Grief Paper

TBaggett-Grief paper-unit8 Tina Baggett Kaplan University TBaggett-Grief paper-unit8 According to Hockenberry & Wilson (Hockenberry & Wilson, 2007, p. 139), there are four phases of grief and mourning. The first phase of grief is disbelief or denial. There is a feeling of dullness or having an â€Å"out of body† experience. At this time, one goes into the second phase. The second phase is overwhelming need to be with the deceased. These phases can last minutes or days. The third phase is a feeling of hopelessness and scattered thought processes.The person in this phase is usually despondent and may retreat to a void within oneself. Sometimes they feel in this phase that life has no meaning without the deceased at their side. The last phase is â€Å"reorganization, when the person begins to again find meaning in life, integrating the loss of the loved one into a renewed sense of normalcy† (Wacker-Guido, 2010, p. 139). There are four kinds of grief. The first type of grie f is disenfranchised grief; this is the result of a loss for which they do not have a socially recognized right, role or capacity to grieve.These socially ambiguous losses cannot be openly mourned, or socially supported. Essentially, this is grief that is restricted by â€Å"grieving rules† ascribed by the culture and society. The bereaved may not publicly grieve because, somehow, some element or elements of the loss prevent a public recognition. Disenfranchised grief occurs in three primary ways. The first way is the relationship is not socially recognized. The relationship is not based on recognizable kin ties (the death of a friend), or socially sanctioned, (a partner in a gay or lesbian relationship), the relationship exists primarily in the past (ex-spouse).The second way is that the loss is not socially recognized or is hidden from others. Not socially recognized losses include perinatal losses. Hidden losses include abortion, the loss of pet, and losses that result fro m causes other than death. The third way that disenfranchised grief may occur is where circumstances of the death or deaths that contribute to stigma and negative judgment by others. Forms of death that would fall into this category include suicide, abortion, death as a result of AIDS, and fatal drug overdose are all examples of this type of disenfranchisement.The second kind of grief is anticipatory grief. Anticipatory grief can be described as the normal mourning that occurs when a patient or family is expecting a death. Anticipatory grief has many of the same symptoms as those experienced after a death has occurred. It includes all of the thinking, feeling, cultural, and social reactions to an expected death that are felt by the patient and family. Anticipatory grief includes  depression, extreme concern for the dying person, preparing for the death, and adjusting to changes caused by the death.Anticipatory grief gives the family and friends more time to slowly get used to the reality of the loss. People are able to complete unfinished business with the dying person for example, saying â€Å"good-bye,† â€Å"I love you,† or â€Å"I forgive you†. Anticipatory grief may not always occur. Anticipatory grief does not mean that before the death, a person feels the same kind of grief as the grief felt after a death. There is not a set amount of grief that a person will feel. The grief experienced before a death does not make the grief after the death last a shorter amount of time. Some people believe that anticipatory grief is rare.To accept a loved one's death while he or she is still alive may leave the mourner feeling that the dying patient has been abandoned. Expecting the loss often makes the attachment to the dying person stronger. The third kind of grief is complicated grief. â€Å"Complicated grief is an intense and long-lasting form of grief that takes over a person’s life. It is natural to experience acute grief after some one close dies, but complicated grief is different. Complicated grief is a form of grief that takes hold of a person’s mind and won’t let go. People with complicated grief often say that they feel â€Å"stuck. †Ã‚  (â€Å"Complicated Grief†).The term complicated sometimes is referred to a factor that grief interferes with the natural healing process. There are many people that get stuck in this type of grief. The last type of grief includes the normal type of grief. In this normal type, the four phases of the grief process will occur. Whenever someone in your life passes away no one knows how you will respond or what kind of grief you will go through. This is how it happened with my friend Linda. When you get that phone call and someone at the end of the phone gives you news that you wish that you never had to hear is the most devastating event that can occur in one’s lifetime.My friend Linda received this phone call fifteen years ago. The caller l et her know that her son was involved in a single shooting accident and that he was found dead with a note next to him. After talking with Linda, I cannot imagine the pain that she had to go through. Knowing you lost someone in your family is one thing but losing a child that you brought into the world is another thing. Linda went through all stages of grief. She stated that when she went through the third stage she stayed in the third phase a long time. She stated that she cooked and cleaned and was in a â€Å"fog†.She said she cooked for days and threw food away. She did not know what to do with her time. Being a nurse, I knew she needed to be able to talk and vent. She stated she could not talk to anyone because in her religion it was known to be a sin to have committed suicide and therefore she dealt with this guilt on her own. After reviewing what disenfranchised grief is, I recognized my friend Linda. I also recognized that because of the stigma of suicide this was a ba rrier in the normal process of grieving. There may be different reasons for a barrier to occur.My dad went through a different kind of grieving process. My mom passed away after being on hospice for many months. The hospice nurse explained to all of us the stages of death and the stages of the grieving process. This led us through a positive grieving process. He went through the anticipatory grieving process. He planned the funeral; he said his goodbyes before she passed. He grieved for months. After my mom did pass away he grieved all over again. I grieved before my mom passed away and when she finally did pass, it took me seven months for the grieving to start again after she actually passed away.I felt guilty when I did not grieve when she died. I went into automation mode. I made the plans, I made sure the family was ok and I did not even shed a tear. This was my barrier. I needed to be the nurse and make sure everyone else was cared for. Seven months later, I had waterfalls of tears, and I went into a deep depression. This was a negative coping mechanism. The depression had to be treated clinically and therefore showed negative coping. It is strange how different people grieve. It is also strange knowing the right way to grieve and the wrong way to grieve.This scenario goes to show that no matter what your knowledge base is, it is how you react when it happens to you, or how you respond as a nurse to someone else. References Doka, K. (2012). Disenfranchised Grief. Retrieved from www. researchpress. com/sites/default/files/books/addContent/5160. PDF Hockenberry, M. , ; Wilson, D. (2007). Wong’s Nursing Care of Infants and Childrens, St Louis: Mosby Elsevier Wacker-Guido, G. (2010). Nursing Care at the End of Life. , 139, Boston, MA: Prentice Hall What is Complicated Grief, Retrieved from www. complicatedgrief. org/bereavement

Can you read my mind Essay

How do you know what you know? Can you figure out how you acquire language when you were still a child? How do you concentrate on reading this paper despite all the stimuli surrounding you? What do you think goes on your mind right now? These are just a few of the questions that cognitive psychology can answer with accuracy. Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with how people think, perceive, remember and learn (â€Å"How people learn,† 2007). In the past, behavioral scientists explained certain phenomena by simply observing, then measuring and manipulating variables (â€Å"Albert Bandura,† 2006). Contrary to behaviorism, cognitive psychology explains the mental processes that take place when a person reacts mentally to various stimuli. These mental processes vary from person to person because each has his own schema of events. Schema, which is a term first used by Jean Piaget in 1926, refers to the set of well-defined concepts which a person already has in mind. These concepts may be â€Å"processed† through assimilation (â€Å"John Piaget,† 2006). For instance, a young child who is exposed only to `fork and spoon’ when eating will not recognize chopsticks as tools for eating as well. If you hand that child a pair of chopsticks, he or she won’t use it in picking up food to put on his or her mouth. It’s because that child doesn’t have a concept of chopsticks yet. However, after being exposed to his or her mom using chopsticks, the child will learn that those items can also be used in picking up food to bring to the mouth. That kind of learning is called assimilation which gives way to a new set of schema for the child. Cognitive development among children is just one aspect of cognitive psychology. This branch of learning may also be applied in more recent concerns. For example, teachers and learners are interested in finding out how people process two or more information at the same time. Interestingly, Piolat, Olive, & Kellogg (2005) conducted a study to know how multi-tasked people record notes while they try to comprehend new information from speakers. They found out through their research that â€Å"note taking demands more effort than reading or learning. However, â€Å"it requires less effort than the creative written composition of an original text† (p. 291). A working knowledge on how people think, perceive and learn is important in making predictions, making adjustments, and formulating policies that could aid the people in their day-to-day mental discourses. In one article, Jaroff (1993) told a story of a girl whose life became troubled after meeting with a psychiatrist who made her believe through â€Å"recovery† therapy that she was abused by her own father when she was a young child. Using her knowledge on cognitive psychology, particularly pertaining to how people retrieve memory, she discovered that what she ended up confessing to the psychiatrist was false (â€Å"Lies of the Mind†). This means that an understanding of this branch of knowledge allows people to be more conscious of how they deal with the world. Cognitive psychology is more than just a branch of knowledge. It is a portal leading to your most used but most strange place in this world – that is your mind. You think every day, you learn new things every minute but you forget to understand how all these thoughts are accommodated in your brains, in your minds. In conclusion, cognitive psychology offers explanation to the mental events that take place in a person. These mental activities can explain the past, and the present, to give way to a better future. After all your life depends not exactly on your environment but on how thoughts are processed in your head.

Impairment Quiz Questions Essay

1.When should an entity conduct an impairment test? (2 Marks) Assets that are consider to have uncertain carrying amounts must be tested every year for impairment. Goodwill acquired in a business combination Intangible assets with an indefinite useful life Intangibles not yet ready for use Impairment testing of all other assets is required only if there is an indication that they might be impaired due to events such as the economic and legal environment and market values etc. 2.How is an impairment test undertaken? (2 Marks) The test involves comparing the carrying amount of an assets or CGU with its recoverable amount. The recoverable amount is the higher of fair value less cost to sell and it value in use. 3.What is ‘value in use’? (1 Mark) Value in use is the present value of future cash flows expected to be derived from an asset or a CGU. 4.How is value in use for a cash generating unit calculated? (2 Marks) It is a professional estimate based on past cash inflows and expected future cash inflows. 5.What is an impairment loss? (1 Mark) The loss of future economic benefit as the amount in the balance  sheet for the asset or CGU exceeds it recoverable amount. 6.What is a cash-generating unit? (1 Mark) A CGU is the smallest identifiable group of assets that generates cash inflows that are largely independent of the cash inflows of other assets or groups of assets. CGU assets usually cannot be tested individually. 7.How are corporate assets tested for impairment? (2 Marks) As they do not independently generate cash flows they are allocated to CGU on a reasonable or consistent basis. The portion of corporate assets is then tested along with the assets of the CGU to which it has been allotted. 8.Supersatumas grows citrus fruit on a number of orchards in the Perth Hills. This fruit is then processed into fruit juice and other products at their cannery. These products are then sold to the public via their chain of Jucymarket stores. How many cash generating units would the company have? Why? (2 Marks) 3 if there is an active market for the output of each stage. The stages being the fruit of the orchards, the processed products in their cannery and the juice sold in their stores. This is true even if all or part of the output produced is used internally. 9.In allocating an impairment loss for a cash generating unit which of the following assets would not be given a portion of the loss – land; machinery; inventory; manufacturing licence; receivables? Why? (1 Mark) Inventory and accounts receivable. AASB 136 para 2 states that this standard does not apply to them as they are already covered (impaired) by other standards such as allowance for doubtful debts. 10.In allocating an impairment loss for a CGU the carrying amount of any  individual asset must not be reduced below what figure? (1 Mark) The highest of it fair-value less cost to sell and its value in use or below zero. 11.If a portion of an impairment loss for a CGU cannot be allocated to one of the unit’s assets because it will breach AASB 136 paragraph 105 what happens to that portion? (1 Mark) It is allocated pro-rata to the other assets of that unit (group of units) that can be impaired further. 12.Timbertown Ltd processes pine trees grown on its own plantations in its timber mills. The milled timber is then made into outdoor furniture for sale to the public. Is it possible for Timbertown Ltd to have more than CGU? (2 Marks) Yes. If there is an active market for the output of each stage. This is true even if all or part of the output produced is used internally. 13.Gumtree Ltd has determined that its picnic ware division is a CGU. The carrying amounts of the net assets of the division at 30 June 2013 are: Factory (net)$310 000 Land200 000 Equipment (net)120 000 Inventory75 000 Receivables32 000 Accounts Payable(17 000) Do not impair liabilities Gumtree Ltd has calculated the value in use of the division to be $680 000. Required Determine if an impairment loss exists for the picnic ware division. Show all workings. (1 Mark) 310000 + 2000000 + 120000 + 75000 + 32000 = 737000 Carrying amount assets 680 000 Value in use Impairment loss = 57000 14.Silkyoak Ltd has determined that its nursery division is a CGU. The carrying amounts of the net assets of the division at 30 June 2013 are: Land80 000 Propagating Sheds48 000 Sales Office 25 000 Equipment (net)56 000 Inventory35 000 Receivables19 000 Accounts Payable(26 000) Mortgage Loan(50 000) Silky Oak Ltd has calculated the value in use of the division to be $327 000. Required Determine if an impairment loss exists for the nursery division. Show all workings. (1 Mark) 80, 000 + 48000 + 25000 + 56000 + 35000 + 19000 = 236000 Carrying amount 327000 Value in use NO Impairment loss 15.Hovea Ltd has determined that its transport division has suffered an impairment loss of $52 000 for the year ended 30 June 2013. At that date the carrying amount of the division’s assets were $ Receivables 31 000 Inventory 18 000 Land150 000 Trucks (net)250 000 Servicing Unit 50 000 Cannot allocate to receivables and inventory Required Allocate the loss across the assets of the CGU in accordance with AASB 136, paragraph 104. Show all workings. (3 Marks) You can drop to 150 à · 450 CA Allocation New CA Land 150000 (150000 à · 450000) 17333 132667 Truck 250000 (250000 à · 450000) 28889 221111 Service Unit 50000 (50000 à · 450000) 5778 44222 450000 Round to nearest dollar from 0.50 16.Tuart Ltd has determined that its retail division has suffered an impairment loss of $37 000 for the year ended 30 June 2013. At that date the carrying amount of the division’s assets were $ Inventory 92 000 Shop Fittings (net) 40 000 Land100 000 Buildings180 000 Additionally, the company has corporate assets worth $150 000, one third of which have been allocated to the retail division. Required Allocate the loss across the assets of the CGU in accordance with AASB 136, paragraph 104. Show all workings (3 Marks) CA Allocation New CA Shop fittings 40000 (40000 à · 370000) 4000 36000 Land 100000 (100000 à · 370000) 10000 90000 Building 180000 (180000 à · 370000) 18000 162000 Corporate O/H 50000 (50000 à · 370000) 370000 17.Peppermint Ltd has determined that its orchard division has suffered an impairment loss of $42 000 for the year ended 30 June 2013. At that date the carrying amount of the division’s assets were $ Inventory 21 000 Land200 000 Fruit Trees114 000 Reticulation Systems 36 000 Goodwill 60 000 Required Allocate the loss across the assets of the CGU in accordance with AASB 136, paragraph 104 and prepare the journal entry to record the loss. Show all workings. (2 Marks) Goodwill 60000 – 42000 = 18000 remaining goodwill 2013 30 June Impairment loss 42000 Accumulated impairment losses – goodwill 42000 18.Can an impairment loss, once recorded, be reversed? (2 Marks) Yes an impairment loss recognised in previous period that no longer exists can be reversed in the current year. However an impairment of goodwill cannot be reversed.

Poverty Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Poverty - Research Paper Example My research will point out the importance of certain functions in the Elizabethan history of poverty and its relevance to present world. Presence of poor people is evidently manifested around the globe. Changes in political and economic organizations result to re-distribution of wealth and in effect, the number of poor people increases, rate of poverty heightens, and in domino effect, crimes are manifested. Way back in the middle Ages in England, society has been defined into three categories, monarchy, nobility, and peasantry. These three elements of the society are considered to be interdependent between each other and in spite of the existing differences between the three when it comes to status and wealth, buffer have to be put on the side of the peasantry. Continuous trends of the monarchical policies led to the rise of unemployed people and subsequently heighten poverty and crime. With regard to resolving this issue, during the Elizabethan times, acts and laws were struggled and serve as the buffer between the monarchical and the peasant (Talbot, R. 2002). The population grows and as it grows, the pressure of sustenance to peoples needs is evidently manifested not only on the part of the government but as well as on the part of the general public. Acts have been promulgated and stretched that the poor people was belong to the community’s responsibility and every individual has a role to play in the society. Poverty is a state of material and social deprivation. People who experience poverty feel the deprivation of well-being, having not enough income to support the needs of the family when it comes to basic necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing. Child malnutrition is considered the closest manifestation of poverty among the poor families in a certain society. In Elizabethan society, the definition of poverty is also the same with regard to the universal definition, however, Elizabethan treatment to poor

Significance of Air Pollution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Significance of Air Pollution - Essay Example As the discussion stresses scientists has founds pesticides remains in Antarctica where there no possibility of finding pesticides where seldom we can see human interaction. The mother Earth has the ability to absorb the gases for a certain limit but as the capacity increases beyond limitations air pollution shows its adverse affects. According to the report findings the pollutants can be seen in every part of our life whether you are out or inside your house. The main pollutants are: carbon monoxide, Nitrogen oxides, Sulfur oxides, Haze & Visibility, Hydrocarbons and particulate matter (both solid and liquid) .These are the prime resources of air pollution in this contemporary world. Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless gas produced by incomplete burning of carbon-based fuels including petrol, diesel, and wood. Smoking cigarettes and burning plastics will allow CO to mix with atmosphere. It damages our respiratory organs and causes damage for our lungs which may at times lead to cancer. Nitrogen oxides are another most dangerous gas comes from fossil fuels and biomass. Nitrogen gases are responsible for acid rains and smog. Nitrogen gases damage the ozone layer and do remain in earth atmosphere for long periods of time. Sulfur oxides are produced by combustion of sulfur-containing fuels, such as coal and fuel oils. Sulfur oxides can injure man, plants and materials.

Chick-fil-A Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Chick-fil-A - Essay Example rate journey, the most notable was the credit for â€Å"introducing the original boneless breast of chicken sandwich and pioneering in-mall fast food† (CFA Properties, Inc.-website-b, 2010). According to 2009 figures, the company has 1428 restaurants across 38 states as well as Washington, D. C. In terms of annual sales the company ranks second in its category. In accordance with its mission statement which says that the company aims to â€Å"Be America’s Best Quick-Service Restaurant† (CFA Properties, Inc.-website-b, 2010), CFA has materialized various innovative business concepts in the forms of Mall/In-Line Restaurants, Stand-Alone Restaurants, Drive-Thru-Only Restaurants, Dwarf House ®, Truett’s Grill ®, Satellite/†Lunch-Counter†, and various licensed outlets. The company had achieved a 12.17% growth in 2008 and thereby earned sales revenue of $2.96 Billion (CFA Properties, Inc.-website-b, 2010). CFA also fulfills its corporate social r esponsibilities (CSR) in the form of various sponsorships, charities and scholarships. The American restaurant industry is currently exhibiting trends of rapid growth. It has a strong employee base of 12.7 million and has operations in nearly 1 million locations. Both these figures are indicative of the gigantic stature of this industry as a significant contributor to the American economy. It has been projected that the combined sales of this huge industry will touch $580 billion in the current fiscal (National Restaurant Association-website-a, 2010). The American restaurant industry has a 49% share in the market pie of the food industry with average daily sales projected at $1.6 billion. Research findings show that restaurants are becoming highly popular among American customers on account of providing hygienic food as well as enhanced services in a time efficient manner (National Restaurant Association-website-b, 2010). American adults are of the opinion that restaurants have them become more productive and a

Policy memo Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Policy memo - Assignment Example tain Conversation Area Act is bill which seeks to create conversation to the mountain national conservation Area surrounding Lake Mendocino, Yolo Counties and Solano in the area of California. Core visitations of this act are target of scenic, ecological, recreation, wildlife, natural, education and scientific resources. This act will seek to create conservation to the jurisdiction by ensuring government and local responsibilities are adhered to. The act is comprehensive to cover issues related to environmental cleanup, public safety, and a comprehensive weed management strategy. The act is significant to ensure it initiate a management plan by issuance of target permits. In this light, the act will focus on the core advantages on a comprehensive environmental management strategy. This act is crucial since it will target protection of encroached areas by ensuring that residents in those particular have proper permits to conduct certain environmental conscious activities. The US congress should pass the bill since it seeks to, boost local economies, and develop methods of working landscape and economic viability of Native American groups residing in those areas. Thirdly, promote and enhance recreation and conservation areas. In all cases, the bill is vital to since it will seek to request public responsibility in conserving the environmental. However, while deciding to pass the bill, the congress should consider the question of impartiality of the process stipulated by the bill. This paper has attempted to establish why the congress should pass the Berryessa Snow Mountains Conversation Area. The paper has cited better environmental advantages as the leading advantages in considering whether to pass the bill. In any case, environmental consciousness should topple over

Religious Feminism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Religious Feminism - Essay Example The plight of women is generally evident in all spheres of life, both religious and secular. Even in religion, areas of authority are always of a reserve of men who dominate the creation of norms that determine religious traditions. When baby boys are born, it is considered a blessing than when baby girls are born. Most religious images are male which are considered a symbol of holiness while those of females considered idolatry. In this regard, patriarchy and sexism are aspects that present themselves in all spheres of life especially on high grounds religion where it should be least expected. Under religious representations, there are numerous proposals put forward by the feminist groups about language and image representations of God. Among them is the traditional representation of God as of male gender. When people refer to God, the metaphors used in describing the deity in this respect should be changed to show that God transcends human sexes and that the deity should be taken to represent all sexes on equal grounds. In this case the use of the term â€Å"God the Father† is not acceptable according to the feminists. In this regard, other propositions have been put forward to show God as a mother, sister, and friend. This can be seen as the second part in which images of God are supposed to be changed to be female so as to end the general notion that the use of female images symbolize idolatry. The proposition holds that since the deity makes of all of us including male and female, therefore its representation should include images from both sides. Besides, imag es of God as mother would not in any way stereotype God’s feminine traits. Another proposition is that God should be seen as relational. In this context, God should be seen as a central part of human life who is also shares in the experiences of human beings. By this, the deity is also part of women’s

Organizational Change Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organizational Change - Assignment Example Company Overview: R.R. Donnelley, one of the largest printing companies in the world, is based in the United States of America. The company, which is listed in the NASDAQ: RRD, is regarded as the global provider of different integrated communications as well as printing services. The company is working collaboratively and collectively with more than almost 60,000 customers across the world for the purpose of developing different solutions in respect to custom communications. These solutions are reducing costs of the production of the company, driving top line growth in favor of the company and also are enhancing research and development and are also ensuring observance. Drawing on the range of proprietary as well as commercially accessible digital and different conventional technologies organized across four continents, R.R. Donnelley & Sons employs a group of leading â€Å"Internet based capabilities† as well as other resources. These resources are applied for the purpose of providing â€Å"pre-media, printing, logistics and business process outsourcing services† to different clients in practically every private as well as public sector around the world (About Us, 2012). Diagnosis: There are various needs or requirements for organizational changes which are conducted in different business organizations across the globe. One of the most important factors which emerge as constant in different business organizations today is organizational change. Undeniably, the organization’s ability or capacity to deal with different changes gives the company a competitive advantage in the market. Organizational learning and changes have been identified as one of the most significant methods for making certain the success of different continual changes made in organizations. Researchers, however, do not deal with various emotional implications in respect to the changes which are made in various business organizations across the globe. Large number of resea rchers, in their articles, has shown the advancements in regard to the proposal that organizational changes are inherently emotional as well as produce wide ranges of emotions and/or feelings in individuals and in organizations during these organizational change which require micro-level as well as macro-level management. Large number of researchers has also pointed out the emotional aspects in respect to dealing with these organizational changes. In general, these researchers have identified the fact that emotional consequences of those organizational changes, however, there exists small research available, which identifies the fact that emotional skills are needed to successfully manage these organizational changes (Jordon, n.d., 456). Organizational changes which are required by the company R.R. Donnelley are mainly related to those organizational changes which are made for the overall improvement of the organization. These changes are required to be made on the ground of the fac t that the business organization is needed to be made more and more effective in respect to developments of the working environments and also in respect to the overall growth of the organization. In this context the changes are needed because Understanding the degree of staff commitment is expected to assist the business organization under consideration in selecting the most efficient working force

Stereotyping Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Stereotyping - Essay Example Huntington's theory, in other words, remains true because it is primarily supported by the countless stereotypes which are embedded in the human consciousness and which people tend to use to define the world around them. Stereotypes are dangerous both because they function to impose false images on racial, ethnic, gender, cultural, social and religious groups and because those false images often motivate the imposition of harm on others. Perry R. Hinton(1993), a social psychologist who has researched and studied the phenomenon of stereotyping, confirms the harmfulness of stereotypes. As he writes in The psychology of interpersonal perception, "stereotyping can be seen as a more extreme form of typing where we see a whole group of people as homogeneous, with the same characteristics" (Hinton, 1993:56). The implication ere is that stereotyping involves the identification of certain characteristics in members of a specific group of people and then applying those characteristics to the whole. For example, because just over a dozen of the 1.6 billion Muslims across the world undertook a terrorist act against the United States, all Muslims are subsequently stereotyped as anti-Western terrorists whose prim ary objective is the destruction of the West. Stereotypes, in other words, are generalizations which tend to ignore all available evidence to the contrary. Stereotypes and stereotyping are persistent despite the fact that many recognize both their falsity and harmfulness. Their persistency, in light of their harmfulness, has rendered the study of stereotypes and stereotyping, important activities. Following a definition of the concept and phenomenon of stereotypes and an overview of its theoretical parameters, the research shall present the results of a survey which was conducted on a test group of twenty of the researcher's colleagues, as a means of determining whether theory and reality coincide and, more importantly, as a strategy for acquiring a more concrete understanding of the practical and theoretical parameters of the phenomenon. The primary focus of the research shall be on gender stereotyping, considering its prevalence in the Middle East. 2 An Overview of the Concept of Stereotyping/Stereotypes This section of the research shall review literature on the definition and theory of stereotypes/stereotyping for the purpose of articulating both a comprehensive definition of the phenomenon and explicating its theoretical framework. 2.1 Definition The first to seek the academic and scientific understanding of the phenomenon of stereotyping and, indeed the first to both theorize and define the concept was Walter Lippmann (1991). In 1922, Lippmann commenced his lifelong study of the phenomenon and introduced the following definition of stereotypes: For the most part we do not first see, and then define,

The Way of Ford Motor Company Essay Example for Free

The Way of Ford Motor Company Essay * Introduction * Although to be the only one remaining member which have escaped bankruptcy of the Big Three among the automobile industry by June 2009, Ford suffers $14.7 million loss of revenue and elimination of stockholders’ equity due to the record-breaking fall in demand for 2008,US. However, to understand Ford’s position today requires understanding the American automotive industry. * General Industry analysis * From 1900-2008, US motor vehicle production has a rapid increase to9, 000,000 from 1900 to 1967, after not, there is a graduate decrease to 3,000,000 until 2008. At the mean time, the median age of passenger car in US was Spiral upwards. Combine the two phenomenon, we can get that the automobile industry market is quite saturated and the demand fell down. Regard to the automobile manufacturing technology, despite less differentiation between manufacturers due to the converge of technologies and design, the technological progress was incremental and lead to the various segmentations in each country. Follow the two situations, there are 3 big issues were emerged. One was the deep demand of auto cars result in excess capacity. Another one issues was the high cost among the technological development. Last one issue was the lacking differentiation. However, it also offers automakers new product segmentations and market. For an insightful analysis, we need to look at more information in details. * Porter’s Five Forces First of all, we can get a comprehensive industry environment analysis through the Porter’s Five Forces. In terms of the threat of new entrants of the automobile industry, it requires high capital costs for potential entrants, as the manufacturers are all carry out the mass-production-scale. However, when a new entrant face with the current competitors’ scale economies, smaller manufacturers could not survive since they cannot afford the massive product development cost, which was in excess of $6 billion. And it is easy to own the cost disadvantages independent of scale. Then, the product differentiation of automobile industry is not high as other industry. The automobile industry was a global network of collaborative arrangements. As the team-based approach became models for all major  manufacturers, there is no big difference in the function, model and design. They can only gain their differentiation by the firm’s service and effective advertising. Also, There is no switching cost in the automobile industry because no cost would be incurred when customer switch to a new supplier. However, the large capital requirement is demanding, as the automobile industry needs huge amount of capital to invest in its mass-production line. Furthermore, automakers have benefited from prodigious amounts of direct funds or indirect aids from the government around the world to keep car plants open and assembly line running after the global sales collapsed, and the industry has never operated on the pure free-market principles. It proved that the government always intervened in the automobile industry that suggests the government control entry into this industry. Then, the supplier group of the industry is powerful. In order to achieve lower costs and increased flexibility, the automobile manufacturing trend has been towards outsourcing. All of the manufacturers now have long-term relationships with their suppliers. Especially for the leading component suppliers that have the increasing responsibility for technological development, it gains a strong bargaining power. Because their goods as transmissions, braking systems, etc. are critical to buyers’ market success. Besides, it poses a credible threat to integrate forward into the automobile industry due to some suppliers like Bosch and Denso are as big as some larger automobile companies. What’s more, since a few large companies dominated the suppliers and is more concentrated than automobile industry, it is easy to get the conclusion that these suppliers are fatal and important threat to the automobile industry. Next, the bargaining power of the buyer is increasing. Although the auto buyers won’t purchase a large portion of cars in a given time since the auto is not cheap, the sales of the purchased product do not account for a significant portion of the seller’s annual revenue as well. Nevertheless, the customer cou ld switch to another automaker at litter or even no cost since automobiles are little differentiated, then the buyers pose a credible threat if they were to integrate backward into the sellers’ industry. In addition, the threat of the substitutes also is a vital factor of the industry analysis. As the passenger car substitutes, the public transportation like airplane, train and bus perform the same function. The technological change would offer opportunities for new entrants into the  industry. For the environmental concerns, it may also result in a decline in private transportation in favor of public transportation, or short-term rental car rather than car ownership. In general, these substitutes present a strong threat to the industry especially when the customers face few switching cost as I mentioned before. Moreover, the competitive rivalry is intense in the automobile industry. Firstly, there are equally balanced competitors within the industry. It can be found from company sales of these automakers, the annual average sales are nearly the same among several major big automakers as Ford, GM, Honda and Daimler. Industry with only a few firms of equivalent size and power tend to have strong rivalries. In another hand, as the high fixed cost and high storage cost of automobiles account for a large part of the total costs, the automakers will spread the costs across a large volume of output. However, excess capacity is created when firms try to maximize their productive capacity. And the excess capacity has become the greatest structural problem of the industry. To cut down the price is the most effective way to reduce inventories. At the mean time, this method often intensifies competition. Besides, lacking differentiation and low switching cost of the automobile industry are easy for competitors to attract buyers through pricing and service offerings. Finally, the high exit barriers intensify the automobile industry competition as well. With the recession and unprecedented fall in demand, automakers remain in the industry because they face the high exit barriers. Specialized assets, fixed cost of exit, strategic interrelationships, emotional barriers, government and social restrictions are make up the high exit barriers. To sum, the competitive rivalry is highly intense in the automobile industry. After the discussion about the Porter’s five forces, we have a comprehensive understanding that how is the American automobile industry environment. However, for a more accurate strategic competitiveness, we need to have a further analysis through the international markets and rivalries. * Industry analysis -Internationalization With the increasing competition in the industry, the intensified quest for cost reduction and the excess capacity among automobile manufacturers had make contributions to the internationalization. In another side, accessing growing market, exploiting scale economies in purchasing, technology, and new product development also mainly brought up the internationalization. In the market share part, the table shows that there is an apparent decrease in the automobile market share of local firms from 1988 to 2006.As the Big Three which held close to 85% of the US market in 1970, all of their US market share declined by an average of 6% in 2006. On the contrary, the reductive market share contributed to the increasing market share of Toyota and Honda in US. Not only the US market had an internationalization outcome as the above condition, but also many developed countries did. It illustrates that all the leading automobile manufacturers were competing in most of the countries of the world instead of dominated in focused national market as before, and the market dominance of local automobile firms was undermined. In addition, the global distribution of production shifts a lot due to the rise of new market and the needs of low production cost. As shown in the table4.7 and 4.8, the used biggest three automobile production countries and regions (US, Western Europe, and Japan) in 1980 have been taken place by Japan, China, and Germany in 2008. The world leading motor-vehicle producers-Korea, Brazil and India, also result in a rapidly growing domestic markets and low production cost that benefit a lot from the low compensation for workers. Therefore, we can draw a conclusion that there is a big cost advantages and huge potential market for the big automobile manufacturers due to the internationalization. Since there are a lot of leading producers with cheap labor cost and high productivity outside US, then it provide resources and factors of production in the world outside US, and it provide automobile industry a way to worldwide outsourcing, which is beneficial to the reasonable allocation of capital and products in the global flow. Besides, internationalization in the automobile industry is helpful for design and technology in the global expansion, promote the economic development of the underdeveloped areas, in turn, it stimulate the sales of automobile. Nonetheless, the fierce competition is a concern in the international market. On account of the collaborations with the industry’s development and no barriers to enter other countries, fewer differentiation and free-limit expansion lead to intensive rivalry. * Industry attractiveness Through the industry analysis among five forces in American market and  international market, it is obvious to find the automobile industry is attractive in international market instead of in American market. Although there is a little threat of new entrants, strong bargaining power of supplier, increasing bargaining power of buyers, big threats of substitute products and intense competitive rivalry still make the domestic industry not attractive. In the international market, it is attractive as the potential market expansion and worldwide outsourcing. But with the intensive rivalry and low differentiation in the internationalization, it is necessary to be well prepared on the risk and responses. * Fit between core competencies and opportunities Ford was the first one to combine mass consumption with mass production, and Ford use this concept to guide the enterprise entrepreneur. What is the Ford’s core competency then? To start, it’s brand recognition in global scale. Ford does have a model in most categories. It provides a large global scale to Ford. A more strategic core competency of Ford is its global supply chain network. Its strategic alliances and supplier base is possibly one of the most favorable in the world. In addition, Ford has many opportunities. Firstly, Restructuring plan that to downsizing was launched long before GM and Chrysler, moving the manufacturing to low-cost location, worldwide outsourcing as well. These actions improve the performance, meet the location economy and cut down the cost of Ford. Secondly, Ford has a long history in production innovation. Thus, new products are very likely to be continued in the future. Thirdly, Ford’s business is locked up in the European and North American markets, however it possess a significant share in emerging markets such as South American, which should provide enormous growth of the future as the middle class to grow and earn the money to spend on automobiles. Finally, One major sector that is full with opportunity is the electric automobile market, as the world looks for an eco-friendly alternative that operates like the original car. When we compared Ford’s opportunities with core competencies, they fit with each other. The constant production innovation that leads to continued new product and the significant share in emerging markets provide the opportunities for Ford’s brand recognition in global scale. Furthermore, the location economy and worldwide outsourcing give Ford the chance to strengthen its global supply  chain network. In sum, Ford gains a very strong competitive advantage in automobile industry. * Business-level strategy In terms of the business-level strategy, Ford had an ambiguous business-level strategy that neither successful differentiation nor cost-leadership based on the case. On one hand, because of the high technological development cost, large excess capacity and huge capital cost, it cannot and did not maintain a cost leadership strategy. On the other hand, with the internationalization, resources and technologies sharing, collaborations among competitors, Ford do not have a strong differentiation strategy. Type of cooperation The cost of new product development has been the major driver if mergers and acquisition in the industry. And sharing cost also encouraged increased collaboration and joint venture. For Ford, its corporation includes joint venture, joint research, licensing, partnership, and acquisition. With these different corporation methods that to share costs, resources and risks, Ford shows a strong alliance to its supplier and partner. And Ford also obtains a significant reduction in product development time and cost. To some extent, the strong connection with other automakers and suppliers also accelerate the speed to reach the market and the potential consumer. * How to approach market * At present, the biggest change of automobile society is the transition from emerging market to mature market. And the most significant feature is the industry has entered the era of micro growth. Micro growth poses a big pressure to the whole industry, but it also promotes favorable industry healthy and sustainable growth. Thus, with such advantaged external opportunity and internal strength, Ford needs to approach new market to earn the market share and worldwide competitiveness. Exporting, licensing, strategic alliances, acquisition and WOS are the entry modes alternatives, but how to choose one from these? * Since Ford already has a strong partnership with other automakers, Ford has a foundation to gain other alliances. Besides, as Ford does not have much profit margin and the initial investment of automobile industry is huge, the Exporting, WOS and  Acquisition are not acceptable due to the high cost. In terms of the licensing, although it has a low cost and risk, the low return and little control are not appealing. Thus, Ford should go on with the strategic alliances to cut the entry cost and risk, and to achieve the industry integration. * 5-year plan To conclude all the analysis above, Ford’s strategies for the later 5 years’ development need to be changed. Firstly, a real business-level strategy is imperative. Adopting a clear differentiation strategy and supporting value-chain activities should improve Ford’s position. Besides, to Continue cost cutting beyond those already specified in the plan and focus on reduction of manufacturing costs to achieve Ford’s cost parity. Additionally, cut in cost to achieve parity with foreign rivals. Invest in unique advertising and create uniquely designed vehicles with shared platforms and technologies to promote differentiation strategy. * The second part of Ford’s plan is to refocus on the consumer through repositioning of its brand and product mix to be more consistent with customer preferences. Currently, Ford lacks product differentiation between these brands sold by the North American division. Ford should emphasize development and production of several car models that presently enjoy strong reputations. Thus, their continued success will enhance the company image as a whole, again supporting a strong differentiation strategy. The final key piece of Ford’s restructuring plan is the constant introduction of innovative products and new development methods. It can bring up new customers. Based on the improved differentiation and efficiencies of scale, the market sales and market share will go up. Together with all these recommendations, Ford should be able to return to a competitive position in the marketplace and stabilize with improve its market share and financial position. *

Marketing plan Essay Example for Free

Marketing plan Essay Marketing Plan How to sell Vrd’s Executive Summary: Compact is a company that wants to be well known by marketing a new Voice Recognition Device (VRD). This company will be able to create, develop, and sell the product to many different customers. The product is used and operated by performing tasks without using keyboards, a mouse, or any buttons. Compact wants to serve as many customers as possible. We are flexible and are willing to work with any customer that comes our way. Our target market is essentially everyone. Specifically groups including mangers, assistants, creators, students, home users, and parents are the market segments. All of these customers will be able to take our business to the next level as we sell our products to them. †¢Managers need a product with many special commands and high error protection. The managers need the VRD product to do their work. †¢Assistants defiantly need a product that has a high ease of learning. The product will give them time to multitask with many projects at one time. †¢Creators need a product that is quick and able to get the job done. They don’t really need ease of learning or error protection. These people know how to fix a lot of things. Students want the best product at the cheapest price. The product will allow students to do homework on the go and communicate with teachers. †¢Home users can include everybody from kids to the elderly. For these people this product needs a high ease of learning. In addition, the special commands can be low for the home users because they are just getting started with technology. †¢The parents are caring and buying the product for their kids. They care about the education of their child and want them to be ahead of the game. They just want a product with a high ease of learning for their children. Our company is trying to serve everyone from the broke students to the high end mangers. We feel like our customers/consumers were willing to shop online and at stores. The major retail store will have the product like Wal-Mart and Target. Online shopping will be convenient for the managers, assistants, and creators. Most of these people are very good with computers. To support our decision with choosing this market, we were able to focus heavily on customer service, advertising, and special commands. Also, we felt since we were targeting everyone in the market that error protection, and ease of learning. This will give the ability for our company to sell more and maximize our profit. Our company was able to compete against three other companies selling Voice Recognition Device. And we were able to compete against one other company for the second item DVC. These companies were; Vocley, Voyz, and Echo. The other companies made us take a look at how we can improve our business. The company we competed against for DVC was Echo. We were able to use other companies’ choices to figure out some good business decisions. Also, we used other companies to see what mistakes that we shouldn’t make. To increase our profit we had to change and adjust things to fit the customers. The Compact Company was about profit but at the same time we wanted to sell a great amount of goods. This helped us to determine if our company should change advertising, or customer service, or decrease the price of the product. As the game went on we had to change our market to the higher market in order to make a better profit. This was allowed by watching and understanding the market. The two huge this to make profit was advertising and customer service. The advertising allowed us to promote the product. So with the more promotion we wanted to make sure was had good customer service. This would allow customers to depend on the company anytime they needed us. There were four types of advertising to choose from and they were; Direct, Indirect, Pioneering, and Reminder. For our company we were Direct for the first eight weeks. The dealers were able to target most of their sales face to face with people. But we soon realized that not everyone works like this and wants to buy. Changing to Reminder would inform the customer but give them the chance to come to us. We didn’t want to force their hand into buying something they didn’t want. For Compact this was the best decision we soon upped the profit and price. This had a major effect on the sales of the product for us. We found that the right type of advertising is vital. The distribution intensity is the percentage of time that the dealer is selling your product in each of the channels. You want to have the dealers working but don’t want to over work them. Compact’s dealer intensity was 50% in each channel. The dealers in each channel would have a great amount of time to work and personal time as well. They don’t want to go through a lot of steps to learn how to use the product. Home users are mainly using VRD for online shopping or communicating with other people. This is more of something for them to do while they are laid back. B. Preferences The home users want a good price not as low as students. Also, they want a product that is easy to learn and pick up on. C. Differences from other segments This category could include with a lot people like kids, adults, and elderly. As long as the product is user friendly with the home user anyone is able to use it. They just use the product for fun and games. It is nothing serious like the managers or creators use VRD for. D. Trends We as a group would say the trend of this market is many put into one. A lot more people are using throughout this market so it is offered to many. More people are working and planning on the go so this would be much help to them. Also, the kids doing homework they are forming groups also with the product. Assistants: A. Needs and wants Assistants need something that they can depend on all the time and VRD is that product. While at work they are always asked to do many tasks. VRD is the product that they are able to use with excellent software. Also, has a great ease of learning to pick up on things easier. This device will make the assistant work look better than it really is. B. Preferences The product needs to have to have a high ease of learning. Basically, the ease of learning needs to be on a kid’s level to use. You want the assistants to be able to do their jobs with low amount of stress. C. Differences from other segments The major difference with the assistants is most do not purchase they project. They are mostly purchased by the company that they work for because of the ease of learning. The VRD will be able to keep the assistants on task with their job. And be able to keep their bosses happy with them. D. Trends Once the major and high end companies started purchasing the VRD, they will need less and less assistants. The reason our group thinks this is because the ease of learning will allow less workers, to do more jobs effectively. Creators: A. Needs and wants These are the Market testers, designers, and Writers. This can also include some businessman and professional living. These people want the high speed and want things to want as fast as possible. They don’t worry much about the ease of learning. B. Preferences They just want the speed and high special commands. Price is not really a problem with this group of people. C. Differences from other segments The Creators use the VRD product for professional work. The creators are people who need a product and do not care how much it cost as long as it gets the job done. This group is willing to spend as much money as needed. D. Trends As long as this product works for the creators it will grow. Managers: A. Needs and wants Managers always in charge of other people they need a product that is able to multitask and help others. They need something that is high speed and functions well. Most managers are businessman who has special documents to send out and this product is a huge advantage. B. Preferences These people do not care how much the product is. They just want something that functions very well. Also, this group has the highest special commands at 15. 3. Also, this group wants a lot of error protection too. C. Differences from other segments The managers are people that are very knowledgeable and know a lot about computers and laptops. They do not need any instructions or label how to work VRD. They have been working with them long enough in their field that they will be able to figure it out easily.  D. Trends For this product to stay trending with the managers it will need to have updates all the time. The managers always will want the best product on the market and VRD is it. Parents: A. Needs and wants This group is getting the VRD product for either their kids or grandkids. This will have to have a great ease of learning for the kids. The special com mands don’t have to be high at all. Parents can use this as a teaching tool for their kids. B. Preferences The parents just need a product with a high ease of learning for their kids. C. Differences from other segments Vocley’s strengths seem to be their unit sales, which has led the industry. Other strengths are higher commission percentage for their sale representatives, which give more incentives to create business. Weaknesses can be found in the retail price in distribution channel 1, which is one of the highest of the four companies. With all their success they have maintained a low customer service budget as well as advertising dollars. The data shows that they are trying to promote more business in channel 2 with five more sales representatives than in channel 1. Voyz is targeting the market segments of assistants and managers. It appears that there is a large difference in preferences from the different market segments which makes it hard try and clump a group together. In channel 1 Voyz is carrying the lowest retail price which is good for those that shop in that distribution. Voyz strengths are that they offer low prices in both channels and have great advertising. A weakness would be their budget for sale promotions. Voyz had a big jump from week four to week five, with more than 2. 5 million dollars in sales. This could be caused by an increase in advertising as well as higher commission. In the later weeks they made an emphasis on increasing their sale promotions. Echo led the four companies in special commands as well as overall profit for the first couple of weeks. They are targeting high-end, well to do users that shop in distribution channel 1. Echo is looking to sell to managers, creators, and assistants. Echo has been profiting the most because of the higher prices. Channel 2 is higher than industry average as well, but with good promotional money and advertising they are getting customers to buy into the company. Technologically this product is evolving very quickly and new opportunities are readily available to try and compete with other competitors that are defining the industry. To be on top we need to predict the future of what the customer wants long term, ultimately being the key to success. If better opportunities arise to make our product in another country for less cost and the same technology is available that decision will be made by the head of the company and could put us at a strategic advantage, possibly opening new paths for consumers that didn’t even know about our product. A potentially global market will once again change the game and the product will see a phenomenal rate of growth. To introduce a product to other countries can be an enormous task with major spending but in doing so it will allow for greater profit in the future. Furthermore, producing our product in another country might bring down cost and ultimately lead to more profit. Production can occur in a country where there are low wages and lower cost for parts to make the end product. In addition, another country might have better tax incentives and other government funding to help the production of the VRD to become a more profitable product. Producing the VRD in another country will expand sales internationally as well because there will be more brand awareness in those markets. 2. Marketing Objectives: Compact’s marketing objectives focused on market segments that haven’t been utilized yet and customer satisfaction to retain as many customers as possible. If we can keep our customers happy and attract other consumers from different companies or market places we will gain an advantage. Our marketing type was direct for most of the game but to try and secure those other customers plus retain ours we switched to a reminder strategy. Ultimately, this didn’t turn out as well as we would have liked it to. In fact, in week 10 we had a major decline in profit. To gain an advantage our company needed to focus on high quality customer service and smart advertising to make the customer feel like they’re getting the knowledge and the most innovated type of product, with the company always supporting their product. Our budget for many weeks only allowed for a certain amount of money to be spent which cut into our customer service budget and our advertising. We also had to adjust our research and development since our company could not buy market reports. This was tough to do, but for a couple of weeks we saw a steady growth rate in profits, nothing compared to the leaders though. Our company was still producing profit, but in order to be at the top of our industry we decided on an approach to flood the customers with sales reps and create more advertising hopefully attracting customers that either didn’t know about our product or steal customers from our competitors. 3. Marketing Strategies: 3. 1 Target Market: After playing the game, we encountered different problems with our marketing strategy. Initially our group was doing well and we understood the features of the VRD. After receiving the reports in the first couple of weeks we realized that we had more special commands, ease of learning and the error protection then needed. We got different results from both channels so our strategy was to focus on one channel and put more of an emphasis to sell from that channel. We focused on channel 2 at first, and then gradually brought channel 1 into our strategy since our group was not doing well. Our group had some good competitors and they were doing really well in the business. In order to compete with them we had to change our strategy each week we gave our inputs. We analyzed our competitors and received as much information as we could. With a low budget we were unable to produce reports to determine where we needed to focus our dollars on. This hurt our overall plan because our group had to play a guessing game in order to try and figure out what the customers wanted. Initially we saw that students and the home users were more interested in our products. So we were giving our inputs accordingly. In order to make this an equal amongst all, we had to change some plans so that assistants and managers didn’t fall behind in buying our product. We tried incorporating a strategy to include these types of users and make them aware of our brand, but the other brands already established themselves which led us to have a hard time in the marketing mix. Our main focus was to make sure the customer was getting the special commands, error protection, and ease of learning that they wanted. Throughout the game we adjusted this several times. During one week we adjusted the commands down to better suit the customer’s needs, which we thought would possibly give us an advantage. 3. 2 Product Strategies: As we analyzed the market, we knew exactly what customers needed and what their field of interest was. We knew that we could extend the special commands to 20, ease of learning to 15 and error protection to 15. We could have increased our special commands very quickly but we knew that it’s a long run game and if we had increased our special commands rapidly we will not have any options in the future. We thought our plan was working very smoothly, but, our competitor’s strategy ended up becoming suitable for the market and dominating the industry. We decided to increase our special commands to try an put a product on the market comparable to the one of our competitors. Our biggest competitor ended up being ECHO because they also included the second device in their strategy. Another reason why we were competing with them was because we were the bottom two companies in our industry fighting for those last dollars whereas Vocley and Voyz both secured the top two spots and were fighting for the overall postiton. Initially we were making $800,000 but now we are making 1. 2m. As we changed the strategy and focused on different fields, we were back into business. We cut our cost in most of the things in order to concentrate more on customer support and advertisement. And the results were good enough. we were also spending a lot on our sales agents. We are gradually increasing our special commands, ease of learning and error protection and this was giving us leverage with the other companies but we couldn’t receive as much profit as them which led us to have an overall lower budget. As we said, there were lots of ups and dows in the business and that’s a reality. In real world we have these kinds of issues and its very normal because as time passes, lots of good companies and businesses come into picture and we have to think outside the box in order to compete with them. 3. 3 Promotion Strategies: Product promotion is important to target your segmented market. We strategized to develop the best method to promote our product. We needed to reach our consumers as effectively as possible. We saw different outcomes when we allocated our resources in different areas. Starting in period four we were allowed to determine how much money was going into our promotions. When we had more money to spend we were able to put more money into our promotions for both products. In turn we saw an increase in our units sold. Promotional dollars spent was direct correlated to the units sold, but with less revenue, we had less money to put into our promotion. 3. 3. 1 Customer Service: Customer service is essential to keep your customers happy. Customer service is the level of ease a customer can contact and reach the company. The customer should be able to contact the company in order ask for assistance in the product usage, discuss complaints that they may have, or re-order damaged or under warranty products. Customer service is very important to the customers and the more money that a company can set aside for customer service, the higher the levels of customer satisfaction with the company can be. This was difficult for our team to think how much to put into customer service, at first we spent less money on customer service and were still able to keep our customers satisfied. What our team found strikingly odd was that our customer service could continue to increase, but our customer service, was still not near the industry average. In the first three games we did not think that customer service levels would have the impact that they did on our sales. So we did not put high amounts of money into serving the customer’s needs. Then we realized the more our competitors spent in customer service, the more our customers where unsatisfied with the service levels that they were receiving. Our percentage was steadily decreasing and we needed to increase our percentage in respect to the industry average. On the y axis was the number of units sold and the x-axis the game period. In our findings we found that if you increased the customer service budget, you have happy returning customers. Our strategy was to stay with the industry average after finding the correlation between customer service and units sold. However, it is difficult to stay with the industry average, when sales are decreasing and revenue is dropping. 3. 3. 2 Advertising: Advertising is essential when targeting your market. A company can have the best idea in the world but without customer knowledge the product may never reach the market. Our team understood the importance of advertising our product and initially spent $280,000 in advertising alone. We knew that we had to reach our markets in order to sell our product, this strategy seemed to work very well for us and for the remainder of the game we contributed at the least $200,000 to advertising. In week four we were allowed to choose the type of advertising to market our product more effectively. In week four we went with the reminder, we choose reminder because we had the highest brand recognition out of all four of the competitors. Unfortunately, this did not work out in our favor, as our sales dropped dramatically. In week five we decided to choose pioneering, to show our market that we were the best in the market, if they wanted to quality and the most advanced product in the market. In week five this worked in our favor as our sales increased as well as our revenues. We typically kept with the direct market approach throughout the game except in period 5. We saw that we needed to have large amounts of money in each of the product advertising budgets in order to appeal to our target customers. We spent less money in advertising with product one, and did find that sales impact total units sold. With less and less money to spend in each product segment it was difficult to allocate which product should have the most advertising dollars to spend. In the long run we choose to try to compete with our competitors in the first product market. 3. 3. 3. Personal Selling: Understanding the significance of personal selling in marketing can help a company target their market. Personal selling is the most expensive form of advertisement, but it is the most effective. Selling at the personal level is a more direct approach in contacting your consumer. A person can better target a potential buy. Our team had to choose the appropriate amount of sales people and determine their commission to better influence the sale people to sale to the final consumer. Sales people are an incredibly important part of advertising, a sales person can influence the consumers to purchase the product. However a sales person needs the proper incentive to work their hardest to sell to the consumer. Initially we could only choose the number of sales representatives in each channel. First we equally divided them between the channels and found that the channels had different selling rates so we distrusted the sales representatives from then on. We put higher numbers of sales representatives in the channel that was in need of better sales. Later on in the game we were able to determine the work load of the sales representative and the commission that they could make. Initially, we thought that the higher we make the commission the harder the sales representative would work so in week four we increased the commission to a higher percent. We were also allowed to determine how much time the sales representative was supposed to have customer contact. We thought it was essential for the sales representative to send the most amount of time possible with the customers, without hindering their work performance. So we only made the sales representatives spend small amounts of time doing paper work and clerical duties. Although we were allowed to alter the sales person’s duties and commission so far the push percentage has been steady at of an average rate of . 38. We no longer purchase the reports to determine how well our sales representatives are pushing our products in each channel. Since the beginning we have increased our sales force, although it is the most expensive marketing tool, it is typically the most effective. The chart below shows that we have increased our sales force in each channel; additionally we have continued to raise their commission on the products they are selling. Keeping the number of sales representatives and their commission in mind we thought it would allow for a bigger push in each channel if we steadily increased both. † These methods can attract the consumer to use these products, sometimes it’s the consumers first time using the product and can affect their future purchases. If a customer is satisfied with a sample they can decide how much better the product is than the rest of your competitors and create brand loyalty to your product. We kept the sales promotion amounts pretty constant until period six and did not see an increase in the amount of sales. We did see an increase in our sales in period 7 as we spent almost double are typical spending on promotions but only had an increase of sales of about 5,000 units. Well the product was doing we were then able to order the appropriate amount of manufactured product for the next week. During the game we were able to keep manufacturing at similar levels as our sales were not increasing drastically. We did increase our production when our sales were increasing. 3. 5. Pricing Strategies: Consumers have always been very sensitive with price, and will be. Products that are priced incredibly high are sometimes seen as high quality or part of the social elite market. On the other hand products that are priced lower can been seen as high value or affordable. Price is one of the essential variables to reach your target market. Our team was able to understand our distribution channels and was able to determine that the people that tend to purchase our product in channel 2 were more price sensitive than those in channel 1. It didn’t occur to us that we should change the prices in the different channels until week four. After changing the prices in each channel we were able to target the different markets in each channel more effectively. Throughout the game we allocated our money different according to the resources that we had and what we needed to improve upon. Most of our money was allocated to our sales force in the first product segment. Combined from both product sectors and adding their salary and commission they were almost 75% of our total expenses. This does show that person to person selling is the most costly. Our next largest expense was advertising as we spent about 1/3 of our funds to advertise our product. The rest were very small amounts of our expenses throughout the game, we decided to spend less money in these areas as they had a smaller impact on our unit sales. Controls For the controls we wanted to see what worked best within our plan. We wanted to take a look at the controls every week and be able to monitor it. This would depend on want the customers’ wants and needs were. We knew and understood that we were here to serve them. Within the first three weeks we were able to reach our goal to serve the customers. We focused on ease of learning and special commands. We also were able to level off at error protection on the fourth week. But this was not enough as the weeks progressed we were always able to add more. During the fourth week we were able to purchase two more of each. That was ease of learning and special commands. The main reason that we raised those was because we seen other groups doing it to better serve their customers. We wanted to serve them as best as we could. Toward the end with extra money coming in we were able to increase all of them by two during the seventh week. Throughout the weeks we had to decide whether or not to buy the reports. We bought the reports in a later week to see if our preferences were in line with our target market. We made adjustments to our strategy and preferences so that we could meet the needs of our target market. Our objective for the remaining weeks was to make sure that overall we still had a profit and we were not losing money. This was attained and our objective was completed. In a real environment though, the company would have to consider strategic moves in order to stay competitive and survive in the long run. Our product was on a path towards the decline stage, if not already there. In the end, we still completed the game with a profit and had a product that certain groups of consumers relied upon.

Validity of Main Intelligence Tests

Validity of Main Intelligence Tests Nowadays, it is getting more and more people comparing self to others in order to define their standards among the other. Besides of comparing achievements and richness, intelligence is one of the most popular items to be compared. Based on the intelligence scores, people get to prejudge and define others; this may cause people with low intelligence scores withdraw from socializing and other psychological problems. Intelligence is the ability to solve problems, or to create products, that are valued within one or more cultural settings (Gardner, 1993, p. 33). The purpose of this paper is to study whether the main intelligence tests are valid measures of peoples ability to perform intelligently. According to the past researches, it is found that the main intelligence tests such as Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices, Standard-Binet Intelligence Scale, and Wechslers tests are valid to predict peoples academic achievements (Freberg, Vandiver, Watkins, Canivez, 2008; Hale, Fiorello, Ka vanagh, Hoeppner, Gaither, 2001; Pind, Gunnarsdottir, Johannesson, 2003; Rushton, Skuy, Bons, 2004; Smith, Martin, Lyon, 1989). One of the studies which found that Wechslers tests are valid measures in predicting peoples academic achievements was done by Freberg et al. (2008). The aim of the study was to examine the validity of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Third Edition Full Scale IQ scores in measuring future academic achievement based on the significant difference among the WISC-III four factor scores: Freedom from Distractibility, Perceptual Organization, Verbal Comprehension, and Processing Speed (Freberg et al., 2008, p. 135). The study was participated by 202 students who were assessed twice over three years for special education qualifications. Participants age ranged from 6 to 13 years. Participants were divided into two groups according to the absence or presence of a significant variability between the WISC III four factor scores, and then the WISC III four factor scores were matched across groups on Full Scale IQ scores, sex, age, ethnicity and disability such as specific learning di sability, serious emotional disturbance, and mental retardation. In the study done by Freberg et al. (2008), the results were analysed by using hierarchical multiple regression showed that the WISC III Full Scale IQ was a valid measure of reading achievement (r = .65) and math achievement (r = .75) in the occurrence of significant factor score discrepancy. The results of this study support present argument because Freberg et al. (2008) found that WISC III Full Scale IQ could be a powerful and valid predictor of future academic achievement, where the higher the IQ score, the better it is in reading achievement and math achievement. However, the sample size in this study was too small to generalize the result to every aspect, so it is recommended that future research should be done with larger sample sizes. Besides, this study focused solely on the WISC III, which could be replaced by WISC IV, due to this limitation, it is suggested that this study should be replicate by using WISC IV or different kind of cognitive ability test to examine the g eneralizability of this study. Besides of the study done by Freberg et al. (2008), there is another study done by Hale et al. (2001) also found that Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Third Edition is a valid measure to predict childrens academic achievement. There were 174 children who age ranged from 6 to 16 years participated in this study. In order to be involved in this study, they needed to complete the 12 subtests to analyse factor scores and WISC III Full Scale IQ. Other than that, they needed to have Full Scale IQ between 80 and 120, and to have a significant discrepancy between logical or rational functioning and no less than one academic achievement area. Children were not included if they had a record of epilepsy, brain injury or any other medical condition that would affect psychological functioning. Archival data of 6-year period were collected to examine the presence and absence of medical histories. According to the results in the study done by Hale et al. (2001), it showed that Full Scale IQ was positively correlated with all the academic achievements Verbal Comprehension (r = .68), Reading Comprehension (r = .33), Reading Decoding (r = .33), Spelling (r = .39), Written Language (r = .33), and Math Computation (r = .44). The results of this study support present argument Hale et al. (2001) also found Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Third Edition as a valid measure to predict academic achievements such as verbal comprehension, reading comprehension, and math computation. It means when the children score higher in Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Third Edition, it is predicted that the children can also score higher in academic achievements as mentioned above. This study used a clinic-referred sample of children with learning disabilities, so the results in this study may not be generalized to school-based samples of children with learning disabilities or norm al children. Thus, future studies could look at whether the same performance patterns present for different group of populations. Apart from Wechsler Intelligence Scale, Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices is also one of the main intelligence tests. A study done by Pind et al. (2003) found that Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices is a valid measure to predict childrens academic achievement. In the study, participants that were actually assessed were 665 children who age ranged 6 to 16 years, but it ended up only 550 children were chosen to the actual standardised sample. The tests were run as group tests in a group of 10 children. Administrator was in the classroom to describe and to guide the children throughout the tests. To make sure coding of the answers accurately, every test form was keyed into computer twice. According to the results, Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices had higher positive correlation with mathematics as compared with the positive correlation of Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices and language subjects. Besides, Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices also had remarkable positive correl ations with the Icelandic National Examinations in fourth grade (r = .38), seventh grade (r = .64), and tenth grade (r = .53). The results of this study support my argument because it testified the usefulness of Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices to measure intelligence and to predict students academic achievements in Icelandic National Examinations, where the higher score the students got in Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices, the higher they could score in Icelandic National Examinations. Not only Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices is a valid measure to predict academic achievement, Rushton et al. (2004) found that Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices is also a valid measure in predicting academic achievement. There were actually 392 students from University of the Witwatersrand took the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices, but it was cut down to 306 students by not including those without biographical data, high-school grades, or examination scores, or those who listed their age that over 23, or those who were in a small sample sizes. One hundred and seventy seven of them were Africans while another 129 were non-Africans, their age ranged from 17 to 23 years. Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices and other academic tests were administered by authors and his colleagues during regular class period. Students received 50 rand each as reward when they passed up the answer sheets. Based on the results in the study done by Rushton et al. (2004), for the Africans, results indicated that Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices correlated positively with English Test (r = .29), Similarities Test (r = .14), and High-school Grade Point Average (r = .22). While for the non-Africans, Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices also correlated positively with English Test (r = .25), Similarities Test (r = .26), and High-school Grade Point Average (r = .16). Contrary to expectation, Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices was not correlated with University Grades either for Africans or non-Africans. The results of this study support present argument because Rushton et al. (2004) examined the validity of Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices which indicated that it is a valid measure to predict academic achievement although it failed to predict University Grades. It was mentioned that Africans were not Smith et al. (1989) did a Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale Fourth Edition validation study on predicting academic performance. This study compared and assessed the performance of students with learning disabilities on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children and the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale Fourth Edition. The sample included 18 students with learning disabilities who ranged in age from 8 to 11 years. Every student was diagnosed before as having learning disability by taking intelligence test individually. Every student was arranged to take the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children test and Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale Fourth Edition test in counterbalance sequence by psychologists in school. The time spent between tests was 5 to 22 days, with an average of 12 days. Results in the study done by Smith et al. (1989) showed that the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Childrens Mental Processing Composite was positively correlated with Sequential Processing (r = .77), Simultaneous Processing (r = .92), and Achievement (r = .48), while Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale Fourth Editions Test Composite was also positively correlated with Verbal Reasoning (r = .96), Abstract or Visual Reasoning (r = .89), and Quantitative Reasoning (r = .78). These results indicated that Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children and Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale Fourth Edition are valid measures of students with learning disability to perform intelligently. The results of this study support present argument because Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children and Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale Fourth Edition also found to be valid to predict academic achievement positively. The limitation of this study was the sample of participants. As relationship between intelligence s cales and academic achievements were examined in this study, participants were needed to do certain solving problems, reading, spelling, or writing questions, thus, students with learning disabilities might not be able to solve or answer some of the questions which would affect the results. Therefore, future researches are needed to examine the generalizability of the results for different samples of students with learning disabilities. As a conclusion, main intelligence tests such as Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices, Standard-Binet Intelligence Scale, and Wechslers tests are found to be valid to predict peoples academic achievements (Freberg et al., 2008; Hale et al., 2001; Pind et al., 2003; Rushton et al., 2004; Smith et al., 1989). According to the scores from intelligence scales, academic achievement might be able to be predicted; however, it does not mean people can get the good result without paying certain amount of efforts on getting impressive results. Therefore, intelligence scales can be good measures or tool to predict how well is the people able to achievement, but it cannot assure the prediction if the person does not pay any effort.

Telecommuting :: essays research papers fc

Telecommuting Telecommuting is a very interesting and complex subject. The pros and cons of this concept are numerous and both sides have excellent arguments. In the research I've done I feel I have to argue both sides to maintain a sense of perspective. I had mixed feelings about telecommuting before I started this research and I find that this is something many others have in common with me. The reasons for and against telecommuting can be complex or simple depending on which view point you take. From a manager's view point telecommuting is a very dangerous undertaking that requires a high readiness level on the employee's part. Allowing an employee with a low (R1, or R2) readiness level to telecommute is not likely to result in a positive manner. When an employee has a high readiness level and a definite desire to attempt working in the home, for some reason or another, many factors should be considered. What kind of schedule does the employee feel constitutes telecommuting? Generally speaking, telecommuting is defined as spending at least one day out of a five day work week working in the home. Is one day home enough for the employee? Or, too little? How does the employer decide how many days to allow? Does the employee's job lend itself well to telecommuting? Some jobs, obviously, can't be accomplished using a telecommuting format. Does the employee have a good track record for working unsupervised? This relates back to readiness levels. An employee who isn't performing at a high readiness level should not even be considered as a candidate for telecommuting. All of these questions and many more must be answered on a case by case basis. This particular venture into creative scheduling has its ups and downs as well from an employee's point of view. It can be quite a bed of roses for both employee and employer. A lot of nice smells and pretty sights, but watch out for the thorns. In several studies I reviewed I noticed that the telecommuting population loses many of the basics of the social contacts associated with the office environment. Judging the correct amount of time that an employee should spend working at home in relation to working at the office can have a significant impact on both performance and satisfaction. It's usually hard for someone to completely cut themselves off from their work environment and still perform well. The sense of being out of touch with the others in the work force can be mitigated by the use of e-mail, teleconferencing, and the ever faithful telephone.

All People are Equal Within the World of Work Essay -- Papers

All People are Equal Within the World of Work I do not agree with the statement at all, allthough in a right normal world of work, it should be true. Many people often judge people by thier appearence, or past experience. It could be anything, discriminating someone is easilly done. And its often simple things like hair styles or piercings, disability or gender than can stop you from working where you want to. With nearly all jobs these days; you'll have to fill out an application form, which can be a nightmare to many people. But no just for things like trying to remember their old school grades or when they left school, its often because they have something they feel will jeapordise thier employment chances. Criminal records is a good one. In companies or bussiness' these days, they will ask if you have a spent or unspent conviction. Spent means that its been a certain while since your conviction, unspent being the opposite. Some places feel that if you havent 'spent' your conviction, (meaning you havent 'changed'...

africa: Wildlife, landforms and climate :: essays research papers fc

Witch doctors, psychics, mediums, spiritualists are but just a few of the many names associated with Shamans. Many of us have heard these names echoed since childhood, but do we really know who these people are? In the United States these people are viewed as outcast; there hasn’t been a need for them in a very long time. Science, and modern technology have exiled the Shaman into the fringe of society. They remain a mystery to most, but beckon the open-minded. The Shaman is a spiritual wayfarer, that hasn’t thrived in the United States since the arrival of the white man, and his conquest of nature.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many definitions for shamanism, but few reveal the true nature of the Shaman. In simple terms, the Shaman is a person called upon to serve as a herald for the realm of the dead, but a Shaman is much more. A Shaman is someone who has explored, and gained a great understanding of their inner being. They can tap into the force that flows throughout the world, and manipulate it. A Shaman can alter his conscience so that he may travel to other worlds filled with objects, and various kinds of spirits. In the spirit realm, a Shaman can gain knowledge in order to help in healing, and other matters at hand. He is a spiritual advisor, and a healer of both physical and mental ailments.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A destined Shaman is typically clued in to their destiny by various forms of suffering. The most common clue is an extended illness for which there is no apparent cure. During this time of suffering, the chosen person has dreams, visions, and journeys to the spirit realms, and are usually accompanied by a guild spirit. This spiritual guild commonly informs the ill person of their fate to become a Shaman. There is usually hesitation on the part of the chosen one, but the suffering breaks down the will of that person. In the end, the destined assumes the role as Shaman, and his suffering diminishes. With the guidance of an elder Shaman, or sometimes just their spirit guild, the new shaman is initiated into their new existence. It is a existence between this earthy realm, and that of the dead.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  An initiate of Shamanism goes through an significant transformation. As a result of the suffering, and rigorous training, the initiate experiences the death of his ego. In western psychology, the ego is the part of the psyche which experiences the external world, or reality, through the senses, organizes the thought processes rationally, and governs actions (Webster’s

Benefit Programs in the Major Airline Industry

The Human Resource topic that we selected is to analyze the benefit programs of four major airlines. Benefits are important to employees as well as their families, and can be a powerful recruiting tool. Benefits also play a major role in managerial decisions and wise benefit choices can have a long-term impact on the quality of life. Some characteristics of a sound benefits program are, they must have clear specific objectives, they must allow for employee input, they must be responsive to societal and environmental change, provide for flexibility, and there must be clear communication with employees. One of the main challenges that companies face are the overall costs of these benefit programs to the companies themselves, as well as staying competitive in hopes to attract high quality employees. Almost 40% or $14,678 per employee is spent on benefit programs per year. American Airlines like many other airlines are facing many challenges in the HR area of benefits and incentives. American Airlines as we all know is one of the leading airlines in today†s airline industry. This status reflects upon Americans benefit program. American Airlines realizes that it must stay competitive in this area to ensure that they get the most qualified employees. American Airlines offers many benefits and incentives for their employees with hopes to attract the best. Many of the benefits are standard and required by law such as social security, unemployment, workers compensation, and leaves without pay. What really must be paid attention too are the benefits and incentives that are offered in addition to the ones required by law. These benefits and incentives are what attract individuals to work for American rather than another airline. Benefits such as a 401 K – Super Saver, which allows up to an ample 20% tax provision, a stock purchase plan, a credit union which could help one to buy a house, and personal emergency coupled with sick pay, just to name a few. American Airlines also recognizes ten major holidays for which employees do not have to work, yet they still get paid. Most of these are benefits that competing airlines offer, but one benefit stands out. American Airlines pass travel program is a benefit that many do not tend to overlook. American does not offer free stand-by tickets to its employees until they have been with the airline for 10 years. What they do offer are special discounted rates. This is the major weakness in their strategy to attract employees with benefits. American offers a very long list of benefits and incentives but this is one that is left out. I believe that American Airlines is making a big mistake by not allowing employees to fly for free. To become more effective American Airlines should add this benefit to its list so that it can be competitive with the other airlines. American has many strengths which include benefits that the other airlines do not offer such as a 401 K plans of up to 20%, and a credit union. Although at the same time it has a very large weakness, which is their travel plan that only offers its employees discounted rates, instead of free airfare. American Airlines must feel that it does not have to offer this benefit to attract potential workers, because it has so many other benefits to offer. Continental Airlines prides itself on offering a wide variety of benefits to their employees. The eligibility for these benefits varies according to the length of time an employee has worked for the company, and the position that they hold. One challenge that Continental Airlines face is the cost of providing these benefits to their employees. They have to make sure that they are financially able to provide these benefit programs, while still attracting high quality employees to their company. Some of these benefits include travel passes, profit sharing, stock purchase plans, retirement plans, 401(k) savings plan, vacation and sick pay, an expense reimbursement plan, medical and dental insurance, vision insurance, life insurance, and accident insurance. Although Continental employees and their families are able to travel at reduced rates; they are not able to fly completely for free, which may be considered unfavorable by some employees. Continental employees are also able to share in the financial growth of the company by purchasing Continental stock at a discounted rate. Continental also provides a fully funded retirement plan, which employees vest in after five years of service. It also provides the 401(k) savings plan, which is a great way for employees to save for retirement. The employees can save up to 19% of their salary before taxes are withheld. Continental also matches a portion of their employees† contributions to the 401(k) savings plan. Full and part time employees of Continental are able to take advantage of paid vacations, as well as the sick leave policy which gives employees time off from work, with pay, when they are ill or unable to work. Continental also provides immediate accident insurance upon employment for all of their employees. Continental does provide many benefits upon the initial employment of their employees; however, some benefit plans are not available until seven months after they have been employed. These include medical and dental insurance, vision insurance, long-term disability plan, and life insurance. Most of the plans are pre-tax, which allows employee tax savings. For every employee, there is a benefits program that best suits him or her. Younger employees who do not have the responsibility of families may not be looking for the same benefits as an older employee with a family. Continental needs to realize these differences in employees, in order to provide a benefit program that will attract the high quality employees they are looking for. Southwest Airlines is currently the fastest growing airline in the business. Over the past 10 years Southwest have grown its revenues by 388% and its net income by 1,490%. Some of the things that have helped Southwest to grow so quickly are their personnel. They have found ways to hire employees that have out-performed every major airline for the past three years. Their hiring tactics can be accredited to a healthy business network, in-depth research, a good job database, strong recruiting staff, and an outstanding benefits program. Southwest offers its employees a very competitive benefits program. Their program offers passes and travel privileges, medical insurance, dental insurance, life insurance, long term disability insurance, sick leave, vacation and holiday pay, profit-sharing, 401 (k) plan, stock purchase plan, and a employee assistance plan. One of the special benefits to working at Southwest is flying for free on Southwest and flying free or at a reduced rate on other carriers with whom Southwest has a pass agreement. Effective from the first day of employment, all employees, their spouses, dependant children, and parents of employees all have unlimited travel privileges on Southwest. An employee may view this as a huge benefit when they decide they would like to travel. On the downside of this part of the benefit program, Southwest does not fly everywhere in the United States, and that may pose a problem for an employee that would like to travel somewhere that Southwest does not offer service. Another benefit is Southwest†s medical, dental, and life insurance plans. Employees may choose to incorporate their families with their medical and dental plans in order to save the employee money. The medical and dental plans will cover 100% of the employee†s medical and dental needs, as well as their families needs, with minimal cost to the employee. For the life insurance plan, employees may choose coverage up to 4 times their base annual income in order to protect their family. The long-term disability program is set up in case an employee becomes disabled and can no longer work. Funds are still paid to the family in order to compensate for the employee†s inability to work due to disability. Depending on employment classifications, employees are able to gather time off for personal illness and vacations. Employees celebrate several paid holidays throughout the calendar year, based on their employment classification. Southwest offers its employees a 401-(k) plan. The plan is designed to help employee†s plan for their retirement. Eligible employees may contribute up to 15% of their pay to the plan on a pre-tax basis. Employees direct their investments and may borrow against their account balance. Employees are the basic fiber of Southwest Airlines, so they feel that employees should be able to share in the success of the company by investing in Southwest Airlines Co. tock through payroll reductions. Employees pay only 90% of the market value for the stock, and broker commissions are paid for by Southwest. Southwest cares very much for their employees well being. They offer their employees an assistance plan that helps when employees need it most. The plan provides professional assistance for employees and their families in order to solve personal problems that may arise that would cause their personal lives and job performance to suffer. Southwest Airlines realizes that without its employees the company would cease to work. Southwest offers these benefits to help keep their employees happy and provided for and in return their employees strive to keep Southwest on top. United Airlines is a true global airline that has over 140 stations in more than 30 countries around the world. United prides itself on being a company where opportunity and advancement are determined solely on merit and individual achievement. United supposedly values diversity not only because it is the correct thing to do, but because it is the right business thing to do. United†s stated position is that all employees should be treated with respect and dignity. The policy not only extends to employees, but to United†s customers, vendors, and independent contractors as well. Some of the benefits that United offers to its employees are; company-paid medical, dental, life and long-term disability insurance, pension plan, paid vacations, travel passes, stock purchase plan, 401(k) plan, and credit union. Going against the company†s policy, United Airlines has been in litigation with the city of San Francisco concerning the â€Å"Equal Benefits Law†. Last year United Airlines supposedly negotiated a two-year exemption from the law in order to renew a 25-year lease with the San Francisco Airport. After opposing letters from the National Writers Union (NWU) United Airlines has joined with Air Transportation Association (ATA) in a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco challenging the ordinance. United claimed they never made an agreement with San Francisco and has not yet made a commitment to providing domestic partner benefits. The ordinance states that any entity that contracts with the city of San Francisco must provide equal benefits to its employees† registered domestic partners that it provides to married spouses. Out of its 94,000 hired employees, United currently has approximately 10,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees. We believe that United is not very committed to diversity. It is obvious to see that United is trying to limit their benefit packages to those individuals that are not registered domestic partners. Some states still do not recognize domestic partners as legal binding marriages, and as a result, these individuals cannot receive equal benefits. United†s problem is that almost 11% of its total workforce is comprised of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, or transgenders. If United is committed to having diverse employees they should also be diverse in their benefit coverage. United should recognize that they have a diverse background and these select individuals need to be given equal benefits regardless of the added costs. The text mentions that part of providing a sound benefit package is allowing employees to given input into the benefit system. Having employees participate in designing benefits programs would help ensure that management is moving in the direction of satisfying employee wants. To meet the many changes occurring in society, management must reflect these changes in the employee benefits programs. The fact is that benefit plans sometimes provide little advantage to employees. Even though United might be trying to save money, their treatment towards domestic partners are limiting the organization†s ability to attract and retain quality employees. Some of the most effective policies and strategies for dealing with benefit programs are encompassed within each of the four airlines benefit programs offered. There are several benefits that are required by law, which include Social Security, Unemployment, Workers Compensation, and Leaves without Pay. Overall, American Airlines seemed to offer the most versatile benefits program. Although other programs offered similar benefits, we found that American Airlines offered the most conservative program. For example, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines both offer free flights to all employees as well as their families, which may be more appealing to a young employee without a family. On the downside, we discovered that Southwest Airlines has a limited flight area, which minimizes their costs when employees take advantage of these programs, and allows them to offer these strategic benefits. We feel that American and Continental Airlines are overlooking an important strategic hiring strategy, by not offering free flights to all their employees, since cost of flights are fixed. For example, a flight that is only at 85% capacity will fly for the same price as a flight that is at 100% capacity. Continental Airlines, has a competitive benefits program as well, but it lacks the flight area which both United and American Airlines offer. We felt that American and United Airlines offered the best benefit programs, although American does not offer free flights from day one of employment, they offer many other compelling incentives such as, personal emergency assistance, vacation buying programs, credit union assistance, as well as flight discounts for their employees.