Treadway Tire Company Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Treadway Tire Company - Case Study Example This high level of dissatisfaction by the line-foreman segment was being manifested through an increased trend of employee turnover. In 2007 alone 23 line-foremen left the Lima plant both voluntarily and involuntarily. This high turnover has negatively implications on the plant’s productivity and cost. It prevents the Lima tire plant from realizing its potential of being Treadway’s lowest cost producer and number one plant for productivity in North America. Four elements of the work system that contribute towards the problems at Treadway are: (1) inadequate training and development for new hires; (2) poor communication from upper management; (3) a poor organizational and/or power structure; and (4) a performance review system. From the case it is clear that for one to effectively perform the duty of a line foremac one needed skills in areas such as understanding union contracts, employee and production scheduling, pay and so on. However, at Treadway’s Lima plant new line foremen received only informal training, which was conducted at the discretion of the general supervisor and area manager (Skinner and Beckham 5). This situation is aggravated by the poor or limited communication between upper management and line-foremen segment. In such a scenario it would not be far-fetched to expect the quality of this informal training to be inadequate. The line foremen were expected to take charge of the hourly employees and were held responsible over the hourly-employees’ actions yet they lacked the authority needed to do so. This reflects a poor power structure – which reflects poor organizational structure. In a good organizational structure the person who bears responsibility has to be given the authority to perform whatever needs to be done with regards to that responsibility. This in a way made line-foremen to be undermined by their charges. Lastly, we are informed that in order to get a good review, line foremen were expected to meet targets without

An analysis of Shakespears Essay Example for Free

An analysis of Shakespears Essay The original sonnets were written by Francesco Petrarca in Italy. The word sonnet comes from the Italian word sonetto meaning little song. The Italian sonnet is made out 14 verses that are split into two parts. The first eight lines, called the octave, describe the problem while the six last lines, sestet, provides the solution. This form is different than English sonnets such as Shakespeare Sonnet 106. English sonnets still have 14 verses but they instead have three quatrains and one rhyming couplet. The first part, like the Italian sonnet, presents the problem. The second and third part complicated this situation further. Then the last part, the rhyming couplet, resolves the presented problem usually in a way that makes it a paradox. Sonnets are written in a strict rhyming and meter scheme. Iambic pentameter is used as a device in writing sonnets. This means that each line has ten syllables that alternate from hard to soft tones. The rhyming scheme for English sonnets is abab cdcd efef and gg for the rhyming couplet. We will be taking a look on Shakespeares Sonnet 106. Shakespeares sonnets are much different from Francesco Petrarcas sonnets. Petrarcas sonnets are about love and beauty while Shakespeares sonnets are mocking all the clichi s of the same thing. Shakespeares Sonnet 106 is a very beautiful sonnet about a lady. What I am assuming is a young man is telling this girl that her beauty is beyond description. He tells her all the writers before him, had premonitions about her and thats why you can find her beauty described in history books. The best lines, in my opinion, is I see their antique pen would have expressd even such a beauty as you master now. I think this line really sums up what Shakespeare is trying to express in the sonnet. I love that even though Shakespeares sonnets are about love, his sonnets are written in a non clichi way. He even mocks the clichi writers in his sonnet. Even though Shakespeares sonnets do not use clichi s, I think that his sonnets are the sweetest things I have ever read. The thing that makes Shakespeares sonnets complete is his choice of words and the technique he uses. Shakespeare describes everything unconventionally but in a genuine way. He explains history, for example, as chronicles of wasted time. In a way, this metaphor reflects the inner working of Shakespeares mind and shows us what his motivation behind his work was. In the sonnet, he shows us that beauty will eventually die and that literature will pass it on to the future. His use personification is very deep and meaningful, such as beauty making beautiful rhyme or antique pen cannot express I also love adjectives, such as lovely and divining eyes. These adjectives really set the tone of the sonnet, which is the essence of beauty and it being everlasting through the art of literature. Shakespeare was a genius of his day of age. His sonnets so intricate that it takes hours just to properly analyze one of them. His non-clichi writing style gave his work a little more pizzazz to his work. He expanded on the idea of the Italian sonnet and made it his own. Shakespeare wrote over 150 sonnets, all them unique in their own way. Shakespeare opens up his mind on paper and tells us the world as it is.

Effect of Alcohol Dependency on Spouse

Effect of Alcohol Dependency on Spouse Psychiatric illnesses are increasingly known to be common in the recent decades and affects over 25% of people at some point in a adults at any point in time, and at least one affected individual living in one every four families—(1). Alcohol dependence syndrome is the maladaptive patters of alcohol intake with tolerance craving, loss of control, and withdrawal symptoms (3). Bipolar affective disorder is episodic in nature with manic or hypomanic or depressive or mixed symptoms occur. Patients exhibit fluctuating severity of any of these symptoms interspersed with a symptom free (euthymics 2) or subsyndromal periods. Cwvently the prevalence of bipolar affective disorder (BPAD) is around 0.4-0.5% with an 1 year prevalence of 0.5to 1.4% and a life-time prevalence of about 2.6 to 7.8% (4). The life-time prevalence of bipolar disorder is about 20.8 per 1000 population in India (6  ±); and that of alcohol use ranges from 1.15% to upto 50% in general (8, 9). Burden Definition (10) – Platt Stigmatization, chronic emotional and economic burden from caring are endured by the families of individuals with psychiatric illness. The illness impact on the primary caregiver’s leisure time activities work and social relationships. These deficits evoke different reactions infifferent or expressed emotional reaction towards the patients, and a sense of insufficiency and helplessness in themselves, all of which impact on the progression and prognosis of the patient’s illness (1). AIM To compare the family burden, the quality of life and psychiatric morbidity between female spouses of patients with alcohol dependence syndrome, patients with schizophrenia, and patients with bipolar affective disorder OBJECTIVES To find the family burden and quality of life in female spouses of patients with alcohol dependence, schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder To evaluate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in female spouses of patients of these three groups To study the association between symptom severity in patients, perceived apathy, significant life events and family burden, and the quality of life and psychiatric morbidity in female spouses in these groups To compare psychiatric morbidity, family burden of care and quality of life in female spouses between all patient groups. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample is drawn from male patients with female spouses attending the outpatient Psychiatry department at this hospital. Design: Crosssectional, comparative study, including 64 patients with alcohol dependence, 64 patients with schizophrenia, and 64 patients with bipolar affective disorder, and their female spouses. With consecutive sampling from Outpatient department, a total of 192 patients with their spouses are taken up for the study. Duration and period of Study- 4 months Inclusion criteria: male patients with equal to or more than 10 year duration of alcohol dependence or schizophrenia or bipolar affective disorder, satisfying the criteria for the corresponding DSM IV-TR diagnoses patients with onset of psychiatric symptoms/disorder after marriage female spouses who provide care for the patients participa nts should be not less than 60 years of age participants to be willing to provide informed consent for the interview and assessment patients willing to allow spouse to be assessed Exclusion criteria: those who did not give their consent refusal to allow spouse to be evaluated patients and/or their spouses with any chronic general medical illness spouses with a history of substance abuse, suicide or previous history of psychiatric symptoms and intervention spouses with a family history of psychiatric illness spouses related to the patients by consanguinity Instruments used A semistructured profoma to collect the sociodemographic details, family history details and a semistructured clinical profile International Classification of Diseases ICD-10 Shortform Alcohol Dependence Data Questionnaire SADDQ Clinical Global Impressions CGI-BP bipolar and CGI-SCH schizophrenia, severity scales Presumptive stressful life events scale PSLES Apathy inventory –caregiver version Burden Assessment Scale BAS; Caregiver Reaction Assessment -Selfesteem, High life-esteem -positive caregiving, Burnout -Negative Caregiving subscales –CRASH-BOUNCE score WHO Quality Of Life WHOQOL –BREF-1 General Health Questionnaire GHQ-12 MINI plus 5.0.0 v Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview –plus Beck Depression Inventory BDI; Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale –anxiety HADS-A CGI-BP Bipolar disorder is a cyclic and polymorphic disease. Patients may show manic, hipomanic, depressive or mixed symptoms, and they may be in partial or complete remission. For this reason, the assessment of the course, severity and outcome of the disorder is very complex. Most of the available psychometric instruments have been designed for the assessment of acute episodes of specific polarity. The CGI-BP-M, a user-friendly scale for the assessment of manic, hypomanic, depressive or mixed symptoms, and long-term outcome of bipolar disorder, is a useful tool for the assessment of the efficacy of several treatments. CGI-S: Amongst the most widely used of extant brief assessment  tools in psychiatry, the CGI is a 3-item observer-rated  scale that measures illness severity (CGIS), global  improvement or change (CGIC) and therapeutic response.   The illness severity and improvement sections of the  instrument are used more frequently than the therapeutic  response section in both clinical and research settings. Amongst the most widely used of extant brief assessment  tools in psychiatry, the CGI is a 3-item observer-rated scale that measures illness severity (CGIS), global  improvement or change (CGIC) and therapeutic response. The illness severity and improvement sections of the  instrument are used more frequently than the therapeutic  response section in both clinical and research settings. Burden Assessment Schedule (BAS) (104): [ANNEXURE IV] It is an instrument to assess burden on caregivers of chronic mentally ill. It was developed to assess subjective burden in Indian population, as many of the burden assessment instruments developed in the west were not culturally suited to Indian population. This schedule has 40 items and 9 domains. The different domains are Spouse related, Physical and mental health, External support, Caregivers routine, Support of patient, Taking responsibility, Other relations, Patients, Patients behaviour and Caregivers strategy. Each of these 40 items was rated on a 3-point scale marked 1-3. The responses were not at all, to some extent and very much. Depending on the questions were framed, the responses and the score for each of those responses would vary. In this study the schedule was modified by arranging 40- items into the above 9 domains. Total score of each domain was calculated separately and at the end the total burden was calculated. This was done to get the domain score apart from the total score. In the spouse was replaced with either son, daughter, brother, sister, mother or father, depending of the patient to the caregiver. In the items 2 and 4, the word ‘sexual and marital’ was replaced by ‘family’ as and when needed. The minimum total score of burden in BAS is 40 and the maximum score in 120. In this the severity of burden was categorized into 4 groups, in the following way, 40-60 –Minimum burden 61-80 –Moderate burden 81-100 –Severe burden 101-120 –Very severs burden Method Consecutive patients attending the Psychiatry OPDs of hospitals attached to J.J.M. Medical College, diagnosed as BPAD and Alcohol dependence according to DSM IV criteria who met the inclusion criteria and did not get excluded were included in the study. Written informed consent was taken from the patients or from the caregivers depending on their ability to give consent, following an explanation about the nature and the purpose of the study in the language in which the patient could understand. Sociodemographic details were recorded on the self designed proforma. The primary family care-giver was one who met at least three of the following criteria (108). Is a spouse, parent or spouse equivalent. Has the most frequent contact with the patient. Helps to support the patients financially. Has most frequently been collateral in the patient’s treatment. Is contacted by treatment staff in case of emergency. Burden Assessment Scale (BAS) was administered to assess the burden on caregivers of BPAD group and ADS group. Severity of alcohol dependence was assessed using Short Alcohol Dependence Data (SADD) Questionnaire. GHQ Validity Discriminative validity There was a non-significant trend in GHQ Total scores and Depression subscales  scores to be higher for carers using Admiral Nurse (AN) teams vs. carers who did not  (Woods et al., 2003). On follow-up, a significant difference was found on the Anxiety  and Insomnia subscale, where outcome was better for the AN group. Another study  showed that carers of dementia patients showed higher levels of distress as measured  by GHQ than carers for patients with depression (Rosenvinge et al., 1998). Furthermore, significant differences in GHQ scores have been found between carers  of people with anorexia and psychosis (Treasure et al., 2001). GHQ scores have also  been found to differ in carers of people with a head injury according to different time  intervals post-injury. The GHQ scores were higher for carers of people with a recent  head injury, which indicates greater burden in this group (Sander et al., 1997). Predictive validity Coping style has been found to contribute significantly to GHQ score variance, with  emotion-focused coping being related to GHQ scores in a study by Sander et al.,  (1997). Furthermore, coping accounted for more of the GHQ variance than disability  scores. Socio-demographic variables Gender has been found to have a significant effect on GHQ scores, but neither race  nor relationship to the injured person had a significant effect (Sander et al., 1997). Dimension-specific variables Strong positive correlations were found between the GHQ and the Relatives Stress  Scale (Draper et al., 1992). Responsiveness The GHQ-28 has been shown to be responsive to change in a study using cognitive  behavioural therapy in carers of Parkinson’s disease patients. Both the Total score and  the scores for 3 of the sub-scales decreased in response to the intervention (Secker and  Brown 2005). Both conventional and AN services led to lower GHQ scores overall  and 2 of the 4 subscales over an 8-month period (Woods et al., 2003).

Free College Essays - Imagery, Metaphors, and Diction in Dulce et Decorum Est :: Dulce et Decorum Est Essays

Imagery, Metaphors, and Diction in Dulce et Decorum Est All exceptional poetry displays a good use of figurative language, imagery, and diction. Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" is a powerful antiwar poem which takes place on a battlefield during World War I. Through dramatic use of imagery, metaphors, and diction, he clearly states his theme that war is terrible and horrific. The use of compelling figurative language helps to reveal the reality of war. In the first line, "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,"(1) shows us that the troops are so tired that they can be compared to old beggars. Another great use of simile, "His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,"(20) suggests that his face is probably covered with blood which is the colour symbolizing the devil. A very powerful metaphor is the comparison of painful experiences of the troops to "[v]ile, incurable sores on innocent tongues."(24) This metaphor emphasizes that the troops will never forget these horrific experiences. As you can see, Owen has used figurative language so effectively that the reader gets drawn into the poem. The images drawn in this poem are so graphic that it could make readers feel sick. For example, in these lines: "If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood/ Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs/ Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud,"(21-23) shows us that so many men were brutally killed during this war. Also, when the gas bomb was dropped, "[s]omeone still yelling out and stumbling/ [a]nd flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.../ [h]e plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning."(11-12,16) These compelling lines indicate that men drowned helplessly in the toxic gasses. These graphic images are very disturbing but play a very effective role in the development of the poem. Another tool in developing the effectiveness of the poem is the excellent use of diction. The word "blood-shod" explains how the troops have been on their feet for days without rest. Also, words like "guttering", "choking", and "drowning" shows us that the troops are suffering in extreme pain and misery. If you haven't noticed, most of these words are examples of cacophony, which are words with harsh and discordant sounds. As this poem is about how harsh and terrible war is, Owen's use of cacophony is very effective in generating the tone of the poem. Is it really that sweet to die for one's country?

Tesco V Walmart

BA. Honours Business Management BUSINESS MATTERS Business Issues: Tesco v Walmart TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. Introduction 3 2. Business Issues in the Retail Sector 3 3. Financial Health 5 3. 1 Tesco 5 3. 2 Walmart 7 4. Cultural Style & Leadership 9 4. 1 Tesco 9 4. 2 Walmart 10 4. 3 Ethical & Environmental Issues 12 5. Conclusions 12 6. References 13 7. Bibliography 14 1. Introduction In 2009 the grocery market in the United Kingdom was worth 146. 3 billion pounds, an increase of 4. 8% on the previous year [see Figure 1].Groceries account for fifty-two pence of every pound in retail spending [Newbold, 2010, online]. Figure 1: UK Grocery Market Performance 1998 – 2009 Source: IGD Research 2009 This report looks at contemporary business issues in the grocery sector and then compares the financial health, leadership, cultural style, ethical initiatives and environmental values of two of the biggest business names in the industry – Tesco and Walmart. 2. Business Issue sin the Retail Sector At the expense of small, specialist shops, supermarkets increasingly manage the supply chain from farm to shelf.Technological improvements in stock control and checkout scanning, for example, have lowered costs and attracted customers. Loyalty card schemes provide these superstores with an insight into consumer preferences, enabling them to better match products with customers. To increase efficiency and maintain competitiveness, supermarket chains have consolidated, resulting in a fewer number of giant companies. Consequently, manufacturers have become increasingly dependent on a small number of market outlets, giving these retailers tremendous leverage to negotiate lower prices.There is also severe competition with discounters such as Lidl. To better manage household budgets during the present credit crunch more British shoppers are shopping at these discount stores. Competition from these discounters has led the big chains to develop new strategies. For exam ple, Tesco has recently launched its new Discount range, in an effort to combat the rise of these popular, super-cheap supermarkets. Shoppers are not just attracted by low prices. The super centre or hypermarket approach means that one-stop shopping has become a reality for shoppers.Shopping at one of these large stores, possibly two to three times a week, has become a recreational event not a chore. With most shopping now done in malls or online, the traditional high street, with its parking charges, and traffic problems has suffered. There is no much talk about the dead heart of the city. To counter this trend, convenience stores [under 3000 sq feet and â€Å"opened all hours†] are increasing dramatically on the high street [see Figure 2]. With an increasing range of products and improved layouts, convenience multiples such as Spar represent the fastest growing part of the grocery market, with sales increasing by 12. %. They currently comprise 20. 5% of the total United Kin gdom food and grocery market [Tesco, 2009, online]. Figure 2: UK Convenience Stores, 2009 Source: IGD Research 2009 The large multiples have responded strongly in this market sector (e. g. Tesco Express) and have taken over some existing chains and petrol station forecourts. 3. Financial Health of Tesco & Walmart 3. 1 Tesco Tesco is the United Kingdom’s premier supermarket chain. It employs 440000 staff and operates in thirteen countries [Tesco, 2009, online]. Presently, it has a commanding, and increasing, 30. % share of the non-convenience UK grocery market [Figure 3].Figure 3: UK Supermarket Share In the financial year 2008-9, despite the economic downturn, Tesco had record profits of more than ? 3 billion, 10% more than the previous year. Total revenue rose to ? 59. 4bn, taking sales to more than ? 1billion a week for the first time. Consequently, shares in Tesco rose by 5. 5% [I. S. , 2010, online]. Figure 4: Tesco’s Profit & Loss Account 2005-2009| Year E nded 28 February| 2009| 2008| 2007| 2006| 2005| ? millions| Turnover| 59377. 0| 47298. 0| 42641. 0| 39454. | 33866. 0| Operating Profit| 3206. 0| 2791. 0| 2673. 0| 2280. 0| 1952. 0| Net Interest| -362. 0| -63. 0| -126. 0| -127. 0| -132. 0| Profit Before Tax| 2954. 0| 2803. 0| 2653. 0| 2235. 0| 1894. 0| Profit After Tax| 2166. 0| 2130. 0| 1881. 0| 1586. 0| 1353. 0| * * Source: www. redmayne. co. uk Figure 5: Tesco’s Balance Sheet 2005-2009| Year Ended 28 February| 2009| 2008| 2007| 2006| 2005| ? millions| Intangible Assets| 4027. 0| 2336. 0| 2045. 0| 1525. 0| 1408. 0| Tangible Assets| 23152. 0| 19787. 0| 16976. 0| 15882. 0| 14521. 0| Fixed Investments| 321. 0| 309. | 322. 0| 480. 0| 423. 0|Total Fixed Assets| 32008. 0| 23864. 0| 20231. 0| 18644. 0| 16931. 0| Stocks| 2669. 0| 2430. 0| 1931. 0| 1464. 0| 1309. 0| Cash at Bank and in Hand| 3509. 0| 1788. 0| 1042. 0| 1325. 0| 1146. 0| Total Assets| 46053. 0| 30164. 0| 24807. 0| 22563. 0| 20155. 0| Total Liabilities| 33058. 0| 18262 . 0| 14236. 0| 13119. 0| 11501. 0| Net Assets| 12995. 0| 11902. 0| 10571. 0| 9444. 0| 8654. 0| Net Current Assets| n/a| n/a| n/a| n/a| n/a| Called Up Share Capital| 395. 0| 393. 0| 397. 0| 395. 0| 389. 0| Share Premium Account| 4638. 0| 4511. 0| 4376. | 3988. 0| 3704. 0| Other Reserves| 40. 0| 40. 0| 40. 0| 40. 0| 40. 0| Profit and Loss Account| 7865. 0| 6871. 0| 5693. 0| 4957. 0| 4470. 0| Shareholders Funds| 12938. 0| 11815. 0| 10506. 0| 9380. 0| 8603. 0| Source: www. redmayne. co. uk A balance sheet lists all a business' assets and liabilities, giving a â€Å"snapshot† of the its overall money value at a given time. The Tesco balance sheet [Figure 5] indicates that it is very healthy financially. It shows that net assets [total assets – total liabilities] have increased tremendously from ? 8654 million to ? 12,995 million.The profit and loss account [net profit, or loss, made] has almost doubled in the five years shown from ? 4470 million to ? 7865 million. Figure 6: Key Figures for Tesco 2005-2009| Year Ended 28 February| 2009| 2008| 2007| 2006| 2005| Earnings Per Share Growth (%)| 6| 22| 10| 16| n/a| Total Dividend (p)| 11. 96| 10. 90| 9. 64| 8. 63| 7. 56| Operating Margin (%)| 6| 6| 6| 6| 6| ROCE (%)| 13| 17| 19| 20| 18| Dividend Yield| 3. 60| 2. 70| 2. 20| 2. 60| 2. 50| Price / Earnings Ratio| 11. 40| 14. 60| 19. 90| 16. 50| 17. 60| Dividend Per Share Growth (%)| 10| 13| 12| 14| 11| Source: www. redmayne. o. uk Return on capital employed (ROCE) is a key measure of an industry's financial health and performance [Atrill and Melaney, 2004]. It is calculated as the earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) divided by the difference between total assets and current liabilities.It shows whether an organisation is obtaining a decent profit for the amount of capital it owns. The higher the ratio, the better the company is. Tesco’ ROCE is down slightly but a return of 13% is still much better than any bank account interest rate and shows a ve ry effective investment of capital employed [Figure 6]. . 2 Walmart The USA based Walmart superstore chain is the biggest company in the world. Almost fifty years on since Sam Walton opened his first store, 90% of the US population is within fifteen miles of a Walmart [Luce, 2005]. With over 1. 3 million employees and sales at a quarter of a trillion, it is the biggest retailing success in history. With the goal of low prices, the average customer saves 15% shopping at Wal-Mart [Walmart, 2010, online]. Despite stiff competition, Wal-Mart's annual income from 1996 to 2006 increased steadily, as shown below in Figure 7.Figure 7: Walmart’s 10 Year Income For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2009, Wal-Mart brought in $405. 6 billion of total revenue [sales]. The income that the firm made after subtracting costs and expenses from the total revenue [net income] was $13. 6 billion [Foley, 2009, online]. Figure 8: Walmart’s Annual Report 2008-2009| | 01/01/2010| 01/01/2009| Revenue| $m| 405,607| 408,214| Pre-tax Profit| $m| 20,898| 22,579| EPS| $m| 3. 39| 3. 70| Dividend| $m| 0. 95| 1. 09| ROCE| 21. 00% Source: www. walmart. com| | | | |Even higher than Tesco, Walmart’s ROCE index of 21%, is indication of its great financial success. Walmart’s share price was hit by the recent economic recession but, as Figure 9 shows, has started to rise again. Figure 9: Walmart’s Share Price 2007-2010 Source: www. walmart. com In 1999 Asda was acquired by Walmart and in 2006 the company expanded even further internationally. They opened 537 new international stores, employing over 50,000 new employees. International revenues soared by 17. 4% to $7. 87bn, helped by store openings in markets such as Canada and Scotland [I. G. D. 2010, online]. Walmart’s market share continues to rise in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom and Mexico. In the midst of a global depression it is obvious that everyday low prices are a big consumer d raw. 4. Cultural Style ;amp; Leadership 4. 1 TESCO As a performance-driven organization, Tesco’s mission statement is â€Å"to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty. † They are determined to strike up a close relationship with its customers. Consequently, Tesco endeavors to provide better, more innovative products and services than any of its competitors.It believes if you treat customers well and operate efficiently then shareholders’ will inevitably benefit by growth in sales, profits and returns [Enfield, 2009, online]. The customer/staff focus of Tesco is reflected in the far-sighted leadership of Terry Leahy, Chief Executive Officer. Representing a new era, Leahy adapted a more participative style of leadership, where employees are given a voice in the decision-making process. Terry Leahy, Tesco CEO The organizational structure is now simple and flat with fewer levels in the management hierarchy.There are fewer formal rules, more decentr alization and shared decision making throughout the organisation. Leadership roles are delegated to best informed and capable individuals in the organization to ensure that the company operates effectively. As values and beliefs develop, so does commitment to the organization and this is much more productive than a formal hierarchy (Miner 2002). The organic structure suits the pressure to be innovative – given its flexibility it can respond to environmental variations quickly (Salaman 2001, p. 106). 4. 2 WALMARTMuch of Wal-Mart's success is due to a strong and all-encompassing, corporate culture, originally developed by Sam Walton. At the core of this culture is a relentless push for the lowest prices. This penny-pinching is achieved using state of the art technology and by its â€Å"plus one† policy, which demands that suppliers lower their prices or increase the quality on every item every year. In â€Å"The Wal-Mart Effect,† Charles Fishman shows how the pric e of a four-pack of General Electric light bulbs decreased from $2. 19 to 88 cents within five years [Fishman, 2006].Because of this culture, Wal-Mart no-frills headquarters are in Bentonville, Arkansas, not an expensive city like New York. Executives start work before 6. 30 am, never use limousines, always fly economy-class and often share hotel rooms with colleagues. The company offers basic wages and health care plans. It demands that hourly workers do overtime without pay. Store managers regularly work 70 hours per week. They are expected to pinch pennies wherever they can, even on things like the heating and cooling of the stores.In the winter stores are kept at 70 degrees Fahrenheit and in the summer, they stay at 73 [Seth and Randall, 1999]. In almost fifty years of operation, Wal-Mart has managed to keep these cultural components, as well as its enterprising spirit. Leadership Walmart’s present chairman, S. Robson Walton [son of the founder] is reported to have said i t is the job of leaders to â€Å"listen to customers, listen to customers, listen to customers† [Fishman, 2006, p32]. Choosing to be a humble-servant type of leader, Mr Walton has established a spirit of customer service throughout the whole company. S. Robson Walton,Walmart Chairman Like Tesco, Walmart believes that delegation and limited supervision increases efficiency. Additionally, if leaders trust workers then they will develop quality decision-making skills. Fewer managerial, supervisory jobs also reflect Walmart’s culture of saving money wherever possible. 4. 3 Ethical & Environmental Issues In response to increasing consumer awareness of environmental and ethical issues, the supermarket chains have adopted a range of initiatives. In 2008 Walmart introduced new Fair Trade certified coffee products which provide plantation workers with better wages and working conditions.Similarly, to benefit farmers growing Fair Trade cotton in Africa and India, Tesco was t he first supermarket to bring in Fair Trade cotton knitwear and is presently doubling its range of Fair Trade cotton school uniforms [Wiener, 2009]. Also, to support local producers, much of Tesco’s meat and vegetables come from farmers within the region. With environmental issues becoming mainstream, Tesco has recently promised to attach a carbon label to all its goods and install sophisticated new refrigeration techniques to reduce its consumption of climate changing hydro-fluorocarbons.Wal-Mart now claims it will power its US stores entirely using renewable energy [Walmart, 2010, online]. The introduction of clear labelling regarding fat and calorie content of products has allowed supermarkets to take advantage of the increased consumer awareness of health issues. In the case of a health scare [e. g. BSE], their sophisticated communications networks make product traceability very easy. 5. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, the retail market has been completely transformed in recen t years by the large supermarkets.Whether your preferred criteria for financial success is square footage of retail space, sales, net profit or dividend growth, both Tesco and Walmart have reached heights that few others in the retail industry can hope to match. To counter the image that they destroy the environment and are enemies of society, both Tesco and Walmart have adopted a range of environmental, social and ethical programs. The so called â€Å"Walmark effect† may yet be seen as a force for the good.

The Best Personal Experience

Everyone have experiences in their life. These experiences could be the incidents which was happened in someone else life or in our life. Some people learn lessons from their experiences and some experiences change the peoples life automatically. Who am I? is my best personal experience I have ever had in my life . During all of my primary school times, I seemed as if I were hiding behind a mask. When I was at home I was a totally different person. At school I was trying to be a person who could fit in, but the more I tried the more it didn’t seem to work. Everywhere I went I would censor what I said depending on my surroundings and the people that were with me. Most of the time I would not say anything at all because I was afraid of being embarrassed. I would always have to change my mode when different people were around me. It was horrible; I hated it. I was getting sick and tired of always being someone I was not. It was about the middle of the summer of 1998, when I was at grade nine, that I realized that being two different people was the worst thing that I could done to myself and that I did have other options. Around that time, a major influence on my life was my cousin, Thilani. She taught me that I would only live once and that I should be the person that I was and not some one that just tries to fit in. We were sitting a in a coffee shop, one evening, when she asked me the one question than changed my life. â€Å"Who are you? † When I first heard this question I hesitated to answer. This question opened a new door in my mind that had never been opened before. This was the first question that had actually made me think about myself and who I was. The more I thought about her question the more I realized that I had a decision to make; to be the person who tried to fit in and cared what other people thought or to be myself. For the past 15 years I had tried to fit in, and I had cared what other people thought and this hadn‘t seemed to work. So, for the first time, I was going to be myself. When I started to be myself, it seemed as if everything was different. I used to look at was only on the surface. I would not normally look deeply into a particular subject. When I was myself, the environment seemed as if it had a deeper meaning. Every thing I saw, heard, smelled, and felt I would perceive it in a extremely different way than ever before. Because of this, I was able to take what I had learned and apply it to many different things. When I went back to school, things were completely changed, my view toward life had changed, the people around me changed and my relationship with my family was changed. For example, before I realized this, my grades at school were decent but not the best that could be because I was lazy. After I got to school everything kind of fell together, it all made sense. I realized that if I did the work first I could be lazy later and not have to worry about it. As a result, my grades sky-rocketed in my senior year. In school, my circle of friends were people that I had been going to school with since sixth grade. I also had friends that were not in my circle. When I went back to school I decided to be one person, myself. After the first month, I realized that most of my friends were all single serving friends. That is, they were friends only during good times and that’s all. Most of my friends slowly parted from me because I went my own way. I didn’t try to fit in. At this time in my life I found out who my real friends were and who I really was. As my attitude changed so did my relations with my family. My sister and I fought all the time. It was always about small stupid stuff that was not really relevant. One day while we were having a small quarrel, I stopped and took a step back and looked at the big picture. It hit me, I realized that I shouldn’t sweat for small stuff. People are not perfect, they do make mistakes. After this day it seemed as if my sister and I had the perfect relationship. I was also able to really connect with the people in my family. The bond between my family and I has grown stronger ever since. Through what I have learned, I was able to put myself into other peoples shoes and see their point of view as well as my own, giving me new perspectives and insight in all areas of life. Everyday is a new day, and I take one day at a time. So, who am I? I am not a person who tries to fit in, I am not a person who cares what other people think, I am Anuththara, an individual, I am my own entity. So far, this has been, without a doubt, the best personal experience I had in my life.

buy custom Abnormal Behavior and Mental Health essay

buy custom Abnormal Behavior and Mental Health essay QUESTION 1 Based on axial 1 of DSM classification, Cindy exhibits post traumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder. She has social and psychological conditions that may be a focus of clinical attention. In axial 2, she falls under personality disorder in that she deviates markedly from social expectations, suffers depression, causes distress. She does not fall under axial 3 as she has no general medical condition that may play a direct role in causing psychological disorder (Dziegielewski, 2010). In axial 4, she experiences post traumatic stress disorder from a previous trauma and Cindy experiences psychosocial and environmental problems e.g. lack of adequate social support from her friends and joblessness. In axial 5, her global assessment functioning (GAF) is below par. QUESTION 2 Axial1-Cindy experiences social and psychological conditions that may be a focus for diagnosis and treatment: Persistent re-experience of trauma centered on a series of past events that included rape when she was 16 years; Lack of social support from close friends; Low self confidence (avoided eye contact with the interviewer); Addicted to and Abuses marijuana; Lack of insight and judgment as exhibited by extra marital affair; Unemployed for the last 6 months; Has attended 4 therapy sessions and quite the last three sessions after single session. Axial 2: she exhibits symptoms of personality disorders which are; Depression for at least 3 months; Gets agitated after recollecting the trauma. Axial 3: No symptoms indicative of general medical conditions. Axial 4: she has a history of negative life event whereby at 16 years of age an adopted family member raped her. During the assault, which lasted 5 weeks, there were verbal threats, no weapon of physical injuries, and forced to commit heinous acts. She felt detached, numb, guilty and embarrassed. She neither reported to police nor received medical care. After the rape, she withdrew from normal activities; hang out in the wrong company, exhibited changes in behavior including violence, lying, alcohol abuse and derealization. She also reports having had an abortion under her fathers consent. Her childhood was rather intricate, having a former war veteran, who was psychologically and emotionally cold, as a father, and a self absorbed mother. Reminiscing these events during her extra marital affair led to her ending the affair, which indicates she was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, as she had distressing images, bringing past emotions into present. AXIAL 5: her current level of functioning indicates the need for treatment. Poor judgment and insight derealisation, and the recalling of past events indicate that she is in need of psychological attention. Question A3: Compare Generalised Anxiety Disorder and Acute Stress Disorder using the following table: Generalised Anxiety Disorder Acute Stress Disorder Type of disorder Anxiety disorder Anxiety disorder Diagnostic Axis Axial 1, DSM IV TR classification number 7. Axial 1, DSM IV TR classification number 7. Clinical picture From history and Mental state examination, -worry excessively about virtually all aspects of their lives e.g. health, finances, marital status. -do not have panic attacks, phobias, obsessions or compulsions, rather experience pervasive anxiety or worry about a number of events that occur most days for at least six months. - is associated with at least 3 of the following: restlessness, easy fatigability, difficulty concentrating with mind going blank, irritability, muscle tension and sleep disturbance. From history and Mental state examination, -Numbing -detachment and derealisation -depersonalisation or dissociative amnesia -continuous re-experiences of events by such ways as thoughts, dreams, and flash backs. -avoidance of any stimulation that reminds them of events. -symptoms of anxiety and significant impairment in at least 1 essential area of functioning. Onset Typical age of onset is early 20s but may begin at any age. Appear within 4 weeks of the impact of stressful stimuli or event. Duration Most days for at least 6 months. 2 Days-4 weeks QUESTION 4 According to the prescribed book, rape is an offence in which a person forces another to engage in sexual activity without her consent, and may involve threats, weapons, physical injuries and heinous acts. It may be by a person known by the victim, and usually leaves the victim psychologically traumatized. In my own definition, rape constitutes several parameters: legality, issue of consent, use of threat, force or violence, and the effects. Rape is a criminal offence in which sexual intercourse takes place with an unwilling partner, female or male, known or unknown by the victim, and under threat of force or violence (Welfel et, al. 2001). It occurs in the context that a person is forcefully made to participate in sexual acts without their will. Arguments show that rapists are motivated by a desire to dominate rather than simply an attempt to achieve sexual gratification. Majority of rapes are unreported due to victims shame, anxiety about publicity and the fear that the rapists wll take reprisals. The victims are usually traumatized severely, both psychologically and physically. Legally it recognizes that rape can happen within marriage also in situations of a known friend of the victim (date rape). Anxiety, depression, PTSD is the common effects of rape. Rape crises counselling, med ical therapy and report to authority is a significant requirement. Question A5: Distinguish between a depressive episode, a hypomanic episode and a panic attack using the following table. Depressive Episode Hypomanic Episode Panic Attack Duration 2 weeks 4 days 5-30 minutes Affective symptoms Depressed mood, decreased interest, pleasure and concentration, decreased indecisiveness. Overactive desire and drive for success, elevated or irritable mood. Trembling or shaking Cognitive symptoms Thoughts of worthlessness, guilt, self hatred, suicidal. Flight of ideas. Fear of losing control or going crazy, fear of dying. Behavioural symptoms Agitation, retardation, slow movement and forgetfulness, insomnia Extremely outgoing, competitive with inflated self esteem and grandiosity, easily distractible Derealisation and depersonalization and derealisation. Physical symptoms Fatigue, low energy, headaches. Great deal of energy. Palpitations, chest pain and discomfort, breathlessness, tachycardia, nausea and abdominal distress. Question B1: Provide a full diagnosis for Bongani on the five axes of the DSM-IV-TR classification system Axial I: anxiety disorder: substance induced anxiety disorder, Obsessive compulsive disorder, Social phobia. Axial II: Personality Disorder. Under cluster A, paranoid; Cluster B, antisocial; Cluster C, avoidant, dependent and obsessive compulsion. Axial III: No general medical condition. Axial IV: Sexual and gender identity disorder; difficulty in social adjustment. Axial IV: The global assessment functioning is below par. Question B2 Axial I: Bongani strongly believes that his condition is due to the marijuana. During the interview he exhibits restricted emotions, appears tense and anxious with constricted body motions and hesitant deliberate speech. He is also socially detached. Bongani is obsessed about having HIV. Axial II: Bongani believes others are out to get him; he has delusions of reference in that he believes T.V. reports have a special significance to him. He also experiences auditory hallucinations. He is dependent on his family especially the father. Axial IV: Bongani has homosexual preferences which he believes is causing him social stigma and criticism especially from his mother, who he claims is non-accepting. He also can not sustain jobs as he does not prefer social interaction. Bongani was dumped in a rubbish bin at birth and adopted. In his childhood, he had no friends, was sensitive to criticism and had difficulty in school. Axial V: GAF is below par as indicated by: Flat affect, improper thought content, poor perceptions etc. QUESTION B3 The multipath model of personality provides a more advanced view of psychological function.MAP model assumes that personality and self-organization are shaped by a number of combined forces that include mental, evolutionary, situational, psycho-spiritual and biological processes. This model can be used in the analysis of psychological functioning as it incorporates various levels of scrutiny in which one level is not complete without looking at the other. When all this levels are taken together, an added view that builds broader and percipient outlook for assessing personality and development. According to this model, the first level of analysis is neuropersonal. This level focuses on biological material functioning. Individuals are driven by genetic and biological functions; chemicals between the brain neurons determine a persons mood and personality. In the above case, the use of marijuana (a psychoactive drug) may have triggered a change in the chemicals due to the tetrahydrocanna binol it contains. The second level is intrapersonal level, which is information about self; how you think, perceive, interpret and analyze. According to this, Bogani thought that the marijuana bended his mind. Therefore, he perceived that his mind was broken, and this manifested in his clinical presentation. The third level is interpersonal; it deals with the family and social aspects. Good relationships lead to good development and vice versa. In the above case, Bogani was abandoned by his biological family. This might be a very disturbing and depressing thing to him. He also has a mother who does not approve of his homosexual lifestyle and calls him by derogatory words. This family and social issues have obviously affected his behavior. QUESTION B4 From the clinical case, the history about the mother shows that the family is very superstitious and believed the mother had amafufunya which according to the African culture is a state of possession by an evil spirit due to witch craft so cast hher away. In the case of Bogani, they believed he was a product of this sorcery and wanted nothing to do with him. If Bogani would have remained with the biological family that believe in possession, the first thing they would have done would have to send him to a witch doctor suspecting Bogani had the same condition as the mother. Due to their African beliefs the family would take him there knowing and believing that the witch doctor had the powers to bewitch and treat him. Question B5: Delusional Disorder Schizotypal Personality Disorder Type of disorder Psychotic disorder Personality disorder Diagnostic Axis DSM-IV-TR number 5 on Axis II DSM-IV-TR number 16 on Axis II Clinical picture Characterised by nonbizarre delusions about things that could happen in real life. The patients social adjustment remains normal. Have few relationships and demonstrate oddities of thought, affect, perception, and belief. Many are highly distrustful and often paranoid. Some may be suicidal. Onset Generally, it is in middle to late life. No definite onset Duration At least 1 month. At least 2 years Prognosis Poor Poor Question B6: Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Oppositional Defiant Disorder Conduct Disorder Purposefulness of behaviour Attract attention to or away from themselves Hostility, defiance to authority Lack of empathic concern for others, major misbehaviour, repetitive behaviour to violate rights of others and social norms. Motivation for behaviour Impatience, abnormal perceptions, low self esteem, pre occupied thoughts, environmental factors and neurological dysregulation. Resentment, disobedience, disregard for authority Antisocialism, depression, copying from peers, juvenile delinquency. Interpersonal relationships Forgetful, deliberately annoys others, easily distracted, defiant. Stubborn, angry, temper tantrums, annoys others on purpose. Aggression, verbal and physical, destructive behaviour, truancy, vandalism, lying, stealing, delinquent subsistence. Duration and Prognosis 6 months Good with treatment. Many outgrow it. 6 months Untreated, 52% continue with it for next 3 years, 50% progress to conduct disorder. Mostly to adolescent years. Prognosis varies depending on if mild, moderate or severe and resistance to treatment QUESTION B7 The first thing to do is to open a counseling department in the school. The next step is to employ a behavioral therapy. The behavioral therapy will employ the following steps: 1. To assess the suspected children through a medical and psychological evaluation. This enables the therapy to identify what affects the child before steps can be taken to eliminate them. 2.If any other conditions are found aggressive treatment is recommended. Eliminating them can be the fastest way of treating the above. 3. Omega 3 and vitamin E supplement have been found beneficial in treating the above. 4. Consider involving parents in the behavioral therapy of the children. 5. Medical intervention such a antidepressants. The type of program is a school based early detection and intervention program. It entails peer to peer discussions, training of social skills and self conduct training. In developing the program, the consideration of the community is invaluable since the community moulds the children and support can be in terms of financing and voluntary work. The age of the child must be considered. The way to approach a child is not the same way to approach an adolescent. Learners can be encouraged to take part in role play to gain their interests into the program. Include the peers into the program. Always give the child positive reward. Involvement of parents is essential in the program. This is an integral part of the program as parents would deal directly with the children in what is known as parent management training. The inclusion of the community as a whole in the program to support and fund the initiative is a crucial step. Support groups among children peers where the children can sit and talk. Buy custom Abnormal Behavior and Mental Health essay

Review of Literature on 1972 Munich Olympic Terrorim essays

Review of Literature on 1972 Munich Olympic Terrorim essays Review of Literature: 1972 Munich Olympic Terrorist Attack On the morning of 5 September 1972 eight members of the Palestinian group Black September broke into two apartment buildings in the Munich Olympic village that housed the Israeli Olympic team. In the process of Black Septembers storming of the apartment two Israeli athletes were killed and nine more were taken hostage. The German government attempted to negotiate with the terrorists, after several hours of failed negotiations the terrorists and their hostages were loaded on to helicopters and transported to Furstenfeldbruck, a nearby German airport. At the airport the Germans attempted to rescue the Israeli hostages but were unsuccessful. After the failed rescue effort all nine hostage were dead, and Germany was left to answer the questions from the stunned world. The story seems simple enough it has all the making of a good Hollywood drama, good vs. evil, a hero to rout for, and tragedy. However after reading literature on the topic I have come to the conclusion that there is noth ing simple about this story. Every author has his or her own point of view about what really happened, and for every articles depiction of events there are three more that contradict that point of view. What is left in the works I have read are authors who either give an overview of the event, or articles that are slanted to one point of view or the other, i.e. pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian. The attack on the Israeli athletes in Munich was so horrible that it may be easier to just report the facts. Facts are exactly what are given in the Wikipedia, free online encyclopedia, article Munich Massacre. This article is a nice overview of the chronology of the Black September terrorist attack. However the article leaves readers with several questions about the details of the event. For instance when describing how two Israeli hostages were initially killed the article gives little ...

Issues in management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Issues in management - Essay Example CSR becomes a focus for an organisation as it is believed that it can enhance profitability and build a positive social reputation for the business. It has been asserted that the idea of CSR is that society and the business are inter-connected and not disparate individuals, hence society maintains anticipation that a business will illustrate appropriate behaviours and outputs beneficial to society (Wood 1991). This essay will debate socially-related issues of corporate social responsibility in relation to the fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F), an organisation providing apparel merchandise to youth markets in the UK and the United States. The essay provides a critical debate on the theories and models of CSR with primary emphasis on the ethical responsibilities of a firm to society and their relation to the socially-related problems at Abercrombie & Fitch currently plaguing this retailer. Abercrombie & Fitch is a U.S.-headquartered retailer providing casual fashion merchandise targeted at the 18 to 22 year-old female and male market demographic. The firm’s product line consists of T-shirts, jeans, hoodies and fragrances relevant to this market. Prior to the year 2012, A&F had achieved explosive revenue growth and had managed to build considerable customer loyalty against major competitors such as The Buckle, Chico’s, Eagle Outfitters and Aeropostale. The company’s market share and stock value began to plummet in 2012 and the business was forced to close hundreds of stores as a result of diminished consumer interest in purchasing products from the firm (Eaton 2014; Covert 2014). In October 2011, the firm’s stock was valued at nearly $80 USD per share and, by November 2014, the firm witnessed its stock plunge to a value of only $28.98 (Yahoo! Finance 2014). From the shareholder’s perspective, Abercrombie & Fitch was no longer providin g the wealth and profitability expected by investors. However, why was this occurring so

Information Technology Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Information Technology - Article Example I request you to provide me with a user account or extend my user account for using some portion of the administrative controls which are required for the usage of internet, configuration of IP address, connecting to internet and access to Microsoft outlook. In specific I need to have access of all the options in the control panel. So kindly assist me. I am responsible for conducting training on communication through email and computer for our employees. The training section does need extra user privilege than that of the normal user. I request you to provide me with a user account or extend my user account for using some portion of the administrative controls which are required for the usage of internet, configuration of IP address, connecting to internet and access to Microsoft outlook. In specific I need to have access of all the options in the control panel. So kindly assist me.

BUSINESS LAW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

BUSINESS LAW - Essay Example Colins Computers (CC) made an offer to the general public that sought to invite them to subscribe to their computer maintenance services. It made this offer in writing through an advertisement that was placed in the local newspaper and on their website. Geoffs Gym (GG) is the offeree in this case owing to the fact that is spotted the advertisement and was interested in the services that Colin had to offer. It was in desperate need of the maintenance services that Colins Computers had to offer. The terms of the agreement were also clearly stated in the advertisement where they offered to service computers at a very competitive price of $1000.00 per month for 12 months. And if the new customers were to accept the offer promptly then they would reduce this monthly amount by $50. The terms of the offer also stated that in the event that a party was interested in their offer then they should communicate to the company directly through post, email or text before 8th June. These terms were put in place so that Colin Computers could schedule their plan of activities in advance. The reason for these terms was also very well stated. An offer will only be valid if it is not vague and it is not an invitation to treat. An offer must be made in a very clear manner with certainty before it can be enforced by the courts. Vagueness is established when the terms that have been expressed in the offer are too vague. An invitation to treat is realized in the case of display of goods in a shop and advertisements. These needs to be distinguished from offers being that the courts will not regard them are valid. In the case of Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots [1953] where the goods are displayed in a shop and it is intended that customers will enter the shop willingly and decide on what they want to buy. The contract in this case is not considered complete until the customer has indicated the

R Sennett The Corrosion of Character. The personal consequences of Essay

R Sennett The Corrosion of Character. The personal consequences of work in the new capitalism. Norton 1999 - Essay Example There is no argument that change is sometimes good although often it disrupts people’s lives and may be traumatic. The bone of contention with sociologist Richard Sennett is that change and especially technological advances is the root cause of worker’s woes and the source of injuries to and corrosion of character. It has transformed the capitalist economy into a new form of â€Å"flexible capitalism† or what Sennett calls â€Å"New Economy† which is less concerned about interpersonal relationships. In Sennetts words it is â€Å"a regime which provides human beings no deep reasons to care about one another† (1999, 148). It has brought about new ways or working such as flexibility whereby jobs are replaced with projects and also involves reengineering, de-layering, downsizing; teamwork, decentralization and control; flextime; illegible work; disposablw workers and new work ethic not based on hard work like the earlier protestant ethic promoted by Max Weber. This in turn according to Sennett has brought injuries to employees as well as corroded their character as now they are unable to make a coherent narrative of their lives or build their identity around work. This essay will explore Sennett’s work The Corrosion of Character: The personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism to gain an insight as to how new ways of working injures and corrodes character and, whether it has made employees disposable and precarious workers and causes and consequences of such work in the modern corporation. The world of work is characterised by change. Sociologists like Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke give detailed accounts of how modern states and institutions emerged from state of nature to civilisation. In the state of nature, men hunted and gathered fruits for their sustenance. They then developed crude tools to skin animals and also for farming. With bountiful harvest and domestication of

About humanity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

About humanity - Essay Example The main reason that heroes from these two different cultures are so different is because of the vastly differing views in the afterlife. To demonstrate these differences, we can examine Achilles and Sir Gawain, two exemplary heroes from their own specific eras. In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles was the greatest warrior of the Trojan War. His decisions to fight and to not fight turned the entire tide of the entire war. Often times, though, people of today have a hard time accepting Achilles’ place as a great hero. He was prideful, thirsted for glory, did not seem to act with much integrity, and seemed to have abandoned his comrades for a time. However, it is pridefulness and thirst for glory that made him a hero in ancient Greek ties. This is because to the Greeks, the vision of the afterlife was one where people basically disappeared into the underworld. In order for people to earn some sort of immortality, they had to do something so great that they would be remembered as a great hero for all time. This is why Achilles was such a great hero to the Greeks. Achilles was by far the greatest warrior of the Trojan war. No other warriors came as close to slaying as many enemies as he did. When he decided to not participate in the war, the Trojans felt a certain amount of certainty that they could win. After Patroclus’ death, Achilles lets out a great cry, signaling his return to the battle: â€Å"The great sound shocked the Trojans/ into tumult, as a trumpet blown/ by a savage foe shocks an encircled town,/ so harsh and clarion was Achilles’ cry† (6. 251-254). So great was Achilles’ strength that just the sound of his voice alone was enough to send terror through the Trojans. This even more than examples of his fierceness in battle shows the extent of Achilles’ reputation. In this comparison, Homer is stating that the sound of Achilles’ voice is comparable to what a town

The Genetics of Autistic Savants Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Genetics of Autistic Savants - Essay Example For one to fall under the classification of a genius, he or she had to attain at least 140 points in the IQ test (Lykken  N. D). Concurrently, there were individuals who, for example, could do rare things such as quickly identifying a particular date of a historic event after reading vast reminders on history once. Others could engage any musical composition after just a distinct introduction to music. These were rare cases and the people who displayed these abilities had characteristics such as lessened aptitude and were dependent on other people for sustenance and general care. Psychologists and researchers classified such populace in a group referred to as autistic savants. It is crucial to note just like Lykken’s indication that autistic savants are remarkable individuals but they are not geniuses. However, their abilities display that the brain can have an outstanding feature such as autism. In Lykken’s report, it is keen to note that children with autistic condi tion behaved in peculiar ways such as showing no interest in their fellow humans’ behavior and actions. Subsequently, they failed to copy various traits like communication and socialization hence poor communication among other characteristics. In 1943, as noted by Trachtman’s â€Å"Background and history of autism in relation to vision care†, Leo Kanner was the first individual to make observations of autistic behavior (Trachtman, 2008). He made a detailed report on the same and renamed the behavior as autistic other than childhood schizophrenia, as it was previously termed. In 1944, Asperger, another distinguished scientists, made similar observations on the same behavior and published his findings in a German-language Journal. It is crucial to note that in Asperger’s report, he described children having milder behavioral disorders on comparison to Kanner’s description on the same ideologies. Recognition, understanding, and communication formed th e triad of deficiencies that children who had autism faced. Autism, since its discovery, has been a condition with peculiar traits and a difficult to find treatment. However, there were various treatments used in earlier years, and they included the use of tranquilizers, LSD, and developmental remediation. Autistic savants, according to Lykken’s report are outstanding individuals who through their characters display a crucial fact about the structure of the brain (Lykken, ND). The topic, â€Å"The genetics of autistic savants†, is of considerable importance, especially in the medical world (Connor, 2010). This is according to Connor in his article, â€Å"Autism and genetics: A breakthrough that sheds light on a medical mystery† (Connor, 2010). Connor explains that scientists have linked autism to DNA thus adding more information as to the causative of the behavioral disorder. In relation to Connor’s article, the link between DNA and autism disorder was a mystery; hence, the topic under focus is important as it tries to explain if the discoveries are linked the cause of autism disorder to DNA (Connor, 2010). In addition to this, the literature review will tend to display the future of autism and DNA. Status Currently, with reference to â€Å"National Institute of Child Health and Human Development†, autism is a neurobiological development disorder that prevails throughout a person’

R Sennett The Corrosion of Character. The personal consequences of Essay

R Sennett The Corrosion of Character. The personal consequences of work in the new capitalism. Norton 1999 - Essay Example There is no argument that change is sometimes good although often it disrupts people’s lives and may be traumatic. The bone of contention with sociologist Richard Sennett is that change and especially technological advances is the root cause of worker’s woes and the source of injuries to and corrosion of character. It has transformed the capitalist economy into a new form of â€Å"flexible capitalism† or what Sennett calls â€Å"New Economy† which is less concerned about interpersonal relationships. In Sennetts words it is â€Å"a regime which provides human beings no deep reasons to care about one another† (1999, 148). It has brought about new ways or working such as flexibility whereby jobs are replaced with projects and also involves reengineering, de-layering, downsizing; teamwork, decentralization and control; flextime; illegible work; disposablw workers and new work ethic not based on hard work like the earlier protestant ethic promoted by Max Weber. This in turn according to Sennett has brought injuries to employees as well as corroded their character as now they are unable to make a coherent narrative of their lives or build their identity around work. This essay will explore Sennett’s work The Corrosion of Character: The personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism to gain an insight as to how new ways of working injures and corrodes character and, whether it has made employees disposable and precarious workers and causes and consequences of such work in the modern corporation. The world of work is characterised by change. Sociologists like Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke give detailed accounts of how modern states and institutions emerged from state of nature to civilisation. In the state of nature, men hunted and gathered fruits for their sustenance. They then developed crude tools to skin animals and also for farming. With bountiful harvest and domestication of

The Genetics of Autistic Savants Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Genetics of Autistic Savants - Essay Example For one to fall under the classification of a genius, he or she had to attain at least 140 points in the IQ test (Lykken  N. D). Concurrently, there were individuals who, for example, could do rare things such as quickly identifying a particular date of a historic event after reading vast reminders on history once. Others could engage any musical composition after just a distinct introduction to music. These were rare cases and the people who displayed these abilities had characteristics such as lessened aptitude and were dependent on other people for sustenance and general care. Psychologists and researchers classified such populace in a group referred to as autistic savants. It is crucial to note just like Lykken’s indication that autistic savants are remarkable individuals but they are not geniuses. However, their abilities display that the brain can have an outstanding feature such as autism. In Lykken’s report, it is keen to note that children with autistic condi tion behaved in peculiar ways such as showing no interest in their fellow humans’ behavior and actions. Subsequently, they failed to copy various traits like communication and socialization hence poor communication among other characteristics. In 1943, as noted by Trachtman’s â€Å"Background and history of autism in relation to vision care†, Leo Kanner was the first individual to make observations of autistic behavior (Trachtman, 2008). He made a detailed report on the same and renamed the behavior as autistic other than childhood schizophrenia, as it was previously termed. In 1944, Asperger, another distinguished scientists, made similar observations on the same behavior and published his findings in a German-language Journal. It is crucial to note that in Asperger’s report, he described children having milder behavioral disorders on comparison to Kanner’s description on the same ideologies. Recognition, understanding, and communication formed th e triad of deficiencies that children who had autism faced. Autism, since its discovery, has been a condition with peculiar traits and a difficult to find treatment. However, there were various treatments used in earlier years, and they included the use of tranquilizers, LSD, and developmental remediation. Autistic savants, according to Lykken’s report are outstanding individuals who through their characters display a crucial fact about the structure of the brain (Lykken, ND). The topic, â€Å"The genetics of autistic savants†, is of considerable importance, especially in the medical world (Connor, 2010). This is according to Connor in his article, â€Å"Autism and genetics: A breakthrough that sheds light on a medical mystery† (Connor, 2010). Connor explains that scientists have linked autism to DNA thus adding more information as to the causative of the behavioral disorder. In relation to Connor’s article, the link between DNA and autism disorder was a mystery; hence, the topic under focus is important as it tries to explain if the discoveries are linked the cause of autism disorder to DNA (Connor, 2010). In addition to this, the literature review will tend to display the future of autism and DNA. Status Currently, with reference to â€Å"National Institute of Child Health and Human Development†, autism is a neurobiological development disorder that prevails throughout a person’

Act three of the crucible Essay Example for Free

Act three of the crucible Essay This leaves Mary Warren accused, with no way out, as Abigail expands on this statement to make it seem more realistic. Abigail has achieved what she wanted, she has gotten the attention away from herself using her accusations. The tension builds as we dont know what Abigail is going to do next and we know that she is capable of destroying peoples lives. The Puritan society meant that everything revolved around God, the girls, knowing this, found that the strongest way to act was to accuse people of being against God. It would make them look in a better light as they are doing Gods work by ferreting the evil out of the village. Danforth, Hale and Hathorne believe that God is using the girls to help the village. This constant reference to the Bible and repetition of the puritan beliefs adds to the tension as it shows that they will not doubt the messengers of God. There is also a moment of humour were Proctor forgets one of the commandments, when he is trying to prove his wifes innocence. Throughout the whole ordeal Proctor stands as the voice of reason, speaking the truth but not being heard over the tumult of lies. He voices sensible faults to Abigails accusations. When Abigail sees a yellow bird, Proctor says that he cant see it and asks Hale the same thing even though he is being quieted by Danforth as he is trying to get the words out. He asks Hale because he thinks that Hale is starting to lose faith in the reliability of the court and calls to him for back up and support. He frantically tries to tell Danforth that the girls are just pretending in order to help Mary Warren, other wise he would feel guilty for Marys fate because he brought her there and told her to face up to Abigail and to tell the truth, Theyre pretending, Mr. Danforth! . . . Theyre gulling you Mister! This again adds to the tension as everyone is shouting over each other and the anger builds. As soon as everyone has been calmed down, once more they begin to yell their accusations over each other. The tension is built in peaks and troughs to keep the audience on edge. It is first built at the beginning when the characters first come on stage. It is lulled by Hale who asks for calm, and as they discuss the proceedings rationally, it is raised once more upon the entrance of Proctor as Parris claims he is there to overthrow the court. Another raise in tension is when Proctors wife is accused of keeping poppets in the house. Proctor cannot, despite the confession of Mary Warren, convince Danforth that it did not belong to Elizabeth. Abigail becomes worried that Danforth is starting to believe Proctor and so to strengthen the girls story she pretends she can feel a cold wind which is freezing her. The other girls pick up the act quickly and can also feel the wind. Proctor knows that they are only acting but cannot convince anyone else, as the girls have done it so much they start to believe it themselves. Act three Abigail : I I know not. A wind, a cold wind, has come. (her eyes fall on Mary) Mary : (terrified, pleading) Abby! Mercy : (shivering) Your Honour, I freeze! Proctor : Their pretending! Hathorne : She is cold, Your Honour, touch her! Abigail makes several attacks like this on Mary, when her and the other girls copy everything that Mary says and the one which finally cracks her, the yellow bird story. All these fantasies which Abigail makes up adds to the tension as we do not know what will happen to Mary if she does not confess. When Mary accuses Proctor she thinks she is doing what Abigail wants her to do but it ruins Abigails plan to get rid of Proctors wife so she could be with him instead. This is the end of the climax where Proctor is so angry at the injustice of the events and terrified of what with happen to him that in a moment of outrage that seals his arrest and ultimate hanging when he shouts out, I say I say God is dead! In the video the fury of the towns people is shown as they, in a Theocracy, feel very strongly about blasphemy. Proctor has seen the truth as he says that both Danforth and himself are doomed to hell as they have both sinned, Proctor : God damns our kind especially, and we will burn , we will burn together! . . . You are pulling Heaven down and raising up a whore! Hale has had enough and says he had nothing to do with the court proceedings and the overall verdict and storms out of the court. This is the final climax that Millar was building to the end were Proctor is so angry at Abigail and the court that he doesnt care any more. When he says, I say I say God is dead! He is basically signing his own death warrant as the tolerance for blasphemy in his society was non-existent. Proctor knew this and knew this would anger everyone but he also knew that he couldnt win. The end of the scene ends in chaos, as Hale storms out, The court falls apart, symbolising the less than perfect world of the Theocracy and their entire beliefs, which do not work when people have the freedom to lie and cause such thing as murder to happen legally and with the authorisation of the courts. I think that the point Arthur Miller is trying to make is that people will only believe what they want to believe. Also, there is not a straight line drawn through right and wrong, how crime and punishment are often influenced by thoughts, feelings and individual ideals. I think he is also trying to say that good doesnt always conquer over evil no matter how superior their principals, intensions or morals are. Stephanie Moore English Crucible essay Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.

Online Banking Services: Benefits and Risks

Online Banking Services: Benefits and Risks Internet banking ABSTRACT Internet banking started in 80s and nowadays its considered globally as an essential need of todays modern banking facilities. The debate about moving secure investment and banking transaction to the web is indeed over because they are already in progress but analysis of the dimensions of this revolution are far from complete. This research is done to reveal the views/perceptions of todays modern day customers about online banking. The main objectives were (a) customers perceptions of the benefits of online banking (b) customers perceptions of the risks/the issues/threats/problems associated with the online banking. The outcome of the study may help the higher management of banks to plan and implement more secure and effective online banking services. The researcher collected the primary data through questionnaires and then data was analyzed through frequency analysis and mean score analysis. The results show that online banking minimizes inconvenience, saves time, the cost of transaction and facilitates quick responses showed the highest mean scores i.e. 4.38, 4.26, 4.21, and 4.20. The outcomes of the benefits of online banking are similar to earlier studies of Ahmad Kaleem (2008). The customers gave average responses to rest of the statements of the benefits of online banking. The second part which was related to the risks associated with online banking show that the customers fear of the chance of fraud in online banking is at the top of the list with the highest mean score of 3.19.The chance of govt access to data comes second which showed the mean score of 2.56. Rest of the statements showed low mean scores. And the results of the risks associated with online banking are a bit different from previous studies. INTRODUCTION History tells that technological innovations have always added up in human general and professional life. And last two centuries can easily be called as the era of technological revolution. And during the process of this modern technological era the innovation of computer has totally changed the landscape of todays modern world. Rapid technology advancements in this field have totally changed the world wide economic and business atmosphere. Same way innovation of internet banking in the banking sector has opened a new and totally different platform for speed up communication and transactions of financial transactions for the customers (Booz et al, 1997). It is essential to introduce this latest banking tool to customers in a positive way and create awareness in customers minds to get the most out of this new innovation for both the customers and the service providers. Internet banking started some 20 years back and at the moment millions of people access their bank accounts online every single day and this number is increasing day by day. You can access accounts, make payments, can transfer funds online, pay bills, view your account statements, change your personal details etc online. Instead of traditional operating boundaries, in online banking financial institutions suddenly find themselves in a different kind of environment where they compete for the customer loyalty and liquidity. Starting of this new-era of online banking facility has helped customers in many ways but it has also introduced a number of risks which were never there before in any other generation both for the customers and the banks. Although internet banking has attracted hundreds of thousands of customers around the world but still the customer satisfaction/acceptance level, security issues and the future growth of the industry are still challenged. Online banking has develo ped at a tremendous rate and now even banks/financial institutions are competition each other in providing online services. But only those companies who will provide more value-added services will win the customer loyalty. Some of the barriers/drawbacks of internet banking are continuing investment that banks have to do to make sure that their online system is secure. These investments are mostly done in expensive, proprietary networks and software solutions to make their server secure from hackers and viruses. Although online banking has already completed more than twenty five years but analysis of the dimensions and the direction and the degree of risk involved in this revolution are far from complete. As every body knows that customer satisfaction is one of the basic requirements for the success of any business in any sector around the world (Welch et al., 2005, Terblanche, 2006, Perreault et al., 2006, Cohen, 2006, Athanassopoulos and lliakopoulos, 2003) The main reason to this is that high customer satisfaction in return gives higher market share and higher level of profits (Szymankski and Henard, 2001). Satisfaction levels with online banking are improving over the years. In this study the benefits that the customers are getting from using the online banking services are evaluated and the risk they are facing by using this service as well. In past few years, the margin of profits in banking sector has increased a lot. And online has also contributed to it. Although the ratio of accepting this new technology is different in different countries but still people are accepting it almost all over the globe. One of the positive aspects of todays modern world of commercial banking sector is the formation of new deliverance channels for customer satisfaction and most recent of them is online banking (Daniel, E. 1999). Traditional way of providing services only by bank branches is not enough to meet the needs of todays customers (Bradley, L et al, 2003). Adoption of online banking is increasing day by day although the level of adoption could be different in different countries. Online/Internet banking can be defined as an alternative to traditional banking system which allows the customers to perform almost all financial transactions e.g. balance checking, money transfer, account upgrades, bank statement printing etc on the banks secure website which otherwise can be performed only by visiting the banks branch. History of Internet Banking in UK Online banking services started from the early 80s in New York and in 1981. In the beginning Citibank, Chase Manhattan,Chemical and Manufacturers Hanover offered home banking services by using the videotex system but at that time videotex system didnt became popular except in France and UK where they used videotex minitel and prestel.Now we are going to discuss the history of online banknig in UK which started in 1983 and Nottingham Building Society was the first one to start this service at that time. It was based on the UKs prestel system and used a computer such as the BBC Micro or keyboard connected to the telephone system and television set. So, the customers had the facility to view their bank statements, bank transfers and also had the facility of making online bill payments. And at that time some part of it was done manually as well e.g. if any customers likes to make bank transfers or bill payments, (includeing details of the recipient)washad to be sent to the Nottingham Bui lding Society had to be notified in written form who set the details up on the Homelink system. Usually people used it for paying their gas, electricity and telephone bills. While Stanford Federal Credit Union also joined NBS in October 1994 and started online banking services to its customers and was the first one to do this. Types of Online Banking Online banking is divided into three types and this division is done on the basis of functional level of online banking that is currently employed in the market. Informational Communicative Transactional Informational (Websites) This has been identified as the first level of internet banking. Typically the bank has the marketing information about the banks products and services on a stand alone server. The risk is very low as informational systems typically have no path between the server and the banks internal network. Communicative/Simple transactional (Websites) This type of internet banking allows some interaction between the banks systems and the customer. The interaction is limited to e-mail, account inquiry, loan application or static file updates (name and address). It does not permit any funds transfers. Advanced Transactional (Websites) This level of internet banking allows bank customers to electronically transfer funds to/from their accounts, pay bills and conduct other banking transaction online like CABS in Zimbabwe. Features of Online Banking Online banking consists of many characteristics and some of them are listed below: Transactional Features: Features which are used to perform a financial transaction are called transactional features such as money transfer from one account to another account of either the same customer or different customers, paying bills,applying online for a credit card or for a loan or a new account etc Non-transactional Features: These features include online viewing or printing of account statement, checking links, cobrowsing, chat, wire transfer, sending mail to banks/financial institution administration. Different ways of attacking Online Banking Websites There are a number of ways used these days to directly attack either the banks websites providing the facility or their customers. But it is much easier to deceive the customers, most of the attackers try to deceive the user to steal his/her login id and password. Two of the most used methods for such kind of attacks are phishing and pharming. Other methods used to steal login information includes cross-site scripting and key logger or trojan horses. Even hackers try to attack signature based online banking method as well and they try to manipulate the software. By using this method real and genuine transactions are seen on the front page by the user to deceive him/her and faked transactions take place in the background. A recent report by FDIC Technology Incident Report tells that around 536 cases of computer crimes related to hacking and phishing and data loss have been registerd. And if we calcute the worth of these losses it goes around $30,000 per incident . And the grand total could be up to $16-million loss within 2007. Such kind of money loss due to computer crime have already increased at a rate more than 100 percent in last 2 to 3 years. And in most of these cases the attacker cannot be identified and the targeted custormers are those who are using online services in one way or the other. The latest method used by the hackers to attack is that a trojan horse allows the hacker to change both the destination account number and the amount of the user. Security Measures by the Banks In online banking increasing number of security issues day by day as compared to conventional banking is one of the major worries of banks. The most basic method used by the banks to provide security to the customers is allowing the customers to access the data by using a one time password authentication method. Most of the secure Internet shopping sites use this method for providing security to the customers. But using this method for online banking is not secure way of doing things online. Banks/financial institutions use two different security measures to fail the attacks by the hackers. The first one is the PIN/TAN system in which users are given new passwords every time they login and do the financial transactions. And mostly these passwords are sent to the customers by post. The most appropriate way of using TANs is to generate them only when customer needs them. This is basically a two-factor authentication way and the positive aspect of adopting this method is that no additional encryption is required. The second method is also a commonly used method and this method used is Signature based in which all transactions are signed and encrypted digitally. And the digital signatures of the custoemrs are then stored either on any kind of memory storage disks or smartcards. Countermeasures for failing such attacks Banks and financial institutions are using several countermeasures techniques to avoid all these kinds of attacks which have been discussed in previous heading e.g. to stop attacks that are done by both phishing and pharming, digital certificates have been introduced. On the other hand, class-3 card readers are introduced to fail those attacks which target signature based online banking. While on the users end, they should use virus scanners to be on the safe side against different ways of hacking tools like phishing, pharming, Trojan horses etc. It is also been observed that when people download material from internet, many times some hacking files also enter the systems and later those files are either used directly by the hackers to steal data or those files simply start sharing and sending your data with the hackers computer. Another step taken is the multifactor authentication (MFA) process. History of Banking The earliest of all banks in old age were the temples of that time. This practice started around third millennium B.C. And if we think that the culture of having banks in a society only started with the invention of money, then we are wrong because they started even before this. At that time instead of money people used to deposit grain. But after sometime at a later stage, people started depositing cattles and agricultural implements. Eventually comes the deposits in the form of gold, precious stones, metals etc in the form of compressed plates were used as deposits. One of the strongest reason of using temples and palaces to keep the precious goods were that they were the safest places to store gold at that time because they were almost always full of monks or worshippers and were well built as well. On the other hand, temples were sacred places so temples give an extra protection to precious goods from robbers. Even the culture of giving loans is as old as around 18th century BC i n Babylon. And most of the times those loans were given by priests/monks of that time and mostly to the businessman community of that time. Ancient Greece also has a history of banking. Most of the transcations at that time were giving loans, deposits, exchaning the currency. And proofs have been found that rather than giving money in cash which was taken as a loan, a credit note is given to the customer in one city and the customer used to take cash in another city by showing that note. And the advantage of doing it is that it was saving the customers from getting robbed on their way from one city to another. And this technique of credit-based banking was very common in 4th century B.C.in the Mediterranean world. Egyptian people also used to use grain as an alternative of money. By the fall of Egypt, the no. of different government based financial institutes of that time were combined into a single network of grain banks and their head office was in Alexandria from where they were monitored and the transactions of grains and other stuff from all the state granary banks were recorded. And even at that time paymets were done from one account to the other without actually moving money from one place to another. During last few decades of 3rd century B.C., an island of Delos, known for its magnificent harbor and famous temple of Apollo, became a leading and well known banking hub of that time due to the temple of Apollp and excellent harbour. Same way in Egypt, without moving cash from one place to another financial transactions used to take place by just writing a credit receipt. Ancient Rome took this art of doing financial transactions to a new level and started forming some rules and regulations and a set infrastructure for the system and formed and practice d many regulations for banks/financial institutions. Although interest charging was an old traditions but make it more structured. But further growth of Roman banks was limited because they used to do cash transactions more frequently. And even in Christinaity practice of charging interest is considered immoral, so the further development haulted at that time. And the last but not the least point to add here is that due to the fall of Roman empire banking also diminished and didnt came on screen until the start of the crusades. Western Banking History Modern Western banking history initiated in London with the formation of London Royal Exchange in 1565. At that time their offices where they used to sit and do financial work were called banks. There exsisted also a hierarchical order among professionals at that time. The list included bankers, city exchanges and pawn shops respectively.Before the Industrial Revoultion Amsterdam was the financial capita of the world in 1609. And during last decade of 17th century Amsterdam, London, and Hamburg were like the central banks of the world. And the famous East India Trade company was the most stable of that time. Global Banking In the 1970s and 1980s there was a wave of deregulation and privatization of government enterprises. The basic reason for doing so is to improve economic growth of the countries and it was private-sector at that time which was given the responsibility to participate positively in the growth and development of the country. Even the developed countries of today were facing the issues of economic growth at that time. This gave a chance to large companied to expand their business internationally. During this phase of globalization and expansion banking sector also grew tremendously. And U.S. emerged as the largest stock market in the world. And their economy and assessts grew twice the rate of the rest of the world. But they didnt enjoyed that kind of growth rate during last twenty years. And U.S. Foreign investments also play a part in this decline. And the other factor is growth of foreign financial markets. For example Japan where ratio of savings has gone up in last two decades and t hen the deregulation in other parts of the world is also a factor influencing U.S. growth rate. Such growing trend of globalization and the avaliability of opportunities of economic growth abroad has totally changed the traditional banking and now many banks have shown keen interests and preference for the universal banking model. And these banks can perform all kinds of financial services. And Internet banking is used as a major tool to meet the ever growing and changing demands of todays modern customers and so internet banking also expanded its wings globally under this new era of global banking. Such is a proof of global banking setup that by the end of 2000 around $10.5 trillion worth of financial activities were recorded breaking all the previous records. The top ten leading banks holding most of that market share was 80%. Among ten top ranked banks of the year the seven of them were multi-national bank who are doing business all around the globe and among them were three American and four European banks. Benefits of Online Banking Electronic Banking has many benefits and we are going to discuss them in detail now. First of all you can transfer funds from one account to another. And this could be done either between different accounts of the same person or vice versa. You can pay bills online, apply for a loan or a new account etc.Other features include printing of bank statement, changing personal details, contacting bank administration. Now if we go further in detail, we are going to examine more benefits of online banking. , service, technology, change, knowledge about computer usage and internet are a main Thornton and White (2001) found that there are many electronic distribution channels available for banks in US and then they compared them all and concluded that customer orientation towards convenience source of usage of different channels. And online banking is playing an important role to minimize the queues in branches which in turn increases efficiency of bank employees because if they got fewer cust omers in bank they can give them enough time and could solve their problems in a better way rather than looking at the long queue and getting stressed and under pressure (Thornton and White, 2001). Howcroft et al., (2002) found that the most important factors which are helpful in an increased number of usage of electronic banking are less fees and the reducing paper work and removal of the factor of human error.(Kiang et al., 2000). One more important factor which was concluded by Byers and Lederer, (2001) was that due to a rapid change in technology during last one century consumer attitudes have changed as well and people like to go for the usage of latest technology rather than bank cost a structure that determines the changes in distribution channels. Now users can do banking outside normal banking hours as well. Normally users can only do banking only between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And this amount of time is only 8 to 9 hours per day. Now they have got the facility of 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to do banking operations. And this is one of the most important reasons for the adoption of online banking. Banks provide customers convenient, inexpensive access to the bank 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Another point is also found in this scenario that ATM machines are contributing a lot as well in this new era of technology and these machines are performing the same kind of transactions as do a member of the staff at a bank will do. And the point to note in this sentence is that the ATM is performing these transactions at half the cost a human can do and with a four-to-one advantage in productivity. Gerrard and Cunningham (2003) found a positive correlation about the factor of convenience and online banking because you can now do all the banking transactions even from the ease of your home and you dont need to go to branch and wait in a queue to be served. Multi-functionality of this IT technology is also contributing feature to higher the customer satis faction level which is not an easy task in a highly competitive time of today. With the availability of self-service machines or channels, banks can reduce their branch network and to some extend number of staffs as well. Because if people are being served by machines in the same way as by an employee and in return the customers are satisfied as well, so it means that these alternative channels are helping banks in improving their efficiency and reducing their branch network or the number of employees. And that number of staffs can be used in some other profitable venture by the bank (Birch and Young, 1997). And this thing can ultimately help towards achieving improved customer satisfaction and increasing the institutions efficiency level (Thornton and White, 2001). Nowadays banks are even competing over providing better and secure online services and even non-banking financial institution are involved in this race. With more usage of online system customers now can compare differen t prices by different suppliers easily and quickly. The Internet increases the power of the customer to make price comparisons across suppliers quickly and easily. And as a result this stabilizes the prices of different products and the customers can have a better product in reasonable price. Yakhlef (2001) found out that almost all banks are responding different to this new fast growing and adopting technology. He also found that those banks which are taking it in a positive way are achieving better communication levels with customers. This point has also been discussed that by providing financial services to them right into their home/office is strengthing the bond and trust level between cutomers and the banks. As a result banks are enjoying increased customers loyalty and satisfaction. Nancy et al. (2001) took forward this debate in a different way and viewed that customers still like and prefer to go to branch and interact with a human to solve their banking problems rather than choosing machines to solve their problem. Because they found that there are more possibilities of asking a same question in a different way or asking many different questions at a same time. And the bank clerks are less vulnerable to machines with a quick level of response to all possible questions. This increases the probability of offering customer a new product or a best suitable product to customer and at the end it leaves a good image on the customer and enhances customer loyalty. We should note another point over here that level of usage and popularity of online banking is not the same in different countries around the world and the level of response in many developing countries around the world is less than the level of response in developed countries. There are many factors which p lay role in such kind of response. It includes ignorance, illiteracy, insufficient security measures by the banks and the government for online banking, preference for banking in branches rather than on internet etc. For example Polatoglu and Ekin (2001) studied about online usage in Turkey and found the same reasons as described above for the low level of usage of online banking. They found that ignorance to the usage of email system and preference of doing everyday banking at bank branches are some of the main reasons of low level of adoption of online banking in Turkey. So as a result e-banking is not that famous and in use in Turkey. Risks Associated with Electronic Banking Now it is time to discuss the risk factor included in the usage of electronic banking. Now we are going to discuss that although customers are getting a lot of benefits by using online banking services but by using online services they are exposing them to a number of risks that should be considered before using online banking on regular basis. One of the most basic and first point in this debate is that although we accept that online banking is providing a lot of opportunities for the banks in terms of efficiency and time and money saving and customer loyalty but it also limits this whole system and its future and current growth due to security issues, complexity of the system and technical problems involved (Sathye, 1999: Mols, 1999). Now these issues can be viewed in different ways. Some people will view them as an issue related to the level of trust on ones bank. Even Hewer and Howcroft (1999) in their studies defined these risk issues as level of trust to a measure the amount of risk. A number of previous studies have concluded that level of trust in case of electronic banking and perceived risks have a positive impact on commitment and customer loyalty and trust which ultimately leads towards overall satisfaction level of the customer about electronic banking. In this scenario, we can say that reputation of the service provider also affects the customers level of trust on the financial institution/bank. Doney and Cannon (1997) defined reputation as the safety of customers money and privacy. Because if the customers are not sure of the honesty or loyalty of their service provider they will simply quit that service provider and move to some other service provider which they think is better and more honest and concerned about the security of their financial transactions. Level of trust is the first and the most basic step of doing any kind of business with any firm/institution or service provider. Tyler and Stanley (1999) also argued on the same thing that b y showing commitment, honesty and cooperation between them and the customers, they can win customer loyalty. In some cases it is found that customers do have complains about the longer logon times consumed during online banking transactions rather than using any other medium for communication e.g. phone call etc. Min and Galle (1999) found one of the common factor in their survey which is the disruption of information access to be one of the most common factor which draws the customers away from using Internet channels for commerce. Similar results have been found by Liao and Cheung (2002) in their research and they also suggested that customers expect the online system to be always accurate, friendly, fully secure, level of service should be good i.e. response time. If these factors are there then we can say that online banking can grow and it does hold a future otherwise the future is a bit doubtful and some positive changes are needed in the online system. Confidentiality or privacy of data is also one the major factors to be considered in adoption of online banking because a large number of customers feel unsecured about sharing their personal information by this medium and feel that their personal information could be used in a way to exploit them or to share with someone without have the right to share their personal information. (Gerrard and Cunningham, 2003). In the same scenario a research was conducted in UK by White and Nteli (2004) about the number of internet users n the country and the number of on line banking users in the country. And the major factor which came up at the end of the study was that people in UK are vary of sharing their personal information on Internet and they are still not satisfied about the laws by the government about internet banking and the frauds and hacking. This is an example of unfair or incomplete and unprotected system available to be used by everybody from a genuine customer to a hacker. In some cases people are not sure that in case of a dispute whether electronic documents and records are enough to prove their point or they ar not acceptable. And if a dispute arises in case of a fraud then what is going to the result of it, whether they will have enough material or not to prove their point. Other similar kind of risks include loss of job for many employees because of more frequent use of machines for financial transactions rather than going to bank branch. They it affects the social part of the society as well. because if people are doing all such things at home then they will not go out and contact with other people will reduce which will reduce the opportunities for people to socialize and interact with other people and to some extent can add up to a less active society (Black at al., 2001). LITERATURE REVIEW How Banks perceive Online banking in developing countries Online banking provides substitutes of fast services of banking to a large number of customers. Online banking services are fast becoming popular both among academics and practitioner. Rapid advancement in banking industry has brought a lot of amendments in the sector. Public banks dominated the financial markets before 1990. After 1990 the privatization of banking sector started. Many amendments and improvements came after the privatization of banking sector. Even the electronic banking started after the privatization of the sector. Out of many technological wonders electronic banking is one of the wonders. Quite a lot of online services are being provided by different banks in Pakistan i.e. checking account statement, account balance, checking current balance, transfer of funds, credit cards payments, direct payments, utility bills payments, cheque book requests, stop payments requests, demand draft requests, new fixed deposit requests, statement download, other information and gui delines download. This study describes the risks and benefits of online banking in Pakistan. It minimizes inconvenience, reduces transaction cost and saves time. It also reduces the risk of cash carrying. But it leads to data access to public which leads to data insecurity and enhances the chances of fraud and embezzlement. Electronic banking involves lower fee and less paper work and human error. O Crisis Management: Impact of a Crisis Crisis Management: Impact of a Crisis JAMES WALKER INTRODUCTION Crisis management will most likely require more than being remorseful to the press or the CEO of some organization appearing on the news. We know the news that is broadcasted goes viral quick. Organizations must be vigilant to respond to a crisis quickly and decisively utilizing all platforms of communication to speak to the public. Furthermore, the most important thing is for organizations to accept responsibility for the actions and not distant themselves from the crisis or from the public. Its given there is no fix for all methods to remedy a crisis, but the lessons learned should be important. In this assignment, it will allow chance to analyze a major crisis and the impact on a community, nation, and the world when bearing in mind crisis management. The assignment will discuss the threat or hazard to the organization, elements of surprise, decision making of leadership with timelines of event and decisions made, successful and unsuccessful decision making, and changes resulted or should be considered. THREAT TO ORGANIZATION The New York Times accused Coca-Cola, stating that the company was funding obesity research that attempted to disprove the link between obesity and diet and shifted the problem to lack of exercise. It was said that Coca-Cola financed the new nonprofit Global Energy Balance Network and it advocated propaganda and deflects the role of soft drinks in the spread of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. (reference COCA). The accusation had a huge impact to the company to a point it was losing in the market sales. It was a first-class type of crisis for Coca-Cola and it was caught off guard, especially the intent was to fund scientific researches for health and well-being programs. The idea was misconstrued from the publics and social medias eyes. LEADERSHIP DECISION-MAKING EVENTS During the crisis that could cripple Coca-Cola, the CEO (Muhtar Kent) had professionally managed the crisis and to act quickly to make decisions. He assumed responsibility, owned up to it through the whole ordeal. He understood the businesss level of reputation and if he left the crisis to take its course, the business could have lost it reputation and the market sale of the products. The CEO is the best spokesperson to rectify the issue and that person is who you want out front telling the truth or the intent. In most public relations (PR) incidents, the CEO is shielded and it portrays that the CEO has no interest to the issue. The making of an outsized response is crucial to the crisis. Overreacting is preferred to a small measure or ignoring the critics helps as well, since it is all about opinions. CEO Muhtar Kent led Coca-Cola to initiate a management committee of impartial experts to give governance on the investments of the business from an academic research and appoint profes sionals to investigate opportunities for research and health initiatives. The bottom line is that Coca-Colas response to the allegations that it finances a group to protects it interests at the expense of public health is a case study in PR crisis management. The explanation by CEO Muhtar Kent characterizes a business response that encompasses the important elements of effective business PR crisis management. SUCCESSFUL/UNSUCCESSFUL DECISION-MAKING The successful outcome for Coca-Cola over this accusation was all due to the CEOs professional decision-making. He provided guidance when responding to occurrences and apologies. CEO Muhtar Kents first successful decision was admitting the companys mistake while not really apologizing in his explanation, Well Do Better. Furthermore, he took this accusation in a resilient way, at the source, which was acknowledging the accusations that were deceiving the publics and social medias eyes about its support for scientific research. In return, he defends the company by attempting to confront the global obesity epidemic and that the company had good intentions. However, CEO Muhtar Kent admits the intention is not working. Additionally, the actions that were taken to support the research for health and well-being were misconstrued and it caused a lot of confusion and mistrust. In the CEOs explanation, the company will act forward and with more transparency. It will put on the website the list of health and well-being partnerships and research activities it supported in the past five years and updating bi-annually. CEO Muhtar Kent stated that efforts will be made to continue to support the healthy options by having lower sugar and calorie drinks to include his company will stay committed to fight obesity. The unsuccessful decision-making by the leaders was broadcasting their intent and ensuring it wasnt misleading to allow the intent to make out that Coke was averting criticism about the role sugary drinks have played in the spread of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The support was in good intentions with health and well-being, but how the public and social media viewed it was the opposite. It became a huge PR crisis as it seemed that Coca-Cola was trying to save their sales by funding an alleged cover up. CONSIDERATIONS AND RESULTS FOR CHANGES The businesses or organizations can save themselves from potential crisis is the highpoint of their element. In the event the organization is faced with these crisis, its ability to rise from the bottom and reveal the strength shows its crisis management plan. Additionally, the organizations do have practice something called the Conflict Management Life Cycle. It is a cycle that supports organizations to remain stable during or after a crisis. The Conflict Management Life Cycle is the cycle that gives the know how to manage a conflict or crisis. The cycle deals with being proactive (environmental scanning, issue tracking, issue management, and crisis planning), strategic (risk communication, conflict positioning, and crisis management), reactive (crisis communications, litigation PR, and conflict resolution), and recovery (reputation management and image restoration). Coca Cola had a Crisis Management Plan and the CEO Muhtar Kent utilized the Conflict Management Life Cycle. The considerations that was discussed for Coca-Cola was dealing with issue management, plan for communications, and how to respond to a crisis. For issue management, the key steps were to identify the issue (accusation of supporting for the wrong intention), evaluate the facts (support for the right reasons), priorities (reputation and sale), response (response from CEO with the real facts), and implementation (plan to gain trust and show intentions were good). The communication plan that CEO Muhtar Kent (Coca-Cola) had allowed for anticipation (identify the threat and monitor risks), prepare (define the key information in advance and anticipate information), and response (react quickly and efficiently, utilize the organizations processes and procedures, and practice potential events). CEO Muhtar Kent responded with Coca-Cola supporting health and well-being programs was in goo d intentions and not to be misconstrued. He responded with the 5Cs (confidence, clarity, control, concern, and competence). CONCLUSION Crisis management requires more than being remorseful to the press or the CEO of some organization appearing on the news. Organizations must be vigilant to respond to a crisis quickly and decisively utilizing all platforms of communication to speak to the public. Furthermore, the most important thing is for organizations to accept responsibility for the actions and not distant themselves from the crisis or from the public. Its given there is no fix for all methods to remedy a crisis, but the lessons learned should be important. Coca-Colas CEO, Muhtar Kent, quickly addressed the accusations professionally into the reactive phase of the Conflict Management Cycle. Furthermore, he made statements acknowledging accusations and the strategies is not working. Even though he did not completely express regret, he disclosed the company did not choose the best way to fight obesity and assuring they would be transparent from now on. The CEO benefits from this approach to move on to the reputation management part of the recovery phase by promising that Coca-Cola will update frequently a list of its well-being partnerships and research activities. In this manner, the publics trust will be salvaged and the companys image will be restored. Coca-Cola did a noble thing when they took responsibility for their unsuccessful decision-making. The company showed interest and sent their CEO to address the problem that had good intentions by following the Conflict Management Life Cycle and their Crisis Management Plan. The importance of the CEO speaking out is critical since communication plays a relevant part in not identifying the crisis and the impact. A crisis can damage the organizations products or services, threat public safety, harm employees, customers and stakeholders (physically, emotionally, and financially). Furthermore, it can cause operational, financial and reputational loss to include the impacting the future probability and growth. The frameworks, Conflict Management Life Cycle and Crisis Management Plans, are essential when it comes to being proactive to a crisis, using strategy for a crisis, being reactive to a crisis, and recovering from a crisis. BIBLIOGRPAHY Bernstein, Jonathan (N/A) Free Management Library, All About Crisis Management, Retrieved from: http://managementhelp.org/crisismanagement/. Cantoria, Ciel S. (2011). Bright Hub Project Management, Great Real-Life Examples of Successful Crisis Management, Retrieved from: http://www.brighthubpm.com/risk- management/104704-great-real-life-examples-of-successful-crisis-management/, January 29, 2011. Comcowich, W. (2015). Cyber Alert, Case Study: Coca-Cola PR Crisis Management, Retrieved from: http://www.cyberalert.com/blog/index.php/case-study-coca-cola-pr-crisis- management/. Preach (N/A). How do you act in crisis?, Public Relations, Retrieved from: https://bronk002.wordpress.com /2016/10/25/how-do-act-in-crisis/. Poston, Leslie (2012). Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Shining examples of excellent social media crisis management, Retrieved from: https://www.marketingcloud.com/blog/shining-examples- of-excellent-social-media-crisis-management, September 21, 2012. OConnor, A. (2015). The New York Times, Coca-Cola Funds Scientists Who Shift Blame for Obesity Away From Bad Diets, Retrieved from: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/09 /coca-cola-funds-scientists-who-shift-blame-for-obesity-away-from-bad-diets/?_r=1. Prevention is Better than Cure: BCC- An Ultimate Life Saver Prevention is Better than Cure: BCC- An Ultimate Life Saver Sudipta Paul Introduction: India in global stage is aspiring to be a powerful country with its potential powers in various field but the policy makers and governments ended acting a feeble role due to lack of providing the basic amenities to people. Average poor people struggle to get basic health facilities and proper sanitation. Most of them are unaware of various health hazards, for example, about the unsafe cause of open defecation. Population explosion, high maternal mortality and infant mortality rate were observed in India. Lower rate of health literacy and cultural taboos made worsen the situations. There were urgent needs felt to enhance the health literacy among marginalised people and empowering them. Thus, government health policies are made to harness BCC strategies to fight the superstitions and myths from society. In 1951, policy makers recognised health education as one of the major components of health care delivery system. â€Å"In 1946, the Health Survey and Development Committee, headed by Sir Joseph Bhore recommended the establishment of a well- structured and comprehensive health service with a sound primary health care infrastructure. It was in this context that the concept of health promotion and health education were introduced to achieve desired outcomes† (Public Health Resource Network, Book 05, 2007, p. 6). Empowerment of rural folks on health education was named as IEC (information, education, communication) which in course of time harnessed with BCC programmes (Behavior change communication). BCC strategies are mainly part of development support communication and involve participatory action research which came out as critique of dominant paradigm of development communication. â€Å"Criticism of earlier approaches to health communication has resulted in development of the term â€Å"behavior change communication† (BCC), but so rapidly is the term BCC becoming associated with persisting past practices that one would not be surprised if there is done- from its current approach to an approach which involves the active participation of the community in directing the design of a strategy appropriate to social and cultural contexts which promotes good health and reduces their risk for ill health† (Public Health Resource Network, Book 05, 2007, p. 7). The book, Public Health Resource Network (2007, p. 2-3) defines BCC as, â€Å"understanding people’s situation and influences, developing messages that respond to the concerns within those situations and using communication processes and media to persuade people to increase their knowledge and change the behaviors and practices that place them at risk†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ In the BCC approach, there is more conscious focus on the receiver- rather than the sender- as the center of communication. Earlier IEC programmes tended to see their purpose as having to â€Å"sell† a particular message or idea. The BCC approach recognises individuals within the intended audiences as active, rather than as passive receivers of information and messages, who act on messages only if they are seen as advantageous or useful. In BCC approach there is greater appreciation that the audience may need new skills and social support to make and maintain behavior change.† One way process of communication of IEC compelled to introduce BCC process as a part of development process of communication. Neill Mckee (2002), defines BCC as, â€Å"research based consultative process of addressing knowledge, attitudes and practices through identifying, analysing, and segmenting audiences and participants in programmes and by providing them with relevant in formation and motivation through well-defined strategies, using an appropriate mix of interpersonal, group and mass media channels, including participatory methods† (cited in BCC strategy for NRHM in Uttar Pradesh, 2008, p. 9). BCC analyses the socio- demographic profiles of a particular target community and tries to remove the social and behavioral barriers with discussions, interpersonal communications. â€Å"It is about understanding the communities, context and environments in which behaviors occur. BCC is also about using persuasive techniques to demand health rights and to make public sector health services available and accessible to the neediest. BCC is about integrating new practices into long standing social, cultural and communication systems† (Nandita Kapadia-Kundu, 2008, as cited in BCC strategy for NRHM in Uttar Pradesh, p. 9). BCC uses mass media, interpersonal communication, community mobilisation for change of behaviors of community for improvement of health status and development of future. Behavior Change Communication is used to generate knowledge, tries to bring changes in attitude, behavior, intentions of people. BCC along with other strategies advocates adopting a healthy behavior and overcoming barriers- whether it is mental block or physical block such as difficulty in accessibility of health facilities. Behavior Change Communication helps to bring a sustainable change in health behavior of community. Conceptual framework of BCC: (Source: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure/prh/rh_indicators/crosscutting/bcc) Need of BCC: BCC tools are used to increase the intervention of the promotive and preventive aspect of health among people. â€Å"BCC is a process that motivates people to adopt and sustain healthy behaviors and lifestyles† (INFO Reports, January 2008, Issue no. 16, p. 1). Needs of BCC (Public Health Resource Network, Book 05, 2007, p. 11) are: â€Å"BCC alone can: Increase the intended participant’s knowledge and awareness of a health issue, problem, or solution Influence perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes that may change social norms Facilitate building of social/community norms that are facilitative and supportive to desired changes of behaviors/practices Motivate and provide the confidence and optimism needed for community action Demonstrate or illustrate healthy skills Reinforce knowledge, attitudes, or behaviors that are promotive of good health Show the benefit of behavior change Advocate a position on a health issue or policy Increase demand or support for health services Refute myths and misconceptions† Goal of BCC strategies: â€Å"Empowering the family and individuals to take health related decisions based on information and analysis. Motivating the community to play a proactive role in improving their health status. Effecting greater utilisation of health services through an improved public understanding of health care. Creating competencies and enabling environment to assist with the above objectives† (Public Health Resource Network, Book 05, 2007, p. 14). Tools of BCC: Tools of BCC are intended to delineate planning, implementation, development of BCC strategies of any programme. Major BCC tools for strategic plan are: Situation analysis: This stage involes identification of social determinants, mental blocks or areas which need to adopt a healthy behaviour or change of habits or attitudes of people. The reasons behind the particular health issue are identified in this stage. Research should done on audience analysis- demographic and attitudal profile of the audience; idenitification of the knowledge, attitude, behaviour, beliefs and values of people; identification of primary and secondary audience; availability of health services in the locality; available media or peer groups in the area. Strategic design: Strategic design should contain a ‘SMART’ objective- The strategic design contains the objectives of the BCC plan- the desired change in the behaviours, knowledge, attitude and practice of the target audience and also develops a conceptual framework of BCC plan to work out the objectives. Implementation plan is sketched in this stage. Drawing out a BCC plan involves these six steps- â€Å"Identifying key behaviors that need to be changed and analysisng their determinants. Stating the mix of audience- message- media and communicators. Deciding the monitoring and evaluation startegy- especially the indicators that help us assess whether communication occurred and whether it was effective in securing behavior change. Deciding the plans needed to build capacity to implement this plan. Deciding the budgetary requirements.† (Public Health Resource Network, Book 05, 2007, p. 16). Message development: Appropriate message should be developed for target group. ‘Type of appeal’ applicable for a particular group should be decided in this stage. Pretest: Pretesting the messages is required for modification of messages based on the reactions of the target groups. Implementation of the programme: According to Public Health Resource Network, Book 05, 2007, p. 15, key components of implementation framework are: â€Å"Message, media and communicators Monitoring, evaluation and feedback Institutional structure and functions Capacity building Management Budgetary aspect† Monitoring and Evaluation: Programme implementers should keep eye on the proper implementation of the programme and if needed, they may modify a change in the mid term of the programme after evaluation of the programme based on reactions and feedback from the target groups. BCC along with IEC helps to eradicate many killer diseases. The example of such success stories are given here: Success story Part-1: The Polio eradication in India (along with several other countries) is considered as one of the most successful campaigns in the field of public health, globally. In the year 1988 global leaders and countries decided to end polio and started initiatives to reach to every child in every country for immunization (although India introduced the oral polio vaccine in 1985 in an Immunisation Programme in the backdrop of over 200,000 cases of polio annually (as per estimates of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics). India committed itself fully into this mission which was globally led by UNICEF and WHO partnering with various international bodies and countries. It was no doubt a massive challenge for a country like India to achieve a zero-polio status as India has been contributor of almost half of Polio cases globally at some point of time. For a country as populated, as diverse, as difficult to reach out to rural areas there was a need for dedicated efforts on the part of the health workers, vaccinators the whole public health machinery supported by a communication strategy through which the message of polio vaccination and its importance needs to reach every Indian- from the Metro cities to remotest villages of country. Each year twice national level immunization campaign are held with an intent to cover all children under the age of five (http://www.unicef.org/india/health_3729.htm). In every campaign around 2.3 million lakh vaccinators are involved directly in the process led by 155,000 supervisors. To make all this fruitful in achieving the Zero-polio status an effective awareness campaign including inter personal communication component is vital. For each campaign awareness is done by IEC materials viz. banners, posters, leaflets, hoardings also through television, radio and newspapers along with extensive loudspeaker announcements. The vaccinators along with other health personnels were also trained to enhance their interpersonal skills, so they could mobilise communities better. There were in initiatives to make resistant communities, individuals understand accept the vaccination for the children. Mention of two different incidents during such campaign gives an idea of how both awareness initiatives and service delivery efforts complement each other. The Christian Science Monitor shared the story of Setarah Khatoon of Bihar, India (Taghavi, 2013, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2013/0504/Could-India-s-polio-eradication-success-story-be-a-model-for-its-other-health-issues). She got married at the age of 16 and by the age of 20 she had 3 miscarriages. She had one baby girl and one day she saw Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchans TV advertisement telling parents advocating do boond zindagi ki (two drops of life) actually during the polio campaign celebrities are engaged to spread the message that two drops of polio vaccine can save the life of a child. After watching the advertisement in her small Mumbai house she went to a pharmacy for getting her child vaccinated, the pharmacist directed her to a nearby clinic run by an NGO Doctors for you where her child got vaccinated (free of cost of-course). Her baby girl became the first in her family to get vaccinations and apart from that she got access to regular medical che ck-ups, advice on nutrition and about birth control options too. In another incident shared by UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org/india/reallives_7444.htm) in another part of the country millions of people were on their way to the annual Urs in Ajmer Rajasthan at a time of the year 2011. Before proceeding to Ajmer via Delhi the devotees need to make a stop over at Bareily, UP to pay homage to a local dargah. The local administration, along with gearing up to host over 200,000 devotees from West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal, decided to administer oral polio vaccine to children upto 5 years of age travelling amongst the devotees. The administration with the health department and other NGOs were able to immunize 10,414 children as a result of this effort. The above two incidents show how the awareness IEC component go hand in hand with the service delivery component in achieving the desired output. Success story Part 2: Challenges of BCC: Gap between health education and BCC: Conclusion: In India especially in North East due to inaccessible geographical areas, cultural diversity and other reasons, access to health care services especially secondary and tartiary is limited to the large group of rural population. To make up for that gap the promotion of preventive aspect (PPA) of health plays a vital role. When it comes to saving life it becomes the ultimate life saver. But all the facilities in health system have to be lined up equally along with BCC efforts to provide health education to the masses. Service providers have to ensure the quality services to the people in the hospitals when people visit to them. It is more important to fruitful utilisation of services along with demand generated through IEC and BCC. Otherwise, the effort of health education would go haywire definitely. BCC successfully helps to create a demand of health seeking behavior among individuals and communities. References: Behavior Change Communication (BCC) strategy for NRHM in Uttar Pradesh. (2008). Available at https://www.google.co.in/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instantrlz=1C1AVSX_enIN408IN438ion=1espv=2ie=UTF-8# accessed on 18/ 06/2014 at 9.58 PM. David, Rohit. (2014, May 26). India’s Success In Polio Eradication Is A Model To The World: Dr. Nata Minabde. The Times of India. Available at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/interviews/Indias-success-in-polio-eradication-is-a-model-to-the-world-Dr-Nata-Menabde/articleshow/32680701.cms, accessed on 19/06/2014 at 08:15 PM. Measure Evaluation and Polpulation Health’s Behavior Change Communication. (n. d.). Available at http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure/prh/rh_indicators/crosscutting/bcc on 18/06/2014 at 10. 45 PM. Public Health Resource Network’s Behavior Change Communication and Training for Health (Book 05). (2007). Raipur: Surya Offset Printers (I) Pvt. Ltd. Taghavi, Roshanak. (2013, May 4). Could India’s Polio Eradication Success Be A Model For It’s Other Health Issues? The Christian Science Monitor. Available at http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2013/0504/Could-India-s-polio-eradication-success-story-be-a-model-for-its-other-health-issues, accessed on 19/06/2014 at 08:18 PM. Tools For Behavior Change Communication. (2008, January). INFO Reports, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Issue no. 16. Available at http://www.k4health.org/sites/default/files/INFO Reports_Tools for BCC_0.pdf#sthash.2xvFcwSi.dpuf accessed on 18/ 06/2014 at 10.03 PM. UNICEF India’s Polio Eradication. India Celebrates Victory over Polio.(n.d.). Available at http://www.unicef.org/india/health_3729.htm accessed on 19/06/2014 at 08:19 PM. UNICEF India’s Time To Take Stock, Time To Discuss RTE. (n.d.). Available at http://www.unicef.org/india/reallives_7444.htm accessed on 19/06/2014 at 08:20 PM. UNICEF’s The Story of The End of Polio. (n.d.). Available at http://www.unicef.org/immunization/files/The_Story_of_the_End_of_Polio.pdf accessed on 19/06/2014 at 10:04 PM.