Heritage Tourism UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Heritage Tourism UK - Essay Example The heritage tourism’s main product issues include knowledge management and transfer, The danger of over-supply, Geographical concentration, Product standardization, competition, Dead, Changes in education, Forgotten and ignored themes, Soft heritage and hard heritage, The medium in relation to the message, Quality and customer satisfaction, Commercialization or conservation, Changing nature of the market, competition. The need for partnerships, popular culture and heritage, and Making the past relevant to the present and future (Sethi, P. 1999:213).The small tourism enterprises highly depend on knowledge manipulation (Nagle, G. 2002:128). A good number of willing clients will not visit the various heritage tourism sites unless they have information of its existence. The product role of marketing in tourism is to make the potential clients aware of the services that the company is offering. The product for tourism may include a bus tour, a hotel stay, a cruise and many others. The management, therefore, has a huge responsibility of making sure that the information gets to their clients. They attain this by creating awareness campaigns to lure the potential clients. They create awareness either through mass media or internet. However, the as the small-scale tourism enterprises venture into creating awareness, there is an alarm on oversupply which might lead to congestion of the sites (Timothy, 2011:214). The UK is rich in heritage, and the wide variety of its heritage attractions proves it. As time goes on, the mode in which heritage is presented to the visitors is becoming ever more predictable. A tourist could for example, walk into a museum and correctly predict what to expect. This has highly affected the small tourism enterprises as it reduces the number of potential clients. Quality and customer satisfaction are important in management in all industries. The quality of the services that the enterprises render to their clients plays a very big role in improving the industry (Graham,

Research Project Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Project - Research Paper Example They varied from tribe to tribe because of variation in design and materials used. The moccasins were mainly of two types; hard soled and soft soled moccasins. The moccasins were also decorated differently depending on the tribe that made them. A deep study of historical development of American dressing provides not only a colorful, but also a charming adventure into the past. To fully appreciate as well as enjoy this experience, some information about the dressing codes in addition to primitive life of people that resided in America will be expounded. Emphasis will be placed on the contributions of each people to the historical dressing in America. In addressing this, the paper will provide information on the contributions of the Indians to the development of American dress. Some Indian costumes will be used in providing information about the variety of design and materials. Thus, it worth noting and giving the Indian arts the recognition they deserve (Howell, 2010). For instance, it is evident that the history of American clothing cannot be complete without speaking of the Indian feather headdresses and moccasins. Feather mantles like the one worn by Tascalusa, chief of the Mobile tribe in early 1540, were made by Native Americans. These garments were also referred to as matchcoats, a word derived from Algonkian word, matshigode that meant cloak or mantle (Condra, 2013). Feather matchcoats used to be worn by both women and men during warm weather as a sign of social status. The matchcoats were made by â€Å"weaving feathers into a fiber net† (Condra, 2013, p.3). Turkey, swan, as well as duck feathers, could be used in making the mantle. In some areas, people weaved the heads of mallard ducks into the mantles. The mantles that were made from these materials were not only lightweight, but also warm and very beautiful (Condra, 2013). In relation to this, leaders of the Southern Indians wore distinctive feather headdresses like crowns

Conflicts of Interest in Auditing and Consulting

Conflicts of Interest in Auditing and Consulting Conflicts of interest: how can the provision of consulting and advisory services be consistent with the requirements of auditor independence? One of the key issues identified as a cause of the Enron scandal is that the company managed to provide misleading financial information to investors and analysts over a period of several years, indicating around $100 billion of annual revenues. However, once the accurate numbers emerged showing the state of the company’s balance sheet, lenders withdrew their funding; the SEC increased the pressure on the company; and the company went bankrupt in less than two months. Sloan et al (2002) argue that the only way to avoid such incidents happening is to discourage companies from producing dishonest numbers, whilst making auditors afraid of certifying anything which could be seen as misleading. In general, the principle of auditor independence should mean that auditors are vigorous and unrelenting in their verification of accounting data. However, in the case of Enron, the auditors: Arthur Andersen, were signing off significant amounts of accounting data from their own consulting arm, who were providing Enron with consulting and advisory services. As such, there was likely physical evidence that Arthur Andersen’s auditors ignored several material accounting violations caused by both Enron and Arthur Andersen’s consultants. Unfortunately, it is difficult to prove this evidence given that all documents related to Enron were shredded by the auditors as soon as the scandal came to light, making it difficult to be certain around the extent of the complicity or the conflicts caused by Arthur Andersen providing Enron with substantial amounts of consulting services, at the same time as signing off company accounts which were later found to be almost completely inaccurate (Sloan et al, 2002). As a result of this, the legislation governing publicly listed companies in the United States was rapidly tightened through the Sarbanes-Oxley, or SOX, Act; which was intended to boost investor confidence. This legislation was based on the argument that a stock market is formed from a collection of share issuing firms; individual and institutional investors; and a body of accountants, lawyers and analysts. As such, the SOX Act was intended to ensure that each of these groups regained their own confidence in the system, and also confidence in each other. As such, the Act focused on promoting transparency and understandable data from the viewpoint of the final users of accounting data, rather that the provider (Kalafut, 2003). The main method by which SOX attempts to minimise and avoid conflicts of interest within the firm is by requiring corporations to establish corporate auditing committees; which are responsible for dealing with the auditors. This is because, previously, if auditors had any queries around the content of the financial statements, they had to seek out the management personnel responsible for generating the data. This meant that the managers could potentially shape the auditor’s interpretation of the information, particularly if the auditing company were also providing consulting or advisory services as occurred at Enron. In such an instance, the advisory staff may well themselves have exerted influence over their own auditors to ensure that the information was treated in a way that is favourable to the consultants, and not in a way that provided a true representation of the actual situation and data. The audit committee is supposed to avoid this by ensuring that the auditors only communicate with the committee members, who are all independent from the management of the firm, and hence can look at any advisory services provided by the auditor with an independent and critical eye (Lansing and Grgunch, 2004). As a result, the act also recommends that one of the audit committee members should be a financial expert with a good knowledge of accounting principles and financial statements from a firm or firms in similar industries. This allows the committee to accurately discern the true nature of any financial instruments, such as the off balance sheet financing and other special purpose entities used by Enron to cover up its financial difficulties. This will also be vital if an auditing firm is providing significant non auditing services, as they may well use their auditing experience to advise their client on how best to structure their business to present it more favourably from an a ccounting point of view. Financial experts on the audit committee will have similar experience, and hence will be able to help the auditors make a fair assessment of the true nature of any creative accounting. The other main part of the SOX Act which is designed to minimise any conflicts between the provision of consulting services and advisory services is that the penalties for being caught have been increased dramatically. In particular, the Act has increased the penalties which any CEOs and CFOs found guilty of violating any provisions of the Act would face. As part of this, CEOs and CFOs now have to sign off on the audited accounts and other statements that their companies file with the SEC, and will thus be held responsible if they certify statements which contain any false or misleading information. CEOs and CFOs who do so could face fines of up to $5,000,000 and potentially imprisonment for up to 20 years. As such, this places a significant responsibility on CEOs and CFOs, who are typically the board members responsible for appointing auditors and any advisory services, to ensure that there is no conflict of interest between the auditing and advisory services provided. With all this regulation, one would expect that the disadvantages of auditors providing their audit clients with other services would be so great that many companies would not even consider it. However, it is important to note that there are some benefits which can be obtained within the current legal and regulatory framework. For one, Marks (2007) argues that auditors’ in depth knowledge of their clients’ and comparable firms’ accounts can allow them to advise firms on their governance processes, efficiency and other aspects of their financial performance and how to improve them. In addition, audit firms will be better able to advise firms how to legally avoid as much tax as possible, whilst avoiding anything which could be considered tax evasion. This is particularly important in the modern business world, where the removal of exchange controls and trade barriers makes tax avoidance more possible than ever before, but also provides significant potential for com panies to fall foul of one or more of the tax regimes in which they operate (Sikka and Hampton, 2005). This helps to explain why many auditing firms also have large tax practices, as well as advisory services. In contrast, the only real disadvantage of a company providing both audit and other services is the potential for regulatory violations and conflicts of interest. Of these, the potential regulatory violations were immediately seized on by the US Congress following the Enron scandal, as it emerged that Enron paid Arthur Andersen $25 million in auditing fees, but a further $23 million in fees for other consulting work. However, it was the potential for conflicts of interest which emerged as the strongest disadvantage, with many corporate boards worrying that continuing to buy consulting services and auditing services from the same firms would damage investor confidence, and lead to a drop in share prices (Kahn, 2002). As a result, of the Big Four accounting firms currently in the market: Deloitte, Ernst and Young, PWC and KPMG; PWC stopped providing consulting services to audit clients; Ernst and Young sold it consulting business and KPMG and Deloitte both divested of their consulting businesses throughout 2001 and 2002 (Kahn, 2002). This meant that none of the Big Four auditors, which together audited around 90% of the major companies in the US and UK, provided any substantial consulting services following the Enron scandal, although they did continue to provide tax and some transactions advisory services. However, by 2003 Deloitte had reversed its decision, and brought the consulting business back into the overall business, which then comprised auditing, tax accounting, corporate finance and consulting. This decision was taken in spite of industry concern around conflicts of interest and the provisions of the SOX Act, in the belief that Deloitte could provide its clients with the advantages of i ntegrated professional and accounting services, whilst avoiding any of the potential regulatory concerns (Bryan-Low, 2003). Indeed, five years after the Enron scandal, Accountancy (2006) reported that the majority of accountancy firms, particularly the Big Four firms, have begun offering a wider range of services, and that the boundaries between these services are blurred, with inconsistent levels of disclosure. For example, PWC details specific revenues for audit, accounting and tax; however it also includes ‘advisory services’ in its revenues as an umbrella term for consultancy, corporate finance, and corporate recovery services. Also, whilst KPMG details separate categories including corporate finance, forensic accounting, transaction services and risk advisory services, the ‘risk advisory’ services are effectively the same as the consulting work offered by other accounting firms (Accountancy, 2006). This indicates that, even if the regulatory conflicts can be completely resolved, it will be difficult for shareholders to assess the true nature of their auditor’s revenue s, and hence the potential for any damaging conflicts of interest. Unfortunately, future steps to address any issues as a result of this are likely to be hampered by the fact that SOX is already proving a significant regulatory burden to publicly listed companies in the United States. In addition, Fisher and Quick (2004) claim that the true problem is not the conflict between auditing and other services, but the fact that the Big Four accounting firms are so dominant, auditing all of the FTSE 100 companies in the UK. With there being no true competition to the Big Four amongst their main clients, the market has come to resemble and oligopoly, and with many senior accountants at clients coming from the Big Four firms, there is a danger that former accountants working in senior management may simply favour their alumni firms when choosing auditors. Whilst this should be mitigated by the presence of the audit committee, minimising the impact of this ‘old boys’ network’ amongst the major accounting firms would go a long way towards r educing any potential conflicts of interest, and increasing the scrutiny given to the provision of additional services, particularly amongst the Big Four. In conclusion, and as the Enron scandal demonstrated, whenever an auditor of a publicly listed company also obtains significant revenues from providing their client with additional services, there is always the potential for a conflict of interest. In Enron’s case, this led to Arthur Andersen covering up significant losses which ultimately caused Enron to go bankrupt. The SOX Act should help to reduce this, by enforcing the use of an audit committee to prevent such conflicts, and increasing the pressure on executives to ensure that accounting data is fair. However, most of the major accounting firms continue to provide these services, hence the potential for conflict of interest remains. Possibly the only way to avoid this would be to attempt to break up the dominance of the Big Four, and create a more competitive market where the top firms have a wider choice of auditors, and hence can hold these auditors to higher standards of quality and transparency. References Accountancy (2006) Blurred boundaries. Accountancy; Vol. 137, Issue 1355, p. 35. Bryan-Low, C. (2003) Deloitte Chief Wrestles to Get Consultants Back in Firm. Wall Street Journal Eastern Edition; Vol. 242, Issue 33, p. C1-C7. Fisher, L. and Quick, C. (2004) The Big Four old boys club. Accountancy; Vol. 133, Issue 1327, p. 29. Kahn, J. (2002) Deloitte restates its case. Fortune; Vol. 145, Issue 9, p. 64-69. Kalafut, P. C. (2003) Communicate Value to Boost Investor Confidence. Financial Executive; Vol. 19, Issue 5, p. 28-29. Lansing, P. and Grgunch, C. (2004) The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: New Securities Disclosure Requirements in the United States. International Journal of Management; Vol. 21, Issue 3, p. 292-299. Marks, N. (2007) Internal Audits of Governance. Internal Auditor; Vol. 64, Issue 6, p. 31-32. Sikka, P. and Hampton, M. P. (2005) The role of accountancy firms in tax avoidance: Some evidence and issues. Accounting Forum; Vol. 29, Issue 3, p. 325-343. Sloan, A. Isikoff, M. Hosenball, M. and Thomas, R. (2002) The Enron Effect. Newsweek; Vol. 139, Issue 4, p. 34.

The Nature of Douglasss Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass Es

The Nature of Douglass's Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass wrote his autobiography the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass to tell his story and to help the abolitionist's cause. It provides a window into his world, which is that of a former slave and of a prominent speaker. Douglass was born a slave in Maryland in 1818; his exact birthday is unknown. Unlike most slaves he had a mistress, Sophia Auld, who taught him his letters when he was about 10 and that basis of knowledge allowed him to 'steal literacy' over the years. Douglass was hired out to a slave breaker named Edward Covey in order to make him more subservient. In 1834 Frederick Douglass and Edward Covey had a battle which changed the course of Douglass?s life, and shaped him into a man who speaks and acts out against injustice. After Fredrick Douglass stood up to Covey he became free in sprit, if not in body, and vowed to allow no one to control his mind again. He escaped slavery and went to New York in 1839. His career as a speaker started in 1841 and in 1845 he published the Narrative. Although, those are some of the basic facts about his life but they do little to describe the man that he was, and what his first work says about himself and what he believed. The Narrative was written after he had spent a few years as a speaker going around telling his life?s story to abolitionist and therefore was in part rehearsed and also meant to be used as propaganda in the fight for equality. The book also serves as a historical source because it documents his voyage though slavery and the movement to end it. It is important when reading his autobiography to keep both views in mind. Many people have analyzed this complex work, Donald B. Gibson wrote about Douglass?s dual focus in his writing about how he had a public and social focus and a personal focus and private. The public and social focus was to correct the moral and political ills that slavery brought. While the personal and private focused on Douglass?s own thoughts, feelings, reactions, and emotions. The social focus was what presented the first twenty-one years of Douglass?s life in a way that allowed it to serve as a weapon for abolitionism. William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips recognized the public perspective, both of which wrote prefatory material to the Narrative. I... ...hen reading Frederick Douglass?s Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass it is important to take in to account the time period in which it was written, who the author was and their background, and the purpose that the work was written for. Douglass was a slave and an abolitionist who wrote about his life for two reasons, to give the facts and to convince people that slavery was wrong. The way he wrote both parts are intertwined so that they compliment and support each other it exist as a work of abolitionist propaganda and as an historical source. Bibliography Andrews, William L., To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986. Douglass, Fredrick, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass: An American Slave, ed. David Blight. New York: St. Martins, 1993. Gibson, Donald B., Reconciling Public and Private in Frederick Douglass? Narrative, Rutgers University. Polsky, Milton. The American Slave Narrative: Dramatic Resource Material for the Classroom. Hunter College of CUNY. Stewart, James Brewer, Holy Warriors The Abolitionists and American Slavery. New York: Hill and Wang, 1976.

How can I as a Nurse Change the Public Health System in the USA?

The functions of the public health care system according to Deacon (2001) are: improving the health and well-being of the population; preventing disease and reducing its consequences; prolonging life; and minimizing imbalance in health. The United States government has always been persistent in addressing public health. In line with this, the government proposed a new public health reform that attempts to acquire a wider coverage of state residents by requiring them to get a health care coverage. According to Kaisernetwork.org (2007), the reform would have the following provisions: 1) Residents having 250% and below of poverty level would receive subsidies from the state; 2) Residents having up to 400% of poverty level would have the opportunity to remove health care premium costs that are beyond 5.5% of their compensation; and 3) Residents who retire before age 65 would be given tax credits to avert them from spending more than 10% of their insurance savings. The planned reform attempts a wider coverage so it prohibits insurers to turn down residents wishing to acquire health care coverage. However, critics contend that the health care reform would be unfair and unproductive. In addition, it would be unsustainable – politically and financially. Public servants such as myself who belong to the nursing profession concern ourselves with the community’s health. We play a critical role in improving public’s health based on their knowledge, adequacy, and accessibility as mentioned by Deacon (2001). Our knowledge as nurses is quite depended by the public since they have extensive awareness of the communities they serve and the needs of these. We as nurses are also considered to be in a position to work for the public since they are regarded legitimate individuals that promote health improvement. The adequacy of nurses also enables people to confidentially discuss issues with them since they are viewed to be part of a large population of both ill and well. Biomedicine.org (2008) asserted that the contribution of nurses, like myself,   to the health care reform will be on the calculations of the patient result quality and costs of health care. Nevertheless, nurses can help change the existing health care system by providing substantive information to the community at large, thereby educating them with the cure and prevention of certain diseases. DOH (2000) stated that nurses are responsible of health awareness activities such as immunizations, cancer screening, and helping people with diabetes and asthma live dynamically. Problems with communities can also be addressed by nurses by facilitating groups that will educate individuals with health issues such as smoking and mental illness. Above all, these public figures should be well informed in educational and organizational support to be fully trusted by local communities as health practitioners so that they may be able to embark systematic measures to change the current health care system the society is put in. Public health care reforms are made for the benefit of state residents, but some reforms are just too costly and unproductive to be appreciated by average citizens. Nevertheless, nurses play the crucial role of promoting health, preventing illness and prolonging life, no matter what health care reform the country is put in. But for nurses to help change the current health care system, they must be able to fully utilize their potentials by sharing their knowledge and experience to educate and promote health awareness; assessing the information, terminologies, and concept available to them and creating opportunities such as support groups to share new information and experiences which are accorded to them, as mentioned by GANM (2006). References Bio-Medicine.org (2008). Mnnesota registered nurses promote law to improve patient care and address health care costs. Retrieved on February 27, 2008 Deacon, S. (2001). Nursing for health: Areview of the contribution of nurses, midwives and health visitors to improving the public’s health in scotland. Retrieved on February 27, 2008 from http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2001/03/8525/File-1 Department of Health. (2000). Vital contribution made by community nurses to public health. February 27, 2008 from http://archive.nics.gov.uk/hss/001110e-hss.htm Global Alliance for Nursing and Midwifery Communities of Practice. (2006). Wrking together for health knowledge exchange. Retrieved on February 27, 2008 from my.ibpinitiative.org/public/Default.aspx?c=1325c561-2b21-449e-880e-6623a1214707 Kaisernetwork.org. (December 17, 2007). State wtch  California Gov. Schwarzenegger, state assembly speaker reach compromise on health system overhaul. Retrieved on February 27, 2008 from http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=49449   

Success, challenges and future prospects of IS outsourcing in the UK: A case study of an UK company outsourcing most of its IS activities.

Outsourcing has become increasingly attractive for many organizations. In such relationship, a company contracts with a vendor that rents its skills, knowledge, technology, service and manpower for an agreed-upon price and period to perform functions the client no longer wants to do. Much attention has focused recently on the outsourcing of IS/IT services to countries such as India and the Philippines. Indeed outsourcing any business activity creates potential risks as well as benefits.Companies can find themselves overly dependent on suppliers, and they can lose strength in strategically core competencies. Interestingly, given the importance of the outsourcing decision and the amount of academic and practitioner literature on it, there is surprisingly little consensus about the topic, probably because of the multiplicity and complexity of the factors involved. In this section, the authors identified six key factors that companies should consider when making outsourcing decisions. Th e framework, which helps assess the pros and cons of outsourcing, can be applied specifically to IS/IT functions.Changes in the broader business environment are affecting nearly every aspect of how companies manage their human resources, altering the balance of pros and cons for outsourcing IS/IT business process. First, conflicting pressures in the labor market have brought the role of human resources to the fore. On the one hand, the 1990s bought the so-called war for talent for IT professionals. On the other hand, intensifying competitive pressures have forces companies to be more aggressive in cutting costs, often by reducing head count.Human resources have had to manage such downsizing, while also trying to be innovative in attracting and retaining valuable employees. Second, IS/IT themselves have become the target for belt-tightening efforts, and they must now find ways to provide more value at lower cost. Many have argued that the key is to focus on activities that are essent ial and outsource the rest. Third, the growing complexity and increasing regulatory changes in the legal environment for human resource management, in particular in the areas of health care, stock-related compensation, overtime-pay calculations, pension reform, and eligibility for contingent workers.This has driven demand for outsourced IS/IT activities from vendors that are subject-matter experts. Globalization poses a comparable challenge, requiring IS/IT departments to address the needs of the business and moving between different countries and markets. Lastly, mergers and acquisition have become increasingly frequent, creating huge IS/IT integration challenges. Often, IS/IT is charged with the simultaneous tasks of integrating and managing the technologies and business processes in the face of continuous change. Problem StatementThe primary objectives of this dissertation will be to investigate the issues involved in factors affecting the success or failure of outsourcing IS/IT activities. Before doing this however there will have to be a thorough examination of the current state of global IT outsourcing services. The main task of the research is to find out what actually makes outsourcing work for Welsh Water. Challenges of having multiple suppliers and the steps Welsh Water undertakes to make outsourcing success. The following is a list of objectives which the author aspires to accomplish in the dissertation:– To analyse the objectives for outsourced services, selecting outsourcing suppliers, benchmarking. – To research contractual aspects of ‘multiple suppliers’ outsourcing, problems and risks associated with it. Assessment of contracts/SLAs: structures, similarities and differences between contracts/SLAs – What steps Welsh Waters undertakes to make outsourcing success (outsourcing program management, contract management, building outsourcing relationships, partnership, mutual benefits, communications, change control, h ow performance is measured, what constitutes for success/failure, etc)– To investigate if any proven/best practices have been adopted by Welsh Waters to mitigate the risks and manage the suppliers effectively. – To look at the ‘uneasy’ relations between the Welsh Waters IT management and some of the suppliers – To research relations between suppliers themselves (possible hostile behavior towards each other, rivalry, hidden conflicts, etc). The Overview of the Study The remainder of this study is as following statement: Chapter 2, Literature Review, will provide first a concise concept and explanation of IT outsourcing.We will examine the competitive landscape within the IT outsourcing industry. We will also define critical success factors and key trends for IT companies operating in this market. We also look different related literature on supplier management and sourcing decision framework for clients. Chapter 3, Methodology, will describe the rese arch design of this study. The research design of this study is empirical research method using secondary data for quantitative analysis. The researchers administered a case study framework to understand the factors affecting the IT sourcing decisions of clients.Chapter 4, Results, will demonstrate the results of this study. The authors will provide a brief description of the company under study, highlighting IT sourcing decision of the company. The research also will employ statistical data such as frequency distribution, mean and standard deviation on the different factors that affect the success and failure of IS/IT outsourcing. These data will be tabulated and analyzed to examine the effect of the various variables. The findings will then be generated from these analyses will be presented and interpreted.Chapter 5, Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations, the â€Å"Summary† section will first provide a comprehensive summary of the major findings of this study. The â€Å" Conclusion† section will highlight the implications of the research findings. Finally, â€Å"Recommendations† will be proposed to help companies improve IT implementation with partner suppliers and avoid pitfalls and traps. In next chapter, we will discuss the environmental analysis on Global outsourcing highlighting process management services, IT management, and data processing. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATUREThe literature review will first define nature of business process outsourcing. This section will offer a concise definition of IT outsourcing and its ability to thrive in a globalized economy. Then, the review will consist of three parts: (1) Environmental Analysis of the Outsourcing Industry and competitive landscape in the industry, (2) define the common IS/IT activities that are outsourced, (3) identify the key success factor of IT outsourcing and define the maturity stage of the company, and (4) the importance of customer-vendor relationship in providing innova tive solutions to the clients.Defining of Business Process Outsourcing Given the potential headaches of managing IT, it is tempting to hand the job over to someone else. Indeed, outsourcing once appeared to be a simple solution to management frustrations, and senior management teams at many companies negotiated contracts with large service providers to run their entire IT functions. At a minimum, these providers were often able to provide IT capabilities for a lower cost and with fewer hassles than the companies had been able to themselves.But many of these outsourcing arrangements resulted in dissatisfaction, particularly as a company's business needs changed. Service providers, with their standard offerings and detailed contracts, provided IT capabilities that were not flexible enough to meet changing requirements, and they often seemed slow to respond to problems. Furthermore, a relationship with a supplier often required substantial investments of money and time, which entrenche d that supplier in the company's strategic planning and business processes.The company then became particularly vulnerable if the supplier failed to meet its contractual obligations (Ross and Weill, 2002). Problems arose because senior managers, in choosing to outsource the IT function, were also outsourcing responsibility for one or more of the crucial decisions they should have been making themselves. Companies often hired outside providers because they were dissatisfied with the performance of their own IT departments—but that dissatisfaction was primarily the result of their own lack of involvement.In light of this track record, most larger companies, at least, are deciding to keep their main IT capabilities in-house. But many engage in selective outsourcing. Good candidates for this are commodity services, such as telecommunications, in which there are several competing suppliers and specifications are easy to set, and services involving technologies with which the compa ny lacks expertise. Unlike decisions to outsource the entire IT function, selective outsourcing decisions are usually best left to the IT unit, assuming that senior management has taken responsibility for overall strategy.Beaumont and Costa (2002) studied IT outsourcing in Australia. They found that almost 40% of Australian organizations outsource one or more IT applications. Large organizations tended to outsource more than small ones. The three most important reasons for outsourcing were access to skills, improved quality and focus on core business. Four factors contributed to successful outsourcing: a tight contract, a partnership, a change process, and the IT manager's role changing from managing projects and operations to acquiring and managing the internal and external resources required to do the organization's IT work.Successful IT outsourcing relationships enable participants to achieve organizational objectives and to build a competitive advantage that each organization co uld not easily attain by itself. Outsourcing success can be viewed as the level of fitness between the customer's requirements and the outsourcing outcomes. Outsourcing success can be measured in terms of both business and user perspectives. From a business perspective, outsourcing is motivated by the promise of strategic, economic, and technological benefits.The success of outsourcing, then, should be assessed in terms of attainment of these benefits. From a user perspective, outsourcing success is the quality level of services offered. A decision to outsource on the basis of saving costs without analysis of the quality of services frequently leads to higher costs and lower user satisfaction. Therefore, it is imperative to conduct a proper analysis of the service quality before building a relationship with a service provider for a successful outsourcing arrangement (Lee & Kim, 1999).In this paper, we define outsourcing as the process of turning over an organization's computer cente r operations, telecommunications networks, and/or applications development to external vendors is called outsourcing (Laudon & Laudon, 2005). Loh and Venkatraman (1992a) define IT outsourcing as the significant contribution by external vendors in the physical and/or human resources associated with the entire or specific components of the IT infrastructure in the user organization. Vendors may contribute computer assets for the user from outside the organization.Alternatively, the ownership of certain computer assets of the user may be transferred to the vendor. Similarly, vendors may utilize their personnel to provide the required services, or the vendor may employ existing staff of the user. In their research, they attempted to explain the degree of IT outsourcing by using cost structures and economic performance. They found that the degree of IT outsourcing is positively related to both business and IT cost structures, and negatively related to IT performance.IT outsourcing was fr amed as a make-versus-buy decision, where contractual modes differ in the domain of influence within the corporation (Loh & Venkatraman, 1992a, 1992b). Environmental Analysis of Outsourcing Market In the global front, the increasing trend towards outsourcing is evident from the high year-on-year growth of the global market for data processing and outsourcing, a sector, which consists of the provision of commercial electronic data processing and/or business process outsourcing services.Since 2001, the market has expanded by almost 50%. The global data processing and outsourced services market reached a value of $265. 5 billion in 2005, recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9. 7% in the 2001-2005 period. The rise in credit card use and Internet banking/payment has created new types of problems for operators in this area; firms in this market are engaged in developing and refining data protection techniques to fight against money laundering and fraud.

Study Guide Oncology Essay Example

Study Guide Oncology Essay Example Study Guide Oncology Essay Study Guide Oncology Essay Study Guide Oncology BY generated -IA patient who starts chemotherapy for a solid tumor may develop tumor lists syndrome (TLS) How is it treated? (838): Prevent it by recognizing the patient population who is at risk and initiating prophylactic measures before antiseptics therapy begins -Hydration: maintain urinary output of 150 murmur. Should begin 24 to 48 hours before treatment before and at lest 72 hours after treatment. Diuretics: may be used to promote the excretion of phosphate and uric acid. Allophonic: prevents uric acid formation. Begun a few days before. Continued 3-5 says after treatment to complete. -Sodium bicarbonate: is used to maintain an alkaline urine (pH>7) to prevent uric acid crystallization. -Calcium calculate :Given IV is used to correct hypoglycemia. If your platelets are low, should you use a blade razor? (838) No, use electric razor What is the difference between a benign tumor and malignant? Malignant tumor: growing worse, resisting treatment; said of cancerous growths. Also tending or treating to produce earth; harmful. -Benign: not recurrent or progressive; opposite of malignant. When would you place the Nitrogen patient in reverse isolation? 833) The nurse needs to protect the patient against pathogens, monitor the patient for signs of infection, and respond aggressively if infection occurs. Reverse isolation private room to prevent transmission. Your patient is post-pop coronation and has increased pulse and increasing blood pressure. The testis should feel smooth and egg-shaped and be firm to touch. The epidemics, found behind the testis , should feel like a soft tube When should you do self breast examination(SUB)? (606) Monthly starting at 20 years of age. Physical examinations of the breast by a trained health professional; every 3 years between 20 and 40 years of age and every year thereafter. Screening mammography annually beginning at 40 years of age.

Personality and Its Assessment Essays

Personality and Its Assessment Essays Personality and Its Assessment Essay Personality and Its Assessment Essay Personality has different meanings for theologians, philosophers and sociologists, and within psychology it has been defined in many ways (Allport, 1937). The main reason that leads so many psychologists to explore the human personality is that by doing so, the opportunity to predict a person’s behaviour in a situation presents itself, even before a situation occurs. Knowing more about one’s personality also allows us to learn about his/her dominant traits, information that can be of use in many aspects of everyday life (e. . recruiting the right people for the right jobs, treating a patient with the most suitable therapy etc. ). Many psychologists today (Block, Weiss and Thorne, 1979) define personality as a â€Å"more or less stable, internal factors that make one person’s behaviour consistent from one time to another, and different from the behaviour other people would manifest in comparable situations† (Childe, 1968). This definition gives us a clear v iew of the four major assumptions in the concept of personality: stable, internal, consistent and different. From the constructivist view, personality is seen as the combination of three equally important components: the actor, the observer and the self-observer. The actor component refers to the characteristics that a person brings to the social situation in which personality is constructed. These include all the genetic factors that may have the influence on a person’s behaviour, what he/she is capable or incapable to perform, as well as the individual’s history and present goals. The observer component refers to the way the actor is perceived by other people. Observers use the actor’s behaviour to construct an impression of the actor’s personality by adding social significance and meaning to the presented behaviour. As a result of this, we categorize people’s behaviour into different groups (e. g. ‘friendly’, ‘obnoxious’). These categories, apart from telling us about directly observable information, also add inferred meanings. The self-observer component is the direct consequence of the human ability to be self-aware. We can observe ourselves as we can observe other people, and we can see ourselves as we think other people see us. Throughout time, researchers have constructed various tools, scales and tests to attempt assessing personalities. The four main assessment methods currently used are interviews, observation, objective tests and projective tests. Interviews can be of two kinds, the structured and the unstructured. In the structured interview the person would be given a set list of questions to answer. These would mostly refer to the way a person sees him/herself behaving in different situations, by choosing the most appropriate statement that would describe him/her most accurately. In the unstructured interview the person would be asked to talk about himself without any obligation to a specific order and without much direction from the assessor. The observation method is used by the psychologist to learn about a person’s personality, through observing a person’s action and behaviour in different situations. The objective and projective tests are designed to learn aspects of one’s personality. While the objective way uses self-inventories that involve paper and pencil test, the projective way is about deriving information while a person talk about ambiguous stimuli. I shall go into further detail on these two means of assessment and their validity. While looking into methods of assessment, the two main personality tests appeared in either a structured or in an unstructured form. Structured Personality Tests The first structured personality test (also known as ‘objective’) was introduced by the U. S Army, while recruiting soldiers for World War I. The purpose of this test was to identify emotionally disturbed recruits. The test consisted of a list of questions that dealt with different symptoms or problem (e. g. â€Å"do you wet your bed? †). If the recruit was reporting many such symptoms, he was sent to further psychiatric examination (Cronbach, 1970). More personality tests were later introduced; the 2 major ones were the MMPI (Hathaway and McKinley, 1940) and the CPI. The MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) assesses traits in comparison to psychiatric diseases, with the intention to make the test multiphasic, meaning diagnostic of a number of different kinds of psychopathology. This test was more concerned in finding abnormal behaviour that would indicate a psychiatric criterion (e. g. paranoia, depression, schizophrenia etc. . The CPI (California Psychological Inventory), unlike the MMPI, focuses on non-clinical behaviour and is more directed to high school and college students. This test investigates various personality traits such as sociability, dominance, responsibility etc. The validity of Structured Personality Tests The main problem with constructed personality tests is that most people taking i t are more or less aware of what the questions represent. Instead of giving an honest account of themselves they may try to manipulate their answers to avoid a stigma of a mental disorder or social stereotypes. Likewise, a person may wish to present him/herself in a bad light, in order to avoid undesirable object (e. g. being drafted). Even when precautions were taken by adding certain validity scales to the test, scales that were meant to make it easier to indicate when a lie was recorded, there was still no guarantee that patients weren’t lying to themselves and projecting their false interpretations when answering such tests. Furthermore, though personality tests can predict behaviour, their accuracy is doubtful. The correlation found between test scores and validity criteria are generally around +0. 0, indicating a low to moderate association (a perfect association between sets of scores produces a correlation of (+/-) 1. 00, whereas scores that are totally unrelated produce a correlation of 0) (Lasky et el. , 1959). Unstructured Personality Test The unstructured personality tests (also known as ‘projective’), introduced in the 1940’s and 1950’s, presen ted the examinee with unstructured tasks such as making up a story to fit a picture or describing what he/she sees in an inkblot. These tests were formed in such way that the examinee -instead of describing how he/she feels, acts or wishes- requires to do so regarding other stimuli. One example of such test is the Rorschach test (Rorschach, 1921). In this test, 10 symmetrical inkblots are presented to the individual; some are coloured and some black and white. The individual is required to describe what he/she sees. The method of interpretation regarding this test consist of various hypothesis, such as the one which claims that using the entire inkblot indicate integrative, conceptual thinking, whereas the use of the white space is supposed to be a sign of rebelliousness and negativism. Responses that are dominated by colour suggest emotionality and impulsivity. Another example is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) (Murrey, 1948). This consisted of thirty pictures of various scenes and a blank card. In each the examinee is required to imagine his/her own scene; describing what is shown, what led up to it and what the outcome of the scene will be in his/her eyes. This outcome of the TAT was interpreted by considering the examinee’s desired end- product as a picture of his/her major motives and conflicts, achievements and aspirations. The validity of Unstructured Personality Tests By now there are over 11,000 published articles regarding the Rorschach and the TAT. According to some experts, these tests have a very limited validity (Holt, 1978; Klein, 1982; Rorer, 1990). These studies have shown that individual Rorschach measurements have little relation to external validity criteria. In its ability to predict psychiatric symptoms, TAT assessments proved no better than the Rorschach’s test. In a study initiated in 1950, TAT was administrated to over 100 males, some in psychiatric facilities and others in college. The TAT results showed no difference between the normal group and patients. It also lacked the ability to show differences within the psychiatric groups (Eron, 1950). Although the TAT was proved to have little value as a diagnostic assessment for psychiatric classification, studies have shown that the test has some validity for more limited purpose, in particularly regarding indications of personal motives. One group of investigators worked with examinees who had not eaten for various periods of time. When presented with TAT pictures, their stories were highly connected to food and hunger, in comparison to the participants of the control group. Similar findings have been obtained concerning various other motives such as aggression, sexual arousal and the need for achievements (Atkinson and McClelland, 1948). Personality tests, in both their structured and unstructured form, consist of many more formats and use a large quantity of assessment methods. Although both types of tests consist of certain flaws, and are not always reliable, their contribution to the understanding of personality is significant. The appearance of such tests in the early 40’s has raised the interest of many researchers, psychologists and psychiatrics, and gave way to further studies on the issue of personality and its construct. References: Gleitman, H. (1999) psychology 5th edition, Norton (chapters 16 and 17) Hampson, Sarah E. (1988) The construction of personality: an introduction. 2nd edition, London: Routledge

Business Model and Strategic Plan Essay Example for Free (#3)

Business Model and Strategic Plan Essay Coffee (372) , Starbucks (158) , Strategic Plan (66) , Business model (48) company About StudyMoose Contact Careers Help Center Donate a Paper Legal Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Complaints Why do businesses need innovation is simple, the world is changing at a rapid speed and no one can predict what is coming in the future. Organizations are facing many new types of vulnerabilities everyday. Innovation helps to determinate the strategic management within an organization and prepares organizations for the unforeseeable change and to make the change. Although very organization have different priorities, or balance the unique issues of their own, ignoring the innovation, or implementing the strategic plan inefficiently can bring risks of losing key employees, inefficiency of the operation, and lose competitive advantages to the competitors. This paper will create a new division for Starbucks Coffee Co. Using this division as an example to explain the importance of the innovation in company’s vision, mission, and values, and how it related to strategic management. Starbucks Corporation, doing business as Starbucks Coffee, is an American global coffee company and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Today, with more than 21,000 stores in 65 countries, Starbucks is the premier roaster and retailer of specialty coffee in the world. And with every cup, the company strives to bring both their heritage and an exceptional experience to life. (Starbucks.com) Since the first Starbucks opened in 1971, the company has a goal to share great coffee with friends and help make the world a little better place. (Starbucks.com) To better server Starbucks Coffee’s customers, and provide quick and easy coffee for the people who have to fight the morning or anytime traffic, Starbucks coffee co. has purposed a new business model of Self Severed Coffee Machine. This new Machine will be located outside of Starbucks stores, shopping centers, and large office buildings to better server the consumers who does not have time to wait in line and get their favorite cup of coffee. In this tough economic climate, Starbucks needs to compete smart, this means to stay a step head on ensuring the best response to customers’ need and demand. It is often to see a line of customers either inside the store or in the drive through. While we appreciate the their patience to wait in line, we also share their frustration. It is our intention to ensure everyone loves his or her coffee. While we are proud that every cup is made to earn our customers’ satisfaction, we are also spending a considerable amount of time on making them. The Self Served Starbucks machine has an ability of produce majority flavors of the coffee, which our customer likes. Simply pay the cash, wipe the credit card, or scan the mobile Starbucks App on your smartphone, the machine will make a fresh brew cup of coffee in just 45 seconds. With this machine outside of store or mall, our customer can save time on waiting in line. Even more convenient, the machines outside of the office building not only can save our customer a trip to the coffee shop in the morning, also be able to enjoy a hot fresh coffee when they sat down by their desk. This new machine can ensure the competitive advantage by its product differentiation, more focused group on customer service, and operational efficiency. Starbucks’ mission is a reason for the company’s existence. With the unique style of combining both, our vision and mission statement is â€Å"to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.† (Starbucks.com) To align with this mission statement, our new division’s mission statement is to † bring the best quality coffee and convenience to our customers on the go, one machine at the time† This mission statement reflected the company value and beliefs to show our costumers that we care, it will also guide our employees on understand and establish what the company truly does. A good mission statement inspires employees and provides a focus and direction for strategic planning. While mission statements vary from organization to organization and represent the distinctness of each one, they all share similar components. (Mission and Vision Statements, 2010) The new division’s mission statemen ts include descriptions of Starbucks’ target market, the geographic domain, and concern for survival, growth, and profitability. Being the giant leader of the coffee and snacks industry, Starbuck coffee company needs to develop a strong strategic plan through the analysis of SWOTT. SWOTT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and trends. A SWOTT analysis identifies strengths and weaknesses within a company, and outside opportunities and threats. The most important parts of a SWOT analysis specify the actions that correspond to the elements the company identify. By using the results of the analysis to improve the situation of the new division, we can reduce the likelihood of developments that negatively affect the business while improving performance. (Smallbusiness.Chron.com) Starbuck is currently in the retail coffee and snacks industry. The  self-serve coffee machine will be able to satisfy customers not just a cup of coffee but also tea, water and juice, which Starbuck currently provide in the store. The loyal based reward programs provide customers with convenience, giving presents, and increasing frequency of the machine visit. Although there will not be any customer service involved, but the efficiency of leveraging technology with the capability of mobile App will still attract customers. The machine will provide extra ideas on the screen related to recycling and reducing waste; this is a great way to communicate with people about the social responsibility initiatives of the company. Due to the economic crush in 2008, this industry has experiencing a major downfall in sales. Because of the sensitivities to the macroeconomic factors, most of industry consumers have to give up extra expenses such as over priced drinks, snacks, and food. However, with economy slowly recover, consumers will start feeling the relaxation of the financial situation, it is safe to say, this industry will has a considerable amount of growth in the near future. With Starbuck having the most of market share in the industry, they have a monopolistic competition. By far the biggest threat the company face is the mature stage of the industry. Dunkin donuts, McDonalds, or Pete’s coffee are all the main pressure on Starbucks. Starbucks brand recognition and the convenience of the self-severed machines differentiates itself, the brand and the machine will draw more customers’ attention, gain competitive advantages for the company. The self-served Starbucks coffee machine will be located in some of the most prime and strategic location across the city such as universities, office buildings, and grocery stores. They will primarily targeting mid-income individuals and students. This strategy will gain competence due to the customer convince factor. The Starbuck coffee-pricing factor does pose a weakness to some targeted consumers; however, the self-severed machine will be 5% cheap because there are no labor costs involved. Expansion into a global market is an opportunity for these machines. Starbucks has a great growth potential in further expanding into the emerging and developing  markets. The company can leverage their size, experience, financial prowess and efficiencies to make new market share. (Forbes.com) Starbuck has putting significant amount of time and money on training their employees. Their employees are known for highly knowledge and experienced. They are the main assets of the company and they are provided with great benefits like stock option, retirement accounts and a healthy culture. This effective human capital management translates into great customer services. It was rated 91st in the 100 best places to work for by Fortune Magazine. (CNN.com) The internal threat for Starbucks currently is the change of life style and taste choices of consumers. More and more customers are shifting towards healthy foods and drinks; this treading can hurt the coffee culture of the company, even to industry in the future. The Balanced scorecard is a management system that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. It also provides an organization with feedback of both the internal business processes and external outcomes, which allows for continuous improvement of strategic performance and results. Develop the strategic objectives for the new division of the Starbuck in the balanced scorecard format in the context of key trends, assumptions, and risks. The strategic objectives are measures of attaining the new vision and mission. Below are the three strategic objectives for each of the four balanced scorecard areas identified (Financial, Customer, Process, Learning and Growth). How to gain the market share is the objective in financial perspective. This is aggressive strategy the new division can use to power our organization and weaken the competitors. The new † Self served coffee machine† can gain market shares by: One: New technology. This market has always been a high growth market, and high growth markets has less competitors, it means they will not fight our  efforts as fiercely. Two: Innovation. This new machine is absolutely a breakthrough innovative idea once it is release into the market. Innovation can help the new division obtain large market share. Three: Strategic Alliance. The new machine can advertise other products, which is great choice when drinking coffee. If the alliance company can help with founding, we can lower our coffee price. This is efficient way to lure customers from competitors. How do we create value for our customers are the objective for the customer perspective? Customers are the key factor to an organization success. Creating value for our customers in three ways: One: New Value. This is the most challenging way to impress customers. By setting new machines by the office buildings or school parking lots will be most convenience for people do not have time to stop for coffee in the morning, or anytime during the day. Two: More value. The machine will provide the same product as in a Starbucks coffee store, but cheaper. Three: Better Value. To expend on the existing value, the customer will be able to purchase snake from the machine. The addition product provided will simply delivering more powerful impact to consumers. PROCESS OR INTERNAL OPERATIONS PERSPECTIVE How we measure the new division performance? The new division will have its own survey attached to the machine. Customers are the top choice for us to know what does the new division do to make them come back for more. Also, customers can leave feedbacks and advice via Facebook, Yelp, or preferred  social Media. Our new division will make huge impact on the organization, because it will release the busy traffic in the morning for the store location. LEARNING AND GROWTH (EMPLOYEE) PERSPECTIVE There is no employees’ turn over or retention involved with the â€Å"Self served machine† However, the mechanics are needed for the daily maintenance and refill. The new technology will notify the mechanic department if the machine needs any attention or checkups. While having a strategic plan, mission and vision Statement is crucial for the new division, but crafting and developing this plan is only the half of the battle. To have a communication plan is one of the most important factors after the plan and analysis is finalized. Although the new division will not have any human operating the machine, there are still the needs of new policies and procedures to be carried out. The effective of these policies and procedures are most likely effect the success of the plan. For example, machines maintenance schedule, or refill of the machine. Failure to take communication plan into account can cause disastrous. Our new business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines key elements of how we going to operate this new division. The plan typically includes an assessment of the market and the competition, operating budget breakdown, and short and long-term business goals. (smallbusiness.chron.com) There are three suggest way to monitor and control our new plan: Any new business plans within an organization needs to be reviewed on a regular basis, especially the expectancy of the busy traffic with the new  self-served machine. The new division management needs to set a date, this can be quarterly or annually, to review the long-term and short-term goals. Conducting the comparative analysis will help to ensure the strategic plan is on the right path. The management team of new division needs to develop a new tracking system to assess how the sales are doing regularly. For example, if the target sales goal is 5000 cups per month, then track the sales weekly or twice a month to monitor and control the process. Monitor key elements frequently. Key elements of the business plan include research on the market and competition as well as revenue projections. Each of these elements is subject to rapid change, and the management team should remain aware of where you stand with regard to these issues. (Smallbusiness.chorn.com) COORDINATE BUSINESS AND MARKING PLANS Our new division will have both business and marketing plans. Sometimes, they overlap in several ways. For example, if the Marketing plans calls for a major launching campaign with the media, but the business plan’s revenue prediction rejects that plan, then the managers needs to revise the plan to stay on track. Ethical behaviors and organization social responsibility is one of the key factors to bring large benefits for the business. With the new self-served coffee machine, it attracts customers with Starbucks signature products, thereby to boosting sales and revenue. It will create more jobs, therefor, help with unemployment. It will also attract more investors and keep the company’s share price high, therefor, protecting the business and employees’ benefits. The fact is brutally simple: the accelerated change within the business world is unavoidable. Evidence shows in current business world, customers are changing their needs and interest each day, markets are relentlessly unstable, and competitors are more aggressively capture any chance possible at new ideas. With technology advances faster and faster, and modifying the traditional strategic management that it touches, Innovation has become what shapes the current strategic management trends, and the right strategic management is the key to business success. http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage Mission and Vision Statements. r Business Plan. We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Statistical Critique of an Article Research Paper

Statistical Critique of an Article - Research Paper Example The article clearly identifies the primary concepts/variables in the study and states its hypotheses. The main concepts are perceptions of self-efficacy and CM knowledge and skills. Authors defined these concepts and their applications to the study. Moreover, the study identifies clear independent and dependent variables. The independent variable is the CMT, while the dependent variables are participants’ perceived self-efficacy in managing conflict situations and conflict management knowledge and skills. Aside from having explicit concepts, the article clearly states its hypotheses. Authors are fundamentally concerned of the relationship between CMT and learning. Learning is assessed based on changes in CMT knowledge and skills, as well as perceptions of self-efficacy. Moreover, authors are interested in maximizing self and peer/supervisory ratings. They want to use self, peer, and supervisory performance reviews as methods of broadly assessing the success of CMT in enhancing the CM skills.Aside from determining explicit variables, the study’s introduction provides relevant and sufficient background information that helps readers understand the skills and knowledge being studied because it includes a general introduction on the topic of conflict and discusses the definition of the concept of conflict, the conflicts that traffic officers face, benefits and costs of CMT, review of literature, basics of Hong Kong’s CMT program, theoretical framework, and the hypotheses of the study. The introduction is exhaustive because it outlines the major concepts and elements that readers need to understand the literature on conflict in general, its relation to police work, and the basic components and goals of the CMT being examined. This section answers different â€Å"what† and â€Å"why† questions, which help readers, understand what the study is about and how it responds to the gap in existing literature. Apart from having a relevant and exhaustive introduction, the sampling strategy is appropriate to the small sampling and research question, though not fully discussed. The study followed the train-the-trainer model, and so two groups of participants were assessed, primary level (PL) participants or the trainers for subordinate officers, and secondary level (SL) participants or the end learners of the CMT program. The article did not use random sampling strategy since all participants were assessed. This strategy enables the researchers to fully answer their research question. In addition, the objectives of the article required assessment of all participants. Authors cannot fully understand if the CMT is effective for all participants, if it applied random sampling strategy only. After discussing sampling strategy, this paper notes that the article sufficiently uses descriptive and inferential statistics, as well as qualitative analysis, to present a comprehensive view,

Is intelligent design science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Is intelligent design science - Essay Example Scientists believe that the invention of Higgs boson may be useful in predicting the base particle of life. Human being is considered to be made of three things; body, mind and spirit though experimentally not proved. After death a person’s body will be destroyed; but what will happen to the mind and spirit? Even though science and technology has advanced a lot, still it was not able to decode the secrets of life. Even the science and technology do not know where our spirit lies or what type of forces is driving us. Earth is not a permanent place for us and hence what all we received from the earth need to be disposed here itself before going for another mission at another place. In other words the material things which were acquired from the earth will not help us in our future assignment. Science has so far failed in predicting the origin our spirit or soul. It doesn’t know from where it comes and where it goes. Intelligent design is a new branch of knowledge originated in America recently which says that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, rather than a natural selection. â€Å"The idea that an organism’s complexity is evidence for the existence of a cosmic designer was advanced centuries before Charles Darwin was born.† (Milner & Maestro) Physicians explain various functions of body while psychologists concentrate on the activities of mind. But nobody knows much about the soul or spirit though everybody agrees that it is the spirit which drives us in this material world. After death what happens to the spirit? Only the religions studied about the features of spirit and they have their own explanations about the future of spirit on the basis of the good and evil committed during the life in earth. Religions believe that those who engaged in good activities during the stay on earth will get salvation after death while others will be punished by God. Intelligent design

Relationship management as a means of developing competitive edge Assignment

Relationship management as a means of developing competitive edge - Assignment Example This research will begin with the concept of relationship management and an overview of the organization which is used as an example for the implementation of this marketing concept. The area of research for this paper is the concept of relationship marketing and its application in the business scenario. Relationship marketing (RM) is defined as â€Å"the process of identifying and establishing, maintaining, enhancing, and when necessary terminating relationships with customers and another stakeholder, at a profit, so that the objective of all parties involved are met, where this is done by a mutual giving and fulfillment of promises†. The company being considered is called New Star Company and it was a pop music club before it merged with another company after which it became a fan club. After the merger, New Star Company still kept the members of its pop-music club with the intention that they would bring in new members into the fans club. They need to gain a foothold in the Chinese market and are looking into business strategies which will enable them to attract new members to their fans club, yet at the same time be able to retain their existing base of members. Relationship Management is about attracting, maintaining and enhancing the relationships between an organization and its customers. This marketing strategy came about as a result of the effects of low growth rate and deregulation which made it necessary for an organization to determine how they could maintain their existing customer base instead of developing new ones.... d are looking into business strategies which will enable them to attract new members to their fans club, yet at the same time be able to retain their existing base of members. In this research we will examine how relationship management can work as an effective business stra0tegy for the company to gain new members. Review of Relationship Management Relationship Management is about attracting, maintaining and enhancing the relationships between an organization and its customers. This marketing strategy came about as a result of the effects of low growth rate and deregulation which made it necessary for organization to determine how they could maintain their existing customer base instead of developing new ones. Relationship marketing involves using satisfied customers as a way for attracting n0ew customers. This means using the element of customer loyalty to gain strength in a new market, which calls for interaction between an organization and its customers, wherein it is necessary for both parties to share the same philosophy to successfully interact. The power of relationship marketing is seen in its unique feature of trying to establish a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship between an organization and its customer. In order to do this, relationship marketing focuses on gaining as much knowledge as possible on customer preferences and implementing these preferences into product and service design. "Relationship marketing is a long term orientation, all marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges". Kolter (2000) Difference between relationship marketing and transactional marketing In we need to understand how relationship marketing can benefit an organization we need to see how

Is Global Warming a Scam Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Is Global Warming a Scam - Research Paper Example This report stresses that since nothing has proved beyond doubt that the carbon dioxide and other toxic gases causes to the atmosphere. Most of the reliable sources of temperature data show no global warming trend. All predictions of global warming are based on computer models, which is incapable of predicting the history. Global warming data has historical importance and hence it should be analyzed based on the history as well. â€Å"A modest amount of global warming, should it occur, would be beneficial to the natural world and to human civilization. Efforts to quickly reduce human greenhouse gas emissions would be costly and would not stop Earth’s climate from changing. Even the governments are spending billions of dollars in the researches of global warming. Moreover these scientists succeeded in threatening the world population and thus the governments forced to allocate more money to the researches in this field which were looted by some greedy politicians and scientist s. This paper makes a conclusion that the increased amount of carbon dioxide causing global warming. In fact the amount of increased Co2 in atmosphere caused by human activities is negligible compared to the increase in atmospheric temperature. The changes caused in Sun are the main reason behind the atmospheric temperature increase. It is evident from the climate changes in other planets that sun is the villain, not the human being on earth which causes global warming. The global warming subject is a huge scam developed by some politicians and scientists to rob the wealth of common people.

Bioterrorism Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bioterrorism - Assignment Example Bioterrorism is a deliberate attempt to discharge biological agents to spread illness and eventually death of the inhabitants of particular geographical area. These biological agents may be bacteria, viruses or their toxins, either in their natural form or in their modified forms, or with enhanced virulence developed by humans to bring disaster. These agents can spread into the environment through air, water or food. It is enormously complicated to differentiate and detect the presence or these agents as they do not display any immediate complaints and also may not show symptoms for days. Thus, they serve as weapons which are cost-effective, trouble-free to disseminate and are capable of creating an extensive fear (Web- Bioterrorism Overview). One of the most discussed action was noticed in September-October 2001 in USA where numerous cases of anthrax bust out. These cases were due to the deliberate attempt and extended through letters carrying the potential anthrax agent, letters were delivered to the offices of news media along with the office of U. S Congress. Receivers of the letters were victimized with anthrax. Later on when tests were performed the strains were labelled as from a domesticate source. This incidence has paved the way for bio-terrorism and has wagered the meaning of biodefence and biosecurity, as it is highly focused exploitation of biological techniques (Web- Bioterrorism Overview). Bioterrorism agents can be categorized on the basis of the intensity of ailments or fatal consequences they create. Three categories are enumerated on the basis of the risk they dispose. Category A encompasses agents with highest risk while Category C encompasses agents with up-and-coming terrorization for disease. Agents belonging to Category A include: Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis); Botulism (Clostridium botulinum toxin); The Plague (Yersinia pestis); Smallpox (Variola major); Tularemia (Francisella tularensis); Hemorrahagic fever (Web-

Difficulties in Managing Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Case Study

Difficulties in Managing Enterprise Resource Planning Systems - Case Study Example The Company made approximately 6000 customizations on the SAP system, but later began experiencing challenges when Kennametal made intentions to upgrade the system. The Inflexibility occurred in the sense that; upgrading the SAP system would take too much time and efforts that supersede the benefits of the upgrade. The cost that would be incurred by the Kennametal Company to upgrade the SAP system was determined to be relatively higher as compared to the projected costs. The alignment of an organization’s processes with the Enterprise Resource Planning System enables an organization to comprehend its complicated operational processes. This enables the company to operate faster and efficiently hence improving its competitive advantage. In addition, the application of the Enterprise Resource Planning System by aligning the processes of an organization towards its procedures enables the organization to customize its activities with regard to the applications of the ERP Systems; hence creating efficiency in its operations. One of the challenges that may be faced by aligning the processes of the organization to the procedures of the ERP system is that: There may be increased costs that are incurred when the user intends to upgrade some aspects of the system. Upgrading the system may also involve consumption of high amounts of time as well as relatively higher amounts of efforts. On the other hand, there may also be high costs of maintenance associated with ERP system especially if there is a vendor involved to provide maintenance services to the ERP system. In contrast with the strategy applied by the Dana Company to maintain their Enterprise Resource System by using an external vendor, I would opt for the use of internally trained IT experts to provide maintenance services to the ERP Systems. Basically, this idea would facilitate the reduction of extra costs that may be incurred to hire an external vendor. The initial costs of training or recruiting

Bioterrorism Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bioterrorism - Assignment Example Bioterrorism is a deliberate attempt to discharge biological agents to spread illness and eventually death of the inhabitants of particular geographical area. These biological agents may be bacteria, viruses or their toxins, either in their natural form or in their modified forms, or with enhanced virulence developed by humans to bring disaster. These agents can spread into the environment through air, water or food. It is enormously complicated to differentiate and detect the presence or these agents as they do not display any immediate complaints and also may not show symptoms for days. Thus, they serve as weapons which are cost-effective, trouble-free to disseminate and are capable of creating an extensive fear (Web- Bioterrorism Overview). One of the most discussed action was noticed in September-October 2001 in USA where numerous cases of anthrax bust out. These cases were due to the deliberate attempt and extended through letters carrying the potential anthrax agent, letters were delivered to the offices of news media along with the office of U. S Congress. Receivers of the letters were victimized with anthrax. Later on when tests were performed the strains were labelled as from a domesticate source. This incidence has paved the way for bio-terrorism and has wagered the meaning of biodefence and biosecurity, as it is highly focused exploitation of biological techniques (Web- Bioterrorism Overview). Bioterrorism agents can be categorized on the basis of the intensity of ailments or fatal consequences they create. Three categories are enumerated on the basis of the risk they dispose. Category A encompasses agents with highest risk while Category C encompasses agents with up-and-coming terrorization for disease. Agents belonging to Category A include: Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis); Botulism (Clostridium botulinum toxin); The Plague (Yersinia pestis); Smallpox (Variola major); Tularemia (Francisella tularensis); Hemorrahagic fever (Web-

The Impact of Media on Teens Essay Example for Free

The Impact of Media on Teens Essay Many adolescent teens are exposed to numerous encounters with the media that have a negative impact on their judgments, actions, and opinions. This is referring to the video games, movies, television shows, and magazines that surround them everyday. We begin to discover how it effects their decisions and behaviors. Adolescence is a time when young people are identifying important aspects of socialization like employment, gender rolls, and the development of morals, values, and beliefs. However, it is also a time when family influence and ties become weaker and outside presences become stronger and more important in the lives of the young. Appearance Most teens search for guidance, not from their parents but from a celebrity, pop star, or actor. These people may only be a role model for a short period of time simply because the teenager has a slight interest in they’re work or could even be as capricious as they released a new album that month. Some examples are make-up ads, â€Å"hot or not† articles, and even some television programs such as the Bachelorette create this false image of perfection that teenagers aspire to be like. This specifically targets their expectations, priorities and self-esteem. Teen girls initiate this mindset where they overanalyze every situation. The way they dress, the amount of makeup they put on, and even how they judge the appearance of the people around them including their friends. In a recent interview with Notre Dame Secondary School’s Child Youth Worker, Mrs. Kennedy states, â€Å"they strive to be what they see in magazines and on the news. It really begins to hurt and damage their self esteem† (Kennedy). With so many years of experience with the youth, Mrs. Kennedy’s very capable of describing how teenagers feel through various situations and why. She talks with teens everyday that go through self-esteem and family issues and agrees that the media, â€Å"especially the social media† (Kennedy), greatly affects the way teenagers view and judge  themselves. â€Å"Some movie ads can be very offensive to not only women but also men. Most stereotypes also developed from movies and television shows.† (Williams) Teenagers may not be physically forced to hide who they truly are but are frightened enough to choose to mask themselves. When high school student Matthew Smith was asked his opinion on the growing population of homosexual teens, he stated, â€Å"everyone now is more accepting to your sexuality than they would have been say 10..15 years ago. Media has really helped it along.† (Smith) Two other high school students had similar beliefs when it came to the openness teenagers are being given with their sexual preferences. This is one example of a positive influence the media has on the way teenagers can express themselves. They encourage teens to be â€Å"comfortable in their own skins† and to not be ashamed of their natural instincts. Some illustrations are the television show 1 Girl 5 Gays, the Gay Pride Parade, and even the numerous Gay/Lesbian support groups funded by some celebrities. Both teenage boys and girls are less ashamed of who they choose to have an interest in, in today’s society. In the latest survey conducted by Ashley Sanchez, 54% agreed that teenagers could be open with their sexuality. (Figure 1) Even if 46% disagreed, the good outweighs the bad. Over time, teens are becoming more and more focused on the useless things instead of the bigger picture. Their priorities have changed drastically. Media advertisements emphasize that in order to be considered what we classify as â€Å"cool† or â€Å"hip† we must own the latest gear or wear the newest line of clothing. In addition to this, many teens only follow what is socially acceptable. If it is not in the latest teen magazine it’s considered â€Å"totally last year† and will be shunned if worn. In a recent survey 44% agreed, and 24% strongly agreed that beauty and appearance is very important (Figure 2). This means more than half of the tabulated results find their appearance to be very important. This is a shocking result because it shows roughly how many teenagers really do care about the way they look. There are positive and negative affects that the media has on the teenage mind concerning their appearance and the way they see and portray  themselves. However, one must take into consideration that these statistics may increase in time because of the different ways one can access and is exposed to the media. Personality, Morals and Behaviour The way a teenager behaves weighs heavily on those who surround and nurture them throughout their childhood years. (Picard). Nonetheless, studies show that during adolescence the mind goes through drastic changes. The frontal lobe in the brain has not yet developed and this is essential for decision making and reasoning. That is one rationale as to why teenagers can be described as reckless and daft at times. A teenage mind is extremely vulnerable to outside influences. When they see their favorite actor or singer do something that is inappropriate they think it becomes acceptable. Approximately one million teens get pregnant and give birth every year in the United States. Eighty percent of those births are to unmarried teens. Teenage pregnancy has serious consequences for the mother, the child and society in general. Teenage pregnancy frequently leads to limited future prospects for many teen mothers who are unable to complete high school. Adolescents who have babies are also more prone to health problems and experience a maternal death rate 2.5 times higher than women aged 20-24(ProQuest Staff). For example, the shows 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom are two television demonstrations of underage pregnancy. None of these teen moms are married, and half of their children’s biological fathers want little or nothing to do with them. This taints both teenage girls and boys’ minds with deceitful and inaccurate interpretations of sex and love. Shows like these pollute the idea of raising a child and marriage with an easy way to fame. (Jennings) It changes teenage morals to the impression that since it’s on the television that it is okay to imitate their behavior. Not all teens are as naà ¯ve as to go and engage in sexual behavior just to be famous but the fact that these teenage mothers allow a recording crew to follow them around and film their day-to-day lives and constant arguments with their boyfriends is ludicrous and sends a terrible message to other teenage women. When students were asked if reality television could be educational, the results showed more than half of the students agreed that it could be  educational. (Figure 3) â€Å"I really don’t umde rstand how it could be educational. I think it’s more for entertainment purposes† (Kennedy). Many children born to teenage mothers suffer from low birth weight and other related health problems, with a large proportion of them having insufficient health insurance. Children of teen parents often receive inadequate care because teens are rarely able to provide the nurturing and stimulation required by infants for normal development. Although teen pregnancy rates declined throughout the 1990s, a 3 percent jump in births to teen mothers between 2005 and 2006 raised alarm that sex education programs and campaigns to reduce teen motherhood were failing. â€Å"Teens don’t understand what it means to be truly mature, or respecting themselves as a human, not an object†. (Mellor). Some people think that providing teenagers with contraceptives is the best way to lower teen pregnancy rates, while others think the focus should be on abstinence education (ProQuest Staff). Teenage violence has never really been a big topic of discussion, however one cannot ignore the on-and-off teenage rages that occur. Children all over the world are engrossed in warfare in their little boxed-up world that is their constant companion. Parents think nothing now about their teenage child playing violent video games for hours each day. There is the known positive correlation between habitual violent video game play and mild and severe forms of physical aggression. This study brings out the belief that children in highly individualistic cultures such as in the United States and Canada are more prone to this effect. All children will become more aggressive if repeatedly exposed to violent video games, and younger children are more susceptible to this than older ones. (Hulaimi). Teens in Nintendo mania may have issues with self-control. The part of the brain that video gaming stimulates is the amygdala, the part connected with emotional arousal. What the violent content of the video game does is stimulation of the brains arousal centers, doing little to the cortical areas involved in perception and thinking. (Jayson). Stereotypes are repetitively in the media. Some movies not only humiliates teenagers of specific races but also drives them away from their own culture because they are afraid of being teased or ridiculed. â€Å"If youre of a certain descent, you are portrayed in the media a specific way and most people adjust their personalities to fit those stereotypes.† (Nadesh). Teens begin to lose their true personalities because  they are trying to fit this mold of what the media deems is socially acceptable. Communication and Relationships Adolescence is a crucial time for friendships, and relationships to develop and become more serious. Websites like Twitter and Facebook have become extremely popular to the teenage population. It affects the way they communicate with one another. â€Å"Before, if two people wanted to talk to one another they would usually do it face to face or on the phone. But overtime, weve become so used to just chatting with people online or texting them that not only has it changed the way we communicate but also the kinds of relationships we have with certain people.† (Nadesh). A lot of teens feel driven by this lust or love concept. â€Å"Teens fall into traps very easily, especially when they truly believe the gestures are genuine† (Mellor). Since a lot of teens have barely experienced a real relationship they have a very vague perspective on love. Nearly 1.5 million high school students across the country experience physical violence at the hands of a dating partner each year, according to a website created by the National Dating Abuse Hotline and the awareness group, Break the Cycle. One in three adolescents have experienced physical, verbal, emotional or sexual abuse from a boyfriend or girlfriend. (Duret). Unlike adults, teens in abusive relationships dont typically live together or see one another much outside of school. Their battleground becomes the telephone and social media. This is where put-downs, name-calling and jealousy manifest in angry phone calls and Facebook posts. (Duret). There have been multiple cases where the teenager’s significant other’s jealousy would be pushed to the extreme and murders will occur. (Duret) The case of Brandon Nicholas Santos, 18, arrested on first-degree murder charges in the death of girlfriend Emilie Sineace, 16. Police said Santos drove to Sineaces suburban Lake Worth house Sept. 14 and sent her a text message to come outside. When she did, he fired six shots at her. Half of them hit her, and Sineace, an Inlet Grove High student and aspiring surgeon, died the next morning. Now Santos, who recently played football at Park Vista High, may spend the rest of his life in prison. Teens often bring up the 2009 case of RB singers Chris Brown and Rihanna. The celebrity couple turned a national spotlight on domestic violence among young adults when Brown was arrested and sentenced to probation for attacking Rihanna (Duret). The couple separated in the aftermath, but recent media reports have them back together. This sends teens a confusing message about domestic violence. It gives them the idea that if you love each other enough, you can work through situations like this. People are asking questions like: Is there such as thing as Facebook Addiction Disorder? The fact of the matter is it’s not so much a disorder, but it is a form of addiction. Mental Health Experts around the world are probing the dark side of social media. â€Å"When people become too comfortable talking behind a computer they end up being uncomfortable talking in face-to-face. Lots of awkward teens out there that don’t know how to keep a conversation going anymore.† (Goorahoo). We are in an era where Internet devices are always on and meeting face-to-face is becoming increasingly rare as people choose to meet screen-to-screen. There are some very valuable things about social media and networking, and there are also some dangers. Historically, the changes have been in musical taste and style of dress. Now it has to do with technology and the use of technology to deal with social relations. (Pilieci). Facebook, (Figure 4) has more than 800 million users accessing it regularly, and roughly 425 million accessing the site using a mobile device. There are 18 million Canadians on Facebookmore than half our population and with that more than 12 million of them visit the site daily. On a per-capita basis, [Figure 4] [Figure 4] Canada has the highest number of Facebook users in the world. The average Canadian has 225 friends on the social network, though recent studies from the University of Waterloo have shown that as many as half of our friends are people we dont even really know. (Pilieci) Larry Rosen, professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, outlined the results of some recent research, which also points to the darker side of social media. He found that Teens using Facebook have more narcissistic tendencies while young adults who have a strong Facebook presence show more signs of other psychological disorders, including anti-social behaviours. Some psychologists are calling this Facebook Addiction Disorder. This is basically when people are afraid to disconnect from social media services because they think theyre going to missing something important. While older groups may be using it to see pictures of family members or brag about their latest accomplishments, younger generations are using it to gossip. (Pilieci). It’s also a danger because as soon as something is on the Internet it can never be erased. In a way the social media is actually making us sick. It constructs the indication that the unhealthiest relationships are normal, and that spending five hours a day on a network is reasonable. It corrupts the way we socialize and get closer to other people. To a certain extent, teens are allowing themselves to have open profiles with private information that anyone can have access to. They are not only endangering themselves but potentially also their ‘225 facebook friends.’ The Aftermath and Physical Damage Suicide can date back to as early as 500 BCE where in the Greek colony of Ceos, citizens over age 60 years or incapacitated by illness are allowed to commit suicide by drinking state-provided poppy juice or hemlock. Fast-forwarding to1980, in a 17-month period, 28 teenagers took their own lives in Chicagos privileged North Shore suburbs. Researchers reveal statistics that show rising signs of violent discontent among youth from affluent families. (ProQuest). Bullying is a major aspect to teen suicide. (Figure 5). â€Å"Bullying will be a HUGE problem no matter where you’re from. When you’re bullied you feel like there is no way out. You get pushed so far to the edge that you give up and just kill yourself. This is happening more and more often because of our accesses to technology and instant communication.† (Goorahoo). Teens have this tendency to want to feel in power. As soon as they have power, it’s a constant battle to sustain their title. Bullies will torment their victim into such a deep state of depression that they will begin having suicidal thoughts. The exact causes of suicide are complex, with an interplay of psychological, biological, social and environmental factors.  However about 95% of cases spring from mental illnesses such as depression or schizophrenia. (Picard) Many people, especially the young, keep their suffering a secret because they don’t know where or who to turn to. The media renders a lot of help hotlines and prevention programs but how much are they really enforcing it? School is the ideal setting for prevention. School Boards are bombarded with requests to implement health-promotion programs, and suicide-prevention lectures; however, there is little evidence that any of this is very effective. Those who routinely cut-themselves are usually victims of some form of bullying and find that by harming themselves it releases their emotions. Whether they are gay, lesbians, victims of sexual abuse, or just people of a certain culture. Nevertheless, young men are still about five times more likely to die of suicide than young women. (Picard) Media also plays a role in this because of the way men are anticipated to act. They feel the need to persistently have this macho, egotistical persona but what studies now show is that men can be just about as self-conscious as women. Teen boys hide their emotions, feelings and thoughts a lot more than teen girls. Especially when they are with their friends. This is because the media displays the impression of a sensitive man as a homosexual. In most cases, this is not true, of course. All of these bottled up emotions eventually leads to substance and drug abuse. The media blames movies and television shows for this, but those things are the media. Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug in the world, within the United States alone 23 percent of high school students said theyd recently smoked marijuana, making it more popular than cigarettes. (Ritter) Sometimes the habit is developed straight out of the teen’s home or family, but for the most part teen’s smoke simply to have something to do with their friends. (Figure 6) Drinking, on the other hand, mainly has to do with family difficulties. Teens use it as a stress reliever or to forget certain memories. â€Å"Even parent’s drinking occasionally may be influential to their kids without even knowing it.† (Kennedy). Along with all of this comes the increasing number of non-active teenagers. With fast food restaurants frequently being built within a mile radius of most homes it becomes a very convenient place to dine. Teens enjoy going to fast food restaurants for two main reasons: to eat a meal for a cheap price, and to be away from home for a little while. For children of normal weight, the risk of developing high blood pressure or pre high blood pressure rose 6% for every 1,000 milligrams of sodium consumed per day. But the risk rose 74% for children who were overweight. (McKay) Since fast food restaurants are in such convenient places for teenagers to just pop in and eat a burger, they will do it. It’s not only extremely unhealthy because most fast food restaurant’s meat is processed but teens won’t do much physical activity afterwards to work it off. Obese teens not only make easy targets for bullies, in the case of girls, theyre more likely to turn into bullies themselves, according to the findings of a Canadian study on the social fallout of being overweight. (Kirkey) Since a teenager’s priorities have changed, so have their extracurricular activities. Teens are more concerned with shopping and instant messaging one another than maintaining a healthy diet. According to Statistics Canada, 17 per cent of children in Canada are overweight; nine per cent are obese. (Kirkey) Although, there’s maintaining a healthy diet but then there’s going to the extremes with not eating at all. Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa may be caused by environmental factors, which switch on specific genes that trigger the dysfunctional eating behaviour. (Cresswell) Many teens will not allow themselves to eat because of what someone said, or something they saw on the television. This occurs in men also, however men don’t stop eating they go on protein diets. This can also be harmful to their body because your body needs some fat in order to function. Media surrounds teens everywhere they go whether they like to acknowledge it or not. Most teens are becoming more aware of their surroundings and the influences around them by the age of fifteen but do not think much of it until around eighteen. In today’s world people cannot live without media.  Thus, we know that various media and its artifacts can have a lot of effects on our daily lives, our society, and us. We must understand that a lot of what we see on television, hear on the radio, or see in the print are there in order for us to change our minds about certain views or opinions. So, to fully understand and comprehend the nature and effects of the production techniques of the media and its effects on the teenage mind we must consider the many aspects of media. Work Cited Cresswell, Adam. Environmental Factors May Trigger Anorexia. Weekend Australian. 25 Aug 2012: 8. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 14 Dec 2012. Duret, Daphne. High School Dating Violence on the Rise. Palm Beach Post. 14 Nov 2012: A.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 2 Dec 2012. Goorahoo, Khamron. Personal interview. 6 Dec. 2012 Hulaimi, Wan A. The Impact of Violent Video Games on Children. New Straits Times. 22 Apr 2012: 21. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 2 Dec 2012. Jayson, Sharon. Study the Player, Not the Video Game. USA TODAY. 15 Sep 2011: D.3. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 6 Dec 2012. Jennings, Alicia. â€Å"When You Trust Someone and It Threatens Your Body.† Teen Voices. 24 2008. 22-23. Print. Kennedy, Mrs.. Personal interview. 11 Oct. 2012. Kirkey, Sharon. Obese Teen Girls More Likely to Be Bullies, Says Canadian Study. Postmedia News. 21 Jan 2012: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 6 Dec 2012. McKay, Betsy. New Study: Sodium a Concern for Children. Wall Street Journal. 17 Sep 2012: A.2. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 5 Dec 2012. Nadesh, Janani. Email interview. 5 Dec. 2012. Picard, Andre. â€Å"Everyone Has a Role In Being Vigilant About Cries for Help.† Globe and Mail. 28 Sep 2011: A.8 SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 05 Oct 2012. Pilieci, Vito. Do Social Networks Make Us Sick?. Ottawa Citizen. 24 Mar 2012: B.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 6 Dec 2012. ProQuest Staff. At Issue: Teenage Pregnancy. ProQuest LLC. 2012: n.pag. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 2 Dec 2012. ProQuest Staff. Suicide Timeline. Leading Issues Timelines. 2012: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 2 Dec 2012. Ritter, Malcolm. Teen Pot Use Linked to Later Declines in IQ. Baxter Bulletin. 27 Aug 2012: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 1 Dec 2012. Smith, Matthew. Personal interview. 11 Dec. 2012. Williams, Tee-Ara. â€Å"Are These Movie Ads a Big Mistake?† Teen Voices. 08 2004: 56-57. Print.