Apple Price Cut Essay

To what extent the iPhone pricing strategy is similar to the iPod pricing strategy? How do you explain that the iPod price cut did not lead to such a level of customers’ protest? Answer: Both iPhone and iPod have experienced a large amount of price cut in their product lifecycle. In this document, we can find that iPod was launched in October 2001. Tough relatively high priced for an MP3 player, it was hugely demanded and remains popular till date though there was a price slash in 2005. Similar to the price cut of the iPod, two months after the launch of the iPhone, Apple lowered the price by 200 USD. However, regarding the price strategy, a big difference between two products is the timing of price cut. iPod adjusted its price after experiencing a 4-year success from its launch in 2001, whereas iPhone drop in price in only 2 month, which is the main explanation of why the iPod price cut did not lead to such a serious level of customers’ protest. Although both price adjustments were designed for the aim to further expand in the mass market and improve the sales, we can find that the main reason for price cut of iPod is to sell more products in its declining period of product lifecycle. By contrast, the objective of price cut of iPhone is to rapidly monopoly the smart phone market in its growing period of product lifecycle, which resulted a part of Apple fans’ profits since they bought the product in a high price. 2. â€Å"Market analysts pointed out that Apple had created a strong brand and customer loyalty which it capitalized on by adopting a skimming strategy in pricing. They also felt that customers accept its highly priced products with equanimity. To go a step further, they consciously expect it to be so.What does this tell you about the value of iPhone own-price elasticity, cross-price elasticity and income elasticity? Answer: The practice of ‘price skimming’ involves charging a relatively high price for a short time where a new, innovative, or much-improved product is launched onto a market. Obviously, due to the reason that Apple had created a strong brand image by its innovation of technology and creativity of design, and loyalty of c ustomers, particularly those Apple crazy fans, the price skimming strategy was able to work extremely well when iPhone was launched onto the market. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone entered the highly volatile cell phone market combining telephony, MP3, Web surfing and video watching, which completely revolutionized the tech-savvy market and was most awaited by both the technology enthusiasts and mainstream media. Therefore, the success of this strategy was largely dependent on those first adopters’ inelasticity of demand for the product either by the market as a whole. However, in the cell phone industry, where the product lifecycle is relatively short and the market is highly competitive. Before some other competing products or substitutes emerging on the market, iPhone could enjoy its high price and benefit from its â€Å"monopoly profits† in a short term where demand is relatively inelastic. Whereas in the cell phone industry, the demand from mass market is price elastic, which is the main reason that Apple needs to drop its price to increase its sales according to its mass-market strategy. In terms of cross-price elasticity, we can think about this question from two aspects: complements and substitutes. Firstly, due the reason that the demand of iPhone is price elastic in mass market, price of iPhone decrease, quantity demanded of components increases, which leads Apple to get a lower price of components from its supplier and further guarantee its gross margin of iPhone. In addition, the increase of sales also means the increase number of customer buying and renting apps from Apple’s online store. Secondly, considering substitutes, price of iPhone decrease, and quantity of competing products demanded decrease. Since the demand is price elastic, the lower production cost and increase revenue from Apple softer ware are able to recuperate the loss from cost cut. We can make the conclusion that regarding to the income elasticity, a decrease of price of iPhone has a positive impact on its total revenue. 3. Based on the information provided in the case would you say that the market for smartphone is closer to monopoly or to monopolistic competition? Justify. Answer: Yes, base on the information provided in the case, I regard the smartphone industry as a monopolistic competition. Monopolistic competition  is a form of imperfect competition  where many competing producers sell products that are  differentiated  from one another. Smartphone industry has following characteristics:* There are several producers like Apple, Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola etc. , and many consumers in the market, but no company can total control over the market price. * Consumers perceive that there are non-price differences among the competitors’ products. * There are few barriers to entry and exit.Producers have a degree of control over price. 4. Is the price cut decided by Apple two months after iPhone initial launch consistent with the smartphone market structure described above? Answer: Yes, the performance of iPhone is consistent with the smartphone market structure. Firstly, the MC firms sell products that have real or perceived non-price differences. However, the differences are not so great as to eliminate other goods as substitutes. Technically, the cross price elasticity of demand between goods in such a market is positive. In this case, iPhone perform the same basic functions but have differences in qualities such as design, style, reputation and appearance. Secondly, independent decision-making is another characteristic of monopolistic competition. The firm gives no consideration to what effect its decision may have on competitors. In other words each firm feels free to set prices as if it were a monopoly. Lastly, Apple has some degree of market power. Market power means that the firm has control over the terms and conditions of exchange. An MC firm can raise it prices without losing all its customers. The firm can also lower prices without triggering a potentially ruinous price war with competitors, which is the reason why iPhone was able to largely cut its price in two months. 5. Knowing the price cut affected negatively Apple reputation, do you believe Apple adopted an opportunistic pricing strategy initially selling the iPhone at a high price to take advantage of holiday season high spending habits and then dropping the price to stimulate market growth? Is this consistent with Apple pricing strategy in its other product lines like computers and iPod? Answer: I don’t entirely believe that iPhone lunched at a high price was due to it attempted to take the advantage of â€Å"holiday season high spending habits†. From my point of view, there are two main reasons why iPhone priced high at the beginning: Firstly, the core consumer groups of iPhone are enthusiastic fans of high-tech gadgets; and some of them are loyalty customers of Apple. These parts of people are not sensitive for iPhone’s price. What attract them are its quality, design and innovation. The first adopters’ inelasticity of demand is a good opportunity for using the price skimming strategy. Secondly, high price strategy is an effective method to build a high-end brand image. It’s much easier that a high brand image product cuts its price for promotion than a low brand image one raises it. For the tech-savvy market, the product lifecycle is short. We can often find on the market that a product of Apple or other brands cuts its price when it has been launched for a period of time. But iPhone dropped its price only 2 months after it had been introduced onto the market. This strategy is quite different from other products of Apple. For instance, iPod depreciated 2 years after it came into the market. Seeing the price of iPhone must be in line with iPod Touch, this strategy is â€Å"special† for Apple, comparing with other products. 6. â€Å"According to Apple executives the move had been planned long ago and felt that the pricing strategy was conceived in part to keep the iPhone’s pricing in line with its new iPod touch. † Explain to what extent a high-priced iPhone could be an obstacle to the success of the new iPod Touch. Based on what you know about Apple late development do you find that explanation convincing? Answer: In terms of the features of these two types of products, iPod Touch is like a simplified version of iPhone, without the function of a â€Å"phone†. This determines that the prices of these two types of products must be â€Å"in a line†, which means, for a reasonable consideration, the price of iPod Touch must be lower than iPhone but not too far away. If iPhone had not cut its price, iPod Touch must have had been priced at a higher level than the realistic one. We assume that, if iPhone 4 GB continued being sold at 499USD, iPod Touch may be sold at 400 or 450USD. As an mp3 player, it would be much more expensive than its competing brands. On the contrary, if iPhone had kept a high price level but iPod Touch had been set at a low one, the customers would have had been confused for â€Å"why a simplified version of iPhone is so much ‘cheaper’ than iPhone? † That would have had a negative impacts on the sales of both iPhone and iPod Touch, even would have had impaired Apple’s brand image. Combining with what I know about the late development of these two types of products, I found although the price cutting had a temporary harm on customer’s trust, iPhone and iPod Touch both performed well on the market. It proved the importance of keeping the price of iPhone and iPod Touch in a line. 7. â€Å"But the sharp price cut suggested that even Apple, which has long lived in a pricing bubble insulated from other personal computer makers, is not immune from the brutal pressures of the cellular phone business. † Does this statement mean that the personal computers market is different from the cellular phone business in other words, the cellular phone market is more competitive than the personal computer market? Why? Do you share this view? Justify. Answer: From this statement, I can’t make the conclusion that the cell phone market is more competitive than the personal computer market. Apple is one of the earliest personal computer manufacturers in the world. Its personal computer products are behalf of the most advanced PC technology of the world. Especially its graphics processing technology and operating system have high reputation. Thus, Apple’s PC products long lived in a pricing bubble insulated from other personal computer makers. That means Apple has definitely strong market power on PC market. Its high price doesn’t mean there is less competition. Furthermore, the technical innovation, appearance design, and function combination of cell phone products are updating so fast. So the lifecycle of a handset product is shorter than a computer. The price cutting often occurs when a mobile phone has come onto market for a period of time. The objective usually is for making price room for a new generation of product, which isn’t caused by competing activities. In conclusion, I don’t share this view. 8. â€Å"Keeping in mind Apple’s range of high priced products which gives it an â€Å"aura† of exclusivity, was Jobs decision to reduce the price a right one?†¦ With a 50% gross margin, Apple is setting itself up for aggressive price declines going forward†. Do you believe that Apple move is a sign that it is ready to enter a price war? Would this mean that Apple is leaving the niche market position it held for decades to go after mass market? What would be the pros and cons of that strategy? Do you believe it? Answer: The characteristics of Apple’s products are novel design, fashionable appearance and the combination of music, game, music, web surfing and other functions. It determines the positioning of iPhone must be high, and the main target consumer group is high income, music ; digital amateurs. This segment of consumer has low sensitive for price. Pure price war will not yield more market shares for iPhone. So, the price cutting strategy doesn’t mean Apple is ready for the price war. The product’s features determine Apple’s niche market strategy. But a cell phone product innovates relatively faster than other cargos. When a product successfully attracted some first adopters, how to sell them to more followers should be the core problem. Cutting the price and going in to the mass market is a universal method. Apple also adopted this strategy on iPhone. Pros of going to mass market: * iPhone can attract more followers. Some of them are sensitive to the price, their demands are elastic. Before the price cutting and entry of the mass market, some of the non-owners didn’t buy it just because of the high price. * iPhone can expand its market share quicker, and establish the competitive barriers. Its market power will be stronger. * The expanded customers would have had bought more online products, which would have had a big growth of income.By this strategy, iPhone can consolidate their customer-friendly brand image, and increase the loyalty of the customers. * The cooperation with AT;T can get a synergy between these two brands, and can receive a sum of bonus revenue from the carrier. Cons of going to mass market: * It made the brand image be lower than before. * Decreased the gross margin of iPhone. * Hurt some d ie-hards’ loyalty. * Increased the degree of monopoly, made the competition imperfect, and harmed the balance of the benign competition with its rivals. But a cellular phone product such as iPhone goes into the mass market is usually a temporary strategy when the product comes into the mature or declining period in its lifecycle, or when the company wants to make some price room for a new product. Apple cut iPhone’s price was just for keeping the iPhone’s price being in a line with iPod Touch’s. It didn’t mean Apple changed its main branding strategy to go into the mass market. For that time, I assume that it was a reasonable strategy for Apple to cut iPhone’s price.

Compare and contrast the treatment of dogs in ‘To Flush my Dog’ and the RSPCA leaflet

â€Å"To Flush, My Dog† written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the RSPCA leaflet â€Å" Just ï ¼â€ž3 a month will help rescue more animals like Trio† are two documents exploring the same topic – treatment of dogs. Both documents depict how the owners treat their dogs differently showing the love and bond between dogs and humans. In â€Å"To Flush, My Dog†, Elizabeth appraises her dog in a very elaborated manner, while RSPCA documents look at animals from another perspective. Though the theme is the same, the aim of writing is very different. Elizabeth’s love for her dog is contrasted with the maltreatment by some owners whose dogs are subsequently rescued by RSPCA. Similarities, differences and impacts of such treatments will be discussed.â€Å"Nevermore, to pat thee!† (Stanza 16, line 6) Elizabeth uses archaic words like â€Å"thee and ‘thy’ to emphasize the importance of Flush to her. Their intimate relationship is shown t hrough physical affection like patting and stroking. However, there is not any physical affection between Trio and its owner. Trio was physically abused. It was squeezed and grabbed in the belly. The wound is so serious that ‘the owner has been ‘prosecuted and is banned from keeping animals for five years’. Readers can be easily moved by such violent scenes.Elizabeth provides Flush with a cozy home. She takes good care of it, feeds it with sugared milk and gives it some pretty collars to wear. Similarly, the staff in RSPCA treated the terribly injured and physically abused dogs with devoted care around the clock, hoping that they would recover as soon as possible. This shows the provision of love and care by dog lovers beyond basic necessities such as food and shelter. However, Poppy and Trio are not as fortunate as Flush. ‘As she swept along the drain pipe’, saved it from certain death’ (Poppy’s story, line 10) elaborates the miserable fate of Poppy or other unfortunate dogs. Poppy is not even provided with a proper home. It was rescued by the owner’s neighbor when she swept along the drain pipe.In â€Å"To Flush, My Dog†, readers are bewildered to see such a beautiful and loving dog which understands its owner. â€Å"Fawning, fondling, breathing fast† (stanza 11, line 4) is an alliteration used to describe that Flush is a caring and affectionate dog. This creates a drumming effect to attract reader’s attention on how pleasing and attentive Flush is. ‘No man break thy purple cup’ (stanza 17, line 5) is a metaphor used to show how loyal Flush is to its owner. ‘Purple’ is the colour of loyalty. ‘No man’ is used to describe the indispensable role of Flush.Nobody can replace his role. It alludes Flush is very loyal to its owner and it is the best companion to her. Repetition of the word ‘benediction’, which means blessing, is used in the p assage to emphasize that Elizabeth feels very blessed to have such a loving friend. This is reinforced by ‘Mock I thee, in wishing weal?’ which reiterates that Flush is a true blessing to her.This makes a big contrast to the treatment of Trio reported in the RSPCA leaflet, where its irresponsible owner smashed it against a cupboard with full force just because it made a mess in the bedroom. The first paragraph in Trio’s Story successfully grasps readers’ interest on why Trio’s owner ‘saw red’.The reaction of the dogs in these two passages was also very different. Flush is a caring and loyal dog. It sits beside the writer when she is sick. Rather than playing with other dogs, it stays with its owner. Flush is considerate and thoughtful that it comforts the owner when she cries. It trusts its owner. This alludes again the mutual love and affection between Flush and Elizabeth. On the contrary, Trio crawled away from its owner and hid under a cot after his owner smashed him against a cupboard. This suggests how ruthless the owner is and how sick their relation is.The purpose of writing these two documents is very different. â€Å"To Flush, My Dog† is written to show appreciation to dogs and it shows that Flush is a true blessing to her. However, the RSPCA leaflet is written to appeal for donation provided with two convincing and touching stories. This is done by the inspector’s candid attempt to convey the message. â€Å"Dear Friend† (first line in the letter) is what the inspector addresses the potential donors and  general public. This successfully triggers emotions and thoughts from the readers since someone they don’t know is directly addressed in a friendly manner.The structures of the two poems are very different. â€Å"To Flush, My Dog† is a poem with rhyming words in the first two lines and 4th, 5th lines in every stanza. There are a total of 20 stanzas with six lines each. Examples of rhymes are plenty, like ‘brown, breast, rest’ in the second stanza and ‘height, delight’, ‘line and thine’ in the last stanza. In the RSPCA leaflet, there are two touching stories of physically tortured dogs-Trio and Poppy and a letter from the inspector of RSPCA with an aim to appeal donation for helping the poor animals. The structure is modern English.Both documents use a lot of emotive and convincing language. â€Å"In just one year we rescued 6982 abused and neglected animals†. The use of figures and emotive languages â€Å"neglected†, â€Å"abused† successfully are deployed to arouse reader’s attention and sympathy. It also allows readers to realize the seriousness of the situation. Other words like ‘struggle, neglected, abused, terribly injured’ are also used to emphasize the suffering of the dogs like Trio and Poppy, and thus appeal for help, support and donation for the RSPCA.In the poem ‘To Flush, My Dog’, Elizabeth describes her dog as ‘pretty, supportive and benediction’, to suggest the mutual love between Flush and Elizabeth. The first stanza – â€Å"Gentle fellow –creature† is echoed at the end of the poem when it proclaims â€Å" Loving fellow – creature!† showing the rapport towards her ‘fellow’.Both â€Å"To Flush, My Dog† and the RSPCA leaflet articulate the love and bond between human and dogs, which is shown by Elizabeth and inspector respectively. Elizabeth’s close relationship with Flush is contrasted by the ruthless ones of Trio’s and Poppy’s. The structure and the style of these two documents differs to a great extent but the use of language shows some similarities. The greatest similarities are the writers’ excellent ways of articulating their ideas and to influence the readers.

Lessons for Undercover Bosses Essay

Managers are the effective players in the field of organizational behavior. They are tasked with learning how individuals, groups, and structure define their organization’s culture and how to create a culture that improves the company’s effectiveness and success (Robbins and Judge, 10). Effective managers must be excellent communicators and great human resource managers, which means they must know their employee’s needs (Robbins and Judge, 8-9). In order to understand the organization’s culture, the manager (or executive) must get to know the structure, groups, and individuals within their organization. When a manager â€Å"walks around† and meets those within the organization they’re managing, they can better understand their needs and are learning about problems and concerns within their organization firsthand (Rama, Sashith & Subrahmanyam). In management by walking around (MBWA), interpersonal contact is made, open appreciation is developed, and managers lead by displaying civility and rewarding performance (Rama, Sashith & Subrahmanyam). Helping employees balance work-life conflicts is a major complication in today’s working world (Robbins and Judge, 21), but the manager cannot understand the barriers to the balance of work and life if they do not communicate with the employees and their day-to-day jobs. Creating a positive work environment is another crucial element in the culture of the comp any (Robbins and Judge, 22); this element cannot be understood without understanding the people and their desires. Many times, a manager can learn the â€Å"emotional temperature† of a room and find employees  who are angry, upset, or simply stressed, which are all problems to be addressed and resolved (Managing). MBWA gives managers a way to relieve day-to-day conflicts before they become organizational problems. Question #2 While many workers prefer not to be micromanaged by their managers, research studies have indicated that regular attention from supervisors interacting with employees can actually improve work productivity. One of the most famous studies of this phenomenon unveiled the Hawthorne Effect. Back in the 1920’s Harvard researchers conducted a research study in the Hawthorne Works plant to determine if different amounts of lighting improved worker productivity. They found a correlation between increased lighting and worker productivity. However, when they turned down the lighting, worker productivity also strangely increased. According to an Industrial Management article by Chris Porter (2012) entitled â€Å"The Hawthorne Effect Today,† they uncovered that worker productivity had nothing to do with lighting, but instead the fact that workers were monitored and supervised on a regular basis contributed to their increase in productivity (p. 11). As the Hawthorne Effect indicates, workers appreciate the fact that their supervisors regularly spend time with their teams and the payoff has been demonstrated to result in increased productivity for the firm. According to Porter (2012), â€Å"management can apply psychological motivation techniques to modern processes to improve productivity, reduce defects and establish a culture for continuous improvement (p. 11). By establishing a culture with active supervision, everything becomes more team oriented and more can be accomplished (p.15).† Workers knowing that their leaders spend time interacting with the team creates stronger teams. Therefore, knowing that top executives routinely interact with line employees has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on worker attitudes toward the organization. Question #3 Certainly one way for executives and organizational leaders to learn about daily business operations is the practice of management by walking around and to a more extreme level would be going â€Å"undercover†. The one characteristic from both of these approaches that stands out is the interpersonal relationships that are developed between front line workers  and the executive team. Fostering positive social relationships in the work environment leads to more open channels of communication. By creating a more non threating work environment, the need for someone to go â€Å"undercover† would be eliminated and would promote the importance of bottom up communication within the organization. Another example for executives to use would be to schedule staff meetings with the front line workers and allowing them to have a forum to voice the challenges and opportunities that they see on a day-to day basis. This method of management promotes employee engagement within the comp any. A more indirect approach for executives to use would be to conduct employee surveys and/or use questionnaires. This approach allows the employees to remain anonymous and give more honest feedback on issues and concerns that they experience on a daily basis. Question #4 Obviously, compared to desk-bound approach to management, â€Å"management by walking around† (MBWA) helps managers to understand what bottom managers and staffs do every day (Robbins and Judge, 8). This is the kind of strong relationship between managers and staff which helps contribute to the effectiveness of the whole organization, as well as understanding individuals, groups, the working environment and the organization’s culture. By knowing the skills needed for a job, the time to work available, and the problems happening in the front line, managers easily make some human resource decisions. However, there are also some questions concerning MBWA. It is dangerous if managers use too much time discovering whether or not people are doing things correctly. Otherwise, taking a longer time to communicate or walking through staffs’ offices will cause an impression that the manager is loafing, and people may feel they are being watched. MBWA is about building relat ionships, not micro-managing people. Just monitoring is not helpful for effectiveness of work. If a manager spots something of concern, then he or she should address this with the team manager separately. It is vital that employees do not feel that they need to always be on their best behavior, or the activity will be a waste of time (Lop). If a manager wanders round very occasionally, it will engender the view that the manager is bored or has simply been instructed in the action. To solve the problem that MBWA  leads employees to feel they are being spied on, managers should take some actions to minimize these concerns. First, do not spend too much time on one person, which makes him feel different from others. Try to spend roughly the same amount of time — not necessarily all in the same day or even the same week, but over the long run — with each person who reports to you (Lop). Second, ask for suggestions and recognize good ideas. Ask each employee for his or her thoughts about how to improve products, processes, sales, or service. Last, do not criticize; instead, make a note of it and address the problem at another time and in another setting (Lop). Works Cited ‘Management by walking around’: 3 tips. (2014). Managing People at Work, 1(8), 1. Lop, P. (2011). The Pros and Cons of Management by Wandering around. http://www.insidebusiness360.com/index.php/the-pros-and-cons-of-management-by-wandering-around-6174/#sourcesAndCitations Porter, C. (2012). The Hawthorne effect today. Industrial Management, 54(3), 10-15. Rama Mohan, D.D., Sathish Kumar, S. S., & Subrahmanyam, G.G. (2013). Management by Walking Around: An Effective Tool for Day-to-Day Operations of Hospital. UIP Journal of Operations Management, 12(1), 58-61. Robbins, S. & Judge, T. (2013). Organizational Behavior, 15th Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Health economics, market structures, government interventions Assignment

Health economics, market structures, government interventions - Assignment Example MONOPOLISTIC: Share the feature of monopoly and perfect competition. Similar purpose products are differentiated by many firms operating in market. Low entry and exit barriers welcomes new participants with high profits in short run. Participants gain profits various innovations in products. OLIGOPOLY: Market is based on few dominant firms offering similar but high level of differentiated products with innovation. Firms with dominance create barrier to entry exist with extensive control over price. Despite control of firms, prices are dependent on peer firms’ decision in market. MONOPOLY: Only one firm provides goods and services. Least differentiated product but control over price is enjoyed by the firm. Industry has high level of barrier to enter and exit from market. Profits are enjoyed by firm with constantly increasing economies of scale. ANSWER #2 The monopolistic competition is a type of competition that share features of two extreme types of competition being perfect c ompetition and monopoly. Many firms are present like perfect competition while products are differentiated like monopoly form of market structures such as movies etc. In short run monopolistic industry gets attractive by offering positive profits to participant firms and new firms enter to the market in long run. It is also due to due to no to low barrier of entry and exit in the market like perfect competition. Prices continue to increase over marginal cost in similar fashion as in case of monopoly competition. Profit maximization in monopolistically competitive market requires marginal revenue to equate marginal cost while downward slope of the demand curve takes marginal revenue lower than price. Also entry of new firm results in increased supply of differentiated products resulting in shift in the demand curve. Sharing the feature of perfect competition, price is determined at point equal to average total cost. This price is similar point where demand curve is tangent to average total cost. At this point industry offers zero economic profits and hence does not attract new participants due to zero economic profits (Gartner, 2009). ANSWER #3 Public goods are defined as set of goods having following two distinct characteristics of non-excludability and non-rival consumption. Non-excludability feature refers to the fact that usage or benefit of public goods gained by certain peoples does not result in prevention of its benefits offered to others. Non-rival consumption features of public goods refer that irrespective of consumption of public goods by certain people availability of amount or level of benefit to others is not reduced. These feature contrast public goods from the private goods. The example of public goods includes services of disaster management cells managed by government, roads and street lights etc. The feature of non- excludability results in facilitation of products to all even those who bear no financial cost. All financial cost bearers and non-bearers enjoy equal benefit of public goods irrespective of tastes and preferences and diminishing value. Such facilitation results in free-riders problem in economy. People gains confidence of availability of the goods even without paying for and hence tend to adopt trend of not paying for such services. This trend presses the increased burden on payer of such facilities. Such features of publi

China Admits New Tainted-Milk Case is Older Essay

China Admits New Tainted-Milk Case is Older - Essay Example New York Times continues to point out that enquiry into the Shanghai Panda Dairy Company started about two months before Chinese regulators arrested the culprits. According to New York Times reporter David Barboza, doctoring of milk came to attention of news and China regulators back in February the year 2009. According to Shen Weiping, one of officers at Fengxian District prosecution officer, the apprehension of executives from Panda Dairy occurred in the April in the year 2009 (Barboza, 2010: 1). This story continues to reveal that Mr. Shen took a lot of time to alert the public about contaminated milk from Shanghai Panda Dairy. Mr. Shen did not inform the public about the closure of the dairy factory in question. This created unwanted tension in the public arena. Actions of this prosecution officer contravened China’s safety law, which it enacted in June 2009. The law demanded that food producers should notify businesspeople and consumers of grave food safety troubles. To a ggravate the conflict between Shanghai Panda Dairy, consumers, and the public, the government of China maintained silence on the matter. It did not report on whether the contaminated milk at stake had caused sickness to any citizen (Barboza, 2010: 1). ... The actions of media houses to reach the dairy hit a dead rock. The factory did not answer any phone call that emanated from outside source. To aggravate this grave issue, the General Administration for Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine did not reply to the appeals of media for an interrogation. This prompted legal experts to declare the delay to report the contamination of milk to the public and consumers a troublesome case (Barboza, 2010: 1). Wang Xixin, who is a professor of constitutional law at Peking University, claimed national and local quality supervision bureaus contravened China’s law for failing to report Shanghai Panda’s case to the public. According to the professor, the government of China concealed important information thereby putting the health of Chinese at stake. David, writer with New York Times, reveals that executives at Shanghai Panda convened a meeting in December 2008, after the public demanded a recall of melamine-tainted milk powd er (Barboza, 2010:1). According to this story, the executives come to a decision to re-sell the tainted milk. The management disregarded public outcry and did not mind the health issue of Chinese. Mr. Shen disclosed that Panda Dairy blended contaminated elements with other safe products and resold it. Media in China was instrumental to bring stories of outraged parents who claimed that their children suffered from melamine-related disorders. This prompted government of China to stage a countrywide crackdown on melamine-contaminated milk. According to New York Times, China inspection agencies found that 22 huge dairy companies processed milk that contained high levels of melamine (Barboza, 2010: 1). The stories of the sale of unhygienic milk in China

Ryanair Marketing Mix Analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Ryanair Marketing Mix Analysis - Case Study Example Rather than assume that its role was to 'steal' customers from other airlines, it determined that the customer base should be defined in a different way: those who were price-sensitive, but were looking for a scheduled airline approach (rather than charter airlines, which had no fixed schedule). Ryanair also defined the real 'competitors' included alternative modes of travel (bus, train, and car) and fairly inflexible 'budget' scheduled airline seats. Airlines have pioneered in the use of yield management software to increase their average revenue per seat-mile, starting with American Airlines in the early 1980's. New, low-cost airlines started with few of these yield management techniques, calculating that the leisure traveler was put off by the plethora of fares for the same trajectory. Ryanair assumed that passengers placed different values on their travel. The vacationer and displaced worker could count on long-term travel planning. They are price-conscious. For those willing to plan ahead, Ryanair could price significantly below scheduled airlines. As capacity filled and the date for flight departure approached, Ryanair could adjust its pricing online in a flash, helping to assure that most planes fly full. Whereas legacy carriers layered time constraints (greater than 21, 14 or 7 days, for example), Ryanair might price in the opposite direction, giving last-minute flyers a discount for booking. Again, Ryanair defined their customers differently than at the legacy carriers. Their last-minute flyers needed three key attributes: flexible in their flight schedule, price-sensitive and impulsive. Here are the thoughts of potential customers in this last-minute category: "Sure, I'd fly to Dublin to catch a play and quaff a Guinness, if the price were less than 20 return." This is an impulse customer. "I need to get back to Warsaw to handle some immigration papers." This customer is price-sensitive and flexible in his/her schedule. Distribution Channels and Their Importance to Ryanair's Marketing Mix Ryanair could not exist without the Internet. The key benefits and tools for Ryanair are all internet-based: 1. Ryanair's cost per transaction must remain low in order to keep down fares. By bypassing the travel agent (once novel, now commonplace), Ryanair reduced its transaction costs per passenger by 5-10% of airfare. 2. Related to the above, Ryanair was able to reduce labor costs by having the passenger perform much of the administrative work online (and obviating the need at the airport or on the phone). 3. In order to fill planes, Ryanair must have to-the-minute pricing flexibility. Empty seats make no money; the ability to fill the 137th seat in a 737, even if it only provides 20, is an extra 20 falling to the bottom line for that flight. 4. Internet booking allows Ryanair to control all aspects of the customer relationship. This information is invaluable for future promotions. If Ryanair knows, for example, that it has a London-based passenger who travels often to Warsaw, they can focus on that customer for future

Aramco project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Aramco project - Essay Example The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest Arabian state in Western Asia covering a land area of approximately 2,150,000 km2. it is the second largest in the Arab world after Algeria. Its neighboring states are Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast, and Yemen in the south. Currently the Kingdom has a population of 28.7 million people and is a world leader in the production an export of oil. The country’s national petroleum and natural gas production is called Saudi Aramco. The company is Arabian American and is based in Dhahran. Saudi Aramco is among the largest integrated energy production companies around the globe. Aramco was founded in the year1933, by the Standard Oil Company of California. Saudi Aramco’s is a story of the discovery and development of some of the greatest oil reserves ever known in the world and the rapid transformation of Saudi Arabia from a once desert kingdom to the modern nation-state that we know. Saudi Aramcos value as estimated by the New York Times is approximately $10 trillion and this makes it the most valuable firm globally. Saudi Aramco enjoys more than ten percent of the global market in terms oil supply and controls 98% of Saudi’s oil reserves which in turn represent 25% of the total global oil reserves. Considering that the petroleum sector contributes about 40% of Saudi Arabia’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Saudi Aramco is no doubt a cornerstone in the national economy. As such, Aramco is under intense pressure to remain competitive not only in the kingdom but also internationally. It I for this reason that the company requires a very efficient labor force. It has responded to this demand by developing and implementing a training program known as the Professional Development

Historian root of the devil's highway Assignment

Historian root of the devil's highway - Assignment Example Thus entering America by any means had become a necessity for the Mexican people. For that they are ready to do any compromise, even sacrificing their lives also. The book â€Å"Devil’s Highway† is based on the same issue of illegal immigration from Mexico to United States. It is a true story that involves many aspects such as border issue, gangsters, deprived conditions of the immigrants, the business involved in illegal migration, political issues from both sides and many more. In this paper following major aspects of the story have been discussed 1. Migrant Labour 2. Federal Economy 3. Border policy History of Migrant Labors, border policies and the Economical Factors: Though the story is shocking, it is not an unexpected or new. â€Å"Two thousand people died crossing the border in the five years before these 26 men hit the road.† (Marc Ramirez 2012) The migration is a common phenomenon, which has its root in the history of American immigration. The beginning of migration of Mexican people to United States started in the early years of twentieth century. It happened in around 1907, when the Japanese immigration was abridged. When America officially entered World War I, the country was in need of Mexican laborers. After the war the US Border Patrol was created and it culminated into the restrictions the Mexican immigrations. Yet unskilled migrants started entering US for meeting their economic demands. Many times it was an illegal immigration. In early 1930s there was a slight drop in the migration. The demand for Mexican laborers again increased after Pearl Harbor. There was an agreement between US and Mexican government for a large number of Mexican laborers. This is known as braceros. During wartime the source of food supply was the Mexican laborers. A professor of Mexican and Latin American politics and economics, Jorge Dominguez Madero states, â€Å"It was Mexicans and Rosie the Riveter who ran the American economy and enabled Amer ican citizens to go to war,† The US growers pressurized to continue the same immigration process even after the end of the war. But there was an acute shortage of the documented or legal laborers, hence the illegal recruitment of Mexican laborers continued. The illegal immigrants became the major support for the US agricultural economy. In 1964 the US government ended the Bracero program and after that the problem of illegal migration started growing. In 1968 the economic condition in Mexico was horrible and it led to the number of undocumented immigration. â€Å"Mexican immigrants became convenient scapegoats for widespread joblessness and budget shortfalls. Paradoxically, they were blamed simultaneously for â€Å"taking away jobs from Americans† and â€Å"living off public relief.†Ã¢â‚¬  (Douglas Massey, Jorge Durand, and Nolan J. Malone Pg.33) Economic condition/ poverty of Mexican: Both Mexican Government and US government did not pay much attention to the immigration issue till 1980. Many reasons were involved in it. In 1986, the United States passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), but there was no voice from the side of Mexican Government. In political and economic unrest there is no substitute for Mexican immigrants to move to United States. The financial crisis led immigration. ‘Enrique Landeros Garcia was thirty years old. His wife, Octavia, was only twenty-three. They had a son named Alexis. He had recently turned seven, and he was ready for school, but Enrique and Octavia didn’

Aircraft System Principles and Applications Assignment

Aircraft System Principles and Applications - Assignment Example Effect of air density on aircraft performance Air density is responsible for lifting the aircraft at the start of flight. It is also responsible for favorable amount of fuel consumption as air density affects air fuel mixture which is burned to run the engine. Therefore, fuel consumption and lift of aircraft not only depends on density but also depends upon temperature and pressure, indirectly. Â  Effect of air pressure on aircraft performance An aircraft requires maintaining a specific pressure to keep flying in the air or to move to higher altitudes. As the lift of aircraft is directly affected by the density of air, so in order to move to higher altitudes density of aircraft must be greater than 1225 gm/m-cube. Reduction in density results in lesser amount of air molecules moving around the plane and hence, lesser amount of thrust is applied on the plane than is required to move at higher altitude(FAA). Â   Effect of air pressure on aircraft performance Air may have parcels of air that are having raised temperatures and this raised temperature significantly reduces density of air within these parcels. Whenever a plane enters from a parcel of lower temperature to a parcel of higher temperature, it undergoes variation in performance. Due to lower density, flight of plane is adversely affected and it also affects the fuel efficiency of the engine due to insufficient air required to inject fuel. Therefore, planes are equipped with turbochargers. in order to maintain air pressure. Question 2 Explain the function and operation of aircraft pneumatic systems and their associated status indicators? Old aircraft systems were based on high pressure pneumatic systems which make use of air as a power transmission medium. Most common components that make use of pneumatic system are: Brakes Closing and opening of doors Operation of emergency devices, for example landing gears, flaps etc. Driving of hydraulic and water pumps etc. Pneumatic power systems are most commonly named as vacuum pressure systems, where pressure is measured by making use of suction pressure. Vacuum pressure system facilitates following components named, pumps, relief valves, vacuum air filter, suction gauge gyro instruments(FAA). Before the air enters the pneumatic system, it is passed through the air filter in order to filter out impurities and dust particles. These particles, if enter the pneumatic system, damage the system adversely. After that it is served to the pumps which are used to pump out air at desired pressure required by the pneumatic system. It is considered the most important part of the system without which system would not work. The pumped air is

Find a topic about math and relate to interior& architecture design Essay

Find a topic about math and relate to interior& architecture design major - Essay Example To better understand the importance of mathematics in architecture, the most initial thing is to come up with a clear understanding regarding the concept of architecture itself. It hence refers to a system of structures and buildings that tend to form a space standard for the people’s activities and lives, as well as the art of creating these structures and buildings in correspondence to the cognitive laws that governs beauty. It follows from this definition that there exist two aspects of Architecture notion. On the other hand, Architecture is a specific kind of technological advancement that is intended for the formation of a space standard for activity and lives of people. The architects should hence be conversant with the mechanical laws so as to ensure that the proper mechanical stability and strength regarding the given structures and buildings. Architecture comes out as a form of Fine Art that should be created by an architect in his "structures and buildings with correspondence to the laws of shape and beauty. This means that an architect has to be accorded clear guideline by the Principles and Laws of Beauty and Harmony in his/her creativity. As a form of Fine Art, Architecture is closely connected to other types of Fine Arts including Music, Painting, and Sculpture. In this correlation the idea of creating emerging mathematical concepts, as well as the Mathematical Harmony tend to arise. It is hence unfeasible make cognitive statements on all the scientific attainments of Mathematical Harmony in a brief essay. Based on the historical perspectives, there is a clear relationship that emerges between metaphysics and physics, and the fact that architecture has always been a perfect contender with regards to the metaphysical representation with its inherent geometrical character. Thus, what can be found as a societal body of knowledge will usually be symbolically represented in its established

Cost method november Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cost method november - Essay Example It is crucial for managers to comprehend the merits and demerits of the two systems to satisfy the needs of their business operations. The budget presented entails schedules that raise various concerns leading to the recommendation that the company should switch to the activity-based costing system of accounting. The first concern is the quarterly budget that in my opinion requires further subdivision to generate quarters. Mainly, cycling takes place in temperate weather conditions. Buying materials for bicycle production for the start of sales hikes demand therefore, requires the producer to incur a quarter before the demand. Another concern regards accounts that remain uncollectable. The master budget for the company is not specific it its cash budget line. It closely refers to the uncollectable receivables. Variable factors in this context emanate from economic features among them limited sponsorship and thus resulting in wrong accounts (Gazely & Lambert, 2006). From the budget, the company is setting aside a budget for 140 bikes inclusive of labour costs. It is appropriate to cut down on the level of production of extra parts in the inventory. The viability of any business can be measured by how the company effectively utilizes its resources while plummeting unnecessary costs hence Competition Bikes Inc. should strive to avert extra discretionary costs. The method of distributing manufacturing overhead by activity-based costing (ABC) to products is efficient compared to the traditional method of costing. Precisely, activity-based costing assigns the right percentage of resources to particular products. While monitoring and allocating organizational costs to products and objects, activity-based costing remains a more sophisticated and logical method as opposed to the traditional costing system (Bragg, 2001). It is possible to distribute

Privileges of a Senior Citizen Essay Example for Free

Privileges of a Senior Citizen Essay We all know that a senior citizen is an old version in our generation. They are the person above 60. Since they are old and their body are weak, it’s hard for them to eat , exercise , to work and of course to SURVIVE. The old ladies or old men out there are sometimes abandoned by their family. Some leave their houses because they feel that they are not a part of that family. Some are treated not right and some are lost. We can see many of them outside our schools or on the market begging, most are in the garbage place. Senior citizens contribute a lot in the past time in our country, there are some who fought for our country but still not recognized. Here in the Philippines, Our government made some rights for our citizens. Since some of the senior citizen has a difficult time to work, our government decided that all senior citizens must be an exception to an all tax payment. For short he/she is a minimum wage earner. They are also free from all government medical and dental services. They also have a free vaccine supported by the government, educational assistance shall be granted to pursue to; post secondary , post tertiary , as well as vocational and technical education in both public and private schools through provisions of scholarship , grants and financial aids . Our government also issued about granting our senior citizens special discounts on special programs. Example is on purchase of basic necessities and prime commodities. For another positive part, Senior citizens they have an express lane privileges in all public store , private banking , commercials or government establishments. For the retirees , they are granted the continuance of the same benefits and privileges by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), social security system (SSS) and PAG IBIG. Retirement benefits of senior citizens on both public and private sector shall be reviewed every year to ensure their responsiveness and sustainability. We can say that senior citizens have an easy life with all of this privileges, But material things are not the only thing a human needs. Old people also need love from their family and others so that they will not feel they’re alone in this world. We shall give back the love and care this people has given to us when they are in their younger years.

Lord Palmerstons Achievements as Foreign Secretary

Lord Palmerstons Achievements as Foreign Secretary Assess the achievement of Palmerstons first period at the Foreign Office, between 1830 and 1841. Viscount Palmerston was, without doubt, one of the most famous foreign secretaries ever to have held the office- and he did so on two occasions- between 1830-41, and 1846-52. As with many famous figures he is also rather a controversial one, receiving a mixture of praise and criticism from historians. Anthony Wood generally sees him as a dextrous negotiator, who threatened to use force in a judicious and responsible manner[1]. Eric Evans, on the other hand, is more inclined to see Palmerston’s obvious sabre rattling and ‘Gun Boat diplomacy’ as an irresponsible and unprincipled pursuit of the National interest[2] that aggravated diplomatic wounds (especially with the French) – and left Lord Aberdeen (when he took over in 1841) to ‘pick up the pieces’[3]. The function of this essay will be to evaluate Palmerton’s achievements in the first (and perhaps more influential) period under the premierships of Earl Grey and Lord Melborne in light o f this historiographical debate. This essay will adopt a chronological structure to facilitate the clarity of discussion. It will cover the three most famous events in British Foreign affairs in this period- the Belgium Crisis of 1830-1, the creation of the Quadruple Alliance in 1834, the finally the Egyptian Crises concerning France and Russia from 1831-41. It will then assess if, on balance, Palemerston’s first period at the Foreign Office can generally be called a success, as argued by Wood, or in fact did more harm than good- as argued by Evans. Palmerston’s general attitude to foreign affairs was famously one of the pursuit of national self-interest above the maintenance of any kind of consistent, or ‘ethical’ position. He told the House of Commons: â€Å"We have no eternal allies, we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow† For Evans, this was attitude represented a carte blance form of pragmatism. Palmerston was able to wrap himself in the union jack- often mobilising British public opinion behind him- and effectively conduct himself as he pleased with little regard for the sovereignty or stability of other nations- and most importantly- without any regard for long term-worsening of diplomatic relations. This approach was first demonstrated in respect of the Crisis in Belgium in 1830-1. In the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Belgium had been placed under the United Provinces of the Dutch- ignoring the obvious differences in religion and national feeling[4]. Eventually, Belgium Patriots were able to gather enough support to drive out the Dutch garrison from Brussels. King Louis Phillipe, who had come to power in France in 1830, was known to favour a satellite Belgium state under a French protectorate- although it was unknown as the extent the French were prepared to use military force to get it. At a London conference in 1831, Palmerston found himself in a difficult position- but refused to hand over two fortresses on the Belgium border to the French- thus ensuring the creation of a neutral Belgium. Some months later, after the French posted troops inside Belgium, Palmerston let it be known that he would be prepared to use force against them if they did not withdraw[5]. The French could n ot take this risk, and retreated. A treaty was signed in December 1832, establishing an international guarantee of Belgium’s neutrality. On the face of it, this seemed like a triumph for Palmeston. It could be argued that he had played the game of diplomatic bluff to perfection, and by refusing to assent to French demands and sabre rattling, had achieved a settlement most inkeeping with his goal of maintaining British national interest- and one which ensured a potentially dangerous French power-base did not grow any more menacing. However, there was no doubt that ‘Lord Pumicestone’s’ abrasive qualities had soured Anglo-French relations and perhaps a more delicate and consensual stance might have yielded a more satisfactory outcome to all sides The diplomatic problems with France did not go away. In 1834, the Queens of Spain and Portugal (who were constitutional rulers) were threatened by absolutist regimes in their own countries- and Palmerston was suspicious that the French planned to take advantage. His idea to create a ‘Quadruple Alliance’ between all four countries seemed, on the face of it, another great success. France could not diplomatically refuse an alliance already agreed to by Britain, Spain, and Portugal[6], and was seemingly once again outmanoeuvred by what Palmerston called a ‘Capital Hit all of my own doing’ (He was not known for his modesty). Palmerston had always been unequivocal in his support for Constitutional rulers, and Britain’s self-interest was arguably sustained by the maintenance of moderate regimes in the Iberian Peninsula[7]. On this occasion, he had arguably used diplomatic guile rather than the implied threat of military force to achieve success- so it can pe rhaps be said that Palmerston was occasionally prepared to dock his gunboat for a spot of peaceful diplomacy. Once again, though, the price of safeguarding British Interests had worsened Anglo-French relations. In 1831, Mehemet Ali, a rebellious vassal of the Turkish Sultan Mahmud in Egypt, declared war and took possession of Palestine and Syria from the Turkish Empire. The Russians- in offering to help forced the beleaguered Sultan to sign a rough treaty which effectively passed control of the strategically vital Unkiar Skelessi Straits to them. Palmerston was worried about an escalation of Russian influence- as it heightened his fear of a potential alliance between Russia and France. In 1839, the Sultan made an ill-advised attack on Ali, and ended up suffering an ignominious defeat, and gave the vassal his excuse to carry the war deep into Turkish territory. It was Palmerston’s policy to support Turkey, mainly because it dispersed the power base of Europe, and also because of a recently signed commercial treaty between the two nations. The Turkish town of Aden (which had the added benefit of being a useful place for British steamships to replenish their coal stocks en route to Ind ia) was placed under a British protectorate. Rather predictably, the French sided with Mehemet Ali. Palmerston offered a deal to his enemies- that Ali could retain Egypt and Syria for his lifetime, but the French encouraged him to turn it down. Palmerston refused to climb down, and instructed Lord Granville (the British Ambassador in Paris) to: â€Å"Covey to him (King Louis Phillipe) in the most friendly and unoffensive manner possible†¦that if France begins a war, she will lose her ships, colonies and commerce before she sees the end of it; that her army of Algiers will cease to give her anxiety, and that Mehemet Ali will be chucked into the Nile†[8] This uncompromising stance once again was a gamble, made more intense when British Marines helped capture the cities of Acre and Beirut after Ali rejected Palmerston’s deal. France (also worried by threatening movements in Bavaria) was in no position to engage Britain in a war, and she ended up having to aid Britain and Russia to defeat Ali[9]. Eventually, Russia was even persuaded to relinquish control of the Straits, and all four powers agreed to return to the original settlement of 1809[10]. Disaster had seemingly been diverted again by Palmerston’s tough diplomatic line. For Wood, he had read France’s hand perfectly[11], and once again maintained peace, even if (for Evans) he had put several noses out of joint with more ‘Gun Boat Diplomacy’[12]. In Conclusion, this essay has shown that Palmerston’s abrasive approach to Foreign policy was generally a great success. In each of the three instances covered, his reluctance to compromise worked in Britain’s interests, and against those of France- her eternal foe. Undoubtedly, he did prioritise the national interest above all else, but it could be argued that- such was Britain’s dominance- that her interests and the goal of stability and peace in Europe were by no means unrelated. In fact, one could argue from this evidence that they were very closely linked, and that maybe Palmerston’s reputation as irresponsible is slightly unfounded. It can be said that Palmerston’s hands-on and confrontational approach was extremely risky, and that there was a large element of luck involved in achieving a successful outcome on each occasion. For example, had France not withdrawn from Belgium in 1831, a bloody war might have ensured. In 1839, it may only have been the sudden advent of threatening activity in Prussia that made the French swallow their pride, and abandon Mehemet Ali. Palmerston was also aided by his fleet of gunboats that backed up everything he said. Britain’s naval dominance at that time allowed him to adopt a far more hard-line and interventionist approach than many other Foreign Secretaries before or since. Overall, Palmerston’s guile- backed up by his luck and his powerbase made his period at the Foreign Office between 1830-41 extremely successful, but arguably it could have easily gone horribly wrong. Bibliography Wood, A, ‘Lord Palmerston at the Foreign Office 1830-41’ in Nineteenth Century Britain , 1960, Longman Droz, J, Europe between Revolutions 1815-48, 1967, Fontana/Collins Evans, E, ‘Influence without Entanglement: Foreign Affairs, 1815-46’ in The Forging of the Modern State 1783-1870, 1983, Longman Felling, K, A History of England, 1973, Book Club Associates Roberts, J, A History of Europe, 1996, Helicon Publishing Word-Count- 1620 1 Footnotes [1] See Wood, ‘Lord Palmerston at the Foreign Office 1830-41’ in Nineteenth Century Britain , 1960, pp.156-63 [2] See Evans, ‘Influence without Entanglement: Foreign Affairs, 1815-46’ in The Forging of the Modern State 1783-1870, 1983, pp.210-3 [3] ibid, p.211 [4] Wood, pp.157-8 [5] In a letter to Granville, he wrote â€Å"The French must go out of Belgium or we have a general War†. See Wood, p. 159 [6] Droz, Europe between Revolutions 1815-48, 1967, p.236 [7] Evans, p.211 [8] See Evans p. 211, also Wood, p.157 [9] Felling, A History of England, 1973, p. 856 [10] Wood, p.163 [11] ibid [12] Evans, p.211

The Hong Kong tourism industry

The Hong Kong tourism industry Part B Abstract It is revealed that high labor turnover is a major global problem in hotel industry. The human resource management in the hotel industry is facing challenge about retaining employees and minimizes the turnover. Therefore, it is worth to investigate about the human resource management in the hotel industry. The purpose of this study is to explore the labor turnover in hotel industry, and its associated the factors affecting the labor turnover and how to manage the labor turnover. The labor turnover in hotel industry is influenced by the work related factors, external factors and external factors. According to some statistics, the cost of labor turnover in hotel industry is very high. Moreover, some retention strategy are propose to overcome the labor turnover are discussed including training, employee motivation and employee recognition. Section 1 :Introduction 1.1 Reason for choice of topic The tourism industry is the leading industry in many countries. Hong Kong tourism industry contributing $162.8 billion or 10.8% of gross domestic product in 2009(http://www.gov.hk/en/residents/, http://www.tourism.gov.hk/textonly/english/statistics/statistics_perform.html ) and Thailand tourism industry generate 6.5% of gross domestic product in 2008 (http://www.thaiwebsites.com/tourism.asp). Accommodation is an essential element of tourism service and it is vital to the quality of the tourist experience, as it constitutes a major part of consumption. This study is to investigate the labor turnover in the hotel organization. It is general known that the hospitality industry has a major challenge about the labor turnover and staff stability rates. These problems are usually occur in the front-line staff as it is related to a lot of unfavorable working conditions in hotel, such as the long working hours, unstable working schedule and lack of promotion opportunities. Therefore, many people are not willing to enter to the hotel industry or some people have work for many years in hotel industry but shift to another industry because of those unfavorable working conditions. Besides, the human resource management in the hotel industry are facing some serious problems about retaining the employees and recruits the right people to fill in the right job. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate the factors that cause the front-line employees to quit the job. In addition, to discuss what the human resource management can do to retain the st aff and manage the labor turnover in the hotel organization. Another reason for choosing this topic to study is the authors want to become the human resource manager in a hotel. Therefore, it is vital that the author have a clear understanding of what challenges that the human resource management are facing and to use the specific approach to overcome those problems. 1.2Academic objectives of dissertation This paper aims to achieve the followings objectives: To find out what is the meaning of labor turnover and have an overview of the turnover culture in the hotel industry To discuss the factors that influence labor turnover in hotel industry. To explain the cost of labor turnover in hotel industry. To find out what the human resource management can do to managing the labor turnover. 1.3 Outline of sections In section 1, the author talked about her reason for choice this topic and the major objectives through this project. In section 2, the authors explained the concepts of labor turnover briefly and provide an overview of the turnover culture in the hotel industry. In section 3, the author would explain the factors influence the turnover in the hotel industry and have an understanding of the cost of labor turnover. It could help to show the labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry. Moreover, in section 4, the author wants to make others understand how to manage the labor turnover in the hotel industry. Finally in section 5, would be the summary and conclusion about this project. Section 2:Literature review 2.1 What is labor turnover? According to Price (1977, p.15) the term ‘turnover is defined as the ratio of the number of organization members who have left during the period being considered divided by the average number of people in that organization during the period and also each time a position is vacated, a new employee must be hired and trained. This replacement cycle is known as turnover (Woods, 1995, p. 345). Labor turnover refers to the movement of employees in and out of a business. Labor turnover affects both workers and firms: workers may need to learn new job-specific skills, whilst firms incur the costs of hiring and training new workers (Brown et. al., 2009). The new workers may be more highly motivated and more highly skilled. Hence, turnover may enhance firm performance. However, high labor turnover causes problems for the firm as it is costly, lowers productivity and morale. Labor turnover can be divided into two main types: voluntary, where the employees leave of their own free will, and involuntary, where the employer decides that employment should terminate. Retirement can fall into either category (Boella, 2000). Most often the voluntary turnover arises where some employees leave to escape negative work environment factors and other are pulled away from the organization by more attractive opportunities and Cheng and Brown (1998) stated that people quit their job for many reasons, but most reasons are not related to management. In recent study, the involuntary turnover can applied to those employees have a poor performance or have did some serious mistakes then the organization would encourage them to quit than fire them. 2.2 The turnover culture in the hotel industry Everyone knows that the hotel industry is a highly labor-intensive industry but the high labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry all around the world. Some theorists such as Mobley (1977), Price (1977), Price and Mueller (1986) identified a range of other variables such as pay, communication, social integration, reutilization, role overload, promotional opportunity, training, supervisor and co-worker support, and distributive justice as having a significant impact upon turnover. According to the research Griffith University, the primary reason for managerial and operational turnover was voluntary resignation, followed by an internal transfer. Performance related terminations were very low. The main motivating factors for executives, managerial and supervisory staff to change jobs, within the hotel industry, were better career opportunities and better working hours. Changing jobs outside the industry was primarily motivated by higher salaries, working hours and better career opportunities. The data suggests that higher wages and better working hours are the major drivers for managerial employees to leave. Similarly, operational staff seek better wages, better working hours and improved career opportunities. In the pervious years, a small among of staff in hotel industry will stay for longer than five years but the voluntary turnover is gradually increase compared with the last decades. According to Kennedy and Berger (1994, p. 58) they stated that, in the hospitality industry, ‘the highest turnover occurred during the first 4 weeks (in employment). The cause of turnover is often poor human resource decisions and the unmet expectations of newcomers. 2.3 Factors affecting employee intent to leave in the hotel industry There are many factors affecting employee turnover. According to a widely accepted though, employees usually quit their jobs because of lack of wages. However, many studies show that there are also many complex factors affecting employee turnover other than wage, such as the management of the company, economics, and psychology. In the following section, some factors affecting employee turnover are discussed. 2.3.1 Work Related Factors The work related factors are other factors that will influence the labor turnover in the hotel industry. The following section will mainly focus on the job satisfaction, pay, working environment, work performance, promotion opportunities and the organization commitment how to influence the labor turnover. 2.3.1.1 Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction is containing the satisfaction with pay, satisfaction with the work itself, satisfaction with the supervision, satisfaction with the promotion opportunities (Khatri et. al., 2003). According to Davis (1981), job satisfaction can be defined as pleasantness or unpleasantness of employees while working. In addition, Oshagbemi (2000) has defined job satisfaction as ‘‘individuals positive emotional reaction to particular job. The term job satisfaction is considered an attribute that exists as the equity of a variety of desired and non-desired job-related experiences. It is also defines as the degree of fit between the features of a job and employees expectations. In addition, there are researchers who view that job satisfaction is a result of both employees expectations and aspirations and their existing status (Clark Oswald, 1996). When the employees with a lack of job satisfaction they will be quitting the job, and the basic reason is that they expect to ha ve a more satisfying job. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job satisfaction, the organization will be fewer labor turnovers. Price and Mueller (1981) stated that job satisfaction has an indirect influence on turnover through its direct influence on formation of intent to leave. Another study stated that employees with higher degree of trust would have higher levels of job satisfaction in the hospitality industry (Gill, 2008). 2.3.1.1.1 Pay According to the past study, the average annual wages of hotel are very low compare with the other industries such as the IT technology and education industry. A low starting salary is found in the frontline department in the hotel industry such as the housekeeping, Food and Beverage and front office. It was shown that dissatisfaction with pay is among the significant factors responsible for turnover (Pavesic and Brymer, 1990; Pizam and Ellis, 1999). Pay is received by the staff and money is equivalent to staffs effort to provide service. The salary, compensation and fringe benefit received by the staff are also the pay. Therefore, if the pay is increase, it can reduce the labor turnover. The relationship between pay and job satisfaction has received considerable attention (Churchill, FordWalker, 1974; Lawler, 1995). The pay was the most important job attribute contributing to job satisfaction in the Hong Kong hotel industry. Therefore, higher pay is significantly related to greater job satisfaction. The staff will be more satisfied with their job when the actual pay is more than the expected pay. The other situation that causes the staff to be more likely to leave their organization is that when they perceive that they are receiving lower salary but they know the other people elsewhere are offered better pay. Therefore, offering higher wages than competing organization will enable the organization to retain some talented worker. 2.3.1.1.2 The work itself The work itself is a critical dimension in employee job satisfaction (Luthans, 1992; Lawler, 1995; Qu, Ryan Chu, 2001; Groot Van Den Brink, 1999) and Glisson and Durick (1988) considered the worker and the nature of the work itself as two important factors affecting job satisfaction. The internal satisfactory factors are related to the work itself, such as: feeling of achievement, feeling of independence, self-esteem, feeling of control and other similar feelings obtained from work. And the external satisfactory factors such as: receiving praise from the boss, good relationships with colleagues, good working environment, high salary, good welfare and utilities. There is a relationship between job satisfaction and stress. Barsky, Thoresen, Warren and Kaplan(2004) argued that high level of work stress will be decrease the job satisfaction and finally leaving the organization because workers feel their job duties are difficult to fulfill. Price (1977) divided job stress into four types: lack of resources to perform, the amount of workload, the clarity of the role obligations and the role conflict. Those job stresses will also make the employees intent to quit the organization. 2.3.1.1.3 The supervision Supervision, being one of the dimensions of job satisfaction (Rust et al., 1996), is defined from the employee-centeredness perspective, it is manifested in ways such as checking to see how well the subordinate is doing, providing advice and assistance to the individual, and communicating with the worker on a personal as well as an official level (Luthans, 1992, pp. 121-122). Some information show that, satisfaction with supervisor will influence job satisfaction positively and finally decrease the labor turnover. If the supervisor provide more concern and social support to the employees, they will be more satisfy and the turnover will be decrease. 2.3.1.1.4 The promotion opportunities Price (2001) stated that promotion opportunities are the potential degree of movement to a higher level status within an organization. The promotion opportunities are also the important category to define the employees are satisfy or dissatisfy, because promotion opportunities are usually associated with increase the salary. However, the result show that hotel sector are lack of promotion opportunities rather than not having enough fair promotion policy (Iverson and Derry. 1997). Due to the hotel industry are lack of promotion opportunities, it will reduce the chance to retain the talented employees in the organization. When employees suffering from unfair treatment, they will change their job attitude immediately and may quit in long run (Vigoda, 2000). 2.3.1.2 The Organization Commitment According to Pennstate (2006), organizational commitment is the relative strength of an employees attachment or involvement with the organization where he or she is employed. Organizational commitment is important because committed employees are less likely to leave for another job and are more likely to perform at higher levels. There are three dimensions of organizational commitment, which are affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. Turnover literature has consistently found a strong relationship between turnover and organizational commitment, indicating that employees with low commitment are likely to withdraw from the organization. Alternatively, a positive relationship has been found between organizational commitment and career progress or internal promotions indicating that promoted employees are more likely to exhibit higher organizational commitment. 2.3.1.3 Work Performance Employees work performance is another factor affecting labor turnover. According to a study conducted by Jewell and Siegal (2003), it was found that the employees having high performance were not willing to leave their jobs. At this point of view, if the employees having low performance leave their jobs for any reasons, labor turnover is not an important matter for the company. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job performance. Low wages, exclusion from prizes, unsuitable jobs are also among the reasons causing low performance and high employee turnover. 2.3.1.4 Personal Reason Some employees also leave their jobs because of personal reasons. A principal reason that employees leave their jobs is lack of incentives (Pizam and Ellis, 1999). Employees may simply want recognition or an opportunity in advance. For example, The Ritz Carlton Company has reduced employee turnover by focusing on quality recruitment, providing better training and orientation, establishing realistic career opportunities and creating long-term incentive and reward systems. 2.3.2 Demographic Factor Most voluntary turnover models include demographic variables such as age, gender, race, tenure, marital status, number of dependents, and educational experience. However, this paper only focuses on the level of education, gender, marital status and age. 2.3.2.1 Level of Education One of the major challenges of the hospitality industry is the retention of highly educated employees. We define highly educated staff as employees who have followed a higher education program at a bachelors or masters level successfully ( Deery and Shaw, 1999). Carbery et al. (2003) noted that those more highly educated managers or non-managers are more likely to intent to make a turnover decision. One research study by (Blomme et. al., 2010), it shows that among alumni of the Hotel School The Hague who are working worldwide has shown that within 6 years after graduation about 70% of all graduates from the hotel school The Hague leave the organization in which they are working. The more highly educated staff will be less easily satisfied with their jobs than those staff with lower education level because the highly educated staff have higher expectations in job status and salary and they may not be willing to join or stay in the hotel industry. In addition, the external labor market s will provide many opportunities for those highly educated people to satisfy their high expectation on financial benefit. (Wong, Siu Tseng, 1999) 2.3.2.2 Gender Some study noted that, the female and male have their particular behavior that would influence the labor turnover. According to a study conducted by(Doherty and Manfredi,2001:62), it was found that women workers leave their jobs more than men workers, because the roles of women have to taking care of children, having baby in a society and doing house work. In addition, Hersch and Stratton (1997) stated that women, especially married women, spend more time engaged in household activities and are substantially more prepared to quit their job for a family-related reason than men . Some women workers also do not want to return to their jobs after having baby. On the other hand, the study conducted by Tang and Talpade (1999), it stated that males tended to have higher satisfaction with pay than females, whereas females tended to have higher satisfaction with co-workers than males. Its means that women tend to rate social needs as more important than men such as working with people and being helpful to other. Men tend to consider pay more important than do women. Women often begin their careers with much lower expectations than men do and they are willing to take career risks and change employers to do so. Finally, women workers usually work at the entry level jobs in hotel and accordingly get less pay than their men co-workers. According to a study conducted by Iverson (2000) in the USA, it was found that women managers in hotel got very less wages than men managers whether in the beginning or top of their careers. In a similar study, it was found that men workers got more wages than women workers got (Burgess, 2000). It was also found that in order to balance the wage differences among men and women workers, basic and routine job were given to women workers than men workers. 2.3.2.3 Marital Status According to Pizam and Ellis (1999), it stated that marital status could influence labor turnover. Those married employees are most concerned with the balance between their work and family life. Hom and Griffeth (1995),stated that married employees will not want to have a voluntary turnover. Because they have many concerns about the financial needs for their family. If they cannot afford the long and unstable working hours, they will tend to give up the job. However, this issue mostly occurs on women. Therefore, they will have more time for family life and take care of their child. On the other side, the unmarried employees will consider factors related to their jobs such as promotion opportunities and organization commitment more than those married employees (Wong, Siu Tsang, 1999). Therefore, they are less satisfied with their job than married employees. 2.3.2.4 Age In recent study, Hartman and Yrle (1996) points out that the Generation Y employee mostly creates the labor turnover in hospitality industry. In addition, the study conducted by Iverson and Deery (1997), it stated that younger employees have a higher propensity to leave than older employees. The problem was arisen in this decade; as the employees born in the baby boomer are retire gradually. The baby boomer is anyone born between 1946 and 1964. They have been through periods of war; therefore have less opportunity in education institutions. They tend to demand more stability in their workplace, and they are very loyalty to their employees. On the other hand, the Generation Y employee who was born between the years 1979 and 1994, they can adapt the changes easily and seek a higher standard of life therefore, they consider more about their interest in the work. Furthermore, they usually change their job, as they want to gain more experience and make their life more diversity. 2.3.3External Factors The external factors are the factors that we cannot control and very difficult to predict. Some of these factors include political shifts, legislation, new or modified regulations, global economic conditions, technology changes and major mining disasters. In some study, the hotel industry is quite easily influenced by the global economic conditions. The economic situation could predict most of the labor turnover within the industry. Therefore, the unemployment rate affects the employees perception on job satisfaction. If the economic is down turn, the employees who perceive a high level of job dissatisfaction, they may still stay in organization because they dont want to lose their current job and also the job market is a lack of opportunities for them to get a better job. On the other hand, if the economic condition have improve, the employees will leave the organization immediately to find a better job. Therefore, it may create the high level of labor turnover when the economic have improved. In the later part of the literature will focus on how to manage the labor turnover in order to minimize the labor turnover within the hotel industry. 2.4 The cost of labor turnover In the previous section, some of the critical factors that affect the labor turnover are discussed. The following section will focus on the cost of labor turnover and its impact. Labor turnover is a significant cost to hotel and it may be the most significant factor affecting hotel profitability, service quality and skills training. (Davidson et. al., 2009). The cause of labor turnover is multidimensional, such as low morale, low productivity, low standard of performance and absenteeism. According to the statistics from TTF Australia(2006), the annual cost of replacing managerial employees was $109,909 per hotel and the annual cost of replacing operational employees was $9,591 per employee. The total annual cost of turnover ($49M) equates to 19.5% of 64 surveyed hotels total payroll costs ($250M). Another study stated that the Marriott Corporation alone estimated that each 1% increase in its employee turnover rate, costs the company between $5 and $15 million in lost revenues (Schlesinger and Heskett, 1991).Therefore, the cost of labor turnover is very high. Labour turnover is not only a significant tangible dollar cost but also an intangible or ‘hidden cost associated with loss of skills, inefficiency and replacement costs (Lashley Chaplain, 1999). The direct impact of labor turnover will cause financial suffering such as administrative cost and Lashley (1999) refers to lost investment in training and lost staff expertise as particular examples of turnover costs and opportunity costs. For the indirect impacts caused by high labor turnover are lack of manpower, poor quality of service and low morale of employees and also if turnover increases, service quality may decline as it takes time and resources to ‘back fill departing employees, especially at busy hotels (Lynn, 2002). Labour is a significant cost and the leakage of human capital through unnecessary turnover is an element of critical importance to bottom line performance. A number of HRM practices have been suggested as potential solutions for turnover, such as investment in training, offering organisational support, adopting innovative recruitment and selection processes, offering better career opportunities (Cheng Brown, 1998; Forrier Sels, 2003; Hinkin Tracey, 2000; Walsh Taylor, 2007; Walters Raybould, 2007) and adopting measures to increase job satisfaction and commitment. 2.5 How to manage the labor turnover in the hotel industry? High staff turnover is the common problem in hotel industry, it is also a major factor affecting workplace efficiency, productivity, and hotel cost structure. Labor turnover represents a challenge for contemporary HRM strategies and practices. Therefore, in this section, it will turn to focus on how to manage the labor turnover from the human resources perspective. In the previous section, the cost of labor turnover in the hotel is discussed. The total annual cost of turnover ($49M) equates to 19.5% of 64 surveyed hotels total payroll costs ($250M). The turnover cost are very high, thus the awareness of the importance of employees staying with an organization is evident. Hinkin and Tracey (2000) advocate that hospitality executives who understand the value of human capital and adopt organizational policies and management practices in pursuit of employee retention will outperform the competition. Effectively designed and well implemented employee retention programs that increase employee tenure more than pay for themselves through reduced turnover costs and increased productivity (Hinkin and Tracey, 2000). According to 2500 supervisors, managers and executives within this sector, the top five most important aspects a company can provide to retain their people are as follows: communication, Leadership, Career path, development and understanding aspirations and helping the individual towards achieving them.(Baum ,2006) This shows that, the employee are highly concern for this five elements to determine their job satisfaction. Therefore, when HRM design for a retention scheme, they can consider those five elements before their decision. 2.5.1Training In organizations where employees receive the proper training needed to assume greater responsibilities, turnover rates are generally lower. Several studies show that training activities are correlated with productivity and retention (Delery and Doty, 1996; Huselid, 1995; Kallenberg and Moody, 1994; MacDuffie, 1995; Shaw et al., 1998; Terpstra and Rozell, 1993; US Department of Labor, 1993, Walsh and Taylor, 2007; Youndt et al., 1996). Staff is a unique asset in the company. Therefore, many hotel have invest a huge number of money per year for staff development. Because they realize that provide training to their employees would enhance the organization produtivity and improve their job performance. For the long-term purpose, training can solve the problem of high labor turnover in a hotel. Moreover, the hotel industry are now have a general shortage of the middle management staff. Therefore, the training should be around to develop and train new management personnel. For example, in 2004 Shangri-La Hotel Resorts Shangri-La Academy was born, this is a full-time facility that handles internal training for progression up the ranks. In addition, the Intercontinental Hotel Group also launched an in-house training center in order to groom their high potential employees to take on managerial positions within their company. Those measures of the Shangri-La Hotel and the Intercontinental Hotel Group is to do the retention of their employees and confront the trend of shortage of experienced staff and try to minimize the labor turnover. 2.5.2 Motivate the employee Staff motivation is as vital to success as any skill or personal attribute and its also plays a key role in staff retention. Motivation is the process by which a persons efforts are energized, directed, and sustained toward attaining a goal.(Stephen Coulter, 2006:482) . Staff motivation is a key element in retaining staff and help them increase the job satisfaction thus the labor turnover rate may be decrease. It is essential for the management of hotels to develop efficient HRM polices and practices that enable them to motivate competent employees who can contribute to the achievement of

Gas Prices In The Bay Area :: essays research papers

A main source of transportation is the car. People use cars to get around instead of catching public transportation. Even though public transportation like, A.C. Transit and BART, can be very convenient and sometimes cheap. The main problem about having a car is you have to pay for your gas for your own car. Right now gas prices are tremendously high right now in the Bay Area. If gas prices are not lowered back down to $1.05 in the Bay Area, people will start taking BART and AC. Transit, and any other sources of transportation more often.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For a while things were going great until a problem hit Bay Area cities like Oakland, San Francisco, Richmond, and so on. Factories were shutting down like Tosco and Chevron because of difficulties and disasters occurred. At the Chevron refinery in Richmond, something blew up causing many people in the area to get sick, people being injured on the job site, and some people losing their lives while at work. There has got to be ways to stop these problems but it seems like companies are not trying to fix them right away. The same thing happened at the Tosco refinery previously to the Chevron accident. Tosco blew up and polluted the air and got people sick and killed another man.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  People having to suffer from the careless mistakes and the improper procedures taken by the people who run the refineries. Not only are we devastated by what’s happening at the refineries but we, as drivers, are devastated by the prices that we have to pay just for one gallon of gas. One gallon of unleaded fuel that is actually cheap since the gas inflation is, $1.45. Before any of the inflation happened, one gallon of unleaded fuel cost, $1.05. Man, I know people miss that huh.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I was speaking to A BART representative, who is on the BART board, told me that BART has gone up around 20%. To me that’s a lot. A.C. Transit has also gone up around 15%. Gas Prices In The Bay Area :: essays research papers A main source of transportation is the car. People use cars to get around instead of catching public transportation. Even though public transportation like, A.C. Transit and BART, can be very convenient and sometimes cheap. The main problem about having a car is you have to pay for your gas for your own car. Right now gas prices are tremendously high right now in the Bay Area. If gas prices are not lowered back down to $1.05 in the Bay Area, people will start taking BART and AC. Transit, and any other sources of transportation more often.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For a while things were going great until a problem hit Bay Area cities like Oakland, San Francisco, Richmond, and so on. Factories were shutting down like Tosco and Chevron because of difficulties and disasters occurred. At the Chevron refinery in Richmond, something blew up causing many people in the area to get sick, people being injured on the job site, and some people losing their lives while at work. There has got to be ways to stop these problems but it seems like companies are not trying to fix them right away. The same thing happened at the Tosco refinery previously to the Chevron accident. Tosco blew up and polluted the air and got people sick and killed another man.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  People having to suffer from the careless mistakes and the improper procedures taken by the people who run the refineries. Not only are we devastated by what’s happening at the refineries but we, as drivers, are devastated by the prices that we have to pay just for one gallon of gas. One gallon of unleaded fuel that is actually cheap since the gas inflation is, $1.45. Before any of the inflation happened, one gallon of unleaded fuel cost, $1.05. Man, I know people miss that huh.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I was speaking to A BART representative, who is on the BART board, told me that BART has gone up around 20%. To me that’s a lot. A.C. Transit has also gone up around 15%.

The Creek Indians :: American America History

The Creek Indians Location and Background The early English traders gave the Creek native Americans their name because they usually built their villages on or near creeks or rivers. If they were to still have their villages it would include areas of Northern Florida and Eastern Louisiana and Southern Tennessee. The majority of the villages were located along the banks of the Coosa, Tallaposa, Flint, Ocmulgee, and Chattachoochee rivers. The native word for the most powerful band of Creeks was the "Muskogees". The Creek native Americans were the most powerful and widespread tribe of the Southeast culture area. It was also thought that the Creeks were long lost ancestors of the Mound Builders. Villages "The Chief of The Creek village or tribe was called an amirco, but he was not the absolute ruler." His job in the village included making important decisions.Once he made a decision many town criers would go out to announce the it to other tribes within the Creek. The Creeks were agricultural, but war like. The number of Creeks at one time was 30,000. The villages were separated into two red and white. Red towns had warriors who launched raids far and wide for purposes of honor and revenge. Red Creeks usually held war dances often to protect them selves in battle. Within the white towns lived most of the peace makers who kept track of alliances and gave sanctuary to refugees or poor people. White Creeks held ceremonies such as the signing of treaties or alliances. Each village had a town square at its center with seats where spectators could sit.The town square was used for ceremonies and games. Each village had a circular town house with clay walls and a cone shaped bark roof about 25 feet high. This was a ceremonial lodge and was also used for shelter for the homeless. Some town houses were smaller with a slanted bark roof only about 10 feet high. The most common house had a slanted bark roof with the roof about 7 feet high these were used for individual families, it held about, four to five people in it.. Each family had a summer and winter house both were packed with mud. The summer house was often used as a guest house for when visitors came to visit. They also owned their own granary which was half open and they also had a warehouse which was open on all four sides similar to a chickee.

An Analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Essay

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born in London in 1797 to radical philosopher, William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Wollstonecraft died 11 days after giving birth, and young Mary was educated in the intellectual circles of her father’s contemporaries. In 1814, at the age of seventeen, Mary met and fell in love with poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley. She ran away with him to France and they were married in 1816 after Shelley’s wife committed suicide. Percy Shelley was a prominent poet of the Romantic Movement along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Shelley’s friend, Lord Byron. As his wife and companion, Mary Shelley was exposed to the same influences as her husband, and this Romanticism influenced her work. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein after Byron introduced a challenge to discern whom among the three writers — Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Byron himself — could write the best ghost story. The tumultuous French Revolution, which began before her birth, but had far-reaching echoes in society and literature, as well as the Industrial Revolution of England in the 18th Century, were influences on Mary Shelley’s life and work. The mass production and dehumanization of the Industrial Revolution posed a threat to the Romantic ideals of the importance of the individual, the beauty of nature, and the emotional and free spirit. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, can be seen as a protest against this scientific revolution. Scientific progress was a large part of this century of discovery. Darwin, a leading scientific figure with his theories of evolution, was a personal friend of Shelley’s husband, so science was not an ignored topic in her life. Advances in medicine and the need for cadavers also figured into the time in which Mary Shelley lived. At this time in London grave robbing was a common occurrence because men dubbed â€Å"the resurrection men† would sell the stolen bodies to teaching hospitals so that medical students could dissect and study them. This knowledge makes the idea of Victor Frankenstein  scavenging graveyards for parts seem less shocking. Frankenstein addresses common Romantic themes of isolation and the beauty of nature, but it also deals with loss, which Mary Shelley knew a great deal about. Growing up motherless, Mary also lost her sister to suicide, as well as losing three of her own children to miscarriage and early childhood deaths. In 1822 her husband drowned in the Gulf of Spezzia, and she was left, twenty-five years old, with only one remaining son. She remained unmarried and died in London in 1851. Although she wrote several other books, including Valperga (1823), The Last Man (1826), Lodore (1835), and Falkner (1837), Frankenstein is her most well known work. â€Å"The critics greeted Mary Shelley’s novel with a combination of praise and disdain† (Moss and Wilson). The unorthodox studies of Frankenstein were shocking to critics, but â€Å"despite the critical attacks, Frankenstein caused a literary sensation in London. The novel fit smoothly into the popular gothic genre† (Moss and Wilson). But more than just a popular culture novel, Frankenstein has lasted over time. â€Å"The novel became one of the triumphs of the Romantic movement due to its themes of alienation and isolation and its warning about the destructive power that can result when human creativity is unfettered by moral and social concerns† (Moss and Wilson) Mary Wolstonecraft Shelley PLOT Frankenstein, set in Europe in the 1790’s, begins with the letters of Captain Robert Walton to his sister. These letters form the framework for the story in which Walton tells his sister the story of Victor Frankenstein and his monster as Frankenstein told it to him. Walton set out to explore the North Pole. The ship got trapped in frozen water and the crew, watching around them, saw a giant man in the distance on a dogsled. Hours later they found Frankenstein and his dogsled near the  ship, so they brought the sick man aboard. As he recovered, Frankenstein told Walton his story so that Walton would learn the price of pursuing glory at any cost. Frankenstein grew up in a perfectly loving and gentle Swiss family with an especially close tie to his adopted cousin, Elizabeth, and his dear friend Henry Clerval. As a young boy, Frankenstein became obsessed with studying outdated theories about what gives humans their life spark. In college at Ingolstadt, he created his own â€Å"perfect† human from scavenged body parts, but once it lived, the creature was hideous. Frankenstein was disgusted by its ugliness, so he ran away from it. Henry Clerval came to Ingolstadt to study with Frankenstein, but ended up nursing him after his exhausting and secret efforts to create a perfect human life. While Frankenstein recovered from his illness over many months and then studied languages with Clerval at the college, the monster wandered around looking for friendship. After several harsh encounters with humans, the monster became afraid of them and spent a long time living near a cottage and observing the family who lived there. Through these observations he became educated and realized that he was very different from the humans he watched. Out of loneliness, the monster sought the friendship of this family, but they were afraid of him, and this rejection made him seek vengeance against his creator. He went to Geneva and met a little boy in the woods. The monster hoped to kidnap him and keep him as a companion, but the boy was Frankenstein’s younger brother, so the monster killed him to get back at his creator. Then the monster planted the necklace he removed from the child’s body on a beautiful girl who was later executed for the crime. When Frankenstein learned of his brother’s death, he went back to Geneva to be with his family. In the woods where his young brother was murdered, Frankenstein saw the monster and knew that he was William’s murderer. Frankenstein was ravaged by his grief and guilt for creating the monster who wreaked so much destruction, and he went into the mountains alone to find peace. Instead of peace, Frankenstein was approached by the monster who then demanded that he create a female monster to be the monster’s companion.  Frankenstein, fearing for his family, agreed to and went to England to do his work. Clerval accompanied Frankenstein, but they separated in Scotland and Frankenstein began his work. When he was almost finished, he changed his mind because he didn’t want to be responsible for the carnage another monster could create, so he destroyed the project. The monster vowed revenge on Frankenstein’s upcoming wedding night. Before Frankenstein could re turn home, the monster murdered Clerval. Once home, Frankenstein married his cousin Elizabeth right away and prepared for his death, but the monster killed Elizabeth instead and the grief of her death killed Frankenstein’s father. After that, Frankenstein vowed to pursue the monster and destroy him. That’s how Frankenstein ended up near the North Pole where Walton’s ship was trapped. A few days after Frankenstein finished his story, Walton and his crew decided to turn back and go home. Before they left, Frankenstein died and the monster appeared in his room. Walton heard the monster’s explanation for his vengeance as well as his remorse before he left the ship and traveled toward the Pole to destroy himself so that none would ever know of his existence. CHARACTERS Major Characters Robert Walton: Indirect narrator of the story, he tells Victor Frankenstein’s story through letters to his sister, Margaret Saville. Walton is a self-educated man who set out to reach and explore the North Pole and find an Arctic passage to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. While his ship is locked in ice, his crew sees Frankenstein’s monster pass by on a dog sled and Frankenstein himself, exhausted and weakened, not far behind. They take Frankenstein aboard and Walton nurses him and talks with him because he has been longing for a friend. In seeing Walton’s raw ambition to explore the North Pole at all costs, Frankenstein is prompted to tell the story of his destruction that a similar ambition brought upon him. After Frankenstein’s death and just before the ship heads back to England, Walton is also the last to see the monster before he goes north to kill himself. Victor Frankenstein: Frankenstein is the eldest son of a wealthy, Genevese man, Alphonse, and his young wife, Caroline. Victor grows up in the perfect family with a happy childhood and a constant and devoted companion in his adopted cousin, Elizabeth. He is sensitive, intelligent, and passionate about his interests and becomes absorbed in the quest to find out what creates life. While away at college in Ingolstadt, Victor creates a being from scavenged corpse parts and gives it life, but is repulsed by its hideousness once it lives. The monster, in retaliation for Victor’s negligence, destroys his life by killing off those Victor loves. Victor chases him to the far reaches of the Arctic planning to destroy him and then die to escape his misery and remorse at his creation, but he dies aboard Walton’s ship before he can catch the monster. The Monster: Created by Victor Frankenstein in Ingolstadt, the monster is a conglomeration of human parts with inhuman strength. He is so hideous that Victor, his own creator, cannot stand to look upon him. He is loving and gentle at the beginning of his life, childlike in his curiosity and experiences, but after several harsh encounters with humans, he becomes bitter. He seeks revenge on his creator for making him so hideous and rendering him permanently lonely because of his ugliness. He offers Frankenstein peace in exchange for a companion of like origin, but when Frankenstein does not comply, he vows to destroy him and begins killing off Frankenstein’s friends and family — those figures he most envies because he does not have them. After finding Frankenstein dead aboard Walton’s ship, the monster goes further north with plans to destroy himself and end the suffering that Frankenstein began when he created him. Elizabeth Lavenza: Adopted cousin of Victor Frankenstein. Elizabeth was a beautiful orphan being raised by an Italian peasant family when Caroline Beaufort Frankenstein adopted her. She became Victor’s constant companion and he watched over her as if she were his own possession from their meeting when he was 5 years old. Her beauty and kindness made her adored almost reverently by all who knew her, and it was taken for granted that she and Victor would marry. She is the gentling influence and the comforter for the  males of the Frankenstein family when Caroline dies, and her beauty and goodness are constant throughout her life. She and Victor are married, but on their wedding night, the monster strangles Elizabeth to punish Victor for not creating for him a companion creature. Henry Clerval: Life-long friend of Victor Frankenstein, Henry was poetic, sensitive and caring, and their friendship was a strong one. When Victor was in Ingolstadt so long without sending word to his family, Henry relocated there to study and to look after Victor. Henry nursed him through a long period of illness before Victor returned to Geneva. Later they traveled together to England and Scotland, but while they were there, the monster strangled Henry to punish Victor. Victor was accused of the murder, but was acquitted. Justine Moritz: Servant in the Frankenstein household, Justine was another beautiful, gentle, and kind addition to the Frankenstein family whom Caroline took in to care for and educate. When Caroline got scarlet fever, Justine nursed her, and after Caroline died, Justine returned to her own mother. Her mother too became ill and died, so Justine returned to the Frankenstein home to help raise the two sons Caroline had left when she died. Justine was a grateful and faithful part of their household, but she was accused of 5-year-old William Frankenstein’s murder when a locket he had been wearing was found in her dress. Although she had been framed by the monster and was innocent, she was executed and Victor considered her death his fault because he created the monster who framed her. Alphonse Frankenstein: Victor Frankenstein’s father, Alphonse was a wealthy and benevolent man who loved his wife and his children very dearly. He rescued Caroline Beaufort, daughter of his close friend, from poverty after her father’s death. He was a doting husband and father bent by the grief of loss after loss until he dies from accumulated sorrow and shock. Caroline Beaufort Frankenstein: Wife of Alphonse and mother of Victor, Ernest, and William, Caroline Beaufort Frankenstein was the daughter of a once-wealthy friend of Alphonse. Planning to aid his friend, Alphonse found  his home and went there only to find Caroline weeping over his coffin. Alphonse took her into his home and married her two years later. They had a loving relationship and cared for their children very much. She was a good, beautiful, and gentle woman adored by all her family until she died from the scarlet fever she contracted nursing Elizabeth back to health. Minor Characters Mrs. Margaret Saville: Sister of Robert Walton, ship captain, Mrs. Saville is significant only because she is the recipient of the letters describing Frankenstein’s story. Walton writes to her of the progress of his journey and his acquaintance with Frankenstein. Beaufort: Friend of Alphonse Frankenstein and Caroline’s father, Beaufort lost his wealth and relocated to escape the humiliation of his poverty. Caroline nursed him as his health declined and was weeping over his coffin when Alphonse found her and took her back to Geneva. M. Waldman: Chemistry professor at Ingolstadt. His lectures revive Victor’s interest in discovering the spark of life and creation. Ernest Frankenstein: Victor’s brother. Ernest is 7 years younger than Victor and is only mentioned a few times, the longest reference in a letter to Victor from Elizabeth. She mentions that Ernest wants to join the Swiss military. William Frankenstein: Victor’s youngest brother, William is sweet, happy, greatly adored by his family. William is strangled in the woods while the family was out for a walk. His is the first of the monster’s victims, and Justine is framed for the murder. De Lacey Family: Felix, Agatha, and their blind father. This is the family of cottagers near where the monster lives. They are French exiles living in Germany because Felix helped an unjustly imprisoned Turk escape. He watches them and over time learns to speak and read from observing them. The monster  becomes attached to them and chops wood for them as well as other small services without revealing himself to them. He craves their acceptance and affection and educates himself further to win them over. When he seeks their affection, however, they are afraid of him and their scorn sends him away. This rejection sends him on a quest to find Victor, his creator, and seek vengeance. Muhammadan: Turk Felix aided and for whom the De Lacey family was exiled to Germany. Muhammadan was unjustly condemned for reasons of religion and wealth, and Felix helped him escape, falling in love with Muhammadan’s daughter, Safie, along the way. Muhammadan promises to allow them to marry, but plans secretly to take Safie back to Turkey with him. Safie: Daughter of Muhammadan and Arabian Christian woman. Safie falls in love with Felix and doesn’t want to return to the oppressive country of her birth. When her father leaves for Turkey with the expectation that she will follow soon after with all of his possessions, she seeks out Felix and lives with him and his family in Germany. M. Kirwin: Irish magistrate who cares for Victor when he falls ill after being accused of Henry’s murder. Kirwin is sympathetic and believes Victor is innocent, so he has a doctor care for Victor while he is imprisoned and also sends for Alphonse. SETTINGS Geneva: Geneva, Switzerland. Home of the Frankenstein family where Victor grew up and to which he returned after college and the creation of the monster. The murders of William and Justine were located in the area around Geneva. Ingolstadt: Ingolstadt, Germany. Victor went to college in Ingolstadt and created the monster in his laboratory there. This was the city of the monster’s awakening. Mont Blanc: A mountain near Geneva. This mountain is referred to again and again in descriptions of scenery throughout the novel. It carries weight as a mark of Romanticism because it is the subject of a famous poem by William Wordsworth, one of Mary Shelley’s contemporaries. Orkney Islands: Orkney Islands, Scotland. Victor stays in a hut on one of the sparsely populated Orkney Islands to create a second creature to be a companion to the monster. North Pole: Destination of Robert Walton and his ship as well as the monster and Victor. Walton is bound for the North Pole to explore in the hopes of uncovering secrets of the earth and gaining glory for his discovery. Victor is following the monster to the North Pole to destroy him or die trying, and they meet while Walton’s ship is trapped in ice. Walton and Victor never make it to the North Pole because Walton’s men want to turn back for England and Victor dies. The monster, however, is last seen on his way to the furthest point north to destroy himself so that none will know of his hideous existence. Chamounix: Frankenstein traveled to Chamounix to escape his guilt and depression, but while he was in Chamounix, the monster approached him about creating a female monster companion for him. The monster lived in an ice cave not far from Chamounix. INTRODUCTION Mary Shelley was born in 1779 in London, England. At the age of sixteen, she met the famous British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, whom she later married. The idea of a man who creates life-in the form of a horrible and grotesque monster-came to Mary in a vivid, waking dream. With her husband’s encouragement, she used this idea as the basis for FRANKENSTEIN. It was written when she was only nineteen years old. After Percy’s death, May Shelley continued to write but produced nothing to equal the success of this classic tale of horror. THE HISTORY OF FRANKENSTEIN 1816: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, daughter of one of the world’s first prominent feminists, writes the novel â€Å"Frankenstein† based n a â€Å"waking dream.† 1823: Richard Brinsley Peake’s â€Å"Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein,† the first stage adaptation of the novel, is performed in London. 1887: â€Å"The Vampire’s Victim,† a musical comedy featuring Fred Leslie as the creature, is presented as a Christmas show and includes dancing bears, two vampires and a female Dr. Frankenstein. 1910: The first movie version of â€Å"Frankenstein,† a 16-minute dramatization, is produced by Thomas Edison’s film company. It stars Charles Ogle as the monster. 1928: Hamilton Deane produces an adaptation of â€Å"Frankenstein,† which tours British provinces. Dean himself plays the creature. 1930: â€Å"Frankenstein† makes its West End premiere in London. 1931: 1957: A script written for a Broadway production is sued as the basis for the screenplay of the Universal Pictures film featuring Boris Karloff. Karloff’s performance steals the film.Hammer films produces â€Å"The Curse of Frankenstein,† the first Frankenstein film in color. Unlike earlier versions, it portrayed Victor Frankenstein as the outright villain of the story. 1972: An illustrated version of the story published by Marvel Comics is the first to be told from the monster’s point of view. The creature is portrayed as victim, not victimizer. 1973: A two-part television movie is produced and released as â€Å"Frankenstein, the True Story† in America and â€Å"Dr. Frankenstein† in the United Kingdom. In this story, Victor Frankenstein attempts to save a dying friend by replacing his brain in the reanimated body of a recently dead man. 1974: â€Å"Young Frankenstein,† written by and starring Gene Wilder, spoofs the Universal films of the 1930s with song and dance numbers. It’s the only â€Å"Frankenstein† film with a happy ending. 1978: Berni Wrightson publishes a lavishly illustrated adaptation of â€Å"Frankenstein† that visually portrays the creature as originally described by Shelly. 1981: Elaborate effects cannot compensate for a bad script when an ill-conceived stage version of â€Å"Frankenstein† is mounted on Broadway. It starred John Carradine and closed after only one performance. 1994: The feminist undertones of the original novel are developed in â€Å"Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein,† a film starring Tom Hulce and Helena Bonham Carter.