International Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 7

International Business - Essay Example ote that the financial markets do not often work best when they are left alone and as such there shall be some intervention by the government in the form of regulations. This argument becomes more pertinent in the wake of current financial crisis which many believe is a direct result of a de-regulated and highly independent financial system. The globalization of finance therefore is something which is now considered as something which may not be entirely good for the national and international economies. There can be many reasons that have culminated into the present crisis and as such governments tackled this issue more swiftly. However, question still remains as to why such episodes of extreme crisis happened despite the fact that financial system was considered as safe and sound before the emergence of the crisis. Most apparent reason for the financial crisis was labeled as the sub-prime mortgage crisis which resulted into defaults by the sub-prime borrowers on their mortgage obligations with the financial institutions. The process of securitization further added the fuel to this whole drama because most of the financial institutions, through their special purpose vehicles, securitized their mortgage portfolios and tied the cash flows received from their subprime mortgage portfolio with that of the securitized securities. This mismatching of the cash flows therefore resulted into the credit crunch and extension of credit to private sector therefore was reduced causing the credit crunch and started the chain reaction for the current financial crisis. What is also significant to understand that the craze of securitization increased a lot as many countries started to use this process in potentially more speculative dimensions? The spreading of the securitization however, made this process more complicated and as such very few had the capability to understand as to how the process of securitization is interconnected with each other across the markets and what can

Schoolsand Community Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Schoolsand Community - Essay Example Members of the congregation use the congregation and synagogue to nurture their souls and connection to God, to educate our children as well as themselves, to cultivate leadership among all congregants, to celebrate our joys, to comfort those among us who are suffering, to serve the community and the world at large, and to promote peace and understanding in everyday actions and overall personnel and professional lives. The great traditions of Judaism are preserved, responding to the current concerns of our community and the world with a plan for a future of sacred engagement for generations to come. Any community needs education in order to provide conformity in belief systems and practices. Socialization provides for a part of the development of focus and meaning within the members of the community on what values are treasured and what is in violation of those values. Specific education also provides an opportunity for the congregation to develop a set of beliefs that supports the o verall well-being of each of the members as they function within the society as productive and supportive members. The mission of the intended program will be to meet some of the needs in the congregation through keeping up on advancement of skills for educators so that the efforts to draw in community members to the congregation can be supported. Two specific and critical areas that are currently in need of solutions to fill the observable gaps in the current structure have been identified. These critical areas are: 1. Enhancing each teacher’s ability and resources for critical thinking, self-reflection and improving teaching methods. 2. Discovering ways to engage new families and new members to join and engage in religious school and synagogue involvement in order to keep the synagogue’s mission of a vibrant community which is based on sharing the lessons from Jewish history. These two concepts have been used to frame the mission of this program so that specific obje ctives and goals could be identified. The following objectives and goals will help to define the process of designing the program towards an overall successful outcome. Objectives 1. To determine the best possible structure through which to educate teachers and mentors within the synagogue so that they can then use that knowledge in the teaching opportunities within the synagogue’s community 2. Determining the factors that need to be assessed on a regular basis in order to define how an assessment program can be developed to support the needs within the educational program. 3. Developing a budget for the educational programs. Goals 1. Keeping teachers educated in current trends in early childhood development and using this knowledge to enhance the education offered at the synagogue to parents and the wider congregation in support of developing Jewish Life educational opportunities. 2. Creating an assessment program in order to determine the success or gaps in the educational programs, maximizing the reflective process in order to fully understand if the programs are on course or need adjustment. 3. Optimize appropriate fund raising opportunities to support the budget. In order to develop a foundation from which to design this program, the following values will help to guide the development of the program. These are the six pillars of faith that support the development of all of the functions within the community, defining the members as a people and supporting their values and belief systems. These are the core values and they represent what the synagogue holds sacred. †¢Torah (â€Å"Teaching†): We nurture meaningful connection to God and to the core ethics and values

Criteria to Evaluate a Website of a Holiday Booking Site

Criteria to Evaluate a Website of a Holiday Booking Site Develop a Set of Criteria to Evaluate a Website of a Holiday Booking Site 4.1 Research Methodology Need for a good methodology A good research methodology is a general plan of how the researcher will go about answering the research questions considering the sources to collect data and the constraints that one might have (access to data, time, location and money, ethical issues etc). It should reflect the fact that the researcher has thought carefully about why a particular strategy has been employed. A collection of methodologies were used to carry out this research. Both primary and secondary data was collected for this purpose. The secondary data comprised of data from literature reviewed from books, journals, Internet and the annual reports of the companies while the primary data took the form of information/results collected from questionnaires and surveys. The first stage of the research comprised of collecting secondary data from the literature review. According to Sharp and Howard (1996), two major reasons exist for reviewing the literature. First, the preliminary search helps to generate and refine the research ideas. And secondly, a critical review is a part of the research process. Like most research projects, literature review was an early activity in this research. After the initial literature search, the researcher was able to redefine the parameters more precisely and undertake further searches, keeping in mind the research objective and goal. The literature review helped developing a good understanding and insight into the previous research done on this topic and the trends that have emerged. According to Gall et al. (1996), there are a number of other purposes of a literature review. To help one to refine further the research questions and objectives To highlight research possibilities that have been overlooked in research to date To discover explicit recommendations for further research To help one to simple avoid repeating work that has been done before To sample current opinions in newspapers, journals and magazines To discover and provide an insight into research approaches and strategies. This stage of critical literature review was followed by surveys to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. There are different research strategies that one might employ. They are: experiment, survey; case study, grounded theory, ethnography, action research, cross sectional and longitudinal studies, exploratory, descriptive and explanatory studies. Out of all these, the researcher has chosen the Survey strategy for the research. It is a common and popular strategy in business and management research. Through this a large amount of data can be collected in an economical way. Step by Step Methodology Undertaken 1. Secondary Data The first stage of the research comprised of collecting secondary data from the literature review. The literature review provided many useful points to consider before commencing the dissertation. It highlighted what research had already been conducted and what new areas could be investigated. 2. Questionnaire– At the next stage of the research project questionnaires was distributed to 15 people of varying ages, sex, economic status and race. 3. Analysis – The qualitative and quantitative data was thoroughly analyzed using the approach explained in the next chapter. Questionnaire is the most popular method of collecting data. It is less expensive and less time consuming than conducting interviews and very large samples can be covered. A set of questionnaire were prepared to collect primary data (interviews survey questionnaire). The different distribution techniques as described by Hussey and Hussey (1997) were followed. The questionnaires were circulated to the employees, Human Resource Managers, students, job seekers etc through Post, Telephone, face-to-face, Group distribution and individual distribution. Hussey and Hussey (1997) identify some important factors to be considered while using questionnaire. These are Sample size, Types of questions, Wordings, Design, including instruction, Wording of any accompanying letter, Method of distribution and return, Method of collecting and analyzing, Actions to be taken if questionnaire is not returned. All of these factors were considered while preparing the final set of questionnaire. Designing and Administering the Questionnaire The design of a questionnaire differs according to how it is going to be administered i.e. the amount of contact the researcher will have with the respondents. In this respect, the design of a questionnaire can be divided into categories: 1. Self-administered: These questionnaires are completed by the respondents without the intervention of the researcher. Such questionnaires are delivered to the respondents through email, Internet or by post and are returned accordingly. 2. Interviewed administered: These questionnaires are recorded by the interviewer on the basis of the respondents’ answers. For example : Telephone questionnaires in which telephonic interview is taken and structured interviews in which the researcher meets the respondent face to face and ask questions. In this research, the choice of questionnaire was determined by a number of factors like the time available to complete the data collection, financial implications of data collection and entry, availability of interviewers and ease of automating data entry. Keeping all these factors in mind, self-administered questionnaire was chosen to be distributed to the sample through post, email, Internet and telephone. The questionnaire (see appendix) was used to give a thorough understanding of what consumers used when booking a holiday online and what they felt was missing. It consisted of 9 questions each supplied with a number of possible answers. The questionnaire was designed in an ‘easy to use’ tick format so most consumers would be able to answer the questions quickly and be more willing to participate in the process. Few important questions from the questionnaire are mentioned below. The detailed questionnaire is given at the end as Appendix I. Have you used the internet for holiday or travel booking before? Yes b. No Do you feel safe using your credit card on the internet? Yes b. No c. I do not use a credit card on the internet What holiday booking website(s) have you used in the past 0-6 months? (choose all that apply) Expedia.co.uk Easy Jet Ryan air British Airways Bmibaby lastminute.com teletextholidays.co.uk uk.mytravel.com cheapflights.co.uk thomson-holidays.co.uk Other Did you find the information on the sites clear and concise? Clear Concise Expedia.co.uk Easy Jet Ryan air British Airways Bmibaby lastminute.com teletextholidays.co.uk uk.mytravel.com cheapflights.co.uk thomson-holidays How do you choose which websites you go to? Word of mouth/referral Search engine and keywords Links from other sites Other Sample Selections If for a particular research, the data is collected from every possible case or group member, it is termed as census. Sampling techniques provide a range of methods that enables one to reduce the amount of data to be collected by considering only data from a specific group rather than all possible cases. The full set of cases from which the sample is taken is called the population. Sampling provides a valid alternative to a census when it is impractical to survey the entire population or the time constraints prevent from surveying the entire population or if the budget constraints prevent from surveying the entire population. (In sampling, the term ‘population’ is not used in its normal sense, as the full set of cases may not be necessarily being people.) Sampling saves a lot of time. Sometimes the researchers collect data from the entire population but analyse only a sample of the data to save time. For this research, sampling was done in order to get more detailed information form the sample selected. Once the data was collected more time could be spent in checking for any errors before analysing the data while this would not be possible if the data would have been collected from the entire population. According to Henry (1990) smaller number of cases means that more time could be spent designing and piloting the means of collecting these data. The internet business can really only succeed if the public accepts new technologies. Despite the hype surrounding the dotcom boom (and bust), research conducted by ICM for Computer Weekly has found a relatively low level of understanding of the Internet in the UK, particularly among older members of the population, and people on lower incomes. Kate Turner, director at ICM research said, â€Å"While younger people are buying technology as fast as they can, the 55-plus group is the one to watch. They are catching up†. The highest proportions of online shoppers are among 25 to 34 year olds (Saran, 2002). Therefore, the sample was chosen such that it covers all the age groups particularly those between 25-35 years old. The choice of sample size is determined by a number of factors like the confidence one need to have in the data, the margin of errors that one can tolerate and the size of the total population from which the sample is being drawn. Given all these influences, the final sample size selected for the purpose of this study comprised of 15 different people of varying ages, sex, economic status and race. 4.2 Rationales behind the questions Already done by the Client 4.3 Actual Results Already done by the Client 4.4 Expected Results Already done by the Client 4.5 Impact or effect on the set of criteria Already done by the Client 4.6 Summary The aim of the questionnaire (see appendix) was to highlight any trends within the online industry and to identify some of the useful website evaluation criteria’s. The responses were used to indicate what appealed to consumers and what deterred them from booking a holiday online. Once all the responses had been received, the answers were collaborated together and analysed. A good response rate was obtained which helped to draw conclusions. Data gathered from this methodology was used to draw specific conclusions. This type of data provides suppliers with key information to modify their offers or features to gain a competitive edge. Referring to the e-Book by Lynch and Horton (1997), the researcher identified 14 evaluation items to check when evaluating website content: first impression, speed, compatibility with all browsers, accessibility, absence of HTML errors, readily accessible to search engines, visibility, usability, trustworthiness, security, currency and authority, objectivity, accuracy, and coverage. Grandinetti (2000) proposed a simple evaluation standard. The information provided on a website was considered to be trustworthy if it explicitly described the author’s name, affiliation, source, ownership and date of posting on the website. Cravener (2000) indicated that the frequency of updates, accuracy and credentials should be evaluated in order to determine the quality of the website. The questionnai re results as well as the literature review helped in formulating a set of criteria to evaluate a website and those criteria’s were tested accordingly. Expedia and British Airways proved to be the 2 most popular sites to use due to their reputation while thomson-holidays.co.uk scored poorly (50% agreeing to the fact that the site is not attractive and 60% believing that it is not that reputable). In line with most people having a few holidays a year, most people use the internet a few times a month to view travel websites. On either side a significant number use the internet for booking personal holidays though 80% of the participants were afraid of using the credit card online. As expected most people use travel sites to book flights. This is their main purpose and hence where sites are going to gain most exposure and revenue. Most people use a particular site due to prices. However, with the other features also scoring highly, it indicates that most people still require the site to be of a decent standard. Most consumers will initially go to a site for price, but expect it to be a secure, easy to use and efficient site as well. When suppliers are deciding what to focus on for the future better offers and real time confirmation seems to be what consumers want. Price of tickets and ease of use were the two most important issues identified by the participants while using a web site for holiday and activity booking while other useful links, website’s reputation and lots of photos on the website scored low. Search capability and download speed were again identified as factors which are a MUST for a holiday and activity booking web site. The extras such as personalised features, feedback provision, good search engine, links to other company websites and minimal mouse travel and keystrokes scored quite lowly. A significant number of people wanted greater flexibility and more information when booking their travel. With such a large majority of people still believing that a travel agent is still needed and using credit card online is risky, travel sites have a long way to go to gain market share. They need to provide more than just better prices to attract and retain customers. 5.1 Introduction Already done by the Client 5.2 Summary Research carried out by Carlson Digital revealed that word-of mouth is the main reason why sites were visited for the first time, and very few of respondents believed online brands ‘knew what made them tick’(Brand strategy, 2002). Without the benefit of human contact, internet companies have to work harder at understanding customer needs, delivering against these and finding ways to engage with the customer. Research found that customer expectations are high, and they are completely unforgiving of organisations who fail to respond quickly (Brand strategy, 2002). Technical factors such as site navigation, design and downloading speed can determine whether customers will revisit a site or not. To keep customers loyal, the sites must provide fresh content, relevant emails, competitions and offers. Bisignani, CEO of Opodo declares, ’The trend for booking travel online is set to explode’. On the other hand, Sally Johansson, e-commerce manager of Buzz, a low-cost airline says, â€Å"We will never be 100% booking online†. She believes the key to success on the internet is to keep things as simple and clear as possible and avoid adding features that add to the costs (Wheelwright, 2002). Many sites are reluctant to pull the plug on their call centres and some have even placed added emphasis on this facility. It seems that there are still too many people not being drawn to book online. Convenience of accessibility to information is probably as equally crucial as price. The ability to gather information on destinations, hotels, tourist sites and culture enables any traveller to pinpoint their exact requirements and then build a trip ideally suited to them. The main advantage is that this can be done in the comfort of one’s own home. One doesn’t have to physically go and queue to see someone who may only open during working hours or only be able to show some limited offers. However, one does have search through various sites to get the most appropriate package. Most well established sites offer a help line which is ideal for customers who want to use the internet for gathering information and then use a personalised service to ensure they get the right deal. It also inhibits fear in travellers who may need to make changes later on. Most web sites offer an abundance of options for travel. They can hold information about local and far destinations in equal depth and detail, whereas the travel agent will only have expertise in some areas and will be limited in options he can suggest. The best of both worlds, that more consumers are now doing, is using the internet to gather information and then telling the travel agent exactly what they want. This eliminates the fear of booking online and makes the customer more informed and demanding. Travel agents are also catching up with competitors by using their own websites to advertise their offers. Some have also started to focus on niche marketing, such as becoming cruise specialists, honeymoons or offering advice on complicated itineraries or where expertise for one particular country is needed and especially for people not comfortable with using a computer (Maxa, 2002). Some factors consumers should consider when booking online are: †¢ Does the site operate in ‘real time’? This means the airline seat, hotel room etc presented are available the moment you’re viewing it. This prevents problems of being sold out when you come to the booking stage. †¢ Does it provide a free help line number that allows you to talk to a representative to iron out any queries? †¢ Are extra charges, such as trip cancellation insurance automatically added to your package or hidden amongst the terms and conditions? †¢ How often are the special offers updated? †¢ Does the web site levy a fee on the airline tickets it sells? Some sites are already charging consumers and more are expected to follow this trend (Morrison, 2002) †¢ Will the site be trading when you want to travel? Many travellers are unaware that if they book a flight or hotel and that company ceases trading, they are not protected by legislation or insurance schemes (Macefield, 2002). When deciding to book online the consumer needs to realize how flexible their requirements are. The more consumers are willing to compromise on times, dates and holiday sites the more likely they are to finding a cheap deal. Consumers also need to be ready to book as soon as they see what they are looking for. Even in a slow economy most offers get booked very early on. 5.3 Limitations There are few noted limitations for this piece of research. First of all it cannot be ignored that research is dependent on the data collected using a questionnaire. The objective features of websites and not dealt in detail (e.g. background theme or hierarchy information) which makes it difficult to elaborate the suitable design factors equalled with the subjective measures. Secondly, this research is based on the survey research method which has some limitations of its own in the form sample selection bias. The sample of the survey is selected by the researcher and there is always a chance that the acquaintance of the researcher with the sample may alter the results as per the researcher’s way of thinking. The researcher tried to gather demographic information like age, gender etc but could not capture information like income levels etc. The participants were not ready to divulge such information. The validity of the results may be challenged in the absence of demographic in formation, because literature suggests the relative importance of evaluation criteria might vary with income and education level. Lastly the study lacks a section in the questionnaire that could be used to measure the level of user satisfaction for each website. A recent study found that user satisfaction for e-commerce customers consists of multiple dimensions (McKinney et al. 2002). There was a possibility to add more inter-dependent variables in the research model. For example, trust has been identified as an important issue in web site design and e-commerce (Jarvenpaa, Tracinsky and Vitale 2000, McKnigh et al. 2002). It would have been significant if the level of trust the participants had in each website could be measured along with the reasons (Kim and Moon 1998). 5.4 Recommendations for future work Already done by the Client 6.1 Discussion Travel is seen as an ‘escape’ motivation – a wish to escape routines of family, home and work. It might be a ‘pull’ motive a want to see things, places, and people and to engage in actions and behaviours (Ryan, 2002). Travel is ultimately thought of as entertainment (Miller, 2001). For these reasons booking travel should also be fun and hassle free. Consumers want to feel inspired, excited and motivated to book travel. Online sites have recognised the lacking of a one-to-one experience and have turned to using customer service help lines. This move, although against the promotion of booking entirely online, portrays the current competitive market. Online travel sites have needed to work a lot harder to stay competitive and profitable. Having looked at the past and present situation, one can start to predict what the future will be for the online holiday booking industry. A recent report from industry analysts Jupiter MMXI (Johnson, 2002) noted considerable growth in Europe’s online travel market and predictions suggest it could be worth more than  £12bn by 2006. Even with events such as September 11 terrorist attacks, consumers are keen to start travelling again. Dermot Halpin of Expedia states, ‘People want to travel. September 11 was a tragedy, but people bounce back. Individual travel is becoming more and more popular. People don’t want to be told what to do. We allow them to do what they want.’ With such great competition in the travel market, online travel providers need to distinguish themselves from the others. From consumer surveys, customers perceive the service of the airlines’ websites as significantly better than that of travel agencies (Romita, 2001). This is where travel agencies need to focus on to draw consumers to their site. From the questionnaire results we can see that consumers are drawn to sites on cost and reputation. An image of providing excellent customer service will attract visitors to that site and keep them loyal for future bookings. High street travel agents are able to do this much better due to their face to face interaction with customers. Online travel providers need to realign their focus with the ever demanding public and dedicate their sites to providing excellent customer service. From the literature search it was found out that the extent to which websites follow the architectural principles and are optimized on the evaluation criteria has an impact on the level of user satisfaction and, in turn, on the level of user loyalty. In other words, a website with a high architectural quality may produce a higher level of user satisfaction, which then leads to increased motivation for users to revisit the site. User satisfaction is one of the most frequently used measures of system success because the performance of a system is usually related to users’ satisfaction ratings (DeLone and McLean 1992). Customers are looking at the future for sites with better offers and technology to provide real time confirmation. They want greater flexibility and more information when booking travel. Online travel has now become a fundamental part of booking travel, whether to search for the best offers or just gather information on some Holiday package. Customers are becoming more demanding as they can now pick and choose who they wish to give their business to. The future looks bright for the online Holiday booking industry. As more people accept changes in technology and become computer literate, a new generation is developing that use the internet for most their day to day needs. 6.2 Final Summary Already done by the Client Brand Strategy, (2002). How to get close to customers online, Brand Strategy, January 9, 2002, p13. Delone, W. H. And Mclean, E. R. (1992), Information systems success: the quest for the dependent variable. Information Systems Research, 3(1), 60 – 95. Gall, M.D., Borg, W.R. and Gall, J.P. (1996) Educational Research: An introduction. New York, Longman. Henry, G.T. (1990). Practical Sampling. Newbury Park, CA, Sage. Hussey, J. and Hussey, R. (1997). Business Research – A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Macmillan Business Wiltshire. Johnson, B. (2002) Travel beats the dotcom gloom, The Guardian, August 19, 2002. Macefield, S. Warning to go-it-alone tourists, The Daily Telegraph, March 16, 2002, p4. Maxa, R. (2002). Rising European Air Fares, Savvy Traveller, March 23. Miller, G.(2001). Corporate responsibility in the UK tourism industry, Tourism Management, Volume 23, Issue 6, December 2001, p589-598. Morrison, M. Orbitz first to charge service fees, Airline Business, Jan 1, 2002, pg15. Romita, T. http://www.eyefortravel.com/index.asp?news=10158src=nwsltr, Eye for travel, January 23, 2001. Ryan, C. (2002). Equity, management, power sharing and sustainability – issues of the ‘new tourism’, Tourism Management, Volume 23, Issue 1, February 2002, p17-26. Saran, C. (2002). Consumers are not inspired by the Internet, Computer Weekly, Feb 28, pg16. Sharp, J.A. and Howard, K. (1996) The Management of a Student Research Project. Aldershot, Gower. Wheelwright, G. Wednesday Surveys ITD1, The Financial Times(London), March 13, 2002, p10. Mckinney, V., Yoon, K. And Zahedi, F. (2002), Web-customer satisfaction: an expectation and disconfirmation approach. Information Systems Research, 13(3), 296 – 315. Jarvenpaa, S. L., Tractinsky, N. And Vitale, M. (2000), Consumer trust in an Internet store. Information Technology and Management, 1(1 –2 ), 45 – 71. Lynch P.J. Horton S. (1997) Web style guide. Available at: http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/intro/purpose.html Grandinetti D.A. (2000) Help patients surf the Net safely. Register Nurse 63(8), 51–54. Cravener P.A. (2000) The world wide nursing web. American Journal of Nursing 100(11), 75–76.

A Separate Peace Book Analysis Essay -- fear, john knowles, finny

In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene, Finny, and Leper fear recognizing their own flaws and learning about the harsh realities of a world at war because it affects their decision making causing them to make poor decisions, such as severely hurting one another, more frequently. Fear surrounds Gene during his time at the Devon school, affecting how he feels towards others as well as how well he trusts others. The fear isolates Gene from his friends and makes him, both, become weary of the evils around him as well as make him see other irrelevant evils. â€Å"Preserved along with it, like stale air in an unopened room, was the well known fear which had surrounded and filled those days, so much of it that I hadn't even known it was there. Because, unfamiliar with the absence of fear and what that was like, I had not been able to identify its presence,† (Chapter 1). Gene, after returning to the devon school, finds the atmosphere unchanged and still riddled with fear. He is reminded of the fear he felt during his days at the school because, while he attended Devon, World War II was taking place and 17 year-old Gene who was a year away from being drafted feared going off to war. â€Å"I felt fear's echo, and along with that I felt the unhinged, uncontrollable joy which had been its accompaniment and opposite face, joy which had broken out sometimes in those days like Northern Lights across black sky,† (Chapter 1). Surrounded by fear, Gene is trying to find some sort of source of joy. He needs this joy to uplift him because, without it, the terrors surrounding him, such as the war, emotional struggles, and personal rivalries, could drive him insane. â€Å"Any fear I had ever had of the tree was nothing beside this. It wasn't my neck, bu... ...imum standard of the army. I did not know everything there was to know about myself, and knew that I did not know it; I wondered in the silences between jokes about Leper whether the still hidden parts of myself might contain the Sad Sack, the outcast, or the coward. We were all at our funniest about Leper, and we all secretly hoped that Leper, that incompetent, was as heroic as we said,† (Chapter 9). Leper goes mad and â€Å"abandons ship† does not bode well for the boys. "That was when things began to change. One day I couldn't make out what was happening to the corporal's face. It kept changing into faces I knew from somewhere else, and then I began to think he looked like me," (Chapter 10). Leper's visions portray a fear of changing identity. He is afraid of letting the war change him into a different person, which greatens his fear of joining the war effort.

Management and Organization

Does a strong organizational culture and organizational commitment increase the overall of a firm? Illustrate a real life example to support your arguments. Introduction For choosing this topic for the essay ,It is because organizational culture is the heartbeat of a firm. It determined the way the firm run and the self-value of the founder and the main value of the company ,After reading this essay people can easily under stand the two main element: management practice and innovation and risk taking. And also knowing how the way this two values bring good influence of high performance .The main objectives in the essay is to show people what is the connection between organizational culture,strong organizational culture and commitment of the organization and how they are closely related to the overall performance of a firm. During the essay , theory is there to support the ideas . And to connect the two task we first need to know about organizational culture and the role of it in a co mpany, then we need to understand how does strong culture bring influence to a organizational commitment and how are these three task increase the overall performance of the firm.To present the issues about the organizational culture,strong organizational culture and organizational commitment there is a real -life example explaining that those three factors that could bring good influence to IKEA, a well known global furniture company from Sweden and explain the theory base on the company dynamic. First this essay will examine some background information about the firm, to help readers to understand more detail about how those three factors influence the corporate.Background information of IKEA IKEA was found in 1943 as a mail order company in a small village in the southern part of the Sweden a place called Smaland. . The founder of IKEA is called Ingvar Kampala,and he stared to deliver with a van to the train station, . IKEA has started to use catalogue for selling and provided a place that customer can be use and touch in the 1950s. The company's three main traits were function, quality , and low price.IKEA started to but their goods from the eastern part of the Europe because of the supply problem. In the 1960s, IKEA opened a storehouse in Stockholm for customers to serve them self , IKEA had turned a difficult problems as a special selling way . By now IKEA has develop over 150 shops around the worldKling;Goteman,2003) . Organizational Culture To analyses how strong corporate culture bring the influence to improve the overall performance,Firstly,identifying corporate culture is the first step to start with.Although organizational culture was definite in variety of ways and aspect,many people think that organizational culture is a group of values, beliefs ,ways of working ,principle ,behavior and attitude that share by all of the member and the image of the company. In the other hand,corporate culture should be considered as the correct way that the things to be done and solution of solving the problems in the firm. The culture of the organization also help the managers to make decision by providing better ways to think, feel and take reaction because the culture of the firm is concluded by experience of the elders of the firm.For new employees,culture is the correct way that to react ,so ,culture can continues corporate survival and development. (sun,2008) The function of the organization culture is another key point , first to build up the feelings to people that they are belonging to the firm and personal commitment along the firm, Secondly, creating a competitive edge to enable the members (especially to new members) in the organization to well understand acceptable behavior and social system stability (Sun,2008).Therefore, a excellent company need to have a strong corporate culture which can attract , keeping and prized employees to behave good , achieving goals and performance as a role model for others. And strong culture alwa ys being professionalism and co-operation in the services of common values(Sun,2008). For IKEA, there organizational culture it's a very informal type ,the culture is based on some values that roots in Smalandish or Swedish culture. And things like informality and cost awareness and a â€Å"down to earth earth â€Å"approach.Also letting their employee to be responsible ,during the communicate and training for the new staff there are a few of values and intention held by IKEA that they always mention about. For IKEA, the firm have the thought that organizational culture is a very important part in running a business. It have been focus on our sales, development and also of marketing. (Kling and Goteman,2003). But having a simple culture is not enough and can not fulfill the condition to achieve success, so a Strong organization culture is needed to increase the performance of the firm.Benefit of strong organizational culture Every company are assuming to have a â€Å"Strong Cultu re† , which is always definite as which key value are deeply and widely hold and also bring strong influence among the members of the organization. Culture is a hidden forces that can provides meaning and direction, that is system that can share the meaning, belief and values that can ultimately affect employees behavior, so is much obvious in strong organizational culture.The performance benefit from strong culture are ,Firstly,general consensus and recognition of corporate values and norm help with the social control inside of the firm, people are broadly agree that the specific acts are more appropriate that others , invasion of behavior will be found out much quickly and corrected faster, and the correction may be usually come from the employees come from different department and different hierarchy. Therefore,social control can reduce the cost and much efficiency that the formal control,.Secondly,the strong organizational culture improve the goals alignment with clear org anizational goals and practice, less uncertainty may happen to the employees and they could know how to react with unexpected situations , it also conductive with the coordination, there are less debate chances for different parties in the firm about the best interest. At last , strong organizational culture enhance employees performance and enthusiasm, because they think that they are free to chose what they want(Jesper B. 2002). For IKEA the CEO of the firm that name Anders Dahlvig thinks that â€Å"culture has to have some baring on and support the business idea or very important part of a company ion the senses that the values of the culture really influence the business itself. †Some certain factors need to be much stronger in some of the countries like cost consciousness in China. commitment of the organization Organizational commitment have it's important place ,base on the knowledge f organizational culture we would know that corporate culture shapes people's behavior , and it had also brings big influence in organization, particularly in areas such as performance and commitment. Organizational Commitment is always known as the mentally strength of the attachment between an organizational and the employees, and also refer to the willingness of employee to put their time and energy to their corporate , other than the purely working relationship.According to Lahiry(1994), there was a model that organizational commitment is mixture with three element: affective, continence and nominative commitment that have brings lots of influence. According to Moradi, Hassan and Tohidy Ardahae ,affective commitment is build by three feature, that are belief and accept the organization's goals and value,willing to put effort to achieve the goals and value of the corporate and desire to maintain the membership of the corporate.Continence commitment is that how many the firm need to pay for if the employee leave the firm. Nominative commitment means that employees feelings about bound of remaining the firm. According to Lahiry(1994), â€Å"practitioners should pay special attention that defensive culture patten were found to be positively related to continence commitment. † A high scale of continence commitment may tired up the employee to the firm.In the example of IKEA, the CEO ,Anders Dahvig said that in different countries and market there are different of the values ,national boundaries is not the main attention, It is more about personal , some of the time the difference between one store and another can be even bigger than the store between one country and another, how is the individual managers doing is much more important, because of the different level of the commitment the employee hold, it really influence the culture.Putting attention on culture is to be fair when you are hiring people, you assess and choose a person, then when the operation go on, you will know that a typical of behavior will be prized and it is the way t o streamline . And employee can analyses if the value of the company is suitable for them or not. So the staff who leave are the people that having the organizational commitment . Overall performance For the organizational culture numbers of the research also show that to assume thepresence of a â€Å"strong† culture as a positive influence on orporate performance . According to Han(2012) , an analysis show that the impacts of types of organizational culture affects on corporate performance , showing that family-like clan culture and the entrepreneurial Adhocracy culture had a good influence on the growth of the financial performance. It also show that a strong ,appropriate culture brings effect on the financial performance . The relationship between them are direct, however it always bring effect of strategic orientation.So if the managers put more time and effort a much stronger culture it will improve there performance through increasing interest in culture that employees will like, so the organizational commitment will certainly increase. In IKEA, they allow lots of freedom depending on their employee that who they are and what their specific skills are basing on their core culture value and they had try to connect there culture with their company image, and they also wants the leaders in the IKEA , build up their own style basis on there organizational culture.They also build there selling points base on one of their culture-cost consciousness, they are not the traditional furniture company that had target their customers as middle age people, but on the young families and young people that has low financial foundation and the furniture has to be assemble by yourself. For Organizational commitment, according to Lam (2011), â€Å"that salespeople's dispositional competitiveness relates to their discretionary performance and that affective commitment mediates that relationship†.It had also provided more details evidence that competitive salesp eople commit more emotionally to their corporate when they think their work atmosphere to be more competitive. That study show that affective commitment is another mediator, which helps to clarification why competitive employee are willing to perform discretionary activities behalf of organizations and customers. That findings had show that hiring person that share the same value and goals with the organization is important and affective commitment helps to explain why competitive individuals make good employees.The impact of a competitive personality on affective commitment is always interrelated , it explain that competitive individuals feel emotionally attached to the organizations. In IKEA, there were a lot of co-workers in the company, but there are some turnover of staff that affected in the company, so IKEA need to hire 20,000 new staff into the firm every year , they should get training to met customer basis on the value of the firm, it help the firm to build up their cultur e strongly and connected them the corporate image.They are also selected during the recruitment that share the same value as IKEA, Increasing the organizational commitment ,so the firm can decrease the percentage of turnover and reduce the expense on training new staff , and the loyalty of the employee will improve . The relationship between employee and organization is not purely working relationship. IKEA also give questionnaire to their co-workers of the feeling of the firm , and try to improve the satisfy of their employees. ConclusionFor conclusion , strong organizational culture and organizational commitment have bring improvement to the overall performance of the firm , in management and financial . Strong organizational culture is the organizational culture that had been widely and deeply held by their employees , it help the corporate to improve their financial performance, For IKEA,they allow freedom to their leader to build their own management style basis on the value of their company ,they are also building their core value as there products selling points.Organizational commitment is a mentally strength of the attachment between the employee and the organization, it help the organization to decrease there staff turnover and reduce the expense on training, so strong organizational culture and Organizational commitment has increased the overall of the firm and people can understand much easily basing on the example of IKEA. References Daniel I. Prajogo, Christopher M.McDermott, (2011),†The relationship between multidimensional organizational culture and performance†, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 31 Iss: 7 pp. 712 – 735 Han, H. J. (2012). Corporate Culture, Strategic Orientation, and Financial Performance. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 53  (3), 207– 219. Hassan, M. & Tohidy Ardahaey, F. (2012). The Role of Emotional Intelligence in  Organizational  Commitment  . social science r esearch network,  . Jesper, B. The Strength of Corporate Culture and the Reliability of Firnn Performance. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Kling, K. & Goteman, I. (2003). IKEA CEO Anders Dahlvig on international growth and IKEA's unique corporate culture and brand identity. Academy o/ Management Executive, 17  (1). Lahiry, S. (1994). organization cultures, research studies Building organizational commitment through Organization culture. training and development, Lam (2011). Impact of competitiveness on salespeople's commitment and performance  .Journal of Business Research,  1328-1334. Lim, B. (1995). Examining the organizational culture and organizational performance link. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 16  (5), 16-21. Sun, S. (2008). Organizational Culture and Its Themes. International Journal Of Business and Management, 3  (1). Zabid, M. D. , Sambasivan, M. & Johari, J. , The influence of corporate culture and organizational commitment on perform ance. Journal of Management Development,  .

Part Three Chapter VII

VII Up in the little white house that sat high above the town, Simon Price fretted and brooded. Days passed. The accusatory post had vanished from the message boards, but Simon remained paralysed. To withdraw his candidacy might seem like an admission of guilt. The police had not come knocking about the computer; Simon half regretted throwing it off the old bridge now. On the other hand, he could not decide whether he had imagined a knowing grin from the man behind the till when he handed over his credit card in the garage at the foot of the hill. There was a lot of talk about redundancies at work, and Simon was still afraid of the contents of that post coming to the bosses' ears, that they might save themselves redundancy pay by sacking himself, Jim and Tommy. Andrew watched and waited, losing hope every day. He had tried to show the world what his father was, and the world, it seemed, had merely shrugged. Andrew had imagined that someone from the printworks or the council would rise up and tell Simon firmly, ‘no'; that he was not fit to set himself up in competition with other people, that he was unsuitable and sub-standard, and must not disgrace himself or his family. Yet nothing had happened, except that Simon stopped talking about the council or making telephone calls in the hope of garnering votes, and the leaflets that he had had printed out of hours at work sat untouched in a box in the porch. Then, without warning or fanfare, came victory. Heading down the dark stairs in search of food on Friday evening, Andrew heard Simon talking stiffly on the telephone in the sitting room, and paused to listen. ‘†¦ withdraw my candidacy,' he was saying. ‘Yes. Well, my personal circumstances have changed. Yes. Yes. Yeah, that's right. OK. Thank you.' Andrew heard Simon replace the receiver. ‘Well, that's that,' his father said to his mother. ‘I'm well out of it, if that's the kind of shit they're throwing around.' He heard his mother return some muffled, approving rejoinder, and before Andrew had time to move, Simon had emerged into the hall below, drawn breath into his lungs and yelled the first syllable of Andrew's name, before realizing that his son was right in front of him. ‘What are you doing?' Simon's face was half in shadow, lit only by the light escaping the sitting room. ‘I wanted a drink,' Andrew lied; his father did not like the boys helping themselves to food. ‘You start work with Mollison this weekend, don't you?' ‘Yeah.' ‘Right, well, you listen to me. I want anything you can get on that bastard, d'you hear me? All the dirt you can get. And on his son, if you hear anything.' ‘All right,' said Andrew. ‘And I'll put it up on the fucking website for them,' said Simon, and he walked back into the sitting room. ‘Barry Fairbrother's fucking ghost.' As he scavenged an assortment of food that might not be missed, skimming off slices here, handfuls there, a jubilant jingle ran through Andrew's mind: I stopped you, you bastard. I stopped you. He had done exactly what he had set out to do: Simon had no idea who had brought his ambitions to dust. The silly sod was even demanding Andrew's help in getting his revenge; a complete about-turn, because when Andrew had first told his parents that he had a job at the delicatessen, Simon had been furious. ‘You stupid little tit. What about your fucking allergy?' ‘I thought I'd try not eating any of the nuts,' said Andrew. ‘Don't get smart with me, Pizza Face. What if you eat one accidentally, like at St Thomas's? D'you think we want to go through that crap again?' But Ruth had supported Andrew, telling Simon that Andrew was old enough to take care, to know better. When Simon had left the room, she had tried to tell Andrew that Simon was only worried about him. ‘The only thing he's worried about is that he'd have to miss bloody Match of the Day to take me to hospital.' Andrew returned to his bedroom, where he sat shovelling food into his mouth with one hand and texting Fats with the other. He thought that it was all over, finished, done with. Andrew had never yet had reason to observe the first tiny bubble of fermenting yeast, in which was contained an inevitable, alchemical transformation.