Saturday, November 30, 2019

Manchester United FC Continuing Success but at What Cost

Introduction Based in old Trafford, Manchester United is one of the leading and well renowned football clubs not only in the UK but also in the world. The club was initiated in 1878. It then had the name Newton Health before changing to its current brand name – Manchester United in 1902.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Manchester United FC: Continuing Success but at What Cost? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It was one of the founding members of the premier league back in 1992. Since 1938, Manchester United has always played the top division in English soccer apart from seasons of 1974 and 1975. The club has also recorded outstanding average attendance compared to all other English football clubs. Compared to any other organisation, soccer clubs are unique since they are subjected to various market forces and dynamics that act as threats to their performance and hence success. Success may be measured from different paradigms depending on the industry in which an organisation is established. For football clubs, success may be measured from the number of wins of the club in the tournaments. Apparently, such success is also correlated to financial success. The success of Manchester United is owed to the exemplary management of Alex Ferguson. Given the competitive nature of the football club business, Manchester United stands out as an ample example of analysing the success of organisations. Manchester United has successfully managed to place its brand. The club is the reining champion in the European and English champions. It won 2007-2008 UEFA champions league and 2007 -2008 premier league coupled with 2008 FIFA world cup. Indeed, Manchester has won enormous numbers of world football honours since when Alex Ferguson was appointed the manager in 1986. For instance, the club won the European cup making it the first football club to take home the cup when it beat Benfica 4-1 in 1968 .Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It later won the same cup in 1999 for the second time and in 2008 for the third time. Furthermore, the club has also kept the world record having won the most FA cup titles. From financial contexts, the club is also immensely successful. As from 1990s, Manchester United has gone down the history as the richest club of the English premier league. However, Liverpool may dispute this argument. The club also generates the largest amount of the revenues among all the clubs taking part in the European cup and English premier leagues. Such an enormous success of an organisation does not come easily: there is always an accompanying cost. Considering Manchester United as the case study, the paper analyses the roles of CSR in the success of an organisation. However, before this is done background information is provided by discussing the success of Manchester United from both the contexts of tournament wins and financial performance. The Case Study Description Within the whole of Europe, Manchester United stands the third club just behind Barcelona and Real Madrid from the contexts of turnover. Apart from the recent past (2008) wining in the European champions’ league, Manchester United has also managed to get to European champions final in 2008. On the other hand, with regard to Pyle (2010), â€Å"†¦the financial position of the club remains precarious despite its success on the football field† (p.601). This argument is significant by appreciating the fact that, in 2009, Manchester United football club made revenues amounting to 278.5 million pounds. The club also reported, â€Å"Increased profits (before interests and taxation) to the tune of 90.3 m million pounds (up 13.6 percent)† (Pyle 2010, p.601).Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Manchester United FC: Continuing Su ccess but at What Cost? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Much of this profit was acquired through the sale of players (80.7 million pounds). The financial success of the Manchester United is outstanding upon comparing this profit to that of the red football limited. In this end, Pyle (2010) argues, â€Å"red football limited (the parent company of MUFC owned by the Glazer family) reported a profit of by 6.4 million pounds due to interest payments of 68.5 million pounds paid on the erroneous debt incurred to purchase the club† (p.601). The support of Manchester United across the globe is also incredible and a contributing factor to the success of the club. However, this does not imply that the English premier league clubs are not open to criticism over how they handle their financial matters. For instance, Pyle (2010) reckons, â€Å"many fans are unhappy about the way English premier league football clubs are developing into mu ltinational businesses with global brands, aggressive marketing, and foreign owners (some of dubious reputations)† (p.601). Indeed, some clubs have gone on record to have spent a lot of money often leading the clubs to experience large debts often exceeding levels that are justifiable by the turnovers that are made by the clubs. The hefty spending is normally justified by the people who fund the clubs. This case makes commentators on the future performance of the football clubs worried that some of the billionaires who fund the clubs may get bored at some point to the extent of considering withdrawing their support. The repercussion for this attempt would plunge the clubs to large financial debts that would often make business impossible. The main question that remains is whether Manchester United would be able to ensure that its entire stakeholders would be satisfied should such a situation occur.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Amid being faced by the above interrogative, the brand of the Manchester United remains one of the most well built among the football clubs playing the English premier league. In fact, â€Å"the basis of Manchester United’s business success and global brand is rooted in the club’s history and traditions† (Pyle 2010, p.601). Since the first win of the European cup, in the time of Sir Matt, the company grew from small to a public limited company. At this time the chairman of the company, Martin Edwards, principally focused on handling the challenge of hiking funds for helping the company to improve and maintain its success in the pitch. An effort was made to raise funds for attracting new top players. In 1991, â€Å"the club was floated on the London Stock Exchange with a valuation of 40 million pounds† (Pyle 2010, p.602). This move was strategic for the success of Manchester United since, in 1994 through 1997, the company was able to have an accumulate sha re sales amounting to 71 million pounds. In the effort to ensure that Manchester United remained a respected club, in 2002, Martin Edwards stepped down to pave way for Sir Roy to take over the leadership of the plc. In 1991, when Manchester United was placed on flotation, there was minimal number of companies that had acquired a structure similar to that of plc. Therefore, the move was incredibly disputable though it attracted enormous controversies. For instance, Pyle (2010) quote sir Ferguson reckoning, â€Å"when the plc started, there were grave doubts about it – I had them myself – but I think the supporters came round† (p.601). Indeed, the success of the club was looming. Manchester United had even overtaken Liverpool. Therefore, this move had little impacts on the growth and success of the company. Hence, worries accompanied by controversies were well resolved. Operating as a plc, an organisation seeks to expand its clientele. Manchester United embarked o n a mission to seek out for global presence. This strategic goal resorted to the recruitment of Peter Keyon in 1997 â€Å"due to his marketing and branding experience† (Pyle 2010, p.602). His experience was vital in helping the company to build a business interest that had a global feel. Through the effort of Peter Keyon, â€Å"sales of replica kits and all manner of club-related gifts continued to expand quickly with its merchandising success becoming the bench mark for the industry† (Pyle 2010, p.602). Consequently, Manchester United ended up being a brand that is known by almost everybody across the globe. However, the contribution of Peter Keyon in enhancing the success of Manchester United attracted the attention of rivals (Chelsea) who offered him a competitive package besides subsequently getting him out of Manchester United. Nevertheless, this did not deter the continued success of the plc since his deputy Roman Abramovich took over. He has been incredibly inst rumental in the continued growth of the company. Plcs have numerous obligations to achieve on behalf of the owners. On one hand, for the case of Manchester United, â€Å"shareholders demanded profits although some shares were held by supporters where the vast majority were owned by financial institutions, which were looking for returns on their investments† (Pyle 2010, pp.602-3). On the other hand, apart from the owners of a plc, it is vital that a company seeks to achieve its success through operating and behaving in a socially corporate manner. To achieve these goals, and to help in building further on the brand image of football clubs, the clubs have always welcomed the interest of media people to get into deals with them. For instance, according to Pyle (2010), Manchester United signed a deal with America Online Corporation biding the two organisations between 2010/11 to 2014/15 worth 80 million pounds (p.603). Manchester United has done a great deal of investments in spo rting facilities and other social amenities. All these have gone into increasing the size of the club in terms of increasing the revenues generated through fees levied on sporting facilities. However, amid the increased revenues, Manchester United’s financial structures attract an immense alarm. It has been experiencing rising debts. Due to this reason, â€Å"Glazers converted 500 million pounds of debt into bonds, which do not mature until 2017† (Pyle 2010, p.604). Although it was an incredible financial relief to the club, these bonds will attract an interest of 45 million pounds, which will have to be paid in 2017. Now, it sounds plausible to question the sustainability of the Manchester United model for doing business. Would it enable the club to have continued growth in the future? Should the club develop new a mechanism of developing further its brand? If so, can social corporate responsibility aid in enhancing better and sustained growth of the club in the futur e? SWOT and PESTEL Analysis of Manchester United SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis seeks to reveal the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and the threats faced by an organisation in its normal business operations. The idea for doing this is based on the argument that when these elements are clear, it becomes possible for the management of the organisation in question to concentrate on the strengths and opportunities. This strategy enhances its performance while ensuring that its takes appropriate strategies to ensure that the weaknesses and threats are mitigated in the effort to attain optimality of the performance of the organisation. Essentially, SWOT analysis entangles strategic planning approach for evaluating the strengths, limitations, and opportunities coupled with threats that business establishment encounters (Hill Westbrook 2006, p.47). Strengths are the traits that enable an organisation to have an advantage in comparison to other organisations. One of the strengths of Manc hester United is that it is has managed to build a highly recognised brand across the globe. The club has incredible marketing strategies coupled with merchandising practices that are of high quality. Manchester United stands as one of the richest football clubs with a football stadium (Trafford) having the highest capacity (75,000). Large numbers of sponsors including AON, Nike, Airtel, Vodafone, AIG, and others also support the club. Although Manchester United has incredible strengths that have made it remain competitive in the UK’s football market, it has some weaknesses. Weaknesses or the limitations are the traits of an organisation that place it at a disadvantage in comparison with other organisations in the same industry (Hill Westbrook 2006, p.47). One of the subtle weaknesses of Manchester United is attributed to the fact that the club faces financial challenges. It also operates in a saturated market. Opportunities are the existing external chances, which while uti lised make an organisation improve its performance (Hill Westbrook 2006, p.49). One of the opportunities for Manchester United is the possibility of tapping fans from all across the globe including regions such as the USA, India, and China. Additionally, brand visibility and advertising can aid in building brand equity. Threats are the external chances that impair the performance of an organisation (Hill Westbrook 2006, p.49). One of the threats of Manchester United is the external competitive market forces in which other clubs purchase many of the good players. There are also instances in which the management encounters conflicts with the players. Additionally, expensive transfers of players make Manchester United experience financial debts. PESTLE Analysis A number of factors influence the decisions of managers of any organisation. From the PESTEL organisational analysis approach, these factors are political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal (Gerry, Keva n Whittington 2005, p.105). For the case of Manchester United, the political environment affects the operations of the club via taxing policies since the club must pay taxes to the government. The management must also comply with environmental regulations, tariffs, and employment laws established within the UK. From the perspective of economic factors, the operational economic environment of the Manchester United is characterised by fluctuations. These fluctuations create barriers to the margin of profits that the club can reinvest in growth and or channelling to CSR. Social factors act as an immense success factor of the club because spectators, players, and the staffs of Manchester United are promised compliance to safety standards hence enhancing the security of all stakeholders attending the Manchester United matches at the club’s facilities. This provision is critical in retaining and attracting new clients. In terms of technology, Manchester United deploys the internet to accomplish tasks such as booking for seats in the stadium. Manchester United is also incredibly concerned about its environmental impacts especially accruing from inappropriate disposal of materials that wrap the consumables used by fans during the matches. Various legal provisions that regulate the manner of conducting business also bind an organisation. Thus, Manchester United is bound by all legal provisions that control and monitor operations of plc applicable in the UK. Summary of Scholarly Articles Many organisations look for mechanisms of enhancing their performance. One of such methodologies is by becoming socially responsible. Challenged by the problems of how an organisation may increase its performance by being socially responsible, Snider, Hill, and Martin (2003) conduced a â€Å"qualitative study of the legal, ethical, and moral statements available on the websites of Forbes Magazine’s top 50 U.S. and top 50 multinational firms of non-U.S† (p.175). Ana lysis was conducted â€Å"within the context of stakeholder theory† (Snider, Hill, Martin 2003, p.175). The authors cite business scandal in America such as the Tyco, WorldCom, and Enron as among the major drawbacks of development and building investor’s confidence. They further postulate that these scandals may have an immense contributor to the economic down turn that was experienced in 2009 and 2011 in America. The impacts of this down turn on their full thresh hold were further spread into other regions of the world. Arguably, this led to what became the global financial crisis. In this end, Snider, Hill, and Martin (2003) argue, â€Å"in the aftermath of these egregious acts, the business community should be rethinking its responsibilities to the various publics concerned with its operations† (p.176). This means that organisations that were caught up in engagement on fraudulent activities never considered moral and ethical considerations of their behaviour . Corporate social responsibility is anchored on the pillars of taking into perspectives the impacts of any organisational decision on the stakeholders and all interest groups in the performance of an organisation. This case implies that any course of action adopted by any organisation should not compromise or rather place the stakeholders and the organisational interest groups at a disadvantage. Hence, it is critical that ethical behaviour be strongly embedded in all operations of public limited companies. Snider, Hill, and Martin (2003) concur with this line of argument by further reckoning, â€Å"the public is focused now more than ever on what firms are saying about their corporate social responsibility† (p.176). Soccer organisation encompasses some of the organisations where the stakeholders and other interest groups’ concerns on the performance of an organisation need to be proactively addressed and managed for continued operation of the organisation. The main qu estion is what the central significance of social corporate responsibility in success of organisations is. Social corporate responsibility defines the obligations that an organisation has on the communities and the larger society. Compliance to principles of corporate responsibility requires an organisation to commit its resources to fund activities that are of social benefit. Snider, Hill, and Martin (2003) admit that this attracted heavy criticisms with many researchers choosing to evaluate the question: â€Å"should companies take responsibility for social issues?† (p.176). In response to this query, Kok et al (2001), suggest, â€Å"the only social responsibility of business is to increase profits by legal means† (p. 286.). The implication of this argument is that any investment of financial resources of an organisation should be done only to the extent that it is not detrimental to the profitability of an organisation. However, Snider, Hill, and Martin (2003) oppos e this perception by asserting, â€Å"Business exists to serve the greater community as well as direct beneficiaries of the company’s operations† (p.176). Therefore, it is incorrect to presume that an organisation exists only to create profits for its owners. However, it is crucial to note that on adoption and incorporation of the perspectives and principles of CSR into the business model of an organisation, some effort must be made to look for mechanisms of increasing profits of the organisation because CSR projects require financial resources to execute. These resources are drawn from the profits made by an organisation within a given fiscal year. Through the development of social responsibility culture, an organisation is capable of winning the confidence of the community living within the areas from which it is established. This way, conflict of interest is minimised- something that is critical for the success of an organisation. This outcome is attributed to the o pinion that an organisation would spend lesser financial resources in the resolution of emerging conflicts due erosions of the interests of the larger society. To amplify this argument, an organisation is largely dependent on coexistence in harmony with the communalities living in the environment in which it is established. In case this harmony suffers in one way or another, a peaceful habitat for the organisation to conduct its business is sacrificed in the favour of the community-organisation conflicts. Therefore, it is the duty of an organisation to ensure that such conflicts do not exist. This goal is best achieved by ensuring that an organisation is socially corporate responsible (Snider, Hill, Martin 2003, p.177). The findings of the Snider, Hill, and Martin (2003) research indicated that the organisations, whose websites were analysed â€Å"concentrated their attention on similar set of stakeholders and approximately the same CSR issues† (p.180). However, there were v ariations in the specificity of the CSR messages carried by the websites. For instance, the authors found out that some spelt out some ethical values, which act as the framework of guiding the realisation of organisational missions on their roles in the society differently. However, in the stipulation of the ethical issues, the firms provide â€Å"a context within, which they define their relationships with internal and external publics† (Snider, Hill Martin 2003, p.180). Other concerns of social corporate responsibilities in the United States’ organisations cited by Snider, Hill, and Martin are environmental policies. Apparently, the environment forms one of the essential areas for consideration in the development of social corporate responsibility policies since most of the organisational activities often produce some negative impacts on the environment. It is the duty of the organisation concerned to ensure that the environment is protected from these negative impa cts. For this reason, Snider, Hill, and Martin (2003) find, â€Å"both the U.S. and other global firms often establish comprehensive environmental policies† (p.180). Additionally, the authors’ findings also reveal that the CSR messages that are used by various organisations studied were developed to match the needs of various stakeholders that are consistent with the concerns of the larger ecology. A good example of this is the case of Coca Cola Company, which states, â€Å"A large part of our relationship with the world around us is our relationship with the physical world† (Snider, Hill Martin 2003, p.180). This means that Coca Cola Company appreciates that it cannot be able to conducts its business and attain the organisational objects without taking into consideration the impacts produced on the environment by its business activities. This case forms one of the pillars of an organisation seeking to be socially corporate responsible. The above discussions of the roles of social corporate responsibility in the success of organisations are discussed from a general context. Consequently, it remains questionable on how the theoretical paradigms developed by Snider, Hill, and Martin (2003) are applicable to soccer clubs such as Manchester United. In this extent, the work of Walters and Tacon (2010) becomes relevant to the extent that it presents the results of a qualitative research on the relevance of CSR with particular focus on the sporting organisations (p.556). Since Manchester United is a good example of a well-established sporting organisation, the work of the authors is pivotal in helping to make recommendations and deductions on the roles that can be played by CSR in the enhancement of success of the soccer club. Walters and Tacon use the stakeholder theory to explain how â€Å"CSR can inform both theoretical debates and management practices within sport organisations† (2010, p.556). The article further argues that media has an immense attention on sporting organisations. Consequently, due to youth appeal, communication power, and mass media distributions, sporting organisations have no choice rather than implementing the initiatives of social corporate responsibility. This argument is based on the perception that â€Å"sport CSR has a greater effect than those CSR activities in commercial organisations† (Walters Tacon 2010, p.567). This argument makes sense upon the realisation of the evidence that sporting organisations are normally intensively inter-woven with the society, and dependent on the perceptions and affiliation of the society for their success. Consequently, due to the close relationships between the communities and the sporting organisations, CSR is inevitable from being adopted by the organisations including Manchester United football club. It is from this perceptive that Walters and Tacon (2010) recommend, â€Å"sport organisations, particularly the UK football clubs, need to c onsider addressing CSR in order to maintain or increase spectator numbers† (p.567). Indeed, a number of researches have noted CSR as influencing costumer’s consumption behaviour. Therefore, consistent with Walters and Taco’s (2010) argument on the roles of CSR in the sporting organisations, â€Å"given that the stadium utilisation figures at the majority of professional football clubs in the UK are well below 100 per cent, it could be argued that CSR is a strategic approach needed to attract spectators† (Walters Tacon 2010, p.567). Apparently, there exists evidence of sporting organisations that have leaped from the benefits of engaging in CSR elsewhere in the world. For instance, individual athletes in the United States have come up with various charitable organisations and foundations that fund various mitigation strategies of social problems (Paul 2002, p.25). A good example of this case is the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which has gone down the histor y as funding the cancer research (Walters Tacon 2010, p.567). The Walters and Taco’s work seeks to articulate the stakeholder theory with CSR as applied in the sporting organisations. The authors provide evidence that stakeholder theory has been critical in enhancing sport management (Walters Tacon 2010, p.569). Additionally, the authors are quick to pin point that the development in the deployment of the stakeholders’ theory in enhancing football club governance has its roots in studies that focus on â€Å"stakeholder identification and stakeholder perceptions in intercollegiate athletics† (Walters Tacon 2010, p.569). The excellence of the soccer clubs in terms of performances measures form financial success is dependent on the interest of the stakeholders in the game because stakeholders are also mainly the spectators and hence the sources of revenues. This claim perhaps explains why soccer academic literature pays central focus on the stakeholder ideas. In fact, with regard to Morrow (2003), â€Å"the stakeholder concept has greater relevance for football clubs in relation to conventional businesses because of the particular features of certain football club stakeholders† (p. 43). Walters and Tacon (2010) appreciate this argument but holds, â€Å"to date, much of the research in this area has either used stakeholder concepts implicitly, without making explicit reference to mainstream stakeholder theory, or has engaged openly with stakeholder concepts at a relatively underdeveloped theoretical level† (Walters Tacon 2010, p.569). Arguably, while running a football club, the management has the obligations to the local authorities, communities, and even local populations. These obligations need not to establish conflicts with the commercial objectives of any soccer team. For this purpose, it is critical that sporting organisations such as Manchester United become socially corporate responsible. Walters and Tacon’s r esearch was qualitative in nature. It drew 15 interviews form different stakeholders of the UK football industry. The selection of individuals to be interviewed was done from the perspectives that information garnered was precisely reflective of the purpose of the research. This purpose was to â€Å"develop an in-depth contextual understanding of the phenomena that is being studied and to interpret the meaning from social situations† (Walters Tacon 2010, p.572). The interviewees were drawn from various staff members of the selected organisations including the directors, CEOs, and chairs. The researchers had the immense belief that the information generated from these persons would be pivotal in the determination of their take on objectives coupled with the roles played by their organisations, the kind of relationships that exist between the stakeholder and the organisation, and the details of various CSR initiates that are adopted by the organisation under study. The results of the study indicated that the â€Å"interviewees recognised the relevance to sport management of stakeholders’ ideas and issues of corporate social responsibility† (Walters Tacon 2010, p.574). Nevertheless, this does not mean that different individuals did not have different perspectives of the roles of CSR in their organisations. For instance, the authors found out that some officials of various soccer clubs had an optimistic commitment to the social corporate responsibility coupled with the stakeholders’ management initiatives adopted by the organisations. On the other hand, some interviewees â€Å"expressed scepticism about the strength of this commitment† (Walters Tacon 2010, p.574). Therefore, it is arguable that the roles of CSR in enhancing the success of soccer clubs remains fragmented depending on the perspective from which the management official of the organisations view the quests of being socially corporate responsible organisations. It is from the basis of this argument that this paper focuses on discussing the principles of social corporate responsibility from the context of Manchester United. Revisiting the Case Study Considering the case study of Manchester United, focusing on social responsibility initiatives are critical in fostering the continued success of the organisation coupled with dominance of Manchester brand among many soccer fans. From the description of the case study section, it is evident that. while operating as plc, Manchester United would have to focus its efforts in building good relationships with the stakeholders in the effort to ensure increased financial performance. Increased financial performance means that more funds would be available at the disposal of the organisation to remunerate better the players. This would help in minimising the threat of the good players being taken by competing soccer clubs such as Chelsea, Real Madrid, Liverpool, and others. The ultimate repercussion for th is is presentation of better games to the spectators and other stakeholders of the Manchester football club. Therefore, increased clientele is likely to be drawn into the playing grounds owned by Manchester United. Hence, more revenue would continue to be generated. Arguably, this case is critical in helping the club to offset various financial challenges that the organisation encounters. Apparently, financial capability of an organisation is vital for the development of strong social corporate responsibility initiatives (Porter Kramer 2006, p.82). With the already developed brand dominance in the football industry, Manchester United can proactively manage to create more success through taking part in more in social related activities such as creation of more charitable foundations ran from the part of profit basket of the organisation. This would make the stakeholders to see the organisation as not only serving the purpose of creating profits at the expense of the communities in w hich the organisation is established. Indeed, according to Walters and Tacon (2010), â€Å"†¦recent emergence of charitable foundations to deliver social inclusion and educational based initiatives has demonstrated that football clubs can play a positive role within their communities† (p.568). In fact, one of the competitive forces of the Manchester United (Chelsea) has embraced the concepts of CSR. With regard to Walters and Tacon (2010), this claim is evidenced and mirrored by â€Å"the trend for CSR reporting, which has made Chelsea to produce its own CSR report separate from the annual accounts† (p.568). Arguably, Manchester United cannot drift from dedicating financial resources towards financing social corporate issues because even the governing bodies of football clubs are also recognising the relevance and benefits of being sociality corporate responsible. For this reason, the UEFA â€Å"has developed a social responsibility partnership portfolio. It is w orking with a number of charity partners between 2007 and 2011 to address specific issues including racism, reconciliation, and peace, football for all, violence, health, and humanitarian aid† (Walters Tacon 2010, p.568). This effort is boosted by commitment of 0.7 percent of the UEFA profits to fund various social projects. The above effort by the UEFA makes it clear that football clubs would be forced by their own desires to influence positively their spectators who often come from the communities in which the organisations are established to adopt CSR initiatives. Even though this would mean digging into the profits of the Manchester United, it is a well thought cause of action since the arising deficits may be sealed by the resulting increment in the brand loyalty from the community members and other stakeholders of the Manchester United. The process of endeavouring to invest in social corporate social responsibility projects will often demand Manchester United to deploy the concepts of stakeholder theory developed by Walters and Tacon. The move will be the effort to help the organisation to â€Å"illuminate key issues in sport management and or how CSR can be implemented by sport organisations through stakeholder management strategies† (Walters Tacon 2010, p.568). The whole idea of sporting organisation attempting to become socially corporate responsible is pegged on the argument that, by being socially corporate responsible, the friction and conflicts of interests between various organisational stakeholders such as the customers, suppliers, the owners of the organisation among others would be greased. This step leads to a better reception of organisation coupled with the decisions reached by the managers of the leaders of the organisations. Surely, this effort is an advantage that Manchester United cannot afford to lose bearing in mind the observations, â€Å"Glazers converted 500 million pounds of debt into bonds, which do not mature unt il 2017† (Pyle 2010, p.604) to help in easing the debts of the football club. Conclusions and Recommendations Organisations operating in the industry of sporting are highly susceptible to impacts of competitions because winning in tournaments forms the basis of determining the anticipated growth of the organisations, brand loyalty, and even the financial performance of the organisation in question. In the paper, it was discussed that Manchester United stands as one of the sporting organisations that have managed to build and develop magnificently its brand. It has realised several wins in valid tournaments including the European cup and others. The management of the organisation has also resulted and contributed to this exemplary performance of the organisation both in terms of game wins and financial performance. However, based on the case study described by Pyle (2010), the paper established that Manchester United also faces various challenges financial wise. This case often calls for the interventions of tycoons funding the club to support it through conversion of several million pounds into bonds payable at such as a period in which the organisation will have made adequate profits to pay off the bonds while remaining operational. Based on these challenges, the paper recommends and adds an additional paradigm for fostering the performance of Manchester United. This paradigm is by focusing on strategic decisions of becoming more socially corporate responsible. This recommendation is made in full appreciation of the reality that CSR approaches attract valid perceptions among various scholars and organisational stakeholders. Some people see it as an additional way of reducing the profitability of an organisation while others may see it is a noble way of helping to create good reputation of an organisation. Amid the two dimensional approaches to CSR, in sporting organisations such Manchester United, it is recommended for adoption since it is an incredible tool for helping to resolve conflicts of interests among various organisational stakeholders. References Gerry, J, Kevan, S, Whittington, R 2005, Exploring corporate strategy: text and cases, Prentice Hall, London. Hill, T Westbrook, R 2006, ‘SWOT Analysis: It’s Time for a Product Recall,’ Long Range Planning, vol. 30 no. 1, pp. 46–52. Kok, P, Weile, D, McKenna, R, Brown, A 2001, ‘A Corporate Social Responsibility Audit within a Quality Management Framework’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 31 no. 4, pp. 285–297. Morrow, S 2003, The people’s game? Football, finance and society, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK. Paul, P 2002, ‘Corporate Responsibility’, American Demographics, vol. 24 no. 5, pp. 24-35. Porter, E Kramer, R 2006, ‘Strategy and society: The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility’, Harvard Business Review, vol. 84 no.12, pp. 78–92. Pyle, S 2010, Manchester United FC: Continuing Success But At What Cost?, Harvard UP, Harvard. Snider, J, Hill, R, Martin, D 2003, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21st Century: A View from the World’s Most Successful Firms’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 48 no. 1, pp.175-187. Walters, G Tacon, R 2010, ‘Corporate social responsibility in sport: Stakeholder management in the UK football industry’, Journal of Management Organisation, vol.16 no. 4, pp. 566–586. This case study on Manchester United FC: Continuing Success but at What Cost? was written and submitted by user Taraji Michael to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

The Impact of WWII on Native Americans and blacks essays

The Impact of WWII on Native Americans and blacks essays World War Two changed the lives of millions of people throughout the world. Never before had warfare taken such a toll on humanity. For most, this war was a horrible event that did nothing but take the lives of loved ones. Nothing good could have came from such carnage. Or could it? One thing that people have learned through the generations is that in order for things to get better, they often have to get worse first. People were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the betterment of their culture. In the cases of Native Americans and African Americans, the war proved to be a stage in which they could prove themselves to the world, and try to fight for a better life. African Americans and Native Americans had vastly different experiences during the war. A large majority of Indians made a smooth transition into the military, joining non-segregated units, unlike blacks who still had to obey local Jim Crow laws. Indians were often openly embraced by their white counterparts, and were indiscriminately called Chief by their buddies. Some would think this as a derogatory term, but the Indians took it as a positive reference to their ancestors who had been great warriors. Many whites wanted to fight alongside the Indians, for as the American Legion Magazine put it: The red soldier is tough. Usually he has lived outdoors all his life, and lived by his senses; he is a natural Ranger. He takes to fighting with gusto. Why not? His ancestors invented it.... At ambushing, scouting, signaling sniping, theyre peerless. Some can smell a snake yards away and hear the faintest movement; all endure thirst and lack of food better that average. Indians had been stereotyped for generations, and it was hard to distinguish whether or not these observations had been stereotyped as well. It is known that the Indians tried to live up to these expectations, and often exceeded them. They were integrated into the militar...

Friday, November 22, 2019

How to Prepare a Sodium Hydroxide or NaOH Solution

How to Prepare a Sodium Hydroxide or NaOH Solution Sodium hydroxide is a common and useful strong base. Special care is required to prepare a solution of sodium hydroxide or NaOH in water because considerable heat is liberated by the exothermic reaction. The solution may splatter or boil. Here is how to make a sodium hydroxide solution safely, along with recipes for several common concentrations of NaOH solution. Amount of NaOH to Make Sodium Hydroxide Solution Prepare solutions of sodium hydroxide using this handy reference table which lists the amount of solute (solid NaOH) that is used to make 1 L of base solution. Follow these lab safety guidelines: Dont touch sodium hydroxide! It is caustic and could cause chemical burns. If you do get NaOH on your skin, immediately rinse it with a large volume of water. Another option is to neutralize any base on the skin with a weak acid, such as vinegar, and then rinse with water.Stir the sodium hydroxide, a little at a time, into a large volume of water and then dilute the solution to make one liter. Add sodium hydroxide to waterdo not add water to solid sodium hydroxide.Be sure to use borosilicate glass (e.g., Pyrex) and consider immersing the container in a bucket of ice to keep the heat down.  Inspect the glassware prior to use to make sure it is free from any cracks, scratches or chips that would indicate a weakness in the glass. If you use a different type of glass or weak glass, theres a chance the temperature change could cause it to shatter.Wear safety goggles and gloves since there is a chance the sodium hydroxide solution could splash up or the glassware could break. Concentrate d solution of sodium hydroxide are corrosive and should be handled with care. Recipes for Common NaOH Solutions To prepare these recipes, start with 1 liter of water and slowly stir in the solid NaOH. A magnetic stir bar is helpful if you have one. M of solution Amount of NaOH Sodium Hydroxide 6 M 240 g NaOH 3 M 120 g F.W. 40.00 1 M 40 g 0.5 M 20 g 0.1 M 4.0 g

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Histology practical write up Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Histology practical write up - Essay Example Upon the maturation of the beneficial T cells, they are released into the blood. The thymus is a primary lymphoid organ (Paul, 2013). The spleen on its part is an immunologic blood filter. The spleen is of T cells, B cells, dendritic cells, natural killer cells, red blood cells and macrophages. The spleens functions by capturing antigens from the blood passing through the spleen. The migratory macrophages together with the dendritic cells transport the foreign bodies to the spleen through the blood stream. When the antigens get to the spleen and gets into contact with the appropriate B or T cells, an immune response is initiated. The B cells once activated produces large amounts of antibody which kills the antigen as well as aged red blood cells. The spleen contains two types of T-cells which are helper T-cells and killer T-cells. The helper T-cells are responsible for systematising the attack while the killer T-cells destroys the infected cell since it has then been turned into a virus reproduction factory. The spleen is a secondary lymphoid organ since it contains both T and B cells and requires an antigen entry to stimulate the lymphoid cells (Turgeon, 2014). Since the tissue sections are in wax, they are placed in hot plates for 2 minutes till all the wax is melted, and no traces of wax found in the tissues. Within a two-minute interval, the tissues are placed in absolute alcohol, 90% alcohol and 70% alcohol. In order to stain the tissues, they are placed in Ehrlich’s Haematoxylin for 45 minutes. Since this is a regressive stain, over stained tissues will have the stain solution removed with a tissue paper and rinsed for 30 minutes with tap water. The tissues should appear bluish purple/dark blue. The tissues are in acidic alcohol for 4 minutes and turn red. Immediately the slides are put into ammoniated alcohol and will turn blue. Within two-minute duration, the tissue

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Health culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Health culture - Essay Example Defined medically, health refers to the absence of disease and disease causing organisms or conditions in human body. From biomedical model, disease is temporary organic condition that is curable through medical intervention. In addition, biomedical model views disease as a condition of a sick person who must undergo treatment. Furthermore, biomedical model argues that treatment of a disease is only possible after symptoms appear, and the treatment must be within a medical environment. The sociological understanding of health and illness concerns with the study of the social factors that lead to unhealthy conditions. This focus on the social origins of illness and effects guides to the concept of health inequalities. Health inequality refers to the difference in health conditions due to variation in access to health care facilities experienced by a given group of population within a country or between countries. Society is the main determinant of health inequalities experienced by particular group of people. Society contains various life factors such as ethnicity, economic prosperity, cultural beliefs, educational background, political affiliations and law, which have particular effects on health inequalities experienced within various societies and communities (Smith, 2003 pg. 9). Social gradient is the collective name for the highlighted factors of life within various societies. Social gradient acts as the test instrument for understanding the level of exposure of a certain group of people to experience health inequality. This is to mean that groups or individuals exhibiting most favorable social conditions or circumstances like good income or good education background have better access to be tter health care services and facilities. The better the access to better health care factors the longer the life of a given group or individual (Graham, 2009 pg. 52). The general implication of health inequality is that the poorer a group

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Crevecoueur’s - What is an American Essay Example for Free

Crevecoueur’s What is an American Essay Crevecoueur, in his essay ‘What is an American’ attempts to carve out a unique identity for the ‘American’, an identity that would unify the dwellers of this sprawling country under one roof while at the same time it establishes its differences from Europe from where it derives most of its numbers. Crevecoueur describes the country as the great melting pot of the world, a place where a truly diverse set of people come together and forgetting religious, social, economic, national as well as linguistic differences are molten into one, that is, an American. The process of becoming one forgetting all differences involves the common pursuit of what has since then come to be known as ‘the American Dream’. America, the land of equality, liberty and opportunity welcomes every new arrival on its shores with open arms. The new arrival, in his/her turn, grateful for all that this new country has to offer, internalizes the American Dream, and in the midst of his/her pursuit of an honest, respectable, free and happy life becomes an American leaving his/her previous identity behind. The concept that is America has come a very long way from the time of Crevecoueur. Now, the ‘American’ identity in the guise of a ‘green card’ is perhaps the most sought after throughout the world. Being an ‘American’ is no longer just an opportunity to be grabbed freely, it is privileged bestowed upon the best and brightest from all over the world. However, some things never change. America still remains the great melting pot of the world. Even more so in the present, for unlike in Crevecouer’s times, it is not only the Europeans or different sects of Christianity that arrive at the shores of this ‘land of dreams’ but people from every possible nation and belonging to every possible religion co-habit in peace sharing in on the modern day versions of the ‘American Dream’.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Themes and Symbols in Poes The Masque (Mask) of the Red Death Essay

Themes and Symbols in The Masque of the Red Death  Ã‚     Ã‚   The literature of Edgar Allan Poe can either be viewed as extremely simple or incredibly complicated, and his short story "The Masque of The Red Death" is no exception. This story can either be viewed as a simple story of horror, with no deeper imbedded meanings, or it can be broken down into many symbols with several possible meanings. Perhaps this story tells of the struggle between man and death, perhaps it speaks of an author's struggles and dreams, or perhaps it was merely written as a tale of horror. Arguments can be made to support all of these overall themes, and there are even more points of view offered about the story that can be explored if someone wishes to find a view with which he or she can better understand or identify. One possible theme of the story is that it is nothing more than the imaginings of a dreaming mind. According to Richard Wilbur, this is partially shown through the geometry contained in the story. He states that, "Poe quite explicitly identifies regular angular forms with everyday reason, and the circle, oval, or fluid arabesque with otherworldly imagination" (269). If Poe used unusually shaped rooms to show dreams, and the supernatural, then with his description of the seven chambers being, "so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect" (qtd. In Wilbur 269), it would appear as though either a dream is in progress, or something supernatural is taking place. In this interpretation of the story, Poe is taken quite literally in some ways, such as his terming the lords and ladies at the costume ball as being "dr... ... to a reader personally, and give that person an opportunity to form an individual opinion over it. Works Cited Etienne, Louis. "The American Storytellers-Edgar Allan Poe." Affidavits of Genius. Ed. Jean Alexander. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1971.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   134-139. Halliburton, David. Edgar Allan Poe: A Phenomenological View. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973. Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Masque Of The Red Death." Bridges: Literature across Cultures. Eds. Gilbert H. Muller and John A. Williams. New York:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   McGraw-Hill, 1994. 495-498. Wilbur, Richard. "The House of Poe." The Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. Eric W. Carlson. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1966.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   269-277. Womack, Martha. "Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Masque of the Red Death.'" The Poe Decoder. Online. Internet. 20 May 1998.      

Monday, November 11, 2019

Traffic Movement in Lufthansa Airlines: a Supply Chain Perspective

Journal of Services Research Volume 10 Number 2 October 2010 – March 2011 FORECASTING THE PASSENGER TRAFFIC MOVEMENT IN LUFTHANSA AIRLINES: A SUPPLY CHAIN PERSPECTIVE Aniruddh Kr Singh Faculty of Management Studies University of Delhi, India. Debadyuti Das Associate Professor, Faculty of Management Studies University of Delhi, India. The Journal of IIMT FORECASTING THE PASSENGER TRAFFIC MOVEMENT IN LUFTHANSA AIRLINES: A SUPPLY CHAIN PERSPECTIVE Aniruddh Kr Singh Debadyuti DasThe present paper attempts to find out the forecasted passenger traffic movement of Lufthansa Airlines on quarterly basis at a global level by employing four forecasting methods namely moving average, exponential smoothing, Holt's model and Winter's model with the help of published data pertaining to passenger traffic movement of Lufthansa Airlines. The study has also found out the forecasting errors of all the four methods through Absolute error (AE), Mean squared error (MSE), Mean absolute deviation (MAD ) and Mean absolute percentage error (MAPE).The study also carried out the comparative analyses of the above forecasting methods in the light of the available data. The findings reveal that the forecasting errors are the least in case of Winter's model. Further the forecasted values suggested by Winter's model more closely resemble the observed data of passenger traffic movement of Lufthansa Airlines. This provides a valuable insight to the top management as regards formulation of suitable strategies for addressing the varying demand of passenger traffic movement.Few strategies in respect of both demand side and supply side options have been suggested with a view to improving the overall supply chain profit of Lufthansa Airlines. INTRODUCTION irlines industry across the globe is currently undergoing recession due to severe financial crisis faced by the major economies of the world. As per the estimates of International Air Transport Association (IATA), globally air travel has declin ed by 2. 9% and 1. 3% during September and October, 2008 respectively compared to the same months in the previous year.Segment-wise passenger traffic estimates provided by IATA further reveal that the Asia Pacific Carriers and North American Carriers registered a decline in passenger traffic flow by 6. 1% and 0. 9% respectively in October, 2008 compared to the same month in the previous year. African Carriers recorded the largest decline in traffic flow by 12. 9% in October, 2008 Journal of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011)  ©2010 by Institute for International Management and Technology. All Rights Reserved. A 4 Forecasting the Passenger compared to the same month in the previous year. The remaining segments namely European, Latin American and Middle Eastern Airlines experienced a moderate growth in its traffic flow to the tune of 1. 8%, 4. 5% and 3. 5% respectively in October, 2008 (IATA International traffic statistics, 2008a, 2008b). Howe ver, the financial crisis sweeping across the globe does not appear to have much negative impact on Lufthansa Airlines in respect of its passenger traffic flow till September, 2008 as revealed from the data provided in table 2a.A cursory observation into the table 2 further demonstrates that the passenger traffic flow in Lufthansa Airlines has been following a very systematic pattern since October, 2006 to September, 2008. There has been hardly any departure from the pattern observed in passenger traffic movement during the above period. Despite difficult market conditions, Lufthansa passenger Airlines was able to achieve a sales growth of 4. 2% and 0. 7% in September and October, 2008 respectively.It registered an increase in its passenger traffic flow in three major markets namely America (North/South), Asia/ Pacific, and Middle East & Africa both during September and October, 2008. American segment recorded a growth rate of 6. 9% and 1% during September and October, 2008 respecti vely. Asia/Pacific region exhibited an increasing trend of 8. 8% and 6% while Middle East and African region recorded an increasing trend of 2. 5% and 11% during September and October, 2008 respectively. Only European market experienced a declining trend to the tune of 0. 4% and 3% during the above periods (Lufthansa Investor Info, page 1, 2008).The above phenomenon has motivated us to apply the most popular and well-established forecasting methods with a view to finding out the forecasted demand of passenger traffic movement of Lufthansa Airlines for future periods. The main objective of the paper is to find out the quarterly forecasted demand of passenger traffic flow in Lufthansa Airlines at a global level with the help of moving average (MA), exponential smoothing (ES), Holt’s model and Winter’s model by making use of published data pertaining to passenger traffic movement in Lufthansa Airlines.In addition, the paper has also attempted to find out the most suitable forecasting model for the above problem by comparing the forecasting errors of the above four forecasting models obtained through absolute error (AE), mean squared error (MSE), mean Journal of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011) 65 Singh, Das absolute deviations (MAD) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). The following section provides a brief review of literature. Section 3 provides a brief overview of Lufthansa Airlines along with the recent data on passenger traffic movement.It contains a thorough analysis of forecasted passenger traffic movement by employing four forecasting methods and the comparative analysis of the same. Section 4 suggests few strategies for absorbing the varying nature of demand. The paper is concluded with a brief summary, potential contribution and limitations of the same. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Forecasting literature is replete with a number of studies ranging from simple time-series forecasting models to economet ric models as also the forecasting models employing artificial intelligence techniques etc.Researchers have employed the forecasting models with a view to finding out the forecasted demand of traffic for a particular period. However, the study findings reveal that there does not exist a single model which consistently outperforms other models in all situations. Quantitative forecasting methods can be categorized under three broad heads: (1) time-series modeling, (2) econometric models and (3) other quantitative models (Song and Li, 2008). Under time-series models, several techniques are available, e. g.Moving Average, Exponential Smoothing, Holt’s Model, Winter’s Model, ARIMA etc. (Makridakis et al, 2003). In time-series model, particular attention is paid to exploring the historic trends and patterns of the time-series involved and to predict the future of this series based on trends and patterns identified in the model. Since time-series models require only historica l observations of a variable, it is less costly in data collection and model estimation. However, these models cannot account for the changes in demand that might occur in different periods.The major advantages of econometric models over time-series models lie in their ability to analyze the causal relationships between the demand and its influencing factors (Song and Li, 2008; Makridakis et al, 2003). It is possible for econometric models to take into consideration several variables together, for example, air fare charged by an airline, competitive fare offered by other airlines, promotional campaign, perceived security threat, price and income elasticity of Journal of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011) 6 Forecasting the Passenger demand etc. However, it is difficult and costly to collect data on each individual variable, incorporate the same into the model and explain its contribution towards the dependent variable. A number of new quantitati ve forecasting methods, predominantly Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, have emerged in forecasting literature. The main advantage of AI techniques is that it does not require any preliminary or additional information about data such as distribution and probability (Song and Li, 2008).Table 1 provides a brief overview of some related works pertaining to forecasting and traffic movement in airlines. Table 1: Brief Overview of Few Works Relating to Traffic Movement in Airlines Author Choo and Mokhtarian (2007) Contribution Developed a conceptual model in a comprehensive framework, considering causal relationships among travel, telecommunications, land use, economic activity and socio-demographics and explored the aggregate relationships between telecommunications and travel using structural equation modeling of national time-series data spanning 1950-2000 in the US.Proposed an artificial neural network (ANN) structure for seasonal time-series forecasting. Results found by the p roposed ANN model were compared with the traditional statistical models which reveal that the prediction error of the proposed model is lower than the traditional models. The proposed model is especially suitable when the seasonality in time-series is very strong. Developed a methodology for assessing the future route network and flight schedule at a medium-sized European airport.The existing origin and destination demand from the base airport across the world is considered. In addition, the growth rates by country or region is also taken into account. The future origin and destination demand in then converted into route traffic subject to a threshold for direct service. Where demand falls below this level, traffic is reallocated via various appropriate hubs. Applied Static-regression trend-fitting model for the purpose of forecasting future tourism demand in North Cyprus.Applied different types of time-series forecasting modeling with reference to China and compared the forecasting accuracy of the models. Applied different types of time-series forecasting modeling with reference to Australia for the purpose of forecasting business tourism and compared the forecasting accuracy of the models. Employed autoregressive distributed lag model (ADLM) for the purpose of forecasting tourism demand at Greece.Hamzacebi (2008) Dennis (2002) Bicak, Altinay and Jenkins (2005) Kulendran and Shan (2002) Kulendran and Witt (2003) Dritsakis and Athanasiadia (2000) THE CASE OF LUFTHANSA AIRLINES Deutsche Lufthansa (Lufthansa), the third largest airlines of Europe, is the world’s fifth largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried and operating services to 209 destinations in 81 countries. It has the 6th largest passenger airline fleet in the world.Lufthansa is headquartered in Cologne, Germany with its main base and primary traffic hub at Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt and a second hub at Munich International Airport. Lufthansa has built a premium b rand synonymous with quality, innovation, reliability, competence and safety despite operating in a tough market where cost cutting is commonplace. Lufthansa founded the world’s first multilateral airline grouping, ‘Star Alliance’ along with Air Canada, SAS, Thai Airways and United Airlines.At the same time, the airline invested in the most advanced passenger aircrafts and in 1999 it embarked on a vast IT programme that would transform the revenue and profit of its passenger Journal of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011) 67 Singh, Das airline business (Lufthansa, Wikipedia, 2008). However, estimating the demand of passenger traffic for a particular period has always been the principal determinant in generating revenue for the airline. Table 2a shows the passenger traffic movement in Lufthansa (excluding the number in Swiss Airlines) Airlines for the period during October, 2006 to September, 2008.Table 2 (a): Monthly Traffic F low for the Last Two Years Traffic Year – Month Oct-06 Nov-06 Dec-06 Jan-07 Feb-07 Mar-07 Apr-07 May-07 Jun-07 Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07 Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08 Aug-08 Sep-08 Passenger traffic (in thousands) 4936 4327 3969 3851 3820 4668 4635 4991 5003 5241 5067 5193 5241 4604 4132 4141 4223 4625 5031 5152 5203 5171 4883 5164 2006 Q- 4 2007 Q- 1 2007 Q- 2 2007 Q- 3 2007 Q- 4 2008 Q- 1 2008 Q- 2 2008 Q- 3 13232000 12339000 14629000 15501000 13977000 12989000 15386000 15218000Table 2 (b): Quarterly Data of Passenger Quarters Passenger traffic Source of data: Key data, Lufthansa Investor Relations, 2008; Lufthansa Investor Info, page 2, 2008 The monthly passenger traffic shown in table 2 (a) has been utilized to calculate the quarterly data of passenger traffic for the last two years Journal of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011) 68 Forecasting the Passenger (from Quarter 4, 2006 to Quarter 3, 2008) w hich has been shown in table 2 (b).With the help of these quarterly data of passenger traffic for the last two years, we have attempted to find out the forecasted values of passenger traffic movement by employing four forecasting methods namely 4-period Moving Average, Simple Exponential Smoothing, Holt’s Model and Winter’s Model. Table 3 presents the forecasted values through 4-quarter moving average while table 4 shows the forecasted data through simple exponential smoothing. Table 5 and 6 shows the forecasting through Holt’s model along with forecasting errors.Table 7 through 10 reveals, in detail, the forecasted demand of the passenger traffic flow by employing Winter’s Model. Table 10 also includes the forecasting errors. The exercise reveals that the forecasting errors are the lowest in case of Winter’s Model which are indicated by the values of AE, MSE, MAD and MAPE. Moreover, the quarterly forecasted values suggested by Winter’s Mode l closely follow historical pattern which is clearly depicted in figure 1. FORECASTING THROUGH 4-PERIOD MOVING AVERAGE (MA) Moving Average method is generally employed in a situation in which only level, i. e. eseasonalized demand is present and neither trend nor seasonality is observed. We took the average traffic flow of four quarters starting from the 4th quarter of 2006 and continued the exercise till the 3 rd quarter of 2008 for the purpose of finding out the forecasted passenger traffic movement in the immediate following quarter. Table 3 presents the forecasted values of passenger traffic movement through four-quarter MA method. In the same table, the values of forecasting errors measured in terms of AE, MSE, MAD and MAPE are also shown. Journal of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011) 9 Singh, Das Table 3: Forecasting through 4-Period Moving Average & Forecasting Errors Period(t) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Quarters Traffic (D) Level (L) Forecast (F) Four Period Moving Average Method Absolute Error Mean Squared Error Error (E) (AE) (MSE) Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) 2006 Q- 4 13232000 2007 Q- 1 12339000 2007 Q- 2 14629000 2007 Q- 3 15501000 13925250 2007 Q- 4 13977000 14111500 13925250 2008 Q- 1 12989000 14274000 14111500 2008 Q- 2 15386000 14463250 14274000 2008 Q- 3 15218000 14392500 14463250 -51750 1122500 -1112000 -754750 51750 1122500 1112000 754750 2678062500 6. 31342E+11 8. 3076E+11 7. 67219E+11 51750 587125 762083. 3333 760250 % Error MAPE Forecasted Traffic F9=F10=F11=F12=14392500 0. 37025113 0. 37025113 8. 64192779 4. 50608946 7. 22734954 5. 41317615 4. 95958733 5. 29977895 Formula used Systematic demand = Level Lt= (Dt + Dt-1+†¦.. Dt-n+1)/N Ft+1=Lt Ft+n=Lt (Chopra and Meindl, 2007) FORECASTING THROUGH EXPONENTIAL SMOOTHING (ES) Like moving average method, exponential smoothing is also used in a situation, in which only level is observed. However, ES attempts to smoothen the fluctuations observed in demand data o f different periods through smoothing constant (alpha).We first calculated the level of passenger traffic flow of the initial period by taking the average of actual traffic flow for the last eight quarters, which has been considered as the forecasted value of passenger traffic flow for quarter 1. Table 4 demonstrates the forecasted values through simple ES. The same table also contains the values of forecasting errors expressed in terms of AE, MSE, MAD and MAPE. Journal of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011) 70 Forecasting the Passenger Table 4: Forecasting through Simple Exponential Smoothing & Forecasting Errors Period(t) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 % Error 7. 0479897 13. 9977916 5. 02789835 9. 89599461 1. 02611209 8. 60018261 9. 04478131 7. 12621269 2006 Q- 4 2007 Q- 1 2007 Q- 2 2007 Q- 3 2007 Q- 4 2008 Q- 1 2008 Q- 2 2008 Q- 3 MAPE 7. 00479897 10. 5012953 8. 67682963 8. 98162087 7. 39051912 7. 5921297 7. 79965136 7. 71547153 Formula used Systematic de mand = Level Ft+1=Lt Ft+n=Lt Lt+1=alpha(Dt+1)+(1-alpha)Lt alpha=0. 1 Forecasted Traffic F9=F10=F11=F12=14241980 13232000 12339000 14629000 15501000 13977000 12989000 15386000 15218000 Quarters Traffic (D) Level (L) 14158875 14066187. 5 13893468. 75 13967021. 8 14120419. 69 14106077. 72 13994369. 95 14133532. 95 14241979. 66 14158875 14066187. 5 13893468. 75 13967021. 88 14120419. 69 14106077. 72 13994369. 95 14133532. 95 926875 1727187. 5 -735531. 25 -1533978. 1 143419. 688 1117077. 72 -1391630. 1 -1084467 926875 1727187. 5 735531. 25 1533978. 125 143419. 6875 1117077. 719 1391630. 053 1084467. 048 8. 59097E+11 1. 92114E+12 1. 46109E+12 1. 68409E+12 1. 35139E+12 1. 33413E+12 1. 42021E+12 1. 38969E+12 926875 1327031. 25 1129864. 583 1230892. 969 1013398. 313 1030678. 214 1082242. 762 1082520. 98 Forecast (F) Simple Exponential Smoothing Method Absolute Error Error (E) (AE) Mean Squared Error (MSE) Mean Average Deviation (MAD) (Chopra and Meindl, 2007) FORECASTING THROUGH HOLT'S MODEL We carried out a regression analysis wherein Time period was considered on X-axis and passenger traffic data was taken on Y-axis in order to find out the initial level and trend. Holt's model, also known as trend-corrected exponential smoothing, is applicable in a situation, in which level and trend are observed in the demand data. However, seasonality is not considered in Holt's model.We used the â€Å"Linest Function†of Microsoft Excel to calculate the values of L0 and T0, which is shown in table 5. Table 5: Regression to Find Initial Level and Trend for Holt's Model x (Period) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 270154. 7619 T0 y (Traffic) 13232000 12339000 14629000 15501000 13977000 12989000 15386000 15218000 12943178. 57 L0 Journal of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011) 71 Singh, Das Once the initial values of level of trend are found, the subsequent values of the level and trend of each period are iteratively calculated following Holt's model which is shown in table 6.This finally helps in finding out the forecasted values of passenger traffic movement as per Holt's model, which is shown in table 6. Table 6 also reveals the forecasting errors. Table 6: Forecasting through Holt's Model Period(t) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2006 Q- 4 2007 Q- 1 2007 Q- 2 2007 Q- 3 2007 Q- 4 2008 Q- 1 2008 Q- 2 2008 Q- 3 13232000 12339000 14629000 15501000 13977000 12989000 15386000 15218000 Quarters Traffic (D) Trend(T) 270528. 095 Level (L) 13215200 Forecast (F) 13213333. 33 13485728. 1 13618648. 82 13987484. 49 14436906. 91 14679788. 95 14765767 15095251. 1 Error (E) -18666. 67 1146728. 1 -1010351 -1513516 459906. 91 1690788. 9 -620233 -122748. 1 Absolute Error (AE) 18666. 66667 1146728. 095 1010351. 181 1513515. 506 459906. 9118 1690788. 949 620232. 9957 122748. 0864 T8=269916. 6 15377443 15647360 15917276 16187193 Formula used Systematic demand = Ft+1=Lt+T t alpha =0. 1 Beta = 0. 2 Lt+1 = alpha(D t+1)+(1-alpha)(Lt+T t) T t+1= beta(Lt+1-Lt)+(1-beta)Tt Lev el + Trend Ft+n =Lt+nT t Mean Squared Error (MSE) 348444444. 4 6. 57667E+11 7. 78714E+11 1. 15672E+12 9. 67677E+11 1. 28286E+12 1. 15455E+12 1. 01211E+12 270154. 762 12943178. 7 247593. 533 13371055. 29 267800. 557 13719683. 94 298070. 867 14138836. 04 288872. 729 14390916. 22 255056. 95 267461. 61 14510710. 05 14827790. 3 269916. 571 15107526. 72 Mean Average Deviation (MAD) 18666. 66667 582697. 381 725248. 6476 922315. 3622 829833. 6721 973326. 2183 922884. 3294 822867. 299 % Error 0. 141072148 9. 293525369 6. 906495187 9. 763986233 3. 290455117 13. 0170833 4. 031151668 0. 806598018 MAPE 0. 141072148 4. 717298758 5. 447030901 6. 526269734 5. 879106811 7. 068769558 6. 634824146 5. 90629588 L8=15107527 F9 F10 F11 F12 Forecasted Traffic Chopra and Meindl, 2007) FORECASTING THROUGH WINTER'S MODEL Winter’s model, also known as trend and seasonality-corrected ES, is generally employed in a situation in which all characteristic features of demand data, i. e. level (Lt), trend (Tt) and seasonality (St) are observed. The actual demand (Dt), being seasonal in nature, is transformed into deseasonalized demand (Ddt ). The deseasonalized demand data and corresponding time periods are employed to run regression analysis in order to calculate the initial level (L0) and trend (T0) which is shown in table 7.The values of L0 and T0 are then used to find out the estimated deseasonalized demand (Dt) of passenger traffic of different time periods. Seasonal factors for each period are calculated using the formula Dt /(Dt) as shown in table 8. Journal of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011) 72 Forecasting the Passenger Table 7: Regression Analysis for Finding out the Deseasonalized Demand X (Period) 3 4 5 6 140439. 5 Y (Deseasonalized demand)(Ddt) 14018375 14192750 14368630 14427880 13619931 T0 L0 Table 8: Calculation of Seasonal Factors for Winter's ModelPeriod(t) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2006 Q- 4 2007 Q- 1 2007 Q- 2 2007 Q- 3 2007 Q- 4 2008 Q- 1 2008 Q- 2 2008 Q- 3 13232000 12339000 14629000 15501000 13977000 12989000 15386000 15218000 14018375 14192750 14368630 14427880 13760370. 5 13900810 14041249. 5 14181689 14322128. 5 14462568 14603007. 5 14743447 0. 961602015 0. 887646116 1. 041858846 1. 093029187 0. 97590243 0. 898111594 1. 053618578 1. 032187385 Quarters Actual demand (Dt ) Deseasonalized demand (Ddt) Dt =L+Tt Seasonal factors (Dt / D t) Subsequently seasonality (St) is recalculated for each period as per Winter's model which is shown in table 9.Level and trend of each period are also iteratively calculated following Winter's model which have been mentioned in detail in table 9. Finally table 10 demonstrates the forecasted data of passenger traffic flow along with forecasting errors. Journal of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011) 73 Singh, Das Table 9: Determination of Level, Trend and Seasonal Factors (Winter's Model) Period(t) Quarters Actual Traffic (Dt) Deseasonalized demand (Ddt) Estimated deseasonalized demand (Dt) 13760370. 5 13900810 14018375 14192750 14368630 14427880 14041249. 5 14181689 14322128. 14462568 14603007. 5 14743447 Seasonality St Level(L) Trend(T) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 2006 Q- 4 2007 Q- 1 2007 Q- 2 2007 Q- 3 2007 Q- 4 2008 Q- 1 2008 Q- 2 2008 Q- 3 13232000 12339000 14629000 15501000 13977000 12989000 15386000 15218000 0. 968752222 0. 892878855 1. 047738712 1. 062608286 0. 968072702 0. 892415518 1. 047252432 1. 065603208 0. 968770988 0. 892874843 1. 047722994 1. 062255808 13619931 13755292. 34 13891430. 02 14027555. 72 14187811. 57 14334567. 79 14480348. 88 14626058. 49 14744278 140439. 5 139931. 6844 139552. 284 139209. 6254 141314. 2474 141858. 4444 142250. 709 142596. 999 140158. 8902 Table 10: Forecasting through Winter's Model and the Forecasting Errors Forecast(F) 13330389. 5 12406751. 72 14700803. 33 15053722. 24 13871635. 54 12918987. 41 15313552. 98 15737526. 24 Error(E) 98389. 50148 67751. 71749 71803. 33314 -447 277. 7569 -105364. 4571 -70012. 58968 -72447. 01855 519526. 2416 Absolute Error(AE) 98389. 50148 67751. 71749 71803. 33314 447277. 7569 105364. 4571 70012. 58968 72447. 01855 519526. 2416 Mean Squared Error (MSE) 9680494002 7135394612 6475502625 54870974917 46117113697 39247888533 34390843099 63830427174 Mean Average Deviation (MAD) 98389. 0148 83070. 60949 79314. 85071 171305. 5772 158117. 3532 143433. 226 133292. 3392 181571. 577 % Error 0. 743572411 0. 549085967 0. 490828718 2. 885476788 0. 753841719 0. 539014471 0. 470863243 3. 413893032 MAPE 0. 743572411 0. 646329189 0. 594495699 1. 167240971 1. 084561121 0. 993636679 0. 91895476 1. 230822044 L8=14407445 T8=3284577 Formula used Systematic component of demand =(level+demand)*seasonal factor Ft+1 = (Lt+T t)St+1 Ft+i=(Lt+iTt)St+i L t+1 = alpha (Dt+1/St+1)+(1-alpha)(Lt+Tt) T t+1= Beta (Lt+1 – Lt) + (1- Beta)T t St+p+1= gamma (Dt+1/Lt+1) + (1-gamma)St+1 Alpha = 0. 5 beta=0. 1 gamma=0. 1 Forecasted traffic F9 F10 F11 F12 14419 610. 62 13415083. 6 15888462. 17 16257733. 32 (Chopra and Meindl, 2007) COMPARISON AMONG FOUR FORECASTING METHODS The following figure gives an interesting revelation regarding the behaviour of forecasted data by comparing the quarterly forecasted demand of passenger traffic obtained through all four methods. Journal of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011) 74 Forecasting the Passenger Historical traffic Forecasted traffic Moving Average Simple exponential smoothing Holt’s Model Winter’s ModelFigure 1: Comparison among four forecasting methods The portion of the graph before the vertical line indicates historical data while the portion of the graph after the line is the forecasted data. The forecasted data of the model graph (Winter's Model) replicates the historical data. It indicates a positive trend as well as seasonality. FORMULATION OF SUITABLE STRATEGIES FOR ABSORBING VARYING DEMAND Keeping in view the overall objective of impr oving the supply chain profit, the management should explore all possible alternatives of both demand side as well as supply side options.It is observed that demand for passenger traffic movement is not uniform throughout the year. In order to level the demand, the management of the airlines can undertake the following well-established measures: †¢ †¢ Formulate suitable marketing strategies to create new demand in the lean period. During peak periods, when the demand will exceed capacity, the management needs to offer seats to the customers who will pay the highest fares. Of course, other customers need to be motivated and informed that they would probably be charged less fare, if they undertake their trip at some other period.Shift some proportion of demand from peak period to lean period by offering the customers a reasonable rate of discount in the lean period. Of course, the cost/benefit analysis of this exercise has to be thoroughly examined beforehand. †¢ Journa l of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011) 75 Singh, Das †¢ Considering the lean periods of the airline in different routes and destinations, the top management needs to explore new destinations which may appear to be very attractive from the perspective of the customers.Accordingly the management can withdraw some of the flights from the existing underloaded routes and ply the same in the new routes. Alternatively the management needs to examine the passenger traffic data of different routes on monthly/quarterly basis. If it is found that during the same period, some destinations experience very high demand while others have low demand, the management may withdraw some of the flights from underutilized routes and introduce the same in the heavily loaded routes. †¢In all cases, the detailed cost/benefit analysis of different alternatives is to be thoroughly examined. Then a particular course of a strategy or a combination of strategies m ay be adopted by the management. CONCLUSION The present study has attempted to find out the quarterly forecasted demand of passenger traffic flow of Lufthansa Airlines by employing the four forecasting methods, viz. moving average, simple exponential smoothing, Holt's model and Winter's model. The forecasted data suggested by Winter's model reflect the historical pattern in a better manner than three other forecasting methods.This gives a valuable insight to the managers regarding formulation of appropriate strategies in order to absorb varying nature of demand in different quarters. The same kind of study can be replicated in other airlines with suitable modifications. Of course, the present work have not taken into consideration important factors, for example, the prevailing slowdown in the global economy, perceived security threat in the wake of terrorist strikes at different parts of the globe etc.Moreover, the study has considered the total passenger traffic movement of Lufthan sa as a whole and has not paid attention to an individual market segment. This may not provide a clear picture to the management regarding increase or decrease in traffic flow in a particular segment. Future study should take care of this aspect. Journal of Services Research, Volume 10, Number 2 (October 2010 – March 2011) 76 Forecasting the Passenger The implications of varying demand on supply side need to be thoroughly examined and accordingly suitable strategies should be adopted for improving the profit across the whole supply chain.REFERENCES Bicak, H. A. , Altinay, M. & Jenkins, H. (2005) ‘Forecasting tourism demand of North Cyprus', Journal of Hospitality and Leisure Marketing, Vol. 12, pp. 87-99. Chopra, S and Meindl, P (2007) Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning & Operation, 3rd edition, Pearson Education, New Delhi. Choo S. and Mokhtarian, P. L. (2007) ‘Telecommunications and travel demand and supply: Aggregate structural equation models for the US', Transportation Research Part A, 41 pp. 4 -18. Dennis, N. P. S. 2002) ‘Long-term forecasts and flight schedule pattern for a medium-sized European airport', Journal of Air Transport Management, Vol. 8, pp. 313-324. Dritsakis, N. and Athanasiadis, S. (2000) ‘An econometric model of tourist demand: The case of Greece', Journal of Hospitality and Leisure Marketing, Vol. 7, pp. 39-49. Hamzacebi, C. (2008) ‘Improving artificial neural networks' performance in seasonal time series forecasting', Information Sciences, Vol. 178, pp. 4550-4559. IATA International traffic statistics, 2008a, Facts & Figures – 2008 Traffic Results, Montreal, Quebec, viewed 30 November,

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Nonverbal Communication and Service Users

Be able to meet the communication and language needs, wishes and preferences of individuals 1. Find out an individual’s communication and language needs, wishes and preferences. 2. Demonstrate communication methods that meet an individual’s communication needs, wishes and preferences. 3. Show how and when to seek advice about communication. It is always important to find out about each individual’s particular communication and language needs, wishes and preferences.Effective communication happens when the right method is used to send a message, so it can be received and understood. Health and social care practitioners need to know about a range of communication methods. They should also be skilled at identifying the communication and language needs, wishes and preferences of the people with whom they work and interact. Health and social care settings are used by people from a diverse range of backgrounds who will want to communicate in different ways.Finding out about each individual’s language needs, wishes and preferences is an important part of my role. I can do this by: †¢asking people whether they or their relatives have particular language or communication needs †¢reading reports and notes about service users that provide information on speech and language issues, learning difficulties, disabilities (e. g. hearing or visual impairment) or physical conditions (e. g. troke, cleft palate) that may affect their ability to communicate †¢being aware that an individual’s culture, ethnicity and nationality may affect their language preferences and needs †¢observing the people who use my setting to see how they use their communication and language skills †¢asking my supervisor/mentor, senior staff and specialist professionals such as speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and social workers for information, advice and support about how best to communicate with adults who have special comm unication needs.Hearing impaired people Make sure that my face can be seen clearly,face the light and the person I am speaking to at all times, speak clearly and slowly – repeat and rephrase if necessary, minimise background noise,use my eyes, facial expressions and gestures to communicate, where appropriate, do not be tempted to shout into a person’s ear or hearing aid. Visually impaired people Speak in the same way as I would to a sighted person – not louder or more slowly! say who I am in my greeting as my voice won’t necessarily be recognised even if I have met the person before, always introduce other people who are with me and explain what is going on if a visually impaired adult joins me in a group, let the visually impaired person know when I am about to do something that is likely to affect communication (such as leave the room or move away), end conversations clearly and let the person know that I amleaving – do not just walk away, ask th e person if they need any particular help – to sit down or to move about, for example – but do not assume that this is always necessary or wanted.Health and social care practitioners use two main types of communication as part of their work roles. These are verbal and non-verbal communication. Verbal communication is based on the use of words. Health and social care practitioners need effective verbal skills to: ? obtain information from colleagues, service users and others who use the setting ? respond to questions ?contribute to team meetings ?give feedback and report observations about service users ? provide support to service users, relatives and colleagues ? eal with problems and complaints ?write notes and reports Non-verbal communication occurs when a person uses their body, behaviour and appearance to communicate with others. For example, an individual’s body language may tell a health or social care practitioner that they are uncomfortable or need to g o to the toilet even when they say they’re okay. Non-verbal communicationWhat does it involve? Examples Eye contactLooking another person directly in the eyesShort or broken eye contact can express nervousness, shyness or mistrust.Long unbroken eye contact can express interest, attraction or hostility. Touch Physically touching or holding a personHolding someone’s hand Placing a hand on a person’s arm or shoulder to reassure them Physical gesturesDeliberate movements of the hands to express meaningThumbs-up gesture to show agreement or pleasure Shaking a fist to show anger or aggression Body language Facial expressionMovements of the face that express a person’s feelingsSmiling FrowningProximityThe physical closeness between people during interactionsBeing very close may be reassuring and may be seen as accepting the person. It might also make the person feel uncomfortable and threatened. People need less personal space (increased proximity) when they hav e a close, trusting relationship. To be an effective communicator in my work setting, I need to be able to use methods of communication that meet each individual’s needs, wishes and preferences. My goal is always to ensure that the messages I send can be received and understood.Perhaps I will be aware that I am struggling to communicate effectively with somebody. In situations like these, I should seek advice and obtain support. I can do this by: ?talking to my supervisor, mentor or line manager about the difficulty – ask for their advice about how to deal with the problem ? talking to communication or language support specialists (teachers, psychologists or speech and language therapists) who work at or spend time in my work setting.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Test Taking Tips for Parents to Help Your Kids

Test Taking Tips for Parents to Help Your Kids With increased emphasis on standardized tests in todays schools, helping a child navigate the demands of taking tests is a necessary task almost every parent has to face. It may be your child taking all the tests, but youre the one who needs to help him through it. Here are some test-taking tips for parents to help you get your child ready. Test Taking Tips For Children Tip #1: Make attendance a priority, especially on days that you know standardized testing will be administered or there is a test in the classroom. Though its important for your child to be in school as many days as possible, making sure hes there when the test is taken helps to ensure he wont lose more learning time because he has to make up a test during school. Tip #2: Make a note of test days on the calendar from spelling quizzes to big high-stakes tests. That way both you and your child know whats coming and will be prepared.​​ Tip #3: Look over your childs homework daily and check for understanding. Subjects like science, social studies and math often have cumulative exams at the end of units or chapters. If your child is struggling with something now, it wont be easy for her to have time to try again to learn it just before the test. Tip #4: Avoid pressuring your child and provide him with encouragement. Few children want to fail, and most will try their hardest to do well. Being afraid of your reaction to a bad test grade can increase anxiety, which makes careless mistakes more likely. Tip #5: Confirm that your child will be receiving any pre-determined accommodations during tests. These accommodations are detailed in his IEP or 504 plan. If he doesnt have one but needs some assistance, make sure youve communicated with his teacher about his needs. Tip #6: Set a reasonable bedtime and stick to it. Many parents underestimate the importance of a rested mind and body. Tired children have difficulty focusing and are easily flustered by challenges. Tip #7: Make sure your child has enough time to wake up fully before he has to go to school. Just as rest is important, so is having enough time to get his brain engaged and in gear. If his test is first thing in the morning, he cant afford to spend the first hour of school groggy and unfocused. Tip #8: Provide a high-protein, healthy, low-sugar breakfast for your child. Kids learn better on full stomachs, but if their stomachs are full of sugary, heavy foods that will make them sleepy or slightly queasy, its not much better than an empty stomach. Tip #9: Talk to your child about how the test went, what he did well and what he would have done differently. Think of it as a mini-debriefing or brainstorming session. You can talk about test-taking strategies after the fact as easily as beforehand. Tip #10: Go over the test with your child when he gets it back or when you receive the scores. Together you can look at any mistakes he made and correct them so he knows the information for the next test. After all, just because the test is done doesnt mean he can forget everything he learned! And perhaps most important, watch your child for signs of stress and anxiety, which is an all-too-common occurrence among children today. The stress can be caused not just by tests and test-taking, but by increased academic demands in elementary school as well as increased amounts of homework and decreased time spent on stress-relieving activities and recess. Parents can help by keeping a close eye on their children and stepping in when they see signs of stress.

Monday, November 4, 2019

7 Eleven PEST Analysis

7 Eleven PEST Analysis 1 CompanyBackground (7-Eleven) 7-Eleven was founded in Dallas, Texas in 1927. It is the world's largest convenience store operator, with over 21,000 units worldwide, the largest in the United States. Independent petrol retailers. The name of the Seven Eleven began in 1946 when the store was open from 7 am to 11 pm. Today, offering customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week services is the cornerstone of the Seven - Eleven business. 2 Customer-Friendly Elements 7-Eleven is focused on meeting customers' needs by offering fair and affordable, fresh and high-quality products and services widely, quickly conducting transactions and cleaning swiftly I'm leaving. Pest Analysis Pest analysis is used to identify external forces that affect the organization. This is a simple analysis of the organization's political, economic, social and technical environment. PEST analysis including legal and environmental factors is called PESTLE analysis. The first element of the politica l PEST analysis is the study of political factors. Political factors have various effects on organizations. Political factors can create the following benefits and opportunities. Sybil Abstract The Sybil Abstracts and Learning Guide contains comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand this book. This study guide has the following section. This detailed literature summary also includes discussion topics from Flora Rheta Schreiber and Sybil Free Quiz. Sybil is the true story of Sybil Isabel Dorsett. He developed 16 different characters in response to a very painful childhood. Sybil's story is one of the most convincing cases. The following pest analysis was created for each of the three markets. Pest analysis represents political, economic, socio-cultural and technical environment. We will use pest analysis to guide us to function based on these change categories. Furthermore, by making good use of the analysis, the company can avoid actions that have been accused of failing from the beginning for reasons that can not be managed. The following is a pest analysis to capture the markets in Dubai and London. The purpose of PEST analysis is to identify opportunities and threats in wider operational environment. Companies are trying to utilize opportunities while mitigating potential threats. Basically, PEST analysis leads to strategic decisions. The main elements of PEST analysis are as follows. Ordinarily, companies try to exploit opportunities that are consistent with internal strengths; that is, companies can match any benefits with external opportunities. If you want to take advantage of opportunities in the field of weakness, you may need to build up your abilities. A vulnerability that matches an external threat represents a vulnerability, and an enterprise may need to develop an emergency response plan

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Economic Inequalities in The United States Research Paper

Economic Inequalities in The United States - Research Paper Example The wish of most Americans is to bring the economic equality to an end. The society has been involved in the search of the possible social solutions to the increased inequality. The possible solutions include reducing taxes on the income of the low class group, increased taxes on the wealth and income of the high class group and adjusting the social security tax. Social nature of the problem Economic inequality exists in the United States due individuals having varied amount of money, power or even prestige. This problem creates different social classes among the people. Individuals in higher classes enjoy higher income and have continued to accumulate their wealth, while the lower class individuals in the society incur higher rates of taxes on their low income. As inequality in terms of resources widens, individuals with more wealth have become powerful and are be able to attain their goals. They will be able to accomplish their vested interests at the expense of the lower social cl ass individuals. They are also influential in the society and are powerfully in making different decisions. Inequality in income results from several causes, some of these causes are relatively clear, others unknown and others are still under dispute. The basic cause of household income inequality at a structural level is variations in the yearly hours worked per household. It can be broken down into the product of the total number of workers, the yearly weeks worked and the weekly hours worked. This is a very significant factor among individuals in the lower class level. However, it remains minor among individuals who belong to the higher class. Beyond the total hours individuals have worked, income inequality arises out of; the variation of the income rates per hour and the income which has not been earned, these differences is mainly due to differences in the education level. Income inequality is common in the United States due to the variation of an individual position in terms of responsibility, its importance and the complexity. Income remains to be a common form of compensation. In most cases the market value is reduced by abundant supply hence, income is increased significantly by the possession of scarce skills. The most common source of income among the lower class individuals in America is not occupation but the government welfare. Causes of the problem There are several causes of economic inequality in the United States. These include; difference in the individual’s wealth and income, most individuals depends on the income they get from their jobs. Others however, benefits from both their job’s income and their wealth. The big problem is that those with higher sources of income get larger percentage of increase than those with little income. The wealthy are able to accumulate their wealth and income for several years unlike those with little income and no wealth. This creates a wide gap between the two groups of individuals. Those who are wealthy are in a position to vie for political offices and invest more money in order to win. They will also be able to interact with other individuals of the same class and who also have similar power and interests. Another cause of inequality in the capitalistic society is that there is an existing belief that the government influence has to be maintained at a minimal level (Sen and Foster1997). When the