Kot1 Task2

KOT1 TASK 2 SCENARIO ONE Medicare part A is the hospital insurance and it will pay your mother's hospital bill one hundred percent because she has met the three day minimum hospital stay criteria. That cost will include room and board and services such as lab work, any therapy she may have received during her stay as well as pharmacy. Since your mother also has Medicare part B which is the medical insurance, part B will pay eighty percent of the physician’s services as long as her annual deductable has been paid.Unless your mom has supplemental insurance coverage also known as Medigap insurance, she will be financially responsible for the twenty percent that part B Medicare does not cover. A Medicare supplement referred to as (Medigap) insurance, sold by private insurance companies, can help pay some of the costs that Medicare doesn't cover. Medicare. gov[11/04/12]www. medicare. gov/supplement-other-insurance/medigap/whatsmedigap. htm. A couple of examples of Medigap insurance companies are AARP, Humana, and Agis. You will have to pay the private insurance company a monthly premium for your Medigap policy just as you would any insurance policy.Keep in mind that premium will be in addition to the monthly Part B premium that you pay to Medicare. In order to qualify you must have Medicare part A and B. That maybe something you and your mother may want to look into. Regarding her moving to the skilled nursing facility, the cost will be covered by Medicare one hundred percent the first twenty days. After a hospital stay of at least three days, your mother's stay in a Medicare-certified Skilled Nursing Center can be covered at 100% for the first 20 days. For the next 80 days, if your mother had to stay that long Medicare Part A covers everything except the daily coinsurance.I'm sorry no one informed either of you that your mother got an infection while at the nursing facility. That information should have been disclosed to the both of you. Unfortunately becaus e your mother acquired and infection while at the skilled nursing facility, she had to receive additional care including antibiotics. Medicare will not pay the additional expense and your mother fortunately will not be billed either. This is considered a preventable event. The facility will have to pay the costs of treatment for infection. In 2009 the rules have changed.So for instance, if you are on Medicare and you get a hospital acquired infection while you are being treated for something that is covered by Medicare, the extra cost of treating the hospital acquired infection will no longer be paid for by Medicare. Paddock, C (2007, Aug 20) Medicare will not pay for hospital mistakes and infections, new rule, Medical News Today, p1. This is unfortunate for the general public because where Medicare will not pay for these costs the costs is shifted. Unpaid costs must be covered by those who do pay so the hospital can continue operating, a process known as cost shifting.Providers inc rease their charges against households and public and private insurers who pay for their own care plus make some contribution for the care of the uninsured population. This increases insurance premiums, making it even more difficult for many households and businesses to afford healthcare coverage. In January 2006, Medicare added access to a prescription medication benefit which is Medicare part D in which your mother is enrolled. Your mothers out of pocket prescription drug costs are calculated on a progressive basis (like federal income tax). She will pay the first $325 which is the Medicare Part D Plan deductible.After the deductible is met, she will pay 25% co-insurance towards all the prescription drug costs up to a total of $2970. For example, let us assume that her total yearly prescription drug expenses are $3000. Therefore, she will pay 25% of the difference between the deductible ($325) and $2970 which is: (2970 – 325)*0. 25 = $661. 25. When the costs total more than $2970, she will be responsible for 100% of the difference between $2970 and $3000 or an additional cost of $30. In this example the total estimated annual cost out of pocket for prescription drug plan with a Medicare Part D should be around: $325 + $661. 5 + $30 = $1016. 25 in addition to the monthly premiums your mother will have to pay for the part D plan. In summary Medicare part A will pay your mothers hospital stay one hundred percent as long as the deductable is met. She will also pay twenty percent of the medical bill as long as her deductable is met. Medicare will pay for rehabilitation services one hundred percent excluding the charges for the care of the urinary tract infection. After the deductible is met, she will pay 25% co-insurance towards all the prescription drug costs up to a total of $2970.

Power in ‘Ozymandias’ (page 14) and in one other poem from Character and voice: Compare Essay

Bothe Ozymandias and The River God have a strong theme of power throughout the poems. Power in The River God is first present when the river says â€Å"But I can drown those fouls† The use of the word â€Å"can† brings out the power of the river. He has the choice over people’s lives and the river is not afraid to let us know this. The whole sentence sounds like The River God is trying to add fear to whomever he is addressing, showing them he is in charge and they should know this. Ozymandias also attempts to bring out fear through his power. â€Å"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!† He is confident that he is more powerful than the mightiest and wants everyone to know this. The poet uses the word â€Å"despair†, in other words Ozymandias is saying look and be afraid. The word shows the worry and fear of those who lived in the times of Ozymandias. Both Ozymandias and The River God believe they are more powerful than any other, they are both arrogant and do not see anyone as competition to their reputation. The River God says â€Å"O I may be an old foul river but I have plenty of go†. He is saying that even though he is worn down and old he is still as strong and mighty as he was when he was a young river. The use of the word â€Å"plenty† brings out his arrogance, he is not just saying he is powerful but he is saying he will carry on with this strength for years to come. However in Ozymandias there is proof of his down fall, his loss of power. â€Å"Nothing beside remains† and â€Å"a shattered visage lies† are both evidence that even though he had all this power once he died it all left. The poet could have done this to show the reader that nothing lasts, everything has to end. The use of the word shattered is strong as it is almost like somebody defeated Ozymandias and that somebody was time. Als o it is quite ironic that on the stone it was written â€Å"Look on my works† as none of them remained and therefore couldn’t of been as important as he made out. Ozymandias is written to sound powerful when read out loud, iambic pentameter is used which gives the poem a regular sound.

Industrial Revolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Industrial Revolution - Essay Example as the Industrial period that changed the face of society from an agrarian one to a society greatly dominated by industry and the manufacture of machines. As Burke puts it, "together with the Industrial Revolution came the modern expectation of progress and a better standard of living made possible by mens skills and the machines they invented...", and goes on to credit the Industrial Revolution with promoting both capitalism and giving birth to socialism among other things and that it changed society, making "modern urban society dependent on mass-production techniques without which we cannot now survive" (1998/1995, page 193). In his book â€Å"The Day the Universe Changed† James Burke gives us a philosophical view of the universe by telling us that our idea of the universe is how each one perceives it, so therefore if we change our perception of how we look at the universe, we have changed the universe itself. Burke goes on to tell us of all the advances in Science and technology and how they affected the lives of the people. Before the 1700s, metals such as copper, tin and brass were used but machines could not be made from them because they were very malleable or brittle. The only durable material was wood, but wooden gears got worn out very soon. Hence, an alternative such as iron came into vogue but to separate the iron from the rock a rudimentary process of smelting had to be used. After a lot of trial and error, the water wheel was devised in order to crank the bellows to produce power. That is why the ancient iron works were constructed near the rivers. Hence very soon things such as ploughs, screws, nails, gates, and swords were made from iron. Very soon there was a great demand for iron and mining turned out to be a huge business. Since the mines were below the water-line, they became flooded during the rains. Due to this there arose the necessity for something to pump the water out. This led to the invention of a steam engine. The very first Steam

Creative narration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Creative narration - Essay Example As good practice, all people that were coming had to queue in order to create and maintain order since the doctor did not have many aides; in fact, most of the people have health challenges that would not have required the doctor to have a nurse or anther aide. When I arrived at the hospital, I found people calmly settled and having their health needs being attended to. Mr. Williamson winked when he saw me because we were great friends; I also worked in the same hospital but in a different department. Then as the process was smoothly taking place, something happened that disrupted the doctor. A small boy came running and shouting for the doctor’s attention, other people had tried to urge her to calm down first before raising her sentiments. However, the boy seemed to be in a much hurry and went on to shout for the attention of Mr. Williamson. Mr. Williamson was always known to be an arrogant doctor especially to people that he thought were below her in terms of experience or on other careers. This ego made him shout back at the boy, urging him to make the queue and wait for is turn like any other people. My efforts to have the doctor give the boy a minute because he may have wanted to communicate an emergency issue of concern. Persistent efforts of the people on the queue to make the boy explain his concerns bore not fruit because the boy insisted that he wanted to speak to Michael’s Father, who was Mr. Williamson. Soon, the people on the queue were attended to; it was now the boy’s turn to have his issue addressed. I moved closer to listen to the boy’s concern because by this time, he was almost sobbing, with tears rolling down her chicks. The boy explained that the crocodile in the river that flowed behind the hospital had attacked Michael when they were playing and he had run to call for assistance from his father. The doctor was dumb-founded, lacking words to

History of China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

History of China - Essay Example The Second United Front involved alliance of KMT and CCP in Second Sino-Japanese war and it suspended the civil wars in China from 1937 to 1946. Kai-Shek viewed Chinese Communists as a threat, and true to his perception, they kidnapped him and compelled him to the truce with communists. This resulted to the two parties suspending the fighting to focus on Second United Front that fought against the Japanese. The actual cooperation between CCP and KMT remained minimal. The two parties still vied for territorial advantage in China. This resulted to major clashes, and Kai-shek demanded evacuation of New Fourth army from CCP. This weakened CCP in central China and ended any substantive cooperation between the two. However, in Japan, CCP absorbed KMT forces and made them into puppet forces. Eventually, CCP gained full control of North China. Therefore, the Second United Front became less successful than the first one since it led to the weakening of the KMT in North China and CCP in Centra l China. The two groups never worked as an alliance (Dirlik, 2000). Reasons for Failure of Chiang Kai-Shek in Destroying the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) The victory of CCP over the reactionary Chiang Kai-shek’s power marked a monumental change within the Chinese history. The events were unexpected since CCP came to power through reactionary program of the ‘revolution by stages’. First, the strategy of countering the Stalinist strategy of conquering cities using peasant armed forces alone enhanced the overthrowing of bourgeois Kuomintang regime. During this period, the urban population persistently fought for the oppressed and exploited and brought about an armed insurrection. This led to confusion among the Chinese Comrades of the traditional conception and facts (Taylor, 2006). Second, the Chiang’s regime was completely rotten since it was established amid bloodshed of second Chinese revolution defeat. This made it hostile to people using Asiatic method s. The regime could have only protected itself from imperialist powers since it represented the bourgeoisie of Orient. Therefore, it used all reactionary influences in resisting the masses, and consequently, it was unable to fulfill the bourgeoisie democratic tasks. After the failure of non-defensive policy, Chiang government had to fight the Japanese, and this revealed their incompetence where they lost several cities. Such acts stirred dissatisfaction among people reflected through demonstrations and unrest of the peasants (Taylor, 2006). After Japanese defeat, Chiang’s government became corrupt looting all the public property and engaged in extravagant dissipation and luxury. This inflamed the masses’ fury and provoked large scale demonstrations. Chiang hoped to use his military in exterminating CCP. He hoped to defeat CCP due to advanced warfare and the large army. However, his army remained isolated and divided due to mistreatment from their leaders. This shifted even the attention of those people who supported it (Dirlik, 2000). Relationship between Chiang Kai-Shek and the United States Prior to Second World, War, most powerful influences originated from American imperialists. It intended to uphold Chiang’s government and monopolize the Chinese markets. This dispatched significant military equipment to the government in China. This made Chiang

Intergrating Cases (BMW's dream factory and Culture) Essay

Intergrating Cases (BMW's dream factory and Culture) - Essay Example Schein (2004:20) states that an occupation involving intense period of education and training, shared learning of attitudes, norms and values will be assumed to be taken for granted for the members of the group. Organizational culture is essential for successful organizational change as well as maximizing the value of human capital and to create management competency. (Management Heaven, 2009) The cultural strength of BMW can be measures in term of its policies involving employees in decision making process an through profit sharing initiative much EU introduced and its leadership strategy to ask questions to get the best answer. BMW introduces several development programmes from manufacturing plants at Leipzig and providing flexibility and innovations in the design as per the customers' requirement and the employees have a sense of history, vision and mission once they set foot inside the company which immediately gives the employees a sense of meaning to their job which ultimately shows that BMW is empowered with good organizational culture. 2) Leadership Model and Its Impact on BMW Culture Davis, Inc (2003:7) supports Schein's statement that process of culture creation is the essence of leadership and that leadership and culture are two sides of same coin. It is further stated that leaders create and change the organizational culture whereas the managers and administrators apply themselves to that culture. Leaders need to act as role model, have realistic visions, personal performance, willingness to change, create a working environment stimulating enthusiasm and enjoyment which is prevalent in BMW as the employees and high level executives and other professionals work side by side applying their ideas and thoughts to carve out better design. (Pergamon Flexibile Learning, 2005) BMW gets much of its strength from unparalleled labors that are flexible enough to work extra hours to meet the financial targets. BMW followed an unusual strategy like once the employees were rewarded for the creative error of the month with a bottle of fine wine from the boss's cellar and the employee was recognized for an outstanding and bold idea, which was well planned but failed working on the idea for three years. The idea by the leaders was to remove the stigma of making mistakes at work while innovation. (EmeraldInsight, 2006) BMW leadership stressed more on encouraging their employees which motivates them to work harder, intelligently and effectively. Thus BMW leadership model is very effective in achieving optimum output without have significant effect on the culture. 3) Employee Satisfaction Hellriegel and Slocum (2008) states that an organization need to motivate its present and future employees by providing utmost job satisfaction. Some of the key job characteristics to motivate employees at workplace include basic human needs, designing jobs that motivate people,

Human Factors and Workplace Safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Human Factors and Workplace Safety - Essay Example Organizations should thus, ensure a safe work environment, which protects employees from physical hazards, unhealthy situations and violence from other personal. This is important because employees are the Human Resources of an organization who contribute towards organizational success. The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was passed in 1970 to assure so far as possible every working woman and man in the Nation safe and healthy working conditions and to preserve human resources. The Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970 created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration within the Department of labour in U.S.A. The importance of such laws can be well documented by the statistical survey of Occupational hazards. In 2000, 5.7 million injuries were reported in private sector alone. 5,915 fatalities were reported in 2000 alone due to industrial injuries. The Occupational Safety and Health Act laws cover all the employers and their employees except a few federal governments, or states or political sub-divisions of a state. However, even in such cases, each federal agency is required to establish a Safety and Health program monitored by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. One of the key responsibilities of the Occupational Safety and Health administration has been the develop... These standards have been classified into four categories. 1. General Industry 2. Maritime 3. Construction and 4. Agriculture. These standards cover the workplace, machinery, material, power sources, processing, protective measures, first aid and administrative requirements. The 'Federal Register' is the main source of information on proposed, adapted, amended and deleted OSHA standards. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has the power to set standards on its own account or on petition from other parties, namely, The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Other bodies like state and local governments, recognized standards organization, employer or labour representative can also initiate standard setting. The Secretary of labour is the person authorized by OSHA to conduct inspections of workplaces, to issue citations and impose penalties. He can enter without delay at reasonable times into any factory, plant, establishment, construction site or other places where work is performed by an employee of an employer. He has the power to investigate and inspect at reasonable times, any such work place. Violations on job safety and health can call for a penalty of $7000 to $70,000, depending on the seriousness of the violation. In case of deaths due to willful violation, a penalty upto $2,50,000 for an individual and $5,00,000 for a corporation with imprisonment upto six months can be imposed as per this law.In 2001 alone, $82 million has been imposed as penalties for violation of OSHA standards. Pennzoil products paid $1.5 million after an explosion at its Rouseville, Pennsylvania, refinery killed 5 employees. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration also helps

Falcon Computer Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Falcon Computer Company - Essay Example The higher management was great in formulating the values to be followed by the employees but only formulation was not the very success of it. The prime influencing factor is in appropriately propagating the values and the support of the management to exercise in practice. â€Å"Attention to detail is our trademark; our goal is to do it right the first time†. However it was observed that the design flaws caused the main hurdle and in the first place it needed to be corrected to prevent flaws in the forthcoming steps. Employees were pressurized to rush for getting the product out to the customers without putting a check on the quality. Employees were afraid of their immediate manager which would result in insult and embarrassment. The employees did not feel safe to stand up to the problems they were facing. The culture statement promising to encourage open, direct, person-to-person communication as part of the daily routine was not at all followed in practice. At Flacon it was more of secrecy than openness. Even after the value document was formulated and was expected to be followed, lack of management enforcement was greatly lacking to get the values embedded into the employees. If the formulators are themselves lack the will t support the values and make sure they create examples so that there is an evidence of its usage in the proper context, the employees cannot be expected to envelope anything from it. It will stay in the books only. Lack of interest from the employee side was a turnaround feature in exercising the values. They did not take it seriously and never bothered to come up with valuable suggestions so as to prove that there was an initiative from their side. They have never held the management accountable for the non-compliance of values. They instead have understood what was really emphasized in the organization namely hierarchy, secrecy and expediency. They never moved out of their comfort zone to take a stand. The lack of initiative also made the other employees to follow the similar notion to take a back seat.  Ã‚  

Pollution Essay Example for Free

Pollution Essay Chapter I (AIR POLLUTION) I. Background of the study: * According to the study Metro Manila including Quezon City is much polluted because of the particles emitted by thousand of motor vehicles plying the streets/roads of whole Metro Manila and everyday they contribute to a large extent to the large smoky haze of the metropolis. Commuters like us students that are using jeeps, motorcycles, and other non-air-conditioned mode of transport have taken or prone to the harmful particles in the air. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are cancer causing pollutants chemicals that are release by the combustion process in the motor vehicles. Other studies shows commuters, residents and including like us are exposing to the harmful toxins in the air that can cause health risks including cancer. Other cause of Air pollution that can cause to our health is smoking and the second-hand smoke around the campus area, all we know smoking is very dangerous to our health but many of us are still smoking, the smoke from their cigarettes are also can harm the health of the non-smokers around health because the smoke from their cigarettes are containing chemicals like hydrogen cyanide, Benzene, formaldehyde and etc. that can harm to the health of others. * As we know STI COLLEGE FAIRVIEW is located REGALADO Ave. and regalado avenue is one of the busy roads of Quezon City and a lot of public and private vehicle travel around our campus/ area that’s why we are prone to AIR POLLUTION and the addition of the heavy smokers. Here are the some effects of air pollution according to DOH Fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and ozone are pollutants of serious health concern in Metro Manila; â™ ¦Motor vehicles are the major sources of particulate pollution in Metro Manila; â™ ¦Considerable morbidity and mortality due to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases could have been prevented with better air quality in Metro Manila in 2002; â™ ¦For every 10ÃŽ ¼g/m3 increases in PM10, incidence rates for respiratory and natural mortality increase by 2.6% and 3.9%, respectively; â™ ¦Indoor PM10 increases as outdoor PM10 increases with cigarette smoking as significant contributor to indoor PM10 levels; â™ ¦ Better cooking fuel quality reduces occurrence of hospital admissions. Household using LPG as fuel for cooking has the lowest hospital admissions of 19.3% compared with those using wood (27.3%) and kerosene (25.3%). â™ ¦ Child Health: Incidence of respiratory symptoms and diseases increases as level of exposure to particulate matter pollution increases; Asthma incidence rate is 14.9 per 1,000 population in high PM10 exposure area, 11.5 in medium exposure area and 8.2 in low exposure area. Significant risk factors for respiratory symptoms are age, indoor NO2 level, cooking fuel and educational attainment of mothers; There is a significant improvement in blood lead levels among children in Metro Manila. In 2003, only 34.6% of study children exceeded the US Centre for Disease Control guideline value of 10 ÃŽ ¼g/dl, an improvement from the 90.3% value in 2000. â™ ¦Adult Health: The type of household cooking fuel and number of smokers in the household are significant predictors of respiratory symptoms among adults; Fine particulate pollution contributes to events of respiratory symptoms and diseases The same study estimated the deaths in Metro Manila attributable to PM10 level above 50ÃŽ ¼g/m3 were from 230 to 390 persons II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM III. SCOPE LIMITATION * The scope of this study is the students of STI COLLEGE FAIRVIEW and other students of OLFU that are prone to air pollution and the students that having health problems like asthma and etc. * The limitation of smoking area for the smokers is atlease 10 meters away from the campus area.

Slavery in America Essay Example for Free

Slavery in America Essay Short Lecture on the Origins of Slavery in America During the century and a half between the arrival of twenty blacks in Jamestown in 1619 and the beginning of the American Revolution in 1776, slavery—something that had never existed in England itself—spread throughout the English colonies, from Virginia it would make its way south into the Carolinas and then out to the frontier, and it would also make its way north into the midAtlantic states and into the farthest reaches of New England. It grew slowly, almost imperceptibly, until it had become so embedded into the American way of life and commerce that colonists eager for wealth imported hundreds of thousands of Africans to work in their fields. During the eighteenth century, slavery became an entrenched and for many colonies, central component of society. But slaves were brought to America to work. First and foremost, it was a system of labor. Colonial America was overwhelmingly agricultural. Many early English colonists had hoped to become fabulously wealth without having to work—much like the Spanish conquistadors who came a century before them, they had great hopes of finding gold, or if not that, then perhaps they would discover the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean, thereby gaining access to the riches of the East Indies. It soon became quite clear that forget about wealth, survival itself was going to be a challenge, and was going to depend on working the land. The New World may not have held the abundant riches colonist dreamed of, but one thing was abundant: land. For the first generation of settlers, feeding themselves took up most of their energy, but in 1617, it was discovered that tobacco seeds, transported from the West Indies, thrived in the soil of the Chesapeake region. (Incidentally, it was Pocahontas’ husband, John Rolfe who successfully planted the first tobacco crop.) Over the course of the seventeenth century, tobacco became a major commodity fad, and would rival tea and alcohol in popularity throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Initial inflated prices for the tobacco would help fuel the development of Virginia. But first, the settlers faced a problem: they had a crop (tobacco), and there was plenty of land to grow it, but what was missing? Labor. Labor is THE problem of colonial America. Who does the labor? Conditions were so dismal in the colony that planters realized the only way they could get people to work for them would  be to force them. That may seem like a less than obvious choice. But these colonists came from a society in England that was highly stratified—the rich and powerful took it as their right to exploit the poor and powerless. In many ways, the early colonists came from a world that was pre-modern—without concepts of cruel and unusual punishment, equal rights, exploitation. In fact, it was a world that took inequality for granted. So there was nothing particularly problematic about the idea of forced labor. And the colonists didn’t particularly care what this forced labor looked like. They needed labor, period. Some seventeenth century colonists were willing to pay freely hired workers, but they also experimented with two sources of unfree labor: Indians and Europeans, before it occurred to them to import Africans on a widespread scale. For a variety of reasons, Indian slavery was never successful. Many Indians simply refused to perform agricultural labor, which they viewed as women’s work. Indians also happened to know the terrain a lot better than the Europeans did, and there was always the risk of Indians escaping and conspiring against their captors. Finally, as we have talked about this semester, the Indians had already disastrously encountered Europeans before the English ever got there, and by the early seventeenth century, there simply were not enough Indians left to meet the labor needs of the colonists—between the outright killing of Indians, and the massive epidemics of Europeans diseases like smallpox and measles, that killed many, and in some areas most, of the Indian population. For these reasons, it was far more common to try to find European laborers. In fact the basis of the seventeenth-century workforce in the southern part of the English colonies were European laborers. Most came as indentured servants. The practice of indenturing, or apprenticing, children and teenagers, and less often adults, to masters was widely practiced in seventeenth-century England as a form of welfare for the poor and way to provide job training. In the colonies however, indentured servitude was primarily used as a way to help European immigrants who wanted to come to  America but couldn’t afford it. By selling themselves into a sort of temporary slavery, in exchange they got a free trip across the Atlantic. For the many indentured servants who ended up in the South where they basically represented cheap labor for eager planters, they found themselves in a form of labor that looked radically different from England—it was much harsher, and much more exploitative. Further, while most servants came to American voluntarily, some arrived after being kidnapped or sentenced for criminal behavior. Most adults would be indentured for four or five years, but children often served seven years or more. During their indenture, servants were essentially slaves, under the complete and unchallenged authority of their masters. Masters could whip their servants, could prevent them from marrying, and even sell them to others. Initially, indentured servitude boomed in the colonies because it met the needs of planters as well as the needs of Europeans eager to migrate to the colonies. One of the great advantages for landowners was that they were granted land based on how many servants they held, thereby increasing their landholdings—fifty acres for every person they transported to the colonies. So for example, when Virginia planter John Carter imported eighty indentured servants in 1665 to work for him, he received four thousand acres. For the growing class of colonial landowners, indentured servitude was a win-win situation—cheap labor, more land, and an elevated social status by virtue of the fact that they had authority over other human beings. Of course, we have to ask what was in it for the indentured servants. During this time in England, a civil war had disrupted the whole social and economic order. Indentured servitude provided a way out of hardship—an escape from poverty, hunger, unemployment, prison—and a chance to start over in a new place, and perhaps even prosper. The people who volunteered to ship out were overwhelming young and male—they came from the bottom half of society, and had little hope of anything if they stayed in England. For roughly ten-percent of those who came to America as indentured servants, things worked out basically as they had anticipated—they were able to work off their indenture, and managed to find some economic prosperity of their own. But for that other ninety-percent, things turned out pretty badly. Most  indentured servants ended up working in the tobacco fields of Virginia and Maryland. They worked for men who were desperate for wealth, and were going to get as much work out of their servants as possible before their terms of service were up. Many servants ran away—if they were caught, they faced whippings, or brandings or even physical mutilation, and their terms of service would often be extended. Many others died—as many as half of all servants in the seventeenth century Chesapeake died while in service. Some who survived might become independent craftsmen or even landowners, but that was rare. Add to this that there were far fewer women in these colonies than men, most male servants were unable to find wives and so they remained single. You ended up with a very large class of men who had no family, no roots, no stability, no money, a sort of permanent underclass of discontent laborers. Black slaves had been introduced to the Chesapeake region in 1619, when a Dutch captain sold twenty Africans in Virginia. But it was not entirely clear at first that the status of black laborers in America would be fundamentally different from that of white indentured servants. In the rugged conditions of the seventeenth century south, it was often difficult for Europeans and Africans to maintain strictly separate roles. In some areas—South Carolina for example, where the number of African arrivals increased more quickly than anywhere else—whites and blacks lived and worked together on terms of relative equality. Some blacks were treated much like white hired servants, and some were freed after a set term of service. A few Africans themselves became landowners, and some apparently owned slaves of their own. But as a whole, in these early days of the American colonies, the cost of African slaves remained out of reach for most people. Not only did slaves cost more money u p front than did indentured servants, there was always the risk of a slave dying, and then your entire investment would be lost. So, although blacks continued to trickle into the colonies throughout the seventeenth century, up until the 1680s, the non-Indian population of the British colonies remained overwhelmingly white. As long as a steady supply of indentured labor continued to come, colonists saw little reason to go to  the expense and trouble of importing large numbers of Africans, who, unlike English laborers, would have to go through a longer period of adjustment—to a new culture, a new language, new customs—before they would become productive members of the workforce. But everything changed in the 1680s.   The problem with indentured labor was that it was temporary—at some point, servants had to be freed. That meant not only did you continually lose your workforce, but as the population increased in the colonies, there was a greater and greater demand for labor. You would need more and more indentured immigrants to meet this growing need. But as it happened, in the 1680s, there was a sharp decline in the number of English migrants arriving in America under indenture. Part of the reason is that the political situation in England had stabilized, and the economy was improving, so there was less of an incentive to leave. At the same time, as immigrants looked across the ocean at America, it didn’t seem quite as attractive as it once did. With more people settling in the colonies, it became harder and harder to get land. And since land was the way to get rich in early America, without land you had little hope of climbing the economic la dder. So for these reasons, fewer ships arrived carrying new immigrant laborers. By the end of the century, it became clear that indentured Europeans could no longer meet the labor needs in the Southern colonies. In another twist of history, at the same time that the number of new indentured Europeans arrivals declined, the price of African slaves suddenly dropped. Colonial planters didn’t care where the labor came from, or what the laborers looked like, they were simply desperate for it. Indians slave labor obviously hadn’t panned out, European indentured servants were harder to come by. But by the mid to late seventeenth century, some colonists, especially those in the Virginia and Maryland colonies, were becoming enormously wealthy off of the tobacco trade, and as the prices of African slaves dropped, these wealthier colonists started thinking that perhaps African slaves were the answer to their labor problem. Another turn of events sealed the fate of slavery in America. As we noted,  the problem with indentured servants is that at some point, you had to free them. These ex-servants were often male, young, poor, without roots, without much hope of ever owning land or practicing a trade. So as terms of service came up, a growing class of young, rowdy, unskilled, impoverished men were let loose into a society that had no place for them. And this made these young men angry, and violent. So they led rebellions in 1663. And in 1675. And 1683. People were killed, chaos ensued. And this of course troubled the planters. How do you stop ex-servants from running amok in the countryside and causing trouble? Well, one solution is that you don’t let them go free. But the idea of holding European servants in permanent bondage was inconceivable. As unjust, and at times horrific, as things might have been for indentured servants, they were still protected by certain legal rights that the English government had ensured. Among those rights of course, is that they could not be held in permanent bondage. Here again, African slaves provided an answer to the problem. As captives from a foreign land, they had no rights, no protection. As slaves, they would expect to be held in permanent bondage. What other advantages might African slaves provide? Compared to Indian slaves or European servants, they posed a greatly reduced risk of successful escape. They often did not know the geography of the region, and would have had little knowledge of where to go. Further, and most obviously, their skin color gave them away. It was a lot more difficult for a black runaway slave to blend into the population than it was for a white indentured servant, or an Indian slave. By the end of the seventeenth century, only about one in ten of the residents of the colonies was African. But because Africans were so heavily concentrated in a few southern colonies, they were already beginning to outnumber Europeans in some areas. The high ratio of men to women among African immigrants (two men for every one woman in most areas) impeded the natural increase of the black population. But in the Chesapeake at least, more new slaves were being born by 1700 than were being imported from Africa. In South Carolina, by contrast, the difficult conditions of rice  cultivation—and the high death rates of those who worked in the rice fields—ensured that the black population would barely be able to sustain itself through natural increase until much later. Between 1700 and 1760, the number of Africans in the colonies increased ten times to about a 250,000. A relatively small number lived in New England; there were slightly more in the middle colonies. The vast m ajority, however, continue to live in the south. By then the flow of white laborers to that region had all but stopped, and Africans had becomes securely established as the basis of the southern work force. But the most important thing to note about the shift from indentured labor to slave labor is that American colonists first turned to African slavery not because of any particular idea about race, or some kind of ideological desire to enslave black people, but for a very practical reason: the flow of indentured white labor had dried up. English people already had certain stereotypes of Africans that helped them feel more comfortable with their enslavement. First, Africans were â€Å"black† in contrast to the English people’s own sense of themselves as white. Europeans had numerous word associations with colors—white was associated with purity, cleanliness, godliness, while black could mean anything from dirty to evil. Secondly, English people perceived Africans as savage and uncivilized. English people saw African culture as very different from their own, and if it was different, it must also be inferior. Finally, English people saw Africans as heathens—and at a time in Europe when wars were being fought over exactly what kind of Christian you were, to be not Christian at all was deeply suspect. Unquestionably, English people definitely saw themselves as very different from Africans, and no doubt their negative stereotypes of Africans helped to shape ideas of race during the early years of slavery. But as much as the English were struck by differences between themselves and Africans, throughout much of the seventeenth century, enslaved black laborers were treated nearly the same as other lower class laborers. There were few lines between blacks and lower-class whites during the first decades of  settlement. Indentured servants had many of the same constraints as slaves, and the two groups often lived together, worked together, played together, sometimes slept together, and ran away together. In terms of our idea of slavery and racism in America, seventeenth-century race relations were remarkably flexible. There were no impenetrable barriers that separated races. Although almost all blacks came to the colonies as slaves, most whites came as unfree laborers as well, and the two groups had a lot in common. But two things separated white unfree laborers from blacks. First, white laborers could eventually earn their freedom, while for the most part, black slaves served for life. But more importantly, the majority of white laborers came to America voluntarily. None of the Africans did. Involuntary would become the most important thing that would lead to a permanent separation between white and black workers. Desire to attract white immigration put limits on how harshly indentured servants could be treated. Gradually, the status and treatment of European migrants improved. An increasing number of new immigrants were literate and possessed skills that enabled them to take advantage of opportunities that the growing colonial economy offered. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, very few white servants in the South still worked in agricultural labor. Agricultural labor was left almost entirely to blacks, who as involuntary migrants could not be lured away by the same economic opportunities offered to whites. The status of white migrants rose in inverse proportion to the status of black laborers, whose own status became more clearly defined. By the eighteenth century a rigid distinction had become established between black and white. Colonial assemblies began to pass â€Å"slave codes† limiting the rights of blacks in law and ensuring almost absolute authority to white masters. One factor, and one factor only determined whether a person was subject to the slave codes: color. In contrast to the colonial societies of Spanish America, where people of mixed race had a different and higher status than pure Africans, English America recognized no such distinctions. Any African ancestry was enough to classify a person as black. Over the next century, white Americans would come to the conclusion that black people were biologically and inherently suited for slavery. By the  middle of the eighteenth century, racism would become hardened, whites and blacks sharply separated, slavery entrenched as THE labor system of the southern colonies, as well as legally established in the northern colonies. Whether slave or free, blacks would be kept at the bottom of society for generations to come. In the decades preceding the American Revolution, slavery spread throughout all of the colonies. In the North, where labor was less dependent on slaves, slavery became a luxury more than anything else. But in the Chesapeake colonies, slavery formed the backbone of an economy that became almost entirely based on tobacco. Throughout the colonial period, Virginia had the highest population of the colonies, and more importantly, the highest value of exports. On the eve of the American Revolution, slaves made up about two-fifths of the entire population in Virginia, but in the tobacco-producing areas along the Chesapeake, they made up at least half the population. In South Carolina, they constituted a majority of the population. In Georgia they made up close to half of that colony’s population. At the same time, demand for slaves in the North began to decline. And as the Revolution approached, many northerners began to sense a disconnect between the language of liberty and democracy on the one hand, and the practice of slavery on the other. Although only faint at the end of the eighteenth century, a line began to be emerge between the South, where slavery was solidly entrenched, and the North, where it was not.

Market Growth And Competitive Positioning Growth Strategies

Market Growth And Competitive Positioning Growth Strategies Nobody plans to fail but fails to plan. Marketing Planning is the first and foremost activity that a company should perform before embarking on a mission such as launching a new product into the market or revamp of existing product line. Not just in the case of new product launch, but also marketing planning provides a strategic direction to the company in terms of increasing the market share, building brand value and thus obtain increased revenues. 1.1 SOSTAC Model SOSTAC is a renowned model in marketing planning which is widely followed across several industries. It is also claimed to be the most powerful technique of in helping the companies to plan their marketing process. SOSTAC stands for Situation Analysis, Objective Analysis, Strategy, Tactics, Action and Control. Situation Analysis helps visualize the internal and external factors that affect the company which prevail at a given time. This analysis mainly comprises of employing SWOT technique to understand the situation at company level and also PESTLE technique to analyse the global environment which impacts the industry in which the company is operating. By carrying out this analysis, the company can get a snap shot of the current situation which will help the managers to take necessary actions to take advantage of the situation. Elements such as performance, competitors and customers are analysed in this stage. Objective Analysis will provide a clear path to the company in terms of the revenues and sales targets that should be achieved in a stipulated time limit to obtain the desired market share. The main outcome of this analysis is to shape the marketing strategy for the company based on the corporate strategy as to what the company aims to achieve within a time frame. Strategies part of SOSTAC mentions about the need for segmenting the target market and then specifically design the products based on the needs of the customers in each segment. In this stage, the company will go onto design its individual strategies on segmentation, positioning and competitiveness to place the product in a safe position in the market. Strategy emphasizes on the need for designing a USP for each of the product to give it a competitive edge over the existing products in the market. Tactics will help design the 4Ps of marketing by carefully selecting the right mix in order to achieve optimum results in terms of sales. Tactics also inform about the different ways of promotional activities and communication techniques that a company should take up in order to get the attention and create awareness among the target market. Actions refer to the action plan the company should have about who does what and how the strategies are executed. The focus of the company at this stage will be budgets, staff and risk analysis. The allocation of resources and work break down structure are defined in this stage as well as key performance indicators are determined along with the bench marks that are supposed to be achieved. Control deals with the measurement and monitoring of the effectiveness of the strategies that are followed. It mainly revolves around the measurement of performance in each communication channel in terms of ROI (Return On Investment) for the promotional activities. 2. Importance and Scope of Internal and External Auditing Marketing audit forms the base of marketing planning. It is divided into two types, internal and external auditing. The aim of any auditing activity is to review the effectiveness of existing processes and suggest necessary improvements to be made. Internal auditing helps to analyse the strengths and weaknesses within the company and the way the company is performing whereas external auditing helps to assess the external environment that will affect the operations of the company. A wide range of tools are used to carryout auditing such as SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis, Porters Five Forces analysis etc. Both the audits together give a multi-faceted approach to look at the companys operations and the need for improvements. The aim of internal audit is to measure the performance of the resources and processes in the company and find the gaps where improvements are required. The main focus of this audit is to review the marketing process and quantify its effectiveness in terms of achieving the sales targets and objectives. Aspects like distribution channels, communication channels, customer interaction, product price and product design are analysed in the internal auditing. The aim of external auditing is to provide an Outside-in view to the company by analysing the external factors such as the competition in market place, the consumer buying behaviour and the trends in market. This assessment will enable the company to predict the dynamics of the market and take necessary actions to sustain and grow within the industry. The global environment of the industry in which the company operates will be analysed by looking at the factors like polity, economy, society, technology, legislature and environment which have a direct impact on the business. This analysis will be helpful in redesigning the business strategy to match with the environment. 3. SWOT and TOWS Process SWOT analysis is carried out at the organizational level to observe the internal capabilities of a company and match them against threats and opportunities presented by outside factors such as competition. It is one of the simplest techniques to conduct internal audit. The main focus of SWOT technique is to analyse the internal weaknesses that can be converted to strengths as well as work on strengths to take advantage of the external opportunities in the market. The limitation of SWOT analysis as tool for designing strategy is that it will not include all the necessary dimensions to be analysed for providing a robust strategy. In order to overcome the limitations of SWOT, Weihrich (1982) developed TOWS technique that will help the managers to go a step further in analysing the state of the company at a given time. TOWS framework is considered to be a situational planning tool that provides more number of parameters to analyse and give a holistic view for designing the strategy of a company. The technique of TOWS analysis is to compare each strength and weakness to each opportunity and threat in the form of a matrix which provides a more comprehensive solution for devising the strategy than in a traditional planning process like SWOT. TOWS technique involves 4 types of analyses as follows: SO: Strengths- to-Opportunities ST: Strengths-to-Threats WO: Weaknesses-to-Opportunities WT: Weaknesses-to-Threats For all the four analyses mentioned above, a matrix can be designed to map each element with the other. The following figure will describe a typical Strengths-to-Opportunities matrix based on the strengths and Opportunities which originated from SWOT analysis: SO Matrix Strength1 Strength2 Strength3 Opportunity1 Opportunity2 Opportunity3 TOWS analysis has to be conducted in succession to SWOT where initially the strengths and weaknesses of the organization are identified. Once the list of SWOT elements is obtained, the organization should then develop strategy to attack the external opportunities with help of its strengths and try to convert the threats into opportunities. This process is done in the TOWS analysis which gives a rounded perspective for the managers to tally and improve every row element in the TOWS matrix against every column element as shown above. Hence both SWOT and TOWS analyses complement each other to inform strategy for an organization. 4. Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning Strategy formulation is the key to success for launching a product into the market. The foremost objective of any strategy is to give a sustainable competitive advantage to the product over its rivals in the market (Barney, 1991). According to Kotler, the essential elements of any organisations marketing strategy are segmentation, targeting and positioning. These three processes are collectively and shortly termed as STP. Segmentation Dividing the target market into specific groups based on the demographics, habits and location is called Segmentation. The target market is grouped based on the factors like age, sex, annual house hold income etc. This process is very crucial in forming the market strategy because it will inform both product development team and the marketing team on what products to be designed and how they can be promoted to the different sections of people respectively. Effective marketing is all about making what you can sell, but not selling what you can make (Ali, 2001). For example a simple segmentation of market for a Sports Footwear manufacturer can be based on the following factors: 1) Type of Sport 2) Percentage of Men, Women and Children interested in different sports Based on the above segmentation, the company would then decide on the type and quantity of footwear to be manufactured as well as how to market it to the target customers in order to achieve the sales objectives. Therefore Segmentation directly informs the marketing strategy in the initial stages of formulation. Targeting Once the segmentation of customers is over, then the company has to devise strategies to target the identified segments by designing the products that closely match their requirements which could generate optimum sales revenue. Targeting is to identify the target customers who will potentially buy the product when it is out in the market. This process involves identifying three target groups which is mostly common to many industries, the niche customers group, mass customers group and the differentiated customers group. Niche Market: The products designed for this segment are very specific and tailor-made in order to suit the particular requirements of very few customers who are ready to pay premium prices. In Niche markets the volume of sales is very low but sales revenue is high due to premium prices for the heavily customized products. Example: Equipment manufacturer for military needs. Mass/ Undifferentiated Market: In this market products are designed to suit the generic needs of customers rather than meeting specific requirement of each customer. The prices for this target market are relatively low and the companies can achieve economies of scale by doing batch production. In this segment the volume of sales are high and the revenues depend on the volume of sales. Example: Fast moving consumer goods like cosmetics etc. Selective/ Differentiated Market: The needs of customers in this target market are similar but specific. The main reason for companies to address this market is to enhance customer experience and thus grab a significant market share by surpassing the competitors. Product price is slightly higher but is complemented by customer satisfaction hence resulting in increased market share and sales revenues. Example: Apple iPhone can be a classical example of differentiated target market product as it provides enhanced user satisfaction at a premium price. Positioning Any company thinking of introducing a new product into the market should create a launch pad for it as to define the position where it fits into the existing space in the market place. This act of identifying and defining the position can be called Market Positioning. In this process, the main focus is on the quality and the price of the product to be launched. Therefore positioning process should start by identifying the gap in the market place where there is less density of competitors and bleak possibility for new entrants to occupy that position. Market positioning mainly depends on which type of competition is prevailing in the industry (Monopoly, oligopoly, Perfect competition). The below figure demonstrates a situation where there are 3 existing players and a possible market gap where the 4th player, a new entrant can position itself: HIGH PRICE C DHIGH LOW A BQUALITY QUALITY LOW PRICE In the above market place, each of the products are in a different position where the new product D has entered into the space of providing high quality products at a price less than premium. This space was earlier empty as all the other three players are not providing as much quality at the price slightly higher and lower than that of D. Therefore it can be understood that product D can capture a significant market share if right marketing campaigns are adopted. 5. Strategies for Market Growth and Competitive Positioning Growth strategy After successfully launching the product in the market the companies should then look at enhancing the growth prospects for the product by designing appropriate growth strategies. Growth in terms of market share as well as sales revenues. There are various growth strategies like mergers and acquisitions, franchises, strategic collaborations and outsourcing. Ansoffs Matrix explains the various market growth strategies in detail which will help the organizations to select the appropriate strategy that best fits their case. Depending on whether the product and market whether they are new or existing a company should adopt a growth strategy. Ansoffs matrix is a tool whose output will provide a set of growth strategies which can be followed. Figure: Ansoffs Product-Market Growth Matrix Existing Product New Products Market Penetration Product Development Market Development Diversification Existing Market New Markets To understand the market growth strategy in more detail, consider the example of a company which wants to explore a new market by exporting its existing products to another country. Let us say, a UK car manufacturer finds a potential growth factor in Indian market, the strategy would be market development. In the process of Market Development the company should segment its target customers based on the socio-economic sections in the context of India and build an entirely new distribution channel in to sell the cars. The company should also change the pricing structure according to the prevailing competitive prices. Likewise, depending on the type of market and the type of product broadly four growth strategies can be adopted as shown in the figure. 6. Need for differentiated marketing mix Marketing mix essentially deals with the 4 crucial elements which form the core of marketing any product. The 4Ps stand for Product, Price, Place and Promotion. With the following example all the four Ps are explained: Example: Fashion Clothing for Teenagers Vs Formal Clothing for Older middle class Product: A right product has to be designed that exactly meets the needs of the target customers. Target customers in this case are teenagers and older people in middle income group. In UK the market size for clothing is dominated by Women with more than half of the total value of the sector (KeyNote, 2009). By value womens garments contribute for  £19.1 bn whereas Men and Childrens garments are at  £11 bn and  £7bn respectively of the total market value of  £37.2bn as of 2008. The variety of clothes for women is huge and for simplicity purposes only Mens clothing is discussed in this context. Teenagers: Population in the age of 15 to 19 can be treated as active teenagers. Teenagers generally like to be trendy and fashionable. So the product for this target market should reflect the same in its design and appearance. Trousers: Teenagers prefer Jeans for trousers with various styles according to their tastes like boot-cut, low waist, straight fit. T-Shirts: Teenagers prefer round-necks over collar T-shirts Older Middle class: The average annual house hold income in UK per capita is  £14,921 as of 2008 (KeyNote, 2009). The target customers, older middle class population in UK belong to the social grade B based on the classification of the Office of National Statistics. According to the buying behaviour based on age, sex and social grade the penetration is observed to be more in the clothing accessories like rain coats, jackets and polo shirts in this segment (Older Middle class). Hence the products designed for this segment should take the above trend into consideration for selling the clothes easily. Price: Price is the most crucial factor that can influence consumer buying decision and hence should be fixed by considering the factors like right price for right quality and the competitive prices in the market for similar products. In the context of clothing, most of the brands have a varying price structure based on the style and the quality of material used for production. For example, jackets made of cashmere wool are costlier than other ordinary wool and there would not be much price difference in this segment across the brands. Price for natural fibre-made clothes is always premium while there is a great variation in the prices of clothes made up of man-made fibre like Viscose, Acrylic, Polyester and Poly Propelene. As the investment in designing fashionable out fits is high, the price for clothes made for teenagers is higher than that of the clothes designed for Older people. Prices Jeans: Price varies depending on the style Boot-cut:  £15 to  £30 Narrow-fit:  £20 to  £40 Formal Trousers:  £10 and above depending on the fabric T-shirts: Price varies depending on the material Cotton round-neck:  £10 Cotton Polo:  £15 and above Polyester round-neck: From  £6 onwards Place: Place is where the product is available for the customers to purchase. The places might range from a corner shop to that of high street stores and large wholesale stores. There were around 3,530 enterprises in UK that are involved in clothes manufacturing and there is a strong distribution network in UK for clothing manufacturers (KeyNote, 2010). Clothes can be made available at a variety of stores across all the regions in UK. The places which sell clothes in UK are Super markets, sports shops, department stores, independent stores, mail orders and online stores. Teenagers: As the clothes made for this segment are fashionable, they need to be located in an eye-catching area like high street retailers and sports stores. However a large number of clothes can also be sold through online retailer like Amazon which is quite popular among internet users. Older Middle Class: The major place for sales in this segment would be large supermarkets. Older singles and couples visit large supermarkets for grocery and household needs quite often, therefore clothes in this segment might find right place in super markets for large volume of sales. Promotion Promotion is about communicating the brand and the products to the customer who will then make a buying decision. Without the awareness of the brand, the customer would hardly make a purchase. Therefore quantity of sales is directly proportional to the effectiveness of the promotional activity. There are different ways of promoting a product. Advertisement, brand endorsements, email marketing, discount offers like buy 2 for 1, pre-launch and post-launch promotional campaign etc. are some of the commonly adopted promotional techniques. Teenagers watch television quite regularly and hence it is a good medium to advertise. On the other hand, fashion magazines and internet are also very popular among teenagers and advertising on these might attract them to buy the clothes. Older people might not be as good in using the internet as computers are modern and they might feel it difficult to adopt. However television and magazine advertisements might boost up the sales for the clothes in this segment.

Napoleon Bonaparte :: essays research papers

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte, the son of Carlo and Letizia Bonaparte, was born in Ajaccio, Corsica on August 15, 1768. In 1779, he was sent to a military school in Paris. He was made fun of by the French there, and gave him the dream of power. Napoleon was waiting for the right time to achieve greater power, and that moment came when the French monarchy was overthrown. Napoleon’s parents were radicals, and both died soon after he turned 16, therefore leaving him the estate. His first battle was when he directed the artillery siege of Toulon in 1793, and afterwards he was promoted to brigadier general. In 1795, he scattered a group of rioters by firing a grapeshot, a shot gun version of a cannon, into the crowd. Napoleon was then made commander of the Italian army and won four straight battles against the Austrians. In 1797, Austria surrendered to France when Napoleon was just 80 miles from the capitol. When the fight was taken to Egypt, he again won the battle of the pyramids, but lost his fleet of ships in his next fight over the battle of the Nile. He returned home to France to see that the French government was really messed up. "In 1799 he abolished the Directorate and set up a consulate." He was not happy and wanted more power, so he went after the rest of Europe, but had settled with many treaties. Those treaties had put Fran ce at peace with all of Europe. Then in 1803, war broke out again in Europe, and Britain allied with the other countries of Europe to fight against France. "Napoleon brought those European countries to their knees and forced them to sign humiliating treaties, and now, Britain was the only country left not under Napoleon’s rule." One of Napoleon’s few bad campaigns was when he went into Russia, and instead of the Russians just letting the French capture them, they used guerrilla tactics and also the weather, to fight France. Once Napoleon finally defeated the Russians, he went to Moscow, only to see it in flames. The Grand Army, which was originally made up of 500,000 troops, now had a short of supplies and shelter from the harsh winter. Because of that, they had returned to France being known as "One of Napoleon’s worst blunders." Europe noticed that Napoleon was now weak, and they allied against him and came out victorious, and the European’s forced Napoleon the abdicate power on April 6, 1814.

Critical Review of a Psychology Research Article on Students Essay

Research Issues in Psychology Critical Review of a Research Article Pupils who exhibit gifted characteristics along with another disability are referred to as ‘twice-exceptional students’ (Morrison, 2001; Nielsen 2002). This term is used in the article that I have chosen to review, which analyzes the responses and perceptions through interview, of one particular individual (Andrew) who was identified as being gifted and talented (G/T) and who had emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD). What the researchers aimed to accomplish through this analysis was a clearer understanding of Andrew’s community and school experiences, as they stated that there was a lack of empirical data focusing upon pupils who displayed such behaviors. The features of the research design were straightforward and simple: a qualitative analysis with one participant; a structured interview, recorded then later transcribed and analyzed to produce 3 themes; a conclusion which produced findings of Andrew’s experiences as a twice-exceptional student. It is the appropriateness of the methods that were used in this study which will inform my first critique of this article. I will then move on to discuss the data which was collected, before finally examining how effective the conclusion is. Morrison and Omdal chose to include only one participant in their study, which compares quite significantly to the research of others in similar areas that have included a greater number of participants (Gross, 1994; Sankar-DeLeeuw, 2004; Howe et al, 1998). This particular participant, named under the pseudonym of Andrew, was 22 years of age when he consented to partake in the research. A brief description of his formidable successes both academic and socially, pointed out that he was currently employed as a ‘permanent substitute teacher’ (p.2). The reader is immediately drawn to a young man who has accomplished and triumphed against his ‘disabilities’; instantly gaining the respect of the readers’ as his successes show strength of character and determination. Surely then questions must arise about the validity of using such a small, select sample. Can the quality of data that has been gathered be representative of the population (Cohen et al 20002) o f twice-exceptional students? It is my assumption that no, it cannot. Especially since the chosen participant is a teacher reflecting upon his edu... ...otional/Behavioural disabilities and gifted and talented behaviours: Paradoxical or semantic differences in characteristics?, Psychology in the Schools, Vol. 38(5), 2001 Nielsen, M.E. (2002) Gifted Students With Learning Disabilities: recommendations for Identification and Programming, Exceptionality Vol.10 (2), 93-111 Nowak, M (2001) Double Inequity, Redoubled Critique: Twice-Exceptional (Gifted + Learning Disabled) Students, the Equality Ideal, and the Reward Structure of the Educational System http://www.newhorizons.org/spneeds/gifted/nowak3.htm#author#author Plucker, J.A. & Levy, J.J (2001) The Downside of Being Talented, American Psychologist, Vol 56(1) 75-76 Porter, L (1999) Gifted Young Children – A guide for teachers and parents Open University Press, Buckingham Sankar-DeLeeuw, N (2004) Case studies of gifted kindergarten children: profiles of promise. (On Gifted Students in School) Roeper Review, v26 i4 p192(16) Schuler, P.A. (2003) Gifted kids at risk: Who’s listening?, http://www.sengifted.org/articles_social/Schuler_GiftedKidsAtRiskWhosListening.shtml Teacher’s Training Agency – 20/01/05 http://www.teach.gov.uk/php/read.php?sectionid=218&articleid=1487 Critical Review of a Psychology Research Article on Students Essay Research Issues in Psychology Critical Review of a Research Article Pupils who exhibit gifted characteristics along with another disability are referred to as ‘twice-exceptional students’ (Morrison, 2001; Nielsen 2002). This term is used in the article that I have chosen to review, which analyzes the responses and perceptions through interview, of one particular individual (Andrew) who was identified as being gifted and talented (G/T) and who had emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD). What the researchers aimed to accomplish through this analysis was a clearer understanding of Andrew’s community and school experiences, as they stated that there was a lack of empirical data focusing upon pupils who displayed such behaviors. The features of the research design were straightforward and simple: a qualitative analysis with one participant; a structured interview, recorded then later transcribed and analyzed to produce 3 themes; a conclusion which produced findings of Andrew’s experiences as a twice-exceptional student. It is the appropriateness of the methods that were used in this study which will inform my first critique of this article. I will then move on to discuss the data which was collected, before finally examining how effective the conclusion is. Morrison and Omdal chose to include only one participant in their study, which compares quite significantly to the research of others in similar areas that have included a greater number of participants (Gross, 1994; Sankar-DeLeeuw, 2004; Howe et al, 1998). This particular participant, named under the pseudonym of Andrew, was 22 years of age when he consented to partake in the research. A brief description of his formidable successes both academic and socially, pointed out that he was currently employed as a ‘permanent substitute teacher’ (p.2). The reader is immediately drawn to a young man who has accomplished and triumphed against his ‘disabilities’; instantly gaining the respect of the readers’ as his successes show strength of character and determination. Surely then questions must arise about the validity of using such a small, select sample. Can the quality of data that has been gathered be representative of the population (Cohen et al 20002) o f twice-exceptional students? It is my assumption that no, it cannot. Especially since the chosen participant is a teacher reflecting upon his edu... ...otional/Behavioural disabilities and gifted and talented behaviours: Paradoxical or semantic differences in characteristics?, Psychology in the Schools, Vol. 38(5), 2001 Nielsen, M.E. (2002) Gifted Students With Learning Disabilities: recommendations for Identification and Programming, Exceptionality Vol.10 (2), 93-111 Nowak, M (2001) Double Inequity, Redoubled Critique: Twice-Exceptional (Gifted + Learning Disabled) Students, the Equality Ideal, and the Reward Structure of the Educational System http://www.newhorizons.org/spneeds/gifted/nowak3.htm#author#author Plucker, J.A. & Levy, J.J (2001) The Downside of Being Talented, American Psychologist, Vol 56(1) 75-76 Porter, L (1999) Gifted Young Children – A guide for teachers and parents Open University Press, Buckingham Sankar-DeLeeuw, N (2004) Case studies of gifted kindergarten children: profiles of promise. (On Gifted Students in School) Roeper Review, v26 i4 p192(16) Schuler, P.A. (2003) Gifted kids at risk: Who’s listening?, http://www.sengifted.org/articles_social/Schuler_GiftedKidsAtRiskWhosListening.shtml Teacher’s Training Agency – 20/01/05 http://www.teach.gov.uk/php/read.php?sectionid=218&articleid=1487

Can We Decrease Homlessness

Hicks 1 August 16, 2012 Can we decrease homelessness? The essay â€Å"A Modest Proposal† by Jonathan Swift is a brutal satire in which he suggests that the poor families should kill their young children and eat them in order to eliminate the growing number of starving citizens. At this time there was extreme poverty and a wide gap between the poor and the rich, the tenements and the landlords. Throughout the essay Swift uses satire and irony as a way to attack the indifference between classes.Swift is not seriously suggesting cannibalism; he is trying to make known the desperate state of the lower class and the need for a social and moral reform. Although this essay was written in the 1700’s we still have the same issues of homelessness and poverty in today’s modern society. Anna Quindlen Pulitzer Prize award winner author of â€Å"Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids,† states â€Å"Today the average homeless woman is younger than ever before, many have been in foster care or in shelters herself and so considers a chaotic childhood the norm† (345).Quindlen talks about the cycle of homelessness and poverty three hundred years after swifts essay. Smith goes to extreme measures to explain his new plan to raise the economic wellbeing of his country. He explains â€Å"what age is too young and what age is too old, in order to eat the Hicks 2 tenants children when they are at their prime juiciness. He also gives a list of suggestions on how to cook them. A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout. (350-352). Although he suggests to sell and cook the homeless babies. Swift is trying to point out the fact that reforms that would be practical and beneficial to the people are being overlooked for the convenience of the rich. Melanie Scheller author of â€Å"On The Mea ning Of Plumbing And Poverty,† writer for North Carolina Independent Weekly, state’s â€Å"My family was visibly and undeniably poor. My clothes were obviously hand-me-downs, I got free lunches at school, I went to the health depertment for immunizations† (356).Like swift Schellar emphasizes on what being in poverty and homeless is like. â€Å"It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants† (349).They are trying to get people to understand that not every homeless person has a way to get out and go find work so they can go find work and provide for their f amilies. Hicks 3 Peter Singer author of â€Å"The Singer solution to world Poverty,† an Australian-born philosopher and bioethicist, states â€Å"poverty, hunger, illness, and lack of shelter, these are the things that plague a majority of the people of the world and yet most of us are not even aware of it† (359).He believes that prosperous people should donate all of the money not needed for the basic requirements of life to organizations meant to help those less fortunate that are homeless and/or in poverty. Life swift he is trying to find a way to help those whom need it. Swift says â€Å"with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed forever† (353). Both Singer and Swift feel the need to help those less fortunate and want other people to know that they can help.The hole meaning is to try and get people to understand that not everyon e is as well of as them, that not everyone can just go off and get a job so they can provide for their families and that is why they end up in poverty and homeless. Swift says â€Å" I profess in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich† (353).If Swift was around today I believe he would be a great president for the United States of America and that he would actually make a great difference to those in poverty and homeless. Hicks 4 Works cited Ackley, Katherine Anne. Perspectives on Contemporary issues, 4th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2006. Print. Quindlen, Anne. â€Å"Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids. † Ackley 344-346. Scheller, Melanie. â€Å"On The meaning Of Plumbing And Poverty. † Ackley 354-357. Singer, Peter. â€Å"The Singer Solution To World Poverty. † Ackley 358-362. Swift , Jonathen. â€Å" A Modest Proposal. † Ackley 348-353.

Marketing and Strategy †Organic Food Essay

One of the most significant forces in changing consumer needs that current marketers face are the ever increasing environmental issues that people are becoming aware of. Consumers are interested in how goods are produced,especially in the food market where there is the increasing issue of labour exploitation and genetic modification. This has gained a lot of momentum in recent years with the growth of the Organic sector and ? Fair Trade’ products. In 2004, the retail market for organic products in the UK was worth an estimated ? 1. 213 billion, and 11% increase on 2003, (Soil Association’s Organic Market Report, 2005). This notion is backed up by Mintel, â€Å"In most of the consumer research we carry out around a quarter of consumers are concerned about green matters, seek out fair trade products or healthy ranges of foods. That is a substantial proportion of the customer base of any food retailer and so cannot be ignored† (UK retail briefing-Household goods focus, 2006). Genetically Modified & Organic Food A genetically modified (GM) food is a food product that has been developed by having specific genes inserted into it to gain a desirable quality. The first GM food to hit the shelves were GM tomatoes which appeared in 1996 in British supermarkets, however, it was not until 1999 that the public scare hit. In a recent survey, one third of people said they would never buy any food that had been genetically modified. This figure is up by four percent in three years, quite a significant amount (attitudes toward ethical foods UK- Mintel, 2006). This provides an opportunity for marketers operating in the food sector, for example a business could promote itself as environmentally aware by claiming they sell only non-GM produce. This would give them the advantage of reassuring worried consumers whilst providing them with the upper hand against firms who do sell GM foods. Another benefit is that there are a large proportion of middle and upper class consumers who are generally aware about the issues related to genetic modification and organic food. This perhaps opens opportunities to price products at the more expensive end of the market, as they are likely to pay more if the food meets their expectations. Organic food products are becoming increasingly popular due to the ever-increasing awareness of health issues, media campaigns from the large supermarket chains and endorsements from celebrity chefs. To meet these changes in consumer needs, all of the leading supermarket chains have introduced organic ranges in their stores. There is also the fear in the UK for the future of the ? fast food games console’ children, (P. Tailor, http://www. learnmarketing. net/environment. htm) which provides a direct market opportunity for healthier food products. If a firm specialises only in selling organic produce they would be able to advantage of these opportunities. A recent example of this is innocent drinks, selling the innocent brand of ?smoothies’. They began with a simple investment of ? 500, selling freshly made smoothies at a music festival and now command a 30% slice of a market with a retail value of about ? 50m, (Market Researchers AC Nielsen, 2003). A problem is that these organisations need to aim their products at the right market. Traditionally it has been consumers in the middle and upper classes who have been buying organic food, however there is â€Å"an encouraging widening of the appeal? with over half those in lower income groups now saying they buy some organic products† (Soil Association Press Release, 2005). This implies that there could be an opportunity at trying to offer cheaper organic produce marketed towards the lower end of the income scale. Even if the price is similar to other organic goods, it could be advertised to show the direct benefits of the food to help consumers justify spending more money for organic produce. ?Fair Trade’ Products Fair trade is a relatively new, organized social movement that promotes equal standards for international labour, environmentalism and social policy in the areas related to the production of ? Fair Trade’ goods. This is another rapidly growing section of the food market that is providing a good opportunity for marketers, reporting a massive increase of around 20% a year (FINE, 2005) and now standing at a market value of ? 660 million. The movement has also benefited from increasing media interest, which means that any unethical behaviour or employee exploitation could lead to a massive amount of bad publicity. It is clear that to promote a good brand image in today’s food market, an organisation should look to be aware to fair trade issues. The possible opportunity here lies in the current range of fair trade products that are on the market. At the moment the main products in fair trade ranges are goods such as fruit, nut products, chocolate and coffee; this means there could be a demand for products in other categories, like meat products or even fair trade drinks. This wider range of fair trade products could give a business a unique selling point, as well as providing them with a strong ethical stance. Perhaps there would even be a chance to use the pressure groups or charities that are involved with fair trade to the organisation’s advantage. Marketers could combine the selling of fair trade goods with holding events to raise awareness of unfair trade issues. If they could gain the backing of charities such as Oxfam or trade networks like the European Fair Trade Association, there would be loots of opportunities to raise their brand awareness, thus increasing sales. Local Produce Environmentally aware consumers are increasingly favouring local produce. Over 100 years ago nearly all the food we ate come from within 20 miles of our homes but now we would struggle to find a handful of locally produced goods in our supermarkets (Inside Out ?East, January 2003). This may not seem as an obvious environmental issue but the problem lies within the transport that must take place to move food products around the UK and the world. A massive 25% of trucks on the UK roads are carrying food products; this means that almost as much greenhouse gas is caused by moving food than by all power stations in the UK (Inside Out ? East, January 2003). Importing products from overseas also causes pollution issues, a large proportion of lamb sold in the UK comes from New Zealand and the same is true for potatoes from Israel. Perhaps there is an opportunity for UK organisations to source their food products locally. A business doing this would be able to promote their policies in pollution reduction whilst also promoting an investment in local farmers. This should help massively in obtaining local market share but it may not be possible to source many food products in certain areas, however, any attempt to reduce the massive pollution caused by transport would offer a strong selling point. It is important to note for firms looking to take advantage of the increasing consumer awareness that there can be problems. Shops focusing on only selling Organic, Fair trade and local produce are generally small in size and very specialist. If they are seen to have a very successful idea it is highly likely that the major supermarket chains will try and imitate it with their greater resources. This would be very serious competition and should be considered if a business is considering in solely selling goods to the environmentally aware consumers. There is also the chance of certain barriers to enter into these specialist markets; one of these is the established competitor. Organisations like the Co-op have already been long-term supporters of fair trade. Another likely problem is the increased scrutiny that a business will face when ? announcing’ themselves to be environmentally aware. If a business declares to be environmentally aware and is then seen to be doing damage, it would most likely cause significant financial damage. How can Marketing help in ethical terms? The most obvious way in which marketers can help in ethical terms is by increasing consumer awareness in the issues that are troubling the food market today. A way to do this would be to create simple promotion campaigns where the benefits of organic food or local produce are shown clearly to the consumer. An example of this could be Sainsbury’s TV advertising campaign fronted by Jamie Oliver showing the re-launched ? Taste the Difference’ range. They have removed all artificial flavours or colourings, stopped using hydrogenated fats and only using free-range eggs and UK-sourced meat, (The Guardian, October 2006) combined with the links Jamie Oliver has to health awareness and has lead to a very effective campaign. Another way that marketers can help consumers is to make sure that the packaging of a product follows environmental awareness and ethical issues. Firstly the packaging of a product should be recyclable and reduced to a minimum, in fact there should be ? reminder to recycle’ on all products that have recyclable packaging. Secondly the labelling of products needs to display the relevant health and environmental information clearly. Tesco have implemented the traffic light system to show the qualities of a product at a quick glance. Customers can see by the colour of the light whether or not the product is considered healthy, which is determined by the fat, calorie and salt content. Likewise it could be possible to put small sections of information on fair trade products to show the benefits to the producers that fair trade has. If there was a greater knowledge by the average consumer it might lead fair trade food products to become standard, opposed to the current niche that they are filling, providing social benefits like reducing the global poverty gap. It is also important for the labelling and packaging on a product to not be misleading. If a food product clearly meets organic food standards then it should be labelled as organic; likewise anything that is not produced locally or is not organic should be labelled correctly. Recently there have been reports of Supermarkets putting pressure on organic food watchdogs to lower standards so they can fully exploit the industry, (The Guardian, October 2006). It has been stated â€Å"there are lots of loopholes in the regulations and in practice these are being heavily exploited† and that â€Å"Organics is increasingly becoming industrialised and the consumer will one day wake up and see this stuff is not what they think it is†, (L. Woodward, former head of The Soil Association). It is clear that marketers need to stay fair and honest to ensure that the supermarkets are unable to lobby together and reduce the standards. Perhaps a stance could be taken by one of the supermarket chains to actually support the stricter guidelines, even if it might close the exploitative opportunities. A possible way to encourage people further to buy organic or fair trade products would be to offer promotions involved with the purchase of these goods. Supermarkets could easily offer their customers a larger number of store reward points when the sale takes place, or even try to focus BOGOF deals and price reductions to these product ranges. I would recommend that promotions where the customer gets one fair trade product for half price when two organic products are purchased should be implemented. Linking the product ranges might help encapsulate some of the organic aware consumers into purchasing fair trade products or locally sourced goods and vice versa. A new concept that has been introduced to counter the issue of transportation pollution is food miles; the basis of this revolves around a label on food products stating how far the product had to be transported to reach the supermarket. Marketers could use this function to show customers that products are contributing heavier to pollution. It would also aid in educating consumers into seeing which products should be purchased at seasonal times to minimise transport. If you were looking to purchase strawberries in the winter they would have travelled a long distance to reach the UK, possibly highlighting this fact would teach some consumers to eat more ? seasonally’. The new more socially aware consumer is presenting big opportunities to the major food retailers due to the growing markets in organic food. These opportunities can conflict with what would be considered ethically considerable, especially the issue with organic food appealing to the higher end of the market thus leading to the possibility of keeping prices high. Of course it is best for environment and consumers if the prices are kept lower on organic food so everyone can eat healthier. Perhaps the supermarkets should consider lowering their margins on organic food and making it back on more price inelastic goods such as alcohol or cigarettes. It is clear however that organisations should be careful in deciding which opportunities to take advantage of as their actions could possibly have negative repercussions like consumer cynicism, leading to consumer cynicism. Although if marketers are able to promote these ethical issues and increase public awareness whilst still maintaining profit growth, the potential benefits for everyone are great. Bibliography ?Soil Association (2005) â€Å"Organic Market Report 2005† ?Soil Association (2005) â€Å"Soil Association Press Release†? FINE (2005) â€Å"Fair Trade in Europe 2005: Facts and Figures on Fair Trade in 25 European countries† ? Mintel (2006) â€Å"UK retail briefing – Household goods focus ? Mintel (2006) â€Å"Attitudes toward ethical foods in the UK† ?P. Tailor, Learnmarketing. net/environment. htm ?AC Nielsen (2003) Market Research ?BBC. co. uk/insideout/east/series2/local_produce_organic_healthy_eating. shtml ? Laville. S & Vidal. J (2006) â€Å"Supermarkets accused over organic foods†, The Guardian, October 5th.

Delegation vs Empowerment Essay

Delegation and empowerment are important concepts in management for leaders and managers. These are tools in the hands of managers that they must use judiciously to achieve the goals of the organization while motivating the employees to achieve better and improved productivity. We know that to delegate is to allocate tasks to employees telling them what to do and in what manner. Empowerment, There are many more differences between the two concepts of empowerment and delegation that will be talked about in this article. What is Delegation? When a manager gives tasks to subordinates asking them to complete them as per directions and deadline, he is supposed to be delegating authority at different levels. Employees are made responsible and accountable for the task entrusted with them. Delegation of power and authority is common in all situations and circumstances though it is in the context of an organization that delegation becomes a tool in the hands of managers to achieve the goals of the organization best. If you look up the dictionary, the act of delegation in its verb form refers to the process of giving authority to employees entrusting them with tasks. The inherent feeling in delegation is the command or what the manager expects form the subordinates. Delegation is purely thought of in terms of organizational benefits with nothing in it for the employees’ motivation or positive behavioral changes. It has to be remembered that delegation of authority also involves delegation of protocol as there is always a set of instructions or guidelines according to which the employee has to get the task completed. What is Empowerment? Empowerment is a term that has become very commonplace these days with newspapers using the word in articles and talk shows on TV having panelists talking about the need to empower the backward and downtrodden sections of the society. Empowerment refers to the process of giving people more control over their situations and lives. In purely organizational setup, empowering employees is showing trust and faith in them while giving them responsibilities. Empowerment is believed to motivate employees as they feel  more in control of the situation. When boss makes someone in charge of a department and allows him to run it as he deems fit, it is seen that the employee has more confidence and produces better results than when he is delegated authority and asked to run the department according to set rules and protocol. Empowerment is a process that shows respect to employees placing trust in their abilities. While organizational goals remain the end results, employee interests are used as means to achieve these results. What is the difference between Delegation and Empowerment? †¢ To achieve the goals of the organization, making use of employees, managers can make use of either delegation or empowerment †¢ While delegation is all about using employees as means to achieve ends, empowerment tries to make employees feel important as it is a process that places trust in the abilities of the employees †¢ Some managers have fear of erosion of authority which is why they use delegation over empowerment

Morality and Utilitarianism Essay

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that holds that an action is right if it produces, or if it tends to produce, the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people affected by the action. Otherwise the action is wrong. This cost-benefit analysis is a form of utility calculation. People in business theory use utility curves to plot the results of various actions, choosing those that maximize whatever it is that they wish to achieve. This utility approach is not foreign to most people. It is widely used in many forms of general decision making and can be applied to moral issues as well as to strictly business issues. A defense of utilitarianism as an ethical theory is that it describes what rational people actually do in making moral decisions. It explicitly formulates for them the procedures they intuitively and spontaneously use in moral reasoning. The theory renders explicit what is implicit in the ordinary moral reasoning and argumentation that we ourselves use Utilitarianism adopts a teleological approach to ethics and claims that actions are to be judged by their consequences. According to this view, actions are not good or bad in themselves. Actions take on moral value only when considered in conjunction with the effects that follow upon them. ACT AND RULE UTILITARIANISM Act utilitarianism holds that each individual action, in all its concreteness and in all its detail, is what should be subjected to the utilitarian test. Rule utilitarians hold that utility applies appropriately to classes of actions rather than to given individual actions. Thus, by looking at the general consequences of breaking contracts in the past, we can determine that breaking contracts is immoral. OBJECTIONS TO UTILITARIANISM One objection claims that utilitarianism is ungodly because it proposes utility, rather than the Bible or God, as a basis for moral judgments. A second objection frequently brought against utilitarianism is that no one has the time to calculate all the consequences of an action beforehand. A third objection to utilitarianism is that we cannot know the full results of any action, nor can we accurately weigh the different kinds of good and evil that result. The calculation is artificial and not practical. APPLYING UTILITARIANISM 1. Accurately state the action to be evaluated. 2. Identify all those who are directly and indirectly affected by the action. 3. Consider whether there is some dominant, obvious consideration that carries such importance as to outweigh other considerations. 4. Specify all the pertinent good and bad consequences of the action for those directly affected, as far into the future as appears appropriate, and imaginatively consider various possible outcomes and the likelihood of their occurring. 5. Weigh the total good results against the total bad results, considering quantity, duration, propinquity or remoteness, fecundity, and purity for each value (kind of good and kind of bad), and the relative importance of these values. 6. Carry out a similar analysis, if necessary, for those indirectly affected, as well as for society as a whole. 7. Sum up all the good and bad consequences. If the action produces more good than bad, the action is morally right; if it produces more bad than good, it is morally wrong. 8. Consider, imaginatively, whether there are various alternatives other than simply doing or not doing the action, and carry out a similar analysis for each of the other alternative actions. 9. Compare the results of the various actions. The action that produces the most good (or the least bad, if none produces more good than bad) among those available is the morally proper action to perform UTILITARIANISM AND BRIBERY Bribery in business is an interesting kind of action to examine from a utilitarian point of view, because those who engage in bribery frequently justify their actions based on something similar to utilitarian grounds. Utilitarianism, far from being a self-serving approach to moral issues, demands careful, objective, and impartial evaluation of consequences. It is a widely used—but often misused—approach to moral evaluation. A powerful tool of moral reasoning, it is a technique well worth mastering. CASE SUMMARIES An Airplane Manufacturing Case An airplane manufacturer has spent a great deal of money developing a new airplane. The company badly needs cash because it is financially overextended. If it does not get some large orders soon, it will have to close down part of its operation. Doing that will put several thousand workers out of jobs. The president of the company bribes a foreign minister to insure the purchase of the planes, arguing that the good done overall justifies the use of bribery.