Experiential Leadership Project Progress Report Essay

This paper is an experiential leadership project whose subject is, Sandra Ussery, my direct supervisor at work. Sandra’s title is Pricing Systems Supervisor, under FedEx National LTL. At present she oversees nine direct employees. Sandra’s boss is Diane Lia, the Pricing Systems Manager for FedEx National LTL. Diane has two direct employees and nine indirect employees. The main reason I have chosen to focus on Sandra is because she is in a newly created position. Good supervisors are people who, even when they must correct someone, can â€Å"step on your toes without messing up your shine. They give people a shot in the arm without letting them feel the needle. People seem to need encouragement most when they sense that they have really failed. Perhaps they failed the boss, or the organization or just failed themselves. In any case, it is at that moment that the leader needs to show her character—how she is able to help them along with the healing process. My supervisor, Sandra Ussery, is that kind of a boss and many more. This paper aims to gather an evaluation of her from those people under her. It shall also provide a copy of the questionnaire which I used in gauging the kind of leadership she implements with her staff. The process of evaluating an individual’s performance contains elements of positive and negative reinforcement. How well people perform is largely determined by whether their performance is evaluated or rewarded. Many organizations, especially smaller ones, do not have formal evaluation programs because they have survived without them in the past and they see no benefit for them in the future. Yet, performance management is essential even among supervisors because they upgrade the level of the human performance of organizations. They identify problem areas in the workplace when it comes to human resources. Although the situation does not appear to be in need of full attention right now, the implications will be felt later on by organization if they do not act consciously on the issue. There are adjustments that include minimum and accessorial charges, including additional adjustments in select lanes and service areas. The FedEx Freight Segment accumulated annual revenues of $3. 6 billion in fiscal year 2006. This includes FedEx Freight, a leading U. S. provider of regional next-day and second-day and interregional LTL freight services. The company is known for its high performance and exceptional service and reliability. FedEx Freight extends its service to all U. S. ZIP codes. It is supported by its principle of no-fee- money-back guarantee on all eligible continental U. S. shipments. It gives service to Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. Holding corporate office in Memphis, Tennessee, the FedEx Freight Segment also includes FedEx National LTL, a leading provider of long-haul LTL services throughout North America. Looking at this description, this paper maintains that every organization needs to start where it should be rightly so—the individual. The FedEx National LTL, is a leading U. S. provider of long-haul LTL freight services. Federal Express purchased original employer, Watkins Motor Lines last June. Prior to this purchase, the pricing systems department, which was called the auto rate department under Watkins, had no supervisor. The supervisor position was created to have someone to train new employees as they were added to that department. Prior to four others and myself moving to the department in the span of a year, there had been no new additions to that department for seven years. After the acquisition, the supervisor job was created so that the manager of that department could focus on working with managers of other departments at our location and at other operating companies to integrate our systems together. FedEx National LTL, which is the operating company that I work for, specializes in providing low-cost transportation to our customers with slower turn around times. Our partner freight company, FedEx Freight, specializes on one to two day turnaround times at a higher cost. The main reason we were purchased was to add the long haul, low cost service to FedEx’s already quick turnaround customers. FedEx National LTL operates in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, but we can transport a shipment through the various operating companies anywhere in the world. The main factors affecting the companies operation at this time is the integration of our system into theirs. Our department takes pricing that is negotiated with our customers and we input it into our automated rating system. This system is designed to automatically apply pricing to freight bills so that no one has to manually rate them. This process is a huge cost saver to the company and is a highly focused on at FedEx. Federal Express has a mandate to input all pricing into this system, this way they have to pay few people to rate the bills. The problem we are facing is to integrate our automated rating program with theirs. Also, their operating systems are different than ours, but based on the same platform, so all the managers of the IT, IS, and Pricing Application departments are focused on integrating these systems. There is a comprehensive network of nearly 330 service centers and advanced information systems, FedEx Freight provides service to virtually all U. S. ZIP codes, including Alaska and Hawaii. The carrier’s regional and interregional LTL service is supported by a no-fee money-back guarantee on all eligible continental U. S. shipments. It gives service to Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. Holding corporate office in Memphis, Tennessee, the FedEx Freight Segment also includes FedEx National LTL, a leading provider of long-haul LTL services throughout North America. In general, the company offers customers and businesses worldwide with services in transportation, e-commerce and business services. The annual revenue is a staggering $34 billion. It is known worldwide as having trustworthy and admired employers. It has more than 275,000 employees. Contractors employ positive safety with a high ethical and professional standard. As I said before, what I want to do with my project is collect feedback from my fellow coworkers, some of which have been there less than a year and others who have been there ten years or more. I have already discussed this project with my manager, supervisor, and coworkers and all of them have agreed to provide information and feedback, as I need it. Since, most of the senior people have worked with Sandra for at least five years, I will be able to get their impression of her and her leadership abilities. Sandra did not train many of the seasoned people, so I will discuss with the four new people how effective they feel she was as a trainer. I also plan to evaluate her based on the leadership styles I learned in the course. I want to see if Sandra tends to focus on one style or varies in styles and approaches depending on the employee and the situation. She has agreed to let me observe her a few times a week during the course of this project so that I may see her leadership style at work. I believe the best way to determine a particular style is to observe her actions towards me and other members of the department. I have contacted Human Resources to see if I can get a Job Description for her position in order to see what is required from her and her assigned tasks. While I am observing her I will use these criteria to see if she is confident in completing these tasks. I will use these criteria to evaluate her leadership ability and her ability to meet the needs of the company. I plan to be as objective as I can with this report, especially since I have only been with the company for two years, and in this department for about seven months. I plan to use the leadership styles outlined in the book as a guide to determining her style or styles of leadership. I want to gather as much data from coworkers and my manager on Sandra, since I have spent little time working with her. I want to see how the perceptions of those employee’s that have worked with her for a long time differ from those of us that are new. I believe that using the information outlined in our book, the job description qualifications and expectations, and the observations and information collected from coworkers and myself will help to determine if she is an effective leader. According to Dennie Carey, senior vice president, marketing, FedEx Freight, â€Å"Whether operating fast cycle logistics or planned distribution, shippers have told us they require a high degree of certainty, shipment integrity and actionable information. † The company meets customer needs by continuing to invest in their people, equipment, facilities and technologies. FedEx Freight has improved service in 3,000 lanes. Add to this is the safety features to its tractors and this ushered the easy access to its regional and long-haul service via the internet. It has also taken over the operations of Watkins Motor Lines in September, FedEx National LTL. It now focuses on the market with a highly engineered network. Sandra Ussery is a manager with faith in her staff. Part of any working day is given over to tracking and checking the progress that has been delegated throughout her staff. This is not about looking over the shoulders of her staff, but about monitoring the progress of the given program of the moment. Most people need reminders and her staff finds her as the ultimate â€Å"reminderer† in the organization. The people who most enjoy working with her are those who are self-starters, self-disciplined individuals who bring her the results of their projects before she ever has a chance to check on their progress. After a while, she learns whom she needs to remind and whom she can count on to follow through without reminders. She is able to encourage empowerment of all staff since she recognizes that this is very important in making changes more effective. The more involved people are in the process of change, the more effective the change will be and the more lasting it will be for the company (Coyle and Kossek, 2000). Definitely, Ussery enhances her staff’s ability to influence other subordinates in order to facilitate efficient decision making process within the organization. Those directly under her like and who worked with her within a year or so like Jessica, Jane, David, Daniel, Jerri, Sheila find that she exercises authoritative leadership ith them. This may be so because she trained them directly and she knows that these people would understand her when she wants things done perfectly. Authoritative leadership is the most effective in terms of generating changes for the company. Authoritative leaders as she is, she is very clear on what she wants to accomplish. She also has the ability to invoke to her staff the significance of their job in the accomplishment of the company’s goals. This means therefore, that employees or the team knows their roles in the grand goal of the company. Through the strategic positioning of a vision, an Ussery provides standard on which the results of the team can be evaluated. The other staff like Scot, Cathie, Penny, and Diane, who is also Sandra’s manager, find her diversifying her leadership style to ensure that they are applied appropriately to certain situations. These people say that Sandra balances her authority and democracy in her leadership styles. They evaluate her as having the sensitivity and emotional capacity to recognize what would be the most appropriate leadership strategy that is being called for by the situation. In many cases using just one strategy cannot generate effective results. One of the important components in leadership is also recognizing the potential of an assigned leader. Characteristics of the leader have been known to be very important in the achievement of goals. This is very important in the context of the FedEx where implementations of projects are assigned to specific leadership and utmost excellence is needed. According to many psychological studies, which aim to recognize the character behind some of the effective leaders in successful organizations, emotional intelligence is very important for many leaders (Goleman, 2000). This has been widely reviewed in many literatures. According to Goleman (2000) this emotional intelligence can be reflected on the ability of leaders to have the necessary social skills. This means that they must be able work well with their people under different circumstances to ensure that there are no barriers to communication. This would help the problem to be resolved immediately and for improvements of the programs be initiated efficiently. They must also have high levels of motivation, which would allow them to do things through initiative and exceed the expected results. These are all seen in Sandra, as evaluated by her people and they especially find that she is really flexible as well to the call of the times and the moment. Finally she knows her limitations and admit that she cannot possibly do everything without the able help of her staff likewise. Ms. Sandra Ussery is a good manager because she taught me through her example how to get the job done. I started taking notes and wondering what I would do if I were in charge. I looked and listened and collected a catalog of what people liked and disliked and collected a catalog of what people liked and disliked about management. She would often come up to me and say, â€Å"Here’s what we are going to do,† and made us believe we could do it. From that moment on, I was ready. Are you ready? You’ve got to take stock and honestly answer the question. It requires huge amounts of time and effort. Not everyone is willing to make the commitment and the sacrifices. She often would say that she gets a high watching people succeed. Making people’s actions visible by publicizing and recognizing their work strengthens others. It opens doors to potential new relationships because people are more aware of one another’s contributions. Success is an attractive magnet for pulling people together and increasing their attachment to the project. Ms. Ussery points out that building stable political coalitions is often based on making certain that participants’ involvement is publicized. She notes that good press is an essential political currency. While publicizing other people’s actions heightens people’s sense of personal power. It builds commitment because it makes it more difficult for people to dissociate themselves from the actions and activities that they were recognized for. There is also a rising literature today on leadership that emphasizes the need to inspire collaboration. This is the emerging mainstream form of leadership where power in the process of decision making is more decentralized. There is now a present emphasis on the ability of group collaboration to actually facilitate the achievement of the goals. Collaborative leadership is practiced by Sandra as an effective means of communication that could actually imbibe greater productivity and greater creativity for the achievement of the goals of the department she is in.

Early Childhood Education application essay Essay

This article gives a study of how we can apply the material in an Early Childhood institution from the novel `Different Children Different Needs` by Charles F. Boyd. This book can be taken as a channel showing parents and teachers in any institute on how to be more efficient by knowing the personality God has given each child. Boyd applies a DISC style of traits of parents’ personality for application in parent-child affiliations. Although, this book is mainly on good parenting which allows you to review your and your child’s qualities and as a result, helps you in improving communication with no friction between parents and children. The material in this book can also be very useful in any institutional environment. Based on this knowledge, this study gives a brief evaluation of the application and knowledge specifically in an institute’s environment and the experience from it. Knowledge and Application This book assists you in understanding that every child has a unique personality and none of them are right or wrong but just different. As in the novel Boyd writes â€Å"As parents, we need to discover our children’s natural styles and help each one grow up according to his unique, in-born, God-given design† (Charles Boyd. 4). Writer uses the DISC personality sketch descriptions to understand and help you to re-open blocked communication with your child. It’s as easy as opening by inquiring yourself if your child is a bit lazy or active, people person or a loner? The material and tools presented in ‘Different Children, Different Needs’ will take the anonymity out of the way on how you interrelate with each other. In the book, we look at a tool referred to as â€Å"the art of flexible parenting† or parenting by plan. It is a method which presents us with an opportunity to raise our kids that procures into account equally how God has designed our style and personality and how He has designed our children. This uncomplicated and realistic model enables us to realize our normal bent and the way it influences our parenting style, determine our children’s design, comparison between the first two and adjusting our style so as it fulfils the style and requirements of our children. It helps in fashioning an atmosphere of encouragement and support which results in enhanced parent-child communication and eases common areas of clashes. The methods and tools given in this book can not only help parents in understanding their children better but also prove helpful in Children institutes by giving teachers an insight to his/her pupils mind and personality and making them realize that not every student cannot be the top person and that someone has to take the bottom position whether it be academic performance or co-curricular activities. After having an understanding of such basics, these Institutes can make sure that each student is treated as an individual and not be compared with others who are either doing better or worst than him and thus improved student-teacher relation which will result in better results. This model will assist in developing an atmosphere of encouragement and support and can have results like an increased self-confidence and self-discovery. After reading this book, you will start to comprehend things you never understood in relation to the most excellent way to communicate to each unique student in a class. Students will appear to appreciate how God has designed them and made each and everyone of them exceptional in his own way, maturing in self-confidence and discovering a sense of fitting in somewhere. And you will get pleasure from fulfilling your mentoring experience you’ve forever wished for. Understanding and Experience A Childs education starts from home. Education plays a very significant part in altering lives of children. This book gives a concept of parenting pollution. Parenting pollution refers, to the desire of every parent to raise their children the way they think they should. If we observe carefully, we see that the same idea is applied in children institutions where teacher expects the student to be as smart as the teacher was when he was students’ age, or think the same way as he used to think and mostly compare students with each other. The truth is, it is important to realize that with changing times, minds maturity level changes, and children nowadays, grasp and perceive things differently then we used to. The one part of the book that I thought could be really helpful if all could read it and enjoy is a number of pages of encouraging â€Å"one-liners† which can be used to build your child’s or your students self-confidence some of which includes sayings like when asked a student to perform a task in classroom and if he is taking longer than some other students, instead of saying this discouraging thing â€Å"What’s taking you so long? â€Å", what you can say is, â€Å"You do things specifically and correctly. † (Haim Ginott, 23) That line sums up the â€Å"observe, don’t judge† philosophy of child psychologist Haim Ginott which one should try very often for miraculous results. (Haim Ginott, 23) Some stuff you read in this book is pretty basic on parenting like be patient with a child , Don’t hurry or push him, be open at times when your child wants to do things differently than you feel like etc. But observe carefully that do you really do all this basic stuff all the time or you are really a moody person Conclusion The DISC character system on which all of the suggestion in this book is based is not exactly a specific personality test but in actually just a self-discovery test where you can ponder over you actions and those of your children and then apply them in Children Institutions. The concluding remark is that Parenting by plan is a technique you can utilize to fine-tune your parenting technique according to your children and students as each of them has different personality and psychology. It can really help is making parents and teachers understand that even if the personalities of their children clashes with their own, it can still be a positive relation and parents being older have to take the first step which may just include getting a copy of this book. References Boyd, Charles. 2004. Different Children, Different Needs. Published by Multnomah Books Ginott, Haim. 1996. Between

The Less You Burn, the More You Earn

Outline Thesis: In order to save money and cut costs, it is imperative that one uses different kinds of energy-efficient lights. * Light Fixtures * Light fixtures are the devices that hold the light bulbs you use * In order to have a light in your house you have to have a light fixture to hold it. * Since there are many different types of light bulbs there must be different light fixtures * I. e. , fluorescent, LED, and your basic incandescent, etc. * Light Bulbs * Light bulbs are what give you that wonderful emission of light. Light bulbs vary from different sizes to different shapes and different colors * They also are rated different wattage and voltage * Depending on the bulb these key factors could jeopardize your energy bills * Types of Light Bulbs * There are several types of light bulbs that are used for different reasons * Incandescent Bulbs- these are the standard bulbs that most people are familiar with. Incandescent bulbs work by using electricity to heat a tungsten filam ent in the bulb until it glows. The filament is either in a vacuum or in a mixture of argon/nitrogen gas. Halogen Bulbs- halogen bulbs are a variation of incandescent bulb technology. These bulbs work by passing electricity through a tungsten filament, which is enclosed in a tube containing halogen gas. This halogen gas causes a chemical reaction to take place which removes the tungsten from the wall of the glass and deposits it back onto the filament. This extends the life of the bulb. * Fluorescent Bulbs- These bulbs work by passing a current through a tube filled with argon gas and mercury. This produces ultraviolet radiation that bombards the phosphorous coating causing it to emit light.Bulb life is very long – 10,000 to 20,000 hours * Compact Fluorescent Lamps- compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) are a modern type of light bulbs, that work like fluorescent bulbs, but in a much smaller package. Similar to regular fluorescent bulbs, they produce little heat and are very effic ient. They are available to fit screw type base fittings and pin type (snap-in). Most CFLs either consist of a number of short glass sticks, or two or three small tubular loops. * High-Intensity Discharge Lamps- High Pressure Sodium (HPS), Metal Halide, Mercury Vapor and Self-Ballasted Mercury Lamps are all high intensity discharge lamps (HID).With the exception of self-ballasted lamps, auxiliary equipment such as ballasts and starters must be provided for proper starting and operation of each type bulb. Compared to fluorescent and incandescent lamps, HID lamps produce a large quantity of light from a relatively small bulb. * Low-Pressure Sodium Lamps- Low-pressure sodium lamps have the highest efficacy of all commercially available lighting sources. Even though they emit a yellow light, a low-pressure sodium lamp shouldn't be confused with a standard high-pressure sodium lamp.Low-pressure sodium lamps operate much like a fluorescent lamp and require ballast. * LED (Light Emitting D iodes)- Light Emitting Diodes (LED) are bulbs without a filament, that are low in power consumption and have a long life span. LEDs are just starting to rival conventional lighting, but unfortunately they just don't have the output (lumen) needed to completely replace incandescent, and other type, bulbs just yet. Never the less, technology is advancing everyday, and it will not be long until the LED bulb will be the bulb of choice for most applications in the home and work place.Different Lights Can Save Energy and Cut Costs Different lighting can attack someone’s budget, both positively and negatively; positive is what we aim for. There are a variety of bulbs, or lamps, that save people money. There are LED’s, CFL’s and many more. Budgeting a person’s lighting in their home can save individuals money to explore other fun activities on their off time, like going to the beach, or buying a new car or investing in a top notch lighting system for their home. All possibilities when one simply switches a bulb.Let's first take a look at a typical home fixture for general lighting. â€Å"Let's say consumers currently have 60-watt incandescent bulbs and are used six hours a day. The average U. S. home electricity price is 12 cents per kilowatt-hour the kilowatt-hour (symbolized kWh) is a unit of energy equivalent to one kilowatt (1 kW) of power expended for one hour (1 h) of time, according to the most recent data from the U. S. Energy Information Administration. So if consumers pay 12 cents per kWh, and that light bulb uses 60 watts x 6 hours x 365 = 131. 4 kWh a year, that's costing them $16 a year. (Kremer) In order to save money and cut costs, it is imperative that consumers use different kinds of energy-efficient lights. It may be confusing but everyone should know what happens to their electrical bill when they have certain lights. In fact, the average household should know what kinds of light bulbs and how much money they are spendin g on this utility. There are different types of lights and they each have different characteristics, which you should take notice and research accordingly. Light bulbs branch in different directions, whether it is bar lighting, to household lighting, or supermarket lighting to club lights.But these lights have to be carefully selected to save money. Light bulbs come in various shapes, sizes, and even colors. Given what size of light bulb you have also judges what wattage and voltage you have on your lights, which in turn will make those kilowatt-hours go up. There are several kinds of light bulbs, and different companies make them. They are incandescent, halogen, fluorescent, compact fluorescent lamps, high-intensity discharge lamps, low-pressure sodium lamps, and LED (Light Emitting Diodes). Depending on what light bulbs you prefer you may not get the right energy saving light bulbs you cry out for.Incandescent, these are the regular bulbs that most people are familiar with. Incand escent bulbs work by using electricity to heat a tungsten filament in the bulb until it glows. The filament is either in a vacuum or in a mixture of argon or nitrogen gas. Most of the energy spent by the bulb is given off as heat, causing its lumens per watt performance to be low. Because of the filament's high temperature, the tungsten tends to disappear and move to the sides of the light bulb. The natural faultiness in the filament causes it to become thinner quickly.When a bulb is turned on, the sudden flow of energy can cause the other areas to heat up faster than the rest of the bulb, which in turn causes the filament to break and the bulb to burn out. A regular incandescent bulb can last up to 1000 hours. (West) Halogen bulbs are a variation of the incandescent bulb. These bulbs also use a tungsten filament, which is enclosed in a tube containing halogen gas. This halogen gas causes a chemical reaction to take place which removes the tungsten from the wall of the glass and dep osits it back onto the filament. This extends the life of the bulb.In order for the bulbs reaction to create the bulb needs to be hotter than the regular incandescent bulb. The bad news is that the hotter the bulb, the quicker your throwing that bad boy away. â€Å"Care must be taken not to touch the glass part of the bulb with our fingers. The oils from our fingers will weaken the glass and shorten the bulb’s life. Many times this causes the bulb to burst when the filament finally burns out. † (Kremer) Fluorescent lamps are also used in household environments as well as commercial. These lamps work by passing a current through a tube filled with argon gas and mercury.These bulbs also last quite some time up to almost 20,000 hours of light. (West) Fluorescent lamps are also very efficient, producing very little heat, unlike halogen or incandescent bulbs. Fluorescent lamps require a ballast to stabilize the current through the lamp, and to provide the initial striking v oltage required to start the arc discharge. This increases the cost of fluorescent light fixtures, even though one ballast is shared between two or more lamps. A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor chip that emits light when conducting current. LED’s are very useful due to their ability to emit nearly all varieties of light.This has led to their use as a light source for a wide range of applications from: status indicator lights to traffic signals. LED’s are the most bizarre and energy-saving lights you can have that produce the same amount of light as any other incandescent or fluorescent lights. Although, LED’s that produce a spectrum of visible light have been under constant development since the 1960’s, only recently have LED’s seen mass production for household products, making the energy-saving idea more serious. (Energy Star) Retrofitting, the process of changing lights from old to new, is a big part of the electrical business.When doing retro fit work, there are many opportunities for replacing obsolete lamps with newer cost-efficient lamps. This will not only result in reduced energy costs, but usually provides equal- or better-quality lighting. Energy Star, the leading program in energy efficiency and environmental safety, is a branch of the U. S EPA and the DoE. In 1992 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduced Energy Star as a voluntary labeling program designed to identify and promote energy-efficient products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Computers and monitors were the first labeled products.In 1995 they slowly started to move towards heating and cooling equipment. In 1996 they partnered with the DoE to focus on more particular product categories. Through 2011, nearly 20,000 organizations have partnered with EPA, improved efficiency, and realized significant financial and environmental benefits. Americans, with the help of Energy Star, prevented 210 million metric tons of greenhous e gas emissions in 2011 alone, equivalent to the total emissions of 41 million vehicles, and reduced their utility bills by $23 billion. (Energy Star) In 2008, U. S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W.Bodman introduced the joint of the Department of Energy and Defense campaign to challenge military bases nationwide to change their incandescent light bulbs to energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) in on-base housing. (Energy Star) The Energy Star campaign, called Operation Change Out, will help bases across the country increase energy efficiency, save money and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. As of today they have saved millions of dollars in electricity costs and they save an average of 12% electricity each year. (Scoggins) The most important part of the equation is the money.On average you buy a box of 20 incandescent light bulbs for about $3. 56. So if you pay your electricity bill and add in the total for the bulbs you’re paying around $2268. 84 a year. Thatâ⠂¬â„¢s with buying bulbs every month. Now let’s say for instance you upgrade to a more energy-efficient bulb, for instance a Philips (60-W) A19 LED Bright White light bulb. These bulbs go for at least $15, but have a lifespan of 18. 3 years, based on 3 hour usage. Now if one uses these bulbs, your electric bill that was once $90 a month, may now seem more like $80.Based on average you could save anywhere from $10-$25 a month just by switching a bulb. Not only that, if you turn your original switch into a dimmer you could be saving hundreds of dollars a year. Just one 100 watt bulb produces about 2 watts of light and 98 watts of heat. The heat is what is boosting your electric bill. The incandescent bulb takes 100 watts but half of that is heat. (Scoggins) The more bulbs one has the more your bill will be. The most cost efficient way to roll these days is to buy LED lights or CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lights). Most electricians will tell one to go with LED’s because of t heir cost-efficiency.One incandescent bulb uses up to 100 watts of electricity, whereas a LED typically uses 2-17 watts. Even though CFL’s are energy saving and cost efficient, they are not as good as LED’s but provide just about the same, CFL’s put off about 6-25 watts. If one switches their incandescent with CFL’s one can dim their switch and save electricity and money. Energy saving has become a big issue over the years. Energy Star has expressed their utmost concern on the ideal way to efficiently light one’s home. Over 200 gigawatts of energy are wasted annually in America each year. Kraemer) Over the span of time since LED’s have been placed on the market, consumers have decided that these are the best, although expensive. With the advances in technology and the research that is taking place, in a matter of years consumers could be, should be, using lights that save them money. Works Cited . â€Å"CFL Key Product Criteria. † Ene rgy Star. U. S Enviromental Protection Agency, 02 2011. Web. 8 Nov 2012. . . â€Å"Energy Efficient Lighting. † Eartheasy: Solutions for Sustainable Living. Eartheasy. com, 10 2011. Web. 0 Dec 2012. . â€Å"Energy Savings Calculator. † Lutron. Lutron Electronics Co. , 12 2012. Web. 18 Dec 2012.

Is the United Nations in need of reform and if so, in what form should Essay

Is the United Nations in need of reform and if so, in what form should such reform take - Essay Example It comprises of 192 member countries across the globe, with its headquarters in New York. The existence of United Nations dates back to World War II with the objectives to unite all the countries of the universe in order to work in correlation with tranquility and harmony, which must consist on the ideology of fair dealing, respect of humanity, and fulfillment of the fundamental rights of the people2. United Nations aimed to bring the countries closer so that they can work in coordination to develop friendly relations and address the common issues with gravity. The working of the assembly is not restricted to the decisions of any monarch, thus, every county possess the same and equal rights to give their opinions and viewpoints in any discussion happening in the general assembly of the United Nations3. A global body formed in early 1900s, known to be the League of Nations was the key stakeholder to sustain equanimity and placidity in the world, as well as maintaining the coordination amongst the global community. This parent body proved to be flourishing with 58 members across the globe with the prime motive to encourage and endorse worldwide collaboration in order to bring the world under one roof through unity and peace. With the increasing power and control of the Axis Powers over the world, the League got an alarming sign and its success started to fade and declined slowly, thus, resulting in the Second World War. During the World War II, United Nations came to an existence with an official announcement in order to bring the counties in association to each other. Initially, the UN consisted of 51 member countries, which then rose to 192 members at a later stage4. United Nations came under development with a goal to alleviate poverty and raise the living standards of the masses on global basis. It also determined to raise the literacy rate and abate the spread of diseases and environmental degradation to make the world a better place to live. United Nations aimed to support and cushion the under developed countries to lift their economies, build up the social sector and back them to move ahead towards success5. To achieve these objectives, UN designed a set of values, which the member countries were to abide by. United Nations strictly abhorred the violence and tyranny, instead they promoted calm and diplomatic methods to solve the problems, and therefore, member countries came under expectation to settle down rivalries and sensitive matters with serenity. UN made an obligation on all the members to comply with the agreements made between them, and the parent body did not participate in any government activity or personal matter of the member state6. The working of UN depends upon five subdivisions. The first division is the UN General Assembly, whose prime job is to maintain the standards of its guidelines and procedures and always have a room for improvements through suggestions. The assembly has a president who comes under appointme nt from its member states. The second subdivision is the UN Security Council, which has the right to penalize the member countries if they do not follow the rules and regulations that comes under development by the assembly, they also have the decision making power during any sort of disagreements between the member states. Therefore, it comes under consideration as the strongest amongst all the other branches7. The third branch is the International Court of Justice, which is

Reflection Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Reflection - Dissertation Example The organization has grown over the years and is currently celebrating 75 years of its existence (Plan -1, 2013). It needs to be mentioned that as of the modern times, it is a global charity for children and is presently working with kids of the 50 poorest countries of the world with the aim of providing them with a better future. The non profit organization has a very clear and distinct long as well as short term plan in the form of vision and mission. Discussing about the vision of PLAN, it can be stated that the focus on building a world, where every child can realise their highest and maximum potential in a society that respects individual rights and dignity. The mission objectives of the PLAN are to achieve high quality improvements in the quality of life for the deprived children in the developing countries all over the world (Plan -2, 2013). While talking about PLAN in an elaborate manner, it can be stated that the activity portfolio of the global non profit organization compr ises of focus on arenas like education, health, water and sanitation, protection, economic security, emergencies, child participation and even sexual health including HIV. The working of the organization includes two vital functions, campaigning and advocacy. The advocacy function of PLAN aims at sharing the facts about the lives of the children belonging to more than 66000 communities of the developing nations and the success of the programs which aims at recognizing their rights. The organization is committed to ensure that the girls, boys and the adults who are the part of the communities within which PLAN team works should have their opinions in the decision making process of their nation. They are also dedicated towards raising alertness about growth issues among the common public and motivate them to take steps for claiming their rights. The main objectives of the advocacy function are as follows: Put effort towards identifying the right of the girls in the developing nations, mainly the right to education. Enhancing awareness about the effect of disasters on kids, specifically girls. Making sure that decision makers and governments sustain the rights of the girls and the boys, as laid down in the rule for child rights. The campaign function of PLAN focuses on conducting various awareness campaigns all around the world. In this assignment, the focus is on the ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign of PLAN. Campaign: Because I am a girl The campaign: Because I am a girl has been designed to tackle and address the multiple challenges that are faced by the girls of young age in various geographies around the world. The challenges of the girls in various regions around the world comprises of some very serious issues like poverty, violence as well as discrimination. Because of a direct impact of these factors, the young girls in various countries and locations around the world are taken out of school, and are often married off at a very young age. This d enial of education to these young females all over the world is resulting in restricting them from the opportunity to develop the very power of human minds which has the

The Judeo-Christian Ethic is Ruining Our Environment Essay

The Judeo-Christian Ethic is Ruining Our Environment - Essay Example Another part of the damaging equation lies in the Christian belief that we are to go forth and multiply, therefore there is ban on contraceptives instituted by the Catholic church. This is another part of the Judeo-Christian belief that is damaging to our environment, and this belief is perhaps most damaging at all. This essay will examine the man-made causes of global warming, and the effects of global warming. This essay will also examine the way that we treat our animals, which is a part of the equation that would be inherent in White's essay. Finally, this essay will look at the effects of overpopulation, which, if it gets much more out of hand, will be the effective end of environment. All of these problems can be directly traced to Christian ethos of dominion over the environment, animals, and the command for the human race to go forth and multiply. The Bible and Animals White's argument centered around the fact that the Bible has been used by humans to justify treating nature and our environment in a way that shows that animals and natural resources were put on this earth simply to save man. He approved of the way that St. Francis of Assisi saw the animals – St. Francis of Assisi thought of the animals as being God's creatures, with souls, and that they were put on this earth not to serve man, but because God created them the same way that he created us. This meant that St. Francis respected the animals as sentient beings with souls. This is clearly not the way that man thinks of animals, if one considers factory farms. For instance, the ethicist Peter Singer, who believes the way that St. Francis did, that animals were not put on this earth to serve us, but they were created in their own right, details how humans treat animals. For instance, he states, in his book The Meat and Milk Factories: The Ethics of How We Eat (2006) that pigs are kept in a crate that is so small that they cannot turn around. Without even hay to sleep on, this is all these pigs know – this tiny crate. The breeding sows are kept in tiny crates that are only a foot longer than their bodies, while being forced to have litter after litter. Male pigs are castrated with an anesthetic. Cows are not treated much better. For instance, the veal cow is put into a dark crate for 16 weeks. During this time, it has a tied neck and is basically starved of iron, so that it becomes anemic. Therefore, it is certain that man believes that animals are simply on this earth to be exploited by humans. Otherwise, there would be a greater outcry about how our animals are treated. Instead, the issue is mostly swept under the rug. In the recent United States Presidential election, the issue of animal rights and factory farms did not come up. Once. That is because of the belief that man has dominion over the animals. Because animals do not have soul, and because man is supposed to have dominion over them, that means that we can treat them any way that we want to treat th em, and forget that they have feelings and can sense pain and fear. But the fact that factory farms are cruel is just one part of the equation. The other part is that they are bad for the environment. Thus, the factory farming lends credence to Smith's overall thesis, which is that the Judeo-Christian ethic is bad for the environment. Michael Pollan explains why this is so. According to Pollan (2008), factory farms harm the environment because the animal waste is in such abundance, because meat in general is in such abundance, that it is no longer fertilizer, but a pollutant. The reason for this is because the

Financial Management Principles And Applications Essay

Financial Management Principles And Applications - Essay Example Long-term liability requires the payment of interest in pre-agreed periods which requires Beta to have enough liquidity to cover immediate payment of interest when it becomes due. Capital from shareholders can also be considered. This is advantageous since Beta will not be required to pay any dividends. However, issuing new shares require the company to undergo certain processes which can delay acquisition. After analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing different financing schemes, it is recommended that Beta raises fund through long-term debt. This is in consideration of the above discussion in addition to the fact that it already has a quite high level of funds from shareholders. b. An organization's trading profit and loss account showing the revenues or funds generated the entity compared to the costs and expenses incurred in its operation. In most companies, it starts with the revenue generated where the expenses are subtracted. The last line shows its net profit for the fiscal period or for listed ones, the return to its stockholders. This financial statement is often the most popular one as it is used by creditors, stockholders, and even ordinary consumers. Entities considering to provide financing for the company also often gauged profitability and ability to pay based on profit and loss account. The balance sheet shows an entity's resources and how they are financed. The organization's assets and liabilities are often listed based on their liquidity, that is, on their capacity to be converted to cash easily. Balance sheets are often scrutinized by creditors and stockholders, the major sources of financing for the company. Balance sheets provide information about the company's level of leverage which informs stockholders and creditors about their share in the company's resources and the riskiness of investing in the company.

Music in My Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Music in My Life - Essay Example Punk music signaled the first days of having a driver's license. Perhaps because of these elements music began to evolve to a new stage, beyond nostalgia or the excitement of a new band. At some point, it became possible to actually select a mood. The music itself could transform my mental state, lift me from whatever ruminations the day held, and lift me into a place beyond words, even if the music itself contained words. Music is like any other passion: when one truly begins to learn about it, it is humbling to realize just how little one knows in the face of how much more there is to learn. Music is amazing in its complexity, astounding in its interconnectedness. A musician can even take someone else's song and make it their own. There are vast differences between Hendrix's and Dylan's versions of All Along the Watchtower. The gut-wrenching blues of Leadbelly's Black Betty was turned inside out by Ram Jam. Shuggie Otis revealed an internal family revolution from the influence of his father Johnny Otis. Bands such as Widespread Panic or the Alman Brothers still show their hillbilly-folk roots. The politics of folk music redeveloped through the punk music of the Dead Kennedys, or even more recently, through System of a Down. Classical music has been co-opted and turned into such rock-operas as The Who's Tommy or Queensryche's two-album Operation Mindcrime.

Augustines City Of God Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Augustines City Of God - Essay Example In his Preface, he gives a surprisingly modern day Abstract and tells us the compulsion, idea and purpose of his writing the book and the significance of its title. "I must consider this city as far as the scheme of this work demands and as occasions serves". Practically speaking it is only a powerful defence of Christianity that took him thirteen years to write and it dominated the political thoughts of medieval ages. Critics call him 'Prophet of Personality' for having possessed one the most impressive personalities, while his style and language are considered as immaculate. Augustine was known to be particularly influenced by Plato. "In The Republic Plato had constructed an ideal city, based on right and instinct with Righteousness, which might almost be described as a City of God, and is actually described by Plato as 'laid up somewhere in heaven,'" Saint Augustine, The City of God ( p. xxii) It was also beginning of search for authentic Christian philosophy to popularise the religion and amass followers. Calling the time as an end of an era, Burleigh says: "Strange as it may seem St. Augustine has no consciousness of living at the end of an era, or even in a period of transition," (1944, p.10). Deane argues that he wrote the book on the 'theology and psychology of fallen man." Augustine replies the charge against the Christians and says they were not responsible for destroying Rome. If the overall view of the book is taken into consideration, it is neither totally political nor wholly religious. From the Preface we can find that Augustine justifies the work he has undertaken as the work of God, and his contribution to Christian theology. "This security it now awaits in steadfast patience, until 'justice returns to judgment'; but it is to attain it hereafter in virtue of its ascendancy over its enemies, when the final victory is won and peace established. The task is long and arduous; but god is our helper." It is also considered to be the 'first major intellectual achievement of Latin Christianity'. Marcellinus, the encouraging friend, perhaps was worried at the consequences of devastatingly negative reaction amongst people, produced by the sacking of Rome with unnecessary violence, which left Christian faith in a negative light. This is a kind of pacification of an ill-treated and humiliated, but proud population, almost an explanation and healing of persisting wounds. While rendering explanation to what happened by saying that the retributions and sufferings were due to ignorant worship of pagan Gods, he does his bit of missionary work by informing the unhappy and vulnerable people about 'City of God' and Christianity, where Jesus is all powerful and merciful and healer of all ills. The crux of the work is establishing Jesus as saviour of mankind. Whatever little kindness was shown to people during destruction of Rome, Augustine argues, was due to

Liberal Democracy Fostering Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Liberal Democracy Fostering Development - Essay Example This report declares that the civil societies are useful in fostering development. They are responsible for setting the priorities of the most vulnerable in the society. With liberal democracy, according to Sen, civil societies can play their roles effectively. Democracy will allow civil societies expand their choices in the way they make the needs of the most vulnerable people in the society know. This will enable the vulnerable individuals in the society to promote their freedom from poverty, fear, and violence. Sen’s argument is that, with democracy, there would be a climate where people can complain, speak out and argue. There would be promotion of transparency. Things will we be happening in the government and individuals will be aware of. This paper makes a conclusion that from Sen's perspective, liberal democracy such as the focus on rights has proven to be important. However, in some cases such as China and South Korea, this is not the case. The most important thing to note is how liberal democracy can foster development. For example, in developing countries that are democratic, how has democracy assisted the people both socially and economically? There is a need for more participation by people in movements that advocate change of political and economic system. This paper partially agrees with Sen’s views that liberal democracy fosters development, economically, either politically or socially. Nonetheless, there is growing attack on liberal democracy because it does not allow participation and co-operation at its centre.

Is deindustrialisation a cause for concern Coursework

Is deindustrialisation a cause for concern - Coursework Example The first and foremost negative impact of deindustrialization involves transition and reduction in employment trends. With the reduction in industrial capacity of developed economies, the employment levels in these sectors are bound to decrease. The people employed in these sectors will be gradually reduced or eliminated which pose the inevitable problem of unemployment or altering the skill set to adjust themselves to other emerging markets, which particularly involves the service sector. Another major setback of deindustrialization is the growing divide on economic terms that is growing gap between rich and poor in particular. The people who are most reliant upon manufacturing sectors are the ones who will suffer most when there is a transition of manufacturing economy to a service sector-based economy. While this group of people will suffer most economically, who will find themselves either out of employment or willing to work on very low wages just to keep the ball rolling, on th e other hand will be people who are already working in the service sector and face better prospects in future as the sector grows. This is what happened in Detroit where deindustrialization has resulted in an increase in unemployment and growing divide between rich and poor. Detroit was famous for its automotive industry and with a high proportion of people employed in this industry; the residents enjoyed a high standard of living. This was not for long as Detroit faced deindustrialization and automotive companies soon began to migrate to the southern US states or other countries to take advantage of lower wages. As a result, the people who were employed in this automotive industry faced huge employment crisis and the income per capita in this particular area has been alarmingly low in the recent past. In addition to this, people have started to leave for pastures new to bring an improvement to their deteriorating living standards. As a result of deindustrialization, manufacturing s ector consists of the smallest share of US workforce in more than a hundred years (Boundless, n.d.). The same concept applies with other nations where the inequality has been on a rise with the developed economies such as United States, Unite Kingdom, Japan, France and Germany focusing on value added products, particularly services. On the other hand have been the developing and industrializing nations such as China, India and Indonesia who focus on manufacturing. The trends indicate that the economic disparity between developed and developing nations have been on a rise due to manufacturing. (International Monetary Fund, 1997) The most significant factor of deindustrialization has however not been discussed much by the analysts, maybe because they have underestimated the potential problem at hand. Although we live in a world of globalization, it must be noted that a fully globalized world on the basis of competitive advantage is just a theory and not practical. This cannot be put i nto practice because a country should be sustainable to meet the demand of at least the important and essential products, for example eatables. It is true that the current economic circumstances require developed nations to turn to value added products such as services. But in order to be a sustainable economy,

Fast Food Restaurants and Healthy Choices FD Essay Example for Free

Fast Food Restaurants and Healthy Choices FD Essay

The Strict Internet Censorship Of China

The Strict Internet Censorship Of China Undoubtedly, the Internet has played an active role in the average Chinese life (Internet Content Control in China, p.3) The Internet is expected to enable Chinese to have more chances to access wide-ranging information sources, which are essential for democracy. As a main way of accessing to information, search engine has played a crucial role in the process of building public sphere in china. According to the survey, in the first half-year of 2010, the utilization rate of search engine among all net citizens has increased by 3%, to 76.3%; the number of users for search engine has reached 320 million and. Since 2009, search engine had entered into a period of rapid development of new cycle. Internet users have applied search engine more frequently and turned to Internet and search engine as to the acquisition of all information in life more (CINIC, 2010). Google is the largest search engine company that supplies global information services in the world. In 2006, Google began to operate google.cn for Chinese public. As a global available search engine, Google can provide more sources outside of china to Chinese. In 2005, 32.9% users would use Google to search information in Beijing of china (CINIC, 2005 , P.11). It is generally agreed that Internet contribute to fostering a virtual space of communication by offering new forms of bonding and solidarity on cyberspace new ways of forging cultural communities in local contexts (Morley, 2000). Specifically, peoples open access to information by using global Internet search engines, such as Google may create a healthier public sphere on cyberspace, which can work as a cultural and social space that should be open, diverse and accessible (Golding Murdock, 1991). To this extent, globally available search engine, such as Google, can contribute to establish public sphere in china. It assumed that Google is playing a positive role to facilitate public sphere in china. However, the situation is contrary. Although Google censored considerably less than the other search engines, it also need to obey the regulation and law of censorship of china. Internet companies all acknowledged filtering out and censoring politically sensitive information due to Chinas restrictive censorship policies. When Google complied with Chinese censorship in order to enter Chinas fast-growing market, it became to the tool of Chinese censorship to control the flow of information. Why google cannot facilitate public sphere in china? In general there are two reasons. First reason is that profit motive makes Google compromise with china. Behind the surface tensions between the Chinese regulatory power and Internet corporations, it can be widely acknowledged that the corporate-Chinese government deal provides considerable financial gains to US technology companies by enabling them to attract Chinese consumers in a lucrative Chinese Internet market with appealing, yet non-controversial material (MDMH, P.411). According to the statistics from survey, china is a considerable large market over world. As a company, Googles main goal is to gain the profit, when face to the economic interest, its responsibility to protect the human rights becomes less important. Googles capability of facilitate public sphere is restricted by the censorship of china. Because of the profit motives, Google have to comply the censorship that is the cost of doing business in china (china dilemma, p.4). For chasing the financial benefit, Googles compromise of Chinese censorship undermine its ability of contribute to form public sphere in china. This new alliance between the two different power groups is based on both state and corporate censorship measures. While the global dissemination of Internet communication operates under fundamental corporate guidelines, such as the free market principle along with the freedom of expression ideology, global Internet information flow is also mediated by local censorship and surveillance policies and political particulars within a social context (MDMH, P.411). Strict censorship of china Once google accepted to censor the information that means googles information are under harsh control. China has a very restrict system of censorship on Internet, which curb google to contribute information to establish the public sphere in china. Chinese government control the flow of information on interentet not only limit network services but also monitor traffic and users (Great leap or long march, p.705). Chine Internet censorship can be divided into two parts, one is regulation and law, and another one is the technologic control. Law and regulation was considered as the internal control of Internet in china. It is impossible to block the use Internet, as a result, Chinese government issued the law and regulation to make the access of information were under the officially control. Chinese communist party (CCP) makes the surveillance on the Internet legal by publishing related regulations and laws. Chinese government published a directive to regulate the use of the Internet in 1996(Great leap or long march, p.705). In 1997, Internet control law was added into Chinese Criminal Law. Since 1995, when commercial Internet accounts were began permitting in china, more and more laws issued to control content of Internet. For instance, Decision of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress on Maintaining Internet Security (2000); Measures for Managing Internet Information Services (2000); Provisional Rules for the Administration of the Operation of News Publication Services by Web Sites (2000); Rules for the Administration of Internet Bulletin Board System Services (2000); Rules for the Administration of Computer Internet Bulletin Board System Services in the Colleges (2001); Interim Provisions on the Administration of Internet Publication (2002)50. Other rules are aimed at Internet cafà ©, state secrecy, network security, and encryption, but they also indirectly have a strong impact on Internet content regulation. Even some rules for infrastructure or connections include provisions on content governance (Internet content control in china, p.18). According to the law and regulation in 2000, the forbidden of sensitive content and the restrictions on the distribution of news aim to control the spread the information that be critical to Chinese government. Moreover, Internet service providers (ISPs) and Internet content providers (ICPs) are required to storage users data to monitor whether user post or access to information that are unapproved by Chinese government (Internet in china). For Internet company, they must get ICP licence that allowed it operate business in china. For example, google has to comply the rules on licences that apply a range of permits. According to that, google are imposed to do self-censorship for filtering keywords that unapproved by CCP. If google do not obey the rules, Chinese government can cancel the licences to prohibit googles right to engage business even accuse google. To put the regulation and law into practice, Chinese government also censor the information by using technical means. Millions of dollars have invested to develop the information technology that distributes the system to limit the accessibility of online resources in china (The china Dilemma, p.3). Chinese government is also implementing its own e-government project which is called Government Online Project(E-government in china, p.3). Internet content filtering in china has been considered as the most complex and sophisticated around the world. Chinese government planed the Golden Shield project in 1998 and started that plan in 2003. It claimed that Golden Shied project employ advanced information technology to safeguard the security of online information and crime combating capacity, which aim to develop efficient police work (Golden shield project). It estimated that Golden Shied project had spent 70 million dollars on research to date, and that the total spending would likely be even more than that. One of the most important parts of this project is the Great firewall of china. The main function of the Great firewall is to block the accessing of forbidden materials on sites outside China. The Great firewall employ newer domain name server IP address filtering, URL keyword filtering, Web Server IP address filtering, HTML Response Keyword filtering, and DNS redirection to achieve the goal of blocking undesirable information. One hand, these technologies including the hardware and software are implemented to prevent police work from attack. On the other hand, the most important role of these technologies is to monitor and filter the flow of information. It is argued that google should reject the self-censorship in china. However, under dual pressure of stringent law and advanced technological control, google faces the dilemma in china. There only two choices for google, one is to do self- censorship, another is to be filtered by Great firewall in china. No matter google chose which side, Chinese government will enforce google to filter the keywords that crucial to public debate and democracy. David Drummond, Googles senior vice president, said that if google do not filter keywords, Chinese government could block even more sites which still disappointed Chinese public. (Google rules, p. 41) This is one of the reasons Google, in 2006, started Google.cn. Among other characteristics, Google.cn was more quickly accessed than Google.com because it filtered out content in- side China, bypassing the Great Firewall. For example, a search for Tiananmen Square on Go- ogle.com results in pictures of the man standing in front of the tank, as well as other websites related to 1989. Google.cn, in contrast, shows tourist sites re- lated to the Square and pleasant looking holiday images. No mention is made of the events of 1989.7 Moreover, if a search for images of the Dalai Lama is made on Google.cn, of the 161 images returned only one is of the Tibetan Buddhist. The same search on Google.com results in 2,030 found images.8 If one lived in China it might be forgiven for thinking many of these historical events and persons never existed (Just doing business or doing just business, p.221). The whole system of censorship on Internet works effectively. Why the Internet can be controlled in china? There are two main reasons behind the phenomena. Political aspect makes the role of Internet in china different from other countries. In general, most of keywords censored are related to politics in china and CCP have opened the diffusion of non-political information. Take the BBC sites as a instance, it can be accessed expect political news. As is know to all, china is not a democratic country that has a unique political environment. CCP has absolute authority to affect the public sphere. Since Republic of China has been established in 1949, CCP have made effort to strength the control of ideology by employing sophisticated censorship. The mainly information from Chinese media are used for propaganda. Internet, especially the searching engine used to be the tool to monitor the public opinion to reinforce CCPs one-party regime. In 1990s, when internet has been introduced in china, it has provided a forum of public debate and democracy for Chinese. Then CCP has relaised the important role of internet and apply law and technology to filter the keyword which risk the authority. As Kellner (1999) argues, Internet can be used as a tool for state power to increase the control or can be used as a tool to establish public sphere. According to that, CCP form authoritarian censorship on interenet to enforce it only to server for Government. In addition, CCP control the flow of information outside china because the fear of against Chinese communist government from west countries. For example, Wei Wu (great leap) claimed that since the end of cold war, Chinese government still worried about those anti-chinese communist government reporters from west might offer information on internet to against CCP. While the internet is global available, Chinese can access some information related to democracy and other west ideology. CCP consider that west ideology can affect the public opinion to endanger one-party regime. To safeguard the surveillance, CCP establish the great firewall to block the sites related to those west ideology about democracy and freedom of speech. Besides the political aspect, china has a lack of fundamental social environment of freedom of speech. Most of Chinese people tend have no sense of freedom of speech. Although scholars like Guobin Yang (the power of the internet in china) argued that more and more online debate and movements about democracy have took place online since 1990, china is lack of the basic to form public sphere on Internet. To begin with, Chinese people educated by Marxist which do not emphasise the importance of freedom of speech. Since 1949, Marxist which is the mainstream ideology in china is deferent from west ideology about democracy. To this extent, Chinese people do not have deep understan of democracy and freedom of speech, which are negative to establish the public sphere. Furthermore, Chinese citizen trend to have more concerns about economy than politicos. Generally speaking, china is a developing country with large population. A number of people in china focus on the developing of economy to improve their level of life condition rather than consider the public sphere. For some Chinese people who are suffering from poverty, the freedom of speech even is a luxury right (Internet content contrl). Future of Google and china Because of hack attack, Google.cn was shut down on 12 January 2010 and visitors are now being redirected to Google.com.hk (google rules). It is believed that Google.com.hk is an appropriate way to solve the problem between china and Google (Google offical blog). Google.com.hk is legal to uncensored and provide more information, yet it would be filtered by Great firewall even it has the risk to be prohibited in mainland of china. As a result, it is difficult to judge that whether google.com.hk can continue to supply information to facilitate public sphere in china. Googles ability to contribute public sphere of china still depends on the censorship of china. David Drummond argued that governments in the West should put pressure on Chinese government to improve the internet enviroment in china(Google rules, p. 35). U.S. government and the European Union have not complained or strongly against Chinas filtering of the Internet. The U.S. Congress has not passed its own laws or resolutions to address the issue of censorship in China. It continues to support business with China (Google china). Nevertheless, Chinese government is under pressure recently and attempting to establish more open and transparent media system. One significant example is the filtering during the 2008 Olympic Games. In 2001, Chinese government promised that there would be no restrictions on journalists in reporting on the Olympic Games (Access controlled, p.468). Although some websites were still blocked, websites containing politically sensitive content were accessible during 2008 Olympic Games. Moreover, most international social media websites were accessible, such as Blogspot, Facebook, and Twitter. Another example is happened in 2010 shanghai expo in china. Computer users can access to most of websites that may blocked before. These two examples indicates that Chinese government has realised that their responsibility to create more open public sphere for Chinese and international public. The open of internet environment just need to be taking gradually in china. Conclusion This emerging public sphere on the Web tends to enable more democratic sharing of information and lead to a new political awareness based on informed civic engagement (Fischer, 2000). However, average citizens are not in a good position relative to both global corporate forces and influential government regulatory regimes in terms of making rules and policies to manage the global flow of cyber- communication. Given that technology brings change, both positive and negative, in relation to social interactions and power dynamics, it should be recognized that technology also involves regulation or restriction by the state or other social forces because the information technology, i.e., the Internet, is not separated from the social and political context in which it is created and operated (Marshall, 2003; Fischer, 2000). The question is no longer how the Internet will affect china; it is how china will affect the Internet (Who controls the internet, p.104).

Implications of change management on organizational behavior

Implications of change management on organizational behavior Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have-and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up. (James et al 1994) Change Management is the process, tools and techniques to manage the people-side of change to achieve the required business outcome (Prosci 2009). This report outlines a massive Change Management exercise rolled out at Infosys Technologies Ltd (ITL), India. ITL is a NASDAQ listed fortune 500, Indian IT company with 63 offices across the globe with an employee base of 1, 22,468 (Infosys 2010). Pre-recession scenario in Indian IT companies witnessed employee promotions in every 2-3 years. As a result, a person works on technology for 4-5 years and then moves up to management. This has resulted in clients complaining about the lack of technically strong people. To urgency to meet the client expectations triggered the launch of iRACE (Infosys Role and Career Enhancement) change management exercise in October 2009 amidst peak recession climate (Huczynski et al 2010 pp. 563). iRACE, implemented by global HR services firm Mercer Consulting, was a career transformation exercise with 24 career streams to ensure the growth will no longer be defined by movement up due to frequent promotions. This review sights the analysis of the nature of iRACE transformation using Scale Of Change and Change Leadership Style plot (Stace and Dunphy, 2001), change agents approach, communication strategy and implications of iRACE change and compares it with theory. Also suggestions that could have led to effective change management at Infosys with minimum resistance and impact on the employees have been proposed. Change characteristics Scale, Leadership style Context Analysis: With approx. 1, 00,000 employees getting affected by the iRACE change rollout the analysis of the scale, leadership style context of the change becomes very significant. Stance and Dunphy (2001) defined that the change of scale using four characteristics: fine Tuning, incremental adjustment, modular transformation and corporate transformation. Stance and Dunphy (2001) also defined the categories of change leadership style: collaborative, consultative, directive and coercive. Plotting Scale Of Change against Change Leadership Style and Dunphy Stace contingency approach to change implementation helps to analyze the scale of change, leadership style and evaluate the approach of iRACE change whether it fits in the right context or not . (Huczynski et al 2010 pp. 574). Fig1 : Scale of change and leadership style Scale of change Style of change leadership Fine Tuning Incremental Adjustment Modular Transformation Corporate Transformation Collaborative Type 1 Type 2 Consultative Participative evolution Charismatic transformation Directive Type 3 Type 4 iRACE Change was a necessity for survival. Had to rely on external support for doing the change. Coercive Forced evolution Dictatorial transformation Source: Adopted from (Huczynski et al 2010 pp. 574). This matrix analysis categorizes iRACE into a Corporate Change with Coercive leadership style and fits iRACE into a Dictatorial corporate transformation context. Role and approach of Change Agents in fostering the change: Effective management of change is necessary to sustain the competition. Balogun and Hope Hailey (2004) report a failure rate of around 70% of all change programmes initiated. The facts thus suggest that there is no well-defined framework across domains that outlines the management and implementation of change. What is available is a wide range of confusing theories and approaches (Burnes, 2004). Guimaraes and Armstrong (1998) support this by saying that mostly superficial analyses have been published in this basic area. With the lack of a fundamental framework of change, the role of change agents becomes exceedingly crucial. A change agent is defined as a manager who seeks to reconfigure an organizations roles, responsibilities, structures, outputs, processes, systems, technology or other resources in the light of improving organizational effectiveness (Buchanan and Badham 1999). Buchanan and Boddy (1992) list competencies of effective change agents: clarity of specifying goals, team building activities, communication skills, negotiation skills and influencing skills to gain commitment to goals. Gronn (2002) and Bennett et al (2003) sight that distribution of change agency means that more people need to have the skills required. Also contrary to Gronn (2002) and Bennett et all (2003) sighting, iRACE change agency was not distributed as major part of the change was formulated by Mercer Consulting (external change agent) and a committee of only 65 top level managers (internal change agents) Fig2 : iRACE Change Management and Communication (Phases and Timelines) Source: Self-understanding of knowledge of iRACE gained at Infosys (2009) Kanter (1989) speaks of superhuman change agents, with wide-ranging expertise, as a business athlete. Although the change agents seemed to be effective in Phase I but contrary to Kanter (1989) argument, change agents in Phase II couldnt perform effective organizational diagnosis and Phase III IV were ineffective because of the lack of expertise the change agents took much longer time than expected in dealing with the design complexities. This resulted in excessive delay in (Phase V) and thus delayed communication led to mismatch with the stakeholders expectations of the change resulting in resentment of the stakeholders (Kubler Ross, 1969). Importance of Communication- An underestimated picture An effective communication smoothens the delivery of the change. Bovee and Thill (2000, p.4) believe that effective communication only takes place when participants achieve a shared understanding, stimulate others to take actions and encourage people to think in new ways. Opposite to Bovee and Thills (2000) saying iRACE change communication lacked shared understanding at the managerial level. Gibb (1961) argues the importance of Communication Climate. Contrary to Gibb (1961) argument the climate was not favorable for iRace change with global recession cloud, layoffs and other stringent policy amendments (e.g. 9.15 work hour policy, ISTAFF policy) and communications taking place simultaneously. The communication process also lacked effective communication strategy. The communication was merely based on tactical analysis. Even though communication involved just tactical analysis, It failed to cater to all the areas of tactical analysis i.e. it lacked right channels for communication flow, timeliness and efficient monitoring. Communication was made highly complex. The delay in design phase worsened the communication by percolating the delay in delivery phase and as a result of shrinked timelines, communication process lacked two-way communication, dialogue and feedback, review exercise for the communication delivered and last but not the least the employee discomfort went un heard during the entire communication phase (Huczynski et al 2010 pp. 226-27). Fall out of the Change Impact on Organizational Behavior : Role Restructuring Demotions: Over 4,500 people got demoted because of the iRACE implementation. This created a furor. Loss of Loyalty of Employees: The employees criticized iRACE and the HR leadership through use of social media to express their resentment and the fading out loyalty. Unprecedented Attrition- A key failure indicator: In the initial half of 2010- Infosys lost 4000 employees in the month of February 2010 alone accounting for 3% of its total strength (Dexter 2010). Over 10,000 that have quit since October 2009, 4,000 left in February10 alone. About 1,000 e-separations were filed on the intranet on a single day: December 31st (Current IT Market 2010). Fig3 : Attrition Rate at Infosys Pre and Post iRACE change implementation Source: (Infosys Reports Filings 2010) Pre iRACE Implementation- Q3-09 to Q2-10 relate to Peak recession scenario iRACE design phase. iRACE Implementation- Q4-10 iRACE Implementation phase Post iRACE Implementation- Q1-11 to Q2-11- iRACE fall out phase. Refurbishing process- The Resolution : Unitarist frame of reference views organization as fundamentally harmonious, co-operative structures, consisting of committed, loyal, worker-management teams that promote harmony of purpose (Huczynski et al 2010 pp. 662-63). Ackroyd et al (1999) and Johnston (2000) identified the key features of unitarist frame of reference which use communication failures between management and employees to explain the workplace conflict. To overcome the communication failures continuous impacts, management must re-structure the communication process so that the objective of the change is communicated to the employees clearly. Firstly, using Gronn (2002) and Bennett et al (2003) theory of distribution of change agency management must involve more skilled persons in the communication thus distribute the change agency. Secondly, iRACE change agents should restructure the communication process by using a Strategic Planning- Iceberg which outlines the strategic approach to communicating change based o n four levels of planning outlined below (Clampitt et all N.D.). Fig3 : Strategic Planning Iceberg Source: (Clampitt et all N.D.) The Ice Berg strategic planning will benefit iRACE change agents in focusing on all four strategic approaches contextual analysis (anticipate possible resistance points), audience analysis (isolate key groups of employees that may be directly or indirectly impacted by the change) and strategic design (development of a sustainable strategy based on the outcomes of contextual and audience analysis) unlike the previous approach which focused on Tactics (how to s?) only. As the market is stabilizing after the recession, substantial rewards (salary hikes, exceptional performance promotions, role progressions if not role change) can be given to the employees which will be beneficial for the employees and the organization as a whole. Conclusion: The Scale Of Change against Change Leadership Style and Dunphy Stace contingency approach helped in accessing the characteristics of the change. The analysis also uses Gronn (2002) and Bennett et al (2003) change agency distribution theory to analyze the importance of distribution of the change agency viz a viz emphasizes on competencies of effective change agents. These strategies, if used, strategically, would have led to the involvement of more competent people into the change process as change agents. Diversification of change agency if ignored like in case of ITL leads to inefficient change strategy. The unitarist frame of reference helped to identify the causes of conflict in ITL. This analysis further highlights the (Clampitt et all N.D.) Ice Berg strategic planning approach to understand the significance of strategic communication of the change and communication climate Gibb (1961) and its benefits in communicating the objective of the change. Value of the strategic communic ation in fostering the change, if undermined, wreaks serious threats to the organizational behavior. The solutions suggested may involve extra manpower, extra effort and time in restructuring the communication process and communicating the essence of change. Given solution may also incur cost to give wage hikes initially but are competent enough to solve the problem and lead to a smoothened and sustainable organization change viz a viz improvement in organization behavior. References Ackroyd, S. and Thompson, P. (1999) Organizational Misbehavior. London: Sage Publications. Balogun, J. and Hope Hailey, V. (2004) Exploring Strategic Change, 2nd edition (London: Prentice Hall). Bennett, N., Wise, C. and Woods, P. (2003) Distributed Leadership. Nottingham: National College for School Leadership. Bovee, C.L. and Thill, J.V. (2000), Business Communication Today, 6th edition., Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Buchanan, D.A. and Badham, R. (1999), Politics and organizational change: the lived experience, Human Relations, Vol. 52 No. 5, pp. 609-29. Buchanan, D.A. and Boddy, D. (1992), The Expertise of the Change Agent, Prentice-Hall, London. Burnes, B. (2004) Managing Change: A Strategic Approach to Organizational Dynamics, 4th edition (Harlow: Prentice Hall). Clampitt, Phillip, G. and Berk, Laurey, R. (N.D.) Strategically Communicating Organization Change. http://www.imetacomm.com/otherpubs/pdf_doc_downloads/strat_commg_org_change_v5.pdf [Accessed 28/10/2010]. Current IT Market (2010). Most Viewed Posts Today: Infosys to give unheard of increments. http://www.currentitmarket.net/2010/03/infosys-to-give-unheard-of-increments.html [Accessed 27/10/2010]. Dexternights (2010). Daily dose of Technology and Reviews: Infosys iRace makes employees say I QUIT. http://www.dexternights.com/2010/03/20/infosys-irace-makes-employees-say-i-quit/ [Accessed 27/10/2010]. Gibb, J.R. (1961) Defensive Communication, Journal of Communication, 11(3): 141-48. Gronn, P. (2002) Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis, Leadership Quarterly, 13(4):423-51. Guimaraes, T. and Armstrong, C. (1998) Empirically testing the impact of change management effectiveness on company performance, European Journal of Innovation Management, 1(2), pp. 74-84. Huczynski, A., and Buchanan, A. (2010) Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition. Harlow: Pearson Education, pp. 563-575, 662-663. Infosys (2010). About us: What We Do http://www.infosys.com/about/what-we-do/pages/index.aspx [Accessed 23/10/2010]. Infosys Reports Filings (2010). Quarterly Reports, FY 09-11: Fact Sheet: Consolidated financial data: Attrition. http://www.infosys.com/investors/reports-filings/quarterly-results/2010-2011/Q1/Pages/index.aspx [Accessed 26/10/2010 ] James, A., Belasco and Ralph, C., Stayer (1994). Flight Of The Buffalo http://www.leadershipnow.com/changequotes.html [Accessed 23/10/2010]. Johnston, R. (2000) Hidden capital. In J. Barry, J.Chandler, H. Clark, R. Johnston and D. Needle (eds), Organization and Management: A Critical Text. London: International Thomson Business Press, pp. 16-35. Kanter, R.M. (1989) When Giants Learn to Dance: Mastering the Challenge of Strategy. Management and Careers in the 1990s. London: Simon Schuster. Kubler-Ross, E. (1969) On Death and Dying. Toronto: McMillan. Prosci (2009). Proscis Change Management Webinar Series http://www.change-management.com/Prosci-Webinar-Prereading-2009.pdf [Accessed 23/10/2010]. Stace, D., and Dunphy, D., 2001 The strategic management of corporate change, Human Relations, 46(8), pp. 905-918.

Colonialism and Politics - European Perceptions of Africa Essay

European Perceptions of Africa      Ã‚  Ã‚   Living in the dawn of the 21st century, the idea of economic development permeates third world politics.   Perhaps no single issue has raised so much hope, or so much scepticism, as the idea of development.   Historically, attempts at economic development have resulted in varying degrees of success and failure.   Nowhere has this been more apparent as in Africa.   By the 20th century, Africa began to play an increasingly important role in the European economy.   In the 1920's, Europe promoted Laissez-Faire policies in Africa, but gradually shifted towards protectionism and Neo-Mercantilism in the 1930's, and finally to disengagement in the 1950's.   The purpose of this essay is to chronicle these changes in European perceptions of Africa's role in the global economy, and explain that although the outcome of these policy-changes eventually led to the end of colonial rule, the political, social, and economic effects of these policies made it impossible for the Africans to enjoy true independence.    The first part of the 20th century was characterized by European imperialist policies in Africa.   Seen as the "White Man's Burden," Africa's wealth and raw materials were exploited as cheap exports to support metropoles in Europe.   Before the mid-1920's there was a high demand for tropical goods (sugar, cotton, cash crops, etc.).   Correspondingly, both France and Britain prescribed laissez-faire liberalist policies for Africa.   The idea was to open up Africa's wealth to the world while keeping it a net exporter of raw materials used in the manufacture of European goods.   But by the mid-1920's, Africa's role began to change.   The European economy, ravaged by World War One, was forced to rebuild.... ...7. Cooper, F. and R. Packard, (eds).   International Development and the Social Science. University of California Press; 1997. Davidson, Basil.   Black Man's Burden:   African and the Curse of the Nation-State.   New York Times Books; 1992.    1 Austen, Ralph.   African Economic History.   London:   James Currey, 1987.   P. 199 2 Ibid.   P. 202 3 Ibid.   P. 203 4 Ibid.   P. 203 5 Cooper, F. and R. Packard, (eds).   International Development and the Social Science.   University of California Press, 1997.   P. 67 6 Ibid.   P. 67 7 Ibid.   P. 65 8 Austen, Ralph.   African Economic History.   P. 199 9 Davidson, Basil.   Black Man's Burden:   African and the Curse of the Nation-State.   New York Times Books; 1992.   P. 181 10 Ake, Claud.   Democracy and Development in Africa.   Brookings Institution, 1996.   P. 2 11 Ibid.   P. 7   

The Perception of Pain :: Senses Medical Essays

The Perception of Pain At some point in life, all people experience pain. The presence of pain can prevent further damage to an injured area or even prevent an injury from occurring, but pain that continues, after treatment or even after healing, can be debilitating (Loeser and Melzack, 1999). Stephani Curtis (1997) presents a case study of a 32-year-old woman, Mrs. J, who injured her lower back when she fell off a horse. As a result of this accident, Mrs. J experienced a ruptured lumbar disc. The treatment, a lumbar laminectomy, failed to alleviate her pain. Due to the pain and the effects of her prescribed medication, Mrs. J was forced to curtail her activities, and she had to quit her job as a truck driver. Psychologists, neurosurgeons, and other health-care professionals research to relieve pain for patients like Mrs. J. This much needed research offers hope for the millions of people whose lives have been disrupted by pain, such as chronic pain, hyperalgesia, and allodynia. While pain has always been present in humans' lives, Loeser and Melzack (1999) report that it is in only the past 30 years that pain research has made advances in both the treatment and the understanding of pain. There are three basic categories of pain: transient, acute, and chronic. Short-term, or transient pain, serves to protect an individual from any lasting damage. Nociceptive transducers activate this beneficial kind of pain in daily life when people stub a toe or get a mild sunburn. People rarely seek medical care to address transient pain symptoms. The pain itself motivates the person to stop the harmful activity to prevent additional pain and damaging injury. When damage does occur to an injured area, nociceptive transducers also activate acute pain, another beneficial type of pain. A broken bone or a tissue-damaging burn are examples of this medium-duration pain. People normally go to the doctor to aid the natural healing of the body and to reduce pain. Acute pain rarely continues for longer than three months; although, continuous acute pain from malignant diseases can last longer. The final category of pain, chronic, presents many challenges to both patients, like Mrs. J, and health-care providers. The pain fails to cease after treatment or even after healing in some cases. The body may be unable to heal as in the amputation of a limb. Pain experienced in the missing limb is known as phantom limb pain (Loeser and Melzack, 1999; Pain Drain, 1999).

Channel Structure and strategic choice in distribution channels Essay

This article mainly talks about the importance of marketing channel of marketing channel strategy decisions, they are highlighted by: 1) term consequences and 2) the constraints andopportunities that they represent..The present paper incorporates strategic management theory into marketingchannels literatures to examine the impact of different channel structures onthe choice of a generic channels strategy. Specifically, the contingent effects of channel power/control and the degree ofvertical integration are examined as they affect the choice between thegeneric strategies of overall costleadership, differentiation, focus, andcombination strategies. Besides research on the manipulation of power and influence attempts, littleattention has been given to the study of channel strategies. The intent of the present paper is to examine how one strategy concept,choice of a generic strategy, can be applied in a channel context. The basis of the discussion of strategy will be Porter’s str ategy typology,though supporting literature wiU also be used. Overall LowCost Leader, The OLC strategy stresses economies of scale,proprietary knowledge, preferendal access to raw materials, aggressive pricingpolicies, cost minimizadon, stable product lines and other factors which leadthe firm to become â€Å"The† low-cost producer or supplier in its industry. Specifically, I will be concerned with how varying levels of vertical integrationand power/control within the channel affect the choice of a generic strategy. I first need to provide a brief review of the strategy framework to be utilized. The Strategic Framework The work by Porter defines three generic strategieswhich firms might choose to pursue in order to establish a competidveadvantage: overall low-cost leader, differentiation and focus. According to Porter, a firm’s compeddve advantage combines with its scope ofacdvides to determine which of the three generic strategies the firm willchoose. The generic strategy, will, in turn affect the performance of the firm. 80 Firms stressing the differendadon strategy seek to be unique in theirindustry along some dimensions that are widely valued by buyers. Focus The focus strategy rests on the choice of a narrow compeddve  scopewithin an industry. The firm following this strategy selects a segment or subsecdon of an industryand s ets a strategy to serve it better than anyone else in the industry. Combination Strategies Porter states that each of his strategies is a†Fundamentally different approach to creadng and sustaining a compeddveadvantage†. Further support for a combination strategy is found in Wright, et al. Interestingly, the firms with the highest performance followed a combinationstrategy. Vertical Integration and Strategy The literature just discussed providesevidence that organizations may pursue more than one strategy at a time,thus allowing for a combination strategy. The current paper will include four potential strategies from which firms mightchoose: OLC, differentiation, focus, and combination. The following section will develop propositions, which identify contingentchannel conditions, which affect the choice of a generic strategy. Development of Propositions A number of management researchers have putforth contingency approaches, identifying under what conditions each genericstrategy is appropriate. On the internal end, are cost minimization, low cost leader, and defenderstrategies, consistent with the vertically integrated firm? At the other end ofthe continuum are maximizing, prospecting, and differentiating strategies,consistent with the nonintegrated firm. PI: Firms which are highly vertical integrated are more likely to choose an OLCstrategy. P2: Firms with low levels of integration are more Ukely to choose adifferentiation strategy. In terms of a combination strategy, there is evidence to suggest that firms,which generate high growth and high profits, are better equipped to use botha differentiation and an OLC strategy. When combined, these strategies produce enhanced economies of scale andimproved ROI. Some researchers take the position that power is necessarily a negativeaspect in that, those who possess it will attempt to infiuence exchangepartners by use of coercive influence strategies. If the firm chooses a focus strategy, it will attempt to â€Å"Own† a particularmarket segment either through price leadership or differentiation. The difference between this strategy and the focus strategy is the fact thatfocus concentrates on a particular segment, while this strategy is industry-wide. The choice between these two strategies is likely to depend on the scope  ofthe supplier’s activities. While these firms are able to compete on an OLC strategy, there is not muchincentive to do so. When competing firms counter the low cost leader strategy, firms musteventually turn to some form of differentiation or suffer long-runconsequences for the industry. P5: When faced with the superior power of buyers, suppliers with a regionalcompetitive scope will attempt to combat the power of buyers by choosing afocus strategy. As discussed in the section on vertical integration, the pursuit of tactics suchas integration, cost reductions, and reliance on standardization of practices,is consistent with an overall low-cost leader strategy. P6: When faced with high levels of supplier power, buying firms willemphasize on a differentiated focus strategy. The concept of channel strategy has received little attention. Specifically, the contingent effects of channel power/control and the degree ofvertical integration have been examined as they affect the choice betweenthe geneVic strategies of overall cost-leadership, differentiation, focus, andcombination strategies. Contingent propositions is meant to show the interrelationship of channelstructure and subsequent channel strategies.