Product life cycle Essay

Identify and assess the relevance of the ‘product life cycle’ to the notion of employee engagement. Employee engagement can be viewed through the four stages of the product life-cycle Step one is the introduction of the concept of employee engagement, its principles, strategy for enhancing engagement and involving employees, process of change to ensure engagement is fully embedded into the organisation. Step two is growth and growing the concept of engagement through a number of mechanisms: * Support from senior and line managers * Development of line managers in engaging staff * Clear communication and involvement strategy * Involving staff in organisational and job design * Encouraging self and career development planning * Identifying mechanisms for continuous staff feedback * Evaluating and adapting engagement strategies. Step three is reaching maturity and embedding and maintaining the above factors through continuous involvement, participation, communication, evaluation and action And finally, step 4 is the inevitable decline, even though there is a decline it is still important to retain key employees, and their skills and knowledge, and therefore to continuously involve them in managing the change and future strategy. The employee engagement life cycle is an important tool for HR professionals to use to assess how the engagement product fits with the business’s objectives and strategy. Evaluate the future for employee engagement in the UK and global economic context. Future action plans include: * Involving workers in identifying factors that will engage them further * Consideration of the demographic data and identification how to engage staff from all backgrounds at different levels * Further evaluation of the link between engagement practices and performance * Development of managers that can motivate and inspire staff Monster (2011) the online job advertising website conducted an international survey on employees’ views of their line managers and uncovered the following results: * Only 10% described their manager as ‘brilliant’ * 73% feels their manager does not invest in their self-development * 70% believe that they could do their manager’s job to a higher standard * 41% of UK workers felt their managers were totally incompetent Line managers are pivotal to enhancing engagement through empowering, motivating, inspiring, coaching and helping the employee develop themselves to enhance performance. Key areas where managers require further development include: * Responding to grievances and confronting issues * Empowering and involving workers on decisions that impact on them * Treating all team members equitably and with respect and providing constructive feedback * Recognising and appreciating efforts (particularly discretionary effort) * Being driven to deliver on commitments and promises made. Assess the future role of the HR professional and the HR function so far as the sustainable implementation of employee engagement practices is concerned. In order for HR to become more strategic, they need to ensure the HR strategies and the business strategies are aligned and both contribute to the overall business aim and objectives. If this is achieved then HR can be a driving force for creating an organisational strategy for competitive advantage. HR practitioners can determine organisation capability and engagement levels to flexibly adapt to changing environmental and customer needs through an evaluation of: the current resources in terms of skills, knowledge and behaviours; and organisation design and development. Once the HR practitioner is vertically integrated within the business, they will be able to take advantage of future opportunities by becoming a key player in the strategic decision making process through providing extensive knowledge in terms of organisational capability in taking the opportunity to grow into new markets, or determining future strategies and actions required.

The Desire of Love in “A Mercy”

â€Å"Love is the irresistible desire to be desired irresistibly. † – Robert Frost The conception of love throughout the novel changes drastically from innocent to a sense of desertion. The way Florence shows her love for the blacksmith illustrates to the reader her inexperience with the emotion. Love was a pretty difficult topic to write on because of the fact that the novel was narrated by so many different characters from beginning to end. The irony on the basis of love is was basically the fact that the blacksmith doesn’t feel the same way for Florence as she feels for him.Later on in the novel I noticed and finally understood the title of the novel â€Å"A Mercy. † It was simply because of the Love of a human. Illustrated in the concluding paragraphs Morrison states â€Å"It was not a miracle. Bestowed by God. It was a mercy. Offered by a human. † Love is often defined as an intense feeling of deep affection, and the way Florence expressed her love for the blacksmith emphasized her youth not only in age but also with the emotion itself. Florence showed consistent signs of jealously and bitterness because she was able to handle such affection.She was regularly bitter with the thought of her mother giving her away when she was younger, not knowing the reason for her mother’s rational decision. One way Florence showed her jealously was when the blacksmith adopted a young boy and began showing him more attention than he gave Florence. Florence, overtake by jealously and rage got into a physical altercation with the young child and in the end ended up breaking the child’s arm. Florence says in chapter 9 that she didn’t try to hurt the young lad, she just simply wanted him to stop crying, but she also goes on to say how she heard his shoulder crack but continued anyway (164).This is what leads me to think that it was done out of her jealously and rage and not by other less harmful means. The incident not on ly caused a huge dispute between her and the blacksmith but it also projected to the reader that Florence was unable to accept the fact that the blacksmith could show affection for someone else, other than her. â€Å"You see the boy down and believe bad about me without question? † (165) Florence goes into detail speaking about how the blacksmith came into the room and his immediate assumption was that Florence had did something to harm the boy.The excerpt that I think hurt Florence the most (165) was when he said to her â€Å"You are nothing but wilderness. No constraint. No mind. † Basically telling Florence she is as wild as an outdoor animal and can’t control herself or her emotions. Like a toddler Florence craves independence and attention but yet from the activities that Florence encountered in her past, she also fears desertion. As I stated before, Florence and the blacksmith got into a physical altercation and the blacksmith ended up striking Florence an d he abandoned her by telling her to leave the presence of him and his adopted son.Not only did the blacksmith aim to hurt Florence physically but he also attempted to hurt her verbally because after her told her to leave his presence her called her a (166) â€Å"slave by choice in both boy and mind. † In the novel Morrison compares this sense of abandonment to that of a familiar feeling Florence felt when she was given up at birth. Knowing that that event scared Florence negatively for life, it really gives the reader the ability to feel the wrath of the emotional roller coaster Florence is feeling at this point in the novel knowing she just lost a man she cared so deeply about.The love Florence has/had for the blacksmith soon des and turn simply to hatred because she still can’t realize the mistake she made in hurting Malik. Yes in my opinion the blacksmith was wrong for striking her but she was somewhat lucky that that was all he did. (184) Later, on in chapter 11 F lorence elaborates more on her closing quotes in chapter 9 which was â€Å"the claws scratch and scratch until the hammer is in my hand† (167).But in chapter 11 Florence gets into another tussle with the blacksmith (184) in which she strikes him with a hammer and cuts him severely with tongs before she runs away. Later on in this chapter and the preceding chapter (195) is where readers learn why the novel is titled â€Å"A Mercy. † The novel is named for Jacobs agreement to save Florence from a life that would have been worse than the one she experience on the Vaarks farm. â€Å"It was Not a miracle bestowed bu God. It was a mercy. Offered by a human†

Ethics on Walt Disney

According to an article from The New York Times, on May 9, 2012 The Walt Disney Company’s profits had grown up to 21% at Disney’s Cable TV gains and a surge in Resorts Business. Thanks to climbing ad sales and subscription fees at ESPN, another cable channel like ABCfamily has also helped the Walt Disney Company. Its quarterly profit 21% To $1. 14 billion dollars. The article started off by stating that Disney’s financial reported a Growth on retail sales report. In addition an operating income at Walt Disney Company Park and Resorts Surged 53% to $222 million dollars.A reason for this division growth was that they had high spenders. Which meant they wasted money on Disney’s products and not only that but there attendance increased on almost all there resorts worldwide. Just like in Tokyo an increase in spending up to 5%. This is ethical, because it shows that the resorts must be doing well that means people are going and spending their money even with thi s recession. Besides this there is an issue that Disney’s studios faced after filming the movie John Carter but they had a solution. After they had lost money from that movie they also had losses from media networks.Because As the result that they were working on their interactive media. Aside from their losses, Disney reported earnings per share of 58 cents for the quarter. Up to 18% from 49 cents a year earlier. Not only had that but Analyst expected Earnings per share of 56 cents. In the other hand there was revenue 6% to $9. 6 billion. This shows that it was am improvement for Walt Disney they do there accountings in an Ethical manner. Another good ethics of Walt Disney is there television portfolio, since they have a variety of studios.They manage different channels like sports and family channels that helps them set apart from there competition. ESPN is by the largest contributor to Disney’s overall probability. â€Å"Quite well positioned to remain the pre-emin ent sports brand,† said Disney Chairman Robert I. Iger. This statement shows that ESPN is doing a good job as it should and shows that not only that. But ESPN is still growing with their subscribers and fees. Lastly in the article, it states that since the release of the movie Marvel Inc. The movie has recorded the biggest opening. â€Å"It’s a great illustration of why we like Marvel Inc. o much. † Said Mr. Iger. In my opinion I think the Walt Disney Company is very successful. They have been around the business for quite a while. Not only that but they made products and films that are worth value. Great film from back in the days and still going on now. The Walt Disney Company hires employees and trains them to their best ability which not many companies do. They require safety and have their business standards set well. Just how their profits have increased. That’s shows their doing a well ethical job. They may not be perfect but they sure have accounti ng set well in their business.Because the fact that if they didn’t Walt Disney would be as well-known. Their resorts wouldn’t be considered one of the happiest places on earth. This Article states the ethical manner that Walt Disney has done yet they had issues but still they overcome them just like how ethical companies should. The Walt Disney Company hasn’t been affected in a huge drastic way that other companies have been affected. But yet I think that is example that an ethical company leads and that is Walt Disney. REFERENCE http://query. nytimes. com/gst/fullpage. html? res=9C01EFD9133AF93AA35756C0A9649D8B63&ref=brooksbarnes

Thinking machines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Thinking machines - Essay Example This paper conducts an analysis of its subject in the form of a qualitative content analysis of relevant available literature. A multi-dimensional approach is adopted to incorporate all perspectives in the analysis. These include perspectives of philosophy, mathematics, language, and related specialized sciences such as Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Robotics and Natural Language Processing. Literature on the Turing Test has also been examined and analyzed to gauge its applicability on modern-day machines. Literature from these diverse subjects of study has been qualitatively analyzed in this chapter in search of a conclusive answer to the central question of the paper. This chapter begins with an analysis of the human thinking process based on the approach of computer science and natural language processing. The objective of the analysis was to define the human thinking process in a quantitative manner and then compare it quantitatively with the functioning of a computer system. The next section of the chapter concentrated on trying to develop a possible mathematical model of the human thinking process based on neuroscience and analyzed by a philosophical approach. Thereafter, the chapter present analyses of the different perspectives held on the subject by related specialized disciplines. These disciplines include Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics and Neuroscience. The chapter then takes on an analysis of the Turing Test to gauge its efficacy as a test for human-level intelligence in machines. The chapter is rounded up with an overview in the form of a summary. The literature review conducted for this study was successful in finding the answers to many of the research questions. With regards to the first research question, while Philosophy holds that the human mind itself may not be

Principles of Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Principles of Management - Research Paper Example The employees stand to obtain a better insight into the functioning of the company, due to this initiative. Furthermore, employees obtain a better understanding of the lacunae in the performance of the company, which in turn could motivate them to seek methods for bettering the situation (Dossenbach 16). Subsequent to the evaluation of corporate performance, the employee’s achievement in realizing individual goals can be scrutinized. This task should be so conducted that the employees are made to review their individual objectives and achievements. At this juncture, the employees should be encouraged to provide suggestions for improving their deficient areas. As such, suggestions for change that emanate from the employee, will be adopted voluntarily, in addition to engendering a sense of well – being and accomplishment (Dossenbach 16). It is essential to realize that human resources management is critically dependent on the motivation of employees. The individual and collective motivation levels of employees have an overbearing and direct influence on the persistence, level and direction of their efforts. This circumstance finds substantial evidence in the fact that the best performers in the corporate sector enjoy a workforce that is highly motivated (Gilley, Gilley and Quatro 129). In fact, the functions of human resources management are based on a thorough comprehension of the theory of employee motivation. As such, any motivational theory is founded on a fundamental understanding of the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards on the motivation levels of employees (Gilley, Gilley and Quatro 129). Extrinsic rewards are basically motivational stimuli that are provided to employees as inducements for indulging in certain activities. Such rewards constitute valued consequences for completing a task in an exemplary manner. On the other hand, intrinsic

Ethical leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ethical leadership - Essay Example ook ‘Ethical leadership’, Kanungo and Mendoncafeel that the urge to investigate on the topic of ethical leadership is induced by the rise of unethical behaviour in the organization. This has further been coupled with a decline in upholding moral responsibility and workplace ethics. Furthermore, ethics has been having been given very little attention by both management and psychological education. Business literature as well as management has always emphasized on profits as the primary reason for an enterprise with little regard for ethics. It has led to the moral decay in most business organizations (Kanungo and Mondonca, 2007, Page 2). An organization is simply a structural-functional unit with an ordinary objective. In order to achieve its goals, organization assign its employees to different roles and status as per one ability and specialization thus leaders and subordinates. Effective leadership involves steering other members in an organization towards the realization of an organization’s set objectives using its policies and procedures (Kanungo and Mondenca, 2007, p. 2). In the current modern society, there is an increasing awareness of the management to be accountable and transparent not only to its shareholders, but also other relevant stakeholders as well. Managers are with ethical dilemmas pressurizing their decision making. This includes suppliers, employees, consumers, the Government and the society at large. Whilst the core function of the business is profit making, management and leaders should be responsive to the moral duties of the society as a whole. Understanding the significance of these moral duties has led to the formation of an ethical system alongside rules, regulations and policies to be (Starrat, 2004, p.62). Due to the urgency for morality in organizational leadership and social order, it’s mandatory that we define relevant moral principles to depend on in judgment making. Ethical conduct is a relative factor in our study since

Annotated Bibliography& Academic Criticism Research Paper

Annotated Bibliography& Academic Criticism - Research Paper Example Such well-constructed annotations make all the difference when they are attached to a scholarly research paper. The skills required for such concise exposition has to be developed in a measured manner. A well-chosen annotated bibliography can raise the value of the research work and inform the reader of its reliability at the same time. Developing annotated biography demands greater intellectual and analytical skills. In order to achieve such skills of the higher order, greater efforts are needed and working on annotated bibliography equip the researcher with such finer skills besides familiarising them with formatting and other such aspects of creating annotated bibliography. In brief, the paper aims at developing the appropriate skills required to construct annotated bibliography which is well-directed, without compromising the refinement that it demands. Introduction The feedback received from peers and tutor can be summarised as below. The format of an annotated bibliography is s ignificant and its concise style holds the key. It has to be pithy and condensed. A forceful and uninterrupted progression of the thought stripped of all the details is an essential ingredient. Furthermore, a lucid style can retain the interest of the reader and convey the message or theme straightaway. It is worthwhile to keep in mind that the reader has greater importance than anybody else and therefore a narrative style that focuses on the theme and interest the reader has to be maintained throughout. Next up, the annotation must present the central argument vividly and convincingly. Listing the content is not the task on hand; the central recurring theme and the authority of the author are to be established beyond any doubt. It is always good to appraise and analyse the source content critically and evaluate its merit commenting on the author’s approach and way of presentation. In short, annotations are critical, concise and evaluative. Ebegbulem, J. C.(11June 2012).Corru ption and leadership crisis in Africa: Nigeria in focus. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3 (11): 221-227. The paper by Ebogbulem throws light on the rampant corruption and inept leadership that plague post-independent Africa especially Nigeria. A country rich in natural resources bear the brunt of illiteracy, unemployment, malnutrition and poverty. Ebegbulem (2012) discuses in detail the factors that have contributed to the present crisis in Nigeria, that has brought democracy and economic growth to a standstill. Economic mismanagement and fraudulent misappropriation by people in power has spelled economic disaster, causing abject poverty for the people. The author further argues that the leadership crisis has been triggered by corruption. The paper categorically states that the leadership, both democratic and military, has ever inflicted untold miseries on the Nigerians, robbing public wealth. Ebegbulem goes on to examine how the democratic stability and econo mic growth are affected when corruption and its resultant bad governance strikes. Ebegbulem concludes that a strong leadership committed to the welfare of the people alone can reverse the trend. In the context of Nigeria the author drives home the point that corruption and bad governance destabilising the democracy and economy are entwined. The paper brings into limelight the stark realities haunting Nigeria. The narrative style is straightforward and objective. Obo,U. B &Obo E. B. (7 July 2013). Public Policies and the Crisis of Underdevelopment in Nigeria: A Critical

Ethical and Moral Issues regarding Intellectual Property Research Paper

Ethical and Moral Issues regarding Intellectual Property - Research Paper Example Though most countries and worldwide authorities have developed IP protection laws to help these companies protect their properties, there remain significant legal and ethical issues in relation to the IP protection between companies and between countries. This piece of research paper addresses the ethical and moral issues regarding the intellectual ownership and copyright. Ethical and moral issues regarding intellectual ownership Ethics, corporate social responsibility and morality have got significant importance in business in recent years. Businesses are expected to be ethical, moral and socially responsible and thus they are expected not to counterfeit, copy and steal intellectual properties of other businesses. Intellectual property, as Credo Reference noted, is equivalent to the physical form of private property that people are allowed to own aspects of their mental creativity and innovation, images, inventions, literary and artistic works and therefore these can be traded as co mmodities and thus an individual or company can apply for an idea to be registered as their own property. There has been significant debate about the ownership of the intellectual property, but as per the definition is given below, intellectual property is the right of an individual or company that invented or discovered it. ... Â  the intellectual property, who is entitled to granting the right and who has right to transfer it contractually are some of the concerns regarding the ownership of the intellectual properties. However, when an intellectual property like patent, royalty etc have been registered with an authority, it becomes the right of a person or firm to whom it has been registered. As Freeman and Peace (2005) noted, once the ownership has been acquired, it doesn’t end except by the destruction of the material thing or incorporation to another. The ownership of intellectual property is always temporal because it is restricted in time and some point coming to an end and therefore legally, ethically and morally the ownership falls within the public domain. Maughan (2004) emphasized that the ownership of the intellectual property, though technically the highest estate, is not absolute ownership, and therefore ethically the rights of the owner are socially circumscribed in many different ways for many reasons and this may be curtailed at any time. Ethical and moral issues regarding Copyright ownership A copyright is legal to form of protection that is afforded to an original work of art or authorship that has been developed into a physical and tangible form (Ward, 2007, 1). A copyright is initially owned by a creative author or authors from his or their works. But according to the law, a person doesn’t necessarily need to create the work to be its author for the copyright purposes (Irving, 2011). A very common example is the creation of employees who work for an employer.

Designing Compensation Systems and Employee Benefits Research Paper

Designing Compensation Systems and Employee Benefits - Research Paper Example Therefore, job evaluation attempts to document the shared and general characteristics of a job. Hence, in a job of driving a car, job evaluation would be attempting to determine the proficiency of the driver in driving the car or how well the person is aware of the roads. Job evaluation thus determines how well a person is handling each of the constituent tasks of the job. Employees receive compensation from companies for their work, however there’s a difference between compensation and pay. Compensation basically includes all types of financial rewards and tangible services which the company provides to the employees. For making the compensation internally consistent, the employees must be convinced that the jobs are being paid for by the employer according to its worth. There are certain jobs within the company which have more scope for contributing to the overall welfare of the company than other jobs. Hence such jobs are the ones which receive a higher pay. For example, in a hospital, the nurses are the ones who contribute greatly to the care of patients; hence the nurses are paid more than the orderlies. Determining the value of each and every job in an organization is very important since it assists in making the pay rates of an organization internally consistent. This value determination of jobs is called job evaluation. Some criteria used for job evaluation include the effort required to perform a job and the difficulty of a particular job. Compensations should also be developed which are market competitive. If for example the pay is low compared to the market, the company would encounter turnover and recruitment problems. If the pay is higher than the market, the company would potentially experience problems with the budget which may result in layoffs. The companies which pay above the market are termed as market leaders while the companies paying below the market rates are

But These Things Also Essay Example for Free

But These Things Also Essay ‘But these things also’ brings â€Å"to the centre of attention what has previously overlooked†, as Judy Kendall writes. Thomas explores his fascination with the unimportant in this poem and looks at the connection and merging together of Spring and Winter. Much like his other poetry, here, Thomas struggles to put his finger on precisely what he means. This is shown by his inability to separate and distinguish between the two seasons. The poem begins with the first two lines focussing on Spring, however, by following this with two lines focussing on Winter, Thomas explodes our first expectations of usual ‘spring poetry’ of bright and beautiful images. Instead, he catches the limbo between the two seasons and we are presented with the idea of the grass being ‘long dead’ and ‘greyer now’. This pessimistic tone is not what one usually connotes with springtime, but with the cold and bleak winter. By putting the images of the two seasons so close together in this stanza, Thomas reinforces his presentation of their connection. The last line of the stanza, ‘than all the winter it was’, changes the natural syntax of the words. The stress focuses of ‘it was’, emphasising what has past, which creates a sense of longing, introducing the idea that, like in ‘March’, Thomas is desperate to find ‘the key’ the last two lines of the first stanza finish with the words ‘now and ‘was’, bringing together images of the movement of time and emphasising the gap between the present and the past and importantly, Thomas’s focus on that gap. The second stanza uses inscape to look at things, which are seemingly unimportant. These things show the remains of winter, therefore connecting the seasons further. Once again, Thomas alters the syntax of the words to create a more beautified image.’ The word ‘bleached’ would usually have a much more negative connotation of fading and perhaps even the loss of hope, however By placing the word at the end of the first line and after the word ‘little’ he takes away the harshness of the sound and makes it more delicate and gentle. As well as this, Tomas’s use of enjambment stresses the soft ‘L’ sounds in ‘the shell of the little snail’, which further emphasises the smoothness of the words. Following this, the sexural pause halfway along the  second line, highlights the plosive sounds on the image of the ‘chip of flint’. This draws our attention to the minute details, which Thomas considers and accentuates the signs that spring is not quite here yet. By observing nature in this much detail, we see how valuable Thomas considers it to be, it creates a sense that although these things are small and often overlooked, they are significant. The final image in this stanza is of the ‘purest white’ bird dung. At first it appears odd to be beautifying such a thing as bird dung, but by following it with the words ‘purest white’, Thomas introduces an idea of innocence and positivity, as well as a contrast with the previous image of something ‘greyer now’. This brief glimmer of hope however, is shattered in the next stanza. In stanza three, the image of ‘white’ no longer has positive connotations, but it feels as if Thomas could be referring to the relationship between the colour white and death. This instantly darkens the tone and the notion of mistaking bird dung for violets presents the idea that Thomas is truly desperate for any indication of spring’s arrival. The following violent images of ‘winter’s ruins’ and ‘winter’s debts’ create an oppressive feeling which moves further from the previous idea of hope. Continuing the pattern of Thomas’s other poetry, the word ‘something’ appears ambiguous and vague, creating a sense that Thomas still isn’t quite clear on what it is we are paying ‘winter’s debts’ with. The final stanza of ‘But these things also’ begins to fill us with hope once more. The ‘chattering’ birds create a sense of rising morale and the idea of keeping their ‘spirits up’ sounds optimistic. Despite this, when we eventually think that Thomas is going to make a definitive statement, ‘spring’s here’ he reintroduces the feeling of ambiguity with the words ‘winter’s not gone’. This leaves the poem with a sense of not knowing and uncertainty. This reminds us of Thomas’s tendency to never give absolutes and that he likes balancing a positive idea with a negative. This paradox leaves us with the idea that the winter is preventing the spring from arriving. Throughout the poem, there is a regular rhythm, given by the Iambic  Tetrameter, which is occasionally shortened to show the indecisive and unclear seasons. There is never a climax during this poem due to it all being one long sentence. Robert’s talks about Thomas’s use of enjambment and fluidity, which gives a sense of him thinking and working through his thoughts.

Ebusiness Plan Online Furniture Shops Marketing Essay

Ebusiness Plan Online Furniture Shops Marketing Essay This report outlines an online business plan for our company known as the Online Furniture Shop. We tend to cater needs of several kinds of customers ranging from large organization, small offices, schools, restaurants, hospitals to homes. We offer a vast variety of products online on our website furniture-online.com. Consumers can not only browse through various categories of products, view their details and prices but they can also order furniture online. The rest of the report will determine several other elements required in the e-business plan for Online Furniture Shop. A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  The E-commerce Infrastructure Electronic commerce can be defined as the type of business or monetary transaction which involves the transfer of goods or services in exchange of some money over the internet. This covers a wide range of several types of businesses. These types include auctions, consumer based retail sites, music sites and business exchanges of goods/services between organizations. This business plan also determines the strategic plan required for establishing an Online Furniture Shop. The infrastructure of the business involves based e-commerce website development which will sell to both businesses and individually through the internet. The infrastructure of this e-business also comprises of DBMS, Web Master, Web-developer, E-marketing, logistics and distribution channels and integration of secure transaction channels.   B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Markets in E-Commerce There are three types of markets in the e-business sector Business-to-Business, Business-to-Consumer and Consumer-to-Consumer. All the three business types have different business strategies and marketing plans since they focus on different groups of consumers. Our Online Furniture Shop will focus   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Business to Business Even though early e-commerce based businesses focused on retailing on the interest however it is believed that revenue generated through B2B e-commerce will exceed that of business to consumer revenue. A research published in 2000 stated that ratio of monetary volume of B2B to that of B2C is 10 to 1 (Rouse, 2010). Our company tends to cater the needs of large to small business organizations. We sell as wholesalers when dealing with businesses and selling in bulks. Our clients belong to categories such as schools, law firms, large business organizations, restaurants and other business class categories. We offer them furniture like office chairs, table, revolving chairs, folding tables, executive chairs, kindergarten chairs, hospital waiting room furniture etc. Organizations can view our products online and contact us through mail since we do not take order in bulk online rather we contact with the firm personally to fulfill their large requirements.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Business to Consumer Even though B2C e-commerce has gone through hard times especially after the dot.com bubble burst in 2000. However there has been an increase in the number of online shoppers since then. Even the future looks bright for B2C e-commerce as household shopping in U.S alone has raised from 39 to 48 percent in 2010 (Patton, 2007). Our other main clients are small scale consumers who want to furnish their homes. We provide high quality furniture like sofas, beds, dining tables, sofa-cum-beds, computer table etc. to our valuable consumers. The consumers can come on our website browse through the products and one they have selected what to buy they can register in simple steps, buy online through our highly secure website and get the delivery at their door-step within 5 business working days. Now buying furniture for home is just a few clicks away. C.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Business Models There are several e-commerce business models a company can integrate in their business plan for enhanced profitability. We will focus on merchant business model since we are the retailer and wholesalers of furniture further we also sale directly to our consumers through our website. Another model we might integrate is affiliation model in which the company might place banners on other websites to increase traffic on our website thus adapting pay-per-click traffic generation strategy. II. Marketing Concepts There are several innovative techniques through which our e-commerce business can market the offering and reach targeted markets. We will look individually analyze the strategies which will be used in our e-business.   A. Marketing Techniques Since the target market is individual consumer along with business sector therefore we will look at some of the ways in which Online Furniture Shop can position and market its offerings. Banners Company can place banners on popular websites with heavy traffic having an integrated link back to the site of the organization just like putting up billboards in real world. Crawlers We also intend to integrate SEO in our websites for search engines which use Crawlers technique to search the internet database so that the websites are ranked higher on the result page whenever a potential customer searches for furniture shops. Pop Up Pop-up ads can also be used as a marketing technique even though they are found quite annoying by some internet users. These are ads which will open up in a new window whenever a user opens an associated website like home decoration or office set-up. III. Communicating in e-commerce A. Social networking The use of social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter for promotion of products and services will be quite beneficial for OFS since its a great way to bring customers to your websites and generate sales. These sites are also a great tool for link building by posting URLs which have a link to your website this method tends to increase the traffic (Introcaso , 2011). Through creation of social media our firm can offer discounts, coupons and announce contests to people following us on such social networking websites. Such sites are also a great tool to interact with the consumers directly and get feedback from them along with any suggestions. B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Content Marketing OFS also intends to use content marketing as a method of disseminating and creating important content to acquire, engage and attract a potential target market. Content marketing basically is the art of communication with potential prospects and customers. The core essence of this marketing strategy is that if businesses keep giving consistent and valuable information to the buyer the buyer ultimately gives their loyalty as a reward. IV. Problems surrounding E-Commerce Due to a massive out growth in the e-commerce business sector there has also been an emergence of associated security threats. Due to which it is essential for e-commerce based businesses to cater some vital requirements. These fundamental security requirements of e-commerce business are the basis of a secure online business since this sector faces the greatest threat as stated by a report that the attacks in this sector have risen from 2006 to 2007 by 15% (Symantec, 2007). A. Privacy and security Since we also plan on starting an e-commerce based business therefore it is vital for the organization to integrate protection against potential security threats in the business plan.   We plan on carefully monitor and securing the monetary transaction channel before offering credit card purchase option like SSL and Address Verification Systems. Our website will also have a satisfactory site security, encryption, privacy policy and also insurance against identity theft if possible. V. Ethical Challenges in Online Business   Identity theft can be defined as the illegally acquired personal information like names, drivers license, address, Social Security Number, Bank or credit card number and exploiting this personal data for some unlawful activities (Sorbel, 2003). It is ranked as one of the fasted growing crimes in America.   Some laws and regulation which might regulate the rising issue of identity theft and which are also applied to our firm are described below. a. The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 According to the summary by The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (2000) this act has a clause which requires a disclosure of privacy policy by all financial institutions with regards to the sharing of personal information. This act has another requirement which states that a notice should be given to the consumer to opt out of sharing the personal information with some nonaffiliated third party. b. The Fair Credit Reporting Act This was proposed in order to secure the personal information of consumers which is exchanged during any business transaction. This act tends to promote the fairness, privacy and integrity of the information content of consumer reporting agencies as states by Federal Trade Commission (2011). VI. Conclusion Thanks to easy and cheap access to internet more and more people are buying online. Our e-business model caters almost all the requirements for establishing an online merchant business. The target market we are focusing on is also quite large therefore we expect a successful growth in the market.

Characteristics Of Communicative Language Teaching English Language Essay

Characteristics Of Communicative Language Teaching English Language Essay The focus of every lesson or part of a lesson should be the performing of some action learning how to do something, to communicate something which he/she could not do before learning the lesson. Learner can get answer to his/her question i.e. why is he/she learning a particular lesson or any linguistic item. The learner understands the importance of learning the same as it is going to help him/her in day-today communication. So, here a learner understands and then acts. All these actions can be approached on a variety of different levels of sophistication, and bearing them in mind throughout the teaching/learning process. The Whole is more than the sum of its parts One of the most significant features of communication is that it is a dynamic and developing phenomenon. In other words it cannot easily be analyzed into component features without its nature being destroyed in the process. It is possible to identify various formal features of the way language is used communicatively and these can be studied individually. But the ability to handle these elements in isolation is no indication of ability to communicate. What is needed is the ability to deal with strings of sentences and ideas and in the oral modes processed in real life situations. Thus, a crucial feature of a communicative method is that it operates with stretches of language above the sentence level, and operates with real language in real situations. Interestingly, this principle may lead to procedures which are themselves either synthetic or analytic. A synthetic procedure would involve students in learning forms individually and then practicing how to combine them; an analytic procedure would introduce complete interactions of texts and focus for learning purposes on the way these are constructed. So, language used in the whole context is more useful than only studying the parts of it. The processes are as important as the forms A method which aims at developing the capacity of the learners to communicate in a second language will focus at repeating continuously until they are able to communicate well in a target language. So that the learners are able to practice the forms of the target language, i.e. English within a given framework. It simply means when the language is used for communication, the language forms are used for a process of communication. There are three such processes Information gap Communication is part and parcel of every human being. When two or more people are conversing in day-today life, one may know something which is not known to the other. The purpose of the communication is to bridge this information gap. In classroom situation pair work undertaken to complete an incomplete picture is the best example of transferring information as each member of the pair has a part of total information and attempts to convey it verbally to the other. Choice Another crucial feature of communication is that the learners have option, both in terms of what they will say and, more particularly, how they will say it. From the point of view of the speaker this means that s/he must choose the ideas which s/he wants to express with appropriate linguistic forms. Foreign language learners may face problems in making choice in this regard. Feed back This process is implicit in the above two processes. When two persons take part in an interaction, there is normally some aim behind communicating and in what way other person reacts is evaluated in terms of that aim. So, the strategies involved in this process are important. Learning by doing It is now widely accepted that education must be ultimately learner-centred more than the teacher-centered. The teacher may go on teach, but if the learner is not making any effort, then there is no point of teaching. The teacher must involve the learner and must be judged in terms of its effects on him/her. Another consequence is that learning becomes to a large extent the learners responsibility. The teacher helps, advises, and teaches, guides, the learners themselves have to learn. The learner has to be involved in the activity. Only by practicing, acting, actually doing, the learners can learn to communicate. Mistakes are not always a mistake While developing communicative ability of the learners, trivial mistakes of grammar or pronunciation does not matter as long as the learner gets his/her message across. In the initial stage of learning to communicate in a foreign language, mistakes are bound to happen. The learners commit mistakes because they are trying to do something which they have not been told or shown how to do, how to speak which they have not mastered. It means they are not really making mistakes. If the teacher corrects each and everything at every level, the learners may lose their confidence of using the language for communication. 3.6.4 Principles of Communicative Language Teaching Richards (2006) summarizes the following principles of CLT: Authentic language in real context should be introduced in the classroom whenever possible. It is the language used for day-today communication or functional purpose. By teaching language, learner should be able to make out speakers or writers intention. So that they will be communicatively competent. There should be connectivity among all the language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing together since they are regularly used in real life. The target language is a vehicle for classroom communication, not just the object of study. Hence, attention should be given to teaching language for communication. One function may have different linguistic forms. As the language is taught for the functional purpose, a variety of linguistic forms are presented together. Students have to learn language properties i.e. cohesion and coherence which are helpful to combine sentences together. It is essential for them as they work with language at the discourse or super sentential (above sentence) level. In CLT, games, role plays, group work, pair work, etc. play an important role as they have certain feature in common to learn language effectively. Errors are tolerated and treated as a natural outcome of the development of communication skills. Proper situations should be created by the teacher so as to promote communication in the classroom. The social contexts of the communicative situations are essential for giving meaning to the utterances. The grammar and vocabulary that the students learn follow from the functions, situational context and the role of the interlocutors. 3.6.5 Communicative Ability and Communicative Competence For effective communication one must have ability to communicate properly and have communicative competence. According to H. G. Widdowson, communicative abilities are those skills in which the system is realized as use. Communicative abilities embrace linguistic skills but not the reverse. Communicative abilities are ways of creating or recreating discourse in different modes. (Widdowson, 1978. 67) These opinions about communicative abilities suggest that these are the abilities which involve linguistic as well as other skills essential for conversation, communication or discourse to take place. On the other hand communicative competence has been defined in various ways. According to Littlewood, communicative competence means, a degree of mastery of a very considerable range of linguistic and social skills which depend in part on the learners sensitivity to meaning and appropriacy in language and on his/her ability to develop effective strategies for communicating in the second language. (Littlewood, 1981.87) K. Johnson and K. Marlow say that communicative competence is the ability to be appropriate, to know the right thing to say at the right time. (Johnson and Morrow, 1981.2) International Encyclopedia of Education defines communicative competence as the effective use of language in social contexts. (The International Encyclopedia, 1985.834) According to Widdowson, communicative competency is the ability to produce sentences for communicative effect. (Widdowson, 1978.1) It is revealed from the above definitions that communicative competence is The ability to use language appropriately in a given social context. The ability to be appropriate to know the right thing at the right time. Linguistic competence plus an understanding of proper use of language in various contexts. Knowledge which is additional to linguistic competence. Ability to communicate something which is grammatical, proper, socially accepted, formally possible, fluent in a particular context. In this way communicative competence includes both grammatical knowledge and the ability to use this knowledge to perform different kinds of functions like enquiring, suggesting, greeting, denying, advising, reporting, apologizing, inviting and promising. 3.6.6 Dimension of Communicative Competence Grammatical Competence Sociolinguistic Competence Communicative Competence Strategic Competence Discourse Competence Fig No.3.3: Components of Communicative Competence Grammatical Competence Grammatical competence, which refers to Chomskys notion of linguistic competence, is indispensable for the practice of linguistic formation of the language. The focus is on suitable structure which helps the learners to use the language appropriately and freely. Sociolinguistic Competence Sociolinguistic competence refers to an understanding of the social context in which communication takes place, including role-relationships, the shared information of the participants and the communicative purpose for their interaction. Discourse Competence Discourse competence refers to the interpretation of individual message elements in terms of their inter-connectedness and of how meaning is represented in relationship to the entire discourse or text. Strategic Competence Strategic competence refers to the coping strategies that communicators employ to initiate, terminate, maintain, repair, and re-direct communication. In CLT classrooms, the teachers need to create activities that would necessitate learners to practice well in the target language. 3.6.7 Classroom Activities in CLT There are various types of exercises and activities in communicative approach which help students to achieve the communicative competence, and engage learners in communication (Richards, 2001). Communicative activities play vital role in communicative language teaching. These activities are helpful for the teachers to broaden their repertoire of techniques and activities so as to enable the learners to communicate more effectively in foreign language. Communicative activities are purposeful and objective oriented. According to Littlewood, the communicative activities can be represented diagrammatically as follows. (Littlewood, 2003.86) Structural activities Pre-Communicative activities Quasi Communicative activities Functional Communicative activities Communicative activities Social interaction activities (This diagram is adopted from Littlewoods Communicative Language Teaching, P.86) In these two major categories, the first types (Pre-communicative activities) serve to prepare the learner for later communication. The two sub-categories of pre-communicative activities are: Structural activities: Focus is on the grammatical system and on ways in which linguistic items can be combined. Quasi- Communicative activities: Focus is on one or more typical conversation exchanges. Some resemble drills, but other is closer to dialogues. Drills and dialogues can be combined so as to provide a bridge from formal exercise to communicative use. Communicative Activities also have two sub-categories: Functional Communicative activities include such tasks as comparing sets of pictures, noting similarities and differences, working out continuously following directions and so on. In these activities learners must work towards a definite solution for a problem. Social interaction activities comprise exchange of words, converse with others, improvisations and debates. Here, teachers prepare learners about the varied social contexts in which they will need to perform outside the classroom using different social interaction activities. There is no clear dividing line in reality between these different categories and subcategories; they represent differences of emphasis and orientation rather than distinct divisions. E.g. cued dialogues can be undertaken both as pre-communicative activity and as communicative activity. Similarly it would be arbitrary if we try to specify how much attention must be paid to communicative function before an activity can be called quasi- communicative, or how significant social meaning must become before it falls into the social interaction sub category. This distinction depends on the varying orientation of individual learner. Difference between pre-communicative and communicative activities The following chart shows the difference between pre-communicative and communicative activities. Pre-communicative (non-communicative) activities Communicative activities A Aims to develop grammatical competence Aims to develop communicative competence B Focus on the product of isolated utterances. Focus on the appropriate selection of utterances for communication. C Practice of language patterns or elements Practice of total skill of communication. D Function is to prepare the learner for later communication. Function is to make the learner to actually communicate. E Learners have controlled practice. Learners use language creatively. F Teacher intervention No teacher intervention G Emphasis on form, not on context. Emphasis in on context, not on form. H One long item Variety of language items. I Examples: drilling, question answers, sentence patterns, etc. Examples: Role simulation, dramatization, group discussion, dialogue, debate, etc. 3.6.8 Learners/Teachers Role in Communicative Language Teaching In CLT classroom teachers play a vital role in teaching/learning process of English. Teachers select learning activities according to the interest of the learners and engage them in meaningful and authentic language use. There are various roles to be played by the teachers in order to facilitate the language learning process. According to Hedge (2000.63), a communicative classroom involves the teacher in setting up activities, organizing material resources, guiding students in group works, engaging contributions, monitoring activities, and diagnosing the further needs of students. Richards Rodgers (2001) also describes the roles of the teacher as: needs analyst, counselor, and group process manager. Similarly, Harmer (1991) as cited in Nunan and Land (1996) describes the roles of the teacher as: Controller, assessor, promoter, participant, resource, tutor and investigator. Of all these roles, Nunan and Lamb suggest that it is the teacher as organizer that is the most important and difficult from the perspective of classroom management. In order to perform all these roles effectively, teachers should be competent enough in all aspects of language teaching. In line with this, Hedge (2000.67) states that, teachers need to build competence and confidence in fulfilling these various roles and in-service training is necessary within institutions to ensure that, in any moves towards implementing communicative approaches in the classroom, teachers are properly supported. 3.6.9 Role and Relevance of CLT Concepts in Present Research Since the main aim of the present research is to investigate teachers and students difficulties in teaching/learning process of English language, and support the teachers with an in-service training programme by using Communicative Approach which is essential in an ESL (English as a second language) environment, it is noteworthy to furnish the role and relevance of CLT concepts in the present study. Language is an inevitable phenomenon which permeates the human life. Of all languages, English is the most important language for communication. Naturally, English has become the language of worldwide communication rather than a language of literature. Hence the prime need of the learners is not to know the theoretical knowledge of English but to have an ability to understand and be understood in that language. In the past it was sufficient to focus only on structural accuracy when learning a language was an entirely academic advantage and an obsession to acquire a new language. But in todays world, language teaching is no longer considered a luxury but an obvious need. The language teaching methods in the past were based on linguistic competence. The establishment of basic principles of CLT was a reaction in opposition to the previously prevailing language teaching methods. Communicative language teaching aims at developing and improving knowledge and skills that facilitate the learners to make their message effective and successful. The main goal of communication is the successful transmission of information, not the achievement of grammatical correctness. By widening the horizons with other kinds of competence, CLT initiated progressive and effective ways of teaching. CLT uses and teaches as it is used in every day real life. Students are given the notion of language as real, lived experience. Socio-linguistic, discourse and strategic competences are integral part of communicative language teaching. The use of CLT in the second language classroom is a means of changing the attitude of the students towards language learning as well as positively influencing their way of learning. Over-emphasis on grammatical correctness and fear of making grammatical mistakes has negative effects on students. Such as being stressed at class and experiencing sense of failure. CLT creates congenial atmosphere in the classroom in different ways: the teachers emphasise on fluency and correctness to learn the target language than correcting the structures and giving instructions on language rules or grammar (Mangubai etal, 2004.292) The focus of CLT is on success rather than failure. The students are encouraged to rely on their own ingenuity and performance skills namely their strategic competence when speaking. Its emphasis is on the learner. (Savignan cited in Magngubhai 2004, 292) The four basic components of communicative competence summarized by Hymes (as cited in Cook, 2003) are argued by some applied linguists as vague theoretical ideas which can hardly be put into practice. The applied linguists draw attention to the fact that ideas of appropriateness and correctness very much depend on the cultural norms of a particular society. They are in a way right in their argument. Language itself is an intrinsic part of culture. Hence, learning a language also implies learning a culture as well. CLT integrates socio-cultural context with language teaching programmes and thus aims at developing students sense of what is right and what is wrong in English. Linguists have pointed out, according to academic research that they have not found one single best method for all learners in all contexts and that no single method appears to be naturally superior to other methods. It is neither possible always nor appropriate to apply one and the same methodology to all learners whose objectives, environments and learning needs are varied and different. CLT is considered one of the best methods for use in the second language classroom for several reasons: One, it gives confidence to the students to learn the second language and use it as and when required. Two, CLT draws attention to the importance of socio cultural skills. Three, the learners are given the realistic idea of language and are provided with a sense of what is appropriate and right in a given culture. Four, the learners learn English language and English culture simultaneously. It is vital and imperative both for teachers and learners, living as they do in a globalized world, to adopt and maintain the effective methods of language teaching/learning offered by CLT. Constant migration of people has become part and parcel of todays globalized world. Hence, English teaching/learning has become inevitable for anyone intending to move onto other states/countries either for higher studies or better careers. In this context, it is necessary to consider the lag between the aspiration for better prospects in life and the existing situation of teaching/learning of English language in schools especially the municipal corporation schools. Hence, the present research study is undertaken to bridge this gap by finding ways and means to know the difficulties of teachers and learners and develop a methodology that will enable them to improve the standards of teaching/learning process of English at school level. 3.7 Procedure of the Test to the Students A total number of 200 students from class VIII and IX standard of various Municipal Corporation Schools were gathered in one of the municipal schools in two spells and the tests on four language skills were given, data was collected, analysed and interpreted in the next chapter. 3. 8 Flowchart of the Research Design The research work during July 2008 to March 2011 was done as per the steps shown in the following flowchart. A Flow Chart Submission of the research report Selection of the problem DTP and binding of final computerized research report Review of related literature Formation of objectives Writing rough research reports and corrections in it Formation of hypothesis Suggestions for further research study Sample selection Findings, conclusions and recommendations Preparation of research tools Implementation of Pilot study Verification of Objectives Testing of hypothesis Data collection with the help of questionnaires and its analysis Analysis and interpretation data Pre-observation of the lessons and its analysis Data collection from students tests in all four language skills Implementation of the training programme for the teachers Post-observation of the teachers lessons Discussion with the teachers and Guidance to the teachers 3.9 Summary This chapter has discussed about the methods and procedures of the research study. It includes research design, the methodology employed for the teachers, procedure used for the research, the sampling design, participants, data collection, in-service training programme, its benefits, and communicative approach for the teachers and its relevance in the present research and analysis techniques. It has also discussed the procedure of the test for the learners. The next chapter includes analysis and interpretation of the data collected through the questionnaires from the teachers and observation of their lessons and also analysis and interpretation of the students tests in all four language skills questionnaire. Data was classified, analysed, interpreted using the statistical method and conclusions are drawn.

Orange Juice (The Godfather) :: essays research papers

**Orange Juice** Contrast and Irony†¦ Gentle moments in the story keep it realistic while the larger plot progresses and sucks us in. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction- The Godfather will make sure. Not a killer by his definition, The Godfather does not mix family and business matters, yet family and crime abound. And justice prevails however it may. Transitions in the montage after Michael killed two of his first marks in the restaurant explain exactly how the â€Å"family† works. One scene shows a family member playing the piano, then cuts artfully to another of a dead body. The piano player still playing directly above the body. A spectacular illustration of how the family mastered the art of playing others. The opening line: â€Å"I believe in America† (spoken by the undertaker, no less)-contrasted later in the film by another scene in which one of the family appears to be peeing on the Statue of Liberty, seen in the distance. So much for believing in America after all. The feel of viewing the world through dark sunglasses on an already cloudy day versus the bright, relaxed feeling of the Sicilian scenes creates even more contrast and confusion. The characters hidden from the viewer’s eye in the United States, while Michael hides in Sicily. Images of these scenes prevail in viewers minds, taking us to a happier time and place while we wonder what the Corleone family has up their sleeves in America. The Godfather grants favors- as a self-benefit of course- because the favors control those whom that they are meant for. Corleone has granted favors, but those who have received them will be in his debt and one day, they're afraid, they will be called upon to make-good the favor of the Godfather. Crime merely illustrates the degree of power this family holds. Don Corleone can make it happen- with â€Å"offers that can not be refused†. People are killed just to show who is boss. Even the raspy voice in which the Godfather grants the favors lends to a colossal sense of power, as does his sharply shaped, well-manicured mustache. Michael’s injury transitions his speech and he begins to speak like his father- his power becomes obvious. At the baptism of Connie and Carlo’s son, the film cuts to show the murders Michael has ordered. The patriarchs of the â€Å"five families†. The final montage artfully suggests that the murders and baptism occur simultaneously.

Negligence Case Study Essay -- Law of Tort, Tort Law

Review the scenario below. Consider the legal principles influencing the likelihood of any successful action against Steve in negligence. Daria and her lover, Tom, were crossing the road on a pedestrian crossing when Tom was hit and killed by a car being negligently driven by Steve. The car missed Daria by inches. Since the incident Daria has had frequent nightmares and has been unable to return to work. Harry, a policeman patrolling the area, witnessed the incident and went to try to help Tom, but quickly realised that Tom was already dead. This was Harry’s first day back at work following six months recovering from psychiatric illness caused by the distressing nature of his job. As a result of seeing Tom’s injuries Harry has now suffered a return of the psychiatric damage which now appears permanent. Samira, a civilian worker in police traffic control, was watching a TV monitor which showed the road as the incident occurred. Samira recognised Tom as her husband whom she had not seen since the day, six months before, when he had left her and gone to live with Daria. Samira had always believed that, one day, he would return to her. She has suffered post traumatic stress disorder since the incident. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In our given scenario we are asked to discuss legal principles influencing the likelihood of any successful action against Steve in the grounds of negligence. Steve’s negligent driving caused a series of events that caused losses to the other people presented in the scenario and they take actions against Steve in the grounds of negligence. At first we must understand what negligence is. The tort of negligence provides the potenti... ...rameters and all the aspects of the law that appear in our given scenario we can safely say that any claim that is being made by Tom’s representative by Daria and Samira on the grounds of negligence – breach of duty of care and psychiatric injury would be successful and that even though Harry suffered psychiatric injury his claim won’t be successful since he doesn’t fulfill the necessary parameters in order to make a successful claim. Bibliography Neal Geach, Question & Answer Tort Law, Pearson Law of Tort, Module Handout. Cases Frances Quinn, Tort Law, Pearson, first edition, pp 34-35 Caparo v Dickman (1990) 2 A.C. 605 Page v Smith [1996] 1 A.C. 155 Bourhill v Young [1943] A.C. 92 Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire [1992] 1 A.C. 310 Hinz v Berry [1970] 1 All E.R. 1084 White v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police [1999] 2 A.C.455

An Analysis of Intercultural Negotiations between the East and West Essay

Executive Summary: This report provides an analysis and evaluation of an intercultural negotiation between USA’s Brown Casual Shoes and China’s Chung Sun Manufacturing, provides a literature review of a prominent theory from the field and suggests recommendation to improve the process of intercultural communication between these two countries and companies. As the Case Study was identified as subpar negotiation, all issues from the Case Study were allocated into Intercultural, Verbal and Nonverbal. Following this, Hofstede’s Cultural Model was introduced in the literature review and critically analysed. This model included five dimensions: 1. Uncertainty Avoidance 2. Power Distance 3. Masculinity vs. Femininity 4. Individualism vs. Collectivism 5. Short Term vs. Long Term Some strengths of the model included a large sample size, indexes for all nations and easily formulated hypotheses. Alternatively, some limitations were an alleged sample misrepresentation, not adequately analysing people on an individual level and a time lapse since dimension formulation. Major issues from the negotiations were then further investigated and included: Rushing the negotiations and failing to form an adequate relationship Causing offence by giving a gift to the Chinese representative Not respecting the hierarchy of the Chinse culture Failing to hire an interpreter for the negotiations Touching the Chinese associates inappropriately Recommendations suggested preventing further intercultural issues and fixing current issues as noted above included: Hiring an interpreter and cultural adviser Translating all written materials into Chinese Creating transparency within the negotiations process by asking for a joint strategy 1 Introduction Intercultural communication is becoming increasingly important within a global context for businesses. In one study within China – the country being analyzed, all respondents to a survey agreed that it is critical to the success of the organization (73.9 strongly & 26.1 moderately) (Goodman & Wang, 2007). In the following report, the success of an intercultural negotiation between China and USA will be assessed to ascertain all issues occurring across intercultural, verbal and nonverbal and how they can be fixed. This will be done by providing recommendations based on current literature in the field. Additionally, The issues of the case will be identified and analysed and a literature view will be undertaken of a relevant prominent theory in the field. 2 Identification of Problems/Issues Within the negotiations between Brown Casual Shoes and Chung Sun Manufacturing, there were several intercultural communication issues that offended the Chinese through what appeared to be a blatant disregard for their cultural barriers. These issues have been partitioned into three sections general, verbal and nonverbal. 1 Intercultural Issues The first error in their intercultural interaction was the letter given by Mr  Brown to Mr Deng. In addition to gift giving in the Chinese business culture being unacceptable due to it being seen as bribery (UONI, 2011), it is especially offensive for a gift to be wrapped in white paper – as red is the norm (Kwintessential, 2013). The fact that Mr. Deng refused the gift three times before opening it aligns with the fact that Chinese may refuse a gift three times before opening it – but not a fourth (Kwintessential, 2013). Another contributing factor is the point that Chinese don’t like to say no, and will often say yes just to save face (World Business Culture, 2013). The following mistake made by Mr. Brown was offering the first toast of the evening. In Chinese cultulre, it should always be the host who makes the first toast of the evening (Kwintessential, 2013). Additionally, Mr Brown’s lack of knowledge on who should leave the meeting first may have caused offence. As per Chinese culture, the foreigner should always leave first when a meeting is finished (UONI, 2011). Mr Browns misunderstanding of this could have caused discomfort for the Chinese. Mr Brown’s perception that the initial meetings with the Chinese would have resulted in a negotiation early was a fundamental misunderstanding – as he failed to realise that the Chinese often forge relationships with individuals before partaking in business (Goodman, 2013). 2 Intercultural Verbal Communication Issue Although Mr Brown and his team participated in lots of small talk with Mr Deng, further small talk could be encouraged to avoid causing offence and giving the impression that the negotiators only care about time – and not forging a lasting relationship (UONI, 2011). An additional verbal error made by Mr. Brown was his failure to hire a interpreter. In China, this is often viewed as a sign of disrespect for their culture (Fang & Faure, 2010). This lack of an interpreter and an overall lack of comprehension of English could have been the reason for the large amount of questions rather than the impression formulated by Mr. Brown that they were not serious about the business (World Business Culture, 2013). Furthermore, the fact that Mr Brown and his team didn’t make the effort to learn any Chinese at all for the negotiation might give off the impression that they are ethnocentric about their culture (Goodman, 2013). 3 Intercultural Nonverbal Verbal Communication Issues Although there were not many nonverbal communication errors, one fundamental nonverbal communication error made by Mr. Brown was his touching of the arm of Mr. Deng. Culturally, Chinese dislike being touched by strangers (Gao et al, 1996). As they were only just meeting and not yet properly acquainted, this may have been perceived as offensive. 3 Literature Review Hofstede’s model has been used as it was utilized a starting point for many additional cultural models. Below, figure one shows the convergence of this model with other notable ones from the field of cultural communication studies. It can be deduced from this that Hofstede’s model is the most diverse and complete framework as it encompasses all factors of other relevant models and shows evidence for the theoretical relevance. Figure 2: Comparison of Hofstede’s cultural framework with other models Source: Soares, Farhangmehr & Shoham, 2007, p. 281 One assumption of this model is defining identity through nation. Many scholars (Steenkamn et al, 1999l Hofstede, 1984; Parker, 1994; Hoover et al., 1978) support this approach. 1 Literature Review Hofstede’s cultural dimension is a model crafted to identify the key differences across different cultural workplace values. Gert Hofstede formulated this model through complex statistical analysis on more than 100,000 IBM employees across the world. The results of this suggested that five dimension anchors could be used to describe most important differences among cultures worldwide. These anchors provide points of comparison for each culture and allow different nations cultures to be contrasted and their disposition measured based on key traits (Lewicki, Saunders & Barry, 2011). These anchor points are: Individualism/Collectivism, Power Distance, Masculinity/Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance and Short Term/Long Term. Figure 1 below shows how this is commonly measured. Figure 1: Source: Hofstede, 2001 The first dimension of the model is Power Distance. Power distance reflects the attitude a society holds on power inequality and authority relations in society. This anchor can influence hierarchy, dependence relationships and organizational context (Soares et al, 2007). A low score is indicative of a society with little respect for unequally distributed power and decisions are often spread through the organisation with feedback to bosses appropriate. Alternatively, a high score shows that the society depends highly on hierarchical structures and may concentrate decision making at the top (Hofstede, 1980). Uncertainty avoidance is the second dimension of this framework. This dictates the extent to which people feel threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity and due to this avoid situations that may cause these feelings to occur (Hofstede, 1991). People with high uncertainty avoidance often have well defined rules for prescribed behaviours (Soares et al, 2007) and if these are not in pla ce for new situations, they will strive to immediately move towards establishing them. Alternatively, those with low scores on this anchor will be less affected by situations that may be ambiguous (Lewicki, Saunders & Barry, 2011). The next dimension – individualism vs. collectivism, describes the relationships people have in each culture (Soares et al, 2007). In individualistic societies, people tend to act independently and look after only themselves and their direct families. In collectivist societies, members of the society hold a large degree of interdependence (Hofstede, 1980) and take care of their group in exchange for loyalty. Masculinity vs. Feminity is the scale anchor that differentiates societies where achievement and success is paramount (high – masculine) and those where caring for others and quality of life is more important (low – feminine) (Hofstede, 1994). Feminine societies are ones where quality of life is often more desirable than standing out from the crowd (Hofstede, 2014). Lastly, Long-term vs. Short Term is the dimension, which shows countries preference towards future rewards and perseverance or towards  short-term gain and fulfilling past or present traditions (Hofstede and Bond, 1988). 2 Strengths Some strengths of Hofstede’s model is the thoroughness and time points of his research – which includes 116,000 empirical questionnaires from over 60,000 respondents across seventy countries in various decades (Hofstede, 1984; Hofstede, 1991; Hofstede, 2001). This is the most robust model in terms of sample size and variety (Smith et al., 1996). He links his dimensions with various external and internal factors, such as demographic, geographic, economic and political, and assigns indexes to every nation – a feature unmatched by other frameworks (Kale & Barnes, 1992). In addition, the framework is highly useful in formulating easy hypothesises across a range of purposes and it continues to be the norm used in international marketing, psychology, management and sociology studies (Engel, Blackwell & Miniard, 1995; Sondergaard, 1994). 3 Weaknesses Although some critique Hofstede’s research due to its alleged sample bias and its lack of inclusivity of the richness of cultures due to its sample size being based only on those working at IBM (Lewicki, Saunders & Barry, 2011), they fail to take into account further revisions of the model by Hofstede. At the International Institute for Management Development Hofstede administered the test to international managers from over 30 countries from a variety of both private and public organisations. The results yielded in these proved significantly similar to those in his original sample – solidifying his original hypothesis (Geert, 2008). Another prominent critique is the fact that in both of these cases, there was a disproportionate level of males, members of the middle class were over represented and education levels were much higher than average (Lewicki, Saunders & Barry, 2011), Additionally, some argue that in the model nation differences only account for 2 to 4 percent of variance in individual values, leaving at least 96 percent- if not more, unexplained. One scholar from the Academy of Management suggested that the model was incongruent with his own knowledge on psychological phenomena and suggests that an  alternative methodology be drafted (Ailon, 2008) to account for this 96 percent. Some academics claim that Hofstede’s culture dimensions are flawed due to their categorizations of people into national stereotypes rather than individual character. This is especially applicable for people living in ethnically diverse countries. (Venaik & Brewer, 2013). Lenartowicz and Roth (1999), however, contend that no single methodology across any model is able to address the inclusive set of criteria relevant to cultural assessment in business studies. Lastly, it could be suggested that due to the time that the initial dimensions were formulated was so long ago they may be out-dated and no longer relevant. Others argue that the change in cultures occurs so slow that significant changes would not likely affect the model for a long perio d (Sivakumar and Nakata, 2001) – perhaps until 2100 (Hofstede, 2001). 4 Case Analysis Five issues have been chosen out of the initial ones identified and have been linked up with their relevant theories. 1 Issue 1 The first issue is Mr Brown’s rush to finalise the negotiation and his final comment suggesting impatience with the negotiations. As China’s culture is predominantly long-term orientated (87 vs USA’s 26) the Chinese representatives may take longer to finalise the negotiations due to having a disposition towards long term relationships (Zhang & Toomey, 2009). In addition to this, Chinese negotiators often need to form a relationship due to their low temperament to individualism – 20 vs USA’s 91 (Hofstede, 2014). This haste showed great disrespect for the Chinese’s efforts to form a long-term relationship with the company, an aspect commonly necessary for business arrangements to succeed in China (Fang & Faure, 2010). 2 Issue 2 As China is a highly particular culture on Trompenaars seven dimensions of culture model (Luthans & Doh, 2009), meaning that deciding on what is right and wrong or acceptable and unacceptable is highly dependant on the exact situation and relationships involved (Trompenaars, 1997) it was a grave issue not to hire a translator to help overcome this barrier. Hofstede provides support for this theory by ranking China very low on the uncertainty avoidance scale (30), meaning that their rules may be very flexible and unique culturally (Hofstede, 2014). 3 Issue 3 As China is a high context society (Hall, 1985), the failed gift-giving incident could correspond with a clash of this high context. Hall notes that within a high context culture messages are often covert and implicit, there is much non-verbal communication and the expression of reaction is frequently reserved and inward. The message that Mr. Deng did not want to accept the gift was most certainly covert and non-verbal and his reaction to the incident stayed reserved and inward – most likely to save face (Goodman, 2013). 4 Issue 4 Hall’s theory additionally links to an important issue within the negotiation process. As Mr. Brown continually touched Mr. Deng’s arm during negotiations, this may have been perceived as breach of Space (Hall, 1985). The proxemics of the Chinese culture dictates that touching is rarely acceptable (Communication Studies, 2014). 5 Issue 5 Another issue arising from the negotiations is both Mr. Brown toasting first at the dinner and him not leaving the dinner first. What he failed to consider when doing this was China’s high power distance (80 vs USA’s 40) (Hofstede, 2014). This suggests that China strongly values hierarchical institutions. Toasting first and disrespecting the Chinese cultural norm of the guests leaving dinner first could be perceive as disrespectful to the order of the Chinese leadership and their subsequent authority. 5 Recommendations Three recommendations have been suggested to improve Brown’s Casual Shoe’s negotiation with China in analysis of the Case Study 1 Recommendation 1 The first and most important recommendation for Mr. Brown would be to hire a corporate communicator or interpreter. Although it would not be wise to hire a complete agent – as it may detract from the personal relationship needing to be crafted between both parties for successful business undertakings, USA negotiators should hire an interpreter at the least or a cultural adviser at best to cut through the high context culture of the Chinese, show the  Chinese that they care about their culture and to offer priceless advice on the negotiation process to ensure an optimal outcome for both parties (Lewicki, Saunders & Barry, 2011). 2 Recommendation 2 The USA negotiators should in future hire a translator to succinctly translate all of their written material including business cards, marketing presentations, business proposals, company history, product information and anything else relevant to the trip to Chinese using simplified characters (Fang & Faure, 2010, p. 138). This takes away room for misinterpretation on any element of business and eliminates any concept of ethnocentricity that could have been perceived as well as showing respect for their culture and language (Kwintessential, 2013). 3 Recommendation 3 The final recommendation is to identify whether either parties or both parties will adjust their style of negotiation to the other parties cultural style. Confusion can sometimes arise when both parties are trying to adjust to the others negotiation style (Lewicki, Saunders & Barry, 2011, p. 245). A simple affirmation of whether this will be done can save much confusion and create an air of transparency. In many cases a secure middle ground (sometimes called joint strategy) can be agreed upon. This could be asked through an email or letter prior to negotiation commencement, or if this is not appropriate, they could ask to speak privately with the highest authority of the Chinese party to respect their hierarchical institutions. To do this, you could simply stay around after a meeting and ask personally to speak with the leader to help him save face (Goodman, 2013, p. 177). 6 References Ailon, G. (2008). Mirror, mirror on the wall: culture’s consequences in a value test of it’s own design. The Academy of Management Review, 33(4), 885-904. Communication Studies (2014). Proxemics. Retrieved from http://www.communicationstudies.com/communication-theories/proxemics Dawar, N., & Parker, P. (1994). Marketing universals: consumers’ use of brand, name, price, physical appearance and retailer reputation as signals of product quality. J Mark, 58(April), 81-95. Engel, J., Blackwell, R., & Miniard, P. (1995). Consumer Behaviour. n.p.: The Dryden Press. Fang, T., & Faure, G. O. (2011). Chinese communication characteristics: A Yin Yang perspective. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35(3), 320-333. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2010.06.005. Gao, G., Toomey, T. S., Gudykunst, W. B., & Bond, M. H. (1996). The Handbook of Chinese Psychology – Chinese communication processes. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Goodman, M. B. (2013). Intercultural Communication for Managers. New York, NY: Business expert press. Goodman, M. B., & Wang, J. (2007). Tradition and innovation: the china business communication study. The Journal of Business Strategy, 28(3), 34-41. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02756660710746256 Hall, E. T. (1985). Hidden Differences: Studies in International Communication. Hamburg, GE: Grunder and Jahr. Hofstede, G. (1984). Culture’s consequences: international differences in work-related values. Newbury Park, CA: Sage P ublications. Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations – software of the mind. New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill. Hofstede, G. (2001). Cultures Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviours, Institutions & Organizations Across Nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Hofstede, G. (2014). China. Retrieved from http://geert-hofstede.com/china.html Hofstede, G. (2014). Geert. Retrieved from http://www.geerthofstede.com/geert.aspx Hofstede, G. (2014). United States. Retrieved from http://geert-hofstede.com/united-states.html Hoover, R., Green, R., & Saegert, J. (1978). A cross-national study of perceived risk. J Mark, (July), 102-108. Kale, S., & Barnes, J. (1992). Understanding the domain of cross-national buyer-seller instructions. Journal of International Business Studies, 23(1), 101-109. Kwintessential. (2013). China – language, culture, customs and etiquette. Retrieved from http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/china-country-profile.html. Lewicki, R. J., Saun ders, D. M., & Barry, B. (2011). Essentials of negotiation (5th ed). New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill. Luthans, F., & Doh, J. (2009). International Management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Rubin, J. Z., & Sander, F. E. A. (1991). Culture, Negotiation and the Eye of the Beholder. Negotiation Journal, 7(1), 249-254. Doi; 10.1111/j.1571-9979.1991.tb00620.x Sivakumar, K., & Nakata, C. (2001). The stampede toward Hofstede’s framework: avoiding the sample design pit in cross-cultural research. The Journal of International Business Studies, 32(3), 555-574. Smith, P., Dugan, S., & Trompenaars, F. (1996). National culture and the values of organizational employees – a dimensional analysis across 43 nations. The Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 27(2), 231-264. Soares, A. M., Farhangmehr, M., & Shoham, A. (2007). Hofstede’s dimensions of culture in international marketing studies. Journal of Business Research, 60(3), 227-284. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.10.018. Sondergaard, M. (1994). Research note: Hofstede’s consequences: a study of reviews, citations and replications. Journal of Organisational Studies, 15(3), 447-456. Steenkamp, J. (2001). The role of national culture in international marketing research. International Market Review, 18(1), 30-44. Trompenaars, F., & Hampden Turner, C. (1997). Riding the waves of culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business. New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill. University of Northern Iowa. (2011). Business Communication with China. Retrieved from http://business.uni.edu/buscomm/inte rnationalbuscomm/world/asia/china/china.html Venaik, S., & Brewer, P. (2013). Critical issues in the Hofstede and GLOBE national culture models. International Marketing Review, 30(5), 469-482. World Business Culture. (2013). Chinese business communication style. Retrieved from http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/Chinese-Business-Communication-Style.html Zhang, H., & Toomey, S. T. (1998). Communicating Effectively with the Chinese. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishing.

Masters of public health revised

For more than twenty years, I have worked as a dental surgeon in the Armed Forces of Pakistan.   I have spent a great part of my professional life as a dental practitioner in some of the most challenging circumstances while working with extremely basic facilities at a community level.   I have also served a diversified group of people regardless of their socio-economic status.   Since HIV and hepatitis are highly communicable diseases that can be acquired through dental treatment and related procedures, I have created public awareness about its prevention through information dissemination by means of conducting lectures, video films and posters. I have also provided information about the dental health status of the population and the inequities in health program.   In addition, I have shared my knowledge about the determinants of health and illness, strategies for health promotion, injury prevention, health protection and the factors that influence the delivery and use of health services.   I was also tasked to carry out a regular annual oral dental inspection at various community levels.   I assessed all the information that was gathered and prepared budgets, reports and recommendations for policy and program development.   These efforts led to the development of a school dental program in Pakistan. I completed my dental studies in the prestigious, de’Montmorency College of Dentistry in Pakistan.   This is a high profiled and oldest dental college in my country.   My interest in the field of public health stems from the dental services that I have done for over two decades while serving the Armed Forces of Pakistan.   This job allowed me to focus on the treatment of dental ailments as well as on the prevention of dental diseases, related infectious and communicable diseases such as hepatitis and HIV. The growing demand of my family did not enable me to perform tours of duty out side of my home city, Karachi.   Hence, I decided to take an early retirement from the Armed Forces of Pakistan.   Then, I worked in various medical centers and provided dental services to the Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation (P.T.C.L.) employees and their dependents.     P.T.C.L. at that time was a state run Telecommunication company employing over 60,000 employees.   Recently I also did volunteer work as a trainor for the Kitchner  and Waterloo Sexual Assault Support Center. Pursuing a Masters degree in Public Health is in line with my long term career goal of  moving towards a managerial and  strategic role in health care provision.   I believe  that with the knowledge and exposure that I will learn in the University of Waterloo will enhance my skills as a dental surgeon and will provide me with a better grasp on the issues related to public health and disease prevention for a larger population. Now that I have migrated in Canada, I would like to be an effective public health professional and achieve the health goals set forth by the Canadian health services.   I also intend to conduct a study that will lead to the improvement of health and development of the population-based prevention programs. After successfully raising two intelligent and gifted children who are independently pursuing their college education and being a dedicated mother and a daughter and a happily married spouse for twenty years, I am now more focused and prepared to pursue a life long dream of earning a Masters degree in Public Health from a prestigious university. I believe in the saying of C. Everett Koop that â€Å"health care matters to all of us some of the time, public health matters to all of us all of the time†.   With my passion, dedication and drive in achieving my goals, I will be able to complete my graduate program in the University of Waterloo and contribute to the disease control and prevention program of my community.   

Chicago Analysis

â€Å"Chicago† Analysis â€Å"Chicago† by Carl Sandburg is a poem written to describe the everyday lives of Chicagoans. Sandburg uses poetic devices such as similes, personification, and imagery to emphasize parts of the poem, which helps him show his love and pride for the city of Chicago. Imagery played a very important part in the poem because it gave the reader an image in there head of the city and the environment with the people who lived there.The main purpose of this poem is to defend the common theories that are directed toward the city of Chicago. Sandburg talks about the corruption of the city, which shows he is honest about what he says, but also points out the flaws of other cities and their people. He also points out that even though Chicago is corrupt and bad on the outside, it still has good people on the inside. In the first stanza Carl Sandburg gives details about the jobs of the city and the things most noticed about it.The first stanza states the nam e HOG butcher of the world which gives the person an image of a butcher in the city; it also states toolmakers, Stacker of wheat and railroad workers. The details of the city make you think of a stormy, husky, brawling, city with big shoulders. This all means that the city is windy, full of fighters and destruction. Imagery in the poem state that things are very bright and out spoken in the city but even though the city is seen as dark and evil on the outside it’s people are very bright and filled with happiness. Chicago† is filled with personification. By the end of the poem, Chicago seems to be way more like a man than like a city. It has shoulders, a heart, a pulse, and it laughs. Sandburg paints a portrait of a city that is, in some ways, very human. It's flawed and it's beautiful, it's rough and intense. It's vibrant and adjustable. It turns out that the best way for Sandburg to comprehend the city is to compare it to a human being, that way we have a frame of refe rence for all the beautiful, strong, messiness.Lines 1-5 is the perfect example for a personification. â€Å"Here, the city is described as various types of workers; it is a hog butcher and a toolmaker and so on. The city resembles the very people who live in it. † In the poem â€Å"Chicago† Carl Sandburg uses similes to create an idea in the readers mind. For example Sandburg writes,†Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action as a savage pitted against the wilderness. † Here the poet want to compare the city of Chicago to a fierce dog.This really helps the reader imagine Chicago as a wild and crazy city that is ready for action. Sandburg does an excellent job on demonstrating his love and pride for the city of Chicago. The poetic devices not only make the poem a lot more understandable, but also more interesting. The personifications Sandburg uses make the city seem like a man. He also uses great similes to compare Chicago to other places (which is nea rly impossible), and imagery to help those who have never been to Chicago understand what Chicago is like.

Ethical Dilemma Essay

1. Keeping in mind the facts and timeline of this situation, discuss Lavonda’s situation in terms of legal and ethical issues. This case has many aspects of sexual harassment, and is very complicated. Karline is partially correct in that it was common knowledge that Lavonda and Allen were intimate. It was because Lavonda crossed that line, and did not report the relationship, that Lavonda’s sexual harassment suit becomes unstable. Her legal suit would carry more weight if she had gone through the proper channels to report the misconduct when it occurred. There is also an ethical problem if she tries to convince the new hire to work for Allen. 2. Discuss Lavonda’s alternatives and possible professional and private outcomes for her. The probable cost to Lavonda if she reports the sexual harassment case is a long legal struggle and possible loss of her job. We are aware that Lavonda’s mother has cancer, is undergoing chemo, and Lavonda needs the income to care for her mother. If Lavonda loses the case, she faces a risk of not being able to help her mother, especially if Allen spreads nasty rumors about her throughout the industry. She should probably be aware that if she pursues legal case that this will follow her throughout her career. This could negatively influence future employers or could show them that she has a moral character. 3. Is Allen in violation of sexual harassment and/or sexual discrimination laws in United States? Yes. He has displayed intimidating behavior, sexual harassment, and is very manipulative of women in the workforce. Whenever Lavonda asked him to stop, and he continues his behavior, this becomes harassment. 4. Certainly Allen has damaged Lavonda’s performance level: however, discuss whether he has created a legally hostile work environment. By definition of a hostile work environment, he has created it. There are three criteria that must be met: (1) the conduct must be unwelcome; (2) the conduct becomes severe, pervasive, and regarded as so offensive to alter the conditions of employment; (3) conduct was so bad that a reasonable person would find it hostile or offensive. All the employee needs to prove is that the conduct interfered with her work performance.