How Significant Was the Presence of Foreign Powers as an Influence on the Nature and Growth of Arab Nationalism in the Years 1900-2001

How significant was the presence of foreign powers as an influence on the nature and growth of Arab nationalism in the years 1900-2001? During the years 1900-2001 a number of significant interventions occurred which affected the growth and nature of Arab nationalism. Several key pressures considerably influenced a change in the nature of nationalism; including, economic levers, agreements and military presenses in the Middle East. Arab nationalism arose out of the fear of the possibility and later the certainty of European or American dominance. The emerging ideology believed all Arabs to be united by both a shared language and history.Foreign intervention in the Middle East long predated the First World War, dating back to during the 19th century. However, the time in which it had most effect on Arab nationalism in the area stretched from 1914 onwards. During this period many Arabs were resentful of being dominated by outside powers. Therefore, the link between foreign intervention between 1900 and 2001 and the consequent changes to Arab nationalism were very strong. In the years before 1900, nationalism had always been an underlying movement in the Middle East. Martin Kramer demonstrates this view of Arab nationalism; ‘Awake, O Arabs, and arise’.By selecting this phrase from an Arab poem Kramer shows that the Arab desire for an uprising is trying to be stirred. However, he goes on to voice the opinion of, ‘†¦ many Arabs have suspended their belief in the Arab nation, and now openly doubt whether there is a collective Arab mission’. This has led to a triumph of the nation states, whereby Arabs prefer to be seen as Syrian, Egyptian etc. This was the result of the retreat of Arab nationalism. In the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire tried to combat the growth of European power and influence.Borrowing money to develop their infrastructure, and modernise industry. However, modernisation saw them fall even more under the control of the Europeans, who provided loans for the process. Academics like Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Qasim Amin encouraged the reinterpretation of Islamic principles in response to the modern world as a way to break free from the foreign power’s colonialism, especially Europe’s. Nationalist movements, like the Young Turks of Anatolia, also arose. Secular nationalism was especially strong among non-Muslim communities, which could not fully articipate in Islamic nationalist movements. Arab nationalism within individual states was beginning to challenge the authority of the Ottoman Empire. Greece won independence from the Ottomans in 1832, and other Balkan nations began to follow suit. The British decided to enter the region following a public speech by Asquith, he declared, â€Å"It is the Ottoman government, and not we, who have rung the death knell of Ottoman dominion not only in Europe but in Asia†. The following month an ‘attack’ was launched against the Ot tomans. This was the beginning of British intervention in the Middle East.After WW1 Europe still regarded the Arabs as a ‘subject’ race that were ruled by the British. It was also felt that the Arabs should be grateful that they’d been liberated from the Ottoman rule. The sole key figure to believe that Arab self-determination was underestimated was Woodrow Wilson of America. When Britain was to move into Egypt and discover the wealth of the cotton industry, however, the Egyptian Arabs were still in famine, poverty and were denied the right to take any part in Egyptian legislature. As a result nationalism fermented even further.Agreements including the Hussein-McMahon correspondence, Sykes-Picot and the San Remo resolution provoked and increased Arab distrust of the Europeans. This view is supported by William L. Cleveland in his book detailing the Middle East . He believed the Hussein-McMahon correspondence showed Hussein as initially having limited or no Arab n ationalist qualities. â€Å"He was not an Arab nationalist and did not think in terms of the ideology of Arabism. He was instead an ambitious dynast who used his Islamic status as Sharif†¦ † Hussein wanted to claim his family’s kingdom and gain sole power.This was also true of the Arab fighters in the 1916 Arab revolt aided by the British; they wanted gold and weapons much more than Arab independence. Cleveland highlights these points and the fact that the promises made in the correspondence prompted contentment on both sides, as the British wanted to see the fall of the Ottomans and Hussein wanted leadership. However, â€Å"McMahon’s language was so ambiguous and so vague.. [that it has] given rise to conflicting interpretations over whether Palestine was included as part of the future independent Arab state†.It is for this reason that the Arabs began to distrust Britain. The correspondence was between the British high commissioner, Sir Henry McMaho n and descendant of the prophet and Arab leader, Sharif Hussein. For the British it was a useful agreement as they already saw the Ottomans as a threat. However in the long term it caused unrest in the Middle East and widespread distrust of Britain. The agreement is useful in showing the unclear language used by the British to avoid either having to give land to the Arabs or create an argument. Deborah J.Gerner agrees with Cleveland in that secret agreements , caused Britain especially to be viewed negatively by the Arabs; â€Å"It is clear from this agreement [Sykes-Picot] that Britain had no intention of fulfilling its commitment to support Arab independence in the Levant at the end of the war, whatever might have been promised in the Hussein-McMahon correspondence. † This was the view many Arab nationalists would have taken. This secondary source offers a late 20th century vantage point of the deal which gives it an extra degree of credibility. From 1900 to 2001, the Unite d States has had global interests in the Middle East, the U. S. as made itself a key foreign power by using its strong diplomatic, economic, and military power in support of its national interests. This was demonstrated in 1919 where under President Woodrow Wilson the League of Nations was formed; it was quick to hand out a series of mandates laying out the colonial boundaries of the Middle East according to the U. S. These boundaries were not ideal for the Middle Eastern inhabitants however, the U. S. managed to maintain a positive reputation throughout World War One. I believe this to be a result of the British-French mistrust created as a result of previous agreements that were not stuck to.Therefore the US seemed more trustworthy and was viewed as a valuable ally. In the years between the wars Arab nationalist opposition towards foreign intervention continued to grow. By 1952, Gamal Abdal Nasser had led a coup against the Egyptian king and was named president of Egypt. He ended official British influence and became a truly symbolic leader for all Arabs. He tried to unite Egypt and Syria into a single United Arab Republic, but this attempt lasted for only a few years. It was clear Nasser saw foreign powers such as Britain as intervening trouble makers this is demonstrated by his clear dis-like of the Baghdad pact of 1955. Nasser saw the Baghdad Pact†¦ as an instrument of Western intervention and he feared that Jordan, Lebanon and Syria might also be convinced to join’ . In order to conquer this threat from the west Nasser utilised the power of radio to broadcast to millions of Arabs all over the world. This was perhaps the start of a worldwide effort for Arabs to unite, therefore, Egypt’s opposition to the western intervention in the Middle East was a main contributor to the growth of Arab Nationalism in the 1950s.Nasser’s personal international prestige grew immensely and by the end of 1955 he was seen as the leader of the Arab wo rld. This was important as the Arabs now had a firm identity and leader to follow, incomparable to the ‘Are we Arabs one big lie? ’ question voiced in Kramer’s book. Between 1955 and 1958 key events occurred which furthered the growth of Arab nationalism. Firstly, the Czech arms deal of September 1955; Nasser had agreed to buy arms from the Czech government, including Soviet aircraft and tanks.Once again Nasser was showing his independent power and this created a worry for the West, however, the worry was not without cause as on hearing the military news Arabs all over the world began to rejoice in their Arab-ness and the conquering of the foreign powers. Similar joy followed in 1956 with the Suez crisis, Britain and France were severely humiliated at having failed to regain control of the Suez Canal. Even though the canal had been withdrawn from as a result of the U. S. withdrawing their support, the Arab world saw this as a victory against Western powers.As a r esult of long years of Western dominance, a small victory such maintaining the Suez Canal led to widespread Arab nationalism. In the 1940s the U. S. began to involve itself more thoroughly in Middle Eastern politics. This was in order to protect its national interests, the most important being the fight against communism, namely the Soviets during the Cold War. Guaranteeing a secure supply of oil, and ensuring that no single power dominated the region were big priorities for the U. S. More recently, fighting terrorism was made a priority especially after 9/11 in 2001. The U.S. has supported leaders and governments it considered to be stable allies, like the Saudi royal family, Israel, and Egyptian governments, since Anwar Sadat was elected in 1970. A good example of the U. S. hindering the growth of Arab Nationalism whilst protecting self interests was in 1953 when anxious about growing Soviet influence in Iran during the Cold War, the U. S. toppled the regime of Iran's elected prim e minister Mossadeq, who intended to nationalise the Iranian oil industry. The U. S. backed a coup against Mossadeq and forced the election of the young Reza, Shah of Iran.America had demonstrated its control over the region and whilst this could have created anger and a sense of nationalism, it was not to fully rise until 1979. The new prime minister enforced many western policies throughout his reign and was head of a very oppressive government. 1979 led to an Islamic revolution against the Shah's regime and put a new kind of Islamic state into power governed by Islamic jurists and scholars. The popular hatred of the Shah also created hatred of his American supporters, and the revolution's anti-American passion led to the raid of the U. S.Embassy in Tehran, where 53 hostages were held for more than a year. This is a prime example of how a foreign power created a violent change in the nature of Arab Nationalism, an earlier example of this can also be shown from the Palestinian refu gee problem up until 1949, this was the result of an energetic Zionist effort that began before the turn of the century. Such historians as Ben Gurion supported this†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Israel was intended to be a national home for Jews, both spiritually, historically and physically. Nearly 75,000 Jews fleeing persecution from Nazi Germany, found refuge there.But its creation came at a heavy price. In addition to the many Jews who died struggling to create the new state, many Arabs were killed and hundreds of thousands of Arabs were either displaced by Jewish settlers or became unwilling citizens of Israel and voluntarily left the region. The U. S. under President Truman were firmly in support of the new Jewish homeland and this was confirmed when American airplanes were seen as essential to the Israeli victory in the 1967 Six-Day War that placed Israel against Arab powers.And when the Yom Kippur War in 1973 again threatened the Jewish state, a massive U. S. airlift of war material was cr ucial to Israel's survival in the conflict. Up until this event the U. S. had been seen to be extremely forward in trying to gain peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours, key achievements included the 1978 Camp David meeting that negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel and the 1993 Oslo peace agreements that established a framework for negotiating peace between the Israelis and Palestinians started the process for achieving a Palestinian state peacefully.However some Arab critics claim the superpower had not done all that it can to bring about peace in the region. Especially as much of the U. S. support to Israel was in the form of military equipment and the U. S. economy and jobs were devoted to continually upgrading the Israeli army. Some Palestinians argue that the U. S. was too committed in its support for Israel to make unbiased decisions and was unwilling to pressure the Israelis to negotiate peace, interested only in fuelling the rivals.

Boost Juice Essay

Background Boost Juice Bars (Boost, 2014) is an Australian food and beverage brand, which was formed in 2000 with the first store located in the capital city in the South part of Australia- Adelaide. This food and beverage business has been done well since the business has been expanded globally in Asia, Europe, and Russia and even in Middle East. Unfortunately, Boost Juice Bars stopped part of business in New Zealand in 2006 after the franchiser due to liquidation. The stores in New Zealand are sold to Tank Juice. After a year reflection, Boost Juice Bars signed an agreement to re-start the brand in the UK. Nestlà © began a range of fruit smoothies in co-operating with Boost Juice Bars since 2008 as so to expand internationally. From this time onward until July 2009, there have been stores operating in Australia, and some places in Asia. The Franchising contracts have been confirmed in Asia and Europe as part of a global expansion plan. Following by the next  four years, Boost Juice got into a franchise agreement for providing the major supply to the whole India. By the end of 2013, the company had expanded into South America and some places in Asia. Literature Review The marketing strategy (Lusch, 1987) is collected from market research and product mix, in order to maximize the largest profit and maintain the stability of the business. The marketing strategy is basic cornerstone of a marketing plan. The marketing plan (Lusch, 1987) focuses on the idea of innovation by using brand new marketing mix to target the potential customers in the market. Most competitors are vending alike products. Between Competitors have strong competitions. One of the key competences is the innovative idea about new juice. The image of Boost Juice is the design of creating fresh, juvenile and healthy theme, so as to tempt more young people. Competitor may duplicate Boost Juice Bar’s goods and plan; however, the royalty of brand is important. Even if Boost Juice Bar is glad with its present marketing campaign to hold its customers for instance the Vibe club program which the purchaser could obtain a cup of free of charge drink on their birthday. It is intelligent to make sure if customers have less interest in Boost Juice or their awareness regarding to the weak brand image. The life cycle in different stage or timeline is necessary to estimate the correct marketing mix to strengthen some customer’s insight. It is necessary to ensure to stay in customer’s mind. Boost Juice Bar has a youthful and health picture, the market segment set on the young generation. Unfortunately, it is prudent to go back over its market segments. Inspecting the possibility on attraction from people age 18 until 25 is the most significant, as this group of people far more concerned their health and nutrition, in order to have a longer life expectancy. Young people sometimes are fascinated because of Boost cup’s design and even Vibe club Program (Boost Juice, 2014). Yet, fully grown customers tend to consider more on royalty of products whether benefits can be gained. Fresh and nutrition can offer vital benefit for body. Executive Summary The advertising and promotion are fundamental with product differentiation. Modernization is a key strategy that Boost Juice should across into its cup’s design and marketing promotion. Boost utilized a brand new method to connect fresh squeezed juice and nutrition together for the young generation. For the young people, they prefer to try new and special product; boost Juice has done excellence. Luckily until now, Boost has been using the same type of marketing tools more than five years, including publicity, media coverage and interactive website to represent the brand. One of the potential troubles of Boost Juice Bar may be facing is its old marketing message to its target audience or customers. This is the main issue if customers still have strong tackiness to stick the old message to Boost Juice Bar’s brand. Hence, Boost Juice Bar re-think about its goal customers. Boost also re-plans its marketing tools to the objective customers. However now, Boost is necessary to pay more attentions by using a popular marketing method, known as E- Marketing, such as Facebook and Twitters. The social media have been acting a considerable function in many companies, including small and large firms. The marketing mix is now very useful for understanding Boost Juice’s target customer, young generations. Product Range According to the survey I collected in a store at Macquarie Shopping Centre, the products of Boost Juice Bar mainly focus on health and nutrition. The following categories are the product range. 1. Smooth – Low fat smoothies. 2. Juice – squeeze from fresh fruit. 3. Complementary Product – healthy snacks (Fresh yoghurt and muesli bar). 4. Product in supermarket – juice, frozen yoghurt, and ready- to- eat snack (such as Low fat crunchy) Situation Analysis International Environment Analysis The main purpose of Boost doing this analysis is to figure out the flaw and and strength. Boost Juice Bar has established a questionnaire on its website to find out the acumen and insight factors, in order to maximise the profit. Marketing Situation When started the investment of Boost Juice Bar (Boost Juice, 2014), the founder and Managing Director Janine Allis targets an innovative way of offering juice in the Australian market. The new kind of juice bars have to be unlike from the long-established grocery store style juice, as well as the idea of juice bars in the US existed for more than 15 years. Earlier than Boost Juice existed, there were over 2000 juice bars in the US. Janine had an insight to believe that Boost Juice would have the capacity to have more than 500 branches. According to an interview with one of the store managers of Macquarie Shopping, since 2000, Boost Juice Bar was the only one brand that had the most and biggest expansion in Australia. Boost has had around 90 stores in 2004. At the same year they qualified the number 2 leading brand VIV A Juice, which means keeping the fresh and good quality fruits. After the combination in 2000, Boost had total about 124 stores. Nowadays, Boost Juice Bar has further 300 stores worldwide. Boost Juice Bar is successful on its inventive concepts with healthy and good taste. The fruits are squeezed into juice and smoothie for being a particular product. The original and normal styles of red and green colour give customer the thought of the product which is good for health. This is very strong brand recognition. Positive and energetic staffs serve the juice with bright smile; even speak out customer’s name loudly. These can force Boost to be particular with the other competitors. The product and sales are vastly generated to form a young and create active mood to attract younger. Aside from the customer’s royalty program (Boost Juice, 2104), Vibe Club card can keep hold as many as customers Boost can, for instance the members of Vibe club card could get a cup of unpaid drink on their birthdays. Management Situation Before the development of Boost Juice, Janine Allis was a Journalist; the work experience offered precious acquaintance on business practice, in particular management. Moreover, her husband, Jeff Allis worked in a radio station that a platform enables Janine to have better understanding on Boost’s target audiences. The background of Jeff has in radio industry enables them to use marketing tools for promotion (WR,1956). Boost Juice acquired VIV A Juice Bar in 2004, they employed VIVA Juice Bar’s creator Simon McNamarra being CEO, from another juice industry (Boost Juice, 2014). An extra factor could not be uncared is franchise system for expanding its stores. The franchising system allowed Boost to enlarge at a relative small cost whereas franchisees had to invest for installation for each shop. Actually, this helped Boost with the economic stress; meanwhile the joint fee of each shop has to shell out to the head office each year so that Boost has earnings by supply the material and charge shops from administration fees. This is a steady capital from the head office that could pay out on the promotion and advertising. Branding Branding position The theme of Boost Juice Bar was healthy and nutrition food (Boost Juice, 2014), provided to customers. Boost has to deliver this message to people that health is very important now. The mainly focus is not only taste and healthy drink, but also forms an active and fresh image. By various campaign, included off-lines or even online through the entire year, Boost Juice received strong attentiveness in the public such as Poster and advertisement on TV. External Environment Analysis In fact, the old juice industry has been at the maturity stage, since many juice shops had to convent into grocery stores for stay alive. Even though Boost created innovative idea of healthy juice drinks, happened from its first shop in south side of Australia- Adelaide, the smoothies juice bar are about to arrive at the stage of maturity. The external situation analysis concerned the external opportunity and threats that might influence the juice business. The threats included changing in society, demography and culture, change in economy and technology, competitor’s activities, and rule and regulatory. For the time being, the direct competitors of Boost have less action against to its market share. Actually, competitors could duplicate any of Boost’s products, but they are not enough to handle Boost Juice’s branding positioning. The problems may be arisen from the main location in the business areas that the district of Boost Juice’s retail shop could not attain. This provides an opportunity for the small competitors. For the change influence in cultural and society, people are far more anxiety on their health, they care about the amount of nutrition. SWOT Analysis Strengths: 1. Product’s development. 2. Strong spotlight on promotion (advertising campaign) 3. High customer royalty 4. Innovations 5. well-built ability to link with customers Weaknesses: 1. Heavy concentrate on promotional activities lead to high marketing cost 2. Sales decline obviously in winter time 3. Lack of further development in product in recent year Opportunity: 1. Without robust competitors directly 2. Health conscious Threats: 1. Many roundabout competitors started selling smoothies products. 2. Customers may have less interest over the time changed. Marketing Segmentation According to the survey I collected from Macquarie Shopping Centre store, there are some possibilities of target customers of Boost Juice, including regular households market, young, teenager, and healthy diet eaters. Boost need to analyse and develop products to meet the stratification from various customers’s needs and wants. Housewives in regular household market purchase juice for their families weekly or monthly. The juice product is necessary to be healthy, high in vitamin and fresh for the family. For the young people with age approximately between from 18 until 25, some of them prefer good-looking packaging to meet their idea that â€Å"perfect and exciting eat†. Some of them would begin to think of relatively healthy way, which is supportive to their bodies. The cup’s design of Boost is completely fit for those two above types of people. For teenager with age between 15 and 18, they expected the juice drink not just tasty but also fun and attractive. They are likely to buy the prestige other than the actual product. The good taste smoothies drink and nice-looking package of product is the important keys to this group of customers. For healthy diet eaters, they would look  deeply to the ingredients of products. They will look at the quality of product more than the design and appearance of the product. Marketing Objectives The marketing objectives are integrating marketing communication campaign, the marketing objectives of Boost Juice Bars could are target customers with aged between 25 and 35, which has higher ability of income to consume better quality products, as well as engage with new customer and retain the current ones by the social network. Strategies The marketing schedule of Boost consisted promotion and advertising, braining new ideas regularly, and seeking new customers through interactive program to connect with customers. Marketing Mix Marketing Mix is about what to use unlike marketing tools to meet the goal (WR, 1956). Normally, Marketing Mix is the mix of 4Ps (Lee, 2009). 4Ps are about the features of products; Price is how to set up the price strategy; promotion, such as advertising and public relationship; and place such as locations which is very critical in retail business. Product differentiation was very significant (WR, 1956), so innovative needs can be frequently carried out. Those factors were fraction of a general scheme of competitiveness. Being the most accepted smoothies in the market for over 11 years, customers who love trying new things; innovation could hold customers. In order to create a centre of attention of the new age level of customers from 24-35, TV commercial is significant to make awareness to people. The alternative factor is social Network, such as Facebook. None of people deny such social media became the most popular marketing tool for companies to interact with their target audien ces. Boost Juice should post more posts on Facebook and uploading up the â€Å"Today’s specials† on Twitter account. By not only utilizing those as a stage to keep contact with customers, but Boost also update customer’s needs for improvement. Boost’s target market are chiefly young people within 15 and 25, the rate of using social media is extremely high. The cost should be demonstrated effectively by using free media source, such as Facebook’s Page and writing blog. One of  the 4Ps – place, this can also be location. As mention before, Boosts are mostly residing in the high quantity of customers in business areas. These absolutely make attention more on customers; however, the cost of problem is very high. Hence, this do not fulfill as many customer’s wishes as possible. The potential approach in the place is special designon public transport, such as mini bus and taxi, which is like concept to Munch Lunch Van. Customers have to give a call for service in advance. The mobile van can go to the place where shop is not nearby. Doing the juice business, Boost should treat each product’s price as a standard. A price cut may cause low quality for ensuring the quality of product offered. On the other hand, the cause of Boost Juice has pretty high proportion of marketing expenditure and leasing cost. Hence, Boost tried to provide more benefits to customers. For example, free drink to allocate on street for promotion. The price discount could be offered in the alterative way. Something like buy 2 gets 1 free or jumbo size can enlarge the sales for profit margin. Product Differentiation and the Product Life Cycle In a market, there are many companies are all making related products; product differentiation is a real approach to analyse (WR, 1956). Refer to an academic journal (GS, 1981), extensive reference have been made; Armstrong, Brown and Adam had pointed out references detailed points. The product life cycle illustrates the alteration of a product from development and popularity, follow by maturity and even decline (GS, 1981). Boost illustrates the outlook of its business through product life cycle, in order to keep the position in the market and maximise the profit. The 4Ps comprise (Internal Marketing, 2004) the Product to understand product’s special and exclusive features, Price is referring to pricing plan), Promotion is about how to let people know the product, such as advertising and public relation, and Place is about distribution that the quality product allocated to different branches. The branch with more customers should have more sources to produce more products. Measures of Success According to an interview with a brand manager, the marketing research company called ACNielsen, which has been working in the area of media, entertainment, finance, and hospitality, revealed Boost Juice operated  several countries and served variety of industries, adjust Boost’s needs to measure its marketing outcome. The professional research of companies provided definite view of what is going to be happened. It has a leading of role in sharing of information in TV commercial. The methods of collecting data consisted retail forecast, consumer panels, and marketing investigate. Also common work included merchandising in goods, modeling and analytics, decision marking, and merchandising goods. Recommendation Social media is now being a new marketing tool to hold with customers preferably. Boost Juice maintain innovation as the main type of competence. A qualitative study is necessary to move toward with Boost Juice that the audience is necessary to recognize the right view. Conclusion For being successful, Boost Juice can not be described as lucky. When it comes to the founder Janine Allis’ passion in providing healthy and nutritious drink to this country, she is smart to target on the brand positioning to the right target customers by using the correct marketing tools. In overall, Boost is still having large room for growing, unfortunately, over the time passed by, the external environment, such as target customers are changing. Parts of fans have already become mature. Boost Juice Bar have to be more innovative deal with the problem of market change to preserve existing customers and attract more new customers. Reference Boost Juice, 2014, < http://www.boostjuice.com.au/> GS Day, 1981, â€Å"The product life cycle: analysis and applications issues.† The Journal of Marketing, vol.45, no.4 Internal Marketing website, 2004, Lee Goi, Chai, 2009, â€Å"A Review of Marketing Mix: 4Ps or More?† International Journal of Marketing Studies, vol.1, no.1 Lusch, R.F., and V.N. Lusch, 1987, Principles of Marketing, Kent Publishing Company, Boston, Massachusetts WR Smith, 1956, â€Å"Product differentiation and market segmentation as alternative marketing strategies.† The Journal of Marketing, vol.21, no.1

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Answer the questions Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Answer the questions - Case Study Example The temporal cortex is also much larger than predicted for an ape of our size, which might affect our language ability as this part of the brain contains Broca’s area, implicated in language use. d) From viewing chimps in the wild (The New Chimpanzees), can they be said to have a language? Include Uhlenbroek’s description of pant hoots, the chimp patrol of their territory, their displays in dominance of behaviour, and grooming and begging behaviour. These elements do seem to represent a kind of communication between chimps, so yes, it could be seen as a language by some, although not perhaps as advanced as human language. The differences in behaviours between different groups have been described as ‘cultural differences’. Koko had extensive exposure to sign language and did seem to pick up some elements of language, although the grammar was not perfect. Many of the utterances could just be imitation or nonsense. Michael learned much less than Koko because he was only alive for a short while, but perhaps the transmission of the signs could be seen as language transmission. Ndume does not currently use sign language. Although the video describes Koko has having a lot of knowledge and the gorilla does seem to know a lot of signs, it is not completely clear whether this is imitation or language and therefore is extremely difficult to describe. It does not seem to be a very strong case, although Koko does show extensive evidence of learning. Merely learning a lot of different signs or letters does not create language, although it is interesting that some of these signs were transmitted to another gorilla. However, it is also possible that sign language may not be the right medium for language and gorillas may have their own complex language structure in a form that humans cannot understand. Some people think that language is necessary for a culture, but there are many different aspects of culture (such as

#7 Doppler Radar WSR88 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

#7 Doppler Radar WSR88 - Essay Example The Doppler Radar WSR88, or more popularly known as the WSR-88D, is named as such because it stands for Weather Surveillance Radar – 1988 Doppler, and was built in 1988 (Fitzpatrick 2006). The NWS has been using radar to detect precipitation since the 1940’s. However, the WSR-88D network was first installed in 1993, replacing the WSR-57 radar network. The old radar system built in 1957 required very hard to find spare parts that were mainly available in the former Soviet Union and thus required the necessary upgrade (Goldstein 2002). Furthermore, the displays of the original data system were often confusing and were not very effective in detecting severe weather. Compared to its predecessor, the WSR-88D systems have provided a significant increase of weather data off the coasts in storms. It was built with newly developed surface-based remote sensors that have the spatial resolution needed for coastal zone studies (National Research Council (US) Panel on Coastal Meteorology 1992). Furthermore, the WSR-88D network can detect not only precipitation, but also rainfall rate, accumulated rainfall, and the location of the rainfall. The National Weather Service and the Department of Defense have deployed and operates around 160 WSR-88D Doppler radar in the country, including in the US Territory of Guam and in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (National Research Council (US) Panel on Coastal Meteorology 1992). The system uses the Doppler effect to indicate whether raindrops were moving towards the radar or away from it. The Doppler radar’s ability to detect movements has thus provided significant improvements to the meteorologist’s ability to look inside thunderstorms and find out if rotation in the cloud exists (Ahrens 2008). It is vital to pinpoint this rotation because it usually precedes a tornado. The Doppler Radar WSR-88 is a very important device in getting necessary information about the earth’s present and future weather conditions. It has evolved from

Personal Dietary Analysis Two Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Personal Dietary Analysis Two - Essay Example I was always either within the limits or under the target limit. However, I somehow overshot the daily limits pertaining to the total calories, saturated fat, and cholesterol intake. I believe that was an accidental occurrence as I would never willingly go over my target limitations per day. The target daily limit for cholesterol was set at 300 mg and I overshot it at 426 mg. I also went over the saturated fat limit of 10 percent. I clocked in at a maximum of 12 percent instead. The AMDR for carbohydrates is actually 130 g and I consumed 322 g while the percentage of carbohydrate calories clocked in at 45-65 % with me consuming 49 percent of calories. I actually feel good about these results because I was able to prove that my metabolism actually burns the carbohydrates that I consume in a day. I felt very happy and satisfied knowing that I can easily lose weight if I want to because my metabolism is working just fine. The target grain consumption for my daily time period was 7 ounces. Since I averaged 10 ounces per meal, I was over the target by 3 percent for that particular time frame. While the vegetable consumption was targeted at 3 cups and I consumed 2 1/4 cups which was within the acceptable limits of my 2200 Calorie allowance. MY maximum daily fruit allowance was supposed to be only 2 cups but I often overshot and ended up eating about 2 1/2 cups of fruit instead. That was not a problem at all since fruits are very healthy for the body and actually help in the digestion of my food and increase in my metabolism. The suggested daily fiber intake for me was set at 26 g but I only managed to consume 23 g which was just alright for my target group. I am actually quite pleased with myself as I was able to get that close to the target daily intake considering that I was constantly watching my food intake. I believe that was a job well done on my part because I was able to consume the right amount of fiber in a day

Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Essay Example for Free

Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Essay Organizational behavior is the study and application of knowledge about people or groups of people in an organization. It focuses on what people do and why they do it with aim of improving what they do. Since an organization is a collection of people working together in an organized social structure to achieve a common goal, application of theories and concepts of human behavior is imperative to attain the goals of organizations. Organizational behavior covers areas such as human behavior, leadership in an organization, teams, communications, employee relations etc. Clark, 2008). A study of the organization’s behavior helps the management to succeed in business opportunities. Human resource management is a strategic approach to the management of employees in an organization. It includes activities such as planning, selection, recruitment and maintaining employees. To sustain high performing employees, ensuring safe working environments and compliance to rules and regulations in an organization are some of the main objectives of human resource management. These objectives can only be attained through efficient analyses of the employees’ behaviors. Therefore, when human resource management and organization behavior blend together in an organization, they help to bring about strong and active workforce which help the organization meet its strategic goals. Effective policy development in human resources would help management to establish a strong workforce and explore untapped resources and strategies that would improve the organization performance. In order to employ effective policies, the management should make best decisions in a timely manner in a given situation. Human resource managers should be involved in making strategic decisions of the organization such as being informed on the long term plans of the strategic management. To amicably resolve personnel issues and find appropriate solutions to these issues, the management should have proper human resource policies. The policies should incorporate fresh ideas that reflect current situation in the organizations and the current business world in general. Human resources policies ensure that employees receive equal treatment in a wide range of employment issues and in legal matters incase they arise. To effectively develop human resource in any organization, it is necessary to have policies on employees’ benefits such as educational assistance, retirement benefits, health care and medical benefits etc. Another factor to consider when formulating the policies is the safety, health and security of the employees. Issues such as workplace violence, drugs, crisis management, and diseases like HIV/AIDS should be addressed in policy development. In addition it is important to consider employees relations which entail dispute resolutions and grievances, employees privacy, employees performance management, discipline and the conduct of employees in the organization. Selection, recruitment and placement of employees is a fundamental function in the human resource management. Discrimination in terms of race, religion, sex or in any form should be discouraged in the hiring and recruitment process. In order to improve employees’ skills and their efficiency, there should be a policy on employee training and development. In conclusion, effective policies should seek to motivate employees whereby they feel comfortable and satisfied hence improve their performance. The human resource should operate in a flexible environment. For instance, employees can operate in shifts where different people start and end their workday at different time. The organization should adopt technologies that would enable the employees to work outside the workplace. A study in organizational behavior shows that different people get motivated in different ways and can perform better under different circumstances. The management should therefore, customize their way of rewarding employees to their particular preferences (Marques, 2007).

Conflict Management in the Construction Industry

Conflict Management in the Construction Industry The nature of the construction industry in Hong Kong is such that there is an existing conflict between the major construction project participants, owners, design professionals and contractors. The construction industry is well-known for high levels of conflicts and disputes. Construction is construction, and no matter how complicated the technology. It is also a project-based industry with each project being unique. Within a project life cycle, a large number of separate firm are involved. Failures by one party can affect those engaged in a project and, as work often takes substantial periods during which national economic circumstances can change, it is unavoidable that dispute will arise. From the above-mentioned scenario, it should not be surprised that the techniques of conflict management and dispute resolution in construction industry are more developed, compared to the industry, one might be inclined to ask the questions as to whether there is any hope for the industry in attempting to reduce the serious and extent of conflicts and disputes? According to Fenn et al(1997), conflict can be managed, possibly to point of preventing it from leading to dispute whereas, dispute require resolution and , therefore, are associated with distinct justifiable issue. The purpose of this paper will firstly describe the definition of conflict management and dispute resolution. And also identify the causes of the conflicts and disputes in Hong Kong construction industry. Finally, this study will also identify the way of formal conflict management and the dispute resolution methods to be used. 2. Conflict Management in Construction Industry: 2.1 The definition of conflict management: Conflict may be defined as a contest between people with opposing needs, ideas, beliefs, values or goal. Conflict on team is unavoidable; however, the results of conflict are not predetermined. Conflict might increase and lead to non-productive results or conflict can be beneficially resolved and lead to quality final products. Therefore, learning to manage conflict is essential to a high-performance team. Though very few people go looking for conflict, more often than not. Conflict results because of lacking communication between people with regard to their needs, ideas, beliefs, goals, or values. Conflict management is the principle that all conflicts cannot consequentially be resolved, but learning how to manage conflicts can decrease the odds of non-productive escalation. According to Algert, N.E., and Watson, K. (2002), Conflict management involves obtaining skills related to conflict resolution, self-awareness about conflict modes, conflict communication skills, and establishing a structure for management of conflict in your environment. 2.2 The causes of conflict in construction: Construction is significantly different from manufacturing, in which the same goods are produced a thousand times. Also, construction does not allow for the change of variable while holding the rest fixed in order to study its effects. The nature of the construction referred to earlier so conflicts among owners, design professionals and contractors are general. To suggest that these parties are prone to confrontational interaction and conflict would be a major statement in the construction industry. Owners are even arguing with their design professionals over design service explain of errors and neglect in design services rendered, aesthetic considerations and budget overruns. (p.4-white) Accordingly, Howell et.al (1998, cited by Vorster 1993) proposed a nomenclature of elements that summarize four causes behind conflict in the construction environment: Incomplete scope definition: The design professionals responsibility to define and design the project scope so as to meet the owners functional, budgetary, time and environmental project criteria. When the design professional fails to meet their responsibility, the owner is almost always dissatisfied with the result, with the effect that strict correspondence soon ensues between the parties. Also, when the scope of the work is unclear, this presents an unhappy relation for future between the owner and the contractor, arguing about the scope and quality of the work, and whether in fact the work is properly defined by the contract documents prepared by the design professional. Inappropriate contract type: Contracts are endemic as causes of conflict within the construction industry; almost every stage of the construction process is regulated by an agreement of some sort. Some of the areas of contract dispute are breach of contract in contract clause interpretation, inspection of work clauses, indemnity clauses, payment of supplies, and liability to third parties, just to name a few possible areas of contract dispute. Poor communication: Infrastructures are unique products with more complex production process than other and most of building products are a combined effort of several peoples or organization. So many professionals have contribution to do a building in various capacities. Among construction team members, each may have different aim in relation to their profession, but their main aim should be to complete the project within a given plan. Conflict between team members may arise when their objectives are inconsistent. Also, their interpretations of contract documents, terms, and conditions can diverge, leading to discrepancies and conflict. In short, all causes of conflict within an area are interrelated. Uncertainty: For external: a) Environmental concerns; b) Social impacts; c) Economics; d) Political risks; e) Weather; f) Regulation; g) Unforeseen site condition. For internal: a) Error in design; b) Construction methods and workmanship In figure 10.3 which is one example of what the owner should consider when identifying potential conflicts. We can identify which of them may be realized at the interfaces among the multiple participants in an agency construction management delivery system. Certain conflicts in the relationship among the owner, designer, CM and trade contractor can be eliminated in various situations if a different delivery system is selected. (P.205-White) 2.3 Methods of conflict management used in construction industry in HK: In the construction industry, ask anyone if they completed a construction project without any conflict. The answer 100% of the time will be NO. The successful project managers must be implement strategies to avoid or monitor conflict in their construction project. The following common steps are used by the project managers when developing a successful conflict management: Conflict identification; Conflict analysis; Design and implementation of a conflict management; Monitoring and review of the conflict management. (P.202-White) Prevention is the best method in the management of the conflict in construction industry. The methods include: Dispute review boards or advisors; Negotiation; Quality (Total quality management and quality assurance); Procurement systems which are all non-blinding process. Baden-Hellard (1988) emphasized that construction industry has a built-in potential for conflict arising from the differences always present in values, principles and interest. Thus, when differences arises from unforeseen events, no matter how well the clients, design team and contractors have managed the project, better methods of resolving the differences are needed. Dispute review boards or advisors: It is virtually impossible to complete a large construction project without having any disputes develop between the parties. The DRB is a panel of two neutral individuals who are selected by the parties to the construction contract, usually the project owner and the general contractor. The project owner will stipulate in the specifications for bidding the project. DBR provide the processes and mechanisms to not only help to settle disputes but also can provide a method to prevent the potential conflict from ever happening. The potential conflict to the DRB means that plausible argument at each construction stages and the quality of the presentation of claims. The first meeting of the DRB usually takes place well before the commencement of the construction project and will continue to meet until the DRB members are well-known all of the aspects of the project. After the project begins, each DRB will usually meet on a regularly scheduled basic such as once each month or once each quarter, etc. Besides, site visit can ne made depending on the requirements of the project. Negotiation; Negotiation needs to be carrying out to resolve the conflict before it reached a more serious stage and change into dispute. The parties are required to come together and approach an agreeable settlement through communication. The following two example shown a simple negotiation between the main contractor(MC) and a subcontractor(SC) who is unable to meet the objective in the contract. Example A: SC: I will not be able to finish this process on time. MC: You must be finish theses according the time schedule. SC: I need three extra weeks to finish it. MC:You cannot have extra three weeks. SC: If I do not get three weeks, i can not complete this process on time. MC:No, you will complete as scheduled, if you really cannot finish it, we will collect damage and replace you. The example A is a position-based type of negotiation which will go around in circle until one of parties abandons its position. It is not clear why the parties are even arguing. Example B: SUB: I will not be able to finish this process on time. MC: What are the reasons and why can you not finish as scheduled? SUB: My supplier will not able to deliver the materials until next week so I need three extra weeks to finish it. MC: You should know the schedule is very tight for this project. Are there any other suppliers who can deliver on time? SUB: Yes, but the suppliers are more expensive than the damages given by finishing late. MC: Although you are responsible for reaching the target, I also understand your predicament. Actually, I know some other suppliers that might be able to solve these problems and I will contact them as soon as possible. The example B is an interest-based type of negotiation which can be reached a mutually agreeable solution even the source of the conflict is uncovered. According to these two examples, a successful negotiation should result in a solution acceptable to both parties that will not damage their relationship and implies collaboration, trust and common objectives. Quality (Total quality management (TQM) or assurance): According to Gardiner et al (1992), the most confliction stages are identified within the organization, closely followed by the issue of quality and control. One of the most confliction stages is the quality issue so a good and suitable quality management or control system should be issued. It can reduce the frequency of conflict. TQM is an extensive management system which: Focuses on meeting owners needs by providing quality services at a cost that provides value to the owners; Is compel by the quest for continuous improvement in all operations; Understand everyone in the organization; Observe an organization as an internal system with a common objective rather than as individual parties acting to maximize their own performances; Emphasize teamwork and a high level of workers. Procurement systems: The procurement system is one of most effective methods in prevention of conflict so it should be located in the earlier stage of the project life cycle. According to Bennett et al (1990), the procurement system built up the roles and relationships, which constitute the organization. It establishes the overall management structure and systems, which helps to form the overall values and styles of the project. The Procurement System for Construction provides support for: Selection of appropriate procurement and contracting strategies, and nomination of an appropriate Principal in the contracts; Preparation of tender documents and contracts based on standard forms; Selection of contractors and consultants with proven performance records; Effective management of contracts, including clause commentaries, sample letters and checklists; Maintenance of an effective performance management system through monitoring and reporting; and Resolution of contractual claims and disputes. (NSW Government (2000), Procurement system for construction. Available from: NSW Government, NSW Government Procurement Web site: http://www.nswprocurement.com.au/Procurement-System-for-Construction.aspx [Accessed: March 13, 2011].) 3. Dispute Resolution in Construction Industry: 3.1 The definition of Dispute Resolution: Dispute resolution is about identifying the root causes of conflict and preventing and managing conflict with the purpose of resolving disputes or conflict during the construction process in order to avoid post-construction claims, litigation, and related costs. According to Whitfield(1994), resolve disputation can use either informal resolution methods such as negotiation and alternative dispute resolution(ADR) or formal resolution methods such as litigation and arbitration. 3.2 The causes of dispute in construction: Disputes are often the outcome of ill considered procurement practices, inadequate preparatory planning and design activity, or poor project and commercial management procedures. If the conflict happened in construction site, all parties are agreed to each other. There is no further conflict because objectives of both party become same. But if one or both party becomes intransigent, then the conflict may turn to a dispute. In other word, disputes are come up when parties are unable to manage their conflicts properly. Dispute can be defined as a disagreement between parties in connection with their objectives. Construction failure may create dispute between the parties in construction sites. According to Feld and carper; Kaminetzky (1997), failure during the construction phase may include: Overloading. Improper temporary supports. Inadequate planning and execution of construction process. Lack of inspection. Insufficient safety factors. Inadequate training of construction workers. Feld, J. and Carper, K. (1997). ConstructionFailure. John Wiley Sons, New York.   Cause of client: 1) Failure to respond in timely manner. 2) Inadequate tracing mechanisms for RFI (Request for information). 3) Reluctant to check for constructability, clarity and completeness. 4) Discrepancies / ambiguities in contract documents. 5) Poor communications between and among the parties involved in theproject. 6) Failure to appoint an overall project manager. 7) Lowest price mentality in engagement of contractors and designers. The absence of team spirit among the participants. 8) Deficient management, supervision and coordination efforts on the  part of the project. Cause of designer: Failure to understand its responsibilities under design team contract. Over-design and underestimate the costs involve. Inadequate in open and factual communication. Late information issued and cumbersome approaches to RFIs Design and specification oversights and errors or omissions resulting  from uncoordinated civil, structural, architectural, mechanical and  electrical designs. Incompleteness of drawing and specifications. Cause of contractor: Inadequate contractor management, supervision and coordination. Lack of understanding and agreement in contract procurement. Failure to understand and correctly bid or price the works. Reluctance to seek clarification. Failure to plan and execute the changes of works. Inadequate CPM Scheduling and update requirements. Delay/ suspension of works. Fenn et al (1997) provides a synopsis of the findings of nine frequently cited  studies of the sources of disputes: 3.3 Methods of dispute resolution used in construction industry in HK: According to Carmichael (2002), the step approach to dispute resolution as below. An attempt is made to resolve the dispute at the level at which it occurs, in a reasonable time; If this fails, involve parties at a higher level with decision making authority, and the potential to settle in the interests of a commercial solution; If this fails, proceed to an ADR approach using and independent third party; If this fails, arbitration or litigation will be used. 3.3.1 Informal resolution methods: a) Negotiation: Negotiation is a common dispute resolution method, which we all are using in every day. There is no neutral third party for the negotiation, only the disputants. It is also defined as a means to reach mutual agreement through communication, according to Down, L.J. (2009), (p.140-white) Negotiation is considered by most appropriate way to resolve any dispute in construction industry. It was because negotiation is not expensive and can be maintained relationship with the related parties. However, there are also negative sides of negotiation. For example, if the related parties negotiated a long and protected period of discussion, the negotiation will be fail because they are not blinding. Besides, it is an informal resolution method, it can allow any surprise issue or irrelevant points rising. b) Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) ADR is a collective term used to describe methods of resolving disputes which are alternatives to litigation and arbitration and which usually offer a less expensive solution. For example: Mediation: This has appeared as an increasingly used form of dispute resolution, involving a neutral third party working to facilitate effective negotiations to enable a mutually acceptable settlement. In mediation, the parties explore options, measuring the strengths and weaknesses of their respective cases. Mediation can save a great deal of time and cost in resolving a dispute and can also help the parties to re-establish trust and prevent damage to ongoing relationships. Adjudication: This is a quick and relatively inexpensive way of resolving a dispute.The adjudicators decision is normally upheld by the courts and so it is important to ensure that all the relevant facts are put in front of the adjudicator. Adjudication does not necessarily achieve final settlement of a dispute because either of the parties has the right to have the same dispute heard afresh in court. However, experience shows that the majority of adjudication decisions are accepted by the parties as the final result. (Powell, J. David. 2005. Boundary Dispute Resolution in England Wales Surveyors and Lawyers Working Together to Resolve Problems. Proceedings of Cairo: Egypt.) Because of the following potential advantages, it is worth considering using ADR early in a lawsuit or even before you files a lawsuit. Advantages of ADR: Better communication; Continued business relationship; More options for settlement; Reduced costs in achieving settlement; Confidentially Control of outcome and the process. 3.3.2 Formal resolution methods: a) Litigation On occasions, alternative dispute resolution procedures are not successful in resolving disputes, resulting with the parties resorting to formal litigation through the courts. According to Whitfield(1994), the process of litigation is from the issue of a writ to a hearing and then on to a judgment. One of the failures of the legal process has been the speed with which solicitors have been prepared to issue writ. After writ has been issue, the plaintiff cannot simply withdraw his writ and forget the matter. If he did so, the counterclaim would be found against him along with the cost. The related construction companies need to provide litigation support services for both formal litigation and alternative dispute resolution as follows: Programme delay analysis; Forensic research; Preparation of statements of claim and statements of defence; Paralegal support. b) Arbitration According to Ashworth (2005), Arbitration is a legal technique for the resolution of dispute outside the courts. The parties refer the dispute to a neutral, knowledgeable person (arbitrator or arbitral tribunal) who then gives the final decision (award) to which both the parties agree. Arbitration, in lieu of court proceedings, as the last resort to resolving disputes in construction contracts has been commonly used in Hong Kong as well as internationally. Although intended to be a less formal and more flexible alternative to litigation, arbitration can be as thorough and time-consuming as litigation, especially for construction disputes. The related companies should be employ the expertise in representing them in arbitration proceedings and handling the whole arbitration process from the appointment of arbitrators, drafting of pleadings, dealing with interlocutory proceedings through to the hearing stage and beyond. Where necessary, lawyers who experienced in construction disputes to provide the most comprehensive services to the company in arbitration. 4. Conclusion: Each construction projects are unique and complex undertakings. A unique set of drawings and specifications are used to describe each construction stages. The drawings and related documents generally performed by a general contractor and several subcontractors, many of whom have not work together previously. The unique aspects of each project and the unique constitution of each construction team are common reasons for disagreements to occur. Disputes can be generated in any environment; indeed, conflict can occur whenever two individuals try to work together. These disputes often concern topics such as changes, differing site conditions, delays, and payments. Many researchers had attempted to determine the causes of conflict and disputes within the construction industry. Besides, H. Murray Hohns (1979) leads to the conclusion that the specific causes of the conflict and dispute can be largely traced to the following five sources: Errors, defects or omissions in contract documents; Underestimation of the cost by the client, the contractor, or both; Changes in conditions, (e.g. unforeseen ground conditions); Claims from end-users (legal rights of owners and tenants); People involved in the construction process. When confliction is arise in the construction industry, the importance of proper conflict recovery method and compliance with formal procedures cannot be over-stressed. If disputes proceedings become unavoidable, it should be some comfort to know that proper alternative dispute resolution will be a favorable condition rather than a drawback.

Starbucks Recruitment and Selection Process

Starbucks Recruitment and Selection Process Starbucks is a speciality coffee house which originated in Seattle. Today the organisation has over 15,000 outlets worldwide. It sells a range of hot and cold drinks, food items and accessories. Its philosophy is to create an experience for the customer and a human connection. With the introduction of the Starbucks Card purchasing drinks, food etc. from the outlets has now been made a lot easier. Customers can top up their cards and use them as a method of payment. Starbucks products are also available from supermarkets. Some of the range includes packets of coffee, coffee makers, gift sets etc. Starbucks is constantly innovating its offer to keep up to date with competition from McDonalds, Cafe Nero, Costa Coffee etc. You are required to answer the following questions making reference to Starbucks. Task 1 – Recruitment, Selection and Retention A Barista at Starbucks must have a number of personal characteristics and skills which will enable them to carry out their role. These skills and characteristics are likely to include friendliness, attention to detail, a commitment to providing customer service and an ability to work in a fast-paced environment. Pilbeam and Coridge indicate that successful resourcing is as much to do with good organisational fit as it is to do with HRM best practice, and therefore the first stage of recruitment should be to undertake a role or person specification in order to establish the skills and attributes necessary for the role. Phillips and Gully suggest that successful recruitment, selection and retention should also be aligned to the strategic objectives of the firm and therefore care and consideration should be given to the most suitable recruitment and selection methods in order to ensure they will attract the best potential candidates and also that the entire process will result in long t erm employee retention. Bratton and Gold state that recruitment is the process of generating a pool of capable people to apply for employment to an organisation. Selection is the process by which managers and others use specific instruments to choose from a pool of applicants a person or persons more likely to succeed in the job(s), given management goals and legal requirements. Accordingly, Torrington et al observe that there are a number of alternative recruitment and selection strategies including interview, assessment centre, and psychological testing. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages and therefore it is not uncommon for multiple approaches to be used in combination depending on the seniority of the role in question. However, before recruitment and selection can commence it is necessary to determine a suitable specification for the role. Thus the suggested specification for a Barista at Starbucks is given below:- Figure 1: Personal Specification Template for a Barista at Starbucks (Source, Author) Requirement Essential or Desirable? Qualifications / Education / Training: No essential qualifications required, food safety or food hygiene would be desirable Desirable Experience: Customer service, food handling, retail Essential Knowledge: Some retail knowledge would be desirable, along with a knowledge of various coffees Desirable Skills Competencies: attention to detail; ability to work in a high pressure environment, customer-centric Essential Personal Attributes: open friendly, keen to provide an exceptional customer experience Essential Other: Prepared to go the extra mile to offer exceptional service and use own initiative when necessary in order to promote the brand and concept Desirable The specification is not exhaustive and further attributes may be considered such as an ability to communicate in more than one language, especially if the location of the outlet is such that overseas tourists regularly visit (eg parts of London).   The most cost-effective form of recruitment and selection process for Baristas would be CV and subsequent interview as managers in Starbucks at a local level have a clear idea of their local customer demographic and demand and thus potential applications who submit a CV can be easily screened for desirable and essential skills and attributes. The manager can then interview potential applications before making a decision on selection. An interview has further benefits as it allows the manager to identify the personal attributes and characteristics of the application in order to assess how the application would fit within the existing team, as much of the Starbucks ethos and working model requires a high level of teamwork. Potential questions which might be asked at interview for the Barista would include asking the application to describe their retail experiences to date and getting them to explain how these experiences have relevance at Starbucks. This would test for depth of experience and also organisational fit in terms of focus on the customer experience. Other technical questions might relate to Food safety and handling in order to ensure that the application understands the critical importance of this when delivering an exceptional customer experience. From a regulatory perspective the manager conducting the interview must be sure not to inadvertently discriminate against any potential applications during any stage of the recruitment and selection process. Therefore all applications must be asked identical questions and none should relate to issues of gender, age, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. In short, Starbucks is proud of its heritage as an equal opportunities employer. During the recruitment process potential applications must be offered full opportunity to ask their own questions in order to ensure that they fully appreciate the nature of the role which they may be committing to. Task 2 – Building Winning Teams One of the foremost scholars of team building, Meredith Belbin, identified that in order to function effectively an organisational team requires members with different skills and attributes. In her research she identified that there are nine alternative team roles as she described them (see Appendix for full details). Belbin observed that the most effective teams possessed at least 5 and ideally 7 of the roles, and that an individual member within a team was capable of fulfilling more than one role, but rarely more than two. Tuckman established that when people are first brought together in a team they experience various stages of team development, popularly referred to as forming, norming, storming and performing. This concept is reflected in Figure 2 overleaf. In short, the theory holds that as employee are brought together in a group they experience an evolutionary process whereby they come to understand and appreciate one anothers skills and strengths and then utilise these compl ementary skills for the best advantage of the team as a whole. History has shown that Tuckmans theory has almost universal application, however, when used in combination with Belbins theory it becomes even more powerful as it becomes possible to identify in advance whether or not a group I likely to succeed based on the unique skills and attributes of each team member. For example, if there are too many plants within a group then it is likely that the group will be highly creative but the ideas will rarely be translated into action. Similarly, too many co-ordinations is likely to result in arguments as the co-ordinator role is known to be quite stubborn and even manipulative. When applying these theories and concepts to teams at Starbucks it can be observed that different skills are required for different parts of the operation. Holistic observation of a team working at Starbucks demonstrates the power of team working. Each person has a defined role which they focus upon in order to ensure maximum efficiency and quality of output. For example in any Starbucks outlet one person focuses on taking orders and payments, another one or two (depending on the size of the outlet) focus on making the orders and a further team members is constantly ensuring that the outlet is clean and tidy and well stocked. It can be suggested that this requires a high level of group communication and co-ordination and also a high level of trust as those baristas making the coffee must take on trust the orders given to them by their colleagues. Similarly because two Baristas can work on the same order simultaneously there must be complete understanding and uniformity to the order p roduction process such that they can interchange their roles at any point. Under Tuckmans model it is clear that a team in Starbucks is at the very least in the norming stage of the model and most probably at the performing stage. The concept of team work within organisations has gained increasing prominence in recent years and with good reason as highly effective teams are more efficient and productive. Furthermore, Armstrong identifies the benefits of empowering team members within a role so that they feel more engaged with the organisation and therefore more committed to delivering the best possible experience for the customer or client. At Starbucks one means of achieving this would be to ensure that every team member is fully cross-functional and that they are given stretch performance targets which require them to work as a team. Full cross-functionality means that each team member has an appreciation for other roles and therefore they tend to be more considerate of outcomes. Moreover, a cross -functional team which has accountability for its own results will typically find more effective means of delivering a service in order to reach targets.  Armstrong also discusses how increased responsibility and accountability increase engagement which in turn increases motivation. Some HRM scholars regard the relationship between engagement and motivation as symbiotic, but there is little doubt that engagement and motivation are strong indicators of a high performance team that is committed to exceed expectation and delivering exceptional service. Furthermore, research by Saunders demonstrates that highly engaged teams have lower levels of staff churn. This point is useful as it is closely correlated to the previously discussed matter of recruitment and retention, and thus if the right people are brought into the organisation and they are motivated to stay because they feel the business (for whatever reason) is a good fit for them, then there is reduced churn, increased engagement and greater productivity. In summation, engaged team members are more profitable for the business and thus it becomes a mutually beneficial relationship. Task 3 – Leadership Motivation There is a vast amount of literature and research which embraces the topic of leadership; furthermore, leadership theories have experienced a considerable amount of transition over time as societal perceptions of leadership have changed. Leadership has been defined by Mcquire and Molbherg as the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. Theories of leadership range for discussions as to the traits of leaders their styles of leadership and transactional and transformational theories of leadership. One of the most popular theories used to explain leadership style is the Managerial Grid as developed by Blake and Mouton and shown in figure 3 below:- As can be seen in the figure, the Managerial Grid examines the prevailing managerial technique of leaders within an organisation in order to identify their preferred style. In ideal circumstances Blake and Mouton believe that a manager and leader should adopt a team style which is participative and empowering and allows the employees of the organisation to make their own decisions within the remit of the organisations objectives. It can be suggested that the concepts of the Managerial Grid share some parallels with the discussions as to transformational and transactional leadership whereby Burns argues that in the longer term transformation leadership is far more effective because it empowers employees to deliver the best possible performance as they have accountability for their own daily working lives. It is evident that there are close linkages between leadership and motivation insofar as good leaders motivate their employees and team members to succeed through a combination of techniques such as engagement, empowerment and delegation of power. Armstrong and Cheese et al believe that the use of these techniques in conjunction with other factors such as employee voice ensure that individual employees align their personal aims and objectives with those of the organisation and therefore voluntarily strive to ensure that the service provided by the organisation is a success. It should also be acknowledge that several scholars perceive there is a difference between a manager and a leader within an organisation. The distinction is subtle and relates to the fact that managers generally focus on day to day operational tasks and leaders tend to occupy a more strategic role. However the distinction is certainly not clear cut and considerable debate still centres on this division of roles. Furthermore a leader can also be a manager by dint of their role within the organisation, and thus leadership tends to be regarded as a personality trait as opposed to an organisational position. In short, a leader tends to be more effective at motivating and inspiring employees because of their ability to engage them and encourage them to strive for enhanced performance. In times of change and development, and also in times of difficult circumstances such as recession, leadership and talent management skills are highly valued. In application to Starbucks it should be observed that in times of recession when consumers tend to cut back on luxuries such as coffee from coffee shops, Starbucks must strive to offer improved service to customers in order to retain them. The managers (and ideally leaders) of Starbucks must also continually strive to motivate Baristas to deliver exceptional service even when customers become more demanding. This concept is closely correlated with that change management and goal setting whereby engaging Baristas with the process can ensure that they feel empowered to respond to the challenge and that they have responsibility for it. At a local level this may mean running small promotions which would suit the customer demographic in order to attract and retain more customers. Furthermore, if Starbucks wish to retain their emplo yees it is prudent to continue to invest in training and development in order to ensure that they are highly skilled and capable of responding rapidly to changes in customer demand. This might include job exchanges with Baristas from other retail outlets in order to share best practice, or creating a forum where Baristas can put forward their suggestions for improvement. Although these are relatively small steps they can help individual Baristas to progress within Starbucks and this ensures that Starbucks generates a reputation as an employer of choice which fosters home grown talent and treats employees with fairness and respect.  Research into the prevailing management style at Starbucks reveals that they have a relatively flat hierarchy which ensures that it is easy to disseminate information widely and effectively within the organisation. Starbucks has a clear mission to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time and this is fully evidenced in their training policies and ethos. The structure and leadership style of Starbucks also ensures that the business can be responsive to customer needs because the baristas are in direct contact with customers every single day and also have the necessary mechanisms to ensure that they can provide valid and timely feedback to their managers in order to improve the customer experience. Task 4 – Work and Development Needs and Performance Management Armstrong defines performance management as a process which contributes to the effective management of individuals and teams in order to achieve high levels of organisational performance. As such, it establishes shared understanding about what is to be achieved and an approach to leading and developing people which will ensure that it is achieved. It is important to observe that from a HRM perspective performance management is not solely concerned with disciplinary procedures, but rather it is concerned with ensuring that each and every employee has the necessary support to achieve their objectives and potential. Thus, performance management is often closely correlated with learning and development as in order to achieve to their maximum potential employees must continue to expand their skills and to develop their capabilities. Furthermore, scholars such as Benson et al have observed a link between training and development and employee retention, which as previously identified, helps to ensure increased engagement and reduced employee churn. However in order to monitor and improve employee performance it is first necessary to set suitable objectives and targets and to apply metrics and benchmarks to these objectives and targets in order to objectively assess employee performance and development. At Starbucks there are two core elements which form the basis of employee performance; these are technical capability that is to say the ability to consistently produce a high quality cup of coffee, and secondly the ability to interact with other stakeholders including team colleagues and customers. The former can be objectively assessed by observation against agreed performance metrics such as speed of production and consistency of taste. This has benefit to individual employees and Starbucks as a whole because it ensures consistency of service and product quality across the network of franchises meaning that the reputation of Starbucks is maintained and also that Baristas are employable across a range of franchises that they ma y be prepared to travel to, thus increasing their value to the company. The second performance metric to assess is more intangible and pertains to perceived service level and customer and colleague interaction. In terms of colleague interaction this can be assessed through a variety of measures such as 360 degree feedback, line manager observation and self-reflection during a performance review. Research has shown that generally speaking individual employees are reasonably self-aware of their skills and capabilities and it is rare that a performance review highlights anything that the employee was not at least already aware of at some level. However the benefit of performance review is that it can demonstrate to individual employees specific areas where they could improve or would benefit from training to enhance their skills set. For example a food safety certificate to help ensure that an individual franchise was fully compliant with legislation, or perhaps rudimentary book-keeping skills to help ensure that the cash is managed accurately in each store . In terms of assessing Barista performance when interacting with customers this can be achieved through feedback forms and customer incentives. For example it is becoming increasingly common that receipts from retailers encourage customers to provide feedback about their service online. This has the dual benefit of helping the organisation to become more engaged with customers and response more rapidly to customer feedback. It can also be used to gather individual barista feedback if specific questions in the feedback questionnaire relate to performance and service such as speed and friendliness and helpfulness of the Barista. The information gathered from feedback surveys can be fed back to each barista in regular performance reviews in order to help them identify areas of development and subsequently improve performance. As noted at the outset of this section, performance management techniques should not be designed with the sole intention of discipline employees, although it is alm ost inevitable that at some stage a form of discipline may be required for certain employee. However, best practice makes it clear that regular performance reviews can help to forestall any such issues as if they are held regularly and reasonably frequently it should be possible to forestall any problems before they become issues of concern. Finally it is necessary to consider how Starbucks applies principles of delegation in order to motivate Baristas. As discussed previously in this review, Starbucks encourages team working and the creation of stretch targets to help Baristas develop and to take responsibility for their own areas of production. This approach is closely linked to effective performance management because empowering Baristas to set and achieve their own targets helps to motivate them to achieve as they feel in control of their targets and daily responsibilities. Targets can be used to monitor and evaluate Barista performance and at each performance review they can be revised as necessary in order to help the Barista improve. For example in the early days of a baristas employment this could be to improve the speed of production and to obtain a certain customer service rating. In due course this could progress to internal training courses in advanced customer service management and customer experience. This holistic process also helps Baristas to appreciate that they are valued and therefore this leads to them becoming more engaged and motivated and delivering improved performance. References Armstrong, M. (2009) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (11th Edition) – Kogan Page, London  Beardwell, J. Claydon, T. (2007) Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach (5th Edition) – Pearson Education, London  Belbin, R.M. (2010) Management teams: why they succeed or fail. 3rd ed. London: Butterworth-Heinemann.  Benson, G. S., Finegold, D., Mohrman, S. A. (2004) You paid for the skills, now keep them: Tuition-reimbursement and voluntary turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 47(3): 315–331.  Blake, R.; Mouton, J. (1985). The Managerial Grid III: The Key to Leadership Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publishing Co.  Bloisi, W. 2007. Management and organisational behaviour. 2nd ed. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill.  Boddy, D (2008) Management: An Introduction (4th Edition) – Prentice Hall, London  Bratton, J. Gold (2007). Work and organizational behaviour. 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.  Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Row Publishers Inc..  Cheese, P., Thomas, R.J. and Craig, E. (2008) The talent powered organization: strategies for globalization, talent management and high performance. London: Kogan Page.  Foti, R.J., Hauenstein, N.M.A. (2007). Pattern and variable approaches in leadership emergence and effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 347-355.  Govaerts, Natalie, et al. (2010) Influence of learning and working climate on the retention of talented employees, Journal of Workplace Learning 23:1.  Harrison R (2009) Learning and Development, London, CIPD  Hoque, K Noon, M (2004) Equal Opportunities Policy and Practice in Britain in Work, Employment Society vol.18 no.3 pp.481-506  Huczynski A, Buchanan D (2003) Organisational Behaviour: An Introductory Text – Pearson Higher Education, London  Mcquire, D., Molbherg J. K., (2011) Human Resource Development Theory Practice London: Sage.  Murphy, N. (2009) Talent managements role in a time of recession. IRS Employment Review. No 927, 13 August. 5pp.  Phillips and Gully (2009) Strategic Staffing Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, pp12-35  Pilbeam, S. Corbridge, M. (2010) People Resourcing: Contemporary HRM in practice. 4th ed. London: Prentice Hall International. Ch 2  Saunders, M.N.K., (2011) Trust and strategic change: an organisational justice perspective in R Searle and D Skinner (eds) Trust and Human Resource Management. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.  Starbucks (2012) Search and Apply [online] available at http://careers.starbucks.co.uk/job-search-and-apply retrieved 3rd Feb 2012  Starbucks (2012) Mission Statement [online] available at http://starbucks.co.uk/about-us/company-information/mission-statement retrieved 3rd Feb 2012  Torrington, D. Hall, L. Taylor S (2007) Human Resource Management (7th Edition) – Prentice Hall, London  Zaccaro, S. J., Gulick, L.M.V. Khare, V.P. (2008). Personality and leadership. In C. J. Hoyt, G. R. Goethals D. R. Forsyth (Eds.), Leadership at the crossroads (Vol 1) (pp. 13-29). Westport, CT: Praege

Rose :: Personal Narrative Drawing Art Papers

Rose I am accustomed, now, to being in a room with seven men who are drawing my pubic hair. I have been on the other side of the drawing board, and I know that bodies are reduced to shape, distance, and shadow: hold up the pencil. This is how far the nipple is from the armpit. Squint. It is not even a nipple anymore, not to them, though my nipple has not changed any since I took off my clothing. The first time I posed naked in the basement of the man whose ad I answered there were only two artists. The host would grimace and then relax his face in quick succession like a broken smile doll while he sketched. The other rubbed my shoulders over the thick blue robe during a break. The music was incredible: blues, and old music from 1940's Japan. Bad luck for the band, my host comments, because then Hiroshima happened. I found something to focus on so my body would hold still and steady. One time it was a finished drawing. Something about the light on the woman's breast made it look like the shape bread dough takes before rising. When I arrived I asked for the bathroom. Perhaps because I come from a place where basements and attics are rare I love them, and his basement smelled pleasant and damp, pastel and cardboard everywhere, with a cat who wound round the artist's legs. But the kitchen and bathroom betrayed the smell of the five cats who live there total. I have five cats also, but they spend their time outside accruing foxtails. The wife had headphones on and didn't look at me as she hurried into the car he had taken to pick me up from campus. He spoke to her as if he didn't know she had tuned him out. I stood bare under the hot lamp unsure of whether I was welcome, holding onto the curtain so my arm would catch the light, staring into the face of the clock until it became an object representative of nothing important, bread, an elbow, skin, scattered records. I do not know why there are no women in this group. I wonder sometimes if I would feel differently about shedding my clothing for a woman. I do no t think I would; though I am using my naked body in a way a man dictates, I have sanctioned this and am making forty dollars in three hours.