The Concept of Globalisation and its Effect on International Businesse Assignment - 1

The Concept of Globalisation and its Effect on International Businesses - Assignment Example Starting off with the complex aspect of culture, the essay will then delve into further studies on globalization and international business with the help of relevant literature and applicable real-time cases. It is evident that globalization has and is constantly resulting in increased amounts of inter-cultural contact, increased pressure on organizations to exploit opportunities abroad and expand accordingly, and the consequent challenges of managing a culturally diverse workforce. Culture itself is an intangible but volatile entity that is constantly evolving and is manifested through shared values that are propagated between individuals in any particular society, thus forming group dynamics. Schein (2004) refers to these shared values as collective solutions that a group has reached, to align their internal abilities to be able to contend with external forces, and that have worked and have been passed on to newcomers into the group. These values are expressed in the group’s behavior, in terms of the way they do things, the clothes they wear – referred to as symbols, language(s) they speak etc (Buchanan and Huczynsky, 2004; Mullins, 2007; Schein, 2004). All of the above though is the collective representation of a group’s thinking process. Hofstede, however, distinguishes between collective and individual thinking, referring to these processes as ‘mental programming’ (1997; 2001), and argues that each individual member in a society has a personality influenced by the culture of his/her social environment apart from their own family. And as each individual develops their mental program determined by these factors, the collective programming of all these individuals put together distinguishes their group from others. This is evident when we discuss national cultures and associate people of certain nationalities with values and symbols unique to their culture(s).

Hewlett Packard Business Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Hewlett Packard Business - Research Paper Example Bill Hewlett together with Dave Packard started the company. The company derived its brand name from its co-founders Hewlett and Packard. The two individuals who founded the company had graduated together from Stanford University with enormous knowledge in manufacturing measuring and testing instruments. The first product to be produced by the company under its founders was an audio oscillator having the model 200A (HP Company, 1984). The product resulted in the innovations of the two individuals. The audio oscillator used a light bulb in an important portion of the circuit. The light bulb served as a resistor with stabilized temperature. The product competed effectively with other less stable oscillators in the market, sold above $ 200, but the company’s oscillator sold for only $ 54.40. One of the crucial early customers of the company was Walt Disney production. The movie production company purchased oscillators of Model 200B for testing Fantasound stereophonic sound while producing the movie, Fantasia. The Wired Magazine recognizes HP as the world’s first producer of personal computer in the year 1968 (Vermaat, 1996). Hewlett Packard called the personal computer a desktop calculator since; Bill Hewlett had the opinion that, if they called the personal computer, most customers would have rejected the product because it did not look like an IBM. The company became recognized world wide due to the variety of products that it provided. In 1972, the company introduced the first world recognized scientific electronic calculator. This handheld electronic calculator was known as HP-35. In 1974, the company introduced HP-65, which was a scientific programmable, handheld calculator. In 1979, the company developed the first alphanumeric and programmable calculator that was expandable. This was referred to as HP-41C (HP Company, 1984). As time passed, the company grew in innovations and introduced the first graphing and symbolic calculator, which came to be referred as HP-28C. Innovations later in 1984 introduced laser and inkjet printers for desktop use. The company also introduced scanners, used together with the desktop (Vermaat, 1996). These products have of late been developed to perform different functions together. For example, introduction of a single machine that can perform printing, scanning and photocopying. Hewlett Packard Emerging Products HP Company relies on innovations in order to create and introduce new products in the market. The company will always produce new products due to world’s demand in advancing in technology. The company has presently introduced slate 2, which is the company’s first tablet after it announced that it had no intentions of spinning off or selling its PC unit (www.hp.com). The new slate 2 comes with Windows 7 OS. The slate has a touch display capacity of 8.9 inches. The slate 2 is an improvement of slate 500, which HP released in 2010. Slate 2 has faster hardware than slate 50 0. The company has dropped the tablet’s starting price from $ 699 through bringing a cheap configuration of 32 GB storage in the market (Shah, 2011). The company has introduced the slate 2 worldwide; in the areas that the tablet has not landed, the tablet is going to be there soon. The coming years of HP’s tablets and Personal Computer revolve around Windows 8. The company will introduce Windows 8 tablet in the near future. Slate 2 utilization is based on Windows 7, but it is not clear whether there would be an upgrading with

A Neighbourhood study of Broughty ferry in Dundee,Scotland Essay

A Neighbourhood study of Broughty ferry in Dundee,Scotland - Essay Example This is done by utilising locally obtained information and national evidence from government statistics and reports. Basic description of the neighbourhood Broughty Ferry is situated on the eastern part of the City of Dundee, which is found on the shores of Firth of Tay in Scotland. Attaran and Sachs (2001) and Barnett and Whiteside (2000, p. 231), note that â€Å"Broughty Ferry is found in the eastern Scotland and has a population of approximately 13, 155 according to the latest population and housing census of Scotland.† The neighbourhood of Broughty Ferry is one that can best be described as a traditional setting with a lot of respect and prestige to customized cultural living. For example the people have their unique forms of music, dressing, dish and educational system (Barnett, 2006 and Bell et al, 2003). The suburb for example has three primary schools that almost every citizen of the suburb attends before going to high school. In their writings, Hummers-Pradier et al ( 2008) and Isaacs (2010) noted that â€Å"these schools are Barnhill Primary School, Forthill Primary School and Eastern Primary School.† Interestingly, all these primary schools feed the Grove Academy, which is a high school with candidates. The neighbourhood of Broughty Ferry is more of a village than a district. ... There also are highly welcoming sites just around Broughty Ferry for golfers and skiers in the St. Andrews and Cairngorms respectively. Perhaps knowing of the kind of welcoming destination their village poses to people all around Dundee and for that matter Scotland, the people present themselves as highly hospitable and welcoming folks. Archer (2003) and Arndt and Lewis (2000, p. 321), has it that â€Å"the rates of visits to the village has made the people one of the fastest learners in Scotland because they are always adapting to the new ways of living that suit their visitors.† Detailed description of key aspect and characteristic of the neighbourhood Employment The employment situation in Broughty Ferry can simply be described as impressive. This is in relation to the average employment rates of Dundee City and Great Britain in general. According to labour supply data from NOMIS for 2001, while the economically active population in Broughty Ferry made up 77.4% of the total population, the same number of economically active population for Dundee City was 68.2% whiles that of Great Britain was 74.0% (NOMIS, 2012). Of the percentages, those in employment in Broughty Ferry were 73.6% when the population of those in employment in Dundee city was 61.2% and those for Great Britain was 69.8% (Mayer et al, 2005and Nugent and Abolafia, 2006). Statistically, it can be said that a lot more of the economically active people in Broughty Ferry are gainfully employed and so have their own sources of income. It has been posited by Ogilvie (2011) and Ploeg et al, (2010 p. 134) â€Å"that the reason for this trend has largely been attributed to the varying economic and employment opportunities that exist in the village†. It is for instance known that of the total number of people

Value Chain Management Essay Example for Free

Value Chain Management Essay Explain how operations strategy is influenced by customer and business prospective and where in a standard value chain you would expect to see your chosen topic addressed. INTRODUCTION Every organization’s operations strategies are concerned with getting things done; ie producing merchandise for customers. However, most people believe that operations management is only concerned with short-term, day-to-day issues. In essence, all business organisations are concerned with how their business will survive and prosper in future. In contemporary terms, most business strategies are recognised with a plan as part of or a set of intentions that will set theirr long-term directions of their actions that are needed to ensure future organisational success. Thus, no matter how strong their plan is or how noble their intentions, are, any organisation’s strategy can only become a meaningful reality, in practice, if it’s operationally instigated. Every organisation’s operations are equally important because most organisational activity comprises the day-to-day activities within the operations function. It’s the process of daily actions of operations, when considered in their totality that constitute the organisation’s long-term strategic direction. The relationship between an organisation’s strategy and the operations involved is a key determinant of its ability to achieve long-term success or even survival. Organisational improvement is only likely to result if short-term operations activities are consistent with long-term strategies and hence, make a contribution to competitive advantage. The relationship between corporate operations and the other business functions is similarly important. The objective of the operations function is to produce goods and services required by customers whilst managing resources efficiently. This can then lead to conflicts within an organisation. Conflicts between operations and selling functions are likely to centre on the marketing aspect to ensure that operations concentrate on satisfying customers. Whilst this may seem enduring, marketing will usually want operations to suit customer needs under usual circumstances. Therefore, this is likely to lead to demands to produce  bigger volumes, more varieties, better quality, a faster response, and so on, all of which are likely to lead to less efficient operations. Conflicts within the operations, the accounting and finance functions, on the other hand, are likely to centre on the desire of accounting and finance to want operations to manage resources as efficiently as possible. This will pull operations in exactly the opposite direction of that desired by marketing. Conflicts within operations and the human resource management function are likely to centre on issues of recruitment, selection, training, management and the reward of those employed within operations. For example, operational managers may want to vary organisation-wide policies in order to meet local needs; a move likely to be resisted by human resource managers. The operations function lies at the heart of any organisation and interacts with all the other functions. As such, achieving agreement about what decision areas lie within the remit of operations, and what should be the basis of decision-making within operations is an essential part of ensuring the consistency of action over time necessary for a successful organisational strategy. OPERATIONS STRATEGY My introduction towards operational strategic purposes has highlighted the strategic importance of operations to organisational performance. The importance of operational strategy is essential to an organisation as this will determine the extent to which its business strategy can be implemented, but also as its operations can be a source of competitive advantage within any businesses value chain. First I will outline what exactly is meant by the term operations strategy. Slack et al, argues that an operations strategy concerns the pattern of strategic decisions and actions which set the role, objectives and activities of operations. His use of this term ‘pattern’ implies a consistency in strategic decisions and actions over time. This concept is consistent with a theorist guru, Henry Mintzberg’s view of strategy as being a ‘pattern in a stream of actions’ (Mintzberg and Waters, 1985). Henry Mintzberg, views strategy as being realised through a combination of deliberate and emergent actions. An organisation can have an intended strategy, perhaps as a set of strategic plans. However, only some  of his intended strategy may be realized through deliberate strategy. Some of the intentions may be unrealized. Strategies which take no regard of operational feasibility are more likely to have low marketing prospects, remaining merely as a set of intentions. Strategies may also emerge from actions taken within the organisations functions, which over time form a consistent pattern. Actions of this kind will, almost inevitably, arise from within the operations of the organisation. So, whether intentionally planned or otherwise, the business operations are bound to have a major impact on the formation of organisational strategy. It’s often said that strategy is an issue which is somehow separate from day-to-day organisational activities. If taken to extremes, this can result in strategies being regarded as some kind of cerebral activity performed by superior’s who need to be removed from day-to-day operational pressures. Theorists such as Mintzberg is amongst those who point out to the dangers of managers becoming detached from the basics of the enterprise. Mintzberg and Quinn (1991) call this the ‘don’t bore me with the operating details; I’m here to tackle the big issues’ syndrome. They caution that, ‘the big issues are rooted in little details’. Operational strategy, the processes and content: A. Operational strategy processes: How an organisation sets about developing appropriate operation strategies and B. Operational strategy content: What the key decision areas are and what needs to be addressed in developing any operational strategy. OPERATIONS STRATEGY PROCESS As discussed above, operational strategies have a vertical relationship in the corporate hierarchy within business and corporate strategies, and horizontally with the other functional strategies, mostly recognised within marketing strategies. Operations strategy might come about in a top-down or a bottom-up process with regard to business and corporate strategies. Similarly, an operations strategy might be developed in response to market requirements (i.e. market-led) or be based on the capabilities of its operational resources (i.e. operations-led). As this gives rise to four  perspectives on operation strategy (Slack and Lewis, 2002). Each perspective places a different emphasis on the nature of the operations strategy process. Top-down The top down perspective is the operations strategy which it comprises of, and is supportive of the organisation’s business purposes; an operations strategy that the organisation uses to realise its business strategy within any value chain. This concept follows in line with the perspective of the Hayes and Wheelwright stage 3 organisational strategy process. According to this theory, the process of developing an operations strategy would follow Skinner’s approach of identifying an operation’s ‘task’ (Skinner, 1969). The task for operations would be determined logically from the business strategy. Using Slack et al.’s, five operations performance objectives theory, as one way of articulating the operations task. For example, if the organisation’s business strategy involves the offering of low pricing, then the operation’s task should be one of achieving low costs in operations. If the business strategy is based on offering customers fast delivery, then the operations task should be one of achieving speed in operations, and so forth. In a multi-business organisation, the top-down perspective emphasises operations strategy being linked to corporate strategy via the business strategy of each business unit. This then raises the question of whether it is possible to talk of ‘corporate’ operations strategy. If corporate operations strategy means commonality, in all aspects of operations, then this would only be possible if each business unit has similar business strategies and similar operations tasks. (Johnson and Scholes, 1999) However, some theorists such as Hayes et al would argue that any corporate operational strategy does not mean that every facet of operations must be the same in each business unit. Rather, operations decisions are considered enormously at the corporate level with a view to meeting corporate strategic objectives. A failure to do this means that operations decisions are taken only at the level of the business unit, with a view to meeting needs of that business unit. The dangers of doing this have been pointed out by theories, who caution against letting the needs of the business unit dominate strategic thinking. This can lead to operational competences being confined  within individual business units, thereby restricting their future development, which includes preventing their spread to other business units and limiting opportunities for synergistic developments across the corporation. This can be particularly important in multi-site, multi-national enterprises. ( Prahlad and Hamel, 1990) Bottom-up The bottom-up perspective is one which sees the operations strategy as an element emerging through a series of actions and decisions taken over time within operations. These actions or decisions might at first seem to appear to be somewhat risky as operations managers respond to customer demands, seek to solve specific problems, copy good practices in other organizations, etc. However, they usually coincide over time to form a coherent pattern recognisable as an operations strategy. The actions then taken within this kind of strategy are likely to be characterized by a continuous series of sporadic improvements rather than the large one-off technologically led changes that require large capital investments in new plant and machinery. The bottom-up perspective is one where the organisation learns from its experiences, developing and enhancing its operational capabilities as operations managers try new things out in an almost experimental routine using their workplaces as a kind of ‘learning laboratory’ (Leonard-Barton, 1992). Easy Jet Case Study Although EasyJet only undertook its first flight in 1995, when it operated two routes (London Luton to Glasgow and Edinburgh), ten years later, the budget airline offered 212 routes to 64 European airports and transported over 29 million passengers in 2005. EasyJet now carries more passengers within Europe than British Airways. Analysts expect EasyJet and its Irish based rival Ryanair, to both overtake all traditional airlines to become the largest short-haul operators in Europe by the end of the decade. The Luton based airline is known as continuously expanding, recently announcing the purchase of a further 20 Airbus A319 planes to service the ever increasing number of routes it operates. In 2005 EasyJet carried up to 30 million  passengers, up from 25.7 million in 2004, making it a  £1.3 billion business! Despite record high fuel level costs, profits were up and around 10 per cent to  £68 million. Passenger numbers rose 21 per cent to 29.6 million and the load factor, indicating how many seats are filled, was 85.2 per cent, reflecting the airline’s popularity. The low cost lines like EasyJet have revolutionised the airline industry in Europe. Modelled on South West Airlines in the USA, these airlines have not only helped create a whole new market of cost-conscious travellers but have taken market share from established operators like British Airways and become the most profitable airlines in Europe. To be profitable, these airlines have to achieve low costs to match the low fares, which are the main attraction to their passengers. With its head office as a large tin shed adjacent to the main taxiway at unfashionable Luton Airport, all of EasyJet’s operations are aimed at minimising costs. This is done in a number of ways: Use of the Internet to reduce distribution costs. EasyJet sells around 95 per cent of all seats over the Internet. Its online booking system uses a variable pricing system to try to maximize load factors.(Prices start very low – sometimes free, and rise as seats are filled.) The fuller the aircraft the lower the unit cost of travel. (Scholes and Johnson,1999, pg12) Ticketless travel Passengers are emailed with their travel details and booking reference numbers. This helps reduce significantly the cost of issuing, distributing, processing and reconciling millions of tickets each year. Neither does EasyJet pre-assign seats on board. Passengers sit where they like. This eliminates an unnecessary complexity and speeds up passenger boarding. No free on board catering. Eliminating free catering on board reduces cost and unnecessary bureaucracy. Passengers can purchase food and refreshments on board. Efficient use of airports. EasyJet flies to the less crowded airports of smaller European cities and prefers the secondary airports in the major cities. These also have lower  landing charges and normally offer faster turnarounds as there are fewer air movements. EasyJet’s efficient ground operations enable them to achieve turnarounds of less than 30 minutes. This means EasyJet can achieve extra rotations on the high-frequency routes, maximising the utilization of aircraft. EasyJet’s ability to offer point-to point travel means that it does not have to worry about onward connections for passengers and their baggage, further simplifying its operations. Paperless operations. EasyJet have embraced the concept of their paperless office, with all its management and administration undertaken entirely on IT systems. These can be accessed through the use of servers from anywhere in the world thereby enhancing flexibility in the running of the airline. (Scholes and Johnson,1999, pg12) Many of the manufacturing practices that are now considered leading edge such as JIT, TQM, Statistical Process Control, were developed in just; such a fashion by Japanese manufacturers responding to the constraints placed upon them in the aftermath of the Second World War. One of the problems associated with this perspective is that the organization may not recognize what its operations strategy is. Mills et al. (1998) have developed a technique that aims to overcome this by enabling managers to construct a visual representation of operations strategy as realized. It does this by tapping into the organization’s collective memory, whether written or verbal, to map all of their most significant events in operations over the previous number of years. This should enable managers to recognise the patterns that now make up the existing operation’s strategy. Market-led The market-led perspective is one where the operations strategy is developed in response to the market environment in which the organisation operates. There’s a number of approaches within operations strategy that suggest how this might be done. The best known of these theorists is that of Terry Hill (1985). He suggests that an organisation’s operations strategy should be linked to its marketing strategy by considering how its products and  services win orders in the market place. He believes it’s possible to identify two types of competitive criteria in any market. Market qualifying criteria are those factors that must be satisfied before customers will consider making a purchase in the first place. Order winning criteria, on the other hand, are the factors in which customers ultimately make their purchasing decision. For example, for many airline passengers, the order winning criteria is price, with criteria such as destination city, time of flights and convenience of travel to and from airports being market qualifying criteria. For others, notably business travellers, the order winning criteria may be factors such as in-flight service or total travel time. Consequently, an operations strategy should be developed which will satisfy market qualifying criteria, but excel at order winning criteria for the market segment that the operation wishes to serve. Platts and Gregory 1990, use an approach that audits the products or groups of products that the organisation offers to its markets. The aim is to identify any gaps between market requirements for particular products and services and the performance of the organisation’s operations in delivering those products and services. First the market requirements for the product or service are analysed in terms of various competitive factors (such as cost, quality, reliability). The performance of the organization’s operations against those factors are then assessed. An operations strategy should be developed which will enable operations to match the level of performance required by customers in each of the competitive criteria. Operations-led The operations-led perspective is one in which its excellence in operations is used to drive the organisation’s strategy. This is in line with the Hayes and Wheelwright stage 4 organisation and fits with the resource-based view (RBV) of strategy that currently dominates the strategic management literature. The premise of the RBV is that superior performance comes from the way that an organization acquires, develops and deploys its resources and builds its capabilities rather than the way it positions itself in the market place (Barney, 1991; Wernerfelt, 1984). Thus, the process of strategy development should be based on a sound understanding of current operational capabilities and an analysis of how these could be developed in  the future. This can then provide the basis for decisions about which markets are likely to be the best in which to deploy current and future capabilities, which competitors are likely to be most vulnerable and how attacks from competitors might best be countered (Hayes et al., 2005). Mills et al. (2002) have developed methods through which organizations can apply these ideas in practice. This involves undertaking an analysis of the resources that have underpinned the activities of a business unit over an extended period of time (at least the previous three to five years). Six resource categories, which are not mutually exclusive, are used: tangible resources, knowledge resources skills and experience, systems and procedural resources, cultural resources and values, network resources and resources important for change. The resources are evaluated against three criteria: value, sustainability and versatility. Resources that individually or collectively score highly in these criteria are considered to be important resources. They are sources of existing or potential competitive advantage to the organization. OPERATIONS STRATEGY: CONTENT What then are the key decision areas of operations management that need to be considered when an organization is developing an operations strategy? Although there are a number of classifications in use, operations management scholars generally agree (e.g. Leong et al., 1990) that the major strategic decision areas in operations can be conveniently divided into ten categories under two broad headings: structure (the physical attributes of operations; the hardware) and infrastructure (the people and systems of operations; the software). The structural decision areas comprise: Facilities: the location, size and focus of operational resources. These decisions are concerned with where to locate production facilities, how large each facility should be, what goods or services should be produced at each location, what markets each facility should serve, etc. Capacity: the capacity of operations and their ability to respond to changes in customer demand. These decisions are concerned with the use of facilities, for example through shift patterns, working hours and staffing levels. Decisions about capacity will affect the organisation’s ability to serve particular markets from a given location.  Process technology: the technology of the equipment used in operations processes. For example, the degree of automation used, the configuration of equipment, and so on. Supply network: the extent to which operations are conducted in-house or are outsourced. Decisions about vertical integration are also concerned with the choice of suppliers, their location, the extent of dependence on particular suppliers, and how relationships with suppliers are managed. Structural decisions often involve major capital investment decisions, which once made will set the direction of operations for many years to come. They invariably impact the resources and capabilities of an organisation, determining its potential future output. It may be prohibitively expensive to change such decisions once implemented, and hence these must be considered to be truly strategic decisions for the organisation. It may be much easier to change the organisation’s marketing strategy (e.g. its target markets, or its promotional activities) than it is to change its operations strategy with respect to the structural decision areas. Infrastructure decision areas comprise: * Planning /Control: the systems used for planning and controlling operations. * Quality: the use of quality management policies and practices. * Work Organisation: Business structures, responsibilities and accountabilities in operations. * Human Resources: recruitment and selection, training and development, management style. * New Product Development: the systems and procedures used to develop and design new products and services. * Performance Measurement: financial and non-financial performance management and its linkage to recognition and reward systems. These issues are important to every organisation as this involves the use made up of the operating hardware as discussed above. It is possible to change aspects of operations infrastructure more quickly and easily than the case for operations structure. Nonetheless the difficulty of doing so should not be underestimated or neither should the impact of making inappropriate infrastructural decisions parallel. Conclusion Organisational strategy is concerned with the actions a company takes in order to survive and prosper within the environment it operates over the long-term. Strategy can exist at three levels in an organisation: which are; corporate, business and functional. Any organisation’s operations strategy includes the totality of the actions and decisions taken within the operations function. The decisions or actions taken have a direct impact on the organisation’s business and corporate strategy. An organisation’s operations can be a source of competitive advantage if they are managed strategically in pursuit of a clear goal for operations. These are five possible operations objectives; cost, quality, speed, dependability and flexibility. It is unlikely that any operation can excel at all of these simultaneously, so competitive priorities must be determined on which to base the operations strategy. The process of operations strategy concerns the way in which an organisation develops its operations strategy. This might be top-down (i.e. formed in pursuit of its business and corporate strategy), bottom-up (i.e. formed from the actions and decisions taken with operations), market-led (i.e. formed in response to market requirements) or operations-led (based on the resources and capabilities within its operations). The content of operation strategy consists of the key decision areas concerned with the structure (i.e. the physical attributes of facilities, capacity, process technology and supply network) and infrastructure (i.e. planning and control, quality, organisation, human resources, new product development and performance measurement). Through a value chain, operations strategy would be placed in line with the company supply chain strategies and perspectives where business process are involved. This concerns the pattern of strategic decisions and actions which set the role, objectives and activities of operations. (Slack et al., 2004). References Johnson, g and Scoles, k Exploring corporate strategy, 6th Edition. England: Prentice Hall Ltd Miller, R Jentz, G (2009) Fundamentals of Business , 2nd Edition. England: Cengage Learning Soulsby, S Marsh, J (2002) Business , 8th Edition. London: Nelson Thornes Ltd Rush, J Ottley, M (2006) Business for students. London: Thomson Learning www.wikipedia.org Accessed: 15.20pm: 24.1.12

Caribbean Society Essay -- Plantations Caribbean History Essays

Caribbean Society An Essay on the Culture of Incarceration A suggestion was made, in the context of the classroom setting that an interesting assignment would be to question shoppers at a suburban mall about slavery in the Caribbean and to capture the responses on videotape. An initial thought in response to this suggestion was to wonder just how one would go about eliciting any sort of meaningful response from a likely ill-informed and possibly disinterested group of consumers in central Connecticut on this subject. Obviously, to ask questions in survey fashion regarding which Caribbean Island the respondent might prefer to vacation at during these cold weather months would produce some informed opinions. That being the case, it seems only fair, even logical, that one should have some understanding of the nature of slavery that once existed there, from which its present population has emerged. Given the desirability and popularity of such vacation destinations, it would be of paramount insensitivity to not understand its history of slavery, the foundation of its society. A Society Imposed from Europe and Africa The arrival of Columbus and the Spanish at the end of the 15th century represented an economic ‘consolation prize’ of sorts for failure to make the East India connection. The discovery of precious metals soon helped them forget the spices of the Orient, however, and the indigenous Arawak people were rapidly pressed into service in the mining of them. In subsequent decades, greater quantities of gold and especially silver were found further west, in Mexico and Peru, and the imperial attentions shifted there. Left behind were the now Spanish controlled islands of the Caribbean to function primarily as provisions... ...ation arrangement was its capacity to regimentally control the activity of the overwhelming majority of the population in the service of monocrop production for export. The implications are that the degrading and dehumanizing nature of slavery was subinfeudated into the dependency of an entire island’s population on the success of the plantation enterprise. Since nearly all suitable land was devoted to the plantation, usually sugar, importation of food was often required. This then translates into the dismal reality that, while life as a slave on the plantation was an unbearable existence that portended a short life-expectancy, life outside of it may have an even less certain survival, particularly on the smaller, plantation-saturated islands such as Barbados. It is this entrapment that defined the masses of humanity residing in the Caribbean for several centuries.

Human Resource Armor

IntroductionEdelman and Suchman points out that labor lawsuit judgment identify how a legal environment—which embodies legal, social and cultural norms—can diffuse liabilities brought upon by management instances (Biggert, 1997).   The constitution has provided several laws that state the rights of employees in any form of organization.   Private or government-owned, all companies must adhere to these laws and see to it that these rights are well exercised by any member of staff.  Ã‚   From the top executive down to the mechanical worker, every individual are entitled to these rights inasmuch as they are expected to follow the laws that comes along with their job description.   In such way, the law provides immunity both to the employer and employee in collaboration with creating a harmonious environment within the agency.Hence, apart from these laws stated in the constitution, there are also regulations crafted by the organization which is agreed upon by the bo dy as a whole and neither one shall defeat the purpose of such.   In the light, labor management suggests the importance of social justice and thereby encompasses disparity (Mezias, 2002).Interpretation of laborA legal regulation in contracts divulged to in the context of labor is a central part in any organization or firm’s policy configuration.    The scope and focal purpose of a legal regulation may or may not be detrimental to labor—either that of mass disruption approach or perspective with party control.   Such theories are analyzed in both anti-labor and pro-labor laws, thus the results came up favorable with the latter given that the policies were found inconclusive with the small sample sizes of the studies conducted.   Conceivably, the said laws are weighed and strategically investigated in consideration with several variables—economic, class, society—to come up with more feasible outputs which will later be used beneficial to the concer n of the general masses when it comes to the interpretation of labor (Biggert, 1997).Analysis on unemployment lawsAs mentioned earlier, unemployment laws hold only very few scrutiny since that there has only been a number of studies that have been conducted in aide of bringing up the best forms of ruling that will inhibit the importance of such in a state.   More specifically, the challenges that are bound in unemployment laws are rarely deliberated by administrations for the reason that most hardships in managerial activities appear during the verge of employment compared to that on pre-employment matters.Basically, the laws that appear to be most challenging are those that extend or restrict the rights of labor in and around the workplace and those regulations that abide on the level of contract involved (Mezias, 2002). Unemployment compensation is apparently the main issue in laborers that fall inside the aforementioned bracket.   In essence, it relates to wages and hours sta ndards, union rights, collective bargaining, health and safety, prevailing wages and discrimination. All these are perceivably retained to render security to these individuals and in the long run help them in building up a new foundation of their new course in life.Challenges in labor management among the unemployedOrganizational behavior emphasizes the importance of labor-ness and the principal beneficiaries of the concerned laborer.   In stereotypical analysis on unemployment laws over the past few decades, it has been sought that the so-called â€Å"basic† benefits are already considered as a part of every contract and that the other unprecedented features that other firms offer—gradually dependent to the contract—are beyond the scope of the unemployment laws which are designed by the government alone.The dilemma then flows on the application of these â€Å"extended benefits†Ã¢â‚¬â€such as the social welfare security, union passages, beneficiaries, pensions and other related pro-labor regulations provided by the management concerned.   But that does not just end there, the possibility of shifts in party or breach in contracts also come at hand.Trends that mark importance of â€Å"democracy† are also a part of this domain of â€Å"challengers,† needless to say that the result of these coalitions though union groups are still considered as polity members, however, the contract may be considered violated and therefore nullify the benefits (Mezias, 2002).Court decisions on labor-related casesLegal proceedings concerning labor lawsuit judgments are referenced in contemporary hearings.   In the case of foreign direct investments, foreign subsidiaries find face disadvantages and unparalleled liabilities among domestic firms due to information asymmetries and transaction costs.   The Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are examples of laws that build up the foundation of these rights of laborers and somehow seem to exert strong influence on employee to employer relations (Mezias, 2002).Conclusions and further remarksHuman resource practices help organizations in achieving social justice among its participating parties and build a sturdy foundation of law-abiding citizens.   It helps in eradicating the rise of ambiguous laws and hones organizations to create a normative environment that will work in a systematic order and balance the biases of humanistic egoisms.ReferencesBiggert, R. (1997). Why Labor Wins, Why Labor Loses: A Test of Two Theories. The Sociological Quarterly, 38(1).Mezias, J. M. (2002). Identifying Liabilities of Foreignness and Strategies to Minimize Their Effects: The Case of Labor Lawsuit Judgments in the United States. Strategic Management Journal, 23(3).

Introductory Marketing Essay

Case studies are a great way to learn marketing – applying what you have learned to a business situation will help you to understand the concepts well. This term we will analyze cases in two ways – in class, and as written case assignments to be handed in. IN-CLASS CASES: Your text contains cases to be discussed in class. It is essential that you read and prepare the case at the end of each chapter, when that chapter is assigned on the course schedule. Prepare your answers to the questions asked in the case, and have some answers formulated before you come to class. Everyone will be expected to be familiar with the case on the day for which the chapter it is in is assigned, and everyone will be expected to have formulated some comments and insights. CASES TO BE HANDED IN: Here is a list of the case assignments to be handed in and marked: Case 1 – Tablet War: RIM’s Playbook Versus Apple’s iPad, p.29, questions 1-4 Case 2 – Weight Watchers Versus Jenny Craig, p.177, questions 1-4 Case 3 – Puttin’ on the Ritz, p.346, please add a 4th question: 4.) Explain the marketing research process for a project designed to measure customer satisfaction with the Ritz-Carlton. Case 4 – Dove Widens Definition of Real Women†¦.and Men, p.486, questions 1-4 Case Assignment Guidelines: †¢ Cases should be no more than one page in length – no title page. Only one page will be marked! †¢ Cases are to be handed to the instructor personally, in class, on their due date. †¢ Two out of the scheduled cases will be selected by the instructor for marks – if you hand in all 4 cases, you will receive your two best marks; if you hand in 3 of the 4 cases, you will receive your best mark for one, and zero for the other; if you hand in 2 or less cases, you will get no marks for cases †¢ Copies should be kept of all work submitted. †¢ Read the case through, read the questions, and read the case again before you start to develop your answers. Spend some time on the company website getting to know the brand and its’ business from a marketing perspective. †¢ Answer as though you were a marketing executive, not a consumer. †¢ Use marketing words and terminology, not terms like â€Å"stuff† and â€Å"things†. Make each thought and sentence count – and make each simple and to-the-point. Avoid extra words or â€Å"filler† material. †¢ In a 1-page case analysis, you do not need quotes, nor do you need to repeat facts from the case write-up, keep your language succinct. †¢ Write your cases with a business writing style – short and to the point as opposed to an academic writing style – which is more of an essay format. †¢ Communicate well – use interesting sentences, correct grammar and spelling, accurate syntax. †¢ At the end of the analysis, give your own opinion, analysis or outlook. †¢ If your case is late it will be given a mark of zero. Marking: After you have submitted your case and your instructor has reviewed it, you will mark your case, out of 100%, using the type of marking scheme indicated in the chart below.