Qualitative Research in management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Qualitative Research in management - Essay Example This paper will begin with An Overview of Qualitative Research. There are generally two types of researches i-e., quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative research is structured methods aiming at quantifying the data using the statistical method. They designed to prove reliability, generalizability, and objectivity. Qualitative research on the other hand, is unstructured methods seeking to give insights and understanding of problems. These two types of research are based on different concept. For instance, qualitative research is based on social sciences trying to understand and explain behaviors in particular situations while quantitative research evolved in natural since seeking to find commonly laws, which show the relationship of cause and effect. Qualitative research is a method of social study that focuses on how people think, live, and behaves. It is used in different academic disciplines as well as in social science. In addition, it is also used to gain a depth und erstanding of people attitudes, culture, feelings, values and interests and their social reality as individuals or groups. Marshall and Rossman define qualitative research as â€Å"a form of social inquiry that focuses on the way people interpret and make sense of their experiences and the world in which they live. The decision to use qualitative or quantitative research depends on the nature of issue under investigation. For example, if research aims to investigate the effect of credit supply shocks on firms financial and investment decision, then quantitative research would be more appropriate.... Marshall and Rossman (1998) define qualitative research as â€Å"a form of social inquiry that focuses on the way people interpret and make sense of their experiences and the world in which they live. The decision to use qualitative or quantitative research depends on the nature of issue under investigation. For example, if research aims to investigate the effect of credit supply shocks on firms financial and investment decision, then quantitative research would be more appropriate. However, if the objective were to explore how people respond to government announcement of cutting jobs, then qualitative research would be the best in that case. Therefore, the question of which approach is good for the study depend on the nature of the subject. Although both qualitative and quantitative research has advantages and disadvantages but qualitative research is believed to provide very rich data for analysis. The study by Punch (2005) highlights that qualitative research has advantages of be ing explorative in nature. It is because it allows researchers to explore new ideas, concepts and get new insights. There is also consensus among researchers that it helps in gathering the data in natural and reliable setting, which is not possible in quantitative research. In addition, as qualitative research focus on individuals, group etc., therefore, it helps to gain detailed and complex information about the phenomena under study. It may be because of these advantages that lead researchers to pursue qualitative research especially in social science or when the subject of study is human being (Mack et al, 2005). As mentioned earlier, that qualitative research

Whether China's banking system should integration with the world Essay

Whether China's banking system should integration with the world - Essay Example The capital markets of china are also not accessed much by international investors for gaining profits. The lack integration of the Chinese economy with the world needs to be understood from the view point of the commercial and domestic interests of the nation individually. The priority of the Chinese economy in the past years has not been to be a part of the global economy, instead the focus has remained upon achieving growth and stability, while radically restructuring the overall economy and its sectors. The nation has directed its economic efforts towards developing adequate job opportunities and to be able to absorb layoffs. China’s labour market is quite large in size. The target of the economy has always been to provide adequate level of employment opportunities and maintain the stability of the economy. China has been successful in meeting these challenges adequately. The nation has been able to achieve economic growth of 10% annually. Market forces have been made free and to be able to promote efficiency. Privatization also had facilitated in the rapid restructuring of the economy. Integrating the Chinese economy with the world economy has therefore not been a high priority as China was able to maintain its stability. However, the maturity of the Chinese economy has however made it essential for it to participate in the global economy and sustain its growth. Moreover the Chinese economy possess as an important economic opportunity (Turner, Tan and Sadeghian, 2012). China plays a vital role in the global financial regulatory framework. The nation is a member of the G-20 Financial Services Board and the Basel committee. The Chinese banks and financial institutions have decided to implement the Basel III standards in respect of international bank capital standards from the year 2013 onwards (Lieberthal and Lieberthal, 2003). The implementation has already begun depicting efficient management of financial resources. The

Case study: Behavioral Appearance Behavioral Appearance

Case study: Behavioral Appearance Behavioral Appearance To those who find themselves in contact with schizotypal individuals they often range appearing eccentric and aberrant to outright bizarre in their actions. Their behavior is clearly erratic. School and employment histories of these individuals show marked deficits and irregularities. Not only are they frequent dropouts, but they drift from one source of employment to another. If married, they are often separated or divorced. At times, their behavior appears eccentric, that is, they prefer social isolation and may engage in activities that other find curious. In more severe cases, their behavior may seem clearly bizarre. The presence of odd speech patterns is an example. Schizotypal individuals may verbally digress or become metaphorical in their expressions. According to the DSM-III, Often, speech shows marked peculiarities; concepts may be expressed unclearly or oddly or words used deviantly, but never to the point of loosening of associations or incoherence (American Psychiatric Association, 1980, p. 312) Interpersonal Conduct Interpersonally, schizotypals experience a life of isolation, with minimal personal attachment and obligations. As their lives progress it is not uncommon to find these individuals drifting into increasingly superficial and peripheral social and vocational roles. These individuals have virtually no close friends or confidants. They have great difficulty with face-to-face interaction. They commonly experience intense social anxiety at relatively minimal social challenge. For these reasons, we believe the interpersonal conduct of schizotypals may be categorized as ranging from being interpersonal detacted and secretive to inaccessible. Cognitive Style The cognitive style of schizotypal individuals may be ruminative and autistic in less severe variations to blatantly deranged in more severe forms of the disorder. The cognitive slippage and interference that characterize the thought processes of this disorder in its milder forms are simply amplified here. Schizotypals are frequently unable to orient their thoughts logically. They tend to become lost in a plethora of irrelevancies. Their thinking appears scattered and autistic as the disorder manifests itself in its more severe variations. According to the DSM-III, these individuals may report magical thinking (i.e., clairvoyance, telepathy, a sixth sense, or just extreme superstitious behavior). Similarly schizotypals may experience recurrent illusions where they report the presence of a person or force not actually there. Psychotic thought, when it does occur, is transient and not indicative of a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Affective Expression The deficient or disharmonious affect of many of these patients deprives them of the capacity to relate to people, places, or things as anything but flat and lifeless phenomena. Their affective expression ranges from being apathetic to insentient and deadened. On the other hand, some schizotypal individuals seem in a constant state of agitation. Their affective expression ranges from being apprehensive, perhaps even frantic in their affective expression. We will present more on these clinical variations later. Self-Perception Schizotypal individuals often view themselves as forlorn and lacking meaning in life or, in more severe cases, on introspection, they may see themselves as vacant. They may experience recurrent feelings of emptiness or of estrangement. Experiences of depersonalization and dissociation may also be present in these patients. In sum, schizotypals appear virtually self-less as they look inward towards self-appraisal. Primary Defense Mechanism The schizotypal personality disorder is characterized by extreme social and affective isolation as well as autistic and bizarre cognitive functioning. The defense mechanism commonly used by individuals who possess this disorder is undoing. Undoing is a self-purification mechanism in which individuals attempt to repent for some undesirable behavior or evil motive. In effect, undoing represents a form of atonement. In severly pathological forms, undoing may take the form of complex and bizarre rituals, or magical acts. These rituals, such as compulsive hand washing, are designed to cleanse or purify the individual. These compulsions not only cause these individuals discomfort, but they may also consciously recognize them as absurd. Nevertheless, individuals employing such a mechanism appear to have lost the ability to control these acts as well as the ability to see their real meaning. Differential Personality Diagnosis The schizotypal personality disorder is likely to be confused with another severe personality disorder, the borderline disorder. Both the schizotypal and the borderline patterns represent severe personality disorder. Furthermore, according to the present biosocial learning theory, they both emerge when the less severe personality variants decompensate. Yet, there are marked differences in these two disorders. The schizotypal disorder features schizophrenic-like symptoms. These symptoms reflect disturbances in cognitive processes. Thus, the schizotypal is characterized by perceptual pathology as well as social withdrawal and isolation. The most obvious feature of the borderline disorder, on the other hand, is instability of mood. The symptoms of the borderline reflect disturbances in affect rather than cognitive. Finally, the borderline individual is interpersonally dependent, unlike the socially isolated schizotypal. A final note should be made regarding the schizotypal disorder in contrast to the Axiz I schizophrenic disorders. Axis I disorders are characteristically more severe and of relatively shorter duration. The Axis II schizotypal disorder represents the operation of internal, ingrained, and more enduring defects in the patients personality. Although schizophrenic episodes often reflect a psychosocial stressor, the schizotypal disorder represents an underlying and persistent characterological pattern. CLINICAL VARIATIONS The description of the schizotypal personality disorder presented in the previous section portrays the generic aspects of this disorder. It is more common, however, to see the schizotypal pattern manifest itself in one of two major variations. The two major clinical variations of the schizotypal disorder are (1) the schizotypal-schizoid pattern and (2) the schizotypal-avoidant pattern. Schizotypal-Schizoid Variation Schizotypal-schizoid individuals are characteristically drab, sluggish, and inexpressive. They display a marked deficit in their affective expression and appear bland, untroubled, indifferent, and unmotivated by the outside world. Their cognitive processes seem obscure and vague. Such individuals seem unable to experience the subtle emotional aspects of social exchange. Interpersonal communications are often vague and confused. The speech pattern of these individuals tend to be monotonous, listless, or at times, inaudible. Most people consider these individuals as strange, curious, aloof, and lethargic. In effect, they become background people satisfied to live their lives in an isolated, secluded manner. Case 11.1 portrays such an individual. Schizotypal-Avoidant Variation Schizotypal-avoidant individuals are restrained and isolated. Similarly, they are apprehensive, guarded, and interpersonally withdrawing. As a protective device, they seek to eliminate their own desires and feeling for interpersonal affiliation, for they expect only rejection and pain from interacting with others. Thus, apathy, indifference, and impoverished thought, which we saw in the cognitive and affective insensitivity, is presented here as a result of an attempt to dampen an intrinsic oversensitivity. The case of Harold T. is a study of a schizotypal-avoidant individual. SELF-PERPETUATION OF THE SCHIZOTYPAL PERSONALITY DISORDER The prognosis for the schizotypal personality disorder is perhaps the least promising of all the personality disorder discussed in this text. Let us examine why. The self-perpetuating spiral of deterioration that occurs in the schizotypal disorder is fostered by three major factors: (1) social isolation, (2) dependency training, and (3) self-insulation. Social Isolation Individuals who possess the schizotypal disorder are often segregated from social contact. They are kept at home or hospitalized with minimal encouragement to progress on a social basic. Social isolation such as this serves not to perpetuate the difficulties these individuals have with cognitive organization and social skills, but also serves to worsen the status of both. In many instances, the social isolation seems to stimulate a regression on the part of these individuals. They will tend to lose what cognitive and social abilities they may have had before the isolation. Jane W. was clearly capable of returning to society if she had been provided adequate social support. Without such support, the only option was to keep her institutionalized. Dependency Training Often found in conjunction with social isolation is the tendency on the part of those around schizotypal individuals to be overly protective. They will tend to patronize or coddle them. Such overprotection tends to reinforce dependent behavior on the part of the schizotypal. According to Millon (1981), Prolonged guidance and shielding of this kind may lead to a progressive impoverishment of competencies and self-motivation, and result in a total helplessness. Under such ostensibly good regimens, schizotypals will be reinforced to learn dependency and apathy (p. 427). Self-Insulation Finally, not only through mismanagement and neglect will the schizotypal disorder be perpetuated, but also through the tendency of these individuals to insulate themselves from outside stimulation. As we described earlier, to protect themselves from painful humiliation, rejection, or excessive demands, schizotypals have learned to withdraw from reality and disengage themselves from social life. Even though exposed to active social opportunities, most of these individuals will participate only reluctantly. They prefer to keep to themselves-to withdraw. Without active social relationships, these individuals will simply recede further into social isolation, apathy, and dependency. Thus, the disorder is perpetuated. The case of Harold T. demonstrates a condition in which his ability to insulate himself has served as an effective barrier to rehabilitation. His apathy, lack of verbal communication, and habit of drawing strange and religiouslike pictures has effectively insulated him from other and has removed any hope of improvement for almost 10 years. So, in summary, we see that through social isolation, dependency training, and self-insulation, the schizotypal disorder is perpetuated. Although the motives for socially isolating and overprotecting these individuals are usually good, that is, with best interests of the patient in mind, the tactics are actually counterproductive for they deprive the patients of the opportunity to develop social skills while reinforcing dependency. The schizotypals own tendency to insulate himself/herself from social contact serves to exacerbate the disorder even further. Such self-insulation serves to foster and further perpetuate the spiral of cognitive and social deterioration that typifies the schizotypal disorder. Schizotypal Personality Disorder DSM-IV Criteria A pervasive pattern of social and interpersonal deficits marked by acute discomfort with, and reduced capacity for, close relationships as well as by cognitive or perceptual distortions and accentricities of behavior, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following: Ideas of reference (excluding delusions of reference) Odd beliefs or magical thinking that influences behavior and is inconsistent with subcultural norms (e.g., superstitiousness, belief in clairvoyance, telepathy, or sixth sense; in children and adolescents, bizarre fantasies or preoccupations) Unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions Odd thinking and speech (e.g., vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, overelaborate, or stereotyped) Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation Inappropriate or constricted affect Behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric, or peculiar Lack of close friends or confidants other than first-degree relatives Excessive social anxiety that does not diminish with familiarity and tends to be associated with paranoid fears rather than negative judgments about self Reproduced with permission from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. Copyright 1994 American Psychiatric Association. Therapy The schizotypal is perhaps one of the easiest personality disorders to identify but one of the most difficult to treat with psychotherapy. The thought disorder and accompanying paranoid ideation work to distort communication between therapist and client and inhibit the formation of a trusting therapeutic alliance. Moreover, because schizotypals are inherently isolative and nonrelational, the therapist may sometimes be experienced as an intrusive presence. Because the alliance is the very foundation of therapy, medication is often needed before lasting progress can be made, especially with subjects who express the disorder severely. THERAPEUTIC TRAPS The expectations of the therapist and their influence on therapy are particularly important and may require careful monitoring. Most schizotypals initially see the therapist as attacking or humiliating (Benjamin, 1996). As anxiety increases, they may retreat further behind a curtain of disordered communication as a means of shielding themselves and confusing the intruder. Occasional retreats are universal. Therapists who become vexed when greeted with silence and emotional distancing only create an atmosphere that justifies such a reaction. Instead, the need for distance must be respected, without conveying feelings of disapproval or inducing guilt, to which many subjects are especially sensitive. Not pushing too hard or too fast can prevent severe anxiety and paranoid reactions. Extraordinary patience may be required because schizotypals repeatedly misperceive aspects of the therapeutic relationship and then act on these misperceptions. Subjects who believe they have privileged access to information beyond the five senses sometimes apply their extrasensory powers to therapy and the therapist, believing that they can read the therapists mind or arrive at conclusions about what the therapist secretly desires on the basic of tangential or irrelevant cues. Accordingly, communication should be simple, straightforward, shorn of psychological jargon, and require a minimm of inference. Schizotypals find it difficult enough to bring order to their own thoughts, much less penetrate ambiguities and double messages carelessly introduced by others. The concrete is to be preferred over the poetic because the latter is naturally rich in connotations, which play havoc with schizotypal cognition. Special attention to the countertransference is in order, for unconscious feelings emitted by the therapist bring an unknown complexity to communication and are especially likely to be misconstrued by subjects. STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES What can be done in therapy often depends on the extent to which the thought disorder intrinsic to the syndrome can be controlled. Otherwise, every aspect of therapy becomes more complicated. Further, the appropriate goals and strategies for any particular subject depend on whether his or her symptoms most resemble an exaggerated schizoid pattern, an exaggerated avoidant pattern, or a mixture of the two. Strategies and techniques appropriate for the dominant underlying personality disorder can be used to supplement the primary goals of treating the schizotypal pattern (refer to the appropriate chapter). Establishing a more normal pattern of interpersonal relationships is a primary goal of therapy. Social isolation intensifies cognitive deficits and allows social skills to atrophy. Contatc with a therapist can prevent further deterioration. Because patterns of disordered family communication typify the early developmental environment of these subjects, therapy offers the chance for a novel, corrective interpersonal relationship through steady support and euthenticity. Accordingly, as emphasized by Benjamin (1996), the basic skills of humanistic therapy, including accurate empathy, mirroring, and unconditional positive regard, become particularly important. Benjamin states that the therapeutic alliance may represent a chance to experience a nonexploitive protectiveness, one that eventually permits the schizotypal to give up management of the universe by magical means (p. 360). After an alliance has been established, subject can be encouraged to voice distortions of reality as they occur, and these can be discussed in the context of the therapeutic relationship. Benjamin (1996) further stresses that many schizotypals are likely to belive that harm may come to the therapist through their association. As such ideas are voiced, they can be tested realistically and tactfully refuted. In general, interpersonal therapy should enhance subjects sense of self-worth and encourage the realization of positive attributes, an important step in defeating detachment, rebuilding motivation, and providing confidence necessary to take the first steps toward constructive social encounters outside therapy. Because schizotypals have difficulty sorting the relevant and irrelevant in interpersonal relationships, therapists may find that much of their time is spent helping the schizotypal test interpersonal reality and gain perspective on which behaviors might be appropriate in whatever situations are current in the subjects life. Repeated discussions of essentially similar situations may be necessary, as many schizotypals fail to realize that these are but variatio ns on a theme. Basic social skills training are often helpful. Modeling behaviors provides an example that even concrete subjects can imitate. The ability to appraise interpersonal realities appropriately is an important step in decreasing social anxiety and accompanying paranoid symptoms while creating a capacity for appropriate affect and a sense of reward. From a cognitive perspective, psychotherapy must adapt to the schizotypals limited attentional resources and tendency to intrude tangential factors. Because many schizotypals are either overly concrete or overly abstract, learning may be generalized to other settings and situations only with great difficulty. Simplicity and structure help prevent the lessons of therapy from being obscured by the discombobulating effects of thought disorder. Furthermore, cognitive techniques allow the content of thought to be identified and eventually modified. This suggests that the combination of medication and cognitive therapy should be particularly effective. Writing in Beck et al. (1990), Ottaviani indicates that the first step is to identity characteristic automatic thoughts, such as, I am a nonbeing, as well as patterns of emotional reasoning and personalization, reviewed previously. Moreover, she suggests that assumptions underlying social interaction present an especially profitable avenue for change, as schizotypals usually believe that other dislike them. Subjects must be taught to act as naÃÆ'Â ¯ve scientists and test their thoughts against the evidence. Feelings do not make facts; instead, each cognition is a hypothesis and should be disregarded if found inconsistent with the objective evidence. Even bizarre thoughts can be dealt with in this way. The thought, I am leaving my body, for example, can be countered with prepared countercognitions: There I go again. Even though Im thinking this thought, it doesnt mean that its true (p. 141) Because an effective grasp of objective reality is the Catch-22 of the cognitive approach, Ottaviani further suggests that schizotypals also be taught methods for gathering contrary evidence. Subjects can list evidence inconsistent with their predictions, for example. Going beyond content, cognitive style interventions can also be made. Rambling can be countered by requests for summary statements, and global statements can be countered by asking for elaboration. Finally, where subjects are not too paranoid or bizarre, group settings can be used to practice social functioning and provide feedback about distorted cognitions. Because classical psychodynamic therapy is inherently unstructured, its use is probably not advised. As noted by Stone (1985), the purpose of psychodynamic therapy should be to internalize the therapeutic alliance. Because the early home environment of most schizotypals is likely to feature fragmented and chaotic communications, the ego boundaries of the schizotypal subject are only poorly developed. The interpretation of conflict not only disregards their desire for distance but also plays into their fear of engulfment. Accordingly, silence should be accepted as a legitimate part of the personality (Gabbard, 1994). Once this acceptance is felt, the subject may then begin to reveal hidden aspects of the self that can be adaptively integrated. Analytic procedures such as free association, the neutral attitude of the therapist, and the focus on dreams may foster an increase in autistic reveries and social withdrawal. Probably the most useful analytic suggestion comes from Rado (1959), who suggests that identifying and capitalizing on some source of pleasure, however small, is a superordinate therapeutic goal. Motivation develops from the capacity for pleasure, and ultimately, only this can balance the painful emotions, attach the schizotypal to the real world, and prevent the dissolution of the self and cognitive disintegration that results from autistic withdrawal.

Casino Development in Massachusetts Essay -- Casinos Gambling Governme

Casino Development in Massachusetts The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is in trouble. As the Big Dig gets closer to completion and the unemployment rate rises in the state, what are lawmakers doing to help boost the economy and close the deficit? Heading into the fiscal year 2005, Massachusetts is facing a record deficit of close to two billion dollars. Lawmakers on Beacon Hill are scrambling for solutions, but seem to be coming up empty handed. With the elections drawing nearer and nearer, and local state contenders vying for seats in the state congress getting more competitive with one another, what can Massachusetts do about this economic crisis. A number of legislators from Massachusetts seem to have a solution to help Massachusetts out of this rut, and boost the struggling economy and job market. That solution is the introduction of legalized gambling and casinos to the state of Massachusetts. The legalization of casinos in Massachusetts would provide the state huge tax profits, provide thousands of jobs to a strug gling market, help boost the states lagging tourism sector, drive local business upwards through millions of new visitors each year, and provide everyone (tourists & local citizens) with quality entertainment. Throughout the twentieth century, legalized gambling has become an excellent source of entertainment. Proponents of gambling argue that casinos provide an outstanding source for job opportunities, direct revenue to state and local governments through taxes and fees, and increased tourism in the surrounding areas. Opponents of the controversial gambling topic focus on the attraction of an unwanted crowd, increased crime rate, and traffic congestion on state and local roadways. Both United States citizens and foreign tourists who want to experience the glitz and glamour of gambling can travel to remarkable Las Vegas or Atlantic City. For many years, Nevada and New Jersey were the headquarters of gambling in North America. However, the corporate gambling world got a facelift on February 15, 1992, when a new casino opened in the New England area that would change the entire legalized gambling world forever. This casino would become the most â€Å"fantastic† gambling venue in the w orld. A Whole New Ballgame Foxwoods Resort and Casino, developed by the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Nation, has grown from a small casino to the largest casino i... ... Gives information regarding recent votes and recent legislative moves that directly effect the gaming movement. Van Voorhis, Scott (2004). Gambling biz betting change is for better. Boston Herald. http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=46327ain Discusses recent moves by Thomas Finneran (Fmr. Speaker of the House), which has a major effect on the issue at hand. References (cont.) Gambling Magazine Online. (2003) (http://www.gamblingmagazine.com/managearticle.asp?C=280&A=8441 ) Discusses spending that is happening in Massachusetts to help push casinos to the state. http://www.foxwoods.com Gives General information regarding the casino itself, facilities, and services. Used for a variety of data and information. The Center for Business and Economic Research ,University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2004). Metropolitan Las Vegas Tourism Statistics. http://www.unlv.edu/Research_Centers/cber/tour.html Provides statistical data for tourism in Las Vegas area. http://www.02133.org/issue.cfm?ID=10 Gives good background information regarding the Massachusetts casino movement specifically and also presents good facts and data.

It’s Time to End Pet Misery Year 11 Draft Essay

In the opinion piece ‘Let’s End Pet Misery’, featured in the Herald Sun on the 21st of July 2009, writer Susie O’Brien responds to the issue of animal cruelty in Victoria. In an outraged tone, the writer pleads with pet lovers and everyone else alike to support a new bill that aims to make animal desexing compulsory, reducing the rates of unwanted offspring and acts of animal cruelty committed against these animals. The writer begins her argument with the use of alliteration paired with a cliche. â€Å"A single stroke of the pen can save †¦ pets from a short life of misery. † The alliteration of the two words ‘single’ and ‘stroke’ draws more focus to the cliche; ‘a single stroke of a pen’. This emphasises how easily the problem could be solved, angering the reader due to the little that has been done to solve the problem. This technique also works to instil guilt within the reader, making it more likely for them to take action in assisting the cause, thereby supporting the writer’s contention to support the compulsory desexing of pets. One technique the writer uses is a frightening statistic that has been juxtaposed in a larger text. â€Å"In Victoria alone, 300 dogs are put down every day. That’s †¦ more than 100,000 a year. † This unbelievably shocking statistic is a perfect technique to support the writer’s contention. It is able to appeal to the fear and concern of pet lovers and all other citizens alike. This statistic works very well to draw the reader’s attention, due to its intelligent position just below the heading, and works to ‘recruit’ more people to the cause, as most would be unable to stop reading after being confronted with such a statistic. Additionally, it would inspire more people to support the writer’s contention and take action to stop all this death. One of the writer’s strongest persuasive technique is the use of a widely known anecdote paired with strong, emotive language. â€Å"In a devastating attack, someone †¦ hacked off his ears and tail and then left him to die in pain. † Through the use of the well-known story about Buckley, an eight week old Victorian puppy, the writer’s argument is strengthened in the eyes of many readers, as a majority of them would have heard of the story, and resented the horrific act of animal cruelty. Her argument is again reinforced by several instances of colourful language. Phrases like ‘hacked off’ and ‘die in pain’ don’t exaggerate the malevolence of the crime, but instead work to give the reader a clearer image of the vile act. This then makes the reader feel more strongly about the issue, making it more likely they do something about it. The strong use of visual media paired with the article is successful in giving the story an even greater effect; working as the figurative ‘icing’ on the argument. The largest image; that revealing the extent of Buckley’s shocking injuries, is a perfect accompaniment to the text, giving the reader a true idea of the result of his terrible wounds. Additionally, the images of pets behind bars, with their innocent eyes, and somewhat fearful expression makes the reader compare them to prisoners whom have been wrongly accused; forced to live a life of confinement for another’s crimes. These elements make readers wish to take action; ending the injustice, and is effective in supporting the writer’s contention. The opinion piece, â€Å"Let’s End Pet Misery,† is effective in persuading readers to support the author’s pledge to introduce a law making the desexing of pets compulsory. Whilst using a highly angered tone, the writer uses alliteration in conjunction with a cliche to give readers a greater idea of how appalling the government’s inaction is. The writer also shocks her readers through the use of an alarming statistic, revealing the true magnitude of the deaths of unwanted animals. Furthermore, the use of a terrifying anecdote used together with colourful language, as well as the images in the piece alert readers to the severity of the situation and appeal to one’s empathy, ultimately encouraging us to share an equally outraged view.

Primary Source Analysis: the French Revolution and Human Rights

Perhaps one of the most unique eras in world history was the Enlightenment, a time period in which intellectuals like Voltaire, Adam Smith and Denis Diderot â€Å"Observed with unprecedented acuity the evils and flaws of human society in their day† (Tignor, Adelman, Aron, Kotkin, March and, and, 621) and sought to change the worldview of their generation both socially and politically. Those intellectuals believed that by sharing an aspiration to spread knowledge, human judgments could resist ignorance. Today, the ideals of those Enlightenment thinkers have become the foundation of many, if not all human societies. The Enlightenment had a great impact on the world, especially on Europeans who were customary to old practices of fixed social hierarchies, in which the king held absolute power. The knowledge gained from this intellectual movement brought about many changes in society. Minority groups such as women â€Å"gained confidence in their own worthiness—to create art, to write books, to observe the world accurately, and perhaps even rule their states† (Tignor, Adelman, Aron, Kotkin, Marchand, and, 619). The Enlightenment also paved the way for a newer approach towards the concept of human rights. Human beings were granted certain individual rights known as their â€Å"natural rights† that was always convenient by law. Before the French Revolution, European cultures were restricted by â€Å"two major institutions: the Catholic and Protestant churches and the dynastic court systems† (Tignor, Adelman, Aron, Kotkin, Marchand, 617) where individual rights were given based on social ranks. The Enlightenment influenced the concept of human rights in France in that society had a better awareness of their world, which contributed to the emergence of cultural ambitions such as women forming political clubs to debate for social and political equality. Traditional governing ideas were gradually replaced by new governing visions to protect the natural rights of citizens over the king’s authority. For instance, prior â€Å"traditional Christian belief in original sin and God’s mysterious tamperings with natural forces and human events† (Tignor, Adelman, Aron, Kotkin, Marchand, 617) were abandoned. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens was also established, which helped changed the social and political structure of the country. Additionally, and perhaps the most influence the Enlightenment had on the concept of human rights in France was that it provided â€Å"freedom of religion, freedom of the press, no taxation without representation, elimination of excessive punishments, and various safeguards against arbitrary administration† (Hunt, 77). Having been greatly influenced by the American War of Independence, â€Å"French officers who served in North America arrived home fired by the ideals of liberty that they saw in action in the New World† (Hunt, 13). French deputies met in 1789 with constitutional ideals adopted from Americans like Thomas Jefferson and George Mason, establishing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens in an effort to drive the â€Å"ideas of rights and liberties in a more universalistic direction† (Hunt, 13). A more Universalistic direction basically meant replacing ideals of the old order with knowledge gained from the Enlightenment. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens empowered all French citizens with protected liberties and granted all men equality under the law. It also declared that the basis of all sovereignty rests most importantly in the nation. Additionally, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens not only grant these rights, but â€Å"trumpeted individual rights, the principle of equality and connected more closely the concept of the people with the nation† (Tignor, Adelman, Aron, Kotkin, Marchand, 647). It is obvious that the document had great significance. Prior to the declaration, political and social situations raised questions that were often left unanswered, usually sparking tensions between government and society. France’s government was based on the old order, a monarchy system in which feudalism was practiced and aristocratic values were vital. Under such system, â€Å"legitimacy depended on the king’s will and maintenance of a historic order that granted privileges according to ranks and status† (Hunt, 15). The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens granted all people of the French society equality under the law, yet the content of those â€Å"true, inalienable natural rights of humanity† remained undefined (Hunt, 6). Several national assemblies were held, but not one of them acknowledged women’s political rights. Rather, all of those assemblies dodged granting women equal political rights. Women were still forbidden â€Å"the rights to meet as a group, draft grievances, or vote† (Hunt, 60). As a result, women, influenced by the declaration, debated for specific rights when â€Å"they saw the opening created by the convocation of the Estates General and hoped to make their claims for inclusion in the promised reform† (Hunt, 60). Between 1790 and 1791, members of a group called Cercle Social, formed by agitated omen, campaigned for equal political rights. Their campaign exposed discrimination against women that denied them equal rights in marriage and education. In that same year (1791), female activist Marie Olympe De Gouges issued the Declaration of the Rights of women in an effort to prove that women had been excluded from the promises of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens. In her declaration, she requested that â€Å"The law should be the general will. All citizenesses and citizens should take part†¦in its formation. It must be the same for everyone. All citizenesses and citizens, being equal in its eyes, should be equally admissible to all public dignities, offices and employments† (Hunt, 27). She argued that women and men were born equal in rights. Therefore, women should have all those rights that a man enjoys such as holding public offices. However, all of these actions of the Parisian women soon increased the National Convention’s negativity towards women and their rights. From October 29-30, 1793, the National Convention held a discussion about women’s political clubs and abolished all women’s clubs. They claimed that women were â€Å"hardly capable of lofty conceptions and cogitations† because â€Å"their body and social role made them unsuited for public affairs† (Hunt, 29). Yet, they felt threatened by women’s organized political activities. The Age of Enlightenment significantly changed the fundamentals of European cultures, and French society during the eighteenth century. It took them away from their rituals of the old regime where government was dominated by monarchy. It formulated ideas on how the churches and the dynastic court systems could be reformed. The Enlightenment also influenced the establishment of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens. However, fundamental questions about rights especially that of women, remained unanswered. The declaration did little to change the inferior status of women. â€Å"None of the national assemblies ever considered legislation granting political rights to women (who could neither vote nor hold office), and on a few occasions on which the possibility arose, however tentatively, the deputies greeted it with widespread derision and incredulity† (Hunt, 27).

Pulse Code Modulation essays

Pulse Code Modulation essays Pulse code modulation (PCM) is the digital way to transmit analog data. The signals in PCM are binary; that is, there are only two possible states, represented by logic 1 (high) and logic 0 (low). This is true no matter how complex the waveform happens to be. Using PCM, it is possible to digitize all forms of analog data, including full-motion video, voices, music, telemetry, and virtual reality. The data is feed into an encoder that performs the following functions: sampling, quantizing, and encoding. Sampling is the process of reading the values of an analog signal in discrete time. This is done with the Nyquist Frequency, which states the analog wave must be sampled at a rate of at least twice its sampled rate. For example: if a analog signal contains a maximum frequency variation of 3000 Hz, the analog wave must be sampled at a rate of 6000Hz or more. The next function is the Quantizing process. Quantization is the process of assigning one of the possible discrete level s to each sample obtained. The total number of levels depends on the number of bits to used to represent each sample. This is done by either rounding (assigning the nearest level to the signal which may be greater than or less than the actual signal) or truncating (assigning the nearest level which is lower than the actual sample). This process gives a stepped waveform which resembled the original or sent signal. The difference between the actual sample and the value assigned to it is known as the quantization noise. The last function is the encoding process. In the encoder a binary number is assigned to the analog signal that was sampled. This is called the n-bit digital word, n is chosen as a power of 2 depending on the level of accuracy required. The output of a pulse code modulator is a series of binary numbers, each represented by the power of 2 bits. At the destination (receiver end) of the communications circuit, a pulse code ...

A Childs Promise.

A Childs Promise. This Friday night seemed just like any other with Mom and I lounging on the sofa watching the Grand Ole Opry. I could feel the joy that the Opry brought to my mom just by the look in her eyes as she watched, listened, and sometimes sang. Well she hummed more than she sang but that was my mom's way of singing. As we watched her eyes would glow. Sometimes I would see a sparkle. As I watched her I knew what I had to do. I hugged my mom and said "Mother, when I'm all grown up I'm going to take you there". Mom hugged me in return and said, "I'm sure that you will".As I started dinner, I turned the radio on and to my surprise the station was doing a special on The Grand Ole Opry. This brought my childhood memories roaring back. The Grand Ole Opry played on the radio in the kitchen every evening as Mom cooked dinner.English: Grand Ole Opry House, in Nashville, TN. T...She would hum and I would ask her to dance (as I had seen my father do). She would accept, especially if it were a slow song . Mom said that when it came to fast dancing she was afraid that she would break something and that with nine children she needed every thing she had to keep up with us. We would dance and at the end I would bow and say "thank you madam", she would courtesy and off I would go. Then I remembered the promise that I had made to her so many years before. I had a plan.The following morning at work I put in for a week of vacation. Next came the wait for the approval. One day turned into the next, the next into the following. I...

The easiest way to settle office grammar disputes

The easiest way to settle office grammar disputes The easiest way to settle office grammar disputes Like it or not, we all end up getting thrown into arguments about whether something weve written is correct. This could be a colleague picking you up on your apostrophes. Or it might be a subtle point of style that your manager crosses out with angry red pen. It may just be a snide Facebook comment from someone who sees correcting the grammar of strangers as the highest good in earthly existence. Seemingly minor disputes like this can blow up into major arguments and tetchy, defensive disputes. And while some people can devote over forty thousand words to debating capitalisation after a colon, for most of us this isnt the best use of our time. So how do you settle an argument over whats right and wrong as quickly as possible? Seeking the Authority The easiest thing would be to check against the correct usage in the book that says what counts as correct English. But heres the thing: there is no such book. Nor is there any individual person. There is nobody, at all, on the planet, whom you can ask for the definitive answer on whether or not a particular piece of usage is absolutely correct. But surely this is too much? Dont some things stay the same? Not really. In language, very little is safe from change. Practically every area of English has changed in some way: from fundamental aspects of grammar right down to the meaning of words. For example, the word ‘December’ originally meant ‘the tenth month of the year’. So you might want to think twice about inviting pedants to Christmas dinner – unless you want someone turning up with mince pies in October. Where does this leave us? Were all passengers on a ship without a captain. But dont worry, its fine: we dont need one. We dont need a gold standard, just a set of conventions that most people agree on – especially in professional contexts. To draw an analogy: theres no single authority to tell you that showing up to a job interview at a consulting firm in board shorts and a tank top is the wrong thing to do. And maybe in fifty years surfer chic will be de rigeur for any aspiring professional. But for the moment were happy to call this wrong. This is all very interesting, but how does it help you when you need to check which conventions to obey? And which ones to ignore? Heres a rundown of three ports of call when youre in the midst of an office argument: Single words We recommend picking a good dictionary to use across your organisation. For example, at Emphasis we use Collins English Dictionary. This allows us to spell and hyphenate words consistently. Rather than spending time debating whether or not to write coordinate or co-ordinate, we just use their first preferred variant. Grammar and punctuation rules So many of the arguments we see professionals have are based on half-remembered superstitions from school. But its best to skip this act of strained remembrance and go directly to the best available information. Some of the best ports of call here are books written by linguists whove looked into these matters in detail, and offer facts instead of conjecture. For example, Steven Pinker’s The Sense of Style, which contains extremely in-depth analysis of dozens of grammar rules (or supposed rules). If someone is bringing out grammatical artillery during your discussion, Pinker is an excellent guide through the confusion. A lot of other arguments come from an over-reliance on rules of thumb about good writing (such as the golden rule that you should never use the passive voice). When you come across this kind of debate, we recommend Joseph Williams Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace and his nuanced, up-to-date analysis of what precisely makes good writing. Huge swathes of the finicky arguments that you can get into over split infinitives or starting a sentence with an And or a But can be solved by pointing people to these kinds of sources. But what if your argumentative friend continues to disagree with professors of linguistics on the matter? You may have just spotted either a lost cause, or an argument that is threatening to take up too much of your time. Points of style Some questions will never be ultimately decided. For example, the capitalisation of job titles varies considerably across organisations and contexts. So theres flexibility on this point when choosing a style for yourself or your organisation. Making decisions about these sorts of questions every time you encounter them is a big waste of time and a recipe for inconsistency across your organisation. One of the best ways round this is to get into the habit of checking style guides. Good examples are the style guides of The Economist and the Guardian. Theyve already done the work of looking into questions about grammar and usage, and tend to offer much more succinct recommendations than youll find if you trawl through the internet looking for answers. And our own style guide, The Write Stuff, is designed specifically to help you with the questions you face most in your day-to-day writing. These include questions like how to capitalise job titles or how to write common abbreviations like CEO. Youll find all the answers in one place – and you can download your free copy here. (Well be talking more about the ways style guides can help you at work next week.) Beware rabbit holes Above all, make sure that the time you spend looking into these questions is time well spent. The main problem with looking things up is it can work too well. You can easily end up spending hours reading about the tiniest points of usage and style. For example, here are over 20 blog posts, written by reasonable, informed users of English, on the differences between that and which. This is just too much information when youre trying to solve an argument quickly. Instead, we recommend taking one of the three routes above for solving each question, ending your disputes, and getting on with your life. Don’t forget: if you’d like a handy reference for resolving some of those office-based style matters, you can download a free PDF of our guide The Write Stuff here. And if you’d like our help with developing a style guide for your company, get in touch. Image credit: Junial Enterprises / Shutterstock

Construction Technology and Innovation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Construction Technology and Innovation - Essay Example Unlike modern construction approaches, the traditional building methods are characterized by multiple deliveries, expansive skilled workforce and uncertainties arising from costing and poor performance. The traditional building techniques also involve inter-dependent sub-groups and as such the quality of the final product cannot be assured. The tendering process could further complicate the whole process as learning curve problems are likely to resort. This paper discusses the modern methods of construction that are common in the UK. Modern Construction Methods The House builders Federation of the UK defines MMC as techniques, which entail efficient production management processes to achieve more quality building products. The modern methods of constructions that have become popular include open panels with lining materials, insulation services, windows, doors, internal wall finishes and external claddings. The UK construction industry is also embracing the use of ready-made parts, w hich are then pieced together. Unlike traditional houses, modern houses are built using concrete moulds and steels. A number of techniques have been embraced by those using modern construction methods. One of the popular techniques is the adoption of volumetric approach, which entails construction of three-dimensional modular units (Pan, Gibb & Dainty 2007, p.183). According to Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (2009, p.3), other common modern methods of construction include the use of floor and roof cassettes, pre-cast concrete foundations, and pre-formed wiring looms. In the recent past, UK MMC developments have been redesigned to look like traditional brick houses. It is assumed that this new approach will continue gaining favour with the UK residents. Industries and educational institutions could also take advantage of these new construction approaches in order to achieve the benefits that are detailed below. According to the UK government, modern building technique s have a host of attendant benefits. Firstly, modern houses are easier to construct and environmentally friendly as they involve less transportation of materials and produce less waste. Secondly, they result to fewer accidents and have less impact on local residents during construction. In addition, the modern housing methods require less labour and are economical as fewer materials are required. Thirdly, the modern methods of construction significantly reduce onsite build time by 50%, and thus reduce labour costs. According to a study that was commissioned by the Office of the deputy Prime Minister, the volumetric approach, reduces on-site build time to 16weeks compared to 39 weeks for brick and block style. Likewise, using open panels reduces on-site building time to 20 weeks compared to 39 weeks for brick-and-block style (National Audit Office 2005). The benefits of the modern construction methods are best highlighted by a report that was commissioned by National Audit Office (20 05, p.7). According to this report, MMC guarantees the UK residents safer houses because most of the materials are produced under controlled environments (Roy, Low & Waller 2005, p.60). This is unlike on-site building techniques where enhancing quality of products becomes very challenging. In addition, customers are able to preview the complete houses before making any purchases. Although modern methods of construction are likely to become popular, their levels of acceptability among the UK residents are

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS - Essay Example This resulted in lower demand of the beverages. Companies’ performances in the beverage industry have also been affected by the change in consumer preference. In the recent times, there has been a growing preference for sports drinks, energy drinks and vitamin-enhanced drinks. This has resulted in a decrease in the demand for the normal carbonated soft drinks. It is expected the decline will continue to take place as the preference for the alternative beverages continue to grow. This growing preference has created opportunities for new companies to join the beverages industry because it gives them a competitive advantage over the already established firms that major produce the carbonated soft drinks. As a result, the industry has expanded and with its expansion, the performance of already existing firms has declined. The declined could first be associated with the decreasing demand of the carbonated soft drinks. Secondly, the fall in performance is due to the increasing number of firms in the market competing for the same customers. The previously already established companies are also forced to start producing the alternative drinks in order to maintain their market share. The emergence and growth of new products that were not there before in the beverage industry have also contributed to the performances of the companies. There has been an increased growth of new products in the beverages industry. These new products threaten to displace the already existing products in the market. An example of a new product that was not in the market before is the Living Essentials’ 5-hour energy drink. This is a two- once energy shot drink. Since its introduction, it has been able to displace all the other energy drinks that were in the market. Its market share by 2009 was 85% of the market share of all the drinks falling in its category. Pricing is one of the strategies employed by Coca

Globalization and Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Globalization and Media - Essay Example The influence brought about by globalization in the music industry underscores the intercultural influence, the problems on piracy, and impact on locally produced music around the world. Hollywood as Center of Globalized Music A place in the United States called Hollywood is almost entirely synonymous to talent, fame, and glamour. This is still true if looking at the history of the birthplace of global music. Hollywood in 1915 spells out the â€Å"professional [and] polished recorded entertainment† (Williams 1). Ever since, Hollywood is a center of musical dream and fame. Nowadays, its capacity to reach the global audience is an advantage to influence their message, trend, and philosophy. The dawning of modern technology has increased this capacity, that in a span of minutes, the audience from the other side of the globe would be able to listen to a new song performance. This speedy access of American music has threatened the locally produced music from other countries. Althou gh foreign artists can enter into the Hollywood realm, their percentage is discriminate and cannot prove an exchange of culture in music. More so, the musical performance of these foreign artists is of American standard and influence. In this note, the so called ‘globalization of music’ becomes questionable. ... However, even if in the presence of such agreement, the local music industry still fears to be eaten up by dominant countries. Figure 1 of Appendix A shows the status of international music with respect to its country between the years 2003-2007. It clearly shows that the American music, dominates the rest of the local music industries in the international market. Its nearest contender according to statistics, United Kingdom, is shown to be too distant to be actually called a competitor. As stated earlier, the ability of the American artists to have a larger share of audience stemmed from Hollywood’s extensive market share. Multimedia has helped the success of the American music into the international scene. Figure 2 of Appendix A shows the latest report of the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) on the top selling songs last 2010. Noticeably, all of the said songs and albums were produced in the United States which serves as a proof that American songs do minate the international airwaves. The songs on the list all made international success and made the country as â€Å"the largest digital music market in the world† (IFPI, 12). Since the radio is not the only means of distributing music and the internet is readily available for anyone to use, the influence brought about by the internationalization of music has become phenomenal. Such influence and fast access of music helped raise global awareness through charity-run music; however the downside of modern music videos spread throughout the continents. Globalized Music and Its Influence Sparks rise from the glamour of what has been called â€Å"models† of influence in the media. Through music, one can express message and sentiments that could trigger more

Early Childhood Studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Early Childhood Studies - Essay Example This paper stresses that the process of children with special needs is tied with the Reformation of Europe which saw the promotion of childhood as a unique state in a person’s life where s/he has to be segregated and taught things that will be beneficial to him or her in life. The Industrial Revolution did not come up with any rules and regulations that directly affect or influence children with learning disabilities. Thiis report makes a conclusion that the main framework of relevant laws today have its roots in the Education Act 1944 which sought to promote children with special needs’ requirements and their identification. Also, the institution of laws and regulations relating to the identification of children with special needs and helping them got a major boost with the Warnock Report which came up in 1978 and was implemented in the Education Act of 1981. These rules created a framework that supported the medical and physical assessment of children with special needs in order to keep them in special schools. These assessments were regulated and they were given various yardsticks and guidelines. The author approves that these rules were later modified by the Labour Government and this was complemented by the Human Rights Act 1998, which allowed the UK to create rules and regulations that relating to children with special needs that was in sync with the existing regulations. The SEN And Disability Act of 2001 was complemented by the 2004 SEN Strategy that was meant to remove barriers towards achievement and enhance investments into various charitable organisations that were focused on persons with disabilities.

July's People by Nadine Gordimer Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

July's People by Nadine Gordimer - Term Paper Example The book addresses the civil war and its outcomes and how the apartheid caused a great lot of disturbance to the livelihood of the people. The characters of the story have been built in a practical and bleak way by the author Nadine Gordimer. There were a lot of criticisms on the book for its addressing the apartheid system and but still managed to stand out from the rest. This paper will deal with the characters and the parts they got to play in the novel. When the characters are looked into, it becomes clear that there is a multi dimensional approach carried on by the author. The characters in the story differ from one another in a huge way and it could be understood well only with a thorough reading. There is not a single character which was vague and the story is well known for showcasing the strong sides of characters. With the book, we can understand that the character of a person is the bundle of what a person is and it depends hugely over the environment in which the person i s brought up. The story revolves around the characters Bamford, Maureen, July and Martha. Bam and Maureen need to leave Johannesburg because of the civil war scenario that disoriented the entire area. The Smale family comprises of Bam, Maureen and children Victor, Gina and Royce. In the 1980s, the civil war broke out and there were scenarios like black killing the white and other way around. As a result of continuous suppression, the black retaliates and wants to take hold of the South Africa. The Smales who are the South African liberals were affected by the sudden turn of events and they had to leave the place to only found shelter with July. July is the loyal black servant and he assures to take them to their house to keep them safe. The characters of the books show some gradual and steady change with time and through the well connected events, the author establishes it to be a practical one. All the characters were etched out well and in a realistic manner. The novel perfectly d eals with the aspect, shift of power and what impact it could bring in. The Smales family had to depend on July for their survival and July makes them stay in their mother’s house. When there is a shift in control, things change on various fronts. Nadine Gordimer has focused on this aspect in the novel and has provided a detailed account on it. Gordimer’s characterization touches upon this radical shift of power from the master and the confusing state of behavior and talks that arise out of it. One of the central themes of the book is power and the consequences surrounding it. It deals with great ease how it will be for those who were used to have power or command over a person and how new it will be for the person who has the taste of power for the first time. Overall, the book touches upon different facets of life with greater ease. As far as the characterization of the Smales is concerned, the author made sure to highlight their state as masters who had the blacks a s their loyal servant. Gordimer, right from the beginning of the story, gives a wider picture over the happenings in the lives of the Smales how, with greater difficulty, they try to adjust with the current position. They sometimes do not seem to remember their present situation and still continues with the masterly tone with July. Especially, the book deals with conversations between Maureen and July and the confrontations that arise therein. Bam and Maureen still hold backs the masterly relation that they have

Evaluation of Save The Children Website Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evaluation of Save The Children Website - Essay Example The paper describes the website "Save The Children" (www.savethechidlren.org). By analyzing the layout and functionality of the above mentioned website it can be seen as adequate in providing a pleasing interface for the viewer thereof. The landing page provides sufficient navigation options in its top level navigation menu, specifically that of the About Us, Donate, Sponsor, Gifts and so forth. Four main key areas are further highlighted within the main view or so called "above the fold", namely that of the Donate Now, Become A Sponsor, Join the Campaign, and Take Action respectively, with the balance of the landing page, and below the fold, providing both the latest news and developments as well as reporting upon the latest results and achievements of the organization and their efforts within this field. Specifically from a functional perspective the site seems adequate enough to enable the site visitor to navigate to any desired area in seeking information about the organization, the efforts within which they are active as well as areas where they, the site visitor, may become involved in. Specific to the subject of trafficking, and where children are exploited and exposed to this activity, there is no immediate reference provided within any of the main menu items on the landing page. Only upon searching, via the search functionality of the site that trafficking is returned within these search results. Therefore the issue of trafficking is not highlighted and does not seem to be prioritized within this website.

July's People by Nadine Gordimer Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

July's People by Nadine Gordimer - Term Paper Example The book addresses the civil war and its outcomes and how the apartheid caused a great lot of disturbance to the livelihood of the people. The characters of the story have been built in a practical and bleak way by the author Nadine Gordimer. There were a lot of criticisms on the book for its addressing the apartheid system and but still managed to stand out from the rest. This paper will deal with the characters and the parts they got to play in the novel. When the characters are looked into, it becomes clear that there is a multi dimensional approach carried on by the author. The characters in the story differ from one another in a huge way and it could be understood well only with a thorough reading. There is not a single character which was vague and the story is well known for showcasing the strong sides of characters. With the book, we can understand that the character of a person is the bundle of what a person is and it depends hugely over the environment in which the person i s brought up. The story revolves around the characters Bamford, Maureen, July and Martha. Bam and Maureen need to leave Johannesburg because of the civil war scenario that disoriented the entire area. The Smale family comprises of Bam, Maureen and children Victor, Gina and Royce. In the 1980s, the civil war broke out and there were scenarios like black killing the white and other way around. As a result of continuous suppression, the black retaliates and wants to take hold of the South Africa. The Smales who are the South African liberals were affected by the sudden turn of events and they had to leave the place to only found shelter with July. July is the loyal black servant and he assures to take them to their house to keep them safe. The characters of the books show some gradual and steady change with time and through the well connected events, the author establishes it to be a practical one. All the characters were etched out well and in a realistic manner. The novel perfectly d eals with the aspect, shift of power and what impact it could bring in. The Smales family had to depend on July for their survival and July makes them stay in their mother’s house. When there is a shift in control, things change on various fronts. Nadine Gordimer has focused on this aspect in the novel and has provided a detailed account on it. Gordimer’s characterization touches upon this radical shift of power from the master and the confusing state of behavior and talks that arise out of it. One of the central themes of the book is power and the consequences surrounding it. It deals with great ease how it will be for those who were used to have power or command over a person and how new it will be for the person who has the taste of power for the first time. Overall, the book touches upon different facets of life with greater ease. As far as the characterization of the Smales is concerned, the author made sure to highlight their state as masters who had the blacks a s their loyal servant. Gordimer, right from the beginning of the story, gives a wider picture over the happenings in the lives of the Smales how, with greater difficulty, they try to adjust with the current position. They sometimes do not seem to remember their present situation and still continues with the masterly tone with July. Especially, the book deals with conversations between Maureen and July and the confrontations that arise therein. Bam and Maureen still hold backs the masterly relation that they have

Leadership in Julius Caesar Essay Example for Free

Leadership in Julius Caesar Essay In Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Cassius is shown as the leader of the conspirators. Brutus, as chose by Cassius, becomes a secondary leader in the plan to eliminate Caesar. Cassius and Brutus portray specific leadership qualities in very different ways. Brutus shows he is a more sufficient leader by his bravery, integrity and selflessness. Cassius’ lack of bravery is matched up to that of Brutus at the time of their deaths during the Battle of Philippi in the fifth act. Just before Cassius’ death, he says to Pindarus, â€Å"O, coward that I am, to live so long, / To see my best friend ta’en before my face!† â€Å"Stand not to answer: Here, take though the hilts; / And, when my face is cover’d, as ‘tis now, / Guide thou the sword.† (V.III.2536-2537, 2546-2548) Cassius believes Brutus to be dead and assumes this means the end of the battle; the outcome not in his favor. Cassius has his servant, Pindarus, kill him rather than having the courage to kill himself. On the other hand, Brutus, hearing that Cassius has died, admits that they, the conspirators, have been defeated. Brutus bravely kills himself by his own doing rather than to someone else do it for him. â€Å"Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face, / While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato?† (V.IV.2728-2729) Brutus had shown more bravery than Cassius by having his own death carried out by himself. Brutus also has a greater integrity than Cassius, shown by Brutus’ intentions for the conspirators. Brutus tells Cassius, â€Å"We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar, / And in the spirit of men there is no blood.† (II.I.787-788) Brutus is explaining to Cassius that the point should not to be to kill Caesar, as Cassius wants, but to kill what Caesar stands for. Brutus says, â€Å"Let us be sacrificers, not butchers.†(II.I.786) It can be assumed that Brutus wants to kill Caesar with honor; that he wants to be seen as someone fighting for a cause, not j ust a murderer. Brutus shows higher respect toward Caesar as a person, which displays a greater integrity. Brutus is a more selfless person than Cassius and has a greater passion for Rome plus its people. At Caesars funeral, Brutus tells the plebeians, â€Å"If then that friend demands / Why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: / Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved / Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living and / Die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live / All free men?† (III.II.1552-1558) Brutus’ intentions were really to help the people of  Rome, rather than Cassius who secretly wanted the crown for himself. The people of Rome did not want a dictator so Brutus’ plan was to create a republic. Cassius, though, did not actually care for helping the people of Rome, he was only after the power that Caesar had. He says. â€Å"That part of Tyranny that I do bear / I can shake off at pleasure.† (I.III.525-526) Here, Cassius is saying he can’t bear the fact of someone having more power than him. Cassius implies he’d rather kill himself than be beneath Caesar. Cassius would have been miserable if Caesar became king and became a tyrant. Brutus proved himself as a more selfless person by the way he cared for the people. Cassius was set at such a high place of being a leader, but Brutus proved he was better fit for the title. Brutus displayed leadership qualities such as bravery, integrity and selflessness that Cassius lacked. Brutus had the ability to become a leader of Rome, where he could do what was right for the people rather than gain more power for himself.

UK Tour Operators Analysis

UK Tour Operators Analysis A tour operator combines tour and travel components to create a holiday, it designs travel routes for tourists and offer perfect arrangements of the airlines and hotels. In a word, a tour operator offers package holidays. A travel agent is a kind of retail business which is a buyer of tour operator, it sells travel-related products and services to customers on behalf of tour operators, airlines, hotels and other entities. Nowadays, tour operators and travel agencies are closely related to each other. Some tour operators own the distribution channel, they set up retail shops selling products and services directly to the final customers, or they establish close relationships with travel agencies under contracts. The development of the industry should be attributed to the development of transportation in the early age. With the invention of aircraft, the demand for travel increased rapidly. But in recent years, situations become more complex than ever before in such a changeable economi c climate, UKs tour operator industry are fluctuated in growth. This part of report focuses on the market and development during the year 2005-2008. The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) was formed in 1950 by 22 leading travel companies, now represents over 5,300 travel agencies and nearly 1000 tour operations. Its Members range from small, specialist tour operators and independent travel agencies through to publicly-listed companies and household names; from call centres to internet booking services to high street shops, occupy more than 90% of the British market. Thus statistics of ABTA can be used to conduct this report. According to the annual report of ABTA, during the year 2005-2006, bookings through ABTA members were 6% down on the prior year. The package holiday market continued to decline but specialist holidays, cruise tours and flight-only bookings all grew significantly. Company failure level rose substantially from 33 in the previous year to 47 this year. The industry structure changed a lot: independent agents turned to favour dynamic packaging with concentration on niche markets including long-haul, cruising, UK holidays and self-packaging. Big operators drove bookings online and through their own retail networks. 2006 is one of the most challenging years in the industrys history, with traditional business model under great pressure and uncertain future for many others. During the year 2006-2007, 32.8  million overseas visitors who came in 2007 spent  Ã‚ £16.0  billion in the UK, the volume remained stable but spending fell in cash terms for the first time since 2001. Financial statuses of ABTA members were quite positive: total net current assets of  £5.11 million (6% up) and total income of  £5.70 million (13% up). Company failure levels fell dramatically from 47 to 32 compared to the previous year. Several weaker players in the industry have been winnowed out of the market but the figures are still very enco uraging. The industry remained in good health. Consolidation and merger activity has been a key feature of the outbound tourism market in 2007. New business models had made that the differences between the tour operator and travel agency become increasingly blurred. 2008 is again a challenging time for the industry: at one time the fuel price had reached $150 a barrel which is the double of the price in 2007; sterling lost a large amount of its value against most currencies; what makes things worse is that the credit crunch caused the worlds economic downturn, consumers changed their spending patterns, companies struggled to survive. In spite of these factors, UK outbound visits remained increase by 1.5 million from 69.2 million last year to 70.7 million this year. The number of company failures fell from 32 to 30 compared to the previous year. But unfortunately, because of the high cost of fuel, the UKs third largest travel group-XL Leisure Group collapsed on 12 September 2008 leav ing 85000 passengers still on their holidays. This failure resulted in one of the most extensive repatriations in the UK travel industrys history with 85,000 passengers being flown home in a joint action by TUI, Thomas Cook and Virgin orchestrated by the CAA. Another important issue happened in 2008 is the merger of ABTA and the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) which represents the continuing integration of travel agency and tour operator within the industry. The industry will benefit greatly from the combined different strengths that both organisations offer. The FTOs experience and expertise in operational issues fit ideally with ABTAs traditional functions. PEST analysis of the remote environment (P)olitical/Legal 3.1.1 Political instability and Terrorism Political instability is described as a condition of a country where a government has been toppled, or is controlled by factions following a coup, or where basic functional pre-requisites for social-order control and maintenance are unstable and periodically disrupted (Cook 1990). It is clear that the political instability in a certain country is negatively influencing travelers decision making with prospective travelers seeking substitute travel plans. It will reduce the demand for travel significantly as tourists concern about the safety first and nobody wants to travel in a dangerous environment that strikes, wars and terrorists attacks happen. Among all the factors influencing political instability, terrorism is the most significant one that affecting tourism in UK in recent years. After the heart-broken event of terrorist attack on 11th September 2001, the concern about safety in travelling is increasing rapidly. A series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks on Londons public tra nsport system during the morning rush hour happened on 7th July 2005. The discovery of two car bombs set to detonate in Londons bustling theater and nightclub district Friday, June 29th, 2007 has encouraged residents to remain alert. Following that case, a jeep rammed into a Scottish airport in Glasgow on June 30th, forced Britain to raise the threat level to Critical -the highest alert status. All of the events listed above had negative influences on tourism in UK and businesses of UKs tour operators. Report said that 15% of the advanced bookings were cancelled during the summer peak travel time in 2007. Government and Tourism Government always participates in tourism activities through several kinds of ways: government makes policies for the development of tourism industry; government makes policies that will have impacts on tourism industry. In this part, the report will address issues like the carbon tax influences on the industry, VAT effects on the industry and financial incentives government used on the industry. According to Conservatives 2007, aviation contributes just 5.5% of the UKs CO2 emissions but emissions from UK aviation increased significantly by more than 90% between 1990 and 2004. Government urged to take measures to reduce the negative impact of carbon emissions on environment: from 2001 to 2007, the original APD which is at a rate of  £5.50 on flights from the UK to elsewhere in the European Union and the European Economic Area and  £22.00 for other flights was introduced; a new tax which doubled these charges was introduced from February 2007. These changes in carbon taxation would result in changes in prices of travel products using aviation and finally affect the demands for travelling and sales for tour operators. According to Karen Mayor and Richard S.J. Tol, due to the changes in February 2007, countries near the UK would see a small drop in visitor numbers, and the UK itself would see a larger drop (1.2%). The recent doubling of the boarding tax will reduce arrivals by some 528,800 people in 2010, this is a 1.3% reduction (Karen Mayor, Richard S.J. Tol, 2007). UK government applies a rate of 15% VAT (Value Added Tax, temporary cut from 17.5%) which is the standard rate on tourism products, while most other EU countries apply reduced rate of VAT around 5% on tourism products. Report said that a cut to the 5% UK reduced VAT rate on tourist attractions admission and accommodation will boost employment and result in gains of up to  £760 million savings in increased income and corporation tax. It also predicts an additional  £440 million will be injected into the industry supply chain. The Government had announced an 18% cut in funding for VisitBritain over the next three years on October 2007. Tourism Alliance Chairman, Ros Prichard OBE, stated This cut in funding means that, in real terms, the Government will have reduced VisitBritains funding by around 50% between 1997 and 2011. That is a catastrophe for UKs tourism industry, VisitBritain will be lack of funding to advertise and promote UKs attractions, financial incentives to the industry had been withdrawn and other capital allowances had been reduced, while funding for VisitBritain had been cut back just at the time when they were needed the most, the growth in sales of the industry will suffer. (E)conomic 3.2.1 National economy and disposable income (impact of economic recession) The world is now suffering from the economic downturn caused by financial crisis, businesses collapse, jobs are destroyed, UKs economy is significantly influenced by the crisis. According to National Statistics Online, UKs GDP contracted by 1.6% in the fourth quarter of 2008 when the crisis started. It is now 2% lower than the fourth quarter of 2007. For the year 2008 as a whole, GDP rose by 0.7 per cent with a down trend of 3% in the previous year. UKs economy is experiencing the worst recession in over a century. The recession is a disaster for employment in UK, unemployment rate rose to 6.7% (0.6% higher than the last quarter and 1.5% on last year). 29.3 million people were in work in the period December to February according to the labour force survey (LFS). The number of people employed fell by 126,000 this quarter and down by 227,000 on the last year. All the situations listed above lead to the decrease of national income and disposable income. Tourism is sensitive to economic uncertainty and downturn: most travel activities involve disposable income, as total income drops, disposable income drops, people would conserve their money to cover the cost of life essentials, food, shelters and family necessities. The demands then decrease making tour operators suffer. 3.2.2 Fuel price Fuel cost is a major cost of airline companies, the cost will be paid by customers as fuel surcharge. Tour operators will raise the price of their products, especially for long-haul products when fuel price goes up. The travel enterprises will then be in danger of losing customers. When international crude oil price hit the record of $148 a barrel in September 2008, both airline companies and travel enterprises struggled to make ends meet. The fuel surcharge of some long-haul flights was even same as the ticket price, this might change customers behaviour at some degree, people may stay closer to their home or switch to other entertainments. The economic crisis UK encounters leads to a substantial decrease of oil price which could possibly boost travel industry to some extend though the major influence is negative. 3.2.3 Exchange rate The exchange rate, or the value of the British Pound relative to the currencies of other countries, has had a significant effect on both inbound tourism and outbound tourism. In 2007, the weak dollar makes UK accommodation and food more expensive for visitors from America, the exchange rate put London 15th in its popularity table in July 2007 down from number seven a year earlier according to Cheapflights. Due to the recent Pound depreciation, visitors from other European countries or America can expect to pay around 30% less than they would have done a year ago. British Tourist Authority (BTA) produced a study on The Price Sensitivity of Tourism to Britain, the findings show that overseas visitors are highly sensitive to changes in the cost of staying in Britain: for every 1% movement in the exchange rate which increases the cost of staying in Britain, the UKs international tourism earnings will decrease by 1.3% ( £160m). Research also found that more fixity in the exchange rate arrangements generates a positive effect on tourism and the more fix the exchange regime is, the greater the impact on tourism (Marà ­a Santana-Gallego, Francisco J. Ledesma-Rodrà ­guez, Jorge V. Pà ©rez-Rodrà ­guez, 2007). (S)ocial Social factors like age, changing life style affect the industry through changing consumer behavior. 3.3.1 Age and tourism According to United Nations Statistics and National Statistics Online, for the whole world, since 1950 the proportion of older persons has been rising steadily, passing from 8 per cent in 1950 to 11 per cent in 2007, and is expected to reach 22 per cent in 2050; For UK, the percentage of the population of state pensionable age exceeded the percentage of the population under 16 for the first time in history in 2007. The industry now is facing an older growing society due to rising life expectancy, marketing of the industry should focus more on older persons: the advertising and products should target more at older persons. 3.3.2 Changing lifestyle There is a growing trend of buying online which could reduce a persons shopping trip frequency, the access to the worlds products through internet reduces the flows of shopping tourists from one city to another or cross countries. More and more people tend to prefer clubs or watching TV at home rather than going out for a trip at weekends. 3.3.3 Growing concern about environment Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world with incredible developments each year, it contributes a lot to the worlds economy while the huge infrastructural and resource demands of tourism (e.g. water consumption, waste generation and energy use) can have severe impacts upon local communities and the environment if it is not properly managed. A concept: sustainable tourism which is defined as tourism which leads to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems by World Tourism Organisation becomes more and more popular. People concern more about the environment, they tend to favour ecotourism products. When developing new tourism products, tour operators should design their trips to be environmentally, culturally and socially friendly. (T)echnological 3.4.1 Technology development of transportation With the development of piston engine aircraft, the mass tourism boomed in 1950s. Transportation technology is always regarded as crucial in the development of tourism, places inaccessible before by car or train can be accessed swiftly by air. It is largely due to the improvement of transportation that tourism has expanded. The highlight of a trip is usually the experience in destination, visitors often neglect the process of getting to the destination. In this case, the faster the visitor can reach the destination, the more attractive the destination will be. The development of transportation especially the speed of the transportation tool will have a major impact on long-haul travel. 3.4.2 Internet and the industry The world enters a new information era with the development of internet technology. The worlds internet users are increasing sharply. According to Internet World Stats, there were 43,800,000 internet users in UK in March 2009 which represents 70.9% of the population, that is a 180% growth from the year 2000. Internet has become an essential part of peoples life. For tour operators, internet provides tour operators platforms of advertising and transaction, which can make their products more accessible to the customers thus bring more sales and profits. Moreover, it is cost-effective and time-efficient using the internet. For customers, internet makes it easier for them to browse the products and make bookings. More and more people are now booking their holidays on the internet, tour operators need to focus on the website design as well as the security of the transaction system. The internet technology makes it possible for meetings online, different companies can communicate or negotiate with their counterparts more efficient through videoconference. Face to face contact is not compulsory anymore. Business travel will suffer from that, there might be a decline in business travel sales for tour operators. 3.4.3 Virtual Tour Another developing technology which will have a strong impact upon tourism is virtual reality (VR), which is a technology allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment. Most current virtual reality environments are mainly visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special stereoscopic displays. According to Chemistry Industry technology news (March 2009), recently, Mobile aroma recreation system (MARS) devices, developed by researchers at the University of Warwick, UK, could be used to recreate these detected odours for VR users in real-time with the help of electronic noses. Electronic noses could one day be incorporated into virtual reality (VR) systems to add realism to simulations of holiday experiences. The new technology will make VR much more real than ever before, enable customers to experience the whole live holiday at home. On one side, virtual reality leads to the risk of diminishing the interest for travel; On the other side, V irtual Reality can be used to recreate historic sites and events for such purposes as education, special project commissions and showcase features at national and World Heritage visitor centres. VR technologies are also being used to provide a means of protecting the fragile state of some heritage sites, helping to educate visitors not so much about their history but in how to explore, interpret and respect them, says Professor Bob Stone, Scientific Director of Virtual Presence Limited, based in Manchester, UK. Though tour operators cant change the remote environment, they should change their strategies to adapt to the environmental changes. Porters 5 forces Analysis of the competitive environment UKs tour operator market is a quite mature market with four major players. After a long history of consolidation, Thomson Holidays (part of The World of TUI group), Thomas Cook, MyTravel Group (formerly Airtours) and First Choice dominate the tour operator market in UK. The industry is full of vertical and horizontal integration, vertical integration includes forward integration-acquisition of the retail network namely travel agencies, backward integration-acquisition of suppliers like airlines, hotels and transportation companies. Horizontal integration includes mergers between big companies and mergers between big and small tour operators. Michael Porter (1980) developed a framework for industry competitive analysis, consisting of five different competitive forces which refer to microenvironment. The frame work is shown in the figure below: 4.1 Threat of new entrants Tour operator industry is an industry which has relatively high entry barriers. UKs tour operator market is quite mature and its vertical integration had finished in the 1990s. Today all major tour operators in UK are highly vertically integrated and operate their own travel agencies, airlines, hotels and resorts, transportation companies and so on. Some of the tour operators become quite large multinational enterprises, they can reduce transaction cost due to large amount of orders, they enjoy the benefits of quantity discount and economies of scale. They always have esteemed reputation for organizing good tours. When people have demands for travel, they turn to those tour operators, people recognize their brand thus will be loyal to the companies. All of the factors mentioned above reduce the threat of industry entry, however, the threat still exists. With the individualistic change of demands and the changeable nature of tourism environment, new players are entering the tour opera tor industry focusing on niche markets. They supply special products designed for customers with special needs. The new players always rely on product quality to gain competitive advantage as well as filling gaps between new demand and supply. Ecotourism and adventure tourism was introduced by those new players. In order to expand the market share and cope with the threat new player had brought, major player began to purchase the niche operators, series of mergers happened within the industry: Headwater is a tour operator specialized in organizing cycling holidays and walking holidays which enables customers to explore at their own pace. Simply Travel is a leading specialist tour operator in UK offering an off-the-beaten-track alternative to the package holiday, creating inspirational holidays and providing a high-level of personal service. Thomson acquired both of the two companies as departments of Thomson Holidys; Panorama used to be the largest tour operator in Ireland for Winte r Sun departures from Ireland and Irish Ski holidays, it became one part of MyTravel Group and was given the responsibility of managing Manos Holidays after it was also acquired by MyTravel; First Choice took control of Meon Holdings specialized in villa holidays and Sunsail which is a tour operator specialized in watersports clubs, Yacht charter and Flotilla sailing. Large players can enhance their brand name attractiveness and achieve a long-term sustainable competitive advantage through acquiring new specialist players. 4.2 Rivalry among existing competitors The industry competitive environment has changed due to industrys horizontal integration, which is a tour operator offering one or several travel products takes over another that offers very similar travel products or services. The industrys competitive environment among existing competitors used to be full of disordered competitions, players competed with each other focusing on low price, they cut their price as much as possible to gain market shares, the whole industry became profitless and all the players suffered from that. In addition, their product quality was quite low due to the reduction on cost, they tried to keep their profits at a certain level while the prices they offered must be low. After industry horizontal integration, situation has changed: mergers and take-overs not only take place among small and large tour operators but also happen among large tour operators. According to Air Travel Organisers Licensing (ATOL) 2007 figures, the four big players in the industry o ccupy more than 80% of the tour operator market shares: Thomson accounts for 28% of total market shares while MyTravel Group has 21%, followed by Thomas Cook with 19% and First Choice with the proportion of 17%. All the four big tour operators offer full-range products from domestic holidays to outbound holidays, from business travel to leisure travel, from normal sight-seeing holidays to specialist holidays, differences among the four players are not significant. Companies compete with each other mainly based on brand identity and creating brand loyalty, a good brand offers distinctiveness and consistency to its target customers, thus branding strategy becomes dramatically important in companies marketing strategy to expand market shares. MyTravel Group launched freedom card-a kind of bonus card offers its members discounts bonus points and upgrades in order to maintain customer purchase and loyalty; Thomson also sought a way to keep their customers loyal to the company by setting up Founders Club new shareholders were given membership in the Thomson Founders Club which offered a 10% discount on Thomson holidays. Exit barriers of the industry are high due to some reasons listed below: Though investments on non-transferable fixed assets are quite low, redundancy costs are very high because those large travel companies often have a large number of employees thus it costs a lot to dismiss employees, in addition, there will be significant social problems if such large companies go bust. Those large tour operators usually have close relationships with their suppliers and buyers under restricted contracts, the penalty costs would be significant if they break the contracts. 4.3 Threat of substitutes The development of information technology especially internet has brought new opportunities and threats to the tour operator industry. Through using computerized reservation system (CRS), tour operators can obtain efficient information distribution systems and networks. Internet plays an important role in purchasing holiday products in terms of provision, accessibility and flexibility. With the emergence of internet technology, a kind of online holiday booking website was created. It can be seen as a kind of substitute to the traditional tour operators. Online holiday booking websites like Expedia.co.uk and Lastminute.com offers designed holiday routes, air tickets booking, hotel booking and so on just like what traditional tour operators do but in another much more efficient way. Customer can gain great benefits through using the new technology on booking, they have more choices and have easier access to the holiday products. The major tour operators are not resistant to the technology and are now investing heavily on their own virtual networks: MyTravel Group announces its intention to launch a new interactive digital television channel to be called Going Places TV and finally it was launched on channel 669 in February 2003; Thomson, recently enhanced its main website with a series of new features and content, in an attempt to retain customers and encourage them to book through the site. It also introduced additional editorial content to help consumers, as well as to enable the site to be picked up by Google in natural searches. Takeovers and merger are quite common: MyTravel Group acquired WorldChoiceTravel.com (WCT), a fast growing, US based provider of travel reservation services in March 2001; Thomson acquired a teletext operator Travel House in order to gain control of the virtual marketplace. The technology of internet makes information shared much easier and more widely than ever before, people can gain knowledge about the destination, the way to get there and accommodations there by easily clicking on the relevant websites. Information asymmetry no longer happens in recent years, the usage of tour operator becomes less and less. Cheap budget airline companies and online hotel booking websites provide travelers opportunities to get low-price air tickets and accommodations, these are really threats to tour operators. People tend to organize their own trips, they choose their own destinations, drive their own cars, book hotels from hotel websites or booking websites or even live in their own houses, they will experience more freely holidays through doing that. There is a growing trend of using this do-it-yourself (DIY) approach in travelling which could be a substitute of tour operators. Most travelers concern about price when making decisions, when there is no price advan tage booking from tour operators, travelers tend to favor DIY travel. Major tour operator like Thomson, MyTravel, Thomas Cook, First Choice offer a range of products featured with free concept, with only air tickets and hotel bookings at a low price with their popular trusted brand names. 4.4 Bargaining power of suppliers The bargaining power of the industrys suppliers should be described as low. On one hand, there are few tour operators in the industry to bargain with: suppliers like independent hotels and airline companies widely exist in recent times while only few tour operators are operated due to the consolidations within the industry, the suppliers dont have too much power bargaining with the major tour operators but still have certain degree of bargaining power on smaller tour operators. On the other hand, vertical integration with the hotels, airline companies and other transportation companies makes the bargaining power of suppliers at the lowest point. The backward integration enables tour operators to establish close relationships with their suppliers by signing contracts of cooperation or even the purchase of the suppliers: First Choice launched its own airline quite early in 1987 which represents the beginning of forward integration, in 2000 a joint venture with Royal Caribbean Cruises L td is announced and later a company called Island Cruises was set up and put into operation in 2002; MyTravel Group acquired Europes biggest resort complex, the Bellevue Hotel in Majorca, which comprised of 17 blocks of apartments and 8 swimming pools in January 2000. In June 2001 the company announced strategic alliance with Aqua Sol Hotels Limited, a leading hotel group in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Groups in-house airlines Airtours International and Premiair begin to trade as MyTravel Airways in May 2002. Thomas Cook owns Thomas Cook Airline and has a fleet of 45 aircrafts, the company has a partnership with SENTIDO Hotels Resorts the international hotel chain based on a franchise concept with 4-star plus beach hotels. The major tour operators all participant in the dynamic areas of tourism, there are few needs to bargain with suppliers, in a simply word, tour operators are self-sufficient. 4.5 Bargaining power of buyers The bargaining power of buyers should also be described as low. The buyers being discussed here stands for travel agencies not the ultimate customers due to the nature of the industry. The most important factor that affects bargaining power of buyers is forward integration between tour operators and travel agencies. According to Bloomsbury Business Library Business Management Dictionary, forward integration is a means of guaranteeing distribution channels for products and services by building relationships with, or taking control of, distributors. Forward integration can free the supplier from the threat or influence of major buyers and can also provide a barrier to market entry by potential rivals (Business Management Dictionary, 2007). Through forward integration, major tour operators take control of the distribution channel, they can sell their products in a more efficient and cost-effective way. Forward integration of tour operators and travel agencies makes it increasingly di fficult for smaller independent tour operators who cant reach their customers through high street travel agencies. As major tour operators all have their own travel agencies, independent tour operators rely on independent travel agencies. The number of independent travel agencies is declining because they cant offer customers the same discount as the integrated chains, in this case, independent tour operators cant compete with major tour operators on price, the number of smaller independent tour operators also decreases. The development of internet technology also has an important impact on the bargaining power of buyers, it has changed the pattern of traditional distribution, shocking the market by the rapid transformations which it generates across the whole industry. These days, the online travel market is experiencing a profound evolution. Trends in overall online travel market size are shown below: Now the bargaining power of buyers is being threatened by disintermediation the elimination of intermediaries, for example, the wholesalers found in traditional retail channels, in favor of direct selling to the consumer (Bloomsbury Business Library Business Management Dictionary, 2007). The disintermediation is caused mainly by the development of internet. Major tour operators have embraced the growth of online travel systems and the need for fast and efficient distribution systems and networks, they have built their own online distribution channels like websites and