Monday, September 30, 2019

Reaction Paper to a Motivation Article

REACTION PAPER Topic: â€Å"INCENTIVES ARE NOT THE SAME AS MOTIVATORS†Mr. Clayton Christensen, a renowned author in the field of management, wrote an article entitled â€Å"INCENTIVES ARE NOT THE SAME AS MOTIVATORS†. He enlightens his readers on the difference between incentives and motivators. He was born on April 16, 1952 at Salt Lake City, Utah (USA). Besides being a teacher and a consultant, he is also famous in writing articles about innovator’s dilemma. This article was published by Carmen Nobel last June 4, 2012.Some people may say that â€Å"incentives† and â€Å"motivators† are synonymous to each other, but they are different in a major way. Incentives are somewhat like â€Å"prizes† set for the persons who did something beneficial. Meaning, people will do their best to get the prize. Whereas for motivators, it is somewhat like â€Å"encouragements† to persuade people to do their best to enhance their own skills. It is more la sting and holistic. â€Å"Do this and you’ll get that,† These are the words that we always hear from our parents.This is also a very common and popular phrase in companies. Some corporations rely on some sort of incentive programs, wherein there will always be â€Å"fabulous prizes† if the company’s productivity improves. Henry L. Gantt, contributor to Scientific Management, had designed a program wherein every worker who finished a day’s assigned work load would win a 50? bonus for that day. Because of this, of course, we can conclude that all workers labored to win the prize.But behind all these incentives, do all workers really have passion for their work? In my personal experience, when I was young, I also did the household chores because of incentives – washing dishes for new toys, clothes, and other things; cleaning the house for cell phone load; and many more. But after some time, I realized that without any incentives, I am not motiv ated to perform those tasks. Motivations came when I realized that upon completion of the assigned tasks, I can enjoy and benefit from it.I can feel and enjoy the fruits of my labor. In conclusion, I agree with the author that motivations are better than incentives. If you would look at it carefully, if the incentive program will to be used, people will only do their job because of that â€Å"something† that will be given afterwards. However, if the motivation program will to be introduced instead, it would inspire people to do their best at all times, in order for them to be proud, and contented with what they have done, and with what they have achieved.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Analysis of the Bottled Water Industry Essay

The shortage of potable water on some islands in the Maldives has been described as â€Å"serious† by the national disaster management centre (NDMC). There are currently 12 islands which have been facing water shortages since mid-February, according to Moosa Ali Kaleyfaan, deputy director general of the NDMC. The NDMC has supplied 763 tons of water to eight islands, but four more islands [†¦ ] are in desperate need of water, he said. â€Å"The main reason is it hasn’t rained for a long time it’s the dry season,† said Moosa. â€Å"Even more islands are believed to face this problem. The department of meteorology has forecast the dry season will continue until June [2009]. The NDMC has spent an estimated US$60,000 to supply water to the 12 islands. â€Å"I am very upset with the government because we need water,† said 42-year old Jameela Aboobakuru from Gaafaru. â€Å"We ran out of water, so we borrowed water from our brother. When he ran out of water we started buying bottled water imported from Male’. † She said her 12-member family was spending US$22 a day to buy bottled water for drinking and cooking; their daily income, she added, was only US$26. On another island, Gulhi, Ahmed Ibrahim, the island office assistant director, said islanders had been importing bottles water from the capital as well as in jerry cans. â€Å"They are getting water somehow,† he said, â€Å"but the island needs a permanent solution to this problem like piped desalinated water. † Kaleyfaan agreed, saying although water was supplied to the islands from Male’, it was necessary to seek a long-term solution such the installation of a desalination plant on every island. We are already in the process of installing a desalination plant in a boat, so that in emergencies we can supply water by travelling between islands,† he said. [†¦ ] Almost 100 per cent of islanders use rainwater as the main source of drinking and cooking water. In [the capital] Male, 100 per cent of the population has access to piped desalinated water. After the 2004 tsunami, 38 islands were provided desalination plants by UN that are operated daily or on em ergency basis.

Friday, September 27, 2019

How Meaning of Words Change Throughout the Generations Research Paper

How Meaning of Words Change Throughout the Generations - Research Paper Example That indicates that it is common for an individual from outside a circle to get lost when engaging in a discussion from members who belong to the same circles. However, some slang words usage remains almost the same with only acquiring growth in terms of usage across various cultures and group settings. The usage of the words may at times become seasonal where almost every group uses the word at a certain period and then the word gets replaced by another more appealing word. Some slangs may, however, maintain the same meaning while compared with the dictionary meaning although changes may result over time. The paper examines the usage and meaning of the word cool according to the researcher’s perspective and how the circle that the researcher belongs to uses the word in expressing opinions or reactions. As a student, my circle comprises of students in a few groupings from the academic platform and the extra-curricular platform. As a student, interactions are common with group members and other classmates as most of the day time hours are spent together with other students. On the other hand, as a footballer for the school team, interactions with other team members are evident during training and game time. The word cool as used in the two group settings is often used in the two group settings mostly to signify something good. The difference between the meaning of the word is portrayed while examining the result that I attributed to the word cool by these two groups. Consider for example a situation where upon submitting a group representation in the class, our study group scored eighty percent, although the performance was the fifth while compared to the other groups. From citing the performance as cool, the group leader and the group members signified that although the performance was not excellent, it was good.

Genital Warts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Genital Warts - Essay Example Being a sexually transmitted disease, the risk factors in venereal warts is directly related to the sexual lifestyle of a person. Genital warts are most prevalent in persons who practices unprotected sex with multiple sex partners. Others include "having has another sexually transmitted disease, having sex with a partner who has an unknown sexual history, and becoming sexually active at a young age (Genital Warts 2007)." Treatment of genital warts should always be undertaken by a physician with this expertise. Over the counter medications used to treat common warts are not suitable for the moist tissues in the genital area. The treatment of genital warts includes medical prescriptions and surgery. Some of the chemicals which are directly applied onto the skin are: imiquimod which boost the body's immune system to fight the warts, podofilox which destroys the genital warts' tissues, and trichloroacetic acid which burns off genital warts. Surgery is often the best option if larger warts are to be removed that they do not respond to medications or if the infected person is pregnant which exposes the baby to risk of infection during delivery.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

The New Mecca by George Saunders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The New Mecca by George Saunders - Essay Example Saunders narrative the new Mecca has assisted a considerable number of people to change the attitude developed in certain things. Ignorance can make individuals to develop perceptions about certain places that are completely misplaced and untrue. According to Saunders, misconceptions from a far are sources of biasness that can be costly to a person, touring the world is a remedy to eliminating some of these perceptions. The magnificent city of Dubai changed Saunders attitude about a place he had never travelled before and the conclusive statement at the end of his narrative the new Mecca city carries the theme of the narrative. The picture created about Dubai was that it was a risky desert town with makeshift structures, which could not house people of class effectively. When Saunders had not travelled to Dubai, he heard the magnificent ideas that the government of United Arabs Emirates had but he only thought that these were just blusters. Saunders (23) states that, â€Å"Dubai looked something like Dallas circa 1985: a vast expanse of white boxes, punctuated by clusters of freakish skyscrapers†. This implies that the government had indeed fulfilled its plans to develop United Arabs Emirates to the benefit of its loyal citizens. On the plane to Dubai, he was amused to see a new technology based city dazzling in the desert. The ideas that sounded only theoretical to many people were indeed practical and all the projects were underway with some completed. There is a conception that the people in Dubai are violent hence, difficult to learn their language. Very many people doubt whether they can cope up with life in Dubai because of the language barrier. They think that they would find only uncooperative natives as city dwellers who only understand the local languages and it would be hard for them to find a translator. In reality when Saunders landed in Dubai, he was surprised that most of the city dwellers were foreigners who spoke very decent English and were very welcoming even if there were dressed like local Arabs. According to Saunders (24), â€Å"they are young sweet hearted guys from Nepal or Kenya or the Philippines, who speak terrific English†. Indeed Dubai proved to be an international city hence the idea of a language should not linger in the people’s minds. Most of the workers in the city came from the world poorest nations of Africa and southern Asia and all of them were satisfied with the life in this city. Saunders stated that,

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Human Resources consultant Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Human Resources consultant - Case Study Example This would have helped the bosses portray that they are quite interested in the store and the employees working there. 2. According to Equity theory, workers are motivated if they perceive that the reward is equal to the input given by workers (Koontz, 1986, p.295). The workers of Flight 001 do not perceive that the reward or compensation given to them is equal to their input and hard work due to which they have been de-motivated. Due to lack of motivation, the workers might not use their knowledge, skills and abilities at the optimum level and they might under produce. To motivate employees owners shave to pay compensation according to the amount of hard work and dedication injected by the workers in the business. 3. The hygiene factors that are being met in the organization include status, work environment and supervisory procedures. In this case we can see that employees feel that they are not just employees who are being supervised and assigned tasks, they feel that they are a very important part of the organization. This shows that the environment of the organization is quite flexible, there is less supervision and workers in the organization are quite loyal as they are treated as a part of the organization. Motivational factors existing in the organization’s environment include: recognition of achievement, greater responsibility and flexible working environment. The motivational factor of greater responsibility is available because owners have not just assigned tasks to workers, but owners are viewing employees that the main reason of organization’s success and are provided higher responsibilities such as decision making and problem solving. The organizations environment is quite flexible because the organization is not using any supervisors to keep an eye on the employees and employees are making decisions on their

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

America's Ability To Produce Goods, Then And Now Research Paper

America's Ability To Produce Goods, Then And Now - Research Paper Example The concept of capacity of goods can be defined by defining five propositions. First of these proposition is the maximum attainable production. Second proposition is that production is needed to be maximized because of several economic factors and not on the basis of technological factor. Third proposition is that there are varieties of answers which can be given to the theory of â€Å"maximum attainable production†. The answer to this proposition can be defined on the basis of economical basis. The fourth proposition is that the investigator of the factors of capacity to produce may use certain economic factors to define this concept. The final proposition is that the estimation in the increase in output. The maximization of capacity can be studied on the basis of the technological factor as production maximization is strongly linked to capacity maximization. The plan of capacity maximization is based on the technological changes as well as the new capital investment in the m anufacturing sector. American Production Capacity in Great Depression The great depression occurred in America, Europe in many other industrialized countries of the world from 1929 to 1939. The great depression affected the performance of the industries.... of that year that it was determined by the government that the investors of the stock market lost about $ 40 billion from this collapse of the stock exchange. The performance of the American economy can be seen at the time of the great depression on the basis of the economic statistics. In 1933 (at the time of the great depression), the GNP of the country decreased to half of what it was in the year 1923. The production of the industry fell to half of its production in a decade before, and also the construction of new plants decreased in the country by 90 percent. The production of the automobile industry decreased to about half of its average production, whereas the steel industry, at the time of the great depression operated at 12 percent capacity (The Depression in the United States--An Overview, 2013). Under the presidency of Herbert Hoover about 13 million Americans in the labor force lost their jobs. Out of these unemployed people about 63 percent remained unemployed for almost a year, 43 percent were unemployed for almost two years and 24 percent and 11 percent were unemployed for over three years and four years, respectively (Economic Recovery, Part II: America's Capacity to Produce, 2011). Unemployment in America during the great depression was as high as 24.1 percent, in the year 1933. This rate did not drop to until the WWII, when the rate of unemployment dropped to 14.3 percent (Timeline of the Great Depression, 2010). Wall Street Great Crash initiated financial meltdown in the year 1929, where assets worth in billions was vanished into air. The wealthy Americans who owned most of the nation’s stock faced great loss due the fall in the value of the New York stock market by 80 percent. During the great depression, two out of every five banks collapsed

Monday, September 23, 2019

CRITICALLY ASSES WHY ORGANISATIONS SHOULD IMPLEMENT SUPPORTIVE CARREER Essay - 1

CRITICALLY ASSES WHY ORGANISATIONS SHOULD IMPLEMENT SUPPORTIVE CARREER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES - Essay Example good example of these changes is the nature of contracts that are available to potential employees, whereas psychological contracts were mostly the main terms of agreement between workers and their employees and involved issues only relating to the particular position they were applying for at the time, the introduction of transactional contracts that leave room for improvement should the individual progress through the ranks in the organization are now the main type of agreements found in many companies (Yehuda, 2004). It is important to note that a career can either be driven by an individual and is referred to as Individual Career Management (ICM) or the organization they are working for referred to as Organizational Career Management (OCM). ICM can be described as the act of an individual taking charge of the progress of their career through the choices and activities that they indulge in without any assistance from their employees while OCM refers to the progression of one’s career through the assistance of the company that they are currently employed at with the aim of them moving up the ranks within that particular organization (Yehuda, 2004). Job postings – This refers to the internal advertising of available positions within the organization for any interested employees. These job postings can be advertised via communal communication mediums such as notice boards within the company’s buildings. Performance appraisal for Career planning – This refers to the activity of having the quality of an individual’s work determined by their superiors in a bid to determine their chances of progressing through the ranks. This helps an employee know if they are performing well or if they need to improve on their work. Formal education – This involves the organization funding its employees’ further education so as to assist them in improving their qualifications for higher ranking positions that may be available in the future. This funding can be done

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Global Poverty Essay Example for Free

Global Poverty Essay The definition of poverty is a matter of debate. In 1795, English magistrates decided that a minimum income should be the cost of a gallon loaf of bread, multiplied by three, plus an allowance for each dependent. Today, the Census Bureau defines the threshold of global poverty as the minimum amount of money families need to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet, assuming they use one-third of their income for food. The term underclass has been applied by some social scientists to a population of people, concentrated in an inner city, who are persistently poor, unemployed, and dependent on welfare, with an emphasis on persistently. Initially, sociologist William Julius Wilson championed the concept to describe the plight of the truly disadvantaged. But he and a number of other sociologists have since expressed concern that the term underclass is being misused by some journalists and political conservatives to argue that the poor have created their own plight and are to blame for their poverty (Hinkle, 1994). Wilson contends that the underclass exists mainly because of a sharp climb in inner-city joblessness by virtue of the elimination of hundreds of thousands of lower-skill jobs, the growing polarization of the labor market into low-wage and high-wage sectors, the relocation of manufacturing industries out of the central city, and periodic recessions. The problem has been compounded by the concentration of the disadvantaged in inner-city ghettos and the isolation of these areas from more affluent communities (Hinkle, 1994). Before World War I, most African Americans lived in the rural South. But industrial jobs during World Wars I and II drew hundreds of thousands of blacks to cities in the North (Davis, 2004). Almost all of these people were poor, unskilled workers. Structural factors, i. e. the disappearance over the past quarter-century of hundreds of thousands of low-skill jobs, mainly involving physical labor, have meant that inner-city blacks have become a severely disadvantaged class (Hinkle, 1994). They settled in slum areas near the factories where they worked in the inner city. As slums grew, ghetto conditions worsened. These patterns are most evident in large American cities where smokestack industries once attracted young men with few or no skills to jobs that nonetheless paid well enough to support wives and children. Prejudice and discrimination have made it difficult for African Americans and other minorities to improve these conditions. Legislation has been used to try to eliminate ghetto conditions in the United States. But segregation remains a serious problem. Now poor urban blacks find themselves relegated to all-black neighborhoods where they are socially isolated from mainstream life (Davis, 2004). According to the conflict theory, though, the underclass indeed constitutes a minority of the poor. The underclass is a cote of inner-city poor, those individuals and families who are trapped in an unending cycle of joblessness and dependence on welfare or criminal earnings. Their communities are plagued by drug abuse, lawlessness, crime, violence, and poor schools. Many underclass women were teenage mothers and high school dropouts who subsequently found themselves sidetracked without the resources or skills to escape a life of poverty (Hinkle, 1994). Some sociologists portray global poverty as a structural feature of capitalist societies. The cyclical movements between economic expansion and contraction, boom and bust, contribute to sharp fluctuations in employment (Iceland, 2003). A century ago, Karl Marx contended that an industrial reserve army is essential for capitalist economies. The industrial reserve army consists of individuals at the bottom of the class structure who are laid off in the interests of corporate profits during times of economic stagnation, then rehired when needed for producing profits during times of economic prosperity. It is disproportionately composed of minorities, who traditionally have been the last hired and the first hired. Contemporary structural functionalists say that a new industrial order characterized by a significant shift from manufacturing to service-sector employment has produced massive vulnerability among all blue-collar workers (Hinkle, 1994). Poverty derives from a lack of income-producing employment. And high inner-city rates of family disintegration, welfare dependency, drug abuse, and crime are additional outcomes of faulty economic organization. Clustered in large ghettos and squatters Mexico, Africa, and some parts of Asia, the poor develop feelings of marginality, helplessness, dependence, and inferiority. These circumstances allegedly breed weak ego structures, lack of impulse control, a present-time orientation characterized by little ability to deter gratification, and a sense of resignation and fatalism. The resulting lifeways are both an adaptation and a reaction of the poor to their disadvantaged positions (Iceland, 2003). They become self-perpetuating patterns as the ethos associated with the culture of poverty is transmitted to successive generations. United Nations bureaus revealed that nearly half of the state’s children have mothers who have failed to fulfill elementary school. Statistics illustrate there exists a positive relationship between parents’ educational attainment and their offspring’s odds in their latter life. Children of parents who have no adequate formal education are prone to endure scarcity as they age. Poverty-stricken people around the world suffer from the lack of many things they need. For example, they are less likely to receive adequate medical care or to eat the foods they need to stay healthy. The poor have more diseases, become more seriously ill, and die at a younger age than other people do. Poor people often live in substandard housing in socially isolated areas where most of their neighbors are poor. Many low-income families live in crowded, run-down buildings with inadequate heat and plumbing. The jobs most readily available to the poor provide low wages and little opportunity for advancement. Many of these jobs also involve dangerous or unhealthful working conditions. Financial, medical, and emotional problems often strain family ties among the poverty-stricken (Iceland, 2003). In Laos, saddled with debt, lacking infrastructure, and short of trained personnel, the government simply cannot afford to provide basic schooling for all of their children. However, this is not a problem of lack of resources, but rather a problem of resource allocation. In Ghana, misdistribution and capitalistic exploitation make the medicines inaccessible to the poor clients in the district. If in the past, the causes of illnesses may have been shared between man and nature, from this time forth, diseases are brought about by the caustic arms of industrialization, which might have not destroyed or alternatively benefited the sub-Saharan Africa. In Thailand, young people, some hardly elapsed pre-school age, vending on streets virtually every single day is a heartbreaking scene to the passersby. While at first glance it may seem to be effortless, risk-free toil that equips a deprived family a most wanted boost, it essentially stems from a chain of causes, and begets a mesh of costs for the child, his family and the society in which they are trying to survive. Eventually, many unschooled children would eventually realize finding themselves sidetracked without the resources or skills to escape a life of poverty. Within the United States, President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society produced a flurry of social programs rivaling those of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Some are gone, while others were severely cut or revamped by the Reagan and Bush administrations. The government provides two main types of aid: social insurance and public assistance. Social insurance mainly covers people-or their families-who have worked and paid special taxes in the past, whether or not they are poor. Public assistance provides aid to the needy regardless of their work record (Iceland, 2003). Education is a key element in reversing poverty. For some people in Asia and Africa, education is a means to improve oneself. Education is greatly related to social status because a high degree of education involves money and motivation. Some people insist that the forces that are making the world into a single economy have separated people from longstanding identities and have, at the same time, weakened nation-state. Particularly, McDonaldization of global society has allowed to target highly specific groups wherever they are and so the ethnic bond tails them too (Ritzer, 1996). People in developing countries are starving, purely so that our developed society can be provided with excess food. Chemicals, necessary for the uniformity of its products, are destroying the environment and putting lives at risk due to increased nitrate levels. This way, McDonaldization of society wouldn’t make the world a better place, as it will simply turn into a bigger breeding ground for exploitation, pollution, and economic imbalance around the world furthering global poverty.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Gas Solid Chromatography And Gas Liquid Chromatography Chemistry Essay

Gas Solid Chromatography And Gas Liquid Chromatography Chemistry Essay Gas chromatography mainly consists of Gas solid chromatography and Gas liquid chromatography, in both types gas is used as mobile phase and either solid or liquid used as stationary phase. Gas solid chromatography is not used widely because of limited number of stationary phases available. In Gas solid chromatography, the principle of separation is adsorption. Its mainly used for solutes which having less solubility in stationary phase. Principle and criteria required for gas chromatography Principle of separation in Gas liquid chromatography is partition only.  Gas is used as mobile phase and the liquid is coated on a solid support used as stationary phase. Hence those compounds can be separated according to their partition-coefficients. Criteria for the compounds to be analysed by gas chromatography are volataility and thermostability. Liquid Chromatography Liquid chromatography is a separation technique in which the mobile phase is a liquid. Liquid chromatography can be carried out either in a column or a plane. Liquid chromatography it utilizes very small amount of particles and relatively high pressure is applied called as high performance liquid chromatography. Liquid chromatography mainly described as non-instrumental method. Since sample doesnt need to vaporize as like in gas chromatography. Potentially any compound can be analysed by this method. Elution can be done by surface adsorbtion , solvent partitioning, ion-exchange , relative solute size , and relative solubility. Both solute and solvents are attached to the polar sites on stationary phase Selection of solvent Its is depend upon various factors such as Solvent strength , polarity index. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Using of more than one column in gas and liquid chromatography : The significant advantage over single column system rather than one or two dimensional systems are coupled in such a way that individual or group peaks are transfer from one column to another column for increase in resolution. Various things supporting for using of multidimensional systems are by observing results from various journals such as- Increase in resolution better separation Shortly analysis time Faster results Avoidence of column and detector contamination Increase of volume lifetime and reliability Increase in sensitivity improved detection by removal of overlapped peaks. Using of combinational approach for the improvement of conditional probabilities. To improve the analyte signal probability, nothing but Application of hyphenation. To minimize model residual error. The main approaches for using more than one or two columns in chromatography or analytical seperations are as follows: 1.Enrcihment 2.Heart-cutting 3.Back-flushing 1. Enrichment : This is the main approach that to identify or increase in amounts of trace components. Initially pre-concentration of trace elements can be packed on a column, and then more samples can be placed on packed column than a capillary. 2. Heart-cutting : For a complex mixture containing not only single column to resolve the all components of interest and very large peaks may appears those may masks the other components , by passing the resolved area to second column can be used to treat heart-cutting or cut and transfer. The main use of heartcutting inmulti dimensional chromatography either gas or liquid is the physical separation of a few trace target compounds in the presence of major interferences. The complete multi dimensional characterization of a sample requires a different approach.The arrangement of the adjacent heartcuts are performed within the samerun. By this we able to find out the maximum peak capacity of a system averagely. The second column using also must having different polarity from first column. 3.Back-flushing: If the sample contains both volatile and non-volatile substances respectively, the total experiment should have to done in one direction only. For this reason only one column is needed. In normal operations flow normally occers , after all faster eluting species has resolved. The value is switch, reversing the flow. In reverse phase For high moleculer weight species it would evolves and finally first portion of column to done the separation. Back-flushing reverse mode: Background work for Multi Dimensional Chromatography: It represents a powerfull tool and an alternative procedure to classical one dimensional High performance liquid chromatography. To obtain multiheartcut, 2-D GC has been developed. Narrow slices of effluent are periodically injected through a primary column into a short, high-speed secondary column. Components which are not resolved in the first dimension undergo a second separation step. The process is analogous to routine GC/MS and is also known as comprehensive 2-D GC. In both processes, the entire sample is sliced into narrow packets for further analyzation. The practical implementation of comprehensive 2-D GC is done by brainchild of Phillips who invented a thermal modulator as a sample introduction device. The main origin of multi dimensional gas and liquid chromatography is lies in planar chromatography i.e., partition between a liquid moving by capillary action across a strip of paper presented with second liquid. Most of the devolepments in past two decades, how ever, The multi dimensional chromatography is using for quantitative measurements. Introduction to Multi Dimensional Gas and Liquid Chromatography: Multidimensional chromatography is also known as coupled column chromatography or column switching chromatography or multiphase chromatography or boxcar chromatography or sequential analysis. Multidimensional chromatography includes the separation of complex mixtures by using multiple columns with different stationary phases. Those columns are coupled orthogonally, that the fractions from first column can be selectively transferred to the other columns for additional separation. This enables separation of trace elements from complex mixtures that cannot be separated by using a single column. Multi dimensional systems in chromatography: A chromatographic dimension is determined as a constant value of the distribution constant of an analyte within the same analysis. The experimental arrangements leading to its change within one run (such as different stationary phases, different temperatures) belong to multidimensional chromatography systems. Multi dimensional switching in chromatography: A switching dimension is sample inlet-separation part-detector within one analysis run. An experimental arrangement leading to multiplication of any part of the path of the moving object belongs to multi-dimensional switching systems. In multidimensional chromatography, the distribution constant is diferent in each part, and thus the analytes will behave different by them. Therefore, the separation in a one-dimensional system will be enhanced in proportion to the number of chromatographic dimensiones. It is describes that the multidimensional chromatography without mulditimensional switchning (temperature or program modes) and multidimensional switching without multidimensional chromatography. Hyphenated techniques can be both multidimensional separation systems (HPLC-GC) and multidimesional switching systems (FID-MS). Interfaces of different techniques (GC-FTIR) are very often considered as hyphenation but they are not necessarily multidimensional. In multidimensional chromatography, the distribution constant is different in each dimension, and thus the analytes will behave differently in them. The separation will be enhanced in proportion to the number of chromatographic dimensions. Instrumentation: Multi dimensional Gas and liquid chromatography : Mainly those injecting of samples via: Gas injector Liquid injector 1.Gas injector : This instrument is a controlled analyzer chamber which contains 6-way diaphragm valve and an injector loop in switching position A)clear path of the value the sample flows continuously over connections 5,6,3,4 through the injector loop, while the carrier gas supplies the separation column via the path1 and 2. In switching position B) dotted path samples is shorted via 5,4 the carrier gas flushes the samples which was measured in the injector loop to the separation column via 1,6,3,2 after the completion of the injection , time of injection will takes nearly 1 to 10 sec. Switching back to switching position A occurs . For gas injection , volume between 0.5 and 3ml are used depends upon analytical needs. 2.Liquid injector : Liquid samples can be introduced in liquid form. The required amount of liquid is the vapourized and supplied to the separation coloumn as a gas by using liquid gas injector valve which consists of 3 sections the pneumatic drive , sample through the vapourization system. Those techniques can be available with the multi dimensional gas and liquid chromatography are: Multi dimensional Thin Layer chromatography Multi dimensional Gas Chromatography Multi dimensional High Performance Liquid Chromatography Multi dimensional by using on-line coupled HPLC and capillary gas chromatography Multi dimensional super critical fluid chromatography Ultra high pressure multi dimensional liquid chromatography Interpretation of results : Chemometric study may useful for study of highly fused peaks, when multi channel detectors are used , this chemometric analysis is successful when they having potential peaks may occering with in chromatographic peaks , the chemometric methods automated so as to defuse regions of a chromatogram. Only problem with this technique when having one dimensional data and its mainly applicable for proteomics. Advantages of Multi dimensional chromatography Over one dimensional and two dimensional systems In both gas and liquid chromatographic systems: Mainly includes the separation of complex mixtures those cannot be separated by using a single column. Some of the separations can be done by multi dimensional chromatography are given below those are the main advantages for the multi dimensional liquid chromatography. Increase in resolution Shorter analysis system Extended column life Decrease in detection limits Preventing detector contamination Disadvantages of multi dimensional chromatographic systems: Detection through liquid chromatography may have limited sensitivity and thus for dilute analytes . Its necessary to introduce a concentration step. Requirements for multi dimensional systems (Both Gas and Liquid chromatographic systems) Those requirements for collaborative study or validated things for multidimensional system is Rapid analysis: If the samples having like high boiling point range , necessary to backflush the all components eluting from the first column after the components of interest have been transferred. This ensures an exact analysis and this end as well as clean analysing path for the next analysis. Precission: The measured things should be separate entirely from any interfearing ones are coupling columns and using heart cutting technique those can be estimated quantitatively. Reliability: By these pre-separation with first column and by transferring only the peak interest into second column that is the main analytical column and detector contamination can be prevented that may interrupt analysis. Wide range of analysis: Those components of different techniques having different techniques and having different characteristics such as boiling point , polarity and by using the same analytical system and the analytical method can be selected for optimum separation. Applications for multi dimensional gas and liquid chromatography: Common applications for Multidimensional Liquid Chromatography are: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Proteins and peptides à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Drug isolation from urine and plasma à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Polysaccharides à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Homopolymers, oligomers, copolymers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Surfactants à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ DNA fragments The most important application and the recent trend for this multi dimen sional chromatography is proteomics, The complex protein is separated by multi-dimensional liquid chromatography instead of using the two dimensional gel electrophoresis. Recent results obtained from journals through Multiple dimensional chromatography system: Identification of selenium species in urine by ion-pairing HPLC-ICP-MS Elemental Speciation by LC-ICP-MS: A Practical Tool for Environmental Analysis Effect of metal ions on the molecular weight distribution of humic substances derived from municipal compost: ultrafiltration and SEC with spectrophotometric and ICP-MS detection Environmentally friendly sample treatment for speciation analysis by hyphenated techniques. Green Chemistry. Trace humic and fulvic acids determination in natural water by cloud point extraction/ preconcentration using non-ionic and cationic surfactants and a FI-system with spectrophotometric detection. Liquid Chromatography-Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry Sequential extractions of selenium soils: total selenium and speciation measurements with ICP-MS detection. Elemental Speciation. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Elemental Speciation Studies, New Directions for Trace Metal Analysis. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Preliminary Studies on Selenium-Containing Proteins in Brassica juncea by Size Exclusion Chromatography and Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography Coupled to ICPMS. Additives in polymers Large scale analysis of yeast proteome by multiple dimensional protein identification technology Phosphorous speciation in functional foods Applications in industrial analysis Environmental analysis solves complex problems in environmental analysis Used to study peptidones and peptidomics by selective protein degradation turnover of enzymes can be studied We can list the following areas prime targets e.g essential oil and natural products analysis, chiral analysis (e.g fragrances) trace multi residue analysis, pesticide monitoring, petroleum products application, in fact any separation simply and greater resolution and sensitivity is mainly required. Determination of PCBS (Poly chlorinated bi-phenyls) Rapid determination of isoprenes. Proteome analysis of low-abundance proteins using the global profiling of endogenous small proteins and peptides of Selective protein degradation and to study turnover of enzymes e.g Ubiquitin-proteasome , endosome-lysozome.etc. Solid phase, synthesis reagents and automated scrrening systems by multi dimensional chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. In environmental analysis it might be used for solving of complex problems in environmental analysis. Multi dimension chromatography is used as bio-marker for discovery Especially for ovarian cancer and brest cancer Recent trends in Multi dimensional gas and liquid chromatography: With respect to multi dimensional chromatography lots of applications in bio-technology, earlier many electrophoresis techniques were used to analyze the DNA or such compounds. And now the major analytical separations are going through the multi dimensional chromatography and analysis of petroleum in Egypt also and for purification of proteins. Coupled multi dimensional chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry systems for complex peptide mixture analysis. SCX-RP/MS/MS SCX/RP/MS/MS HPLC using monolithic silica columns RP-RP 2D HPLCusing two different columns RP-RP 2D HPLCusing two similar columns Ion-exchange reversed phase 2D-HPLC using a monolithic column for two dimensional. IEX-RP 2D HPLC using a monolithic RP capillary column for two dimensional. SCX/RP/MS/MS MUDPIT Proteome analysis or Proteomics: Its a biochemical method which is using instead of two dimension gel electrophoresis, its mainly require very low flow rates in combination with small inner diameter columns for its high detection sensitivity. The micro valve, with low internal volume, can be positioned closely to the mass spectrometer for highest separation performance. In the first dimension, fractions of the peptide mixture elute from an ion exchange column by using a salt step gradient. Then each fraction is trapped on a small reversed-phase trapping column and then separated after the valve switches to a reversed column (the second dimension). Then the trapping column is first used to prevent salt from entering the mass spectrometer (ion suppression). Second, the column allows an enrichment step, which together with the low flow rate in the 2nd dimension provides high detection sensitivity. Conclusion: For the growing importance and to determination of various analytes like those present in complex mixtures such a techniques like multi dimensional chromatography are being proposed and those techniques having importance because of their precission and reliability and rapid analysis of samples , now-a-days these techniques might be used as bio-markers and also through such a improvement we achieved by this multi dimensional chromatographic systems are more advanced than orthogonal systems and two dimensional systems. This technique having various applications in industrial analysis and environmental analysis and as well as bio-markers and useful to identify trace amounts in complex mixtures.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Infant Attachment To Caregivers Rather Than Mothers Social Work Essay

Infant Attachment To Caregivers Rather Than Mothers Social Work Essay Experience of early childhood attachment is at the base of healthy child development and works as the framework for the intimate relationship with others. The caregiver-child attachment relationship shapes though early pattern of interaction between the caregiver and child. The outcomes of infant attachment considered to be long-term and influences generations of families. According to Bowlby who developed theory of infant-caregiver attachment, attachment security characterizes the confidents of infant in his or her caregiver, and can be observed through how they contact with the caregiver and how they use of the caregiver as a secure base to explore their envrionment. Attachment theory, therefore, has been regarded as the major framework for the research of caregiver-child relationships in infancy, and it also may provide a useful approach for understanding attachment development between other caregivers and infants than mother. A vast body of research from this perspective indicate s that attachment security is an index of parent-child relationship quality that develops largely as a function of parenting behavior. Nonetheless, in spite of a number of researches on mother-child attachment has conducted, we still are unfamiliar with attachment relationships between other caregivers such as a father and adoptive parents. Because of the socioeconomic changes that have occurred in the United States during the past three decades, more mothers, with infants, work outside the home and, in many cases, new roles for fathers within the home increased, and many couples with a variety of reasons decided to adopt children also increased. Therefore, this paper explores whether an infant can develop secure attachment to a caregiver other than their primary caregiver, usually mother, and then how father and foster mother-infant attachment relationship different from ordinary infant-mother relationship. Importantly, sensitivity has been considered as a key predictor for secure caregiver-infant attachment. Despite the fact that the relatively few researches studying the attachment relationship with fathers, some studies on father-child attachment suggests that fathers can give sensitive care, an important factor for developing secure attachment, for their children as much as mothers can; therefore, the level of attachment between father and child seems to be similar to that usually found with mothers (Brown, McBride, Shin Bost, 2007). Moreover, Brown et al. (2007) found that when fathers employed in positive parenting behaviors, father involvement time does not seem to impact on father-child attachment security. That is, children tended to form quite secure attachment relationships despite the fact that whether their fathers were highly involved. When fathers, on the other hand, employed less sensitive parenting, increased father involvement was related to an insecure father-child a ttachment. Therefore, father-child attachment is dependent upon quality of fathersà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ parenting, and increased involvement is better for building attachment only when it accompanied by positive parenting. In addition, another research found that fathers who valued the parental role were more likely to have securely attached infants, but this association was marled only when quality of marriage was high, conceivably because these fathers are more likely to receive helping hand from their partner (Wong, Mangelsdorf, Brown, Neff Schoppe-Sullivan, 2009). Yet interestingly, fathers who valuing the paternal caregiving role might promote secure attachment of temperamentally difficult infants, for such fathers might be more likely to support them with daily caregiving activities and be more adjusted to their infantsà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ emotional needs as well as their other demands. Accordingly, temperamentally difficult infants would be more li kely to build secure attachment to fathers in this circumstance. Even though all adopted children go through a stressful separation from their primary attached figures and are replaced with new attachment figures in the adoptive family, they are also able to develop and become attached to their fostering families. Jeffer and Rosenboom (1997) examined 80 mothers and their infant from all over the world, adopted between at age of 6 month and 8 month olds, in the Strange Situation when infants were 12 and 18 months to evaluate the infant-mother attachment relationship. According to their study, they found more secure infant-mother attachment than insecure attachment relationship as normally expected. The actual proportion of secure attachment was approximately 74%, 46 of 58 infants, at 12 months and 75% at 18 months, so secure attachments observed this research seemed to be stable over time (Juffer Rosenboom, 1997). Another study of attachment between fostering parents and infant also demonstrated that mother-infant attachment quality in middle-clas s adoptive families is similar to the result found in families with only biological children; however, interracial adoption were more likely to have insecure attachment between mother and infant(Singer, 1985). This might be explained by which families who adopt children of a different race than themselves are less likely to receive hearty support from extended family, friends, and neighbors than are families who adopt children of the same race. Higher rates of insecure attachment also have found among infants who were placed to fostering families after spending at least 8 months in a Romanian orphanage. Infants who adopted at an earlier age, by contrast, do not appear to have an elevated rate of insecure attachment to their adoptive parent (Chisholm, 1998). From these results, although adopted age of infants seems to be a critical factor whether they develop secure or insecure attachment to fostering patents, adopted infants appear to be capable of adapting their new parents as a se cure base, and in turn, adoptive parents appear to be sensitive enough so that they can meet the needs of their adopted baby and become a lighthouse as well. Since infants can develop securely attached relationship to other caregivers, the long term effects such as resiliency to new environments and having positive behaviors and expectances are assumed to be similar to which mother-infant relationship likely to have. Even though the overall comparison of attachment in adoptive and non-adoptive families was reasonably similar, the outcome sometimes do not exclude the potential importance of insecure or disrupted post-infancy family relationships as a basis for the adjustment problems of the adoptee. The study noted that as school-age children begin to understand the implications of adoption, including the reality of being relinquished by biological parents, therefore, they often feel confused, uncertain, and insecure regarding their current adoptive family relationship (Singer, 1985). Nonetheless, it seems that the higher occurrence of troubles reported later in life in adoptive families cannot be explained only by early attachment problem s because early secure attachment counteracts to these problems and buffers the negative emotion to some degree. In conclusion, infants can develop secure attachment not only to their mothers but also other caregivers, including fathers and adoptive parents. It seems that infants can become attached to any caregivers, provided that those caregivers interact with them on a regular basis, provide physical and emotional care, and are emotionally invested in the child. Sensitivity plays an important role in development of secure attachment between caregiver and infant; on the other hand, the amount of time parents and children spend together is much less than what they do with that time. The similar positive outcome of secure attachment can be expected to the attachment relationship among father- and adoptive parents-infant. Children are born prepared to form relationships with those who care for them, and those early experiences influence the relationships that they develop within the family and in the greater world outside of the home. Consequently, relationships affect childrenà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s healthy development, and childrenà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s development, in turn, transforms their later fine relationship.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Use of Geographic Data in Natural Disasters Essay -- Natural Disaster

Missing Figures The use of geographic data in the field of preventing and mitigating natural disasters remains a pioneering activity. However the circulation of the technology is still hindered by many issues such as the difficulty in obtaining the appropriate raw data, the lack of effective graphical user interfaces, the intricacy of predictive models and the expense of digitisation (Carrara et al., 1999). Natural disasters are becoming more frequent around the world, as seen in figure 1, which shows that in 1975 there were approximately 50 disasters reported, compared to approximately 400 being reported in 2010. They are a damaging phenomenon upon the Earth’s citizens and the physical environment, but with the use of geographic data, natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, cyclone s and landslides can be monitored and mapped to ensure a successful disaster response strategy can be put in place to ensure we can protect people and the environment as much as possible. The success of these strategies depends upon access to real-time spatial information that can be used effectively by the Geomatics Industry, governments, relief agencies among others to provide a quick response to the disaster areas (Herold et al., 2005). Kunkel et al. (1999) suggest that there is strong scientific evidence of an increase in extreme precipitation events in particular regions, whilst water shortages are becoming more apparent in other regions, which indicates that weather driven natural disasters will surely become more frequent, resulting in the use of Geogr... ...97) Managing the natural disasters from space technology inputs. Acta Astronautica, 40. Kunkel, K.E., Easterling, D.R., Andsager, K. (1999) Long-Term Trends in Extreme Precipitation Events over the Conterminous United States and Canada. J. Climate, 12. Li, Q. and Li, D. (1999) Proceedings of the International Symposium on Digital Earth Science Press. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. National Research Council (1995) The global positioning system: a shared national asset : recommendations for technical improvements and enhancements. National Academy of Public Administration Raheja, N., Ojha, R. and Mallik, S. (Undated) GIS Development: Role of Internet-based GIS in effective natural disaster management. [Online] Available from: http://www.gisdevelopment.net/technology/gis/techgi0030pf.htm

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

The Global Manager Essay -- Business Management Studies

The Global Manager The rapid growth of globalization has created a boundary less organization. To manage such an organization, there is a need for a global manager, one who manages across distances, countries and cultures. Considered by some authors to be a myth, wider research, readings and understanding suggest its existence. There are certain criteria which define a global manager, which are truly essential to successful manage in the international context. These managers are invaluable to the organization as they provide the competitive edge. However, there has been shortage of such global managers due to the recruitment of such managers only from the home country of the organization. This is created a limited pool of next generation managers. With the changing trend, organizations have been emphasizing on the recruitment of managers from home country and third nation country. Women, too, are being considered. The major challenge facing global organizations is attract and retain such global managers. In view of some authors, such as, Christopher A Barlett and Sumantra Ghoshal[1], â€Å"there is no such thing as a ‘universal’ global manager, rather there are 3 groups of specialists: business managers, country managers, and functional managers and there are top executives at corporate headquarters, who manage the complex interactions between the 3.† According to Yehuda Baruch[2], there is â€Å"no such thing as a global manager†, because â€Å"the examination of a wide possible characteristics indicates that there seems to be no distinct set of individual qualities that constitute such a manager.† With globalization becoming a basic economic reality, national boundaries have become insignificant. As a result,... ...ompeting in the global marketplace†, 3rd ed, McGraw-Hill/Irwin - Dessler, G. (2003), â€Å"Human Resource Management-CAPS†, 9th ed, Pearson Education, New Jersey - Ball, D. A., P. L. Frantz, J. M. Geringer, W. H. McCulloch, Jr., M. S. Minor (2004), â€Å"International Business: the challenge of global competition†, International ed, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York - Kramar, R., P. mcgraw, R. S. Schuler (1997), â€Å"Human Resource Management in Australia† 3rd ed, Longman, Australia - www.gwsae.org/executiveupdate/2002/September/success.htm - www.ccl.org/cgi-bin/print/printpage.pl --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Barlett, C.A., S. Goshal (2003), â€Å"What is a global manager†, Harvard Business Review, v 81, pg 101 [2] Baruch, Y. (2002), â€Å"No such thing as a global manager†, Business Horizons, v 45, pg 36

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Emotional Intelligence Essay

The ability to express and control our own emotions is important, but so is our ability to understand, interpret, and respond to the emotions of others. Imagine a world where you couldn’t understand when a friend was feeling sad or when a co-worker was angry. Psychologists refer to this ability as emotional intelligence, and some experts even suggest that it can be more important than IQ. Learn more about exactly what emotional intelligence is, how it works, and how it is measured. What is Emotional Intelligence? Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others claim it is an inborn characteristic. Since 1990, Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer have been the leading researchers on emotional intelligence. In their influential article â€Å"Emotional Intelligence,† they defined emotional intelligence as, â€Å"the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions† (1990). The Four Branches of Emotional Intelligence.  Salovey and Mayer proposed a model that identified four different factors of emotional intelligence: the perception of emotion, the ability reason using emotions, the ability to understand emotion and the ability to manage emotions. 1.Perceiving Emotions: The first step in understanding emotions is to accurately perceive them. In many cases, this might involve understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions. 2.Reasoning with Emotions: The next step involves using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive activity. Emotions help prioritize what we pay attention and react to; we respond emotionally to things that garner our attention. 3.Understanding Emotions: The emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meanings. If someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of their anger and what it might mean. For example, if your boss is acting angry, it might mean that he is dissatisfied with your work; or it could be because he got a speeding ticket on his way to work that morning or that he’s been fighting with his wife. 4.Managing Emotions: The ability to manage emotions effectively is a key part of emotional intelligence. Regulating emotions, responding appropriately and responding to the emotions of others are all important aspect of emotional management. According to Salovey and Mayer, the four branches of their model are, â€Å"arranged from more basic psychological processes to higher, more psychologically integrated processes. For example, the lowest level branch concerns the (relatively) simple abilities of perceiving and expressing emotion. In contrast, the highest level branch concerns the conscious, reflective regulation of emotion† (1997).  What everyone needs to know. Emotional Intelligence Is the Other Kind of Smart.  When emotional intelligence first appeared to the masses in 1995, it served as the missing link in a peculiar finding: people with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70% of the time. This anomaly threw a massive wrench into what many people had always assumed was the sole source of success—IQ. Decades of research now point to emotional intelligence as the critical factor that sets star performers apart from the rest of the  pack. Emotional intelligence is the â€Å"something† in each of us that is a bit intangible. It affects how we manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that achieve positive results. Emotional intelligence is made up of four core skills that pair up fewer than two primary competencies: personal competence and social competence. Personal competence is made up of your self-awareness and self-management skills, which focus more on you individually than on your interactions with other people. Personal competence is your ability to stay aware of your emotions and manage your behaviour and tendencies. †¢Self-Awareness is your ability to accurately perceive your emotions and stay aware of them as they happen. †¢Self-Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and positively direct your behaviour. Social competence is made up of your social awareness and relationship management skills; social competence is your ability to understand other people’s moods, behaviour, and motives in order to improve the quality of your relationships. †¢Social Awareness is your ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and understand what is really going on. †¢Relationship Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions and the others’ emotions to manage interactions successfully. Emotional Intelligence, IQ, and Personality Are Different. Emotional intelligence taps into a fundamental element of human behaviour that is distinct from your intellect. There is no known connection between IQ and emotional intelligence; you simply can’t predict emotional intelligence based on how smart someone is. Intelligence is your ability to learn, and it’s the same at age 15 as it is at age 50. Emotional intelligence, on the other hand, is a flexible set of skills that can be acquired and improved with practice. Although some people are naturally more emotionally intelligent than others, you can develop high emotional intelligence even if you aren’t born with it. Personality is the final piece of the puzzle. It’s the stable â€Å"style† that defines each of us. Personality is the result of hard-wired preferences, such as the inclination toward introversion or extroversion. However, like IQ, personality can’t be used to  predict emotional intelligence. Also like IQ, personality is stable over a lifetime and doesn’t change. IQ, emotional intelligence, and personality each cover unique ground and help to explain what makes a person tick. Emotional Intelligence Is Linked to Performance. How much of an impact does emotional intelligence have on your professional success? The short answer is: a lot! It’s a powerful way to focus your energy in one direction with a tremendous result. Talent Smart tested emotional intelligence alongside 33 other important workplace skills, and found that emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of performance, explaining a full 58% of success in all types of jobs. Your emotional intelligence is the foundation for a host of critical skills—it impacts most everything you say and do each day. Emotional intelligence is the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence. Of all the people we’ve studied at work, we’ve found that 90% of top performers are also high in emotional intelligence. On the flip side, just 20% of bottom performers are high in emotional intelligence. You can be a top performer without emotional intelligence, but the chances are slim. Naturally, people with a high degree of emotional intelligence make more money—an average of $29,000 more per year than people with a low degree of emotional intelligence. The link between emotional intelligence and earnings is so direct that every point increase in emotional intelligence adds $1,300 to an annual salary. These findings hold true for people in all industries, at all levels, in every region of the world. We haven’t yet been able to find a job in which performance and pay aren’t tied closely to emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence Can Be Developed. The communication between your emotional and rational â€Å"brains† is the physical source of emotional intelligence. The pathway for emotional intelligence starts in the brain, at the spinal cord. Your primary senses enter here and must travel to the front of your brain before you can think rationally about your experience. However, first they travel through the limbic system, the place where emotions are generated. So, we have an emotional reaction to events before our rational mind is able to engage.  Emotional intelligence requires effective communication between the rational and emotional centers of the brain. â€Å"Plasticity† is the term neurologists use to describe the brain’s ability to change. Your brain grows new connections as you learn new skills. The change is gradual, as your brain cells develop new connections to speed the efficiency of new skills acquired. e. Generalization The student learns that Emotional Intelligence? Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others claim it is an inborn characteristic. Since 1990, Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer have been the leading researchers on emotional intelligence. In their influential article â€Å"Emotional Intelligence,† they defined emotional intelligence as, â€Å"the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions† (1990). The Four Branches of Emotional Intelligence Salovey and Mayer proposed a model that identified four different factors of emotional intelligence: the perception of emotion, the ability reason using emotions, the ability to understand emotion and the ability to manage emotions. 1.Perceiving Emotions 2.Reasoning with Emotions 3.Understanding Emotions 4.Managing Emotions What everyone needs to know. 1. Emotional Intelligence Is the Other Kind of Smart. Personal competence is made up of your self-awareness and self-management skills, which focus more on you individually than on your interactions with other people. Personal competence is your ability to stay aware of your emotions and manage your behaviour and tendencies. Self-Awareness is your ability to accurately perceive your emotions and stay aware of them as they happen. Self-Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and positively direct your behaviour. Social competence is made up of your social awareness and relationship management skills; social competence is your ability to understand other people’s moods, behaviour, and motives in order to improve the quality of your relationships. Social Awareness is your ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and understand what is really going on. Relationship Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions and the others’ emotions to manage interactions successfully. 2. Emotional Intelligence, IQ, and Personality Are Different. 3. Emotional Intelligence Is Linked to Performance. 4. Emotional Intelligence Can Be Developed. â€Å"Plasticity† is the term neurologists use to describe the brain’s ability to change.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Strategic Marketing Plan

Strategy Marketing Plan As Seen On Screen (ASOS) Table of Contents Executive Summary†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 Case Study†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦5 Statement of the Problem†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦5 Product Strategy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 6 Communicating their Identity†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Competitor Analysis†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦7 Positioning Strategy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦7 ASOS customer population by age groups†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦8 ASOS customer population by gender†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 8 Offer Strategy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 8 Conceived Identity†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 9 Ideal Identity†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 10 Public Relations†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦11 Timing Strategy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 11 Desired Identity Expanding New Values for customers worldwide†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 12 Customer Care and service†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦12 Misaligned Identities: actual and desired†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 12 SWOT Analysis Strengths†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦13 Weaknesses†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 13 Opportunities†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 14 Threats†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦14 Recommendations†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦14 Executive Summary ASOS is one of the most recognized online clothing store in the United Kingdom. It offers products that people often see worn by celebrities. As such, many people are encouraged to try out their items. In addition, the prices of their products are relatively lower compared to high street fashion. Because of these along with other factors, ASOS was able to grow. With the growth of ASOS over the years, it is important to ensure that it can be sustained. The fact that online shoppers and traditional shoppers differ in terms of concerns and behavior, it is critical for ASOS to study the purchasing behavior of their market segment to determine the kind of strategy that they need to ensure success now and in the future. This research focuses on the various aspects of online retailing in the hopes of investigating the purchasing behavior of ASOS customers and formulating recommendations on how to keep the profit margin of the company on increasing side. For the past 50 years, the retail industry has been under numerous changes. For example, the 1950’s saw downtowns as the center of retailing. People would often go downtown to avail the various products and services. These products and services included clothing, food, hardware supplies and banking services. A decade later, a group of retailers started offering their products and services in large departmental stores. The idea is to provide convenience to the shoppers. By creating a place were various retailers can offer their products and services, shoppers will no longer have to make several trips to different locations in order to purchase the things that they need. This means that retailers hoped to create a one-stop shop for their customers. As a result, big names such as Wal-Mart and K-Mart made big names in the retail industry. On the other hand, downtown or small scale and specialized retail outlets experienced a decline in the 1970s and 1980s. From the later part of 1980s to the early years of 1990s, a new kind of retailing came in being. Home TV shopping networks as well as warehouse clubs became very popular among consumers. If one-stop department stores aimed to provide convenience to their customers, home shopping networks brought the idea of convenience to a completely new level. Instead of encouraging customers to drive to their stores, retails brought the stores inside homes and purchasing the desired products is as easy as calling a toll free number. On the other hand, warehouse clubs offered customers the opportunity to buy products in bulk and at discounted prices. Costco and Sam’s Club are some of the warehouse clubs that earned success. The changes within the retail industry continued well into the late part of the 1990s. Along with the success of internet, retailers were quick to recognize the importance of surfing the web, also use of other internet applications was fast becoming incorporated in the lives of many people around world. For this reason existing retail shops and new genres of entrepreneurs have grown up and have decided to bring their stores online. The move to utilize the internet was a good decision in terms of marketing. Cable television took 25 years to reach approximately 10 million people, while computers took 7 years to do the same. However, the internet was able to manage that feat in just six months. This means that retail store will have more chances of exposure if they have their own website. Since the utilization of the internet for retailing purposes, many companies have been able to experience the benefits of bringing their businesses online. With this, a need was created to formulate strategies that focus on maximizing the potentials of internet. Nowadays, ecommerce, ebanking and other forms of ebusinesses are becoming a popular choice among the consumers and as such, it is also becoming a popular form of business for companies. Increase in sales are usually expected by companies when they launch an online store on host websites that offers their products and services. In the retailing industry, etailing is also fast becoming the choice of companies. One of the companies that concentrate in advancing their etailing endeavor is As Seen On Screen 0r ASOS. They offer clothing and other fashion related items that are similar to designer fashion worn by celebrities but at a lower price. They have a website where they post the products that they currently have. In addition, they show actual photos of celebrities wearing a similar item of clothing that are being sold on their site. Case Study Despite the degree of success that ASOS was able to achieve over the years of their operation, there are still problems that they need to resolve in order to ensure the survival of their business. This is the rationale behind this paper. This paper will be presenting the conditions that ASOS are operating in as well as the various aspects that they need to focus on in order to maintain   steady or increasing flow of profit. Statement of the Problem : The problem of ASOS is generally related to the problem faced by most online retailers: the online consumer buying behavior. Attracting consumers with the limited resources available on the internet is a big challenge to online retailers like ASOS. Knowing the online consumer behaviors will let the retailers and managers of these companies formulate and develop effective strategies that will help increase the popularity and sales of clothing online. According to a study of users who have bought products online, there are five main reasons why people shop through the Internet. These are convenience and ease of use; greater selection; better prices; easier comparison-shopping; and no sales pressure. On the other hand, there are also reasons why people are not attracted to making purchases online especially when it comes to clothing. The top four most frequently identified reasons why consumers are not purchasing online are ability to judge quality, security, privacy, and easier to purchase locally. Product Strategy The product line of ASOS is very well defined. The company knows exactly what they want to show in their website. As the former name of the company suggests, the product line of ASOS is composed of clothing articles as well as other fashion related items that have been seen on celebrity fashion icons or trendsetters. The company’s decision to extend their product line to include beauty products have paid dividends to the company. Since the products of the company focuses on products that must be appealing to the eye of the customers in order to be bought, visual merchandising is important in conveying the aesthetics of the products that they are being offered. Customers need to see that the clothing items that are being offered in the website were indeed â€Å"as seen on screen†. Like the conventional retail clothing outlets, ASOS does have a window to display their products. The pages of their website serve as the windows where their customers can see the products. Communicating their Identity. Being both in the fashion and retail industry, ASOS needs to be able to meet the requirements of both industries in order to succeed. In relation to the fashion industry, ASOS must ensure that the items they are offering are according to the season and also in sync to the latest styles. Another objective of ASOS is to provide a pleasant online shopping experience to their customer. It is important to associate shopping with being online. It is a fact that being physically involved in shopping brings about a different experience compared to shopping online. Competitor Analysis Competition is important since it affects the success of a business venture. Competition is about the company’s capability in positioning itself in the market so that they could stand out among the rest in the perception of the consumers. In the case of ASOS, they do not have any direct competitors when it comes to clothing associated with celebrities. However,it compete with   other clothing retailing stores such as Topshop. com and Figleaves. com. Positioning Strategy The target market segment of ASOS is as defined as their product line. They target people who are eighteen to thirty years of age and who are internet savvy. Based on the questionnaires prepared and used for this research, the biggest bulk of ASOS customers are eighteen to twenty-two years. This age group represents fifty-five percent of the total ASOS customers. It is followed by people who belong in the age brackets twenty-four to twenty-nine and thirty to thirty-five which are twenty percent of the ASOS customer population each. Lastly, people who are thirty-six to forty-two years old complete the population representation five percent of the total. ASOS customer population by age groups The result of the survey concluded that ASOS targeted the right age group for the products. This is the case since the survey revealed that eighteen to thirty year old customers are more open to buying the products that ASOS offers. Another reason for the bulk customers on the said age bracket can be attributed to the fact that people within this age group are more apt at using computers as well as navigating the internet. In addition, they are also the ones who are part of the corporate world where everything is fast-paced that they do not have the time to go down town and shop for the clothes and other fashion items. ASOS customer population by gender In relation to gender, eighty percent of ASOS shoppers are women, while only twenty percent are male. This may be the case since most of the items that are being offered online are for women. In addition, the marketing activity of ASOS focuses on disseminating information to more women than men. 500,000 emails are sent to females twice a week compared to 100,000 emails sent to males only once a week. Offer Strategy The success of ASOS is being owed to their ability to offer trendy clothes at significantly lower prices. However, there are still other actors that needs to be considered when discussing the success of ASOS as an online retail clothing store. Aside from the price of the products, the seasonability of the products being offered is also crucial. It is a fact that the fashion industry is always on its toes when it comes to innovation. Various collections come out on a regular basis depending on the season. There are winter and summer collec tions as well as spring and fall collections. Conceived Identity Corporate identity is a valuable management resource because it affects every aspect of corporate life. A company's image, reputation and management perception, the three components of corporate identity. Establishing a clear identity has become a difficult task due to the trend towards cross-border mergers, the growing importance of environmental concerns and the increasing similarities between products and services. In the current situation of ASOS, it affects it corporate reputation in the US. However, there are some strategies which can be done to build up the ASOS reputation and credibility. The brand of the company is important part of company. Marketing communication vehicles such as advertising, direct mail, public relations, trade shows, seminars, and collateral material play an important role in communicating brand. Thinking of these activities as brand conveyors is important to understand their role. Consistent with its objective to build up their reputation and credibility towards the customers, ASOS would develop a solid message platform that clearly and consistently communicates their product features and benefits in a way that incorporates its brand principle, personality, and associations. Secondly, ASOS would communicate with its customers by using third parties to send its messages and in order to establish credibility with all target audiences. Third parties include analysts, media, award givers, happy customers, and online newsgroups/list serves. Public Relations By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most favorable light. The earliest form of public relations and still the most widely practiced is publicity. The principal instrument of publicity is the press release, which provides the mass media with the write up material and news stories. The growth of modern public relations is generally attributed to the development of the mass media, which accelerated the spread of ideas and increased the importance of public opinion by giving more people access to current events. Timing Strategy The sales of ASOS increases significantly during the holiday season. This is the case because orders for products that will serve as gifts were in demand. In addition, a series of events take place during the holidays. Family reunions and countless parties are set to happen during this time of the year. This means that people will always be on the look out for clothes that they will be able to use during these events. However, it is also expected that during the holiday season discounts are in abundance. This means that consumers are also on the lookout for bargain deals. In the case of ASOS, they are able to meet the needs of their customers for ideal apparel at reasonable prices. As such, during the holiday season ASOS must be able to get the word going that they will be able to provide quality yet affordable apparels for the people. Desired Identity Expanding New Values for customers worldwide The ultimate goal of ASOS’s sales activities worldwide is to satisfy their customers so that they will continue to come back for more ASOS quality products. That's why they put full effort into their services, responding to changing values and increasingly sophisticated needs. They’re always working to improve the quality of customer relations providing friendly and attentive sales, responsive service support, thorough maintenance and repairs so customer satisfaction constantly grows. ASOS also continues to develop sales and service systems best suited to community eeds. Customer Care and Service Total Quality Management is incorporated into all the functions and processes of the organization. With this, it can be stated that customer relationship management programs are included in total quality management. The need to develop an effective total quality management is important due to various reasons. It is also the case that total quality management views customer sati sfaction in relation to customer retention and increase in the profits. These above points are considered by ASOS when they designed their website. They wanted to give their customers the kind of shopping experience that would lead them back to the website and make more purchases. Misaligned Identities: actual and desired Mismatched in actual and desired identity could be sited from the following example : ASOS is one of the leading retailers existing in the corporate world today. One of its leading features is etailing. Due to the far reaching grasps of the internet, etailing has flourished. However, ASOS has intended to further it influence in the retailing industry of the Far East by building a branch in one of Asia’s key and remote cities. But the fact remains that ASOS is primarily an etailing (relies much on the internet) corporation, and that many of the countries in the Far East do not have advanced computer and internet services as the rest of the world. ASOS presented a key solution to this problem, they would build a material retailing branch. But this would thoroughly conflict with their actual identity, which is etailing. SWOT Analysis Strengths The strength of ASOS is its utilization of the Internet. Through the Internet, it has formed a definite market segment that is composed of mainly Internet users. A firm that limits its attention to fewer market segments can better serve those segments than those firms that influence the entire market. Moreover, its core focus, which is apparel, as worn by celebrities at affordable price gives them a marketing edge for it to attracts customers right away. It also gives huge discounts and has broad category coverage. Weaknesses Online retailing in general is getting bad publicity nowadays such as poor delivery performance. Another weakness is that ASOS cannot guarantee specific product or brand presence. Internet selling is unlikely to be successful, as consumers like to try on clothes and see the quality of fabric and workmanship. One issue that ASOS needs to resolve immediately, is that since its launch until this day, they only offer clothing items up to size 12. This means ASOS is excluding a segment of the market that can offer them additional profit. This may also cause some customers to get turned off since this suggests that ASOS thinks only people upto size 12 bodies have the right to wear celebrity inspired apparel. Opportunities Ecommerce channels now represent 11% of the total UK retail business, and record numbers of products are being procured via the internet. People are attracted by low prices and convenience. In addition, they have integrated their everyday activities to technology and the Internet, including shopping. As the number of working women, who are ASOS core customers, continues to increase, they will not only need more clothes for work but are also more likely to be financially independent to purchase clothes. Threats Online clothing chains from overseas are successfully invading UK and at the same time, branded apparel such as Diesel, Guess and Zara are still popular among the market. Other purely online fashion etailers such as Yoox. co. uk, Brandalley. co. uk are also their main threats. Downturn in the economy could also cause buyers to cut back on overall spending. Recommendations Improvements for ASOS. com The ASOS website could be improved through a variety of ways that would benefit both the company and the consumer. For example if video and audio clips were added to some pages, this could increase the interest level for the browsing customer, which could result in increased sales figures. Customer services could be improved through the addition of a live chat service on the website, providing the opportunity for customers to interact with retail staff directly about any questions or concerns they may have about their shopping experience. ASOS can actually provide this kind of service if they outsource it to call centers in Asia for example. It will be cheaper to outsource it than to create an in-house call center. Other issues that would need to be addressed within the ASOS. com website include increased contact with staff, faster processing of refunds and returns and an increase in transparency which could be achieved through more comprehensive information on the company itself. Based on the survey conducted for this research, ASOS customers consider the style, price and quality respectively before buying at ASOS . This means that ASOS must be able to meet these demands of their customers if they want to ensure continued patronage from them.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

House of Obedience

The Bait-al-taa or House of Obedience is a provision in Islam law which gives husbands the right to demand obedience from their wives. If a woman leaves her husband’s home without his permission he has the right to force her to come back. The husband can claim â€Å"nushaz† or disobedience and order her to come back with a qadi (judgement. ) Once the woman returns she stays either at her husband’s home or in another living area (House of Obedience) which provides the woman with essential necessities. Divorce is not allowed unless the husband decides that is what he wants. In her short story â€Å"House of Obedience† Ihsan Assal rejects the idea of Bait-al-taa for it only hinders the progression of women in Islam. The short story â€Å"House of Obedience† by Assal follows the life of a young Egyptian girl named Nabila. Nabila is married off to a man at the age of fifteen and is very unhappy, she therefore runs away only to find herself living in the House of Obedience. The story opens in a court room where Nabila’s father gets exonerated for marrying Nabila off at such a young age. Nabila returns home to her parents but soon after learns that her court case has been reopened by her husband. She is taken away by a police officer, a soldier and a woman and is brought to the House of Obedience where her husband awaits her. The House of Obedience had a â€Å"sofa that was more like a swing. On either side was a cane chair, and in front was a small table† 12 other furnitures included â€Å"a wooden bed, large cupboard, a clothes peg. †13 Nabila is upset and saddened right away and cannot believe that she is being forced to live in the legal house. Her husband, Adil tries to reaquaint himself with Nabila but Nabila does not stand for it. She tells him that she will never like him and pushes away his advances. She refuses to eat the food he gives her and ignores him to the best of her abilities, â€Å"You think that the obedience verdict means that I have to give myself to you against my will? Adil, whatever you do I shall never in my whole life be yours. †14 Although Nabila gets visits from her parents and shares the misery and difficulties of living in a house of obedience with her mom she feels alone and trapped. One day, when the door was unlocked Nabila runs away from the House of Obedience and returns to her parents’s home. This attempt however, as well as her second attempt are not successful. Her husband comes with police to look for Nabila and makes her return to the House of Obedience. After carefully analyzing her options Nabila goes to her husband and asks for nushuz. This would certify Nabila as being disobedient and would relinquish her rights to divorce and alimony, the only right she would have left would be to leave the house of obedience. Although these are rather harsh conditions Nabila agrees to them for she is miserable living under the House of Obedience. Happy with the prospects of freedom, Nabila goes on about her day, this happiness however quickly fades. Adil returns to the legal house with papers that registered Nabila’s nushuz for the rest of her life and gave Adil the right to impose obedience whenever he felt like it. In other words, Adil could have Nabila return to the House of Obedience whenever he pleased. Nabila becomes angry and runs away to her parents’s home. Adil follows her and grants her a divorce for he realizes that no matter how hard he tries no House of Obedience will make Nabila love him. In the end, Adil and Nabila divorce one another, leaving Nabila to question her true feelings for Adil- did her anger towards the House of Obedience block her judgement and view of how Adil truly felt for her? Regardless, Nabila moves on with her life. This story captures the determination and strong will of a young female. It is only because of her wits she is able to leave the House of Obedience. This story shows us the difficulties living under the House of Obedience. You have no say in practically anything, you are a prisoner. Nabila is a rare case for not many women are allowed to escape the House of Obedience, she used her smarts to get out of a dead end and excruciating life that the law made possible. This story also shows us how the House of Obedience essentially served as a blockage to a marriage that might have worked out. If Nabila was not forced to stay in the House of Obedience and was allowed to stay at her parents’s house, she might have come to realize that Adil did infact love her. Instead she focused all of her time and energy on her hatred towards the House of Obedience, she didn’t have time to realize how Adil truly felt, â€Å" I started to cry when I heard the vow of divorce as though a dagger was plunged into my heart†¦. I felt some regret, for I had discovered suddenly that he really loved me. †15 The origin of Bait-al-taa can be attributed to the traditions of Muslim family structures. Women had to stay home, bear and raise children, and listen to their husbands in exchange for financial support. If she was to ever leave without her husband’s consent then the husband has every right to demand her to comeback home. When she does return it is advised that people and neighbors are near, this way they could hear the women scream and be witnesses to her treatment. This shows that many women faced the potential of being beaten by their husbands. For the most part, Bait-al-taa is used by husbands to avoid paying alimony upon divorce, if a woman refuses to go to the House of Obedience, she forfeits her right to alimony. 16 Bait-al-taa is used as another tactic by men to enforce their authority and control over women. Under Bait-al-taa women have no say at all, if they leave the house of obedience they are forced to return and if they refuse to go they give up their alimony, which many women need to support themselves financially. Women also cannot get a divorce until they can legally prove that their marriage can no longer be continued in a healthy manner. All of these restrictions and burden of proof are placed on women. In the 1920s the Egyptian Feminist Union fought long and hard to try to outlaw Bait-al-taa but they were not successful. The Egyptian Feminist Union tried to show the government that women deserved the right to ask for a judicial divorce, many other Egyptian groups also tried to abolish bait-al-taa but they too were unsuccessful. It wasn’t until February 1967 that an amendment to the Bait-al-taa was passed that outlawed the usage of police officers to force a woman back to her home17 and later in the year it was completely ended. 18 Unhappy marriages are the cause of women running away and age plays an important role in this decision. As time passes our ideas and perspectives begin to change. In the beginning of Islam girls were being married off at the age of 8, this practice was understood and accepted. However, with time people started to disagree, this was especially true in Egypt in the early and mid 1900s when bait-al-taa was being widely practiced and Egyptian Feminist were beginning to emerge. Age correlates with maturity and therefore, the Egyptian Feminist Union rallied and petitioned the government to set an age limit on marriage. After some deliberation the Parliament agreed and declared the minimum age for females to get married was sixteen and for males eighteen. Although, this is what the Egyptian Feminist Union wanted, it was not a complete win. This new law helped the middle and upper class families who wanted to educate their daughters while it hurt the lower class families for they had to continue providing for their daughters for a longer time. Also, this law was not followed regularly, people began to create fake birth certificates and worked around the system to get what they wanted, â€Å"my father was not punished for having me married off when I was a legal minor. 19 This law gave females more time to themselves before they got married but it also reinforced the idea that males were more important; under this law males were expected to finish school and get degrees while girls were not. 20 After reading â€Å"The House of Obedience† it is clear that Assal does not agree with the Bait-al-taa and wanted it to be removed and I agree with her completely. Bait-al-taa goes against some of the fundamental beliefs of Islam, Islam says to â€Å"not take revenge on your women’ and ‘Be gentle with them or leave them respectively. 21 Women are supposed to be companions and partners to their husbands not their slaves. Bait-al-taa only causes friction, anger and resentment between the couple. The husband gets upset at the wife for leaving, and the wife gets upset at the husband for keeping her in captivity, this causes violence to erupt and nothing is solved. The Bait-al-taa gives too much control to men and leaves women weak and defenseless, â€Å"the bait-al-taa is more dangerous than prisons for criminals: the prisons are guarded by men invested with authority by the law†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ The husband is clearly and involved guard. No one controls him†¦. he can insult her and hit her and the courts will not consider this behaviour to be outside his legal rights. †22 No one wins under the bait-al-taa, its principles are not found in the Quran, Hadith or Sunnah. It goes against Islam and contradicts many laws in societies. For example, how could a husband get away or not be punished for beating his wife and keeping her in a house against her will while they’re laws to protect citizens from bodily harm? The idea of Bait-al-taa is very contradicting and getting rid of it was the right thing to do.