Kite Runner Racism

Racism plays important roles in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. The author uses racism to describe the characters and the culture represented in the stories. In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses prejudice as a tool to tell this story of betrayal and redemption. He pursues his story with prejudice and racism in Afghanistan as well as in the United States. While the author uses individual characters to tell the story, he portrays the general attitudes and history associated with the characters' Hazara and Pashtun ethnic origins and the conflicts that arise in Afghanistan.Throughout history and even while the story was taking place in the 70's the US of A was going through their tough times with racism and prejudice thoughts and acts towards other ethnical groups such as the blacks, Asians and Latino's. Although during this present era these racist acts and thoughts have been cut down and have been limited to just some states in the south as where in Afghanistan these prej udice acts still exist. Ali and Hassan represent the marginalized group in this story. They are considered by the ruling class to be of lesser value due to their ethnic origin, religious beliefs, appearance and social standing.The author gives us a glance of this when Amir reads about the harassment of, and attempted uprising of the Hazara, and how Amir’s people, the Pashtuns had: â€Å"†¦quelled them with unspeakable violence†. The disregard that people have for the Hazara is reinforced when Amir asks his teacher about what he has read and he responds by saying, â€Å"That’s one thing Shi’a people do well, passing themselves as martyrs†. Assef shows how internalized this hostility is when he says to Amir and Hassan, â€Å"Afghanistan is the land of the Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here†.

Management and Case Study Essay

Competitive Strategy Assessment 2 Case Study Google Inc. INTRODUCTION This Business Report primarily addresses 4 questions asked on the Google Inc. case study. Information is primarily obtained from the case study and from publicly available news reports and articles Premium1265 Words6 Pages Case Study Analysis ABC INC. , Case Study Introduction Although the whole story behind this incident is not known, it is apparent that Carl Robins displayed poor scheduling, implementation, and did not pursue his job duties. These facts alone would also make it seem that Carl is neither qualified nor trained properly Premium890 Words4 Pages  Amazon. Com Case Study 3 Amazon. com, Inc. Case Study Chirag P. Gandhi Introduction During 1994, a man, Jeffrey Bezos, who after completing graduation from Princeton University was hired by D. E. Shaw, a Wall Street firm. During his occupancy there he was astonished to learn an interesting statistic on the Internet. Premium2696 Words11 Pages Land Rover Case Study Land Rover North America Inc Case Study Group - ­? B12 Aditya Anand Asit Acharya Chaitanya Somawar Kiran Yadav Rakesh S Suresh Prasad Tribhuwan Kumar LAND ROVER NORTH AMERICA INC. LRNA is envisioning a  considerable growth in the S Premium1231 Words5 Pages Chemgrow Case Study. Doc ChemGrow Inc Case Study analysis: 1. What decisions would you make with regard to which is the most productive region, who is the most outstanding salesperson, and who are the most valuable customers? The major issue for Mr. John Kee is to decide on the various incentives that include 1. The speci Premium617 Words3 Pages Southwest Airline Case Study | SOUTHWEST AIRLINES, INC| CASE STUDY ANALYSIS| COMPARING PAST WITH PRESENT| | 12/14/2010| STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT (Section F) Course Instructor: Mr. AbdulQadir Molvi Submitted by (Alph. Order): NUTS AND BOLTS Abdul Basit Malik (9045) Hafsa Saleem (8828) Maaz Ismail (7192) Muh Premium10669 Words43 Pages Case Study for Acuscan, Inc Critical Case Study Assignment Maurine Shaughnessy GEN/480 Paul C. Moretti, M. B. A. September 12, 2006 I am the newly hired Vice President of Organizational Development. My responsibilities include creating the Organizational Development Department. I look forward to working with all of you Premium1362 Words6 Pages Case Study, Sas Institute Inc. Case Study, SAS Institute Inc. The management culture is a very important factor in the imprinting of a company: it shapes the relationship between working environment and employee satisfaction. I will answer a few questions regarding the SAS’s particular strategy of running the business in which t Premium1085 Words5 Pages Case Study Analyses: the Gap, Inc. The central purpose of writing this Case Study Analyses on The Gap, Inc. is to identify and isolate key issues and their underlying implications and offer practical solutions and plans for implementing those solutions. This will be done by highlighting the social influences that influence the G Premium1676 Words7 Pages Strategic Management and Policy Case Study of Harley-Davidson Inc Strategic Management and Policy Case Study of Harley-Davidson, Inc. August 19, 2006 Introduction In 1903, a legendary motorcycle company was formed when William S. Harley and the Davidson brothers, William D. , Arthur and Walter, handcrafted their first three motorcycles. In 1909, Harley-Davi Premium3037 Words13 Pages Comm215 Case Study Abc Inc. Introduction While this author does not know the whole story, Carl Robins exhibited poor planning, execution and follow through of his duties, which would appear he is either not qualified or trained to do his, job effectively. This situation may have been alleviated by instituting a thorough super Premium1053 Words5 Pages Case Study: Circuit Board Fabricators Inc. Case Study: Circuit Board Fabricators Inc. Carl Anthony Jackson Sr. University of Phoenix OSC301 Operations Management Kimberly Ford January, 21 2008 In this case study Circuit Board Fabricators manufactures circuit boards for several computer companies. CBF has a c Premium933 Words4 Pages Case Study # 1: South Delaware Coors, Inc. Case Study # 1: South Delaware Coors, Inc. Analysis Summary Main Problems Two issues are present in the case. The first is a decision on what research should be conducted by Manson and Associates to allow Larry Brownlow to estimate the feasibility of a Coors beer distributorship for a two Premium623 Words3 Pages Wal-Mart: Staying on Top of the Fortune 500 a Case Study on Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Wal-Mart: Staying on Top of the Fortune 500 A Case Study on Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Executive Summary Wal-Mart Stores Inc.  is the largest retail company in the United States and has been ranked number one on the Fortune 500 Index by Fortune Magazine. Wal-Mart has four parts to their corporate str Premium10230 Words41 Pages Case Study on South Delaware Coors, Inc I. Statement of the Problem The problem was giving direction to Manson and Associates regarding which research should be completed within a period of time, to determine market potential of a Coors beer distributorship for a 2-county area in southern Delaware. II. Objectives of the Study Premium1809 Words8 Pages Dell Inc. a Case Study  Strategic Management Case Study: Dell Inc. -2005 [pic] Submitted to: Dr. Ali Askari Submitted by: Group 10 Asadullah Premium1673 Words7 Pages Towards a New Theory of Innovation Management: a Case Study Comparing Canon, Inc. and Apple Computer, Inc. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 8 ( 1991 ) 67-83 Elsevier Towards a new theory of innovation management: A case study comparing Canon, Inc. and Apple Computer, Inc. Ikujiro Nonaka Institute of Business Research, Hitotsuhashi University, Kunitachi, Tokyo, Japan Martin Kenney Premium7711 Words31 Pages  A Case Study on Employee Engagement: Marriott International, Inc. Healthy 4 Healthy Pregnancy and and Children: Opportunities Challenges for Employers A Case Study on Employee Engagement: Marriott International, Inc. Company Background Marriott International Inc. , is a leading lodging company with nearly 2,900 lodging properties in the United States and 68 Premium1476 Words6 Pages Case Study, History, and Strategic Analysis of Motorola, Inc. Case Study, History, and Strategic Analysis of Motorola, Inc. 1.Describe the salient opportunities and threats that exist in Motorola’s external environment. 2. Describe the company’s most prominent strengths and weaknesses. 3. Describe the advantages and disadvantages associated with eac Premium3798 Words16 Pages Case Study: Radio One, Inc. Case Study: Radio One, Inc. – Part A Corporate Valuation Date: 21-09-2009 Instructor: Dr. Oliver Spalt Course: 323058 Corporate Valuation Faculty Economics and Business Administration, Tilburg University P. W. Segers J. J. T. M. Zegers 779710 722085 1. Radio One’s opportunities and risk Premium2476 Words10 Pages Documents 21 – 40 of 1,000 |Go to Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 †¦ 50 Previous | Next Search Saved documents You do not have any saved papers at this time. Search Only Title Body Category Date Created Today This Week This Month This Year All Time Number Of Pages Word Count Search Ready to get started?

Communication Organisations and Technologies Essay - 1

Communication Organisations and Technologies - Essay Example Both of these management strategies focus on the needs or motivations of employees, but each has their own benefits and potential disadvantages. Human relations often deal with the specific environmental (physical) conditions of the organisation that tend to boost productivity levels. The Illumination Studies, studies that involved the correct level of illumination in the workplace, tended to show that productivity remained the same regardless of how lighting was increased or decreased in the organisation (Miller, 2008). Further studies showed that in the presence of other factors related to the worker, such as pay incentives, specific work hours assigned to each employee and even the social environment boosted productivity when paired with environmental issues such as lighting (Miller). In order to best describe the human relations approach to managing people, it involves understanding that people want to be included as a part of a team environment and also given the physical conditions that make the job rewarding and worthwhile. providing better bonuses for meeting corporate goals or providing additional compensation through the performance appraisal so that employees realise they are respected and valued contributors to the organisation. Motivating employee loyalty and giving them personalised incentives for meeting more than just job role responsibilities are factors that are modelled into the human relations approach. â€Å"The accountability to which organisations increasingly have to respond can be adequately met only by making an appeal to the responsibility of individual employees. The organisation depends on their loyalty† (Vandekerckhove and Commers, 2004, p.226). What this means for management is that in order for the business to be successful to all different stakeholders, it must depend on the personal actions and loyalties of employees to reach

Applied Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Applied Business Ethics - Essay Example In marketing, ethics are extremely vital as they affect the performance of an organization (Cohen, 2007). Ethics is the principles one uses to make an outright decision. Marketing sections face their own set of ethical dilemma-related problems concerning pricing, product development, distribution and advertisements. Many organizations may be faced by a dilemma in choosing the advertisement approach to take (Harding, 2010). This is evident on whether to adopt sexual and emotional appeal advertisements as part of the marketing strategy. Justification The use of sexually appealing advertisements has been on the rise in the recent past years. It is becoming more blatant as marketers are trying to find ways to overcome the media clutters. These adverts are integrated with persuasive sexual information (Liu, Li & Cheng, 2006). Such techniques are intentionally controversial in order to grab the attention of an individual, thus, creating the product awareness. Although this approach of adve rtising is popular, it faces criticism due to the ethical dilemmas surrounding it. Emotional appeal, on the other hand, is based on three ideas. The consumer does not pay much attention to the advertisement. Secondly, consumers do not notice rational appeals unless they are looking for the product being advertised. Last and most prominent, use of emotional adverts, attempts to capture the attention of the viewer and link the consumer to the product being advertised. The use of sex and emotional appealing adverts have led to the growth of many businesses because of the homogenous belief that consumer needs, and interest are alike (Chan et al., 2007). However, organizations are faced by ethical challenges when adopting them. Therefore, an organization should critically decide the marketing approach to adopt. The cultural image of the organization is mainly founded by products and services they offer. Adverts integrated with sex appealing images are at times seen to be pornographic. Th is often leads to the notion that the organization promotes it, which adversely affects the image of the organization. The use of the female sexual icons in the adverts may also lead to distortion of many norms and beliefs, especially the young and innocent people who cannot distinguish the appropriate content of the advert (Foley, 1999). This often derails the values of the community at large. The use of emotional appeal contexts has been criticised ethically. It has been argued that businesses utilizing emotional appeal tend to exploit the viewers’ emotions. Businesses may be marketing a flawed product or a product which can bring harm to the society, but due to the emotional attachments the viewer has developed, one may end up buying it. It may also persuade one to buy what might not be needed. Ethical decisions making The ethical decision making process of solving this dilemma should be based on the two approaches; teleology and deontology. The deontological methodology i s concerned with the notions of universal truths, values and principles, to be followed irrespective of the situation. The categorical imperative stated by Kant, dictates that faced by a situation, one should respond in a way which is consistent and conforms to the ethical principles. He should also be content and comfortable with the decision made with full consideration of others. Therefore, in deciding on the effective marketing

Epic theater, a comaritive analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Epic theater, a comaritive analysis - Essay Example As he is introduced, his presence evokes an image of the fallen, a prevalent theme throughout the French Revolution. As the story of the French Revolution is told by historians and enhanced by paintings, illustrations, and live action recreations of the events, The French Revolution: Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite -A New Republic is Born in Blood, creates a film experience that breaths life into the historical figures of the French Revolution. While the causes of the French Revolution can be linked across many theoretical and philosophical constructs, the main cause was created from an economic crisis. As in most cases, the people were motivated to act because of a lack of stability which caused a lack of food. Of the many reasons that can motivate people into action, the one that denies them the basic needs of survival will most often inspire the quickest movement toward a radicalization. The film describes the events that surround the impending crisis that is setting up France for a time when flour, a staple of bread making which is a food staple for the French, prices would skyrocket, creating a circumstance where a loaf of bread becomes worth a month’s salary [1]. By using live action recreations and illustrations from the time period, a connection can be made by the audience to the impact of starvation on a people who is not properly represented or supported. Mention is made of Marie Antoinette’s â€Å"most famous line she never said . . . Let them eat cake† [2]. The line was a commentary on the feelings of the French people to their queen, and while the film mentions that she never said such a thing, it is made clear that her excesses are what led this line to be associated with her. The film displays a series of examples of the excesses in which she indulged, including illustrations of overly exaggerated hairstyles that could stand several feet tall. In the midst of a country that was

Discussions W1-3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Discussions W1-3 - Assignment Example This include: independence, integrity, objectivity and being transparent. The body hopes that its independence from undue pressure will not have an influence in its decision-making processes. The board has to be ethical, honest and forthright in all its relationships. It also has to be impartial in its decisions so that it can encourage open public participation. FASB on the other hand, is responsible for improving the financial accounting and reporting by non-governmental agencies. The boards has to ensure that such institutions provide financial information that is accurate and useful to investors and other end users. The board encourages broad participation of all stakeholders view in an effort to come up with better financial reporting standards. There are some differences in accounting for profits and nonprofit financial reporting. The standards of reporting for the two accounting boards are very different especially when it comes to accounting for profit. In recognition of prof its for instance, GABS does not necessarily recognize profits because it is a non-profit making venture and instead it may be called surplus. FASB on the other hand, does recognize profits in its financial reporting and is one of the most important information for decision makers. Therefore, profit is always recognized and has to be reported in the financial statements of profit making institutions. Government reporting is often a challenge especially when one has to consider that the government has to take into consideration different aspects. For instance, government reporting is different for counties and that of the city because of different reasons. First, the counties are usually under the local authorities and the cities are usually under a municipality and thus the difference. The reporting also has to take into consideration the number of residents or the population of the inhabitants. This is especially crucial in knowing what the resources will be allocated to each county and city. As is the case, some counties are larger than cities and some cities are bigger than counties. Therefore, there has to be some consistency in reporting of financial statements for the two. GABS reporting on financial statements of non-profit making institutions has to take into consideration three main characteristics. First, the information shared has to be useful to the end users. The main use of information is to influence decision-making, therefore the information has to be useful to people who are not looking for profits but rather how resources or services have been provided effectively. Secondly, GABS has to take into consideration the fact that most users are not familiar with accounting standards for governmental organizations. Therefore, the board has to educate and guide the end users in interpreting financial reporting for non-profit organizations. Finally, the decision makers are the most important and integral part of reporting. The government should not alt er any information on financial statements to influence the minds of the decision makers (gasb.org, 2012). There are similarities and contrasts in the way financial reporting is conducted under the International financial reporting standards and the U.S GAAP especially when it comes to leases. Both accounting reporting are similar in that they recognize the three types of leases. They recognize the existence of a capital lease, a financial lease and an operating lease. Secondly, the two

Strategic Marketing Planning Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Strategic Marketing Planning Assignment - Essay Example In the 21st century the word of internet and technology is an ever-changing one and is filled with interesting startups who with their innovative ideas could pose considerable challenges to at least some of the areas where Google operates. Moreover there are other significant players like Yahoo! and MSN, who have the financial scale and technological wherewithal which could match Google. The operating environment for an organisation like Google is a complex mix of technological, social, political, economical and other factors. Especially the ever changing technological environment is bringing in newer challenges for a company like Google. Google is known as an innovative organisation but to continue its success the company would have to strategies and innovate and stay ahead of the curve. For this to happen it is extremely crucial for it to analyse its environment properly. And it should always be cautious about the game changers who could pose some threat to its business or specific business areas. One of the best tools or model to analyse the environment for Google or any other organisation would be to use what Johnson and Scholes (1996) recommend. They propose a five step approach to determine the organisation’s strategic position. This approach is used to look into certain key issues like complexity of the environment, the level and type of interaction the firm has with its marketing environment, impact of the change in environment and it different variable on the firm, predictability of any future changes that might take place, the receptiveness of the present management in context of trends and also the capability of the firm to cope with the changing environment. Audit of the Environmental influences and Assessment of its nature: The environment of an organisation can be analysed through the PEST model. It consists of

National Organization for Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

National Organization for Women - Essay Example The amendment known as Equal Rights Amendment had been introduced by Alice Paul, and it sought to make men and women have equal rights all over the United States, as well as any other place under its jurisdiction (Wood 85). The amendment received opposition, and it is unfortunate that up to this moment, it has not been ratified. Some people believe that collective action problems played a significant role in the Equal Rights Amendment’s ratification failure. This implies that the pro-ERA lobby groups did not co-ordinate their actions well while fighting for the common cause. Women were not united in their struggle for their rights. This was demonstrated by some women leaders such as Phyllis Schlafly, the right-wing leader of Eagle Forum, a lobby group that was created to stop ERA. Women who were in this group argued that ERA was going to deny women the right to obtain support from their husbands, women were going to be sent to battles, women’s privacy rights were going to be reversed, and that homosexual marriages and abortion rights was going to be upheld. Schlafly presented a consistent and coherent message, and this defeated the dispersed efforts from pro-ERA forces (Critchlow 215). The National Organization of Women (NOW) decided not to pursue a centrally managed and hierarchically organized support program for ERA. This is because it was faced with dilemmas regarding the organizational style to use while pushing for the amendment. This dilemma was brought about by the manner in which Schlafly’s opposition was well organized. If NOW had chosen to adhere to its decentralized and participatory style of management to agitate for ratification of ERA against the properly orchestrated campaign, there was no way it was going to be successful. Its only option to counter Schlafly’s campaign was to adopt the same campaign style, and this would mean that it compromises its ideals. Therefore, NOW chose to stick to its accustomed methods, and this led to ERA’s defeat. The ratification process was also made difficult by some external factors. For instance, the Supreme Court’s decision on the abortion case, Roe v. Wade on 22 Jan 1973, as well as the countrywide appreciation for Senator Sam Ervin as the chairman of the Senate Watergate hearings that commenced in May, made it difficult for the proponents of ERA. Social conservatives and fundamentalists were angered by the decriminalization of abortion, and to make it worse, ERA was linked with upholding of the abortion rights (Wood 86). Therefore, they campaigned against ERA as a way of retaliating the Supreme Court’s ruling. On the other hand, Senator Ervin had exemplary performed his duty as the chairman of the Senate Watergate hearings; thus, he was viewed as a savior to the United States Constitution. His portfolio, as the Senate opposing leader to ERA, played a significant role in influencing the southern states to refuse to ratify ERA. It is worth noting that Schlafly also made use of Senator Ervin’s influence to propel her campaigns. She included Senator Ervin’s wife in her campaigns in order to make her campaigns have a national appeal bearing in mind that Senator Ervin was highly regarded (Critchlow 220). NOW and pro-ERA lobby groups had difficulties handling the pressures that was being exerted by the opposition groups. This is attributed to the fact that several opposition groups kept springing, and their number

Feasibility Analysis For Establishing A Teen Mom Residential Facility Essay

Feasibility Analysis For Establishing A Teen Mom Residential Facility - Essay Example Especially in light of the welfare reform rules which require that all minors reside in supervised settings as a criterion for the receipt of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), these facilities prove to be a viable source for such supervision. Despite this, very little is known about these facilities. To date, there has been a minimal set of empirical studies to indicate their efficacy. As such, this study set out to examine the feasibility of such an implementation by examining seven facilities throughout the United States. This study aims to (1) document the implementation of residential facilities for teenage mother and (2) explore the feasibility of implementing such a facility. This study examines seven residential facilities for teenage mothers within the United States. Since the aim of this study was to asses the feasibility of establishing such a facility, our emphasis lied on programs with the highest potential for inclusion. In conducting the research, the researcher initiated numerous telephone interviews with various employees within the study facilities. The inquiry focused on the following areas: Management. The study facilities were managed utilizing both a networked management topology and an independent management topology. Four of the study facilities were networked and the remaining three were independent facilities. The networked facilities were essentially multi-site facilities operating under a unified management body while the independent facilities were single-site facilities. By virtue of the varying topologies, the managerial structures as well as the size of these facilities were inherently different. Funding Sources. The study facilities were predominantly funded through grants from a variety of governmental funding sources. In fact, these funding sources account for over 70% of the funding necessary for these facilities is garnered from private donations and other fundraising efforts. Eligibility Rules. The fundamental requirements involved specific guidelines with regards to age, pregnancy and motherhood status and the qualification for state-subsidized programs. In general, the programs accepted residents as young as 13 years of age and as old 29 years old. Services Provided. All of the facilities provided a general set of core services. These services include housing, supervision and structure, case management and parenting and life skills. Staffing and Costs The range of monthly per family expenditure ranged from approximately $1,100-$8,500. The lion's share of this cost was realized in the costs associated with the staffing needs and the direct supervision of the residents. In fact benefits and compensation accounted for as much as 70% of the program fee. Within these programs there was intensive supervision which mandated an allocation of staff members who are in direct contact with the residents for a substantial part of the day. The remaining costs were those associated with the provision of housing. CHAPTER I: DEFINITION OF THE

How Social Production Transforms Markets and Free

How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom Essay In the book â€Å" The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom† by Yochai Benkler, he discussed the diversity of network and its impact to different aspects of society. Benklers discussed that technology is a big part of the development that had occurred. Technology is a tool used to a more effective communication. Media today uses these technologies to provide assurance that the message is delivered to the people. Internet has become a fast growing form of information source and communication tool. With this expansion comes its effect of distributing the main structure of producing and allocating information, culture and knowledge. Information is just a click away. This became a common source of reference whenever one wants to know something. This is said to be an open source to the public. In the process of acquiring this information, the most of the intelligence and effort shared by the author has the potential of being reused due to exposure. The complex network enables to diffuse the core information and be used by other as their own. Because of these economic characteristics, the mass-media model of information and cultural production and transmission became the dominant form of public communication in the twentieth century. Equally important is the example of the news media: fair use is healthy and vigorous in daily broadcast television, where references to popular films, classic TV programs, archival images, and popular songs are constant and routinely unlicensed. Internet is now on its constant development and through this communication is possible no matter how distant it is. The property right at issue is almost entirely a matter of respecting the authorship of the original work with the use of open source code, no less than with scholarly work. This sense of propriety, however, operates with a rigor in scholarship that exceeds the bounds of copyright law. Copyright only protects the author’s expression and wording of an idea from being used by another beyond the realm of fair use. By means of this, the author’s original idea can be protected and assured that his name will be credited when his work was used. The other issue that Benkler stated that the Media is also an open source where there is a distribution of new knowledge which we may apply to our culture and social traits as individuals. These have little impacts in small daily activities as we cannot notice, which at some point we may see that we had changed eventually. Some values that had been perceived are caused by these emerging networks. Since this had also been an environment to us and we need to adapt to these changes. Cultural production in the form of the networked information economy offers individuals a greater participatory role in making the culture they occupy and makes the culture more transparent to its inhabitants. On my understanding, it is true that advancement in these aspects is also giving development on human meaning and communication. Wide network can provide the potential for better human welfare and development and freedom. Human perception is perceived and improved constantly. We can also observe that most of us rely on computers. We can practice skills and acquire additional knowledge through this wide scope of information that is open to the public. Whether how small the task is, it still contributes to one’s personal enhancement through technological experience. This provides us a more complex human development. Another optimism of Benkler which I agree is that because of enhanced technology and wide network of information, we practice and shape the freedom in the society. This has impact on the modern liberal society. Changes in the technological, economic, and social affordances of the networked information environment affect a series of core commitments of a wide range of liberal democracies. Benklers’ optimism towards these changes is in accord to my opinion. Accessibility of media is not a problem anymore. Proliferation of networks has provided the industry, culture and social contributions to the changing society. Because of technological advancement and network expansion, our jobs became easier and more efficient. Also, with the new invented tools and equipment, we can do things we only imagine that would be possible. But with this progress comes with the disadvantages of the complex network that is still extending. One is the exposure of information where it can be abused by the users. They can use them and not acknowledge the author. In this issue, the end user takes the credit of the idea which is not his. This common crime happens commonly on the use of the internet. References: Benkler,Yochai. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. (2005) Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use. (2005). www. centerforsocialmedia. org/fairuse. htm Willinsky, John. The Unacknowledged Convergence Of Open Source, Open Access, and Open Science. First Monday. (July 2005) www. firstmonday. org/issues/issue10_8/willinsky/

The Basics of How Computers Work

The Basics of How Computers Work A Computer is an electronic device used for making simple and complex calculations, analyses, storing, sorting, processing and retrieving of data, plotting graphical designs and sketches as well as many other tasks that is always on the increase. Computers range from the very small to the very large. Some are capable of doing millions of calculations in a single second, while others may take long periods of time to do even the most simple calculations. But theoretically, anything one computer is capable of doing, another computer will also be able to do. Given the right instructions, and sufficient memory, a computer found in a wristwatch should be able to accomplish anything a supercomputer can although it might take thousands of years for the wristwatch to complete the operation. At one time, computers were extremely large, and required enormous amounts of power. This made them useful only for a small amount of tasks computing trajectories for astronomical or military applications, for example, or code breaking. Over time, with technological advances, the computer was scaled down and its energy requirements lowered immensely. This allowed the power of the computer to be harnessed for a staggering array of uses. As prevalent as personal computers are, they do not nearly begin to scratch the surface of computer use in our world. Interactive devices of all sorts contain their own computers. Cellular telephones, GPS units, portable organizers, ATM machines, gas pumps, and millions of other devices all make use of computers to streamline their operations, and to offer features which would be impossible without a computer. List the Four Parts of a Computer System Arithmetic and Logic Unit Central Processing Unit Assemblers Compilers Some however refer hardware components as the main parts of computer system, in that case, these are (a) Computer (CPU) (b) Monitor (VDU) (c) Keyboard (d) Mouse Identify four types of Computer Hardware CPU Monitor Keyboard Mouse 2. Name and describe three types of storage devices Hard Disk It is the Main Storage device in the Computer and holds the Operating System as well as other application software installed by the user. It also hold the user files. As such, it is an inevitable part of the computer system. Compact Disk (CD) It is a removable storage device on which data could be stored for use in the future or to transfer data from one computer to another. It is important for storing software, utilities and hardware drivers. Flash Memory It is a modern substitute to the old floppy disk and is of greater capacity than the floppy disk. List five units of message for computer memory and storage Computers use the following units of storage to store data in memory and storage devices:- Bit Byte Kilobyte Megabyte Gigabyte 3. Differentiate between Hardware and Software Hardware refers to the physically visible and tangible gadgets that make up the computer system. It is the parts that the human user touches and interacts with in order to achieve results. Software on the other hand refers to the set of commands stored in the computers memory and storage devises which propel the hardware to work. Software is the intellect that resides inside the computer system and is represented by the texts, icons and graphics we see on the computers display device (Screen VDU). (a) List four specific types of application software (i) Word processor E.g. Microsoft Word (ii) Spreadsheet e.g. Microsoft Excel (iii) Graphic Software e.g. CorelDraw (iv) Media Player e.g. Win-Amp 4. What is an input and output devices An input devise refers to the hardware components through which the human user of the computer feeds in data or commands into the computer for storage or processing while output devises are the hardware channels through which the computer gives back results to the user. For example, when you type text into MS Word, the keyboard is an input device. The user then uses MS Word to process the text entered through the keyboard and the result could be seen on the Monitor, which is an output device or could be printed out on paper through the printer. Here the monitor and printer are output devices. (a) Give examples of each device Input devices include mouse, Scanner, digital camera, finger print reader, OCR devices, microphone, and joystick. Output devices include Monitor, Speaker, Printer and plotters. 5. What is Internet? The internet is a phenomenal development in the computer world. It refers to a global connectivity of computers across the world that could share information interchangeably across the platform. Technically, the Internet is a system of Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the University of California at Los Angeles, Stanford Research Institute, the University of California-Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. ARPANETs purpose was to conduct research into computer networking in order to provide a secure and survivable communications system in case of war. As the network quickly expanded, academics and researchers in other fields began to use it as well. In 1971 the first program for sending e-mail over a distributed network was developed; by 1973, the year international connections to ARPANET were made (from Britain and Norway), e-mail represented most of the traffic on ARPANET. The 1970s also saw the development of mailing lists, newsgroups and bulletin-board systems, and the TCP/IP communications protocols, which were adopted as standard protocols for ARPANET in 1982 83, leading to the widespread use of the term Internet. In 1984 the domain name addressing system was introduced. In 1986 the National Science Foundation established the NSFNET, a distributed network of networks capable of handling far greater traffic, and within a year more than 10,000 hosts were connected to the Internet. In 1988 real-time conversation over the network became possible with the development of Internet Relay Chat protocols (see chat). In 1990 ARPANET ceased to exist, leaving behind the NSFNET, and the first commercial dial-up access to the Internet became available. In 1991 the World Wide Web was released to the public (via FTP). The Mosaic browser was released in 1993, and its popularity led to the proliferation of World Wide Web sites and users. In 1995 the NSFNET reverted to the role of a research network, leaving Internet traffic to be routed through network providers rather than NSF supercomputers. That year the Web became the most popular part of the Internet, surpassing the FTP protocols in traffic volume. By 1997 there were more than 10 million hosts on the Internet and more than 1 million registered domain names. Internet access can now be gained via radio signals, cable-television lines, satellites, and fibre-optic connections, though most traffic still uses a part of the public telecommunications (telephone) network. The Internet is widely regarded as a development of vast significance that will affect nearly every aspect of human culture and commerce in ways still only dimly discernible. List five importance of Computer; Data Storage Sorting and analyses of data to get results Ease of information retrieval Accuracy Channel of Communication Write short note on importance of Information technology (IT) towards your field of study (Business Education) Computer can be of immense importance to business education because most of Information technology in real life situation is applied to business and commerce. Modern economic progress is largely attributable to availability and effective use of IT and as a student of Business, Information Technology is of immense significance. Students have to be conversant with both the theoretical and practical aspect of their studies. As a student of business education, being conversant with the practical aspect of my studies and this implies that Information technology should be an important aspect of what must be studied and closely related to. On a different perspective, Information technology is important in the actual dissemination of knowledge in the school system. Business education courses could be equally taught through the use of relevant software and network access to useful resources. This will serve the dual role of making the teaching-learning process efficient and effective on one hand and making students of business education learn a good aspect of real life business situations on the other hand.

WWF as a Business Essay -- WWF Wrestling Entertainment Essays

WWF as a Business Since 1890, professional wrestling has garnered the attention of the public. However, no one has capitalized on this sport’s entertainment value more than the World Wrestling Federation and Vince McMahon Jr. Vince McMahon Jr. acquired the WWF from his father Vice McMahon Sr. in 1982. Vince McMahon Jr.’s succession brought along freshness, flare, success, and much controversy to the world of professional wrestling. Before McMahon’s takeover of his father’s company, professional wrestling had various territories across the country in which each was headed by a â€Å"little lord.† These people in charge followed a gentleman’s agreement in which no takeovers of different territories were allowed. McMahon, however, broke this mold and took over all the markets by signing wrestlers to lucrative contracts, creating a â€Å"rock show† type of venue, and occupying prime television slots. The WWF began to enjoy much success as it took advantage of the cable network USA Network and delved into pay-per-view events. This period of time for the WWF was somewhat monopolistic because of a lack of competition in the industry. After a failing attempt to buy some of the WWF’s stock, Ted Turner, owner of the TBS Network, sought to get into the wrestling business for himself. Ted Turner created the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and brought direct competition to the WWF. The WCW challenged the WWF’s success in every way, including its Monday night showcase and its use of headlining characters. Competition amongst the two wrestling corporations was brought to a head with a fight over WWF superstar, Bret â€Å"The Hitman† Hart. Pressing Issues The WWF is in a constant battle against time and the audience’s ever-changing wants and desires causing consistent reinvention. During early years of wrestling it was clear wrestling had no identity. Wrestlers would travel from region to region fighting in promoted venues, the sport slowly began to gain popularity but quickly lost steam during the Radio and TV age where popularity shifted to sports like boxing, baseball, and football. During this time Vince McMahon Sr. would begin the first of many reinventions of the sport. Changes included starting a full scale wrestling federation (WWF) and the inception of a championship which wrestlers would compete for. Along with having to always change the image ... ...Recommended Response In order to maintain a competitive advantage, McMahon must come up with new, innovative ideas to make his wrestlers famous. McMahon has a reputation of consistently changing characters from good to evil and vice versa. By doing so, McMahon is confusing his WWF audience, whom are flocking to the WCW and their favorite characters. The WCW’s tactic of utilizing old WWF characters in their wrestling matches is overshadowing the tactics of McMahon. Creating new characters and maintaining their images will generate a new audience to the WWF. To effectively compete with the WCW, McMahon and the WWF should consider investing in a broadcasting network of their own. By doing this, the WWF will be able to expand their media coverage and compete with Turner, who already owns his own network. Another way to compete with the WCW is to refrain from using controversial issues in the wrestling matches. Conveying controversial views limits the audience that is usually generated by the WWF. As a last alternative, the WWF should consider merging with the WCW. Through merging, McMahon will be able to keep his pride and not risk completely loosing the family business.

The Ethics of File Sharing Software Essay -- Computers Technology Soft

The Ethics of File Sharing Software Introduction The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ethical problem that file sharing software creates when used to transfer copy written material. It is contested that the very existence of this software promotes piracy. The paper will focus on the creators of the file sharing software, knowing that the user employs their product illegally. The software creators (Kazaa, Grokster, Morpheus, etc) are claiming that they cannot control what the end user does with its product. In fact, this point has been upheld by a recent court ruling. As music and movies are now available almost exclusively in digital formats (CD and DVDs), the ease of copying them to computers is easy. And with the Internet, the ability to share via Napster, or Kazaa, is just as easy. How File Sharing Works[i] File sharing popularity increased with the birth of Napster. It allowed users to connect to each other through a central server. Napster pioneered the concept of peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P). With Napster, individual people stored files that they wanted to share (typically MP3 music files) on their hard discs and shared them directly with other people. Users ran a piece of Napster software that made this sharing possible. Each user machine became a mini server. By installing Napster software, your computer becomes a small server in the Napster universe. You can now contact the main Napster server for your request, but if your request was not available on the main server, then a search is conducted on all the computers connected to the Napster main server at that time. The song or file is downloaded directly from the resident computer. Napster evolved into this approach after i... ... Alpha Books, 2002) James Rachels, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003) James Fieser PhD., Bradley Dowden PhD., The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2003, University of Tennessee at Martin, 17 November 2003 http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/ [i] Marshall Brain, How File Sharing Works, Nov. 2003 [ii] Ibid [iii] Ibid [iv] Claudia Roda, Usenet (Usegroups), Sept. 2003 [v] David Bruce Ingram, PhD, Jennifer Parks, PhD, The Complete Idiots Guide to Understanding Ethics, (Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002) 138 [vi] James Rachels, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003) 92-93 [vii] Ibid 77 [viii] Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness, (New York: Penguin Books, 1961) 27

The Speckled Band and Lamb to the slaughter :: English Literature

Discussing The Speckled Band and Lamb to the slaughter. British writer, creator Sherlock Holmes, the best-known detective in literature and the embodiment of sharp reasoning. Doyle himself was not a good example of rational personality: he believed in fairies and was interested in occultism. Sherlock Holmes stories have been translated into more than fifty languages, and made into plays, films, radio and television series, a musical comedy, a ballet, cartoons, comic books, and advertisement. By 1920 Doyle was one of the most highly paid writers in the world. --'This is indeed a mystery,' I remarked. 'What do you imagine that it means?' --'I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts...' --(from 'A Scandal in Bohemia', 1891) Arthur Conan Doyle was born at Picardy Place, Edinburgh, as the son of Charles Altamont Doyle, a civil servant in the Edinburgh Office of Works, and Mary (Foley) Doyle. Both of Doyle's parents were Roman Catholics. To increase his income Charles Altamont painted, made book illustrations, and also worked as a sketch artist on criminal trials. Not long after arriving Edinburgh he started to drink, he suffered from epilepsy and was eventually institutionalized. Doyle's mother was interested in literature, and she encouraged his son to take to books. Doyle read voluminously. At the age of fourteen he had learned French so that he read Jules Verne in the author's original language. Later Doyle's second wife, Jean, said: "My husband's mother was a very remarkable and highly cultured woman. She had a dominant personality, wrapped up on the most charming womanly exterior." Charles Altamot died in an asylum in 1893; in the same year Doyle decided to finish permanently the adventures of his master detective. Because of financial problems, Doyle's mother kept a boarding house. Dr. Tsukasa Kobayashi has alluded in an article, that Doyle's mother had a long affair with Bryan Charles Waller, a lodger and a student of pathology, who had a deep impact to Conan Doyle. Doyle was educated in Jesuit schools. During this period Doyle lost his belief in the Roman Catholic faith but the training of the Jesuits influenced deeply his mental development. Later he used his friends and teachers from Stonyhurst College as models for his characters in the Holmes stories, among them two boys named Moriarty. He studied at Edinburgh University and in 1884 he married Louise Hawkins. Doyle qualified as doctor in 1885. After graduation Doyle practiced medicine as an eye specialist at Southsea near Porsmouth in Hampshire until 1891 when he became a full time writer.

Toyota Way

Asian Institute of Technology School of Management SM71. 42 Cross-cultural Management How does Toyota operate its philosophies between Japan and Thailand? [pic] Tutor: Prof. Dr. Marie-Therese Claes Group 1: †¢ Ms. Phung Viet Ha †¢ Ms. Nguyen Le Hang †¢ Mr. Vu Quang Linh †¢ Mr. Nguyen Van Ha †¢ Mr. Nguyen Trung Thuc Date: September 7, 2012 Executive summary In the 21 century, the world we inhabit is coming â€Å"flat† where many political, social economic and cultural barriers have been being discharged. The development of global organizations means that clients, suppliers and business may be located across a range of countries and regions.The number of interactions between people of different cultural backgrounds in the workplace is growing exponentially in companies of all sizes. Understanding cultural differences and developing cross-cultural communication and coordination have become important than ever before for organizations. These skills help or ganizations to work more effectively across cultural barriers. This paper examines the cross border coordination between Toyota and its subsidiaries in Thailand. In this paper we will have a brief research about the intercultural problems of Toyota.How Toyota deals with cross-border business coordination problem to become the global No. 1 automaker in general and Thailand’s bestseller automobile in particular is analyzed on basic information and cross-culture management. The empirical case of Toyota in Thailand is selected to for study and lessons learnt as Thailand is the first country in the oversea expansion of Toyota’s manufacturing and where Toyota experienced good practices in coordination mechanism between mother Corporation and its regional and local subsidiaries. 1. INTRODUCTION 1. Background on cross-cultural business coordinationCross-cultural business coordination aims at dealing with the  interaction  of people from different  backgrounds in the busi ness world. Cross culture is a vital issue in international business, as the success of international trade  depends upon the smooth interaction of employees from different cultures and regions. A growing number of companies are consequently devoting substantial resources toward training their employees to interact effectively with those of companies in other cultures in an effort to foment a positive cross-cultural experience.Nowadays, firms, especially those from developed countries, increasingly expand their business overseas in the attempt of seeking for the competitive advantages of the new resources. This results in the more complex structure of multi-national corporations. Transnational corporations see cross-cultural business coordination very important in order to have smooth operation and balance control between headquarters and its subsidiaries toward production efficiency improvement. In this connection, the differences in languages, values and other dimensions should be studied and based on that find the ways to harmonize those for better coordination.Cross culture can be experienced by an employee who is transferred to a location in another country. The employee must learn the language and culture of those around him. This can be more difficult if this person is acting in a managerial capacity;  someone in this position who  cannot effectively communicate with or understand  their employees' actions can lose their credibility. In an  ever-expanding  global economy, cross culture and  adaptability will continue to be important factors in the business world. 2. Toyota and its philosophies 1. About ToyotaToyota Motor Corporation was founded on August 28, 1937 by Sakichi Toyoda. After 70 years of manufacturing and developing, at the end of March 2012, Toyota conducts its business worldwide with 50 overseas manufacturing companies in 27 countries and regions. Toyota's vehicles are sold in more than 160 countries and regions. The Toyotaâ €™s capital reached 397. 05 billion yen with 325,905 employees all around the world. Toyota is known as the World’s N01 automaker with its regional headquarters in the North America (03 headquarters), Europe (01 headquarter) and Asia (03 headquarters).Thailand was the first country where Toyota Motor Corporation started to expand its business overseas. Toyota Motor Thailand (TMT) was established in 1962 with the capital of 11 million Baht. Toyota Motor Thailand grows continuously and reached the capital of 7,520 million Baht with 13,500 employees and production capacity of 550,000 units per year in 2009 (Toyota, 2009). TMT becomes one of the key contributors to Toyota worldwide, and Thailand’s number one automobile manufacturer. 2. Toyota’s Vision and PhilosophiesTo manage subsidiaries around the world to achieve the same Toyota quality, Toyota created a corporate philosophy that’s has been passed down from generation to generation within company, whi ch is called â€Å"Guiding Principle at Toyota†. Toyota Code of conduct and Toyota Way are tools implementing to assist Toyota realize their goals. Toyota Code of Conduct was issued in 1998 providing a basic, detail explanation and examples of actions and issues that one must be aware of when carrying out business activities in and living in global society.The code of conduct is dispersed among management of subsidiaries in Japan and overseas for developing common awareness. Besides Toyota Code of conduct, Toyota Way was established in 2001 to simplify the values and methods that employees have to carry out to undertake the guiding principle throughout company activities. Toyota Way is functioning as the key standard of global Toyota organization and it presents Toyota’s philosophy to focus on long-term benefit while developing vehicles that exceed customer expectations and contribute to community and to the future of mobility.The Toyota Way consists of continuous impr ovements and respect for people. The key concept of Toyota Way is actively working and creating new ideas for the best with ongoing process to improve their business, never satisfied where they are, respect all the stakeholders and working with be believe in success by personal effort and good teamwork (Toyota, 2007). One of the main elements in Toyota Way is mutual respect by promoting safety among employees and employees have to be trained both for daily operation and behavioral role.Toyota’s Global Visions look toward to following goals: ? To lead the way to the future of mobility, enriching lives around the world with the safest and most responsible ways of moving people. ? To exceed the expectation and be rewarded with a smile through their commitment to quality, constant innovation and respect for the planet. ? To meet their challenging goals by engaging the talent and passion of people who believe there is always better way. Toyota Production System (TPS) aims at pursi ng the most efficient methods for all aspects of production the method of production.Toyota considers the objective of â€Å"making the vehicles ordered by customers in the quickest and most efficient way, in order to deliver the vehicles as quickly as possible† as an issue of great importance. TPS was built based on following concepts to achieve the best quality of product while minimizing waste through defective detection: ? The first concept is â€Å"Jidoka†, which stands for automation. Toyota set up the mechanization and links it with computerization so the production system immediately stops working when a problem arises in the process to avoid defective products. The first concept is â€Å"Just-in-Time†, which enables the company to minimize level of inventory. 3. Intercultural problem in the business coordination between Toyota and its subsidiaries in Thailand Toyota has set up its global strategies and goals for all Toyota’s subsidiaries. ? To ma intain Toyota’s position as market leader in automotive industry; ? Continuous growth; ? Boost profitability and return for the shareholders. In the process spreading its philosophies, strategies and goals to the subsidiaries, Toyota encountered certain difficulties on cross-border coordination, which are arisen from cultural differences.The Japanese management style was called â€Å"group capitalism† by Alfred Chandler – a business historian. The style was described as emphasized group behavior and values interpersonal harmony. The manager and corporation are put together in a very culturally dependent system, which is considered as a constraint for many companies when they expanded globally. The management system did not function well because subsidiaries operate separately by substantial time and distance barriers (Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, 1999).Different ways of thinking also were difficulties for the integration of non-Japanese into the management process. Japanese corporations often retained decision-making and control at the center, i. e. the management was conducted by those who understood the subtleties of the existing system (Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, 1999). In case of Toyota and its subsidiaries in Thailand, Japanese managing officers of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) served as the president of both Toyota Motor Asia Pacific Engineering and Manufacturing Co. Ltd (TMAP-EM) and Toyota Motor Thailand (TMT).Language and communication created barriers to the business coordination as people were speaking with different voices and sending out inconsistent messages. 2. DISCUSSION 1. Analysis of the intercultural problem The intercultural challenge faced by Toyota Motor Corporation in the cross-border coordination in Thailand originated in cultural differences. In general, from viewpoints of national level, putting Japan and Thailand in the value dimensions as in Hofstede’s Study, the ranki ngs received is shown in the table below (David C. Thomas p. 51-52) (David C. Thomas p. 51-52). Table 1. Cultural dimension rankings follow Hofstede’s Study Dimension |Japan |Thailand | |Power Distance |54 |64 | |Individualism |46 |20 | |Masculinity |95 |34 | |Uncertainty Avoidance |92 |64 | |Long-term orientation |80 |56 | Power distance Japan has lower power distance culture that Thailand does. Therefore, it is implied that in order to have smooth coordination from TMC to its subsidiaries in Thailand, Toyota should consider the followings: ? Give clear and explicit directions to Thai employees; ?Do not expect Thai subordinates to take initiative; ? Show deference to those with higher level through language, behavior, etc. ; ? Expect to encounter more bureaucracy behaviors. Individualism It is can be seen from Hofstede’s rankings that both Japan and Thailand has collectivist cultures. However, Thai is more collectivistic than Japanese. Therefore, some possible conside ration for Toyota in developing business with Thais is listed below: ? Promotions do not depend upon Thai employee’s performance and achievement, but seniority and experiences; ? Decision making may be a slow process as many individual across the system will need to be asked for advices; Praise should be addressed to a team rather than individuals. Masculinity In the research of Hofstede, Japan was the world’s most masculine country and Thailand was among the least one or most feminine culture. In the case that Toyota seeks for the sustainable manufacturing subsidiary development in Thailand, some notes should be taken into account such as: ? Personal questions are normal rather than assertive; ? Dealing with trust weights more than projected profit margins and other similar things; ? Thais openly show favoritism to close relations; ? Small talk at business functions will focus on Thai employees’ life and interest rather than just business. Uncertainty avoidance Japan has highly risk-averse culture, which can be seen through strict laws and regulations. Thailand has the uncertainty avoidance score just above medium, therefore much lower than that of Japan. Some attentions that Toyota should pay for developing its manufacturing in Thailand could be as follows: ? Try to be more flexible or open to new ideas; ? Allow Thai employees the autonomy and space to execute their task on their own; ? Recognized that Thai employees may take different approach to life and see their destiny; ? Agreed plans should be realized as soon as possible. Long-term orientation At the score of 80 Japan is considered as one of the long term oriented societies.This is reflected that Japanese see their life as a very short moment in a long history of mankind. In Japanese corporations, the possible observations are long term orientation in the constantly high rate of investment in R&D even in economically difficult times, higher own capital rate, priority to steady grow th of market share rather than to a quarterly profit, and so on. With a score of 56 Thailand is a mild term oriented culture. Amongst the values that are admired, working hard and having a sense of moderation are dominant for Thais. Timescales and deadline in Thailand are fluid. Therefore, Toyota should consider the followings in working with Thais: Reliability, responsiveness and empathy as very important element. ? Building up close relationships with Thai subsidiaries is of importance. ? Building relationship takes time. 2. Solutions for Toyota in Thailand There are some solutions were found out by Toyota to achieve the same objective and target among the subsidiaries all around the world, especially in Thailand – the first country where Toyota Motor Corporation started to expand its business overseas. 1. Global Production Center Toyota has established Global Production center (GPC) in 2003 as Toyota’s global human resource training center. Toyota operation comprise of 53 production sites in 27 countries around the world.In managing its operation, Toyota encounter a diversity of people therefore Toyota consider human resource development as an important mechanism in maintaining its global business. GPC is the place where employees are trained about the Toyota’s culture and values and make them understand the Toyota way and to provide the skills which are needed for employees to carry out the task. In the past, human development was carried out in Japan only. However, with rapid growth of Toyota’s overseas operations leads to the transition of GPC to the regional. Technical skills from Japanese trainers are spread to local trainers and from the local trainers to local employees and also to employees from the other countries in the region.The objective of the GPC is to inculcate employees that Toyota’s products should have the same quality regardless of which origin it as produced (Toyota Annual Report, 2008). GPC, human res ources development is implementing by developing supervisors and trainers in subsidiaries with assistance from headquarter. Another function of GPC is helping the subsidiary plants to prepare for redesign of production when newly developed model is launched so that the plant can efficiently switch over to produce them. Visual manual videos were studied and make used in GPC for representing the best demonstration. This practice takes advantages over the traditional manuals, by which only written words or still illustration are shown.Toyota can reduce time for staff training and avoid misunderstanding through the adaptation of visual manual videos. Within 5 years, 13000 employees both from Japan and abroad were trained by GPC and distribute knowledge they learn to their team members. The Asia Pacific Global Production Centre (AP-GPC) was established in Samutprakarn, Thailand in 2005 to serve as the regional training centre. AP-GPC provides trainings for TMT’s employees and also supporting to other Toyota’s Asian manufacturing affiliates. 2. Restructuring of organizational structure Toyota Motor Corporation spread out its organization around the world and set up regional headquarters in North America, Europe and Asia.In Asia, there are two headquarters in Singapore and Thailand that are responsible for different business entities. In the past, subsidiaries in each country had to report directly to headquarters in Japan. The restructuring to regional headquarters believes that it could allow subsidiaries to work more efficiently and regional headquarter assist to each country in the region in time. The close coordination between the regional headquarters can support each other through corporation in engineering, manufacturing and marketing. The regional headquarters also facilitate and response in time to customer’s demands throughout the region and provide flexible react to market changes.With the establishment of Asian regional headquarter i n Thailand; Toyota Motor Thailand became a main center to provide support for manufacturing and also research and development in Asia – Pacific region. 3. Thainization Toyota Motor Thailand launched the localization policy, which is called Thainization. Thainization was the philosophy that drives Toyota Motor Thailand before Toyota way was introduced. Thainization is to promote the local employees to take part in management level in 20 years (Amano, 2008). In the 1960, at the beginning of Toyota in Thailand, the management was carried on by Japanese and strictly followed the policies and guidelines set by its mother company Toyota Motor Corporation. Around 1980’s, very few Thai’s were positioned as managers but the final decisions were still made by Japanese expatriates.Since 1987, Toyota Motor Thailand decided to transform the organization from management only by Japanese to only by Thai, which is called Thainization. The Japanese expatriates were converted fro m managers to coordinators. In every department have some Japanese staffs work together with Thai staffs mainly in the coordinator role as an adviser for technical information and making connection network among Toyota group to help communication flow smoothly. At present, only the president, executive Vice president and Treasurer are Japanese and the other high-level management officers are Thais (http://www. toyota. co. th/en/about. php? Page= management).Thainization in Toyota Motor Thailand was implemented as the necessity to adopt of globalization in the world while considering localization (Imai, 2006). 4. Lateral communication Lateral communication is of importance because it is the way that all organizational units are connected throughout the system of resource exchange and organizational set of transnational corporation in different locations. Toyota Technical Center Asia Pacific –Thailand (TTCAP-TH), which was established serving as Research and Development unit fo r Asia Pacific region, can be seen as a network platform for exchange knowledge and skills between different functions and with counterpart in Japan to support local needs.This kind of lateral communications between business units through the collaboration between each geographically specialized division contributes to widespread of Toyota Way that focuses on sharing the same Toyota values and cultures. Another step toward the relocation of support division from Japan to Asian region is the setting up of TMAP Thailand, which represents the network platform providing production assistance to TMC’s affiliates in the region. 5. Informal communication Nohria and Ghoshal (1994, p. 494) asserted that extensive socialization and communication builds trust among the managers and creates foundation for reciprocity and easier negotiation and resolution of potential conflicts.Informal communication exits in Toyota organization so that it brings bout informal exchange idea between Toyota Japan and Toyota Thailand. In Thailand, TMT made use of job rotation of employee as a tool for developing people because of the consideration that working in the same job for long time could make people stick with the old habit and, therefore, reluctant to change. This practice has enhanced the informal communication and made information widely shared throughout in the organization. Employees and departments in rotation process accumulate working experiences and knowledge as well as share their own values for adapting to the same organization culture. 3. CONCLUSIONIn summary, Toyota has successfully applied many strategies in order to improve communication across border while keeping many existing core values. Also, due to the scale of the Toyota Company, there has been no particular method or formula that is best fit for achieving the existing success in Toyota. Toyota had to apply a few methods to efficiently achieve localization while remaining competitive in globalization. Firs tly, The Thai’s characteristics are different than the Japanese so the GPC was introduced to help Toyota’s employees to think in the same way – The Toyota way in term of values and cultures. Also it trained employees many certain skills to be capable of finishing given tasks.Secondly, In Thailand, the structural mechanism obviously takes part as the fundamental formation of the organizational structure. Toyota remarkably use of departmentalization as the structure to manage the business entity according to function and responsibility. The critical scrutinize regarding centralization or decentralization of decision making is become blurred since Toyota to some extent delegate the decision authority to its subsidiaries while the final exclusive decision remain at the headquarters. In addition, the formal written policies together with standard production system considerably utilize in Toyota subsidiaries so that its affiliates follow the same principle and maintai n the same Toyota standard.To achieve the same goal, planning in the form of the strategic planning, regional target goal as well as reward is used as guideline to accomplish the goal. To control the performance of the company, output control is one of the tools that Toyota use to motivate the performance of their employee as well as subsidiaries. However, the hierarchical or behavioral control is coexisting to ensure the employee act in order to fulfill the best performance. The optimum control is to mix between output and behavioral control so that the finest advantage is achieved. Thirdly, Toyota has introduced â€Å"Thainization† which allowed Thai people to get into managerial positions as the top position before was only for the Japanese sent from headquarter.Last but not least, the informal or subtle mechanisms are broadly promoted within the Toyota organization. The lateral or cross department communication visibly seen by the messy organization that employee have to communicate or coordinate with other departments or the same department in the region among functional and geographical line simultaneously to undertake the work. The establishment of regional headquarters in Thailand (TMAP-EM) is one of the cases that put forward lateral communication, as the network of exchange in the region required the lateral communication among the concern departments. Besides, the informal communication plays as vital mechanism in the organization.The present of Japanese as employees and also coordinators make possible the informal exchange of idea between Toyota Thailand and Japan that finally facilitate the subsidiaries action and decision in line with those of headquarters. In short, the achievement of Toyota when applied with all the methods, mechanism was very fruitful as Toyota Motor Thailand (TMT) operated more efficiently resulting in time and cost savings, better communication, better understanding in the organization and better employees involvement . So the most obvious example was that the second factory was opened in 1989. And this result showed that Toyota has successfully managed all the operation across border, retaining local flexibility and while achieving global integration.Moreover, with the rapid development of many other Multi-National Companies (MNCs) and trying to recruit more and more talents, Toyota has also exploited the local population in order to get a broader pool of talents (combining not only from Japanese and Thai in this case, but also from other nationalities). Furthermore, with the matrix of subsidiaries and one headquarter, Toyota tries to make the organization stable with core visions and beliefs from the Headquarter but also loot the host of new ideas from all around the globe as they need to keep up with the quickly-changing characteristic of technology with new ideas. With all the cross-cultural issues above, Toyota would have more experience and solution for future encounters. REFERENCES †¢ Bartlett, Christopher A. and Ghoshal, Sumantra (1999). Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution – Companies, Cultures and the Transformation to the Transnational. Book excerpt. Nohria, Nitin and Sumantra Ghoshal (1994). Differentiated Fit and Shared Values: Alternatives for Managing Headquarters-Subsidiary Relations. Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 15, No. 6 †¢ Thomas, David C. (2008) Cross-Cultural Management: Essential Concepts. Sage Publications. Chapter 3 †¢ Petison, Phallapa, (2010). Cross Cultural Relationship Marketing in the Thai Context: The Japanese Buyer’s Perspective. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 1, No. 1, June, 2010 †¢ Friedman, Thomas L. (2005). The World is flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century †¢ Cutler, John. The cross -cultural communication trainer’s manual – Vol. : designing Cross-Cultural Training †¢ Toyota Motor Corporation profile from http://www. toy ota-global. com/company/profile †¢ Toyota Guiding Principles, Toyota Way, Toyota Code of Conduct, Toyota Global Vision and Toyota Production Centre from http://www. toyota-global. com/company/vision_philosophy/ †¢ Toyota Motor Thailand Management Team from http://www. toyota. co. th/en/about. php? Page=management †¢ Business coordination across borders within Toyota: a case study focusing the coordination between Japan and Toyota from http://mdh. diva-portal. org/smash/record. jsf? pid=diva2:224180 †¢ Toyota: A Transnational case study from http://www. ecclesbourne. derbyshire. sch. uk[pic]

My financial career analysis Essay

1) Introduction. A man of seemingly inexhaustible talents, Stephen Butler Leacock (born December 30, 1869) easily juggled being a humorist, essayist, teacher, political economist, lecturer, and historian. He received many awards and honorary degrees, among them the Lorne Pierce Medal the Leacock Medal for Humour was established in his honor and has been awarded annually since 1947 to the best humorous book by a Canadian author. At the height of his career from 1915 through 1925, Leacock was undeniably the English-speaking worlds best-known humorist. His parents, Peter Leacock and Agnes Emma Butler, had been secretly married Agnes was three years older than her new husband. When Leacock was about 7, his large family (ultimately ten brothers and sisters) moved to Canada and settled on a 100-acre farm. Despite living a hard life on the farm, and having a charming but shiftless alcoholic father, Leacock was fortunate in that his mother believed strongly in a good education. With her devo ted support and guidance, he did well in school, and graduated in 1887 as Head Boy from Upper Canada College. He received a B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1891. During this time, he wrote humorous articles for magazines for extra income. In 1900, he married Beatrix Hamilton, daughter of a well-to-do Toronto businessman. Her death from breast cancer in 1925 grieved him greatly, but he kept his anguish private, and spearheaded fundraisers to aid cancer research. Among his professional accomplishments, Leacock was appointed to full professor at McGill University in 1908. He was also appointed William Dow Professor of Political Economy and chair of the Department of Economics and Political Science, a position he held for 30 years until his forced retirement at age 65. Leacocks prolific written observations–sharp, funny, and timely–were critically applauded and loved by the public. He published what many consider his literary masterpiece, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, in 1912. Leacock wrote two excellent biographies Mark Twain, published in 1932, and Charles Dickens, His Life and Work, in 1933. In 1935, he published Humour Its Theory and Technique. He died of throat cancer in 1944, leaving his autobiography, The Boy I Left Behind Me, unfinished. It was published in 1946. But death did not sweep him from Canadas cherished memory. To mark the 100th anniversary of Leacocks birth, the government of Canada issued a six-cent stamp in his honor in 1969. Leacocks former homes were declared historic sites, more awards were heaped upon him posthumously, and in 1970,  a mountain in the Yukons Saint Elias range was named after him. 2) The summary. The sketch opens quickly with the narrators frank admission that banks and everything about them rattle him.He confesses to falling into a state of near idiocy at any attempt to transact business but is determined, now that he has more than fifty dollars in his pocket, to open an account. Timidly, he asks to speak to the manager. The manager takes him into a private room, locks the door, and proceeds to assure the narrator of utmost security. Because of the narrators air of confidentiality and distrust, the manager assumes he is a private detective or that he has a large sum to invest. Learning that the narrator has only fifty-six dollars, he unkindly turns him over to a clerk. The narrator is now flustered, mistakenly walks into the safe, and is eventually led to the clerks window, into which he thrusts the money. When assured that it had been deposited, the narrator quickly asks for a withdrawal slip. Meanwhile he feels that people in the bank are staring at him, th inking him a millionaire. Intimidated and miserable, he quickly withdraws his fifty-six dollars and rushes out. The sketch concludes with the narrators observation that he keeps his money in his pants pocket and his life savings in a sock. 3) The structure. This short story with ongoing tradition has traditional elements of structure. The principle of unity enables the reader to perceive the relationship between the individual units. Each incident contributes to the perception of that relationship there we can find an ordered arrangement of the parts. This story is written in accordance with dramatic pattern so it has the traditional structure of conflict, sequential action and resolution. This short story, though short in length and simple in characterization, also reflects its writers characteristics of narration and thought with its narrative structure. We can be alert on a storys structure even as we read it for the first time, primarily by paying attention to repeated elements and recurrent details of action and gesture, of dialogue and description, and to shifts in direction and changes of focus. Repetition signals are important connections to the relationships between characters, and connections between ideas. S hifts in direction are often signaled by such visual or aural clues as a change of scene, a new voice, and a blank space in the text. They may also include changes in the time and place of action or alternations in characters entrances and exits, or in their behavior. Or  they may appear as changes in the pace of the story and in its texture of language. The structure of stories can never be regarded as a matter of little importance The plot is the carrier of the structure. The plot is the sequence of unfolding action, and structure is the design or form of the completed action. Structure satisfies our need for order, proportion, and arrangement. A storys symmetry or balance of details may please us, as may its alternating of moments of tension and relaxation. The short story requires the readers utmost attention, a focus of the mind on each detail like a fine lyric poem. The structure of a traditional plot is essentially dramatic. There may be a geometrical quality to its plot structure. It follows Aristotles statement that a proposition is stated, developed by arguments and finally proved. Therefore a conflict, in this case – internal within the character, is stated at the beginning of a story, developed by a series of scenes, and resol ved at the end. Each scene, incident, and its resolution, but most also carry its bit of significance in the progression that it occupies. So we can divide My Financial Career into 4 logical parts. The exposition starts from the very beginning of the text and continues up to the procedure with the deposit of a narrator. In its turn, the exposition consists of the series of complications meeting with the manager, stepping into the safe, formalization process. Then goes the key event, which is the withdrawal of the money by making a mistake in a cheque. It was the point of highest emotional tension. The denouement is the last thoughts of the narrator, where he concludes not to have any deals with a bank any more. 4), 5) General atmosphere characters. The humor of the piece is achieved not only by the exaggerated situation but also by a skillful use of short clips of dialogue. The narrators psychological intimidation is clearly presented by an economy of detail in which the scene richly suggests more than it relates. It is a very funny piece that appeals to all ages. Perhaps as times change and we no longer refer to tellers as clerks at their wickets and we forget what the Rothschilds and Goulds represented and our banking experience is reduced to online transactions, it will become more difficult to identify with the situation of the main character. But the basic empathy with the embarrassment of someone in an unfamiliar environment remains. When he asks to speak to the bank manager and adds a conspiratorial alone without knowing why he does so, leading to a misunderstanding, we understand. We  understand because its the kind of inexplicable thing we recognize we do ourselves when were nerv ously trying not to appear nervous. The other characters have no vivid characteristics. The only things were an accountant was a tall, cool devil, the manager was a grave, calm man. These lines show us that the narrator see the bank clerks like something blurred and obscure. 6) The style. The most vivid characteristic is the usage of 1st person perspective. Stephen Leacock uses the first-person perspective in his short autobiographical story My Financial Career, and that is an effective narrative choice in comic fiction. First of all, telling his story in first person is more interesting. It is generally much more interesting to hear someone tell his own story than to hear him tell someone elses story. Readers would much rather hear him say I went to the bank the other day than Someone I know went to the bank the other day. Even worse is A guy went into a bank, which is more for spoken (stand-up) comedy than written comedy. Second, the readers know exactly what the character (in this case, the author) is feeling as he fearfully walks into the bank, armed with years of d istrust. While he could try to explain someone elses feelings, Leacock is certainly able to share with us exactly how humiliating this experience was for him. Third, the first-person point of view adds credibility to the story. This is not just something that happened to somebody at some point in time at a random bank this happened tohimand he knows the particulars and details which both add humor and make the story believable. Fourth, no one is hurt by his humor except for himself. It is often uncomfortable for readers to hear an author make fun of others somehow it is more humorous for us to know that the writer is making fun of himself, which gives readers the right to laugh, too. Finally, the story is told by a narrator, from the perspective of time, who can use humor to teach his readers the lessons he learned. We could not know what someone else might have learned from this banking experience, but we can know what Stephen Leacock learned because it is his story. The story is full of puns and innuendos, especially the text is filled with allusions Pinkertons, Baron Rothschild and young Gould. Some metaphors are used make a plunge, idiot hope struck me etc. 7), 8) The mail idea personal evaluation. The main topic of My Financial Career is a confession of Leacocks phobia about banks. This humorous essay is one of his most popular pieces because many of his readers share his fear of big,  imposing institutions. Banks in Leacocks time were more intimidating places than most of them are today. In fact, it is possible to do most banking without ever entering a bank. But Leacock picks out the aspects of the old-fashioned bank that were most intimidating. They had thick stone walls, high ceilings, uniformed and armed guards, bars separating tellers from customers, and imposing vaults with incredibly thick steel doors. The men and women handling all that money were deadly serious and also suspicious of any stranger. Leacock seems to have been most intimidated by the people in the bank. No doubt Leacock received many penetrating looks when he first went in to open his modest account. As with most humor and comedy, we laugh at him because we ar e really laughing at ourselves. When I go into a bank I get rattled. The clerks rattle me the wickets rattle me the sight of the money rattles me everything rattles me. After his interview with the manager, Leacock rose to leave the office. A big iron door stood open at the side of the room. Good morning, I said, and stepped into the safe. Come out, said the manager coldly, and showed me the other way. Personally, I must admit that Leacock wrote excellent and very readable biographies of Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. He must have been influenced by the humor pieces in which Mark Twain confesses some of his own foibles and idiosyncracies. One of his best is about his feelings about barber shops. Another is about how he allowed a traveling salesman to put so many lightning rods and metal coils around his house that the big Victorian building attracted every bolt of lignting in the county. Another very funny essay by Mark Twain deals with how he couldnt get a ridiculous little jingle out of his mind until he passed it on to a friend, who was then stuck with it himself. To my mind, Leacocks humor, like Mark Twains, is built on exaggeration. Leacocks style is unpretentious, personal, friendly, and informal like that of Mar k Twain. Notice how short all of the paragraphs are in My Financial Career. Such short paragraphs and short sentences have eye-appeal. Leacock was an extremely popular writer at one time, both in Canada and the United States. He ranked with Robert Benchley and James Thurber as a popular humorist. He is not so well remembered today. But humor essays can become dated quickly. As for the text, the main idea is even deeper as I could imagine. My Financial Career deals with the idea of the emasculation (made to not feel manly) of the individual by societal exceptions. The man feels forced to  practice in banking which seems like a place of importance and masculinity. The individual fears of being emasculated or embarrassed because of his lack of wealth compared with supposed expectations leads him to perform idiotically and causes further embarrassment. The contrast between the bank managers expectations (that he is someone of importance financially or for situational reasons) and the reality of what the man is highlights this unavoidable emasculation of the individual due to societal expectations.

Consumer Behavior Comparison Essay

1. Using the tricomponent attitude model, compare the differences in attitude of consumers towards Kraft Foods versus their attitude towards Vegemite. The tricomponent attitude model is made up of Cognitive, Affective and Conative component. The three components are interrelated and integrate to form an attitude of a person toward any product or service in consumer scenario. Here we are studying how the consumers react to Kraft Food and Vegemite. Cognitive Component Cognition is basically making decisions going through a thinking process. So this thinking process can occur on the basis of knowledge and perceptions that already existed in the consumers’ minds. The Cognitive Component of attitude is developing a belief based on past experience or perception and whenever the consumers are exposed to attitude object (about which we are to form certain attitude) and those belief will form a typical behavior towards that attitude object. The consumers can be seen in the case study to be protective over Vegemite as they perceive it to be a national symbolic food with the long history. The brand itself had lasted centuries with its unique salty base as breakfast spread as compared to traditional sweet base spreads. Kraft Foods being the brand owner did not do anything to the brand until the later years where they did a rebranding of the product to suit modern culture and needs. The consumers clearly triggered heavy resentment over the undesired new name as they had perceive â€Å"Vegemite† to be worthy of a name to more relevant. Here Kraft Food suffered a marketing backlash whereas consumers’ support for Vegemite rally strong. Affective Component This Component of Attitude formation is all about emotional feelings of a consumer about the particular product or brand. Consumers have certain emotions regarding the attitude objects either favorable or unfavorable; good or bad, it may be regardless of any quality, specification, features, utility or brand name. Vegemite lasted centuries of success without any interference from Kraft Food in terms of product modification or receipe changes. Kraft Food knew that Australians held Vegemite with high regards and deeply rooted in the history and culture. Despite a dip in sales after foreigners infux, the strong support of the old brand can be seen as Kraft Food carelessly picked an odd name for their re-branding. In their â€Å"Name me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  campaign, strong sentiments of the brands were reveal as hate groups emerge to hate the new Vegemite name. The consumers feel strongly violated as the name did not resonate with the hearts of the supporter. Kraft Food succumb to pressure an d rename the product. Conative Component This final component is concerned with the likelihood or tendency that a specific action will be undertaken by an individual regarding attitude object. It is treated as an expression of consumer’s intention to buy. It may include action itself. Consumers usually make purchases for positively evaluated brands. Their intentions towards those brands are positive, so their attitude towards those brand would be positive. Although the new â€Å"iSnack 2.0† was much disliked, the success of the receipe is shown with the improvement in sales figures. Consumers in this case, reacted to the over hyped publicity generated by negative marketing, resulting in curious new consumers trying out the new product. Vegemite in this case, was successful. On the other hand, Kraft Food was said to be making use of the clever marketing strategy by inducing resentments from the consumers with the â€Å"iSnack2.0† name. Compared with vegemite, Kraft Food is perceived to be crafty and had to resort to underhand means to achieve desirable results. 2. Thinking about the different methods Kraft used to encourage consumer input for their new Vegemite product, what kind of consumer learning took place during the entire process? Consumer learning is the process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge and experience they apply to future related behaviour. Most of the learning is incidental and some of it is intentional. Elements of Consumer learning The basic elements that contribute to an understanding of learning are motivation, cues, response and reinforcement. Consumers will be motivated to learn if the information is relevant to their needs and goals while cues serve to direct consumer drives when they are consistent with consumer expectations. Response is how consumers react or behave to a drive or a cue while reinforcement increases the likelihood a response will occur in the future as a result of a cue. Kraft encouraged consumer input for their new Vegemite product through the â€Å"How do you like your Vegemite† and the â€Å"Name me..† campaign. By getting the consumers to be involved, the Australians will feel that they ‘own’ the brand which created the sense of belonging. Kraft asked consumers to log on to the website and post their ideas on the different ways they ate the product. Instrumental Conditioning Instrumental Learning theorists believe that learning occurs through a trial and error process in which the positive outcomes in the form of results or desired outcomes lead to repeat behaviour like Repeat Purchase or Repeat Positive Word of Mouth. Both positive and negative reinforcement can be used to encourage the desired behaviour. The timing of repetitions influences how long the learned material is retained. Learning usually persists longer with distributed re-inforcement schedule, while mass repetitions produce more initial learnings. In view of how Kraft Food did was the â€Å"Name me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  campaign. They failed to select a proper name for the first time, but they acknowledge the mistake and repeat the campaign a second time. Meanwhile, they took four months to replace the â€Å"iSnack2.0† labelled jars off the shelves before replacing with â€Å"Cheesybites†. The consumers are conditioned by this instrumental method. 3. Vegemite is a food product sugge sting customers would have lower levels of involvement with the brand. However, the fall-out from ‘iSnack 2.0’ imply otherwise. What aspects of involvement theory were presented in their response? Involvement theory recognizes that consumers become attached to products, services or brands to differing levels and they engage in a range of information-processing activities, depending on the significance of the purchase (Sciffman et al. 2008). The involvement level shown by the consumers in ‘iSnack2.0’ is high is because Vegemite is considered to be a national brand and a part of Australia’s heritage (Superbrands Australia, 2012). Beside this, the ‘How do you like your Vegemite’ and the ‘Name Me’ campaign further increase the involvement level of the consumers as they felt a sense of ownership in the creation phrase of the product (Sciffman et al. 2008). From the case of ‘iSnack 2.0’, the hemispheral lateralization theory can be used to explain the responses of the consumers. The hemispheral lateralization theory, also known as split-brain theory, is the learning theory around the basic principle that the left and right side of the brain specialize in the kind of information they process. The left side of the brain, which specializes in cognitive activities, can be put as rational and logical, while the right side of the brain, which specializes in pictorial and holistic information, can be put as emotional and instinctive (Sciffman et al. 2008). When Kraft chose the name ‘iSnack 2.0’, the left hemispheral of the consumers processed the decision-making and they responded negatively because the logical thinking is that the selected name is more related to technology products such as iPod and iPhone by Apple. This made the decision looks ‘wierd’ and ‘irrevelant’ to the public and will also results in consumers thinking that Kraft is trying to ride on the success of Apple’s products (Miller, 2009). On the other side, the right hemispheral of the consumers also contributed to the consumers responding negatively because Australians have high loyalty and feelings for Vegemite (Foley, 2009) and the fact that Kraft did not let the consumers have a say in the winning name intensifies the negative feeling that Kraft, an American company, is not allowing the Australia public to have a say in the brand they felt they have ownership in. And by choosing a name that is perceived to be unsuitable and outrageous, it further fuels the feeling that the company is showing disrespect to the brand Australians love (Sciffman et al. 2008). 4. Do you think Kraft can change perception of ‘iSnack 2.0’ by changing the name to ‘Cheesybite’? Explain your answer. Perception is the process by which people select, organize and interpret stimuli to form a meaningful and logical picture of the world and it is important in marketing strategies for marketers because consumers make decisions based on what they perceive, rather than on the basis of objective reality. (Sciffman et al. 2008). When ‘iSnack 2.0’ was chosen, it triggered negative responses and outrage from consumers across a number of social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, online forums, newspaper and magazines. ‘iSnack 2.0’ was perceived to be ‘weird’ and ‘irrelevant’ and make no sens e to consumers as to why a food product was given a technological name that is normally related to technology products such as iPhone and iPod (Miller, 2009). The name was also perceived to be a marketing stunt by the company as the negativity generated increased the exposure of the product. This led to the sales rising 47 percent in the first two weeks and the product being available in 15% of Australian households (Foley, 2009). However, ‘iSnack 2.0’ also led to hatred and anger as there are consumers who suggested boycotting the product (Collerton, 2009). By deciding to change the name of ‘iSnack 2.0’ to ‘Cheesybite’, Kraft can change the perception of the product. The product is a combination of ‘Vegemite’ spread and cream cheese (Kraft Foods Australia, 2011), which is as what ‘Cheesybite’ suggested and made more sense to consumers. Another reason is that ‘Cheesybite’ is chosen in a popularity vote by more than 30,000 Australian and New Zealanders, instead of by the company, therefore will relate better to consumers (AAP, 2009). Once the more popular and logi cal choice of ‘Cheesybite’ replace ‘iSnack 2.0’, sentiment will soften due to the Australia loyalty to the brand and the incident will slowly fade away. 5. If ‘Vegemite’ could be given a brand personality, what do you think it would be like? Compare this to how the ‘Cheesybite’ personality might be. Brand personality is an act or a process of the personality traits that a brand possesses. It is the viewing of a brand as a person and defining the traits that a brand has. A brand personality is something consumers can relate to and it develops over time (Parameswaran, 2006). An effective brand will increase its brand equity by having a consistent set of traits. There are five main types of brand personalities and they are Excitement, Sincerity, Ruggedness, Competence and Sophistication (Friend, 2010). ‘Vegemite’ is best described as having the personality of Sincerity which is interpreted as down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, and cheerful (Friend, 2010). Vegemite is an Australian brand that reaches to the hearts of its consumers and therefore brand loyalty is high. Kraft has retained the down-to-earth nature of ‘Vegemite’ by not changing the content, with the only updates applying to external factor such as packaging and the occasional consumer promotion. ‘Cheesybite’ is best seen as having the personality of Excitement under the 5 dimensions of brand personality. The name ‘Cheesybite’ gives consumers an exciting, daring and spirited feeling (Friend, 2010). This will attracts consumers with high innovativeness as they are risk takers and are more likely to adopt new products (Tellis et al, 2009) The different personalities of ‘Vegemite’ and ‘Cheesybite’ give consumers totally different perception and feeling and this is important for Kraft to position itself in the different market segment to establish a good name. Bibliography AAP, 2009, Vegemite Cheesybite replaces iSnack2.0, The Sidney Morning Herald. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/vegemite-cheesybite-replaces-isnack20-20091007-gm5u.html Collerton, S. 2009. iSuck 2.0: Unhappy little Vegemites. ABC News. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-09-28/isuck-20-unhappy-little-vegemites/1445034 Foley, Meraiah. 2009. Vegemite Contest Draws Protests. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/business/global/03vegemite.html?pagewanted=all Friend, Camille. 2010. The 5 Dimensions of Brand Personality. Fuel Your Branding. http://www.fuelyourbranding.com/the-5-dimensions-of-brand-personality/ Kraft Foods Australia. 2011. http://www.kraftbrands.com/kraftvegemite/Pages/product-information-cheesybite.aspx Kraft Foods Australia. 2011. http://www.kraft.com.au/products/media_release_vegemite_vote.aspx Miller, K E. 2009. Title fight. The Drum Opinion. http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/26916.html Parameswaran, M.G. 2006. Building Brand Value: Five Steps To Building Powerful Brands. Tta McGraw-Hill Education. Schiffman, Leon, David Bednall, Aron O’Cass, Angela Paladino, Steve Ward, and Leslie Kanuk. 2008. Consumer Behavior. 4th ed. Pearson Education Australia Superbrands Australia. 2012. http://www.superbrands.com/au/content/view/300/1/ Tellis, Gerard J, Eden Yin and Simon Bell. 2009. Global Consumer Innovativeness: Cross-Country Differences and Demographic Commonalities. Journal of International Marketing, American Marketing Association. Vol. 17, No 2, 2009, pp 1-22.