Impact of National Culture on Organisational Culture Literature review

Impact of National Culture on Organisational Culture - Literature review Example While Johns (2006) stated that national culture restricts the disparity in the culture of the organisations (Martocchio, & Liao, 2009, p. 4). It is important that organisations around the world should know certain parameters on which cultural difference is based. Cultural differences can be a matter of concern as well as can be advantageous for the organisations. Its effect can have a greater impact on the productivity and functioning of the organisations in global market. The effects of differences between national culture and organisational can may be functional and dysfunctional depending on the situation. As far as dysfunctional effect of culture is considered, innovation and change is affected and group thinking is encouraged (Aswathappa, 2010, p. 176). Literature Review Organisational Culture is the cooperative encoding of the brain that differentiates people from a particular organisation from people belonging to some other organisation. National Culture on the other hand can be defined as the cooperative encoding of the brain that differentiates people of a particular group from the people belonging to other group (Hofstede, n. d). It is believed that culture is a concept but still the forces created in the situations related to organisation culture are said to be powerful. The difference between national and organisational culture may affect an organisation but on the hand it is also noted that there is a strong linkage between national and organisational culture. Moreover, organisational culture derives from national cultures. This signifies the advantage lying in organisational culture being derived from national culture as it would create a better understanding of the working culture in the host country. But, disadvantage associated with it also cannot be denied as the true culture of organisation is subjugated in presence of national culture. Newman & Nollen (1996) have put forth the theory saying managing business with one best possible method is a wrong assumption. Cultural differences in different countries emphasises on different management practices by organisations. Diversity in the culture of organisation and the host country is a sensitive issue. Organisations around the world face challenges in diversified environment with different cultures. Different people have different religious beliefs, come from different ethnic groups, and belong to different countries and most importantly cultural difference. The complexity and the differences that arise between organisational and national culture gives rise to entities which are beyond expectation. It is believed that national culture’s impact on employees is higher than the impact of organisational culture. Every organisation develops a culture of its own in the process of evolution as a global player. Organisational culture development becomes all the more important to overcome the problems related to adaption in external environment. Globalisation on the other han d has made organisations improved entities and their cultures have made significant influence on the employees and their work culture. It is believed that multinational organisations have strong culture to overpower the impact of national culture, thereby helping multicultural people to assimilate in a team (Saiyadain, 2003, p. 262). National cultures cannot be neglected as they have considerable

College Development Essay Example for Free

College Development Essay Residential life is part of almost every college or university. When most people think about residential life, they think of dorms and roommates; however, residential life is much more. The organizations are mostly divided into three units that make it all work: residence life programs, housing operations, and room assignments. (College and university,) Residence life is one of the major parts of a student’s environment. They only spend about twenty percent of their time in classrooms, as they spend most of their free time in housing. Residential life helps students to develop as young adults and future leaders. â€Å"The purpose of residence life programs is to provide educational programming, nonclinical counseling, and support for student learning†. (College and university,) People who are employed in residential programs mostly focus on improving student life and its safety, which helps to develop communication skills among people and also increase personal growth among student peers. The second unit of resident life is housing operations; they deal with daily tasks such as cleanliness, construction, and management. In a residential setting, is important to keep the environment clean and the buildings running properly in order for the community to work. The last unit of residential life is room assignments, in which finding the best-fit roommate is the most important. This area of residential life is designated to make room changes and monitor the occupancy of other housings. If there is a situation where problem occurs among roommates, the roommate assignment staff tries to find the best solution to find a resolution. Although it is often not realized, Residential Life is a big part of student life as it is a major factor in shaping a student’s experience in the institution. To ensure that residential life is at its best, the institution hires educated and professional staff. Almost every floor in each dorm has a residential assistant, who is responsible for maintaining a positive environment and be there for students if they are having a hard time adjusting. Residential assistants also welcome the students back to their dorms and inform students about upcoming activities and clubs. At the beginning of the school year, the RA creates a Facebook page for the people that they are responsible for and have group meetings to discuss issues and regulations. This helps new students feel welcome in their dorm and creates an environment where students can interact with other people in their dorms. Most dorms also have residence directors or graduate assistance. â€Å"Their responsibilities usually include staff development of their RAs, student counseling, educational programming, enforcement of institutional policies in the residence halls, and may also include other functions such as academic advising, intramural sports adviser, and facilities management†. (â€Å"College and university,) If the RA cannot deal with a problem, they report to residence director or graduate assistance, depending on who is available to their building. The staff goes through training to make sure that every need of a student is met. â€Å"There is a strong need for well-qualified, educated, and trained entry-lever live-in professional staff in campus residence halls to support and achieve the academic and educational goals of the institution† (Belch, Wilson Dunkel). It is important for students to be engaged and connected to school spirit, as it is more likely that they will remain in that institution. (Brooks). Each institution wants to give the best experience and education possible to their students. The person that oversees the Residential Assistants, Residential Directors, and Graduate Assistances is the Assistant Director of Residential Life. Keyne Cahoon is the Assistant Director of residential Life at Northeastern University and has many tasks during the day that keep her busy: â€Å"My primary responsibility is to directly supervise 5, 2 GAs, and indirectly supervise approximately 50 RAs. Additionally, I am responsible for the overall administration of the residential student conduct process (so I work with OSCCR to review and assign cases where residential student are involved), I am in charge of the professional staff recruitment and selection process (so I recruit and coordinate the process to hire all RDs and Assistant Directors of Residential Life), and I serve as a core team member of We Care†. (Cahoon, 2013) Being an Assistant Director of Residential Life is more than just dealing with housing situations. It involves a lot of communication among co-workers, documentations, and solving sometimes-unrealistic problems. Keyne Cahoon enjoys this challenge: â€Å"I enjoy students’ energy and excitement. I enjoy helping them figure out a problem and helping them solve it themselves†. (Cahoon, 2013) She is really involved in the community and enjoys every second of it. She finds her job very interesting and her passion makes her job a hobby. The only person who oversees her work is Brie McCormick, the Associate Director of Residential Life. She supervises the Assistant Director of Residential Life and deals with a lot of day-to-day issues for the department as a whole. The Associate Dean of Cultural, Residential Spiritual Life of Northeastern University is Robert Jose. He represents the Residential life as a whole unit. The theories that Residential Life uses are theories of organizations and campus environments, typology theories and models, and student success theories. All of these theories have the main focus to improve on student life outside of the classroom. Residential Life aims to provide complex learning by giving students the opportunities to make friends, be part of a groups or a clubs, play a sports, and much more. Living in dorms teaches them how to deal with every day situations in classrooms or outside. Students will be able to be â€Å"able to apply acquired knowledge to everyday situations, able to communicate clearly and effectively, acts responsibly to others, is civic minded, understands and appreciates those of other nationalities and cultures, is self-aware, and has a sense of connectedness to the university†. (Brooks) Living in the dorms helps students prepare for life after college or university and enables them to apply the things they have learned to a variety of situations. References Belch, H. A. , Wilson, M. E. , Dunkel, N. (n. d. ). Cultures of success:recruiting and retaining new live-in residence life professionals. The College Student Affairs Journal, 27(2), 176-193. Brooks, S. E. (n. d. ). The connection between residence life and first-year student retention at the university of Pittsburgh. The Journal of College and University Student Housing, 37(1), 12-23. College and university residence halls purpose of residence halls, organization and administration, residence hall staffing, residence hall student government read more: College and university residence halls purpose of residence halls, organization and administration, residence hall staffing, residence hall student government. (n. d. ). Retrieved from.

Schizophrenia: The Disease and Treatment Options :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Schizophrenia: The Disease and Treatment Options Leann was a beautiful 17-year- old with a great future ahead of her. She was the star of TV commercials, and sang in the high school choir. She was the envy of all the schoolgirls and the teachers' favorite. She lived in Crawford, Colorado and helped her family on the farm. She had high hopes of becoming a beautician and hairdresser and going on to college or technical school to develop her talent. Now, at age 45 she lives in an apartment in an assisted living center in Grand Junction, where she has lived for the last 23 years of her life. She endures the multitude of medications. She sits in her room, writes songs and sends them to famous country singers, like Toby Keith, hoping to hear her song on the radio someday. She walks downtown to the swimming pool and goes for a swim every once in a while during the hot summer days. She tries to live as normally as she can. About every night we get a call at our house around 6:00 every evening. On good nights she talks about her day and asks us how we are, and what we are going to do the next day. She talks about how she sent her song to some singer and sent something else to the White House. She tells me that I should go to Mesa State College and study to be a hairdresser. On bad nights, however, it is a totally different story. During one of her bad night conversations, she talks about off the wall things that none of my family can understand. She talks about how she thinks my sister can "call events" (tell the future) and how somebody told her that it was true. We try to tell her that my sister can't tell the future, but she doesn't believe us. She talks about how people just come into her apartment and harass her. She thinks that everything she sees is connected with some big plan or conspiracy against her. Often, she will be talking about one thing, and then giggle and just jump to something totally different. All the random changes in subjects and crazy ideas are typical to those who suffer from paranoid schizophrenia, a disorder that affects over 2 million Americans (Mayo Clinic, 1998). Often Leann hears voices and sees people who do not exist and that is how she gets all her ideas about her or others reading minds and telling the future.

Secretary: Law and Legal Secretaries

When people hear the word ‘Secretary' – I'm pretty sure they picture someone behind a desk typing. Yes, this is pretty accurate but a Secretary in whatever field is so much more (and one can indeed spend much time running between their desk and any multitude of places! ). I remember learning a spelling mnemonic of sorts at school that Secretaries keep the secrets. Now I realise it's perhaps more to do with the word's derivatives but it's stuck with me!Having finished a Legal Secretaries Level 3 Diploma course in which I have an overall grade of a Merit, I have found myself privy to these ‘secrets' and the opportunity I wanted: to expand and specialise my skills in an administrative field. It has given me a goal, having not taken the most direct job path. It can be difficult to find the right next step to take in your working life. Law is a fascinating arena, even more so ‘backstage'.It might at times seem to be a far cry from the drama of the court room but w ithout Legal Secretaries doing their part to make a difference with their input in the office, which affects the Solicitor who passes that effect onto the client, all aiming to reach the desired result, I'm not quite sure what would happen. Sometimes I think it takes an organiser, an administrator or a (Legal) Secretary to understand another – it takes one to know one.The day to day achievements can be small, but by getting a complex subject filed comprehensively, simply giving someone the assurance that their enquiry is being looked at correctly or preparing someone thoroughly for a meeting, you in turn ensure that the client is getting the best service possible (even though you may not be attending that meeting in person). These are things that I already do but in the sphere of law they become magnified – what starts as small, indirect input evolves into an integral part of the law process.That is quite something to be part of and I look forward to it. Within my rece ption role, I have had over 2 years of part-time work experience of dealing with clients and solicitors in an office environment. My role included answering the phone, getting personal details from callers and transferring to the appropriate member of staff. I learned to be patient, methodical and efficient. Flexibility is one of my strengths; I am also prepared to learn new skills. I have extensive experience of using computers.I have experience of Microsoft and Microsoft Excel in which I passed exams. I have used Word to produce documents such as letters, posters and minutes. I am able to prioritise my workload. Being flexible, I also have a positive attitude. This was particularly evident at The Broadcast Monitoring where I was able to concentrate all day even when working an early morning shift which began at 6. 30am. I also undertook nightshift to cover for staff on holiday. I work well under pressure. There were many deadlines throughout the day.This also involved good written and verbal communication skills which were required when report writing and dealing with colleagues. I have found that I am able to build up close working relationships with other members of staff; most recently at my time in Chipatiso Associates (I can appreciate client confidentiality). I am a good organiser and am able to work on my own initiative. I was efficient at delegating the department workload at the Solicitors firm. I have an editorial/press reader eye for detail. I am polite and reliable, trustworthy and conscientious.

Bank of America Company Profile

Bank of America is a global financial services company headquartered in Charlotte, NC. It is one of the world’s largest financial institutions. Bank of America serves over 53 million customers. They serve these customers through 5,500 retail banking offices. Bank of America is known as a leader in the online banking world. Online alone the company services 30 million active users. The company serves customers in all 50 states and more than 40 countries. The company has numerous different lines of business and employs over 260,000 people. (Bank of America 2012) Historical Perspective The entire banking industry is made of mergers and acquisitions. The history of Bank of America is no different. Bank of America’s earliest predecessor was called the Massachusetts Bank. Boston petitioners wanted the right to start a bank. They were armed with $300,000 in capital and had many supporters. 15 of the original shareholders were woman. Among the founders and first customers were names like; John Hancock, General Henry Knox, and Paul Revere. That branch opened for business on July 5th 1784. This happened before the US Constitution had even been adopted. John Hancock was the governor of Massachusetts. In 1784 he signed the banks charter making it only the second bank to receive a state charter. In 1786 Massachusetts Bank financed one of the earliest sailings of an American ship to china. This opened up the china trade. The bank continued to grow throughout America. Expanding to new states and changing names like Pacific National. It is believed that the Easton National Bank, one of the predecessors to Bank of America, was the first pay interest on deposits. Offering numerous financing to significant projects through history, one of the most notable is in 1815. After the fires that devastated the capital, the bank financed the reconstruction of the capital. Fast forward over a century to 1998. NationsBank merges with Bank of America. This move created the first coast-to-coast retail banking franchise. (Our Heritage, 2010) Bank of America continues to grow acquiring financial service companies like US Trust and Merrill Lynch. With a storied history in the financial services sector, and building of our country, Bank of America is the most fitting name. Lines of Business Bank of America focuses on 3 customers. They focus on the people, companies, and institutional investors. They are the leading provider of checking, savings, credit and debit cards, and home equity lending. Bank of America is the nation’s largest loan servicer offering numerous different home mortgage options. Bank of America is a strong hold in Global Corporate and Investment banking. The Bank also has a strong focus on financial advising and wealth management. The addition of Merrill Lynch has put Bank of America as the leader in Financial Services. Financial Position Bank of America, or BAC, is often one of the most popularly traded stocks. In April, the share price of BAC declined over 5% to $11. 63. (Oleinic, 2013) As interest rates start to bottom out, the bank must constantly adjust to keep revenue up. Currently the 52 week range of BAC is $6. 90 – $13. 99. Although it has a larger 52 week range, the company is still somewhat stable. It has achieved this by building a strong balance sheet. In 2012 Revenue in millions was reported at $84,235 while Net income was reported at $4,188. Compared to 2011 revenue dropped almost $10,000 however Net income increased from $1,446. As far as the shareholders are concerned, BAC has an EPS of $. 2. Overall the company is positioning itself to remain strong during the current downturn. (Bank of America 2012) Bank of America must constantly adhere to stricter policies from the SEC; while still maintain a positive image in the consumers mind. As the bank continues growth it must remain competitive against its 3 competitors; Citi, Wells Fargo, and Chase. Conclusion Bank of Amer ica plays a major role in the global market place. From its beginning in the late 1700’s, the bank has seen the value in financing international trade. Centuries later the same remains true. Any company as large as Bank of America will be influential in the Global market place. As mentioned above, with 260,000 employees, the company has certainly left a very deep foot print in the global economy. The unique thing with Bank of America in the global economy is the amount of other global businesses that depend on the stability of the company. It is a company that finances several other global companies. For this reason, I think Bank of America will be here for a long time. It has positioned itself to grow during an economic downturn. We will have to wait to see if it has been good growth.

Jazz Music essays

Jazz Music essays Jazz has been an influence in many artist's work, from painting to other forms of music. Jazz is an American music form that was developed from African-American work songs. The white man began to imitate them in the 1920's and the music form caught on and became very popular. Two artists that were influenced by jazz were Jean-Michel Basquiat and Stuart Davis. The influence is quite evident in many of their works, such as Horn Players, by Basquiat, and Swing Landscape, by Davis. Stuart Davis was born in Philadelphia in 1894. He grew up in an artistic environment, his father was art director of a Philadelphia newspaper, who had employed Luks, Glackens, and other members of the Eight. He studied with Robert Henri from 1910 to 1913, made covers and drawings for the social realist periodical The Masses, which was associated with the Ash-can School, and exhibited watercolors in the Armory Show, which made an overwhelming impact on him. After a visit to Paris in 1928 he introduced a new note into U.S. cubism, basing himself on its synthetic rather than its analytical phase. Using natural forms, particularly forms suggesting the characteristic environment of American life, he rearranged them into flat poster-like patterns with precise outlines and sharply contrasting colors. He later went on to pure abstract patterns, into which he often introduced lettering, suggestions of advertisements, and posters. The zest and dynamism of such works as Swing Landscape reflect his interest in jazz, which Davis considered to be the counterpart to abstract art. Davis is often considered to be the outstanding American artist to work in a cubism idiom. He made witty and original use of it and created a distinctive American style, for however abstract his works became he always claimed that every image he used had its source in observed reality. Davis once said " I paint what I see in America, in other words I paint the American scene." ...

The Role of Leadership Programs in Business

The Role of Leadership Programs in Business Leadership is an aspect that has drawn worldwide interest in the recent decades, especially to scholars and researchers. Generally, there is a direct relationship between leadership and organizational/Institutional performance and productivity. However, leadership is made significant by development of appropriate leadership programs that are geared towards achievement of organization’s set objectives as well as increasing its value.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Role of Leadership Programs in Business specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Programs are strategies of action that are laid down with the intention of integrating people who work in an institution, planning on the time for particular tasks as well as laying down a clear schedule for the achievement of a common interest. The leadership concept is central in every economic, social and political aspect of development in all areas of human interaction, thus, is key to all developmental processes. All leadership programs are in essence the most crucial in any organization regardless of its size, in defining and interpreting future directions that the management should put in place for the sake of objectives achievement. Moreover, effectiveness, behavior, and sustainability of an organization depend mainly on the type of leadership programs in operation (Rothwell and Kazanas, 1999). This paper will seek to investigate what leadership programs are, in relation to organizational behavior. Additionally, it aims at establishing the relationship that exists between leadership program and the purpose of an organization. Furthermore, with awareness that every strategy must have an effect within the organization of application, it is crucial to establish the significance of leadership in its field of application, specifically in organizations. Leadership program Programs entail a schedule of actions that are followed in order to accomplish a particular task. There are various forms of programs, among them being programs of leadership. These are mainly utilized in organizations to help define the organizational behavior, though most of them have not been able to provide a concise description of organizational behavior. In an institution, several types of leadership programs do exist, each with its particular mode of operation. First, there are training programs that are mainly set for training employees on rules and regulations as well as work schedules. Additionally, there are departmental programs that govern activities of each department within an institution, as well as defining the scope of the departmental operations. Moreover, other programs are for use outside the organization when discussing issues related to the organization’s clientele (Hsu, Bell and Cheng, 2011). Programs are normally accounted to the senior management within an organization, who spearhead implementation as well as monitoring their e ffectiveness in their areas of application. Effective programs are those that would ensure organizational sustainability as well as development. However, the effectiveness of programs is directly connected to employee satisfaction, commitment as well as the goals and strategies that the company has set.Advertising Looking for essay on business communication? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Effective change management within an organization is key to the effectiveness of the leadership programs that are put in place. Nevertheless, every organization/ institution, regardless of its size or location needs to have appropriate leadership programs in order to pave way for significant change and productivity (Hsu, Bell and Cheng, 2011). Leadership program and Organizational Purpose An organizational that is strategically set to gain success in its operations is always defined by a work setting that has appropriately establi shed leadership programs. Every organization at its inception usually has well defined objectives, which its management as well as all employees yearn to achieve in the course of time. This signifies the purpose of an organization, an aspect that is greatly influenced by leadership programs in operation. The importance of leadership programs in fulfilling the purpose of an organization entails setting a defined direction into which it will be managed. Moreover, it provides an insight for identification, establishment, and translation of social and economic processes that are deemed crucial in an organization’s achievement of purpose (Nelson and Campbell-Quick, 2008-2010). Organizational purpose is mainly driven by an institution’s vision, objectives, plans, desires, as well as the anticipated strategies that are aimed at developing the organization into achieving its objectives. Theories that have been put in place regarding leadership programs have directly tied the a ttainment and development of an organization or a societal set to effectiveness in leadership. More over, it is evident from the studies conducted on the organizational behavior that the construction of an institution’s direction and strategy lies in the hands of senior management within an organization, a factor that greatly influences performance and productivity. Thus, the organizational purpose is achievable when the leadership in place within any institution lays effective programs, spearheads the implementation of these programs, and leads the entire institution into the achievement of ultimate goals (Hannum, et al., 2007). Significance of leadership program Leadership programs play a very significant role within their areas of application. It is important to note that leadership has ever formed the basis of institutional management as well as the behavior of organizations. The fact that every organization must have leadership who steer every step of progress portrays t hat leadership is very crucial in every setting. First, leadership programs are instruments that define the direction into which every organized activity will follow.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Role of Leadership Programs in Business specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More More over, they are key in explaining the level of organizational sustainability as well as its value. They also play key roles in translating the objectives of every event that has to take place in an organizational set up as well as defining the mission and strategy for every organization. More critical about the programs, it is not easy to implement new strategies and ideas without leadership as well as a clearly defined program (Zaccaro and Klimoski, 1998). On the other hand, it is not always a simple task to come up with any leadership program fit for every organization. Effective leadership is crucial in determining the kind of program tha t should be put in place. In addition, a program of leadership that is desired is one that is able to pave way for a change within the organizations and at the same time define clear change management strategies to enhance successful operation. Thus, organizations with an appropriate leadership program should tend towards a positive side and not a negative one. The structure and culture of an organization is also highly influenced by the format of leadership as well as programs that define its direction. Majorly, the purpose of an organization and development are greatly influenced by the processes of organizational leadership that are in operation, for instance the level of employee commitment is very crucial in determining the organizational design. In addition, the relevance of non-routine influence in the entire life of an organization identifies the type of leadership program that thrives in the particular organization. At the same time, the characteristics and forces of a lead ership system form the basis of leadership programs, which ultimately binds the leadership of an organization inherently. Therefore, it is important for each organization to develop a program of leadership that would influence its value and sustainability positively (Rothwell and Kazanas, 1999). Conclusion Strategic development and management is a sensitive area within organizations, thus creating the need for leadership programs. It is certain that, since organizations have leaders who are involved in spearheading organizational activities, they must come up with a schedule of actions that will lead to its success. The same leadership programs are crucial in the management of small groups in their activities. Leadership programs are countless, since every institution has its own policies that govern it. However, earlier research studies and theories have shown the importance of such programs in every place, therefore, there is a need that they be applied (Zaccaro and Klimoski, 1998 ).Advertising Looking for essay on business communication? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Moreover, leadership programs have a great impact in defining the purpose of any organization in terms of direction, dynamics, strategies, as well as objectives. However, the aim of the paper was achieved since we were able to come up with a concise discussion concerning leadership programs. Nevertheless, intensive empirical and conceptual research should be conducted to reveal more on leadership programs. References Hannum, K. et al. (2007). The handbook of leadership development evaluation. Center for Creative Leadership. NY: John Wiley and Sons publishers. Hsu, C., Bell, R. and Cheng K. (2011). Transformational leadership and organizational effectiveness in Recreational Sports/Fitness Programs. Journal of Sport Management. America’s sports University press. Web. Nelson, D., Campbell-Quick, J. (2008-2010). Organizational Behavior. OH: South-Western College Publishers. Rothwell, W. and Kazanas, H. (1999). Building in-house leadership and management development programs: the ir creation, management, and continuous improvement. CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Zaccaro, S. and Klimoski, R. (1998). The Nature of Organizational Leadership. Web.

Christian Ethics - Smart Custom Writing Samples

Christian Ethics - Smart Custom Writing King Henry the FifthHenry’s early life Henry a son of Henry of Bolingbroke† Henry IV† and marry de bohun was born on either 9 august or 16 September 1387. His father was in exile when Richard II took him and treated him with care and kindness. As per the requirement of the treaty of Troyes, Henry married Catherine who was King Charles IV daughter in 1420. Henry became an outstanding soldier when he was young. As early as fourteen, Henry fought the Welsh forces of Owen ap Glendower. He was a commander by the age of sixteen commanding his father’s forces during the battle of Shrewsbury. Shortly after accession to power he brought down a major Lollard uprising and a plotted assassination by nobles who were still royal to Richard II. His proposal to mary Catherine came in 1415 and demanded Plantagenet lands of Normandy and Anjou as part of his dowry. When Catherine’s father refused this proposal Henry declared war which gave birth to another chapter of the ongoing hundred wars. Henry had two missions in his war with French: to conquer land that was lost in the previous battles and to divert attentions away from all his cousins’ loyal ambitions. Henry was very tactful in fighting and by the time he was winning the battle of Agincourt, he had already conquered many towns such as â€Å"Normandy, Picardy and much of the Capetian stronghold of the Ile-de-France†. Due to his defeat which forced a way for the treaty of Troyes in 1420, Charles not only accepted Henry as his son in law but also named him as an heir of France instead of his own son. If only Henry lived two months more he would have been crowned the king of two nations. Due to his hard living as a soldier, Henry prematurely became aged. He became ill and when returning home from another campaign in France he died. He only had one son which Catherine had bore him when he was still away and he died before seeing him. He is praised in many books and plays. Rafael Holinshed a historian termed him as a king of li fe without spot who was loved by all men and women. Who was never passed by an opportunity or chance and whom all his followers obeyed without questioning, (King Henry V 2010). Achievements of King Henry the fifthHenry only died at the peak of his achievements a few months after the death of France king Charles VI and his crowning as a king. He had shown a comprehensive management of the nation through hard work. Henry ruled with a detailed channel of council which helped him improve nationally and internationally. Henry showed a personality which motivated soldiers, balanced justice forgiveness reward and punishment which united the nation and provided a ground for his success and forward movement.   In his era he proved himself as a greatest commander and a planner who would keep his army fighting abroad for three years. Henry benefited greatly from the civil wars which in turn gave way to the signing of treaty of Troyes. This treaty gave him a wife and brought the battle into an end. Henry according to many writers fulfilled every criteria demanded of a good king, (about 1995). Henry V was one of the greatest English warrior kings of the Middle Ages who led England in the early decades of the 15th and conquered what his ancestors had tried for years. He succeeded in uniting thrones of England and France into one. In England when in power, Henry unified the kingdom which was still suffering from civil wars â€Å"the wars of the roses†. He promoted the use of English language in government and became the first king to use the language in his personal correspondence since the Norman conquest of 1006. In an English decisive victory of the Agincourt battle in 1415, King Henry the fifth was the commander of the English forces. For all the hundred years’ wars, this was a crucial one for the England. Henry successfully won the victory over the France following the treaty of Troyes of 1420. At this time France was led by king Charles VI  Ã‚   â€Å"the mad†. The treaty signed stipulated Henry as regent over Charles and heir to the French thron e. To secure his French throne, Henry married Katherine of Valois a daughter of Charles. In Shakespeare play â€Å"Henry the fifth†, Henry is glorified although he was an utterly ruthless man who had no tinge of compassion.Henry began to take a great share of politics in 1408 after his father’s illness. With the help of his uncles, Henry and Thomas the two sons of John of Gaunt he took practical control over the government. By this time he was still a prince but because of his foreign and domestic policies which differed from those of his father, he was discharged from the council by his father. His father, Henry IV died on 20 March 1413 and on the next day Henry V succeeded him and on 9th April, he was crowned the king at Westminster Abbey. During the ceremony, a terrible snow storm happened which confused the common people as to whether it was a bad or a good omen. This man built a wider domestic policy after consolidating all his domestic policies. He made it clear from the beginning that he would rule England as a united nation head. He let the earlier memories be forgotten by honourably reinterring Richard II and took the young Mortimer in his favour. He also took the heirs of those who had suffered in his father’s reign and restored them by giving back their tittles and their estates. To make his position as a ruler secure, he executed Henry’s old friend Sir John Oldcastle. He did this to â€Å"nip the movement in the bud†.After securing his domestic policies, he turned into foreign affairs. He was encouraged by ecclesiastical statesman to involve himself with French war so as he could divert his home problems. Emperor Sigimind however requested Henry to modify his demand against France and made it possible when Henry signed the treaty of Canterbury. Henry may have regarded the assertion of his own claims as part of his royal duty, but in any case, a permanent settlement of the national debate was essential to the succe ss of his foreign policy. Henry with the help of his force captured Harfleur in France on 22 September in 1415. After this, he marched with his forces across the French countryside towards calques ignoring the warnings of his council.   On his route he was intercepted by French army on 25th October 1415. Despite the army being so tired and outnumbered they overcame the French, deafened them and left them with severe losses. It is believed that French soldiers were bogged in the muddy battlefield, left out and rained on by heavy rain. This had negative impacts as it gave the English a way forward. They were hindered from going on many of them hacked to death as they stuck in the mud. This victory is viewed as Henry’s greatest ranking. However, Henry made a decision that tarnished his good reputation during the battle. His order that French prisoners be killed including most that were used as ransom tarnished his good name. It is argued that Henry thought that the prisoners would turn on to their captors when his soldiers were out there repelling a third wave of French troops. The victory of Agincourt is argued that it was a first step in the campaign to recover the possens of the French which initially belonged to them, (shakespear 2008). Henry’s command of the see was secured by driving the Genoese whom were close allies of the French out of his channel. Henry was busy on the ongoing peace negotiations in 1416. French and Genoese took advantage of this and invaded the harbor at English- garrisoned Harfleur. A French army also invaded the city. This made Henry to send his brother â€Å"John of Lancaster, the Duke of Bedford† on 14 august to raise a fleet and set sail from Beach. After a seven hour fight which followed the following day, the French-Genoese soldiers were defeated relieving Harfleur. Use of diplomacy by emperor Sigimund from France paved way to end the schism in church. So, with those two potential enemies gone, and after two years of patient preparation following Agincourt, Henry renewed the war on a larger scale in 1417. Lower Normandy was quickly conquered, and Rouen cut off from Paris and besieged. This siege raised a darker shadow on the reputation of the king than his order to slay th e French prisoners at Agincourt. Rouen, starving and unable to support the women and children of the town forced them out through the gates believing that Henry would allow them to pass through his army unmolested. Henry refused to allow this and the expelled women and children died of starvation in the ditches surrounding the town. The French were paralyzed by the disputes between Burgundians and Armagnacs. Henry skillfully played them off one against the other, without relaxing his warlike approach. In January 1419, Rouen fell. Those Norman French who had resisted were severely punished: Alan Blanchard, who had hanged English prisoners from the walls of Rouen, was summarily executed; Robert de Livet, Canon of Rouen, who had excommunicated the English king, was packed off to England and imprisoned for five years, (Ian 2009). Henry’s Victory As spoken in Shakespeare’s play, English were proud in the memory of the war that they won, that is, the Battle of Agincourt and connected this day with a holy day. This helped them to reinforce their fortunes during this historic war. It was a clash that portrayed divine intervention Henry’s force defeated the French in four times in a row. The hundred year’s war is ranked with the Amanda and the battle of Britain as one of the finest hours. Henry’s force was a threat to the French army than simple numbers would suggest. Following these circumstances the Britons had to win this battle. The battle was fought intermittently from 1337 and 1453 and is connected to the Plantagenet kings' although the French connected it to Edward II's marriage to Isabella, daughter of France's King Philip IV. When Henry got to power, he pressed on this claim through his Army. He conquered much of the France and went ahead to marrying the then kingâ€℠¢s daughter. The most decisive battle as discussed earlier was the one at Agincourt which was catalyzed by the French army who tried to block Henry’s advance. The morning of 25th October 1415 dawned wet and cold following a heavy rain the previous night. Both troops were in a terrible condition. The Britons had moved 270 miles moving in an average of 20 miles a day and had almost captured the Harfleur. Following the heavy rains throughout the month of March many of the troops were suffering from dysentery and also their food was running out. The French on the other hand were trying to cope with the situations though they could not make as good as the English did. The French troops hadn’t had enough sleep as they tried to keep their arms in dry and clean condition. The group started to misbehave and by 11.00 it was disorganized. The French were so confidence and sure that they would win over the small English troop. However poor management and leadership was an advantag e to the English and when all was not well for them they avoided their responsibilities other than restoring it. Henry was too bright to notice their problem and used it as a weapon taking it upon him and moving so fast. He ordered his troop to fire against the French causing chaos and disrupting them. By contrast, Henry's small army could easily deploy, allowing it to fight at full strength. And Henry had the perfect weapon to use against thickly massed enemy soldiersone that more than made up for his numerical disadvantage. Agincourt became famous as the greatest victory of British archers. 600 hundred years before this battle, the Welsh had introduced the longbow but this weapon had wrongly been misused and neglected. Before this battle, most of the fighters held their bows horizontally as they drew their arrows back to the waist. However Henry ordered his men to hold their bows vertically and draw the arrows back to the ears. It took the French by surprise as the English could shoot nine arrows per minute and hit targets at 400 yards. As the archers kept the French ranks away, Henry had time to neutralize the French powerful weapon, cavalry. English planned their weapons well having planted into the ground at an angle, wooden stakes which kept French soldiers off allowing the English troops to do their work unobstructed.   By noon the French army stood in despair as they lost to the English. Within a single hour the French had lost almost half of its troop while the English only suffered 500 casualties. Following good plans and natural factors, Henry won the battle. Even though the French were more in number to Henry this didn’t matter as he had strategies. With the French defeated, Henry moved on to dominate in France. Leadership of HenryHenry king of England made many decisions during his time which show that he is a good leader. He first decided that he had right of ruling in France and would control the land through invading it. After several wars, his troop suffered from injuries’ and lack of morale in fighting but like any other good leader, he continued encouraging them to fight giving them reasons as to why they should continue fighting. In the above discussed battle the English who were outnumbered five times by the French went ahead to win the battle .this was accomplished through his determination and inspiration. His soldiers had to fight in his reign whether willing or not. As a good manager, Henry new that his soldiers would fight well when they were forced other than when they had good reasons. With the perception connected to the king, Henry made it straight that they had to obey him. He used this as a key strategy in making them fight. He therefore managed his soldiers arguin g that his primary objective was the same as theirs as well as for the entire kingdom. To ensure his soldiers loyalty, Henry went in midst of them in disguise to evaluate what they were thinking. He could always put his men’s effort in the same level as his. This aspect motivated the entire force by encouraging them as they compared themselves with the king. Together with his followers he refused defeat and surrender. At the same time Henry ensured that French people were not harassed by his men and injustice from the military were not entertained. He also acted firmly on those who refused to follow his orders. Henry is seen as a leader who had mercy on French people. To him, he was not seeking to conquer France as an outsider but as a rightful king who should be leading the country as he had roots from France. By treating the French fairly even when his men were had not done things right was to show that he would rule the two nations with justice. His good will made him clai m his throne and maintain his reign.   As he died Henry’s last words were wish to rebuild Jerusalem. He is considered as a national king and a hero. His schemes however are seen as if they ended in a failure he died before accomplishing them. He had a constructive idea of a firm central government which would be supported by parliament. He also wanted reforms on the church based on conservative lines, commercial development and the continuation of the national reputation. If only he lived, Henry would have accomplished his aims on medieval lines. His personality was a key value to his success.   Henry could train leaders but at the time of his death, it is believed that nobody could have taken his position as a leader. His guidance led to success of wars, diplomacy and civil administration. It would be right to argue that if Henry was not the main founder of the Britain army, then he is the first to realize its role. If he was not the founder of the English navy he was one of the first to realize its true imp ortance.Henry required everyone below his power to obey him. It is said that he was merciless to anybody who was merciless to him. As a prince, Henry was opposed to harsh policy of Archbishop Arundel although when he was a king he was moderate although was still charged with cruelty as a religious persecutor. Lollard executions which happened when he was in power are more considered as political other than religious. In his personal conduct he was uncorrupted, moderate and genuinely moral. Henry had a good taste of culture, that is, music and art and also participated in games and exercises. Henry was buried in Westminster Abbey, (Shakespear 2008). ConclusionHenry V was one of the gifted men in the world who had a personality that built a self belief and ability to achieve. He is believed to be one of successful army commanders who acted with a sense of right unlike the current politicians. However his ambitions took him to another level of treaties making him forget his ability to achieve such as uniting the nations neighbouring him, initiating harmony and peace between crown and the parliament. Henry left a legacy which cannot be compared to political or military. Within forty years after Henry’s death, Valois re- conquered France and resumed the throne. While England collapsed into civil wars again as Lancastrian line lost their other crown.   Henry is indeed a legend one which the later generations were taught and tried to emu rate. One of the great of all is making Vernacular English into the parliament, (Barker 2020).    Bibliography About.com. â€Å"Medieval History.† historymedren.about.com. 14 may 1995. Barker, Juliet. Conquest: The English Kingdom of France in the Hundred Years War . London: Abacus , 2009. Ian, Mortimer. 1415: Henry V's Year of Glory. London: Bodley Head , 2009. â€Å"King Henry V.† britroyals.com. 19 march 2010. Shakespear, William. Henry V (Oxford World's Classics; the Oxford Shakespeare). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Shakespear, William. Henry V: The Life of King Henry the Fift. New Jersey: Forgotten Books , 2008.

Literary Forms in the Book of Job and Ecclesiastes Essay

Literary Forms in the Book of Job and Ecclesiastes - Essay Example The book of Job has numerous frames narrative that arises from the shifts in voice, perspective, language, and scene. The most outstanding of all is the frame narrator who tells the story of Job from the perspective of God’s eye. This is done through the prefacing of the book in Job 1:1 – 2:12, the introduction of most speeches in Job 3 – 42, and giving the conclusion in Job 42 from verse 7 to 17. The perspective of the omniscient narrator is written in prose form, and it stands together with a set of human speeches in Job chapter 3 to 42. It is also written in poetry, and it develops a sense of paradoxical juxtaposition between the human and divine views of Job’s sufferings. The differing sides of Job found on the two sections of the frame (reverent and silent) and the sporadic reaction in the poetic body emphasize the juxtaposition (Enns and Longman 242). The book of Job relies heavily on lament. This literary genre is expressed in the two plays of Job i n chapter 3, 29, 30, and 31. It is important to note that lament is an important characteristic of the Joban arguments. The formal characteristics of lament normally comprise an invocation, questions of reproach, a condemnation of enemies, an affirmation of confidence, assertion of innocence, a vow, hymnist blessings, and praise, recognition of divine response, a petition for help and a description, or complaint of suffering. Lamentations made by Job resemble the accusatory laments made in chapter 10, 13, and 23 of the book of Job (Perdue 94). The lamentations are even more clamorous in criticizing God for the unjust maltreatment of an innocent and just person. In addition, from the lamentation made by Job, there are no prospects for future redemption but only the ultimate outcome of eternal death. The political role of lamentations in that period was to merge the nation as one people who relied on the divine salvation through the monarchy. Lamentations also created an outlet throug h which defeat and difficulties disappointments would be expressed. However, lamentations by Job are generally accusations against God’s justice and an attempt to bring down the conceptual model of the temple’s function in effecting divine redemption. With the denial of God’s justice, this priestly spirituality collapsed (Perdue 95). In the book of Job, dialogue is the most important literary form, and in this case, it is an argument resulting to a heated debate. Job’s passionate attack on his opponents entails ridicule and show of direct allegations of fear and foolish reliance on a disproven hermeneutic of vengeance. Job blames them of senselessly defending the justice of God who abuses the righteous and his creation. The opponents refuse to give in to Job’s accusations and argue that Job must have done something bad that resulted to his suffering. From their arguments, it is very clear that the victim (Job) deserves whatever suffering he is goin g through (Perdue 95). The book of Job expresses a bold stroke in attaining the support of a significant number of exiles, that is, the manner in which we would be ready for a new sociopolitical certainty to come into existence. The book was not just based on theological debate or a theoretical explanation of the issues of innocent

Beslan incident and the evaluation of the consequences Essay

Beslan incident and the evaluation of the consequences - Essay Example When Gorbachev dissolved the communist party and formed the Common Wealth of Independent States (CIS) this gave most of the Soviet Socialists states their independence but the economical relationship still existed. Russia’s economy was in a state of total disarray in the mid 90’s and the economy almost collapsed in the 1997 when the Russian government had to stop the trading of the rubble on the international market, when the September 11 attacks took place, the United States of America retaliated with attacking Afghanistan and this caused major changes in the world, the oil rich countries received a shock and as if Afghanistan wasn’t enough the USA followed it up by attacking Iraq and hence the oil prices rocketed sky high and this is what helped Russia the most because its economy started recuperating on the back of rising oiling prices. This was a major point because Russia is now able to repay debts before time and has since been able to throw around its weig ht on the political scenario that is quickly developing and evolving into a multi polar stage rather than being just uni-polar with Britain and Russia being the countries that have been able to voice their concerns and also do something to follow up with those voices. In 1994 the first Chechen war was fought and due to a lack of planning from the Russian military they had to face a lot of casualties and were demoralized very early into the war, it last 2 years and after that a peace treaty was signed. This treaty was not able to guarantee any peace and the second Chechen war started in 1999 with Russia showing its might and bombarding the area using its air force, followed up by a ground attack and hence they were successful this time around in capturing Chechnya. In February of 2000 the Russians were finally able to capture Groznyy but the fighters of different militant groups vowed to keep up the resistance till death or freedom and

Behavioural finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Behavioural finance - Essay Example Incurring of additional risk helps attain high rates of return. There has been a proposal relating to the utility maxim and the general solution for the portfolio selection problem (Von Neumann and Morgenstern, 2007). The process of making an investment choice includes; choosing a unique optimum combination of risky assets and separate choice regarding to the allocation of funds. To obtain a maximum resulting satisfaction, there is combination and application of certain wants and commodities. The weakness of this model is it’s cumbersome to separate the purely technical from the ones in the conceptual nature. According to Mr. Jack Treynor, the total utility function can be given by U = f (E, a) illustrating the meters of distribution and the expected value and the standard deviation, where E indicates the future wealth and a shows the standard deviation under prediction (Markowitz, Miller & Sharpe, 1991). There is the preference of a high expected future wealth to a value which is low; this is known as ceteris paribus illustrated as (dU/dEw > 0). This leads to an upward slope as seen in the earlier graph of risk against the expected rate of return. For a simpler analysis, there is an assumption that an investor decides to commit an amount (W) of their wealth to investment. By letting R be the rate of return and W as the terminal wealth, then; R= (Wt- Wi)/Wi. The mean-variance under certain conditions leads to unsatisfactory predictions of behaviour. A model based on semi-variance is preferable basing on standard deviation and variance (Markowitz, Miller & Sharpe, 1991). There is an assumption that the curves can diminish marginal rates of substitution between E and ÃŽ ±, from the earlier equations. There is a derivation of indifference curves from the assumption that the investor wishes to maximise the expected utility and thus,

Case Study Questions on Kimpton Hotels Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Questions on Kimpton Hotels - Case Study Example Each is individually designed to reflect the energy, personality, and pulse of its distinct location, history, and architectural style. Featuring highly personalized guest services, comforting in-room amenities, and one-of-a-kind specialty rooms and suites, Kimpton Hotels attract travelers with welcoming atmospheres that embrace its signature elements of care, comfort, style, flavor, and fun. Kimpton takes pride in its social responsibility, supporting select like-minded partners and is a leader in ecological practices. Kimpton Hotel serves their customer through their fundamental elements of Care. They try to ensure that this attitude of caring is reflected in each and every staff member to bring about a lasting and satisfying relationship with every customer. Service and caring-it's an attitude. They are very careful about the customer needs and their services. Comfort: The Kimpton offers the customer through the plush, cozy spaces with luxurious amenities for our guests to relax and rejuvenate. In trying to anticipate the customer's needs, wants or preferences, their intention is to see that guests are made to feels at home. Style: The Kimpton Group ensures that each of their locations are unique combining elegance with the whimsical. They design their hotels with the help of top quality designers and architects. They usually purchase existing property and modify it according to their needs rather than build entirely new building. Flavor: Imaginative and fun restaurants and lounges, which feature highly capable chefs that are favored by both locals and travelers. Fun: Fun and enjoyment is a favored theme and necessary activities are made available to see that customers... a. Business Philosophy and it adherence: An organization’s business philosophy can comprise of four components namely Vision, Mission, Culture and Values. This hotel group has a well defined business philosophy covering all the four components mentioned above. It vision is based on personal growth of its employees coupled with organizational growth. Its mission is equally praiseworthy and it is to getting new customers and keeping them for life. The same philosophy holds good for their employees as well. Culture is based on creating as atmosphere self leadership, creativity, performance and development. Values are based on creativity, passion, personality, focus and a system of continuous improvement. Even though many organizations have similar business philosophies, the hotel group has the ability to adhere to it. b. Treating guests as individuals: The Company takes great efforts to individually recognize and threat guests. They also have the software called Guestware to identify any guests who have once checked in before. c. Creating an ambience that is comfortable as well as fun. d. Unique architecture that is both whimsical and artistic. This is further made possible by the practice of purchasing existing buildings for their new hotels which enables them to have unique architectural styles for all their properties. e. Cost savings by following the above practice. f. Smaller number of rooms enables staff to extend more personalized service. g. A highly creative workforce on all their properties.

Is it possible for employees to be provided with an effective voice Essay

Is it possible for employees to be provided with an effective voice within an organisation pursuing unitary Human Resource Management policies and practices - Essay Example ice can also refer to the two-way communication between the employers and employees which if managed properly can reduce both exit costs and transaction costs for both the parties involved. Thus, in the modern day scenario, employee voice has emerged as a type of contractual mechanism of governance which causes mutual benefits for the employer and employee groups. This report deals with the analysis of the prospect that whether the use of unitary human resource management practices and policies within an organization can support the propagation of the voice of the employees of the organization. The discussion includes a formal definition of the term employee voice and the analysis of the different ways and mechanisms of propagating the voice of the employees in an organizational setting. The various formal and informal mechanisms of promoting employee voice are studied and analyzed with respect to the unitary method of human resource management. The overview of the unitary methods of human resource management is discussed along with the advantages and shortcomings of the unitary HRM approach as compared to the pluralist HRM approach. Also, the importance of employee voice in contemporary business organizations, the tradeoffs between democracy and control, and the various internal and external factors affecting the voice of employees in a comp any as well as the government approaches related to employee voice in different countries are studied and analyzed. The relation between employee involvement and employee participation and organizational growth and success is also touched upon in the report. For a suitable analysis, comparisons are drawn between the unitary and the pluralist human resource management approaches by analyzing the benefits and drawbacks of both the approaches. The report is suitably concluded by inferring whether the unitary perspective of human resource management is applicable in the contemporary organization with respect to employee relations

Case Study Questions on Kimpton Hotels Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Questions on Kimpton Hotels - Case Study Example Each is individually designed to reflect the energy, personality, and pulse of its distinct location, history, and architectural style. Featuring highly personalized guest services, comforting in-room amenities, and one-of-a-kind specialty rooms and suites, Kimpton Hotels attract travelers with welcoming atmospheres that embrace its signature elements of care, comfort, style, flavor, and fun. Kimpton takes pride in its social responsibility, supporting select like-minded partners and is a leader in ecological practices. Kimpton Hotel serves their customer through their fundamental elements of Care. They try to ensure that this attitude of caring is reflected in each and every staff member to bring about a lasting and satisfying relationship with every customer. Service and caring-it's an attitude. They are very careful about the customer needs and their services. Comfort: The Kimpton offers the customer through the plush, cozy spaces with luxurious amenities for our guests to relax and rejuvenate. In trying to anticipate the customer's needs, wants or preferences, their intention is to see that guests are made to feels at home. Style: The Kimpton Group ensures that each of their locations are unique combining elegance with the whimsical. They design their hotels with the help of top quality designers and architects. They usually purchase existing property and modify it according to their needs rather than build entirely new building. Flavor: Imaginative and fun restaurants and lounges, which feature highly capable chefs that are favored by both locals and travelers. Fun: Fun and enjoyment is a favored theme and necessary activities are made available to see that customers... a. Business Philosophy and it adherence: An organization’s business philosophy can comprise of four components namely Vision, Mission, Culture and Values. This hotel group has a well defined business philosophy covering all the four components mentioned above. It vision is based on personal growth of its employees coupled with organizational growth. Its mission is equally praiseworthy and it is to getting new customers and keeping them for life. The same philosophy holds good for their employees as well. Culture is based on creating as atmosphere self leadership, creativity, performance and development. Values are based on creativity, passion, personality, focus and a system of continuous improvement. Even though many organizations have similar business philosophies, the hotel group has the ability to adhere to it. b. Treating guests as individuals: The Company takes great efforts to individually recognize and threat guests. They also have the software called Guestware to identify any guests who have once checked in before. c. Creating an ambience that is comfortable as well as fun. d. Unique architecture that is both whimsical and artistic. This is further made possible by the practice of purchasing existing buildings for their new hotels which enables them to have unique architectural styles for all their properties. e. Cost savings by following the above practice. f. Smaller number of rooms enables staff to extend more personalized service. g. A highly creative workforce on all their properties.

Gathering Resources Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Gathering Resources - Assignment Example According to Ungar (2011), there are seven main categories of resources that after examining status of their clients, counselors can employ in a counseling session. The seven resources include power and control, social justice, cohesion, cultural adherence, identity, relationships and access to material resources. In the case of Robinson family encompassing a mother, 14 years old boy, 11 years old girl and 3 months old infant that is victim to domestic violence, the most basic resources are access to material resources and relationships. According to Ungar (2011), material resources fundamental in counseling include financial, educational resources, employment opportunities, access to food, shelter, clothing and medical services. In the case of the Robinson family including a mother, a 14 years old boy, 11 years old girl and 3 months old infant not all the material resources will be necessary and urgent. The most important material resources for the family include shelter, financial and educational resources, medical resources, and food and clothing resources. Employment opportunities will still be irrelevant to the family at least during the early periods of counseling. Assuming that the whole family is healthy from any pathological infection or physical injury, the most important resource for all will be food. Food will have to precede all other resources so to energize the family and enable them survive during search for shelter and clothing that will have to follow immediately. Shelter and clothing will help in providing warmth to the bodies of the family as well as creating comfort while waiting for the next actions. In case that the abuse resulted to physical injuries or that one of the members contracted pathological disease, medical resources would accompany food. The nature of priority here is to rescue life and enhance safety of

Facebook Case Essay Example for Free

Facebook Case Essay It has been almost one year since Mark Zuckerberg decided to take his social media site public. Created on the dream of making the world more open and connected, Mark has devoted the past ten years to making that dream come true. Starting while still in college with a product called Facemash, Mark saw the potential for connecting people through the internet. He has devoted his entire adult life to Facebook which took six years to become profitable. Facebook quickly overtook competitors such as MySpace and became the social square of a global village. The user numbers grew exponentially and soon outnumbered the populations of many countries. The resulting global village was seen as ripe for advertising, profiteering, and soap-boxing. Through the growth, Mark was able to maintain and spread a sense of information democracy. All voices and opinions had equal pull and could reach audiences previously inaccessible. Formerly repressed people had an accessible outlet to outsiders. The simultaneous development of the smartphone industry provided portable and affordable platforms for Facebook everywhere. But what is all of this social capital worth? In 2011 an investor purchased a 1% stake in Facebook for $500 Million, which set Facebook’s net worth at $50 Billion. A year later when deciding to take the company public, Facebook negotiated an IPO price of $38 per share for a total company value of $104 Billion dollars. Many were skeptical that a social media company with few physical assets and no physical products was actually worth over $100 Billion. In fact, Facebook’s IPO was the highest initial value of any newly offered company. Mark himself was uneasy and not openly supportive of the jump to IPO. It was not a strategic business decision but rather a necessity based on the SEC’s rules (Facebook, Inc, 2013). Investors and users alike wondered how Facebook would maintain its dominance in the future, and ensure increasing shareholder wealth. Speculation ran wild that Facebook would begin to charge for its traditionally free service. Mark Zuckerberg had to do massive media campaigns on his own platform to regain control of Facebook’s image. The investors were right to be concerned. Facebook (FB) stock lost 35% ercent of its value in the first 10 days of public trade, and to date has not recovered to the initial stock price of $38 per share. Zuckerberg has a history of leaving investors hanging, and even stood up many investors for an entire day in Boston (Gandel, 2012). Mark has more pressure than ever to develop new revenue streams through his Facebook platform to appease shareholders without push ing users away to the ever growing number of competitor social media sites. Mark has stated multiple times that profits are not his primary goal. Now he has to make shareholders happy. Company amp; Management: Facebook headquarters is located in Menlo Park, California. Located in the heart of the US tech world, they are well positioned to attract top talent and stay abreast of all industry occurrences and trends. They have about 10 offices within the United States and more than 20 offices worldwide. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 and post IPO is Chairman, CEO, and owns 57% of shareholder voting power. Sheryl Sandberg is Chief Operating Officer of the company. Sheryl serves on more than four boards including ONE and the Walt Disney Company. She was formerly the Chief of Staff for the United States Department of the Treasury under the Clinton Administration. She also worked previously as economist for the World Bank. Her responsibilities for Facebook vary from marketing and business development to legalities and human resources for the company (Facebook3, 2013). Facebook’s Chief Financial Officer is David Ebersman. He came from working at Genentech as their Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President. Rounding off the management team, the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering is Mike Schroepfer (Facebook2, 2013). He comes from Mozilla, where he served as Vice President of Engineering and was instrumental in the development of the Firefox software. The board of directors for Facebook is responsible for the interests of the shareholders and oversees the management of the company. The purpose of management and the board of directors is to fulfill Facebook’s mission of making the world more open and connected. These responsibilities can be at odds with one another. Mark has stated publicly and paraphrased in the 2013 SEC filing that profits are not the main goal, and that he will steer the company owards long term innovation over short term gains. Facebook’s board is comprised of nine members. Two of these nine members are from within Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sheryl Sandberg. The remaining seven board members are employed at various organizations across the country. Marc Andreessen, Co-founder, and General Partner of Andreessen Horowitz (board member since June 2008) Jim Breye r, Partner at Accel Partners and one of Facebook’s first major investors (board member since April 2005) Susan Desmond-Hellmann, Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) (board member since March 2013) Donald E. Graham, Chairman, and CEO of The Washington Post Company (board member since March 2009) Reed Hastings, Chairman, and CEO of Netflix (board member since June 2011) Erskine Bowles, President Emeritus at The University of North Carolina (board member since September 2011) Peter Thiel, Partner at the Founders Fund (board member since April 2005). Original Facebook investor and founder of PayPal (Facebook3, 2013). Facebook grew from 3200 employees in December 2011 to 4619 employees in December 2012. These employees are distributed across the approximately 30 worksites. The Facebook tagline for employees is â€Å"we don’t have rules, we have values† (Facebook6, 2013). The company has a variety of job areas; such as technical staff, sales and marketing, general, and administrative personnel, software engineers, and product designers (Facebook, Inc, 2013). Between 2011 and 2012 there was a 73% growth in engineering, design, and product management hiring; while at the same time there was a 19% increase employees supporting global sales, business development, and customer service jobs. History of Facebook: Facebook began as Facemash in 2003. Facemash was a social rating system for Mark’s Harvard classmates. Members were able to look at two peoples photos and rate them either ‘hot’ or ‘not’. However, the photos were not obtained consensually and the site was shut down. Though short lived, Facemash provided insight that people really enjoyed using the internet to look at photos of friends. In early 2004, Thefacebook. com was launched with a mission to connect people across the university. Three hundred university students were invited to use the site, and within twenty-four hours, more than 1,200 had signed up. This exponential growth drew the attention of other IT inventors and entrepreneurs. By June 2004, Sean Parker co-founder of Napster, and Peter Thiel founder of PayPal had joined forces with Facebook. At year end, Facebook had reached 1 million users. Facebook user growth focused exclusively on college campuses (Zeevi, 2013). In 2005, Accel partners invested $12. 7 million while user-ship continued to expand globally amongst students. Prior to September 2006, Facebook only allowed students and certain company employees (including Apple and Microsoft) to sign up. On September 26, 2006, Facebook became open to anyone over the age of 13 that had an email address. This not only allowed for an explosion of growth but the development of business pages and a new form of advertisement. The growth continued steadily and in September of 2009 Facebook finally became cash flow positive (Zeevi, 2013). By 2011 Facebook was completely mainstream and an important focus for business owners and marketers. The same year they partnered with Skype to allow video chat, and continued updating the look and functionality of the site. Facebook acquired mobile photo-editing company Instagram prior to their IPO in May 2012. Facebook’s move from private to public was not a strategic business decision but mandatory by the Security and Exchange Commission law. Since going public Facebook has tested and launched several new revenue generating service streams, cognizant of shareholder expectations. Currently the site hosts 50 million pages, 10 million applications, and 300+ million photos (Facebook8, 2013). Facebook Products and Services: Facebook has three main customer groups: users, software developers, and marketers. It has developed certain products and services to create value for each group and maximize their interconnectivity. Facebook has also been careful that the products for certain customers, namely developers, do not cannibalize on business from other customer groups. One of Facebook’s fears is that its developer friendly platforms will allow users to view the same content on third party sites. The delivery method for Facebook’s products and services is via the internet over any computer, laptop, or tablet. Recently Facebook has been focusing on expanding their mobile availability. Most smartphone platforms in the US have access to the Facebook application. Products for users include personal or business pages, events, groups, photo and video sharing, messaging, graph search, and news feeds. Pages allow companies, organizations, groups, or individuals to be visible within the Facebook community with a unique profile. Users have control over the information they share and who they share it with. Many businesses have pages in hopes of gaining an outside interest and understanding their customers. Updates to pages are posted in the newsfeed of a person who has â€Å"liked† that page. An algorithm determines whom the user interacts the most with and makes those updates more easily accessible. A new feature is the ability to mark a user as an acquaintance rather than a friend. This has given users more control over their privacy. The events product allows a user to organize a group meeting or gathering, send virtual invitations, and track respondents. It also creates a forum for discussion so any question asked, for example â€Å"What is dress code? † is visible to all other members, streamlining event planning work. Groups combine a set of people into one space within Facebook to streamline communication within the members and only for those members. Groups can be fan pages, memorial areas, or family members. Facebook also has video and photo sharing options. Similar to Snapfish or Flickr, a person can upload albums of photos and/or video within Facebook for sharing amongst friends and family. This allows people to be â€Å"tagged† within photos, which in turn link the photo to the specified person’s profile page. In August 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram, a photo editing site, which has enhanced their photo service offerings. As of January 2013, Instagram had 90 million frequent users, and it is easily integrated with mobile devices. The Facebook mobile application enables users to link messaging via text, email, and chat so that the messages stay as one continuous conversation. Timeline, a recent improvement, allows users to show their profile based on dates that are most important to them. It allows control over specific sections of the timeline, limiting viewers to enhance privacy. Newsfeed is a consistently updated and ongoing list of connections, likes, pages, etc. that others are able to comment on or like and that is available as the center focus of the service page. This list is personalized to the interests of the owner of the newsfeed algorithmically. Finally, Facebook offers graph search, which allows one to search using small phrases in order to in order to find people, friends, photos, etc. throughout the Facebook realm. In 2012, Facebook updated their iPad, mobile, iPhone, and Android applications to update speed and ensure a consistent experience for users. For software developers, Facebook offers development tools and application programming interfaces (APIs). These allow third party site developers to integrate their content with Facebook. The integration helps boost the rating of the third party site and allows them to take advantage of Facebook’s network of 1 billion users. As of year-end 2012, over 10 million aps and webpages had been designed and integrated with Facebook’s platforms. Social Plugin’s are a very short section of code offered by Facebook to enable the â€Å"Like Button† on other sites for easy social connection. These also increase the website’s rating when searched on Google. com. Facebook also provides a secure payments platform allowing users to buy services directly. This is most widely used for the purchase of games and virtual goods. An example is Farmville where players can purchase virtual farm goods to support the game via the platform. Marketers have access to all the products of a user, plus Ad analytics and insights. These services allow the tracking of ad campaigns and their effectiveness. Campaign data including number of viewers, region viewers are from, unique clicks and opens are all available in a quick view format and as raw data. This allows marketing clients to tailor ad campaigns and increase effectiveness quickly. Newer products introduced in 2012 are Facebook Custom Audiences that allows marketers to find their customers on Facebook, and Facebook Exchange that allows marketers to bid for ads in real time (Facebook2, 2013). Customer Profile: One out of 7 people on the earth use Facebook regularly. Facebook has 1. 06 Billion monthly users, 680 million of which are mobile users. Over 80% of Facebook users live outside the United States. User-ship increased nearly 25 percent from 2011 to 2012. Much of this growth came from Brazil, India, and Indonesia whose growth rates are 81%, 54%, and 25% respectively. By comparison growth in the United States during the same timeframe was only 8%. The company made an average of $5. 32 of revenue per user in 2012, a 6% increase from 2011. In 2011 the average user age was 38 and the average number of friends was 229. The average user also had never met face-to-face with 7% of those friends (Bosker, 2011). The figure above shows the dominant social networking sites globally. Pale grey areas are regions where social media has not yet penetrated in a meaningful way. Currently there are no Facebook users in China, as it is prohibited by the government. Facebook expects with the increase in mobile platforms that user-ship in underserved areas will increase since the availability of Wi-Fi continues to outpace infrastructure construction. Financial: Mark delayed taking Facebook public as long as possible. He was eventually forced to by the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (Gandel, 2012). The Facebook IPO was a global financial buzz. The IPO was the largest to date, $104 Billion at $38 per share. In comparison, the Facebook IPO was 6 times larger than Google’s and 8 times larger than Apple’s (Gandel, 2012). It is a benchmark for future tech IPO’s. The bulk of the company’s worth comes from ad revenue and intangibles. Last minute analyses pointed that the company was not in as comfortable a position as initially thought, causing many large investors to withdraw their interest (Sloan, 2012). This revenue mix still continues. The IPO made millionaire and billionaires overnight, both for Facebook executive staff and Morgan Stanley who underwrote the IPO. Morgan Stanley profited more than expected due to the immediate drop in share prices. They had pre-sold stock to clients at the IPO price beyond the stock they actually had. They were able to purchase the additional shares directly from the market, making a larger profit (Gandel, 2012). The mix of Facebook stock sold was unbalanced. Facebook early investors, including Mark Zuckerberg, sold more than 241 million shares, while only 180 million were sold directly from the company. Shares sold by early investors accounted for 57% of the total shares sold in the IPO. Facebook has two classes of stock. The common stock sold to the public allows one vote per share. The preferred stocks owned by Zuckerberg and a select few allow 10 votes per share. As of May 2012, Mark Zuckerberg owned only 18% of Facebook’s stock, but had a majority control (57%) of votes, allowing him to maintain control of the company (Gandel, 2012). Mark is now responsible for continued growth and profit to his company and to employees, but to the external public shareholders who are already soured and skeptical by the lack luster IPO. One source of revenues is advertisements on Facebook. More than 80% of Facebook’s revenues come from advertising on its social network. The growth of the revenues directly depends on the growth of users. At the same time, Facebook has a lower click-through-rate (CTR) than an average website, which is only 0. 05% and about 4% respectively. In order to earn more income from the advertisements Facebook has to change the way it displays the ads (advertisements on wall posts have more than 6% CTR) but without interfering users’ experience. This leaves company very vulnerable and dependent on continuous growth of users, which will eventually be only marginal as the social network matures and saturates all possible markets. Though the company enjoyed a $32 million income in 2012, their revenue balance is insecure and uncertain. Additionally growth rates have been slowing. From 2009 to 2010 the company revenue grew 154%, from 2010 to 2011 it was 88%, and most recently from 2011 to 2012 it was only 37% (See financial reports at end). The company will eventually hit a saturation rate of customers, which has driven the revenue growth. The average amount spent per user has not increased dramatically. Mark expects that growth may become flat or decline once past the user saturation point (Facebook, Inc, 2013). History of Social Media: According to The Washington Post, researchers at Microsoft studied records of 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people in various countries and announced that any two strangers are, on average, distanced by precisely 6. 6 degrees of separation (Smith, 2008). This was the first time a planetary-scale social network has been available. Facebook, the online social network, may reduce a degree or two: Barack Obama already has well over a million Facebook friends. While the internet was born in the 1970’s it did not start playing a role that could be described as social media until the mid-1990’s. It started with the Bulletin Board System (BBS), where a piece of social information was posted for many to see, but each individual reacted to it separately without a way of communicating their reaction readily to others. Among other avenues for social interaction was CompuServe, a service that allowed members to not only share files and access news and events but also join any of CompuServe’s thousands of discussion forums to ‘yap’ with thousands of other members on virtually any important subject of the day. Those forums proved tremendously popular and paved the way for the modern iterations we know today. The dotcom boom and rise of AOL began the first mainstream wave of social media. Communication became instantaneous with more avenues of expression. The Internet Boom epic started in 1995. Nostalgic users rediscover long lost friends on Classmates. com, a social service founded to reconnect former elementary, high school and college classmates. In the world of business and commerce, the dot. com bubble burst in 2000 and the future online seemed bleak as the millennium turned. At this time only seventy million computers were connected to the internet. Currently, there are more than 1. 5 billion internet users on personal computers and more than 3 billion mobile users globally (Facebook, Inc, 2013) In 2002, social networking began in earnest with the launch of Friendster, which opened to the public solely in the U. S. and grew to three million users within three months. Friendster refined a degree of separation concept into a routine dubbed the â€Å"Circle of Friends† (wherein the pathways connecting two people are displayed). This concept is the key to social media as it is currently experienced. Introduced just a year later in 2003, LinkedIn differentiated itself as a serious, business-oriented social networking site for professionals. Social networking evolved in 2003 when MySpace launched, just a few months prior to Facebook. MySpace was a favorite site for the younger U. S. emographic and quickly became the number one social media site. MySpace held that title until May of 2009 when Facebook finally surpassed it in users and traffic (Zeevi, 2013). The most recent launched social network website is Google+, Google’s full-featured social networking tool. It differentiated itself early on with the ability to create multiple circles allowing users to better manage their professi onal and personal image, and the ability to edit previous posts, both for grammar and content. Another key feature is Google Hangouts, which allows instant video chats for up to 10 people at a time. Lastly, Pinterest a social scrapbooking launched in 2010 has captured attention for attaining 10 million users faster than any other standalone site in history, in only 22 months. Currently Pinterest attracts 11 million new users a week. The image and definition of social media has grown and shifted in the past 15 years. The most important changes have been in the scope and interactivity of the media. Social media has moved beyond connecting people to connecting ideas, companies, interests, and locations. Social media sites include Foursquare, Pinterest, and Twitter. Their delivery and business methods are very different from the original Friendster model. Secondly, the media has become ‘smart’ and interacts back to users. Algorithms drive the way posts appear, the ads displayed, and the friend suggestions that are made, changing the nature of the relationship to the software. Global Impact: Facebook has changed the way people communicate, and shifted the boundaries of communication. Facebook as a communication method has allowed users to relate experiences in real time, in a full range of media. Facebook’s platform and newsfeed has developed a feeling of immediacy for many people that is reflected in non-social media outlets. There is a constant desire to have new information. Facebook is both a service company and a data repository. The individual experiences of its 1+ billion users are stored in multi-media. This allows for information democracy on a new scale. As a social site with fluid boundaries, information can move more quickly and unconventionally. This attribute was a major player in the Arab Spring of 2011. Facebook on mobile hones allowed instant updates across large groups of people. It allowed the viewing of images and video by millions of people where they previously would have been censored. What color video was to the Vietnam War, Facebook was to the Arab Spring. The world was able to watch an uprising unfold in real time, uncensored, from multiple viewpoints. Facebook has also affected the criminal justice system. The public availability of photo and video media posted on the site provides law enforcement more evidence. Individual posts and friends’ lists have made finding people easier. Facebook posts are admissible in a court of law and have been used to prove violations of parole, abuses of child custody, and other crimes. Facebook as a platform has also shifted the concept of goods. Within the Facebook platform, users can buy virtual items for real money. Facebook used to prompt users on a friend’s birthday to buy them virtual flowers. The company has recently updated this feature to allow the purchase of a tangible gift. However, purchase of virtual goods for games like FarmVille is still extremely popular. The virtual goods industry revenue for 2011 was $2 billion. Industry: Two social networking sites are currently considered direct competitors of Facebook in the US- Twitter and Google+. Twitter has roughly half the users of Facebook, and a revenue model that focuses on sponsored tweets. Twitter is not exactly a direct competitor. Tweets integrate with Facebook status updates and many users actively participate in both services. Google+ currently has only 343 million users, roughly one third the user base of Facebook. Google+ is in direct competition with Facebook and has a very similar look and feel. While smaller by user base, Google+ 2012 revenue from highly targeted ads was $40 billion, eight times Facebook’s revenue for the same year. According to market survey, 83% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business; however more marketers (76%) are planning on increasing use of YouTube and video marketing than any other form. The current top five social media tools for marketers are as follows: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, and YouTube. Facebook will need to increase its ability to show video ads if it intends to keep the number one spot. In a five forces analysis of the industry climate, the bargaining power of consumers is high. There are many substitutes available and little cost to switching. The threat of substitute products is therefor also very high since there is a saturated market and the differentiation between brands and has been decreasing. New entrants have low barriers to entry because of low initial investment, and only moderate brand loyalty, however they need to be sufficiently interesting and innovative to capture the number of users necessary to be a major player. The bargaining power of suppliers is low. Server space providers and hosts exist almost in a commodity market with little differentiation in product or price. As in most tech industries the threat of rivalry in social media is extremely high (Tran, 2013). There are cut throat battles for patents on features and modes of use, and companies need to constantly innovate and update to stay relevant. Another threat to Facebook’s revenue stream is ad-block extensions. Users can install ad-blocks to view the site ad-free. As these increase in popularity, revenue may decrease. Privacy: Privacy is a current concern of most media users. Depending how the company manages its user’s privacy, it can be a strategic advantage or a threat. Facebook has already endured public scrutiny and backlash for its privacy control. It has a history of changing privacy settings and defaulting them to the most open and universal option, putting the onus on customers to activate a more private mode. In December 2012, Instagram (now owned by Facebook) changed their terms of use policy to state that it could sell and profit off its user’s photos. The customer backlash was intense and Instagram reverted its use policy. The possibility of being hacked and losing customer data is also a real risk. While Facebook does not store social security numbers it warehouses thousands of passwords, and captures information about individuals’ daily lives that could be misused. Virtual or real identity thefts could seriously harm the company. Facebook offers the bulk of its products for free, and its ad revenue is generated from the ability to make details about users’ demographics and interests available to marketers. This information is freely given by users after consenting to the terms of use agreement, and housed by Facebook, so they have the right to use it. The problem is that privacy laws are lagging behind internet use and technology. What is a major revenue source for the company today could be deemed illegal in the near future. Aside from legislation, bad press regarding a privacy incident could just as swiftly hurt the company and cause users to shift to substitute services. Facebook has made it easy for users to spread information instantaneously- even bad news about itself! As big data and data mining become more important for companies, Facebook may want to capitalize on its data resources buy selling information in the aggregate. The company will have to be very careful to remove identifying names and tags, but even more careful how the endeavor is presented to the public. Facebook’s Future: Facebook has been an incredible social force and an industry trail blazer. The concurrent move to a publicly traded company and into a mature lifecycle segment poses large challenges. Both revenue growth and user growth are slowing. There are multiple substitutes in the industry and the competition is rapidly innovating. Future legislation on privacy and rights ownership may require a complete rework of business strategy. Pressure from public shareholders is on Mark to create more value and increase stock prices. The company is looking to expand into large population markets such as Brazil, India, Mexico, and Japan (Facebook, Inc, 2013). The recent change of leadership in China may eventually provide an opening for Facebook services there. Increasing the focus on mobile applications will also slow the inevitable market saturation by making services available in regions with little infrastructure. Continued acquisition of promising start ups will also help the company stay cutting edge while removing future competition. However, Facebook needs to develop new revenue streams beyond advertisements, while still staying true to its mission. The company needs to define these projects before the falling growth rate triggers a major decline in the Class A stock rate. Mark himself is unsure if they can monetize their current business more than currently without alienating users (Facebook, Inc, 2013). One option is to create spin-off services that are paid, such as aggregate data sales. Another is to focus a Facebook platform on job search and recruitment. A third natural move would be to offer a unique, differentiated online dating experience (Tran, 2013). Mark Zuckerberg and his company have an incredible advantage. In the new data economy he has billions of data points that each tell a story and can be used in thousands of ways. Google Fiber installation that increases internet speed by 100 fold will allow his innovative staff to develop services that are not feasible yet. He will just need to keep one step ahead or diversify to avoid being the next,