Whole Food free essay sample

Whole Foods Market had evolved into the â€Å"world’s largest retail chain of natural and organic foods supermarkets. † Their rapid growth and success is primarily due to being highly selective about what they sell, as well as being dedicated quality standards and core values. Whole Food’s stated mission statement was to â€Å"promote vitality and well-being for all individuals by offering the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful natural and naturally preserved foods available. † The key opportunities for Whole Foods include: increasing attractiveness of the health and organic food industry, growth through acquisition, and enhancing their brand image and loyalty through community service. Whole Foods has already bought its largest competitor, Wild Oats, which has shown to be profitable. By promoting organic foods Whole Foods can increase sales and attract new customers by introducing them to the Whole Foods experience. Whole Foods would benefit not only by promoting itself but the industry in general. We will write a custom essay sample on Whole Food or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In addition to promoting organic foods, they could enhance their brand image and loyalty by continuing their community service efforts. If the industry continues to grow and they continue to bring about brand awareness and loyalty, Whole Foods could strengthen its market share and profitability. ? The key threats that Whole Foods faces include: local grocers increasing their organic food options, the size of Whole Foods stores deterring customers, and the price of organic foods. Local grocers could potentially take away from Whole Foods sales by stealing the customers that want to get in and get out. If customers can get the organic foods they want at a smaller grocery store, some customers may switch to them. This is where the size of Whole Foods’ stores becomes a threat to themselves. If they continue to buy and build large stores they could potentially deter some of their consumers to the smaller grocers in the area. Also what is a threat now is the high price of organic foods. Consumers must pay a premium for these items because they cost more to produce. Whole Foods must keep the customers they have now loyal or they could lose them to non-organic foods that are cheaper. The organic foods market is very attractive and continuing to increase in attractiveness. Whole Foods holds a very strong position in the market and could potentially position themselves in an even stronger and more profitable position. Health and organic foods have become very popular and show no signs of slowing in demand. The processes by which organic foods are made will only become less expensive as new technologies and continuing knowledge of the industry grow.

Overcoat By Ghulam Abbas and The Blue Donkey By Suniti Namjoshi Essay Example

Overcoat By Ghulam Abbas and The Blue Donkey By Suniti Namjoshi Essay Example Overcoat By Ghulam Abbas and The Blue Donkey By Suniti Namjoshi Essay Overcoat By Ghulam Abbas and The Blue Donkey By Suniti Namjoshi Essay The Overcoat and The Blue Donkey are about how people tend to stereotype people by their outward appearance; societies see the outer shell of people and immediately make a judgement without looking deeper. People are rejected because of their appearance; both stories are about how appearances can be misleading. The story Overcoat is about a young man who dresses smartly, neatly and is well groomed in order to conform with the society. In contrast, The Blue Donkey is about a blue donkey that lives in the neighbourhood of the Red Bridge Society, where she is rejected because of her bright blue skin. We can recognize Overcoat is a fable since the characters in Overcoat do not have names, only the names of the street are mentioned. For instance, Charing Cross, Lawrence Garden, Mc Leod Road etc, are used to make it sound more like a true story. The young man is walking through some Asian city, we can recognize this by the people n the story such as, Tonga-wallas, Pan wallas etc and the money used in India and Pakistan is Anna. I think the fable is supposed to be set in Lahore because the writer comes from Lahore. In comparison, we can identify The Blue Donkey as certainly a fable as it begins with Once Upon A Time. They usually illustrate a proverb or a well known saying. The Blue Donkey is more obviously a fable since the central character is an animal that talks. The red bridge society in The Blue Donkey could be anywhere in the world there are no details of background at all or the names of the characters. These two stories are fables. They are stories with a moral behind it, which teaches us about human nature. The settings and backgrounds of both stories are very vague because the moral message is more important than the characters or background. In both stories the characters are extremely isolated, they stand out from the society around them. In Overcoat, the young mans smartness and elegance stand out from the society around him. His hair was sleek and shining and he wore side burns. His thin moustache seemed to been drawn with a moustache. He had on a brown overcoat with a cream coloured half opened rose in his buttonhole and a green felt hat which he wore at a rakish angle. A white scarf was knotted at his neck. One of his hands was slipped into a pocket of his overcoat while in the other he held a short polished cane which every now and then he twirled jauntily In comparison, in The Blue Donkey the donkeys blueness stands out and troubles the red bridge society although the blue donkey herself thinks she is a fine donkey. The citizens say to her: Your blueness troubles us Overcoat starts positively although it ends negatively. Which is in direct contrast to theThe Blue Donkey. The young man in Overcoat is first treated respectfully, courteously and with consideration. Traders are eager to sell their wares and render their service to the young man. Tonga wallas on catching sight of him raced towards him as they thought they would get some business from him as he looked rich, however the young man turned away from them. The young man later on went to a western music shop where he lifted the cover of the piano and played a few notes as if he was an expert. A salesman came up, Good evening sir he said courteously, Can I help you sir? The young man is treated courteously and respectfully. If he came in as his real self, beneath the overcoat, the salesman would not have spoken to him politely, he might not have allowed him in the shop let alone touching the piano. When the young man went into the Persian carpet shop, the carpet dealer greeted him warmly and this shop dealer also addressed him as sir. The carpet dealer offered to take the carpet off the wall and he was prepared to reduce the price of the carpet to the minimum. However, the young man walked away and told the carpet dealer that he would come some other time. As the young man was injured by the truck full of bricks. Two or three people who witnessed this shouted: Stop him . . . take the number The witnesses were concerned and eager to help the young man. When the young man was taken into the operating theatre, there was blood all over his clothes. Someone with sympathy put his felt hat on his chest so he would not lose it. The nurses feeling remorseful said: All togged up for Saturday night, poor chap. Did they catch his driver? No he got away What a pity! Now the nurses were taking the young mans clothes off. They exchanged glances after taking the young mans scarf off. Beneath the scarf there was neither a tie nor a collar not even a shirt. When the overcoat was being taken off there was a sweater full of holes, through the holes a dirty vest was seen which was worse than the sweater. It was as if the young man had not had a bath for at least two months. Layers of dirt covered the body. Only the part that could be seen by the public was well powdered and clean, the rest was filthy. After the vest, it was the trousers turn to come off. Again the eyes of the nurses met The trousers were securely bound at the hips by an old cloth that looked like an old tie. The shoes and the socks had to come off now. The shoes were old but were polished clean. As for the socks, they were different in colour and pattern from each other. There were holes in the socks from which the filth could be seen. Before the clothes had been taken off, his face was toward the ceiling but slowly it had turned toward the wall as his clothes had been taken off as if in shame for what he really was under his mask. Was it perhaps for the shame of this dual nakedness of body and soul that now he dared not face his fellow beings? The story ends pathetically with the few items in the young mans pocket, A small black comb, a handkerchief, six annas and a few pies, a half smoked cigarette, a little diary in which the names and addresses of a few people were noted, a list of gramophone records and a few handbills which distributors had thrust upon him during his evening promenade. In contrast, The Blue Donkey starts negatively and ends positively. Both parties first reject her. Her skin colour was different and so they rejected her. The councillors who governed the town said: A donkey who lives by our bright red bridge has to be of the purest and silkiest white or we must request that the said donkey be required to move on. The second party thought it was unfair asking the donkey to be the silkiest white because she was never white and she could never be white. However, this party thought it would be better if she turned herself grey, as it would be better so no one will be offended. The first party thought the donkey was being blue on purpose. The two parties use various arguments to cover up their intolerance and racism. Both parties went to the blue donkey and asked her to turn into an inoffensive grey, the donkey did not moan that she was blue but instead she said: Cant and wont The first party barked out that she was being stubborn. The donkey confused then said: I am a perfectly good donkey The donkey didnt mind being blue and eating pink carrots although this troubled the red bridge society as the carrots clashed horribly with the bright red bridge and they spitefully told the blue donkey that they didnt want a bright blue donkey living near the red bridge. Although most of them got used to the donkey being blue and they did not notice it any more. There were still a couple more who thought the donkey was being blue on purpose. Sometimes there were those who brought her blue flowers as they thought, That the blue donkey was herself therefore beautiful They finally admired her difference and they respected it. The story ends positively with acceptance unlike Overcoat. The young man in Overcoat has a poor self-image. He knows he will not be accepted so he changes his identity. He does not like being different he spends a lot of time on being smart he plucks his moustache so carefully that it looks as if it is dr awn with a pencil. The young man is ashamed of being his true self. He is not self confident. In direct contrast, The Blue Donkey likes herself just as she is. She is self-confident The Blue Donkey does not hesitate to say she does not want to be blue but instead she says, cant and wont. She knows she is a perfectly good donkey and she does not change because of what the society says and what she looks like from the outside. The Blue Donkey likes to flaunt her blueness as she is different and she does not mind been solitary and inferior. The blue donkey does not hide her blueness she would rather be blue than be with the crowd. The style of each story is different. The story Overcoat has a plot as we follow his promenade through the town meeting different traders and different people. We listen to some of the conversations the man has with some of these traders. It reaches a climax with the accident and there is a lot more action at that point. There is a lot of description ,adjectives and adverbs to describe peoples apperance. The owner of the shop, wearing a long robe and a silk turban, greeted him warmly. There are many people the young man meets. There is a mixture of long and short sentences and a mixture of long and short paragraphs too. There are two parts to the story first where he is accepted by the traders and people before the accident. Later on in the operating theatre he is rejected by the nurses. In The Blue Donkey there are very few descriptions of people and there are very few adjectives the only adjectives. The only adjectives used are to do with colour, A donkey who lives by our bright red bridge must be of the purest and silkiest white or we must request that the said donkey be required to move on The story itself is plain and brief. There are very few adverbs and the story itself has simple style. No plot develops and there are arguments rather than actions. The language of the political parties is pompous and formal because they are superior being white or think they are. There are only long paragraphs in the entire story in which the longest is twenty-five lines long. This story has also two parts, first where she is rejected and told to move on if she is not of the purest or silkiest white and later on when she is given blue flowers, as she was beautiful because she was herself. Societies should not judge people for what they look like on top without looking deeper, like the people in Overcoat who judged the young man to be wealthy as in the end he was a pauper who just wore an overcoat so he could fit in with the society and so he would not be rejected. I think this story resembles the saying, All that glitters isnt gold The young man in Overcoat deceives himself by judging others by their outward appearance when he is covering his true self just like the society around him, It was their clothes rather than their faces that attracted his attention. The donkey in the story represents old aged pensioners, disabled people, ethnic minorities, poor people, foreigners, coloured people as the story is about prejudice and the refusal to accept people for what they really are. In the end the blue donkey is accepted, she did not mind looking different from the society. She didnt do what the society said but she did what she thought was good for her. I think this story resembles the saying, Dont judge a book by its cover. Like the red bridge society, we tend to jump to conclusions and stereotype. People are too quick to judge and reject anyone who is different. This discrimination and intolerance can easily lead to war.

Discuss the definition and the sources of Christian theology, and how Essay

Discuss the definition and the sources of Christian theology, and how is systematic theology related to biblical theology and Christian ethics - Essay Example Theology is the fruit of the reflection of the truth revealed in the Word of God.† (Louis Berkhof, 1996) Theologians have found several sources from which they develop the ideas of God. The firs source is Reason, it is defined narrowly as the logical deduction from stated premises, or broadly to include ones feelings, intuition, and experience. This point out that one can find his way to God through his own thought, reasoning, contemplation etc. the best example of such a source is though St. Anselm, who developed the ontological argument for the existence of God. Church authority can also be a source of Christian theology, to give a an example the roman Catholic Church gives teaches that God reveals his truth to the church in some collective way, the church also claims that god can manifest himself directly through the leaders of the church. The third source can be through General Revelation, it is said by many that God’s person and character is revealed in nature. When man contemplates about nature it is with no doubt that he is having a true knowledge of God. Evidentialist ap ologists of England can epitomize this source. The fourth source through which source of theology can manifest itself is by Special revelation, the Bible claims to be a direct revelation to man from God. The belief of Christianity is that the Bible should help them to acquire and organize the teachings found there. The other source of Christian theology can be from the postmodern theology’s sources of theology. Therefore the sources of theology to summarize are through God himself. God should be the only source of knowledge in regard to his own being and relations. This makes theology to be a summary and explanations of the content of God’s revelations. These are; the revelation of God in nature, supremely and the revelation of God in the scriptures. Earlier we have defined theology as â€Å"the study of god† the term Systematic is taken from the Greek word

Bullying Behavior in Middle School Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Bullying Behavior in Middle School Review - Essay Example The theory is used to demonstrate that individuals have a huge impact of their surroundings and activities done by or with their associates. They perceive things (e.g. victimization or bullying) from the interacted people and their experiences. The third premise reveals that even if individuals do not go through bullying or victimization, they presume and get an adverse effect on their acts and thoughts. These negative activities harm them as much as the victims. The theory is successfully implemented and employed throughout the paper and has helped in drawing the conclusions. This research is very helpful in understanding the behavioral factors of bullying and victimization among younger generation. This research adds a new and incredible piece in this subject. However, there are some limitations related to this research paper. The research conducted by Mongold cannot be taken as a research producing conclusions that fit-to-all. In simple words, the research paper is conducted on the basis of a single middle school’s setting which cannot be estimated as true for the whole city, state or world. The conclusions drawn have effect of a number of factors including the thoughts, views, values, behaviors, cultures and backgrounds of individuals. Individuals that are a part of a single organization may be influenced by the aims, rules and objectives of it. In addition, the views about bullying and victimization can also be affected by continuous imposition of these matters on children by lectures, conduct or education. Since the guidance counselors conduc t ‘bully-proof’ lessons annually, it is more probable that the views and conduct of individuals are affected by it. Another question that can be raised on the credibility of the conclusions drawn can be the accuracy of data collected through questionnaires. The questionnaires consisted of a number of questions and it is probable that the participants may

Romantic Love and Marriage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Romantic Love and Marriage - Essay Example Recent statistics suggests that romantic love is not the only principle of long-lasting and happy marriage. Today, the main reasons of divorces include early marriages, different opinions about their responsibilities in a family, and getting marriages without mutual feelings. One third of all families in the USA are divorced in spite of the fact that they have romantic love and true feelings when they married (Chalmers 2006). In contrast, those families and partners who did not have true romantic feelings when married are more stable unions and only 10% of such families are divorced. Thesis Romantic love is not the only principles of happy and stable marriage. The partners in a successful marriage are those who have learned how to function after the music stops, after romance and its heart-tripping frenzy has cooled. Everyone's heard that love can't last forever, and this is true simply because you don't live forever. But love does often last a lifetime, although its nature changes over the years. Margaret Reedy of the University of Southern California has studied this idea of loving happily ever after and the age differences in satisfying love relationships. She chose 102 married couples for her study. They were people who had been judged by others who knew them well to be very much in love (Sternberg and Barnes 22). They were divided into three groups: young adults, married an average of five years; middle-aged adults, married an average of twenty-one years; and older adults, married an average of thirty-seven years. Each of the satisfied lovers was asked to complete a list of statements, rating each in terms of how well it described hi s or her current love relationship. These statements reflected a wide variety of possible experiences people might have in love relationships, and in turn reflected the six components of love we mentioned earlier (emotional security, referring to feelings of trust, caring, concern and warmth; respect, which means being able to be tolerant, understanding and patient; the ability to spend time together, working as well as playing; communication, being able to be honest and self-revealing, and being a good listener; loyalty, or a sense of investment and commitment; sexual intimacy). Statistical results suggest that "The divorce rate in 2005 (per 1,000 people) was 3.6 -- the lowest rate since 1970, and down from 4.2 in 2000 and from 4.7 in 1990" (Divorce statistics 2008). There was, first of all, a clear indication that the nature of love in satisfying relationships is different at different ages. For example, the couples who assessed their current love alliance supported the common ide a that passion and sexual intimacy are relatively more important in early adulthood, whereas tender feelings of affection and loyalty are more important in the love relationships of later life. The findings also supported the notion that, over time, love associations are less likely to be based on intense companionship and communication, and more likely to be base

Benefits and problems concerning traditional approach to budgeting

Benefits and problems concerning traditional approach to budgeting In order to advise two different businesses about the benefits and problems associated with traditional approach to budgeting and budgetary control, i have collected and compiled the information regarding budgeting and divided it into different parts so that the reader may easily understand . 1.INTRODUCTION : A budget is a planning and controlling tool for an oraganisation.This tool can work effectively only when it is used with due care.It is not only the a cost monitoring mechanism but also an integral part of an organisations planning and control activities.It aims at achieving organisational objectives and motivating the personnel concerned.For the success of budgetary system gathering the essential informationand choosing an appropriate budgetary system etc.are necessary. The ideal budegting system is one that encourages goal congruence(i.e. a situation where the personal goals of the employees match the oraganisational goals).Ensuring the greater participation of the supervisory level in the management process can ensure goal congruence. Budgets may be of different types to suit the different practices followed by different organisations.An organisation using a conventional systemof budgeting may somtimes need to switch over to another to suit its requirements.Changing a budegtary system is not a simple task.An oraganisation has to face certain difficultiesin the form of resistance to change by the personnel of the organisation,changes required in the existing support systems etc., inorder to change its budgetary system.The Success of a budget is also largely dependant on the level of accuracy in estimating the revenues and costs for the budget period.There are several statistical techniques which may prove useful in forecasting the figures to be incorporated in budgets. 2. TRADITIONAL BUDGETING: 2.1. Introduction: First of all we begin this topic with the simple definition of budget.In short budget can be defined as Quantitative economic plan made with regard to time. Therefore, for something to be characterised as a budget it must comprise the quantities of economic resources to be allocated and used, it has to be expressed in economic i.e. monetary terms, it has to be a plan not a hope or a forecast but an authoritative intention, and it must be made within a certain period of time (Harper, 1995, p. 318). Only a plan that has such characteristics can be called a budget. However, if a budget is looked upon in its wider context, it can be defined as a management tool that puts executives in control of the financial health of their company. It is an objective measure of the financial structure of companys operation and a tool that forces management to be accountable in a structured and objective way. Budgets as management tools by themselves are neither good nor bad. How managers administer budgets is the key to their value. When administered wisely, budgets facilitate planning and resource allocation and help to enumerate, itemize, dissect and examine all of the products and services that a company offers to customers (Seer, 2000, p. 187). In short and taken at its simplest level, a budget is a mathematical exercise, but in reality it is much, much more than numbers on spreadsheets, which is what following text will definitely show. The purpose of budgeting is that it gives management an idea of how well a company is meeting their income goals, whether or not expenses are in line with predicted levels, and how well controls are working. Properly used, budgeting can and should increase profits, reduce unnecessary spending, and clearly define how immediate steps can be taken to expand markets (Thomsett, 1988, p. 5). In order to achieve this, management needs to build a budgeting system, the major objectives of which are to (Viscione, 1984, p. 42): Set acceptable targets for revenues and expenses. Increase the likelihood that targets will be reached. Provide time and opportunity to formulate and evaluate options should obstacles arise. Since budgeting as a process is very complex, it comes as no surprise that budgets are trying to fulfil numerous functions such as (Harper, 1995, p. 321, and Churchill, 1984, p. 162): Planning a budget establishes a plan of action that enables management to know in advance the amounts and timing of the production factors required to meet desired level of sales. Controlling a budget can be used to help an organization reach its objectives by ensuring that each of the individual steps are taken as planned. Coordinating a budget is where all the financial components of an organization Individual units, divisions, and departments are assembled into a coherent master picture that expresses the organizations overall operational objectives and strategic goals. Communicating by publishing the budget, management explicitly informs its subordinates as to what exactly they must be doing and what other parts of the organization will be doing. A budget is designed to give managers a clear understanding of the companys financial goals, from expected cost savings to targeted revenues. Instructing a budget is often as much an executive order as an organizational plan since it lays down what must be done. It may, therefore, be regarded by subordinates as a management instruction. Authorising if a budget is a management instruction then conversely it is an authorisation to take budgeted action. Motivating in that a budget sets a target for the different members of the organization so that it can act to motivate them to try and attain their budgeted targets. Performance measuring by providing a benchmark against which actual performance can be measured, a budget clearly plays a crucial role in the important task of performance measurement. Decision-making it should never be assumed that a budget is set in concrete and when changing course a well-designed budget is a very useful tool in evaluating the consequences of a proposed alternative since the effect of any change can be traced throughout the entire organization. Delegating budgets delegate responsibility to the managers who assume authority for a specified set of resources and activities. In this way budgets emphasise even more the existing organizational structure within the company. Educating the educating effect of a budget is perhaps most evident when the process is introduced in a company. Operating managers learn not only the technical aspects of budgeting but also how the company functions and how their business units interact with others. Better management of subordinates a budget enhances the skills of operating managers not only by educating them about how the company functions, but also by giving them the opportunity to manage their subordinates in a more professional manner. The requirements that all these functions impose upon a budget make it difficult for one system to meet them all. It is precisely because these requirements differ, that role conflicts in budgeting system arise. These need to be appropriately dealt with so that dysfunctional behaviour like budget padding or other damaging budget games for the company do not appear. Since there are three major roles for any budgeting system, at least three conflicts may arise (Barrett, Fraser, 1977, p. 141): Planning versus motivation For a budget to be most effective in the planning role, it should be based on a realistic assessment of the companys operating capabilities and on managements judgment about what is most likely to happen in the future. Yet this kind of budget runs the risk of setting targets so low that motivation is adversely affected since to motivate properly, budget objectives should be set higher than those for planning and be difficult yet attainable. On the other hand, these difficult yet attainable objectives lead to an overly optimistic budget and run the risk of falling short and under using company resources. Motivation versus evaluation There is a widely held belief that budget objectives should be set as fixed standards against which performance can be judged. Managers are also likely to be more committed to achieving this kind of objective since they know that the performance standards by which they are evaluated are not constantly changing. On the other hand, managers motivation can be impaired by rigid application of a fixed standard philosophy which doesnt consider the impacts of uncontrollable or unforeseeable events and doesnt allow for their removal from budget standards. Planning versus evaluation The planning roles requirement of providing realistic assessment of future prospects can conflict with the need to eliminate the effects of uncontrollable or unforeseeable environmental variables from the budget used for evaluation purposes. Yet, because they are separated in time, the conflict between these requirements is considered a minor one since it can be considerably reduced if appropriate adjustments are done at the end of the budget period. As can be seen in the previous paragraph, functions that typical budgets want to cover are very wide. It comes then as no surprise that those budgets are being used today in practice for many purposes. Bunce, Fraser and Woodcocks (1995) survey showed that general uses of budgets can be divided into financial and operational type of uses. Figure 2 clearly indicates that, of the various uses of budgeting for management, the most important are those financially oriented like the use of budgets for financial forecast, cost control, cash flow management, and capital expenditure supervision. The operational management uses of budgeting have been less common but the interviewed companies have concluded that, in todays business environment, they are of growing importance. The need to improve performance is intensifying to the point that it is no longer enough just to control costs, but That company must also pay attention to things like strategy, communication, and employee evaluation. These are purposes for which budgets have not been used so much in the past. As stated in the opening definition, budgets are plans set for a certain period of time, such as a month, quarter, and year and so on. This time period is then usually broken into smaller sub periods. The most frequently used budgets are annual budgets that are subdivided by months for the first quarter and by quarters for the remainder of the year. Of course, actual time periods for which budgets are made depend mostly on their purpose and use, and it is solely the decision of individual companies as to what time periods will be utilized for their budgeting process. 2.2. History of budgets: The English word budget stems from the French word bougette and the Latin word bulga which was a leather bag or a large-sized purse which travellers in medieval times hung on the saddle of their horse. The treasurers bougette was the predecessor to the small leather case from which finance ministries even today in countries like Great Britain and Holland present their yearly financial plan for the state. So after being used to describe the word wallet and then state finances, the meaning of the word budget in 19th century slowly shifted to the financial plan itself, initially only for governments and then later for private and legal entities (Hofstede, 1968, p. 19). It was only then that budgets started to be considered as financial plans and not just as money bags. The use of budgets as financial planning and control tools for business enterprises is historically a rather young phenomenon. In the US, early budgetary principles in companies were mostly derived from the budget techniques in government. The other source of budgetary principles for business in the US was the Scientific Management Movement, which in the years between 1911 and 1935 conquered the US industry. Many historians agree that early budgeting systems can be seen as a logical extension of Taylors Scientific Management from the shop floor to the total enterprise. However, it was not until the depression years after 1930 that budget control in US companies started to be implemented on a large-scale.Budgets with their focus on cost control simply became a perfect management tool for that period of time (ibid., p. 20). In Europe the idea of using budgets for business was firstly formulated by the French organization pioneer Henri Fayol (1841-1925). There was, however, little appli cation in practice. Another practical stimulus came from the ideas of the Czech entrepreneur Thomas Bata (1876-1925) who introduced the so-called departmental profit-and-loss-control as a tool for decentralizing his international shoe company into a federation of independently run small businesses. Nevertheless, the main inducement for the development of budgets and their implementation in European companies came from across the Atlantic in the years following the Second World War (ibid., p. 21). Companies like Du Pont and General Motors in the U.S., Siemens in Germany, and Saint Gobain and Elà ©ctricità © de France in France, which pioneered the M-form (multidivisional) organizational structure in the 1920s, first started to use budgets to support their rapid growth as they expanded into new products and markets. This was to help them to reduce the complexity of managing multiple strategies (Hope, Fraser, 1997, p. 20). The enormous diversity in the product markets served by these vertically integrated corporations required new systems and measures to coordinate dispersed and decentralized activities. In this kind of environment, budgets and ROI measure rightly played a key role in permitting central management to coordinate, motivate and evaluate the performance of their divisional managers, and perform a proper allocation of internal capital and resources (Johnson, Kaplan,1991, p. 11). However, it is was only in the 1960s that accountants started adding to budgets other functions (like management performance evaluation and motivation) in addition to those functions for which they had originally been devised planning and control (Hope, Fraser,1999b, p. 50). In that period, budgets became the central and most important activity within management accounting or in the words of Horngren, Foster and Datar: the most widely used accounting tool for planning and controlling organizations (2000, p. 178). This is exactly how budgets have remained to this day. The only thing that has changed in the meantime is the competitive environment in which todays companies operate and which has provoked many discussions about budgets disadvantages and their alternatives, some of which will be presented in later parts of this assessment. 2.3. Budgeting Process: The process of budgeting generally involves an iterative cycle which moves between targets of desirable performance and estimates of feasible performance until there is, hopefully, convergence to a plan which is both feasible and acceptable (Emmanuel, Otley, Merchant,1990, p. 31). Alternatively, if we look beyond many details and iterations of the usual budgeting process we can see that there is a simple universally applicable budgeting process, the phases of which can be described in the following manner (Finney, 1994, p. 16): Budget forms and instructions are distributed to all managers. The budget forms are filled out and submitted. The individual budgets are transformed into appropriate budgeting/accounting terms and consolidated into one overall company budget. The budget is reviewed, modified as necessary, and approved. The final budget is then used throughout the year to control and measure the organization. The inevitable dependence of individual budgets on one another requires that budgets be prepared in a hierarchical manner. Figure 3 indicates a common hierarchical form of the budgeting process together with the necessary data flow between particular budgets and phases of their making. This picture shows that despite having only a few general phases, the budgeting process, due to its linearity and iteration loop, is in fact a very complex and time consuming process. Since it is so complex and important, the budgeting process requires lots of decision making on the particular choices that developers of budgets have at their disposal. Churchill (1984, p.151) has provided a list of eight budget choices that managers have to be concerned with when setting up the budgeting system. Thereby, these concerns vary according to whether the company intends to use its budgets primarily for planning or for control. These budget choices are: Whether it is to be prepared from the bottom-up or top-down, How it is to be implemented, How the budget process is linked to the strategic planning process, Whether it should be a rolling budget and how often it should be revised, Whether performance should be evaluated against the original budget or the one relating to the actual activity level of the organization, Whether compensation/bonuses should be based on budgeted performance, What budget evaluation criteria should be used, and What degree of stretch should be incorporated into the budget. In general, accounting theory suggests that large companies should be concerned more with operational efficiency and emphasize coordination and control aspects of budgets, while smaller innovative firms should concentrate more on the planning aspects of their budgets. 2.4. Types Of Budgets: A budget is not a unitary concept but varies from organization to organization. The basic concept of budgeting involves estimating future performance, comparing actual results with the estimate, and analyzing the differences between them. Factors that are relevant in determining the type or style of an organizations budget and its effects include: the type of organization, the leadership style, personalities of people affected by the budget, the method of preparation, and the desired results of the budgeting process (Cherrington, Cherrington, 1973, p. 226). In general, budgets can be classified into two primary categories (Cohen, Robbins, Young,1994, p. 171): Operating budgets: Operating budgets consist of plans for all those activities that make up the normal operations of the firm. The main components of the firms operating budget include sales, production, inventory, materials, labour, overheads and RD budgets. Financial budgets: Financial budgets are used to control the financial aspects of the business. In effect, these budgets reveal the influence of the operating budgets on the firms financial position and earnings potential. They include a cash budget, capital expenditures budget and pro forma balance sheet and income statement. In figure 4, all major budgets that can be used in a typical company and how they are linked and interconnected within the larger system of the master budget can be seen. This confirms what has already been said about the budgeting process that individual budgets are dependent on one another which requires that they be prepared in a hierarchical manner. Except for the usual division of companies budgets into operational and financial, budgets can also be differentiated based on expenditure authority. Using this approach, two major groups of budgets can be defined (Kemp, Dunbar, 2003, p. 3): Line-item budgets These are budgets where the name of each line is set, as is the amount of money that can be spent on each item. If one works within a line-item budget, one can not overspend a specific line item and then compensate this with savings on other line (or vice versa). The authority to move money from one line item to another must be granted at a higher level. Block budgets These are the opposites of line-item budgets. Here a block of money is given. The details of the budget are presented but, later on, if one wants to spend more money on one item and less on another, one is free to do so. As long as the block of money is not overspent before the end of the year, the budget remains under control. 2.5. Budgets as planning tools: Welsch, Hilton, Gordon (1988, p. 73) have defined the budgeting process as a profit planning and control process and in that way not only have identified the two most important functions of budgets in organizations, but have also presented budgeting process in a wider context than it is usually depicted. Figure 5 clearly shows that the budgeting process is more than just a process of combining quantitative financial plans. It is a tool with which top management cascades strategy goals to operating levels. Budgets are ideal for this purpose since they are in essence the detailed quantification of targets for short-term choices of actions. Before continuing, it must be emphasised here that budgeting is not planning it is just the quantification of planning. Since the budget is fundamentally a plan, planning is the first important element of budgeting work. Planning is one of the elementary functions of management. It is the process of developing enterprise objectives and selecting a future course of action to accomplish them. It includes establishing enterprise objectives, developing premises about the environment in which they are to be accomplished, selecting a course of action for accomplishing the objectives, initiating activities necessary to translate plans into action and current replanning to correct deficiencies (Welsch, Hilton, Gordon, 1988, p. 3). It is a phase that involves the interpretation of the broader strategic policies derived during the formulation of strategy and their translation into more specific shorter-range plans. Once these short-term plans are quantified, they become budgets. That is why in many instances short-term planning and budgetary planning are used as synonyms. However, as figure 6 will show, connect ion between planning and budgeting is not isolated from influences of other elements that constitute corporate planning system and it is precisely the coherent functioning of the complete system that allows corporate planning to be implemented, period by period, through the budgetary process and its two elementary phases budgetary planning and budgetary Control (Lucey, 1996, p. 104). Apart from the purposes of setting desired objectives and goals and linking them with strategic long-range and tactical short-range plans, the fundamental objective of management planning within budgeting system is to provide a feedforward process for operations and control. It is this feedforward process that renders the planning phase of the budgeting system vitally important since it allows control and corrections of plans before they are even implemented. The difference between feedback and feedforward concepts is that feedback monitors past results to detect and correct disturbances to the plan, while feedforward reacts to immediate or forthcoming dangers by making adjustments to the system in advance in order to cope with the problem on time, i.e. feedback monitors, feedforward warns (Lucey,1996, p. 144). Since in any organizations it is unlikely that pure feedforward or pure feedback control could operate in isolation because feedback control is too slow, while feedforward control is too risky, these two concepts usually function within a single budgeting system as can be seen in figure 7. 2.6. Budgets as control devices : At the beginning of the period, the budget is a plan. At the end of the period, the budget is a control device to measure performance against expectations so that future performance may be improved. Control is achieved through continuous reporting of actual progress and expenditures relative to plans i.e. budgets (Shim, Siegel, 1994, p. 15). The aim of budgetary control is to provide a formal basis for monitoring the progress of the organization as a whole and of its component parts towards achievement of the objectives specified in budgets (Lucey, 1996, p. 147). Budgetary control process usually functions in a closed loop. This loop, which is illustrated in figure 8, starts with the planning phase, then records actual transactions, and finally reports against the plan and generates management response. In accounting literature, budgeting is also known as responsibility accounting. This means that plans and the resulting information on the performance of the plans are expressed in terms of human responsibilities because it is people, not reports that control operations. We can define responsibility accounting as a system of accounting in which costs and revenues are analysed in accordance with areas of personal responsibilities so that the performance of the budget holders can be monitored in financial terms (Lucey, 1996, p. 147). So the crucial thing for profit control is the division of authority and responsibility to managers. This means that managers should accept responsibility only over those figures that they have control. However, in practice, controllability1 is difficult to pinpoint for at least two reasons (Horngren, Foster, Datar, 2000, p. 195): Few costs are clearly under the sole influence of one manager. Over a long enough time span, all costs will come under somebodys control. For this reason, companies, alongside traditional responsibility centres2, also usually set up budget centres. These can be defined as a part of an organization for which a given manager has responsibility and authority and to which profit control data can be assigned (Harper,1995, p. 320). For budgeting control purposes, a special type of budget is prepared called the flexible budget. In order to understand why only those budgets can be used for the accurate measurement of performance, firstly the difference between them and fixed budgets must be explained. The fixed budget is based on the level of output planned at the start of the budget period. On the other hand, the flexible budget is developed using budgeted revenues or cost amounts based on the level of output actually achieved in the budget period (Horngren, Foster, Datar, 2000, p. 220). For this reason, from a control viewpoint, the fixed budget is likely to be inappropriate (unless by pure chance the actual level of activity turns out to be the same as the planned level which is highly unlikely) and should not be used for control purposes. It is with respect to this sort of budget that the old saying the budget is out of date before the budget period even begins is often a correct one (Harper, 1995, p. 336). 2.7. Benefits and problems associated with traditional budgeting: It is claimed that today as many as 99 percent of European and US companies are using budgets and have no intention of abandoning them (Better Budgeting: A report, 2004, p. 2). However, on the same page, it is stated that as many as 60 percent of those companies claim that they are not completely satisfied with their current budgeting systems and are continuously trying to improve them (ibid., p. 3). From this evidence, it is obvious that budgets carry with them many benefits and problems. Here is a list of some of the benefits that traditional budgeting can bring into organization if properly implemented and administered (Lucey, 1996, p. 161): It is a major formal way by which the organizational objectives are translated into specific plans, tasks and objectives related to individual managers and supervisors. It is an important medium for communication of organizational plans and objectives and of the progress made towards meeting those objectives. The development of budgets helps achieve coordination between the various departments and functions of the organization. The involvement of all levels of management in setting budgets, the acceptance of defined targets, the two way flow of information and other features of a properly organized budgeting system all help to promote a coalition of interest and to increase motivation. Managements time can be saved and attention directed to areas of greatest concern by the exception principle which is at the heart of budgetary control. Performance at all levels is systematically reported and monitored thus aiding the control of current activities. The investigation of operations and procedures, which is part of budgetary planning and the subsequent monitoring of expenditure, may lead to reduced costs and greater efficiency. The regular systematic monitoring of results compared to the plan (i.e. the budget) provides information upon which current operations are adjusted to bring them into line with the previous plan or, adjustments are made to the plan itself where this becomes necessary. The integration of budgets makes it possible to better manage cash and working capital and makes stock and buying policies more realistic. Nobody has better summarized in one sentence all the advantages of traditional budgeting as did Umapathy in his major work on budgeting practices in U.S. industry from 1987.Umapathy stated: There is no other managerial process that translates qualitative mission statements and corporate strategies into action plans, links the short-term with the long-term, brings together managers from different hierarchical levels and from different functional areas, and at the same time provides continuity by the sheer regularity of the process (Umapathy, 1987, p. xxii). It is exactly because of this that budgets will soon celebrate their century long existence. Since budgets encompass so many different functions and are used for so many things in organizations, it is obvious to expect them to have certain weaknesses. A group of authors at the Cranfield School of Management made an extensive review of budgeting literature. As part of their research, they identified 12 significant weaknesses of traditional planning and budgeting practices. These factors fall into three principal categories and can be listed as follows (Neely, Bourne, Adams, 2003, p. 23): Competitive strategy Budgets are rarely strategically focused and are often contradictory. Budgets concentrate on cost reduction and not value creation. Budgets constrain responsiveness and flexibility, and are often a barrier to change. Budgets add little value since they tend to be bureaucratic and discourage creative thinking. Business process Budgets are time consuming and costly to put together. Budgets are developed and updated too infrequently, usually annually. Budgets are based on unsupported assumptions and guesswork. Budgets encourage gaming and dysfunctional behaviour. Organizational capacity Budgets strengthen vertical command and control. Budgets do not re ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ect the emerging network structures that organizations are adopting. Budgets reinforce departmental barriers rather than encourage knowledge sharing. Budgets make people feel undervalued. Furthermore, one of the biggest problems with budgets is that they tend to promote an inward-looking, short-term culture that focuses on achieving a budget figure, rather than on implementing business strategy and creating shareholder value over the medium to long term. For all these reasons, it is believed that these weaknesses lead collectively towards business underperformance and should therefore be dealt with (ibid). The above listed benefits and disadvantages of budgeting system have been present since the first d

Maliciousness Exposed in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay

Foolishness and Maliciousness in Exposed in  Heart of Darkness  Ã‚        Ã‚   Joseph Conrad paralleled the Eldorado Expedition in his novel Heart of Darkness with the Katanga Expedition of 1890-1892. By doing so, he illustrated the folly and malevolence of the leaders of the Katanga Expedition and of Imperialist profiteers in general. The foundations for the Katanga Expedition were laid in 1883 when King Leopold proposed that he would leave the Congo state to Belgium in his will if he could borrow 25 million francs without interest to finance development of the area. In 1890, Prime Minister Beernaert ensured that Leopold got the loan (Pakenham 399). Through German adventurers and British missionaries, Leopold soon learned of both the riches Katanga had to offer in terms of natural resources and of its unusual native warlord, Msiri. With hopes of gaining raw materials, Leopold launched the Katanga Expedition in 1890 (Pakenham 400). Conrad’s "Kurtz" in Heart of Darkness is based on Georges-Antoine Klein (Sherry 9), although there are many similarities between him and Msiri, the native chief of Katanga, as well. Like Kurtz, Msiri was fond of keeping tight control of everything in his area, and he was partial to showing off his collection of human heads (Pakenham 400). As Kurtz had no qualms about shooting his supporters (such as the Russian) over trivial matters (Conrad 56), Msiri frequently cut off appendages of any of his subjects who displeased him (Pakenham 403). As Msiri was huge, "six-foot and fourteen stone," (Pakenham 403), Kurtz "looked at least 7 feet long" (Conrad 59). When Msiri’s enemies became bolder, huts filled with Msiri’s supplies were burned down (Pakenham 406). This is analogous to the incident in Heart of... ... at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe," (Conrad 33). Through Marlow, Conrad was pointing out the evil ambitions of the Katanga Expedition. In the Katanga Expedition, there was no true goal of "enlightening" the "savage" natives. The members of the expedition cared only about money and riches. They did not care about what happened to the native people of Africa. Conrad was disgusted with the way Belgium treated people of the Congo, and he blatantly illustrated this repugnance with his portrayal of the Katanga Expedition thinly veiled as the Eldorado Expedition. Works Cited Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc, 1988. Pakenham, Thomas. The Scramble for Africa. New York: Random House, 1991. Sherry, Norman. Conrad’s Western World. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press, 1971.      

A Study of the Cultural Imperialism Theory Essay

ABSTRACT This paper explores the validity of the Cultural Imperialism Theory which says the Western culture has dominated the cultures of developing Nations. It examines to what extent and how the Western world in the real sense has dominated the developing countries. The study further examined the means through which the developing countries are being dominated culturally by the Western culture. The paper further looked at both the negative and the positive effects of cultural imperialism. It concluded that though the western world is succeeding in eroding the culture of developing countries and Nigeria as a study, Nigeria as a Nation should put on some safety belt in safeguarding our heritage. INTRODUCTION Culture is the way of life of a set of people. It encompasses the knowledge, ideas, beliefs, values, standards, and sentiments prevalent in the group. According to Charles A. Ellwood, an American Sociologist, culture is the â€Å"collective name for all behavior patterns socially acquired and socially transmitted by means of symbols†. Dare A., defines Culture as the collectivity of human activities and general principles that tend to guide ideas of a group of people with shared traditions (general acceptability), which are passed on, instilled into generation (socialization) and reinvigorated by members of the group (sustainability) while Imperialism as defined by The Dictionary of Human Geography is the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination The Theorist of Cultural Imperialism theory, Herb Schiller postulated that Western nations dominate the media around the world which in return has a powerful effect on Third World Cultures by means of imposing on them, western views thereby destroying their native cultures Western Civilization produces the majority of the media (film, news, comics, etc.) because they have the money to do so. The rest of the world purchases those productions because it is cheaper for them to do so rather than produce their own. Therefore, Third World countries are watching media filled with the Western world’s way of living, believing, and thinking. The third world cultures then start to want and do the same things in their countries and destroy their own culture. In cultural Imperialism theory, the key words are culture and imperialism. According to Anaeto G., Onabajo, O. and Osifeso, J. (2008), they wrote that â€Å"the western countries are technologically developed in television and motion programmes and developing countries that are not technologically developed depend on the programmes from the developed countries. This means that the programmes from the developed counties which portray their culture will be imbibed by the developing nations. This western culture now dominates our local culture simply because we are consuming their mass media messages†. The assumptions of the theory according to Schiller, H., are classified into three namely 1. Ontological Assumptions 2. Epistemological Assumptions 3. Axiological Assumptions 1. Ontological Assumptions This theory says that humans do not have the free will to chose how they feel, act, think, and live. They react to what they see on television because there is nothing else to compare it to besides their own lives, usually portrayed as less than what it should be. 2. Epistemological Assumptions This theory explains that there is one truth and no matter what that truth never going to change. As long as Third World countries continue to air Western Civilization’s programs then the third world countries will always believe they should act, feel, think, and live as Western Civilizations act, feel, think, and live. 3. Axiological Assumptions This theory is value-neutral and objective. It does not matter what beliefs the people of Third World may already hold, the television programs from the Western World will communicate the same message and affect them in the same way. CRITIQUES OF THEORY The critiques of the Cultural Imperialism theory came up with scientific theory which counter-argued the theory with the following responses: Explanatory Power: It explains what happens when one group of people with their own ideas sends messages through the media to a different group of people. Predictive Power: It predicts that Third World countries’ culture will be destroyed and the people will identify with Western views. Parsimony: We can see a direct linear path from sender to receiver through the media channels and then watch the effects. Falsifiability: The theory could be proved false should the Third World countries not be affected by Western media and they do not lose their culture. E.G â€Å"Under the intriguing title Seducing the French (1993), Richard F.Kuisel concedes that the French underwent a process of Americanization. But at the same time, they succeeded in defending their â€Å"Frenchness.† French consumers found some American products appealing but they also continued to cherish and idealize French national identity, notably the idea of a superior French high culture.† Internal Consistency: There is a logical flow of events and consequences within the theory. Heuristic Provocativeness: This theory could lead to new hypotheses such as which cultures are affected more than others (if any) or whether low context differ in the reception of messages compared top high context cultures? Organizing Power: This fits with what we already know about differences between Western civilization and Third World countries. Another example the critique stated is that â€Å"if an International Broadcast station shows a video depicting Nigerians as corrupt, dangerous and malnourished, should someone in Nigeria watch this the Western stereotype of Nigerians, and not affected by it, the theory have been proved false†. John, T., further argues that Cultural imperialism consists of the spread of modernity. It is a process of cultural loss and not of cultural expansion. There never were groups of conspirators who attempted to spread any particular culture. Instead, global technological and economic progress and integration reduced the importance of national culture. Therefore, it is misleading to put the blame for a global development on any one culture. The notion of imperialism that is, purposeful cultural conquest is irrelevant; instead, all countries, regardless of whether they are located in the northern or southern hemisphere, are victims of a worldwide cultural change MODES OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM Tracing world history all through the era of colonialism, there have been histories of cultural imperialism which will seem the only way to explain the popularity of the very-British game cricket in all countries that once served as British colonies. Invasion of a country most often doesn’t end with an invasion of the geographical territories within the political boundaries alone. Religious and cultural invasion are often inseparable parts of a political conquest. It’s much easier to rule if your subjects share the same religious and cultural platforms as the invaders? The cultural imperialism theory is founded upon the premises of imposing the influences and beliefs of the stronger culture (the invaders) upon the weaker or more submissive culture (the invaded). How does this cultural Imperialism take place? Dare A., states that Cultural imperialism takes place when one culture overtakes another in such a way that the latter ends up following a significant number of values, traditions, beliefs and influences of the former either completely or in a way merges the influences of the dominating culture with those of its own. Such a cultural invasion can either be active or passive. In its active form, the dominant culture forcefully imposes its cultural influences upon the dominated culture. This is a dynamic phenomenon where the subordinate culture is compelled to adopt the ways of the invaders. The passive form is when one culture (not necessarily subordinate) voluntarily embraces the influences and traditions of another culture. Here, the dominant culture makes little or no forceful efforts in imposing its cultural ideals upon another but the latter gets influenced as a consequence of its receptivity to the former’s cultural impacts. The passive form of cultural imperialism is what largely takes place today. Cultural imperialism can also occur due to the significant commercial relations between two countries. A country heavily importing products and services of another country may get significantly influenced by the exporting country’s lifestyle attributes and social values. We can see this phenomenon in the form of Westernization of a number of Eastern countries. This is a type of passive cultural imperialism as the receiving culture adopts the foreign values without perceiving the fact that they are, in fact, becoming slaves of a foreign culture. WORLD EXAMPLES OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM English Cultural Imperialism English cultural imperialism has been rife in the history of cultural imperialism. Latin which has the Church’s official language to popularizing its national game all across its colonies was changed to English. The British Empire left no stone unturned to make sure that its subjects adhered to its cultural idiosyncrasies even decades after ceasing to be its subjects. The fact that Cricket is among the top ten most popular sports around the world with an estimated 3 billion fan following, especially in countries like Australia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, New Zealand and certain African and Caribbean countries proves the strength of the English cultural imperialism. It is also a known fact that English is the third most spoken language after Mandarin and Spanish. Decades of dominion and repressive policies towards Tibet, Taiwan and various other neighboring regions by China has had a significant influence upon the religion and culture of these regions. The aggressive promotion of a standardized Chinese language across Mainland China and Taiwan indicates towards an attempted cultural imperialism aimed at overtaking regional dialects in these areas. Also, the fact that most traditional aspects of the Chinese culture pertaining to religious beliefs, festivals and social norms significantly inundate the socio cultural edifices of various Oriental countries indicate towards strongly existing cultural imperialism. The most widespread and still continuing instance of cultural imperialism can be seen in the form of Americanization. This is mostly due to the multitudes of commercial relationships the United States holds with a large number of countries in all parts of the world. This is definitely passive cultural imperialism and the countries that are most affected are those that have voluntarily adopted the stereotyped American lifestyle values and specific cultural aspects CULTURAL IMPERIALISM IN NIGERIA The Issue of Sagging Sagging has become the latest phenomenon among the male youths today in Nigeria. It is what is in vogue; if you have not exposed the lower part of your private, you belong to the old school system. What is sagging and where did it come from? According to Greg, M., sagging was adopted from the United States prison system where belts are prohibited. Belts are sometimes prohibited to keep prisoners from using them as weapons or in committing suicide by hanging themselves. The style was later popularized by hip-hop artists in the 1990s. It has since become a symbol of freedom and cultural awareness among some youths or a symbol of their rejection of the values of mainstream society. Jails are typically state run institutions. What usually happens is the state will order a set number of inmate uniforms. These uniforms are usually in general sizes like small, medium and large; making them ill-fitting for most inmates. When a medium sized inmate comes in and there are no remaining medium uniforms this inmate will receive a large instead. Prisoners are not allowed to have shoe laces or belts for fear they’d use them to kill themselves (by way of strangulation or hanging), or as weapons to kill or injure other inmates. The combination of over sized clothing and lack of fastening devices created the perfect storm for falling pants. Many street hungry rappers latched on the dress of their incarcerated friends and family and brought the style to the masses. Thus a new trend was born and Nigerians have fallen into this trend Linguistic Imperialism Language is one of the principal elements in identifying a particular culture and the absence of it makes a culture unidentifiable. It is vital for cultural transmission and preservation. With the gradual loss of our indigenous languages in Nigeria, what culture are we then preserving? Ogwu, M., Agbanu, N. and Ofordile, J. describes Linguistic Imperialism as â€Å"People who can relate with each other only through the medium of communication foisted on them by a former colonist are victims of a peculiar kind of Schizophrenia†. The use of our language is declining in Africa especially Nigeria because we are compelled to embrace Western culture and civilization as Western language. Western language has created a division between an elite and mass of our people who still cannot do business with foreign language. It causes alienation for people who cannot speak English or French. Language is a vehicle of culture; we are in a very serious problem. e.g. â€Å"Professor Babafunwa project on local language as a basic tool of teaching in Nigeria was aborted because of the nature of our country.† Parents also do not encourage their children or wards to speak in their local language as they belief it causes setback in their education. Fashion imperialism You hardly find few of our men, women and the youths who still embrace our cultural mode of dressing. Our people are going ‘gaga’ with the western way of dressing thereby losing their root of African way of dressing. It’s quite unfortunate that when expatriates and tourist who come to Nigeria appreciate our native attire while the owners of the heritage has seen it as something of old school and fashion. Tattoos have also become a common phenomenon. Both the young and old are stamping themselves all over the body with symbolic ‘devilish’ tattoos. Religious Imperialism Most churches in Nigeria today have gone the western way. When you go to some churches today, you marvel at the way some our ladies apparel. The custom of covering of hair has been eroded by the western way; all kinds of dressing are acceptable. The men or young male adults put on all sort of jewels and dress ‘haggardly’. The sense of going to commune with God is lost. EFFECTS OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM Moral Decadency Through the float of western culture into Nigeria through the advent of technology and globalization, there has been obvious moral decline in Africa and in Nigeria in particular. This moral decadence has permeated almost all spheres of our culture. Moral consciousness has been equated with awkward and odd life styles. According to Oshafu, H., in his article â€Å"Cultural Imperialism†, this resulted due to Africa’s carelessness and failure to hold their culture with high esteem. He added that the moral excellence of African society has over night transformed into moral decay. Elders are no longer respected, our rapid festivals and ceremonies are now seen as â€Å"old school† and we now have children of single parents, a phenomenon that is identifiable with America. People no longer communalize, nobody wants to be anybody’s brother’s keeper. Our mode of dressing has been totally distorted by western civilization through foreign films and media conten t. Today we seem not to have any cultural attire. Our people now prefer to go naked on the streets as against our culture, micro minis with handless tops has this to show. The acculturation of â€Å"blue jean and hamburger† has gradually found it way into young people in African society. The issue of dress code has led to controversies in our high institute in today. Cases of immoral dressing have also gave way to rapid sexual harassment among students and lecturers, bosses and their employees. Raping in our society today came as a result of reckless dressing code by ladies The traditional notion of chastity and virginity have been rendered absurd by pornographic and sleazy materials displayed on screens, distorting sexuality and condoning promiscuity, which has given rise to active homosexuality and lesbianism in our society today. These cases of reckless sex have led to the rapid spread of STD’s particularly, HIV/AIDs in our society today. Innocent children are dying of this disease. They paid dearly for the offence committed by their parents. This is immoral evil militating against the dignity of human person. Increase in Crime Rate With exposure to the western way of life, increase in crime rate is on high. Most of the films we watch on the television set are crime oriented thereby leading to increase in crime rate. In as much as there is positive impact of the television set, the negative aspect outweighs the good part, as the western world is teaching modern ways to crime though the kind of programmes being disseminated, which includes kidnapping, serial killing etc. Look for more points We have scholars who however belief that Cultural Imperialism theory regardless of its negative effect has its positive side. Cultural imperialism they say is not entirely bad as it increases the pace of development in Nigeria and other less developed countries. For example, in the giving away of media products free of charge or selling them at a very low price to these developing nations, the US actually accelerates the growth of the media industry and the advancement in technology, hence increasing the knowledge and skills of the people there. Their actions not only add on to actual growth; the subsequent increase in human capital further boosts potential growth, which is essential for the actual growth to be sustained in the long run. This investment in human capital goes a long way and benefits the country as it strengthens the competitive edge and increases productivity of the workforce. Economic growth is also achieved Even more so, being a developing nation, Nigeria would not have had the latest technology available to produce media products; it is only through the provision of the American companies that they are able to obtain state-of-the-art equipment. The advocacy of production of local-helmed programs would thus further enhance American influence on the nation. Despite government efforts to hinder cultural imperialism, they cannot completely eliminate the impacts of this influence as American media products have already found their way into the market and become a part of Nigeria’s media production efforts. They need such â€Å"interference† in order to keep their media industry alive WAY FORWARD Long Term Investment in the Development of our Mass Media One way cultural imperialism spreads is through the mass media. The local media imports foreign materials because it is cheaper than having to produce local indigenous content. An example of this issue is that indigenous journalists have to learn to transcribe and rewrite news by foreign news agencies rather than source for their own stories. Sometimes even rewriting local stories covered by the foreign news agencies. Our government and private investors should invest heavily in our local media and encourage the development of indigenous content that will reflect our culture, values, promote our languages etc. Media products like movies, news, music, advertising etc should be regulated to avoid the influx of foreign content. This is where organizations like the Nigerian Broadcasting Service come in. They should develop stronger laws and be strict in its enforcement of the laws such as the 60/40% rule (60% indigenous, 40% foreign). If the indigenous media products are of high quality, the citizens will be encouraged to consume them. This is so because a lot of people give the low quality of the products (movies, music, adverts, news etc) as reasons for not consuming them. If Nigerians consume indigenous media products, it will reflect in every area of our lives (culturally that is). An example is what is happening in the Nigerian music industry,. Because of the increase in local content in our music, it is now becoming acceptable and even encouraged to sing in our indigenous languages(Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo etc), dress in our native attires most especially Ankara and wear our national colors. There has been a rise in the popularity of Pidgin English as opposed to just speaking plain English. Also the teaching of our indigenous languages should be encouraged in our schools. All primary and secondary schools should be encouraged to teach at least one Nigerian language at all classes especially in the minority regions of the country where the minority languages are in danger of becoming extinct. Parents should further speak their native dialect with their wards or children to aid them to be conversant in their local dialect. Young adults today see it as a taboo or as inferiority complex speaking in their local dialect; â€Å"it does not sound ‘tush’ rather local† parents more importantly should be more watchful and observant in the kind of foreign stations their children tune to for their programmes as â€Å"media has become the primary means by which many of us experience or learn about many aspects of the world around us† Stanley and Dennis, 5th edition,p.200). With the presence of technology, access to International broadcast station is at the tip of the hand, we have cables surrounding us and with just a remote control, you can be anywhere in the world learning and assimilating what is been impressed on you. As such supervision is needed to regulate what is been watched. Parents should devout time for their children while they are still young as most of the western values tend to catch them while they are still young just as the â€Å"catch them young phrase†. Another solution is to try to export our own culture as this will help in boosting tourism in Nigeria. We should conscious try to sell and promote our media products to the rest of the world. This will improve our image globally and help foreigners understand our culture, values, cuisine better. I would like to say at this point that we should not consume wholly indiginous media products. A little foreign content is still advisable as there has been some good aspects of cultural imperialism such as technological and educational advancement, political structure (democracy), eradication of some harmful practices like the killing of twins etc. We should take a balanced approach, like an 80 (indigenous))/20% (foreign). CONLUSION As a result of globalization and technological advancement, the western world has succeeded in dominating the third world countries. This notwithstanding should not be an excuse for Nigerians and other third world countries to be subjugated by the western world. Nigerian as a nation should fight cultural imperialism and fight back for our lost culture. One way by which this could be done is through Long Term Investment in the Development of our Mass Media as it is the major means by which cultural imperialism spreads. The local media imports foreign materials because it is cheaper than having to produce local indigenous content. An example of this issue is that indigenous journalists have to learn to transcribe and rewrite news by foreign news agencies rather than source for their own stories. Sometimes even rewriting local stories covered by the foreign news agencies. Our government and private investors should invest heavily in our local media and encourage the development of indigenous content that will reflect our culture, values, promote our languages etc. REFERENCES Anaeto, S. G., Onabajo, O. S. and Osifeso, J. B. (2008). Models and Theories of Communication. African Renaissance Books Incorporated. Dare, A., (2010). The Effects of Western Civilization and Culture on Africa. Afro Asian Journal of Social Sciences (1/1) Quarter IV Grifin, E. (2000). A first look at communication theory. (4th edition). Boston, MA: McGraw- Hill Littlejohn, S. W. (1999). Theories of human communication (6th edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Oshafu H. U. Cultural Imperialism. Accessed from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/culturalimperialism-examples.html on 12/11/2012. Ogwu, M., Agbanu, N., and Ofordile, J. (December, 2010). â€Å"Sustaining Cultural Values Through the Promotion of Indigenous Languages in Nigeria† Journal of Communication and Culture: International Perspective. (1/3), pp 76 Schiller, H. I. (1976). Communication and Cultural Domination. Armonk, NY: International Arts and Sciences Press. Accessed online on 29/10/2012. Critics of cultural imperialism theory. Encyclopedia of the New American Nation available Accessed at http://www.americanforeignrelations.com on 29/10/2012

buy custom Aligning Incentives in Medicare essay

buy custom Aligning Incentives in Medicare essay In modern world electronic medical record (EMR) has created a revolution that has affected the entire system in the medical world. The EMR is a computerized medical record created in an organization that delivers care, such as a hospital or physician's office (The Institute of Medicine, 2006). This method has eased the process of data management, storage, retrieval and modification of data. As opposed to the paper based methods that are up to now the most used methods of recording patient information, electronic medical record provides flexibility and effectiveness going by the fact that this system does not need significant amount of storage space. For the relatively smaller medical facilities, EMR may strike out as an over-ambitious plan that may not go well with the budget line of these facilities. The essence for the adoption of the EMR is basically to increase data security and ensure that patients information can last for decades. In this sense, the undertaking by Dryden Family Medicine (DFM) to incorporate the use of EMR will go a long way in creating s steady transition of healthcare operations such as billing, prescription ordering as well as other routine processes. Pay for performance is one of the emerging movements in health insurance aimed at encouraging better healthcare delivery initially in the US and Britain. Under this model, medical facilities, groups and other healthcare providers are rewarded for their efficiency in health care delivery. However, this has sparked a heated debate particularly in developed nations where critics question the applicability of this model. In these countries, it is very significant that large healthcare systems have shown great improvement in terms of healthcare delivery and efficiency. However, these large facilities fail in minimizing their cost with most of the resources being used in administrative expenses. This questions the pay for performance model where the efficiency of health providers is based on the cost effectiveness of the same fcilities in delivering their services. Pay for performance model has led to many medical facilities to try and engage better and complex systems in health-care delivery. In the US, most medical professionals and societies have over the years advocated for increased efficiency in the healthcare sector. This comes amidst concern over the criteria used to measure the degree of effectiveness by a healthcare provider. The pay for performance model therefore put most health organizations to task by initiating innovations and the adoption of new technology in healthcare delivery by healthcare providers while trying to provide quality healthcare. According to a recent study by the American Medical Association, the electronic medical records improve the overall efficiency of a medical organization by 6% annually. This explains why the pay performance model would undoubtedly encourage the adoption of electronic medical records by health providers. In both the medical and professional world, cost benefit analysis maybe regarded as a system that deals with the decision making process. This can also be defined as the systematic process that details out what is to be done and why. Decision making process is a complex process that work under the assumptions that, an act should not be carried out unless its benefits outweighs the cost, the benefits and costs are weighed under a common denominator to establish their comparison with each other and the whole process is essential in improving cost benefit estimation for future projection. There are various advantages for the adoption of cost benefit analysis particularly when dealing with information technology adoption decisions. These advantages are such as the evaluation of the cost incurred in relation to the intended or projected benefits. However, the limitations of this method are that the IT sector is very dynamic. This implies that nit is not possible to weigh the decision maki ng process under a common denominator such as cost. There is also the need to weiggh the same under factors such as durability, complexity and time. Before integrating the electronic medical records, the Dryden Family Medicine (DFM) should first ensure that the health facilitys internal and external environment can fully adopt the use of this new system. In this regard, one of the first measures is to educate the staff regarding the use of the EMR going by the fact that this facility had no IT support person except the IT manager. It is also evident that the facility due to its size was somehow limited on its budget implying that it could not hire outside consultants hence the more need to develop an internal consultant and cut on the cost incurred. Before the adoption of EMR, Dryden Family Medicine (DFM) should also ensure that the main servers in data encryption are safe. This is as a result of the fact that the EMR system has received sharp criticism over the security of data. In this, critics argue that the increased portability and accessibility of EMR increases the ease in which unauthorized people can access private inform ation. One of the key challenges faced by small health facilities as compared to large healthcare providers in relation to the adoption of HMIS projects such as EMR implementation narrows down to cost. Most of these small healthcare providers operate on a limited budget that greatly affect the adoption of such HMIS initiatives. More significantly, incentives are being aligned with performance with most people questioning the information systems used by health facilities to collect data valid for quality assessment. It is a fundamental fact that small healthcare providers will always feel much of the effect by adopting such HMIS initiatives. According to a recent study, more than 90% respondents from relatively small healthcare providers admit lacking substantive support form EMR providers. In addition, most of them agreed that the additional cost from EMR vendors and consultants is the key reason behind the late implementation of the system. Buy custom Aligning Incentives in Medicare essay

Holmium Facts - Element Atomic Number 67

Holmium Facts - Element Atomic Number 67 Holmium is atomic number 67 with element symbol Ho. It is a rare earth metal belonging to the lanthanide series. HolmiumBasic Facts Atomic Number: 67 Symbol: Ho Atomic Weight: 164.93032 Discovery: Delafontaine 1878 or J.L. Soret 1878 (Switzerland) Electron Configuration: [Xe] 4f11 6s2 Element Classification: Rare Earth (Lanthanide) Word Origin: Holmia, the Latinized name for Stockholm, Sweden. Holmium Physical Data Density (g/cc): 8.795 Melting Point (K): 1747 Boiling Point (K): 2968 Appearance: relatively soft, malleable, lustrous, silvery metal Atomic Radius (pm): 179 Atomic Volume (cc/mol): 18.7 Covalent Radius (pm): 158 Ionic Radius: 89.4 (3e) Specific Heat (20Â °C J/g mol): 0.164 Evaporation Heat (kJ/mol): 301 Pauling Negativity Number: 1.23 First Ionizing Energy (kJ/mol): 574 Oxidation States: 3 Lattice Structure: Hexagonal Lattice Constant (Ã…): 3.580 Lattice C/A Ratio: 1.570 References: Los Alamos National Laboratory (2001), Crescent Chemical Company (2001), Langes Handbook of Chemistry (1952), CRC Handbook of Chemistry Physics (18th Ed.) What is an element? Return to the Periodic Table

Dispute Resolution Process Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dispute Resolution Process Paper - Essay Example Presently, the dispute resolution process in my organization is largely guided by the conditions as mentioned in the appointment letters or contracts as devised and executed by the company’s top brass managers. The process is modeled in a top down fashion, where in the case of a dispute issues are resolved professionally on the basis of the hierarchic positions of the disputing individuals. Such a dispute resolution paradigm can, thus, be identified as a human resource management based organized process guided in the conventional lines of conflict management. In a more complicated conflict situation, the company prefers to act along the â€Å"Dunlopian integrated system† (Colvin 2012, p. 459) of dispute resolution. Suggestible Alternative Dispute Resolution Approaches Alternative dispute resolution processes that can be suggested in this context involve essentially individualized considerations and concepts. As a whole, the current dispute resolution system of my organi zation is based on older concepts of industrial relations. But in the 21st century, individualized labor management appears to be more practical and potentially productive. At the first place, information and communication technology (ICT) has revolutionized present day workplace. Now there is a lot more scope of one to one interactions between peers. Also, superiors can interact with their subordinates on an individual basis with the help of techniques like social networking, online chatting, etc. Brett et al (2007) have explained the importance and inevitability of the utilization of ICT methods for resolving disputes and facilitating the dialogue in case there is a conflict. Further in my personal opinion, I believe that a policy of talking to the other party first can settle disputes before they surface. According to Colvin (2012), the new labor management conception in the USA is a lot more individualized. As such, emotional quotient and soft skills too can be highly fruitful a nd can help us before disputes reach serious dimensions. In the case of a conflict, if everyone is groomed to be good listeners beforehand, then we, the employees, can start a dialogue process on our own without an actual intervention of the higher management. Recommended Areas of Improvement There are two main recommended areas of improvement. Firstly, I think that my organization should now implement available ICT techniques more seriously with the specific consideration to the issues as related to the greater dispute resolution paradigm. For example, if the higher managers give at least a weekly feedback to their subordinates in a regular and periodic manner, then the subordinate staff can have a better understanding of both the good and bad things they do. And to facilitate such a kind of ICT powered individualized process of a periodic communication; we can induct ideas from the work of the scholars like Brett et al (2007). Secondly, the higher management should now consider ar ranging training sessions for the staff. All the staff must be given classroom lessons in soft skills at least once in a fortnight. In the view of the new labor management paradigm that gives an excessive importance to one to contact and dialogue, an increasing emotional quotient is critical and special soft skills training for all the staff of different departments can be rewarding. Another important aspect of necessary dispute resolution techniques might involve contract management set along strictly legal lines. My organization has set up contractual agreements with several workers. So, particularly in case of employment conflicts and confusions, the actual contract documents can be referred to. Scholars like Faems et al (2008) have given contextual suggestions

Long term care Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Long care - Term Paper Example sadena nursing home is one of the largest private nursing homes in Texas, offering excellent long term care services including medications and meals to both patients and their families. Located in Pasadena, within the greater Huston area, Texas, the long term care facility provides 24 hour nursing care services to a wide range of patients including seniors with disabilities and serious illnesses. The environment at the Houston based facility is particularly designed to provide the residents with a comfortable life and make them feel part of the community. Although many patients attending the facility are those requiring long term nursing and medical supervision, Courtyards at Pasadena also offers specialized long term care programs for a wide range of illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease. According to Courtyards at Pasadena’s official website (2014), the facility is managed by a for-profit corporation and is part of a multiple nursing home chain and not located in a particular hospital. With 196 beds and close to 125 residents, the registered nurse occupancy rate at Courtyards at Pasadena is above average. The nurses form part of the highly trained team of professionals at the facility who are always ready to provide all sorts of assistance towards developing individualized care plans for the patients in order to achieve the desired care goals. All the professional staff as well as the independent staff and consultants at the organization are highly committed to working with the residents and patients as partners in order to effectively meet their diverse individualized health care, coordination and rehabilitation needs. In addition, as part of its financial considerations, the organization allows its clients to explore available financial options including Medicaid, Medicare, private funding and insurance managed funding among others. However, what make Courtyards at Pasadena nursing home particularly special with regard to the provision of excellent care