Cultural Relativism and Ethical Subjectivism Essay

Cultural Relativism and Ethical Subjectivism - Essay Example This research tells that Cultural relativism is the belief about defining human actions on the basis of cultural values of an individual. Different cultures may have different ideas of right or wrong and no idea can be considered as absolute. Ethical or moral subjectivism can be defined as the absence of definite or absolute moral right or wrong. It argues that individuals may have their own versions of moral values and no standard can be set by the society. The idea that reality cannot be absolute and relative is an attempt by the society to accept or sanction the differences between the people. Cultural relativism and ethical subjectivism both argue that there cannot be one correct solution to all problems and different people may perform differently in similar situations and they can still be right. Beliefs or attitudes of people are different and so they act differently in similar situations, and society cannot set a standard for what is right or wrong. An ethical subjectivist wi ll not believe in accepting absolute moral standards simply because of the fact that absolute moral standards cannot be known objectively. The absence of surety in the context of morality is the reason why subjectivism is supported by an ethical subjectivist. The idea is to allow an individual to think or act according to his belief simply because the ‘true reality’ is not known. Everyone is therefore entitled to believe in his or her version of morality. Cultural relativism also vouches for differences among people on the account of differences between cultural values. Culture can be regarded as one of the strongest influence on a person because it shapes an individual’s personality and thought patterns from childhood. This allows a cultural relativist to argue that different culture may have different interpretations of truth and therefore differences between cultures should be accounted for without arguing for a perfect realist view of truth. The similarity be tween these two viewpoints is that they both argue in favor of societal and individual versions of moral truths. Subjectivity and relativism are preached because we can only be relatively sure about anything. Individuals are allowed to behave differently on account of their culture or personal opinions because of this absence of surety when it comes to moral reality. The main criticism on both of these theories is that the society will be in a chaos if every person in the society starts to practice his or her own version of morality. Any idea about right or wrong cannot be left to the individual (ethical subjectivism) or a group of individuals (cultural relativism) simply because of the lack of rational thought that is embedded in all societies. This criticism of subjectivity and relativism springs from the idea that people cannot be trusted for they may, and do, err in their social judgments and society cannot be exposed to the madness of one or many. The reply to this argument by ethical subjectivist will base in a belief that human beings have an inherent sense of morality.

RR communications Essay Example for Free

RR communications Essay At RR communications, it is obvious there is a problem that needs to be handled if they are to avoid losing customers. The problem lies with the decentralized operations where each business unit has a mandate to operate independently. The business units have the power to make and implement new projects and make decisions without having to involve the whole firm. This has led to many problems such as customers complaining of having receipts for each of the four products offered by the company and would prefer having one receipt for all their transactions. Due to the division among departments, the company has been unable to meet reporting requirements for the Sarbanes Oxley Act. It has proved obvious that a shared IT service, which is standardized among all the units, is needed to ensure everything goes well. The first problem we see at RR Communications is that there is a definite lack of centralized and concise IT governance. Currently all of the separate functions of the company have their own individual leadership with no central leadership. For this reason, each of the sections takes actions and makes decisions based only on how it affects their own particular departments. There is no coordination to ensure that the act of one area does not negatively affect the rest of the firm. This in turn has led to a significant lack of uniformity across the organization, which is hurting customer relations. There are unified databases and each section maintains their own set of records; this is causing great frustration among their customers who continually have issues when dealing with more than one area. Much of the division of departments has been caused by a lack of central leadership. The CEO of the firm has failed to unify the department or assert any control over the individual IT vice presidents. Even though they reported to him, each had acted entirely independently. This continuous failure of leadership has caused the department heads to develop a sense of isolation and self-survival. Even though a new executive VP of IT has been appointed to bring unity to the firm, there has been severe resistance as each department feels it will suffer. The lack of centralized management for so long has caused significant discord between the departments that will take considerable effort to overcome. In addition, this company attitude has filtered down from the VPs to the middle and lower management creating an overall atmosphere that is dangerously disjointed. Even the suggestion of bringing together the database systems and management has caused a near  mutinous uprising and rejection of leadership. The current managerial atmosphere has been around so long, the attitude of individualism has been deeply imbedded in the corporate culture. While, individual thinking is useful to foster innovation and creativity, when the entire organization acts to satisfy only its individual requirements, the firm overall will suffer. Unless this attitude can be overcome, any attempt at bringing unity to the company will fail. From the technical standpoint, RR Communications is suffering from a severely fractured information management system. Every section of the company maintains its own individual customer databases, which are in incompatible formats. If a customer maintains relationships with more then one division, they get bills from each individual area. Customer issues often fail to get resolved because the departments do not communicate or share information. This is causing problems with diminished customer satisfaction. In addition, without a centralized database, full customer information and statistics are impractical to collect. In addition to suffering by not being able to collect detailed records, the company is facing regulatory issues by not being able to provide complete information on the company’s activities, and significant resources are being wasted to assemble simple reports. Currently management and associates at RR Communications believe that a collective solution is impossible, and any attempt to do so will cause them to suffer. While it may be true that the initial implementation of such a system will require a significant collective effort, the end result will be well worth it. It is also clear that much of the perspective of management is extremely short sided; projects are selected only based on a very narrow and limited benefit view with no regard for their long-term viability. As more and more systems have been patched together to fulfill immediate gaps, the overall collection of programs has become a cumbersome, inefficient, and unmanageable mess. A truly efficient system would be one that is all-encompassing and communicates across all facets of the organization to deliver a unified and fully integrated information system that can add real value to the firm. One other major issue at RR Communications is the proliferation of rouge projects completed without oversight or regard for how they will affect the firm. In a large company every project should be examined to determine how it could provide value to the organization before being launched. At RR  Communication projects are being launched that benefit only select areas and may in fact be causing a significant negative impact to the rest of the firm. The company currently does not have a steering or operating committee to oversee and exert control over these projects. Without any form of centralized control and governance, these rouge projects will continue to sabotage the effectiveness of the organization. Lack of common information and enterprise IT strategy has caused several problems for the business and the IT departments of RR communications. Customer service has suffered and customer dissatisfaction has grown. Lack of common information has made it difficult for management to monitor the businesses as a whole. Business units are unable to exchange information and remain unaware of the other divisions’ work. There is little sense of how the divisions work together to meet the company’s overall goals. The accounting problems make it difficult to present shareholders with accurate financial information, and the system is not cost-effective in any case. Furthermore, each division working at individual level to attain its success makes them rigid and unable to adapt to changing requirements; under these circumstances even the implementation of new technology will be extremely difficult. The organization cannot operate efficiently as a whole or at division levels, and the costs are bound to keep increasing. Analysis: As many annoyed customers can probably agree, being transferred from one department of the company to another over and over again to resolve a simple issue is one of the main reasons many companies lose customers. This is certainly an issue at RR Communications. The main cause of the problem seems to be the division of the different business units. This lack of unity is caused by a faulty commission system that rewards individual performance over company profit. The fact that the four CIOs refuse to work together and resort to sabotaging the efforts of the others, serves to show that they are more interested in their own selfish financial goals. While the president of the company may have been a visionary and brilliant entrepreneur, he lacked the managerial skills to recognize the need to have a unified commission system which would foster participation in a common goal, and thus a common  commission which is interdependent on all four business units would be most beneficial to the company. Unifying IT Resources The most important problem for RR Communications to correct is a significant deficiency of successful information management, reflected by the confused state of their customer information databases. Currently customer data is disbursed in separate databases for each section of the company, so that data from one department is not available to another. Thus, customers are forced to maintain relationships with multiple departments and receive billing from each. This separation means that valuable information resources are not being effectively utilized, hurting the firm’s productivity and efficiency. To improve the state of information capital at RR Communications, a complete overhaul of the current systems will be necessary, from both an IT and business standpoint. Information represents a vital asset to any company. This can be in the form of customer accounts, sales records, research development, financial statements, etc. However, in order to realize full benefits, the same information must be readily accessible by all individual units, so that the company can leverage it in the most efficient manner. The first step to correct the issues at RR Communications is to create a unified data architecture that combines all information resources into a central database that is accessible to all sections of the firm. By providing a centralized database clients will be better served by allowing complete access to customer records throughout the company. This will also improve reporting abilities, lower administrative costs, and greatly increase the value of information resources. To achieve the greatest benefit to the company, RR Communications could consolidate its data from multiple silos into a unified enterprise data warehouse (EDW) (Smaltz, 2011). This architecture provides multiple benefits including a single location for all information storage reducing the amount of duplicated efforts. This also greatly improves the integrity of data by providing a ‘single version of the truth’ (Smaltz, 2011). When data is spread throughout multiple databases, invariable some of it will differ. For example, a customer’s address may have been changed in one department but not another. These differences can prove costly to a company. A centralized EDW means that only one record should exist for each customer and reduce  data discrepancies. Having such a centralized system would also satisfy customer needs in a more efficient manner and would help to cross-sell products, which in turn would result in higher profits and more profit for the company. By allowing customers to have a single point of contact, and sharing information by standardizing software and databases across the organization, information will flow more freely and readily available thus giving the employees the ability to communicate in real time with accurate data and maximizing customer contact to increase profits. Having a decentralized IT function is not conductive to achieve an enterprise vision because by keeping the separate business units separated, it keeps pertinent information out of reach of other business units, and thus allows missed opportunities to maximize profit. Also, the lack of communication among the units creates chaos and disorganization in the organization and gives precedence to individual goals above company goals, which in turn will end up hurting the overall enterprise vision and may even spell the end of the enterprise altogether. Finally, having a decentralized IT function creates customer frustration such as in the case of getting several bills for different products. This frustration may cause the company lost customers and lost profits. Information Stewardship Information Management Policy The difficulty in implementing this solution is the current state of the databases scattered about the firm; many are in incompatible formats, so that significant effort will need to be invested to bring together all of this data into a single, shared IT service system accessible to all. In addition, not all data is equally valuable to each unit. Efficiency necessitates allowing employees access to the information that is most pertinent without inundating the various departments with extraneous details. For this reason, whatever IT solution is implemented must be able to adapt dynamically to the storage and retrieval needs of each department. Another challenge to creating a centralized system is the role of information stewardship. Information stewardship involves the ownership and control of information to reduce discrepancies and redundancies. To maintain the consistency and accuracy of data, information stewards need to be appointed. â€Å"Information stewards are businesspeople. They should be responsible for determining the meaning of information ‘chunks’ and their  business rules and contextual use. They should be responsible for the accuracy, timeliness, consistency, validity, completeness, and redundancy of information† (McKeen Smith, 2009, p. 76). A serious challenge to the consolidation of data at RR Communication will be consolidating all of the disparate information from around the firm into a single enterprise data warehouse. It is very likely that there will be duplicate information, conflicting records, incompatible data formats, and other inconsistencies that will not lend themselves to easy integration. However, the reduction in duplicate and conflicting information will be vital to the success of RR Communication. Duplicate data means an increase in administrative work and overhead, a nd conflicting and inconsistent information means the company is not performing at optimum levels. The reduction of duplicate data, or data deduplication â€Å"can improve the performance of virtual systems, reduce network traffic and cut the costs associated with data protection. In addition, deduplication allows backup data to be replicated more efficiently to other sites for disaster recovery† (Symantec, 2011). Duplication increases the amount of data a corporate network must process, reducing efficiency and increasing costs. Storage costs increase as the same information may be stored and backed up across multiple databases, again wasting resources. Finally, duplication of data significantly increases the amount of labor required to utilize it in any useful manner. Clearly, RR Communication will need a significant amount of data deduplication to create a useful, consolidated enterprise data warehouse. To facilitate the proper stewardship of information, an information management policy needs to be created that addresses these issues in a way that prevents such confusion and disarray. An information management policy will dictate the rules and guidelines for how information is handled, who is responsible for maintaining and updating it, and outline the policies and practices to do so (McKeen Smith, 2009). To begin to unravel the data mess at RR Communications they should define an encompassing information management policy that will effectively address the issues of what information is retained, who is responsible for updating it, how it is to be maintained, and who should have access to it. Critical to the success of this policy will be the involvement of management from all functional areas of the company. Each should be given the opportunity to contribute to the policy,  and each individual needs should be addressed. In addition, the problem with this solution will be gaining acceptance from the different functional areas of the business. There will obviously be conflicts of ideas and differences of opinion in how the policy should be created and enforced. To improve the effectiveness of the policy it needs to be thoroughly enforced from top management down. This means to gain compliance, RR Communications’ CEO needs to set the example and pressure all levels of management below to do the same. Another strategy to encourage the support of the divisional presidents for the shared customer service is by creating awareness that the free information flow would be beneficial for all and would simplify business processes, thus allowing then to increase their bottom line, and thus their bonuses. Finding opportunities to demonstrate small success would help show the support being given to the divisions. To aid in compliance, a large corporate training program should be initiated to ensure the policy is well known by all associates. Gaining compliance by all of the business areas will be the most difficult part of this solution; the ingrained attitude of self-preservation that exists at RR Communication will be difficult to overcome. However, change is not impossible, but only by dedication of management. The initial implementation period will be the most difficult, and if enforcement waivers the policy may fail. Creating Useful Information from Raw Data One characteristic of an enterprise system is ensuring seamless integration of a company’s information among all divisions, including financial and accounting Markus, M.L., Tanis, C. (n.d.). Hence, to achieve a successful enterprise system, a company must have its IT systems centralized to ensure information runs smoothly and is relevant among all divisions, especially the financial and accounting information. Considering the accounting problems brought up at the final meeting, the company obviously needs to implement a centralized IT function. Moreover, it will be far more expensive to have an enterprise system with a decentralized IT function, which is contrary to the aim of achieving an enterprise system. While a centralized information management system will indeed offer benefits at RR Communication, if there is no way to utilize and interpret that data, it is useless; this is analogous to being data rich and information poor. Just  because a company has loads of data does not mean that is fully informed. A company such as RR Communication collects vast quantities of data, but having the resources to convert that into useful information can be an extreme challenge. At RR Communication, they are facing a double-sided problem; they have neither a collective data warehouse, nor do they have any effective information management. Once the problem of centralization has been addressed, information management can be. One potential way to improve the use of massive amounts of data is using a metadata repository. A metadata repository functions much like the card catalog of a library; while it does not specifically contain the information, it provides an index of what is available, including the relevant points on what it contains, as well as a pointer to locate the information (Moss Brodie, 2002). This index provides an extremely valuable resource tool to quickly locate pertinent information. In addition, the metadata repository should be designed with the ability to hook into other systems that are developed to provide information to mother systems as necessary. Establishing this framework now will offer increased benefits as more systems are built off the central repository. Addressing Corporate Culture As seen in RR Communications, lack of common information and enterprise IM strategy can cause several problems to the business and the IT department. RR Communications has encountered serious customer service problems, due to lack of common information and enterprise strategy. In addition, lack of common information makes it hard for the overall management to monitor the businesses. Business units are unable to exchange information, and none is aware of the other divisions’ work. The company is not in a position to strengthen its brand since no divisions work together. To remedy this, a unification of the firm needs to take place from more than just an IT standpoint. The disjointed nature of the firm’s information assets reflects a deeper separation of the personnel at RR Communications. Departments work for their own ends with naught but passing concern for their effects on the company as a whole. This lack of cohesion manifests itself in the behavior of the CIOs, divi sional managers, and even the employees, and has resulted in the severe fragmentation of corporate culture. The fragmented IT systems are only a symptom of a much larger problem. Before addressing the IT  problems at RR Communications, the underlying culture of the business needs to be transformed. This begins at the very top, with the president of the company and the highest leaders; they need to be the first to set the example, and it is clear their current attitudes have set the company on the disastrous course it is on. Removing the CIO team which has hampered the company’s efforts at unification up until now was a good step, but serious considerations now need to be taken to prevent things from getting worse. Other associates could easily see firing the CIOs as a usurping of departmental sovereignty; however, they need to use this as an opportunity to show that the company can be brought together without sacrificing any of their needs. To capitalize on this opportunity the president and vice president should bring together the next level of management into a council of members to set the direction and culture of the firm in a way that promotes unity and mutual respect. This council should be responsible for creating and fostering an atmosphere that shows the benefits of the firm functioning as one. They need to prove to the management and associates that their departments will have a say in decisions, and their needs will not be overlooked. To improve the odds of acceptance, the council should be selected from leaders that have proven themselves as examples of good leadership and who are respected in the firm. Key to the success of this council will be keeping everyone on equal footing and ensuring that no one area is given preference over another, especially in the beginning. It is obvious that certain departments will have greater needs then others, and sometimes priority will need to be given to one area; however, if this behavior is present from the outset they will receive much resistance from the firm, as this will reinforce existing fears. Once a unity of the firm has been established, people will be more flexible to accept changes after they see the benefits. It will be up to the president and vice president as leaders to maintain these policies and be the example. As demonstrated in previous cases, the president has been lax in demonstrating himself as a leader and this could prove damaging to any such plans to unify the firm. Leadership must begin at the top, and the success or failure of a company often reflects the abilities of its leadership. Implementation Challenges The advantages of a shared IT system eliminate some of the above-mentioned  problems. A single centralized and standardized IT operating system will enhance quick decisions across all the departments, since all units will be looking at the same data. Furthermore, with a shared service, customers will not have to visit different databases for the same company; rather, all their queries and purchases can be done from one site that will serve them with all that they need from the company. Another advantage will be easy monitoring of the divisional units—their individual performances as well as their contributions to the whole company. Another advantage for the company will be the ability to monitor financial operations, since all operations will be reflected on one database centrally (Amces, 2010). To implement the shared service strategy, it will be important to seek support of the divisional presidents, considering they will be in charge of the units, which are the moneymaking branches. Their willingness to participate in the construction of the shared service will benefit the whole company. The first step to the implementation of this strategy will require assurances that it will benefit the whole company far more than the current system that is facing opposition from not only the customers but also other stakeholders such as the suppliers. In turn, since employees’ remuneration is awarded on performance, improved performance for the whole firm will be an added advantage. Since the divisional heads are used to being in control, it is important to remind them that having a shared service will not mean the imposition of decisions from above. Rather, the shared service will make the operations of the whole organization work in harmony for the purpose of easy monitoring customer convenience. They should be included as part of the implementation team, so they can offer input on what they may not want to change. For instance, many are worried they will have to do away with specific projects. Ensuring them that these projects will continue after implementation of the shared service would increase their support, as would helping them understand that the new, shared system will enhance the harmony and efficiency of whole organization; eventually they will come to see that their roles will remain mostly the same. Another way to improve the odds of success to a centralized data structure is by appointing a team to oversee the maintenance of the data warehouse fr om an enterprise level. Ideally the members of this team should be comprised of analysts from the important functional areas of the company. This can help gain buy-in from the company  due to the fact that the members of this team have already proven themselves to be knowledgeable and capable in their previous environments (Smaltz, 2011). In addition the benefit of incorporating these individuals is that individual departments will feel that they have representation in the new system, and that their interests are protected. This will increase the potential for global acceptance in the program. Another way to increase compliance with the new systems is to implement an incentive program that would drive associates to achieve the best results. Incentive programs drive people to reach specific targets by offering them tangible rewards beyond their current compensation. At RR Communications, an incentive program could be implemented to increase compliance and adoption of a new centralized system. For example, the company could offer monetary bonuses to departments that lower their operating costs using the new system the most. Another more abstract idea would be to have a small bonus program for departments that offer ideas to enhance the productivity of the system. Many of the departments have complained that a shared system would cause them to be overlooked; however, offering this type of inventive would both encourage them to make enhancements of the system while simultaneously demonstrating that their opinions count. Positive reinforcement, such as an inventive program, help gain the compliance of the workforce in a much more efficient way then punishment or negative reinforcement. There are governance mechanisms and metrics that can be used to encourage the implementation and use of a shared enterprise data system. The governance that needs to be put in place is the alignment of divisional units with the IT department. The metrics must be aligned with transparency to ensure that IT is in congruence with business operations. The governance mechanism should involve all departments focusing on regulatory issues, risk alleviation and opportunity enhancement. The metrics used should be concerned with making divisional data fit into an enterprise system. These metrics will identify areas of weakness and avenues of improvement. To quote an analogy, â€Å"Rome wasn’t built in a day;† and it will take significant time and effort to remedy all the problems at RR Communications. Close governance and metrics will aid in any improvement plan. Recommendation: It is evident that RR Communications need an intervention in its customer  service center. The lack of a centralized customer care center is making it hard to provide unified services to customers. More so, a lot of time is wasted by customers who have to be referred to different department for billing. Customers are forced to have several accounts with the company for each division since each division is held with its independent operations including billing (Smith McKeen, 2007). This makes it hard for customer care provision. Considering consumer service is very crucial for any business, RR Communications need a centralized customer service center. A centralized service center will have many benefits to the whole organization such as cost reduction, time saving, good management of customers’ data or information, and customer satisfaction. I recommend a centralized customer service center for RR communications for its advantages as predetermined below. The divisional IT service means having separate audits for every division. Having each division with an individual audit is expensive for the company since several auditors will be needed. Eliminating the divisions will save some costs that would otherwise be used for the services of the auditors at every division. With a single it department, data can be fed there and only one audit team will be required for the whole company. This also means reduced time for audits since with divisions audits have to be put together after each department has completed its audit (Smith McKeen, 2007). Coordination among the auditors will be efficient since information is collected from one point where all information concerning company accounts is stored. Therefore, having a centralized service center will enhance such operations across the whole organization. In addition, with a centralized customer service center as well as IT, it will ensure information is collected at one point making it easy to access information concerning any department from any point within the company without having to refer to the division in charge. Hence, for the auditors, complying with the set Sarbanes Oxley act will be easy since information about customer billing and accounts of the whole firm will be centralized ensuring accuracy. Having the customer service centralized enhances business operations and processes, ensuring best practices such as timely audits are realized. With data consolidated in one central place, information can be exploited to breed new opportunities for the company. When data is at one place for all the divisions, it is easier to have a broader picture  concerning how the divisions can create a new opportunities. Exploiting these opportunities jointly among the divisions is better than going individually. Moreover, security can be more enhanced with a shared service center since monitoring will be done by one entity. This will further reduce costs associated with having each division taking responsibility of storing and maintaining its own data. Considering that RR communications is currently having several softwares, consolidating information together for the whole company is hard. Smooth flow of information across departments to ensure easy sharing is vital; not only for the whole com pany, but for divisions too, considering information consolidation is a fundamental instrument for doing business. Consolidating the IT services to one centralized structure will require removing of service center hardware from each division to one central department that will mitigate risks and have a common structural design as well as policies that are easily reviewable for updating. A common security procedure will reduce risks associated with information breech. Through the same procedures and practices, the company can reduce file systems redundancy within the organization and enhance efficient document retention as well as reduce costs. Another reason to have one service center is to match the technical capacity of the company with its vision. At the current divisional independence, the divisions exploit their own visions that are not in congruence with the organization’s vision and mission. Considering the company’s vision is to have a consistent brand across all the divisions, it is necessary to have cross-shared services across all divisions to achieve this vision. The vision can be achieved through cross- sales of all the company services to its customers, as opposed to each department having its selling strategy. Having a shared sales service will serve to reduce the costs incurred when divisions do it individually hence creating a better chance for profit across all departments. Having a central service center will ensure that the overall vision of the company is followed since the central service center will be inclined towards the vision of the whole company. This way, each division can have a chance of benefiting form other divisions, hence the company as a whole (Smith McKeen, 2007). Having a single service center will allow easy outsourcing for the organization. Currently, businesses are outsourcing majority of their operations to other professional companies for reductions  of costs. With independent divisions and IT strategies for each individual division, outsourcing will be quite complicated. Having a central service center to oversee all requests will enhance efficiency as well as value. More so, through the consolidation of IT services and information at one common place will reduce security risks associated with outsourcing services. This will further ensure reliability and security of information. A consolidation of information and IT services will enhance cross-services for customers such as billing (McKeen Smith, 2011). The company divisions at current circumstance hold their information secret from each other, making it a competition within the divisions that raise the problem of billing where customers have to be referred to other divisions for other services. With the consolidated information, customers will only need to visit one department from which other information concerning other divisions can be met. This will improve the perception of their whole company as a brand and the standing of the company can be improved as well as customer satisfaction. There is need for the company to realize that in the current world information is one of the drivers of businesses, which all businesses need to survive. Having each division with its own information center reduces the chances of the company improving in the future since the harmonious climate needed among the divisions for this achievement is minimal. Having stipulated the advantages bound to arise or reasons why a central service center should be achieved, it is important to consider how RR can be able to implement this recommendation with ease and least resistance from the divisions. This is the first most likely problem to arise during implementation. Hence, the first step should be generating support form all divisions, which has been quite hard up to now especially from the managers who are self centered and concerned with their earnings that depend on their performance. The managers also have a negative attitude towards merging of information and data among the divisions through one central service. A three-point strategy can be used to gain their support. It includes financial strategy, mitigation of risks associated and compliance to regulation. Financial point can emphasize the advantages the shared service is bound to raise, which will for the benefit of all the divisions and organization as a whole. Risk mitigation will arise from security of information through monitoring by one entity in a standardized  way, while regulatory will be concerned with abiding to set accounting rules of the Sarbanes Oxley act which the company has been having problems with (Schwartz, 2007). The next step would be to lay out the vision of the company and show why it cannot be achieved with division of operations among the divisions. This will impart some reasoning among the leaders, and support fore all divisions should be ensured. The main aim is to make everybody in the divisions aware of the role they will play and their stake to ensure thee is compliance and acceptance of the strategy to build a one services center (McKeen Smith, 2011). One of the problems that could arise after implementation of a shared service center is ease of adoption. Some employees who have been used to the old system will require to be trained how to work harmoniously with a single service center. Many will be required to handle more information concerning not only their divisions, but also other divisions. Hence, there will be need to have them trained to provide a central service to the customers. Another problem would arise for the culture set by the independent divisions prior to the implementation of a single service center. The current culture is of rivalry among the divisions considering they have been competing among themselves. Killing the culture will be a little hard. To deal with the problem the company will have to sta rt early through brining people together and coming up with tasks that can be incorporated in all divisions that allows all members to interact. The shared tasks will enhance cooperation among the different divisions. Conclusion RR is having problems because of lack of a common service center. All divisions are held with their own operations that aim at achieving divisional goals at the expense of corporate goals. The company is lacking a strong unified brand to sell to customers since all divisions are accounted for independently. This has made it obvious that a shared service will be the best for solving these issues. RR needs to put in place an alignment of their IT services with the business units. Transparency must be encouraged and joint responsibilities of IT ad businesses to achieve shared service center (smith McKeen, 2007). The company should also have a common enterprise vision for their systems. All the departments should be included with emphasis on joint business opportunities and risk mitigation. The top  management should be in forefront to creating an atmosphere of improvement continuously with a key focus on customer service to ensure the shared service center is successful. References McKeen, J. D., Smith, H. A. (2009). IT Strategy; Issues and Practices (2nd Edition ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. McKeen, J. D., Smith, H. A. (2011). IT Strategy; International edition (2nd Edition ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Moss, L., Brodie, M. (2002, July). Data Rich, but Information Poor? Retrieved October 26, 2011, from Information Management: http://www.information-management.com/issues/20020701/5341-1.html Schwartz, K/D. (2007). IT Governance Definition and Solutions. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/111700/IT_Governance_Definition_and_Solutions#what Smaltz, D. H. (2011, July/August). Are You Leveraging Your Data or Is Your Data Leveraging You? HIT Exchange , pp. 8-9. Smith, H. A., McKeen, J. D. (2007). Shared Services at RR Communications. Queens School of Business. Symantec. (2011, May 2). Deduplication and Efficient Data Storage. Retrieved October 26, 2011, from PR Newswire 1. List the advantages A single customer service center will yield both financial and human resource savings for RR Communications by eliminating the allocation of duplicated resources to the multiple divisional and regional customer service centers. With valuable resources freed from these multiple customer service centers, the company will be able to allocate more resources to its value added activities and improve operational efficiency. RR Communications run four divisions, each with a distinct but a complimentary product. They are internet, mobile, landline, and cable TV service. There is a deregulation in the telecommunications industry and its becoming a norm for competitors to offer multiple services like RR Communications. RR Communications’ customers  have been complaining about double billing because the four divisions have no working collaboration and thus, no way of knowing when the other division may already have sent the bill. A single customer service center will consolidate the da ta of the customers of all divisions and by addressing the problem of inaccurate billing, it will potential save the loss of dissatisfied customers to the competitors. A single service center will also yield growth opportunities by marketing the company’s other services to customers that they may not already have and offer discount incentives on the purchase of multiple products. A single customer service center will allow comparison among the company’s divisions in terms of product quality, customer satisfaction, and retention rates so that more resources could be allocated to troubled areas. A single customer service center will also make it easy to gather data about the company’s divisions and store them in standard formats for management analysis. By having access to all the relevant information about the customers, the customer service center will be better able to address customers’ questions and market company’s products which would not have been possible with separate customer service centers. It will also be convenient for the customers to call only one place for all their questions and thus, will increas e goodwill for RR Communications. 1. Is it possible to achieve an enterprise vision with a decentralized IT function? The answer to this question really depends on what the meaning or intention is behind the idea of an enterprise vision. If this simply means of having certain departments existing and able to complete their tasks and accomplish their goals, basically that the enterprise is functioning, than the answer is certainly. As demonstrated in the case study, there were multiple divisions for IT that were each doing their own thing, and while it wasnt pretty, compatible or optimal, everything did, technically, work allowing each department to function. As soon as the vision of an enterprise expands to a desire to work more efficiently, unify tools and platforms, have stronger compatibility or be one company a decentralized IT function becomes a massive hindrance. Turning to the case study again, each department was replicating the efforts of the other departments by finding their own software/data vendors, creating unique database systems and having their own support staff. This not only made it difficult for clients who  needed assistance, but meant there was excessive spending, and an inability for multiple departments to come together to function as a a single entity within the enterprise. 2. What business and IT problems can be caused by lack of common information and an enterprise IM strategy? There are numerous business and IT problems that can arise from the lack of common strategy. In terms of IT there can be duplication of efforts, systems and tools leading to not only multiple expenditures to yield the same results, but this may mean there is no strong outline of how systems are set up or designed, there may be no map detailing the hardware and software in place, which makes it far more difficult to not only run inventory, but ensure that new expenditures are needed and not (again) duplicating tools that have already been purchased or implemented. When different software and hardware solutions are used across departments, this also leads to difficulties in compatibility. When the organization wants to implement something new, it would be difficult if not impossible to determine if it can be integrated into the existing tools, or this may result in unanticipated technical errors arising from compatibility issues. Business problems stem primarily from an inability of data to be effectively shared across groups, thus limiting the ability of various departments to work together. Not only could this cause rifts to form between various groups, but it also means that there could be issues with data consistency. This is especially troubling for client data, as a change in one department may not be updated elsewhere due to data being stored in different databases, the inability for data to be updated across databases, and even opens up the potential for technical errors causing data that is normally consistent to suddenly become dispar ate from similar data elsewhere. Additionally, when the business requires technical assistance it is likely to be difficult to find the correct person with the knowledge needed to resolve a particular issue if that department is using specialized systems that are not consistent across the organization. 3. What governance mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure common customer data and a shared customer service center? What metrics might be useful (think service level agreements, etc.)? Common customer data will require a standardized database, as well as regular auditing procedures to ensure that data is only being modified/updated by those individuals who are supposed to have access, as well as verifying  accuracy for these modifications. Customer service really depends on the objectives of the company. I worked on an inbound phone line at a call center for 3 years while this was technically brokerage service, arguably it was a cutomer service center. Training had to be farily comprehensive so we could assist clients with almost any issues they had, and on top of that reps have to know what departments specialize in certain topics in case they need help figuring out what happened or resolving a complicated problem. On top of that, there is regular review and QA of random c alls to ensure representatives are giving correct informaton and assisting the client based on the standards and expectations set by the organization. Call reviews are measured on a scale where there are certain objective actions that are required on every call, then measured more subjective terms such as professionalism. I work with a tremendous amount of shared customer data, and everything is monitored, recorded and subject to audit procedures. There is always the abilty to find out who did what, when, and every phone call is recorded and maintained for a period of time. This of course protects the client as much as it helps protect the firm. As far as data is concerned, I dont know if there are specific service level agreements in place, but I do know that there is regular testing of what is referred to as host fallback where all the primary systems are taken down for a period of time, then brought back up. While this is frustrating for reps and clients who need access to the data, the very small number of times I experienced an unscheduled outage the backup systems performed well, all reps knew how best to work within the confines of the backup system, and the discussion with clients about why certain things could not be done went far more smoothly than if regular testing was not performed. The case study this week describes the classic example of an organization which is heavily decentralized into distinct lines of business (each with its own IT group) that realizes their need for a flexible and responsible IT function, a common view of the customer, and the elimination of redundant systems

Value Chain analysis of Cathay pacific

Value Chain analysis of Cathay pacific Cathay Pacific is an international airline registered and based in Hong Kong, offering scheduled passenger and cargo services to 117 destination in 36 countries and territories . The company was founded in 1946 and remains deeply committed to its home base, making substantial investments to develop Hong Kong as one of the worlds leading global transportation hubs. In addition to fleet of 128 wide-bodied aircraft, these investments include catering, aircraft maintenance, ground handling companies and the corporate headquarters, Cathay Pacific city at Hong Kong airport. In year 2007 Cathay Pacific increasing their customers year by year. They got highest passenger load and they record passenger numbers with an average load factor of 81.1%. The capacity is increase by 3.9% with the most of the increase towards the end of the year. 2008 was a difficult year for the company. While the business picture was in first half of the year was positive but other half was not successful due to some political reason and higher fuel cost. Because of this reason company got loss in year 2008. In year 2009 was quite good for the company environment. They got profit of HK$4,694. This compares to the loss of HK$8696 from the previous year. In 2009 they try to ensure that standard the face of an unprecedented downturn in business. Lets see the internal and external environment changes in company environment. During current era they made some changes their strategy and services. Value Chain analysis of Cathay pacific C.P.(Cathay pacific) is one of the branded airline company in air line industry. It always competes with different airline company. It competes with different airlines company for its status and notoriety. Now a days C.P. is underwent for changes its image in market and also try to solve problem. So C.P. is made new strategies to solve problem which they are facing. The main concepts of new strategies are to increase a number of clients and also try to full fill services which demanded by the clients. C.p. management also sure about that this strategies related to services and technologies can be useful to compete against other airlines company. Inbound(internal) logistics: Related to its internal logistics C.P. builds good relationship and mutual aid with its suppliers. Related to this point internal logistics does not affect to its market position so positively. The main reason is that all airlines industry are getting same benefit from its suppliers. Operation Cathay Pacific providing a facility to passengers and they believes that their business are selling experience to the passengers. Loyalty is a main key factor for every business. The main key factor for loyalty is emotional bonding with passengers and this factor is helpful for C.P. to attract customers for repurchase airline products. The biggest dissimilarity of C.P. to its competitors is its people. The C.P. management is always trying to build bond between product development and customers expectation. C.P. is always trying to give good services to its passengers and passengers always feel welcomed, respected. The passengers always feel that they are travel in good and safe services. For improving customers services C.P. develop cultural changes within airline. They develop new program like service straight from heart for improving customer services. In this program they try to express about its understanding related importance of the people in organization and their contribution in their success. For providing a excellent customer service they using following steps. Generating a atmosphere for positive performance. Recruiting the accurate people and train properly Continual enhancement Services Throughout the world service is main key factor which can adding value of core corporate. All corporations throughout the world are increasing their value by offering various services. Cathay Pacific is always focusing on their services. Main aim of the C.P. is to provide superior services to their customers and to turn in to world most well liked airline. C.P. aware about that quality of service set them in good position from its competitors. C.P. also committed about on time performance to aim, maintaining and growing international route network, and increasing flight frequency to make their position in market They providing their services according to their strategy like services straight from heart and they are quite successful in their market. C.P.. Not only fulfill the costumers needs and aims not just to meet, Cathay Pacific goes beyond ensuring satisfaction to strengthen the loyalty of costumers and enhance the profit-ratio of the airline. For achieving a target market position C.P. uses Differentiation. According to this strategy C.P. offers to their customers wide product ranges and higher quality products to customers convenience. Technology development: As a technological point of view C.P. is also same as its competitors. C.P. was the first airline who announced to plans to install internet in flight. Then they go for their process and now a days they providing internet to all flights. C.P. was the first to electronically link airbus air craft to its maintenance center. C.P. also invested their money in e-business to become a Asias leading e-business airline company. The main idea behind this technology for C.P. is development of e-learning environment of company. Cathay Pacific made rapid progress to becoming Asias largest e-business airline. In all this technology C.P. introduced about improvement of passengers experience in three different way Online check in Notify Airport lounges In flight e-mail system Marketing and Sales C.P. always trying to attract new as well as their regular clients by providing them different tour package. Their services always attract customers to travel by C.P. They always try to providing cheap tickets. They generate different discount rate on their tickets. Human resource management The employees in Cathay Pacific are contributing in all new strategy which is developed by company. C.P. have main advantages against its competitors are its quality of services which are providing by its employees. C.P. promotes appropriate training to their staff to develop their employment strategy. C.P. also develop working environment for their staff. Company motivates their staff for their works. Company promote good leader for particular task to achieving a target. Porters five analysis Potential Entrants C.P. is prepared for new entrants and they are not greatly affected by new market entrants. The power of potential comers to C.P. is too weak. The main advantage for C.P. against new comers is government policies. They have to only focus their maintenance and low cost for their other expanses. These things are useful for C.P. against new comers in airlines market. Competitive rivalry The main competitors of C.P. are China airlines, Singapore airlines. C.P. is maintain their status in market by providing a best services, services are the main key element for C.P. this strategy gives C.P. to emotional bonding as well as better business relationship. C.P. implemented new strategy by providing a unique flying experience to their clients. Substitutes In this part of the analysis, clients are mainly looking for products in lowest prizes which are introduced by company. Substitute can also in the form of another services that a consumer deems suitable for them necessitate and capabilities. Substitutes can providing high power to company. For C.P. makes substitutes in its different department and it will help to lose other companys client. C.P. is sure about those substitutes that they wont give them more problems. Buyer power The main advantage for all consumers in this industry is that buying power. There are lots of companies available in airline industry. So individual buyers have so many options to buy tickets. So C.P. has only the option that they must have to providing tickets in low prices. Supplier power Supplier power is also highly influence in airline industry. Cathay Pacific also concern about this factor. Lets understand by example. If the fuel price is increases then C.P. have no other choice. C.P. is also increasing their fuel surcharge for each ticket. Mckinsey 7s model: Shared value C.P. always tries to make some innovative in their customers services so customers will take so less time in using their services as a process of transportation. The company sure that some services providing by them is never forgotten by their customers. Strategy C.P. management is always trying to learn from its previous. The only reason is behind is that they want to make their position in market. They always tries to not repeat their past mistake. The other strategy is they make their relation with their customers. They try to make emotional bonding with their consumers so that they can provide services that people will purchase. The other strategy is investing in new and better equipments. Structure Cathay pacific company structure is decentralized. In C.P. company each and every decision are not made by only one person. Each and every department has an authority to contribute their idea on decision. Each and every department shares their ideas before the decision. This decentralized structure helps to take a complete decision that will helps to provide best services. Systems C.P have reconfigure their system to check that weather new system are work as on their planning. And they also get conformed about that they providing services are in positive way. They also changes their system according to their departmental need. Staff Cathay pacific always keeps in their mind that the employees are main need for the company. They consider them as an asset of company. They hire employee according to job needs. They are providing proper and appropriate training to their employee. They also providing good financial and reward to their employee. Skill C.P. Accommodate a particular staff for particular services and the staff have ideas about how to provide best services. Company first checks their performance before providing them job. They also got conformed about all staff member have enough skill to use particular materials during their services. Ansoff analysis: Here is short view of ansoff analysis of C.P. According to this analysis market development is suit their business. Product development is also good for their business. According to analysis, they can maximize their profit ratio in market development and product development. Market development. Market development is mainly define by business aims to sell its existing product in new market. C.P. also made some changes with their product in existing market. They change in interior lay out and configuration of air craft. According to their strategy space is a key comfort variable. http://airlinesflightnews.com/search/cathay+pacific+market+development+to+moscow http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704784904575112722646592114.html Product development: Product development mainly defines by the business aims to sell new product in existing market.. For increasing their customers and loyalty they trying provide more flights with more facilities. Before some time they announced that they will starts flights to Moscow. They also announced that they will starts three flights in a week. They also announced that they will start flight Auckland to Moscow. They also try to develop fastest as well as more convenient flights to their customers. Cathay pacific is also investing into product improvement across the fleet to enhance passenger satisfaction and long term product competitiveness. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Will+Cathay+Pacifics+Passengers+Take+The+Airlines+Latest+Product-a061797748 Market penitration Market penitration is mainly define by business aim to sell their exisiting product in to existing market. For increasing their sells in the competitive market they make some discount rate on different product. C.P. is the first company who put their airline ticket in auction. They introduce new travel package for their customers. They are trying to introduce to their customers that they are selling complete tour package in low cost. Diversification Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Limited(Dragonair),an Asian regional airline registered and based in Hong Kong offering scheduled passenger and cargo services to 30 destinations in 10 countries with a fleet of 29 aircraft, is wholly subsidiary of Cathay Pacific. C.P. owns 18.1% of Air China. Twos analysis: Tows analysis is mainly concern with internal analysis of the company. Strength Diversified geographical spread Youngest fleet of aircraft Strong financial performance Weakness Weak turnover ratio Unbalanced business portfolio Opportunities Growing Asia pacific market Global airline market Threats Fuel prices Increasing competition from low cost airlines Diversification Cost leadership Merge Acquisition Internal development Diversification: Now days the competition in airline industry is very high. There are lots of airlines operated in Asia region. The main competitors for Cathay Pacific are Air Asia and Singapore airlines. Air Asia currently operates on 86 routes and its no frills service has obtained wide range in china market. And Singapore Airlines operates 88 destinations in 38 countries. Cathay Pacific should emphasize to diversify their routes. Merge Acquisition: Cathay pacific has to merge with different airlines to avoid future threats. Merge and acquisition is one of the best choices. To avoid their threats Cathay Pacific has recently merge with Air China. C.P. merge with Air China for cargo services. Internal development: For internal development concern Cathay Pacific is higher then their competitors. It mainly consists with their internal asset. In year 2007 some of the prime competitors are Singapore Airlines, SAS. During this year the asset turn over ratio was 1.15 times higher then C.P. and the same year Singapore Airlines consist the asset turn over ratio is 0.59 times lower then Cathay Pacific. But in an Asian region Cathay Pacific hae good market and they have good internal development.

Myths, Dreams and the Epic of Gilgamesh :: Epic of Gilgamesh Essays

The Epic of Gilgamesh, a masterpiece of world literature, is considered to be one of the oldest epics in the world. It is called an epic, but it is really a myth. In order to be able to understand a myth, it is necessary to have an historical point of view from two perspectives, so to speak, an outer and an inner one. The outer one concerns the necessity to understand the historical form in which the archetypes appear, the historical background to which the myth is related - in our case, the Babylonian culture and religion. The inner aspect concerns the essential problems of the time, with which that particular epoch struggled consciously, or in which it was unconsciously involved. Although this is primarily a scientific task, I believe that it is nevertheless a matter of immediate necessity for us to understand such documents humains in relation to our own life, for all the ages live in us, and we cannot really understand ourselves unless we know our spiritual roots. What particular age and what spiritual contents are evoked in us by the unconscious is, to a certain extent, a question of individual fate. Since Western culture is based to a great extent on Judaism and Christianity, Babylonian culture as one of their roots may be looked upon as of immediate psychological interest to us all. The archetypes live in their realm, beyond time and space. This builds the bridge of understanding between men of all ages, and makes it possible to realize that we ourselves with our essential problems are bound up in the continuity of the eternal problems of mankind, as they are mirrored in myths. But the form in which the archetypes appear, their garments so to speak, depends on the historical conditions: the symbols in which they appear change. In the human being these changes correspond to the development of human consciousness. Thus the myths, in my opinion, represent not only eternal archetypal events, but a certain level of the development of human consc iousness. During my work on this remarkably rich material this connection thrust itself more and more into my mind, so that I should like to define it as the basic idea, as the starting point of my attempt to explain this myth. It was only in 1872 that scholars first became aware of this myth, when the English Assyriologist George Smith made public "The Chaldean Account of the Deluge," as he titled his translation of the eleventh tablet of the epic.

Public Administration and Management: Advantages and Disadvantages of Partnerships in Terms of Improving Service Delivery and Accountability

Before weighing the pros and cons a partnership may bring in terms of improving service delivery and accountablity in public administration, definitions and more information regarding the topic must be laid out. Public administration is generally defind as the development, implementation and study of government policy.For the good of the public, it highlights civil society and social justice. It is also historically referred to as government management, it calls for non- government organizations that do not act out of self- interest.It has become area of discussion which talks about the meaning and purpose of government, bureaucracy, budgets, governance, and public affairs tha take place. Public management that hand in hand works with public administration in achieving public good is the economically driven side of operation of government.It attempts to reemphasize the professional nature of both fields that are connected with one another. Government and non-profit organizations woul d then resemble private sectors in some ways. Even with management tools which are appropriate for public and private domains, there are still differences that make public administration different from being a private sector for it emphasizes the social and cultural drivers of government that many contend (e.g. Graham T. Allison and Charles Goodsell).What should always be kept in mind is that there is always a need for a quality system of public management. This system has to deliver quality and speedy service to the citizens that it serves.When this can be done, a country may progress and prosper. Even after introducing public service reforms such as long queues, delays and bad attitudes of workers towards work and clients, there is still poor service delivery making the objective stated unachieved.Also, another explanation is maybe due to the lack of accountability wherein officials are not always accountable for their work, either to parliament or the citizens concerned. It is im portant that the public service both delivers what is expected of them to the public and at the same time be accountable for the work that they do.To further explain, for any government service, it is fundamental to have a service delivery. Citizens look up to government and its department for their needs and for any services they may need. What of then about public service?It has to fulfill the government’s broad economic and social objective in formulating economic and social policies and implementing public programs which will be used to achieve what is needed.Then it must be asked whether the public service has fulfilled their duties and satisfying citizens’ needs and expectations and whether the service they have delivered is quick, reliable and effective. Meanwhile accountability is imperative as a means in providing quality public service. It is how public bodies should be handled.

Sexual Selection

Sexual selection was an idea proposed by Darwin and refers to the process in which males and females attempt to maximize their chances of reproductive success. Within a species there are certain characteristics that make individuals attractive to potential mates. An example of this is in peacocks, female peacocks are attracted to males with long brightly colored tails, even though this makes them easier to be spotted by predators. This characteristic then evolves within the species due to how males with this characteristic have a higher chance of reproductive success and their characteristics being passed on to surviving offspring.There are 2 types of sexual selection. Intersexual selection takes place when males compete for the attention of a female. The female will play an active role in choosing her mate and will choose the mate with the best characteristics in order to produce the offspring with the best characteristics. The other type is Intrasexual selection. This takes place w hen males compete against each other and are rewarded with the female. The female plays a passive role in this. An example of intrasexual selection is Short’s sperm competition.This suggests that males are motivated to ensure that their sperm is successful in fertilization and can compete against other males. This is essential due to how in some species the female will mate with a number of different males so the male with the best fertilizing sperm will win. In humans this has resulted in men evolving to release much larger amounts of sperm after ejaculation to help increase the likelihood of fertilization. Harvey and May suggested that ethic differences in testicle size may reflect adaptive differences in mating strategies within different populations.Samples showed that Chinese mens testicles were approximately half the size Danish mens testicles. This means a chinese man will be at a disadvantage if the female mates with a numerous amount of males and will most likely ent er a long term relationship in order to create offspring. Males are more likely to use short term mating strategies as a form of producing offspring due to how they have an unlimited amount of sperm compared to women who have limited amount of reproductive opportunities.Clark and Hatfield helped support this by getting female and male experiments to ask male and female participants if they would like to engage in casual sex. 75% of males said yes while every female participant said no. This helps support the sexual selection theory as it shows that females have to be more careful with mating as they only have a limited amount of opportunities therefore are more likely to enter a longterm mating strategy. Males can have casual sex with little investment so are more likely to then females. This study helps to show the gender differences.Much of the research documenting sex differences in mate choice focus on preferences rather than on real life choices. So a male may have a preference but may have to settle for much less. Mate choice is a product of mate preferences form in the environment of evolutionary adaptiveness (EEA). Sexual selection suggests that females prefer males who they can gain benefits from such as gifts. This is shown in male birds who make nests for females in order to mate with them and also in insects who give nuptial gifts. Sexual selection also suggests that females prefer males who have a strong jawline and prominent cheekbones.These characteristics arise because of a strong presence of testosterone which also helps to indicate fertility within males. Penton-voack found that during a women's most fertile time in her menstrual cycle they preferred a male whose face shape was more masculinised (strong jawline etc.. ) Suggesting that females like males who show high levels of testosterone, supporting sexual selection theory. Buss explored whether there were universals of human mate preference. His research spanned across 37 cultures and invo lved 10 thousand participants of different religion,ethnic and economic groups, increasing the validity of the study.He then made the study even more ecologically valid by varying the sampling procedure per culture. Results showed that women in all cultures show a preferences for men with resources while males placed more emphasis on women's attractiveness as it is an emphasis on their physical health. This supports the claims made by the sexual selection theory that women will form relationships with men for resources as it will benefit them and increase the survivability of their offspring which is a woman's main evolutionary goal.A problem is in some cultures arranged marriages is the normal and individuals have no choice on their mate as it is already chosen by their parents, so the studies validity can be questioned as this will affect the results obtained. Buss further helped to supported mate choice by looking at real marriages. He found that when males divorce many of them g o for younger women when they choose to marry again. This is due to how men will want to be in a relationship with women in their most fertile age and the younger the woman is the more chance of reproductive success the male his.This helps to support the evolutionary theory that a mans main goal is to produce as many surviving offspring as possible. The evolutionary approach can be seen as deterministic due to how it suggests our genes specify exactly how we will behave. The approach fails to take into account that our genes are not the only thing that determine how we behave, the environment in which we grew up in will also have an effect on us. This is known as the nature vs nurture debate where it is argued if our biological factors or the way in which we are brought up makes up how we behave when we grow up.The evolutionary theory suggests that rape is an evolved and adaptive behaviour which enhance reproductive success. Sterglanz and Nash suggest that the theory offers justific ation for rape as it explains why males who can’t compete with other males for resources and women will produce offspring. This is socially sensitive and has been met by much hostility from the general public and women psychologists due to how it is an issue which negatively affects the lives of many.The evolutionary theory is also seen as reductionist as it explains humans reproductive behaviors as a result of our genes, ignoring the environmental actors which also decide our behavior. The approach also ignores homosexual relationships and only accounts for heterosexual relationships and the roles in which men and women take. To conclude the sexual selection theory helps to explain that males and females attempt to maximize their reproductive success by getting with a partner with certain characteristics, these characteristics will then evolve over time due to how individuals in a species with these characteristics will have a higher chance of reproductive success

Systematic and Systemic

Systematic and Systemic Systematic and Systemic Systematic and Systemic By Maeve Maddox Mark, one of our readers, requests a discussion of the difference between systematic and systemic. Both adjectives derive from the noun system which, in late Latin, meant a musical interval, that is, a difference in pitch between two notes. While retaining its original meaning, the Latin word came to mean, in addition: a union of several metres into a whole, the universe, body of the articles of faith, an organized whole, government, constitution, and a body of men or animals systematic [sis tuh MA tik] In its most common use by the general speaker and writer, the adjective systematic means Arranged or conducted according to a system, plan, or organized method. A novelist, for example, may have a systematic method of organizing note cards. More specialized meanings of systematic occur in the writings of philosophers, statisticians, and biologists, as the following examples from the OED illustrate: Logic: When the same words are used in sentences which express different kinds of propositions, yet in each case the usage is significant, then these words are said to have ‘systematic ambiguity’ This ambiguity is systematic because it can be formulated according to a rule. Statistics: an error with a non-zero mean, so that its effect is not reduced when observations are averaged. Natural history: Pertaining to, following, or arranged according to a system of classification; of or pertaining to classification, classificatory. systemic [sis TEM ik] Note: Beware the pronunciation. I once heard a radio reporter pronounce it as sus tee mik.) The adjective systemic is chiefly a scientific term meaning belonging to, supplying, or affecting the system or body as a whole. It is often used to refer to a condition that affects the nervous system in particular. Read the labels on your gardening supplies. If your herbicide, insecticide, or fungicide is described as systemic, it kills the pest youre after by entering its system and making its way throughout the plants or animals tissues. In 1961 M. A. K. Halliday came up with the term systemic grammar to describe a method of linguistic analysis. The rationale for the use of systemic instead of systematic in this instance eludes me, but then, so does the meaning of this OED example which records the use of the expression: The grammar that assigns to sentences structures like the one in Fig. 1 is generative fusion of elements of American-style immediate-constituent analysis, European-style dependency theory, and British-style systemic grammar. Unless you are referring to an organism, you probably want the word systematic. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:When to Capitalize Animal and Plant NamesLatin Plural EndingsKn- Words in English

Free Essays on China U.s Relations

The main focus of this paper is to analyze the Sino-American relationship and the factors both past and present that make it a complicated and very important issue, as well as future expectations for the development of continued relations. American contact with China in the past has been less than positive and China is a country that values respect and honesty in its value system. China and the USA do not share the same view of the world. There has been much misunderstanding and even underhanded policy when it came to the USA, especially with the changing of our presidents. Clinton was a strong supporter of having Asia involved in the future of America. He urged that China become a part of the World Trade Organization to make the relationship that of a partnership. He had been quoted as referring to China as a strategic partner while Bush described China as a strategic competitor. (Tyler p1) Imagine the shock of China to be turned from favored friend to possible enemy within the period of less than a year. In my opinion this is a relationship that both sides can mutually benefit from however up until this point it has been clouded by great egos and failed policies. This is an extremely important issue to discuss because China is one of the largest nations in terms of billions of people, as well as an upcoming superpower. In the future China will become stronger in terms of production and business, and the USA would be wise not to cause permanent damage by ignoring treaties and past foreign policy. America must remember they cannot change the rules of the game in the middle of playing! America is a democratic nation that values human rights, and in that platform fights a moral war naturally which would put the USA at odds with China on more than one issue. My personal expectations for the future of China and America’s diplomatic relationship is that it will continue to deteriorate if the USA does not find a better way to d... Free Essays on China U.s Relations Free Essays on China U.s Relations The main focus of this paper is to analyze the Sino-American relationship and the factors both past and present that make it a complicated and very important issue, as well as future expectations for the development of continued relations. American contact with China in the past has been less than positive and China is a country that values respect and honesty in its value system. China and the USA do not share the same view of the world. There has been much misunderstanding and even underhanded policy when it came to the USA, especially with the changing of our presidents. Clinton was a strong supporter of having Asia involved in the future of America. He urged that China become a part of the World Trade Organization to make the relationship that of a partnership. He had been quoted as referring to China as a strategic partner while Bush described China as a strategic competitor. (Tyler p1) Imagine the shock of China to be turned from favored friend to possible enemy within the period of less than a year. In my opinion this is a relationship that both sides can mutually benefit from however up until this point it has been clouded by great egos and failed policies. This is an extremely important issue to discuss because China is one of the largest nations in terms of billions of people, as well as an upcoming superpower. In the future China will become stronger in terms of production and business, and the USA would be wise not to cause permanent damage by ignoring treaties and past foreign policy. America must remember they cannot change the rules of the game in the middle of playing! America is a democratic nation that values human rights, and in that platform fights a moral war naturally which would put the USA at odds with China on more than one issue. My personal expectations for the future of China and America’s diplomatic relationship is that it will continue to deteriorate if the USA does not find a better way to d...

Synopsis of a Contemporary Strategic Issue Essay

Synopsis of a Contemporary Strategic Issue - Essay Example innacle of Japanese innovation, very recently, Toyota has had to recall 8m vehicles due to â€Å"unintended acceleration† (The Economist, Feb 11, 2010). Toyota Prius (the hybrid vehicle) has developed problem with brake pedals that refuse to open (The Economist, Feb 9, 2010) and 440,000 vehicles would have to be called back. The firm’s reputation for quality on which the organization was built has been shattered. Toyota is busy chasing volumes at almost any price. Its global market share has fallen to 11.8% from 13.1% (Appendix A). The business environment is currently turbulent and according to Ansoff, to survive and succeed in an industry the firm must be able to match the aggressiveness of its operating and strategic behaviours (Thompson & Martin, 2005). The business environment is characterized by several factors and the resources of the organization and the values must be congruent to the needs of the environment. Changeability of the market environment- the current market is turbulent due to global economic downturn. Besides, due to the large amount of vehicle recall, Toyota’s market capitalization has dropped. The cost of recall is $2bn dollars (The Economist, Feb 9, 2010). Globalization, individualizations, digitalization and increasing competition have increased the speed at which change is taking place in the industry (Jain & Garg, 2010). The car makers can now expand to new markets a fast pace. Fertility of technology: The firm has always prided itself in being leaders in innovation but the cars rolled out recently have problems with brakes. The floor mats are badly fitted. All these suggest that the organization has to rethink its outsourcing policies. Toyota has depended on several layers of suppliers which has helped them to reduce the costs (SD, 2006) but they need to take note that most of the accelerator pedals were supplied by American parts-maker (The Economist, Feb 11, 2010). However, many automakers use the same suppliers and a domino

Argument essay about triffic light camera Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Argument about triffic light camera - Essay Example She argues that these cameras help to record any misbehavior by police officers such as corruption of mistreatment. In addition, Mangu (3) supports the idea that these cameras can aid in security investigations. For instance, in London, camera footage led to speedy identification of July 2005 bombers. Eggers and Tushnet (1) say that a camera is a â€Å"crime fighting tool† to support the idea that security cameras help the police in protecting the public. They dismiss the idea that these cameras interfere with personal privacy on the ground that cameras are used everywhere including in supermarkets and bank ATMs and no one complains about privacy. Richard says that cameras must be â€Å"properly used and monitored† if they have to be effective in fighting crime (1). The implication is that the information from the cameras must be used for the right purpose to protect the privacy of the public. He cautions against abuse of information collected from cameras by the author ities. The three authors seem to agree that security cameras are necessary for public security. Another group of scholars has criticized the use of surveillance cameras arguing that this violates the private rights of the public. Steinhardt (6-7) argues that surveillance cameras gather information that is private to the public and that those who use the information are not necessarily security bodies. Therefore, there is abuse of information collected by the surveillance cameras. He states that â€Å"cops - not cameras - fight crime† to show that the surveillance cameras are unnecessary tools in fighting crime (2). The New York Civil Liberties union (1) says that these cameras collect information that is â€Å"more than required† for fighting crime. This information can be shared, hence exposing the people’s privacy. The suggestion of this group is that the use of cameras be regulated to balance between public privacy rights and safety.

Addictions Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Addictions Theory - Essay Example They facilitate customer case administration and probation supervision for each case. They hold normal audit gatherings and regular court hearings to screen every guilty partys circumstance. They utilize graduated approvals and unmistakable prizes to spur guilty party consistence, and they check for violations by leading various irregular or unannounced medication tests Adult drug courts utilize a project intended to lessen medication utilization backslide and criminal recidivism around litigants and guilty parties through danger and needs appraisal, legal connection, following and supervision, graduated assents and impetuses, medicine and different recovery administrations. Juvenile drug courts apply a comparative system demonstrate that is customized to the needs of adolescent guilty parties. These projects give youth and their families with advising, instruction and different administrations to: push quick intercession, medicine and structure; enhance level of working; location issues that may help pill utilization; assemble abilities that build their capability to lead medication and wrongdoing free lives; fortify the familys ability to offer structure and direction; and advertise responsibility for all included. Family drug courts underline medicine for folks with substance use issue to support in the reunification and stabilization of families influenced by parental pill utilization. These projects apply the grown-up medication court model to cases entering the kid welfare framework that incorporate assertions of youngster ill-use or disregard in which substance misuse is distinguished as a helping element. Drug Court is simply voluntary and individuals alluded to Drug Court are viewed as addicts, not offenders. They are treated with respect and are relied upon to take part in the advancement of medication

Economic Impact of Online Identity Theft Assignment

Economic Impact of Online Identity Theft - Assignment Example Indeed, apprehension of cyber-identity criminals, and especially multi-national organized crime rings, poses a serious challenge to law enforcement specialists deployed to tackle transnational jurisdictional measures. Cyber-theft knows no boundaries, and the tendency for such crimes to be commissioned through a network of communications is extensive. With exception of high wealth transfer operations, and those transactions connected to official terrorist organizations, cooperation between governments is far beyond normal extradition order. As a result, facilitation of consumer protections is allocated primarily to watch groups and the efforts of independent counsel hired to address client complaints. At the Sixteenth Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNESC) Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in 2007, the Results of the study on fraud and the criminal misuse and falsification of identity in a Report of the UN Secretary General toward 'international cooperation in the prevention, investigation, prosecution and punishment of fraud, the criminal misuse and falsification of identity and related crimes' set the international platform toward legislative policies pertaining to cyber identity theft, and the economic impact of transnational fraud. Responsive to the intensifying multi-jurisdictional complications of global cyber fraud and its attendant economic impacts in the realm of cyber-terrorism, the Commission outlined priority targets within international legislation intended to stem the rapid expansion of predatory privacy invasion and usurpation of finance through identity theft toward support of organized criminal activity. Amidst the proliferation of personal data collected by internet service providers and commercial and government businesses online, the quantification of fraud has become a massive undertaking. The recent disclosure of previously undetected, large-scale securities based Ponzi schemes, informs us that significant losses of wealth can be lost over long periods of time when they involve a large portfolio of parties subject to varied national rules on securities trading. Counting the cost of identity theft is, then, one of scale. As the UNSEC Report indicates, "mass-fraud schemes tend to produce large numbers of cases if occurrences are based on counting numbers of victims or complaints but lower rates if numbers of offenders fraud schemes or prosecutions are counted." Statistical accountability of identity theft related fraud by UN member states is spotty, with underreporting of the prevalence of the different methods of commissioning those crimes has shifted rapidly as technologies induce related regulatory restrictions that push criminal activity into a vague area whereby "fraud imitates legitimate commerce, making variations of commercial practice likely to produce parallel variations in fraud over time, between countries or regions, and with respect to specific areas of commerce." Mitigating factors such as privatization of previously State-owned operations in contexts where the system of justice is weak due to parallel post-conflict or reconstruction efforts, leaves infrastructural oversight open to fraud in general. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was written into legislation in 1970 and has been amended almost

Essay quextions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Essay quextions - Assignment Example ndergone through historical changes way back from pre-capitalist societies, capitalist societies, mercantilism as well as neoliberalism it can also be changed to suit the changing trends in market economy. To improve on our ability to live in a multicultural world; we should have a keen attention on our consumption patterns, have knowledge on circumstances and impacts of what we consume to enable us act responsibly. This will give us room to be able to join others in challenging inequity and injustice brought about with the capitalists to laborers and consumers. This is because the intrinsic nature of man will not allow others to also benefit the same, instead, the capitalists will continue with their spirit of accumulation not considering the working conditions of the laborers and consumers not able to have the right quality of goods that they are suppose to have in the name of cultural capitalism across the globe (Sorrells 177). Since cultural and ethnic diversity is not a new phenomenon; the argument of the three scholars about difference is that people should accept the reality and desirability of diversity and then be able to structure political and economic life accordingly. The difference is only created by the few individuals whose motives are only embedded in a capitalist system that which is organized around competition over the scarce resources, domination, identity and self-centered ambitions. Therefore, what is more important is a notion of the common good to any political society; from a multicultural perspective, this common good must be generated not by transcending or ignoring cultural and other differences, but through their interplay in a dialogical, agonistic political life (Allan 52). A sense of belonging must ultimately be political, based on a shared commitment to a political community. Since commitment, or belonging, must be reciprocal, citizen will not feel these things unless their p olitical community is also committed to them and makes

US Airways Group - At the Back of the Pack Essay

US Airways Group - At the Back of the Pack - Essay Example Ever since the industry was deregulated in 1978 intense competition and price gauging has made profitability increasingly difficult for the airline industry in general. After the stock market crash of 2008 and the economic recession that followed coupled with rising fuel costs were the direct cause of several airlines having to file for bankruptcy protection (Plunkett Research, 2010). The airline companies that survived the onslaught were presented with a volatile and fluctuating operating environment of rising fuel and energy costs, coupled with a decreased demand for passenger travel in general and negative impact on revenues mainly as a direct result of the economic downturn. The rising costs have cut the margins in the industry so much that current the average net margin in the airline industry is two percent. The period of 2008 and 2009 remained a very challenging period for all the airlines with most of them struggling to remain profitable. For 2010 with the slow economic recovery businesses as well as private travel has increased significantly in volume, so occupancy rates in general for the airline industry have been full. When airlines are able to fill the seats of their airplanes to full capacity the company is optimizing the productivity of the operation. When the latter occurs and companies have idle capacity issues airlines have to take drastic measures to fill those seats which includes price deductions to spur the demand for air travel. After the previous years of consecutive losses the airline industry in general returned to profitability. U.S. Airways just like any other domestic airline is subject to a complicated array of laws and regulations that limit their operations as well dramatically increasing their operating costs. With the advent of the Aviation and Transportation security Act of 2001 which mandated the standardization and federalization of airport security and mandated additional security procedures which increased operational costs tremendously airlines had to absorb the costs and imposed a per passenger tax on ticket sales in order to fund the additional security measures. The Federal Aviation A dministration is the federal agency responsible for regulating the airline industry operations, procedures and their operational safety, including aircraft maintenance. The FAA will regularly issue new directives and changes in maintenance schedules and procedures which create mandated operational costs that are also a factor in increasing airline operational expenses. Other proposals to address airport congestion in certain airports in the U.S. involve increasing pricing to take into account congestion or placing a tax on certain particularly congested airports. This could potentially affect the airline industry in the near future by further increasing the costs of passengers to travel if these changes or suggestions are placed into law (Datamonitor, 2010). Further regulations and government legislation concerning pollution, climate change and aircraft emissions also post a significant operational threat to the airline industry as a whole. In the list of Fortune 1,000 : Most admire d companies 2006, U.S. Airways Group was consistently ranked lowest in all the eight key attributes that were taken into account. U.S. Airways Group achieved an overall score of 3.25 placing it as the least admired airline out of all the major competitors. For this survey U.S. Airways was ranked last in the industry in four of the eight

Economic Impact of Online Identity Theft Assignment

Economic Impact of Online Identity Theft - Assignment Example Indeed, apprehension of cyber-identity criminals, and especially multi-national organized crime rings, poses a serious challenge to law enforcement specialists deployed to tackle transnational jurisdictional measures. Cyber-theft knows no boundaries, and the tendency for such crimes to be commissioned through a network of communications is extensive. With exception of high wealth transfer operations, and those transactions connected to official terrorist organizations, cooperation between governments is far beyond normal extradition order. As a result, facilitation of consumer protections is allocated primarily to watch groups and the efforts of independent counsel hired to address client complaints. At the Sixteenth Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNESC) Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in 2007, the Results of the study on fraud and the criminal misuse and falsification of identity in a Report of the UN Secretary General toward 'international cooperation in the prevention, investigation, prosecution and punishment of fraud, the criminal misuse and falsification of identity and related crimes' set the international platform toward legislative policies pertaining to cyber identity theft, and the economic impact of transnational fraud. Responsive to the intensifying multi-jurisdictional complications of global cyber fraud and its attendant economic impacts in the realm of cyber-terrorism, the Commission outlined priority targets within international legislation intended to stem the rapid expansion of predatory privacy invasion and usurpation of finance through identity theft toward support of organized criminal activity. Amidst the proliferation of personal data collected by internet service providers and commercial and government businesses online, the quantification of fraud has become a massive undertaking. The recent disclosure of previously undetected, large-scale securities based Ponzi schemes, informs us that significant losses of wealth can be lost over long periods of time when they involve a large portfolio of parties subject to varied national rules on securities trading. Counting the cost of identity theft is, then, one of scale. As the UNSEC Report indicates, "mass-fraud schemes tend to produce large numbers of cases if occurrences are based on counting numbers of victims or complaints but lower rates if numbers of offenders fraud schemes or prosecutions are counted." Statistical accountability of identity theft related fraud by UN member states is spotty, with underreporting of the prevalence of the different methods of commissioning those crimes has shifted rapidly as technologies induce related regulatory restrictions that push criminal activity into a vague area whereby "fraud imitates legitimate commerce, making variations of commercial practice likely to produce parallel variations in fraud over time, between countries or regions, and with respect to specific areas of commerce." Mitigating factors such as privatization of previously State-owned operations in contexts where the system of justice is weak due to parallel post-conflict or reconstruction efforts, leaves infrastructural oversight open to fraud in general. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was written into legislation in 1970 and has been amended almost