Strategic Groups and Contribution to Industry Profitability Essay

Strategic Groups and Contribution to Industry Profitability - Essay Example Both institutions may belong to the same industry but do not compete directly with another, so the factors that affect either of them may not be critical in their success; instead, organisations within similar strategic groups ought to be considered (Amel and Froeb, 1991). In essence, a strategic group may be understood as a collection of firms that utilise common strategies and operate within common competitive environments. Membership within this entity determines the threats and opportunities that organisations are susceptible to as well as other components of their competitive environments. Knowledge of such information is critical in understanding why some strategic groups perform better than others and why firms cannot move between groups easily. The concept of mobility barriers captures the above changes; this term is analogous to entry barriers because it prevents companies from changing from less profitable strategic groups to ones that are more profitable. High mobility barriers in a strategic group assist in cementing positions of high performance for certain organisations and shield them from intense rivalry by new ones (Hill and Deeds, 1996). One way of understanding how strategic groups contribute to industry profitability is through an analysis of the motor vehicle market; a highly traditional yet technology-dependent industry. Organisations like Jaguar, Land Rover and Rolls Royce initially had vertically integrated business models. These companies operated within similar strategic groups where they took advantage of economies of scale as well as specialisation in order to maintain the competitive advantage. Even collision between them was common because they were not overly concerned about production costs; however, these dynamics altered upon arrival of Japanese firms (Noel and Eduardo, 2007). The new entrants did not place too much emphasis on vertical integration; instead, they preferred to forge close associations with their contractors. A process that made them stand out was just in time manufacturing, which focused on efficient production through low inventory as well as flexibility.  

Solution to World Poverty Essay Example for Free

Solution to World Poverty Essay Try to imagine when you became a homeless child who is facing death because of starvation, would not you want a piece of bread from a kind man? In the article The Singer Solution to World Poverty Peter Singer talks about whether we should save poor children or not by donating money. In his article, Singer helps us realize our response for the deaths of children in poor families by asking the reader to consider hypothetical situations and put these moral issues into real life. In the long run, simply donating money to poor countries do not solve the problem. In my opinion, we should help the poor children to make their own living, by spending our money on popularization of education and health care in the poor countries. In the first few paragraphs, Singer uses examples from the Brazilian film Central Station and basically says that in America and other countries, people are more likely to condemn people who do not donate. For example, people who might have been quick condemn Dora if she had not rescued the boy actually go back to places far more comfortable than Doras apartment after the movie ends. This suggests that people who are able to help the poor children do not take actions to help them. Therefore, we should start to help poor children by donating money to the charity rather than wait for someone else to do it. Like the author says Donated to one of a number of charitable agencies, that money could mean the difference between life and death for children in need. Another example from the article was authors analysis of Living High and Letting Die by Peter Unger. The example is about close-to-retirement Bob, who chooses not to throw the switch that would have directed the train to another track and saved childs life. In the same manner, it is very wrong of us for not calling the charity number listed on P299 after seeing it, because we chose not making the phone call while we could have saved one childs life by making it. According to the author Now you, too have the information you need to save childs life. How should you judge yourself if you dont do it? In our real life, it is understandable that people prefer to do nothing, because I did not call that charity neither. However, our problem is that we tend to rely on the majority, because nobody will blame the majority. In this case, some people might ask then why should we donate our money to the charity while the majority is not willing to do so? The author calls this follow-the-crowd ethics-the kind of ethics that led many Germans to look away when the Nazi atrocities were being committed. We do not excuse them because others were behaving no better. However, I do not agree with Singers opinion that we should donate everything beyond necessities, where Singer says An American household with an income of $50,000 spends around $30,000 annually on necessities, according to the Conference BoardTherefore, for a household bringing in $50,000 a year, donations to help the worlds poor should be as close as possible to $20,000. However, we save one child by donating $200 as the author suggests, one life saves one life, fair and kind enough. Since we are living in real world, we should look towards reality, and the reality is that every one of us is selfish. For example, a guy chooses to go to a local Pizza restaurant every Friday night with his weekly extra income, lets assume $25 approximately. Suddenly, he is required to donate all of that 25 dollars to a local charity. Imagine what might happen to that guy, it will certainly take him a while to get used to not eat in that pizza restaurant anymore. Donating someones extra income means giving up certain habits supported by that part of the income, and it could be just as difficult as persuading a smoker to give up smoking. Therefore, we all need to donate money, but not everything beyond necessities. Now, here comes an important question: what do people really need in these poor countries? If I only donate $200, are those money really going to change a childs life? The answer is depended on what organization you are donating to. According to Garrett Hardin, in his article Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor he is trying to convince the readers not to donate, because the worlds resources are inequitably distributed. and We cannot safely divide the wealth equitably among all peoples so long as reproduce at different rates. To do so would guarantee that our grandchildren, and everyone elses grandchildren, would have only a ruined world to inhabit. Therefore, in the long run, by simply donating money or resource (especially foods), we are making the population growth differential between poor and rich countries even bigger. Thus, we should let them suffer now in order to make a brighter life for their future generation and ours. However, according to Hardin, there is one exception: instead of giving poor people fish, we can teach them how to fish, so that they will be able to make their own living in the future. For example, we can spend our money on popularizing education and health care in poor countries, so we are helping poor children to create their own survival abilities. In the end, we should clarify the value of 200 dollars: it might be nothing for rich people to spend that amount on a luxury dinner (some of the top restaurants charge even more than that) in this case the value of $200 might be tasty foods and a comfortable environment. Now, lets save this $200 and give it to an oversea aid organization assuming the money is directly spent on saving one sick childs life. In this case, the value of $200 is certainly more than a good meal. Therefore, we should definitely donate part of our extra income, but not everything beyond necessities. Furthermore, the money should be spent popularizing education and health care in poor countries. When you see your $200 has made a little difference in the life of a poor children, dont you feel happy? and dont you think that together as a whole we can make world better so we should start giving? CITATION Peter Singer. The Singer Solution to World Poverty The Norton Mix. Boston University. New York, 2012. P296-303. Print. Garrett Hardain. Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor The Norton Mix. Boston University. New York, 2012. P158-160. Print.

The Negative impact of Social Networking Sites in Business Essay

Introduction In recent years, the Internet and especially the social networking sites have enabled a communication revolution: the ability to send and receive timely information everywhere has changed the way we live. As an online social networking site (SNS), it collects personal information and stored in the users’ profiles, and it is extremely popular because it allows people to connect with users with similar interests, build and maintain relationships with friends, and feel more connected with their neighbors or campus. On the contrary, it is obvious that although social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, rank high in people’s daily life, they also give rise to the unexpected disturbing matters in business. Facebook Features Facebook, a popular social networking site founded in 2004 by a Harvard sophomore, has already had more than 800 million active users by July 2011. (Giles, 2011) Like other sites, users must register with e-mail address before using the site. And once a user has logged in, he/she can join a school network, search for friends and view other users’ profile as long as the privacy feature is turned off. Within the account, users can post status, share videos and photos, publish notes, list interests and personal details. Facebook also has the optional privacy features which restrict others access to only partial of their profiles. (Cain, 2007) Facebook and Development Issues An apparent problem with irrational using online SNS is how they ruin your opportunities. Even though we always heard about how Facebook and other SNS help people getting jobs and know about companies before the interviews. But there are some possibilities that those websites can ruin your future career development. And it ... ...ed to Internet increases the time to accomplish a project or even bring a general reduction in quality. Conclusion This paper has provided an overview of how partial social networking sites form the negative impact on businesses. SNS such as Facebook provide individuals the way to maintain connects and broaden the way people used to think and behave, which is beneficial in daily life. These same sites, however, I argue that, also present a danger to people’s expected future development and reputation, safety and working. In order to avoid these disadvantages from using social networking sites, it would be better for people always being smart about what to put on Facebook and other SNS because you wouldn’t be informed being inspected. And try as much as possible to get away from these sites when you are working or studying since attention must paid 100% on them.

Romeo and Juliet Essay

Text Analysis: Complexity of love in Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet is a complex tragedy exploring different dynamics of love and particularly true love. The play confronts the audience with the very old enmity between two families. The focus is primarily around Romeo and Juliet but also infatuation and brotherly love. Several interpretations have being made, although reading scenes from the real play give a direct familiarity with the text. Romeo and Juliet the play is opened with a focus on the Montague’s and Romeos relationship with Rosaline.The first introduction to Romeo is by mention from his mother Lady Montague. She appears worried and asks her husband and Benvolio if they have seen Romeo. The Dialogue indicates that Romeo has being very upset and was seen walking with tears streaming from his eyes he has also being shutting himself in his room†¦ â€Å"So early walking did I see your son†¦ Many a morning hath there been seen, with tears augmenting the fre sh morning dew. † (Act 1 line 120, 129-30).Romeo is presented as being deeply in love with Rosaline. Shakespeare may have added this scene exaggerating Romeos dismay to emphasize how quickly his feelings change when he sees Juliet also to underline how Romeo and Juliet share an undeniable love which he clearly did not have with Rosaline. Romeo’s sudden change of emotion is clear in â€Å"If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentle sin this is: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. (Act 1 Scene 5 line 90) where he first sees Juliet and wants to kiss her hand. Romeo declares that his feelings for Rosaline are completely gone when he sees Friar Lawrence â€Å"†¦ With Rosaline, my ghostly father? No; I have forgot that name and that name’s woe† (Lines 35-45 Act 2 Scene 3) and inquires about taking Juliet’s hand. At first FL believes Romeo is there to speak to him about Ros aline and gives a small speech to Romeo accentuating how Romeo was conveyed to be feeling.These series of events unquestionably prove that Shakespeare used Romeos first relationship (Rosaline and Romeo) to show that they did not share love but rather an infatuation (Superficial love) which is proven when Romeo finds his true love with Juliet giving viewers a more certain opinion that Romeo and Juliet do in fact have true love it was very important Shakespeare utilised this to ensure that the audience did not doubt the abrupt love or mistake it for infatuation as an author Shakespeare also used diverse language techniques nd altered the characters actions (When Rosaline and Romeo broke up, Romeo no more than cried; When Juliet was thought dead Romeo then to killed himself) He manipulated the audience into believing Romeo and Juliet’s love was real. The enmity between two of Verona’s noble families, tore two sides between many of the residences. Bringing the conflict out side of the two family’s immediate family and also involving close friends. This type of dedication and loyalty is very risky as Escalus had become weary of the fights disturbing the rest of the community.Declaring the next person to fight in the risk of being banished from Verona; which resulted in even defending a family that Mercutio was not a part of. This is an example of a deep unconditional love and friendship, or family type bond which Mercutio and Romeo shared. Unlike other relationships the brotherly love showed a different dynamic to Shakespeare’s writing abilities. He illustrated he could use formal language and informal language between different characters to one another. Informal language is commonly used between the characters with brotherly love, as this is in the intimacy of the friendship and not in serious situation.Often spoken by Mercutio, until his last moment alive. Shakespeare upheld his level of wit and humour in a somewhat relaxed manor †Å"†¦ Good King of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives, that I mean to make bold withal; and, as you shall use hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears? Make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out†¦ † (Act 3 Scene 1 lines 175-177) Here Shakespeare has used Mercutio’s attitude to belittle Tybalt saying he wishes to attack him, asking him to do as he pleases and quickly (with haste).Because of this it is very hard to precisely generalize Romeo and Juliet as a Drama play or Comedy (this could also broaden Shakespeare’s range of Audience). Romeo shows his heart break and depression over Mercutio’s death killing Tybalt and consequently becoming banished. Tybalt, also Juliet’s cousin causes Romeo and his actions damage his relationship with Juliet making the families anger and hate towards each other increasingly raw also giving Juliet’s parents more reason to despi se Romeo as an individual. Romeo’s actions were an intense show of emotion as he essentially put Mercutio before Juliet.Shakespeare uses the concept Love at first sight as a basis for Romeo and Juliet’s love and then developing it into a physical and endless connection, using the initial family feud as a foundation to create an innovative love story it was an ideal situation to exhibit how they’re immediate love was stronger than there love for their family as both Romeo and Juliet question their own names and decide the enmity does not affect how they feel nor does the families opinions have an input into the decision to get married.Juliet goes to a severe level to avoid marrying Paris; Shakespeare also causes Juliet’s actions to create immense grief for her family even though she did not actually die at first. This yet again expresses Juliet’s weakening consideration and love for her family as she put her family through extreme sadness for Romeo not taking into account their reactions or heartbreak and only thinking of her and Romeo’s relationship. The two lovers act very quickly not using much thought or contemplation throughout the play (Romeo taking poison straight after seeing Juliet without thinking of other solutions) â€Å"Arms take your last embrace!And lips, O you the doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss. A dateless bargain to ongoing death! Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide! Thou despite pilot, not at once run back on the dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark! Here’s to my love [drinks] O true apothecary thy drugs are quick†¦ † (Act 5 scene 3 lines 113-18) Demonstrating Shakespeare’s idea of true love as the couple puts their love for one another before everything else in their love.In conclusion the types of love shown in the whole play are not only complex but a deep insight into what lovers may of felt like in Shakespeare’s time. The audience could clearl y recognize the types of love within this play and also pulls people in. Shakespeare’s dramatised use of language is endless in time and can be understood and interoperated clearly, the descriptive use of texts gives a broad and personal level to understanding what is being said. The drama and exaggeration of each conversation makes the tragedy interesting and there is always something attention-grabbing being said or going on. Romeo and Juliet Essay Romeo and Juliet, one of the world’s most popular love stories and for over 400 years spectators and students have enjoyed this story based on passion, true love, hate, sorrow, and most of all, tragedy. Tragedy is defined as a medieval narrative poem or tale typically describing the downfall of a great man or a misfortune. What are the factors responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet? Could it be a family feud, a misunderstanding, or true love (fate)? The first factor that is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet is the family feud.The Capulet’s and the Montague’s would have never allowed Romeo and Juliet to be wed this became the forbidden love. These two families and their ancestors of many centuries past have been feuding over matters that have become irrelevant and forgotten in time. In other words the two families no longer remember the causes of their feuding but this led to the tragic event of Romeo and Juliet. The feud was the cause of Tyba lts death by the hands of Romeo therefore adding more conflict for the two families and making it seem impossible too ever resolve their difference and come to terms with each other for Romeo and Juliet’s sake.Capulet, Juliet’s father, had prearranged his daughter’s future with Paris who would become her husband unaware of her new status†¦ married. The second factor responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s death was â€Å"the big misunderstanding. † The lack of communication between our two lovers was without a doubt the biggest cause of this misfortune. On the day of her wedding to Paris, in order to withdraw from this prearranged marriage; Juliet with the assistance of the local Friar, had a plan that seemed flawless. Juliet was to fake her own death by ingesting a sleeping potion that would last approximately 42 hours.This would end her existence with the Capulet’s so she could gain a new life with the Montague. Romeo, exiled from Verona, was to receive the crucial message of Juliet’s plans and that all was going to be resolved. A breakdown in communication to Romeo caused him to believe his true love had deceased and therefore taking his own life was to be the next step by convincing himself that he could not live without her. â€Å"My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep. The more I give to thee, the more I have, for are infinite. †(2. 2. 139-141). hose are Juliet’s words expressing what it means to truly being in love. The third factor that is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet is true love. It is a story of two young adolescents that have fallen in love regardless of family feuds, boundaries, restrictions, and the â€Å"forbidden love†. Their passion and love would conquer all obstacles that would come their way as a true test to their commitment to each other. Upon the news of Juliet’s death and funeral, Romeo is left in pain and sorrow and seeks upon himself to terminate the pain by ingesting a poison of death.Juliet awakens only to find her true beside her unresponsive and lifeless. A moment in time that seems endless, Juliet in a state of shock and sorrow reaches for the remaining liquid to end her life. Her plan fails as she is still within the reality of this nightmare and to her demise she reaches for the dagger and solemnly takes her life to be with Romeo; her true love. In conclusion, these factors were without doubt responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet as they followed a sequence of events beginning with two families in a feud from many centuries that would lead conclusively to a forbidden love.Two individuals attempting to be together in love forever yet devastated by misinterpretation and destroyed by love. A tragic story is to have a sorrowful and disastrous conclusion or the downfall of hero(es). Romeo and Juliet were heroes regarding the family feud. As a result of their tragic death, both families recogni zed that the senseless feuding had to end and that it took the loss of true love for this realization. Romeo and Juliet essay: three factors responsible for their death

Dead Poets Society Essay

To what extent do you agree? In the movie â€Å"Dead Poets Society† produced in 1989 by film director Peter Weir who provides us with an example of a â€Å"charismatic teacher† who persuades the boys away from conforming to the traditions. Suicide was overall Neil’s choice as he was unable to overcome and deal with the difficult relationship with his father. Neil was a sensitive, passionate type of person who found it hard to express his private thoughts about how he felt. Mr Keating is somewhat blamed for Neil’s death as he opened the students minds to different ways of learning and thinking and wanted them to avoid conforming with society and to express individualism. Neil’s father pressured Neil into things he didn’t want to do which took a major part in the act of suicide for Neil. When Neil Perry decides to pursue a career in the performing arts, rather than in medicine, his father, Mr Perry, is furious. Unmoved by Neil’s extraordinary performance in the play â€Å"A Midsummer Night’s Dream†, Mr Perry continues to insist on controlling his son’s life and dictating his every move. But Mr Perry’s efforts were in vain; Neil had already experienced freedom—a privilege not easily relinquished. So in a way the act of suicide was Neil’s way of standing up to his father. Mr Keating encourages his pupils to have independent ideas. For instance, in their second English lesson, he instructed the boys to rip out the introduction to their poetry textbooks, because he believed that the pupils should develop their own responses to poetry rather than follow the guidance of the editor. Throughout the film Mr Keating repeatedly says to the boys â€Å"carpe diem† which means seize the day, so Mr Keating was not in fact ever saying that suicide was not conforming or seizing the day, it was completely against what he was trying to teach the boys. Neil eventually stands up to his father, but is unable to communicate his opinions to the increasing tyrannical traditionalist figure that his father has become. Rather than continuing to live a dreary half-life, Neil decides that the only way to gain control is by taking his own life. Though he lost everything in the process, suicide was the only way for Neil to stand up to his father and live life to the fullest (â€Å"Carpe Diem†). Through the act of suicide, Neil is taking control of his life decisions—and must, as a result, accept the consequences. Neil’s clearly existential actions were a necessary step in his process of self-discovery and individual growth.

Free Essays on Claus Von Bulow

Martha â€Å"Sunny† Crawford seemed to have it all. She inherited $75 million. She even at one time had the title as Princess when she was married to Prince Alfie. She had two children, one by Prince Alfie and one by Claus von Bulow. Sunny was very depressed. It was thought that maybe she tried to commit suicide- or it could have been murder- by her husband- Claus. â€Å"On December 21, 1980, Sunny von Bulow slipped into an irreversible coma. The rest is a mystery.† Claus Cecil Borgerg was raised by his grandfather and his divorced mother. Claus was educated in a Swiss school in St. Moritz. Claus had a very rich taste. At an early age, he knew how to charm his upper class contacts. In 1940, Claus was sent out of the country to England in the belly of a British Mosquito Bomber. Claus went to Trinity College in Cambridge and graduated in 1946. In the 1950’s, Claus was practicing law after graduation. While in law, he made many contacts with the wealthy. Claus and Sunny were married for 13 years in 1979. Each professed publicly that they wanted a divorce. Even though they appeared publicly together, they did not show any love between each other. Claus had lived in Sunny’s 5th Avenue apartment and was openly having an affair with Alexandria Isles. Claus had been set up with a $120,000 per year allowance by Sunny. This made Claus feel like a â€Å"kept† man. He wanted his own life, but Sunny wanted him by her side. His mistress, Alexandria Isles, had come from a very wealthy family. She had very expensive tastes. Claus’ $10,000 a week allowance wasn’t enough money to keep her in the lap of luxury she was accustomed too. In 1979, one day following Christmas, the life of the von Bulow family had changed forever. Sunny and Alexander, her son, had been in the family library and had drunk a couple of eggnogs as were their custom. Sunny became weak and disoriented. Alexander thought that his moth... Free Essays on Claus Von Bulow Free Essays on Claus Von Bulow Martha â€Å"Sunny† Crawford seemed to have it all. She inherited $75 million. She even at one time had the title as Princess when she was married to Prince Alfie. She had two children, one by Prince Alfie and one by Claus von Bulow. Sunny was very depressed. It was thought that maybe she tried to commit suicide- or it could have been murder- by her husband- Claus. â€Å"On December 21, 1980, Sunny von Bulow slipped into an irreversible coma. The rest is a mystery.† Claus Cecil Borgerg was raised by his grandfather and his divorced mother. Claus was educated in a Swiss school in St. Moritz. Claus had a very rich taste. At an early age, he knew how to charm his upper class contacts. In 1940, Claus was sent out of the country to England in the belly of a British Mosquito Bomber. Claus went to Trinity College in Cambridge and graduated in 1946. In the 1950’s, Claus was practicing law after graduation. While in law, he made many contacts with the wealthy. Claus and Sunny were married for 13 years in 1979. Each professed publicly that they wanted a divorce. Even though they appeared publicly together, they did not show any love between each other. Claus had lived in Sunny’s 5th Avenue apartment and was openly having an affair with Alexandria Isles. Claus had been set up with a $120,000 per year allowance by Sunny. This made Claus feel like a â€Å"kept† man. He wanted his own life, but Sunny wanted him by her side. His mistress, Alexandria Isles, had come from a very wealthy family. She had very expensive tastes. Claus’ $10,000 a week allowance wasn’t enough money to keep her in the lap of luxury she was accustomed too. In 1979, one day following Christmas, the life of the von Bulow family had changed forever. Sunny and Alexander, her son, had been in the family library and had drunk a couple of eggnogs as were their custom. Sunny became weak and disoriented. Alexander thought that his moth...

Steven Jobs Example

Steven Jobs Example Steven Jobs – Coursework Example I have chosen Steven Jobs because he inspires me a lot. He steered Apple to become one of the most widely recognised brand in as far as information and communication technology is concerned. Apple offers unique and state-of-the-art communication devices that can be hardly matched in the market. I also admire Steve Jobs because he was intelligent and he was very innovative in as far as designing and development of communication devices are concerned. For instance, gadgets such as iPod, iPad as well as iPhone among other products are unique and they can be hardly matched in the market by any other product in the same category. Jobs is renowned for his outstanding creativity and innovation. Essentially, customers like unique products and this why I admire jobs because he was excellent in this category. Jobs co-founded Apple computers with Steve Wozniack and they revolutionized computer technology through their invention such as Mac computers. These gadgets were different from other comp uters offered in the market and they marked a turning point in the history of computer industry. â€Å"Under Jobs’ guidance, the company pioneered a series of revolutionary technologies, including the iPhone and iPad,† (Steve Jobs). These devices have their own operating systems and software that can be hardly imitated by the other competitors. This has made the products unique and they have also helped the company to gain competitive advantage. About half of Apple’s revenue comes from iPod and iTune sales and the company was ranked No. 1 on Fortune magazine’s list of â€Å"America’s Most Admired Companies,† as well as No.1 among Fortune 500 companies for returns to shareholders (Steve Jobs). This speaks volumes about the company’s popularity and uniqueness. Works cited â€Å"Steve Jobs.† Bio. A & E Television Networks. . 2015. Web. 28 January 2015.

Amy Beach (Mrs. H. H. A. Beach)

Amy Beach (Mrs. H. H. A. Beach) Amy Beach Facts Known for: classical composer, whose success was unusual for her sex, one of few American composers recognized internationally at the timeOccupation: pianist, composerDates: September 5, 1867 - December 27, 1944Also known as: Amy Marcy Cheney, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, Amy Cheney Beach, Mrs. H. H. A. Beach Amy Beach Biography: Amy Cheney began to sing at the age of two and play piano at the age of four. She began her formal study of piano at age six, taught first by her mother. When she performed in her first public recital at age seven, she included some pieces of her own composition. Her parents had her study music in Boston, although it was more common for musicians of her talent to study in Europe. She attended a private school in Boston and studied with musical teachers and coaches Ernst Perabo, Junius Hill and Carl Baermann. At the age of sixteen, Amy Cheney had her professional debut, and in March, 1885, appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, performing Chopins F minor concerto. In December of 1885, when she was eighteen, Amy married a much-older man. Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach was a surgeon in Boston who was also an amateur musician. Amy Beach used the professional name Mrs. H. H. A. Beach from that time on, though more recently, she has been credited as Amy Beach or Amy Cheney Beach. Dr. Beach encouraged his wife to compose and publish her compositions, rather than perform publicly, after their marriage, bowing to a Victorian custom of wives avoiding the public sphere. Her Mass was performed by the Boston Symphony in 1892. She had achieved enough recognition to be asked to compose a choral piece for the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago. Her Gaelic Symphony, based on folk tunes of Ireland, by that same orchestra in 1896. She composed a piano concerto, and in a rare public appearance, soloed with the Boston Symphony in April of 1900 to debut that piece. A 1904 work, Variations on Balkan Themes, also used folk tunes as inspiration. In 1910, Dr. Beach died; the marriage had been happy but childless. Amy Beach continued composing and returned to performing. She toured Europe, playing her own compositions. Europeans were not used to either American composers or female composers meeting their high standards for classical music, and she gained considerable attention for her work there. Amy Beach began using that name when in Europe, but returned to using Mrs. H. H. A. Beach when she discovered that she already had some recognition for her compositions published under that name. She was once asked in Europe, when still using the name Amy Beach, whether she was the daughter of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach. When Amy Beach returned to America in 1914, she lived in New York and continued composing and performing. She played at two other Worlds Fairs: in 1915 in San Francisco and in 1939 in New York. She performed at the White House for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. The womens suffrage movement used her career as an example of a womans success. That it was unusual for a woman to achieve her level of recognition is reflected in the comment by George Witefield Chadwick, another Boston composer, who called her one of the boys for her excellence. Her style, influenced by the New England composers and romantics, and influenced by the American Transcendentalists, was considered during her own lifetime to be somewhat out of date. In the 1970s, with the rise of feminism and attention to womens history, Amy Beachs music was rediscovered and performed more often than it had been. No known recordings of her own performances exist. Key Works Amy Beach wrote more than 150 works, and published almost all of those. These are some of the best-known: 1889: Valse-Caprice1892: Fireflies1892: Mass in E-flat major1892: aria Eilende Wolken1893: Festival Jubilate1893: Ecstasy1894: Ballad1896: Gaelic Symphony1900: Three Browning Songs1903: June1904: Shena Van1907: The Chambered Nautilus1915: Panama Hymn1922: The Hermit Thrush at Eve and The Hermit Thrush at Morn1928: The Canticle of the Sun

Wheelchair Forces. The Forces And Kinematics Involved In Self Essay

Wheelchair Forces. The Forces And Kinematics Involved In Self Propelling A Wheelchair - Essay Example The study took place at the Stanmore Clinical Research Facility (SCRF) at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), Stanmore. All participants gave informed consent to participate in the study. (Refer to Appendix __ ). The generation of forces were gathered through the front castors of the wheelchair and through the push rim. The forces generated are then recorded and analysed to investigate the hypothesis stated. The wheelchair users P:C Ratio was then calculated to establish whether the users exceeded their capacity when performing such tasks and whether Rear Axle Position (RAP) was found to influence this. As there are no existing methods for testing dynamic wheelchair stability of a manual wheelchair, an instrument was developed. Consequently, a force sensitive castor was designed to look at this pattern in more detail. The chosen model was a 17" Quickie GPV, rigid frame lightweight wheelchair. The model was chosen as the most adaptable size for most test participants and was then configured to suit each individual's needs. The wheelchair weighs 18kg with nearly 7kg of added weight due to an attached equipment. The wheelchair is fitted with 25" solid tyres to accommodate the Smart Wheel technology and 5" solid castors. There is a 3-degree camber on the rear wheels. Figure 1. Quickie GPV Wheelchair Each participant was set up in the Laboratory's test wheelchair. Only one wheelchair could be used as the instrumentation was not interchangeable between wheelchairs. 1.3.3 Development of the Castor Force Transducer An earlier work at ACDS (spell out acronym) (WOWSUP, 2005) using a wheelchair Ergometer showed that there was a substantial weight shift between castors and rear wheels during the propulsion cycle, which subsequently increased with the pushing resistance. The Ergomenter used force plates beneath the front castors during propulsion. The study explored what happened to the Ergometer when users propelled their wheelchairs to perform functional activities. A force sensor was integrated into the castor stem of the wheelchair to examine weight shift during functional mobility. This was initially constructed in combination with the castor stem and a number of washers to accommodate its size. Figure 2. The Wheelchair Ergometer 1.3.4 Calibration of the castor force transducer This was completed by loading the wheelchair with known masses and recording the voltage output from both the force transducer in the castor and the force plate underneath it (force plates already calibrated for previous testing). This calibration produced 2 curves in order to demonstrate whether a linear relationship was achievable

Brain Drain from India to the UK Outline Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Brain Drain from India to the UK - Outline Example I cannot fully agree with the negative perspective concerning the brain drain, as one should consider the benefits of labor emigration to the country itself. Relocation of both gifted and incompetent specialists from India has been occurring subsequent to the nineteenth century. In the mid-1800s, after the nullification of subjugation, the British delivered Indian workers to its provinces to work in manors (Upadhya, 2013). Streams to the UK topped in 1968 when confinements were at last situated setup. The numbers diminished from the top of 23,000 for every year to 5000 for each year (Raveesh, 2013). Truly, Indians left because of better financial open door abroad. This is most likely still one of the fundamental reasons why Indians leave today. However, numerous variables add to the Indian departure. Understanding these elements will help policymakers enhance conditions to urge Indians to return or to stay in any case. A number of medical understudies in India select to study abroad due to increasing expenses and constrained limit at their open organizations (Raveesh, 2013). The therapeutic cerebrum deplete in India not just decreases the number of specialists accessible for consideration, however, it likewise evacuates the individuals expected to push for health awareness changes (Hawkes, Kolenko, Shockness & Diwaker, 2009). Indian understudies traveling to another country for their higher studies costs India a remote trade outpouring of $10 billion yearly (Prakash, 2012). A great many Indian researchers, specialists, engineers and other qualified persons have moved and are staying in different nations. In total terms, India is among the nations, which lose most exceptionally talented laborers to outside business sectors (Prakash, 2012).

Managing Health and Safety in the workplace Assignment

Managing Health and Safety in the workplace - Assignment Example This research will begin with the statement that legal provisions require employers to perform health risk and safety assessment. A typical risk assessment involves identification of health hazards and the associated risks at a workplace as well as how to deal with them. It is a legal and ethical requirement in any given workplace and is a key contributor to the business success through cutting down costs. Since fitness promotes body health, much of the health hazards are minimized. Nonetheless, health hazards are encountered at the training gyms. The gym-goers have high exposure to germ infection through the training equipment, water fountain or in the locker rooms. Infections like cold an athlete’s foot are easily transmitted to the training facilities. The training staffs at the fitness centers are exposed to hazards like clouds of dust and accidents from the training equipment. Similarly, the members undergoing training are exposed to these hazards alongside the side effec ts that may develop from improper exercise and equipment malfunctioning. Having identified the health hazards and the associated risks, the management of an organization evaluates the risks of exposures that go beyond the occupational limits and necessary adjustment made. This could include ensuring proper hygiene during training and improving the condition of the training facilities. The halls need not be dusty. The different legislation, like Chapter 16 of the Russian labor code, has existed in Russia that promotes health and safety of workers at the workplace. As a fitness center that is concerned with promoting the health of the individuals, Russian Fitness Center understands the potential health hazards and risks facing the employees and the members of the club, especially during training. The center requires and encourages no sharing of facilities like towels, sweatbands, razors, and goggles. The training equipment is cleaned daily with disinfectants after the exercise to avoi d germ transmission. The center has developed modern training facilities that are dust-free. At the same time, it encourages the trainees and trainers to put on water shoes to prevent cases of athlete’s foot. All the injuries need to be reported to the concerned personnel and appropriate first aid mechanisms taken. Similarly, the work environment should be properly arranged with the materials, tools, and equipment stored safely in their respective places in order to minimize injuries. This is in place at the center. The work area has to be kept clean and tidy and the operator has to check all the training equipment for safety before they are used. Besides, the training equipment should be maintained and operated by qualified personnel. Unqualified staff contributes to the risks. Members need to be guided on the use of gym equipment. The individuals using equipment should be aware of the mechanism of stopping the machine in case of an emergency. All these requirements are fulf illed at the fitness center. The fitness center has put in place most of the measures that comply with the health and safety policies in Russia.

Hubble space telescope Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hubble space telescope - Research Paper Example this brief analysis will consider the initial need and desire for such an instrument, development of the telescope, launch and operation use, breakthroughs in astrophysics and astronomy that have since been able to be uncovered by means of the Hubble Space Telescope, and future outlook for the Hubble as well as other planned space telescopes. Although certainly not the first astronomer to note the need for a space based telescope, Hermann Olberth formerly iterated his desire to see such a plan put into implementation as early as 1923. The ultimate reason behind such a bold and technologically challenging plan was the need to get beyond earth’s inner atmosphere as a means to reduce the level of light and environmental pollutants and/or dust that so strongly influenced the quality of astronomical work that could be performed with traditional earth based telescopes. Recognizing these limitations, astronomers such as Hubble began to lobby funding entities for the means to design and build a non-earth based telescope (O’Dell 265). Unfortunately however, as is often the case with scientific visionaries, the work of actually building the space telescope was not completed until long after Olberth and many others instrumental in the formulation and development of such an idea were dead. After years of delays, a near continual struggle for available resources and review and oversight by nearly every imaginable entity, the Hubble Space telescope was finally launched in 1990. It should be noted that regardless of the delays or the budgetary overruns and issues that have herein been discussed, the Hubble Space Telescope represented the very cutting edge of optical technology; so much so that it has continued to be relevant over 20 years after being in service. This is a seemingly impossible feat of engineering and design due to the fact that the computer revolution, the age of the internet, fiber optics, and a litany of other technology breakthroughs have occurred

Operations Issues in Hospitality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Operations Issues in Hospitality - Essay Example to assist people with related or interdependent job’s to examine ways in which their teams work together, at the same time identifying strengths and weaknesses, and developing plans to improve team functioning. In essence, team-building is a task-oriented activity with an emphasis on interpersonal interaction. The processes taken into account in team-building are setting goals, developing interpersonal relations, role analysis to clarify team members job, and overall analysis ÃŽ ¿f the team process. There is also an endeavour to use substantial contact among members to foster trust and openness, and there is a pronounced emphasis on changes that will lead to improvement in specific aspects ÃŽ ¿f team performance. For an operations manager to be more effective in his organisation to carry out functions and the duties required to operate the business effectively, it is essential to pass on authority to his management team to purse certain activities. The process ÃŽ ¿f delegation for the operations manager is one ÃŽ ¿f the major functions ÃŽ ¿f effective management. The process ÃŽ ¿f delegation relives the operations manager from involvements in the day to day detail running ÃŽ ¿f particular activities involved in his business operation but not absolves the operations manager from the responsibility ÃŽ ¿f ensuring that the duties ÃŽ ¿f his delegated are correctly and efficiently performed. It is necessary to delegate at every level ÃŽ ¿f management and supervision delegation has to take place, either because ÃŽ ¿f the need for specialist knowledge which the delegator does not process or because ÃŽ ¿f the amount ÃŽ ¿f work the operation manager has to perform and because ÃŽ ¿f the physically impossible by the huge volume ÃŽ ¿f work load. (Rutherford 2002) According to Eyre 0Forecasting is normally done for two periods, short-range and long-range. Both are necessary if the operations manager is to be successful in achieving its objectives in the long term and so can formulate plans for such

Hubble space telescope Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hubble space telescope - Research Paper Example this brief analysis will consider the initial need and desire for such an instrument, development of the telescope, launch and operation use, breakthroughs in astrophysics and astronomy that have since been able to be uncovered by means of the Hubble Space Telescope, and future outlook for the Hubble as well as other planned space telescopes. Although certainly not the first astronomer to note the need for a space based telescope, Hermann Olberth formerly iterated his desire to see such a plan put into implementation as early as 1923. The ultimate reason behind such a bold and technologically challenging plan was the need to get beyond earth’s inner atmosphere as a means to reduce the level of light and environmental pollutants and/or dust that so strongly influenced the quality of astronomical work that could be performed with traditional earth based telescopes. Recognizing these limitations, astronomers such as Hubble began to lobby funding entities for the means to design and build a non-earth based telescope (O’Dell 265). Unfortunately however, as is often the case with scientific visionaries, the work of actually building the space telescope was not completed until long after Olberth and many others instrumental in the formulation and development of such an idea were dead. After years of delays, a near continual struggle for available resources and review and oversight by nearly every imaginable entity, the Hubble Space telescope was finally launched in 1990. It should be noted that regardless of the delays or the budgetary overruns and issues that have herein been discussed, the Hubble Space Telescope represented the very cutting edge of optical technology; so much so that it has continued to be relevant over 20 years after being in service. This is a seemingly impossible feat of engineering and design due to the fact that the computer revolution, the age of the internet, fiber optics, and a litany of other technology breakthroughs have occurred

Holden and Alexander's Frustration Research Paper

Holden and Alexander's Frustration - Research Paper Example This essay discusses the similarities in Holden and Alexander’s life situation. Theme and special connection between the characters Throughout the novel and children’s book, Holden and Alexander are struggling though their life and day, because growing up can be painful. â€Å"I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day† (Viorst 1) When Alexander wakes up in the morning, finds the gum he had slept with in the mouth stuck in the hair. As he gets out of the bed, he trips on the skateboard and accidentally drops his sweater in the sink with running water. When he gets to the breakfast table, Alexander feels bad that all he could find was breakfast cereals while Anthony found a Corvette Sting Ray car kit as Nick found a junior Undercover Agent code ring in their breakfast cereal boxes. Alexander continues to have a bad day as Mrs. Gibson lets Becky, Elliott and Audrey to sit at the window despite Alexander’s grievances of which no one paid attention to. At school, Mrs. Dickens likes Paul’s picture of the sailboat better than Alexander’s picture of the invisible castle. At singing time, Alexander was told that he sang too loud while at the counting time he was told he left out 16. This makes Alexander angry and asks â€Å"Who needs sixteen?† (Viorst 7). ... During lunchtime Philip, parker had two-cup cakes in his lunch bag and Albert had Hershely bar with almonds. Paul had a piece of jelly roll that had a little coconut sprinkles on top but did not have any After school her mother takes all of them to the dentist and Dr. Fields finds a cavity in Alex. He asks him to get back the following week. â€Å"Next week, I said am going to Australia† Similar happenings in The catcher in the rye Holden too has bad experience in school when he is kicked out of the pency prep school in Pennsylvania for failing his classes except English. His attempts in chatting Ackley for company end up distorted making him to decide to leave Pencey (Salinger 22). Holden gets to New York and is undecided on whom to call.   Here Holden is avoiding his parents so that they could not realize that he had been kicked out of school. In Edmond, in the hotel lounge, he dances with three "moron" girls. He is disappointed because the girl he found attractive among t he three was a minor and thus allowed to drink. The girls take off. when Holden gets back into a cad and goes to Ernie’s knowing that he will be able to drink there, he runs into an old and annoying acquaintance leaving her so that he can avoid spending time with her. In the end, he ends up with a prostitute sunny who leaves with his money but no sex. Sunny the prostitute returns with his pimp who beats Holden. Holden is having a very bad life and the craziness of the city life makes him want to run away and hide in a log cabin as he tells Sally. Sally is not willing to run away with Holden as he had wished (Salinger 74-98). Conclusion The two books have a different audience target. However, both books have the same message of how life can be stressful to children and to

Communications Journal Essay Example for Free

Communications Journal Essay Write a 700- to 1,050-word journal entry in the narrative style. Refer to this week’s readings to inform your responses. Describe the flow of information in your company. In your journal, discuss the following: The intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, organizational, and intercultural levels of communication within your company How information travels up, down, and across your organization and how it relates to the basic communications model The functions of the Y hierarchy of managerial communications. Does it apply to your organization’s communication hierarchy? A comparison of at least three managerial communication approaches you have observed in your organization At least three potential barriers to effective communications that exist in your company Format your journal entry consistent with APA guidelines. Information flow within an organization is just one key element to any organizations success. During this entry I will be describing the communication levels of Cubic, which is currently the organization that I work for. How that information flow from top to bottom, and the communication of the upper level management. I will also be comparing three managerial approaches within the company that I have observed, and three potential barriers to the communication within my organization. The intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, organizational and intercultural levels of communications are all on display within the Cubic organization. There are multiple Taff’s within building 990 on Fort Irwin providing the same product for the government. Each Taff is comprised of six to nine personnel who are continuously communicating to provide a product for the government. Interpersonal communication is continuously conducted within each group so that nothing ever falls between the cracks. Indi viduals are always communicating with themselves due to the constant mission changes and be able to adapt to change quickly. There is a very diverse workforce here also, mostly all retirees but from many different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. As mentioned previously we generally work in small groups and communicate like one. It is almost like every Taff is its own little click,  we talk about others and they talk about us. So outside of our Taff we can generally be considered rivals in a matter of speaking. Information travels generally in one direction from our customer (Government) to us. There are occasions when we have a little say so in the actual product but for the most part it is a one-sided show. We have the Government, site manager Paul Zamora, our Taff Lead is Clarence Butler, and then there is the Taff. Generally the government provides Paul with marching orders that are eventually passed to out Taff lead Mr. Butler and we perform the tasks necessary to meet the quota of the government. The channel used is generally internet from the sender (government) to the Taff, via site manager and t aff lead. The feedback would be the product produced by the individuals working in the taff, and as long as the product meets the standards of the sender all is in good working order. The functions of Y Hierarchy of managerial communications do exist within this organization. Our manager is continuously creating and encouraging a wonderful work environment and providing opportunities for employees to take the initiative and self-direction. Management is always looking for new ways for employees to make significant contributions within the organization. Behavioral, empowerment, and contingency are the three managerial communication approaches that I have observed within the organization that I currently work for. Empowerment is the distribution or entrustment of power or authority to his or hers subordinates within an organization. Generally used when upper management is out of work for certain amount of time. Empowerment also encourages the employees to get more involved with the organization. The contingency approach is seen a lot in our Taff, Mr. Butler knows that there is more than one way to skin a cat and whichever way produces the best result is generally the path that is taken. This is probably the approach seen mostly around the Cubic organization because of the results that are produced. Behavioral approach comes with trust and individual character. Managers have been seen trusting and respecting the employees more now than ever due the product that the taffs put out for the military customer. Personality, emotional, and physical are the three potential barriers to effective communication within the Cubic organization. Everyone here has their own personality and that can sometimes create an issue throughout the  business day. Individuals are loaded with many traits that create personal attitudes, approaches, angles, quirks and different views on the world. There are many occasions in which this trait has stalled communication between two individuals and in some case hurt the overall product. Emotional barriers can be the worst. There are many individual at cubic that let things go straight to the head and forget that we are at the workplace. Emotions should not be brought to work with you at all, you should be able to brush things off and move on with the job. Managers are often seen using a softer touch to get through to the individuals with emotional issues. Physical barriers are one of the most common around my work place. There are many occasions that we are working with a wall between co-workers and with communication being the key to our success problem will generally arise on occasions. We have made complaints on many occasions with the same results â€Å"deal with it†.

Subjective well-being at the workplace and organizations

Subjective well-being at the workplace and organizations Even though the psychologists explored the human behavior especially unhappiness in detail but the positivity was ignored in the past. Until 1974, the Journal Social Indications research founded and dedicated large number of articles to Subjective well-being. The literature of SWB shows or focuses on why and how people experience positive way of life including cognitive judgments and affective reactions. By cognitive judgment it means life satisfaction and by affective reaction it means positive and negative affect. In past many researches used the affective dimension to measure well-being. For instance, using the traits of negative affectivity and positive affectivity to explain the well-being of employees but the measurements of the cognitive dimensions were uncommon. So, Because of this Diener developed the measurement of Satisfaction with Life scale (SWLS) 1985. It assess person on their own rather on the researchers judgments. One of the definitions for happiness according to Di ener (1984) is satisfaction of life (Diener, 2000). Despite lots of researches exploring the individuals happiness sources, no one of the theories of subjective well-being has risen to dominate this area of study as the main reason for this is incomplete existing SWB theories. Psychological theories of SWB are divided in to two main categories, top-down approach suggesting individuals that are happy as they are inclined to react to the circumstances in a positive way while the bottom up approach uphold that individuals are happier because of numerous happy moments in their lives. There are three characteristics of subjective well-being first is development of SWLS. Secondly it includes not only positive but also negative measures and finally SWB measures global assessment of all peoples life aspects (Diener, 1984). Donaldson (2009) defined positive psychology as a term that focus on excellence, happiness, gratitude, flourishing, subjective well-being, strengths, flow, resilience and positive organizational scholarship. This section focuses on positive as well as negative Subjective well-being in the organizations but more importance is given to positive aspect. Circumplex model (Russell, 1980, 2003) as a broad theoretical frame work to distinguish between positive and negative work related subjective well being. Positive subjective well-being includes work happiness, job satisfaction and work engagement where as negative SWB includes burnout and workaholism. Psychologists and sociologists are focusing in happiness and subjective well being from many years (Veenhoven, 1991). Recently happiness also gain importance in the field of economics (Layard, 2006) and is the central focus in the positive psychology movement (Sleigman Csikszentmijhalyi, 2000). This field of psychology has focused on the positive aspects of the individuals to help them flourish. Psychology, sociology and economy all of these fields in together can contribute in better understanding of the employee happiness in the organization (Bakker and Schaufeli, 2008). Definition of Subjective Well-Being (SWB): Subjective well-being means that how people assess their lives. Its a normal positive state that involves the whole life experience. This assessment may take the form of cognitions when person makes conscious evaluative judgment about their satisfaction with life as whole. A person is having high subjective well-being if he is satisfied with his life and having frequent positive experiences or emotions such as joy and happiness and in frequent negative feeling such as sadness and anger (Diener, Sandvik Pavot, 1991). Subjective well-being is a trait not a state. Many researchers argue that individual have a set-point for happiness level and this is fixed and crucial part of our performance. So, SWB is very important as without it human beings shrink their skill to gather desired assets and weaken their ability to handle and remain flexible in the face of challenges (International Well being Group, 2006). According to Windle and Treuer (2008) subjective well-being is vital because positive feelings and experiences build a range of personal resources i.e. physical, social, intellectual and psychological and they defined SWB as a normal positive state of mind that includes the whole life experience and stable happiness. According to Diener (2009), subjective wellbeing indicates satisfaction of life; high positive emotions like passion, joy and love; reduced negative emotions like anger, depression and also satisfaction with various other aspects of life like work, marriage, health. Diener (1984) said that subjective well-being is an umbrella term that evaluates ones lives including life satisfaction, pleasant emotions, feeling of fulfillment, work and marriage satisfaction and lowest level of satisfactions. Researchers used the term subjective well-being rather than happiness as it has varied meaning depending on the life event. Although life satisfaction is is an important aspect of life but not for all people as people want to be happy for good reasons and presence of vital things although they are not happy with it. So, it can be argued that subjective well-being is just an important component of good life. Diener also stated that demographic factors like age sex, income, ethnicity and education has 20% variance in subjective well-being. It is also stated that married people are happier than unmarried people over that women are happier than men. Diener (2000) studied the relation between the resources and subjective well-being and they predicted that internal resources like self confidence were best predictorsof subjective well-being in college students rather than external resources like money due to that with the help of internal resources external resources can be obtained too. Culture does have influence on the subjective well-being of the individuals. Diener and Biswas-Diener (2002) and Diener and Oishi (2000) have worked a lot on relationship between money and happiness. Their studies showed findings that positive correlations exist between income and subjective well-being of wealthy nations. Wealthy nations have high subjective well-being than the poor nations. But always its not the same in case when the employees pay is increased he is still unhappy as its stressors are more like high expectations in return. It was also found that materialistic people have low subjective well-being because people who have high desire for money dont care about the social relationships and are insecure. People with high subjective well-being have the following characteristics that is they have more friends, more likely to get married nad stay happily, have good services are more involved in leadership roles and live longer. 2.3 Subjective well-being at Work According to Dieners (2006) definition of SWB, an employee has elevated work related SWB if he is satisfied with his job and have frequent positive experiences and infrequent negative emotions. Positive emotions are employees experiences at work investigative of engagement, happiness or satisfaction. Diener (1994) also stated that when SWB, term is read it must be immediately noted that its not the same as happiness but synonymous to it. It can be defined as broad category that includes peoples emotional response, domain satisfactions and global judgments of life satisfaction. Sleigman (2002) also said that positive psychology is the scientific study of how humans achieve happiness and mental satisfaction, in order to discover how people can lead the most productive lives possible. It is about positive subjective experience i.e. well being ad satisfaction. In short, positive psychology is a science of subjective well-being. Diener sees life satisfaction as a factor of SWB and subsidiary to it (Camfield and Skevington 2008). International experts defined subjective well-being as an umbrella term for different valuations that person make related to their lives, the actions experienced by them and the situations in which they survive. Happiness is referred many times as positive affect but it can also be related to positive mood generally, a global evaluation of Life satisfaction, living a good life and the causes or reason of happiness (Diener, 2006). Now, we will discuss positive and negative emotions of work related SWB by placing them in the circumplex model. Russells (1980, 2003) circumplex model put forwards that affective states occur from two basic neurophysiological systems, one linked with pleasure-displeasure continuum and the other with arousal and activation. Each experience of emotions can be linear combinations of theses two proportions as varying degrees of both pleasure and activation. Figure 2. A two-dimensional view of work-related SWB (adapted from Russell, 1980, 2003). 2.4 Positive forms of Work related SWB: 2.4.1 Work engagement: it is defined as an optimistic, gratifying, work related state of mind that is portrayed by vigor, dedication, and absorption (Schaufeil and Bakker, 2010). Its position in circumplex model is at upper right quadrant resembling high levels of pleasure and activation. Vigor means high level of energy while working and persistence even in the face of difficulties, dedication means being strongly in ones on work and experience a sense of enthusiasm and lastly absorption mean being fully concentrated in ones own work . Because of engaged employees positive attitude towards them selves, employees buildup their own positive feed back in terms of appreciation, recognition and success (Bakker, 2009). 2.4.2 Happiness at work: numerous researchers have connected subjective well-being with the term happiness (Cropanzano and Wright, 1999; Easterlin, 2001; Sleigman, 2002; Lyubomirski, 2001). It refers to high level of activation as being satisfied and some hat lower as being excited. According to Fisher, (2003) more than 90% of workers agree that happy workers are productive workers as they are more active, energetic and interested in work and persistent to face difficulties as compared to unhappy employees. It is important to distinguish happiness as a specific emotion from other measures that cover a range of positive and negative emotions (Veenhoven, 1984). 2.4.3 Job satisfaction: it is most studied form of work related SWB and it can be placed in the right lower quadrant of the model, as it reflects a high level of pleasure and a lo level of activation. According to Grebner, Semmer and Elfering (2005), employees having satisfaction with their jobs experience high pleasure, but may have limited energy and aspirations. Similarly, Bussing, Bissels, Fuchs and Perrar (1999) said that decrease in aspiration level can result in a positive state of satisfaction and over all job satisfaction is closely related to the experience of satisfaction as positive emotion in the work place. 2.5 Negative Forms of Work-related SWB 2.5.1 Workaholism: it is placed in the upper left of the quadrant reflecting lower levels of pleasure and high levels of work activation workholism is an inner drive to struggle and work hard (Oates1971). According to Tris, Schaufeil and Shimzau (2010), workholism is an employee has compulsion to work incessantly and give exceptional time to work and to meet expected organizational requirements. 2.5.2 Burnout: its placed in the lower left of the circumplex model reflecting low levels of pleasure and activation. According to Masiach and Jackson (1986) it was originally conceived as work related syndrome that most often occurs among individuals who work with other people. Consistent with our categorization of SWB according to circumplex model and some researches have suggested that burnout is the opposite of work engagement (Gonalez-Roma-Schaufeil, Bakker and Lloret, 2006). According to Noll (2002) the individual is himself or herself responsible to evaluate their quality of life in terms of subjective well-being. The subjective well-being construct is comprised of four different components: Life satisfaction (universal judgment of ones own life). Satisfaction with necessary life domains ( family, health work) Positive affect ( many positive emotion and moods experienced) Low negative affects ( familiar with few unpleasant emotions and moods) Dolan and White (2006), regard as these mechanisms of SWB as divisible elements. a person for example who have high level of positive affect for a particular event will be dissatisfied because he has failed to achieve personal aim. Alternatively, an individual experiencing negative affect may be satisfied by comparing himself to an individual in less favorable situation. There are cross cultural differences in happiness and life satisfaction that are not completely explained by income differences. Bradburn (1969) study showed that Subjective well-being was moderately associated with adjustment, neuroticism, work satisfaction and family situation, but were considerably associated to each other. Concluding, the psychological contract following are its key features: Psychological contract is based on beliefs and perceptions and is different for each individual although in the same organization. They are implicit and are thought to be inferred from obligations made by the organizations or employees and conclusions are drawn by one party by observing the behavior with the other party. There is an exchange relationship in it so its founded on the principle of reciprocity: the implied promises to behave in certain way to work, psychological contract is also based on perceived or observed agreement rather than actual or written agreement, in which the terms are continuously re-written as the parties interact and mutual expectations, obligations and promises are generated and implied. The employees have a heart as well other than a hand and a head which is mostly over looked by the organizations that have focused just on hiring the hands and head ignoring the heart. Subjective well being is satisfaction with life and positive emotions and moods having low level of unpleasant emotions. Studies have revelaed that the income, religion, education , intelligene have only 15% of effect on th subjective well-being. The focus of happiness that who is happy has been shiftd from when and why people are happy (Diener, 2000). Chapter 2: Literature Review. The growing body of literature on the psychological contract reflects collecting confirmation or verification for its great impact on assorted work-related outcomes. The literature review estimate that employees evaluate their incentives received from their organization by comparing it with the promises made and this estimation leads to psychological contract fulfillment or breach impression (Turnley Feldman, 1998). The over view of PC research shows that there are about 100 or more empirical studies on Psychological Contract out of which 60% were on the breach and 30% on content of psychological contract. Psychological contract breach or violation has been correlated with mistrust, job satisfaction, intention to quit, actual turn over, actual performance, organizational commitment and absence .Based upon research by Guest Conway (2001) 84% of managers had heard of psychological contract, 36% of managers apply it to deal with the employment relationship. Similarly, Guests (1998) ex plain why the Psychological contract is important and should be taken seriously. First reason was that from the last few years the focus is being shifted from industrial relations to employee relations and this can be explored through the construct of Psychological contract. Second reason is it focuses on distribution of power and finally it has ability to incorporate large number of organizational concepts. In 1998, Turnley and Feldman study found that twenty five percent of their employees sample felt that they received less than they had been promised like health care benefits, job related security, power to make vital decisions, career development and responsibilities. Similarly, Robison, Kraatz and Rousseau (1994) study found that fifty five percent of the sample reported contract violations by their employers after spending two years at the organization and these violations were related to training and development, promotion, compensation etc. These studies indicate that workers or employees are quite cynical about the organization that whether they accomplish their pledges. In the past organizations focused on employees loyalty and honesty to the organization but currently they need flexible employees who learn more skills and abilities, to work under pressures and are more marketable for the organization (Herriot and Pemberto, 1995, Sparrow and Marchington, 1998). The current sta te of psychological contract is much similar to the past as four out of five employees are satisfied with their job, there commitment ha not declined but there trust has declined over the years according to the CIPD surveys (CIPD, 2005). According to Guest and Conway (2002), 1,306 senior HR showed that Psychological Contract offers employers a framework within which they study how to administer the employment relationship. So, the main role of the Psychological Contract in an organization is to make most out of their human capital which means what employee expect from their employers (Guest and Conway 2002, CIPD 2005). CIPD concluded that employees today seek one of the three types of psychological contract with their employee: Traditional: those who seek long term tenure and work long hours. Disengaged: for those whom work is not a central life interest and seek no emotions to their employers and Independent: those who are well qualified and seek short tenure and high rewards. In a qualitative study by Herriot, Manning, and Kidd (1997) it was found that the relational component of psychological contract was more frequently mentioned than was the transactional component and therefore seemed more important. Similarly, Zhao, Wayne, Glibkowski and Bravo (2007) also found in a study that the association between relational breach and job satisfaction, turnover intentions and organizational citizenship behaviors as much stronger than association between transactional breach and job satisfaction, and the above variables. According to suggestion of Berman, E.M. and West, J.P. (2003), psychological contract involves work load, work schedules, authority, work quality, responsibility, interpersonal relations, job security, rewards, promotion, career development, loyalty, working relation with immediate supervisors, specific behaviors of employees and managers and individually preferred working styles other than employees and employers. While Devidson (2001) recommended that employee hopes involve benefits and rewards, job security, safe and comfortable working conditions, personal development opportunities and career progression, fair treatment, work life balance, working hours, job challenges on the other hand employers expectations involve high productivity for reward, working under organizational objectives. According to Collin (2010) psychological contract fulfillment is found to be significant predictor of turn over intention and finding suggest that turnover can be moderated if leaders of organizat ion have strong relation based on respect, trust and mutual obligations and uses them to fulfill the unwritten contract between firm and the employees. Rousseau (1995) investigated that the psychological contract in business relationship is a key ingredient between employees and employers and at work place it could be influential determinant of behaviors and attitudes. Researchers like Coyle-Shapiro and Kessler (2000), Tekleab and Taylor (2003), Turnley and Feldman (1999), Robinson and Rousseau (1994), findings showed that fulfilled contracts are positively related to organizational commitment and the effective functioning of the organization. The fulfilled psychological contracts have positive association with employees and organizational outcomes. A foremost research was conducted by Psycones (2006) in six European countries and Israel. The sample size was 5288 employees (1981 were temporary employees and 3307 were permanent employees) working in 202 companies of education an industries and retail sectors. The results of this study were violation of promises made by the employer reduced the job satisfaction. Workers receiving power at work, fulfilling promises from their supervisors show higher satisfaction the more the promise fulfilled by the organizations the more the employees are committed to the organization and the violation of employer or employee obligations lead to quitting the job. Suazo, MarK, Turnley, William H., Mai-Dalton, Renate R (2008) conducted a study on characteristics of supervisor subordinate relationship as predictors of psychological contract. The sample size was 234 full time employees out of which 41% were males and 59% were females and the mean age of the participants was 37years. The data was collected through emails. The aim of this study was to know the factors like gender, cognitive style and race present between employees and employers predicting psychological contract breach. The hypotheses were that greater similarity between the cognitive styles of supervisor and subordinate will reduce the likelihood of psychological contract breach, the gender will be a specific factor in predicting psychological contract breach and subordinates with mix races will perceive more psychological contract breach than subordinates in same race supervisor subordinate dyads. The results proved that the cognitive style was negatively related to perceived Psyc hological contract breach and where as gender and race were not significant predictors of psychological contract breach. The cognitive approach of the supervisors and subordinates towards a problem, matters more than gender and race in predicting psychological contract breach. Lester, Claire, Kickul (2001) paper studied the status of psychological contract in 21st century. Employees recognized the importance of various aspects of psychological contract and the degree to which their organization had fulfilled theses obligations. The purpose of this study was to examine the employer inducements which are considered more important by the employees, to find how well the companies are fulfilling their obligations and also to know the discrepancies between the perceived importance and fulfillment of psychological contracts obligation affecting employees behavior at work. The numbers of participants were 268 fulltime employees out of which 51.7% were males and 48.3% were females and the average age was 27.6 years old. The respondents belonged to different occupational fields like finance and banking, sales and marketing, computer science, accounting, human resource and staffing, engineering and organizational consulting. The findings showed that the organizations also struggle to fulfill components of psychological contract mostly accepted by the employees. The discrepancies between the perceived importance and fulfillment have significant effect on satisfaction and turnover of employees. Employees performance was also effected but to less extent. Similarly, Bergmann (2001) investigated relational component of the psychological contract across time, generation and employment status. His study focused on just one type of psychological contract and went to its details. The sample size was 204 individuals of three different generations 68 were college students, one of each of their parents and grandparents were also included in the survey. From 204 participants 56% were females and 75%of students and their parents were employed where as grandparents retired and 44% of students were full time employees. The respondents were also asked for their perception regarding psychological contract on four different time periods 1900s, 1950s, 1960s and 19 70s. There was significant difference between psychological contract scores for 1950s and 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The interaction effect of time and generation on assessment of the relational component of psychological contract was not significant i.e. the subjects viewed psychological contract same across time regardless of changes in generation. So it was stressed that the relational components of the psychological contract have decreased during the five decades. It is also possible that factors other than time, generation, workplace may also have contributed to the shift in the psychological contract. Michael (2001), perceived the obligations of future forest industry employees and their first employers after graduation. New employees have reciprocal obligations between them and their employers and these beliefs can be called as psychological contract between them when the employee observes that he owe the employer certain incentives in return to the contribution given by him. Fulfillments of psychological contract have a direct impact on employees productivity and satisfaction. The sample size of his study was 300 graduated students from 34 different universities at United States of America. The results showed that the first obligation of the employee to their future employer is hard work and have distinct type of relationship with future employers. From the middle of 1970s the well-being has not increased in Britain and United states. White individuals are happier than black and non-white individuals in the United States but in the last 30 years the results are changing the blacks are also much happier and satisfied, so this study by Blanch Flower and Oswald (2004) has focused on races not immigrants. The peer reviewed literature on the influence of positive psychology in organizational sector focusing on organizational behavior and scholarship is in the year 2001 there were to researches done in organizational sector, in 2002 in total 6 researches were conducted 2 empirical and 4 non-empirical, in 2003 3 empirical and 6 non-empirical researches were conducted , 3 empirical and 24 non-empirical in 2004, 5 empirical and 17 non-empirical in 2005, 6 empirical and 18 non-empirical in 2006, in 2007 7 empirical and 16 non-empirical, and finally 19 empirical and 18 non-empirical in 2008. So in total 46 empirical studies and 104 on empirical studies were conducted and combining both 150 studies having being conducted in positive psychology organizational sector (Donaldson, 2009). Danna and Griffin (1999) investigated that work settings and occupational stress would be the forerunner factors of well-being. This view was supported by Cropanzano, James and Konovsky (1993) and Wright and Hobfoll (2004). Workers or employees when experience poor health and well-being at the work site are less productive, make lower quality decisions, and absenteeism (Boyd, 1997). Similarly, Price and Hooijberg (1992) the low subjective well-being would diminish the contributions to the organizations. In a cross national study, Diener and Oishi (2000) established that for majority of the students in 42 countries happiness and life satisfaction was more important than income. Over the past five decades the number of longitudinal studies on income and subjective well-being exposed that although income level has been increased dramatically in United State of America and other developed countries but the levels of subjective well-being have been rather stable (Myres, 2000). According to Diener (2000), as employees rise in their accomplishments and possessions their expectations also raise. They adapt themselves to the ne level very fast and then the current level is no longer source of happiness for them but this happens with some employees depending on the situation. The factors that have import effect on the subjective well-being of the individual are personality, personal goals, comparison with other people, past, needs, goals and the last factor is culture. In the recent years, the emergent number of researchers focused on positive indicators of subjective well-being (SWB), including job satisfaction (Judge, Thorenson, Bono and Patton, 2001), work engagement (Bakker, Schaufeil., Leiter and Taris, 2008), and happiness at work (Diener and Biswas- Diener 2002). Parent-Thirion, Fernandez-Macias, Hurley and Vermeylen (2007) study shows that 85% of all employees in the European Union and a study by Handel (2005) found that 86% of all the employees in the United States of America are very satisfied with their jobs. A research on subjective well being of managers of private enterprises was conducted by Bo Lui, bus, Hohai, Nanjing (2010) in China. This study include factors that affect subjective well being, subjective well being of different masses, cultural differences. Different managers of private enterprises were considered as participants and the data was analyzed on SPSS15.0. The overall subjective well being of the managers of private enterprises was low. The factors like status of marriage had significant impact on the subjective well being of the managers but gender and education didnt play vital role. Correspondingly, a study Job Insecurity and Wellbeing: Moderation by Employability by Inmaculada, Nele, Francisco, Jose and Hans (2010) investigated the association between job insecurity and wellbeing and the role of employability in this association. The researcher hypotheses were that job insecurity may be related to poor well-being, employability might moderate the unfavorable results of job security for employees well-being and employability is beneficial in the same manner as the job security is. These hypotheses were tested on the sample size of 639 Belgian employees from six organizations. The findings showed that the job insecurity is related to poor well-being, employability as expected moderates the relation between job insecurity and life satisfaction. There was no association found between employability and job security. The model accounted for 8% of explained variance. The first research that studied the relationship between psychological contract and subjective well being of employees was conducted by Windle and Treuer (2008). In this longitudinal study psychological contract was dependent variable and subjective well being was independent variable. The sample size was 187 new recruits in Australia wide organizations and data was collected through online survey 58% males and 42% females. The results indicate that SWB informs development of a Balanced Psychological contract and SWB significantly correlated with employer fulfillment, employee fulfillment, social knowledge and interpersonal resources. Balanced dynamic performance of Psychological contract was predicted by subjective well-being at 9% variance explained while in dynamic performance 10% of variance was explained. A lot of researches have focused on happiness of individuals and employees living within their own country. This study is different in terms that its focusing on employees who have migrated from their home country to the host country and to investigate the relationship of psychological contract and the physical and mental health i.e. subjective well-being of Pakistani immigrants working abroad (Middle East). It would be expected that the fulfillment of psychological contract would have positive relation with subjective well-being of the employees. The role of gender within psychological contract has received little attention, so this study would also examine whether there are any gender differences in the type of psychological contract of Pakistani immigrants and among them which type of psychological contract is more common. Rationale Keeping in view the literature review on the psychological contract and subjective well-being and also the statistical figure of Pakistani immigrants working abroad especially at U.A.E, not much work has been done regarding the problems and difficulties they face, and no work

Gender-based Violence (GBV) Data Collection Essay example -- Violence

Violence against women, particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence, is both a public health problem and a violation of women’s human rights. The issue of gender-based violence (GBV) has increasingly become an agenda item addressed by nations across the world. International organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations (UN) and humanitarian aid/relief agencies like the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and PLAN International have been collectively working to provide services to victims, advocating for increased gender equality and reducing rates of violence against women, etc. The evidence-base on the magnitude of this problem across various settings continues to grow; potentially providing governments, aid agencies and other partners with the strengthened capacity to design and implement prevention and response interventions. While the undertaking of prevalence studies in complex emergencies has the potential to influence GBV program ming and policy in emergency settings, challenges exist that thwart its effectiveness. Using some of the most cited papers in the emergency field as a framework, this paper seeks to explore the intricacies of GBV data collection in humanitarian settings. Drawing upon the critiques of these works, the use of strengthened and standardized methodology will be suggested as a means to improve GBV programming. Starting with the World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993, and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women in the same year, violence against women has been thrust into the light as a health and human rights concern. This recognition would be strengthened by agreements and declarations at international conferences includin... ...er 1995. New York, NY, United Nations, 1995 (document A/CONF.177/20). United Nations. 1993. â€Å" Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.† United Nations General Assembly Resolution 48/104. NewYork: United Nations. United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW) (2005) ‘Violence against women: a statistical overview, challenges and gaps in data collection and methodology and approaches for overcoming them’, report of the Expert Group Meeting, Geneva, 11–14 April 2005 http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/vaw-stat-2005/docs/final-report-vaw-stats.pdf Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. Adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, Vienna, 14–25 June 1993. New York, NY, United Nations, 1993 (document A/CONF.157/23). Jones 10 Watts & Zimmerman (2002). Violence Against Women: global scope and magnitude. The Lancet, (359), 1232-7

Education and Safe Educational Environment Essay

â€Å"Rights talk seeps into spheres of American society where a sense of personal responsibility and of civic obligation traditionally have been nourished. An intemperate rhetoric of personal liberty in this way corrodes the social foundations on which individual freedom and security ultimately rest.† Because I agree with this quote, I firmly resolve the resolution that establishing a safe educational environment for grades K-12 justifies the infringement of civil liberties. I would like to offer the following definitions: Establish: to make firm or secure Safe Educational Environment: an environment conducive to learning where students are free from hurt, injury or loss Justifies: to demonstrate to be right, just, or valid Infringement: an encroachment, as of a right or privilege Civil Liberties: fundamental individual rights, such as freedom of speech and religion, protected by law against unwarranted governmental or other interference The value that the affirmative upholds is education. The value criterion I will use to uphold my value is safety. Safety is extremely important on any educational institute because it allows the students and faculty to learn and operate without any threat hanging over them. To explain my position, I offer the following contentions: Contention 1: Without the establishment of a safe learning environment, the ability to learn and to teach is severely hampered. Without a safe educational environment, the attainment of knowledge is difficult to achieve. As Michael Ferraraccio said, â€Å"If schools cannot operate in a violence-free atmosphere, then education will suffer, a result which ultimately threatens the well being of everyone.† An infringement of a student’s civil liberties is required to be able to maintain a safe and enjoyable learning atmosphere for both the students and the faculty. When a student does not feel secure in their learning area, they are often distracted and unable to focus. For example, a student cannot possibly concentrate if another classmate is spewing insults and cuss words at the teacher. However, if we allowed students the freedom of speech, this could be common place. Contention 2: Moral obligation to provide safe schools Donald Beci stated â€Å"Because a state requires compulsory school attendance, it has a moral duty to maintain student discipline and to protect children from violence that occurs while they are attending the very schools to which the state has bound them to attend.† A school is required to protect the children that it harbors, and thus some civil liberties must not be granted. Examples of these are the right to bear arms and the right to privacy, which could be construed to mean very dangerous things by students not mature enough to understand them. Also, privacy rights must not be granted in school, as it might endanger the safety of others. In fact, Donald Beci also says that, â€Å"In situations where the school administration and students share joint control of lockers, desks, or other school property, the students would not have a legitimate expectation of privacy in such property; thus, in the abscence of privacy, Fourth Amendment requirements would be inapplicable.† Thus schools must disregard some civil rights to uphold the value of safety which most of them abide by. The affirmative has proven that schools must disregard students’ civil rights in order to ensure a good and safe learning environment.

Mountain Man Beer Company – Case Analysis

Case Analysis Mountain Man Brewing Company: Bringing the Brand to Light Mountain Man Brewing Company (MMBC) was founded by Guntar Prangel in 1925. He reformulated an old family brew with quality ingredients, resulting in a flavorful bitter tasting beer which was launched as the Mountain Man Lager. The brand grew to claim a respectable market share for an independent-family-owned-brewery, in whole of the East Central United States by 1960. Even today, after 80 years, the lager is a legacy brew, awarded as the Best Beer in West Virginia for many years in a row.MMBC is still a single product company and generates over $50 million in revenue and selling over 520,000 barrels of Mountain Man Lager. All has been well thus far but now the market trends are changing rapidly. Problem Statement For the first time in the 80+ years MMBC has experienced a 2 percent decline in revenue, relative to the prior fiscal year. Is this a one-time occurrence or a signal shift in the overall marketplace? Bus inesses must act in a certain manner in order to maximize profits or run the risk of losing their place in the marketplace.Chris Prangel, son of the President and owner of MMBC, Oscar Prangel, is to inherit the business in only five years. With differing management styles and thoughts on the direction the organization should take, this uncertainty could be potentially crippling over time. The question of whether or not MMBC should move ahead with Chris's plan to introduce a light beer product is the one that is most pertinent to the overall direction the company will take. The ever changing marketing environment with respect to demographic, socio-cultural, and political cenario will influence management’s decision on which path to take. SWOT Analysis: Strengths Mountain Man Lager has established a brand with a strong loyal blue –collar clientele. This high quality lager is known for its dark color, distinct bitter taste and slightly higher alcohol content. It boasts an unaided response rate of 67% from the adult population of WV and is known to be the best regional beer. In 2005, Mountain Man Lager won â€Å"Best Beer in West Virginia† for its eighth straight year. It also won â€Å"Best Beer in Indiana† and was selected as â€Å"America’s Championship Lager† at the American Beer Championship.Research has shown blue-collar males purchase 60% of the beer they drink from off-premise locations. Currently MMBC sells 70% of its beer at off-premise locations which is quiet consistent with the industry wide sales. The lager is affordably priced for the middle-to-lower income â€Å"working man†, at $2. 25 for a 12-ounce serving of draft beer in a bar and selling for $4. 99 for a six-pack in a local convenience store. Market research shows, Mountain Man’s position as an independent, family owned brewery provides a sense of â€Å"authenticity† with â€Å"anti-big-business† core drinkers.The brand is a s recognizable in the East Central region as Chevrolet and John Deere. MMBC has proven to be successful in grass-root marketing with a sales force which is known to not just push the brand but influence customers to embrace Mountain Man and promote the brand by word of mouth. Weaknesses: MMBC is well known for their bitter tasting product. This has given them great success in the past, however with the changing market they need to conform to the new way of doing business if they wish to continue to succeed in the future.Having only one main beer that is sold in the East Central region of the United States makes it hard to maintain profits. MMBC has been experiencing a decline in their sales by nearly 2%. MMBC has a very small demographic to which the lager appeals to. As such they are losing their influence over the younger market, as well as the women drinkers. The attractiveness of a bitter tasting lager doesn’t quite win over the younger generation. Studies have shown they prefer a light beer, something MMBC is considering developing. MMBC needs to consider the cost associated with launching the new line.They would sell the MMLight at the same price as the regular beer; however it costs considerably more to produce. Advertising would also add to the burden of MMLight. Advertising alone would cost over $750K for a six month campaign to reach brand awareness of 60%. As they still would only be able to sell the new product at the same price that their competitors are selling theirs, the cost might outweigh the rewards. Opportunities: Looking externally one can see that MMBC has many possible avenues they could take advantage of, in the changing U.S. demographic and beverage market. MMBC is known for their traditional high quality lager with the potential to expand into several fast growing markets such as light beer and super-premium beer. By entering a growing market MMBC could gain drinkers from different demographics which they currently lack, for in stance women and those in their twenties new to drinking. By implementing these changes it could offset the market share loss MMBC lager is currently facing. MMBC could restructure how they market their beer, looking at new avenues.The internet is one possibility, capitalizing on the younger generation and their anti-big-business-sentiment as a marketing tool. MMBC could try to increase sales in ‘on-premise’ locations. MMBC should also look to expand their distribution range to acquire more states in the U. S. focusing on their core grass root marketing strategies to grow their market share. Threats: The â€Å"threats† portion of a SWOT analysis is best described as an analysis of external environmental threats to the business itself.The following is a discussion of the most pertinent potential external influencers facing MMBC. Over the past four years per capita beer consumption in the US has declined by 2. 3% due in some part to competition from wine and spirit based drinks but also due to changing cultural mores encouraging moderation and personal responsibility. If this trend continues MMBC will be competing for an ever shrinking piece of the market. The potential economic and marketing response from the major brewery competitors is daunting to a company the size of Mountain Man.With economies of scale in brewing, transportation and marketing, the Budweisers of the world are formidable rivals to say the least. They could respond in such a way as to make doing business very difficult moving forward. Governmental involvement in the beer industry is another issue at hand. The Federal Government has already raised the excise tax and with laws changing how beer can be promoted in a retail setting newly passed in WV could other states in the East Central region be too far behind? The biggest potential threat is the shift in beer consumers taste to light beer and away from the premium beers overall.Light beer sales account for over 50% of all beer sales and are growing at a compound rate of 4% per year. One of the most troubling aspects of the surge in light beers popularity is the demographic that is driving it. Young, first time, beer buyers / drinkers are at the crux of the demographic and marketers understand that if you can capture a customer young enough you have them as a customer for life. Financials: A look at the market analysis show alarming trends. In 2005 MMBC’s revenue was down relative to the prior fiscal year.Changes in beer consumption are being driven by changing consumer segments. Light beer sales are increasing while Premium beer sales are decreasing in the east central region as seen in Exhibit 5 in the MMBC case. Super-premium beer sales increased the most by well over 9% in the past 6 years. This shows beer drinkers’ tastes are shifting significantly causing sales to reflect this trend. Exhibit 5 shows light beer has a much greater volume than premium beer; signifying even small marke t penetration can mean significant volumes.Looking at Exhibit 6 part A, the other brands have 14% of the light beer market beating out Coors coming in at 11%. This could imply that the light beer market is easily penetrated by a new product. Exhibit 2 examines the beer drinker demographics in 2005, MMLager has 19% of the female demographic which is only a small portion, while domestic light beer boasts of 42% of the female beer drinking demographic. MMLager is the preferred beer of only 2% people in the 21-24 yr age bracket. In the 25-34 yr age group, 15% people prefer the lager and in 19% prefer the lager in the 35-44 yr age bracket.These numbers are significantly less than those drinking domestic light beer and domestic premium beer. MMLager is losing the younger generation hands down. A large segment of the light beer drinkers (24%) make over $100 thousand dollars a year, so introducing a newer light beer at a slightly higher cost will hit a new income demographic that is not as worried about pricing. Recommendations: 1. Do nothing – MMBC customers base drinking lager is a shrinking market. The rate at which MMBC can make new customers can only replace a fraction of existing ones.Assuming the 2% annual sales decline, by 2010, sales would have declined by 10%, the profit margin would be drastically shrunk, and with fixed costs remaining the same the company might be out of business in a matter of years. Keeping in mind the demographics, there is quiet a possibility that the rate of declining sales might accelerate due to the aging customer base. The senior management at MMBC is reluctant to launch the new product and site the examples of over 40 breweries those have closed down. But this does not, in anyway, provide any solid evidence that MMBC will fall in those same footsteps if they are to launch the new line.According to research, product line extensions â€Å"helped brewers obtain greater shelf space of products† and â€Å"created greater product focus among distributers and retailers†. Suggesting that MMBC do nothing would be a very short-sighted decision and classic mistake of â€Å"marketing myopia†. MMBC should do something soon in order to keep up with the changing market. 2. Launching Mountain Man light – The research suggests that where the brand equity drives the sales of lager; the same strategy would not work for light beer as the association of stronger, bitter flavor is not going to capture the light beer segment.MMBC needs to distance itself from the blue-collar beer image in order to attract the younger generation. 3. Launching light beer with a new name – Data suggests that light beer should not be marketed to the existing customer base, as they are simply loyal to the original lager. As such, they should still incorporate the Mountain Man brand but name it something like â€Å"Mountain Light†. Having an affiliation with the brand will allow the same grass-root market ing strategy to be applied for marketing the light beer to the younger segment. Exhibits [pic] [pic] [pic]