Bioethics Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bioethics - Case Study Example cochlear implants in various region within different communities to be able to identify significant of cochlear implant device in regards to stigmatization and acceptance within these communities. Cochlear implant device help children to communicate with others in efficiency manner. It gets hard for a child to communicate around when he or she do not have cochlear implant device. However, the stigmatization within different community at times prevails among this family with deaf person. Some communities however, disapprove the implantation of cochlear devices terming as non-correspondent virtue. Virtue ethics is the applied theory since deaf children without cochlear implants and living in the Deaf community usually gets hard times to communicate as far as the issue of cochlear device is concerned. According to the research, it has been known that this device have regulated the issue of deafness within different communities and any community against the cochlear implant decision not only disapprove the exercise but also need deafness issue to prevail at large. In conclusion, Cochlear implant device help children to communicate with others in efficient manner. It gets hard for a child to communicate around when he or she do not have cochlear implant device. Virtue ethics is the applied theory since deaf children without cochlear implants and living in the Deaf community usually gets hard times to communicate as far as the issue of cochlear device is concerned. According to the research, it has been known that this device have regulated the issue of deafness within different community. In the categories, there is only one group for the development, kind of jumping to the conclusion that the community is useless and that they want to develop their instrument. However, their intention is to have fifth group to address the benefits of keeping the children deaf or not. The only way to develop the instrument is to compare deaf children with non-deaf

International Business Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

International Business Finance - Essay Example Through competitor analysis, the company can differentiate the products supplied to these new regions, and effectively overcome the impeding competition from existing suppliers (Johnson 2012). Overcoming competition remains fundamental towards ensuring successful entry into international markets. Competitor analysis could assist the company in reaching competitive edge within the international business ventures. The production methods utilised by competitors can provide the company with possible production methods to use within these regions. This will also enable the company to analyse possible production technological advancements that could be introduced, and improve the production. Introduction of new production technology could enhance production and reduce production costs. Economic status The economic status shall include the analysis of the economic systems, within these regions, and institutions. This would provide the company with information regarding the availability of e ssential natural and human resources within the target regions. The available human resources could enable the company establish the best production methods, sustainable within these regions. The economic status shall enable the company to decide on strategic approaches to take when making market entries into these regions. In a libertarian economy, for example, market entry would be easier because of limited interference from governments (Glaeser, 2010). Most economies of Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia remain relatively static with considerable government regulation. Understanding of these factors would enable the company to strategise on effective methods of coping with the government influence (Jethani 2011). Government influence in these economies limits the freedom of conducting business and could frustrate investors when assumed. Political system The company should consider the political systems in existence within the target markets. The political system immensely affects th e policy formulation and economic stability of any country. The political systems within different countries determine the influences of government owned enterprises on private businesses. While the operation of government owned enterprises depends on political systems, their influence on private businesses could affect the operations of private enterprises (Hatch, et al. 2011). Political systems could therefore, affect private businesses through offering government enterprises better operating environments, hence instigating unfair competition. Bureaucratic political systems implement controls on private enterprises while letting government owned businesses to operate freely, giving government enterprises a competitive edge. International conflicts, influenced by political systems, could also have adverse effects on international businesses. Countries experiencing international conflict could have sanctions imposed on them, and participation in international activities, including b usiness, significantly affected. Legal factors The legal system within any country affects the capacity to effectively conduct business. An analysis of the legal systems remains essential in enabling the company to determine best operating methods, applicable within the legal systems. Existence of corruption within numerous African countries could become a hindrance towards stability of operations. Corruption could become deeply rooted vice in a country’s culture that it becomes inculcated into national values

Fashion Blogging - the Impact on Sales Essay Example for Free

Fashion Blogging the Impact on Sales Essay Thus, we first investigate whether blogging activity leads to (differential) market outcomes. We then examine whether managerial communication (magazines advertising) and blogging are synergistic. We assemble a unique data set from fashion containing market outcomes (sales), new media (blogs) and traditional media (magazines advertising) for a brand of clothing, and a brand of shoes. Each category has at least one product launch during the duration of our sample periods. We specify a simultaneous equation log-linear system for market outcomes and the volume of blogs. Our results suggest that blogs are predictive of market outcomes, new and traditional media act synergistically, pre-launch magazines advertising spurs blogging activity but become less effective post-launch and that market outcomes have some effect on blogging. We find detailed support for some of these findings via a unique and novel text mining analysis. We discuss the managerial implications of our findings. I-Introduction Consumer generated media (CGM) such as blogs (a contraction of the term â€Å"Web logs†) have witnessed explosive growth in the last few years. For example, the number of blogs worldwide is estimated to be 184 millions with a readership of 346 million (March 2010). In contrast, in March 2003, the number of blogs was essentially zero. Other types of CGM have also seen similar growth patterns, e. g. , Facebook, which started in February 2004, now has about 400 million members worldwide (February 2011). There are also indications that blogs are now being seen as similar to mainstream media sites – the number of blog sites in the top 100 most popular sites (blogs and mainstream media) worldwide was twenty-two in 2008 and blogs were being viewed by consumers as â€Å"sites for news, information, gossip etc. † (2008). In 2010, four of the top ten entertainment sites were blogs (March 2010). It is clear from these statistics that there is considerable activity (multi- media posting, blogging, visits, traffic etc. ) on the part of consumers. However, an important question, from a managerial perspective, is whether this activity leads to (differential) business outcomes such as sales or profits. In addition, little is known about the relationship between traditional or old media (where the company creates content and delivers it to consumers) and consumer generated, or new, media (where consumers create content and there in an exchange of this content between other consumers and potentially, the company). That is, are there any synergies between new media and old media? In this research, we take the first step towards answering these questions. Blogging is perhaps the most established and largest form of consumer generated media at this point in time. The total worldwide viewership of blogs is estimated to be about 346 million (March 2010). Wikipedia defines as a blog as â€Å"a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blogging is a worldwide phenomenon with the two biggest blogging markets being the United States and Japan. The number of blogs in the United States is about 23 million (about 12% of all US Internet users) and about 8 million in Japan (about 5% of all Japanese Internet users) in 2009. However, if one examines the total number of posts by language, Japanese language posts account for 37% of all posts worldwide followed closely by English language posts at 36%. Fina lly, readership of blogs in these two markets is ery high about half of all Internet users in the US and about one-fifth of all Japanese Internet users have read a blog in the past year. While there are many informal opinions on the effectiveness of CGM in general (and blogs in particular) vis-a-vis market outcomes, there is limited empirical research that sheds light on this issue, especially for the launch of new products. The majority of the existing research has focused on online chatter (newsgroup postings, reviews and ratings) and its effect on market outcomes. There is some evidence that volume of online user ratings is positively correlated to sales. Blogging, on the other hand, has been seen as a unique type of user generated content as being a highly personal, non-directed communication tool. As Kumar (2005) note, blogs are unique for sociological reasons – they comprise a â€Å"highly dynamic, temporal community structure† that â€Å"focuses heavily on local community interactions† and for technical reasons – blogs â€Å"offer us a ready-made view of evolution (of content) in continuous time. † In addition, blogging activity was probably the most pervasive CGM activity on the web during the time of our data. Given these unique characteristics of blogs as opposed to reviews, it is not obvious that bloggers’ activity should affect market outcomes. Surprisingly, there is very little research that has tried to quantify the effect of blogs on market outcomes, especially in the presence of traditional media and/or an examination of pre- and post-launch changes in the role of old and new media. Two recent empirical papers have focused on blogs and market outcomes. Dhar and Chang (2009) explore the relationship between music album sales (imputed via sales ranks on Amazon. om) and online chatter (as seen in blogs and on social networks). Using 108 music albums in early 2007 (before four weeks and after four weeks of their release), they find a positive correlation between both the number of blogs and Myspace member intensity with future music sales. Gruhl (2005) propose a new methodology to automatically generate a query of blog keywords to detect spikes in Amazon. com’s book sales rank. They conclude that their new algorithm could adequately predict the changes and spikes of future sales ranks. Thus, while these two studies suggest that there may be a correlation between blogging activity and market outcomes, they do not use actual sales data but only sales ranks from Amazon. com. To the best of our knowledge, the second issue that we outline above the positive relationship between traditional media and new media has not been investigated in the literature. Our expectation is that there will be a positive correlation between the quantity of traditional media and new media as traditional media is likely to provide discussion materials for bloggers. From a managerial perspective this issue is crucial, as managers have no direct control over CGM (blogs in our case). However, if there is indeed a synergistic relationship between traditional media, which are under managerial control, and new media, which are outside managerial control, then managers can leverage this relationship. Specifically, they can carry out â€Å"better† resource allocation and media planning (to traditional media) as they can take the spillover effect (from traditional to new media) into consideration. We examine the role of new media with respect to market outcomes as well as the relationship between new media and traditional media using data of two different clothing and shoes brand that are both promoted in fashion blogs. We consider the number of units sold, customers or subscribers (all a proxy for demand) as market outcomes, blogs as representations of consumer generated media and magazines advertising as traditional media. We specify a simultaneous equation model that links sales to advertising and blogs as well as a model that links blogs to advertising. Our results, after controlling for many temporal and cross-sectional factors, suggest that first, the volume of Blogstock (cumulative sum of past blog posts) is positively correlated with market outcomes (volume of clothing sold, and the volume of shoes sold) post launch. Second, the interaction between blogs and magazines advertising has a positive effect on market outcomes. Third, we also find that traditional media (magazines advertising) positively affects new media (the volume of blogs) pre launch. In other words, bloggers consume advertising, independent of the product, and this ncreases their blogging activity. Finally, we find that the effect of blogs varies between pre and post launch. In general, the positive relationship between magazines advertising and the volume of blogs pre-launch becomes weaker after launch. This result suggests that while magazines advertising can independently increase blogging pre-launch via the provision of information and content, post-launch (i. e. , once the product is available), consumers may rely less on traditional media, leading to a much weaker relationship between new and old media at that point. These last three sets of results shed light on the possibility that, broadly speaking, advertising and blogs act synergistically (with the relationship changing somewhat post-launch). The process explanations for our findings is not obvious. We take the first step in eliciting process explanations by carrying out a novel text mining analysis of the blog posts for the two markets (shoes and clothing) for which we have access to the textual content data. The findings from the text mining analysis suggest that blogs may affect market outcomes as they represent a rich source of product information and consumer opinion for other consumers. Also, bloggers do use advertising as a subject for blogging pre-launch but turn their attention to product attributes post-launch. II-Data Our data come from fashion market. We consider data from two brands – clothing and shoes. We first describe the market outcome data for each product market and then we describe the measurement of traditional and new media. III-Market Outcomes The daily sales of clothings were made available for the total fashion market based on a nationally representative consumer panel. The data include daily sales of two new pieces of clothing introduced in the period from January 2013 to March 2013. For shoes, the outcome variable we use is based on the same principle. We have data of two new models that were released (launched) in the period from January 2013 to March 2013. IV-Traditional Media The traditional marketing variable we use is magazines advertising. This was measured in units of daily or monthly Gross Rating Points (GRPs). There are some differences in the patterns of magazines advertising pre and post launch across the two brands. For clothing, most of the advertising is post launch. Typically, commercial ads in this market begin to air about five days pre launch and then the heavier advertising kicks in post launch. In contrast, for shoes, pre-release magazines GRPs are larger (on average) than the post-release magazines GRPs. Specifically, peak advertising for shoes was, not surprisingly, a week before its launch date in order to generate high demand at the time of the opening. V-New Media We obtain blogging data from blog 1 (www. leblogdebetty. com) for clothing data and blog 2 (www. sorayabakhtiar. com) for the shoes data. Both the brands scan and index the two blogging sites on a daily basis using keywords with coverage of about 64% of all blog articles. They then aggregate the data and provide the count of the daily number of blogs that mention a particular keyword on a specific temporal period such as day or month (multiple mentions in the same temporal unit are counted as one). As is typical for most blogs, its contents appear in a reversal chronological order and also include the blogger’s profile, â€Å"trackbacks† (links showing other websites, typically other blogs, that a blog is linked to), and comments. Buzz Research archives the contents of all blog posts. It also carries out lexical analysis of the contents of each tracked blog by using a proprietary text- mining method and classifies each blog as positive, negative and/or neutral with respect to a given keyword. We therefore have access to the actual content of all posts as well as the daily percentage of positive, negative and neutral blogs for the movies and cellular phone service markets. There is big increase in the average number of blogs per period post launch in all two brands. Interestingly, for the two brands markets where we have valence data, the biggest growth is in the percentage of neutral blogs post launch. To illustrate the relationship between marketing outcomes and both traditional and new media, we pick a product across our two brand markets. The figure suggests that magazines advertising, blog volume and shoes buyer are temporally correlated. Dividing the data temporally at the date of release we see that magazines GRPs and the number of blogs exhibit an increasing trend pre-release, but a decreasing one post-release. While we illustrate a typical data pattern through this example, the pattern is not identical for all brands across product markets. In conclusion, these data are novel in the sense that they combine marketing data for both traditional and new media along with market outcomes from a market where new media have proven to be important (at least in terms of activity). Our data are also novel in the sense that they enable us to focus on new product launches. In addition, the fact that we have data from two different brand markets (frequently purchased consumer goods) with varying characteristics (e. . , more versus fewer new product launches) will help us determine if the relationship between market outcomes and new media as well as the relationship between new media and traditional media generalizes across product markets. Finally, the availability of the actual blog post text (for two categories) opens up the possibility to conduct a deeper text-mining analysis. VI-Managerial Implicati ons So far, we have discussed the findings purely from a statistical point of view. However, it may be useful to translate these findings in a manner that uantifies the effect sizes from a managerial point of view. We therefore ran two experiments – the first to get a sense of how managers could change resource allocation and the second to see how managers could use blog data to improve sales forecasts. In the first experiment, we use the estimates from the clothing market data. To illustrate short-term effects, in the experiment, we assumed there were only three periods, two in the pre-release and one in the post-release. Recall that blogging is outside the control of managers. We therefore used the marketing instrument under managerial control in our data set – traditional magazines advertising. In the experiment, we increased the Adstock by one percent in the first pre-release period. The output we measured was the percentage increase in the size of the daily volume sold in the post-release period. A ten percent increase in the Adstock results in a 3. 3 percent increase in the number of blogs at the second pre-release period. As a result of this increase in the Adstock, we find that the net increase in the sales volume is 2. 1 percent. A decomposition of this overall increase due to traditional media versus new media suggested that the increase in the Adstock directly enhances the sales by 0. 13 percent while the interaction between blogging and advertising increases the sales by 0. 1 percent. Furthermore, the largest and most significant increase in the sales volume at post-launch is led by the indirect impact from advertising via blogging activity, which accounts for 1. 9 percent. Similar experiment for the other product markets also support these findings with the overall effect being slightly smaller for shoes (0. 4%). In addition to simulating the short-term effects of advertising, we use a simulation setting similar to the above experiments and expand the time horizon from one period to ten periods. The largest indirect effect of the ten percent increase in Adstock decays slower than do the other two effects across two product categories. The peaks of the indirect effects are located at the third period for t he clothing and at the second period for the shoes. These are resulted from the larger estimates of the carry-over constants of Adstock and Blogstock at post-launch in the blog equations. In the second experiment, we hold out the last observation from each brand and re-estimated the model. We then use the model estimates for prediction and computed the difference in the predicted value and the actual data across all the held out observations. We do this for the full model and a restricted version of the full model where the response coefficients for the number of blogs and the cumulative number of blogs were set to zero. Thus, the difference in prediction (based on the Root Mean Square Deviation) between these two models shows the extent to which the use of blog data can improve sales forecasts. The improvement in RMSD is very high for shoes, and modest for clothing. VII-Conclusion, Limitations and Directions for Future Research This paper adds to the very limited, but rapidly growing field of research into the effectiveness of new media, especially in the case of new product launches. Using a unique dataset from two product markets (a major new media market), we are able to combine into a single source, data on market outcomes, traditional media (magazines advertising) and new media (volume and content of blogs). We used a simultaneous equation model to capture the effect of new media on market outcomes and the effect of market outcomes on new media. While this in itself is somewhat novel, we were also able to include the major marketing activity (mgazines advertising) in both equations, both directly and via interactions. Thus this allows us to investigate two open questions in this domain (a) whether new media (blogging activity in our case) leads to (differential) market outcomes and (b) whether traditional marketing actions (i. e. , magazines advertising) and new media act synergistically. We also make a first attempt, to the best of our knowledge, to use the content of the blog posts to shed â€Å"process† light on our econometric findings via a careful and methodical text mining analysis. Using data from clothing, and shoes brands, we find that patterns across the two categories showing clear linkages between traditional media, new media and market outcomes. In general, we find that cumulative blogs (Blogstock) are predictive of market outcomes, blogs and magazines advertising act synergistically, pre-launch advertising spurs blogging activity (that is predictive of marketing activity) but becomes less effective in inducing blogging activity post- launch and market outcomes also do have some effect on blogging activity. Our text mining results provide additional support for some of these findings. From a managerial point of view, in the experiment using clothing estimation results, we find that a one percent increase in the traditional marketing instrument (magazines advertising) leads to a median increase in market outcomes of 0. 2%, with a majority of the increase coming from the increase in blogging activity generated by the advertising pre-launch. Our analyses do also have a few limitations (driven mostly by the nature of the data). First, as noted earlier, the aggregate nature of our data makes it very hard to offer micro-level causal explanations of the effectiveness of new media and the synergistic relationship between new and traditional media. While our text mining analyses shed some light on our findings, it would be very beneficial to obtain datasets that link individual activity to market outcomes for a larger variety of new media. Second, our measures of new media are at present limited to blog content volume – and in two product markets, keywords and valence. ). Third, our model could be improved with the potential use of non-parametric models to model the effects of both old and new media and the associated interactions. Finally, our data do not contain information on all marketing instruments and hence we use proxies (such as lagged sales in the case of distribution). We hope that with better data, future research will be able to address these limitations.

Hofstedes cultural analysis framework and explores

Hofstedes cultural analysis framework and explores Executive Summary This report briefly explains the main concepts of Hofstedes cultural analysis framework and explores the ways in which it helps to understand different cultures. Using a simple analytical style it applies the main concepts of Hofstedes theory to the two different countries of Saudi Arabia and UK. From this analysis it attempts a comparison between the two cultures and tries to suggest some modest advice for a UK based manager who is going to work for a local organization in Saudi Arabia. This report is not a very detailed research and uses some limited secondary research from the internet and the books to attempt this analysis. The resulting conclusions and recommendations are therefore in the nature of broad generalisations and not a detailed training module on cultural adaptation which could require much more detailed and rigorous research. Introduction This paper attempts to apply Hofstedes analytical framework to the two countries of Saudi Arabia and the UK to determine the main differences and similarities between them. Cultural differences make a significant impact upon business styles and processes in any country and therefore studying these allows a business to enter and function successfully in a new country. Therefore, a model of the type evolved by Hofstede is extremely useful to help in understanding and implementing any businesss strategy in a new country. This paper is organized into 4 main sections. Section 1 is the discussion of the theoretical contents of Hofstedes model. It describes the main features of the model, explains their application and also critically analyses them. The section further suggests the utility as well as the limitations of the model. Section 2 of the paper describes and evaluates the culture of Saudi Arabia using the model framework as a basis. Each element of Hofstedes model is applied to the Saudi Arabian work place. Using the analysis derived from the model application an overall picture of the Saudi Arabian economy is drawn within this section. Section 3 of the paper describes and evaluates the culture of the UK using the same model framework of Hofstede. Analyzing the main characteristics of the UK culture the section once again attempts a summation of the work culture within the country. Section 4 of the paper is the conclusion section that attempts to summarize the main cultural similarities and differences between UK and Saudi Arabia and the implications of the same for business. Section 5 of the paper is the recommendations section which attempts to build a small toolkit that could be relevant for the young British Manager called James who is going to work for a local organization in Saudi Arabia. Using the main conclusions from previous section this part of the paper tries to develop a blue-print to help this new manager survive in the new culture and society. Discussion of the model Geert Hofstede (1967- 1973) worked extensively in the field of cultural studies across different countries across the globe. Studying different cultures and their work related characteristics, this researcher developed a four dimensional model of intra country culture. Towards his later years he developed a fifth element within this model but the importance of the main elements remains undiminished to date. According to Hofstede country cultures can be broadly ranked along the following five main dimensions. Power Distance Index This focuses on the degree of power/wealth/influence inequality among the people within any country. Countries that rank high on this index have hidden caste systems that effectively differentiate between rich and poor and privileged and under-privileged. The poor are unable to better themselves easily in this society as they are blocked at various levels by the rich and influential. The culture within the work place favours the rich and many subtle laws, rules and regulations hinder the easy upward mobility of the poor. On the other hand countries that rank low on this index have societies that are more equal and where power wealth and influence does not determine access to many services and facilities. Individualism Individualism is the one side versus its opposite, collectivism, that is the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. On the individualist side we find societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after him/herself. On the collectivist side, we find societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. For example, Germany can be considered as individualistic with a high score (89) on the scale of Hofstede compared to a country like Guatemala where they have strong collectivism (6 on the scale). Masculinity This dimension focuses on how extent to which a society stress achievement or nurture. Masculinity is seen to be the trait which emphasizes ambition, acquisition of wealth, and differentiated gender roles. Countries differ in terms of the importance given to the male ideal of work related achievement and ambition. In countries with high masculinity scores the male is often given a much higher status in the work place than the female. On the other hand gender based discrimination is very low in the countries where masculinity scores are low. Uncertainty avoidance This dimension focuses on how cultures adapt to changes and cope with uncertainty. Emphasis is on extent to which a culture feels threatened or is anxious about ambiguity. Uncertainty tolerance and risk taking ability differ within different societies. In countries where this index is high, entrepreneurial activity tends to be widespread across society. On the other hand in countries where this index is low, people tend to move away from risk bearing and governments also tend to over legislate and restrict entrepreneurial activity. Long Term Orientation Long-Term Orientation is the fifth dimension of Hofstede which was added after the original four to try to distinguish the difference in thinking between the East and West. Long-Term Orientation (LTO) focuses on the degree the society embraces, or does not embrace, long-term devotion to traditional, forward thinking values. High Long-Term Orientation ranking indicates the country prescribes to the values of long-term commitments and respect for tradition. Low Long-Term Orientation ranking indicates the country does not reinforce the concept of long-term, traditional orientation. In this culture, change can occur more rapidly as long-term traditions and commitments do not become impediments to change. Applying Hofstedes model to Saudi Arabia The Geert Hofstede analysis for Saudi Arabia is almost identical to other Arab countries their Muslim faith plays a large role in the peoples lives. The Large Power Distance (PDI) (80) and Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) (68) are predominant Hofstede Dimension characteristics for the countries in this region. These societies are more likely to follow a caste system that does not allow significant upward mobility of its citizens. They are also highly rule-oriented with laws, rules, regulations, and controls in order to reduce the amount of uncertainty, while inequalities of power and wealth have been allowed to grow within the society. The high Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) ranking of 68, indicates the societys low level of tolerance for uncertainty. There is both a rigid and subtle hierarchy within society with very little scope for people to avoid their designated role or status in life. People also fully accept this role in life as a part of their cultural heritage. The masculinity scores within Saudi Arabia are not very higher than average across the world. According to Michael Wolfe (1998), the author of The Hadj : An Americans pilgrimage to Mecca this suggests that the inferior role of women in Saudi society can be traced to religious roots rather than cultural roles. There are extensive rules of etiquette while in business meetings and other social interactions both between men as well as between men and women. This tends to often be more onerous for women than for men. Still one could argue that women are often protected from male over exploitation by religious injunctions that forbid various acts. Silence is often considered to be a symbol of understanding wisdom and power. The most powerful people at business meetings a re often the silent observers and as underlined by the most active communicators could be the least influential. The individualism scores for Saudi Arabia are clearly among the lowest nations of the world suggesting that the society is very communistic with a great preference for long term tribal and familial loyalties. There is much evidence that Saudi Arabia is a long term orientated culture. Applying Hofstedes model to UK The UK represents a radically different society when analyzed using Hofstedes framework when compared to Saudi Arabia. The UK has very low uncertainty avoidance, power distance and long term orientation scores highlighting the fact that the country is modern and progressive in its outlook with few rules and regulation. The low power distance scores illustrate the long tradition of UK as a nation where people expect to be ruled by consent and prefer leaders who consult extensively and allow participation by the staff. . In this sense the UK is very different from Saudi Arabia. The UK scores 89 for Individualism. This is high and therefore points to that fact that British culture values and promotes individuality. On a macro level we see that the nuclear family is the more predominant form of basic social structure. On a micro level, in the business environment the individual may be more concerned with themselves rather than the team. There is great emphasis placed on individualism wit h almost every part of society rewarding individual achievement .There are very few familial links that continue through the life of the individual and people do not in general belong to clans or tribes which reward loyalty like in Saudi Arabia.. The UK scores 66 which indicates that it is somewhere in the middle. This may reflect the fact that British society and culture aims for equality between the sexes, yet a certain amount of gender bias still exists underneath the surface. The moderately strong masculinity scores reflect a male oriented society but still not as male dominated as Saudi Arabia. The low uncertainty avoidance scores of the UK reflect the general comfort of the population in the work place as well as in the social arena. The existence of a religious police in the latter country is a clear example of the uncertainty avoidance scores of the country. In the UK people in general social life are not expected to express emotions and stay rather phlegmatic. Different religious beliefs and cultural values are expected to stay in tolerant harmony side by side without any conflict unlike in Saudi Arabia. Conclusions and Recommendations Clearly the above discussion illustrates how even a simple application of Hofstedes framework to the cultures of Saudi Arabia and UK result in considerable wealth of information about the relative aspects of the cultures of the two countries. It is quite clear that for a manager from the UK working within the culture of Saudi Arabia will be a great challenge. The entire cultural experience would be very different given the constraints within that country. The power distance would imply that the manager would need to keep his distance from the subordinates and ensure that at all times he is in line with the cultural etiquette. Similarly he would also need to ensure that given the large number of social rules and regulations he does not offend any of his hosts. The decorum must always be maintained and he must never go against the social customs of the place both in the office and society interactions. He should also keep in mind the collective nature of the society and the fact that he should never offend the tribal loyalties and be aware of the various cultural attachments of his subordinates as well as his peers. Once again either talking too much or talking too little would not be optimal particularly in conferences and meetings. There is also the need to appear masculine and in control to an even greater extent than in the UK. He must ensure that nobody in the work place in particular views him to be less than in complete control partly because of the need to appear to be in control and partly due to the masculinity aspect. The fact that there is much greater need for uncertainty avoidance within Saudi Arabia implies that the manager should ensure that he is always taking decisions and directing his employees and subordinates to a much greater extent than he was used to in UK. The employees in Saudi Arabia will not respect a boss who delegates his decision making to the extent that is quite common in the UK. Also there needs to be greater clarity about who does what unlike in the UK where employees can be expected to take decisions as well as add value in decision making of their own accord. In all these issues the manager also needs to be alive to the peculiar and unique cultures within the specific organisation that he intends to work in within Saudi Arabia. Overall it is clear that the manager from England will have to learn a great deal apart from the local language. He will need to master the local cultural etiquette, social idiom as well as the various rules and regulations. At all times he will have to display a modesty and cultural adaptability in order to meet the approval of his seniors as well as his peers.

A Character Analysis Of Iago Essay -- essays research papers

Iago is one of the most interesting characters in the tragedy "Othello" by William Shakespeare. Through some carefully thought-out words and actions, Iago is able to manipulate others to do things in a way that benefits him and gets him closer to his goals. He is the driving force in this play, pushing Othello and everyone else towards the tragic ending. Iago is not the typical villain in any story or play. The role he plays is unique and complex, far from what one might expect from a villain. Iago is not only very smart, but he is also an expert judge character. This gives him a great advantage in the play. For example, he knows Roderigo is in love with Desdemona and figures that he would do anything to have her as his own. Iago says about Roderigo, "Thus do I ever make my fool my purse." [Act I, Scene III, Line 355]. By playing on his ambitions, Iago is able to swindle money and jewels from Roderigo, making a substantial profit for himself, while using Roderigo to advance his other goals. Iago can also think very quickly on his feet and is able to improvise whenever something unexpected occurs. When Cassio takes hold of Desdemona's hand before the arrival of Othello, Iago says, "With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio." [Act II, Scene I, Line 163]. His quick thinking and craftiness makes him a truly dastardly villain. Being very smart, Iago is quickly recognizes the advantages of trust and uses it as a tool to f...

Summer Reading :: Creative Writing Essays

Summer Reading It was a bright, hot summer day when it all happened. I could have been sitting at the beach or swimming. Although that was not the case. I had to actually put effort into something, to actually think , to actually well, read. I went upstairs to find the summer reading list. I looked through pile after pile of school computer printouts but still no luck of that little reading list. I began to get frustrated and decided the best thing to do now would be to take a break, and that is exactly what I did. I got into my bathing suit and went for a nice swim. I was swimming for about an hour when all of a sudden I got this thirst for a nice cool beverage. Thoughts began to flow through my mind about how quenching and replenishing that glass of coke would taste. This caused me to immediately jump out of the pool and run in for a drink. As I took a cup from the cabinet I saw in the reflection of the glass a blue sheet on the refrigerator. I immediately turned around and there I saw under a magnet, on the refrigerator, the summer reading list! I wanted to start reading as soon as possible. Although I wanted to see how many books I could read that were on the summer reading list but would not have to go to the library to get a hold of. My mother is a big book reader so I checked her collection and I found one. "The Terminal Man" By: Michael Crichton. To my surprise I actually enjoyed reading this book. I don't like reading that much, I rather watch a movie. This book however was different. It was really suspenseful and hard to put down. I know my story sounds really convincing but I will prove to you any way that I read this book by giving you a quick summary of the novel. Harry Benson, the main character, is a 31 year old computer scientist. About 4 years back he got into a car accident and got brain damage which causes him mental seizures. What happens during these seizures is that he goes on a violent rampage for seven or so hours and then all of a sudden wakes up from this seizure and does not know what has happened or what he has done. Harry is admitted to Universal Hospital, the doctors plan to implant electrodes into his brain to shock the part of his brain that causes the seizure right

Bata Lockout Case Study Essay

For Bata, labor had always posed major problems. Strikes seemed to be a perennial problem. Much before the assault case, Bata’s chronically restive factory at Batanagar had always plagued by labor strife. In 1992, the factory was closed for four and a half months. In 1995, Bata entered into a 3-year bipartite agreement with the workers, represented by the then 10,000 strong BMU, which also had the West Bengal government as a signatory. On July 21, 1998, Weston was severely assaulted by four workers at the company’s factory at Batanagar, while he was attending a business meet. The incident occurred after a member of BMU, Arup Dutta, met Weston to discuss the issue of the suspended employees. Dutta reportedly got into a verbal duel with Weston, upon which the other workers began to shout slogans. When Weston tried to leave the room the workers turned violent and assaulted him. This was the second attack on an officer after Weston took charge of the company, the first one being the assault on the chief welfare officer in 1996. In February 1999, a lockout was declared in Bata’s Faridabad Unit. Middleton commented that the closure of the unit would not have much impact on the company’s revenues as it was catering to lower-end products such as canvas and Hawaii chappals. The lock out lasted for eight months. In October 1999, the unit resumed production when Bata signed a three-year wage agreement. On March 8, 2000, a lockout was declared at Bata’s Peenya factory in Bangalore, following a strike by its employee union. The new leadership of the union had refused to abide by the wage agreement, which was to expire in August 2001. Following the failure of its negotiations with the union, the management decided to go for a lock out. Bata management was of the view that though it would have to bear the cost of maintaining an idle plant (Rs. 3 million), the effect of the closures on sales and production would be minimal as the footwear manufactured in the factory could be shifted to the company’s other factories and associate manufacturers. The factory had 300 workers on its rolls and manufactured canvas and PVC footwear. In July 2000, Bata lifted the lockout at the Peenya factory. However, some of the workers opposed the company’s move to get an undertaking from the factory employees to resume work. The employees demanded revocation of suspension against 20 of their fellow employees. They also demanded that conditions such as maintaining normal production schedule, conforming to standing orders and the settlement in force should not be insisted upon. In September 2000, Bata was again headed for a labour dispute when the BMU asked the West Bengal government to intervene in what it perceived to be a downsizing exercise being undertaken by the management. BMU justified this move by alleging that the management has increased outsourcing of products and also due to perceived declining importance of the Batanagar unit. The union said that Bata has started outsourcing the Power range of fully manufactured shoes from China, compared to the earlier outsourcing of only assembly and sewing line job. The company’s production of Hawai chappals at the Batanagar unit too had come down by 58% from the weekly capacity of 0. 144 million pairs. These steps had resulted in lower income for the workers forcing them to approach the government for saving their interests. PS: Weston resigned on January 30, 2001. This came as a severe setback to the Bata management.