Douglasian Cultural Model in Indian Context Essay

Introduction Today’s world is being dominated by daily innovations in technology and increasing globalization which helps organizations to spread and to operate globally in a successful way. Every organisation operating at a global level is trying to improve their financial profits. The success of such organizations greatly depends on their workforce and their decision-making capabilities. Many times the ethicality of such decisions have been questioned because of the profit driven strategies of these organizations. As Nobel Prize winner economist Milton Friedman quotes, â€Å"An executive’s responsibility generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to their basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom.† The decision-making process and hence ethicality of the decisions in such organisations is greatly influenced by the culture of the workforce. Bartels (1967) was one of the first to note the importance of the role of culture in ethical decision-making. There are different studies which discuss the diversity of ethical decision-making based on different perspective for example, Vitell, Nwachukwu and Barnes, 1993 discuss the effect of culture on ethical decision-making with the help of Hofsted’s typology while Patel and Schaefer, 2009 discuss the same with the help of Douglasian Cultural Theory (CT) perspective in the Indian context. Summary Patel and Schaefer’s article discusses the impact of culture on ethical decision-making from a Douglasian Cultural Theory (CT) perspective. It explains the dynamic ethical behaviour of the individual with four solidarities of CT. The Article also discusses the business ethics in the Indian context. Authors argue that applying static conception of culture to the process of ethical decision-making in business results in several problems. The Authors propose CT as an alternative model to these static conceptions to avoid these problems. The Article says that every social system is ethically plural because of the presence of all four solidarities together. An Individual from different solidarities may have a different perception of an issue’s moral intensity which may lead to different levels of moral awareness and hence to different moral judgements. The Article explores the dynamicity and diversity of ethical decision-making in business using the CT framework within the I ndian context with examples of Amul, SEWA, Tata Steel, ONGC and Reliance. Strengths This article offers an alternative approach of CT stating the impact of culture on ethical decision-making process in business. Authors argue that applying the static conception of culture to the business ethics results in different problems like national stereotyping, focus on only national cultural aspect ignoring the other aspects and broad generalisation of culture at national level. This article strongly supports the scholars who challenge the essentialist culture approach like Hofstedian framework. Singh (1990) and Bosland (1985a) have shown that it is possible to have different scores on the four Hofstedian dimensions within the same country. Hence there is possibility of difference in ethical behaviour within the same country. The Authors also talk about the same ethical dynamicity in behaviour. The article powerfully illustrates the diversity in business ethics within Indian context using CT model. The Article talks about the different cultural patterns existing in same corporation at same time. This article supports the argument by Sathe (1985) which says that although, the term â€Å"corporate culture† is used as if organisations have a monolithic culture, most companies have more than one set of beliefs influencing the behaviour of employees. The Article also supports the Thompson’s (1997 a-c) theory who argues that same individual could be a member of different solidarities in different contexts which explains the different ethical behaviour of an individual at a different social context. Also the article studies the ethical practices of different types of companies and business entities to understand the business ethics beyond large private corporations with respect to all the four solidarities of CT. The article debates about the dynamicity of ethical decision-making by citing the examples of all the solidarities existing in different Indian corporations. Also it talks over about the historical and philosophical background for the adoption of different ethical strategies by different corporations. Weaknesses The article explains the process of ethical decision-making in business from a ‘Douglasian Cultural Theory’ perspective only. The article does not identify many other factors beyond culture that may account for differences in work behaviour across nations. Scholars like Parboteeah and Cullen (2003) have suggested the need to include noncultural factors to isolate the influence of culture on ethical behaviour. Also many scholars have talked about the other personal characteristics like education, age, gender and religion that affect the ethical decision-making but they have not put any light on this part in the article. According to Kracher, Chatterjee and Lundquist, education plays an important and positive role in one’s ethical decision-making. Also Singhapakdi et al.: JBE (1996) talk about the relationship between ethical sensitivity and age being significantly positive. Ameen, et al., (1996) suggests that ethical judgments vary according to gender, where females have historically been more ethical compared to males. According to Singhapakdi et al :JBE (2000), there is a positive relationship between religion and perception of an ethical problem. The article has not mentioned all these perspectives while considering the process of ethical decision-making. Patel and Schaefer explained the ethical behaviour in Indian business context with the help of CT and argue that as CT is not limited in its scope of application, what is true for one country should also be true for other countries. This contradicts the findings of the researchers like Tsui which states â€Å"The major contexts that may separate one nation from another include the physical, historical, political, economic, social, and cultural.† This may cause an individual from another country to behave differently in the same context compare to individual in India. My standpoint The research article applies CT model to explain the ethical decision-making process in business within Indian context which allows us to look beyond static and limited conception of national culture. The authors have explained the ethical behaviours using examples of different Indian business entities. Since India is one of the largest growing economies, this research paper will be useful in providing the insights of the ethical practices in India. In my opinion, the authors have raised valid questions about the studies that link static conceptions of the culture to the business ethics. The authors have successfully associated dynamicity in ethical behaviours with the different cultural patterns as per CT which proves the existence of all the four solidarities in every social system. Paper also gives us insights about how all the solidarities co-exist and try to dominate each other. The Authors explain it in an Indian context citing examples for each solidarity. Moreover, authors have highlighted the important fact that managers operating under different cultural patterns may perceive and attend to information about moral issues differently which results in different ethical behaviours. The article considered the very important factors of history and politics that may have influenced while discussing dynamicity of ethical behaviours within Indian context. I am of the opinion that the Douglasian cultural theory is not sufficient to judge the ethical behaviour in business. There are many other factors like education, age, gender and religion which hold a significant role in the decision-making process. The authors have failed to consider these factors. I believe the consideration of the above mentioned factors would have made this research work more reliable. Also I disagree with the authors’ argument of what is true for India should also be true for other countries since every country has a different political, economical, cultural and physical background. Conclusion Taran Patel and Anja Schaefer have criticized the static and limited conception of culture to ethical decision-making in business. They have provided the alternative approach of Douglasian cultural theory to explain the dynamicity and diversity in ethical behaviours with the help of examples from business entities in India. The Authors advocate that the managers should be sensitive to the beliefs of all the four solidarities to be more effective. The Authors also agree that more empirical and theoretical work is needed to strengthen the relationship between the cultural patterns and business ethics. References Bartels, R.: 1967, ‘A Model for Ethics in Marketing’, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan., 1967), pp. 20-26 Vitell S, Nwachukwu S and Barnes J. : 1993, ‘The Effects of Culture on Ethical Decision-Making: An Application of Hofstede’s Typology’, Journal of Business Ethics,Vol. 12, No. 10 (Oct., 1993), pp. 753-760 Hofstede, G. 1980. (Revised in 1984). Culture’s Consequences – International Differences in Work-related Values. Sage Publications. Singh, J. 1990. Managing Culture and Work-related Values in India. Organization Studies, 11(1): 75-101 Bosland, N. 1985a.An evaluation of Replication Studies using the Values Survey Module.Institute for Research on Intercultural Cooperation, Rijks-universiteit Limburg Working Paper 85-2, Maastricht Sathe, V. (1985), Culture and Related Corporate Realities, Irwin, Homewood, IL. Thompson, M.: 1997a, ‘Rewriting the Precepts of PolicyAnalysis’, in M. Thompson and R. J. Ellis (eds.),Culture Matters: Essays in Honour of Aaron Wildavsky(Westview Press, Boulder, CO). Thompson, M.: 1997b, ‘Cultural Theory and TechnologyAssessment’, in F. Fischer and M. Hajer (eds.),Living with Nature: Environmental Discourse and Cultural Politics (Oxford University Press, Oxford). Thompson, M.: 1997c, ‘Cultural Theory and IntegratedAssessment’,Environmental Modelling and Assessment 2,139–150. Kracher, B., A. Chatterjee and A. R. Lundquist: 2002, ‘Factors Related to the Cognitive Moral Development of Business Students and Business Professionals in India and the United States: Nationality, Education, Sex and Gender’, Journal of Business Ethics 35(4), 255–268 Parboteeah, K. P., & Cullen, J. B. 2003. Social institutions and work centrality: Explorations beyond national culture. Organization Science, 14(2): 137-148. Patel, T.: 2005, Using Dynamic Cultural Theories to explain the Viability of International Strategic Alliances: A Focus on Indo-French Alliances. PhD Thesis, Open University. Milton Keynes, UK. Singhapakdi, A., S. J. Vitell and K. L Kraft: 1996, ‘Moral Intensity and Ethical Decision-Making of Marketing Professionals’, Journal of Business Research 36, 245–255. Ameen, E., Guffey, D. and J. McMillan. 1996. Gender Differences in Determining the Ethical Sensitivity of Future Accounting Professionals. Journal of Business Ethics 15: 591-597. Singhapakdi, Anusorn, Janet K. Marta, Kumar C. Rallapalli, and C.P. Rao (2000), â€Å"Toward an Understanding of Religiousness and Marketing Ethics: An Empirical Study,† Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 27, No. 4, 305-319.

Hemmingway

American Novel 8/04/2013 Q) Hemmingway’s depiction of the condition of man in a society that has been upset by the violence of war, in light of â€Å"The Sun also Rises† and â€Å"A Farewell to Arms†. No American writer is more associated with writing about war in the early 20th century than Ernest Hemingway. He experienced it first hand, wrote dispatches from innumerable frontlines, and used war as a backdrop for many of his most memorable works. Commenting on these experience years later in  Men at War,  Hemingway wrote: â€Å"When you go to war as a boy you have a great illusion of immortality.Other people get killed; not you. . . . Then when you are badly wounded the first time you lose that illusion and you know it can happen to you. After being severely wounded two weeks before my nineteenth birthday I had a bad time until I figured out that nothing could happen to me that had not happened to all men before me. Whatever I had to do men had always done. If they had done it then I could do it too and the best thing was not to worry about it. Many persons whose outward lives do not in the least resemble that of a typical ‘Hemingway’s character’ are still conscious of the dislocation due to war, and of which he has made himself the outstanding fictional spokesmen of our time. Hemingway’s characters are soldiers, sportsman, Prize fighter and his world of fiction swarm with ferrets, drunkards and prostitutes. He is greatly pre-occupied with death and violence. ‘A Farewell to Arms’ shows Hemingway’s ability to create life like character, both male and female, in such a way as to make us feel that we have actually met them.The First World War plays an important role in the novels of Ernest Hemingway. He has depicted all real war experience in his novel. The war led up to a deep distrust of all established institutions and values religions, ideals, society, patriotisms etc. Only concrete expe riences were valued. Thus, Hemingway emphasized the sense and the experience based on them. The Sun also Rises is one of his such novels. It is a story of a few American expatriates who were living in Paris after the War. There were all wounded either physically or psychologically by the war. I got hurt in the war,† I said. â€Å"Oh, that dirty war. † We would probably have gone on and discussed the war and agreed that it was in reality a calamity for civilization, and perhaps would have been better avoided. I was bored enough. Just then from the other room someone called: â€Å"Barnes! I say Barnes! Jacob Barnes! † (3. 9)| The banal discussion of the war that Jake and Georgette narrowly escape is one that’s unsatisfactory and not comprehensive. We get the feeling that there’s a lot more to be said about the war, but nobody knows how to communicate it yet. â€Å"My dear, I am sure Mr.Barnes has seen a lot. Don’t think I don’t think so , sir. I have seen a lot, too. †Ã‚   â€Å"Of course you have, my dear,† Brett said. â€Å"I was only ragging. † â€Å"I have been in seven wars and four revolutions,† the count said. â€Å"Soldiering? † Brett asked. â€Å"Sometimes, my dear. And I have got arrow wounds. Have you ever seen arrow wounds? † (7. 18)| The count’s definition of â€Å"seen a lot† is associated with war – as though war is the only real experience a man can have. The old pre-war values cannot give them the direction that they are looking for and in this lost world they are all lost souls.They drink heavily to quieten their inner distressed voices. Jake Barnes is a casualty of the First World War. He has been made impotent due to his injury and thus is now ‘half the man than he was before. ’ His physical impairment has made it impossible for him to consummate his love and thus this becomes the tragedy of his love for Brett Ashley. Alt hough there is no mention of it in the novel directly, it has been implied in certain scenes. As Brett is not willing to settle for less, Jake is drowned in the ocean of unrequited love.Thus, Jake then becomes a tragic hero, one of the most praised heroes of Hemingway’s books. We see that the war has taken away his masculinity from him leaving him incomplete for life. As Jake’s war doctor remarks on his loss, â€Å"He has given much more than his life. † As the title of the novel makes clear,  A Farewell to Arms  concerns itself primarily with war, namely the process by which Frederic Henry removes himself from it and leaves it behind. The few characters in the novel who actually support the effort—Ettore Moretti and Gino—come across as a dull raggart and a naive youth, respectively. The majority of the characters remain ambivalent about the war, resentful of the terrible destruction it causes, doubtful of the glory it supposedly brings. The no vel offers masterful descriptions of the conflicts senseless brutality and violent chaos. The scene of the Italian army’s retreat remains one of the most profound evocations of War in American Literature. As the neat columns of men begin to crumble so does the soldier’s nerves, minds, and capacity for rational thought and moral judgement.Henry’s shooting of the engineer for refusing to help free the car from the mud shocks the reader for two reasons, first, the violent outburst seems at odds with Henry’s detached character, and secondly, the incident occurs in a setting that robs it of its moral import, the complicity of Henry’s fellow soldiers legitimizes the killing. The murder of the engineer seems justifiable because it is an inevitable by-product of the spiralling violence and disorder of the War.I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it. There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity. Certain numbers were the same way and certain dates and these with the names of the places were all you could say and have them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honour, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.To Henry, such abstractions as honour, glory, and sacrifice do little to explain or assuage the unbelievable destruction that he sees around him. What matters, he decides, are the names of villages and soldiers, the concrete facts of decimated walls and dead bodies. He believes that in order to discuss the war honestly, one must dismiss artificial concepts and deal with terms grounded in the reality of the war. He tarnishes the romanticized ideal of the military hero by equating the â€Å"sacrifices† of human liv es in war with the slaughter of livestock.He further compares romantic riffs about honor and glory to burying meat in the ground. Nothing can be sustained or nurtured by such pointlessness. Hemingway believed that in this corrupt world it is no longer possible to have a decent, self-respecting and dignified life. It is the end of love, end of human dignity, end of personal relationships and a realisation that man is all alone in the world and he has to fend for himself. It is the realisation that the ultimate reality is nothing but nada, a Spanish word which means ‘nothingness’. â€Å"Nada†, someone said. â€Å"It’s nothing.Drink up. Lift the bottle. † (The Sun Also Rises, chapter15) The Sun Also Rises portrays a few American and British young men whose experiences of the war are qualitatively not different from those of Nick Adams and Jake Barnes and they are lost in a world which they do not understand. Their meaningless wanderings in Paris and la ter in Pamplona are the equivalents of their confused minds which have failed to find any guiding principles in life. Bull-fighting for them becomes a symbol of life in which the matador demonstrates how a man facing death can retain dignity.As a matter of fact it is in the face of danger and confrontation with death that they show courage, so that they can lead a life in which they can respect themselves. There is a vague realisation on the part of these expatriates that they cannot implement the matador’s code in their lives because of the wounds inflicted by the war will take quite some time to heal. In A Farewell to Arms Henry realizes that his idealism which had guided him into the front is meaningless in the face of total destruction symbolized by the war.Whether he performs his duties or not, it does not make any material difference to the unit to which he belongs. The endless round of drinking and brothels is equally futile because he cannot find any object to which h e could align himself and seek some sort of satisfaction that would give some meaning to his life. His love affair with Catherine Barkley is a temporary relief from the inner disquiet and finally with the death of Catherine he is no better off than the dog nosing in the dust bin for something to eat but where there is nothing for him to find.His own wound had also but killed him. This feeling of nada then led to â€Å"the lost generation†. The term lost generation is generally applied to those who had actively participated in the First World War and as a consequence of this realised that life was meaningless. As a result of the domination of machine over man, man had felt that they were extremely helpless. This disillusionment could have taken either the shape of nihilism or a search for enduring values and absolutes. In the mechanised war there was no room whatsoever for the assertion of manhood or courage and bravery.In a famous passage in A Farewell to Arms Hemingway bring s out this disillusionment. In the rain, the words like honour, glory, patriotism seemed obscene to him and what was real were the names of the regiments, streets and towns. The Sun also Rises and A Farewell to Arms celebrate the conditions that led to this disillusionment and how man sought desperately to clutch at straws in this meaningless and valueless world. There is no sentiment whatsoever about the retreat ion A Farewell to Arms or the adventures of Brett Ashley.They are delineated with the realism of a scientist but with the tenderness of an artist. There is a feeling of boredom and disgust with the half-truths and sentiments of the earlier generations. Hemingway has, along with Remarque, revealed the grotesque and the animal nature in man. Worship of instinct instead of rationality became the order of the day. The world that Hemingway has portrayed is unrecognizably part of the modern world. The violence of war is still with us. And added to it is the anxiety and fear of th e cold war that seems to have become part and parcel of the Twentieth Century life.His preoccupation with violence, decay and death may be neurotic but are still part of the twentieth century temper. The lack of morality is with us to stay. There are no religious values that can provide balm to the troubled mind. As Jake Barnes states in The Sun also Rising, â€Å"I’m a rotten Catholic. † In the words of Philip Young, â€Å"It is a hell of a world, and we should protest it. But on the other hand we should be hard-pressed to prove that it is not the one we inhabit†¦ While other writers were watching the side acts, Hemingway’s eyes were from the start focused on the main show. The devout ask for peace in our time but ironically there is no peace in our time. This is the vision that Hemingway presents in his works and it is difficult to refute its authenticity so long as our world is going to be haunted by the fear of a thermo-nuclear war. As Hemingway wrote in A Farewell to arms, â€Å"If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure that it’ll kill you too but there will be no special hurry. † Work Cited: http://onviolence. com/? e=313 http://www. hrmars. com/admin/pics/1043. pdf http://www. amazon. com/Hemingway-War-Ernest/dp/0743243293 http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway http://www. archives. gov/publications/prologue/2006/spring/hemingway. html Book: Hemingway on War

Aftermath – creative writing

BANG! I woke. I opened my eyes but was unable to see. The dust had settled like concrete boulders into the corners of my eyes! Everything was deadly still. The wind fiercely gave a shout. A black cloud stood dominating the demolished town. I moved my hands to wipe my irritated eyes, boulders, brickwork, broken furniture and complete devastation stood before me. A ray of light appeared through cracks of the rubble. The boulders took on features like monsters and ogres – making my chest tighten with fear. I vociferated for help. No one was around. I was scared: Petrified. I managed to pull my achy bones out from the debris, the pain was horrific. I could feel the cold misty wind stroke my face. In the far distance I could hear low voices that became louder and louder: hysterical screams. I attempted to crawl my way towards the noise – in hope for help. Shards of glass dug into the palms of my hands. Warm blood trickled down my knees, my throat tightened with the dirty dense dust. I could taste the fear. Behind me I heard a crackle. I turned. The flames of fire danced before my eyes. The heat scorched my face like the hottest sauna could. The smoke was a ferocious lion ready to pounce. I moved as quickly as I could, using all the energy I had. Slowly crawling like a young baby. I felt hopeless: disconsolate! The further I crawled the louder the low voices became. It was a horrendous atmosphere! The town had become a tragedy! Buildings around me had collapsed surrounded with sneaky smoke, brickwork and furniture were slowly burning away, the air was thick full of unknown flumes, why wasn't anyone around? What had happened? No building stood tall, burnt out office work scattered the debris, ashes and litter played in the wind. My body filled with just one emotion: anxiety. Cars around me were smashed and strangled with fire. I watched in dismay. Crashing noises appeared. Brickwork collapsed- followed with a speechless smash. More rubble fell with bold broken bang! Screaming voices emerged. I crawled towards the screams. I was able to hear sirens wailing in the faint distance carried by the wind. I began to see flashing lights though the dark debris. There was only one word to describe it: hope. Suddenly I glimpsed with the squint of the eye. The site of panicked people was ahead of me. My heart skipped a beat. I shouted, â€Å"Hello, can you hear me†. No one replied. â€Å"Can you hear me?† I screamed. I waited. I listened. A young lady ran over to me. â€Å"Its okay, you're safe now,† announced the lady. â€Å"What's happened? What's happened?† I repeated. She didn't answer. She grabbed my arm and wrapped it round her neck giving me support. We approached the flashing lights. Countless amounts of ambulances and fire engines appeared. Hundreds of people were gathered staring at the ruined town. Many people were hysterically screaming and crying. Dead bodies were covered with white cloths. I became speechless. Tears ran down my face. â€Å"Its over, you survived†, quietly explained the young lady. I took a big breath. I closed my eyes. I thought. One word repeated through my head: lucky.

Stem cell research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Stem cell - Research Paper Example â€Å"Mouse embryonic stem cells treated in culture with a growth factor and then injected into the liver reverse a form of hemophilia in mice analogous to hemophilia B in humans, the new study shows.† (Stem Cells Treated with Growth Factor) Stem Cell Research- a clash of Science vs. Ethics, could well be a debate that might go on for generations as every individual has a different opinion about the subject. Should we allow doctors to play God and reverse our own destiny? Should we strive to provide cures that reverse the processes of injury and death? Or do we hold strong on our religious and moral aspects? These are the sorts of questions that have sparked the massive debate we have today. The purpose of our study, though, is not to argue about one particular stand point but to discuss both the view points and finally to allow readers to draw their own opinions and conclusions. In addition the process has been facilitated by providing an integrative review that details previ ous research, theories, explanations and answers and then counteracting them with questions and objections so that at the end of our research readers can make their own rationalistic conclusion. The Beginnings of Stem Cell Research Stem Cells, as defined by The National Institute of Health, are cells that have the ability to develop into different cell types within the body. Two facets make them incredibly important: Firstly, they can renew themselves during cell division and secondly, when grown under certain conditions, they can achieve specialized functions. These cells differentiate and form almost all the tissues of the body- skin, lung, brain, heart and muscle tissues among others. Stem cells can also be divided into two types: Embryonic stem cells and Adult stem cells which differ in both function and characteristics. According to the UK Stem Cell Foundation, stem cell work was first conducted in the early 1900’s with the discovery that white blood cells, red blood cel ls and platelets all arose from the same source. However, it was not until 1963 when Ernest A McCulloch and James E Till noted â€Å"the self-renewing activities of transplanted mouse bone-marrow cells† that confirmed such theories. Adult stem cells now play an integral role in chemo and radiation therapy as well as in other fields of biotechnology as they are grown and replicated in the lab. The discovery by James Thomson and his researchers from Madison University really helped to put Stem Cell Research on the map (Boyle, A., 2005). In 1998, for the first time ever, he isolated human embryonic stem cells from fertility clinics and then harvested them in the lab. This attempt along with the cloning of Dolly, the Sheep, two years earlier, caused a major ripple within the community. The Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research Pros Stem cell research has paved the way for scientists to decipher â€Å"how we are made or formed and try to reverse problems† (Richard Hamilton, n .d). It has been described as having â€Å"limitless potential† (McLaughlin, 2009) by many as it can aid in finding cures for diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Stroke, Heart Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Diabetes, and hundreds of rare systemic immune disorders (Drlica,1997, p279) 1998). . There have been a number of researchers confirming the clinical application of stem cells. Stojanoski et al (2009), stated that stem cells taken from the peripheral

Why Yield Management Is Important To Hotels Essay

Why Yield Management Is Important To Hotels - Essay Example The paper focuses on the potential value of ‘revenue management, also known as yield management’ to hotels. In the context of the hotel industry, yield management is a term used for describing a high range of techniques through which occupancy is appropriately managed so that the profits of a hotel are increased. Therefore, yield management is quite important to hotels. However, in practice it has been revealed that yield management can also have a series of implications for the organization, its employees, and customers; this issue is discussed below using literature published in this field. Yield management in the hotel industry has a series of advantages. Baker, Huyton & Bradley note that yield management if it is used in the particular industry, it can lead to ‘the increase of a room’s revenue and of its space’. It is explained though that yield management can play the above role only if a staff is appropriately trained for offering customer servi ce of high quality. In other words, low employee efficiency can eliminate the value of yield management, either in the short or the long term. In any case, the value of yield management, as a key concept in the hotel industry, cannot be doubted. Indeed, yield management can highly benefit the hotel industry. The potential for accurate forecasting is considered as one of the most important advantages of yield management systems. However, the above benefit can be available only in hotels that use advanced IT systems that can monitor every organizational activity and provide accurate information in regard to the organization’s strengths and weaknesses.   Yield management can also help hotel managers to make effective plans in regard to the potential expansion of the organization. For example, in order for a hotel to enter a foreign market, it would be necessary for the hotel’s managers to have an accurate view of the hotel’s profitability so that they are able to check whether the risk of potential losses could be undertaken or not.

Formal Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Formal Education - Essay Example Studies have found that de-regulation and flexible labour markets lead to the strongest results as well as create social balance within the economic classes buoying commercial and national economics as well as stability. As societies move away from focusing on manufactured products the government seeks to encourage â€Å"knowledge workers† in order to increase competitiveness. Knowledge is not seen as an individual effort, but a collective one based on social interaction that forms an ever growing web linking families, organizations, businesses, and ultimately local, national, and international economies. In order for businesses to insure their workers have access to information-based learning, they have altered the learning delivery systems. No longer confined to expensive schooling at stagnant locations which do not respond to customer needs, education now means various sites and access points for open and distance learning based on information and communication technology. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) represents one of the strongest, centralized training organizations in the field of lifelong learning. The 2006 Leitch Review reveals this system operates by â€Å"top-down, command and control targets set by the centres with minimal consultation.† III: Government Policies and Attitudes on the Purpose of Lifelong Learning Shifting away from the previous government’s focus on what Bartlett and Burton labeled â€Å"the third way,† the New Labour Party has abolished or replaced the National Training Organisations (NTOs,) the NTOs National Council, Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs), the TEX National Council, and the Further Education Funding Council for England, the LSC and local learning and skills councils, the... This paper approves that although the current Conservative-Liberal Democratic Government is attempting to provide skills development to insure increased productivity and inter-generational social mobility that in turn reduces poverty and social inequality, 22 percent of jobs remain low paid. Programs attempt to operate inclusively to attract even reluctant and â€Å"non-traditional† learners offering them avenues to evolve their sense of self-identity and control over and responsibility for their livelihoods. However, it is important to consider how the recent economic downturn has affected the government’s and the average citizen’s ability to invest funds in these programs. At the same time, education remains one of the most vital long-term solutions to national and individual competitiveness. This essay makes a conclusion that in conclusion, David Blunkett, Secretary of State for Learning and Education, stated â€Å"Learning is the key to prosperity - for each of us as individuals, as well as for the nation as a whole. This is why the Government has put learning at the heart of its ambition.† According to Field for government, learning that is both lifelong and life-wide relates to globalisation, competitiveness and innovation and connects to issues such as â€Å"population ageing, social inclusion, public health, migrant assimilation and active citizenship.† Therefore, formal learning as related to lifelong learning functions as an essential cornerstone of effective government policy serving a fundamental purpose within England to ensure a satisfied citizenry who is able to compete within the Information Age.

Week 4 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Week 4 - Research Paper Example Mixed methods research augments both methods in order to establish relationships between variables and to look for causes behind these relationships. A quantitative study preceded the qualitative study consisting of four groups of 250 women each. Participants were assigned to groups randomly such that the assignment replicated the Cherokee and Lumbee tribes. Pre-tests were administered to 500 women while the rest were administered interventions. All of the participants were administered post tests. The qualitative study augmented the quantitative study be reflecting on areas that the quantitative study failed to explain. The qualitative study established causes related to intervention failure, program causes, determinants, and context sensitivity. The qualitative study relied on in person interviews and observational data to augment the existing and analyzed quantitative data. The quantitative study revealed major differences in the behavior of Cherokee and Lumbee populations in dealing with pre-test information. The researchers had not anticipated this and this finding produced a large inconsistency. In order to bridge up this gap in understanding it was decided to launch a qualitative study. Cultural context and sensitivity had been assumed as being uniform for both tribal populations but the results of the study proved otherwise. The qualitative study revealed how intervention produced different effects in both tribal population sets. The quantitative study indicated gaps and the qualitative study bridged these gaps. Data collection for the quantitative study relied on the participation of the respondents alone. The respondents were provided with a pre-test, two interventions and a post test to collect data. Data collected in this manner was analyzed statistically to test the formulated hypotheses. The qualitative study relied on interviews with the participants, healthcare workers and the principal