Scrabble Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Scrabble - Essay Example Matt Graham is a thirty two year old. He works in the comedy industry where he is a standup comedian. His mode of dressing of dressing is actually shabby. As Fatsis (2001) states, he wears flannel shirts that he does not button over old T-shirts. The jeans that he puts on are torn and do not fit him well. When he speaks, he speaks so fast that it seems his mind is running ahead of his thoughts. Matt is an individual who does not care much about his health. This is showed by the amount of pills that he takes each day. He has a five by seven card which he has divided into two columns. In one column, he has written the names of twenty pills which he takes in the morning on an empty. In the other column, he has written seventeen more that he has to take with breakfast. He does not care of the warnings indicated on the labels. Rather, he claims that they turn him around more than anything. He also has a damaged knee which pains him much but he refuses to see an orthopedist to check out th e issue. This supports the point that he does not care much about his health (Fatsis, 2011). According to Fatsis (2001), Matt is affected by insomnia. It is indicated that he does not sleep much. Especially on the night before the day when Matt shall play a best of five games against an opponent to find out the world Scrabble champion. The eating habits of Matt are quite out of order. On this particular morning, Matt does not eat much. Matt also chooses not to relax as opposed to the notion that a moment of relaxation and reflection before a very important game is needed. It seems that Matt has very peculiar ways of going about his time and actions before the finals. This peculiar ways may be as a result of the consumption of pills. It is suggested that if Matt is tested for drugs, then he would actually be banned for life. But Matt is lucky as drugs are not tested

Global Warming effect on Hair care Industry Essay Example for Free

Global Warming effect on Hair care Industry Essay â€Å"It is the gradual increase of the temperature of the atmosphere near the earth’s surface as a result of the increase of what we call â€Å"greenhouse gases† since the industrial revolution. Those gases are, water vapor, Carbon Dioxide,Methane,Nitrous Oxides and Ozone† (Global Warming ). This phenomenon is considered a healthy natural procedure because, when the light from the sun hit the earth’s surface reflects off this surface toward space ,but doesn’t easily pass through the greenhouse gases blanket of the earth. Some of the sun’s light and heat are trapped keeping the planet at an average temperature suitable to life, which is about sixty degrees Fahrenheit(Global Warming ). As we said ,Global Warming as a natural process is not harmful, but the growth in industry,agriculture,transportation and technology revolution has produced additional quantities of greenhouse gases along with other harmful substances such as â€Å"Chlorofluorocarbons† or â€Å"The CFCs† (Global Warming ). That made earth’s atmosphere traps more heat and light than it is required, so earth is facing a dangerous future with scientists predictions of high temperature ages to be coming. Global warming has a long term effects on our planet. Some of those results are, Melting of polar ice with a resulting rise in sea level and coastal flooding; disruption of drinking water supplies ;profound changes in agriculture due to climate change; extinction of species as ecological niches disappear; and an increased of tropical diseases(Girardet 19). We may consider some global warming effect as following: †¢ Greenhouse gases are accumulating in earth’s atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing temperatures to rise. Global average temperatures warmed by about 1 ° F in the twentieth century and could increase by 2. 5 ° F to 10. 5 ° F in this century(Speth 56). †¢ Human-induced warming and sea-level rise are expected to continue throughout this century and into the next(Speth 56). †¢ This warming is caused by the cumulative effects of several greenhouse gases that have built up steadily in the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion and deforestation, methane from fossil fuels and agricultural activities, nitrous oxide from agricultural activities and the chemical industry, and specialty chemicals including CFCs(Speth 56). †¢ Global warming could well have serious adverse societal and ecological impacts by the end of this century, and temperature and sea levels could also continue to rise well into the next century even if societies stabilize the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere(Speth 56) Hair care industry tools â€Å"Every woman knows how you look is essential to how you feel† (Make a date with your hair 73) No. 1 women magazine â€Å"Cosmopolitan† started an article with that word. Hair dressing is essential to all women on this planet. What ever you men laugh or criticize, they will still go to coiffures and hair dresser all over the world. Also men are not far from hair care. Men nowadays care a lot about how do they look like and hair look became essential for them too. More products are produced and invented every day to help those stylists to accomplish good looking hair cut and a soft ,long and strong hair texture for every woman. Every hair stylist, uses some essential products such as: †¢ Shampoos: They are used in washing and cleaning scalps and hair from dirt and moist. They remove unwanted amounts of oils with substances called â€Å"Surfactants† that produces foam. The most famous surfactants are, â€Å"Sodium Laureth Sulphate† and â€Å"Sodium lauryl sulphate†,which are written on every shampoo bottle. They considered harmful (Burke) . Some kinds of natural oils are used in making shampoos. Anti-dandruf kind of shampoos are using substances like Ketoconazole,Selenium sulfite or ZPT(Doctor NDTV). †¢ Conditioners: They are used in softening hair after washing it with shampoo. Conditioners coat the hair with protective material such as silicone making the hair feel softer, shiny and less likely to tangle. Silicones are the base substance in making conditioner along with natural oils such as shampoos(Burke ). †¢ Hair dryer, curling irons and hair crimpers: Those are electric devices used to dry wet and curling it using hot air blowout . They produce heat and consume more electricity ,and it may cause damage to hair if heat was high. Many kinds of those gadgets are designed to produce more heat to style thick strands of hair(Sloane ). †¢ Hair sprays and hair gels: These products are using many different kinds of polymers used to sustain the hair’s look and keep it stable (Make a date with your hair 73). †¢ Hair dyes: Products that are used to change the color of hair for many weeks. Bleaching is achieved by oxidation with â€Å"Hydrogen Peroxide† (Hocker and Popescu 36). †¢ Hair cut equipments: Like scissors,clippers,electric trimmers, brushes and combs. Every day millions of men and women all over the globe is cutting and brushing their hair. Every time that happen ,lots of hair are lost ,removed and thrown a way. Hair Chemistry â€Å"Biologically, hair is the filamentous appendage on the skin of mammals. Chemically, it is a composite material in which both the reinforcing fibers and the matrix are made of proteins† (Hocker and Popescu 36). Hair fibers, roughly cylindrical with diameters ranging from 10 µm to 100 µm, are multicellular tissues. The heart of the fiber is surrounded by the cuticle, made of plate-like overlapping cells whose heights can reach up to 1 µm. Each cuticle cell has four layers: the epicuticle; the a-layer; the exocuticle; and the endocuticle. Inside the cuticle, the cortex contains spindle-like interlocking cortical cells, with cell membrane complex in-between. Each cortical cell is composed of macrofibrils embedded in an intermacrofibrillar material. Each macrofibril consists of microfibrils, called the intermediate filaments (IF), themselves embedded in an intermicrofibrillar matrix composed of intermediate filament associated proteins (IFAP). Thus, hair is a composite material with a complex dual structure at all levels(Hocker and Popescu 36). In brief, elemental analysis of hair shows, remarkably independently of hair origin, 50wt% carbon, 7wt% hydrogen, 22wt% oxygen, 16wt% nitrogen and 5wt% sulfur(Hocker and Popescu 36). Global warming effects that relate to Hair care industry Global warming especially alarms bioenvironmentalists and social greens, because the three main greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) arise from core economic activities (automobile use, electricity generation, factories, agriculture, and deforestation),while the main consequences (rising seas, severe storms, drought, and desertification) are beyond the lifetimes of politicians and business leaders—perhaps occurring in 50 to 100 years. And the impacts, when they are most severe, will be mostly felt by the poor, marginalized peoples of the world. Obviously, lowering greenhouse gas emissions will involve major changes to global economic production and consumption patterns (Clapp and Dauvergne 39) not only hair care industry in the near future. It will require, too, governmental, corporate, and personal sacrifices. It’s known now that a huge part of earth’s warming is due to human activity. Humens are destroying the planet and global warming is one way for that. Global warming has many bad effects as we briefed earlyier. It’s more likely to discuss how hair care industry affecting the global warming . It what was announced by Al Gore, American former vise-president and Nobel Prize winner in Bali climate conference held this month that hair cuts and thrown away hair cutting decay, give massive amounts of green house gases, which contributes to the severe global warming crisis. They wanted us to go baldy (Al Gore Finds New cause of Global Warming†). We will discuss how global warming affect the hair care industry with all the climate change criteria and harmful gases found in the air . A different point of view but a remarkable one to study. Environmental scientists predict that, from global warming of 0. 8 °Ã¢â‚¬â€œ2. 0 °C will â€Å"commit† 18–35 percent of animal and plant species â€Å"to extinction† by the middle of the twenty first century (Clapp and Dauvergne 35). Plants are the main source for natural oils and substances used in making hair products such as, Cacao extracts, Grape seed oil, roses, safflower and even bananas. Tropical plants are the most used in this industry. Global warming effect on those plants are very svere, so that hair care products are having problems in getting its raw mterials. Many surfactants for example are derived from plant oils like coconut or palm kernel (Hargreaves). Even if hair products company are saying they don’t use animals in their experiments, they still use them and with the bad effect of climate over different animal species, Those companies will not be able to develop their future products. Global warming is a result of what we called greenhouse gases(Global warming) . Some of them are harmful gases like,Cabon dioxide, nitrous oxides and Ozone(not the ozone type in the upper atmosphere). If we study the situation of every gas we may find that, higher concentrations of carbon dioxide—could mean an even higher rate of extinctions of animal and plants species, because they breathe Oxygen just like we do and as we said before that may lead to less natural products for hair care industry and less development to those products(Clapp and Dauvergne 54). In the air, nitrogen oxide from fossil fuel combustion reacts with volatile hydrocarbons and sunlight to produce smog, a nasty mix of photochemical oxidants, one of which is ozone (Speth 72) and according to hair chemical composition, hair absorbs moisture due to the polar amino acid residues of the inside of the hair (Hocker and Popescu 36), this cause harm to hair, which make it essential to repeat hair treatment processes and it may cause hair and scalp disease. Nitrogen Oxides can also become nitric acid and contribute to acid deposition through acid rains, which also contains harmful substances to hair health (Speth 45) . Acid rain is also a cause for water supply pollution due to rain falling on open water sources such as rivers and lakes, Polluting water sources may directly affect the hair care industry, due to the daily use of water in washing hair for probably every one. Acid rain coming from Nitrogen Oxides may pollute soil, forests, and crops (Speth 86) and of course making the same effect on plants and animals that are essential to hair care industry. Acid rains made thousands of lakes have â€Å"gone acid† (Speth 53), that means any kind of swimming of any of those lakes or water area contaminated by acids may cause hair loss or diseases. After a few years, scientists predict that global warming will cause shortage in universal water supplies . that may cause less water washing habits (Elsworth), less hygiene and of course it may cause diseases. Global warming is making the atmosphere on earth hotter than before (Girardet 19) and sunlight concentration is one of the most harmful effects on human’s health. Skin cancers are believed to be caused mainly by sunlight . Skin cancers may spread over the body even into hair scalp, causing severe hair loss (Armstrong 141-55). Losing hair for both men and women are emotionally destructive, so both of them may use hair wags or artificial hair parts to cover there baldness. Some kinds of skin rashes due to water or air pollution with green house gases may cause hair loss also(Doctor NDTV). Climate change ,high humidity ratios and long time sunlight effects are all factors that can injure the hair or make them very dry (Doctor NDTV)and of course that what would global warming do. Attitudes toward Global Warming and their effects Men and women and even Hair care companies started a new attitude in dealing with global warming and climate change problem. First of all, we must admit that hair care products with all their chemical materials, packaging bottles and even the misusage of these products are a big problem causing more and more environmental threats. Government started putting some regulations and laws to fight global warming increase . Hair products companies that still use harmful ingredients such as ,Sodium Laureth sulphate and sodium lauryl sulphate [they are found to be a cause for some kinds of cancers]( â€Å"SLES†),started searching for natural alternatives to use in shampoos, conditioners and any other products. Companies are increasingly becoming aware of environmental issues . Some companies are now trying to use technology in making hair products with excellent suspending power, low freezing point and wide thermal stability range(-5 ° C to 50 ° C) (Burke ),so that they may survive the global warming bad effects. Companies also targets to make new products with reduced environmental impact over the upcoming years, in an attempt to improve the environmental profile of its products and their packaging materials by reducing CO2 emissions, energy and water consumption used to make those products. Some of those companies continue with some environmental projects like Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program done by PG hair Products Company (Product supplier news). Governments also put under Current pressure to move away from non-renewable petroleum feed stocks and towards plants as sources of raw materials, which has led to a lot of effort on developing surfactants from oleo chemical feed stocks. Many recently-developed surfactants are an attempt to satisfy the modern consumers desire for products to be more natural'(Hargreaves). The elimination of Chlorofluorocarbons (â€Å"Global Warming†) is also another effort to decrease the global warming effect not only on hair care industry but on any other human activity. Many people is trying to avoid using chemicals in their hair care regimes. Instead, they are using natural herbs and oils extracted from organic plants that is planted under observation to avoid pollution. Because of this hard effort to produce such substances, they are sold in high prices, not every one could be able to use those organic products. Also going to hair saloons became unadvisable from many environmental scientists, they are not environment friendly, which cause many to abandon those saloons and of course causing financial lost to many of those hair care branches. Maybe some hair saloons will only specialize in organic and natural products and because of the high prices of their products, only rich people will keep going to them. Bali Climate Change Conference (Al Gore Finds New cause â€Å") declared that haircuts may raise green house gases amount. Maybe in the future, every body is going bald to avoid environmental crisis or even worse, we may be not able to even wash our hair, just like Cate Blanchett (Elsworth) is doing now. Climate is treating our hair badly, let’s all go baldy. Works Cited Global Warming. The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th,New York. 2004. Clapp, Jennifer, and Peter Dauvergne. Paths to a Green World:The Political Economy of the Global Environment. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2005. Surviving the Century:Facing Climate Chaos and Other Global Challenges. Ed. Herbert Girardet. London: Earthscan, 2007. Speth, James. Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment. USA: Yale University Press, 2004.

Strategic analysis of WalMart

Strategic analysis of WalMart The secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want. And really, if you think about it from your point of view as a customer, you want everything: a wide assortment of good-quality merchandise; the lowest possible prices; guaranteed satisfaction with what you buy; friendly, knowledgeable service; convenient hours; free parking; a pleasant shopping experience. Sam Walton (1918-1992) (WAL-MART FOUNDER) Wall mart bought a revolution in the field of retail industry with its tag line low Price Always. This is achieved through large scale of operation and bulk buying. Though it has a wafer thin profit margin, it is able to retain its cost leadership in market. Company History: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is not only the largest retailer in the world, it now also ranks as the largest corporation in the world. The retail giant dwarfs its nearest competition, generating three times the revenues of the worlds number two retailer, Frances Carrefour SA. Domestically, Wal-Mart has more than 1.2 million workers, making it the nations largest nongovernmental employer. U.S. operations include 1,478 Wal-Mart discount stores (located in all 50 states); 1,471 Wal-Mart Supercenters, which are combined discount outlets and grocery stores (and which make Wal-Mart the countrys top food retailer); 538 Sams Clubs, the number two U.S. warehouse membership club chain (trailing Costco Wholesale Corporation); and 64 Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets, smaller food and drug outlets also offering a selection of general merchandise. International operations, which commenced in 1991, include Wal-Mart discount stores in Canada and Puerto Rico; Wal-Mart Supercenters in Argentina, Brazil, China, Germany, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom; and Sams Clubs in Brazil, China, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets are grocery stores that average about 42,000 square feet (3,901.9 m ²). They offer a variety of products, which include full lines of groceries, pharmaceuticals, health and beauty aids, photo developing services, and a limited selection of general merchandise. The first Neighborhood Market opened in 1998 in Bentonville, Arkansas. As of November 30, 2007, there were 128 Neighborhood Markets in the United States. Sams Club Sams Club is a chain of warehouse clubs which sell groceries and general merchandise, often in large quantities. Sams Club stores are membership stores and most customers buy annual memberships. However, non-members can make purchases either by buying a one-day membership or paying a surcharge based on the price of the purchase. Some locations also sell gasoline. The first Sams Club opened in 1983 in Midwest City, Oklahoma under the name Sams Wholesale Club. Sams has found a niche market in recent years as a supplier to small businesses. All Sams Club stores are open early hours exclusively for business members and its slogan, as such, is Were In Business for Small Business. WAL-MART GOING GLOBAL Wal-Mart and International Expansion Wal-Mart was entered into international markets by a conviction that it could achieve competitive advantage abroad by applying its combination of technology, logistics and human resources with its tremendous buying power with multinational consumer goods suppliers. Wal-Marts strategy has been to acquire companies and convert them into the Wal-Mart way stores. European retailers like Carrefour and Ahold, have more than 20 years of international experience than Wal-Mart. Multinational retailers entry is usually by mergers acquisitions, which is what Wal-Mart did in its initial entry into Mexico, with a joint venture with CIFRA, the most powerful retailer in Mexico. Models For Strategic Analysis ENVIORNMENTAL SCANNING OF WAL-MART External Environment Socio-cultural Throughout the world there is a large shift in our demographics. There currently is a larger aging population than ever before, and at the same time the birthrate in developed countries is decreasing, as it is increasing in underdeveloped countries. Due to advances in medicine individuals are living longer and longer, as it seems we can beat any disease. Health is becoming more and important to individuals as they exercise and eat better; everyone wants to stay healthy longer. At the same time in the United States in particular the population is getting fatter and fatter, preschool age children are being labeled as obese. Shopping has turned into a favorite pastime for the whole family, and when buying big-ticket items, everyone has a say. Increasingly there are more single-parent households, which does not leave much disposable income. Most two-parent households have both parents working and earning more, living in bigger houses, taking more vacations, and owning more cars. On the o ther hand we are currently experiencing a great deal of the American public has been downsized, and may be unemployed, starting a new career, or back in school. Technological Due to the current recession the government has been looking for any way possible to save money, and unfortunately research and development, non-military that is, was one of the first things to go. However many of the suppliers to retail are forced to continue their RD programs as competition is stiff and their product line needs to continually be updated. Technology is growing at an incredibly rapid pace that no one can keep up with it. There have been amazing growths in the areas of health, consumer goods, and food due to technology. As consumers are used to the ever-growing technology they are not as wary of it as in the past, but do not buy the newest thing, as quickly because the item it replaces is less than a year old. Production is becoming more and more automated which is pushing individuals out of jobs. The Internet is widely available in the United States, but that is not the case in the rest of the world. Even in parts of Europe many houses do not have computers much less access to the Internet. Telecommunications structures continue to be improved upon or even built. Politico-Legal USA has democratic form of government. In fact it is the one of the worlds oldest democracy of more than 200 years where everyone has a saying in the government. Pressure groups play a vital role in US democracy, a retail chain giant like Wal-Mart have their representatives in congress and senate. Hence , they keep a keen eye on all the policies and laws so that it is conducive with the Wal-marts future plans In case of any blockage lobbying is used by them. Economic US has capitalist system of economy, the mode of production is controlled by private enterprises. The economic conditions are favorable for operation of private firms. In fact big retail chains like Wal-mart has revolutionized the US economy Always Low Prices- ALWAYS .With trends of globalization Wal-mart is able to spread its wings in Asia-Pacific region where the economy is liberalized . Globalization, Liberalization and Privatisation gives economic policy that are is consonance with growth and expansion strategies of Wal-mart. Internal Environment Being the largest non-government employer and corporation in the world, Wal-Mart is bound to have an interesting internal structure put in place. So what exactly is the method to all the madness? Lets look inside Wal-Marts Internal Environment. Corporate Structure Wal-Mart is a public corporation, however the majority of the stock is still held by Walton family members. Therefore, there is lots of family involvement at the top level. The headquarters are in Bentonville, Arkansas, along with the control and decision making ability of the organization. There is a very hierarchical structure in place which only fuels the good old boys club for top management. The other unique element in Wal-Marts corporate structure is a strong culture that is fueled by the Wal-Mart way of doing things, which as far as they are concerned is the only way. WAL-MART ANALYSIS INTERNAL ANALYSIS ANALYZING RESOURCES Financial Resources Wal-Mart is the worlds largest and most profitable retailer. Wal-Marts pre tax return on sales was 8% during 1989 which was double the industry standard and it continues to be the front runner till today. Wal-Mart commands market value 10 times more than its book value. Wal mart stores FISCAL YEAR SEGMENT NET SALES SEGMENT OPEARTION INCOME 2007 7.8% $17029 2006 9.4% $15324 2005 10.1% $14163 Sams Club FISCAL YEAR SEGMENT NET SALES SEGMENT OPEARTION INCOME 2007 4.5% $1512 2006 7.29% $1385 2005 7.59% $1280 International FISCAL YEAR SEGMENT NET SALES SEGMENT OPEARTION INCOME 2007 30.2% $4259 2006 12.7% $3509 2005 19.3% $3197 Human Resources Wal-Mart promotes internal staff development and over 60% of its store managers are promoted internally then direct recruits. Wal-Mart believes in recruiting people with a flair for customer service and trains them accordingly to its strong company values. Employees are treated as owners as more than 70% of employees have shares of the company and incentives are paid in stock options too. Physical Resources Wal-Mart developed its computerized inventory system way back in 1970 that decreased check-out and reordering times and built highly automated distribution centres, reducing shipping cost and time. Wal-Mart has continued to be an innovator and has this has led it to create and sustain its competitive advantage by being the first and to be continuous to replace systems and processes replicated by competitors. Intellectual or Intangible Resources Wal-Marts core resources are its customers which total over 40 million per year. Wal-Mart has over 1.3 million associates (employees) at its stores, worldwide. The author feels this itself is unique which helps Wal-Mart get 1.3 million unique, hardcore loyal customers. Wal-Mart uses its technological capabilities to sustain its cost leadership in distribution and superior inventory systems. Culture Analysis Wal-Marts culture is as unique and distinctive as possible considering the mammoth that it has grown into today. Usually firms even of a small and medium company find it hard to maintain and build good customer service but Wal-Mart has always had it as its foundation and till today preaches and practices exemplary customer service. Wal-Marts Corporate Citizenship actively helps development of the community with programs spread across education, health, and environment. Wal-Marts Code Adam, a tribute to a lost child in a retail store helps prevent children getting lost in stores today which make it a safer place for families to shop. Wal-Marts Ten Foot Rule and Sundown Rule all promote the employees to treat the customer right, first time, always. Employees are treated as Associates inspiring their status. The everyday morning cheers act as a ritual and cheer and energize the associates making them part of the organization. Associates acting as greeters at the entrance of every store worldwide is unique and makes the customer more welcome and special. P.E.S.T. ANALYSIS FOR WAL-MART P.E.S.T. Analysis Political Influences à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ European Customs and Regulations à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ FDI Restrictions à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ UKs Zoning Regulations Economic Influence à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ War in Iraq à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Global Terrorism à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Exchange Rates à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Low levels of productivity in Asian Countries à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Wall Street Improvements Social Influence à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Marketing strategies ineffective à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Absence of Bulk Buying à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Language and Cultural Barriers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Anti-Globalisation Movements Technological Influence à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Advances in Technology and Satellite systems à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Lack of basic infrastructure Political Influences The political influences in this industry is probably the most burning concern with organizations going global and many countries restricting the growth of companies by many countries. European Customs and Regulations heavily hamper expansion plans. FDI in many countries are still heavily regulated and global companies are yet to set foot into emerging markets like India. Economic Influences War on Iraq has had a negative impact on consumer spending and outlook. Disproportionate levels of income and consumer spending in developing countries like India and China will impact growth of global companies. Exchange rates affect global sourcing and pricing policies on a day to day basis. Recent developments with Wall Street have helped foster a better relation and helped in Wal-Marts listing and ratings. Social Influences Developing countries are not used to push type marketing and aggressive selling. Bulk buying patterns predominantly present in USA, is non-existent in Asian countries. Language and cultural factors is a barrier to globalisation. Anti-Globalisation movements in the recent past has affected growth of global companies, especially companies originated USA. Technological Influences Development in technology and satellite systems has given a boost to Wal-Mart. Basic infrastructure still lacks for effective warehousing and distribution, the lifeline of a retail chain. PORTERS 5 FORCES ANALYSIS FOR WAL-MART Porters Analysis SUBSTITUTES CUSTOMERS SUPPLIERS MARKET NEW ENTRANTS Horizontal Forces Mature markets Vertical Forces Growth Markets Vertical and Horizontal Competitive and changing markets WAL-MART SUPPLIERS POWER Wal-Mart enjoyed a 50 percent market share position in the discount retail industry. Procter Gamble, Clorox, and Johnson Johnson were among its nearly 3,000 suppliers. Though Wal-Mart may have been the top customer for consumer product manufacturers, it deliberately ensured it did not become too dependent on any one supplier; no single vendor constituted more than 4 percent of its overall purchase volume. Further, Wal-Mart had persuaded its suppliers to have electronic hook-ups with its stores. About 85 percent of all the merchandise sold by Wal-Mart was shipped through its distribution system to its stores. (Competitors supplied to their retail outlets on average less than 50 percent of the merchandise through their own distribution centers.) Wal-Mart used a saturation strategy for store expansion. The standard was to be able to drive from a distribution center to a store within a day. A distribution center was strategically placed so that it could eventually serve 150-200 Wal-Mart stores within a day. Stores were built as far away as possible but still within a days drive of the distribution center; the area then was filled back (or saturated back) to the distribution center. Each distribution center operated 24 hours a day using laser-guided conveyer belts and cross-docking techniques that received goods on one side while simultaneously filling orders on the other. The company owned a fleet of more than 3,000 trucks and 12,000 trailers. (Most competitors outsourced trucking.) Wal-Mart had implemented a satellite network system that allowed information to be shared between the companys wide network of stores, distribution centers, and suppliers. The system consolidated orders for goods, enabling the company to buy full truckload quantities without incurring the inventory costs. The bargaining power of suppliers and buyers is low with Wal-Mart having established a near monopoly in its home market and increasing its market-share in its overseas operations. Wal- Mart is already Canadas and Mexicos top retail chain and in UK is at the third position. Threat of entry remains low in the home market and globally. The entry scene is limited to existing retail chains as the cost of setup is substantial. Regulatory restrictions are also a concern here. Threat of substitute products is low to medium with consumers having a choice from different stores to buy the same product at highly competitive prices. A sixth force, called the complementors enable the firm whose products or services work in conjunction with enabling a synergistic effect .Wal-Mart sees more customers than the banks do these days. Recent antitrust lawsuits over Visa and MasterCard by retailers, headed by Wal-Mart, alleging the use of expensive debit cards and the costs borne by the retailers may upset the market .The intensity of competitive rivalry can be classified low to medium The power obtained by the low bargaining power of suppliers and buyers is offset by the threat of substitutes and threat of entry. Overall a substantial amount of power still lies with Wal-Mart considering the scale of operations and maturity in its industry. WAL-MART S.W.O.T. ANALYSIS S.W.O.T. ANALYSIS Strengths Wal-Mart is the largest corporation in the world giving it enormous status and recognition in the industry and new markets. Wal-Mart is great at building and maintaining relationships with suppliers. Wal-Mart is a continuous learning organization with integrated systems and frequent meetings with store and aisle managers and systems that receive 8.4 million updates every minute on transactions from its stores. More than 70 million customers roam Wal- Mart aisles each week (Fortune, 2003). Wal-Marts distribution centre and logistics capabilities are a key strength adding value to its entire system. Wal-Marts cross-docking and effective inventory managements gives its a 3% cost advantage which helps sustain its Every Day Low Price strategy . Weaknesses Wal-Mart shows little adaptability to its formats in overseas expansions. Wal-Mart is still to develop its expertise in international marketing. Shows weakness in its expansion by not fulfilling expansion plan of opening 50 new stores in Germany during 2001. Opportunities Growing middle class of consumers in emerging markets like China and India, gives Wal- Mart a tremendous opportunity for global expansion. There is growing consolidation in the market with the weak economy which is also leaving many competitors up for sale at below book value. Growth of e-commerce enables a new business channel and Wal-Mart has aggressively trying to capture and create its presence in this medium too. Threats Recent years have witnessed anti-globalisation movements affecting global companies and American companies in general and Wal-Mart can face stiff resistance from consumers in new markets. Recent wars and outbreaks have affected sales globally. Increased competition in mature markets like Germany and U.K. with established retail chains dominating despite Wal-Marts entry. Growing trade blocks and zoning regulations hamper Wal-Marts expansion plans. Summary The beauty of Wal-Marts Value Chain is the scale of operations and the control it exercises over each activity. Wal-Mart takes care of all the activities internally except partially outsourcing its logistics requirements. Its systems integration from inventory, to stores, to headquarters to suppliers is the lifeline of its success. Transportation undertaken by its own fleet of trucks is an added advantage. The core activity remains in its bulk buying and inventory management which supports Wal-Marts competitive advantage of pricing and every element shows traces of cost leadership. Total integration is key here. Wal-Mart located its discount stores around regional warehouses allowing a streamlined and low cost physical distribution . CONCLUSION Wal-Mart considering its scale and scope of operations has given a dynamic perspective in analysis of the many frameworks analyzed with. Strategists like Govindrajan and Gupta, who specialize in globalisation, endorse and acknowledge Wal-Mart as a global organization and highly lauding Ironically, Rugman, argues, Wal-Mart as a regional player with regional strategy considering that Wal-Mart has only 9.6% of its stores outside its home region and only 16.3% of revenue is generated from stores outside its home country. Again considering classification such as the NAFTA and the TRIAD, large economies (Countries) are clubbed together and treated as one which the author disagrees to justify as one. Arguments such as only a certain percentage of business is generated outside the TRIAD making a business less global are arguments the author disagrees with. With the EU becoming as one then soon, the world will become large chunks of amalgamations. The simple definition or presence in different markets should be taken into consideration of being global. Many strategists do not give concessions for the time the business has started to expand globally. Wal-Mart for instance has grown to such a strong position over 40 years, this would take considerable time to replicate and adapt in international markets. Analysis using Yips Globalisation / Localisation Drivers shows the industry and Wal-Mart in general moving towards globalisation but yet maintaining key aspects to localisation. This could be the way ahead. The Transnational Model illustrates the same key aspect. Marketing strategy and product variation though it can be global, it needs to be tuned to the local market catered considering the emergence of localisation preference in consumers. The market has gone too global, that consumers place an emphasis of localisation. Acknowledgements are made that the industry is maturing far greater than Internationalisation but its yet to be seen as a global player. But its a matter of time before it expands it to new markets and creates a foothold. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR WAL-MART Analysis of the generic strategy and the supporting value chain, gives us a good insight into sources of Wal-Marts competitive advantage. When two or more firms compete within the same market, one firm possesses competitive advantage over its rivals when it earns a persistently higher rate of profit . Wal-Marts capability to outperform its rivals is achieved with its ability to outperform its competitors quickly and effectively. Supporting this is its, highly integrated systems, technological advances, highly efficient inventory management skills, few markdowns and few stock-outs. This is supported also by its corporate culture encouraging and rewarding initiative and innovation. Low cost leadership helps the firm above average returns in the industry despite strong competitive forces . Traces of cost leadership are noticeable in the value chain. Wal-Mart saves costs by holding stocks for less than 48 hours in its inventory. Wal- Mart is known to negotiate with suppliers for the lowest cost of the product without any frills and marketing expenses which adds to the cost later. Wal-Marts purchase by the truckload saves costs again by bulk purchasing. Wal-Marts inventory handling and logistics distribution with its own fleet of 2000 plus trucks help attain a cost effective distribution channel than relying on unreliable suppliers networks which costs in delays. But is Wal-Marts strategy based solely on cost or does it have any other attributes based on its characteristics. Wal-Mart appears to have a differentiation strategy. The differentiation strategy is one of differentiating the product or service offering of the firm, creating something that is perceived industry-wide as being unique. It can be design or brand image, technology, features, customer service, dealer network or other dimensions High degree of customer service with store greeters and no questions asked policies reaffirms Wal-Marts differentiation from its competitors. Every Day Low Price strategy helped reinforce Wal-Mart was the lowest price. The third generic strategy advocated by Porter is the focus strategy. The focus strategy is focusing on a particular buyer group, segment of the product line or geographic market as with differentiation, focus may take many forms .Wal-Mart right from its foundation located its stores to out of town areas with small populations. This was a segment ignore by its competitors giving Wal-Mart an edge over competition by locating itself in a low competitive environment before it creates competition. Wal-Marts focus on the segment of people targeted as well as its location of stores, does give it an attribute of the focus strategy. Effective implementation of any of these generic strategies usually requires total commitment and supporting organizational arrangements that are diluted if there is more than one primary target .Arguably Porter termed organizations attempting cost leadership and differentiation together as stuck-in-the-middle and it does not lead to competitive advantage and its sustainability. Academic criticism is not new and Porter has received his share of it. Most strategists feel low cost leadership alone, does not lead to competitive advantage unless there is an element of differentiation. A strategy combining elements of low cost, price and leadership is known as hybrid strategy .Mintzberg advocated the hybrid strategy for it combines both elements of low cost leadership with differentiation. However, the fact can not be denied that Wal-Mart has a focus strategy as well as a differentiation strategy. Overall the company thrives on cost leadership. The global validity of these are tested with Wal-Marts core strategy in every market it operates, it maintains cost leadership in all activities as well as it maintains its differentiation by having exemplary service. The adoption of the focus strategy globally can be critiqued as Wal-Mart is unable to expand into most markets like UK and Europe with tight zoning regulations and its entry into these markets have been through mergers and acquisitions. But the focus of the segment of customers targeted remains undiluted though the focus of location geographically is understood to be compromised considering the market conditions. SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE Wal-Marts sustainable competitive advantage can be attributed to its cost advantage supported by its inventory management skills and processes and expertise in supply chain management (which can not be replicated considering the scale of operations) and its culture which promotes aggressive customer service and satisfaction through satisfied and happy associates.The ability to build and maintain relationships with its customers, suppliers, and its associates and its speed in innovation and initiative ness is also a source of sustainable competitive advantage. CORE COMPETENCIES FOR WAL-MART Prahalad and Hamel (1990) define core competencies as the collective learning of the organization, especially how to co-ordinate diverse production skills and integrate multiple streams of technologies. The cumulative learning acquired with experience in an industry enhances a firms competence. Wal-Marts core competence can be said to be its knowledge achieved by its inventory management skills with its supply chain management facilitated by its innovations like the cross-docking techniques and its innovation in information technology and in relationship strategy maintained with its customers, suppliers, and associates and its cost strategy achieved with its scale of operations. This passes the three tests whereby its providing added value to customers and is difficult for competitors to imitate considering the scale of operations to achieve such economies and provides access to wider markets. Wal-Marts achieves competencies from: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Cross docking à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Supply chain management à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Communication strategy with suppliers and associates à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Relationship strategy with suppliers and associates à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ People strategy à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Cost strategy à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Location and market strategy à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Ability and inspiration from Sam Walton à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Customer service strategy à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Knowledge management à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Innovation in I.T. and warehousing and inventory management Although an exhaustive list, Wal-Mart does achieve and maintain the above in proportions unseen in its industry. Although they are imitateable, competitors have been unable to replicate the entire series and sustain it. Profit verses non-profit objectives: We can see one difference in both the objectives i.e. in profitable objectives we have to emphasise revenue, profit growth and our product must be able to fulfil our customer demands. But non-profit objectives are just to complete the need of our organisation i.e. general community, health and welfare.

Humanitys Fall in John Miltons Paradise Lost :: Milton Paradise Lost Essays

Humanity's Fall in Paradise Lost      Ã‚   The original sin that led to humanity's fall in the Garden of Eden is by far the worst sin committed by humankind.   It is this sin that led to future sins.   This original sin   must be emphasized by writers to depict the evil involved in it.   In writing Paradise Lost, John Milton recognizes this fact and uses a variety of literary techniques to stress the evil in the story over the good.   The techniques used include a series of parallels with the parallel between good and evil being first and foremost as well, as symmetry to keep the poem in balance.   Paradise Lost is a poem essentially about the origin of sin and evil, as a result, Milton presents evil in a more coercive manner than good.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Satan and his followers in Paradise Lost are presented as being more evil than God and his disciples are good.   God addresses the Son to be in the likeness of himself in Book three by saying, "The radiant image of his glory sat, his only Son."(Bk. 3, 63-64).   Although this implies that the Son is a model of perfection as is God, it does not clarify it by stating it outright.   Milton definitely portrays Satan's evil in Book four by asserting that Satan is hell and that evil is his good because good has been lost to him. (Bk. 4, lines 75, 108-110).   Satan's moral state further decays in Book nine as detailed in a soliloquy at the beginning of the book by Satan.   Satan recognizes his descent into bestiality after once being in contention with the gods to sit on top of the hierarchy of angels.   He is unhappy with this "foul descent" and in turn wants to take out his grief on humanity.   Despite recognizing that revenge eventually becomes bitter, Satan wants to make others as miserable as he is.   It is i n destruction that he finds comfort for his ceaseless thoughts.   (Bk. 9, lines 129-130, 163-165).   Satan is described at length in an epic simile that compares his great size to that of mythical figures.   This simile drags on for sixteen lines of direct comparison.   This comparison to mythical figures makes the reader think more about the subject therefore invoking more thought about

Ikea Global Marketing Essay

IKEA crossing cultural boundaries to furnish the globe 1. How has IKEA successfully sold its home furnishing products in so many countries around the world? Do global customer segments truly exist? Ikea targets consumers who tend to have a young ‘mental age’ — that is, people who have a youthful outlook regarding the design of home furnishings. Industry analysts have described IKEA’s approach as targeting middle-class consumers including first-time home buyers, young families, and people renting their homes that transcend global needs. However, students may argue for forces against global segments, such as resistance to international brands in favour of local brands and anti-western sentiments. Students may also note cultural/attititudal differences in various product categories that make targeting global segments difficult. 2. How important in its marketing is the role of IKEA’s Swedish brand image? What are the implications for marketing? Students should answer the question in relation to the role of country-of-origin effects. These country-of-origin effects influence how consumers rate quality, and sometimes, which brands they will ultimately select. Consumers tend to have an established attitude or even a preference when it comes to a particular product being made in a particular country. This attitude might be positive, negative or neutral. This plays a critical role in IKEA’s marketing strategy, serving to differentiate its value proposition from its competitors and position its brand clearly in the minds of consumers. (Hint: Elaborate on how Ikea utilizes its C-O-Effect in its marketing efforts) 3. To what extent has IKEA practised a standardised strategy versus an adapted strategy in its global strategy? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach? IKEA’s products are manufactured, packaged, and positioned the same way regardless of the country in which they are sold to a global segment. However, IKEA localises its advertising to consumers where absolutely necessary for various country markets, and has created different versions of their products to appeal to cultural preferences. The major advantages of IKEA’s global standardised strategy are: 1. Cost savings/Mass Production 2. The design and implementation of a standardised marketing mix. 3. Branding control. The major disadvantage are: 1. Unable to fully localise its product range to meet the specific cultural needs and sensitivities of different markets. 2. Limited selection of advertising appeals for some markets to arouse the attention of local consumers. 4. Some say communications, especially the internet and television, enable a global culture to be broadcast to all societies. Are the cultures of the world becoming more similar or more different? Discuss. Global marketing, travel, pop music, popular culture, networked news media and the internet are all forces pushing the world into a more global culture resulting in similar consumer behaviour. Students could discuss the increasing role of technology as a driver of global media with global television networks and the internet, enabling the transfer of cultures across boundaries and acting as important global promotional tools for global brands.

Gender Anthropology

Gender Anthropology Introduction Biology explains the differences between men and women through their sex (biological classification). This is usually possible as women and men have different sexual organs and the disparity in the sexual organs of men and women explains the differences in both sexes. There are also individuals who have both the male and the female sex organs and they are referred to as hermaphrodites as they are neither males nor females. They usually possess a combination of both female and male traits even in their day to day lives.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Gender Anthropology specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Culture tries to explain what it really means to be a woman or a man in a certain community since different communities have different cultures. The term gender has been coined up over time to try and explain culturally constructed roles of women and men in a certain community. The presence of infants furt her contradicts the explanation of what gender is as children also have roles they are supposed to play in the society. Gender is dynamic and varies across different cultures of human societies. All these descriptions of what it means to be a woman or a man in a certain specific society changes over time and interactions with the environment are very important in this process, as right from childhood through middle age up to old age, gender roles keep on changing (Brettell Sargent, 2009). Perspectives to gender The exponential growth in technology leading to globalization has helped in exposing a bigger platform for the discussion of the critical factors that explain masculinity or femininity of individuals in the society, whether they are products of nature or culture. This has been possible as globalization has exposed diverse cultures to each other thus enabling cultural interactions beyond territorial borders. In most of the developed societies, they attribute sex to either mas culinity or femininity thus, they have constructed societal expectations of either a woman or a man mostly based on the tasks, duties and responsibilities expected of them to perform in that specific society, which is usually guided by the culture of that society. Despite this assertion, there has been a variation of masculine and feminine traits across cultures in different parts of the world. Infants at their tender age do not have expected cultural roles despite them either being males or females though they acquire them as they graduate from boyhood to manhood and as girls graduate to womanhood. Infants are not able to depict their masculinity or femininity; rather, they seem neutral individuals in the society (Counihan, 1999). The reliance of kids at early age to their parents, their optical, social capabilities and activity level cannot be adequately used in distinguishing their masculinity or femininity. Rather, these characteristics become more manifested in later developmen t stages of life, thus indicating the important role the environment plays in shaping and defining masculinity or femininity of an individual in a society.Advertising Looking for essay on anthropology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More If the biological sex of an individual determines their gender, then, it could be a very big distinction between infants of either sex. However, this is not the case as toddlers do not depict knowledge of whether they should be masculine or feminine. More so, there is no biological reason or structural evidence as to why they should be so. The terms sex and gender have been used as if they are synonyms despite there being a very big distinction between the two terms. Sex is the biological classification of a man or a woman whereas gender is the societal and cultural constructions of what it means to be a woman or a man in the community or society in question. Sex is a natural constructio n of individuals being of either male or female sex whereas gender is cultural construction of masculinity or femininity (Brettell Sargent, 2009), thus, the term gender is a product of culture and not of nature. Evidence that gender is a product of nature and culture In trying to show that gender is a cultural construction and that it is dynamic, Brettell and Sargent (2009) explored the situation in the United States of America and discovered that for a long time, it was taken that men were equal to masculinity and that women were equal to femininity. Women were considered to be the weaker sex that required protection from men. This made women to be kept away from combat as they were also considered to be sources of human reproduction that is critical for the survival of society. Women were viewed as symbols of femininity and childbearing. Human females are naturally expected to be the child bearers and care takers. However, this assertion has generated criticisms from scholars in the contemporary times who challenge its validity. The task of cooking and food preparation has also been taken to be a feminine task and thus, more often than not assigned to women while men are taken or considered to be the caretakers of their families in terms of them being their families’ breadwinners. On the other hand, men are thought to be more rational, critical thinkers and independent beings, capable of undertaking their activities without reliance on anyone.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Gender Anthropology specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More They are thought to be stronger and better than women both bodily and in their intellect. They are not expected to be hyper active in household chores such as bringing up of the children. As such, the parenting roles of men should be distinguished from those of women. The division and specialization of labor for men and women traditionally is done such that wom en engage in unpaid household chores while men take up the paid up work. Mothers are presumed to be the home laborers while husbands are expected to provide for the household through paid labor performed in the labor market. The roles and expectations that are linked with these discrepancies assist in construction and definition of gender roles despite the contemporary state of employment of both men and women outside their households. In trying to prove that nature has an upper hand in definition of a man and that of a woman, Brettell and Sargent (2009) terms gender roles for women and men as natural behaviors. In explaining why women ought not to be involved in combat, they argue that â€Å"women don’t have the physical and psychological strength† (p.89). They also add that women’s potential for conceiving and child bearing and consequent rearing makes them unfit for involvement in combat. The reasons given by the United States for barring women from taking up combat positions seems to point out a product of culture and socialization rather than biology. The assertion that men are more aggressive than women has no or has little evidence to support it hence its validity is usually put to question or debated mostly in developed societies which are more liberal in their view of life and its issues. The conception that women are deficient of the preferred extent of aggression seems to be a justification used/employed by the society as a whole to differentiate the roles and responsibilities of women and men (Counihan, 1999). On the other hand, if indeed women are less aggressive than men, they could also make good parents. In some cultures, such as the Aka fathers of Central African Republic, men are known to take up very active roles in bringing up the kids. This can be attributed probably to the dynamics of their societal structure.Advertising Looking for essay on anthropology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Men and women work interactively to provide for the community as they embrace communal mode of production. This enables the fathers to have more time to interact with their children and family unlike the case of most men in Western societies. From this, evidence speaks for itself that men can also take the responsibility of nurturing and rearing their children and that its just pressures from their cultures that make them to think that they naturally do not have the ability to do so (Counihan, 1999). Conclusion Brettell and Sargent (2009) have succeeded in explaining that the differences in masculinity and femininity can be explained through incorporation of the biological sex of an individual, plus the environment they are brought up in. We are persuaded that gender is a product of both nature and culture. The varied differences evident in gender roles across different cultures and societies show that gender description must incorporate both culture and nature. The gender assigned roles that men are more aggressive than women and that they fit better in combat unlike women, are just societal constructions by the military and the community at large to bar women from taking up positions in combat. It is thus evident that definition of one’s gender is a product of both nature and culture. Gender therefore varies across the diverse cultures and it is dynamic as it is subjective to changes in the environment. References Brettell, C., Sargent, C. (2009). Gender in cross-culture perspective. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. Counihan, C. (1999). The anthropology of food and body: gender, meaning, and power. London: Routledge.

Reality Television in Society essays

Reality Television in Society essays Reality television is just that television. Television is a form of entertainment. Most television shows, except for the news, have no informative aspect to them. This includes reality television. Reality television does not help people deal with their real-life problems. Like all entertainment it offers an escape from real-life problems through entertainment. Reality television is entertainment not an informative show like the news or some instructional video. It does not have information that can be useful in a real world setting. A show like The Osbornes demonstrates how a dysfunctional spoiled, rich, and famous family lives. So unless the viewers are equally rich and famous than their lives arent like the Osbornes lives. Other shows like Survivor, Fear Factor, and Road Rules take ordinary people and put them in unusual situations, because of the entertainment value. No matter how similar to reality the situations on these shows are, they lack many aspects of reality. People watch these shows because they remove the more unpleasant aspects of reality. If the viewers wanted reality they could always watch the news but [t]he nightly news brings us stories of suffering and sacrifice, victims and violence(Sacks 5). Certain aspects of life are not entertaining, this is why these aspects of real life are not included in reality television. Reality television is entertainment it makes viewers forget about their ordinary lives, if only for 30 minutes or an hour, and think about the excitement on television. Nwosu said it best when discussing reality television and reality when he said, normal people are seeking a way to escape their mundane lives and to enter a world in which their lives could be anything but boring. Reality television, should be renamed avoid reality television, because it helps viewers avoid and escape reality. ...

buy custom Information Technology essay

buy custom Information Technology essay Increasingly, the success of various organizations depends on their abilities to gather, produce, maintain, and disseminate information and knowledge. Knowledge work is particularly important in any information society. The ability of an organization to generate information and effectively employ it through productive fields will determine the organizations success in the competitive world; and the ability to invent and use technological know-how in the areas of core competence is prerequisite to success of business. The phrase Information Technology encompasses the methods of collecting, processing and disseminating information which is vital in management. For instance, there is a growing awareness of the contributions made by information technology in various management aspects. This paper delves the use of information technology in management of various sectors. Information technology and management In the education sector, information technology enables various universities to offer degrees through online distance education programs. A new economic imperative in higher education and innovations in information technology drives this revolution in distance education as the universities are moving to instate totally online certification programs, courses and complete degrees (UNESCO, pg 4-5). As the availability and power of information technology grow, various traditional statistics courses are modified to take the advatage of new software developed for carrying out statistical analyses as well as teaching new statistical concepts. Information technology has is greatly used in business management. With large business corporations becoming the order of the day, there is large amount of data that is created every day. This could be in the form of transaction-data created any time a customer makes purchases, to product-data that is based on inventory level, to category-data that is used to correlate consumption of different products. In ideal situations, this data is useless unless it is converted to a form that business managers are able to understand and use. In such cases, information technology becomes very important. For instance, Management Information System (MIS) which deals with capture, processing, storage, distribution and presentation of information is used. Nowadays, information technology has evolved to an extent that MIS can send information to hand held-computers. This allows the managers to get information as it unfolds and it enhances quick decision making. In the transportation sector, information technology offers various strategic tools that enhance efficiency, increase responsiveness, reduce costs and improve decision making processes (Allen, pg 1). Information technology enhances great improvements in the transportation sector through enhancing eases include traffic signals, traffic congestion management and freeway ramp metering. In addition information technology is being used in automation of highways which offers great capacity increases (Mason Deakin, pg 8-9). Conclusion From above, it is evident that advances in information technology pose new opportunities for various sectors in the society. The use of such technologies can transform not only the efficiency at which tasks are performed, but also the pattern of organization and work relationships within the concerned sectors. Buy custom Information Technology essay

Interview and National Political Research Paper

Interview and National Political - Research Paper Example National policy of a country is in line with its manifesto and its aspirations towards the global relationship with outside world. National policy serves in multiple ways; it allows protecting the sovereignty of the state, presenting the state’s ideology and most importantly enables engaging into dialogue and mediation with outside world for the betterment of its economic, social and political condition. Syria is one similar country that has a clearly defined national policy and foreign policy that allows it engaging into global relations. Based on its geo strategic importance Syria holds significance for number of reasons. These reasons stretch beyond geographic, social, political factors. It has gained importance in recent times due to the ongoing events in the region. The region in itself is of high importance considering the neighboring countries and the natural location. Keeping the global impact in view, the Arab Spring that took off from Tunisia, was one similar event w hich engulfed fire in the neighboring countries. The aim of Arab spring was to eliminate the status quo. Since Syria also fell in the line of fire courtesy Bashar Al Asad’s status quo existence, the fire of spring penetrated deep into Syrian towns and cities; triggering a civil war. The objective of this paper is to get a familiarity with the international politics and the world scenario. This is done through an interview conducting. The interview will allow understanding different facets of a research study along with global politics and geography comprehension. The paper is divided into three major sections, the first part deals with the geographic details of Syria, the second gives an insight into the form of government in place, while the third entails Syria’s relationship with United States of America. Brief overview of the country Syria is located in the Western Part of Asia. It is a Muslim populace country with different percentages of Shiite and Sunni followers amongst them. Other nations within Syria include Christians, Kurds and some traces of Turks are also visible in the country. Geographic location is of high importance and thereby makes it center of attention in the entire world. It is in the vicinity that includes Lebanon, Israel, and Turkey as its neighboring countries and their borders are mutually shared. Mediterranean Sea lies to its West and adds another point of importance on strategic front to its location. It also shares border with Jordan and Iraq making it one of the most entangled and attached country with other regional states. Modern day existence: The modern day existence stretches back to the end of World War 1 when the mandate system was introduced for the first time under the auspices of League of Nations. Syria was given under direct protection and guidance of France(Commins, 111). This was as a result of abolishing of Ottoman Empire. The second resurrection of Syria took place in 1946 (Darke , 12) right after Fir st World War when a sovereign republic came into existence. The size of Syria is 186,745 (square kilo meter). The total population of Syria is around 22 million. The characteristic of Syrian population is a multi cultural outlook consisting of Muslims and Christians in small amount. Syrian people are largely hospitable; they are fond of good food, traveling, outings in the local towns and cities. Their ways are depictive of Arabian culture, music is part of their culture, and so is art. Amongst the Muslims that constitute around 95

Q5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Q5 - Essay Example The culture plays a major role in global information system management. Since the culture strongly influences management practices, such as decision making, policy-making, and system development strategies. However, the research on cultural dimensions offers a theoretical base that has been normally utilized for discovering the effects of cultural differences on the implementation and acceptance of information systems. These dimensions of culture are: (Kim & Peterson, 2003) Additionally, the complication of GIS development augments with the cultural dissimilarities in the countries concerned, particularly when the project manager is unable to recognize or distinguish the factors and overall situations that must be measured all through the global information system implementation. In addition, other complexities and challenges take place because of different languages, business, and official environments, vendor and technology help, national communications, local market size, the presence of local IT skills, and data export controls. Normally, culture differences affect global projects more than local projects because the straightforward and uncomplicated information system implemented locally can become a nightmare (a challenging task) if implemented globally (Biehl, 2007). Different techniques and technologies can be used to help resolve above discussed issues, for instance outsourcing is a best solution when workforce is less qualified. Social networks and other collaboration tools can be used to improve communication between international teams. As physical and logical security regulations are dissimilar, and they require to be tackled in cycle. Companies and Governments have previously spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the union of logical and physical security solutions. Security inside the business organization has previously been

Egomania Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Egomania - Essay Example Another factor that is also worth noting about egomania patients is that they are not in love with themselves per se, but with the image that they create and believe that people will accept and respect (Kernberg, 257-287). This disorder has been found to possess a higher prevalence among men and male and female narcissists tend to use different techniques which include seduction, sexuality and physique. The above mentioned traits make it very difficult for these individuals to interact with other people and this aspect of the disorder has been widely debated. The paper will be dedicated towards analyzing the impact egomania symptoms have on other individuals. As mentioned above, egomania is associated with self-obsession. These patients rarely credit or acknowledge other individuals around them. This attribute is likely push people away (Kernberg, 257-287). For example, if a group of students carries out a project together. Egomania will not accept the input of others and instead illustrate their own viewpoints. This is likely to push other students away as they will be willing to participate in the project and gain a deeper understanding of the principle involved. In addition, every individual needs accreditation for his or work and this factor is likely to push other people away (Kernberg, 257-287).... The same example may also be used for workers in company as they are likely to be closer to their bosses. They are likely to be considered as â€Å"workaholics† and are also determined to go the extra the extra mile in this setting (Miller, 640). The bosses will have confidence when they delegate work and assignments to these individuals as they are less likely to neglect their responsibility. They are also likely to volunteer themselves for certain roles to show themselves and the community their superiority (Miller, 640). Egomaniacs also feel superior to everyone around them as they feel they have capabilities that other people do not possess. This factor is likely to have a negative impact on the attitudes of work mates towards these individuals. It is human nature for one to want to feel valued and making someone feel inferior is likely to decrease a person’s self esteem and hence reduce his or her positive feelings towards the oppressor. These individuals are also different to others around them as people are normally courteous, and humility has become an admirable trait in societal norms. Therefore, the way they act is likely to place them in a separate category from the standard behavioral traits and people are often unwilling to accept these negative changes. Egomaniacs have also been found to have a higher likelihood for success. This is because the attributes associated with this condition makes the people less attentive to societal distractions. Their goals and motivations are only centered on success and they have no conceptions of failure (Ronningstam, 222-227). This is an appealing quality to individuals in different spheres of life as these people

Saudi Arabian Oil Company (ARAMCO) Research Paper

Saudi Arabian Oil Company (ARAMCO) - Research Paper Example Oil currently represents approximately 86% of exports down from 88% in 2003 (Ministry of Economy and Planning 2010). It has led to an improvement in the standard of living of the Saudis and has contributed to every aspect of the Saudi Economy. It has impacted positively on education and training and on the development of the country’s infrastructure. Improvement in the standard of living and the Saudi economy Oil wealth has led to a transformation of Saudi Arabia, a country that was once dependent on agriculture. The standard of living as represented by gross domestic product (GDP) has improved and continues to do so. Saudi Arabia is now recognized as an upper middle income country with per capita GDP at US$15,711 in 2005 (nation master n.d.). The country’s human development index (HDI) which is a better indicator of the standard of living stood at 0.772 in 2006 and placed it at 75th out of 178 countries in 2005 (Nation Master n.d.). The company is now a welfare state w hich indicates that it provides unemployment and other benefits including retirement to its citizens. These improvements have been driven by oil, both directly and indirectly. The industry triggered the demand for various services and products to both drive the industry and as spinoffs. Jaffe and Elass (2007) states that the petroleum sector represents 40% of the Saudi Arabia’s GDP and is therefore the cornerstone of the economy. This sector is driven by Saudi Aramco which is described by Jaffe and Elass (2007) as the most influential oil company in the world. Saudi Aramco manages 98% of the oil reserves in Saudi Arabian which represents 25% of the world’s reserves (Jaffe and Elass 2007). Between 2003 and 2010 both nominal and real GDP has grown. Real GDP calculated at 1990 prices increased from SR686.8 billion in 2003 to SR869.0 billion in 2010. The only year that experienced a decline was 2008 when it fell by less than SR1 billion. Nominal GDP grew from SR804.6 billi on in 2003 to SR1, 630 billion in 2010. Since taking over from agriculture, oil continues to be the main contributor to GDP representing a significant portion of exports. Vitalis (2007) states that in addition to building up the oil industry Saudi Aramco has also provided the expertise and support required to move the Saudi Kingdom out of its backward state by developing and modernizing its agriculture, transportation, education, and health and welfare provision. Impact on education and training Saudi ARAMCO has contributed significantly to the development of education in Saudi Arabia. According to Al Dawood (2010; qtd. in Smith 2010) a major portion of Saudi Aramco’s investment in human resources is reflected in the number of the company’s employees, (including students who are expected to work with Saudi Aramco after graduation) to study at various universities and institutions across the globe. Simpson (2000) also indicates that Saudi Aramco’s pre-university College Preparatory Program (CPP) has made annual contributions to Saudi students studying in Europe and the United States. Although fluctuating from year to year this trend has been on the increase. Despite the fact that growth in oil production has declined (Ministry of Economy & Planning 2010) the company continues to play a positive role. According to VooDooDog (2009) Saudi ARAMCO has c

Inoperability Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Inoperability - Research Paper Example (2010). All these applications applied individually will support communications through interfaces which demand for constant maintenance and modification due to their dynamism. This as one way of attaining operability has not proved worthwhile. Similarly, there is standardization of an interface can as well be employed in attaining operability since this method eliminates the extra cost which would be incurred when building separate interfaces. The second approach is fuel by the fact that application developers are able to construct applications that are in line with the standardized interfaces, this increases the prospects of interoperability hence reducing cost which also includes reduced maintenance costs since there is a drop in the number of the interfaces to be accorded maintenance. The health level seven (HL7) is an application protocol for exchange of data in the healthcare environment. It is developed to be used to transfer data of healthcare information from department or f unction to the other basing its applications on the vast concept of application to application exchange of message system. The HL7 is the unit in form of an atom that passes data through systems. Or instance, the HL7 facilitates the admission of patience to a hospital or giving a lab order for blood test (Au, S, 2003). Every world real world event is defined by HL7 through an abstract messaging system which is comprised of a group of segments in a defined criterion and the rules and regulations for the construction of such abstract is created by the HL7 developed message framework which comprises of elements which are the building blocks and follows a hierarchy in context. Individually, the elements are associated by the factors like option ability, value set, length and data form that gives a constraint to them. The other components such as segments and segment groups are likely to compose additional elements while sub-components are purely primitive in nature since they are in the position of holding a data value without having a descendant structure Electronic Healthcare Information Security. (2010). HL7 was not there in the past but in the onset of its development, it was basically formed to give room too many dynamic business procedures that face the healthcare industry. However, the wider forms resulted into standardization which in turn created so many optional parts hence the alignment of the implementation of interfaces proved futile. HL7 applications are normally joined in two ways that is point to point or through the middleware which is clearly shown by the interface engine outcomes. Point-to- point applications entails the connection of each pair of applications in an independent way while the middle way application is the process where all the applications are connected centrally to the message broker. The operating system interconnection separates the functions of the protocols into five main layers with every layer having only a function of the layer that is found below it. This is the protocol stack and it is used for implementation in the software or hardware with the lower layers in the hardware and the higher in the software Data Exchange Standards, Health Level Seven Version 2.5 an application protocol for electronic data exchange in healthcare environments. (2009). In a variety

Respond Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 8

Respond - Essay Example The narrator spins the story around several occurrences at the office. These range from the worsening situation of the company caused by leaving of the clients which subsequently leads to the firing of the employees; to personal issues faced by the employees such as Amber’s unexpected pregnancy, speculation about personal life, death, illness, fear of work place violence, Benny’s totem-pole dilemma, Carl’s depression and pharmaceutical abuse as well as the disintegration by Chris over his chair issues. The story culminates with the discovery that the cool-headed Lynn is dying of cancer. I feel that the ‘we’ connotation used by the narrator is questionable to some extent. This is because even though the narrator uses the plural pronoun ‘we’ to narrate the story and insinuate a sense of solidarity at the workplace, this is far from the truth as the coworkers know every little about each other and are unable to maintain genuine long-term relationships at the

Saudi Arabian Oil Company (ARAMCO) Research Paper

Saudi Arabian Oil Company (ARAMCO) - Research Paper Example Oil currently represents approximately 86% of exports down from 88% in 2003 (Ministry of Economy and Planning 2010). It has led to an improvement in the standard of living of the Saudis and has contributed to every aspect of the Saudi Economy. It has impacted positively on education and training and on the development of the country’s infrastructure. Improvement in the standard of living and the Saudi economy Oil wealth has led to a transformation of Saudi Arabia, a country that was once dependent on agriculture. The standard of living as represented by gross domestic product (GDP) has improved and continues to do so. Saudi Arabia is now recognized as an upper middle income country with per capita GDP at US$15,711 in 2005 (nation master n.d.). The country’s human development index (HDI) which is a better indicator of the standard of living stood at 0.772 in 2006 and placed it at 75th out of 178 countries in 2005 (Nation Master n.d.). The company is now a welfare state w hich indicates that it provides unemployment and other benefits including retirement to its citizens. These improvements have been driven by oil, both directly and indirectly. The industry triggered the demand for various services and products to both drive the industry and as spinoffs. Jaffe and Elass (2007) states that the petroleum sector represents 40% of the Saudi Arabia’s GDP and is therefore the cornerstone of the economy. This sector is driven by Saudi Aramco which is described by Jaffe and Elass (2007) as the most influential oil company in the world. Saudi Aramco manages 98% of the oil reserves in Saudi Arabian which represents 25% of the world’s reserves (Jaffe and Elass 2007). Between 2003 and 2010 both nominal and real GDP has grown. Real GDP calculated at 1990 prices increased from SR686.8 billion in 2003 to SR869.0 billion in 2010. The only year that experienced a decline was 2008 when it fell by less than SR1 billion. Nominal GDP grew from SR804.6 billi on in 2003 to SR1, 630 billion in 2010. Since taking over from agriculture, oil continues to be the main contributor to GDP representing a significant portion of exports. Vitalis (2007) states that in addition to building up the oil industry Saudi Aramco has also provided the expertise and support required to move the Saudi Kingdom out of its backward state by developing and modernizing its agriculture, transportation, education, and health and welfare provision. Impact on education and training Saudi ARAMCO has contributed significantly to the development of education in Saudi Arabia. According to Al Dawood (2010; qtd. in Smith 2010) a major portion of Saudi Aramco’s investment in human resources is reflected in the number of the company’s employees, (including students who are expected to work with Saudi Aramco after graduation) to study at various universities and institutions across the globe. Simpson (2000) also indicates that Saudi Aramco’s pre-university College Preparatory Program (CPP) has made annual contributions to Saudi students studying in Europe and the United States. Although fluctuating from year to year this trend has been on the increase. Despite the fact that growth in oil production has declined (Ministry of Economy & Planning 2010) the company continues to play a positive role. According to VooDooDog (2009) Saudi ARAMCO has c

Respond Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 8

Respond - Essay Example The narrator spins the story around several occurrences at the office. These range from the worsening situation of the company caused by leaving of the clients which subsequently leads to the firing of the employees; to personal issues faced by the employees such as Amber’s unexpected pregnancy, speculation about personal life, death, illness, fear of work place violence, Benny’s totem-pole dilemma, Carl’s depression and pharmaceutical abuse as well as the disintegration by Chris over his chair issues. The story culminates with the discovery that the cool-headed Lynn is dying of cancer. I feel that the ‘we’ connotation used by the narrator is questionable to some extent. This is because even though the narrator uses the plural pronoun ‘we’ to narrate the story and insinuate a sense of solidarity at the workplace, this is far from the truth as the coworkers know every little about each other and are unable to maintain genuine long-term relationships at the

Literature Review - Business Schools Role in Society Essay Example for Free

Literature Review Business Schools Role in Society Essay Introduction Since 2007, the people of this planet have been living on 150 percent of its natural resource capacity (WWF, 2010). Increase in consumption does not show any signs of slowing down, as a consequence of emerging third world countries. The role that business schools play in this situation and its importance cannot be understated (Financial Times, 2010). In order to save this planet, we need to create a sustainable business environment, where corporations put ethics and social responsibility in front of profits. We need to switch the focus of all businesses from shareholders to stakeholders. Can this actually be taught? Or do governments need to legislate such actions? This topic is especially interesting because of the weight of our future that lies within this. If we do not change the way we teach students about core values of our society, the future of our planet may become very undesirable. These sources were acquired mainly from the EUR sEURch engine, as well as reading several articles from global news agencies in order to grasp a certain overview of this topic. * * * Literature Investigation * Addressing Concerns Raised by Critics of Business Schools by Teaching Multiple Approaches to Management (Dyck, B et al. 2011) 0 This article is a study about two ways of teaching management at classroom level. The article mentions concerns from other researchers about the way management is being taught in today’s universities. The authors argue that today’s students have a materialistic-individualistic point of view during their studies, and that these characteristics are consolidated during their time in the business study. These arguments are supported by an experiment. The authors indicate that there is flaws in the way business schools teach, and therefore actions should be taken. Others reject this and say management is an objective science. * This article might help to understand how business schools can change in order to make students more focused on stakeholders and ethics than shareholder profits. The article was published in a journal called Business and Society Review. It holds many references, where three of them are from Harvard Business Review. It was published 2011, therefore its currency cannot be questioned. Arguments are supported by an experiment. However, only one experiment was conducted which included a relatively small sample. The role of business schools in society (Cornuel, E 2005) The main subject of this article is very closely related to arguments stated in the introduction. It underlines the important role that business schools play to raise awareness of corporate social responsibility. It briefly mentions the need of humbleness in today’s business schools. Published in The Journal of Management Development in 2005, the importance and relevance of this article has become more of a current interest after it was published. Although the arguments are logical, this source does not provide sufficient support for its arguments. However, it does discuss interesting points and views within the subject. The author is Eric Cornuel, an Affiliate Professor at HEC, and Director General CEO of EFMD. The non-profit turn and its challenges for business schools (Cornuel, E Kletz, P 2011) Here, the researchers describe the challenges that business schools are facing today. Aiming towards the increase in demand for managers with an education in non-profit organizational management. The increase in large foundations (Bill Melinda Gates Foundation for example) is supposedly one of these demand shifters. The recent financial crisis is also argued to be one of the reasons for the movement towards education for non-profit and sustainability management at top business schools. There are two different models in how to change the curriculum in order to fill this need. The Double Standard Model, which argues that non-profit organizations should be managed differently than ordinary businesses, while the Business-Driven Model argues the opposite. Same author as in the previous source, Eric Cornuel, together with Pierre Kletz, Mandel Leadership Institution, Jerusalem, Israel. This research paper was published in the Journal of Management Development in 2011. This source gives meaningful insights to how and why business schools should make changes in their curriculum. Strategy Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility (Porter, M Kramer, M R 2006) This article was published in the Harvard Business Review in 2006. It is about how corporations can benefit from corporate social responsibility, instead of seeing it solely as a cost. One of the two authors is Michael Porter of Harvard Business School, one of the world’s most famous economists. This source is highly reliable because of two reasons. 1. Reputation of the author. 2. For the fact that it was published in one of the world’s most prestigious journals. It provides useful information for my future arguments, when it comes down to what business schools and businesses can gain from increasing CSR, and thereby improving global sustainability. Conclusion These articles all have one common argument. Business schools have to change. The disagreements lie in how this change should be executed, and what result that is to be expected from it (Financial Times, 2008). They all agree that business schools have a major impact on society, and therefore a great responsibility. Most researchers focus on how corporations must change, consequently leading to a change in demand for young managers with special skills in that area. Hence provoking the change of the business schools curriculum. This could be seen as delegating the responsibility of change to those corporations. As shown in the recent financial crisis, greed can make top executives act unethically, with no sense of corporate social responsibility. Should corporate social responsibility be legislated in order to achieve global sustainability? What role do business schools play in this? How can business schools act to ensure a positive future for our planet? Bibliography WWF 2010. Human demand outstrips natures supply, viewed 14 April 2012, http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/demands_on_our_planet/ Financial Times, 2010. Schools ignore sustainability revolution, viewed 17 April 2012, http://search.proquest.com/docview/756187538 Dyck, B et al., 2011, ‘Addressing Concerns Raised by Critics of Business Schools by Teaching Multiple Approaches to Management’, Business and Society Review, Volume 116, Issue 1, pp. 1 – 27, viewed 17 April 2012, retrieved from Wiley Online Library database. Cornuel, E 2005, ‘Role of Business Schools in Society’, The Journal of Management Development, Volume 24, Issue 9, p. 819, viewed at 17 April 2012, retrieved from ABI/INFORM Complete database. Cornuel, E Kletz, P 2011, ‘The non-profit turn and its challenges for business schools’ Journal of Management Development, Volume 30, Issue 5, pp. 483 – 491, viewed at 17 April 2012, retrieved from ABI/INFORM Complete database. Porter, M Kramer, M R 2006 ‘Strategy Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility’, Harvard business review, Volume 84, Issue 12, p. 78, viewed at 17 April 2012, retrieved from Business Source Premier database. Financial Times, 2008. The importance of sustainability, viewed 16 April 2012, http://search.proquest.com/docview/229149506 Self Reflection I approached the writing of this essay by and initial review if my previously submitted work, in order to grasp the full context, but also to see where I wanted to go and remind myself of the opinions I had while writing. I mostly free wrote for quite some time, and then later putting it all together with more approvable sentences in an academic sense. My biggest struggle was to get all the sources together to create some sort of an overview of the topic, since many of the articles were devoted to certain specific topics. I (hopefully) overcame this by reading a lot of different sources, and making connections to my own topic. I learned that starting an essay by free writing is the best approach for me personally, although a lot of time has to be dedicated to editing in the end, especially in the sense of making it all stick together as a whole piece. *

Environmental Influences on Happiness

Environmental Influences on Happiness Critical Evaluation: The Contagion Effect of Happiness The thought of happiness had sparked much interest among past psychologists. Dated back in the 20th century, happiness had been a rising area of concern. However, many studies have yet to converge on a universal definition of happiness. Despite so, several longstanding studies permit the definition of happiness to be a subjective well-being construct consisting of positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction (Bartels Boomsma, 2009; DeNeve Cooper, 1998; Diener, 2009). In recent years, the factors that predict happiness has caught great amount of attention in the realm of psychology. Specifically, the question lies in whether happiness can be contagious either through the social network or genetic influences. A recent paper by Matteson, McGue, and Lacono (2013) has offered insights to address the discrepancy between social network and genetic influences. The central tenet of the paper investigates the contagion hypothesis of happiness. Specifically, it seeks to find the impact of the well-being of family members on individual well-being. In an attempt to account for previous ethological findings by Fowler and Christakis (2008), the authors had adopted an adoption design as an alternative test of shared environment effects on happiness. A sample consisting of 284 adoptive, 208 non-adoptive and 123 mixed families were selected from the Sibling Interaction and Behaviour Study (SIBS; McGue, Keyes, Sharma, Elkins, Legrand, Johnson, 2007). Results revealed that family members have no similar levels of happiness when they are not genetically related. In fact, the authors have noted that the findings demonstrated the consistency with behavioural genetic literature among genetically related famil y. Hence, challenging the contagion hypothesis. In view of these findings, the current paper will review the findings of Matteson et al. (2013) to further justify and suggest drawbacks that may have been oblivious to the authors. In addition, this paper will employ various key works to provide auxiliary for the review of methodology, results and discussion sections of Mattesson et al. (2013). In Fowler and Christakis (2008) study, a social network analysis was employed to study the impact of happiness level of people in an individual’s social network. However, although Mattesson et al. (2013) had also focused on the contagion hypothesis of happiness, they have noted that both genes and environment could have played a role in the influence of happiness among people. Thus, a superior component of Matteson’s study was that they drew on the adoption design to include both genetic and environmental effects in the investigation of the contagion hypothesis. This had allowed them to examine if genetically unrelated family members in a shared environment would have similar levels of happiness (Matteson et al., 2013). However, an adoptive family environment may not be representative of the general family environment (Lemery Goldsmith, 1999). Rueter, Keyes ,Iacono, and McGue (2009) have noted that the interactions between families could have differed between adoptive and non-adoptive families. This suggests that interaction factors could have impacted child adjustments. In addition, McGue et al. (2007) found that there is an increased in parent-child conflict in adoptive as compared to non-adoptive families. Such factors could have influenced the well-being of adoptees. As a result, the inclusion of adoptees for the contagion hypothesis illustrates that the authors could have oversight the assumption of family environment. Also, it should be noted that instead of a shared environment in adoptive studies, siblings might experience a unique environment instead. A unique environment is an environment that is not shared by siblings or families (Neisser, Boodoo,Bouchard, Boykin, Brody, Ceci, Halpern, Loehlin, Perloff, Sternberg, Urbina, 1996). According to Braungart, Plomin, DeFries and Fulker (1992), siblings raised in the same family might experience a unique environment whereby both siblings may have diverse range of peers, attend different education systems and may experience different style of bonds with their parents. As a result, the authors failed to notice that a unique environment may be experienced by siblings in an adoption design. Future research in this area could include the use of family design (Lemery Goldsmith). Family design enables the assessment of siblings, parent versus off-springs. half-siblings, uncle versus nephew, auntie versus niece, grandparent versus grandchild and first cousin pairs (Pike, McGuire, Hetherington, Reiss, Plomin, 1996). This would allow more in-depth opportunity to investigate both shared and unique environments on the contagion hypothesis as it investigates a variety of relationships as compared to the limited parent-child and sibling relationships in an adoption design. Previous work by Fowler and Christakis (2008) utilized the items from the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) as a measure of happiness. Although the CES-D was developed to examine depression, items pertaining to happiness were chosen to question about experiences and feelings on happiness in the past one week. In contrary, Matteson et al. (2013) had employed a Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire to examine happiness. The MPQ is a personality measure which assesses cognitive and affective components of life. Diener (2009) have noted that test-retest reliabilities have demonstrated that a correlation of .54 to .73 accounts for stability in well-being scales of MPQ. Thus, the use of MPQ could be a reliable measure for the well-being construct of the affective component on happiness. However, the authors could have overlooked the purpose of MPQ as a measure of trait instead of state happiness (Stones, Hadjistavopoulos, Tuuko, Kozma, 1995). As MPQ was mainly developed as a personality measure, the items were inclined towards trait-like properties of well-being and happiness. Thus, the results on happiness construct could have actually reflected the trait happiness instead of state-level happiness. Tellegen (1982) have noted that MPQ is a self report questionnaire to measure the disposition to feel good. Also, the utilization of this measure in other studies tends to yield genetic influences on happiness (Weiss, Bates, Luciano, 2008). In other words, MPQ was oriented towards the assessment of trait happiness instead of state-level happiness. Therefore, the use of MPQ by Matteson et al (2013) may have been an oversight as they failed to recognize that the use of MPQ could have skewed the data towards the findings of trait personality instead of happiness on the ba sis of situations. Hence, resulting in their findings of familial correlations among genetically related instead of unrelated family members. It is suggested that the authors could have employed the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) in conjunction with the MPQ to assess the subjective well-being of participants (Hills Argyle, 2002). The OHQ is a 29 item measure that taps on the self-esteem, sense of purpose, social interest and sense of humour. The combination of both OHQ and MPQ would serve as a better stringent methodology to elicit an equal amount of trait and state-level happiness. Extensive studies by McGue et al. (2007) have demonstrated that the Siblings Interaction and Behaviour Study (SIBS) provides a good basis for the selection of participants for adoption design. Participants from the SIBS consisted of adoptive, non-adoptive and mixed families. This allowed identifications of characteristics between biological and adoptive families. Matteson et al. (2013) employed participants from the SIBS which is fairly representative for an adoption design. However, McGue et al. (2007) have noted that in order to differentiate adoptive and non-adoptive families in SIBS, they recruited participants on the basis of selection effects of certain factors. Evidence by Stoolmiller (1999) has shown that selection effects in a research study could actually affect participants who do and do not participate in the study. As cited in Matteson et al. (2013), McGue et al. (2007) have noted that after interviewing non-participants in adoptive and non-adoptive families, non-participating but eligible families differed minimally from participating families. However, the authors failed to recognize that McGue et al. (2007) were unable to interview 27% of non-participating families and this 27% could have differed significantly from the interviewed participating and non-participating families. Ruggles, Sobek, Alexander, Fitch, Goeken, and Hall (2004) concluded that this difference could have resulted in minimal sampling bias. Therefore, the details concer ning recruitment of SIBS sample could have inadvertently influence the results obtained. Furthermore, there are issues regarding the generalizability of the results presented by Matteson et al. (2013). The author did not report in the paper that SIBS samples were recruited from Minnesota only and not internationally. McGue et al. (2007) noted that adoptive families were ascertained from infant placements made by Minnesota agencies and non-adoptive families were determined by Minnesota State birth records. This suggests that the average sample were from Minnesota and hence, the results can only be generalizable to families of Minnesota. Therefore, the sample chosen could have implicated the results. A further consideration influencing the generalizability of the results presented by Matteson et al. (2013) is the choice of participants. Despite the participants being from the SIBS study, the authors did acknowledge that eligibility is limited to siblings of five years apart and adopted siblings who were adopted before age of two years (McGue et al., 2007). However, this age criteria suggest the limitation of generalizing the results to siblings of more than five years apart or adopted after the age of two years. Thus, the age criteria could have been an oversight by the authors as it suggests the inability to further generalize the results to others in a shared environment. Another limitation noted within the research was the onetime assessment of parent’s personality within the three years interval of the study. An established body of knowledge on personality have shown that personality changes throughout the lifespan (Haan, 1981). Findings by Haan (1981) revealed that re-test intervals on personality yielded that it does not remain stable overtime. In addition, Moss and Susman (1980) converged on a conclusion that the increased in time interval between personality tests contributes to the evidence of decreasing stability in personality. Matteson et al. (2013) have taken the changes in personality into consideration. In their study, the authors assessed well-being twice across a three years interval; allowing change over time. However, they had only assessed parent’s personality once. As mentioned, personality stability decreases over time. Thus, neglecting a second assessment of parent’s personality over the three years interval m ay have accounted for important information being overlooked and distorted the results. It is suggested that parent’s personality should be assessed at least twice as it constantly changes across the lifespan (Haan, 1981). Other methodological constraints in Matteson et al. (2013) paper include the use of results after a large dropout rate. Out of the adolescents participating at intake, only 83% returned and completed the well-being measure at follow-up. In other words, 17% of the adolescent have failed to complete the well-being measure at follow-up. It is possible that this 17% of dropout could have found the procedure to be dull or mundane which in turn, inflated the results attained. In addition, the authors had included the scores of the dropouts who had previously completed the intake but not the follow-up. Although they noted that the intake well-being scores of those who did not complete the well-being measure did not differ significantly from the well-being scores of those who did return, it should be known clearly that those results should not be taken into account as it reflected only the intake and not the follow-up scores (Matteson et al., 2013). Thus, it is inappropriate for the authors to make an assumption that the similar results would be obtained for the follow-up. Hence, the comparison was not clear and fair. As a result, the inclusion of the 17% at the intake results could have affected the entire study’s results. In summary, the findings suggest that shared environmental influences on happiness may not reflect contagion effects. While shared environment is an important aspect in the adoption design, it should also be noted that siblings in both adoptive and non-adoptive families may experience unique environments (Neisser et al., 1996). As such, biologically related siblings showed more support as genes could have played a higher factor in the influence of happiness as compared to environment. This suggests that the findings of the paper by Matteson et al. (2013) do provide some novel insights. However, intense research is required to understand more details between shared environment and unique environment. The authors have failed to recognize that despite the high reliability MPQ well-being scale might not be the most suitable measure for happiness. Future research is needed to examine a comprehensive well-being scale to measure happiness as evidence suggests that the use of MPQ well-being scale could have been skewed more towards trait happiness. References Bartels, M., Boomsma, D. I. (2009). Born to be happy? The etiology of subjective well- being. Behavior Genetics, 39, 605-615. Braungart, J. M., Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., Fulker, D. W. (1992). Genetic influence on tester-rated infant temperament as assessed by Bayleys Infant Behavior Record: Non- adoptive and adoptive siblings and twins. Developmental Psychology, 28, 40-47. DeNeve, K. M., Cooper, H. (1998). The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 197-229. Diener, E. (2009). Assessing subjective well-being: Progress and opportunities. In E. Diener (Ed.), Assesing well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener. Social Indicatiors Research Series 39(pp. 25-65). Dordrecht, NL: Springer. Fowler, J. H., Christakis, N. A. (2008). Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network : Longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study. British Medical Journal, 337, a2338. Haan, N. (1981). Common Dimensions of Personality Development: Early Adolescene to Middle Life. In D. H. Eichorn, J. A. Clausen, N. Haan, M. P. Honzik, P. H. Mussen (Eds.). Present and Past in Middle Life (pp. 117-151). 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