottom line to get his approval. In this situation, we made a major ethical mistake by overvaluing the results. With the knowledge I have gained from this class, I would have analyzed the decision to alter the numbers using the categorical imperative, and in this situation, especially in the financial sector, it would be a very bad thing if my actions became universal norms. Fortunately, the trade projections were strictly internal, and I found out later in the internship that my boss would assign this project to new interns as a way of â€Å"breaking them in† and showing them the harshness of the business world. This desire to please has affected my leadership skills mostly within the context of leading peers, because, when combined with my competitive nature, I realize that there are few things that I will not consider doing to get ahead, which will ostracize me from my peers and create a divide within the group, decreasing my ability to influence others around me. Another weakness of mine is my tendency to overuse legitimate power when it is given to me. Legitimate power, which is defined as power bestowed upon someone over others, can come as a promotion, as it did in my case, when I was voted captain of my varsity hockey team in high school. This promotion gave me nominal power over my teammates off of the rink, but it was enough to leverage and coerce them to follow my orders. Trevino and Nelson outline the psychology I used to justify this behavior in chapter five, in their discussion of informal organizational cultural systems. The norms usually override formal rules, according to Trevino and Nelson. â€Å"†¦Despite formal rules, regulations, codes, and credos, informal norms are frequently the most influential behavior guides and clues to the culture†. The rationalization that â€Å"it’s the way we do things around here† was understood by my teammates, because the captain before me was the same way. It is this lack of moral potency to realize the unethical behavior and act on my personal values that makes this a weakness of mine. In the heat of the moment, it is hard to stop yourself and think about ethical philosophy, but necessary to promote the organizational culture that is conducive and necessary to running a hockey team. This self-exploration has provided me with a sound basis to analyze myself and prepare to make the jump into the business world with a strong moral compass and the ability to create a working plan to become the exemplary leader that I wish to be. However, first I must decide and articulate exactly what kind of leader that is. Possible Self The second step in becoming an exemplary ethical leader is to identify your possible self, that is, the leader that you wish to become at some point in the future. This can be done in a multi-step process, first by identifying exemplary leaders that serve as role models or mentors to you, and then by analyzing their leadership qualities and determining which of those you wish to attain. It is undeniable that every ethical leader chooses to lead with character and integrity, two of the most important characteristics necessary to manage an organization, but just how do you define character? According to Professor Sean Hannah, character is defined by three aspects: moral discipline, moral attachment or attainment, and moral autonomy. The combination of these facets provides a solid basis for the quantification of leadership characteristics. Moral discipline outlines the ability to act in alignment with your personal values, while moral attachment or attainment refers to one’s ability to hold true to your values over time, and moral autonomy is the ability to formulate moral decisions based on your values and decision-making skills, without the influence of outside factors. Both character and integrity play instrumental roles in the development of ethical leaders, as well as in their ability to become role models for lower-level employees. My most recent role model for ethical leadership is Dean Reinemund, because he has been extremely successful as a leader in two vastly different industries, which shows that he has the skills necessary to lead, regardless of the situational context. During his guest lecture in our class, Dean Reinemund spoke about his â€Å"Four C’s of Leadership.† I believe that these four characteristics are immensely important to become a transformational leader with a vision that inspires employees to work at the highest level possible. The first â€Å"C† is character, which Mr. Reinemund describes as having your internal compass point to â€Å"true north†. Having the character to act in correlation with personal and organizational values in the face of adversity is an extremely admirable quality, and is something that I wish to have in my possible self. Mr. Reinemund’s third â€Å"C† is the one that resonated with me the most, particularly because it is the only aspect of his leadership philosophy that cannot be readily learned. Commitment, Reinemund says, is the passionate, internal drive to succeed, and it is something that is ingrained in your personality. Although you can motivate yourself through other, extrinsic means, the â€Å"warrior’s ambition† that Mr. Reinemund describes is a burning internal passion for the work that is being done. This is another facet of an exemplary leader that cannot be left out. Badaracco writes about Aristotle’s â€Å"Golden Mean† in terms of leadership by describing the balance between having a high concern for oneself and having a high concern for others. By attaining this equilibrium, leaders can act ethically and morally to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people. This philosophy also relates to Badaracco’s four spheres of commitments that leaders have to navigate during each and every decision they make. Managing the four spheres is an integral part of being an exemplary leader and must be included in my definition of an exemplary leader. The last piece of leadership that I would like to emulate as an exemplary leader is the characteristics of a quiet leader. Modesty, self-restraint, patience, and careful, incremental moves can right, or even prevent, moral wrongdoings without blowing the issue out of proportion. The public displays of heroism, as coined by Badaracco, depicted in movies and television are usually extremely unnecessary and their emotionalism and lack of careful planning undercuts their credibility, while simultaneously decreasing the amount of empathy received from the listener. Being a quiet leader means doing the right thing, especially when nobody is looking, and that is why I admire such a quality and desire to be the quiet leader who allows his exemplary actions speak for him. Action Plan The third and final step to becoming an exemplary ethical leader is to formulate and execute an actionable leadership development plan, which outlines the steps necessary to transform the current self into the desired possible self. By identifying my strengths and weaknesses, and then identifying the ideal leader that I want to become, I can precisely calculate the discrepancy between the two, and what specific steps I need to take in order to become the exemplary leader I want to be. By using course concepts and relating them to my current self, I have come up with the following steps for my action plan: 1. Do not underestimate the weight of any one decision, no matter how seemingly insignificant it may be 2. Follow Badaracco’s steps to becoming a quiet leader 3. Apply Trevino & Nelson’s 8 steps to recognized ethical dilemmas 4. Read and reflect on the characteristics of an Authentic Leader every day 5. Establish a strong support group to help assist my decision making and provide comprehensive unbiased feedback These five steps, if followed correctly, will create the optimal environment to foster my development as an exemplary leader. My action plan is conducive to the type of leader that I want to be, because it focuses on further improving my strengths, and transforming my weaknesses into strengths by utilizing concepts and strategies learned in class. The first step is the most important one, because due to my competitive nature, I have a tendency to rush decisions in order to complete tasks more efficiently, but in the long run, especially in the professional world, I must be able to recognize the ethicality of each decision I make. By analyzing every decision I make from now on, whether it is my choice of shampoo or a multi-million dollar contract, I will be able to acknowledge the ethical repercussions of each alternative. My second step is to follow Badaracco’s steps to becoming a quiet leader, particularly the second rule, which says to â€Å"pick your battles†, and outlines the concept of political capital. Leadership is not defined by how many times you â€Å"blow the whistle†, but how much of an impact you had when you did decide to take a stand. Consequentially, I must make ethical decisions like Machiavelli’s fox rather than the lion. By building political capital and using it wisely, the respect that colleagues, superiors, and employees show you will increase, and therefore your ability to influence them will also increase, which will allow you to lead with confidence. Trevino & Nelson’s 8-Steps to ethical decision making are extremely important, because they provide a framework for which to analyze and come to a conclusion about any decision. The â€Å"action† piece of this step is simple: I have handwritten the steps on a small piece of paper and put it in my wallet, so that I can refer to it in any situation. By slowing down and analyzing each choice I make in terms of these 8 steps, I’ll be able to consistently make the best decision possible, which will instill confidence in my peers as well as show potential to my superiors. On the reverse side of my wallet-sized 8 steps, I have written the characteristics of an Authentic Leader, because I believe that simply being a quiet leader is not sufficient. Being a quiet leader is a great way to get things done, but in the long term may result with my leadership becoming â€Å"silent† leadership, wherein my peers and employees cannot easily see how I analyze ethical dilemmas and may start to infer that I rely on bottom-line statistics only. This is where the slippery slope begins, and my fourth step will counteract the possibility of being perceived as ethically neutral. My final step is to create a support group of people from different parts of my life, including peers such as friends and classmates, superiors (teachers and coaches), and subordinates such as the younger players on my hockey team. By establishing this group, I will be able to ask them to give me feedback on my projected personality. The first four steps of my action plan are important to my development as a leader, however they will be meaningless if what people perceive about me is different than what I want. Moreover, a support group will help me integrate my different lives, as Dean Reinemund spoke about in his lecture, by teaching me that in order to be perceived as an exemplary leader, I must have complete alignment between my espoused personal values and my in-use values in every aspect of my life. Solely having an action plan, however, will not give me the results I desire, which is why I must set both short and long term goals for myself in my journey to becoming an ethical leader. Short-term goals are imperative to maintaining my improvement in leadership skills, because without consistent feedback, it is impossible to gauge one’s progress. The support group I establish will provide me with that feedback. Specifically, I will create a point-based survey and ask each person in my support group to complete it. By doing this, I will have quantitative results at the end of each month to see which areas of my personality need improvement. By setting short-term goals, my competitive nature will enhance my desire to improve, until I reach my long-term goals. Perhaps the most challenging task of this assignment was to envision the evolution of my personality from a college student to a business leader, because I did not know exactly how to set long-term goals. After thinking it through, I believe that the most pertinent long-term goal that I can set is to reflect on my life as a leader, and have no decisions that I regret making. This seems vague, but it must be in order to work. By achieving short-term monthly goals, I will achieve my long-term goal as a result, which is the express purpose of short-term goals. If I can look back on my life as a leader when I retire, and I can honestly say that there is not a single decision that I made or failed to make that resulted in an unethical consequence, I will consider myself a success. Conclusion Throughout the course of this assignment, as well as the class as a whole, I have been exposed to completely new ways of analyzing situations and have been able to integrate those concepts and strategies into my daily life. By creating this action plan for the development of my character and leadership skills; I have begun the preparation necessary to successfully lead in the business world, which is an incredibly valuable head start on students in other business schools around the country. B. R. Ambedkar’s pessimistic quote regarding the ethics versus economics dynamic that I used earlier in the paper was a perfect way for me to gauge the effectiveness of my action plan. I believe that through the analysis of my current self, the reflection and projection of my possible self, and the creation of my leadership development plan, I have been able to disprove the mentality that â€Å"business ethics is an oxymoron† and begin to strengthen the mentality that â€Å"ethics is good business, and good business is ethical.† References 1. Sean Hannah, class lectures and PowerPoint presentations, 8/29/2012-12/4/2012 2. Hannah & Avolio, Moral Potency: Building the Capacity for Character-Based Leadership 3. Trevino & Nelson, Managing Business Ethics 4. Badaracco, Defining Moments 5. George, Sims, McLean, & Mayer, Discovering Your Authentic Leadership 6. Badaracco, We Don’t Need Another Hero 7. Reinemund, class lecture 10/4/2012 View as multi-pages

Industry Analysis of Airlines Industry

Banking history in Nepal: In the context of Nepal, it is very difficult to trace the correct chorological history of the Banking systems in Nepal because there are no sufficient historical records and data about Banking in Nepal. Nepal bank Ltd. is the first modern bank of Nepal. It is taken as the milestone of modern banking of the country. Nepal bank marks the beginning of a new era in the history of the modern banking in Nepal. This was established in 1937 A. D. Nepal Bank has been inaugurated by King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah Dev on 30th Kartik 1994 B.S. Nepal bank was established as a semi government bank with the authorized capital of Rs. 10 million and the paid -up capital of Rs. 892 thousand. Until mid-1940s, only metallic coins were used as medium of exchange. So the Nepal Government (His Majesty Government on that time) felt the need of separate institution or body to issue national currencies and promote financial organization in the country. Nepal Bank Ltd. remained the o nly financial institution of the country until the foundation of Nepal Rastra Bank is 1956 A.D. Due to the absence of the central bank, Nepal Bank has to play the role of central bank and operate the function of central bank. Hence, the Nepal Rastra Bank Act 1955 was formulated, which was approved by Nepal Government accordingly, the Nepal Rastra Bank was established in 1956 A. D. as the central bank of Nepal. Nepal Rastra Bank makes various guidelines for the banking sector of the country. A sound banking system is important for smooth development of banking system. It can play a key role in the economy.It gathers savings from all over the country and provides liquidity for industry and trade. In 1957 A. D. Industrial Development Bank was established to promote the industrialization in Nepal, which was later converted into Nepal Industrial Development Corporation (NIDC) in 1959 A. D. Rastriya Banijya Bank was established in 1965 A. D. as the second commercial bank of Nepal. The fin ancial shapes for these two commercial banks have a tremendous impact on the economy. That is the reason why these banks still exist in spite of their bad position.As the agriculture is the basic occupation of major Nepalese, the development of this sector plays in the prime role in the economy. So, separate Agricultural Development Bank was established in 1968 A. D. This is the first institution in agricultural financing. For more than two decades, no more banks have been established in the country. After declaring free economy and privatization policy, the government of Nepal encouraged the foreign banks for joint venture in Nepal. Today, the banking sector is more liberalized and modernized and systematic managed.There are various types of bank working in modern banking system in Nepal. It includes central, development, commercial, financial, co-operative and Micro Credit (Grameen) banks. Technology is changing day by day. And changed technology affects the traditional method of the service of bank. Banking software, ATM, E-banking, Mobile Banking, Debit Card, Credit Card, Prepaid Card etc. services are available in banking system in Nepal. It helps both customer and banks to operate and conduct activities more efficiently and effectively.For the development of banking system in Nepal, NRB refresh and change in financial sector policies, regulations and institutional developments in 1980 A. D. Government emphasized the role of the private sector for the investment in the financial sector. These policies opened the doors for foreigners to enter into banking sector in Nepal under joint venture. Some foreign ventures are also established in Nepal such as Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Nepal Arab Bank, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Everest Bank, Himalayan Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, Nepal Indo-Suez Bank and Nepal Sri Lanka Merchant Bank etc.The NRB will classify the institutions into â€Å"A† â€Å"B† â€Å"C† â€Å"D† groups on the basis of the minimum paid-up capital and provide the suitable license to the bank or financial institution. Group ‘A’ is for commercial bank, ‘B’ for the development bank, ‘C’ for the financial institution and ‘D’ for the Micro Finance Development Banks. Generally banks in Nepal are opened 9 am to 3 pm Sunday to Thursday and 9 am to 1 am on Friday. But nowadays most of banks in Kathmandu are opened throughout the week.There are 32 commercial banks, 79 development banks, 79 financial companies, 18 micro credit (Grameen) development banks and 16 saving and credit co-operation(licensed by Nepal Rastra Bank) are established so far in Nepal. The bank with the largest network in Nepal is The Nepal Bank Ltd. These commercial banks and financial institutions have played significant roles in creating banking habit among the people, widening area and business communities and the government in various ways.

EMPLOYMENT LAW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

EMPLOYMENT LAW - Essay Example The employee should be provided with 28 paid holidays and only be working for 48 hours in a week and the extension of the hour can only be made with consent of the employee, which is mentioned in Working Time Regulations Act 1998. The Employment Rights Act 1996 states that an employee has the right to avail leave for child care and request for flexible working hours. The Act also states that if the employer dismisses the employee from work, the employer needs to provide a concrete reason for the dismissal along with the payment that needs to be settled with the employee. According to the Act the employer cannot remove the employee from the service with unfair reasoning. In case there is a taken over of the company by another company there should not be worsening of the terms of employment, which includes the dismissal as well without a proper organizational, technical or economic reason. This employment right is protected by the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Reg ulations 2006. According to section 1 of Employment Rights Act 1996 the employer needs to provide the contractual terms and conditions of the employment to employee in written. However, there are exceptions to this law. There is a provision under section 2(4) of the Act to provide the statement in installment. However, the statement should be given within two months of the employment. In the year 2010, Equality Act has been employed in the Employment Law of the UK. This act is way beyond employment, which provides access to both public and private services. According to this Act all the employees should get equal treatment irrespective of their gender, race, sexual preference or orientation, religious belief, age etc. These are some major perspectives of the Equality Directives of the Equality Act 20103. The Equality Act 2010 goes beyond the absolute discrimination and fights the discriminations that are made based on race, gender including pregnancy, belief, sexuality including

Upper and Lower Class Neighborhoods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Upper and Lower Class Neighborhoods - Essay Example This gap has contributed to the several social classes that exist in the present communities. Affluent neighborhoods have several differences and similarities from the lower class neighborhoods (Cubbin et.al, 2008). The difference between the upper class neighborhoods and the lower class result due to better facilities, resources, and services. Because of these differences, the gap between the two keeps widening. The upper class lives in secure neighborhoods, and has access to the best facilities and public services. On the contrary, the lower class lacks access to basic public services. The upper class neighborhoods have a markedly high access to recreational areas and parks. The people inhabiting these regions live in luxurious houses and in close proximity are all sorts of recreational places. There are sporting fields and clubs, gymnasiums, saunas, swimming pools and clubs in upper class regions. For example, golf clubs exist in rich suburbs and golf fans are affluent people. In addition, the rich enjoy frequent visits to parks and gardens and get an opportunity to relax and focus on nature and themselves. On the other hand, the lower class lacks access to such luxurious recreational facilities and parks. These are not available in their neighborhoods and even if they were, it would be too costly to access them. Their income does not allow them to stretch to these recreational facilities. Recreational facilities available in the lower class neighborhoods are small, overcrowded and do not meet the standards of the rich. There exists a concern on the huge differenc e between the school programs in the upper class regions and the lower class neighborhoods. Children born to the affluent enjoy an inclusive and all round education system. In their neighborhoods, schools offer the best as long as their parents can pay. In the upper class neighborhoods, the expected teacher student ratios exist. The school program is usually more accommodating and students receive considerable attention from their teachers. Integrated into the system are recreational subjects that diversify the options available to the affluent students. These schools have the capacity and resources required to nurture the young minds to become reliable independent individuals. These students enjoy quality education. On the other hand, school programs in the lower class regions do not meet the international education standards. There are too many students and fewer teachers. These schools lack adequate facilities that would enable the children to have access to quality education. Ch ildren sent to these schools have to struggle to excel. In the upper class neighborhoods, children have access to equipped local and international libraries. These libraries expose the children to a broad variety of reading materials. Children in these regions can do their research without much strain. On the other hand, it is saddening to realize that children in the lower class neighborhoods lack access to reading material. There are fewer libraries, which apparently do meet quality standards, and the reading material available is not diverse to address the varying needs of the students. In affluent neighborhoods, there are luxurious and classy restaurants where the rich have access to exotic, modern, and traditional dishes and a wide variety of drinks. In these restaurants, prices of food and drinks only favor the rich. These restaurants practice the most current code

Compressing the supply chain through E-commerce for the customer Dissertation

Compressing the supply chain through E-commerce for the customer benefit in the fashion industry - Dissertation Example h higher volumes of consumers across the world due to high adoption levels of Internet consumption has reduced dependency on decentralized procurement and distribution systems, allowing them to centralize these functions for efficiency, time, and also cost savings. In Sweden, as one example, 90 percent of consumers use the Internet (Entertainment NewsWeekly 2011). In Singapore, younger consumers are buying fashion products via the Internet at a growth rate of approximately 10 percent annually (Ramchandani 2011). In the United States, e-commerce sales are estimated, currently, at $227.6 billion (Steigrad 2011). It is these growth patterns in online fashion consumption that continue to provide new opportunities to compress traditional supply chains to include more efficiency and replenishment for fashion products that have very limited life cycles. Reducing the dependency on traditional collaborations, the newer, unrestricted geographic boundaries imposed by less efficient procurement and distribution systems and even changing consumer trends for purchasing and demand continue to drive new synergies for using e-commerce as a fashion supply model. Research aims and objectives This research project aims to identify how to achieve maximized customer benefit by using e-commerce as a tool to compress the supply chain. Cost-reduction, improved efficiency, streamlined supply chain processes and fashion replenishment will be examined to determine how to gain outputs that lead to customer benefits. The research objectives are as follows: 1. Determine the nature of consumer fashion market demand driving new e-commerce procurement and distribution models. 2. Identify the current e-commerce supply chain models currently finding success in key fashion markets. 3. Determine how... This research project will tackle the issues of e-commerce within the supply chain under the premise that there is no pre-existing template that provides greater benefit to the customer. Thus, the project will be wholly exploratory in design. The traditional agile supply chain methodology involves demand-driven systems. In such a chain, market data and information are exchanged from the business to all layers of the supply chain process in order to forecast and deliver replenishment to meet consumer demand. However, agile supply networks seem to only have this title for their ability to provide merchandise by moving sourcing closer to specific target consumer markets (Barnes and Lea-Greenwood). Even under agile systems, merchandise planning failures have caused price increases on consumer goods, high levels of excess inventories, and significantly lower margins that come from demand uncertainty and collaborative failures within this vast network of procurement and distribution. Why is this? In the sourcing process, considerable investment is included in testing procedures once the textile raw materials have been purchased. All quality assurance processes are different depending on the fashion merchandiser, however it usually includes quality checks of threads, buttons, zipper durability, and testing fabric swatches/samples against existing quality standards templates. The Hong Kong Clothing Company, as one example, boasts an agile supply chain network that includes rigorous quality checks prior to even distributing the raw materials/textiles to the production floor in-house.

STA Financial Report Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

STA Financial Report - Coursework Example Marketing STA travel has a perfect market strategic plan as its branch networks are based all over the world. The company has over 68 branches and these are spread all over the world meaning the company is a common figure in over 60 countries world wide. It does not only target the youth but old people can as well us the traveling agency. The company though has a marketing plan that seems to capture the attention of mostly young people and in this case students find themselves to be the top prioritized customers. A part from being known as one of the world’s greatest travelling agency,STA travel has also invested in other business fields like hotels which are distributed all over the world. STA travel has many representatives in countries where it is based to improve its marketing for example recently it joined hands with Charleston Travel that is found in Kenya. Charleston travels has been in the market for ten years and is well know in its geographical position as good compa ny that provides high quality services since it handles people both from within and abroad. This shows how ambitious STA travels is as it merges with small but potential companies with the aim of making them famous and in this process it markets itself in a broader perspective. Competition STA travel has ventured in two fields. One being a travel agency and the other business sector. In both fields, STA experiences a stiff competition from companies like Amero express company, Carlson Wagonlit travel and Expedia Company. STA travel’s competitor have managed to be a threat to it as the offer services quite similar to those of STA travels some of these being an excellent customer relations and nice services. They are also found in many countries all over the world which is to say they are equally popular in the market. STA travel has managed t secure ways of countering the strains of the competition by advancing their levels of operation making it convenient for all its custome rs to acquire their services and stay committed to the company. STA travel is known to be a pioneer of fair and affordable prices when it comes to their services. This has been one of the methods that have helped it maintain its leading position in the market. STA has as well appointed innovative managers in various sectors of the firm. Competent managers have the right instinct to understand the right policies to undertake. (Groppelli A,Nikbakht,E,2006,pg.7) Thus knowing specific rules is important to counter specific needs.(Banks,E,2000,pg.274). Non-financial features Apart from focusing only on the company’s income generations, it has also played a role in other areas like taking part in ethnical volunteering schemes. It gives exertion holiday visas and on top of it one is able to learn various languages as there are language packages being offered. They motivate their most hard working personnel with tokens. Comparative business analysis BALANCE SHEET STA TRAVEL AGENCY FO R THE YEARS ENDED 2009, 2010 AND 2011. CURRENT ASSETS: 2009 2010 2011 Furniture and fittings $60000 $50000 $65000 Land $50000 $42000 $53000 Planes $56000 $60000 $79000 Motor vehicle $68000 $69000 $71000 Total current assets $234000 $221000 $268000 CURRENT LIABILITIES: Creditors $17000 $9000 $4000 Unpaid wages $45000 $42000 $37000 Unpaid rent $35000 $34000 $24000 Total current liabilities $97000 $85000 $65000 The above is a comparison of STA Travel Company’

Net Neutrality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Net Neutrality - Essay Example The ISPs do claim a right for creating a tiered Internet, which the opponents claim is discrimination and impacts negatively on the neutrality of the Internet. By creating a tiered Internet service all that the ISPs are doing is creating a differential pricing dependant on what flows through their pipes. This is akin to the US Postage Service, where there is a difference in cost of mailing a postcard and sending a heavy parcel like a bicycle. If such a tiered service was not there the cost of mailing a postcard would go up several times making it unaffordable for many. The principles of a free market call for allowing business enterprises to charge varying prices for different services, and demanding that there be legislation to make restrict this is unfair to the business enterprises involved in providing Internet Services. Demands for net neutrality are therefore unfair to the ISPs and for many of the ordinary users of the Internet. Innovation within the Internet is a requirement for its development, of not the Internet, is likely to stagnate at current levels. ISPs innovate to develop the Internet so that they can remain competitive. It is through these innovations that new features and services become available to the Internet users. Net neutrality hinders such innovation and new features, which come at a cost to the ISPs. So calling for net neutrality is tantamount to calling for the stagnation of the Internet. Preserving net neutrality lacks credibility for it will lead to extra costs for the ordinary users.

Answer Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Answer Questions - Assignment Example Another interesting development involves dealing with tactical purchasing activities that leverage information for organizations. Consequently, the interaction and collaboration of the aforementioned functions play a fundamental role in departments such as Marketing, Legal, Engineering and Quality and Manufacturing among others. This is through the implementation of varying functions that tackle retail business during transactions. Additionally, there are processes that are valuable to measurement systems that used in supply management agencies to facilitate functional organizational structures. There are lots of differences between the principles and practices of Purchasing and Supply Management used in the Public sector and the Private Sector. For example, while in the former that majorly comprises of the government the rules are based on contract negation, the latter concentrates on procurement subcontract. Alternatively, while in government they focus on the legal aspects that characterize purchasing, in manufacturing and retail the fundamental features include acquisition and logistics management. Likewise, the salient points noted in the discussion include the need for value-added flow of resources that are later disbursed to resellers and final consumers. In the same capacity, a customer-focused approach is integral in improving efficiency to leverage on the elements of supply chain (Monczka et al 145). Therefore, the salient differences affect the establishment that influences buyer-supplier relationships through the aspects of distribution management, channel manag ement, and payment management. On the other hand, issues of outsourcing and product development assume a huge precedent in maintaining the customer service flow. Likewise, in terms of implementation of the Purchasing and Supply Management function, concentration on external collaboration and

History of Christianity Essay Example for Free

History of Christianity Essay Both Christianity and Judaism came from the same God. Both Judaism and Christianity share the same Old Testament as our holy scriptures. The foundations of faith in God are rooted in the Old Testament, so also that of the Jews, for their history and their laws are all in the Old Testament. Moreover, the entire Old Testament was written by Jews. The New Testament was also written by Jews with the exception of Luke. Judaism is the name that men have attached to the formative stages of biblical faith (Old Testament) and Christianity is the name that men have attached to the completing stage of biblical faith (New Testament). Mojzes Swidler, 2002) Christianity as a religion was an offshoot of Judaism. It has been said that Judaism does not need Christianity to explain its existence, but Christianity needs Judaism both to explain its existence and what it believes. Hence, Christianity has also been termed historically as the Judeo-Christian faith. In the early years of the Christian faith, Christianity was regarded as just another sect of Judaism known as the sect of the Nazarenes. The early disciples and the 12 Apostles were all Jewish. Apostle Paul even took a Nazarite vow to prove to his critics that he was a Torah-observant Jew. The term Christians surfaced only in AD 42 when the disciples were first called that in Antioch. The term gradually was adopted to differentiate believing Jews from unbelieving Jews and over time, it became a separate identity altogether. †¦dont boast as if you were better than the branches! However, if you do boast, remember that you are not supporting the root (Israels forefathers), the root is supporting you (Church). (Neuhaus, 2001) The exact origins of the Jewish faith are hard to pinpoint, and most of what is known comes from the Torah, the five books that make up the Jewish holy text and are also part of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. According to the Book of Genesis, the father of Judaism was a man called Abraham, who lived between about 2000 and 1500 BCE (Christianity and Islam also claim Abraham as an important religious figure). Abraham was born in Mesopotamia and later living in Egypt, was the first man according to Jewish religious texts, to promise to worship one god, Yahweh. Abraham spread this faith among his followers, and led them to settle in the land of Canaan. Abrahams grandson, Jacob, was renamed Israel by Yahweh, and he fathered twelve sons, who led what would come to be known as the twelve tribes of Israel. These Israelites, according to Judaisms religious teachings, were taken as slaves into Egypt, and led out of slavery by Moses. Moses was a Jewish Egyptian, who according to Jewish texts spoke directly to Yahweh. The freed Jewish slaves were recorded to have wandered for forty years in the desert of the Arabian Peninsula before settling back in the land of Canaan some time around 1200 BCE. One of the groups displaced by the establishment of Jewish kingdoms was a group called the Philistines. The Philistines called their lands by the name Palestine, a name for the lands once claimed by the Jews. The term Palestine came from the Roman Empire, which renamed the area as a punishment for a Jewish revolt against Roman rule around 135 CE. The term Palestine had long been favored by those who did not recognize the Jewish claim to the area. Perhaps as early as the fall of Judah in 586 BCE, Palestine became a term to deny the political claims Jews made in the region. From the fall of the early Jewish kingdoms, Jews lived as a minority population in Palestine and the Middle East at large. Depending on who exerted control over the region, and how stern they were about expressing that control, Jews experienced varying levels of freedom and persecution. Under the Persians, Jews were allowed to return to the region and to practice their religion freely, and were accorded a great deal of respect. During this time, Jews built a Second Temple on the site of the First, which had been destroyed by Babylonians. Under the Romans, however, they fared poorly. They were allowed to practice their religion, but were asked to declare their political allegiance to the Roman Empire. When Jews revolted against Roman rule in 66 CE, Roman troops ransacked the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish Second Temple. Conditions for Jews became even worse after the Jewish revolt of 135 CE, when Roman troops killed or enslaved thousands of Jews and destroyed numerous Jewish villages. Jews were forbidden to enter the holy city of Jerusalem, and thereafter the Jewish population was centered in the region called Galilee. The conditions experienced by these early Jews had a deep impact on their worldview. Jews expressed the feeling that only under Jewish rule would their rights, including access to their religious sites, be protected. This brought them into much conflict with other people living in the region. The Jews worship of a single god made theirs a minority religious viewpoint in the region during much of the rule of the Roman Empire, but the spread of Christianity, the religion created by the followers of Jesus Christ (c. 4 BCE–c. 29 CE), soon changed the religious balance. Jesus was a man of the Jewish faith who offered new interpretations of the role of God and the need for individuals to devote themselves to God. His teachings challenged some of the Jewish beliefs and often caused civil unrest that challenged Roman rule. Around 29 CE, Jesus was arrested by Jewish religious leaders who suggested that his teachings were disrespectful to God and were causing civil disobedience among his followers. Jesus was brought before a Roman governor in Palestine named Pontius Pilate who ordered the crucifixion of Jesus, a form of execution in which a person is nailed on a cross and left to die. According to Christian religious teaching, Jesus later rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, taking his place as the son of God. Most of the accounts of Jesus life and teachings are found in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Their exact historical accuracy has long been a source of disagreement. Whether or not the man Jesus actually existed in the way the Bible states, his followers believed that he was the son of God, sent to give a message to all mankind. They created a religion based on his teachings. Though it was based on the Jewish faith and claimed one god, Christianity stressed the role of personal salvation acquired through the acceptance of Jesus Christ as the son of God. It was, like Judaism, a monotheistic religion. Unlike Judaism, however, Christianity was an evangelical faith, which meant that its followers dedicated themselves to converting others to their faith. Over time, Christianity gained many followers who embraced the religions single god. Sometime around 312 CE the emperor Constantine, who ruled over what was then known as the Eastern Roman Empire (which controlled over half of the Middle East), embraced Christianity. Constantine proclaimed Christianity as the official religion of the empire, which later became known as the Byzantine Empire. The rise of Christianity dramatically changed the role of Palestine. Like Jews, Christians revered the holy places in Palestine, and especially in the city of Jerusalem. Christians also made holy places out of sites associated with the life and death of Jesus. But sharing holy sites did not necessarily mean that Jews and Christians got along. According to Charles Smith, editor of Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Christians considered Jews to be rivals in Palestine, as well as a people who rejected Jesus as the savior sent by God. As a result, the Byzantines applied existing Roman laws limiting Jewish activities more rigorously and created new ordinances aimed at isolating the Jews. Though a monotheistic religion was now the dominant view, religion continued to be a source of conflict in the region. Christianity has one of the largest and most rapidly growing religious followings in Asia. The end of the Cold War and the Asian economic liberalization has encouraged both the flourishing of Christian evangelism and the rising prominence of Christianity in the public sector. There is a substantial shift in the balance of Christian populations from the North to the South. A few decades ago 70 percent of all evangelicals were in the â€Å"North,† primarily in the United States, today 70 percent are in the churches of the global South. The Catholic Church, which is projected to lose 20 million members in Europe in the first quarter of this century, will gain 100 million members in Africa, 50 million in Asia, and 140 million in Latin America. At the beginning of the 20th century, 81 percent of Christians were white. By the century’s end, that number was 45 percent.

Globalisation Has Become An Increasingly Important Phenomenon Marketing Essay

Globalisation Has Become An Increasingly Important Phenomenon Marketing Essay Abstract Globalisation has become an increasingly important phenomenon that has given firms way to be internationalised. Globalization as a foundation for adopting global strategies has during recent years been given scant attention. The importance of multinational companies cannot be overlooked with globalisation in the back of the mind. Firms are constantly adopting global strategies so as to compete on the international market and to reap the enviable advantage from economies of scale. Globalization often regarded as the pathway of internationalization has led to the development of strategies shaped to face the highly competitive global environment (Levitt 1983, Baden-Fuller, Stopford 1991). Regional strategies have often been considered as a way to become a global player, but recently regional strategies have achieved high momentum to reap global sales. The assignment aims to integrate the historical development of two big companies, Ford and Diageo and the global oriented strategies adop ted by each frim respectively at different stage of their development so as to get ahead in this competitive and dynamic global game. a) Introduction The march towards a true global economy is going forward at a ferocious pace. Globalisation has paved the way for many firms to be internationalised. According to Hood and Young (2000), globalization is a process by which the world economy is transformed from a set of national and regional markets into a set of markets that operate without regard to national boundaries. Porter (1985) highlighted that globalisation has urged many firms to divert production to international markets so as to achieve long term competitive advantage. Porter (1980) further emphasized that the main driver behind the move to international markets is to explore business opportunities. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) seem to have been the major players in this drama put on a world stage for all to view. It is noted that many big companies that compete internationally pin their hopes for success on a single worldwide strategy mainly to achieve lukewarm results. According to Ghemawat (2005) and Levitt (1983), d eveloping global strategies mainly in search of new synergies and arbitrage and a global recognition has been the hype surrounding multinational corporations since the past decades. Global powerhouses such as Ford and Diageo concentrate on regional differences and then shape strategies that will match both domestic and international markets. Both Ford and Diageo have grown over the years and become active players in the global market for cars and drinks respectively. They have adopted global strategies which are at time similar. However, given that they operate in different products, some of their strategies differ. Theoretical Background The prominent trend in international business today concerns globalisation. This notion of globalisation has been defined by Ohmae (1995) as the removal of borders and barriers to trade between nations. Trade barriers have been lifted gradually through the GATT and WTO negotiations. The drivers behind the internationalisation of the firm in the global economy include huge developments in transport and communication which has made the mobility of all factors of production a reality across the globe and the increasing role of MNC s through outsourcing and business networks are developing in many parts of the world. It is widely believed that the evolution of multinationals is due to domestic market maturation and home market saturation (Caves 1982; Porter 1990). It is widely assumed by Mintzberg (1989) that expanding globally provides firms with the opportunity to become more profitable. According the continuous increase in speed, quality coupled with improvement in communication and t echnology has led to a significant reduction in transaction costs (Porter, 1990). Moreover, markets in farflung countries have become homogeneous making international business activities to be conducted easily (Hedlund Kverneland 1985). Classical theories Growth by Penrose (1959) and Hymer model (1960), firms internalise their activities mainly for economic gains such as the profit motive. The OLI-approach by Dunning (1979, 1981) purports that ownership, location and internalisation are the factors that influence the initial act of cross border production firms. Porter (1988) suggested that internationalisation enables the transfer of some moveable resources across a national border. Many firms, on the other hand internalise for market seeking motives. This motive is related mainly to companies that are endowed with high level of technology and a good brand image that give them sustainable competitive advantage over their peers. The market seeking motive is common for European mult inationals such as Nestle and Ford which have expanded their production across borders mainly in search of new markets. The aim to achieve reduced costs of production is another factor that has triggered the internationalisation process. The removal of tariff barriers has urged many companies to outsource production mainly to benefit from low cost production and low capital cost. Moreover, the drive to benefit from scale economies and ballooning RD have also triggered the international expansion of firms making them global companies and have brought about a new set of motivations that underlay these global strategies. Globalization characterised as the true path of internationalization has bought about the development of strategies designed to meet the needs of the global environment, where standardization has been the key message to cater for the needs of the world market with global products (Levitt 1983, Baden-Fuller, Stopford 1991). During the early years, there was much complexity over the design and technology of the motorcar. The beginning of the 20th century marked the coming of cars with the latest design and technology. It was the Fordism which was the first revolution in the process technology followed by Toyota afterwards. Ford is a US automobile company which was founded in 1903 by Henry Ford in Michigan and it made its first shipment in that year itself. which produced 1708 cars in the first year. Ford is a pioneer in the automobile industry and has a portfolio of brands such as Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury. It also provides financial services. The business is divided into different segments mainly North America, ford Europe, Ford South America and Ford Asia Pacific Africa designed to serve the different markets. Diageo is the leader in premium drinks across the world. It resulted from the merger of Grand Metropolitan and Guinness in 1997. This merger has led to a complete rebranding and reimaging of the company. It took over the wine business of Seagram in 2001. In 2006, Johnnie Walker Blue Label and King GeorgeV Edition made its appearance in duty free channels of Europe. The company is now seen as an ethical company which contributing effectively to corporate social responsibility. As per the Financial Times, Diageo formed part of the 150 largest companies in the world in 2008. To increase its market, Diageo made a joint venture with and made the Diageo Kirin. The company is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. For Diageo, sustainability refers to the long term success of the business while taking into consideration the needs of stakeholders, community and at the same time protecting the environment. Compared to its competitors, Diageo was among the 100 most sustainable companies in the world for their concern for the environmental and society. During the financial year 2011, the company earned revenues of  £13,232 million representing an increase of 2.1% in 2010. Strategies Ford produces a more varied product range of vehicles to attempt to tailor the needs of the different customer groups. For instance, the Ranger was designed to meet the needs of Asia pacific, Africa and South America. This new hybrid vehicle tailor-made for these regions has made Ford gone ahead of other overseas manufacturers. Ford has been able to use their window of opportunity to the full by satisfying the segments of consumers which they are targeting by providing them with the latest technology and convenient vehicles. Conversely, Diageo is involved in the production and distribution of a range of standardised products including beer, wine and spirits geared to satisfy every market in the world. Thus, compared to Ford which aims to produce a different kind of vehicles for each geographical area, Diageo on the other hand produces one type of drink to satisfy all its markets. Both firms aim towards sustainable development. Ford contributes significantly to the environment by making maximum use of recycled and renewable materials in its vehicles. It was highlighted that about 85% of materials that Ford use are recyclable. The use of recyclable and renewable materials is a prerequisite in Fords sustainability strategy mainly to decrease environmental footprint and increase the use of fuel-efficient vehicles and hence be more environment friendly. Ford has even merged with its previous rivals Chrysler and General Motors mainly to produce a car that will use less energy, cause less pollution. Diageo also contribute to a sustainable platform across its range of products through its Sustainability and Responsibility strategy. As part of this strategy, Diageo focusses on the benefits of alcohol in the society, preserves the natural resources and promotes good governance. Additionally, encouraging good drinking habits and working collaboratively with other stakeholders to combat the misuse of alcoholic drinks is of key importance in Diageos strategy. Diageo also concerned about the fact that most of its resources it uses are scarce. As a result, to contribute effectively to its environment, more water efficient, reduced use of carbon dioxide and innovative forms of packaging that is sustainable to the environment were adopted. However, what distinguishes Ford and Diageo on the sustainability issue is that Ford mainly focusses on the use of renewable and recyclable materials to undertake its production while Diageo mainly places emphasis on its community and how to promote res ponsible drinking as part of its sustainability programme. Conclusion To conclude, it is important to note that both businesses are operating in a globalised world where economic activities are very dynamic. Even if they operate in completely different lines of products, their global strategies should be similar in the sense that they have to study and react to any changes that definitely occur on this ongoing global business environment. PEST and SWOT analysis must be regularly conducted so as to analyse the changes occurring and to develop the right strategies that will strengthen the position of each business and eventually ensure sustainability in their performance. b) Introduction According to (Worthington 2003, p. 466), in a global, fast changing competitive environment, accessing international markets have become increasingly important for companies to benefit from reduction in costs and to increase their demand. Globalisation has brought about a new competitive landscape referred to as hypercompetitive markets where companies face enormous threats from their peers. So, accessing international markets has become the strategic instrument for many companies to ensure their further development. As highlighted by the OECD (2004), by moving to international markets bring about a host of opportunities such as economies of scale and technological know-how. As a result, almost every firm, be it automobile industry or alcoholic industry, are engaging their business outside the boundary of their home country. This is the case for Ford and Diageo which are deeply integrated in the process of internationalisation. The development of strategic attributes represents the c entrepiece of the internationalisation process by which a company build its position in the market. There are different modes of entry in international markets. It is argued by Root (1998) that the choice of entry mode is a crucial strategic decision for multinational firms. It was also pointed out by (Root 1998, p.15) that once a firm has set its foothold in the international markets, the modes of entry decisions will change in fairly predictable fashion. According to Hill (2007, p.486), firms are engaged in exporting when they have just started to expand their business globally and will shift to other modes in the future. Joint venture refers to an entity formed by two parties to carry out economic activities together. This is a popular form of market entry. Under licensing, an organisation gives another organisation with the right to use its intangible property in a specified geographical area for given amount of time by paying some amount in return, known as the royalty fee. In a wholly owned subsidiary, 100 percent of stock is owned by the firm. According to (Hill 2007, p.493), the firm can start a new business in that country known as greenfield investment or it can take over another business in the host country. The proliferation of mergers and acquisitions (MAs) were mostly fuelled by globalisation and increased competition. MAs are created by firms mainly to increase their global reach and competitiveness. Modes of entry of the two companies Export was considered as an indispensable complement to the development of the automobile industry, but usually the manufacturer designs a car with its home country in mind. Initially, ford was engaged in the export of cars to Europe, but with high transportation costs and tariff barriers, it started operation in Manchester. This marked the global expansion of Ford. Fords entry in the international market corresponds to a great extent by the great waves of international mergers and acquisitions. It had many alliances with local and overseas companies. The intention behind Fords collaboration with other automobile companies in the product development was mainly to share costs. It acquired hertz and Jaguar in 1987 and 1990 respectively. Its 100% stake in Hertz in 1994 clearly shows Ford as a wholly subsidiary. It also acquired the BMW and Land Rover and expanded to China under the form of joint venture. The ChanganFord then became operational in 2003 with the production of Fiesta. In 2 005, it made several acquisitions mainly reacquisition of Visteons 23 to protect its supply of components. By 2009, the automobile industry became a network of collaborative arrangements. So, we can say that ford is a growing company expanding into the global automotive market. Moreover, another factor that can classify ford as a global company is that it is engaged in the production of a standardised vehicle, which can be sold in multiple markets. According to WILKINS and HILL (1964), Fords trajectory can be seen as a model especially to the high position that it occupies in the industry and its allegedly outstanding process internationalisation. Ford is a pioneer in the automobile industry given the vast number of overseas manufacturing it handles and also since the very beginning of its operation it had developed strategies that were applicable worldwide. In addition, Ford source suppliers and choose assembly locations depending on costs. An increase in competition in the automobile industry has further increased the quest to reduce costs. The intention behind Fords collaboration with other automobile companies in the product development was mainly to share costs. The production system at Ford was backward integrated. Ford possessed rubber plantation in the amazon basin. Outsourcing of materials and components were the main trend for the past 30 years. The main objective behind this was to be cost effective and more flexible in its operations. The executives at ford have in mind to implement a strategy that involves three important elements such as globalisation, reengineering and market expansion. They are to develop vehicles platforms that can serve the needs of different markets. The objective behind this is a reduction in design and product development costs, to avoid repetitions and inefficiencies and to continue maintain their activities globally. Furthermore, Fords market share increased from 14.2% in 2008 to 16.5% in 2011 in the US. It is also a leader in other markets such as Canada with market share of 17.1%, Turkey with 15.8% amongst others. The high market share enables it get competitive advantage over its peers and as such it can increase its bargaining power and makes it a global company. The operational network of Ford is a highly diversified one with a variety of sectors such as assembly facilities, distribution centres and warehouses. It also has about 11,790 dealerships worldwide. In addition, in order to increase its production capacity, ford is investing in other countries mainly china, Thailand and India. This diverse range of operations enables it to meet the needs of customers round the world profitably. Similarly in the alcoholic drink industry, the creation of the global economy at the end of the 1960s helped to boost up the consumption of alcohol consumption and the expansion in sales in new geographical markets. Improvement in technologies captured scale economies which then translated in more effective distribution of alcoholic drinks. Mergers and acquisitions in this industry arose mainly because of competition. The large companies were competing mainly in the local market by producing a single product but along a portfolio of brands. The stagnation of the western market and increasingly global competition, firms felt the need to engage into mergers and acquisitions. In 1997, Diageo company following the merger of Grand Metropolitain and Guiness. The result of this merger was attributed not only to get the ownership of successful brands but also the rationalisation of costs. This merger has led to a complete rebranding and reimaging of the company. It took over the wine busines s of Seagram in 2001. Diageo made several acquisitions mainly with the Chalone Wine Group and the Whiskey business of Bushmills in 2005, Rosenblum Cellars a US firm producing wine in 2008. In 2006, Johnnie Walker Blue Label and King GeorgeV Edition made its appearance in duty free channels of Europe. In 2008, Diageo was involved in a licensing agreement with Korea to conduct its operation in the country and it also got involved in a joint venture in the same year with Namibia Breweries. Diageo was also engaged in partnership. Moreover, what makes Diageo a global company is that it is involved in several acquisitions to expand its market. Recently, it has invested about  £ 1billion to establish a market in Africa. Moreover, in order to meet the growing demand for Vodka in Vietnam, Diageo has acquired a stake of 45.52% in June 2012 Halico. By taking over other companies around the world enable Diageo to increase its market position. Moreover, its wine market has experienced high gro wth recently. For instance, in 2011 the market grew by 3.1% and it is expected that there will be an increase of 17.9% in 2016 from that of 2011. 65% of the wine market is in Europe which helps the company increase its presence in the market. Furthermore, Diageo has 106 production facilities in different countries like the UK, Ireland, Italy, the US, Canada, Jamaica, Australia, and Philippines. This wide range of production facilities situated in different countries provides Diageo with the opportunity to cater for the needs of the market more efficiently. So we can see that Diageo company is highly polarized between different markets of the world such as North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America, and most of Asia Pacific. By making a presence in these markets, Diageo was able to gratify the benefits of scale economies and contribution. As per the Financial Times, Diageo formed part of the 150 largest companies in the world in 2008. This indeed makes Diage o a global company. We can say that Diageo has a specific strategic direction which has enabled it to achieve success in the European markets, established a foothold in North America and other international markets and gain a global recognition in Asia- pacific. The strategy of Diageos included selective acquisitions of popular brands coupled with a strong customer base and retaining current brands. Conclusion Hence, being both global, create conditions for both companies to become highly vulnerable to any slight change in the global economic environment. Following the recent economic crisis, Ford Company has faced severe downturn in Europe with a drastic fall in sales which seems to have no end in sight to the slump which is of great concern to the economy. As per the financial times in September 2012, Ford had experienced a fall of 29 per cent in its sales in Europe and a slowdown in the market for the 11th consecutive month. This has led to a fall in its market share by 1.6 percentage points to 6.5 per cent. According to the chief executive officer of ford, the only way ford to restructure its business and continue its investment is to cut production capacity to keep with demand. This in turn entails closing one of its plants to reduce costs. Last October 2012, ford has decided to close two plants in the UK which it hoped to improve the profitability of the company amid of the crisis. O n the other side, Diageo seems to be less affected by the economic crisis because alcoholic drinks have inelastic demand compared to cars. The recession usually causes consumers to cut their demand of luxury items first and in the long run may attempt to reduce their consumption of drinks. So, I believe that global changes might have less adverse effects on Diageo as compared to Ford.

The shrinking world due to Globalisation

The shrinking world due to Globalisation The world is getting smaller day by day in terms of business perspectives, communications, relationships, decision making etc. Globalization makes narrower to the people as well. Now-a-days the multinational companies are introducing their brand in globally with their variety of products and services. Companies are focusing the demographic issues and cultural barriers when they designed their products or service. With their prior concern regarding the management structure specially deal with public relation and government legislation like Import rules, duty and vat, customs process and others related new company entry rules and licensing stuffs. For example, Unilever are spreading its products every where in the world, its popular beauty soap Lux is every where in the world almost. The product colour and flavour are not exactly same as well. Beside bar soap they are now more focus on liquid soap with different flavour and colour. Its because of increasing competition in the market. I n every minute one leading companys are struggling to keep their position in the market. Developing new strategy and approaches, cost minimization, making most of the companys resources. Case study: In uk Waitrose supermarket is one of the leading food retailers and for the quality of foods and services is renowned. Waitrose is a part of John Lewis partnership and Greenbee also its another wing called name. John Lewis has 28 department stores and one John Lewis at home. 69,000 partners have in john Lewis (all staffs are called by partner) and the first profit scheme which called partnership was established in 1920. For best service and success of the organization, continuous improvement is very essential for the Partners because they are directly interacting with customers and facing noble situations. In John Lewis they have some unique motivation key like increment, Partnership bonus and many kind of reward that motivate partners and management leading their team in good way and its effect we saw in 2009 due to financial crisis Waitrose did very well without any job cut. Yes there was some hour cut in branch and for thats why they faced some difficulty like, for a customer it w as bit difficult to find out available staff in shop floor for help. Strong leadership, motivated hard working team and effective organizational culture is the main pillar to become Waitrose successful retailer in the UK. In 1937 John Lewis partnership acquired Waitrose and in 1955opened first supermarket. In present Waitrose have 222 supermarkets, catalogue and an online business in the UK and also they have branches in UAE. Partnership turnover was  £6bn In 2009/10 report and second half of this year they increased their sales 11.4%% and sales are 1.3% lower in John Lewis. In Dubai 5137sq meter with 150 employees in Dubai mall operating with Spinney company. At November 2008 First Waitrose established in Dubai and around 2010 there will be open 20 more stores and also one in Bahrain will have by 2010. Waitrose has today announced that it will open its first smaller format convenience store this summer as part of its plans to increase its presence in the UKs convenience sector. The first of the new format stores, which will offer shops with sales areas ranging from 2,000-4,000 sqft, will open in Fitzroy Street, Cambridge in early summer and create up to 40 new jobs. It will be the first of four initial trials of the format planned for this year and will become the first Waitrose shop in its core estate to measure under 3,000sqft.The smaller convenience shops will help the supermarket in bringing its brand to the 6.5 million potential customers it has identified who are currently unable to easily access Waitrose. To read this above paragraph we can see that organizations are constantly changing day by day. Employees are affected by this change and need to adapt, learn new skills, knowledge in order to be able adapt and keep up with the pace in the market. However, due to the changing of business climate and Technology Company should provide the entire knowledge and skills make a competent workforce. There are many external factors which can be identified, which affect the working culture and environment of the company and in this case Waitrose. Here we look at the various external factors under various heads in the analysis such as Political, Legal, Socio-cultural, and Environmental. Change facts: Organizational change occurs when a company makes a transition from its current state to some desired future state. Managing organizational change is the process of planning and implementing change in organizations in such a way as to minimize employee resistance and cost to the organization, while also maximizing the effectiveness of the change effort. And also compete with competition in the market. Organizational change initiatives often arise out of problems faced by a company. In some cases, however, companies are encouraged to change for other, more positive reasons. Change commonly occurs because the organization experiences some difficulty, or sometime for more efficiency with resources. But sometimes the most constructive change takes place not because of problems but because of opportunities. The Bateman, Thomas S., and Carl P. Zeithaml (1990) used the term performance gap to describe the difference between a companys actual performance and the performance of which it is capable. Recognition of a performance gap often provides the impetus for change, as companies  strive  to improve their performance to expected levels. This sort of gap is also where many entrepreneurs find opportunities to begin new businesses. Analysis: World is getting smaller day by day and every thing is changing in this planet. Business is also affected by these changes. To meet the government new legislation or develop their new product they are changing their organizational system, characteristics structure and sometime business environment as well. To do these changes there is a lot of resistance and here we will analyse how to reduce this resistance. PESTL analyse and SWOT analyse is the easiest way to do this analyse. PESTL analysis makes the companies understandable about external environment where they are operating their business and they can establish their future plan (Blery Sfetsion, 2008). On the other hand to find out the relationship between the external and internal appraisals in strategic analysis we need SWOT analysis. SWOT analysing the key factors of the environment and the fundamental internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization will help dictate the strategies appropriate to the firm. PESTL Analysis on Waitrose: Its very important for any organisation to give attention of there external environmental factor. External environmental analysis can help to identify the direction of the industry and thus predict the future. Waitrose may use PESTLE analysis as various benefits. It is useful for Waitrose when used as a checklist, from when little deduction can be maid. It may enable the identification of key pressures and drivers of change. When Waitrose has workout which elements are most important which are less and their differential impact may change over time. (Ray Donnelly, 2000) Political-factors: Law and political stability is the most common political issues. Law is very important for any business State. The Government is always changeable. All the politicians come from different level so they may have indifferent views. They will create the Law from their different views. So business industry will be affected by that Law. As an example in UK, 1996 they introduce a law about restriction of selling and marketing Knives. Australia also band automatic weapon. Belarus obstructs to sell some foreign product. (Chee and Hassis, 1998). It may as well include the legal aspect and is composed of laws, government agencies, and pressure groups that influence and limit various organizations and individuals. These laws may often create new opportunities for businesses. Economical- factors: Economic conditions have enormous implication for business strategy. The interface between the business and its economic environment are several. Economic factors affects cost, consumer demand, financing option, raw materials availabilities, pricing and many more matters. (Roger Bennett 1999) United Kingdom has very strong economic growth and high GDP trends. Bank Rate to raise towards 5.75% by the end of 2007, Interest rate futures in the United Kingdom. The effective exchange rate for Sterling fell almost 2%, the growth of credit and broad money remained rapid. UK domestic products increased by 0.7% then 2006. Markets require purchasing power as well as people. The available purchasing power in an economy depends on current income, prices, savings, debts, and credit availability. Waitrose one of the biggest retailers in UK has managed to retain its competitiveness within the market and its demand for products has been high ever since. Market expansion Employment Inflation Exchange Rates Interest Rates Trade balance Structure and structural change Socio-Cultural- factors: A social issue is an important factor for a business. Day by day people are become internationalists. People are involved with different business. They are changing their life style. UK in 1960 if any non-smoker gives complain against smoker its abnormal, in 1980 non- smoker were the majority and become common in office and in 1990 smoker was atypical. Now it is anti-social and prohibitten on public transport and work place. A countries culture effect on there residence lifestyle and there behaviour. UK is one of the country where the life style rapidly change it may cause for unstable market. It also focuses on: What people buy Who does the purchasing and Overall pattern of consumer buying behaviour. Human rights Career Expectations of people Employee Motivation Growth of population Age distribution of population Regional shifts in population Technology- factors: Technology spends on RD, innovating new product, new service, electronic point of sales; online shopping. As the technological advancement is going faster in UK the e-business is moving concurrently. Introducing the Fibber optical, V-set installation, Radio Link and Broadband are available in UK. The people are using the online to buy their daily necessary. Very frequently Waitrose can expand their online shopping business where they earned their most of the revenue. Quality of product will take customer demanded as well as those products that has the latest up-gradation from the distributors predicting its demand in near future. Research and Development Computerise processing system Online Shopping Payment protection system Use of new Technology Legal factors: The company is regulated by federal, state and international environmental laws governing their utilization of substances and control of emissions. These laws have a direct impact on the development of its products. The company is required to comply with air emission standards which are applicable to internal combustion engines. SWOAT analysis for Waitrose: Robson believes that a SWOT analysis defines the relationship between the internal and external appraisals in strategic analysis. Analysing the key factors of the environment and the fundamental internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization will help dictate the strategies appropriate to the firm. Strengths: The firms main strength is its solid revenues which are generated from its presence all around the world and help the organization to survive now and in future. It has set out standards and policies which are used to approach different markets appropriately. It also has techniques to retain markets against its competitors. It has managed to remain competitive in the market. It has established a multi brand differentiation strategy which has accordingly been adopted to meet different needs in different countries. It has maintained strong and steady relationship with the government. Ability to manage highly qualified and motivated human resources Weaknesses: Instability of foreign exchange rates makes planning of budgets and profits difficult. It engages in heavy costs of production especially in Europe due to excessive tax deduction requirements in some of the countries. Product information website is not clear Operation performance is poor HR strategy is not to strong Opportunities: The establishment of common business process and information systems allow the company to collect data and making decisions for overseas markets more easily. Although, Waitrose is a recognised brand, its current process of innovation and development of new products, indicates a rapid growth in the highest potential markets around the globe. Owner by John Lewes Globally online business. Marketing sales Outbound Logistic Goods Issue Threats: Fluctuations in foreign exchange rates mean a high risk for the company. Fluctuations in demands especially the increased demand in overseas markets make the planning process more tough, and hence a continuous price pressure arises from various markets. Another threat is its rising labour and health care cost, owed to the increasing number of employees working for the company. Risk of strikes from trade unions and new country policies are another major threat to the organization.

Governmental Structures Essay -- essays research papers

As I began to create my ideal world, I realized that what I wanted was a mix of three different governments/cultures. I wanted (and still do) a government truly of and for the people. I also wanted a government that was minimalist, one that made sure there was some kind of order and peace, but one that was well, personal, while not interfering too much with the rights of it's citizens. Additionally, I wanted a government that would allow private industry, small businesses, and limited corporations. This government would regulate the economy by being in charge of major industries and the minimum wage. This government would even the playing field for everyone who wanted to play on it. Education would be excellent, but driven by the wants of the individual. Basically, I wanted a government that did not fit well into any of Stewart's categories. Please forgive me if this essay sounds vague at times, because without being able to mimic typical governments, my nation is difficult to describe in the way Stewart describes what has been before. My nation is neither Democratic Socialist, nor Radical Liberal, nor Anarchist (though I would have loved to created an Anarchist culture, I was afraid to, after all, I am a child of the Regan years) I suppose you'll just have to read along and discern what type of government this is by how I describe it. In my previous "My Way" essay, I described a world in which a person was taken care of by the government and themselves throughout their lives. Because of effective birth control methods implemented in the year 2000, the population of the United States decreased slowly, allowing for more change to take place because there were basically fewer people to complicate the change in governmental structure. From birth until death, a citizen was covered by the national health care system. This national system included all hospitals and doctors under in 2050, a medical "umbrella" for the entire nation. As life continued for a citizen of America in 2050, he or she would enter into their local school system, based upon Montessori-style education. Within 12-14 years, they would graduate with the experience of a semester abroad and an Associates degree. The school system isn't based so much upon technological advances as it is by fundamental changes in the way the sc... ...en lives a healthy life, one in which they are physically able to achieve his or her goals. As a citizen in 2050, a person has the right to an excellent education, made possible for everyone because of the smaller amounts of students in schools. The paradigms of 2050 create a community in which people see each other as equals and this creates more harmonious interaction between individuals. The structure of nationalized industries produces products that are inexpensive and efficient. The new structure of government allows regular people to communicate with and effect government without selling out to a political party. Perhaps my system isn't perfect, but it is the best possible idea I can conceive of right now. I just wanted to create a system that would in turn, create a community of individuals who really cared about each other. In each of the systems I looked at, I found good and bad points, so I took as many of the good points from all of them to create the best system I could. So, this is my system; one in which healthy, educated people live together in a community, supported by a system of checks and balances, which keep a just and stable government

Technology and Education Essay -- essays papers

Technology and Education When I first stepped foot into a Towson University classroom I was surprised by what I saw. What I saw was something I thought only belonged in corporate meeting rooms. This device I speak of was a digital overhead projector. For me this was something new and very exciting. Where I went to school the idea of technology was a television with a VCR on a rolling stand. This change in technology was far superior than I had ever imagined and this is why I was I chose this topic to research. With all of the new technology that is being produced daily and so much of it beneficial to our education system what topic could be more interesting. The three topics I would like to cover in my research are the pros and cons of technology in education, current technology being used in education, and the future of technology in the classroom. When debating on whether or not technology in education is a useful resource there are many arguments from both sides of the argument with the pro’s outweighing the cons. There are many ways that technology can improve the education of children all over the country. Using technology can improve a student’s performance when all of these factors are present, when technology provides the student a chance to work with the technology being used to teach the class. Also when the technology is directly tied into the course and when the parents and other people in the community support the technology being used. There is also the convenience factor that makes technology so useful in the classroom. With digital projectors teachers can put all of their notes onto power point slides and teach straight from those instead of having to take time to write everything on the board and if a studen... ...many more online classes and schools. Right now there are a few online schools that have proven to be very successful and many schools are offering online classes. In the upcoming years the amount of these schools and classes will without a doubt increase. Technology has and will play a vital part in education. In the past it was very difficult to teach students something other than what was in the text book or in the local library. With the advancement of technology and the internet teachers can now teach a broader range of topics that students could research on the internet. Also with all of this technology it makes the learning process simpler and somewhat more enjoyable. I don’t the world would be where it is and go where it is going without this technology, it creates a very heterogeneous society and allows people to study things they never thought they could.