The Work of Walt Disney Essay - 1948 Words

Walt Disney: From Failure to Household Name â€Å"I only hope we dont lose sight of one thing- that it was all started by a mouse† - Walt Disney (Walt Disney). Who is that mouse that started it all? Mickey Mouse, that is who started it all. What did he start? He started the success of Walt Disney, his creator. Walt Disney can often be compared to some of the most successful industrialists due to him entertaining an unlimited number of people and for being one of the best people that could sell their hard work (Crowther). The greatest thing he did in his career was bringing his own imagination to animation (Finch 127). Walt Disney overcame failure by creating Mickey Mouse, starting the Walt Disney Company, and creating the legendary Disney†¦show more content†¦Mickey made Odom Disneys name known all around the world. Mickey and other characters were in North American and European comic books after World War II ended in 1945 (Spurgeon). This proved that Disneys famous characters were still well received after a disastrous war. Mickey Mouse appeared later on in the popular 1955 childrens show The Mickey Mouse Club until it ended in 1959 (Spurgeon). Walt Disney could clearly achieve success in the animation industry and the television industry. Mickey Mouse continued to succeed after Walt Disneys death in 1966. Disneys show The Mickey Mouse Club had two later version in 1977 through 1978 and from 1989 to 1995 (Spurgeon). Walt Disney was able to create a television show that lasted after its original run. The Disney Company has continued to distribute items that Mickey appears on (Spurgeon). Mickey has also become the corporate symbol of the Disney Company (Maltin 49). Disney was able to create a character that could achieve success on its own and help his com pany. To many, Mickey is the most favored and famous cartoon character (Spurgeon). Mickey would not have come about if Disney had not failed and because of that failure Disney achieved one of his greatest successes. Before the Walt Disney Company, Disney owned and worked at many other production companies. Disney and animator Ub Iwerks met in Kansas City and worked together at Kansas City Film Ad Company and Laugh-o-Gram Studio.Show MoreRelatedEssay on The Real Walt Disney1080 Words   |  5 PagesThe Real Walt Disney Walt Disney as a real man. Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois to his parents, Elias Disney an Irish Canadian and Flora Call Disney, a German American. Walt was one of four children. Walt and his brother Roy and sister Ruth grew up in Chicago, where they attended Benton Grammar School together. He worked hard throughout his schooling and helped support his family during difficult times. When Walt was 23 years old, he and his sweetheart, LillyRead MoreWalt Disney : King Of Animation1619 Words   |  7 PagesWalt Disney: King of Animation â€Å"If you can dream it, you can do it† and that is exactly what Walt Disney did (beginnings).These words meant that Walt Disney visioned the world in ways many did not. He created and founded many well known landmarks, movies, and animations. Walt Disney’s creative talents as an artist led him to invent sound animation and later become an entrepreneur of the first wide-scaled theme park. Walt Disney, born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901, was the child of EliasRead MoreAnalysis Of Walt Disneyssnow White 1716 Words   |  7 Pagescompanies in animation is called Walt Disney. This entertainment and media company is situated in almost all continents, excluding Oceania. Usually when we think in Walt Disney, we think in magic films and in the Walt Disney Resort that is situated in Orlando, Florida, but television plays a huge role too. Walt Disney manage diverse media networks; being Freeform, ABC, ESPN and Disney Channel the ones with more recognition. The company was founded in 1923 by the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio who signedRead MoreWalt Disney : The Monopoly Of Entertainment1177 Words   |  5 PagesFabos) The Walt Disney Company is one of the world’s largest media conglomerate’s which specializes in entertainment. The company overlooks, â€Å"the movie, TV, toys and theme parks business by owning six of the top ten franchises in the world.† (Disney: The Monopoly of Entertainment.) Through all of their services, The Walt Disney Company has impacted and continues to the impact the lives of both children and adults. Walter Elias Disney and his brother Roy founded The Walt Disney Company onRead MoreEssay about Organizational Culture in Walt Disney Corporation1677 Words   |  7 PagesBUS 100W 10/24/12 Walt Disney: Organizational Culture Disney as a company first started as an animated film industry in October 16th, 1932. They were originator of the infamous cartoon Mickey Mouse that put them on the market. From then on Walt Disney became one of the biggest animated film companies. Through the years Walt Disney developed a theme of â€Å"to bring happiness to all† through â€Å"magic† and Disney’s team of creative and innovative people would continue Walt Disney Company as it is todayRead MoreWalt Disney-Leader Essay example1494 Words   |  6 PagesLeader-Walt Disney Walt Disney is the prolific creator and leader of The Walt Disney Company. Disney is most recognized for his gallant efforts which created the Disney empire, yet his leadership style is one that has melded into a company culture and a prescribed way of organizational leadership. Disney is a man of many words and accomplishments which has led the Disney organization to extensive success. Throughout his 43 year career in film and television, Disney was the personification ofRead MoreWhy Do Dreams Come True?1712 Words   |  7 Pagesknows the name â€Å"Disney†, but where does it come from? Who was the intelligent and imaginative person who had the desire and heart to create this entertainment empire? The man was Walt Disney. Through a long road of rewrites, rejections, and reconstructions, Disney created a new look for the entertainment in America. It all started with one little cartoon mouse, originally named Mortimer Mouse, but later changed to a more recognizable name of Mickey Mouse. Not only did Walt Disney create Mickey MouseRead MoreWalt Disney: American Dream Achiever Essay857 Words   |  4 PagesWalt Disney—American Dream Achiever Dream come true, profound influence, persistent efforts, and the success after the setback; those elements compose the definition of the American Dream. Walt Disney undoubtedly was a successful American Dream achiever. He and his brother co-founded Walt Disney Productions, which became one of the best-known motion-picture production companies in the world. He created Mickey Mouse who turned into one of the most famous cartoon characters in animation history(â€Å"WaltRead MoreAnalysis Of Walt Disney s Disney 1575 Words   |  7 PagesWalt Disney Thesis: Many of us enjoy Disney movies and theme parks, but not many of us know the story and life of Walt Disney himself. I.Early Life Birth Dec. 5, 1901, Chicago, Illinois Fourth Child Childhood 1. Loved drawing animals 2. Had Siblings 3. Moved Often C. Teenagehood School 2. World War I Red Cross Ambulance Corps II. Career Education Apprentice Cartoon Classes Jobs Paper Boy Film Ad Company Laugh-O-Gram Films, Inc. StudioRead MoreWalter Elias Disney Essay1290 Words   |  6 PagesWalter Elias Disney is a very famous animator, producer, director, screenwriter, entrepreneur, and voice actor. Walter Disney was born on December 5, 1901 and died on December 15, 1966. This man is very well-known to children from the ages five to sixteen. Every child in America watches Disney Channel on television. The parents to these children know that the shows on Disney Channel were made to entertain children like their own. Disney Channel is only one thing that has Walter Elias Disneys name

Paradaise Lost by John Milton and The Divine Comedy by...

INTRODUCTION It has been commonly accepted that John Milton is acquainted with Dante Alighieri who has a great influence on Milton’s epic Paradise Lost. The significance of The Divine Comedy for Milton lies especially in Dante’s Inferno and Purgatorio. Scholars1 have quoted plentiful echoes of Dante throughout Milton’s works, and have compared these two great poets for centuries. In the 19th century Mary Shelley employed a cluster of images and ideas from Milton’s Paradise Lost (especially from Book Ten) in Frankenstein -- the work that establishes the fame of Mary -- to forge her novelistic world of desire, deterioration, and desperation. Therefore, this novel has been studied many times for Miltonic echoes and influences. In†¦show more content†¦And the â€Å"iron cowls† are worn by the hypocrites in The Divine Comedy: Below that point we found a painted people, who moved about with lagging steps, in circles, weeping, with features tire and defeated. And they were dressed in cloaks with cowls so low they fell before their eye, of that same cut that’s used to make the clothes for Cluny’s monks. Outside, these cloaks were gilded and dazzled; but inside they were all of lead, so heavy that Frederick’s capes were straw compared to them. A tiring mantle for eternity!3 (CANTO XXIII, 58-67) Instead of being a retold story of Paradise Lost, Frankenstein, resonant with Dantean echoes, is in a sort of way, an infernal story portraying a modern Prometheus in a modern hell caused by mad science. Therefore, this essay, with a concentration on the image of Dante’s hell-fire, analyzes the significance and origin of this infernal flame burning from The Divine Comedy to Frankenstein. The first part generally makes an assay of the essence of fire in Dante’s Inferno. Then the second part minutely analyzes this forbidden hell-fire burning in the protagonists’ hearts which makes them lingering and suffering forever. At last, the third part generalizes and summarizes the fire of desire in this novel which further exhibits its Dantean echoes of hell-fire. THE HELL-FIRE IN THE DIVINE COMEDY Before starting their journey to Hell,

Eveline Analysis Free Essays

Ashley Carey ENC 1102 MW 12:30- 1:45 8/29/12 After reading â€Å"Eveline† by James Joyce I would say I was not overall shocked with the outcome of her not leaving. Throughout the story I could tell that Eveline was unsure of herself and of what she wanted. She couldn’t decide between running away to Buenos Aires with her lover, Frank or staying to make sure her family is looked after. We will write a custom essay sample on Eveline Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now I felt that her age is a significant factor of her choice of staying in Dublin. She didn’t understand herself enough because she didn’t experience life to see how she deals with difficult life changing situations. I felt like her choice shows herself to the audience. She could have chosen to go with Frank and come off to some readers as â€Å"following her heart†, maybe â€Å"selfish†, â€Å"thinking about her future and what she desires in life and in her heart†, â€Å"not caring for her family†. I personally feel like her decision to stay was a more â€Å"comfortable† decision for her and she wasn’t taking risks and was thinking about the love for her family and siblings and not wanting them to get hurt in anyway. If her mother hadn’t told her before she died to keep the home together as long as she could, I felt that Eveline would have ran away with Frank not feeling guilty when she left; That she didn’t do the one thing that her mother asked of her before her death. How to cite Eveline Analysis, Essay examples

Company Performance

Question: Consider a publicly listed company whose business performance has been criticised publicly and, using its annual report, reference documents about the company (e.g. analysts reports, in-depth interviews and articles, documents on companys website) and write a report about its governance protocols and practices. (This could include independence of directors, length of tenure of directors, other responsibilities of directors, etc.). Answer: Introduction This assignment is based on the subject area of corporate governance in the organization. During the assignment, the main focus is on the Noble Group and its corporate governance protocols and practices. The assignment covers the case study of Noble Group, which states about the scandal done by the higher authority of the company. This particular assignment follows a particular and systematic structure. In the beginning of the assignment, a short description of the background of the company is given and after that, the discussion is made on the criteria based on which the corporate governance of the company will be criticized. Next the critical review of the organizations governance is discussed and then the recommendations are provided for the future development of the companys corporate governance. At the end of the study a summarized conclusion is given based on the findings of the assignment. Brief description of the organization Noble Group is a Hong Kong based supply chain Management Company, which was founded in the year of 1986. Presently, the company is operating its business in more than 60 locations in Hong Kong and other countries. The core business strategy of the company is to provide the best service related to the movement of the physical commodities from the producer or manufacturers to the end customers and at the same time management of the operational and market risks (Aoki, 2013). The main strength of the company is the relationship with the customers and the producers of the products. However, in recent past, the company has faced an obligation of doing a scandal in which it has been obtained that the company has overstated its assets by billions of dollars. Due to this scandal, the company lost its rating in investment grade. An outline of the bases of criteria It has been stated above that the company Noble Group made a scandal in which it had overstated its assets by billions of dollars. This type of scandal of the company indicates that the corporate governance of the company was weak or in the other words it can be said that there were some faults in the corporate governance of the company. However, during study the corporate governance of the company that is Noble Group is critically analyzed on the basis of the three criteria and those are fair disclosure of the financial results, directors responsibilities and the accounting standards (Bhaduri and Selarka 2016). All of these three criteria are very important in order to determined whether the corporate governance of a company (here the Noble Group) is in proper structure or not and whether the corporate governance of the company is working properly or not. For example, the fair disclosure of the financial results of the company shows how much the corporate governance of the company is active in motivating the employees in fair disclosure to meet the transparence need of fair accounting. This also indicates the structural strength of the corporate governance of the company. On the other side, the directors responsibilities indicate how much the board of directors of the company is responsible towards their duties (Bhadur. and Selarka 2016). This helps to identify the actual flaws in the corporate governance structure of the company. In the same way, the accounting standard shows the extent to which the company has maintained the accounting rules and regulations provided by the regulatory body of the country or the regulatory body in the international market. Therefore, the critical analysis of the corporate governance of Noble Group based on these above-mentioned three criteria will provide the better result to understand the reasons behind the scandal (Bonnerjee and Ghosh 2014). Critical review of the organizations governance During the critical review of the controversies that the company created, some key concepts of corporate governance must be duly stressed on and studied. These key concepts help us to critically evaluate and compare in the lights of corporate governance and the Noble Group. The first concept that we study is fairness. According to this concept, the board of directors is obligated to treat their stakeholders fairly. This requires safeguarding the interests and stakes of the stakeholders. In the scandal that we study, we focus on overstating assets and other unfair practices. This definitely did not follow the first major concept. The next main concept that requires critical study of the corporate governance is independence. The board of directors is not advised to interfere in other areas of the organization. This was not the case with Noble Group as the board of directors was actively involved in different area of the companys operation as a mean to involve in fraudulent activities. The next concept of corporate governance is honesty. The board of directors is expected to discharge their duties in an honest way as they are responsible for managing and safeguarding the stakes of many stakeholders. The controversy of Noble Group depict the fact that the b oard of directors were involved in unfair and dishonest practices, which led to the controversy created by the company. The next concept that we refer to is integrity. This concept reflects on the fact that managers need to consider moral and ethical grounds before making any decision. This was not true and applicable in the case of Noble Group as they majorly involved in scrupulous and fraudulent practices that contravened every moral and ethical practices. Transparency is one of the key concepts of corporate governance. It can be seen that the board of directors are expected and obligated to make sure that the disclosure of material evidences are made in a timely and accurate way. The distortion and overstatement of assets by billions of dollars does not reflect the observance of this quality. Therefore, one can see that transparency was not at all present in the reporting standard and the financial statement of the company. The next concept that needs to be highlighted is accountability. The board of directors is accountable to the owners. Therefore, it needs to be seen that the controversy created by the board of directors is under the governance of the shareholders since they are directly accountable to shareholders (Bhadur. and Selarka 2016). The next concept that needs to be highlighted is the responsibility concept. This concept reflects on the fact that board of directors should ensure that the company works within the legal framework and legal aspects. However, on reviewing the case of Noble Group, we get to see that the company contravened accounting standards and guidelines and other legal rules during the scandal it created. The Iceberg research depicted the failure of the company to observe the accountability and responsibility principle and concept of corporate governance. It can be viewed that the Noble Group comprises of many stakeholders in the form of shareholders, bondholders, supplier and banks who had a lot of stake in the company. A lot of investment and money were tied up with the company. Therefore, they had a lot of questions to ask the company and they were in their rights to ask and the company was obliged to answer. Questions on the profitability of the company, cash receipt, fairness of the values of the assets and liabilities in the balance and so on were raised, which the company refused to answer during the period of controversy. One of the critical issues that were seen in the controversy created by Noble Group is the lack of fair disclosure of the annual report. The reports of Noble Group depict severe distortion and manipulation of the financial and the annual reports of the company. The reports represent and untrue representation of the companys state of affairs and operations. The company presented a positive cash flow but did not provide adequate disclosures, which could highlight the fair disclosures of the companys records. The positive cash flow statement did not provide information about the short hedges contribution to the cash generation despite the fall in prices of the commodities. This was an alarming sign when it came to disclosure policies and statements (Bonnerjee and Ghosh 2014). From the Iceberg report it was very evident that the company was heavily indulging in manipulation of accounting standards and exploiting accounting loopholes. This was one of the major loopholes that the company committed, which gave rise to the controversy. Yancoal is an Australian coal mine company. Noble Group listed the Yancoal as the associate of the company. The company depicted a carrying value of $678 million in its annual report in 2013 and depicted $614 after considering the losses and impairment of the company. The company only held 13% stake in the company (Hall 2015). It however, transpired that the market value of Yancoal was $11 million. This was a gap of almost $603 million between market value and carrying value. This highlighted 55% overstatement of the value of Yancoal, which was relating to the 13 % stake of the company. It was 7 times more than the market cap of Yancoal. This was relating to the 13% stake of the company in Yancoal. It was inferred that a company needed to hold more than 20% and less than 50% stake in a company to be termed as an associate (Salter 2015). Thus, Yancoal would be termed as a long term investment instead of an associate. Noble Group retaliated with a justification that Yancoal was an associate and not a long term investment. There were however no justification of this fact and it was determined that it was a tricky prospect that Noble Group manipulated with in order to distort the accounting standards and principles. The associate of Yancoal was Yanzou. It can be seen that the only reason that the company held Yancoal as an associate in the annual records and statement was to write off the $603m loss. It can be seen that a long term investment needs to record and maintain values as per fair values and the current market values. The accounting standards depict the fact that values of the associates are recorded at carrying value and historical cost and no thrust on market values is given. The current standards o f Accounting Standard Boards and International Financial Reporting Standards have underlined the different standards and accounting principles. The company misused and exploited loopholes in accounting treatments and manipulated with accounting standards and principles (Chen 2014). The company failed to observe appropriate disclosure policies and did not indulge in fair disclosure of annual reports and financial statements. It can be seen that the company recorded a $100m for loss of control of subsidiary. This profit was recorded in the operating income of the company. The non recurring profit of the company was also recorded in the operating income of the company. This fabrication of the information was also recorded because the cash generation and the profitability of the companys income were not conforming to the economic reality and were distorted figures. Therefore, one could see the companys failure to adopt fair accounting practices, the companys failure to adopt disclosure policies and fair disclosure of the financial statements and the inability of the Board Of directors to observe the principles of corporate governance (Chen 2014). The companys policy of creating fictitious associates was visible in the case of PT Atlas as well. The company held 10% share in the company and tagged the company as an associate in the annual reports. Before becoming an associate, PT Atlas was used as a trading against financial asset. Later on, the company became an associate for Noble Group. A profit was registered on re-measurement gain on interest of $25.5 m. This was against the accounting policies and standards and it inflated the annual statements and books of accounts for the company. Noble Group has been constantly indulging in avoiding impairment and manipulating gain with the creation of associates. The company has been criticized on the grounds of corporate governance policies of honesty and integrity. It can be viewed that the companys management has been involved in scandals and controversial episodes relating to the operation of the company. Agri, which became the associate of the company in 2014, was recovered through controversial methods of depreciation cuts etc. Thus, one can see the lack of responsibility and authority of the managers in maintaining honesty and integrity in their duties, which was a sign of lack of corporate governance existing within the company and scrupulous methods followed in the company (Aoki, 2013). The company follows the policy of recognizing the profit from the contracts on the day the contract signed. The auditors opinion explains the scope of how manipulation of the commodities contract price is manipulated and with the lack of disclosure policies observed by the company, the company does not shed enough light on the fair values of the commodities (Tricker 2015). The companys profit surged with a decline in the operating cash flow. On comparing the operating cash flow and the working capital, it can be seen that the company inflated the fair value by $3.8 billion and it signaled towards impairment of the fair value, which was critical to record a fair and true representation of the annual and financial statement of the company. The company failed to adopt appropriate disclosure policies of the company and also failed to implement fair disclosure of the financial statements and annual reports. The inflation of the profits and the valuation of the companys assets and commodities reflect manipulation and exploitation of the accounting standards and techniques. It reflects the manipulation and dishonest means adopted by the board of directors to escalate the profit and reflect an untrue image of the company (Claessens and Yurtoglu 2013). The operational activity was not reflecting the real image and did not depict a true image of the company. The net profit and the operational cash flow were a major report to the stakeholders and thus, the misrepresentation was a major fraudulent activity discharged to stakeholders (Claessens and Yurtoglu 2013). The company adopted the policy of rebuttals and retaliations towards critics and launched a series of rebuttal questions to the critics and decided to sue them. They were incapable to observe the transparency and the accountability principle of corporate governance. The company defended itself on the lines that they did not have much access to commodity prices in the market due to the fact that they were asset light and it led them to develop market to market on the assets and thus, it deprived the company of fair values. However, such defensive statements were rendered to be baseless (Tricker 2015). List of recommendations There should be a strong and independent group of board of directors that can take firm and critical decisions in an honest and correct way to overcome the loopholes and major errors committed by the former board of directors. The board of directors should be such that they can provide appropriate balance and diversity to the company and lend necessary knowledge and skills to the company. The company needs to adopt better disclosure policies and needs strong regulating body in terms of corporate governance to make sure that the company follows all the rules and regulations and the current accounting standards and policies of the International Financial Reporting standards are followed. This will lead the company into adopting appropriate disclosure policies and standards, which will result fair representation of annual and financial reports. The stakeholders management theory is required to be followed, which requires the company to keep the stakeholders satisfied and answer the questions of the stakeholders. The loopholes of accounting treatments and practices need to be followed and implemented. The fair value through market value and current value of the commodities and assets need to be followed. This will enhance the fairness of the annual report and will therefore, lead to fair and true representation. The non executive directors should handle challenges and assist in providing proposals to strategies. The performance of the management needs to be reviewed and assessed from time to time to audit the management activities. The annual remuneration report should depict the employee share scheme so that shareholders can assess the cost and benefit to the company. The transparency policy needs to be followed, which makes it obligatory of the company to discuss every information including the name of employees who family members of directors and CEO. Conclusion The report depicts the massive scandal and controversy created by the company. Nobel Group. The scandal depicts the indifferent schemes and manipulative tactics adopted by the company to overstate the assets. The report depicts the measures adopted by the company in escalating asset prices of associates. The report depicts the exploitation of accounting standards adopted by the company and also depicts the lack of honesty and integrity of the management. The companys failure to adopt appropriate and correct disclosure methods is another important feature in this report. Reference List Amini, S., Lei, L. and Toms, S., 2016. Accessing Capital Markets: Aristocrats and New Share Issues in the Cycle and Pneumatic Tyre Industries, 1892-1898.Available at SSRN 2769908. Aoki, M., 2013. Controlling insider control: issues of corporate governance in transition economies.Chapters. Bhaduri, S.N. and Selarka, E., 2016. Corporate Governance and Corporate Social ResponsibilityIntroduction. InCorporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility of Indian Companies(pp. 1-10). Springer Singapore. Bhaduri, S.N. and Selarka, E., 2016. Corporate Governance: An Overview. InCorporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility of Indian Companies(pp. 61-72). Springer Singapore. Bonnerjee, A. and Ghosh, S., 2014. Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Protection.Development Advocate, Year,2. Chen, C., 2016. Solving the Puzzle of Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises: The Path of the Temasek Model in Singapore and Lessons for China.Nw. J. Int'l L. Bus.,36, p.303. Chen, C.C., 2014. Corporate governance of state-owned enterprises: an empirical survey of the model of Temasek Holdings in Singapore.Singapore Management University School of Law Research Paper, (6), pp.1-29. Claessens, S. and Yurtoglu, B.B., 2013. Corporate governance in emerging markets: A survey.Emerging markets review,15, pp.1-33. Lecomte, P. and Ooi, J.T., 2013. Corporate governance and performance of externally managed Singapore REITs.The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics,46(4), pp.664-684. Lopez, E.V. and Medina, A., 2015. Influence of ethical behaviors in corporate governance.International Journal of Managing Projects in Business,8(3), pp.586-611. McCahery, J.A., Sautner, Z. and Starks, L.T., 2015. Behind the scenes: The corporate governance preferences of institutional investors.Journal of Finance, forthcoming. McCahery, J.A., Sautner, Z. and Starks, L.T., 2015. Behind the scenes: The corporate governance preferences of institutional investors.Journal of Finance, forthcoming. Salter, A.W., 2015. Hall (2015), Calculating Bandits: Quasi-Corporate Governance and Institutional Selection in Autocracies.New Thinking in Austrian Political Economy (Advances in Austrian Economics, Volume 19) Emerald Group Publishing Limited,19, pp.193-213. Saxena, N. and Pramod, S., 2014. Corporate Social Responsibility, Governance-Frauds-Ethics Sustainability.Governance-Frauds-Ethics Sustainability (February 12, 2014). Tricker, R.B., 2015.Corporate governance: Principles, policies, and practices. OUP Oxford. Tricker, R.B., 2015.Corporate governance: Principles, policies, and practices. OUP Oxford. Trong Tuan, L., 2014. Corporate governance and brand performance.Management Research Review,37(1), pp.45-68. Tsui-Auch, L.S., 2012. Converging Divergence in Corporate Governance in Singapore. InThe Convergence of Corporate Governance(pp. 169-186). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Wintoki, M.B., Linck, J.S. and Netter, J.M., 2012. Endogeneity and the dynamics of internal corporate governance.Journal of Financial Economics,105(3), pp.581-606.

The main principles of development and learning by Vygotsky

As indicated in the study by Tajmel and Starl (2009), Vygotsky can be considered the leading, most progressive representative, and the greatest supporter of the social constructivism theories and concepts. â€Å"Two important concepts for Vygotsky are thought and language† (Tajmel Starl, 2009, p. 181).Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on The main principles of development and learning by Vygotsky specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This means that the child begins to understand the meaning of cultural patterns he/she encounters in the process of using language and thinking about the events that happen around with regard to the language patterns and situations in society. From Vygotsky’s perspectives, the learning and development are reviewed in the context of social learning and can be understood with the help of the language acquisition paradigms. The abbreviation ZPD refers to zone of proximal deve lopment explained by Vygotsky through the relationship between the actual level of development and potential level of development in the process of problem solving based on adult guidance or â€Å"in collaboration with more capable peers† (Tajmel Starl, 2009, p. 181). In other words, the zone of approximate development can be found out when a student is assessed comparing to other students of the same age and similar skills. The main principles of development and learning indicated by Vygotsky include scaffolding, social environments, and collaboration between a teacher and students or guidelines as the method to advance learning. In terms of Vygotsky’s concept, Pinter (2006) claims that all pupil’s learning take place through conversations with social interactions introducing a perfect theory for theme-based learning because the themes suggest social context in which different language patterns occur. Scaffolding is regarded as one of the major roles of a teac her in class with regard to the constructivist theory of education used for language acquisition instruction (Jonassen, 1999).Advertising Looking for assessment on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In addition, the scaffolding is viewed as the method which changes the support level the teacher provides to mentor students. In the lesson plan, interaction patterns clearly illustrate how pupils and teacher work together. Collaboration between students and teacher is regarded as one of the integral parts of educational activity in terms of constructivism theory where a teacher should mentor students in a democratic manner (Jonassen, 1999). Vygotsky (1978) believes that the knowledge is gained through practical implementation of certain theory. In other words, experience is the main way to learn something. This constructivist approach suggest a good background for the theme-based learning activities because students can le arn new concepts (in this case, students acquire a foreign language and learn new vocabulary units and language patterns) through some hypothetical situations. The study by Piaget and Inhelder (1969) also reviews the knowledge acquisition as the practical activity that takes place in specific learning environments. The advantages of pair work and group work were discussed in different studies (Doff, 1988; Martine, n. d.). As such, Doff (1988) claims that more active involvement and higher level of interest are the main advantages of using group work and pair work (p. 140) while Martine (n. d.) lists such advantages as â€Å"more secure and positive classroom atmosphere† and â€Å"increase [of] students’ talking time† (p. 35). At the same time, the role of a teacher in class may shift from guiding and assessing to scaffolding which is the basic role suggested for constructive development learning classes. The impact of such theorists as Vygotsky (1962), Bruner (1 966), Piaget(1967), and Garner(1983) on childhood education is enormous because each of these researchers contributed to understanding of applicable patterns to facilitate and advance effectiveness of learning.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on The main principles of development and learning by Vygotsky specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Bruner (1966) outlined the basic principles of education where one of the major roles belongs to conceptualisation of objects. In other words, all activities should be conceptualising according to Bruner. In the light of Vygotsky’s concept, Bruner’s model of representation can be considered the one introduced in the lesson plan discussed because action-based learning includes role-playing and games whereas image-based learning includes pictures and visual images; at the same time, the lesson plan uses symbolic/language representation in the activities because lear ners try to associate the words in the foreign language with certain symbols and words in the native language. The concept of scaffolding for lesson plans was discussed by Bruner and other researchers (Wood, Bruner, Ross, 1976). The lesson plan includes basic format and routines whereas warming up activities are regarded as routines because they are essential and cannot be excluded from the plan; at the same time, basic format includes a number of activities that can be either addressed or not during the lesson. Piaget’s perspectives are largely based on the theories by Vygotsky and are similar to those. The study by Sigelman and Rider (2011) focuses on the four stages of cognitive development suggested by Jean Piaget because he saw the cognitive development process as the way people adapt to the social environment. As such, the four stages of development include the following periods and typical tasks children can accomplish: sensorimotor (from birth to approximately 2 yea rs) is characterised by senses in combination with motor actions used by children to learn the world; preoperational (from 2 to 7 years) when symbolic meanings are addressed regardless of lack of logical thinking to build the patterns; concrete operations (from 7 to 11 years) characterised by acquisition of logical operations used for knowledge acquisition and data processing and evaluation with regard to reference to the real world problems and solutions; formal operations (from 11 years to older) when hypothetical and abstract concepts/problems are suggested to be solved (Piaget, 1977; Sigelman Rider, 2011, p. 49). Different levels of development and problems related to their recognition were also reviewed in the studies by Patterson (2008) and Erikson (1968). According to Piaget, pupils in this class are at concrete operational stage. At this stage, children are able to fulfil assignments that are based on concrete instructions as opposed to the abstract tasks where hypothetica l or abstract situations are suggested and abstract solutions should be found to abstract problems. In this respect, the children of 7-11 years old can accomplish the task where every stage is understandable and clear.Advertising Looking for assessment on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Criticism of Piaget’s thought includes the ideas about limit of the levels and concepts applied. â€Å"The developmental theory of Jean Piaget has been criticized on the grounds that it is conceptually limited, empirically false, or philosophically and epistemologically untenable† (Lourenco Machado, 1996, p. 143). Nevertheless, Piaget’s thoughts are helpful for teachers to select appropriate tasks and activities for students from different age groups and help them develop certain skills. Gardner’s perspective is largely based on the theories existing before in education though the major contribution of this author is the variety of intelligences that were believed to be developed through experience. Four learning styles listed by Reid (1987) introduce the differences in preferences of learning activities chosen by native speakers and foreign language learners to facilitate the process of choosing the most appropriate activities for the lesson plan. In th e lesson plan, activities are designed in different ways to fit different pupils. Cameron (2001) addressed theme-based teaching and included visualisation as one of the main factors of effective learning. Studies by R. Dunn (1983, 1984) and Reinert (1976) identify the major four learning channels of students. In this respect, the current lesson plan s based on the theories aimed at making the learning more effective. Evaluation As there is not perfect lesson plan, every plan designed with regard to certain theories and aimed to meet the needs of certain categories of students, is sure to have some advantages as well as disadvantages. In this respect, the current lesson plan is designed for students aged 9-11 who acquire foreign language in Taiwan with the help of learning activities created using theme-based learning. Advantages The main advantages of the current lesson plan include variety of materials used by the teacher to foster the discussion in class. Besides, every student ma y be interested in various activities which mean that the same activity for the entire period of the lesson would not be appropriate for the language acquisition class. In this respect, the variety of materials such as various games, description of pictures, story-telling, storybook reading, and role-playing contribute greatly to the effectiveness of comprehension of the taught materials and effective acquisition of the foreign language. The analysis of games may be carried out with regard to appropriateness or inappropriateness of this type f activity to language acquisition lessons. According to the study by Tough (2009), Vygotsky advocated the appropriateness of using playing games because it contributed greatly to the development of children. Pictures can be used in a lesson so that students can describe them using their inner speech patterns first and them applying the inner text into the spoken words (Santrock, 2001). In this respect, the pictures used for learning activities are aimed at serving as preparation models for students to formulate what they want to say with the help of their inner speech and then represent their descriptions of pictures. This can sometimes be difficult for foreign language learners because they may formulate their inner speech in their mother tongue whereas the oral descriptions are made in the foreign language. On the other hand, this activity would help students to use the foreign language for their inner speech as one of the main principles and tools for foreign language acquisition because students are taught to think in foreign language. Storybook reading and role-playing appear to be of special importance for the lessons aimed at mentoring students aged 9-11 years old because children have to be interested in the learning process and take active part in the process. Pictures can motivate learners and bring fun to learning due to the age of participants. Games can bring motivation to young learners as well as bright pic tures used for guiding the learners. In the lesson plan, teacher will introduce a story to the whole class while every pupil may have a specific perception of the characters and events presented in the story. A teacher may ask several comprehension questions from the storybook in order to assess the understanding of the text and the events including the relationship between different objects/concepts outlined in the story. Group work as well as work in pairs can be encourage for pupils because they may feel confused when asked to talk independently but contribute greatly to collective projects. The role-playing may be challenging and encouraging for students at the same time because they are asked to select a role and act it out using specific behavioural patterns typical of the subjects that are chosen for role-playing. As such, different social roles as well as professions, family relations, and other interrelations may be taught with the help of role-playing for foreign language learners. On the other hand, there are some disadvantages of this lesson plan based on constructive development theory. Disadvantages The main disadvantage of the current lesson plan is that students mostly use foreign language in class whereas they should have more opportunities in real life environment to apply their knowledge skills in practice. On the other hand, the current lesson plan can be considered a good method to overcome this disadvantage because the teacher may include more different topics related to everyday life into the lesson plans in order to develop students’ knowledge of language units and patterns that can be applied to various situations. To evaluate a language programme, many aspects have to be taken into consideration. If a teacher plans to include student’s evaluation with regard to the results of observations, certain assessment criteria and standards should be previously established. Reflection The current lesson plan seems to be structured in accordance with the theories and principles suggested by such theorist of constructive development models for learning as Vygotsky, Piaget, Bruner, and Gardner. All these researchers contributed greatly to the establishment of specific principles that can be used in class. As such, the lesson plan includes playing as one of the ways to develop a child while inner speech patterns are taken into account in the activities aimed at requiring answers to some questions: Students are asked to answer the question and they start formulating the answers by applying the inner speech patterns to the oral presentation. In this respect, the current lesson plan suggests a set of theme-based learning activities in order to involve the learners into acquisition of language patterns used in different social environments. At the same time, the activity has such disadvantage as the fact that learners do not use foreign language in everyday life when they rather use their mother tongue. Future Plans The future plans for the theme-based learning activities include a number of detailed sets that would reflect the everyday life of learners so that they could associate the topics taught in class with some patterns and concepts encountered at home and while communicating with friends outside the class. In other words, the class activities should aim to reflect the needs and interests, preferences and concerns of students they experience outside the class. As such, feelings and emotions as well as fears and concerns should be addressed during foreign language acquisition classes so that students could communicate effectively in foreign language. In addition, different types of activities should be included in order to cover all types of memory and perception of students. Reference List Bruner, J., 1966. Toward a theory of instruction. Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press. Cameron, L., 2006. Picture this: My Lesson. How LAMS is being used with pre-service teachers to develop effecti ve classroom activities. Proceedings of the First International LAMS, pp. 25-34. Available at: https://www.lamsfoundation.org/lams2006/pdfs/Cameron_LAMS06.pdf . Doff, Adrian, 1988. Teach English: a training course for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dunn, R., 1983. Learning style and its relation to exceptionality at both ends of the spectrum. Exceptional Children, 49, pp. 496-506. Dunn, R., 1984. Learning style: state of the scene. Theory into Practice, 23, pp. 10-19. Erikson, E., 1968. Identity, youth, and crisis. New York: Norton. Jonassen, D. H., 1999. Constructing learning environments on the web: Engaging students in meaningful learning. EdTech 99: Educational Technology Conference and Exhibition 1999: Thinking Schools, Learning Nation. Lourenco, O., Machado, A., 1996. In defence of Piaget’s theory: a reply to ten common criticisms. Psychological Review 103 (1), pp. 143–164. Martine, Linda, n. d. The advantages and disadvantages of using small g roup and pair work in the classroom, pp. 35-39. Web. Patterson, C., 2008. Child development. New York: McGraw-Hill. Piaget, J. Inhelder, B., 1969. The psychology of the child. New York: Basic Books, Inc. Piaget, J., 1977. Edited by H. E. Gruber J. J. Voneche. The essential Piaget. New York: Basic Books. Reid, J. M., 1987. The learning style preferences of ESL students. TESOL Quarterly, 21 (1), pp. 87-111. Reinert, H., 1976. One picture is worth a thousand words? Not necessarily. Modern Language Journal, 60, pp. 160-168. Santrock, J., 2001. A topical approach to life-span development. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Sigelman, C. K., Rider, E. A., 2011. Life-span human development. 7th ed. London: Cengage Learning. Tajmel, T., Starl, K., eds., 2009. Science education unlimited: approaches to equal opportunities in learning science. Berlin: Waxmann Verlag. Tough, S. P., 2009. Can the right kinds of play teach self-control? New York Times, 2009/09/27 (reviewing the â€Å"Tools of the Mi nd† curriculum based on Vygotsky’s research). Vygotsky, L. S., 1978. Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: MA, Harvard University Press. Wood, D., Bruner, J., Ross, G., 1976. The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, pp. 89-100. This assessment on The main principles of development and learning by Vygotsky was written and submitted by user Kristen W. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

World War 2, atomic bomb essays

World War 2, atomic bomb essays On 6 August 1945 the United States exploded an atomic bomb over Hiroshima and revealed to the world in one blinding flash the start of the atomic age. As the meaning of this explosion and the nature of the force unleashed became apparent, a chorus of voices rose in protest against the decision that opened the Pandora's box of atomic warfare. The decision to use the atomic bomb was made by President Truman. There was never any doubt of that and despite the rising tide of criticism Mr. Truman took full responsibility for his action. Only recently succeeded to the Presidency after the death of Roosevelt and beset by a multitude of problems of enormous significance for the postwar world, Mr. Truman leaned heavily on the advice of his senior and most trusted advisers on the question of the bomb. But the final decision was his and his alone. [1] The justification for using the atomic bomb was that it ended the war, or at least ended it sooner and thereby saved countless American-and Japanese-lives. But had it? Had not Japan been defeated and was she not already on the verge of surrender? What circumstances, it was asked, justified the fateful decision that "blasted the web of history and, like the discovery of fire, severed past from present"? [2] The first authoritative explanation of how and why it was decided to use the bomb came in February 1947 from Henry L. Stimson, wartime Secretary of War and the man who more than any other was responsible for advising the President in this matter. [3] This explana- On August 6, 1945, at precisely 8:16 a.m., the first atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima, Japan, just seconds after leaving the Enola Gay. It carried with it the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT. Everything within four square miles was desolated. On August 9, 1945, the second atomic bomb exploded at approximately 11:01 a.m. in Nagasaki, Japan, after being dropped from the B-29 Bockscar. This bomb contained the equivalent...

Explain the processes involved in a space shuttles flight path Essay

Explain the processes involved in a space shuttles flight path - Essay Example The paper is aimed to present and focus on the Space Shuttle flight path which is considered as the stages of the flight missions of the craft. The Space Shuttle flight path is composed of different stages. The first stage is taking off which can be compared to a rocket. The second stage is orbiting like a satellite. The last stage then is going back to Earth and landing like a glider. These routine flights are important for different purposes such as maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station. Other missions are also related to military, scientific and commercial purposes (Barrett, 1985; Dwiggins, 1985). The main system is officially referred to as Space Transportation System (STS). It is composed of the shuttle, the launch boosters and other components. The flight path of the Space Shuttle is composed of the launch, the SRB separation, fuel tank separation, orbit, retrofire, entry, approach and landing. These stages of the flight path are enabled by the different components such as the solid rocket boosters (SRB), the external fuel tank (ET), the orbiter or the shuttle itself and the three main engines integral to the orbiter (Barrett, 1985; Dwiggins, 1985; Freudenrich, 2001). The typical routine flight path of the Space shuttle starts with getting into orbit which is composed of the launch the ascent and the orbital maneuvering burn. The said stage is followed by the orbit phase when the main objectives of the mission are undertaken such as repair and maintenance of the different spacecrafts in orbit and the delivery of crews and supplies needed. After a few days to a maximum of 14 days in orbit, the Space Shuttle will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere again. Landing is the last stage of the mission wherein the aircraft requires the glider-like capability to be able to stay intact (Freudenrich, 2001). Launching a Space Shuttle can be considered as one of the most challenging

Persuasive synthesis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Persuasive synthesis - Research Paper Example Other issues contributing to the worsening of cancer’s challenges encompass gender and unstable economic statuses mostly affecting the ailing besides close people. This is especially in the developing states or in regions where culture esteems the male gender to the extent of some experiencing fecal embarrassment when undergoing medical checkups (Consedine et al E410). Unstable economic statuses mainly characterize the developing states whereby numerous states are unable to avail necessary cancer awareness facilities to the natives (Ryder et al 3627). Hence, this leads to severe suffering to the citizens who to some point few cite to have attended cancer screening tests, for instance, women’s Pap smear test (Agunwah et al 364). This is because of utter ignorance that augments cancer severity among numerous citizens though limited by both their individual and states’ unstable economies (Ryder et al 3627). Scholarly studies contacted so far cite ignorance (knowledg e deficits) as one of the challenges hindering effective management of cancer (Van der Rijt et al 1370). Hence, this poses a formidable challenge to the patients, professionals and caregivers whereby the latter two ends up not being of any help to the victims despite their will to offer required assistance (Van der Rijt et al 1371). ... This is because of the latter’s knowledge deficit regarding pain assessment, which could have been leant early via multidisciplinary studies (Van der Rijt et al 1370). Hence, in turn fail to educate patients on how to manage their varied cancer predicaments, which results to painful experiences while away from their respective medical institutions. This is because at home neither the patient nor the caregivers know exactly what to do in alleviating or assessing pain that will alert them to seek timely medical intervention (Van der Rijt et al 1375). According to Van der Rijt et al study, multidisciplinary interventions considerably reduce pain. However, respective authorities ought to ensure adequate imparting of the medical practitioners with this knowledge. Since, they will also inform caregivers who will accordingly apply the knowhow while handling their ailing relatives in the absence of medical personnel. Inadequate level of education is also another aspect worsening ignor ance especially in the developing states, for instance, Enugu in Nigeria (Agunwah et al 362). This is especially among the female gender where most of them due to illiteracy do not see the essence of going for Pap smear tests. Hence, contribute to high mortality rates because only 4.2% of the women’s population in this region contends to have attended cancer screening tests in their lifetime (Agunwah et al 361). However, this percentage does not indicate the attending consistency, which one ought to keep on cancer screening at certain intervals. This leads to people who have gotten cancer resurfacing when the condition is at an advanced stage, whereby the available services for them only work to prolong their lives, but not to prevent or cure the malady (Agunwah

Financial Econometrics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Financial Econometrics - Essay Example ables fall into 3 general classes, namely: location statistics (eg, mean, median, mode, quantiles), dispersion statistics (eg, variance, standard deviation, range, interquartile range), and shape statistics (eg, skewness, kurtosis)†.The descriptive statistics gives the overall description of the data by providing the measures of central tendency, and the measures of dispersion. statistics. According to Petty( 2015) â€Å"A logarithmic price scale is plotted so that the prices in the scale are not positioned equidistantly; instead, the scale is plotted in such a way that two equal percent changes are plotted as the same vertical distance on the scale. The log returns basically is auto – correlated while the case is different with log prices. The log return are usually preferred in quantitative analysis as it gives a better insights in to aspects like normalization and classical statistics. Here the data stream for the 20-year period of January 1995 to December 2014 is used to calculate the log price and log return. Also a graph representation for the log price and the log returns is formulated in order to deliver a quantitative analysis of the specific data of the company. Here, histogram is used to represent the graph of the statistical data in a visual form The above analysis explains the descriptive statistics of the log prices and the log return of the data. From the log return, we can observe that the mean value of log return is 5.740008, with a standard deviation of 8.558659. The mean of log prices is 334.934 with the standard deviation of 0.024659. The skewnes of the variable log return is equal to 0.2427 which is a negative value implying that the value of the log return is negatively skewed. The value of kurtosis of the log return is equal to -1.02302 which is a negative value. This implies that the data of log return has a low distributed or low peaked about the mean. The skewnes of the variable log price is equal to -0.785038 which is a negative value

Social Work Practice with Hispanic Elders

Social Work Practice with Hispanic Elders Dana Adams Gerardo Cantu is a masters level social worker at The Family Center. Gerardos current position with The Family Center, he is Class Facilitator and Case Manager. The Family Center offers individual and family care to elderly clients and their families in a warm and supportive atmosphere. The Family Centers professional team completes a thorough comprehensive assessments to help determine problem areas along with care plans to serve as an ongoing monitoring tool. The Family Center involves and engages the client in the care plan process as it serves as the basis of ongoing communication between the family, client, and Case Manager. Mr. Cantu works with families who are caring for older relatives and has a vital role in a part of a multidisciplinary team that manages the total scope of the needs of elder clients. Mr. Cantu has worked with The Family Center for eleven years, but is new in his role of Case Manager for elderly clients. This population is newly served at The Center and has only been in operation for six months. Mr. Cantu currently manages Twelve cases and completes bi-monthly, in-home visits with clients and their families. During home visits, Mr. Cantu provides informal counseling and social support by listening, understanding, networking, empowering, and encouraging. During his internship for his Master of Social Work degree, Mr. Cantu worked at a local health department where he learned the logistics of working with elderly Hispanic clients and this role in his internship created a road map for his current position with The Family Center. Mr. Cantu is bilingual in English and Spanish, and assisted employed case managers with providing ancillary interpretation services to Hispanic clients. Through community outreach, he learned to enroll clients for medical insurance through the health insurance marketplace, assisted with providing patient assistance for filling out applications for Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, and free medications for low income patients. As a Class Facilitator and Case Manager with The Family Center, Mr. Cantu conducts home visits, assessments, patient intakes, creates patient care plans based on the clients medical, psychological, and social needs. He also leads a monthly support group for caregivers, educating them on physical, emotional and financial strain of caring for their loved ones and teaching them how to balance their responsibilities at home and work. In the present moment, Mr. Cantu states he is pleased with the program and feels The Family Center is serving the needs of families in the local area who need assistance and support with caring for their loved ones. Writer asked Mr. Cantu about the importance of networking within the agency and if he faced any challenges obtaining needed services for his clients. Mr. Cantu explained how networking involves a vast number of agencies working together to enhance well-being and how it takes a variety of agencies to network together to help individuals achieve their goals. Some agencies The Family Center network with for food, medical, financial, day care, and Hispanic services assistance is The United Methodist Church, Area Agency on Aging, Mobile County Health Department, Catholic Social Services, and The Guadalupe Center. The main challenge Mr. Cantu faces is providing adequate transportation services to the clients due to there being a high demand for services in the area. Mr. Cantu assists with transporting clients to scheduled appointments. Applying critical thinking, motivational, and listening skills and empowerment within the context of his professional social work practice and The Family Center, Mr. Cantu understands the value base of the profession and its ethical standards and principles. He states that he always utilizes practice without discrimination and with respect, knowledge, and skills related to clients age, class, color, culture, disability, ethnicity, family structure, gender, marital status, national origin, race religion, sex, and sexual orientation. As stated by Mr. Cantu, he has dedicated his life to helping others and his two prayers are: Use me and Thank you. Mr. Cantu uses communications skills differentially across diverse populations and communities and seeks necessary organizational change if needed. Developing a trusting relationship with my clients enables me to serve as a liaison between them, the community and social service agencies to facilitate access to services and help improve cultural competence and the quality of service delivery (G. Cantu, personal communication, February 1, 2017).   Reflective use of theoretical approaches and knowledge bases underlies his practice with attention to the life course perspective. Evaluating his social work practice and practicing in ways that are culturally and gender appropriate with low income persons and with those who have experienced social and economic injustice is essential in his role at the agency. When asked about his most memorable case, his response was of a client who thought he was her grandson and how she would cook for him during the visit and would not allow him to leave until he finished his plate. He said that he would have to beg her to leave the home sometimes because she would try to make him go to bed and rest. When asked if there were any instances of him having difficulty leaving the home, he explained how one day he had wait until the clients grandson come to the home so that she could see both together to realize that he was not who she thought he was. Mr. Cantu mentioned that it took 2 hours for the grandson to come to the home. Mr. Cantu expressed that he would not have done anything different because his last intention is to upset his clients, but to reassure them. This writer asked Mr. Cantu about culturally sensitive assessments used by the agency used on the elderly Hispanic clients is the Bruininks Motor Ability Test for adults (B-MAT) because the test helps develop an assessment to support service users, families, and clinicians in determining the level of independence with their activities of daily living, support the intervention process and monitor the clients progress (Kesler, Lynn, Sullivan, Thompson, 2011). Family plays an important role when caring for the aging and much attention needs to be given to micro, mezzo and macro systems impacting the client system. Intervention are used within the individual, family, group, organization and community levels. With generalist social work practice, client system assessment is an ongoing social work skill used with all intervention levels and throughout the client intervention process (Hays, 2008). The micro approach focuses on major contributions from the biological, behavioral and social sciences that are essential for understanding the person-in-environment. The mezzo-level practice is concerned with interpersonal relations that are somewhat less intimate than those associated with family life, but more personally meaningful than those that occur among organizational and institutional representative and the macro approach concentrates on development of knowledge and skills for practice in communities, organizations and other social systems. Culturally sensitive social workers should have a standard practice of not making any assumptions when working with a diverse client system. This helps creates a lens that broadens the understanding of the client situation and value is placed on being culturally sensitive as one embraces diversity in the clients who are served by social workers (Hays, 2008).   Completing this course assignment has enlightened this writer about the impact of physical, mental and emotional aspects of aging, and the micro and macro issues of caregiving. Social work involves working with interrelated networks. The ecological theory is an approach to social work practice that addresses transactions between people and their environment (von Bonsdorff, Ilmarinen, 2013). The person and the environment can be understood within their affiliation as they always have great impact on one another. The ecological theory is used for its ability to view the clients whole situation. The ecological theory looks at acculturation, language, and socioeconomic status. The framework, consisting of eight dimensions of treatment interventions (language, persons, metaphors, content, concepts, goals, methods, and context) can serve as a guide for developing culturally sensitive treatments and adapting existing psychosocial treatments to specific ethnic minority groups (von Bonsdorff, Ilmarinen, 2013). The Family Systems Theory focuses on how each member relate to one another. The family is a structure of subsystems and every action/change within the subsystem affects each person. Changes are caused by both normative (predictable life cycle changes) and non-normative (crisis) stresses and the continuity theory states that the aging person try to preserve and maintain internal and external structures by using strategies to maintain continuity to deal with changes that occur during the normal aging process (von Bonsdorff, Ilmarinen, 2013). Aging can be a stressful and challenging situation for someone who is used to being active as they must learn to adjust to the mental, physical, emotional, and financial difficulty that is a part of aging. Social workers can help each individual manage, adjust, and cope with each of these issues. The main goal of a geriatric social worker is to make sure that the needs of the clients are being met.   According to the Administration on Aging, the number of elderly Americans over the age of 60 jumped from 378 million in 1980 to 759 million in 2010 (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2008). Administration on Aging. A Statistical Profile of Older Americans 65.   The National Institute of Aging estimates that 60,000-70,000 professionally trained social workers will be needed by 2020 to work with the older population (Cummings, Galambo, DeCoster, 2003).   The discrepancy between the importance of providing services to Latinos, given their growing numbers, and the preparedness of social workers for serving this population is alarming (Furman, Negi, Iwamoto, Rowan, Shuckraft, Gragg, 2009). Utilizing and implementing multicultural sensitivity is important within the social work profession because this encourages the clinician to focus on significant factors such as ethnicity, race, and spiritual components (Payne, 2014). it is also important to learn about the clients from their perspective, maintain a positive forward-looking outlook, and allow clients to come up with their own potential solutions by looking at the successes they have already experienced (Payne, 2007) rather than focus on what has not worked, or what a practitioner feels are most beneficial. Attaining cultural competence requires social workers to engage in honest and genuine personal self-assessment and introspection coupled with the willingness to challenge and overcome the ingrained stereotypes of Latinos and other minorities that have served to dehumanizing factors and implementing new perspectives that rehumanize minorities (Organista, 2007). Immigration can be a major life stressor and includes i ssues such as health disparities and acculturation (Garcà ­a, 2012). These issues can affect mental health in Hispanics who find that they have limited or no access to the resources of their host culture. Realizing how immigration impacts Hispanics will enhance my service provisions. This writer would be interested in volunteering as a mental health counselor at a free clinic or other organization in the Hispanic community. Since macro practice focuses on achieving long-term change in the economic, political and social environment (Payne, 2014). This writer feels this would be a great avenue for advocacy in the Hispanic community. References: Cummings, S. M., Galambos, C., DeCoster, V. A. (2003). Predictors of MSW employment in gerontological practice. Educational Gerontology, 29(4), 295-312. Furman, R., Negi, N. J., Iwamoto, D. K., Rowan, D., Shuckraft, A., Gragg, J. (2009, April). Retrieved February 10, 2017, from National Center for Biotechnology Information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2861823/ Garcà ­a, J. (2012). Mental health care for Latino immigrants in the U.S.A. and the quest for global health equities. Psychosocial Intervention 21, (3), 305-318. Hays, P. A. (2008). Addressing cultural complexities in practice: Assessment, diagnosis, and therapy (Vol. 10, pp. 11650-000). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Kesler, K. E., Lynn, J. D., Sullivan, J. D., Thompson, J. M. (2011). Bruininks Motor Ability Test for Adults (B-MAT): Exploring Relationships Among Motor Assessments. Brenau University. Organista, K.C. (2007). Solving Latino psycho social and health problems: Theory, practice and populations. Hoboken, NJ. Payne, M. (2014). Modern Social Work Theory. (4th ed.). Chicago: Lyceum US Department of Health and Human Services. (2008). Administration on Aging. A Statistical Profile of Older Americans 65. von Bonsdorff, M. E., Ilmarinen, J. (2013). Continuity theory and retirement.

McDonald’s - Success through Development of a Rational System Essay

McDonald’s - Success through Development of a Rational System At first, most people must have laughed at the idea of a chain of restaurants selling identical products all over the country, but little did they know that the genius idea that they had mocked would go on to revolutionise the business environment of the future. McDonald’s is now the international market leader for fast food, and has been ever since its pioneering first restaurant was launched in San Bernardino, California in 1948. Historical Background The original founders of McDonald’s, and the fast-food concept, were brothers Dick and Mac McDonald. In 1948, they modified their drive-in restaurant, creating the standard for the contemporary fast-food restaurant of modern times. From the introduction of a limited menu of just nine items, and by focusing on efficient production and service, the brothers were able to halve the price of their hamburgers to 15 cents. Ray Kroc, who, at this time was a 52-year-old milkshake machine salesman, heard of the brothers’ generation of around $350,000 in annual revenues, and instantly became convinced that its concept could work in other cities. Kroc became the first franchisee appointed by the McDonald brothers, and opened his first restaurant the following year in Des Plaines, Illinois. In 1961, Kroc bought all the rights to the McDonald’s concept from the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million. Kroc was somewhat of an obsessive individual, fixated with rules, regulatio ns, procedures, and obedience to his strict rules of discipline. Kroc was especially concerned with maintaining McDonald's clean image, as well as that of life in general, and could regularly be seen picking up litter outside of his restaurants in order t... ...o follow. However, as stated earlier, rational systems tend to generate irrational consequences, and it is the impact on society as a whole that a business must consider before adopting a similar code of practice. I feel that if too many businesses follow this model, it wouldn’t make the world a better place, but simply a bigger breeding ground for exploitation, pollution, and concealment. Bibliography Shook, C. / Shook, R. (1993) – â€Å"Franchising: the business strategy that changed the world.† London. Prentice Hall. Ritzer, G. (1996) – â€Å"The McDonaldisation of Society.† California: Pineforge Press. Daniels, J. L. (1993) – â€Å"McDonaldisation revisited. Critical essays on consumer culture.† Westport: Praeger Publishers. McDonald's Corporation (1996) – â€Å"Crew Handbook.† London. Microsoft ® Encarta ® (1999). Microsoft Corporation. www.mcspotlight.org

Week 3 Homework Aib Problems

Problem 1 The following data were obtained from a project to create a new portable electronic. ActivityDurationPredecessors A5 Days— B6 Days— C8 Days— D4 DaysA, B E3 DaysC F5 DaysD G5 DaysE, F H9 DaysD I12 DaysG Step 1: Construct a network diagram for the project. Step 2: Answer the following questions: (15 points total) a)What is the Scheduled Completion of the Project? (5 points) b)What is the Critical Path of the Project? (5 points) c)What is the ES for Activity D? (1 points) d)What is the LS for Activity G? (1 points) )What is the EF for Activity B? (1 points) f)What is the LF for Activity H? (1 points) g)What is the float for Activity I? (1 points) Problem 2 The following data were obtained from a project to build a pressure vessel: ActivityDurationPredecessors A6 weeks— B6 weeks— C5 weeksB D4 weeksA, C E5 weeksB F7 weeksD, E, G G4 weeksB H8 weeksF I5 weeksG J3 weekI Step 1: Construct a network diagram for the project. Step 2: Answer the follow ing questions: (15 points total) a)Calculate the scheduled completion time. (5 points) )Identify the critical path (6 points) c)What is the slack time (float) for activity A? (1 points) d)What is the slack time (float) for activity D? (1 points) e) What is the slack time (float) for activity E? (1 points) f) What is the slack time (float) for activity G? (1 points) Problem 3 The following data were obtained from a project to design a new software package: ActivityDurationPredecessors A5 Days— B8 Days— C6 DaysA D4 DaysC, B E5 DaysA F4 DaysD, E, G G4 DaysB, C H3 DayG Step 1: Construct a network diagram for the project.Step 2: Answer the following questions: (15 points total) a)Calculate the scheduled completion time. (5 points) b)Identify the critical path(s) (6 points) c)What is the slack time (float) for activity B? (1 points) d)What is the slack time (float) for activity D? (1 points) e) What is the slack time (float) for activity E? (1 points) f) What is the slack ti me (float) for activity G? (1 points) Problem 4 The following data were obtained from an in-house MIS project: ActivityDurationPredecessors A5 Days— B8 Days—C5 DaysA D4 DaysB E5 DaysB F3 DayC, D G7 DaysC, D H6 DaysE, F, G I9 DaysE, F Step 1: Construct a network diagram for the project. Step 2: Answer the following questions: (15 points total) a)Calculate the scheduled completion time. (5 points) b)Identify the critical path (6 points) c)What is the slack time (float) for activity A? (1 points) d)What is the slack time (float) for activity D? (1 points) e)What is the slack time (float) for activity E? (1 points) f)What is the slack time (float) for activity F? (1 points)

Free Essays on The Grave

in her sentences to charm her readers into the understandings of life, death, and rebirth. How she uses symbolism to put life and death into perspective is both original and thought provoking. We begin reading her story in the history of the children's family past. The beginning of the story sets the tone more so than it gives us a concrete setting. The tone is dark and disturbing as we are told that "The grandfather has been dead for more than thirty years," and the grandmother moved his body with her as she traveled. The only reference to setting in the first paragraph is in the telling of the grandmother's final move. It was in Kentucky that the grandmother at last settled into her first farm and was finally laid to rest. Also in the first paragraph, there is the moving of the family plot to the new public cemetery. Here we recognize that the grandmother failed to let the dead stay buried because of her own selfish desires. Death seems to be an inconvenience for the family, rather than something to be revered and respected. The story is set with positive and negative descriptions about the family cemetery. Katherine describes the cemetery as having been a "pleasant small neglected garden of tangled rose bushes and ragged cedar trees and cypress, the simple flat stones rising out of uncropped sweet-smelling wild grass". At first the cemetery is "pleasant" which is positive. Then, it is negative with the descriptions of the "tangled rose bushes", and the "ragged cedar trees". Lastly, Katherine mixes positive and negative with the description of the "uncropped sweet-smelling... Free Essays on The Grave Free Essays on The Grave The Grave Katherine Anne Porter's short story is a third person narrative called The Grave. This piece is about the sweetness of adolescence and the corruption of innocence as a young girl uncovers the realities of life and death. As one reads the story they can get caught up in Katherine's web of descriptions. She uses a mixture of negative and positive words in her sentences to charm her readers into the understandings of life, death, and rebirth. How she uses symbolism to put life and death into perspective is both original and thought provoking. We begin reading her story in the history of the children's family past. The beginning of the story sets the tone more so than it gives us a concrete setting. The tone is dark and disturbing as we are told that "The grandfather has been dead for more than thirty years," and the grandmother moved his body with her as she traveled. The only reference to setting in the first paragraph is in the telling of the grandmother's final move. It was in Kentucky that the grandmother at last settled into her first farm and was finally laid to rest. Also in the first paragraph, there is the moving of the family plot to the new public cemetery. Here we recognize that the grandmother failed to let the dead stay buried because of her own selfish desires. Death seems to be an inconvenience for the family, rather than something to be revered and respected. The story is set with positive and negative descriptions about the family cemetery. Katherine describes the cemetery as having been a "pleasant small neglected garden of tangled rose bushes and ragged cedar trees and cypress, the simple flat stones rising out of uncropped sweet-smelling wild grass". At first the cemetery is "pleasant" which is positive. Then, it is negative with the descriptions of the "tangled rose bushes", and the "ragged cedar trees". Lastly, Katherine mixes positive and negative with the description of the "uncropped sweet-smelling... Free Essays on The Grave Katherine Anne Porter’s â€Å"The Grave,† Uses The Symbols The Dove, The Ring, The Rabbit, And The Grave To Express The Main Character’s Journey From Innocence To Knowledge. The process of maturing and gaining knowledge is a long one. Each person reaches a time in their life when they have reached adulthood, maturity, and the knowledge that comes with it, but the journey requires â€Å"going through a kind of initiation into the mysteries of adult life.†(Brooks 3136) Katherine Anne Porter’s â€Å"The Grave,† uses the symbols the dove, the ring, the rabbit, and the grave to express the main character’s journey from innocence to knowledge. From the innocence of the dove, the luxury of the golden ring, to the mystery of birth and death through the many â€Å"graves,† Miranda loses her innocence and becomes a knowledgeable young woman. Miranda at the young age of nine is as innocent as can be. She has no realization for the criticisms upon her family for the way she has been raised, wearing her â€Å"summer roughing outfit: dark blue overalls, a light blue shirt, a hired-man’s straw hat, and thick brown sandals†, (Porter 364) running around the woods hunting rabbits and doves with her twenty-two Winchester rifle. On one excursion through the woods, she and her brother stumble upon the old family cemetery and decide to explore. After rummaging through the empty graves, â€Å"she saw a silver dove no larger than a hazel nut with spread wings and a neat fan-shaped tail.†(Brooks 3135), â€Å"Miranda’s brother recognizes what the curious little ornament isthe screw head for a coffin.†(3135) This small silver dove was, in a sense, Miranda’s soon to be shed innocence. Paul also made a discovery of his own while searching through the emptied graves; he had found â€Å"a thin wide gold ring carved with intricate flowers and leaves.†(Porter 363) Miranda is enamored at the sight of it and wishes to have it, and her brother is more please...

Essay about Answer STUDY PACKAGE FOR EXAM 3 1

Essay about Answer STUDY PACKAGE FOR EXAM 3 1 Essay about Answer STUDY PACKAGE FOR EXAM 3 1 MGMT 3031 STUDY PACKAGE FOR EXAM 3 – FALL 2012 EXAM 3 WILL COVER SCHERMERHORN CHAPTERS 11 (LEADERSHIP), 14 (TEAMS AND TEAMWORK), 16 (DIVERSITY AND GLOBAL CULTURES) AND 17 (GLOBALIZATION AND INTERNATINAL BUSINESS) AND THE MOVIE GUNG HO POTENTIAL TEST QUESTIONS FROM CHAPTER 11 – LEADERSHIP FILL IN THE BLANKS 1. Managerial power = ___Position__ power + ___Persional___ power 2. List the 4 leadership styles presented by Schermerhorn a. Autocratic Style Acts in unilateral command and control fashion b. Human Relation Style Emphasizes people over tasks c. Democratic Style Encourages participation with an emphasis on both task accomplishments and development of people d. Lassize-faire Style Is low on both tasks and people 3. Blake and Mouton’s managerial grid contrasted concern for __People_ and concern for ___Results___ 4. According to Hersey and Blanchard, leadership style depends on the __Maturity (Experience)__ of the employee. 5. Schermerhorn listed 8 leadership traits. List any 5 6. According to Fiedler leadership styles are either _Task_ motivated or __Relationship__ motivated 7. According to Drucker don’t ever think or say __I_; think or say _We__ 8. Levels of management should be __kept to the minimum_ 9. According to Drucker, the __smaller___ the organization the better the organization 10. According to Drucker organizations exist to fill a __customer__ need 11. ____________leadership builds trust from a foundation of personal integrity DISCUSSION 1. What did Tom Landry say about leadership ‘leadership is getting people to do what they do not want to do in order to achieve what they do want to achieve’ 2. List and define the 4 leadership styles presented in the text a. Autocratic Style Acts in unilateral command and control fashion b. Human Relation Style Emphasizes people over tasks c. Democratic Style Encourages participation with an emphasis on both task accomplishments and development of people d. Lassize-faire Style Is low on both tasks and people 3. Discuss Fiedler’s Contingency Theory Suggests that the best leadership style depends on the situation – and the people involved 4. In one sentence define House’s Path Goal Theory 5. List and define House’s four path-goal leadership style 6. Discuss the characteristics of a transformational leader Transformational Leader – Is Inspirational And Arouses Extraordinary Effort And Performance 7. Discuss Peter Drucker’s â€Å"good old-fashion leadership† Good leaders have integrity; they mean what they say, earning and keeping the trust of followers. good leaders define and establish a sense of mission; they set goals, priorities and standards. Good leaders accept leadership as responsibility, not a rank; they surround themselves with talented people 8. Simply draw Blake and Mouton’s Mangerial Grid TRUE/FALSE __F___ Most employees believe that leaders most often act in the best interest of the organizations ___F__ 65% (33%) of managers are perceived as strong leaders ___F__ Delegation is usually beneficial for young, inexperienced employees. MATCHING __1___ Power __8___ Informational power __11___ General Colin Powell ___4__ Transactional leader __9___ Referent (charismatic) power ___7__ Peter Drucker __14___ Reward power __10___ Expert power __16___ Henry Kissinger __6___ Connective power __2___ Warren Bennis __5___Hersey and Blanchard __13___ Coercive power __12___ Legitimate power ___3__ Fred Fielder __15___Transformational Leader 1. Power The ability to get others to do what you want them to do. 2. Warren Bennis Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality 3. Fred Fielder A person’s personality influences his or her leadership style 4. Transactional leader Directs the efforts of others through tasks, rewards, and structures 5. Hersey and Blanchard Leadership style depends on the (job) maturity of the follower (employee)

STRATEGIC LEGAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

STRATEGIC LEGAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES - Assignment Example As a company that conducts the majority of its business within the medical industry, sensitive issues like the maintaining the confidentiality of patient/client information is a large issue that constantly presents significant risk to the progress of the company. The recent privacy breach the company experienced only heightens the need for immediate action concerning enhancing security protocols to minimize future risks of this nature (Martin, 2011). The large breach in confidentiality protocols resulted in the names of individuals seeking paternity and drug testing (Martin, 2011) has put the company at substantial risk for subsequent litigation against the company for exposing personal medical information. Allegations that Medvet was made aware that the names, addresses, and product orders of individuals that have ordered tests from Medvet has been available on Google since as early as April (Martin, 2011) can lead to an extremely damaging class-action lawsuit against the company sh ould any of the affected persons suffer any damages as a result of such a breach. Affecting approximately 800 of Medvet’s customers (Tmaliyil, 2011), this breach has the potential to cause significant damage to the company’s image and cause significant financial loss should any or all of the affected parties suffer adverse effects due to this incidence and seek monetary damages. The $11 billion lawsuit Pennzoil won against Texaco, which resulted in Texaco filing for bankruptcy, (Simkins & Ramirez, 2008) has made it clear to many companies the dangers to making themselves vulnerable to such types of litigation. Risk management includes ensuring the security of any and all client and personnel information, which avoids this information becoming accessible to any unauthorized persons, in or outside the company. Maintaining this standard would require steps such as heightening the encryption programs that protect such information within the company’s database and en suring access to this information is protected against network attacks by hackers and neglectful actions by employees. Protection of the vital information entrusted to the company by its employees and clientele will prevent the eventuality of negative actions being rendered against the company due to damages suffered by individuals whose information was made vulnerable as a result of this breach of security. Affecting routines that protect customers from having their private information made public exemplifies good corporate governance, which is an integral aspect of maintaining a successful company. This is a vital aspect of good risk management because it protects the company’s assets, which is the ultimate purpose of risk management procedures. Risk management procedures, adeptly implemented, would incorporate procedures that would avoid negligent actions like the lack of thought that allowed Google to publish the private details of customer invoices by encrypting the data in an inaccessible database. Taking steps to protect the resources of the company, which is the customers and their information, will also protect the reputation and integrity of the company and prevent the advent of undue risks such as the one currently facing the company. Risk management procedures seek to avoid the occurrence of negligent actions by anticipating them and taking whatever measures necessary to avoid them altogether. These preventative measures protect

Discussthetraitsapproachtotheentrepreneurialpersonalityandthereasons Essay

Discussthetraitsapproachtotheentrepreneurialpersonalityandthereasons why it fails to properly predict the behaviour of entrepreneurs - Essay Example Traits can be defined as habitual behavioural and thought patterns of people. Traits have been measured to reflect how much of a particular trait does a specific category of people reflect. This also implies that individuals that behave in a similar fashion can be compared and norms for various categories of people can be identified based on trait patterns. The trait approach has set down these patterns for entrepreneurs (Okhomina, 2010). The trait approach has set down certain parameters based on this very measurable feature of behavioural pattern and the paper seeks to study this approach. It moves on to explore the drawbacks of the trait approach and discusses the reason behind the failures of the theory. Entrepreneurship can be narrowly defined as a person who establishes and runs his or her own business. An aspiring entrepreneur is a one that hopes to establish and run his or her own business at some point in time. Entrepreneurship can also be defined as creation of something that adds value with appropriate time and efforts going towards its development. This definition assumes that personal satisfaction and monetary gains are rewards for various risks (social, physical and financial) undertaken. Entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur have changed that path for markets and economies. They have contributed in developing new services and products and have given way to creativity and innovation that made economic development and prosperity possible. It is because of this importance that entrepreneurs hold in shaping the economic future of the country, that studies have been conducted to study entrepreneurial behaviour and define traits that would in turn help in developing entrepreneurial ability in the nations. There are many traits for an entrepreneur but the trait that has been identified as one of the critical ones is the ability to identify opportunity and making profits

Engage Gladwell, Olson, and Nathan in a conversation to explain how Essay

Engage Gladwell, Olson, and Nathan in a conversation to explain how individuals - Essay Example Consequently, many societies share a common belief, born of experience that diversity in their nationality is important for them to achieve their most important mission. Rebekah Nathan, who authored â€Å"Community and Diversity†, describes that the ineffectiveness of weak relations challenges the existence of a strong college community. â€Å"The End of Race† by Steve Olson explores the effects of intermarriages on the Hawaiian community and the universe. In â€Å"Small Change†, Malcolm Gladwell shows how civil-rights emerged and gained popularity through use of social media that fosters what he calls weak, temporary relationships. Therefore, I will elucidate on how developing integrated schools, encouraging intermarriages, participating and sharing helps in creating strong relationships, and eradicating preconceptions that have for long existed in the society. Firstly, developing integrated schools can be a major point towards the development of strong relationships and a community free from cultural prejudices. Obviously, most children spent a better part of their lives in schools and any positive aspects that they develop while in school are likely to impact positively on their future lives. Most of schools will involve children or students from separates social, economic and political backgrounds and students will learn to appreciate their differences rather than viewing the differences negatively. According to Olson, schools and neighborhoods in Hawaii were integrated and children continued living harmoniously regardless of their differences. Olson states that â€Å"Children of different ethnicities continue to grow up together and marry, just as they did in the camps† (339). Such children will grow in harmony and chances of them being predisposed towards a certain culture or ethnic group are quite trifling. In schools, they do everything communally and can hardly

Rim Managing Explosive Growth Essay Example for Free

Rim Managing Explosive Growth Essay In RIM’s earlier days they also were leaders in the development of wireless point of sale (POS) systems, wireless modems, software, and firmware for radios and computers. RIM was a steadily growing company until 2005, when the company took amazing strides in launching carriers around the globe and creating strategic partnerships with several major companies (BlackBerry, 2006, p. 10). From 2005 to 2008, RIM grew from 1. 3 billion in revenues to over 6 billion, and grew from 3 billion to 6 billion in 2007 alone. RIM’s explosive growth was a result of their famous product line BlackBerry. BlackBerry was one of the first corporate phones that integrated a secure process for checking and sending emails. â€Å"Document Push is said to be a unique feature not found in any other document management solution on the market† (Document, 2005, p. 11). BlackBerry dominated in business and military sales of phones, and then became competitive in 2007 with consumers as well. Summary of Culture The most essential characteristic of RIM’s culture is their ability to innovate and work in an environment that allows for creativity to cultivate. The location of headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada has been a major focal point of RIM culture since the start of the company. RIM is comprised of a wide arrange of employees by age which allows them to remain cutting edge and knowledgeable of the wireless industry. RIM’s culture can be seen as a direct link to their low employee turnover rates and high employee satisfaction. SWOT Analysis of RIM Strengths RIM has numerous strengths that have helped them to create a competitive advantage. RIM’s main strength is their ability to innovate. RIM has been a leading innovator in wireless products since the late 80’s, and continues to grow Ramp;D alongside sales. RIM has the advantage of being located in Waterloo, Canada where the local talent pool for engineers and computer science graduates is abundant because of the University of Waterloo. Due to innovation, most of their strengths have been derived from a combination of patents, copyrights, and contractual agreements that all surround their cryptographic and software source code. The cryptographic and software source code allowed RIM to obtain a first mover advantage in B2B sales of mobile devices to businesses and military by integrating email into their mobile phones. This also allowed them to obtain significant brand recognition for creating a secure voice and data transmission solution. Once RIM was established in the business and military segments, it began to make head way in consumer markets with their new products, BlackBerry Pearl and BlackBerry Curve. RIM’s copyrights also gave them an advantage of creating strategic alliances and partnerships with major companies such as Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Yahoo, and HTC (BlackBerry, 2006, p. 11). Weaknesses Some of the very strengths of RIM can also be seen as some of their greatest weaknesses. RIM holds an internal pride for locating the heart of its Ramp;D in Waterloo. While this has been a great source of talent and company culture, it has also put a clamp on their opportunity for growth geographically and for expansion into other market segments. RIM’s employees are only so focused on maintaining control of Ramp;D in Waterloo they reject any change in location; therefore stunting their growth overall. RIM’s primary reason behind keeping Ramp;D centered in Waterloo is for the sake of their patents, copyrights, and contractual agreements, and so they are held captive by the very thing that makes them strong. Also, due to the notion of keeping Ramp;D located at Waterloo, RIM is having difficulty finding new talent in the already bogged down area of Waterloo. RIM did try to implement an online application process, but is unable to utilize it properly. Applicants are only able to apply to one job; creating a loss in potential employees. RIM engineers and computer scientists are becoming overworked due to the lack of employees. Not only is the stress running high from pressures to maintain innovations level of innovation held by their competitor, but space has also become an issue. RIM’s offices have become overcrowded and unmanageable, and are quickly losing efficiency. Opportunities Most of RIM’s opportunities lie where their weaknesses are great. RIM has been neglecting their opportunity to expand their core Ramp;D outside of Waterloo. By expanding outside of Waterloo, RIM will be able to expand Ramp;D without overcrowding their current facilities. They will also be able to compete more effectively worldwide. While RIM shipped 42% of mobile devices in North America in 2007, they only shipped 12% of the market worldwide. Opportunities for expansion in subscribers is limited in North America seeing as the market has a penetration rate of 87%. However, outside of North America are much larger opportunities, such as China, India, and other developing countries. In 2007, China’s market was growing at 18. 3% per year with only a penetration of 39%, and India’s market was growing 60% per year and only 21% penetration (White, amp; Beamish, 2008, p. 75). By expanding Ramp;D globally they will not only open doors to new markets, but also new talent. Threats RIM’s major threat is competition such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google in the North American market. These competitors are starting to increase their mobile phones capabilities so that they can compete more effectively in the B2B segments that RIM once dominated. Apple recently announced that they would be incorporating the ActiveSync direct Push, into their iPhones in order to capture the business professionals. Competitors are not only are making their phones better for the business professional, but also integrating more products into the mobile device for consumers. For instance, Apple introduced the iPhone which has greater breadth in technology, and has set a new standard for usability. Zeichick reports â€Å"since the release of the iPhone 3G on July 11, Apple holds the market for high-speed consumer-friendly smartphones entirely to itself† (2008, p. 6). Another threat competition possess is their ability to attract, hire and develop their Ramp;D facilities more resourcefully than RIM. Competitors have implemented hiring strategies that are far more efficient than RIM’s â€Å"ear to the ground† policy (White, amp; Beamish, 2008, p. 80). All of RIM’s major global competitors such as Microsoft, Motorola, and Apple all are spending far greater amounts on Ramp;D, and have an advantage over them in innovation. Competitors are expanding globally at a much higher rate than RIM, and are in better positioning for market share outside of North America; where RIM is still greatly lacking. Prevalent Issues and Solutions Provided by the Case RIM prides themselves on their ability to compete by means of innovation, and thus they have always tried to maintain a high level of Ramp;D within the firm. RIM bases their Ramp;D levels as a percent of sales, targeting around 10-12% of revenue to be spent on Ramp;D. They have managed to keep these levels by growing organically until 2005 when sales began to increase by over a billion dollars a year. According to their annual report from December 31, 2007, RIM’s Ramp;D was projected to increase by $100 million from the previous year; however as a percentage of sales they projected to drop to 5. 99% down from 7. 77% the previous year (White, amp; Beamish, 2008, p. 77). RIM, who was once a leader in innovation, was starting to fall behind in the competitive field of mobile phones. RIM needs to take measures immediately to ensure proper Ramp;D levels. As competition heats up in the smart phone market, the competition in acquiring new talent is as well; only making the task of acquiring new talent extremely difficult. RIM management is considering the following four options for growing Ramp;D: do what we do now at greater levels, expand existing geographies, increase acquisitions, and go global. Do What We Do Now At Greater Levels Currently RIM’s approach to finding new talent for Ramp;D is based on networking through personal and professionals relationships alongside their co-op program they hold with the University of Waterloo. The co-op program currently brings on 300 grad students each semester to work alongside the engineers and computer science professionals as interns, and then RIM extends job offerings to qualified candidates. RIM can improve their co-op program by offering it to multiple universities rather than only to Waterloo. Over the last 7 years RIM has created Ramp;D facilities located in Ottawa, Mississauga, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Palo Alto, and England. All of these facilities could potentially implement a co-op program with nearby universities, or summer internship programs to increase recruitment of talented young grad students. RIM is also considering adding benefits to these programs like competitor Microsoft offers. Benefits such as housing, transportation, and paid travel could entice individuals to choose RIM as their intern destination over opponents. RIM has also taken recruitment and job advertisements to the internet; however there is great room for improvement. RIM’s online application process only allows an individual to apply for one job at a time, and sufferers a great deal of qualified candidates due to the systematic flaw. Companies, such as Apple, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson, have a more advanced system that allows applicants to create an online profile that can be stored and applied to several jobs. If RIM changes their current model to mimic some of its competitors they are likely to obtain more suitable applicants for each position, and be able to reach a more global talent pool. Another option for hiring new grad students is to implement a semi-yearly or yearly hiring wave rather than posting individual jobs. Several other major corporations have these systems in place, including competitor Symbian. Companies that are growing continually implement this strategy so that they can maintain levels of efficiency. Typically, companies will receive online applications year round, and once or twice a year they will sift through the resumes selecting the best applicants. The chosen applicants then will participate in multiple events to see if they will be a good fit with a company. This process normally includes several interviews, testing, group assignments, and case studies. Once passing the recruitment day, candidates will go through an onboarding process to help adapt them to company policy and culture. Then they are assigned as needed to different sections of the company. Grow and Expand Existing Geographies RIM started to expand product development centers outside Waterloo in 2000 opening several locations, as previously mentioned, in the United States, two more locations in Canada, and one in England. RIM could continue to push forth with this initiation of expanding within the North American region, and also expanding the scope of the locations already existing. Before a new location can be chosen it must first pass a set of stringent equirements that RIM has emplaced. The requirements for potential areas are they must already have an abundant amount of software developers with experience, the cost of living and salary for employees is reasonable, and be near universities to promote their co-op program. RIM is unlike their competition in this sense, because most competitors still rely on one major campus for all Ramp;D. Apple, Google, and Microsoft have only expanded with minor locations aboard keeping the core Ramp;D at their home facilities. Increase Acquisitions Increase by means of acquisitions is by no means a new concept to RIM, or any other software firm. In the software and mobile phone industry acquiring smaller companies has become one of the fastest ways to not only gain an experienced set of talent, but also intellectual property and location. RIM acquired high-tech startup out of Israel, for their intellectual capabilities of the display and input of Chinese characters. This acquisition allowed them to become more suitable for the Chinese market, and provided Waterloo with 11 more highly qualified engineers. Another factor for RIM to consider is the economic down turn in the United States, and the abundant amount of small firms struggling to survive the recession. RIM could purchase these firms for reasonable cost; gaining experienced talent and intellectual properties. Increased acquisitions also can allow a company to penetrate certain areas that could otherwise be hard or impossible to gain access to. For instance, Google acquired a small wireless software company in Waterloo simply for the talent, recognizing Waterloo was a place with a great talent pool. RIM could use acquisitions to gain access to several countries, which they do not yet compete effectively in. In some countries consumers prefer to buy and do business with companies from their own countries rather than foreigners. Europe is a prime example, in which RIM could acquire a business and gain access to their market. Go Global Another way for RIM to increase Ramp;D is to go global. While, RIM has expanded into different countries with Ramp;D, the core of their product development still remains at Waterloo. The different areas that RIM has expanded their Ramp;D too, are areas where laws have been put in place and are protected for patent and intellectual rights. RIM has taken measures to expand other functions of the business to globally that do not directly relate to their source code; such as customer service in Singapore, and sales and marketing staff in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, China, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan. Going global has been attempted by most of the software/mobile phone industry. Some have been able to achieve great things, but the cost of businesses can sometimes be seen as too much. Nokia, for example has expanded Ramp;D to China, and was able to gain significant market share in the region. However, in China â€Å"the rate of infringement of intellectual property rights (IPR) in China is among the highest in the world† (Pangattaro, 2007, p. 632). The constant threat of employees walking out the door with strategic information, and taking it to competitors is very high due to insufficient IP protection laws and regulation. Despite Nokia’s effort to develop a relationship with China, through joint research programs with Tsinghua University had to file suit against two Beijing firms for ripping off their mobile phones. However, recent studies show that â€Å" Ramp;D units that have developed adequate measures to manage their Chinese Ramp;D staff have succeeded in making Chinese employees loyal to the Ramp;D unit†(Marcus, amp; Gassmann ,2011, p. 73). Analysis of Options and Recommendation Analysis of Do What We Do Now At Greater Levels RIM is projecting they will need to hire over 1,400 new software developers to reinstate the status quo for Ramp;D. One option RIM is considering is to continue their current hiring strategies, but at a higher level. Currently, they hire by personal and business networking, through co-op programs with the school, and more recently went to the web with job postings. . It will be quite a difficult task to complete with only increasing their current model. RIM’s method of personal and business relationships to find new employees will no longer be able to produce a substantial amount. RIM has saturated the market in Waterloo, and finding new employees has become extremely difficult. Also, competition has moved into the area making it harder and more costly to find to obtain the best talent. It is unlikely they will be able to find a great deal of experienced help within the area. As previously mentioned, RIM would extend their co-op programs to other universities in hope to allocate more talent. Unfortunately, the co-op program will only bring in inexperienced help, and would cost RIM time and money to develop the new employees. Another option regarding new grads is to hire in waves, yearly or biyearly, to help with continuing growth. While this is a great strategy for growing companies to maintain their pipeline, it will not provide RIM with the help it currently needs to dig them out of the hole in terms of Ramp;D. RIM will need most of their new hires to have an experienced skill set so that they can be implemented instantly, and relieve the staff in Waterloo. Analysis of Grow and Expand Existing Geographies RIM has been extremely careful when expanding Ramp;D to new areas, only setting up shop where their source code can be protected. One option for RIM is to continue with the process of selecting new cities and countries where IP laws are in full force, and gain a pool of talent from these areas. RIM can also focus on escalating the Ramp;D centers already implemented to take more of a central role in Ramp;D instead of keeping the core at Waterloo. A factor to consider is the cost of hiring and the standard of living in other areas. RIM follows a set of rules for choosing where to establish an Ramp;D center, which is not uncommon for competition as well. This leads to RIM in competitive locations making it harder to gain a talent pool at a reasonable price. For instance, the employees in Palo Alto require a much higher pay scale than Waterloo because of competition, and turnover rates are high. One adverse effect that can take place when expanding abroad is loss of company culture. RIM has a very strong culture, which they believe to be a product of environment of their Waterloo office. RIM would have to approach each new Ramp;D office with an abundant amount of training to ensure a shared understanding of company values, and culture. Analysis of Increase Acquisitions One route RIM could take to reach Ramp;D levels is to increase acquisitions. RIM has already been successful with this strategy, and it would be a strategy that would allow them to hire multiple engineers and software designers at once. Not only would RIM gain an experienced talent pool, but also intellectual property rights, and new locations. Acquisitions have a few setbacks though that must be considered. By acquiring different firms RIM would be able to obtain an experienced set of talent, which is essential at this point. However, acquisitions must be preceded with caution because employees of the acquired firm can sometimes react unfavorably to such situations. Another concern is whether acquired employees would be able to adapt to company policy, culture, and values of RIM. â€Å"Culture matters it can make or break a merger† (Growth, 1996, p. 29), and so RIM must be particularly careful to only acquire firms that are a perfect fit for the company to avoid major losses. Gantumur and Stephan state â€Å"the post-merger innovation performance, in turn, is driven by both the prior success of in-house Ramp;D commitment and the deterioration of internal technological capabilities at acquiring firms† (2012, p. 77). Acquisitions are also very costly and can waste time and money. In the past when RIM acquired a firm for talent and intellectual property they would send the new employees to Waterloo, striping what was left of the firm. This can be a very costly approach to finding new employees because they take on a great deal of debt to purchase the firm. It can take a profuse amount of time to liquidate a firm to receive funds expe nded back, and sometimes the process of liquating can strip away the value resulting in further losses. Analysis of Go Global RIM was well aware that over half of the new employees they would hire to reach Ramp;D levels would have to come outside of Canada due to lack of potential candidate and space in Canada. The question RIM was pondering is how far away from Canada should they go when considering their source code they must protect. While, RIM has already expanded some product development to the US and England, it had also expanded functions other than Ramp;D to other countries outside of the North American region. RIM fears of Ramp;D in developing countries are justified, but there still remain untapped markets in these regions that could be beneficial for long term growth. RIM must start to consider possibilities outside of their source code if they wish to continue to be competitive and enter into new markets. RIM could use acquisitions as more than just a tool for hiring, but also as a means to enter new markets that are otherwise hard to reach. Europe is a prime example of where acquisition could allow them to gain an excellent talent pool, but also access to the European markets where consumers are highly nationalistic. RIM could also enter China and India by the same channels; which have exceptionally enormous markets that would allow them to grow immensely. China presents â€Å"an impasse with regard to RIMs use of encryption technology and the Chinese authorities desire to monitor e-mail traffic and content† (Ensign, et al. , 2008, p. 129). However, things are starting to shift overseas â€Å"both China and India have been experiencing a historical take-off in the use of intellectual property rights (IPR)† (Godinho, amp; Ferreira, 2012, p. 99). If RIM should find it too risky they could chose not to disclose or use their source code or cryptographic software to Ramp;D facilities in areas of wariness, but use those Ramp;D facilities to explore other technologies that obtain to less confidential information. RIM also could become either a multinational or transnational company by focusing on developing products for the each market; seeing as the needs in those countries are different from the North American region. Recommendations RIM has a daunting task of hiring 1,400 new employees this year, and not one option alone will adequately give them the right mix of new employees. In order for RIM to grow to the size of competitors it must start taking actions from all angles. According to the McNielly, it is important to become an industry leader because a â€Å"powerful position allows them to set the industry’s standards and define the playing field† (2012, p. 13). RIM can employ a few tactics to hit the ground running; however most of their growth will take time to take effect. The first step RIM should take, seeing as they are a software company, is to develop a better website and job application process. This will allow them hire experienced help globally in a rather quick fashion. The second step is to begin executing co-op programs with the technological university surrounding all of their facilities to guarantee there are gaining the best and brightest young talent. By expanding the co-op program to all of the facilities it will help to expand the non-Waterloo facilities as well. Moving forward Waterloo should transfer some of their activities to other development centers and allow them to grow more. This will allow Waterloo to focus more on big picture task, and be less bogged down with minor details. They should also start hiring in waves for grad student positions; which that will allow them to be able to grow continually as a flow rather than constantly trying to play catch up when they are shorthanded. As for long term goals, RIM should transform their company from a global model to a transnational model.