The Stranger

The Stranger Chris Drusbosky 3/5/12 Professor Krauss In the story â€Å"The Stranger† by Albert Camus, the belief that the themes of loss and retrieval are at the core of Mersault’s mythology, and that they illumine the notion of exile to which he returns so often is widely discussed. I however do not believe that either one of those themes has anything to do with the Mersault and the exile to which he returns to so often, rather I believe that Mersault’s own attitude is the reason for the exile he experiences in the story. The first theme that is said to play a role in Mersault’s exile is the theme of loss.Though Mersault does lose his mother in the beginning of the story, it does not affect how he acts throughout the rest of the story and he continues on like nothing ever even happened. â€Å"Then there was the church and the villagers on the sidewalks, the red geraniums on the graves in the cemetery, Perez fainting, the blood red earth spilling over Ma man’s casket, the white flesh of the roots mixed in with it, more people, voices, the village, waiting in front of a cafe, the incessant drone of the motor, and my joy when the bus entered the nest of lights that was Algiers and I knew I was going to go to bed and sleep for twelve hours. The Stranger page 18. Normally when someone’s mother dies, you are filled with grief and sadness and you cannot help but to think about how much you miss her and love her. In this quote, Mersault shows no type of sad emotion whatsoever. He seems to be completely unmoved and unchanged emotionally by the death of his mother. Not only does he not show any emotion at his mother’s funeral, the very next day he meets with his mistress Marie Cardona and spends the day with her going swimming, seeing a movie, and spending the night at his house with her.Both of these examples clearly show that Mersault is unmoved by the death of his mother and it plays no role whatsoever in the exile th at he encounters throughout the story. The second theme that is said to play a significant role in Mersault’s exile is the theme of retrieval. If there is one thing in my eyes that Mersault never did throughout the course of this story, it would be that he never retrieved anything and that he always stayed the same throughout the story. Mersault seems to maintains the same attitude towards everything that happens in the story, the â€Å"I don’t care or believe in much† type attitude.One example that proves that Mersault possesses this attitude was after he was arrested for shooting the Arab 5 times. The magistrate asks him if he believes in God. â€Å"But he cut me off and urged me on one last time, drawing himself up to his full height and asked me if I believed in God. I said no. He sat down indignantly. He said it was impossible; all men believed in God, even those who have turned their backs on him. That was his belief, and if he were to ever doubt it, his life would be meaningless. † The Stranger page 69.This quote is a perfect example that even after he has murdered a man, Mersault still maintains that same attitude towards everything and he remains unchanged. You would think that especially after the fact that he murdered someone, he would have changed his attitude a little bit or that maybe he would have had some kind of revelation and he would realize that he has done something terribly wrong. However none of this occurs with Mersault and he continues to be himself and does not change anything about himself and that he retrieves nothing from his actions and that it plays no role in his exile.Though both of the themes of loss and retrieval may seem like they play a role in Mersault’s exile in the story, I do not believe they do. I believe that Mersault’s attitude is the cause of the exile he experiences. When one has a â€Å"I don’t care or believe in much†, you can easily be separated and apart f rom the world. Had Mersault cared more about certain things or had he shown more interest in them, I believe he would not have encountered any type of exile in the story.But when you constantly see phrases like: I don’t know, I don’t care, I don’t believe etc. you get the idea that the person saying those phrases is in some kind of exile from everyone else. Mersault is clearly responsible for his own exile in this story due to his attitude towards things. Loss and retrieval do not play a role in the exile that Mersault experiences and everything that he encounters and endures is because of his attitude and nothing to do with the thought of whether or not he lost something and retrieved something.If Mersault were to ask himself: Why are these things happening to me and why do I seem to be separated form everyone else? All he would have to do is look in the mirror and he would see the cause of everything that he has gone through. While Mersault is in prison, he ta lks about how he misses certain things of life on the outside of prison and how he feels separated. My response to Mersault would be: If you had a sense of caring or interest in things, maybe you wouldn’t be here in prison in the first place and maybe you also wouldn’t feel exiled and separated from everyone else.

Plato biography

Greece had given to us many ideas, inventions and genial persons, and now days it is difficult to imagine our world without them. One of the most famous names of that age was Plato. He was philosopher, mathematic and teacher. Never the less, a few persons know why actually he was so famous. So, do you know where words â€Å"Academy' and Ð’Â «BenefitÐ’Â » came from or who created â€Å"Metaphysics† as field of science?Unfortunately, the extant data, which showed dates and place of Plat's definitely were sweep away by wind of history, but sorority of historians and sources indicate what it was in period between 429 to 423 BC in Athens. As well as we know, Athens was city-state in Ancient Greece, also many historians calling it â€Å"Heart of Greece† or â€Å"Cradle of knowledge†. We can conclude that place of born play an important role at formation of Plat's personality, along with his family was rich and very influential.High social status of his family gave to him opportunity to have best education. As Plato said lately: quickness of mind and modesty as a boy, and the â€Å"first fruits of his youth infused with hard work and love of duty†, and he had learned grammar, music, gymnastic and philosophy. Until 409 BC, Plato was studying at his teacher Socrates; moreover Socrates had big influence at his views of life. Plato was loyal follower and disciple of his teacher, also he created all main ideas with Socratic help. From 409 BC to 404 BC, Plato was in military service.In 403 BC, he returned to Athens, and he was trying himself at political career. Unfortunately, In 399 BC his teacher and friend Socrates had died. It was as knife to Palates back. After this tragic event, Plato disappointed In politics, he and there follower of Socrates left Athens and started to travel. As well as we can see from historical sources Plato travel was from 399 BC to 387 BC, during his travel he visited Italy, Libya, Serene and Egypt, while he was writing and exchanging of knowledge with other great scientists and philosopher.In the year 387 BC, then he came back to Athens, Plato founded his school and called Academy. This Academy gave to us a lot of great people, and one of them was Aristotle. In 367 BC, Plato arrived to Syracuse and become a personal tutor of Dionysus II. Furthermore, Plato reamed about state where Philosophers will have reins of government, but not bowl with poison. Unfortunately, the war broke his utopians dreams In 360 BC, after that he came back to Athens and stayed there until his dead In 347 BC.Plato biography By Tossing-Too career. Unfortunately, in 399 BC his teacher and friend Socrates had died. It was as knife to Plat's back. After this tragic event, Plato disappointed in politics, he and In 367 SC, Plato with poison. Unfortunately, the war broke his utopians dreams in 360 BC, after that he came back to Athens and stayed there until his dead in 347 BC.

Hospitality Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Hospitality Management - Essay Example As the discussion declares milk as animal products was fermented under natural conditions which resulted to sour milk products with acidity. The development of milk processes developed into natural preparation of yoghurt and cottage cheese. Over the years, the preparation of milk products has developed including coagulation of milk protein. This led to the need for preservation of milk products so that they would be stored for relatively long without spoiling. The intuition and creativity of man in the ancient times led to the innovation of various preservation techniques. These included storage of milk products in cellars and caves, salting and control of humidity. Nonetheless, processes such as salting changed the taste of the food products a challenge which motivated more innovation in food preservation. This paper stresses that developments such as dehydration and molding illustrate endeavors in the preservation of cheese products. These developments paved way for the modern introduction of various chemicals for the preservation of cheese and other milk products. The invention of refrigeration is a significant development in the food industry in general which also enabled cheese to be stored for a long time without decay. The use of various chemicals in food preservation has led to long shelve life of cheese. The most significant developments in cheese production include the possibilities which have enabled producers to maintain the flavor, texture and taste of cheese for a long time and thus making it appealing to the consumers for a relatively long duration .

American Stories, 3rd edition Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

American Stories, 3rd edition - Assignment Example The Virginia Company founded Jamestown, the first English colony in North America, after receiving a charter from King James I in 1606. The settlers established the colony predominantly for economic reasons. On the contrary, religious separatists seeking autonomy from the Church of England founded Plymouth Colony. On the other hand,  Massachusetts Bay Colony  began as a commercial adventure in 1630. It  became home to many Puritans who abandoned England due to persecution from the Crown and the Anglican Church.1 Most people wanted to break free from the oppression of the Catholic and the Anglican Church. They desired to worship God in the way they found legitimate. The Puritans believed that the Anglican Church of England resembled the Catholic Church, hence wanted to purify it2. The Puritans were intolerant to those who refused their beliefs. On the contrary, the separatists  wanted to separate from the Anglican Church altogether. The religious differences thus caused them to diverge into different colonies. The initial settlers suffered from malaria and other diseases since it was founded near swampland. They also experienced internal strife and starvation. They relied heavily on supplies from the mother nation and  assistance  from Native Americans. Although its economy stabilized upon the successful cultivation of tobacco, it was destroyed during Bacon’s Rebellion of 1698. It had to struggle to rise again. Initially, Carolina colony was reminiscent of feudal kingdoms. Over time, it was popular for religious and political freedom. However, slavery was introduced since the proprietors had investments in the slave trade. While the labor forces of other colonies had indentured servants, the Carolinas embraced slavery. The Gullah people came about because of the transatlantic slave trade of the 17th and 18th centuries. They are descendants of the slaves from Sierra Leone, who worked on rice plantations in Georgia and South Carolina. They live in

Venice Biennale Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Venice Biennale - Essay Example   Antonio Fradeletto was selected General Secretary and grew to become probably the most persuasive people of the time period. Owing to his diplomatic talent he was associated with the choice of the performers, the set-up of the expedition, and eventually the development of the international pavilions.The Venice Architecture Biennale is the world's grandest festivity and display of the model of structures. Which, as architecture is either an art or a business, signifies it hovers between becoming an ethnic festival as well as a business fair. And also, as architects will surely have an extremely high understanding of the significance of their work, their displays can together appear like a collection of contending pitches in the exchanging of opponent varieties of genius. Consecutive admins of the biennale – another one is approved every time – are aware of this. The portion of their task is to put a style for the entire event, which is fundamentally a huge list of ex positions and debates, so they want to devise ones which emphasize that architects are not at all times egomaniacs, but they really possess an important duty to wider and flourishing culture. "Less Appearance, More Ethics" was the authorized title tag a few years back in the past. (Crow, 1996) It had been "People Meet in Architecture" in the year 2010. It really is, and constantly, huge. The part uses up the 16th-century corderie of the ammunition dump of the Venetian republic, great rope-making events hundreds of meters extended.   

Homework Assignment for Finance Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Homework for Finance - Assignment Example Sooner than later, they will be expecting their first born and as such, they need to start accumulating sufficient amount in savings that can handle emergency situations. It is also apparent that the family car was acquired through a loan. They should therefore pay the debts within the first five years. Having formed a family, Sam and Judy would be expecting children and as such, they should commence saving for their children education. More so, as a young couple, the two should immediately join a retirement plan that could secure their future after retirement. Moreover, they should engage in various forms of investments to enhance their cash flow patterns while at the same time managing taxes properly to avoid hefty fines and penalties in future which could adversely affect them. Asset financing: This form of credit involves financing by a financial institution whereby both the asset is jointly owned by the bank and the purchaser. The purchaser will be required to make initial payments as agreed with the bank after which monthly installments are made based on the agreed terms. The rights to the property are transferred upon completion of installment payment. Hire purchase: Similar to asset financing, the couple will be expected to make a down payment and subsequently pay the remaining balance in agreed installments after which the asset is transferred to the purchaser. Official clothes: The couple should prioritize in buying official clothes for use while going to work. This is because most workplace has a code of dressing which every employee must comply with. Borrowing from friends is the most appropriate form of credit for financing purchase of official clothes since the clothes are not too expensive and secondly this form of financing is interest free. Camera and Television: These are leisure items which the couple can arrange to acquire later through hire-purchase. This form of credit is

Equity Valuation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Equity Valuation - Essay Example Through equity valuation, shareholders of the firm decide whether to hold, buy or sell the firm’s stock. The long term risk of holding the share is also reflected in the valuation analysis i.e. upside and downside margin. Such critical analysis of firm’s equity leads to better financial performance evaluation and finding the growth prospects of a firm. The project has taken British Telecommunication’s financial statements into consideration in explaining the various processes of equity valuation. The telecom industry in UK is one of the largest in Europe that is characterised by the rising competition in broadcast, mobile communication and broadband segment. It has witnessed significant growth in the mobile communication and broadband market and it is above the European average growth rate. The digital TV penetration has risen to 90% of UK population. The operational capacity has also witnessed significant growth owing to the investments made by Virgin media, Next generation networks and British telecom. The major players in the industry are COLT telecom, BT, Virgin Media, Orange, Kcom and O2. The UK market is divided between two kinds of players’ mobile carriers and fixed line. Key players in the mobile carriers market are O2, Vodafone and Hutchison and BT dominates the fixed line carriers. British Telecom is a UK based telecom company that caters to more than 17 million customers in UK and more than 160 countries worldwide. Its main service divisions are digital TV, broadband and mobile communication. It was earlier a subsidiary of the General post office but in 1984, it was privatised and became British Telecommunication Plc. More than 50% of its shares have been sold to investors and further divestment was made in 1993. BT Plc in the current fiscal have plans to takeover EE Ltd for an amount of  £12.1 billion (BT Group Plc, 2014a). The stock valuation

Basic Principles of Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Basic Principles of Accounting - Essay Example The convention states that items recorded in financial statements should be recorded at the original cost for which it would be bought. Stating furniture at the present cost will be misleading and the account will not conform to legal standards. 3. Depreciation is an attempt to measure the worth of a fixed asset that was used in the period under review. It therefore divides the useful life of a given fixed asset into a number of years. Each year, there is an estimate of the worth of the asset that was used in the production process. This way, accountants can get close to getting the true picture of how much was spent in a given year. Accumulated depreciation represents the worth of the asset deducted in the previous years that the asset was used in production. 4. The payment of $20,000 in June 2008 is cannot be put in the income statement of 2007/2008. This is because that insurance payment added no value to production in the 2007/08 year. However, that payment gives your company the right to future benefits. In other words, it is an asset and it must be accounted for in the Balance Sheet as an Accrual. 5. Gross profit represents sales less cost of sales or direct cots. Net profit is gross profit less other production costs like overheads, indirect costs, as well as taxation. Net profit is important as it gives the whole view of trading activities in the company over a period of time. Gross profit just gives a shallow indication of events in the organization. 1. Direct cost is a cost directly attributable to a project or activity in a business. Indirect costs are activities that cannot be directly attributed to a single activity or process in the business. Manufacturing overheads is an indirect cost because it relates to the factory’s cost that cannot be identified with a single product or activity. Examples include electricity and depreciation costs. 2. Work in progress refers to costs of unfinished raw materials that are

HRM and Culture Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

HRM and Culture - Research Paper Example The issue of gender balance at the corporate level is still problematic and one that reflects the social dynamics that surround corporate or market environment. As one tends towards mature democracies, gains that have been made in this effort become more palpable. The reverse is also true with maturing democracies and developing economies such as South Korea. In South Korea, corporate gender balance has been still hard to come by, with very little progress having been made as late as 2005. In South Korea, leading organisations that excel in key sectors such as the telecommunication industry still have corporate leaders who fallaciously think that extending women employment opportunities can undercut organisational development. While this untrue standpoint may simply be dismissed as a sexist myth, the gravity of this standpoint is that it denies the corporate life, collective approach and plurality of views, and thereby subjecting an economy that practices it to underperformance. This may be seen in South Korea and the life and practices of leading organisations therein, such as SK Holdings. ... It is possible that this bias towards women in the recruitment of personnel was not so much caused by unequal gender business strategies than the society’s gender bias. Because of the society’s gender bias towards women, SK’s might have imperceptibly maintained the culture of hiring more men than women. Conversely, it is also possible that SK’s HRM practice (of not hiring women) may have been deliberate and can therefore be regarded as part of the company’s organisational or business strategy. This may be the case, since in the details preceding the case, one of the senior managers of SK Holdings had confessed of having eschewed employing women simply because he believed that women lacked tenacity. He divulged on his belief to the effect that when deadlines are tight and many people are thus required to work overtime, women may not be as reliable as men. It is therefore plausible that SK’s HRM practice of sticking to men may have been a delib erate business strategy, as an artifice to keep organisational production optimal and to meet strict deadlines. 2. How Hiring More Women and Promoting Them Could Improve the Competitive Advantage of This Company A myriad of competitive advantages characterises the hiring and promotion of women. One of the advantages that come with the recruitment and promotion of women has to do with the entrenchment of plurality of ideas in the company’s efforts. It is a fact that women and men think and see things from different perspectives and angles. This means that incorporating women into SK’s workforce is bound to help the organisation come up with more efficient and strategic policies and frameworks. This is well seen in the case of

The ability to read critically is an important skill not only at Essay - 1

The ability to read critically is an important skill not only at university but also in the business world. discuss - Essay Example Hence, through enhancing critical perspectives towards texts, products and other symbols emergent in a society, students can transfer these abilities to the public, thus reading their society through a critical lens that directs to empowerment (Cioffi, 1992). Responding to the emerging need toward critical literacy, universities nowadays include communication curricula as an integral segment of the undergraduate and graduate courses of multitudes of business schools. These universities and colleges require that students gain knowledge on various interpersonal communication skills such as oral, reading and writing in addition to the major courses such as management, marketing and accounting skills (Muir, 1996). Nevertheless, there is no common agreement on the implication of business communication and the conventional manner to instructing business communication frequently presents a one-dimensional process framework that falls short in addressing critical thinking in order to perceive political and power relationships that are present in the workplace. Recently, there has been greater emphasis on the communication practices within the organization as well as inside the more significant economic, political and social environment of the wo rkplace (ibid). New college graduates are often surprised to discover that communication traditions in the workplace are more highly criticized than in the academic realm and that superior-subordinate interactions are very much complicated than the typical student-instructor relationship. Even though several organizations promote open communication and innovative capabilities, they are repressed by elements that may not appear obvious or sensible to the novice employee. For instance, it is not at all times apparent who the important actors are in the decision-making arena, and the novice may desire to obey traditional business communication approaches which

The Betrayal of Julius Caesar Essay Example for Free

The Betrayal of Julius Caesar Essay 1- Julius Caesar lives in Rome, Italy. Some of his most famous battles were in Alesia, Pharsalus, Zela, and Munda. (biography.com) 2- Brutus spent much of his adult life in Rome, Italy. (livius.org) 3- Caesar was born in 100 BCE and died 44 BCE. He may have lived longer if he lived in modern times. (biography.com) 4- Brutus was born 85 BCE and died 42 BCE. He too may have loved longer if he lived in modern times. (biography.com) 5- Some cultural differences are that many people in Rome valued public service above almost anything and many people also depended on the work of slaves. In a republic the people rule and make decisions through series of elections. The people wanted Caesar to rule because Rome was experiencing many problems they believed he could fix and because he was kind to the middle class. Brutus didnt want Caesar to become lifelong dictator mostly because he wanted the title for himself. For the republic to have a king, it would actually mean that it would no longer be a republic, having a king means sovereignty and power no longer lies with the people, it lies with the king. In our culture this situation would be handled a lot differently considering we are a democracy and do not want a king, dictator, or ultimate ruler. 6- Caesars story is one of betrayal because Brutus murdered Caesar when Caesar trusted Brutus. (bbc.co.uk) 7- Ultimately Brutus and other liberators conspired to kill Caesar and did just that. This happened because many people did not want Rome to fall back into monarchical rule and did not like Caesars growing popularity. (biography.com)

The Company Culture Of Enron Management Essay

The Company Culture Of Enron Management Essay Just as the destiny of individuals is determined by personal character, the destiny of an organization is determined by the character of its leadership. And when individuals are derailed because of a lack of character, the organization will also be harmed (Josephson, 1999). The merger of two Houston-based pipeline companies in 1985 led to the creation of Enron. It started as an energy delivery company, but the deregulation a few years later helped it change its focus and become an energy matchmaker or energy broker. The company started matching the buyers and sellers of energy and utilised creative trading methods to generate profits. So in a short span of time, Enron corporations fortunes changed from just a surviving company and it become a thriving company- a symbol of successful American corporation. 1.2 The Company Culture The deregulation in 1988 led to a dramatic change in the corporation. Enron had become the symbol of dynamism and aggression. The culture at Enron was to encourage creativity amongst the employees. It embraced a culture that rewarded cleverness. The employees were motivated to explore innovative approach to their work. The limits were pushed for performance on the individual employee level to sustain the astonishing growth levels that the corporation was experiencing. It was slowly moving towards a culture that admired unchecked ambition. In the pursuit, Enron led a culture which believed in stretching the performance until the limits of ethical conduct were overlooked. We will also see ahead how the leadership at Enron affected a change in the culture of the corporation. If corporate leaders encourage rule-breaking and foster an intimidating, aggressive environment, it is not surprising that the ethical boundaries at Enron eroded away to nothing. Schein (1985) has focused on leaders hip as the critical component of the organizations culture because leaders can create, reinforce, or change the organizations culture. This applies not the least to an organizations ethical climate (Sims, 2000; Trevinoet al., 2000; Sims and Brinkmann, 2002).According to Schein (1985) there are five primary mechanisms that a leader can use to influence an organizations culture: attention, reaction to crises, role modelling, allocation of rewards, and criteria for selection and dismissal. Scheins assumption is that these five criteria reinforce and encourage behavioural and cultural norms within an organization. So to summarise the culture at the company as depicted in the movie which was influenced by the following factors. Leadership Behaviour (reference?) Espoused values and visions Communicating the vision for the organisation through stated strategic long-term objectives in the vision statement/annual general meeting statement. Role modelling and attention There were multiple instances of Management-Employee seminars. There were also Enron Gas services solution days, where the management would use motivational speech to inspire employees. Reaction to crisis Initially in the nascent stages of the accounting misdemeanours the management devised way to avert crisis with efficient use of Public relation to make the event look insignificant. Programs , structures Criteria for rewards and personnel decision Enrons remuneration system rewarded individuals who adopted Enrons aggressive, individualistic culture and were based on short-term profits and financial measures. Symbols , rituals and stories The enron management way of celebrating success- organising weekend adventure trips. Jeff Skilling mantra- Do it right, do it now , and do it better 1.3 The External Environment Enron had become an energy trading giant in the US market and it was expanding in more sectors and international markets. The surprise with the companys growth was not its ingenuity of doing business but the speed at which it was expanding. But with a careful balance of public relation and good CSR skill, Enron had succeeded in developing a niche amongst the American corporate houses, the American media and the masses. It was a symbol of corporate excellence teamed with an ambitious zeal to succeed at all cost. Enrons spectacular success was receiving positive reviews from the press and the financial analyst community which was incremental in adding fuel to the companys competitive culture. So the movie very succinctly describes the leadership at Enron which encouraged a culture that was morally flexible leading to ethical degeneration in the name of ambition. Leadership at Enron The pillars of Enron were the top management team which always believed in exuberant performance. They were driven in their pursuit of delivering on the bottom-line numbers at all cost. This attitude was percolated to the complete organisational structure at Enron by dividing the company in either the high performing employees or the so- called low-performers. The employees who were a part of the upper-crust were handsomely remunerated. This led to a negatively infected passion amongst the employees to break the performance bench-mark in the organisation to happily afloat. The reflection of the leadership style in the movie is Indirect leadership It is evident from the movie that there was a heavy influence of the top management on the culture of the organisation which cascaded down to all the employees of the company, but indirectly. A form of indirect leadership involves leader influence over the organization culture, which is defined as the shared beliefs and values of members (Scheinn, 1992- trice Beyer, 1991). Leaders may attempt either to strengthen existing cultural beliefs and values or to change them. There are many ways to influence culture, and they may involve direct influences (communication, a compelling vision or leading by example) or other forms of indirect influence, such as changing the organization structure or reward system. Transactional leadership It refers to the leadership style wherein the leader exchanges rewards of economic or financial value with the follower. These rewards are based on the premise that the leader recognises the parameters and the levels of performance which justify reasonably the task and also clarifies the conditions under which the rewards are available for justification. The goal is to enter a mutually beneficial exchange, but not necessarily to develop a enduring relationship. Although a leadership act transpires, it is not one that binds the leader and follower together in a mutual and continuing pursuit of a higher purpose. But in the movie it is also seen that leaders were in a constant pursuit to convince their followers about their genuine interest of promoting the welfare of the stakeholders, which was not the case in reality. Yet they were successful in blinding the stakeholders (employees) with their leadership position and skills. So here we see an overlap of transactional as well as transformational leadership traits as the leaders at Enron were successful in their motive. Effective transformational leaders may exhibit transactional behaviors, but their leadership style also includes one or more of the following characteristics: idealized vision, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration (Bass, 1985; Bass Avolio, 1994). These characteristics are assumed to transform followers and motivate them to do more than initially expected. This transformation presumably occurs through raising the followers awareness of the signi ¬Ã‚ cance of designated outcomes, getting followers to transcend their self-interests for the good of the organization, or augmenting followers needs on Maslows (1954) hierarchy of needs (Bass, 1985). Although leaders and followers purposes may begin as separate but related, they eventually become fused into a linkage of power bases that provide support for both members of the relationship. Leadership is about making choices (Kouzes and Posner, 2003). Choice is a binary action that divides options into two sets, the desired and the undesired ones, according to a higher principle or value (Rawls, 1999). Mostovicz (2008) posits that the way people choose is a reflection of their worldview. This discovery can be approached in 2 ways (1) By the need for achievement (the Lambda worldview); or (2) By the need for affiliation (the Theta worldview). Both the world views have a unique set of characteristics. The Lambda are self- motivated and highly driven to attain individaulistic goals whereas the Theta are more society welfare oriented. The Lamba have a narrow prespective towards the society as such whereas the Theta have a much broader view. The unique characteristics of both the worldviews along with leadership approach is as mentioned below. Theta Lambda Motivation/reason Socially oriented Personally oriented Goal Seeking unity and certainty Seeking challenge and creation Behaviour Communion Agency Benefit Building respect Looking for personal freedom Leadership principle Authenticity = truthfulness Authenticity =genuineness Inclination Toward choice Toward contrast Perception of truth As an objective As a set of rules Transformation of a leader A leader is born. Qualities are subconscious A leader is developed consciously So the reflection in the movie about the leadership at Enron is more on the Lambda worldview. The attitude induced by the top management through the company made the organisation develop a Lambda view which led to the massive breakdown of the ethical machinery. The Leader Jeff Skilling- the man with the ideas. He was the kind of a person who had big vision of things. One of his favourite books was the Selfish Gene, which was a description about the human nature being steered only by greed and competition in the service of passing on the genes. He wanted to alter the way in which Energy was being traded. He succeeded in initiating a market for natural gas wherein it started being traded as stocks. He converted energy into a financial instrument and this led to Enron becoming the largest energy trader in North America. Kenneth Lay was a visionary and he liked people who shared this attribute. Jeff Skilling fit in the picture perfectly. He was aggressive, intelligent and possessed exemplary leadership qualities which was incremental in creating a culture of aggression and incentivised competition in the organisation. Under his leadership the organisation transformed from a small energy market player to the biggest energy trading company in North America with a rapidly expanding global operations network. The company was being driven by the aggressive and individualistic attitude which was strongly ingrained in the system by Jeff Skilling and the policies of the management team for attaining short term profit. These were successful in achieving the results in hindsight but were seriously damaging the ethical balance in the system. According to the Big Five model (Hogan, Curphy Hogan, 1994, Page 61), Jeff Skilling exhibited the Surgency personality type which had specific traits of Extroversion, High Energy/activity level and a Need for power. Charisma was the most important aspect of his personality. He believed in gaining power and self glorification, caring very little for his followers, the ideals or values. This is usually seen in the case of negative charismatics. He used his charisma, to influence people in a way which made them awe-stricken, wanted his acceptance and hence they could not criticise him or his actions. This not just has an influence on the followers, but has an effect on the leader as well. The leader in such cases become not only over-confident but also delusional of their infallibility. To describe further we utilise the following table to understand the charismatic leadership and its effect on the organisation. The leader has total and absolute authority. Leaders build their eminence and maintain their grip on their followers throught a well-articulated ,emotive communication of their vision. The leader cultivates a compelling and captivating self image Immense faith invested in the leader Heavy emphasis on the charismatic attributes of leadership. The CEO had immense and unchallenged authority. Events such as the annual management conference, where leaders promoted themselves in a thearitical manner. Intense faith exhibited by emploess in Lay and Skilling and a declining confidence in the quality of their perceptions Charismatic Leadership A totalistic vision, leading to a higher sense of purpose and achievement. Employees assured they were transforming how business was conducted in the world. An intense transcendent ideology. A high degree of personal commitment by followers, to the goals of their leaders. The replacement of the followers existing belief system with a sense of being involved in a meaningful or revolutionary change. A compelling vision and intellectual stimulation Intense recruitement rituals, designed to engage employees in a process of affliation. The transformation of attitudes, behaviour. Constant messages that those hired were part of a special elite and were the brightest and the best in the world Indoctrination rituals that alternate between stressful and exhilarating. A process of conversion enacted Continuous indoctrination ,to reinforce initials sense of affiliation Individual consideration Perceived dissenters marginalised Financial data falsified Cultivation of obscure jargon, familiar only to people within the organisation Punitive internal regime. Promotion of a Common Culture Punitive internal environment: dissent demonised Unidirectional communication Negative information suppressed and positive information maximised. Total conformity from followers Power and Influence- Amongst the different types of powers Skilling had both at his disposal. He made use of his position power due to his position in Enron and also the personal power. In terms of position power it appears that applied the reward power which meant that his followers complied in order to obtain rewards and also legitimate powers where in the followers complied as they believed that he had the right to make the request due to his position. Also, we could see the use of his personal powers to a great extent where in his vast knowledge about the subject enabled his followers to comply. The followers also admired him and aspired to be like him due to his charismatic personality which also gave him the referent power which helped him gain loyalty and commitment. In order to influence his followers in supporting him he did use rational persuasion to show them the logical side of his argument based on factual evidence. The followers at some time did realise that Skilling was being unethical in his practices and in spite of this realisation still continued to support him. To explain the influence Skilling had on his followers we can make use of the 3 well known experiments-Milgrams experiment, Solomon Aschs conformity and Zimbardo prison experiment. Milgrams experiment tells us how people conform to an authority figure. The agentic state theory explains this further by stating that the person comes to view himself as an instrument in carrying out another persons wishes and therefore no longer sees himself responsible for his actions. Similarly the other 2 experiments highlight the human behaviour in terms of role conformity and social conformity where in people have a tendency to come under the pressure of social acceptability and conforming to everything they feel they need to in order to be a part of the group. Leader-Member Exchange Enron was a company of believers. In a survey in 1997, employees who were surveyed for a feedback faced tremendous faith in the leadership of Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling. It has been discussed in this analysis that the company had an indirect leadership style, whereby influence of the top management percolated to all the employees in the company through the use of multiple communication strategies (Enron Gas services day) when the top management discussed the future strategy of the company, the importance of employee contribution, commending excellent employee performance etc. So the employees became blind believers in the methodology adopted by the leadership at the organisation and started working with the win at all cost attitude which led to the slow erosion of the ethical fabric. Also the reward system that was created in the organisation, reflected the expectation of the management. The companies reward system only appraised employees who performed consistently with little re gard to ethical conduct. Overall, Enrons reward system rewarded individuals who embraced Enrons aggressive, individualistic culture and were based on short-term profits and financial measures. Leadership development at Enron Leadership calls for total commitment to the perpetual process of purpose seeking. While leaders are usually concerned with their legacies, their commitment to purpose has to go far deeper. This total commitment implies that, in reality, leaders seek either my way or nothing. However, this commitment is intrinsic; it calls for the leader to mobilise himself, body and soul, but in no way does it imply extrinsically that what is not my way is wrong. Ideal leaders do not exist in practice. Thus, we can relate to leadership as a progressive development only. Since humans cannot be fully conscious of our emotions, a posteriori, we cannot fully mobilise them in order to understand and attain our life goals and purpose. Because our purpose remains opaque at best, it follows that leaders will act unethically even when they do so unwillingly or unconsciously. The only way for leaders to improve their ethical position is to interact with others in society to help them reveal their hidden agenda over time. The particular worldview, in turn, shapes these agendas, either Theta or Lambda, that a person embodies in his search for greater self-awareness and contextualisation with his external environment. Appendix

Importance Of IP Addresses

Importance Of IP Addresses Each device that participates in networking activities must have a unique IP address. Network services that use TCP/IP identify other network hosts by using IP addresses. The IP address provides the exact location of a host device on a network. If the internet protocol determines that a destination address is on the local network, it transmits the packet directly to the network host. If it is determined that the destination IP address is not on the local network, the internet protocol looks for a route to a remote host. An address on the local network is a local address and on not on the local network is a remote address. If a route is found, the packet is sent using that route. If no route is found, then the packet is sent to the default gateway for the source host. A gateway connects networks using different communication protocols. An IP address includes a network identifier and a host identifier. The network identifier is used to identify the network where the host is located. All systems that are on the same physical network must have the same network identifier. The host identifier identifies a workstation, server, router, or other host within a network. The address assigned to each host must be unique to the network identifier. The 128-bit IPv6 address is divided into 16-bit boundaries. The 16-bit blocks are then converted to a 4-digit hexadecimal number, separated by colons. This representation is called colon-hexadecimal. This is in contrast to 32-bit IPv4 address represented in the dotted-decimal format, divided into 8-bit boundaries, and then converted to its decimal equivalent, and separated by periods. IPv6 addresses do not need to be configured manually. Unlike in IPv4, DHCP is not used in IPv6 to configure IP addresses and subnet masks automatically. The link-local scope of an IPv6 address is always configured automatically. Addresses with other scopes, for example global, are configured by router advertisements. Static and Dynamic Addresses A static IP address is an address that does not change over time unless altered manually. It is used when an IP address or network location has to remain the same consistently. A good example of this would be a web server. If you go to www.google.co.uk you are really going to the IP address of 66.102.9.147. If this were to change it would not be possible to access Google.co.uk unless you knew the new IP address or until Google updated their DNS records. A Dynamic IP address is an address that changes every time the device connects to a network and is assigned an IP address. It is mostly commonly used when a consistent IP address is not necessary. Dynamic IPà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s are used in large networks where computers are frequently reconfigured, or where a limited number of IP address are available to share between many computers. IPv6 Unicast Addresses IPv6 Unicast IPv6 Unicast addresses are generically structured as a two part address: a 64-bit Topology part, used by routers to forward a packet to its intended destination network, and a 64-bit Interface Identifier, that identifies a particular end point. There are several types of unicast addresses in IPv6 unicast: global unicast, link-local unicast, and unique-local unicast. There are also some special-purpose subtypes of global unicast, for example IPv6 addresses with embedded IPv4 addresses or Loopback address. Additional address types or subtypes may be defined in the future. Elements of a Unicast Address Prefix e.g. FC00::/7 is a prefix to identify Local IPv6 unicast addresses. Global IDs are 40-bit global identifiers used to create a globally unique prefix Subnet IDs are 16-bit identifiers used to identify a subnet within the site Interface ID is a 64-bit Interface identifier that indicates the interface of a node Global Unicast Global Unicast Addresses of this type are designed to be aggregated or summarized to produce an efficient routing infrastructure. They are the IPv6 equivalent of public IPv4 addresses. Unlike the current IPv4-based Internet, which has the mixture of both flat and hierarchical routing, IPv6 has been designed from the ground up to support hierarchical addressing and routing. Global unicast addresses are globally routable and reachable on the IPv6 section of the Internet. The region of the Internet over which the global unicast address is unique is the entire IPv6 Internet. IPv6 global unicast addresses are assigned from the prefix 2000::/3. Global unicast address assignments are made to Regional Internet Registries, and the address blocks that have been assigned are registered in the IANA IPv6 Global Unicast Address Assignment Registry. All other address prefixes are currently unallocated, and should not be seen in the source or destination address of an IPv6 packet in the context of global routing. Link-Local Addresses Link-local addresses are network addresses that are intended only for communications within one segment of a local network or a point-to-point connection. Link-locals allow addressing hosts without using a globally-routable address prefix. Routers will not forward a packet with link-local addresses. Link-local addresses are often used for network address configuration when there is no external source of network addressing information is available. This addressing is accomplished by the host operating system using a process called stateless address auto configuration. This is possible in both IPv4 and in IPv6. IPv6 hosts automatically assign their interfaces a unique address based on the IEEE 802 MAC address. Unique Local Addresses Unique Local Addresses are similar to the private address space in IPv4. This address space is intended to have the same scope as global address but that equates to an enterprise environment. Unique local addresses are assigned from the prefix FD00::/8, using a self-assigned Global ID, where the Local bit is set to 1. The Global ID is not certain to be unique, and there is no form of address registration. Packets with these addresses in the source or destination fields are not intended to be routed in the public Internet, but are intended to be routed in a site. The address prefix FC00::/8 , with the local bit set to 0, is currently undefined. A former standard proposed the use of site-local addresses in the fec0::/10 range, but due to concerns about scalability and the poor definition of what constitutes a site, its use has been deprecated since September 2004 Unicast Considerations Global Unicast Address Considerations No significant considerations are necessary if the organization has an address space assignment and a single prefix is deployed. A multi-homed site may deploy addresses from two or more Service Provider assigned IPv6 address ranges. Here, the network Administrator must have awareness on where and how these ranges are used on the multi-homed infrastructure environment. The nature of the usage of multiple prefixes may depend on the reason for multi-homing (e.g. resilience failover, load balancing, policy-based routing, or multi-homing during an IPv6 renumbering event) IPv6 introduces improved support for multi-addressed hosts through the IPv6 default address selection methods. A multi-homed host may thus have two addresses, one per prefix (provider), and select source and destination addresses. However multi-homing also has some operative and administrative burdens besides choosing multiple addresses per interface Local Link Addresses Considerations Link-Local addresses are designed to be used for addressing on a single link Generally for the purposes of automatic address configuration, neighbor discovery, or when no routers are present. Routers should not forward any packets with Link-Local source or destination addresses to other links. unique only on one physical link never routed even within particular organization not globally unique not unique even within particular organization used for special features of IPv6 like auto configuration Unique Local Addresses Considerations Advantages Provides Local IPv6 prefixes that can be used independently of any provider-based IPv6 unicast address allocations. This is useful for sites that are not always connected to the Internet or sites that wish to have a distinct prefix that can be used to localize traffic inside of the site. Applications can treat these addresses in the same manner as any other type of global IPv6 unicast addresses. Sites can be merged without renumbering of the Local IPv6 addresses. Sites can change their provider-based IPv6 unicast address without disrupting any communication within the Local IPv6 addresses. Has a well known prefix that allows for easy filtering at site boundary. Can be used for in-site Virtual Private Networks. If accidently leaked outside of a site via routing or DNS, there is no conflict with other addresses. Disadvantages It is not possible to route Local IPv6 prefixes on the global Internet. Consequentially, it is necessary to have the default behaviour of site border routers to filter these addresses. There is an extremely low probability of non-unique locally assigned addresses. This risk can be ignored for all practical purposes, but it still leads to a theoretical risk of clashing addresses. Recommendations The Unique Local Address format is recommended for several reasons: Allows networks to be combined or privately interconnected without creating any address conflicts or requiring renumbering of interfaces using these prefixes If accidentally leaked outside of a network via routing or DNS, there is no conflict with any other addresses ISP independent and can be used for communications inside of a network without having any permanent or intermittent Internet connectivity Well known prefix to allow for easy filtering at network boundaries In practice, applications may treat these addresses like global scoped addresses is designed for Addressing isolated networks Persistent local-context addresses (independent of provider-based addresses) VPN (Virtual Private Network) styled interconnection of local network contexts Private addresses in terms of routing scope Global addresses in terms of uniqueness

This is Not the Perfect College Admissions Essay :: College Admissions Essays

This is Not the Perfect College Admissions Essay Choose the day, Choose the sign of the day. The day’s divinity, the first thing I see, a crazy world that beckons me. As I stand forth today in my infancy, I wish to seek— seek the knowledge which I must find for I must be in control of thee. The power to control oneself and the ones beside me, For if I not have the ultimate control rival that of Satan. This is the apocalypse. Apocalypse not of the world but that of my world, my inner feelings my dreams, my ambitions. Ambition, Greed, Envy, Anger and Arrogance are the most powerful emotions known to man. They were prevalent with the stone age man and they will remain as long as man continues to exist. They are experienced by the psychopath to the holy Pope himself. I have unfortunately or fortunately, encountered all. Ambition . . . will I stop at nothing to achieve my ambition, my goals, my sole purpose of existence? Ethics and morals might stand between me and ambition but what am I to do? When you’re three you’re taught to distinguish right from wrong, but who are they to make that distinction? You’re tutored morals yet you’re not told of stronger emotions that question the bounds of morality. Does greed have anything to do with ambition? Greed is ambition, ambition is greed. Ambition helps to create a sense of worth, the want to do better than the one beside you. The need, the greed to do better than the one before you. Greed is good, greed is right , greed works. Greed for knowledge, life, power, money, helps to create a balance between the strong and the weak. A wise man once said: "Envy is the greatest sin." This wise man was a fool. He failed to acknowledge that it is envy which helps a man pursue greater goals. It is due to the fact that another man, a mere mortal as compared to the strong man has surpassed him and he rightfully wants his place back. Progress in society is a result of man’s greed, ambition and the most inconspicuous of them all, envy. Anger is an emotion when controlled helps to get in touch with inner feelings. It channels the mind, clears ambiguous thoughts and helps focus on a clear objective.

Hannibal Barca :: essays research papers

Hannibal Barca was born in 247 B.C. in the city of Carthage, which was located in modern Tunis, or the northern tip of Africa. His father, Hamilcar Barca, was a great Carthaginian general of the army who fought in the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage, which the latter lost. At a very young age, Hamilcar made Hannibal promise â€Å"eternal hatred towards Rome† (Lendering, 1). At around age nine, Hannibal accompanied his father on an expedition to gain a hold in Spain. During this time was when Hannibal probably gained most of his military knowledge that helped him greatly later in life. When Hannibal’s father and older brother died in 229 and 226, Hannibal was elected commander-in-chief of the Carthaginian army. About ten years later, Hannibal, acting on his promise to his father, attacked the city of Sagantum in Spain, which was controlled by the Romans. This attack led to the start of the Second Punic War between Carthage and Rome.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even before the war started, Hannibal knew what he was going to do. Since Carthage had no navy, there was no hope of going directly from Carthage to Italy over the Mediterranean Sea. Hannibal thought up a dangerous but ingenious plan. In order to get to Italy over land, Hannibal and his army would have to travel from Carthage-controlled Spain across the Alps and into the heart of the enemy. Hannibal left in the cold winter of 218 B.C. with 50,000 infantry, 9,000 cavalry, and 37 war elephants. While crossing the Alps, â€Å"Hannibal’s force suffered greatly from the elements and the hostility of the local tribesmen† (Beshara, 3). By the time they reached Italy, after only fourteen days, over 9,000 men had perished along with most of the elephants, but this number was soon replenished after 14,000 northern Gaul rebels joined Hannibal’s army. This group of 60,000 men proved superior to the Roman forces, and after at least three recorded major vic tories, the Roman senate was exasperated. An army of 80,000 Roman soldiers was sent to stop Hannibal’s army of now 50,000 once and for all. In July of 216 B.C., the Romans engaged the Carthaginians in â€Å"the neighborhood of Cannae on the Italian east coast† (Lendering, 2). Greatly outnumbered, Hannibal realized that he would have to win by strategy, and that is exactly what he did. As the two lines met, Hannibal’s cavalry gained the flanks and, moving up the sides, attacked the rear of the Roman line.

Fighting the Big-Box stores :: essays research papers

Introduction The Just family has operated our hardware store in this community for three generations. Our store has supported all of our family members very well in all of our years in business. We have recently been informed that Home Depot is planning on opening a new store in our community. The following is our plan of action to stay in business and continue to serve our community. Problem   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Currently Home Depot is planning on opening a new store in our community. We foresee this posing a huge financial threat to our business. Being a small locally owned hardware store, we are not able to obtain huge volume discounts like the big box stores. Currently our hours of operation are significantly shorter than Home Depot. Home Depot is a nationally renowned name brand store, which in itself will be a significant hurdle to overcome. Home Depot has a huge advertising budget, which includes NASCAR sponsorships and national television advertisements. The paramount concern for us is the competition they will impose relative to our customer base. Current Situation Seymour currently has one other hardware store located in the heart of the city in addition to ours. Both of our businesses have the same hours of operation, which are Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm and 8am until noon on Saturday. Our store has seven employees currently. Four are very knowledgeable individuals with a total of 120 years of experience between them. Two other members work part-time throughout the week stocking shelves and cleaning, while the last employee does the paperwork and ordering for the store. A huge percentage of our customers look to us for advice on how to repair their problems. They value our expertise in plumbing, electrical, paint, and personalized customer service. We believe we have an advantage in this area. Currently, we don’t offer any other services except waiting on the customers, answering questions, and on a limited basis, filling small orders from a limited supply base. Possible Causes of the Problem   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  We believe that Home Depot’s purchasing power could be the biggest issue facing us. They are a multi-billion dollar industry dispersing products nationwide. The result is providing lower cost product to the customer, while at the same time offering convenient one-stop shopping. Alternative Approaches After doing some sole-searching and conducting some poles within the community, we have come up with some ideas that might help us overcome the competition with Home Depot.

Women in Combat

Women In Combat â€Å"From Kelly Flinn to G. I. Jane, controversy has raged in recent months over whether women are fit for military service† (Brown 326). In the articles â€Å"Women Unfit for Combat? Au Contraire! † and â€Å"Women are not a Warrior Class,† both authors convey their thoughts on women in combat. Both authors give many reasons why or why not women should be allowed to fight in combat. Timothy Brown, the author of â€Å"Women Unfit for Combat? Au Contraire! gives many more strong examples to argue his case than the author of â€Å"Women are not a Warrior Class† and, consequently, has a more persuasive essay. In an effort to discourage women from considering combat rolls in the military, Paul Hackett, one of the authors of â€Å"Women are not a Warrior Class,† made this bold statement in his argument, â€Å"Can women master the skills and strategies of combat as well as men? Yes. Can women mentally endure the rigors of combat as well as men? Yes. Can women meet the physical rigors of combat at the level required by the U. S. orces and in particular the U. S. Marine Corps? Absolutely not! † Is it fair to assume that women are incapable of having the stability to fight in combat? Brown uses the women commandos of Nicaragua who fought for their country to argue his point that if given the opportunity and encouragement, American women could effectively perform well in combat. Since the beginning of time, women have been viewed as the weaker sex. Through the years, the stature of women in society has grown, leading a way for women to become not the male’s possession but his equal. This is not true all the time, especially when dealing with women in combat. James Collins another author of â€Å"Women Unfit for Combat† argues that when women are put in life threatening conditions, many of them would rise to the challenge, but he doesn’t believe that women should be allowed to be on the front line in combat. As Brown explains, anyone who wants to fight on the front line for his/her country should be able to, regardless of sex. Women have proved themselves to be fully capable in doing most jobs a man can do. It’s not an issue of who is better. â€Å"In terms of the demands of infantry warfare, women have proved themselves capable of fighting under even the most arduous of conditions† (Brown 327). According to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, â€Å"all men and women are created equal† (WIC). Brown supports this statement made by Stanton by using personal experiences of women such as Angelica Maria. â€Å"A legend among her male peers, Angelica Maria then continued as commander of her almost all-male platoon until, wounded in ombat for a seventh time, she was forced to seek medical attention† (Brown 326). Hackett on the other hand says â€Å"The marine Corps grunts are the Olympic gold medallists when it comes to combat. If for the sake of diversity and political correctness we want to include a women in combat, then consider the cost of that decision: the silver medal in combat is defeat† (Hackett 329). The reality that Hackett can actually believe that a woman i n combat would lead to defeat is absurd and degrading to the entire female population. As Brown believes, women should be able to fight for their country, without being demoralized while doing so. Not only does Timothy Brown convince his readers that woman in combat is more than just about women’s rights and morals. He convinces his readers that women in combat are about the ability to make dreams come true is what really matters. By doing so, he is paving the way for many other men and women to speak their mind on this very important issue and also helping women progress in the field of combat. Bibliography Work Cited Brown, Timothy C. â€Å"Women Unfit for Combat? Au Contraire,† The Structure of Argument. 1994. Bedford/St. Martin’s Collins, James, Paul L. Hackett, Bill Norton. â€Å"Women are not a Warrior Class,† The Structure of Argument. 1994. Bedford/St. Martin’s The New American Desk Encyclopedia Penguin Group, New York, 1998 Women’s History in America Presented by Women’s International Center (WIC) www. wic. org/misc/history. htm Word Count: 638 Women in Combat Women In Combat â€Å"From Kelly Flinn to G. I. Jane, controversy has raged in recent months over whether women are fit for military service† (Brown 326). In the articles â€Å"Women Unfit for Combat? Au Contraire! † and â€Å"Women are not a Warrior Class,† both authors convey their thoughts on women in combat. Both authors give many reasons why or why not women should be allowed to fight in combat. Timothy Brown, the author of â€Å"Women Unfit for Combat? Au Contraire! gives many more strong examples to argue his case than the author of â€Å"Women are not a Warrior Class† and, consequently, has a more persuasive essay. In an effort to discourage women from considering combat rolls in the military, Paul Hackett, one of the authors of â€Å"Women are not a Warrior Class,† made this bold statement in his argument, â€Å"Can women master the skills and strategies of combat as well as men? Yes. Can women mentally endure the rigors of combat as well as men? Yes. Can women meet the physical rigors of combat at the level required by the U. S. orces and in particular the U. S. Marine Corps? Absolutely not! † Is it fair to assume that women are incapable of having the stability to fight in combat? Brown uses the women commandos of Nicaragua who fought for their country to argue his point that if given the opportunity and encouragement, American women could effectively perform well in combat. Since the beginning of time, women have been viewed as the weaker sex. Through the years, the stature of women in society has grown, leading a way for women to become not the male’s possession but his equal. This is not true all the time, especially when dealing with women in combat. James Collins another author of â€Å"Women Unfit for Combat† argues that when women are put in life threatening conditions, many of them would rise to the challenge, but he doesn’t believe that women should be allowed to be on the front line in combat. As Brown explains, anyone who wants to fight on the front line for his/her country should be able to, regardless of sex. Women have proved themselves to be fully capable in doing most jobs a man can do. It’s not an issue of who is better. â€Å"In terms of the demands of infantry warfare, women have proved themselves capable of fighting under even the most arduous of conditions† (Brown 327). According to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, â€Å"all men and women are created equal† (WIC). Brown supports this statement made by Stanton by using personal experiences of women such as Angelica Maria. â€Å"A legend among her male peers, Angelica Maria then continued as commander of her almost all-male platoon until, wounded in ombat for a seventh time, she was forced to seek medical attention† (Brown 326). Hackett on the other hand says â€Å"The marine Corps grunts are the Olympic gold medallists when it comes to combat. If for the sake of diversity and political correctness we want to include a women in combat, then consider the cost of that decision: the silver medal in combat is defeat† (Hackett 329). The reality that Hackett can actually believe that a woman i n combat would lead to defeat is absurd and degrading to the entire female population. As Brown believes, women should be able to fight for their country, without being demoralized while doing so. Not only does Timothy Brown convince his readers that woman in combat is more than just about women’s rights and morals. He convinces his readers that women in combat are about the ability to make dreams come true is what really matters. By doing so, he is paving the way for many other men and women to speak their mind on this very important issue and also helping women progress in the field of combat. Bibliography Work Cited Brown, Timothy C. â€Å"Women Unfit for Combat? Au Contraire,† The Structure of Argument. 1994. Bedford/St. Martin’s Collins, James, Paul L. Hackett, Bill Norton. â€Å"Women are not a Warrior Class,† The Structure of Argument. 1994. Bedford/St. Martin’s The New American Desk Encyclopedia Penguin Group, New York, 1998 Women’s History in America Presented by Women’s International Center (WIC) www. wic. org/misc/history. htm Word Count: 638 Women in Combat Women In Combat â€Å"From Kelly Flinn to G. I. Jane, controversy has raged in recent months over whether women are fit for military service† (Brown 326). In the articles â€Å"Women Unfit for Combat? Au Contraire! † and â€Å"Women are not a Warrior Class,† both authors convey their thoughts on women in combat. Both authors give many reasons why or why not women should be allowed to fight in combat. Timothy Brown, the author of â€Å"Women Unfit for Combat? Au Contraire! gives many more strong examples to argue his case than the author of â€Å"Women are not a Warrior Class† and, consequently, has a more persuasive essay. In an effort to discourage women from considering combat rolls in the military, Paul Hackett, one of the authors of â€Å"Women are not a Warrior Class,† made this bold statement in his argument, â€Å"Can women master the skills and strategies of combat as well as men? Yes. Can women mentally endure the rigors of combat as well as men? Yes. Can women meet the physical rigors of combat at the level required by the U. S. orces and in particular the U. S. Marine Corps? Absolutely not! † Is it fair to assume that women are incapable of having the stability to fight in combat? Brown uses the women commandos of Nicaragua who fought for their country to argue his point that if given the opportunity and encouragement, American women could effectively perform well in combat. Since the beginning of time, women have been viewed as the weaker sex. Through the years, the stature of women in society has grown, leading a way for women to become not the male’s possession but his equal. This is not true all the time, especially when dealing with women in combat. James Collins another author of â€Å"Women Unfit for Combat† argues that when women are put in life threatening conditions, many of them would rise to the challenge, but he doesn’t believe that women should be allowed to be on the front line in combat. As Brown explains, anyone who wants to fight on the front line for his/her country should be able to, regardless of sex. Women have proved themselves to be fully capable in doing most jobs a man can do. It’s not an issue of who is better. â€Å"In terms of the demands of infantry warfare, women have proved themselves capable of fighting under even the most arduous of conditions† (Brown 327). According to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, â€Å"all men and women are created equal† (WIC). Brown supports this statement made by Stanton by using personal experiences of women such as Angelica Maria. â€Å"A legend among her male peers, Angelica Maria then continued as commander of her almost all-male platoon until, wounded in ombat for a seventh time, she was forced to seek medical attention† (Brown 326). Hackett on the other hand says â€Å"The marine Corps grunts are the Olympic gold medallists when it comes to combat. If for the sake of diversity and political correctness we want to include a women in combat, then consider the cost of that decision: the silver medal in combat is defeat† (Hackett 329). The reality that Hackett can actually believe that a woman i n combat would lead to defeat is absurd and degrading to the entire female population. As Brown believes, women should be able to fight for their country, without being demoralized while doing so. Not only does Timothy Brown convince his readers that woman in combat is more than just about women’s rights and morals. He convinces his readers that women in combat are about the ability to make dreams come true is what really matters. By doing so, he is paving the way for many other men and women to speak their mind on this very important issue and also helping women progress in the field of combat. Bibliography Work Cited Brown, Timothy C. â€Å"Women Unfit for Combat? Au Contraire,† The Structure of Argument. 1994. Bedford/St. Martin’s Collins, James, Paul L. Hackett, Bill Norton. â€Å"Women are not a Warrior Class,† The Structure of Argument. 1994. Bedford/St. Martin’s The New American Desk Encyclopedia Penguin Group, New York, 1998 Women’s History in America Presented by Women’s International Center (WIC) www. wic. org/misc/history. htm Word Count: 638

Honda (a)

Q1. What’s the strategy that allowed Honda to be so successful in the US market? It is a fact that Honda had experienced a remarkable success during the period from the late 50’s to the end of the 70’s. This success is a result of the strategy the company developed at that stage of its lifecycle. This strategy in principle is a technologically based strategy; where Honda established Honda Technical Research Institute (HTRI) in 1946. In the meantime, Honda developed manufacturing expertise to become fully integrated producer of motorbikes components.In order to minimize the associated risk, Honda offered a multiproduct line, taking leadership in product innovation through the HTRI and exploiting opportunities for economies of mass production by gearing design to production objectives. How is possible that Honda’s many expensive investments lead to lower costs? The company achieved a significant product advantage through a heavy commitment to R&D and advance d manufacturing techniques.Honda used its productivity-based cost advantage and R&D capability to introduce new models to the market very quickly and at prices below those of competitive machines. Over time, Honda had smoothly descending real prices. This price reduction is experience-based which means that as long as more experience is acquired, Honda is capable to develop new methodologies to produce motorcycles at lower cost. This was mainly due to high production volume and improved productivity of the Japanese labor. Q2. How did Honda come to have this strategy?Honda’s strategy was a result of Honda’s underlying philosophy which is a marketing philosophy; i. e. grapping more market share and increasing the sales volume. Selling and Distribution system was a tool to implement this philosophy. What evidence do we have of forethought and planning in the company approach to production? Honda built a manufacturing plant with a capacity 10 times in excess of demand at t he time of construction in 1958. Honda developed manufacturing expertise to become fully integrated producer of motorbikes components.Honda minimized risk through: offering a multiproduct line, taking leadership in product innovation through the HTRI and exploiting opportunities for economies of mass production by gearing design to production objectives. Marketing? In the 1958 Honda’s market research identified a large untapped market segment seeking a small, unintimidating motorcycle that could be used by small motorcycle business for local deliveries. Honda advertizing concerted to change the image of motorcyclist through heavy campaigning towards middle class consumers. Distribution?Honda followed a policy of developing the market region by region beginning with the west coast and moving eastward. Design? Honda designed the lightweight motors to match the market research results. In general, Products are updated or redesigned whenever a market threat or opportunity is perc eived, prices are set at levels to achieve market share targets and will be cut if necessary, effective marketing systems are set up in all markets where serious competition is intended – regardless – of short term cost and finally plans and objectives look to long term payoff.Q3. To what degree was the US entry strategy thought out in advance? Honda was already the world’s largest motorcycle producer. Honda established a US subsidiary and began its push in the market by offering very small lightweight motorcycles. Honda followed a policy of developing the market region by region beginning with the west coast and moving eastward until it established the largest dealership network in the US. Honda (a) Q1. What’s the strategy that allowed Honda to be so successful in the US market? It is a fact that Honda had experienced a remarkable success during the period from the late 50’s to the end of the 70’s. This success is a result of the strategy the company developed at that stage of its lifecycle. This strategy in principle is a technologically based strategy; where Honda established Honda Technical Research Institute (HTRI) in 1946. In the meantime, Honda developed manufacturing expertise to become fully integrated producer of motorbikes components.In order to minimize the associated risk, Honda offered a multiproduct line, taking leadership in product innovation through the HTRI and exploiting opportunities for economies of mass production by gearing design to production objectives. How is possible that Honda’s many expensive investments lead to lower costs? The company achieved a significant product advantage through a heavy commitment to R&D and advance d manufacturing techniques.Honda used its productivity-based cost advantage and R&D capability to introduce new models to the market very quickly and at prices below those of competitive machines. Over time, Honda had smoothly descending real prices. This price reduction is experience-based which means that as long as more experience is acquired, Honda is capable to develop new methodologies to produce motorcycles at lower cost. This was mainly due to high production volume and improved productivity of the Japanese labor. Q2. How did Honda come to have this strategy?Honda’s strategy was a result of Honda’s underlying philosophy which is a marketing philosophy; i. e. grapping more market share and increasing the sales volume. Selling and Distribution system was a tool to implement this philosophy. What evidence do we have of forethought and planning in the company approach to production? Honda built a manufacturing plant with a capacity 10 times in excess of demand at t he time of construction in 1958. Honda developed manufacturing expertise to become fully integrated producer of motorbikes components.Honda minimized risk through: offering a multiproduct line, taking leadership in product innovation through the HTRI and exploiting opportunities for economies of mass production by gearing design to production objectives. Marketing? In the 1958 Honda’s market research identified a large untapped market segment seeking a small, unintimidating motorcycle that could be used by small motorcycle business for local deliveries. Honda advertizing concerted to change the image of motorcyclist through heavy campaigning towards middle class consumers. Distribution?Honda followed a policy of developing the market region by region beginning with the west coast and moving eastward. Design? Honda designed the lightweight motors to match the market research results. In general, Products are updated or redesigned whenever a market threat or opportunity is perc eived, prices are set at levels to achieve market share targets and will be cut if necessary, effective marketing systems are set up in all markets where serious competition is intended – regardless – of short term cost and finally plans and objectives look to long term payoff.Q3. To what degree was the US entry strategy thought out in advance? Honda was already the world’s largest motorcycle producer. Honda established a US subsidiary and began its push in the market by offering very small lightweight motorcycles. Honda followed a policy of developing the market region by region beginning with the west coast and moving eastward until it established the largest dealership network in the US.

Instigating Racial and Cultural Separation: The Ku Klux Klan

AfricanAmericansAustin Samuelson English Comp. 1001 1030-1120 Research paper November 2, 2012 KKK â€Å"There is a race war against whites. But our people – my white brothers and sisters – will stay committed to a non-violent resolution. † This is one of the many lies and extremely contradictory statements that the head master of the Ku Klux Klan Pastor Thomas Robb tends to tell the general public. The Klan masks their ominous plans and devious hate crime behind a ploy that they are trying to protect the heritage and culture of the white race. They are driving force behind racial and cultural separation.They lie and plot and plant seeds in those who listen closely and are naive enough to listen, they scare and strike fear into the hearts of many while accommodating to the flaws that society tends to look over. They harness their dominance over communities by exploiting lack of segregation and making all those that live there feel as though it is okay to be strict ly one race. By doing this they have now planted their seed that anything outside of white is foreign and should not be tolerated. The Ku Klux Klan are the villains in every story, they are the evil in which kids are told about, the bullies you come across in life in America.The Blatant lack of respect for anything other than the Christian culture shows truly how much the United States has failed to change since civil war times, and how far the maturation of United States citizens has truly come? This group is the true poster child for moral corruption amongst the world and all its inhabitants. The Ku Klux Klan has had a major influence on the actions in many people’s lives. In some opinions they are good, they felt as though what they were being taught was the true way of life. In others they are extremely terrible causing them extreme emotional and in many cases physical harm.Either way the Klan has had a very significant touch on all those around them. With every action th ey performed and carried out for their own benefits really began to show everyone in the surrounding area, and in many cases, parts of the country just what the Klan really was, and what they were trying to do. The influences that the Klan has put forth have been different in the lives of many; a major example of this is William Joseph Simmons who single handedly brought forth a second coming of the Klan in 1915 after a fifty year hiatus.He turned the Klan from closet villains who committed small hate crimes against neighboring towns with Negros, to a new breed of Klan, a fraternal organization who banned together with their common beliefs in being anti-Catholic, anti-negro, anti-Semitism, and all those who were foreign born and had no ancestral ties to the United States. He created a system so complex that infiltration would be impossible, or in the case that a high ranking leader was captured there was always a next in line. In his childhood he was told stories about how the Klan was ran and what they used to try and accomplish.Simmons dreams were much larger and his organization was a lot more put together and thought out. He based his reincarnated version of the Klan on the legislative system by creating a court system and met annually. As the Klan began to progress, another man by the name of Edward Clark came into power because Simmons could not keep a large group. As Clarks reign over the Klan maturated so did its numbers jumping from 2,000 to 100,000. Just weeks later it membership grew to nearly 2. 2 million people through advertisements.They used their group to influence those in power to join the Klan in attempts to secure the nation’s top political positions. Although Klan membership has decreased drastically throughout the recent years, there are still hate demonstrations performed by the Klan. There are very rarely cases quite as drastic as there were during the KKK’s prime, yet Klan activity remains, and still strikes fear into the hearts of many minorities. Today’s Klansmen use one of the most symbolic and oldest forms of intimidation used by the Ku Klux Klan; cross burnings.Julian Borger, a news writer for The Guardian wrote a piece in 2002 entitled â€Å"Supreme Court to decide on Klan's burning cross: Is it freedom of speech or incitement to violence? † In this article, Borger cites recent incidents that have occurred involving cross burning. Cross burning is illegal in Virginia, along with many other states; but it remains legal in others. In 1998 three teenage men constructed a cross out of materials found at home and erected it outside of an African American families home. They continued to set the cross on fire, and let it burn.Cross burnings are not only immoral, but they strike fear into the home owner, and possibly people that cross by and witness the burning. Virginia’s attorney general, Jerry Kilgore states that â€Å"even a white man would feel threatened if he woke up and found a burning cross in his garden. † The Ku Klux Klan, which was created in the winter of 1865-1866, is the most iconic terrorist organization in this country’s history. However, according to the founders of the Klan, there was originally no malicious intent, but it quickly expanded, and adopted a new leader, and the Ku Klux Klan became what we remember it as today.Nathan Forrest was the main influence in turning the KKK into a hate group that terrorized African Americans. Forrest is a famed cavalry commander from the civil war. He and his soldiers tortured and murdered captured African American troops. This would be a sign of things to come for the Ku Klux Klan after he took over. The Klan soon spread like a vicious cancer throughout the south, and included political figures, mayors, and criminals, along with your everyday business man. The Ku Klux Klan showed no mercy towards any African Americans.They beat, whipped and murdered thousands, while at the same time inf licting great fear into tens, if not hundreds of thousands. In some of the more appalling and outright inhumane cases, Klansmen whipped a 103 year old woman, and would beat paralyzed Negroes. The only thing they cared about was the color of your skin, and whether or not your ideologies were the same as theirs. Just because someone was Caucasian did not mean anything. If a white man were to defend, be-friend, or stand up for a Negro, they were looked upon as a Negro by the Klansmen. One Negro wrote â€Å"We have very dark days here. The colored people are in despair†¦.God knows it is worse than slavery. † In conclusion, as we let this internal terrorist flood the hearts of white America and strike fear into all else that inhabit it we are not only hurting ourselves but showing the world we do not care for our people . The Ku Klux Klan has personally demoralized everything that the United States has fought to have. This group is the statue of disrespect, the monument of tr eason toward America. The Ku Klux Klan throughout the years has demonstrated a complete lack of respect towards minorities, and has absolutely not displayed a commitment to social responsibility.

Women participation in US public Sector/Government

Research on the male-female balance in numbers, power and opportunities in the government and public sector has included several works and research that highlight the dwindling and adverse ratios in female/male working proportions, status and conditions in the US over the decades, which is also observed as a world wide trend. This is in line with the traditional bias against the female worker that has characterized the world employment scenario for the last several years. Notable works that throw light in this regard are that of Mary E. Guy’s Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Backward: The Status of Women’s Integration into Public Management (1993). Guy wrote, â€Å"When tracing women’s integration into public management, we see pattern of rapid progress in the middle and late 1970s, followed by a period of quiescence in the mid-1980s. The late 1980 and early 1990s, however, are showing enhanced progress again. † Still, â€Å"women occupy the lower rungs on the agency ladders and men occupy the upper rungs,† she wrote (Guy,1993. ) Research and data collected in later years by 2 arious agencies such as the US Department of Labor, the Census Bureau, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have corroborated similar viewpoints. Table I below clearly displays the trend of female/male composition in federal employment. Table I Composition of Federal Work Force – Ten-Year Trend: Some Progress, Little Overall Change FY 1997 – FY 2006[5] Work Force Participation Rate 2000 CLF FY 2006 FY 1997 % FY 2006 % Men 1,487,030 58. 35 56. 94 53. 20 Women 1,124,463 41. 65 43. 06 46. 80 As compared to 1997 there is a minor increase in female employment from 41. 65% in 1997 to 43. 6% in 2006. The positions in which women work have a strong influence on their earnings, facilities and career growth opportunities. Women in managerial positions have greater job flexibility as compared to those in lower service jobs. In some states and departments in the US, employment in managerial 3 positions varies by race and et hnicity, however much anti discriminatory policies may have been put in place. Amongst women, only 25% of managerial positions were occupied by American African women while white women held 41% of such positions. Overall, women earn 85. 5% of what men earn. A majority of women still continue to work in traditionally women’s occupations. In this regard recently released Census data collected by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research clearly indicated that workplace payment gap between women and men is gradually getting bad as compared to earlier times. Between 2003 and 2006 the median annual earnings for women workers in government reduced by 0. 6% at $ 35000 while that for men was almost unchanged at $ 44000. However the overall situation has improved since 1960, when the average American woman earned 60 cents against every dollar earned by the American male. Presently the situation has improved to a woman earning about 85 cents against a dollar earned by a man. It can be seen that status of women has improved in general and particularly in the federal government as also evedenced from census figures. Major contributors for this have been the gradual changes made in law, social and business practices. Moreover the US ec onomy has grown more than five times since then whereby more 4 opportunities for women have been created. Jobs have also shifted from physical tasks to cognitive and calibre related functions thus opening wider avenues for women. Measured by 1960 standards the overall status of the American woman has improved considerably, but they have not got their due proportional share in as much as the economy has grown. In this context an additional observation is the fact that women and most minorities in the US as also in most parts of the world represent a higher percentage of employees at lower levels in any department or undertaking of the government while being absolutely underrepresented at the higher end of the ladder, implying that a very small percentage of women make it to the top positions of the government and public sector undertakings. This is clearly evident from Table II 5 Table II Senior Pay Level Representation FY 1997 / FY 2006 Senior Pay Level Positions FY 1997 FY 2006 Number % of SPL Number % of SPL Total SPL Work Force 15,381 20,070 Men 12,124 78. 83 14,814 73. 81 Women 3,257 21. 17 5,256 26. 19 It can be seen that in 1997 there were 21. 17% women occupying the senior positions while in 2006 the position improved marginally only to 26. 19% The Federal work force has for decades reflected patterns that show disproportionately high numbers of women in lower ranks in the public ector and government departments. Similarly there is lot of disproportion in the number of women occupying higher positions. In 2005, only 6. 2% of federally employed women were occupying positions ranked as upper middle management positions (General Schedule [GS]-13 and above). Comparitively male representation was as much as four times higher with 28% of all males employed in the upper level of GS-13 and above. 6 This is often referre d to as the glass ceiling concept and has become an important tool to understand working environment particularly in the American working context. Significantly the Civil Rights Act of 1991 established the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission which was entrusted the task of assessing the barriers that hindered the advancement of women to top ranking decision making positions. It also set into motion measures that would hinder such discrimination. Discrimination issues based on gender have long been a subject of debate at various forums internationally and was strongly taken up in the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and in Civil Rights Act of 1964. However it was soon realised by the mid 1980s that although massive changes took place in the emographic, social, and legal aspects of the US society, such discrimination on the basis of gender continued to exist. Hymowitz and Schellhardt used the term glass ceiling to describe this discrimination in 1986. The few women who managed to rise due to their calibre were also blocked by barriers of strongly embedded disrimination practices that continued to exist and they consequently could not break through the glass ceiling. 7 One particular aspect of gender disparity in lowering the status of women workers is the strong pattern in disparity of pay and benefits as figured from he data available from US Federal salary data for positions primarily occupied by females. Figures available from the Department of Labor show that in 2005 the hourly earnings of women were only 76. 5% as compared to men. It is primarily for this reason that women have started to opt out of bureaucratic employment towards entrepreneurship and other part time work. Table III validates the findings of the federal government census. Table III Federal Wage System (FWS) Representation FY 1997 / FY 2006 Federal Wage System (FWS) P ositions FY 1997 FY 2006 Number % of FWS Number % of FWS Total FWS Work Force 243,343 194,858 Men 217,573 89. 41 173,389 88. 98 Women 25,770 10. 59 21,469 11. 02 8 In the light of these stark revelations the Federal government has taken steps to remove the imbalance in gender employment by attempting to make equal opportunity a possibility for women. All government departments have been asked to devise a strategy and adopt policies to remove the glass ceiling that has been pulling back women from rising higher in their careers and to award them with senior management and decision making positions. A strong measure for gender inequality is the salary levels that differentiate the positions occupied by males and females. Data proves that on an average males earn more than females in the federal government. The average salary for male managers in FY 2005 was $45,300; and for females, $35,300. Thus as an average female employees made about 84. 7% of the salary made by her male counterpart. Since Federal pay scales are never based on gender, they are obviously different due to lower ranks occupied by women. It is also clear that majority of the higher positions are occupied by men. Women occupy 1/3 rd positions below the GS-12 level and only 1/6th of positions above G-13 levels thus implying that majority of women are clustered in the lower echelons of the heirarchy. Table IV below illustrates the percentage details of high ranking women with various government agencies. 9 Significantly and in contrast it can be seen that women occupy 75% and 66. 67% of the top positions with the Defense Security Service and Defense Human Resource Activity respectively. Table IV Ranking of Agencies with the Highest Percentage of Women in Senior Pay Level Positions in FY 2006 (Agencies With 500 Or More Employees) Agency Total Work Force # SPL # Women in Senior Pay Level Positions # % Defense Security Service 544 4 3 75. 00 Defense Human Resource Activity 880 12 8 66. 67 Corp. for National and Community Service 558 19 10 52. 63 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 2,195 32 15 46. 88 Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency 1,140 12 5 41. 67 The years that followed 1991 brought significant changes in the American political landscape and in the entire federal work force. New Presidents brought new concepts and practices regarding women in high positions. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice as also Attorne General Janet Reno became the pioneering and powerful women to hold cabinet positions, and other appointees like Donna Shalala as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alice Rivlin at the Office of Management and Budget, and Sheila Widnall as Secretary of the Air Force caused one dignitary to comment that when senior staff members meet at White House 11 meetings half the attendees are usually women. This is however farfetched and isolated compared to the large array of discriminatory evidence available.

Relevant Information for Decision Making session long project 3 Essay

Relevant Information for Decision Making session long project 3 (walmart) accounting - Essay Example Here the two main questions and pieces of information that need to be considered are a) the location of the stores and the relative distance from the competitors and b) the Sales potential for the stores and the estimated revenue that the company might expect from the stores. Both these have a major impact on the overall profitability of the company. The irrelevant information for the company includes a) the sales for the US branch of the company and b) the sales forecast for Wal Mart international. Both these pieces of information do not have an impact on the company or the profitability of the company and hence can be ignored while the decision making process. Using the contribution margin for each of the stores will permit Wal Mart to accurately identify the most profitable locations. The first step to be adopted here will be to finalise the major stores, which are expected to grow and develop to achieve high market shares, following which it is essential for the company to detail the additional costs that relate to the smaller stores. Also the marginal fixed overheads can also be used to do so. The use of marginal costs of the additional stores can be obtained using the above information. Using the contribution margin method proves to be very effective and impactful on the businesses as the full cost and tradition methods of costing are not valid in the present times and hence the demand for the products is high as well. Also, this will provide information to the management which will help make more informed decisions for the additional store. Also this will allow gain a clear picture of the benefits that the additional store can provide and will also help in better estimation of the profitability of the stores as well. However, it is essential to keep in mind that although the contribution margin analysis is a simple process, the efforts to involved in finding the information for the analysis if quite tedious. Also the costs involved for the