Optical Illusions Essays - Brain, Cerebrum, Neuroanatomy

Optical Illusions My research paper is about the anatomy of an optical illusion. Optical Illusions are relevant to aviation in that the main guidance system of most aircraft on most flights is the pilot's eyes. Everyone, including pilots, is susceptible to an optical illusion. The hazards of optical illusions are many considering that at any time during the flight they can cause a healthy and experienced pilot to become confused, delusional and generally disoriented with obvious possible consequences. This is why we must study and be aware of optical illusions so that we may be better prepared should we encounter one at a critical time. To better illustrate the origins of optical illusions I will review some parts of the brain and their functions. The brain has seven main parts, they are: the thalamus, the hypothalamus, the cerebellum, the brain stem, the corpus callosum, the two hemispheres, and the largest part of the brain, the cerebrum. The thalamus is located just above the brain stem. It acts like a switchboard, deciding what to do with the messages that come to the brain. If you were reacting to a situation like flying in a dogfight, and radio chatter was coming through your headphones, your thalamus would ignore the radio chatter. The hypothalamus controls our emotions such as happiness and sadness. It also controls our sense of temperature and our feeling of hunger. It is located directly in front of the thalamus. It is also one of the organs that is fully developed when you are born. The cerebellum is the part of the brain that controls our muscles. When we are born, our cerebellums aren't fully developed. That's why we didn't do things in a coordinated manner with our limbs. We moved shakily with our bodies because messages from another part of our brain called the cerebrum weren't organized by the cerebellum. The brain stem is located at the back of the brain, right below the thalamus. It has the responsibility of taking care of involuntary movements such as breathing, blinking, and making our heart beat. The cerebrum is the largest part of our brain. It takes care of our motor skills such as speaking, walking, and writing. These skills are operated in the outside layer of the brain, called the cortex. It is the last part of the brain to develop and is unique only in humans. The cerebrum is divided into two halves, or hemispheres. Our major learning senses are located within the two hemispheres. The corpus callosum is the connector for the two hemispheres of the brain and sends messages between the hemispheres. Your corpus callosum is able to send about twenty messages per second and routes them to various nerve cells called neurons. The brain receives messages through these neurons. Scientists believe that for every ten billion cells in the body, one billion of them are neurons. Can you see a square? Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered that an area of the brain previously thought to process only simple visual information also tackles complex images such as optical illusions. Research, conducted with animals, provided evidence that both the simple and more complex areas of the brain are involved in different aspects of vision and work cooperatively, rather than in a rigid hierarchy, as scientists previously believed. The Scientists compare vision to an orchestra, where clusters of cells in different parts of the brain cooperate to process different components of visual information such as vertical or horizontal orientation, color, size, shape, movement, and distinctions between overlapping objects. The MIT research focused on an area of the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of gray matter that envelops the entire brain called the primary visual cortex, also known as V1 and Area 17 of the brain. In humans that area is about five centimeters in diameter, about the size of four postage stamps and a couple millimeters deep on both sides of the rear of the head, just below the crown. The V1 area is the first point of entry in the brain's cortex of visual information from the eye's retina. Earlier the V1 was thought to be involved only in processing very simple spatial orientations, such as whether an object is placed

Nike Company Marketing Communication

Nike Company Marketing Communication Introduction Marketing communication has become an integral part of product and services. The process of incoming current consumers and prospective consumers is among the key competencies’ of any company, a successful marketing communication mix will most likely contribute in boosting sales and revenues (Yeshin,1998. 1-16)Advertising We will write a custom coursework sample on Nike Company Marketing Communication specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More A company’s communication mix may have a lot of elements that all gear effort towards delivering messages to consumers it is therefore important that different elements of the marketing mix work together and produce the same net effect that is in line with overall marketing and corporate objectives and therefore for this to happen the marketing department of any organization must work together and develop these messages carefully. Nevertheless, it is vital that management of any company comes up with a comprehensive plan that will enable the company communicate product attributes effectively to the consumers (Kotler 2003, 88). It is important that once a company comes up with a product it goes ahead to define its target market and consequently set marketing objectives, communication objectives, creative strategy and media strategy which are relevant tactics that will go into making the strategy a success and an overall control mechanism that will correct any shortcomings as far as marketing communication is concerned (Hummer 1997, 45). Therefore when a company conducts its research and gathers all practical and theoretical data pertaining to the creation of an integrated marketing model then the company can go forward to form channels of communicating better with its clients. Ambiguous results from advertisement campaigns have led marketers to consider adopting other facets of promotion in order to realize marketing communication objectives (Kitchen 2005, 1 3). Integrated marketing communication model A good integrated marketing communication program should therefore aim to: identifying target audiences, analyzing the situation, setting marketing communications objectives, developing strategies and tactics, setting a budget and finally evaluating the effectiveness of the campaign (Claudia 2009 4-15)Advertising Looking for coursework on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More From the above diagram it is clear that the message sent must be customized specifically to reach the target audience and therefore bring desired results for the sender. Therefore the aim of the message is it to inform, remind, persuade, instill loyalty, improve on image, or encourage a trial purchase hence, it should be made in such a way that it will identify with the specific target market that includes consumers of the service or product. (Baumol Alan 2007 46). A situation analysis in marketing communications goes ahead to take a look at the current position that the company is in as far as promotion and marketing communication is concerned by looking at key performance indicators which include sales, brand switching, revenues (Smith, Berry Pulford 2002, 98). Marketing communication strategy is a comprehensive plan that contains the specific elements that intend to address a company’s intended marketing communication mix and how they will be used to achieve the set goals. Tactics are the specific details of the strategies and actions are the specific details of tactics (Kourdi 2009 45-60). When a company creates the overall promotion strategy it should address the, tactics, incremental actions that will be used to fulfill the tactics so that when evaluation and measurement occurs than the company can go ahead and pin point the weak links of strategy, tactics and actions and therefore enable the process of control become more simple (Kotler 2003, 108) Fig 1: Adopted from Smith Berry Pulford 2002, p 168.Strategic marketing communications: new ways to build and integrate communication.Advertising We will write a custom coursework sample on Nike Company Marketing Communication specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The benefits accruing from integrated marketing are numerous and they include the transmission of more consistent, relevant and useful messages that don’t clatter and confuse the mind and perceptions of consumers, thereby promoting the likely hood of loyalty of long consumer relationships (Balmer Greyser 2006, 730-741). Furthermore the messages become more consistent and consequently more believable since they are not diluted as they ensure that a unified message comes from within the organization and therefore at the end of the day this may lead to more profits, sales and a better image and reputation. If an organization decides the final elements that are to be inclu ded in their marketing mix t they should keep in mind the overall state of the company in terms of resources competition and overall industry performance, the overall company objectives, marketing objectives (Kotler 2003 p.74). Nike.  Introduction and situational analysis External Nike is a publicly listed American company with its headquarters in Oregon. it is the largest supplier of athletic shoes in the world with revenues which are in excess of $18 billion and over 30,000 employees worldwide. Nike is known to market its products under the brand Nike. Some of its known athletic shoe brands include Nike+. Air Jordan, Nike’s athletic shoe brands target track and field athletes in areas of basketball, football, soccer, baseball and cricket as well as many other sporting activities. Nike’s customers consist of both armature and pro athletes who use the shoes in sporting activities. Nike uses product differentiation, product design, marketing, production efficiency, hi gh quality and supreme air sole technology as the main key competency. Therefore Nike tries to portray a brand image of quality and performance. It is these qualities that attract consumers to them. Nike is associated with the world’s most successful athletes such as Rafael Nadal and teams such as Brazil whom and which are known to be excellent performers and winners. (Heding et al 2007 45)Advertising Looking for coursework on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More According to Wikinvest 2010 Nikes competitors especially Reebok, Puma, Adidas, Converse and K Swiss are not left behind and always offer stiff competition to Nike. In the last financial cycle Adidas AG made revenues of $ 13 billion, a difference of $ 5 billion hence showing the tight competition existing within the industry. Adidas is said to spend about 200 million to boost the growth of athletic shoe products. Current statistics as suggested by Bloomberg Business weekly magazine shows that Nike enjoys a 38% lead on the entire global market share as compared to Adidas’s which enjoys an impressive 34%. Statistics indicate that the amount of global growth rate experienced by Adidas is much higher than that experience by Nike especially in the Asian markets. The level of competition in this market puts marketing expert to task so that they can create and come up within strategies that will end up expanding growth and market share Internal An internal analysis of Nike gives the public the kind of structure, culture and resource capabilities the company posses (Wheelen and Hunger 2002, 81-90). Nike is said to never own any factories and equipment and therefore it does not have its capital tied up in capital. Furthermore it has a culture of innovation and therefore the company invests a lot in research and design and a highly skilled workforce. The top management have natured a culture of innovativeness and superior performance together with ethics that enables the workforce accept and respect Nikes view of business and appreciate it. Nike also invests in technology that is durable and hard to imitate by its competitors furthermore, the company dedicates over 11% of its revenue towards marketing activities such as promotion (Wikinvest 2010). The value of chains and distributions are vital to the movement and availability of goods and services into the market in time thus, Nike encourages retailers to stock its products by offering benefits such as trade disc ounts and display assistance therefore encouraging channel members to stock products. Objectives Every business entity has its own objectives as far as marketing communication is concerned Nike on its part has put in place a vigorous and extensive marketing campaign that aims to stimulate sales and boost revenues, furthermore another objective is to increase on shelf and off shelf stocking among channel members, besides Nike’s communication objective also aims to counter neutralize and competition resulting from rival advertisement, encourage loyalty, obtain trial purchases and encourage increased product usage among consumers( Yeshin, 2008. 208-210). It is by meeting these objectives that Nike can realize growth in sales, revenues and market share and maintain its position as the leading global shoe manufacturing company. Nike has reported revenues of over $ 18 billion in its last business cycle and therefore the top management aims to surpass these levels in the next financ ial year this can therefore be achieved by reviewing and stepping up its marketing programs. Nike also occupies a total of 38% of the total global athletic shoe market but its long term aim is to occupy a total of 50% ( Wikinvest 2010). Nike aims to do this by initiating a switch among consumers by coming up with unique marketing campaigns that will persuade consumers that Nike is the best athletic performance shoe brand. (Drucker 2006 45) Target Nike sells highly differentiated products that are considered premium. Such companies are therefore considered to serve a specific target market and have products targeting this market highly customized to meet the needs, desires and wants of the various consumers within this market (Stewart 2010. 147-174).Nikes main target is athletes who are in need of high performance athletic footwear. Although initially Nike did not consider serving the needs of youth who wear Nike as a symbol of fashion they have found themselves also targeting this m arket to boost their sales and revenues in order to sustain their market dominance. Nike therefore considers itself the world leading manufacturer of high performance athletic footwear and therefore targets consumers within its market who demand highly differentiated products which give Nike a competitive edge among athletic shoe producers (Porter 1990, 56) Marketing communication Strategy A company’s marketing communication strategy may include using different proportions of advertising, personal selling, sponsorships, celebrity endorsements, direct selling and direct marketing. Nikes main objective is to get the message of superiority and premium performance footwear with an aim of initiating switching and encouraging repeated purchase among targeted users. Nike dedicates around 11% of its total revenue towards ensuring that a perfect marketing mix that will enable it emerge as a top industry performer. The 11% roughly translates to about $1.7 billion dollars annually. (Chr istensen et al ,2009 73). Nike has recently entered into as partnership with Wieden+Kennedy (W K) which is an advertising agency. Nike is known for its superior advertisement campaigns that use the best celebrities in society to transmit the message to its consumers. Nike spends a total of around $ 600 million to advertise in North America and a further approximated $ 200 million to pay celebrities who endorse their products. Nike’s advertisements are the only company whose advertisement has won The Cannes Advertising Festival award twice moreover, Nike’s advertisement has won an Emmy. Nike customizes its advertisements to send the message of superior high performance among athletes who participate in any type of sports. Nike goes further to address both athletes of female and male gender in its advertisements by using celebrities like Rafael Nadal, Tiger woods’, LeBron James, Serena Williams Picabo Street and Gabby Reece. In these advertisements the subliminal message is that all the most successful athletes in the world must be associated with Nike (Howard 2007).Nike is famously known for it’s â€Å"swoosh† and â€Å"just do it† slogan which is part of its marketing communication. The swoosh sign is used in many marketing communication events because it is highly associated with Nike. (Kourdi 2009 46). Furthermore Nike also uses world sporting teams such as Brazil to endorse their products many people therefore, end up purchasing their products because they associate success with Nike. Nike has gone a step further as far as to form a social website for all football fanatics called joga.com which is in over 140 countries and available in over 13 languages. Nike has known the importance of expanding its internet marketing mix in order to further its message of superior athletic performance to a wider section of its target market. By forming such a site where consumers of Nike, football celebrities like Ronaldinho and fans can communicate and exchange information relating to Nike products then Nike hopes to further its position as the number one high performance athletic shoe provider. Furthermore Nike has its on pages in the famous Facebook and Twitter where it can communicate about its products and gather research data that can go into improving its marketing mix and especially its product mix which is known for superiority in design and performance (Irwin, Sutton McCarthy 2008, 74-99). Apart from using social sites in its marketing mix Nike also uses internet advertisements that are available in its own website Nike dot.com and other websites whereby, Nike pays advertisers to make their advertisements pop up to consumers all over the world. (Lancaster Withey 2006 47). Furthermore Nike uses public relation exercises to announce the launch of its latest products and to fight any negative publicity for example, when Nike was accused of operating sweat shops in 2005 that allegedly claimed that N ike had exploited children and therefore used child labor to manufacture soccer balls in Pakistan. The Nike corporate leaders came out clearly through its public relations department and stated that that was clearly not the decision of their company, but instead it was the manufacturer who was subcontracted who had broken the ethics code. Nike therefore said that they would personally terminate the contract of that manufacturer and will not tolerate any manufacturer who produces their product without following the stipulated ethics. This concept of marketing is known as viral marketing that involves the use of internet, social sites and famous internet sites to communicate with consumers. (Wheelen Hunger 2002 75) Due to Nike being a very large company serving possibly millions of consumers it rarely uses personal selling as a part of its communications when dealing with end consumers. Instead the company uses personal selling in its wholesale business transactions that involve sell ing directly to its biggest distributers. However, Nike has tried recently to introduce a price catalogue that tries to personally speak to female clients by sending them emails encouraging them to purchase from the company high performance athletic shoes. Personal selling is a high contact type of service delivery which can be expensive to companies besides, personal selling can result to long queues and consequently customer dissatisfaction (Holm 2006, 22-31). Nike offers its biggest distributors discounts and in-house displays together with relevant literature that will be used to assist in selling its products. (Eckbo, 2007 85). Therefore Nike has successfully used different marketing communication fronts to successfully drive its message to the public with aim of meeting its overall marketing and corporate objectives which are high sales revenues and dominance in the athletic shoe market. These different elements of promotion together, deliver a strong and credible message conc erning issues that are related to the company Nike (Kitchen, 2005 64). Evaluation Evaluation is the process of measuring results and applying controls in order to rectify any unwanted deviations. Proper evaluation control should be timely, both long -term and short- term, furthermore controls should be able to pinpoint areas that are exceptional. Nike has since 2003 dedicated between 11-13 percent of its total revenues towards marketing and specifically, promotion. Nike’s revenues in 2006 were $14.95 billion, in 2007 the revenues increase by14% to $15.99 billion in the year 2008 Nike experienced a growth of 14% which saw their revenues increase to $18.6 billion, Nike success and growth in revenues is considered remarkable and this is because of a superior research and design department and also their supreme marketing promotion mix which form part of their core company competencies, in 2009 fiscal year Nikes growth slowed down from 14% to a miniature 3% totaling to $ 19.2 bil lion the reduced growth rate was partly blamed on the recession and a less active marketing communication campaign ( bNET 2008/09 1-4) In the previous year Nike had spent 11% of the total revenue on marketing activities therefore it went ahead to announce that it will use 13% of the total revenues obtained in the 2009 fiscal year in order to try and go back to the previous growth path (Wikinvest 2010) The act of reviewing the total marketing budget can be considered as a result of evaluation and control. Nike is said to have lost its grip in the EMEA (consisting of Europe, the Middle East and Africa) declined 23.9 percent market whereby Adidas AG is assumed to enjoy more growth. Nike intends to re-evaluate and step up its promotion activities in EMEA (which includes Europe, the Middle East and Africa) in order to further its place as the global market leader in athletic shoe wear. Reference list Balmer, J.T.M., Greyser, A.S., 2006. Corporate Marketing; Integrating Corporate Identit y, Corporate Branding, Corporate Communications, Corporate Image And Corporate Reputation. European journal of marketing, vol 40 issue: 7/8 pp. 730-741. Baumol, W., J. Alan S. 2007. Economics: Principles and Policy (142). New York, NY: Cengage Learning. bNET: Wireless news Nike Releases Fiscal 2008/09 and Full Year Results. Web. Christensen T.L., Firat, A.F. Cornelisen, J.,2009. New tensions and challenges in integrated communications: corporate communications. An international journal, vol.14.iss; 2, pp.207-219. Emerald Publishing Limited. Claudia, M., 2009. Anthropology and ethology contribution to intergraded marketing communications marketing intelligence and planning, vol 27, iss: 5, pp. 633-648.Emerald Publishing Group. Drucker F., 2006. Innovation and Entrepreneurship. New York: Harper Business. Eckbo, B., 2007., Handbook of corporate finance: empirical corporate finance. Maryland: Elsevier. Howard, T. USA TODAY. (2007). Nike serves up new ads supporting women. Web. Heding, W., et al 2007. Brand management: research, theory and practice (27-88). New York, NY: CengageHolm, O., 2006. Intergraded marketing communication: from tactics to strategy corporate communication objectives, An international journal, vol11, iss 1 pp. 22-33, emerald publishing group. Irwin, R.I., Sutton W.A. McCarthy L.M., 2008.Sports promotion and sales management. Illinois: Human Kinetics. Kitchen, P.J.,.2005. A reader in marketing communication. London: Routledge. Kourdi, J., 2009.Business Strategy: A Guide to Effective Decision Making, 2 edn. New York: Economist books. Kotler, P., 2003. Marketing Insights from A to Z: 80 concepts every manager needs to know, New Jersey: John Wiley Sons Inc. Lancaster, G. Withey, F., 2006. Marketing Fundamentals: CIM Course book, London: Butterworth-Heimann. Porter, M.E., 1990. Competitive advantage, illustrated edn, Northampton, MA: Free Press. Smith, P., Berry C. Pulford, A., 2002.Strategic Marketing Communication: ways to build and integra ted communication. London: Kogan Page Limited. Stewart A., 2010.Fashion practice: The journal of design, creative process and fashion. Vol 2, pp. 147-174. Wheelen, T.L., Hunger J.D., 2002. Strategic Management and Business Policy. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Wikinvest: Nike (NKE) Web. Yeshin, T., 1998. Intergrated marketing communication the holistic approach CIM students’ series. London: Butterman-Heiman.

Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 14

Psychology - Essay Example onal to categorise the human mind as an item of experiment, since one can behave erratically under certain circumstances or irrationality under pressured conditions. Therefore, it has its own pros and cons. 2. Compare and contrast two psychological schools of thought (psychoanalytic, behavioural, cognitive, humanistic, and biological). Which do you believe better explains human behaviour, defend your opinion (at least 3 reasons). The behavioural approach is a scientific study, based on collection and tabulation of data, to analyse the human psychology. For instance, if an individual’s psychological framework has to decided upon or deciphered, a tabulation of his activities, his reactions and other interactions would be made and compared, to obtain a result. It is more of a logical and scientific study. On the other hand, the humanistic school of thought in psychology deals with human beings, not in the form of components or experimental materials. The approach possesses a more humane approach, giving place for feelings, emotions, responsibilities, thought-processes, etc. of humans. It does not merely adopt a scientific approach, and paves way to include the other aspects of humanity, that cannot classify them under experimental scientific components in a laboratory! According to me, the humanistic school of psychological thought explains human behaviour better, since irrational emotions and feelings a re given importance. In addition to this, man is not reduced to a mere experimental device. The approach paves way for the realistic assessment of man’s individuality and capabilities. Thus, it is a better approach. Operant Conditioning is a psychological process, wherein a result is kept in mind and in accordance with it, behaviour

Production of EPA by the Diatom Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Production of EPA by the Diatom - Coursework Example The experiment will use the diatom, Nitzschialaevis. Treatments to be used in experiment PI metal solution (Cepà ¡k, PÃ…â„¢ibyl, Kohoutkovà ¡, & KaÃ… ¡tà ¡nek, 2014).   The source of variation in experiment one is the treatment (PI solutions) used in the experiment. A PI solution of 4.5m/L and 3.5m/L used in the experiment will yield different yields in EPA. The treatment used in the experiment will account for the variation in the experiment.   From table 1.1 EPA 13.5ml/l had the highest EPA yield (mean = 219.5) compared to EPA 4.5 (mean=217.2). It implies that PI of the concentration of 13.5ml/l had a higher EPA yield. There was a big disparity yield of PI EPA 13.5ml\l (standard deviation =5.396) compared to EPA 4.5ml/l (standard deviation =3.821) this implies that yield of 13.5 PI was less spread compared to yield in 4.5 PI, which was more spread. It could be assumed to the way the experiment was handled; the time was taken to record the yield in the two experiments. The data of the two experiments were the same, most of the data points were to the left of the mean (skewness, -0.238, and 0.0377). However, the yield of 13.5ml/l was more skewed compared to the yield of 4.5ml/l.   Data of the treatment 4.5ml/l was more reliable to make inferences and conclusions (cv =1.759), compared to data of treatment 13.5ml/l (cv=2.464) which was less reliable to make a justification for the claim.   From the summary statistics, the yield of the two treatments was different this implies that level of PI concentration had a different effect on the diatom Nitzschialaevis (UTEX 2047). Metal PI was therefore important since different concentration yield different results.   Non-parametric test to be used is a chi-square while a parametric test to be used is a t-test. A chi-square test tests for the independence of the samples while a t-test test for the difference on the means of the two samples.   

Homicide Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Homicide - Term Paper Example The discussion that follows will majorly deal with social learning theory, minds designed for murder theory, thrill murder theory and sociological theories including social-demographic theory, subculture violence theory and ‘victomology’. The Social learning theory In his famous publication Professor Bandura,1 has argued that human beings are not born with pre-determined repertoires and predispositions of aggressive behavior. As a matter of fact, most aggressive incidents viz fighting with switchblade knives, martialling with opponents, involvement in military activities, or taking part in vengeful ridicule suffices sophisticated skills that inevitably call for extensive social learning. Ultimately, unlike other basic forms of physical engagement requiring least guidance, victims of this theory, as Bandura observes must be learn them in a way or the other. Further, a progressive argument under this theory has indicated that instead of concentrating much on juvenile aggre ssion as a reason for homicide, a comprehensive analysis must be drafted to entail even the class of individuals who get to be legally trained or professionally acquire skills and knowledge especially those who belong to the category of people whose owe a national duty by providing military service. That being the position, it is therefore difficult to argue that any other skill acquired through social learning is always inclined towards the commitment of a homicide. This is because not the killings done by this class of people are majorly within the ambits permissible by the law. Such circumstances include killings in the course defense on national security, during wars and defense of citizenry property. As such this could be cited as a possible weakness under this theory. Further, this theory presupposes that behavior is reinforced by rewards and punishment and also by observing the behavior of others. Bandura in 1973 argued that people learn particularly from visual images as the just the same way the things happen. Aggressive behavior and violent individual aired through media viz TV can provide a model particularly for young people who try to emulate them. Philip and Hensley in 1984 argued that the number of homicide in the USA significantly increased after a big boxing context which had been viewed through TV. In 1993 two 10 year old boys murdered James Burgler after watching a violent match. Minds designed for murder theory In his famous publication Dr David Buss,2 under the theory of evolutionary psychology has argued that at one point in everyone’s life, there has been a strong and shocking urge to kill. His further pose that murder is our blood and specifically says that homicide is not uncommon pathology or the product of social thrust of culture, destitution or poor parenting but it is an evolutionary adaption that all human beings subject. He further observed that in the appropriate instances all human beings kill, this is by the reason tha t their ancestral fathers also did kill to procure greater chances of reproductive success.3 Ultimately, this is to date inherent in every human being. The component of Buss’ homicidal fantasy also works to suppress the idea that indeed at one moment every human being has killed either physical or by strip of mental fantasy (Buss, 2008). Drug related murder This theory suggests that Neal and Brendan were killed because of some kind of connection to illicit drugs. The theory arises because they

Cadburys Business Strategy and Human Resources (HR)

Cadburys Business Strategy and Human Resources (HR) 1.1 Access the fit of Cadburys approach to managing its human resources and its business strategies with reference to relevant models of SHRM. The approach in which Cadbury manage its human resources and its business strategies lies in the ability to identify the core competence of their people and use these resources with each individuals capability to create a competitive advantage for the Company to stay ahead among its competitors in the industry. Cadbury Schweppes employs more than 50,000 people and has manufacturing operations in more than 35 countries. It is the worlds third largest soft drinks company and holds either the top or second position in the market share of 24 of the worlds top 50 confectionery markets. This illustrates that this large Quaker company has its value in the market where it is important for HR to manage their employees performances, working culture and management in an efficient and positive way. Resource based model, the SHRM role becomes one of the creating systems and procedures that focus not on external relationships but on how staff and their abilities are used. The resource based model recognizes that many aspects of capability can be formally defined in skill terms and allows the integration of the intangible aspects of work alongside other more visible areas such as patents, trademarks and other intellectual. The core competencies include many things such as aspects change of the management, capability of staff, strategic development capability and speed of response. The RBV of the firm argues that a firms growth (Penrose, 1959) and competitive advantage (Wernerfelt, 1984) are function of the unique bundle of resources that it possess and deploys (Barney, 1991, 1997). Firms acquire critical human resources and then establish HR system to enhance the potential of these human resources that are most difficult to imitate (Paauwe and Boselie, 2002; Jackson et al., 2004) As the business has grown and acquired a wide range of non Cadbury originated businesses the strategy has been adapted to fit the worldwide competitive situation it finds itself in. Cadburys goal is to deliver its superior shareholder performance, just as simple as that Cadbury focused on its shareholders which ranked 26th in the FTSE and they achieved its goal in the year of 2004 by showing the turnover business from  £6,738 million to  £1,115 million for its underlying profit. The success of a best fit model depends on its ability to integrate into the strategic plans of the organization, provide horizontal or vertical integration or the key policy areas. How far organizational objectives will be met is also dependent on the level of fit between the business strategy and the environment at one level, HR strategy and business strategy at a second level and the internal coherence of the policy. Best fit allows organizations to determine whether a hard or a soft approach needs to be taken given the prevailing circumstance and the success of a best fit model depends on its ability to integrate into the strategic plans of the organisation and provide horizontal or vertical integration of the key policy areas. There is no one single perfect SHRM model to be applied in Cadburys and the Company needs to take into consideration the nature of business of the Company, the external environment of the industry and in this case the resource based view and best fit model is more suitable. 1.2 Using your knowledge from Unit 8 and the related information about managing effective change evaluate the organisations approach to change assessing its impact and the role played by SHRM techniques and processes? It is important for Cadbury to use its SHRM techniques and processes to manage effective change and evaluate the impact by helping the company in establishing or executing various strategies, provide alternative insights. HR requires people management skills but also in depth understanding of the current situation of the Company and provide value creating proposition accordingly. The HR departments strategies, policies and activities must support and align with the companys corporate and competitive strategies. The strategies of Cadbury for managing their peoples value is to aim to increase employee understanding on how company be profitable and make sure employees in the company is result oriented focused. Cadbury can carry out employees surveys and use the feedback obtained to make necessary future strategy planning. Any sort of feedback -negative or positive feedback makes huge impact in the company as HR can use this to address people management issues. Any discovery of dissatisfaction can be used to minimize existing conflict and personality or culture clash happened in the company. Furthermore, the top management formulates its strategy by supplying competitive intelligence that may be useful in the strategic planning process, supplying information regarding the companys internal human strengths and weakness by conducting employee survey, feedback regionally. By doing such, HR builds a persuasive case that show how the HR can implement several strategies that can be evaluated in a mea surable terms and contribute in creating value for the company. After the merger, there is another group of employees joining the Company with different age (gap) and technology skills which plays a huge part of their working responsibility daily no matter in operations or communications area thus, there will be an internal restructuring and consolidation of workforce to be carried out. With the given transition period after the merger, and the increasingly competitive market and the continuous evolution of technology together with the different generation who may have joined the Company (Gen Y and Gen Z or NetGen), therefore HR can be able to implement workplace training to address to skill gap between employees. These trainings must also be evaluated accordingly by doing a pre training evaluation of performance and post training evaluation. It is important to ensure that the focus of the evaluation is to analyse the performance of employees as well as providing information on how to manage the different categories of people and improve on their performance .A systematic training literature indicates which techniques might be the best for which behaviour in which situation. Changes in job as new technologies develop can have similar effects and more effective training programs can also affect other systems in the work organization. For example, when a employee in C adbury change his or her current position into new position as a result of a career change or promotion, they need to enter into training program. It is important for them to understand the effects of training experiences as part of the organisation. Merger and Acquisition in Cadbury Schweppes shows difference its difference before and after the merging with Schweppes (a.k.a Cadbury Schweppes) is that they managed to show the people how strong both the company and they are worth 4.2 billion after the merging with their new HR director, Andrew Gibson whom was promoted for Cadbury Schweppes for GB and Ireland to drive the company further as HR isnt usual. Managing for Value was invented in year 1977, which this is a programme that employees have to go through on a five-day training course that linked their work to those goals. Cadburys HR director Andrew Gibson practice the use of the 3As which include Accountable, Adaptable and Aggressive which in this context is about being results-focused and tenacious. Results-focused is certainly something every Cadbury Schweppes employee has to be according to Gibson. However, HR have to ask several question such as how has the programme able to show measurable result and overall impact for the Company and whether the programmes reflect on current issues or interest that applies to their work? The impact can be measured through designing a performance management system with quantifiable elements as the staffs key performance index (KPI). Different reward system (monetary and non monetary) can be designed to motivate the staffs further and retain the overachievers in the Company. Managing the people for their value added is extremely important for HR to consider in every level in the business such as their employees have the freedom to do what is right, bottom up their initiatives where staffs can recommend to management their ideas either locally or globally. With this merging, Cadbury had gained their competitive advantages and also in the same time improved and maximize the companys resources as the company went through a major reorganization, moving to a more decentralized way of operating business units within a new structure. In order to reinforce that message of value added for the people, Cadbury Schweppes has two share schemes, ShareSave that has been operating since 1974 and the companys share worth having for Cadburys employee. The impact can be accessed through analyzing the overall staff turnover of the Company and also conduct a staff satisfaction survey relating it to their performance results. Working Better Together is a framework designed by their HR director himself, Andrew Gibson is to encourage employees to undertake in order to work more collaboratively than they were used to a more decentralised business structure both company have different working culture after merged. Cadbury Schweppes have some tough managers who would usually only talk about hard nose financial results where they focus on behaviour and unlocking the potential of people at different levels of the business had really paid dividends. The impact can be measured by the overall team performance and the reduction in conflict or people issues. Passion for People was introduced for directors to look closely of their peoples managing performance and also their skills of enhancement. Adding to the impression that the people who work there with full satisfaction, Gibson reveals that the climate survey (staff attitude survey) where the employees said they understood the businesss purpose and values and its local priorities, were proud to work for the company and felt part of team. Cadbury is successful because their HR are able to unlock employees potential and they focused on their strength and implement the growth of people within the organisation. Both companies has different cultures and it is important for HR to develop a similar benefits in the company for the peoples consideration to get used to the culture of the business and the nature of the way may undertake change. The result of those implemented programme by HR of Cadbury, showed that training and communication among employees and management is important in order to get the ball rolling within the company and also the business regionally. 1.3 From your knowledge of the course how does the HR Function seem to be supporting the Business Strategy at Cadburys? In general how can HR best support an organisations going through change? HR function important in organisation to help them formally evaluate the effectiveness of the performances within the Company. HR seems to be supporting the Business Strategy in Cadbury by bringing in Bob Stack as the companys HR director whom has being so geared towards companys dividends such as bringing more shareholders and create a positive working environment among their employees. After the merging, Cadburys business indeed been through a huge amount of change as the acquisitions of confectioners Trebor Bassett and Adams which at $4.2 billion, the purchase of Adams in 2003 was the biggest acquisition Cadbury Schweppes has made. HR function is often linked between HR department and business such as developing people, bringing out talent, supporting the organisational strategy and being guideline to the people in the Company. System value like communication, training and development should be carry out in HR function too. The changing business environment could bring employees some uncertainty towards the organisations such work is becoming unsecure, the notion of organisational boundaries is sometimes less clear, employees long term relationships with organisations could stopped due to redeveloping access in between. The change process in organisational need to make sense for the management and employees which involve communication between people of more understanding the objective and how change can be achieved. The main areas under HR function are Recruitment and Selection, Training and Development, Industrial Relation / Employee Relation, Compensation and Benefit, Health and Safety. Under Recruitment and Selection stage, it show how effective will HR be in planning decision such as what are the recruitment planning, career planning, succession and workforce planning of staff where they will be given chance to expand their skills or ability within the Company freely. Staff selection should be integrated as the main key task for the organisation as a whole while HR department do the selection. Training and Development is also required whether it is foundation or introduction planning for new entry level staffs, professional development for executives, leadership and management training for managers and HOD in order for the people to improve and grow together with the Company. Industrial Relation / Employee Relation reflect on areas for employees assessment such as teamwork, mentoring, communication between people within an organisation. Compensation and Benefit stage is where the staffs need to know what are the equitable of themselves such as promotion, rewards, insurance, employees deduction of funds and etc. Lastly but not least, Health and Safety is being considered because the employees need to have sort of security during working hours in case if any accident might happen and the Company will have the responsibility to take care of it. In general, HR department is like a consultant of the Company where they assist people to solve their problems or difficulty working among colleagues, provide guidance, explaining or create ruling (SOP) in line with the labour laws and human rights to support organisation which is also called as HR Chain Management. Section B Question 2 What is the value to organisations in creating a learning organisational culture? How can organisations work towards creating this culture through its HRM/HRD Strategies? The value and the importance of an organization in creating a learning organisational culture is to encourage the interaction and friendship between the families in the company. Skills training programme and also advanced system that can simplify work yet promoting a happy workplace is the criteria that HRM/HRD (Human Resource Management / Human Resource Development) should consider in order to help staffs maintain a healthy balance between work and their personal life as we know we spent most of our time in workplace from 9am-6pm (average 8 hours per day). A company should be enriched by the staffs creativity, brilliant ideas and initiative in order to grow or move forward thus, taking care of their needs and potential has to discover and what matters is the quality of staffs work, results together with their passion that is always noted and rewarded by the company. Organisational culture can be reflected in person related objectives and bring in the cultural change or culture reinf orcement. For example, the HR department in an organisations will need to work closely with Corporate Culture department on how to bring their staffs together as one family such as setting up activities that are designed to build their characteristic and leadership skills by understanding their job more in various area. Culture is a set of shared meanings that influence or determine behaviour on how decision are taken care of, how rules are made, what and what information is being shared. All these elements can also prescribed by organisations in term of say their mission statements or in the informal ways, individuals and groups develop ways of thinking about working behaviour and these is an attitude that grows over time in response to organisational events. By creating a healthy culture, an HR must consider few things such as the structural control within the Company, co-ordination and job design can be influenced thoroughly thus standardisation of jobs or flexibility of job (free thinking), formalisation of communication channels and flows, division of labour between departments or teams, term and conditions and the degree of rules and also the ability to work beyond contract. The dimension of HRM in managing cultural behaviour according to strategic aspects will be discuss as follows:- What are the key to organisational relations (customer service)?, create initiatives for integrated strategic change, fast speed of making decisions, transformational leadership working to bring positive change, facilitation or prized management skills involving employee support and encouragement to employees. Teamwork and communication is always important in working culture especially it need to be handled through managing culture and being harmonised with overall business strategy objectives. Question 4 To what extent can performance management systems stand alone from an organisations overall approach to developing and managing people? How can organisations integrate the performance and developmental aspects of managing people? Use case examples to illustrate your answer. Performance Management Systems (PMS)., Bevan Thompson (1992) is a set of techniques and procedure on how to improve an organisation performance such as how to communicate the vision of an organisations objectives to the employees, providing departmental or business unit and individual performance targets that are drawn from the wider organisational objectives or a formal review process of how the objectives have been met. A fully integrated PMS (objective setting, review process and linked development and review system) provides the basis for evaluating the effectiveness of the whole performances process in providing enhanced organisational performance. As case examples, AirAsia Bhd is a low cost carrier or budget airline in Southeast Asia and they still a growing airline for 8 years now but yet theyve started to implement the 360 degrees of performance appraisal among its employee so that the company can know well as well as provide its employees with unparalleled opportunities for career development and to achieve a multi-skilled workforce which a lot more other established company has not practise this 360 degrees appraisal program. The role of HR under PMS is to consult and formulate its schemes in consultation with line of managers and staff, monitor and evaluate PMS based on stakeholder use on what are the outcomes and process effectiveness, review organisational capability as a result of PMS and design policy action in HRD and recruitment. PMS distinguishing in an organisation is seen as a series of steps linked to an overall business strategy such setting objectives, on going review on the objectives, development of personal improvement plans, formal appraisal with feedback, a competence based organisational capability review and pay review for result oriented. In this world of business today, managing people could be tough and challenging especially in a huge organisations where there are employees from different countries, different culture and also the language barriers. The features that can make up PMS as a series of steps linked to an overall business strategy as follows: Figure 1: Features of a Performance Management System As illustrated in Figure 1:Features of a Performance Management System, a performance management system has six (6) distinguished features, namely: i) Objective setting this would be the area where long term objectives would be set for the employee and are normally stated in a formal Key Performance Indicator/Index (KPI) and is normally set by the immediate manager or by the management team. ii) Ongoing review of objectives this would be the area where KPIs are reviewed periodically either every 3 months or quarterly to ensure that the employee would be able to meet the said long term objectives. iii) The development of personal improvement plans linked to training and development this area is to ascertain the targeted development that the employees wish to go through and to allow personal development to takes place to help improve productivity of the employee. iv) Formal appraisal with feedback this area is to review the progress of the employee against personal skills development and personal experimentation in trying out new tutoring systems or skills. Also to ascertain the level of self improvement the employee had managed to gain throughout the period of the objective setting. v) Pay review this area would allow the management to see how best fit the employee would be rewarded for the effort that they had shown over the period of the appraisal. vi) A competence-based organisational capability review this area would be more to organisational strategies where the organisation would be able to place resources where they are more suitable to able productivity to be increased. Learning and Development objectives should also be measured in order to contributes to better productivity, improved job performance and eventually a high performance culture. LD objectives is bring employees in an organisation to link directly with the skills and core competence requirements of the business and help to achieve organisational development goals. All these include how the employees behaviour in term of the job is being carryout, positive teamwork attitude or communication among colleagues or customers. Thus, HR department is responsible to emphasize on quality behavioural factors of the people, differentiation of individual performance (resource based view), increase bottom line (profit/cost) prioritisation to be fed down to each employee and get to understand the importance of communicating with employees themselves that can align their behaviour and attitudes. The concern to improve individuals potential in their workplace is necessary for HR because the future of th e organisations will become more dependent on the people and their ability will effectively help the company grow stronger. Despite of providing external training, staffs within the organisation can often have swapping lesson where opportunities is opened for self directed learning experiences from different colleague, different field. As for conclusion, the organisational culture will be influenced by the decisions taken by PMS on matter such as the relationship the relationship of dependence or interdependence formed by managers and employees and how this influences change through the design and delivery of the scheme. References Irwing L.Goldstein K.Kevin Ford., Training in Organisations (Fourth Edition), 2002. Derek Torrington, Laura Hall Stephen Taylor., Human Resource Management. Strategic Management of Human Resources,. University of Sunderland BA (Honours) Business Management, Version 3.0, Unit 1 Definition and Purpose of SHRM., pp.13-22. Strategic Management of Human Resources,. University of Sunderland BA (Honours) Business Management, Version 3.0, Unit 8 Managing Change: Culture and Performance., pp. Managing Human Resource Capabilities for Sustainable Competitive Advantage www.emeraldinsight.com/reseachregister The Strategic Managing of Human Resources., John Leopold, Lynette Harris Tony Watson, 2004.

Racism in To Kill A Mockingbird :: essays research papers

Racism presents itself in many ways in the town of Maycomb. Some are blatant and open, but others are more insidious. One obvious way that racism presents itself is in the result of Tom Robinson’s trial. Another apparent example is the bullying Jem and Scout had to endure as a result of Atticus’s appointment as Tom Robinson’s defense attorney. A less easily discernible case is the persecution of Mr. Dolphus Raymond, who chose to live his life in close relation with the colored community. Tom Robinson’s trial, and in fact his entire life, was badly affected by racism. It is truly a testament to the corruption of society when a person who has earned a bad reputation is held in higher esteem than a person who was born with it, as is the case with Bob Ewell and Tom Robinson. Even though Tom was obviously honest in his testament, the jury sided with Bob Ewell because he was white. They made this decision despite the fact that the Ewell family was widely known to be a worthless part of society. Jem, not being racially prejudiced, could not understand this mentality. As Atticus pointed out, â€Å"If you (Jem) had been on the jury, son, and eleven other boys like you, Tom would be a free man.† The hatred that the citizens of Maycomb felt towards the black community extended to anyone who became involved with them, especially the Finch family because Atticus was appointed to defend Tom Robinson. Scout and Jem suffered the most from this hatred because their peers were children, who are nearly always less candid than adults. Most of the people who were unhappy with Atticus would just try to keep away from him, which was bad enough. The children however, verbally abused Scout and Jem. Scout responded to this with physical violence, even though it was discouraged by her father. The sad thing is that they were mistreated even by members of their family, like Scout’s cousin Francis. Mr. Dolphus Raymond is another character who suffered from Maycomb’s racism. He was a respected, wealthy member of the community, but then he chose to live with the black community. This was considered a felony by the inhabitants of Maycomb. He knew they would never be able to understand his choice, so he made it easier for them by pretending to be the town drunk.