Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Ethics and Law in Health Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ethics and Law in Health Care - Essay Example On the other hand after amputation Fran would need a lengthy recovery period and would be tied to a wheelchair. The other option offered is to revascularise the leg which might save the limb but it is more risky. With Fran unable to make any informed decisions, her family members are to be he ones to make them. Fran lives with her daughter June in her basement for the past few years. Her son Marcus, who is the eldest of her children, lives an hour drive away and visits often. Fran is separated, although not divorced, from her husband Derek for the last three years. Outside her family Fran does maintain an independent lifestyle. She goes out with her friends on regular basis, and especially enjoys to attend weekly bowl games at her nearby club. Fran , according to her daughter, on many occasions expressed the feeling that she does not want to be stuck in bed like the poor people in nursing homes. Her weekly social interactions were most important in her life. Fran’s case opens many legal and ethical questions. It is clear that the latter stem mostly from the legal framework that does not exist in this case. Fran, although sick for years, did not put in place any legal documents that would help in the case like this. There is no written statement that would give any of her family members right to sign medical consent forms. This fact leaves a lot of confusion and opens a lot of questions. Unfortunately, as usual, the time constraints of her condition leave no room for any of those. Decisions need to be made soon and for the best of Fran. If we look into people involved we know that Fran is separated, but not divorced from her husband Derek. As a spouse Derek in legal terms comes ahead of her children when it comes to making decisions about Fran’s health care. However, the fact they don’t live together must be taken into account. Marcus is the eldest child and is next on the list in order of

Monday, October 28, 2019

Income inequality Essay Example for Free

Income inequality Essay It is the report which is talking about income inequality. It is global income inequality is increasing. Besides that that’s is more information about measurement for the income inequality The relationship between the income inequality and economic growth Technological change and globalisation partly on income inequality, Way to reduce the income inequality, Causes of income inequality, and High income inequality gap-Latin America. Mostly it is all about the income inequality in this assignment is telling about the income inequality. Income inequality Income inequality is about the measurement of people’s household or individual based on their income across the various participants in an economy. It is also known as the gap between the rich and poor, wealth and poverty, the different of income between populations or individual (Ram, R. (1988)). Measurement To measure the income inequality have to use the Gini coefficient which developed by Italian statistician in 1912. The Gini coefficient is measuring the income inequality based on the value of a frequency distribution (for example levels of income). The value of the Gini coefficient is between the range 0 to 1. Therefore, 0 that means â€Å"perfect equality ’’ which every person is getting the same income and 1 that means â€Å"perfect inequality’’ which is all income change to the share of the population with the highest income. The Gini coefficient is also to be used for to measure wealth inequality. This use of Gini coefficient requires that no one has a negative net wealth. Besides that, the Gini index often used which is the Gini coefficient expressed as a percentage, but it is equal to the Gini coefficient multiplied by 100. (Most of the time people are using the Gini index for calculating the income inequality. ) Graph1(source:http://people. stfx. ca) The graph above shows that the Gini coefficient is equal to the area which is shaded to the yellow colour. The relationship between the income inequality and economic growth Graph 2(source : author’s calculation) The graph above is showing the relationship between the income inequality and economic growth. Besides that, the graph above is showing the improvement in the Gini of 0. 01 costs 1. 6 per cent per year in per capita economic growth which mean economic growth improves may affect the income inequality. The relationships between the income inequality and economic growth have a very strong gap sometimes. That means change of economic growth would affect the income inequality. Therefore, the economic growth will reduce the income inequality when the salary of the lowest paid rise faster than the average wage. Besides that, the economic growth can increase the job opportunity for people to reduce the level of unemployment in the social. Economic growth often creates the job opportunity for those people who are high skilled and educated. After job opportunity increased can make the level of poverty decreased and reduce the income inequality. Enhancing the growth of economic may raise the income inequality such as increasing the flexibility of wage determination. The growth of economic is showing the extension for flexibility of wage determination. To increase the wage of employee may reduce the income inequality but it also made the labour cost increased for the employer. Increasing the wage agreement to firms may make some employers have to pay the highly salary of employee. This action may increase the unemployment and affected productivity of the company decreasing because labour cost too high makes the employer hard to endure (Murtin et al. , 2012). graph 3 The graph above is showing the global income inequality is increasing from the year 1820 to the year 2008. The Gini coefficient is increasing that mean income inequality is increasing at the same time. But, sometime the economic growth may not reduce the income inequality. It is because the Economic Growth will not necessarily solve unemployment. For example, growth cannot solve structural and frictional unemployment it is because unemployment (structural and frictional) which caused by lack of skills and geographical immobility. Technological change and globalisation partly on income inequality The current technology with globalisation might rise in the market equipment and create the boosting top incomes. (Rosen, 1981; Gordon and Dew-Becker, 2008). These days, the the change of technology is affecting too fast, however it can also influence the income inequality. It is due to inclined the job opportunity for people who high skilled, but also increasing the unemployment. For instance, those who have not high-skilled workers might drop their work due to the same repetitive happens that may be running on the technologies, technological for achieving the target. Thus the desires for those workers can decline due to the change of technological. Likewise, to estimate for both highly-skilled and low-skilled workers need to focus respective work even the technology change, both of them might difficult to replace by machines or lose their job. If the demand shift is not offset by the equal shift related to the labour supply, change in technology can lead to reduction in salary. (e. g. Autor et al. , 2006, Goos et al. , 2009). At the same time, the globalisation may also increase the income inequality. 1) The offshoring (change the national). It is talking about people from richer countries move to poorer countries or poorer country move to richer country. The offshoring happen because skill intensive in their country. For example, some people from the perspective of the skill-poor country may move to rich country for searching the job opportunity. For the conclusion, offshoring makes labour demand more skill intensive in both poorer and richer countries, thus it is increasing the income inequality in both groups of countries (Feenstra and Hanson, 1996). 2) Sometime, the firms are making a different in their profitability which can make the low-income workers work in satisfaction and create low-productivity firms. That would make the firm lose their competitor compare to the other company. At the same time, it may increase labour income inequality by lowering or reducing the employment (e. g. Egger and Kreickemeier,2009; Helpman et al. , 2010). Improvement of the Globalisation and technological change may further raise the income inequality. Besides that, technology may go to the globalisation but it is also increasing the competition between companies to the company in the world, that mean globalisation for technology may force firms to Innovate. Therefore, the Innovation is increasing the labour income inequality both temporarily – since RD is skill intensive (Dinopoulos and Segerstrom, 1999; Neary, 2003) and it provided the RD results in skill-biased on technological change as discussed above (Acemoglu, 2002). Caused of income inequality -Different religion, region, language and gender In Indian have many different of culture, race, religion and language. This situation is making the Indian citizen get a different education or maybe some of don’t even have the opportunity to study. It is because different of culture, race, religion language and sex in Indian might made some of them didn’t get the chance to study or educated. At the same, this kind of diversity is making a trouble to access to education and chance of employment might decrease also at the same time. This is calling the kind of discrimination. The different is making the people in suffer from significant of inequality in employment, education and income. This kind of situation is increasing because different family background might made the living standard become harder and difficult, caused the income increasing in India (Desai Kulkarni, 2008). -Technology The technology is improving all the time, but it also is decreasing the opportunity of job for people who are unskilled and limited educated. The company have to increase productivity to satisfy the demand from market. A lot of companies are investing to the technology to increase their productivity and growth in their business. Therefore, the number of automatic machine increasing is decreasing the job for those people who are working in manual, handy, limited educated and unskilled. In the same time, the service job could increasing because the technology improvement and factory job such as manual and handy is reducing. The service increased but it is just a low pay job. Technology is increasing the income inequality and it is replaced many worker in factory in U. S (WSJ, Technology, Not Globalization,Feeds Income Inequality, July 24, 2008). -Education The raising of education level is the most efficient way to reduce the income inequality. It is because the education has the great relation to the income distribution. The investment in education can made the income inequality decreased and lowers the level of poverty. People who is educated can get a higher opportunity to get a job compared to those are limited educated. It is important to send the child to the school and educated for increasing their intelligence and knowledge for achieving their ambition. In Brazil have a high inequality of income because average of citizen of Brazil attends fewer year to school compared to other. Number of Brazilian is increasing compared to the other country compared to the Latin America (Carlos Aguiar de Medeiros of International Development Economics Associates, 2001) -Price Stability The price stability is also known as inflation problem. In Brazil, inflation happens is making the poor getting poorer but the rich getting richer. It is because when facing the inflation problem or price instability, the company (rich) is following the same contract of wage or income to pay the salary to their employee (poor). Therefore, the poor have to reduce their living standard with their unchanged pay or real lower wages. At the same time, the investor (rich) can move their financial to other country for more opportunity to protect their money during the inflation. But, the poorer citizens have to work in a harder situation so it is difficult for them to escape poverty. (Carlos Aguiar de Medeiros of International Development Economics Associates, 2001) -Impact of Social Benefits In China, government have to provide a lot of benefit to their citizen. For example of social benefit, it is more like social insurance income or pension benefit. Caused of population increased and economic reforms need a greater financial to stimulate the economic growth. Therefore, have to reduce the social benefit such as pension benefit. It is big impact those are affected and increasing the income inequality. At the same time, not only the pension benefits government of China have to reduce the other social benefits such house benefit, health benefits, food assistance and other when have to improve the economic growth but increase income inequality (Gao 2006). http://www. networkideas. org/ideasact/jun07/beijing_conference_07/carl_riskin. pdf Way to reduce income inequality -Immigration Immigration policy would make United States reduce the income inequality. To let in more immigrants who is highly educated and skill will making more job to the America workers. More immigrants don’t mean reduce the opportunity of job to the America workers because it is creating more jobs to those people who are limited educated and limited skill at the same time. While immigrants are highly educated came to America such as: doctor, engineers, lawyer, entrepreneurs and other may increasing the job opportunity to the citizen of America who is limited educated. The job for United State people could increase caused by the immigrants system. Therefore, reducing the number of workers (immigrants) who is limited education might reducing the income inequality to the America because created more opportunity for those people who is limited education and unskilled. (Enrico Moretti is the Michael Peevey and Donald Vial Chair in Labor Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of â€Å"The New Geography of Jobs† (2012). ) -Education In the France that strategy been used make sure every citizen in the country might get the chance to study or educated. It is the one of way to reduce the income inequality which has to be start on education. The education is very important because it can the people in the country to improve their living standards; reduce the income inequality at the same time. New analysis is showing that an increasing for the job opportunity for people with education is associated which is making a decline in labour Earnings inequality in France (Fournier and Koske, 2012). An education is giving to every citizen for get a higher chance to get the job opportunity might reduce the income inequality. -Protecting Our Poor, Elderly and Women to Reduce Income Inequality In Singapore is making the new job for those women, elder worker, and poor people to find and obtain a new job. It is helping them to avoid poverty but have to reduce their salary in their new job. This kind of policy is enabling those workers such as migrants, women, and elder worker to get an income and escape poverty. In the labour market, giving the new job for those people might increase the productivity in Singapore and reduces the income inequality at the same time. But a new job in low pay is providing for that unemployment or can’t find the job; women have been terminated in their job because of pregnancy, and unconscionably obtuse of the elder employee. Have to pay in low wage because their productivity in work also reducing but it still can helped them to continue their live or living (SINGAPORE POPULATION WHITE PAPER, 2013) -Heavy-industry-oriented development strategy In China is starting the strategy of heavy-industry-oriented development to increase the speed of pace of industrialization. To focus of heavy-industry-oriented development strategy, China is increasing the amount of resource from the agriculture. At the same time, it is increasing the opportunity of job. It is because it is some kind of investment to increase the productivity of China by heavy-industry-oriented development which is providing by China government. To run the strategy, the government of China is moving the industry to the less developed rural regions for increasing the job opportunity for those people over there and reducing the income inequality. To reduce the region income inequality, the strategy of heavy-industry-oriented development might carry on rural region to increase their job opportunity. To increasing the growth of economic in China, have to increase the job opportunity for those are employment and increasing the productivity in China. This may decrease the income inequality gap in China (Yang 2002). Conclusion The information above is showing the income inequality is increasing in the world. The income inequality is making people become poorer for those are poor and make the people become richer for those are rich. Therefore it is the economic issue including the outcome, earning and economic growth. It is why income inequality is the one of target or problem for macroeconomic to solve. Reference -Ram, R. (1988) http://www. collinsdictionary. com/dictionary/english/income-inequality -Graph1 http://people. stfx. ca -Graph 2 (source : author’s calculation) -Murtin et al. , 2012 http://www. oecd. org/eco/labour/49421421. pdf

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Various Eating Disorders :: essays research papers

Anorexia nervosa is the unrelenting pursuit of thinness. When a person has anorexia nervosa they weigh 85%, or less than, of what is estimated for their age and height. A person suffering from anorexia nervosa is petrified of becoming fat; they fear gaining weight even though they are distinctly underweight. The dangers of low weight isn’t apparent, or is denied by these people, and they’ll report feeling fat even when they’re exceptionally thin. In addition to this, anorexia nervosa also often consists of withdrawal, depression, irritability, and peculiar behaviors. These particular behaviors make include things such as compulsive routines, strange eating habits, and division of foods into "good, safe, bad, and dangerous† categories. A person suffering from anorexia nervosa will most likely deny it because they don’t realize what they’re doing to themselves. They just have embedded in their minds that they must persist to lose weight to fit the â€Å"perfect† body image. This form of the perfect body image is cultivated by various sources. Bulimia is the purge and binge-eating disorder. A person who has this disorder feels out of control while eating. This person also vomits, misuses laxatives, exercises or fasts to lose calories. Bulimia also consists of dieting when not binging, and when becomes hungry binges again. Behaviors including shoplifting, being licentious and misusing alcohol, drugs and credit cards occur. Like anorexia, bulimia can kill. Bulimics are often depressed lonely, ashamed, and empty inside. Felling worthless, it’s hard for them to talk about their feelings, which almost always include anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and anger. Bulimics act with little consideration of consequences. Body dysmorphic disorder is often called imagined ugliness. People with this disorder are always watching out for their appearance. There are at least five million people in America with this disorder. This disorder usually common amongst teenage, since in high appearance is needed to be popular and accepted. An extreme case of this would result in getting into bad eating habits, such as Anorexia. Also it can literally destroy a person’s life, since they are extremely sensitive to what other people think. But not all the cases of this disorder. Some people who have this disorder function just fine in society. The best way to treat this disorder is to face your fears and to be proud of who you are, and not care what other people think. Compulsive overeating (C.O) is characterized by uncontrollable eating habits caught in the vicious cycle of binge eating and weight gain, which affects millions of Americans.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Anglogold Ashanti: Analysis of Csr Strategy

AngloGold Ashanti An Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Essay 1 By: S. BLIDI ELLIOTT Index No. : EMBA 10110042 Course: Ethics, Social Responsibility and Governance Course No. : EMBA 663 Lecturer: Dr. Judy N. Muthuri Date: September 28, 2012 Word Count: 5,709 This essay is the first of a two-part series critically examining the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy and performance of AngloGold Ashanti (AGA). This first essay analyses the company’s CSR strategy and activities against the yard sticks provided by the Ghana Business Code and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).In analyzing AGA’s strategy, we explore the likely motivating factors driving the company’s CSR activities and how these drivers inform AngloGold’s responsiveness to environmental, social and other stakeholder issues. In evaluating AGA’s CSR reporting and performance, we present a background of the company followed by an overview of the company’s CSR strategy and analysis of whether that strategy conforms to accepted standards.This essay is written in partial fulfillment of the course requirements of the Ethics, Social Responsibility and Governance module (EMBA 663) of the Executive Masters in Business Administration program of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. ANGLOGOLD ASHANTI – AN OVERVIEW AngloGold Ashanti is a multinational corporation headquartered in South Africa with various mining operations in ten countries spread across Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The company’s primary activity is gold mining, though silver and uranium, among other by products, are produced in the process of extracting the gold from the ore bodies.In 2011, AngloGold reported sales of $6. 6 billion from 4. 33 million ounces of gold produced with a workforce of close to 70,000 persons across four continents. AGA is a truly global company with market capitalization of $16. 2 billion and listings on stock exchanges in A ngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 2 Johannesburg, Accra, London, Sidney and New York. The company is majority owned by shareholders in the USA (47. 9%) and South Africa (27. 9%), with the rest of the shares distributed throughout the world, including a 1. % shareholding by the Government of Ghana (AGA Sustainability Report, 2011: 5-10). AngloGold produces dore (unrefined gold bars) at its worldwide operations for sale mainly to gold refineries which sell on to bullion banks and jewelers. Like others in the industry, AGA has benefitted from recent increasing demand for gold as a store of value. This demand has been driven over the last few years by the worldwide economic downturn and banking crisis which have made investors wary of unstable currency and equity markets.This essay focuses on AGA’s operations in Ghana, where the company operates two mining properties in the west of the country at Iduapriem and Obuasi. These operations account for 11. 8 % of the company’s global production and revenues (AGA Sustainability Report, 2011: 22) Located in the Ashanti and Western Regions of Ghana, Iduapriem and Obuasi were the main targets of the merger between AngloGold Limited of South Africa and Ashanti Goldfields Limited of Ghana to form the current company, AngloGold Ashanti, in 2004.SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY AngloGold Ashanti provides extensive, publicly available information about what the company calls its â€Å"sustainability† strategy and programs. The company’s â€Å"Sustainability Report 2011 – Sustainable Gold† (www. aga-reports. com/11/sustainability-report/home) is one part of AGA’s â€Å"Integrated Report 2011 – Pure Gold† which also includes the company’s Annual Financial Statements and a Mineral Resources and Ore Reserve Report. The company says its Integrated Report is in compliance with South Africa’s King Code on Corporate AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 3Governance 2009 (http://african. ipapercms. dk/IOD/KINGIII/kingiiicode/) which mandates companies operating in South Africa to issue a triple bottom line report on financial and sustainability performance. The King III Code further encourages companies to tailor their sustainability reports according to the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (www. globalreporting. org/reporting/latest-guidelines/g3-guidelines).AngloGold Ashanti appears to have gone to great lengths to remain compliant with the intent of King III Code by presenting sustainability and financial data as an integral part of the company’s governance and business strategy with strong emphasis on the company’s responsiveness to stakeholder issues. The company’s compliant posture is also evident in its reported reliance on the GRI Guidelines, the principles of the UN Global Compact (http://www. unglobalcompact. org/), and t he Sustainable Development Framework of the industry body, the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) http://www. icmm. com/our-work/sustainable-development-framework). While AGA does not specifically mention the Ghana Business Code, acceptance of the principles of the UN Global Compact amounts to acceptance of the Ghana Code which is nearly a verbatim rendition of the Global Compact. AngloGold Ashanti in its Sustainability Report 2011 expresses a mission to: To create value for our shareholders, our employees and our business and social partners through safely and responsibly exploring, mining and marketing our products.Our primary focus is gold and we will pursue value creating opportunities in other minerals where we can leverage our existing assets, skills and experience to enhance the delivery of value. This mission statement gives early insight that the company’s CSR strategy is largely driven by an instrumental motivation (Maignan & Ralston, 2002: 498) to ac hieve performance objectives – creating value. A reading of the company’s values statement enhances this impression of a firm focused on CSR as a means to achieve strategic business objectives. AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 4AngloGold’s stated values are closely aligned with the 10 principles of the Ghana Business Code (Ghana Business Code, 2006). The firm’s first value statement â€Å"Safety is our first value†1 speaks of health and safety at the workplace in alignment with the principles on human rights and labour standards of the Ghana Business Code and the UN Global Compact. The second value statement â€Å"We treat each other with dignity and respect† deals with honesty and ethical business and social practices and is aligned with the human rights, labour and anti-corruption principles of the Ghana Code.AngloGold declares its intent to respect the Global Compact (and by extension the Ghana Code) in its o ther statements concerning the company’s value for diversity and its respect for the environment. Two of the company’s value statements are particularly noteworthy as they speak directly to the company’s sustainability strategy. In value statement 4, the company declares â€Å"We are accountable for our actions and undertake to deliver on our commitments†. This statement goes to the core of what some writers (eg.Crane, Matten & Spence, 2008:5) see to be an essence of corporate social responsibility – companies being accountable for negative impacts of their actions and taking the appropriate corrective and, in the best case, preventive measures. AngloGold’s value statement 5 â€Å"The communities and societies in which we operate will be better off for AngloGold Ashanti having been there† is a powerful statement of commitment by the company to go beyond the scope of its legal and economic responsibilities into the higher realms of â⠂¬Å"Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR† (Branco & Rodrigues, 2007:10). See Appendix for full text of AngloGold Ashanti’s Mission, Vision and Values Statements AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 5 AngloGold Ashanti’s Sustainability Report 2011 is a centralized, group level report, but its supplementary sustainability data and country reports provide a localized perspective of the company’s CSR performance, with particular reference to its performance in Ghana.ANGLOGOLD ASHANTI CSR REPORTING AND THE GRI The Global Reporting Initiative was established in 1997 with a mission to provide a common framework for CSR reporting based on globally accepted principles, concepts and metrics (Hedberg & Malmborg, 2003: 155). The Guidelines give firms a template for the content and presentation of their CSR reports to enable comparison with other such reports. The Guidelines are divided into two parts covering the reporting principles and guidance and the standard disclosures (https://www. globalreporting. org/resourcelibrary/G3-Guidelines-InclTechnical-Protocol. df). Part 1 of the Guidelines give guidance to firms on how to determine the content of reports based on principles of materiality, stakeholder inclusiveness, sustainability context and completeness. This Part also intends to help firms maintain the quality of their reports with regard to accuracy, timeliness, reliability and clarity. The overall objective is for reports to not only present the issues affecting individual firms, but how the firms’ social, economic and environmental performance contributes to sustainable development at the global level.Part 2 of the guidelines covers standard disclosures expected of companies in terms of their strategy and profile, approach of management to CSR issues and a common set of performance indicators. Disclosures on strategy are intended to establish the link between the firm’s business strategy and its governa nce and sustainability performance. AngloGold Ashanti appears to have embraced the GRI Guidelines in an effort to communicate its adherence to widely accepted CSR principles and processes. Hedberg andAngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 6 Malmborg (2003: 153) have suggested that a firm’s use of the GRI Guidelines is often motivated by the firm’s need to â€Å"seek organizational legitimacy† by using a globally respected template that would lend credibility to the company’s reports. AngloGold gives itself an A+ rating for adherence to the GRI Guidelines, meaning the company believes that its sustainability report includes reporting on all indicators of relevance to the GRI.In closely examining the AGA report for 2011, it is clear that AngloGold has closely followed the guidelines on what content to include and how to include it in keeping with the Standard Disclosures of the GRI. The first section of the Standard Disclosures calls for presentation of a high level analysis of the company’s strategy. AngloGold’s Sustainability Report 2011 adheres to this guideline through a statement from AngloGold CEO Mark Cutifani (AGA Sustainability Report, 2011:12) outlining the company’s vision and how this vision links with the company’s business strategy and sustainability performance.He outlines key focus areas for the company’s strategy, including health and safety for employees and business stakeholders, minimizing the environmental impact of operations, protection of human rights, maintaining efficiency in production, controlling costs, maximizing returns and â€Å"delivering value† to community stakeholders. AGA believes these strategic focus areas are consistent with the company’s definition of sustainable development because they cover the social, economic and environmental issues of most concern to the company and its stakeholders (AGA Sustainability Report, 2011: 13).Stakeholder pressure from a negative duty perspective (Maignan & Ralston, 2002:498) is evident when the CEO reports that â€Å"to our key stakeholders it appears we may have taken our local communities and the various levels of government for granted† (AGA Sustainability Report, 2011:13). This pressure from local communities, particularly communities around the AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 7 ompany’s operations at Obuasi and Iduapriem in Ghana, has pushed AGA to declare that its CSR strategy is centered on the concept of â€Å"rebuilding trust with local communities, regulatory authorities and government leaders† (AGA Sustainability Report, 2011:13) through an approach of creating mutually beneficial value for the company and the communities in which it operates. In line with the GRI Standard Disclosures, the CEO statement affirms engagement with a wide range of stakeholders including the Extractive Industries Transparency I nitiative (EITI) and the United Nations Global Compact in developing its CSR strategy and performance.AngloGold further identifies the key risks and impacts on sustainability and the effects on stakeholders that would affect the company’s long term performance. Among risks and sustainability trends of concern to the company is the issue of ‘resource nationalism’ which AngloGold describes as the tendency for governments to demand more returns from companies involved in extractive industries (AGA Sustainability Report, 2011:13). This resource nationalism is expressed through mining code revisions, increased royalty ayments and taxes, and increased demand for companies’ direct contribution to development initiatives. A related risk, from AngloGold’s perspective, is the issue of increased community activism around land use and availability of water. The company commits itself, in its 2011 report, to improve its performance in the areas of water and land use, waste disposal and environmental management. In conformity with the GRI, these commitments are expressed as performance targets which the company considers to be essential for its long term survival.AngloGold’s sustainability report provides extensive information profiling the company in keeping with section two of the GRI Standard Disclosures. The profile includes key information on shareholders, production levels, net sales, number of employees, AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 8 capitalization, and breakdown of all indicators by region and country operations, among other performance indicators. The company, in conformity with EITI, reports all payments to the Government of Ghana and local administrations (http://www. aga- reports. om/11/pdf/ghana. pdf). GRI guidelines provide specific environmental indicators required to be reported on by firms. AngloGold provides detailed data on reportable environmental incidents, energy efficiency, wa ter use efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions and cyanide certification (AGA Sustainability Report, 2011: 6-7). The issue of water is of critical concern at AngloGold’s Ghana operations, because of what the company describes as Ghana’s high levels of rainfall and water run-off which make implementation of ‘closed loop’ systems for recycling water unfeasible.Gold mining operations require huge quantities of water which brings these operations into competition with community agricultural programs for this often scarce resource. AngloGold admits that mismanagement of water supply and quality can have severe impacts on gold production as well as on the health of mining communities. In its Ghana Fact Sheet, the company says â€Å"water quality and usage are of concern globally, but are particularly significant for operations in Ghana, where there is significant potential environmental and social impact and a high level of stakeholder scrutiny† (http://www . ga-reports. com/11/pdf/ghana. pdf). The company agrees, in its 2011 report, that its suboptimal management of water in Ghana has led to disputes with local communities, and that greater efforts are being put into place to address these shortcomings through what AGA calls its Global Strategy for Water Security. The GRI guidelines also encourage companies to report on a range of social performance indicators regarding labour practices, human rights and other societal concerns.The guidelines make reference to several internationally recognized standards and protocols, AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 9 particularly the International Labour Organization (ILO) Tripartite Declaration Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Conventions on Civil, Human, Politi cal, Social and Cultural Rights.AngloGold’s close adherence to the GRI Guidelines may be laudable, but leaves questions as to the company’s motivations. Hedberg & Malmborg in their work on the use of the GRI guidelines among companies in Sweden, suggest that companies are motivated to use the guidelines to â€Å"provide a good and established structure for their reports† (2003:159) in order to seek societal legitimacy, and that a main reason the guidelines are used is to get a proper design for their reports.Because the Guidelines give firms leeway to choose the level and depth of their reporting, and that little if any verification of reports is done by GRI, Hedberg and Malmborg suggest the Guidelines may lack a certain credibility which may negatively impact the company in the long term (2003: 163). Given the above perception of the credibility challenges of the GRI Guidelines, AngloGold’s CSR strategy needs to be subjected to closer scrutiny, beginning with an analysis of the company’s stakeholders and the stakeholder issues that drive AGA’s CSR strategy and activities.STAKEHOLDERS Branco and Rodrigues in their paper on stakeholder theory and CSR remark that stakeholder theory is â€Å"inescapable if one wants to discuss and analyze CSR† (2007: 5). Maignan & Ralston, in discussing CSR motivations, speak of a negative duty approach by which companies engage in CSR activities because of legitimacy issues and stakeholder pressure (2002: 498). Woods (1991:703-705) in her corporate social performance model, emphasizes AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 10 he vital role of stakeholder management in a firm’s processes of social responsiveness. Stakeholder theory makes the case that CSR performance is driven by a firm’s need to respond to and satisfy the interests of its stakeholders. Branco and Rodrigues point further to the tendency of firms to pay greater attention to thei r primary stakeholders as opposed to the issues of secondary stakeholders who are not necessarily â€Å"essential for a firm’s survival† (2007:7).As a multinational company operating labor-intensive operations on four continents, and with listings on multiple stock exchanges, AngloGold Ashanti must tread carefully in order to be responsive to conflicting stakeholder issues while maintaining its focus on its fiduciary responsibility to primary stakeholders, particularly the company’s shareholders. The company’s stakeholder management strategy appears to be based on what the company describes as the â€Å"risks and drivers† that allow its operations to be successful and create mutual value for its shareholders and communities.The company says its stakeholder engagement policy intends to assure that its operations continue to meet performance targets while generating returns for its shareholders and community stakeholders. This approach speaks directl y to the â€Å"instrumental† dimension of CSR as explained by Maignan & Ralston (2002:498). An instrumental approach from a negative duty perspective implies that AngloGold pursues stakeholder engagement, and indeed its entire CSR strategy, because it is compelled to do so by stakeholder expectations and pressure, and not out of any altruistic principles.This explains the strong motivation for the company to manage stakeholders to avoid negative impacts and risks to its operations that would be detrimental to its financial performance. This is an approach that can be observed in all aspects of the company’s stated CSR strategy, which may prompt cynics, as Ghillyer notes, to â€Å"see these initiatives as public AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 11 elations exercises with no real evidence of dramatic changes in the core operating philosophies†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (2008:62). AngloGold Chairman Tito Mboweni, in a sustainability statement in the comp any’s Integrated Report (2011:8) says â€Å"being a good corporate citizen, as we seek to be, is a prerequisite for being a successful miner† and that â€Å"governments and their citizens are entitled to expect not only a fair fiscal return but also a mutually respectful and beneficial relationship between them and the companies†¦Ã¢â‚¬ .He however goes on to caution that â€Å"pushed too far, though, raised taxes and royalty rates will begin to discourage investment and reduce the overall value of the industry to both societies and shareholders. The regulatory environment is becoming increasingly complex and onerous. † The influence of stakeholders can be observed in the key issues driving AngloGold’s CSR strategy and emphasized in its Sustainability Report 2011. One such issue is what the company calls the trend toward greater â€Å"resource nationalism† among its stakeholder governments in the jurisdictions in which the company operates.Th e risk of resource nationalism impacts the company in terms of the increased community pressure on AngloGold to make explicit the benefits of its mining activities for communities and national economies, the increased community activism about access to and fair value received for scarce natural resources, and increased demand for higher tax and royalty payments to governments. AngloGold reports that it is responding to this stakeholder issue by developing a general framework to approach development in a more organized and systematic way.The company reports that it has increased its community investments in partnership with communities and local government administrations in an effort to demonstrate the benefits of what the company calls â€Å"responsible mining†. These measures can be seen as the company’s attempt to secure and maintain its legitimacy and social license to operate. AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 12 Artisanal and small-sc ale mining is another issue that has driven AGA’s corporate social response. This issue has particular resonance in Ghana where AGA mines properties which have for a great many years been mined by community members.The conflicts that have resulted from small-scale mining encroachments on AngloGold concession areas have led to charges of human rights violations against the company. These violations have included allegations of deaths resulting from AngloGold security interventions in â€Å"illegal† mining activities on the company’s concession area. In response to this stakeholder issue, AngloGold reports that it has become involved with initiatives in Ghana and at other operations to â€Å"formalize artisanal and small-scale mining in a way which will benefit local economies and create sustainable livelihoods† (AGA Sustainability Report 2011:16).The company says it is also cooperating with host governments to address the economic causes of illegal mining, and with international and industry organizations to develop common approaches. Of concern to AngloGold is the Dodd-Frank Act of the United States which requires the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to establish rules requiring certain companies to disclose their involvement with conflict minerals, particularly from the Democratic Republic of Congo where AngloGold maintains gold mining operations http://www. sec. gov/news/press/2012/2012-163. htm). The activities of illegal miners near AGA operations has the potential, the company believes, to taint the gold legally mined by AGA, especially in light of the global trend among consumers for â€Å"responsible gold† (AGA Sustainability Report, 2011:19) that does not contribute to conflict and human rights violations. AGA’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange makes it accountable to conform to the SEC’s rulings. AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & PerformancePage 13 Health and safety is anoth er multi-stakeholder issue emphasized by AngloGold in its 2011 report. The company reports that â€Å"safety and health are not only business imperatives, but are part of our obligation to operate with respect for human rights†. The health and safety of the company’s employees and the communities in which it operates is a pressing issue for nongovernmental organizations (NGO), governments and multilateral institutions interested in protecting the rights and preventing the exploitation of workers.AngloGold says it respects and values the ten principles of the UN Global Compact and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR) in the development of a â€Å"safety transformation framework† to address its less than adequate health and safety performance. The company lists safety as its first value and has set firm targets for reducing work related accident, injury and health frequency rates by 2015 (AGA Sustainability Report, 2011:11).The companyâ₠¬â„¢s malaria control program at Obuasi, Ghana, has received commendation from Ghana’s malaria control program and a $138 million grant from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria to enable the company step up intervention across Ghana. Ghana’s Daily Graphic newspaper reported in September 2012 (http://www. ghana. gov. gh/index. php/news/features/16095-anglogold-malaria-control-projectbenefits-40-districts) that AngloGold’s malaria program was set to benefit 40 communities in the Upper West, Upper East, Northern, Central and Ashanti regions of the country.Environmental and natural resource management is a prominent part of AngloGold’s CSR reporting in response to stakeholder interest, especially in Ghana where the company’s contamination of community water resources has been a contentious issue for many years. The company has accepted its liability for polluting the rivers around its Obuasi and Iduapriem operations in Ghana. The dr astic situation resulted in the suspension of the company’s operations by the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency in 2007. The companyAngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 14 claims these environmental issues are legacy problems which are being addressed through the implementation of more technologically advanced water management techniques (AGA Ghana Fact Sheet, 2011:4). AngloGold claims to have made extensive efforts to improve its CSR performance in Ghana particularly regarding land and water use, environmental protection and community investment. In 2011, the company commissioned an â€Å"independent† sustainability review panel to assess its performance in Ghana.The panel reported, in part, that â€Å"success at Obuasi requires that the company address Obuasi systematically in its planning, its engagement and communications, its investments, its governance and its development of capabilities† (AGA Sustainability Report 2011: 23). The challenges faced by the company in CSR performance in Ghana were highlighted in 2011 when the company was given the dishonor of receiving the Public Eye Award for 2011 for the company’s â€Å"irresponsible corporate behavior† (Public Eye Awards, 2011).The Public Eye Awards are run by Berne Foundation and Greenpeace to coincide with the annual World Economic Forum at Davos and call attention to CSR issues by naming and shaming multinationals seen to be culpable in environmental and social issues. The citation for the ‘award’ claimed that: The South African mining company AngloGold Ashanti contaminates land and people with its gold mining in Ghana. To extract 30 kg (66 lb) of gold, 6,000 tons of rock are mined every day, then ground up and mixed with cyanide in tanks.The highly-toxic mining waste is kept in large storage ponds that contaminate rivers and wells, as well as all those who (must) drink from them. Where there was once cultivated land, now the ground is contaminated and can no longer be farmed. In addition, in the company’s own guard houses, several suspects were tortured, and dogs were set on people; there have been fatalities as a result. Although the ecological and social problems in the mines – some mines are up to 100 years old – have been documented by authorities, NGOs and the company itself – and even AngloGold Ashanti committed itself in 2004 to improveAngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 15 the situation – things have in fact worsened since then. No wonder AngloGold Ashanti received the worst possible rating for social and environmental protection from the Ghanaian Environmental Protection Agency in a recent industry comparison. AngloGold has responded by claiming that its Public Eye award was â€Å"undeserved† and that its environmental and human rights record in Ghana should be seen in the context of the over 100 years of mining in Ghana usin g methods which are not acceptable by today’s standards.The company claims that it has invested heavily to improve the infrastructure and processes at its Ghana mines and that resolving all legacy issues would require more time (www. ghanachamberofmines. org/site/news/details. php? id=33). The company says it has worked closely with Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remedy environmental concerns, but the EPA’s AKOBEN Programme (http://www. epaghanaakoben. org/) in 2010 gave AngloGold AKOBEN’s lowest overall rating of â€Å"Red†, indicating poor performance in environmental management.AKOBEN is an initiative of the Ghana EPA to monitor, evaluate and disclose environmental and social performance. The AKOBEN rating appears to buttress a 2011 report by Ghana’s Centre for Environmental Impact Assessment (CEIA) which alleged that discharge from AngloGold operations in Obuasi and Tarkwa had polluted some 262 streams with resulting hi gh incidence of keratosis, other skin diseases and type II diabetes (http://environmentalwatchman. blogspot. com/2011/08/mining-activities†¦ ). This report has not been independently confirmed.The negative impact of AngloGold’s gold mining on the environment, agricultural productivity and the livelihoods of Ghanaian communities has been extensively researched by Aragon and Rud who have reported that â€Å"†¦we find that mining has reduced agricultural productivity by almost 40%. This result is driven by polluting mines, not by input availability†¦ we find that the mining activity is associated with an increase in poverty, child AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 16 malnutrition and respiratory diseases†¦the actual fiscal contribution of ining would not have been enough to compensate affected populations† (2012:1). These negative reports tend to give credence to a criticism of CSR reporting as being window dressing far rem oved from actual performance. Haigh and Jones argue that there are â€Å"inherent contradictions between the pursuit of economic growth and goals of ecological maintenance and social justice† (2006:1) and that managers would not expend resources on CSR if they do not expect CSR to maximize â€Å"the gap between revenues and relevant costs† (2006:2).Haigh and Jones contend that companies have a â€Å"Business first (profit and market share) and Society second (other stakeholders in line after stockholders)† (2006:3) approach, suggesting that a firm’s CSR performance is a reaction to â€Å"first mover CSR strategies of competitors† out of fear of losing market position (2006:2). The Haigh and Jones argument does not detract from Woods who asserts that corporate social performance (CSP) is not â€Å"completely distinct from business performance† (1991:693).In Woods’ model of CSP, a company’s performance should be evaluated on the basis of the social responsibility principles motivating the company, the extent to which that company uses CSP processes and the societal impact of that company’s programs and activities (1991:693). AngloGold’s CSR reporting appears to be fairly consistent with the Woods CSP model. The company seeks to secure its license to operate and establish its legitimacy through its stated compliance with legal, economic and regulatory requirements.This is the expected behavior of a firm in line with the institutional principle of Woods’ model (1991:695). Woods’ organizational principle of public responsibility is expressed in AngloGold’s acceptance of responsibility for the negative outcomes of the company’s activities, as indicated, for AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 17 example, in AngloGold’s actions to clean up and prevent continued pollution of waterways in Ghana.Woods’ managerial discretion principle is articulated in the statements of AngloGold’s CEO and Chairman reaffirming the company’s commitment to be a good corporate citizen as expressed in the company’s philanthropic contributions to communities and the company’s community investments in feeder road repairs, health programs, youth apprenticeship programs, sustainable alternative livelihoods programs and other activities intended to improve the communities’ quality of life, above and beyond the company’s legal obligations.The second facet of Woods’ CSP model concerns a company’s use of processes of corporate social responsiveness. Woods says that â€Å"responsiveness complements but does not replace responsibility† and that â€Å"responsiveness provides an action counterpoint to the principled reflection of social responsibility† (1991:703). AngloGold appears to fulfill the three conditions Woods identifies as being characteristic of a socially responsi ve firm: 1) The company monitors and assesses environmental conditions 2) it actively manages its stakeholders and 3) manages the resultant stakeholder issues.AngloGold’s Sustainability Report 2011 is a testament to the depth of environmental scanning engaged in by the company in determining the risks and opportunities impacting the company. An extensive appraisal was done earlier in this paper of the company’s management of its stakeholders and stakeholder issues. It can safely be concluded, based on the company’s reporting, that AngloGold is a socially responsive firm.The third facet of Woods’ model involves the observable impacts of a company’s programs and policies (1991:708). The impacts of AngloGold’s CSR activities may be evaluated through the company’s reporting against social indicators such as that contained in the GRI AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 18 Guidelines mentioned above and can be obs erved in the positive results seen in AngloGold’s programs such as its highly commended malaria control activities in Ghana.Outcomes can also be observed, according to Woods, in the company’s institutionalization of policies to address stakeholder issues. CONCLUSION It is an easy conclusion to reach that AngloGold Ashanti is very adept, from the evidence of its CSR reporting, at hitting all the right notes in its effort to be seen as a socially responsible company. The company’s instrumental motivation in strong alignment with a negative duty motivation, far outweighs other factors as the driver of AngloGold’s CSR strategy and activities.The company’s diverse stakeholders – from shareholders in London and Johannesburg, and the SEC in New York, to the villagers of Iduapriem and Obuasi in Ghana and all others in between – present a multitude of issues that the company tries to address, using the GRI Guidelines and other international st andards, in its Sustainability Report 2011. The universal principles expressed in the Ghana Business Code are those the company professes to be the bedrock of its corporate value system, and against which the company reports its performance.AngloGold’s CSR performance in Ghana is far from adequate, but the company is transparent in publicly reporting these shortcomings. When all is said and done, however, AngloGold is a global company undertaking socially responsible activities with a strategic eye to profits for its shareholders. AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 19 REFERENCES AngloGold Ashanti. 2011a. Sustainable Gold. www. aga-reports. com/11/sustainabilityreport/home, first accessed August 2012. 5 -10 AngloGold Ashanti. 2011b. Sustainable Gold. www. aga-reports. om/11/sustainabilityreport/home, first accessed August 2012. 22 AngloGold Ashanti. 2011c. Sustainable Gold. www. aga-reports. com/11/sustainabilityreport/home, first accessed August 20 12. 12 AngloGold Ashanti. 2011d. Sustainable Gold. www. aga-reports. com/11/sustainabilityreport/home, first accessed August 2012. 13 AngloGold Ashanti. 2011e. Sustainable Gold. www. aga-reports. com/11/sustainabilityreport/home, first accessed August 2012. 6-7 AngloGold Ashanti. 2011f. 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Positioning stakeholder theory within the debate on corporate social responsibility. http://ejbo. jyu. fi/pdf/ejbo_vol12_no1_pages_5-15. pdf. Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies, Vol. 12, No. 1: 5 Branco, M. C. & Rodrigues, L. L. 2007. Positioning stakeholder theory within the debate on corporate social responsibility. http://ejbo. jyu. i/pdf/ejbo_vol12_no1_pages_5-15. pdf. Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies, Vol. 12, No. 1: 7 AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 20 Branco, M. C. & Rodrigues, L. L. 2007. Positioning stakeholder theory within the debate on corporate social responsibility. http://ejbo. jyu. fi/pdf/ejbo_vol12_no1_pages_5-15. pdf. Electroni c Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies, Vol. 12, No. 1: 10 Crane, A. , Matten, D. & Spence, L. 2008. Corporate social responsibility: In global context. Corporate social responsibility: Readings and cases in global context: 5.London: Routledge. Available at http://ssrn. com/abstract=1667081 Daily Graphic. 2012. AngloGold malaria control project benefits 40 districts. http://www. ghana. gov. gh/index. php/news/features/16095-anglogold-malaria-control-projectbenefits-40-districts, first accessed September 2012 EPA Ghana. 2010. Akoben programme: List mining. http://www. epaghanaakoben. org/, first accessed September 2012 Ghana Chamber of Mines. 2011. AngloGold Ashanti is a responsible corporate citizen. http://www. ghanachamberofmines. org/site/news/details. php? id=33, first accessed August 2012 Ghillyer, A. 2008.Business ethics: A real world approach. NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin. 62 Global Reporting Initiative. 2012. G3 guidelines. https://www. globalreporting. org/resourcel ibrary/G3-Guidelines-Incl-Technical-Protocol. pdf, first accessed September 2012 Haigh, M. & Jones, M. T. 2006a. The drivers of corporate social responsibility: A critical review. http://www. ashridge. org. uk/, first published in the Business Review, Cambridge. 1 Haigh, M. & Jones, M. T. 2006b. The drivers of corporate social responsibility: A critical review. http://www. ashridge. org. uk/, first published in the Business Review, Cambridge. Haigh, M. & Jones, M. T. 2006c. The drivers of corporate social responsibility: A critical review. http://www. ashridge. org. uk/, first published in the Business Review, Cambridge. 2 Haigh, M. & Jones, M. T. 2006d. The drivers of corporate social responsibility: A critical review. http://www. ashridge. org. uk/, first published in the Business Review, Cambridge. 3 Hedberg, C. & Malmborg, F. 2003a. The global reporting initiative and corporate sustainability reporting in Swedish companies. Corporate social responsibility and environmental manag ement, 10: 153. Available at http://www. nterscience. wiley. com Hedberg, C. & Malmborg, F. 2003b. The global reporting initiative and corporate sustainability reporting in Swedish companies. Corporate social responsibility and environmental management, 10: 155. Available at http://www. interscience. wiley. com AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 21 Hedberg, C. & Malmborg, F. 2003c. The global reporting initiative and corporate sustainability reporting in Swedish companies. Corporate social responsibility and environmental management, 10: 159. Available at http://www. interscience. wiley. om Hedberg, C. & Malmborg, F. 2003d. The global reporting initiative and corporate sustainability reporting in Swedish companies. Corporate social responsibility and environmental management, 10: 163. Available at http://www. interscience. wiley. com ICA. 2012. The king 3 code. http://african. ipapercms. dk/IOD/KINGIII/kingiiicode/, first accessed September 2012 ICMM. 201 2. Sustainable development framework. http://www. icmm. com/ourwork/sustainable-development-framework, first accessed September 2012 Maignan, I. & Ralston, D. A. 2002a. Corporate social responsibility in Europe and the U.S. : Insights from businesses’ self-presentations. Journal of International Business Studies, 33:3. 498 Public Eye Awards. 2011. 2011 public eye people’s award. http://www. publiceye. ch, first accessed August 2012 SEC. 2012. Dobbs-Franck Act. http://www. sec. gov/news/press/2012/2012-163. htm, first accessed September 2012 Smith-Asante, E. 2011. Mining activities in Obuasi, Tarkwa pollute 262 rivers. http://environmentalwatchman. blogspot. com/2011/08/mining-activities, first accessed August 2012 Woods, D. J. 1991. Corporate social performance revisited.Academy of Management Review, 16:4: 691 – 713 UN. Global Compact. http://www. unglobalcompact. org/, first accessed September 2012 AngloGold Ashanti: Analysis of CSR Strategy & Performance Page 22 APPENDIX AngloGold Mission To create value for our shareholders, our employees and our business and social partners through safely and responsibly exploring, mining and marketing our products. Our primary focus is gold and we will pursue value creating opportunities in other minerals where we can leverage our existing assets, skills and experience to enhance the delivery of value. AngloGold Values

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

PESTEL Analysis (Coca Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc.) Essay

Political Factors Political analysis examines the current and potential influences from political pressures. The non-alcoholic beverages falls in the category under the FDA and the government plays a role within the operation of manufacturing these products. In terms of regulations, the government has the power to set potential fines for the companies that did not meet their standard law requirement. The changes in laws and regulations, such as accounting standards, taxation requirements and environmental laws and foreign jurisdictions might affect the book of the company as well as their entry in foreign country. Other than that, the changes in the nature of business as non-alcoholic beverages can gain competitive product and pricing pressures and the ability to improve or maintain the share in sales in global market as a result of action by competitors. The political conditions of the country are also basis of the study, especially in internal markets and other governmental changes that affects thei r ability to penetrate the developing and emerging markets that involves the political and economic conditions. However, Coca Cola continuously monitoring the policies and regulations set by the government. Economic Factors Economic analysis examines the local, national and world economy impact which is also includes the issue of recession and inflation rates. The non-alcoholic beverage industry has high sales in countries outside the U.S. According to the Standard and Poor’s Industry surveys, â€Å"For major soft drink companies, there has been economic improvement in many major international markets, such as Japan, Brazil, and Germany.† These markets will continue to play a major role in the success and stable growth for a majority of the non-alcoholic beverage industry. Social Factors The changes in society affect the organization such as changing in lifestyles and attitudes of the market. Consumers from the ages of 37 to 55 are also increasingly concerned with nutrition. There is a large population of the  age range known as the baby boomers. Since many are reaching an older age in life they are becoming more concerned with increasing their longevity. This will continue to affect the non-alcoholic beverage industry by increasing the demand overall and in the healthier beverages. The demand for carbonated drinks decreases and this pulled down the revenues of Coca Cola. Technological Factors Technology is the main focus of the analysis where the introduction and the emerging technological techniques are valued. This creates opportunities for new products and product improvements in terms of marketing and production. As the technology advances, new products are introduced into the market. The advancement in technology has led to the creation of cherry coke in 1985 but consumers still prefers the traditional taste of the original coke. Environmental Factors Environmental analysis examines the local, national and world environmental issues. According to the data of the Coca Cola Company, all of the facilities are strictly monitored according to the environmental laws imposed by the government Legal Factors Legal aspect focuses on the effect of the national and world legislation. The Coca Cola Company receives all the rights applicable in the nature of their business and every inventions and product developments are always going into the patented process.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Hernan Cortes and His Tlaxcalan Allies

Hernan Cortes and His Tlaxcalan Allies Conquistador Hernan Cortes and his Spanish troops did not conquer the Aztec Empire on their own. They had allies, with the Tlaxcalans being among the most important. How this alliance developed and how their support was crucial to Cortes success. In 1519, as conquistador Hernan Cortes was making his way inland from the coast on his audacious conquest of the Mexica (Aztec) Empire, he had to pass through the lands of the fiercely independent Tlaxcalans, who were the mortal enemies of the Mexica. At first, the Tlaxcalans fought the conquistadors viciously, but after repeated defeats, they decided to make peace with the Spanish and ally with them against their traditional enemies. The aid provided by the Tlaxcalans would eventually prove crucial for Cortes in his campaign. Tlaxcala and the Aztec Empire in 1519 From 1420 or so to 1519, the mighty Mexica culture had come to dominate most of central Mexico. One by one, the Mexica had conquered and subjugated dozens of neighboring cultures and city-states, turning them into strategic allies or resentful vassals. By 1519, only a few isolated holdouts remained. Chief among them were the fiercely independent Tlaxcalans, whose territory was located to the east of Tenochtitlan. The area controlled by the Tlaxcalans comprised some 200 semi-autonomous villages united by their hatred of the Mexica. The people were from three main ethnic groups: the Pinomes, Otomà ­, and Tlaxcalans, who were descended from warlike Chichimecs who had relocated to the region centuries before. The Aztecs tried repeatedly to conquer and subjugate them  but always failed. Emperor Montezuma II himself had most recently tried to defeat them in 1515. The Tlaxcalans hatred of the Mexica ran very deep. Diplomacy and Skirmish In August of 1519, the Spanish were making their way to Tenochtitlan. They occupied the small town of Zautla and pondered their next move. They had brought with them thousands of Cempoalan allies and porters, led by a nobleman named Mamexi. Mamexi counseled going through Tlaxcala and possibly making allies of them. From Zautla, Cortes sent four Cempoalan envoys to Tlaxcala, offering to talk about a possible alliance, and moved to the town of Ixtaquimaxtitlan. When the envoys did not return, Cortes and his men moved out and entered Tlaxcalan territory anyway. They had not gone far when they came across Tlaxcalan scouts, who retreated and came back with a larger army. The Tlaxcalans attacked but the Spanish drove them off with a concerted cavalry charge, losing two horses in the process. Diplomacy and War Meanwhile, the Tlaxcalans were trying to decide what to do about the Spanish. A Tlaxcalan prince, Xicotencatl the Younger, came up with a clever plan. The Tlaxcalans would supposedly welcome the Spanish  but would send their Otomà ­ allies to attack them. Two of the Cempoalan emissaries were allowed to escape and report to Cortes. For two weeks, the Spanish made little headway. They remained camped out on a hilltop. During the day, the Tlaxcalans and their Otomi allies would attack, only to be driven off by the Spanish. During lulls in the fighting, Cortes and his men would launch punitive attacks and food raids against local towns and villages. Although the Spanish were weakening, the Tlaxcalans were dismayed to see that they were not gaining the upper hand, even with their superior numbers and fierce fighting. Meanwhile, envoys from Mexica Emperor Montezuma showed up, encouraging the Spanish to keep fighting the Tlaxcalans and to not trust anything they said. Peace and Alliance After two weeks of bloody fighting, Tlaxcalan leaders convinced the military and civil leadership of Tlaxcala to sue for peace. Hotheaded Prince Xicotencatl the Younger was sent personally to Cortes to ask for peace and an alliance. After sending messages back and forth for a few days with not only the elders of Tlaxcala but also Emperor Montezuma, Cortes decided to go to Tlaxcala. Cortes and his men entered the city of Tlaxcala on September 18, 1519. Rest and Allies Cortes and his men would remain in Tlaxcala for 20 days. It was a very productive time for Cortes and his men. One important aspect of their extended stay was that they could rest, heal their wounds, tend to their horses and equipment and basically get ready for the next step of their journey. Although the Tlaxcalans had little wealth- they were effectively isolated and blockaded by their Mexica enemies- they shared what little they had. Three hundred Tlaxcalan girls were given to the conquistadors, including some of noble birth for the officers. Pedro de Alvarado was given one of the daughters of Xicotencatl the elder named Tecuelhuatzà ­n, who was later christened Doà ±a Maria Luisa. But the most important thing the Spanish gained in their stay in Tlaxcala was an ally. Even after two weeks of constantly battling the Spanish, the Tlaxcalans still had thousands of warriors, fierce men who were loyal to their elders (and the alliance their elders made) and who despised the Mexica. Cortes secured this alliance by meeting regularly with Xicotencatl the Elder and Maxixcatzin, the two great lords of Tlaxcala, giving them gifts and promising to free them from the hated Mexica. The only sticking point between the two cultures seemed to be Cortes insistence that the Tlaxcalans embrace Christianity, something they were reluctant to do. In the end, Cortes did not make it a condition of their alliance, but he continued to pressure the Tlaxcalans to convert and abandon their previous idolatrous practices. A Crucial Alliance For the next two years, the Tlaxcalans honored their alliance with Cortes. Thousands of fierce Tlaxcalan warriors would fight alongside the conquistadors for the duration of the conquest. The contributions of the Tlaxcalans to the conquest are many, but here are some of the more important ones: In Cholula, the Tlaxcalans warned Cortes of a possible ambush: they participated in the ensuing Cholula Massacre, capturing many Cholulans and bringing them back to Tlaxcala as slaves and sacrifices.When Cortes was forced to return to the Gulf Coast to face conquistador Panfilo de Narvaez and a host of Spanish soldiers sent by governor Diego Velazquez of Cuba to take command of the expedition, Tlaxcalan warriors accompanied him and fought at the Battle of Cempoala.When Pedro de Alvarado ordered the Massacre at the Festival of Toxcatl, Tlaxcalan warriors helped the Spanish and protected them until Cortes could return.During the Night of Sorrows, Tlaxcalan warriors helped the Spanish escape by night from Tenochtitlan.After the Spanish fled Tenochtitlan, they retreated to Tlaxcala to rest and regroup. New Aztec Tlatoani Cuitlhuac sent emissaries to the Tlaxcalans urging them to unite against the Spanish; the Tlaxcalans refused.When the Spanish re-conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521, thousand s of Tlaxcalan soldiers joined them. Legacy of the Spanish-Tlaxcalan Alliance Its not an exaggeration to say that Cortes would not have defeated the Mexica without the Tlaxcalans. Thousands of warriors and a safe base of support only days away from Tenochtitlan proved invaluable to Cortes and his war effort. Eventually, the Tlaxcalans saw that the Spanish were a greater threat than the Mexica (and had been so all along). Xicotencatl the Younger, who had been leery of the Spanish all along, tried to openly break with them in 1521 and was ordered publicly hanged by Cortes; it was a poor repayment to the young Princes father, Xicotencatl the Elder, whose support of Cortes had been so crucial. But by the time the Tlaxcalan leadership began to have second thoughts about their alliance, it was too late: two years of constant warring had left them far too weak to defeat the Spanish, something they had not accomplished even when at their full might in 1519. Ever since the conquest, some Mexicans have considered Tlaxcalans to be traitors who, like Cortes interpreter and mistress Doà ±a Marina (better known as Malinche) aided the Spanish in the destruction of native culture. This stigma persists today, albeit in a weakened form. Were the Tlaxcalans traitors? They fought the Spanish and then, when offered an alliance by these formidable foreign warriors against their traditional enemies, decided that if you cant beat em, join em. Later events proved that perhaps this alliance was a mistake, but the worst thing the Tlaxcalans can be accused of is lack of foresight. References Castillo, Bernal Dà ­az del, Cohen J. M., and Radice B. The Conquest of New Spain. London: Clays Ltd./Penguin; 1963. Levy, Buddy. Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs. New York: Bantam, 2008. Thomas, Hugh. The Real Discovery of America: Mexico November 8, 1519. New York: Touchstone, 1993.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Facts About Author and Illustrator Patricia Polacco

Facts About Author and Illustrator Patricia Polacco Because so many of Patricia Polaccos childhood experiences have served as the inspiration for her children’s picture books, it’s particularly interesting to look at her life and her books together.   Dates: July 11, 1944 -   Also Known As: Patricia Barber Polacco Interesting Facts About Patricia Polaccos Life and Work 1. Patricia Polacco did not begin writing children’s books until she was 41 and by late 2013, had been writing children’s books for 28 years. Her first book, which based on childhood experience, was Meteor! 2. Patricia Polacco’s parents divorced when she was three years old. Since her parents moved back to their parents’ homes, and she went back and forth between those homes, her grandparents became a big influence on her life and later, in her writing. With a Russian and Ukrainian heritage on her mother’s side and Irish on her father’s, she was surrounded by storytellers and loved hearing family stories. 3.  Some of Polacco’s favorite books as a child included Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit, The Tall Mother Goose by Fedor Rojankovsky, Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss. Among the contemporary authors and illustrators, she admires are Jerry Pinkney, Gloria Jean Pinkney, Tomie dePaola, Alan Say, Virginia Hamilton, Jan Brett, and Lois Lowry. 4. A learning disability kept Polacco from learning to read until she was 14. Years later, she celebrated the assistance she received from a caring teacher her picture book Thank You, Mr. Falker.   The same kids who teased her about her poor reading skills praised Polacco’s artwork. Art was something she could do easily and in a 2013 presentation in Wichita, Kansas, Polacco said, â€Å"For me, art is like breathing.† 5.  Despite this rough start in school, Polacco went on to earn a Ph.D. in Art History, with an emphasis on iconography. In Oakland, she attended the California College of Arts and Crafts and Laney Community College. Polacco then went to Australia where she attended Monash University in a suburb of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 6. Patricia Polacco’s picture books, most of which are based on family and childhood experiences, emphasize diversity, a reflection of both her own multicultural family and what eight-year-old Patricia and her brother, Richard, found when they moved with their mother to Oakland, California where they spent the school year, spending summers with their father in rural Michigan. In reference to growing up in the Rockridge District of Oakland, Polacco said she loved the fact â€Å"†¦that all of my neighbors came in as many colors, ideas, and religions as there are people on the planet. How lucky I was to know so many people that were so different and yet so much alike.† 7.  After a brief first marriage that ended in divorce, Patricia Polacco married chef and cooking instructor Enzo Polacco. Their two children, now adults, are Traci Denise and Steven John. She wrote about Enzo in her children’s book In Enzos Splendid Gardens. 8.  The many awards that Patricia Polacco has received for her children’s picture books include the: 1988 Sydney Taylor Book Award for The Keeping Quilt, 1989 International Reading Association Award for Rechenka’s Eggs, 1992 Golden Kite Award for Illustration from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and a 1993 Jane Adams Peace Association and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Honor Award for Mrs. Katz and Tush. 9.  For those interested in writing books, Polacco stresses the importance of taking the time to use (and listen to) your imagination and not get distracted by outside interruptions, like television.  In fact, she attributes her vivid imagination to all the storytelling in her family and the absence of a TV. 10.  Patricia Polacco never forgot the early years she spent on her grandparents’ farm in Union City, Michigan, and the stories her Babushka (grandmother) told.  After almost 37 years in Oakland, she moved back to Union City where she now has a home, a studio and many plans for writing workshops and storytelling events. More About Polaccos Work If your 7- to 12-year-olds are eager to learn more about Patricia Polacco and her books, a wonderful introduction to her work is  Firetalking, her brief autobiography for children, which features lots of color photographs and information about her family, her life, and her books. Sources 9/10/13 presentation by Patricia Polacco at Watermark Books, Wichita Kansas, â€Å"Meet Patricia Polacco.†Ã‚  Houghton Mifflin Reading. Polacco, Patricia. â€Å"Author Biography of Patricia Polacco.†Ã‚  Scholastic. â€Å"Transcript from an Interview with Patricia Polacco.†Ã‚  Reading Rockets, 12 Aug. 2013.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Project Management Professional Practice Test

Project Management Professional Practice Test The  Project Management Institute  is a global project management organization. The group offers Project Management Professional  certification  that shows competency in a variety of project management and other business-related areas. The PMP certification process includes an exam based on the groups  Project Management Body of Knowledge  guide. Below are sample questions and answers that you might find on the PMP exam. Questions The following 20 questions are from  Whiz Labs, which provides information and sample tests for a fee for the PMP and other examinations. Question 1 Which of the following is a tool used to secure expert judgment? B.. Delphi techniqueC. Expected value techniqueD.  Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Question 2 Based on the information provided below, which project would you recommend pursuing? Project I, with BCR (Benefit Cost ratio) of 1:1.6;Project II, with NPV of US $ 500,000;Project III, with IRR (Internal rate of return) of 15%Project IV, with opportunity cost of US $ 500,000. A. Project IB. Project IIIC. Either project II or IVD. Can not say from the data provided Question 3 What should be done by the project manager to ensure that all work in the project is included? A. Create a contingency planB. Create a risk management planC. Create a WBSD. Create a scope statement Question 4 What kind of a relationship is implied when completion of a successor is dependent on initiation of its predecessor? Choices:A. FSB. FFC. SSD. SF Question 5 What should a project manager do or follow to ensure clear boundaries for project completion? A. Scope verificationB. Complete a scope statementC. Scope definitionD. Risk management plan Question 6 An organization is certified to a stringent environmental standard and uses that as the key differentiator with its competitors. Alternative identification during scope planning for a particular project has thrown up an expeditious approach to achieve a project need, but this involves a risk of environmental contamination. The team evaluates that the likelihood of the risk is very low. What should the project team do? A. Drop the alternative approachB. Work out a mitigation planC. Procure an insurance against the riskD. Plan all precautions to avoid the risk Question 7 The following three tasks  form  the entire critical path of the project network. The three estimates of each of these tasks are tabulated below. How long would the project take to complete expressed with an accuracy of one standard deviation? Task  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Optimistic  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most likely  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  PessimisticA  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  15  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  25  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  47B  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  12  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  22  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  35C  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  16  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  27  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  32 A. 75.5B. 75.5 /- 7.09C. 75.5 /- 8.5D. 75.5 /- 2.83 Question 8 After a study of the work processes on a project, a quality audit team reports to the project manager that irrelevant quality standards were being used by the project, which might lead to rework. What was the objective of the project manager in initiating this study? A. Quality controlB. Quality planningC. Checking adherence to processesD. Quality assurance Question 9 Which of the following provides the foundation for team development? A. MotivationB. Organizational developmentC. Conflict ManagementD. Individual Development Question 10 Which of the following is NOT an input to project plan execution? A. Work authorization systemB. Project planC. Corrective actionD. Preventive action Question 11 A project manager would find team development the most difficult in which form of organization? A. Weak Matrix organizationB. Balanced Matrix organizationC. Projectized organizationD. Tight Matrix organization Question 12 The project manager of a large multi-location software project team has 24 members, out of which 5 are assigned to testing. Due to recent recommendations by an organizational quality audit team, the project manager is convinced to add a quality professional to lead the test team at additional cost, to the project. The project manager is aware of the importance of communication, for the success of the project and takes this step of introducing additional communication channels, making it more complex, in order to assure quality levels of the project. How many additional communication channels are introduced as a result of this organizational change in the project? A. 25B. 24C. 1D. 5 Question 13 Once the project is complete, the complete set of project records should be put in which of the following? A. Project ArchivesB. DatabaseC. Storage roomD. Project Report Question 14 Which of the following is a common format for performance reporting? A. Pareto DiagramsB. Bar chartsC. Responsibility Assignment MatricesD. Control Charts Question 15 If the cost variance is positive and the schedule variance is also positive, this indicates the: A. Project is  under  budget and behind scheduleB. Project is over budget and behind scheduleC. Project is under budget and ahead of scheduleD. Project is over budget and ahead of schedule Question 16 During execution of a project, an identified risk event occurs that results in additional cost and time. The project had provisions for contingency and management reserves. How should these be accounted for? A. Contingency reservesB. Residual risksC. Management reservesD. Secondary risks Question 17 Which one of the following is the last step of project closing? A. Client has accepted the productB. Archives are completeC. Client appreciates your productD. Lessons  learned are documented Question 18 Who should be involved in the creation of lessons learned, at the  closure  of a project? A. StakeholdersB. Project teamC. Management of the performing organizationD. Project office Question 19 An organization has recently started outsourcing work to a low cost, high value, engineering center located in a different country. Which of the following should the project manager provide for the team as a proactive measure? A. A training course on the laws of the countryB. A course on linguistic differencesC. An exposure to the cultural differencesD.A communication management plan Question 20 While reviewing the progress, the project manager assesses that an activity has been missed out from the implementation plan. A milestone, scheduled to be achieved within another week, would be missed with the current implementation plan. Which of the following is the next best action for the project manager in this situation? A. Report the error and the expected delayB. Omit the status update on the milestoneC. Report the error and the planned recovery actionsD. Assess alternatives to meet the milestone Answers The answers to the PMP sample questions are from  Scribd, a fee-based information website. Answer 1 B - Explanation: The Delphi technique is a commonly used tool to secure expert judgment while initiating a project. Answer 2 B - Explanation: Project III has an IRR of 15 percent, which means the revenues from the project equal the cost expended at an interest rate of 15 percent. This is a definitive and a favorable parameter, and hence can be recommended for selection. Answer 3 C - Explanation: A WBS is a deliverable-oriented grouping of project components that organizes and defines the total scope of the project. Answer 4 D - Explanation: A start-to-finish (SF) relationship between two activities implies that the completion of a  successor is dependent on the initiation of its predecessor. Answer 5 B - Explanation: The project team must complete a scope statement for developing a common understanding of the project scope among stakeholders. This lists project deliverables summary level sub-products, whose full and satisfactory delivery marks the completion of the project. Answer 6 A - Explanation:  The organization’s reputation being at stake, the threshold for such a risk would be very low Answer 7 B - Explanation: The critical path is the longest duration path through a network and determines the shortest time to complete the project. The PERT estimates of the tasks listed are 27, 22.5 26. Therefore, the length of the critical path of the project is 2722.526 75.5. Answer 8 D - Explanation:  Determining the  validity of quality standards, followed by the project is a quality assurance activity. Answer 9 D - Explanation: Individual development (managerial and technical) is the foundation of a team. Answer 10 A - Explanation: A Project plan is the basis of project plan execution and is a primary input. Answer 11 A - Explanation: In a functional organization, the project team members have dual reporting to two bosses the project manager and the functional manager. In a weak matrix organization, the power rests with the functional manager. Answer 12 A - Explanation: Number of communication channels with â€Å"n† members n*(n-1)/2. Originally the project has 25 members (including the project manager), which makes the total communication channels as 25*24/2 300. With the addition of the quality professional as a member of the project team, the communication channels increase to 26*25/2 325. Therefore, the additional channels as a result of the change, that is, 325-300 25. Answer 13 A - Explanation: Project records should be prepared for archiving by the appropriate parties. Answer 14 B - Explanation: Common formats for Performance Reports are, bar charts (also called Gantt Charts), S-curves, histograms, and tables. Answer 15 C -  Explanation: Positive Schedule Variance means the project is ahead of schedule; Negative Cost Variance means the project is over-budget. Answer 16 A - Explanation: The question is about correct accounting for risk events that occur and updating the reserves. Reserves are meant for making provisions in cost and schedule, to accommodate for consequences of risk events. Risk events are classified as unknown unknowns or known unknown, where â€Å"unknown unknowns† are risks that were are not identified and accounted for, while known unknowns are risks that were identified and provisions were made for them. Answer 17 B - Explanation: Archiving is the last step in the project closing. Answer 18 A - Explanation: Stakeholders include everyone who is actively involved in the project or whose interests may be affected as a result of the project execution or completion. The project team creates the lessons learned on the project.   Answer 19 C - Explanation: Understanding cultural differences is the first step towards an effective communication amongst the project team involving outsourced work from a different country. So, what is needed in this case is an exposure to the cultural differences, which is being mentioned as choice C. Answer 20 D - Explanation: Choice D, that is, assess alternatives to meet the milestone indicates confronting the issue with an attempt to resolve the issue. Hence this would be the best approach.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

A Supermarket in California Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Supermarket in California - Essay Example This essay examines Ginsberg’s ‘A Supermarket in California’ in terms of figurative language and poetic technique. One of the most overarching considerations is that the poem is partially meant to be a tribute to Walt Whitman and was released on the centennial of Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass.’ This is clearly reflected in the poem as Ginsberg makes frequent reference to Walt Whitman within the poem’s very narrative structure. Indeed, Ginsberg wistfully addresses Whitman in a number of ways. Ginsberg states, â€Å"What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the side streets under the trees with a headache† (Ginsberg, 1-2). The poem also contains long-lines that are slightly unique. Partly these long-lines can be attributed to a further tribute to Whitman’s own tendency towards incorporating this form in his poems. Notably, poet Garcia-Lorca is also referenced in this work. In terms of poetic form the p oem is highly unique in that it does not conform to traditional types of stanza or rhyme scheme. What can be termed the first stanza extends for twelve lines; three more stanzas of varying line length follow this stanza. There is no discernable rhyme scheme in the poem, with Ginsberg refraining from even implementing a rhyming couplet. Additionally, these elements that eschew traditional poetic form are clearly in-line with the Beat Movement’s embrace of alternative modes of expression. Additionally, the poem’s narrative -- as embracing American counter-cultural elements -- is perhaps best articulated by an irregular form. The narrative as embracing counter-cultural elements is indeed a major consideration within this work. Ginsberg writes, â€Å"I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys† (Ginsberg, 11-12). Here there is the obvious allusion to homosexuality through the eyeing o f grocery boys. While poetic form constitutes a major element within this specific work, the narrative has perhaps gained the most critical attention. As noted the work is partly a tribute to Walt Whitman. Further analysis reveals a number of notable elements. During Whitman’s there is the recognition of American society as more in direct contact with natural elements. The setting of the poem’s narrative within the supermarket then is perhaps a means of ironically commenting on the nature of industrialized world as far removed from the direct process of hunting and growing their own subsistence. This interpretation is heightened by Ginsberg’s subtly comedic line, â€Å"I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?† (Ginsberg, 13-14). Here one recognizes the comedic potential of placing Whitman in a modern day supermarket. While the poem embraces irregular poetic form and counter-cultural elements, t here is also the recognition that Ginsberg expertly interweaves a number of profound themes. One such consideration is the meditation on the present day cultural milieu. Ginsberg writes, â€Å"Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?† (Ginsberg, 26-27). Just as Whitman articulated a profound 19th century vision of America, Ginsberg here is working to capture the essence of time. In addition to

Preschoolers grow their brains Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Preschoolers grow their brains - Essay Example It helps in doing away with the ‘I cannot do it’ attitude that is among the beliefs that makes most people fail to achieve their goals. It also leads to the children becoming more independent in making choices and also thinking of ways that they can solve future problems. The children become more responsible and view ways of solving issues instead of becoming escapist. The model of thinking helps children become more creative and enhance their critical thinking abilities that take them along the way in their entire lifetime (Shelby and Christie 33). The article is also paramount for the adults as according to the article; the teachers explain that they are also able to think more and grow in their skills. It has also particularly influenced me as I have realized that there are simple, but practical way of coming up with solutions without conflicting in a negative way (Shelby and Christie 32). In a nutshell, the article emphasizes more on developing problem solvers and children that are prepared to solve challenges even in their adulthood. The concept of coming up with children who can think critically to solve problems, communicate effectively, collaborate with others and those with creative and innovative skills should be highly embraced and

Friday, October 18, 2019

In what ways does David Fincher's The Social Network (2010) (Social Essay

In what ways does David Fincher's The Social Network (2010) (Social netweork is a movie)illustrate contemporary understandings - Essay Example This of course was no way to have a healthy relationship, but relationships were not his primary focus; his primary focus was on creating the best website for social networking in the world. The story basically focused on his relationship with Eduardo Saverin, the then CFO of the business and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twin brothers who gave the idea for Facebook to Zuckerberg (although this was not their initial idea). When looking at the ideas of intimacy and friendship, this movie brought out several issues that are apparent for people today who are engaged in social networking. 1 Intimacy and Relationships Zuckerberg seemed to have difficulty with intimacy because he could only go so far with women before they saw him as a jerk. In the beginning of the movie, the audience sees Zukerberg and his girlfriend Erica talking in one of the campus bars. Erica is there to breakup with him because she says, â€Å"being with you is exhausting; it’s like dating a StairMasterâ € . This was an insult to him but he did not see it as an insult at firs because he was attempting to understand what was happening. Smith (2010) called Zuckerberg a â€Å"social autistic† (p. 1) which in many ways she was correct. According to Rudy (2011) some autistic children have not developed social skills and this causes them to have problems with interacting socially. When watching the movie, it was clear that Zuckerberg had problems with interacting with people. Also, they have a tendency not to be able to pick up the subtle cues that people give to each other in face to face conversation. Although this has never been discussed in relation to the real Zuckerberg, there are several websites devoted to people with autism that speculate that he could have Asperger’s Syndrome. Whether this is true or not is not certain, but this could explain why the character in the movie had such challenges. Intimacy is not always easy for many people no matter what their situ ation and this may be due to Attachment Theory. Dinero et al. (2011) studied the family of origin to understand whether there was a relationship between the family of origin and an individual’s ability to form an intimate relationship. What they found was that if a child had positive attachment interactions wit their parents when they were 15 and 16, that these relationships would help them build attachment security with another person by the time they were 25. They also found that the family of origin and other positive romantic relationships created an ability to have a secure attachment later in life. Intimacy then can be determined by the quality of attachment that an individual has or does not have with their family of origin. Zuckerberg also has problems making and keeping friends. The movie is about the early years of Facebook and it is not known whether he has learned from his mistakes in real life, but it was certain that he did not learn from Dale Carnegie (1936) in terms of how to make friends and keep them. Carnegie suggested that there were three fundamental techniques in handling people: 1) you should not criticize them; 2) you should honestly appreciate them (letting them know this); and 3) you should arouse an eagerness in them for something they want. Although Zuckerberg had many people around him, he constantly criticized or condemned them, never showed them that he appreciated them and never really nurtured those people around him who could have been of great help to him. An example of this