Monday, September 30, 2019
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray Essay
Thomas Gray’s poem, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, was first published in 1751. Gray’s idea of rustic life as describe in this poem is agrarian and devoted to the land. He talks of the plow turning the sod and of the sickle mowing down the grain. He mentions the plowmen driving their team of draught animals from the fields. He tells of straw sheds and of people awaking to the crow of the rooster.            Gray uses the metaphor of sleep to describe death. He says that those asleep no longer hear the voices of children or the touch and the kisses of those loved ones. He describes death as lending a cold ear and those dead as no longer hearing a call to honor nor does it hear any words of flattery.            Gray comments on the deaths of the rich and powerful, saying that those dead are no better off than the poor dead rustics. He says that the fact that the rich man’s bones are in some fine urn does not allow him to enjoy his mansion any more than the farmer enjoys the humble earth in which his bones are placed.            Gray takes on the issue of class as a rhetorical device to get his point across that the rewards for both are equal and that death is a leveler of the playing field. He impresses upon the reader the fact that in the humble churchyard may lie the remains of a life that had potential for greatness. He says that many sweet blossoms bloom, live and crumble to dust unseen and unknown by anyone.            If I were to be lying in the graveyard of the country church I would like to have Gray say of me that I was a friend of heaven, of course, and that I saw and enjoyed the dawns of my days and lived my life to the fullest. Now that I am dead left me sleep in peace and forgive and forget the frailties I displayed on earth.                                                 Works Cited            Gray, T. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 1751
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Holly Fashion
cASE 6 HOLLY FASHIONS RAT I O A N A LYSI S Billion-dollal a pparel c ompanies s uch a s C alvin K lein a nd L iz C laiborne a re unusual i n t he g arment i ndustry, w hich c onsists p rimarily o f m uch s malier apparel m akers. O ne s uch f irm i s H olly F ashions ( HF), l ocated i n C herry F lill, New J eriey. H F w as s tarted 1 4 y ears a go b y W illiam H amilton a nd J ohn W hite, who b etween t hem h ad o ver 2 5:yearso f e xperiencew ith a m ajor g arment m anufacturer.A nd t he p artnership i nitially b lended v ery w ell. H amilton, r eserved and i ntrospective, i s e xtremely c reative w ith a r eal f lair f or m erchandising a nd trend s potting. M ainly a s a r esult o f h is g enius, t he H F l abel i s s ynonymous with q uality a nd †tn†f ashions. ‘ h ite, o Utgoing a nd f orceful, h as c ontributed important m erchandising a nd m arketing i deas, b ut h as m ainly a ssumed t he duties o f t he f irm's c hief o perating o fficer.Hamilton h as h a d l ittle i nterest i n t he f inancial a spectso f t he c ompany, m uch preferring t o w ork o n d esigning n ew f ashions a nd t he d evelopment o f m arketing s trategies. A f ew m onths a go, h owever', h e d ecided t hat h e h ad b etter' become m ore i nvolved w ith t hd c ompany's f inancials. His m otivation i s t wofold. F irst, h e i s c onsidering t he s ale o f h is 5 0 p ercent interest i n H F. T hough h e m joys t he c reative s ide o f t he b usiness,h e i s t ired o f the c ash c runches t hat t he f irm h as e xperiencedi n r ecent y ears.P eriodically, t he retailers H F d eals w ith h ave e ncountered f inancial p loblems a nd h ave s tlung out t heir p ayments, w hich o ften c aused a m ad s cramble f or c ash a t H F A nd i f Hamilton d ecides t o s ell, h e k nows t hat h e i s l ikely t o b e i nvolved i n s ome stressful n egotiations s urrounding t he c ompany's v a1ue. T hough h e w ould h ire a c onsultant t o a id h im i n a ny,negotiations,h e d ecides i t i s a g ood i dea t o e ducate h imself a bout H F's f inancials.Another r eason t hat H amilton i s i nterested i n t he f irm's f inancials i s s o h e can b etter j udge t he m anagerial c ompetence o f l Alhite. Ahen I IF w as s mall Hamilton t hought W hite d id a f ine j ob, b ut n ow h e w onders w hether / hite i s capable o f r unning a f irm a s l arge a s H F. A ctually, i f H amilton w ere c onvinced that W hite i s a c ompetent m anager, h e w ould n ot c onsider s elling o ut s ince h e 36 PARTI I F INANCIALA NALYSIS genuinely e ntoys b eing a n o wner o f a n a pparel f irm.B ut h e t hinks t he a pparel industry w ill f ace e ven t ougher t imes i n t he n ext f ew y ears, a nd w onders i f ltrhite i s t alented e nough t o s uccessfullym eet t hese c hallenges. BORROWING CONCEB. NS A4rite's p ersonality i s s uch t hat h e m akes v irtually a ll m ajor o perating a nd financial d ecisions. A n i mportant e xample o f t his w as h is d ecision t hree y ears ago t o r etire a ll l ong-term d ebt/ a m ove t riggered b y W hite's f ear t hat H F's b usiness r isk w as i ncreasing.H e c ited t he d ifficulties o f s eemingly r ock-solid r etailers l ike B loomingdale's a nd C ampeau t o s upport h is c laim. I M-Lite i s a lso concerned t hat f irms t he s ize o f H F h ave h ad d ifficulty m aintaining s table b ank relationships. D ue t o i ncreasingly s trict f ederal r egulations, s ome b anks h ave called i n l oans a t t he s lightest t echnicality, a nd m ost a re s crutinizing n ew b usiness l oans v ery c arefully. C onsequently W hite v iews b ank d ebt f inancing a s â€Å"unreliable†a nd t hinks t hat l oan o fficers a re c apable o f †chewing u p m y t ime. Harnilton isn't sure what to make of these arguments, but he is concerned that this debt avoidance has significantly reduced FIF's financial flexibility because it means that all protects will have to be equity financed. In fact, over the past five years t here h ave b een n o d ividends b ecausea ll e arnings h ave b een r einvested. And two years ago each of the partners had to contribute $15,000of capital in order to m eet t he c ompany's c ashn eeds. A nother i nfusion o f c apital m ay b e n ecessary sincet he f irm's p resentc ashp osition i s l ow b y h istorical s tandards. ( See xhibit 2 . E More j mportantly, h owever, H amilton f eels t hat t he c ompany i s n ot b enefiting f rom t he l everage e ffect o f d ebt f inancing, a nd t hat t his h urts t he p rofitabiiity o f t he f lrm t o t he t wo o whers. WORKING CAPITAL CONCERNS Hamilton s uspectst hat F {F'si nventory i s †excessive†a nd t hat †capital i s u nnecessarily t ied u p i n i nventory. †n/hite's p osition i s t hat a l arge i nventory i s n ecessary t o p rovide s peedy d elivery t o c ustomers. H e a rgues t hat †our c ustomers expect q uick s ervice a nd a l arge i nventory h elps u s t o p rovide i t. Hamilton is skeptical of t his argument and wonders if there isn't a mole efficient w ay o f p roviding q uicker s ewice. H e k nows t hat a c onsultant r ecommended t hat H I †very s eriously†c onsiderb uilding a s tate-of-the-artd istribution center. T he p roposed f acility w ould a liow F {F t o r educe i nventory a ld a lso handle big orders from retailers such as Kmart and Wal-Mart. VVhite rejected the suggestion a rguing t hat t he e sttnated $ S-million t o $ 8-mi11ion ost i s e xcessive. c Hamiiton a lso q uestions / hite's c redit s tandards a nd c ollection p rocedures.Hamilton t hinks t hat / hite h as b een q uite g enerous i n g ranting p ayment extensions t o c ustomers, a nd a t o ne p oint n early 4 0 p ercent o f t he c ompany's receivablesw ere m ore t han 9 0'davs o verdue. F urther. / hite w ould c ontinue t o . C ASE6 H OLLYF ASHIONS 37 accept and ship orders to these qetailers eyen when it was clear that their ability t o p ay w as m arginal. l hite's p osition i s t h at. he d oesn't w ant t o l ose s ales and that the rough times these retailers face are only temporary. Hamilton also wonders about the wisdom of passing up trade discounts. HF is frequently offered terms ol 1. 1. 0, net 30. That is, the company receives a l-percent discount if a bill is paid in ten days and in any event full payment is expected within 30 days. ffiite rarely takes these discounts because he â€Å"wants t o h old o nto o ur c ash a s l ong a s p ossible. †H e a lso n otes t hat †the d iscount isn't especially generous emd 99 percent of the bill must still be paid. †FINAL THOUGHTS Despite ill of Hamilton's concems, however, the retationship between the two partners has been relatively smooth over the years. And Hamilton admits that he may be unduly critical of y'hite's management decisions. After al1,†he concedes, †the m an s eems t o h ave r easonsf or w hat h e d oes, a rd w e h ave b een i n the black every year since we started , which is an impressive record, really, for a f um i n o ur b usiness. †Further, Hamilton has discussed with two condultants the possibility of selling his half of the firm. Since FIF is not publicly traded, the market value of the company's s tock m ust b e e stimated. T hesec onsultants b elieve t hat H F i s w orth between $55 and $55 per share, figures that â€Å"seem quite good†to Hamilton. QUESTIONS 1 Calculate the firm's 1995ratios listed in Exhibit 3. . P art o f H amilton's e valuationw ill c onsisto f c omparingt he f irm's r atios t o . the industry numbers shown in Exhibit 3. (a) Discuss the limitations of such a comparative financial analysis. (b) In view of these limitations, why are such industry comparisons so frequentlym ade? 3, Hamilton thinks thai the profitability of the firm to the owners hasbeenhurt by White's reluctanceto use ftuch inteiest-bearing debt. Is this a reasonable position? E xplain. 4. The case mentions that {hite rarely takes trade discounts, which are typically 1 /10, n et 3 0.D oest his s eeml ike a w ise f inancialm ove? E xplain. 5. C alculatet he c ompany'sm arket-to-book dV/BV) r atio. ( Therea re 5 ,000 O shares f c ommons tock. ) o 6. Hamilton's position is that White has not competently managed the firm. Defend this position using your previous an. swers nd other information in a the c ase. 38 PARTII FINANCIAL ANALYSIS 7. Vy'hite's position is that he has effectively managed the firm. Defend this position using your previous answers and other information in the case. 8. Play the role of an arbitratoi.Is it possible based on an examination of the firm's r atios a nd o ther i nformation i n t he c aset o a ssessW hite's m anagerial competmce? Defend your position. 9. ( a) A re t he r atios y ou c alcul:ited b ased o n m arket o r b ook v alues? E xplain. (b) W ould y ou p refer r atios b ased o n m arket c ir b ook v alues? E xplain. EXHIBIT 1 Holly F ashions'I ncome S tatements:1 993-1996 ( 000s) 1993 Sales Costo f g oods Grossmargin Adrrinistrative Dq)reciation EBIT lnterest EBT Taxes Net income 1994 1995 1996 $985. 0 748. 6 236. 4 169. 4 10. 8 56. 1 7. O 49. 1 19. 7 $1,040. 0 n4. $1,236. 0 $1,305. 0 978. 8 202. 8 1 14 51. 0 4t. 0 18. 0 $27. 0 a7a', 307. 8 236,I 13. 6 58. 1 53. 1 21. 7 _-$3L9 249. 3 '14 4 62. 6 58. 5 23. 5 ___$99! EXHIBIT 2 BalanceS heetso { t he H olly F ashionsC ompany: f 993-1996 ( 000s) 1993 ASSETS Cash $40. 4 Receivables r53. 2 Inventory 117. 0 5. 9 Other cwrent Current assets ‘u. 8 Grossf ixed Accumulaied depreciation (12. 0) 32. 8 Net fixed Totala ssets $349. 3 1994 1995 1996 $s1. 9 158. 9 121. 1 6. 2 338. 0 58. 9 (23. 4) __35t $38. 6 ‘t75. 1 $10. 6 224. 8 19L. 9 7. 8 435. 1 96. 4' (s1. 4) 45. 0 $480. 1 193. 4 7. 4 414. 5 78. 1. _a;l continued) C ASE6 H OLLYF ASHIONS 39 EXHIBIT 2 (Contirwed) t993 LIAB]LITIES & NET WORTH Accounts payable Debt due Accruals Current liabilities Long-term debt Common s tock Retained e arnings Total L &NW $53. 8 10 . 0 | 1 9. 7 , 8 3. 5 60. 0 150_0 1994 1995 r996 $v. f $85. 2 10. 0 24. 7 120. 9 40. 0 180. 0 114. 6 $u. 2 10. 0 26. L 120. 3 30. 0 180. 0 149. 8 $48q. 1 10. 0 26. 0 90. 7 50. 0 150. 0 82. 8 $349. 3 $455t EXHIBIT 3 Financial R atios { ot t hb H olly F ashionsC ompany: 1 993-1996 Ind*r11 (Presen] r993 r994 1995. 3. 7 3. 4 2. 6 ‘L7 1. 8 1. 3 1. 6 .8 r996 1993-19961. Liquidity RatiosCurlent Quick Leverage atios R Deb(%) 41.. 1 37. 7 35. 3 8. 0 8. 5 11. 6 6. 4 6. 4 4. 8 FixedA sset Turnover 30. 0 29. 3 30. 1 TotalA sset Turnovet 2. 8 2. 8 2. 7 Timesinterest eamed Activity Ratios lnventory Tulnover (CGS) 47 57 71 3. 9 1. 3 8. 1 6. 0 40 25 72 3. 5 2. 8 2. 0 (continued) P ARTI I F INANCIALA NALYSIS DGIIBIT 3 (Conrinued) Ifld – r) 1993 1994 1995 AverageCollection Period Days Pulchases Outstanding** (Present) 1996 1993-1996+ 50 68 18 31 25 32 ProfitabilityR atios M Gross argin ( %) 24. 0 25. 5 24. 9 Net Profit Margin (%) 3. 0 2. 6 2. 6 Return on Equity (%) 14. 3 11. 6 0. 8 8. 4 7. 2 7. 0 5. 8 6. 0 6. L Retum on Total ( Assets %) Operating Margin*** (%) 26 3. 1 ‘1. 2 27. 3 19. 5 7. 8 11. 8 8. 7 9. 9 7. 2 3. 1 iThe thrâ‚ ¬e numbers for each ratio arc comPuted in the following wsy. Ratios for all firms in dre indushy are arranged in what is considerâ‚ ¬d a strontest-to-weakest order' The middle number rePlâ‚ ¬senis the median ratioj that is, half the firms in the industry had mtios better than the median ratio and half had ratios that werâ‚ ¬ worse The top nunlber represents the uPPer qua4ile figure; meaning 25 Pelcent of the firms had ratios befter tlran this.The lower number represents the lowest quaftile, that is, 25 Percent of the firms had ratios worse than this. *†This shows the average lentth of time that trade debt is ouhtandint. AIso caled the averate Paymeni Period. Calculated ; is A /P – ( CGS/360). 1**Calculateda s ( EBIT + D ep)/Sales.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Diversity in the workplace Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Diversity in the workplace - Term Paper Example Helping understand the concept of diversity, let us take the example of a family system. An entire family consists of individual persons- for example, obviously different sexes, different groups of age, belief systems being different too, bringing up of these individuals and having different values etc. Now why an entire family is like it is. The answer to this question is that there is a want and need to learn about each other and be a part of each other’s lives. Without this, the family system would not be present, like it is today. Usually, the Human Resource Department plays an important part in diversity planning and leadership to build and empower an organizational custom that promotes a respectful, inclusive, knowledge-based atmosphere where each employee has the opportunity to learn, nurture and meaningfully add value to the organizations achievement. Many multinational corporations and big firms have found it a need of the hour that diversity is essential for any business’s success. It helps in retaining employees that are efficient and hard working, lowering the costs by having in-house skills developers, and having a goodwill that is there for the overall betterment of the company. Talking about multinational companies, let us take the example of Coca Cola. Initially Coke has its headquarters at Atlanta, but its business is all over the world and more than fifty percent of the revenue comes from outside the USA. The only reason for doing so is that, Coke believes in diverse workforce and wherever it has gone, it has looked after its employees. They give the locals, key positions in the firm, and listen to what ideas they provide. Obviously, locals are residing there, and they know the market there well. Now if Coke, used the same technique and strategy to sell its products say in India, as it did in the US, straight away failure would be there.
Friday, September 27, 2019
The Picture of Edouard Manet The Monet Family in Their Garden at Essay - 1
The Picture of Edouard Manet The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil - Essay Example As the Art of the Renaissance period, Impressionism is based on the characteristics and skills of the perception of perspective. It was not important what was on the picture, but the ways it was created and painted were meaningful. The paintings of impressionists provided the audience only with positive emotions, as they revealed the best sides of life, without affecting social problems, such as hunger, disease, and death. Later it led to a split among the Impressionists. The picture of Edouard Manet â€Å"The Monet family in their garden at Argenteuil†is a great representation of the Impressionism. It was created in the 1874. In this period of time Edouard Manet was influenced by the artistic skillfulness of Claude Monet and his approach to the painting outdoors. â€Å"Monet was the first and the foremost contributor to the birth of Impressionism and to the new manner of expressing a vision, where reality was interpreted in ways never before imagined – fresh, airy, harmonious, where colors dazzled in all their solar intensity, where nature was discovered in joyous vibrating life and in changing skies†(Martini, A., 1978, 5). In summer 1874, Manet stayed at the home of his family, which lived not far from the premise of object of his inspiration. The painting represents the family portrait of Monet: his wife Camille Monet, the son Jean and Claude Monet himself working in the garden on the left of the picture. It became the maste rpiece of the Impressionism Epoch. Edouard Manet was impressed by the works and technique of Claude Monet. â€Å"Impressionism reveals a different reality, clarifying Monet’s original intentions and correcting misconceptions in the understanding of his works†. The subject of the painting possesses the features of simple portrait, but the simplicity is supported by the great mastership of the painter. The style of work comprises the elements of classical and casual art. On the one hand the picture represents a beautiful lady, well-dressed and holding her son on the knees. On the other hand, the nobility of the picture is diluted with the simplicity of nature and the man, simply dressed.Â
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Resistance against Hitler and his Nazi Regime Essay
Resistance against Hitler and his Nazi Regime - Essay Example For instance at one time, the Nazi regime issued 35, 200 death sentences, and out of this number, 20,000 victims were communist adherents. Also, in 1941, approximately 405 people were put in custody for being either followers of communism or Marxism. The enabling act of 1993 gave Hitler a lot of power, and Hitler misused this power by establishing a concentration camp at Dachau to deal firmly with the enemies of the Nazi regime (Sax & Kuntz, 1973). The rebels were arrested and brutally punished in the concentration camp. Hitler also used his enormous power to empower the Gestapo police unit more, so as to deal with the Nazi regime critics. Resistance Groups Doris Berger Understanding of Resistance Before we look at the various anti-Nazi forces in Germany, let us look at the meaning of the term resistance as understood by the historian Doris Bergen. Doris Bergen views resistance as any act that portrays disagreement and discontent with the status quo. For instance in pages 203- 204 of Berger’s book, War and Genocide: A concise History of the Holocaust, Berger details how the Nazi regime dealt with the perceived resistance movements, especially the Jews, whom the Nazi administration saw as the main threat of the Nazi administration. Berger’s conception of resistance therefore is any act that portrays opposition to the established system or to the status quo. This view of resistance is actually in agreement with the conventional understanding of the term resistance. German Youth Resistance against the Nazi Regime The main critics of the Nazi administration were the German youth. And to deal with this challenge, the Nazi regime established a system to make the youth remain loyal to the... Before we look at the various anti-Nazi forces in Germany, let us look at the meaning of the term resistance as understood by the historian Doris Bergen. Doris Bergen views resistance as any act that portrays disagreement and discontent with the status quo. For instance in pages 203- 204 of Berger’s book, War, and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust, Berger details how the Nazi regime dealt with the perceived resistance movements, especially the Jews, whom the Nazi administration saw as the main threat of the Nazi administration. Berger’s conception of resistance, therefore, is any act that portrays opposition to the established system or to the status quo. This view of resistance is actually in agreement with the conventional understanding of the term resistance.The main critics of the Nazi administration were the German youth. And to deal with this challenge, the Nazi regime established a system to make the youth remain loyal to the Nazi regime. The young men in Germany were supposed to be members of the Hitler youth movement and the girls were supposed to be members of the German Girls league movement. The youth movements limited the leisure time for the youth in an attempt to make them loyal to the Nazi regime (Rich, 1973).Notwithstanding these youth movements, some young people refused to be members of these movements and they continued with resisting the Nazi regime, some of the resistance youth groups that were formed included Edelweiss Pirates and the Swing group.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Communication Development in the Early Age and Negative Impacts on Essay
Communication Development in the Early Age and Negative Impacts on Personal Relationships - Essay Example Today in my studies, I read about 12-year-old James whose condition provided a case study for the author. James had a congenital motor disorder in the form of mild cerebral palsy. I learned from this case study that children with cerebral palsy not only had their movements uncoordinated but also suffered from learning and communication development disabilities. Due to their limited control of facial expression, gesture and speech, James words are slurred and often unrecognizable. Communicating with a person with the motor disorder is quite complicated as the typical response to questions is a confused gaze. If a trained person like me finds it difficult to manage the situation, then what about untrained people? The research of Michellin & O’Brien (2005), Levine & Nourse (1998) and Seo et.al. (2008) have shown that people who have motor disorders, in general, are less likely to find good opportunities in personal relationships and employment. They also require special types of education which are costly to bear. Children with cerebral palsy or other motor disorders interact with their communication partners differently from children who are undergoing typical development. Communication with a familiar partner occurs only to meet a particular purpose rather than for general conversation or chatting. It has also been observed that communication partners such as parents and siblings often take control of the conversation in an effort to prevent communications breakdown resulting from the difficulties in understanding the child’s signals.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Theory and Practice of Group Counseling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words
Theory and Practice of Group Counseling - Essay Example By using theories, we attempt to explain, predict, and master. Generalizations and models come from the observations and this comprises of theories. (Theory, 2008.) Throughout the years, literature and studies regarding the disadvantages and manifestations of the group mind are consistent. Studies reveal that the descriptions and estimates of the group mind are undisputed. However, other areas of the group mind must be examined. Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1951, page 32) reports, "There is no doubt that all the phenomena of the group mind which have just been mentioned have been correctly observed, but it is also possible to distinguish other manifestations of the group formation, which operate in a precisely opposite sense, and from which a much higher opinion of the group mind must necessarily follow." What has not been agreed upon is a question that still remains unanswered and according to Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego that concern is, "...how much the individual thinker or writer owes to the stimulation of the group in which he lives, or whether he does more than perfect a mental work in which the others ha ve had a simultaneous share." This book also refers to McDougall, author of The Group Mind. ... McDougall states, "On the whole, therefore, it is not so remarkable that we should see an individual in a group doing or approving things which he would have avoided in the normal conditions of life; and in this way we may even hope to clear up a little of the mystery which is so often covered by the enigmatic word 'suggestion'". (Page 23.) His theory is that the most crucial part in a group is the "exaltation or intensification of emotion" produced in every member of (the group)". (Page 24.) The group gives the individual a sense of unlimited power and replaces the human society, thus the individual will do and approve of things that he/she normally would not do. This theory does, however, state that in a group the minds with lower intelligence bring down the minds of higher intelligence to their level. Lebon states that McDougall's theory goes against a highly organised group's behaviour so he lists five "principal conditions" that must take place in order to raises a group's mental level: 1. There should be some degree of continuity of existence (either material or formal) in the group. 2. In the individual member of the group some definite idea should be formed of the nature, composition, functions and capacities of the group. From this he/she may develop an emotional relation to the group as a whole. 3. The group should be brought into interaction (perhaps in the form of rivalry) with other groups similar to it but differing from it in many respects. 4. The group should possess traditions, customs and habits, and especially such as determine the relations of its members to one another. 5. The group should have a definite structure, expressed in the specialisation
Monday, September 23, 2019
Visual aesthetics in movie Once upon a time in the west, and Frida Essay
Visual aesthetics in movie Once upon a time in the west, and Frida - Essay Example In rare form, the films aesthetics skillfully incorporates Kahlo's paintings into real scenes, often focusing for several minutes on the slight differences between realized canvas and filmed reality. The visuals are one of the film's strongest points. The same fluid efficiency that the direction produces during the scenes focused on the interplay between paint and flesh impressively permeates the whole film. The camera work, lighting and costumes assist in producing the aesthetic visualizations of the film. Another part of the movie's visual aesthetic is the rather stilted animations that occur between certain scenes of the film. Borrowing images from Kahlo's work and almost always centered on death another very visible theme of the movie, these transitions are eerie and strangely powerful. A scene early in the film, when Rivera is proposing to Kahlo, he tells her that while he can never be faithful, he promises at least his loyalty. The film itself makes a similar promise to its audience, and while in one sense "Frida" isn't worthy of its subject, it always remains loyal to her aesthetics. The film's constant visual backdrop is of a new town in the process of being built in the middle of the desert, a town that will be called Sweetwater, due to its valuable water supply which will be an important way station for the comin
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Managing a Large Financial Project Essay Example for Free
Managing a Large Financial Project Essay Introduction As the manger of a large financial project for company Bev shoes I am facing some challenges. The project is running behind schedule and we have a new CEO. In the meeting with the CEO I had to make him aware that the project deadline is at risk and his response was to take staff from a project with less importance and put them on the financial project. From the outside this looks like a great solution to the problem because more staff could get the work done faster and put the project back on schedule. I have to disagree with the CEO’s point of view because just assigning more people to this project will not solve the problem. We need to have staffs that are knowledgeable in the business process and the technology architecture related to the financial project. I will give my support to my response of why this is a bad idea by first explaining the importance of getting the business process correctly. Process Definition A business process is a group of activities designed to create a specific output for a specific objective. This is from having people and system interactions. Furthermore, a business process stresses how the work is performed within a business. This process should be clearly defined with a starting point and an end point with input requirements and expected output results. We spend a lot of time studying and understanding business process for this project and involving new staff at this time would further extend the time line for this project. On the financial project, the staff consists of individuals who have a deep understanding of the business process as it relates to what is being implemented. They have analyzed the existing business process and are actively working on implementing of these processes into the new financial system. In other words these staffs are considered to be a key user. According to Oliver Schmid †¦ [a] â€Å"key-user is an employee that is intimately familiar with all business processes and requirements as it pertain to their job function and/or department†. This happens to be the case with the staff already in placed on the financial project. Technology Architecture Plan The staff on the financial project has already defined the types of hardware, software, and communication networks requirements .In other words they have a technology architecture plan in place for the financial project. In order to come up with this plan, the staff did some analyst work in each component of the technology architecture. Laury Verner describes an overview of the technology architecture: * Conceptual The conceptual area is where we define the ‘what’. In technology terms this means ‘what’ technology capabilities are required to provide the appropriate technology infrastructure for the enterprise. For example, Data Integration Services is a technology capability that * Logical-The logical area is where we define the ‘how’. In technology terms this is the next level of abstraction of ‘how’ the ‘what’ will be achieved. These deals in terms of the classes of technology and the technology products that is available to realize the Technology Capabilities. * Physical The physical captures the implementation and deployments of technology in the enterprise. In the technology layer this means the lowest level of abstraction and captures the instances of the technology products and where they are physically deployed. The staff has a clear understanding of what work for the implementation of this project and it would be disruptive to add staff to this project that they would have to spend time training at this late stage (p.1). Impact from lack of Process and Standard A successful project implementation has to adhere to certain standard and process. The person working on the financial project at this time has exhibit this understanding. Just because we are behind schedule for completing this project does not mean that we can just add more resources as the CEO recommended. The result of this would just further delay the project. Taking staff from a lesser important project to work on this financial project means that they lack clarity of the business process. This would require some significant amount of time to bring them up to speed. This new staff would come in with a poor understanding of the business process and ultimately impact the project in a negative way. Solution to CEO questions The solution to the problem with the financial project falling behind schedule is to hire consultant with expertise in implementing a financial project of this magnitude. These resources would come with years of experienced and it would be easier for them to understand the business process and the technology architecture. This would put the project back on track to meeting the deadline. Conclusion Simply adding more staff to the financial project is not the solution to getting this project back on track to meeting deadline as the CEO recommend. There are key process that an individual needs to understand first before they can contribute this project such as the business process and the technology architecture. It is more than just adding staff and that is why I recommend consultants with expertise that can have an immediate impact. The objective is to get the project back on track and this is the way to achieve that goal. References Satzinger, J.W., Jackson, R., Burd, S.D. (2009). Systems analysis and design in a changing world (5th.ed.).Cengage Learning/Course Technology. Trash, J. (2006). Enterprise Architecture VS. Technology Architecture. Retrieved August 9, 2012www.flashmapsystems.com/resources/articles/articles29.htm Verner, L. (2004).The Challenge of Process Discovery Retrieved August 9, 2012ww.w.bptrends.com//05-04%20WP%20Process%20Discovery%20-
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Media and Democracy Essay Example for Free
Media and Democracy Essay In 1990, the Americans faced a situation that badly calls for their attention. An all out war against Saddam Hussein and the country he governs named Iraq was the argument being raised by the Bush Administration to his people. The administration needs the support of the public and it is when they decided to make propagandas that may affect the decisions of the people. While sensationalizing news and even opinions about wars and things connected to these acts, people are drawn closer into being deceived and this news may cause them conflicts in developing their own side of the story. Furthermore, with the use of media, journalism and press releases, a major impact is formed that can affect the opinion of the public or the majority which can somehow be very threatening to the outcome, conclusion or result of the battle and the cause being fought for by both sides. During the Gulf War that lasted from 1990 to 1991, media, propagandas and press releases played a big role in forming the opinion of the people of the United States of America about the suggested war against Iraq proposed by the Bush Administration which resulted to an attack against Saddam Hussein and Iraq in a wider, different picture. Related Literature Before finally opening the discussion about the media censorship during the Gulf War, how about we first talk about the group, people and terms involved in the whole sharing of ideas and construction of a this research. War as the key topic that will connect media, public and the incident together will allow us to understand how important the participation of media during the Gulf War years was to the United States of America and at the same time, how it affected the both Iraq and Kuwait. War Defined A three-letter word that can change the whole story of our entire history, war is more like a problem, a conflict made to destroy not just places but also human lives. It is commonly described as a dangerous act and a conflict that would mostly cause problems and loss of human lives. However, the word â€Å"War†is a term that serves various meanings and uses. It could be a figure of speech which creates an allusion to serious strife, campaigns and even struggles. In so many ways, the word, vague as it is can be is used in identifying a certain issue or incident like â€Å"war on terrorism†, â€Å"class wars†and other occurrences that could definitely be understood easily with the presence of the word â€Å"war†. In Merriam-Webster Dictionary, War is defined as (1)’ a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations’, (2) ‘a period of such armed conflict’, and (3) ‘State of War which corresponds to the art or science of warfare like the weapons, equipment used in war, soldiers and equipped soldiers ready for the war’ . It is also the ‘struggle or the competition between opposing forces or for a particular end’. Although the word is used in many ways, the usual aim of war is to ‘overthrow the enemy’ which ‘does not always imply the complete conquest of the enemy’s country’. Media Defined There had been several definitions of media. People refer to means or medium of communication as media too. Talking in general, it ‘refers to various means of communication’ which stands for ‘television, newspaper and radio’. At the same time, Media is also a ‘collective noun for the press or news reporting agencies’. The same definition of media as a term is also used by Paul Hawken in his book to characterize the word. While this author mentioned the same purpose of media which is to identify the medium and tools used for communication, he also insisted that media ‘is a term that also applies to those people whose profession it is to discover, report and communicate information and news to the public’. Furthermore, we now understand that media is a term used to describe both the medium used in communication and the people who we also call press. They serve as our ears and eyes about what is happening in our surroundings. Through their news, reports and discoveries, we learn from them the truth and the reality. However, the role of media although is very essential in the lives of the people, in the existence of humanity and truth can also be misused and mislead us from the certainties. History of Gulf War It is said that the Gulf War, also referred to as the Second Gulf War is unique compared to other wars happened in the history of this century, probably in the rest of human race account and existence. In so many ways, this war has several features that make it different from other armed conflicts in the whole world. Compared to the Second World War and Vietnam War, there had been several, much more bombs thrown to the enemy country than the amount of explosives used to destroy Vietnam. Also, the treatment of media towards the incident is more intense compared to how they reported their coverage during the World War II and the War in Vietnam. On the second day of August in 1990, Iraq made a move to invade Kuwait. Kuwait, a small democratic country rich in oil and produces the needed amount of the United States of America. This incident of 1990 is not the first in the history of Kuwait. It was the third conflict between Iraq and Kuwait in just one century. The first one was in July 1897 and the second one was in June 1961. Aside from these two, there is also a semi-crisis between the two countries which happened in March 1939. These account of events show that the two countries had been rivals for a long time already and the conflict between them only grows bigger as the years pass by. The Complaints of Iraq According to Suzanne Murdico, there are three complaints that Iraq issued over its neighboring country which is Kuwait. Although some of the complaints of Iraq over Kuwait concerns the past events wherein both countries were involved. One among the several disputes was the money that Iraq borrowed from Kuwait which was used as payment for the Iran-Iraq War. Secondly dispute is concerned with the oil being produced by Kuwait. Since Kuwait, though small country can produce oil that is demanded by the oil market which even angered Saddam Hussein and accused them of producing oil more than the allowed amount as stated by Organization of Petroleum Exporting. The third dispute is about the border between the Iraq and Kuwait territories wherein there is enormous oil. The disputes between Kuwait and Iraq became the same reasons why the latter invaded Kuwait. In June 8, 1991, a victory parade was held in Washington. After almost a year of conflict, the United States of America was able to â€Å"save†Kuwait from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. Media Coverage of the Gulf War As Dilip Hiro said in his book â€Å"Desert Shield to Desert Storm†the Gulf War had its share of popularity. Media coverage during the Persian Gulf War or the Second Gulf War can never be compared to the exposure given to World War II and Vietnam War. Censorship Media and People Media and the Gulf War Censorship during the Gulf War Western coverage of the Gulf War Demonizing Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein had been an ally of the United States of America for almost a decade before the former invaded Kuwait, an oil producing country which supplies the U. S. within eight years, Hussein, a dictator was able to kill 150,000 Iranians and around 13,000 Iraqis. There had been complaints coming from international human rights group about these killings but being an ally of both Reagan and Bush, he was not given enough attention for punishment. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, April Glaspie, Ambassador of the United States of America asked the media to allow the appearance of Hussein in television even for a few minutes. In this case, Hussein will have the chance to explain himself and also Iraq to the public. These words of the Ambassador served as a hint for Hussein that U. S. sympathizes with him and Iraq. He thought that if he will invade Kuwait, U. S. will not see it as a crime. However, the Bush Administration thought that Hussein’s crime is serious and it is not just killing refugees but it threatens the oil supply already. In 1979, Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s new leader took his post and changed the story of their country. A man with sheer desire for wealth and power, Fiske’s Argument Conclusion Incidents happen for a reason. Nothing exists without its motives and everything; all things in life have its purpose. At first we may find it absurd, crazy and foolish but in the end, what happened will be the biggest story we would want to uncover for the truth. War is a very huge word made by people dominating the entire world. While some people and probably most of the people prefer to have peace in the world rather than endless bloodsheds everywhere, others, especially those who have personal biases and some individual agendas over certain things that concern themselves and some other people existing in their world. Although the word is used in different situations and contains diverse meaning, war is still a word that is very dangerous to the innocent ones. In 1990, media and war finally met to destroy innocent lives and at the same time to hate each other. A story of destroying a nation and manipulating the emotions, feelings and opinion of the greater majority, the gulf war of 1990 was one of the tragic stories for the exercise of freedom of speech. In times of war and conflict between two opposing parties, the opinion of the people involved is very important that it may either serve as a better result or it may complicate things more. One of the most helpful tools in telling the truth, probably the mirror of reality is the media. However, Media and War became best of friends in some cases that together, these two may promote a fight worth dying for or may destroy lives of innocent people. Their companionship most of the time does not mean that they do help each other but because with the use of media, one side of the face of the war will win. Persuasion and propagandas helped a lot in promoting the means that the opposing parties were fighting for. In so many ways, media was both a tool in persuading the people of the United States of America to go in the war with Bush towards Saddam Hussein and at the same time was a battered medium of communication, a means that was used to tell a lie and to mandate what the people should feel. Bibliography Atkinson, Rick. Crusade the Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1993 Center for Media and Democracy. Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, Chapter 10: How PR Sold the War in the Persian Gulf. Retrieved January 19, 2009 from http://www. prwatch. org/books/tsigfy10. html Clausewitz, C. , Graham, J. , Natusch, F. , and Willmot, L. On War. Wordsworth Edition. 1997, page 351. Dinstein, Yoram. War, Aggression and Self-defence 4th Edition. Cambridge University Press. 2005, page 3. Hawken, Paul. Blessed Unrest. Viking. 2007, page 267. Hiro, Dilip. Deset Shield to Desert Storm. iUniverse, 2003, page 4 Media. In TechTerms. com, Retrieved January 19, 2009 from http://www. techterms. com/definition/media Murdico, Suzanne J. The Gulf War. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2004, page 11. War. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved January 15, 2009, from http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/war
Friday, September 20, 2019
Evaluation of the strategy practices of Haier Group
Evaluation of the strategy practices of Haier Group This analysis report is prepared to evaluate the strategy practices adopted by Haier group in recent years. Qingdao Haier Group is a consumer electrical maker which transformed from a refrigerator factory in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China founded in 1984. In 1992, the company had simplified their company name from Qingdao Haier Group to its current name, Haier Group. A new director was appointed in 1984, who is Mr. Zhang Ruimin. Thus, a new management team was formed and leaded under Zhang, to solve companys problems, such as debts, lack of quality control and poor management. This report will be discussed under various collection of sources which found related to Haier group, which includes books, websites, media articles, journal articles, Haiers official website and Haiers yearly annual reports. All the sources will be using in the analysis to support and prove that the related theories have been applied into the companys strategies. 1.0 Introduction Strategic management can be described as the identification of the purpose of the organization and the plans and actions to achieve that purpose. Corporate level strategy means the strategic decisions that lead companies to diversify from one business areas. It also means the role of the corporate headquarters in directing and influencing strategy across a multi-product group of companies (Richard Lynch, 2009). In this strategic analysis, discussions will be focused into three main segments. A general Haiers company overview will be done in the first place to investigate the milestones they have been gone through in past decade. Analysis continues in analyze corporate internal and external environment, SWOT analysis and Haiers unique OEC Management will be criticized in details in this segment. Moreover, the next segment discusses how Haier strategically competes in the local and international markets by using Ansoff Matrix and The Strategic Clock theories. Haiers internalization strategies will be evaluated in the last segment that includes Joint Ventures and Acquisitions where the corporate adopts in the process of globalization. 2.0 Corporate Background Haier Group was founded in 1984 with headquarters in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. In 1984, Haier produced and selling only a single model of refrigerator, it shows that Haier Group has been gone through major developments in years. Today, they rank themselves as one of the worlds leading white goods home appliance manufacturers (Haier, 2008). In last few decades Haier has grown their group to become the 4th largest white goods manufacturer and one of Chinas Top 100 IT Companies guided by the business philosophy of CEO Zhang Ruimin. Mainly, they has experienced a strategy for growth which is mainly formed into three major development stages, known as Brand Building, Diversification and Globalization (Haier, 2008). According to Michael Kanellos, 2008 Haier is trying to expand its presence globally and go up market. The company has been selling air conditioners, fridges, and other household items in the U.S. since 2000. But in 2006, it began selling LCD televisions. In November, it began selling music players. They has never been satisfied to just become a national brand, in January 2005, Haiers refrigerators were selected as best sellers in the UK by Ethical Consumer (Haier Worldwide, 2008) Haier employ over 50, 000 workers throughout the world, it has 240 subordinate companies and 30 design centers, plants and also trade companies. Their product categories are range from refrigerators, refrigerating cabinets, washing machine, air conditioners, home theatre systems, televisions, mobile phones, water heaters, DVD players and integrated furniture. Haier broadly recognized as a world leader in the technology domains of networked home appliances, intelligent integrated home furniture, digitalization and large scale integrated circuits. Different with other corporations, Haier is a state-owed company leading among others Chinese companies along with its brand name. They have been well developed and consistent which has leaded them rapidly expansion into the international market after the successfulness in its local country, and it is continues to grow until today. 3.0 Discussions 3.1 Haiers Internal and External Strategic Environment 3.1.1 SWOT Analysis The central purpose of the SWOT analysis (see appendix ) is to identify strategies that align, fit or match a companys resources and capabilities to the demands of the environment in which the company operates (Gerry Johnson et al, 2008). Organizations have to critically evaluate all strategic alternatives by using SWOT analysis to achieve its major goals and targets. In other words, Haier practices SWOT as to build on strengths so as to utilize opportunities and counteract threats, and at the same time correct its weakness. Haier has strong technology strength, they are broadly well known by leading nine products in its domestic markets share and also the top three white goods brand in terms of three products (refrigerator, air-conditioner and washing machine) in global market. They are also a world-class group in the fields of household appliances, network appliances, digital and large range integrated circuits and new equipments. Beside that, Haier also has a long term fundamental drive, which is innovation force that applies in its producing and management. As a result, their innovation in providing after-sales service has brings significance response from its customers. New upgraded products like dual drive washing machine, safe care water heater, four temperatures zone refrigerator and smart air conditioner are all been created under Haiers innovation strengths in improving products. Although Haier has a world level of technologies, but they has low level of core technology as they deeply relies on few world well known companies who supply core accessories and core components for Haier. Like for example, Haier used chips which made from Philips in its television industry, also, they bought quality compressors from Mitsubishi in its air-conditioner production. This will be a major weakness for Haier in expanding globally. Haier also weak in channels, the do not have a complete one. They even unable to deliver products to retailers, cost has increased as they needs to rent warehouses for storage purpose. Global economic integration is an opportunity and also a challenge for Haier. Haier may obtain the best quality raw materials from the international markets, recruit the best talents from all over the world, and discover more international markets. Haier should catch this chance and make full use of it to help in its process of globalization. The most important market for Haier is still its domestic market, which is China. As Haier hold more than 26.2% of the overall home appliance market in China, and the household appliances market continues to growth more than 20% every year. Thus, in future, China is still the best market for Haier to earn although they have been entering into international markets. Haier faces tough competition since entering into international markets. In the same industry, there are others worldwide recognized brands such as Panasonic, Samsung, Philips, LG and many mores. Haier is still new in other nations besides China and Asia markets; it is hard to compete with those strong rivals exclusive marketing. As China has bad country image of producing low quality and cheap price products, it is a major problem of Haier which aims to offers premium range of products, they have to against with this threat in order to build its brand into other nation. 3.1.2 OEC Management in Haier OEC stands for Overall Every Control, it also can be indicates as overall everyday/ everyone/ everythings control and clear of every workers in Haier. The CEO of Haier, Zhang, has created the unique OEC management control system to aims at overall control of everything that every employee finishes on his or her job everyday with a 1% increase over what was done the previous day. The OEC management control system has three aspects: target setting, control, checking and clearance; and incentive mechanism. Workers of Haier are awarded based on the quality of their work; it is either red reward or yellow penalty cards will be given. Other than that, promotion is decided by using open biding system to ensure the fairness in the awarding process (Thomas W. Lin, 2005). OEM is a strategic process with all that this involves in terms of the human resources of the company, its change culture and leadership. Thomas W. Lin, 2005 stated that Haiers OEC management-control system and enterprise culture have the following characteristics: Focus on and understand customer value, product quality, operating efficiency, innovation, and speed to market. Commit top management and leadership to creating a new way of management and a performance culture. Involve management and employees in creating the OEC management-control system. Allow them to become familiar with OEC so they feel included and share in ownership of the system. Educate management and employees. Use seminars and weekly company newsletters to explain the firms strategy, customer value, OEC management, and the idea of every employee being a strategic business unit to enable them to understand the concepts and appreciate the benefits. Create desired incentives, and reassure employees that they will be evaluated properly in accordance with their performance. 3.2 Strategic achieves Competitive Advantages If an organization possesses superior knowledge to its competitors then this can deliver core competencies which, in turn, produce competitive advantage (David Campbell, 2007). This segment will be discusses on how Haier adopts Ansoff Matrix and The Strategic Clock to achieve create competitive advantages. 3.2.1 Ansoff Matrix The most commonly used model for anaylysing the possible strategic directions that an organization can follows is the Ansoff Matrix (see appendix ). There are four broad alternatives, which are market penetration, product development, market development and diversification (David Campbell, 2007). Product development involves developing new products for the same existing markets a company has. The ability to innovate is crucial in developing products for rapidly changing consumer markets (Anthony Henry, 2008). In other explanation, product development simply means a company offers or delivers modified or brand new products to the same targeted markets. In the beginning, Haier has only four types of main products, which are refrigerators, air-conditinors, washing machines, and freezers. But in year 1999, Haier had launched a brand new product, named All media, All-digital television. It was a successful launching that has widely attracting a big number of users. Besides that, Haier also developing varieties in the same product line, the modified new products was targeted in the original markets. For example, some new model has been modified in refrigerator line such as little prince series (see appendix ). Market development involves entering new markets with the firms existing products. This may be done by targeting new market segments and new geographical areas, or by devising new uses for its products (Anthony Henry, 2008). Another strategy which Haier adopts to grow is market development. As market development declares as expand existing products to new markets, so it is either through new segments, new users, new geographies, or all three at the same time. In the case of Haier, they overseas to integrates into the global big markets and economies together with their premium white goods. Haier develops in most of the Europe countries included United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and Italy. Thus, they become an international corporation and involves in most of the household appliances manufacturing industry, and also entered cell phone manufacturing, insurance and finance. In the year 2001, they even involves in pharmaceutical industry. Diversification occurs when an organization moves away from a single product or dominant business area into other business areas, which may or may not be related to the original product. Although diversification is a solid strategy that defined as takes the company away from both its existing products and markets, but Gerry Johnson et al, 2008 suggests that a good deal of diversification in practice involves building on relationships with existing markets or products. Diversification is a matter of degree. Clearly Haier has almost perfectly practiced diversification by adopts both product development and market development. Moreover, diversifications have brought extra hidden competitive advantages towards the company. A very common justification of diversification is dispersion risk across a sort of businesses. Haier India has laughed Haier Mobile in year 2005, a whole new product created to entering into new markets. Haier Telecom India Pvt. Ltd. started operations in December 2005 to market Haier Mobiles (see appendix ). With the growing opportunities in India and around the world HTIL has marked its presence across four continents in the high growth centers of Asia, Africa, South America and Europe (Haier Mobiles, 2005). Diversification has been involves in Haier growth stage, besides improvement and growing on white goods industry, they also expanded into other industries that includes communication and IT products, Haier pharmacy, Haier Software and Haier real estate. Diversify from one product to a variety of products (in 1984, we had refrigerators only, and in 1998, we had dozens of products), from white goods to brown goods through capital operation in a way of activating shock fish. Tangible assets were activated using intangible assets and the business was expanded and strengthened at the minimum cost and in the shortest time (Haier, 2008). 3.2.2 The Strategic Clock Cliff Bowman and Richard DAveni emphasis that competitive advantage is achieved by providing customers with what they want, or need, better or more effectively than competitors. The strategy clock (see appendix ) represents different positions in a market where customers have different requirements in terms of money and value (Gerry Johnson et al, 2008). It is important for a firm to focuses on which markets customer they are targeting at, as different customer may have different perceptions on the same product. Most of the consumer have different needs and at the same time searching for different benefits and values. Like for example, for an air-conditioning user, they choose the product based on price or functionality? Haier using differentiation strategy on their new air-conditioning (see appendix ) which has added auto cleaning system. It not just keeps the room chill but at the same time has self-cleaning system works through its new created technology, there is a unique open and close feature adds on to the model. Haier is achieving competitive advantage because with the extra value added on the product yet it still charged at the same price, this shows that they had offers extra benefit that makes their product different from other competitors with a competitive price. 3.3 Strategic competes in International Markets Since 1998, Haier Group exported its outputs first to Germany, then to European countries. After years, they started to entry US markets, Middle Eastern countries, South-eastern countries, and India. According to Charles W. L. Hill et al, 2007 companies need to consider carefully all the possible ways they can set up their operations to minimum risk. He also suggested Haier believes that globalization is not just export, but more crucially create the export license. In order to decrease the risk of entering a new market, they pursue strategic alliances to position its company into new areas, beside that; new plant will be set up (or acquisition decision will be made) only if there is a market and the plant must at least reach a breakeven point. 3.3.1 Strategic Alliances One of the most common ways to entry a new market with low risk is through strategic alliances (see appendix ), where a company can share and use the resources and capabilities held by its partner company. There are some reasons behind of why Haier choosing strategic alliances. First; they may feel that it can benefit from its local partners knowledge of a host nations competitive conditions, culture, language, political systems and business systems. Second, when the development costs and risks of opening up a foreign market are high, they may gain by sharing these costs and risks with its local partner. Third, political considerations in some nations make strategic the only feasible entry mode (Charles W. L. Hill et al, 2007). A New York based import corporation named Welbilt Appliances which owed by Michael Jemal approached Haier to invites them to entry US market in 1994. In the same year, Welbilt Appliances bought 150,000 units consists of three models of compact refrigerators that met the safety and energy standards of US from Haier. All units were sold in a year under Welbilts name. Haier America was formed in 1999 after the successfulness of the mini-refrigerators line, a new office has located in Manhattan with 17 staffs, and for the first year of operations, they target to reach $50 million dollar of sales. After three years, they had reach a wonderful result that they had sold 80,000 full size refrigerators, approximately 2% of the US market. 3.3.2 Acquisition Acquisitions are often been use to enter a new market area for the company when they need other companys competencies to survive in the area. The benefits behind acquisitions are a company can purchase a market leader in a strong cash position overnight, rather than spend years building up market leadership through internal development (Charles W. L. Hill et al, 2007). A company choose to acquiring another company for certain reasons, and for Haier, it simply because they need to move fast in internalization. Charles W. L. Hill et al, 2008 argues that acquisitions are also perceived to be somewhat less risky than internal new ventures, primarily because they involve less certainty. Given the nature of internal new ventures, large uncertainties are associated with projecting future profitability, revenue and cash flow. In the year 2001, a refrigerator plant located in Padova, Italy (one of the most giant manufacturers which producing build-in appliances) has been chosen by Haier to acquire and invested $8 million dollar, the new plant is planned to manufacture build-in freezers and refrigerators for the fast growing build-in sector on that time in European market. Right in the next year, another new Italy-based organization named Haier A/C Trading has been formed and air-conditioners were began to been supplying in the local market. 4.0 Conclusion and Recommendation From the analysis, all the findings showed that today Haiers achievement are much related with the strategies they practised. Based on the SWOT analysis, there is evidences show that Haier has its strengths to competes in its targeted industry, the OEM Management system has even strengthen up its capability to overcome possible threats and help them to catch opportunities for now and future. By practising diversification and other related strategies under Ansoff Matrix, it has allowed Haier to gain competitive advantages in local and international market making them the well-known premium white goods brand in the world. Combination of all strategies has brought Haier to reach first-class performance, and also achieve the quality of service class in its industry, they are still the only Asian company awarded Five Star Diamond Award. Competitive-oriented overseas market entry and uses strategies in gaining competitive advantages are the major motive of Haier to compete with world giants in its internationalisation planning and will be continues reaching successfulness in the future.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Emotion in T.S. Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Essay examp
Emotion in T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock In his poem â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,†T.S. Eliot subtly conveys a wide variety of Prufrock’s emotions; he creates pathos for the speaker by employing the â€Å"objective correlative,†which Eliot defines as â€Å"a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events [that] shall be the formula of that particular emotion†(â€Å"Hamlet and His Problems†). The first stanza introduces Prufrock’s isolation, as epitomized metaphorically by â€Å"half-deserted streets†(4): while empty streets imply solitude, Eliot’s diction emphasize Prufrock having been abandoned by the other â€Å"half†needed for a relationship or an â€Å"argument†(8). Hoping for a companion, Prufrock speaks to the reader when saying, â€Å"Let us go then, you and I†(1), as he needs to address his lament to an audience; conscious of the reader’s curiosity regarding the â€Å"overwhelming question,†(10) Prufrock answers, â€Å"Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’†(11). (The likely explanation for Eliot’s inconsistent use of you in this stanza is Prufrock probably meaning you as â€Å"To lead one,†as he refers to himself and not the reader in line 10.) Eliot continues the metaphor of Prufrock’s lonesomeness by anthropomorphizing the â€Å"yellow fog†and â€Å"smokeâ⠂¬ (15, 16) to signify Prufrock, who interacts not with people, but only the environment in the third, fourth, and fifth stanzas. Clearly it is Prufrock who â€Å"rubs [his] muzzle on the window-panes†(15, 16), passively lets â€Å"fall upon [his] back the soot that falls from chimneys†(19), â€Å"slides along the street†(24), and performs the actions also described; also, the opacity of â€Å"fog†and â€Å"smoke†symbolizes the difficulty with which readers perceive Prufrock’s true character, further separating ... ...ers/you make of them,†(37-9); Prufrock defines his misfortune by women, just as King Lear, also called â€Å"fool,†attributes his madness to women (his daughters). Reminiscent of Hamlet and Lear asking for the procreation of men like themselves to end , Prufrock thus speaks for all people like himself when he sentences those limited by inaction to death. Most likely intentional, the entire poem can be considered a metaphysical conceit designed to create pathos: Eliot uses the extended metaphor of Prufrock not acting, except mentally, and thus dying alone as the objective correlative for Prufrock’s anxiety of choice and consequent despair. Work Cited Eliot, T.S.. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1996. Pinion, F. B. A T.S. Eliot Companion. Totowa: Barnes & Noble Books, 1986. Emotion in T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Essay examp Emotion in T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock In his poem â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,†T.S. Eliot subtly conveys a wide variety of Prufrock’s emotions; he creates pathos for the speaker by employing the â€Å"objective correlative,†which Eliot defines as â€Å"a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events [that] shall be the formula of that particular emotion†(â€Å"Hamlet and His Problems†). The first stanza introduces Prufrock’s isolation, as epitomized metaphorically by â€Å"half-deserted streets†(4): while empty streets imply solitude, Eliot’s diction emphasize Prufrock having been abandoned by the other â€Å"half†needed for a relationship or an â€Å"argument†(8). Hoping for a companion, Prufrock speaks to the reader when saying, â€Å"Let us go then, you and I†(1), as he needs to address his lament to an audience; conscious of the reader’s curiosity regarding the â€Å"overwhelming question,†(10) Prufrock answers, â€Å"Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’†(11). (The likely explanation for Eliot’s inconsistent use of you in this stanza is Prufrock probably meaning you as â€Å"To lead one,†as he refers to himself and not the reader in line 10.) Eliot continues the metaphor of Prufrock’s lonesomeness by anthropomorphizing the â€Å"yellow fog†and â€Å"smokeâ⠂¬ (15, 16) to signify Prufrock, who interacts not with people, but only the environment in the third, fourth, and fifth stanzas. Clearly it is Prufrock who â€Å"rubs [his] muzzle on the window-panes†(15, 16), passively lets â€Å"fall upon [his] back the soot that falls from chimneys†(19), â€Å"slides along the street†(24), and performs the actions also described; also, the opacity of â€Å"fog†and â€Å"smoke†symbolizes the difficulty with which readers perceive Prufrock’s true character, further separating ... ...ers/you make of them,†(37-9); Prufrock defines his misfortune by women, just as King Lear, also called â€Å"fool,†attributes his madness to women (his daughters). Reminiscent of Hamlet and Lear asking for the procreation of men like themselves to end , Prufrock thus speaks for all people like himself when he sentences those limited by inaction to death. Most likely intentional, the entire poem can be considered a metaphysical conceit designed to create pathos: Eliot uses the extended metaphor of Prufrock not acting, except mentally, and thus dying alone as the objective correlative for Prufrock’s anxiety of choice and consequent despair. Work Cited Eliot, T.S.. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1996. Pinion, F. B. A T.S. Eliot Companion. Totowa: Barnes & Noble Books, 1986.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Illegal Street Racing Essay -- essays research papers fc
One of the fastest growing sports in the world is racing. Racing in general can consist of many different types such as: Drag Racing, NASCAR, Indy, Motor Cross, Truck Rally. The topic of racing that I am chose was street racing. Street racing originated from drag racing on the quarter-mile strip. The concept of drag racing is when two racers in different cars would line up at a white line, and in the middle of the two cars would be a light post, called the Christmas tree for its red, yellow and green bulbs. The tree does what a stoplight does, except backwards, it starts from red, then to yellow, then to green. On the quarter-mile strip, when the light hits green, the two racers are supposed to try to go as fast as they can before the end of the quarter-mile, which would then set off a electronic board showing their electronic times (E.T.) and their speeds. As the sport of street racing began to boom around the early ‘90s, people couldn’t really afford to go to a legal track and race their cars, because of the price that it cost and the rules that they had. So there was a street track that was created on Terminal Island, called the Brotherhood Raceway. The Brotherhood Raceway or Brotherhood for short was basically a quarter-mile drag strip that was put down on a closed off street, where street racers could go and find out their quarter-mile times and speeds for the price of nothing. This was a quarter-mile drag strip to keep racers off of normal streets and highways. Around time of the mid-90s, the Brotherhood was then closed down, forcing street racers to take their racing to another legalized track, or to the streets and highways. People say that street racing is bad, illegal and dangerous to everyone. There is another side which thinks that street racing is ok, and safe. All street racers know that street racing is illegal and can be dangerous, but in their minds they will think they won’t hurt people around them but accidents do happen. When it comes to racing on streets, racers an open or deserted street and line two cars up, and basically race off of the line and see who stays ahead of the other person, this set-up is basically like racing on a drag strip, just without lights and tech and safety people around. There is a person that acts like the lighting tree, who stands in the middle, and is called the â€Å"flagger.†This person puts his/her arms up, ... ...he track. That is why my opinion stands that they should re-open the Brotherhood Raceway, so racers can go and be safe while doing what they do. Street racing is a dangerous sport, but it’s a life and love that people have and are not willing to give up. I believe that as long as racers do what they can to keep street racing, that it should be legal. It all racers do their part in trying to keep it safe and not dangerous, then I think the government or city or whoever, should give street racers respect and allow them a place to have fun and do what they do best. Works Cited Atwood, Kathy. â€Å"Red Flag For The Racing Crowd.†Hearld Net. 2 January 2002. 13      April 2002 . Brown, John, Adam Jensen, Pat Silla, David Wong. â€Å"Streetracing: On The Inside.†14 April      2002      . Fontana, Aaron M. â€Å"The Fast and the Furious.†Entertainment Today. 10 April      2002 .
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Comparing Confucianism and Daoism Essay
Philosophical Daoism and early Confucianism have very different views on the way we should live life. If I was to choose a path in life to follow it would be the Confucianist path. Confucianism is a lot more controlled then Daoism. Daoism focuses on wu-wei, which translated is non-action. Non-action means that the Daoists believe the best way to live life is to just go with the flow, and not interrupt the natural course of life. Looking at such perspectives on life only brings chaos to my mind, as a society with a â€Å"go with the flow†attitude could cause a lot of problems. Without rules, regulations, or rituals to follow I feel that people would take advantage of this and simply do whatever it is they wish to do. The Daoist text, Tao Te Ching, does not have specific rules to abide by. It preaches messages via stories on how to live, which are then interpreted into guidelines that the Daoists follow. On the contrary, in Confucianism we are exposed to a way to live in order to achieve the good that is within all of us. Confucius believed that society was naturally good, but he felt that the society was getting corrupted with bad morals that focused on money, profit, and power (Lecture notes November 1,2011). In order to achieve the human goodness that we all have within us, and that we had in the past, he offered his followers two different choices to follow. The first choice involved education, which was accomplished through the five classics; the second method was through simple observation, letting life educate you (Lecture notes, November 3,2011) . These strategies represent moral force rather than physical force, and they cultivate human goodness. Along with these two ideas on how to cultivate human goodness, Confucius strictly believed that ritual, Li, would be the key to achieving good manners. The Master said, So long as the ruler loves ritual, the people will be easy to handle. (14. 44)†(Course Reader 3, p. 335) Confucius regulated his people through the religious rituals, rules, and by enforcing education with the intention that it would help cure his people of the corruption they have endured. Unlike the Daoist path, Confucius clearly had a smart approach on how to handle the current political situation in his country, by assuming ritual would put an end to current conflicts. If people were to follow the Daoist perspective on life it would lead to many conflicts due to the lack of control on people’s actions. These conflicts could grow into a more serious war between people, simply causing more suffering, which is why I would choose the Confucianist path over the path of Daoism. Even though Daoism would seem to cause more problems in society, some aspects of the religion are advantageous. Most people in life do not like to be dictated, and told what to do. Unlike Confucius the Daoists believe that forcing an act, such as educating yourself, is unnatural. Confucius dictated his followers to persevere in education, and this is a possible demand that some may not have followed as it was an act they were told and forced to follow in order to cultivate human goodness. The Daoists believe that going against this natural flow in life takes more vital energy, making the Daoist religion somewhat more plausible then Confucianism(Lecture notes, November 17,2011). But, the freedom in the Daoist religion may also be displeasing when it is looked at as a disadvantage. In Daoism, there is no harsh judgement on morality, meaning there is no good or bad, or right and wrong. The impact of this belief is evident when observing drastic situations such as wars, murders, and robberies. If there is no good or bad, society would have no morals when making decisions. This has a detrimental effect on the Daoist religion because the decisions people make in life could lead to large conflicts and suffering among people when they are made lacking morality. Confucianism on the other hand, lacks answers when the topic of the after-life comes up. Confucius never seemed to talk about the after-life, nor would he have an answer for someone if they were to have asked him about it. Till you know about the living, how are you to know about the dead? (11. 11)†(Course Reader 3, p. 342). Confucius avoided this topic and focused on current life issues, as he wanted to fix the current problems in his country. He looked up to the Duke of Chou, who was a politician, rather than a higher spiritual figure. This shows Confucius’ political rather than religious strategy to fix current problems around him (Lecture notes, Novemeber 8 2011). Confucianism demonstrates a weakness to it’s beliefs because as human beings we want to feel secure, and are curious about the afterlife. By not having an answer to what happens when we die, and by not having any views on the after-life, Confucianism neglects certain questions we want answered. From another point of view, Confucianism gives us exactly what we need to do in order to achieve human goodness. Confucius proposed two methods to cultivate goodness, education and simple observation. Confucianism is regulated, and unlike Daoism which can lead to chaos and disorder among people, the Confucianist path if followed correctly can lead to human goodness. Mencius also believed in goodness, because he taught his followers that all human beings are born good. Mencius believed in good and bad, and he described good as sympathetic compassion. Sympathetic compassion is the inability of humans to bare the suffering of others. Mencius also taught his followers that through education they can develop sympathetic compassion (Lecture notes, November 3,2011). The idea of human goodness, and the stability of a regulated religion based on ritual is what makes Confucianism more favourable. Despite the pros and cons mentioned for each religion, Confucianism is the better alternative due to its safe qualities. By following Confucianism there would be less worries about war and conflicts occurring due to choices made with the lack of morality. Confucianism would direct people towards the right direction in life, by teaching the followers how to cultivate human goodness. By cultivating human goodness, the Confucianist society would only ameliorate themselves as people. The path of Confucianism would be a strong and supportive religion to follow that would contribute to contentment for it’s followers along with those around them.
Monday, September 16, 2019
“Chicano†Mexican-American Movement Essay
Chicano – a political term made popular in the sixties with the Chicano Civil Rights Movement which followed the example of the Black Civil Rights Movement. The people of the Movement adopted the word Chicano for themselves just as the African Americans had adopted Black. The Chicano Movement fought for all people of the Southwest of Mexican descendancy. These people included those whose ancestors had been citizens in the southwest when it was Mexico before the United States occupied it in 1848. These people became citizens by default with all rights guaranteed to them under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Chicano Movement also included three waves of immigrants from Mexico: those who migrated because they were escaping the Mexican Revolution between 1900 and 1914; those who came between World War I and 1930, mainly for economic reasons; and those who came between World War II and the 1960’s. Several of those who came in the 1940’s came with organized labor programs such as the Bracero Program and decided to stay, even if undocumented. The Chicano Movement and the Treaty of Gudalupe Hidalgo – After the United States won the Mexican American War the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was executed on February 2, 1848. Under the treaty, Mexico ceded to the United States a large area including, California, Arizona, New Mexico, parts of what we know today as Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming and Utah. The annexation of Texas was also approved. All the citizens who had resided in what had been Mexico were given one year to make a choice to remain in what was now the U. S. or go to what was now Mexico. It is estimated that 75,000 Mexicans decided to stay and became citizens of the U. S. by default. The treaty provided specific guarantees for the property and political rights of the â€Å"native†population and they were given the right to retain their language, religion and culture. Almost immediately, the treaty was broken and these people were treated like foreigners in their own land. When they lost their land, they lost their economic base, thus had to turn to wage labor to survive. They were subjected to great discrimination practices, as were the three waves of immigrants who came later. By the time World War II ended Chicanos were an oppressed people; poor, uneducated, with no political clout; and menial jobs with little hope for upward mobility. It was after the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 and after soldiers came back from World War II that the foundation for the Chicano Movement was built. The veterans and other concerned Chicanos refused to be treated like second class citizens. The groundwork was laid for the battle of equality for Chicanos. When the 1960’s came about Chicanos recognized that like the Blacks, they, too, had a cause and initially emulated the Black Civil Rights Movement. Scholars consider the year 1943 as the beginning of an new period of Mexican American history and culture. When the so-called Zoot Suit Riots occurred in the Los Angeles area it marked a stage in the cultural development of the Mexican American in which there was a consciousness of not belonging to either Mexico or the United States and an effort to assert a separate independent identity. It introduced the Pachucos, young Mexican-American young men who were not accepted in their schools, nor at home. They sought their own identity. Also after World War II Mexican American veterans who had fought and died side by side with their other American counterparts now felt they had earned their rights and were ready to participate equitably. Thus the quest for identity in modern American society was initiated and by the 1960’s a younger generation made up of the children of the veterans took up the pursuit of democracy and equity in the Civil Rights Movement and explored the question of identity in all the arts. There had been very little Chicano Literature in the past so the 60s was considered a Chicano Renaissance. Hispanic – an umbrella term that reduces groups of people into the lowest common denominator of Spanish speaking peoples. This can be people who speak Spanish or whose ancestors spoke Spanish and includes, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans and other ethnic groups. It is a most unfair label because it denies the different histories, and dilutes the importance of each different culture by lumping them all under one umbrella. The term was given by the government during the Nixon administration. Mestizo – for the scope of this class half-Spanish, half-Indian. When the conquistadores arrived in the Americas miscegenation took place between the Spaniards and the Indigenous women, thus produced a new race, the Mestizo, a mixture of Caucasian and Indian. Much of Chicano Literature is based on Indian folklore. The Mestizo is an element in Mexican American Studies  meaning both the Indian and Spanish side of the Chicano. Therefore we will be studying literature that takes us back to ancient Mexico and Spain and brings elements of both cultures to produce Chicano literature. I am Joaquin, written by Rodolfo â€Å"Corky†Gonzales in the 1960’s elaborated a version of cultural nationalism that would typify what is called Movement Poetry. It was Mexican American history all wrapped up into one poem. It was monumental because up until then there had been very little written about the Chicano. When something was written, it was usually derogatory or stereotypical. It stands alone as an epic poem of the Chicano Movement. A new breed of writers were born because of the Chicano Movement. Their writings were related to a political and social movement. They wrote about cultural identification with the Mexican American heritage within the general framework of American society. It became the most intense expression of the creative spirit of the movement. It first saw the light in print in angry journals or newspapers such as El Grito Magazine or El Gallo Newspaper. There were many. The writing was cause writing, not just literary. It was also inspirational. The first Chicano writers of Chicano Literature in the 60’s committed their literary vices to the political economic and educational struggles. Their works were often inspirational and read at organizational meetings, boycotts and before protest marches. The first Chicano poets included: Abelardo â€Å"Lalo†Delgado; Ricardo Sanchez and Alurista (Alberto Urista). Alurista coined the term Aztlan as the Chicano homeland. It gave Chicanos a sense of place. Aztlan had been the mythical homeland of the Aztecs which was north from Mexico, probably somewhere in the southwest United States. In 1967 appeared the most influential Chicano Literary Magazine, El Gallo, initiating the publishing house El Quinto Sol (The Fifth Sun). El Quinto Sol emphasized the Chicano culture, language, themes and styles and a Mexica/Aztec identity and promoted the Spanish Language. The fifth sun referred to the Aztec belief in a period of cultural flowering that would take place some time in the future, in a fifth age that coincided with the rise of the Chicano movement. One of the first books published by Quinto Sol was an anthology in 1986, El Espejo/The Mirror, edited by Dr. Octavio Romano Paz and Herminio Rios. In 1970 El Quinto Sol instituted a national award for Chicano Literature, Premio Quinto Sol (Fifth Sun Award) which gave the winner $1000 and published their winning manuscript.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Why is there unequal division of household labour in most of the society?
In this article, we address the division of household labour by examining its general situation and exploring different approaches used by different sociologist to account for it. The five approaches are namely exchange theory, resource theory, Marxist feminist theory, radical feminist theory and social construction theory will be discussed. With the evidence of previous researches, the situation of division of household labour is explored and evaluated in terms of its degree of gender inequality as manifested. In the second part, the situation is being accounted by those five approaches so as to determine whether the situation can be altered. Household labour can be defined in a variety of ways, however, in this article, we acquire those employed by Shelton (1996), that is defined as unpaid work done to maintain family member and/ or a home, which, emotion work and other â€Å"invisible†types of work are typically excluded. Meanwhile, it is a job described as monotonous, fragmented, with low status not being treated as a â€Å"real†work, bring no financial remuneration, isolated with inherent time limits, and often received no recognition Oakley (Morris 1990:81). Since mid 1960s, researches on comparing the division of household labour between men and women has been mounting, it is not only due to the great impact of household labour on the family life of contemporary married couple, but also due to its implication of gender equality in the society to certain extend. In this article, we address this issue by examining its general situation and exploring different approaches used by different sociologist to account for it. Through this process, it is hoping to find out the most comprehensive approach so as to determine whether the situation can be altered. A great amount of researches on the division of household labour have evidenced that women share the majority of the housework with especially the responsibility for regular, routine repetitive and childcare related housework. While for men, they are more likely to perform non-routine tasks. For instance, from Chu's research on the household distribution between women and men in Hong Kong (1997) revealed that â€Å"wife alone†occupies the largest share in taking up the actual responsibility of all the regular housework such as foodstuff buying, meal making, dish washing and house cleaning. etc.. Whereas, husband's involvement is limited on those irregular tasks such as car washing, bill recording and maintaining and repairing household apparatus. He also find that more than one quarter of the 230 interviewed households rely entirely on wives alone to do eight items of housework. One may doubt the situation in western countries. Would the westernized value system decrease the discrepancy in the household division of labour? This is clarified by numerous researches done in UK and US recently, which suggest that the â€Å"traditional allocation of domestic work to the woman hold firm†(Morris, 1990:86). Martin and Roberts echoed with the above conclusion by reporting that 73 percent of wives and 72 percent of husbands said that most of the wife did most or all of the housework. Though, the percent decrease when the wife is in employment, yet, majority said that wife did majority of the housework. Abbott & Wallace, 1997). From all these findings, we can conclude that the most notable characteristic of the current division of household labour is that whether employed or not, women continue to do the majority of housework. This pattern should never be ignored since as pointed out by several sociologists that the women's rare continuous full-time careers or small labour-market participation are greatly affected by their family responsibilities especially the existence of dependent children (Abbott & Wallace, 1997). The family responsibilities born by women despite their employment status create a dual role for them and the effects have been conceptualized by Morris in terms of â€Å"role strain†. She proposed that â€Å"it is manifest as a ‘wide', distracting and sometimes conflicting array of role obligations†(1990:94) where the source of strain comes from the accumulation of roles and their contradictory, incompatible role expectations or from the competing demanding for time and attention. This result in overload of total demands on time and energy for women in general and may turn employment from a mean of offering positive social and psychological rewards and a major contributing factor to women's increased liberation and independence (Pearson, 1990), to a stress for women. The tension for women between career and family is therefore is due to the unequal household distribution in the family on one hand. The inequality in power, status and wealth between men and women on the other hand is another reflection from the household distribution. However, what contribute to this pattern of household labour division? In the following, we explore five approaches in accounting this situation and concluding if it is possible for the unequal situation to be altered. The five approaches are namely exchange theory, resource theory, Marxist feminist theory, radical feminist theory and social construction theory. â€Å"Exchange theory with a view to examining family cohesion from the perspective of reciprocity and the exchange of rights and duties between husband and wife†(Morris, 1990:82). It sees marital satisfaction such as companionship, empathy and affection was attained from the instrumental exchange between economic provision and domestic labour from husband and wife respectively. From this approach, we can get inference that men spend more time in paid work while women spend more time in domestic work as they are naturally assigned to. Therefore, it fails to take account of differential power within marriage and of social status outside the marriage. That is it cannot explain why there is such exchange pattern, why man as a breadwinner and women as a housekeeper? Resource theory, an alternative approach may provide some explanation for it. It is proposed by Blood and Wolfe in 1959 (see Morris 1990) who applied the idea of differential control of valued resources and elaborated its application to the organization of household labour. This approach sees the division of housework as reflecting resources men and women bring to relationships. The possible critical resources proposed are the educational attainment, occupational prestige and the amount of earning from labour market. It formulated that the more powerful spouses do least household labour and that if the wife does most household labour it is because she wields least power. In other words, the individual with most resources can use those resources to negotiate his/her way out of housework (Brines 1993: quoted from Shelton & John 1996:304). Thus this approach assumes that housework is viewed negatively by both women and men and that they are therefore motivated to reduced their share of it. So, in this approach, division of household labour is actually an indicator of power and through which, we can understand the specific negotiations and decisions arrived at by individual couples in the organization of domestic life. Blood and Wolfe continue to argue that base on cross-cultural comparison, husband's relatively low contribution to domestic labour is not ideologically based but a result of rational resources distribution. In other words, the man has strength in the labour market and the women have time. Nonetheless, this approach have not addressed why men has more strength in the work field with higher educational attainment, higher earning and higher occupational prestige. According to above two approaches, division of household labour should be more equally shared with recent growth of married women's employment as well as the release of many men from the rigours the occupational system by unemployment, when, women are provided with chances to gain more resources and independence. Young and Willmott (1973; Quoted from Morris, 1990) proposed that the middle classes were at the forefront of a move towards symmetricality in marriage in which the role of husband and wife will become more identical. Wong stand in the same line with Young and Willmott stated that industrialization has substantially increased employment opportunities for women and as a result, has significantly advanced their position within the family. He observed that the wife's paid employment has contributed to much greater equality between spouses, in sharing of household duties and in decision-making (Leung, 1996). However, hitherto tasks of wage and earning and domestic labour are still largely segregated. Many researches can only give little evidence of male unemployment leading to major responsibility for domestic work, nor even to their taking an equal share. It is because most of the researches which asserted male have participated more in domestic labour are actually based on proportional sense but not absolute sense (Morris, 1990; Chu, 1997). In this sense, the proportion of man's contribution rises with the wife's employment is only due to her own household labour time falls rather than to his rise. This kind of â€Å"cutting back†or the kind of â€Å"role expansion†as mentioned above is not a real reappointment of household labour. The following three approaches can provide a more in depth explanation to account for such persistent pattern of unequal household division pattern between men and women. The emergence of capitalism with the related rise of mercantilism, industrialization, and a cash-based economy, eroded the position of women by shifting the centre of production form the domestic until to the public workplace. This separation not only devalued women's labour in the home, but it also made women more economically dependent on men†(Tilly and Scott, 1978; quoted from Anderson, 1997). This view of devaluation in women's status is clearly linked to the raise of industrialization and capitali sm. It is claimed that industrialization make the home became separated from the place of work and gradually women became associated with the domestic sphere, while men with public sphere, earning a wage and participating in politics. Then capitalist benefited from this segregation in domestic and earning labour as â€Å"women's domestic labour reproduce the relations of production and also contributes to the maintenance of tolerable living standards for men and may reduce political pressure for radical change†(Abbott & Wallace, 1997:201). From this approach, the division of domestic labour is related to the sexual division of labour in paid employment and this is why Marxist feminists derived women's oppression from capitalism. It is this benefit for the capitalist help keeping the division of domestic labour in a way that trapped women in the domestic sphere by decreasing women from opportunity of promotion and high earning. This view set out to analyze the situation not simply the relationship between domestic labour and the capitalist system, but also queries the nature of the relationship between paid worker and the domestic worker. Nonetheless, as Morris pointed out, once we take the feminine nature of the domestic role as our starting point then the focus of analysis need to be directed from an exploration of the relationship between capitalism, waged labour and domestic labour, to a focus on the nature of the male-female relationship (1990:83). This change of emphasis leads us to the post hold by radical feminist, which holds that the sources of women's oppression and domination at unpaid labourers is not capitalism but patriarchy that is â€Å"a system of values that asserts and maintains man's dominant position in society†(Morris, 1990:83). Abbott and Wallace also proposed that it is men's control over financial resources that gives them power in marriage and makes it difficult for a wife to be independent from her husband. Radical feminist argue that patriarchy in the patriarchal mode of production existed long before the development of capitalism. Yet, the line between patriarchy and capitalism is ambiguous as they are both historically induced from industrialization, in which separation of paid and unpaid work, and development of the role of â€Å"housewife†is evoked. This in turn developed capitalism and patriarchy intertwiningly. The picture provided by capitalism and patriarchy for domestic labour distribution is not complete if we did not take social construction theory into account. It explain why the above two ideologies about the economic structure and men respectively can have a spiral effect in the society. Sociologists who regard gender as social construction (Fenstermaker et al, 1991, Lorber 1986; quoted from Shelton & John, 1996) argue that housework produces both household goods and services and gender. It is pointed out that women's time spent on housework and men's general avoidance of it produce and transform gender. Therefore, researches find out that women and men may view their housework as expression of their gender and that women's attempt to think of housework as nurturance and love rather than work. This social construction of gender is a product out of the two ideologies as evidenced from institutional and normative forces and the cultural message about the role of male and female. As mentioned before, capitalism and patriarchy exploited women by depriving them to get as much power and status as men. When this is widespread and progress to become a social norm which in turn rooted into people's mind and constructed an ideology of gender, a vicious cycle may be resulted. For instance, they employers assume that motherhood is more central to women's lives than in career and the limited job opportunities and the low pay that the women receive may actually push them into marriage and motherhood. Women are then described to be trapped into the domestic sphere in an extreme sense as early socialization in the family, schooling, presentation of women's role in mass media and the structure mode in society all promote the unbalance share of domestic household. This approach can account for findings about the conservative gender role held by most of women even nowadays. It is found that a few women believed their husband were not doing enough and majority did not expect their husbands to share household responsibilities equally (Yogev, 1981: quoted from Morris, 1990:101). Undoubtedly, women's right and status are increasing with more voices against gender inequality. Yet, whether the trend of more and more obligation for a married women to became a working wife or working mother can attenuate the role specialization within the conjugal setting, depends much on the how they perceive housework and how they define fairness in the household. From the five theories discussed above, we can concluded that household labour division is inevitably a manifestation of gender inequality, while exchange theory and resources theory explain the situation with the most salient phenomenon such as material and resources allocation between men and women, Marxist feminist theory, radical feminist theory and social construction theory use a relatively more thorough approach to account for it. Therefore, we can speculated that in order to breakthrough the long-drawn practice of unequal division of household labour, women should firstly be conscious that equal share of domestic household with men is a right that is reasonable for them to pursue and secondly she has to undergo the struggle induced from the rooted cultural predisposition on the role as being a women, that is a mother and a wife. Otherwise, the spiral effect caused by capitalism, patriarchy and social construction will resist the division of household labour to change.
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