Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Analysis Of Pregnancy And Childbirth Health And Social Care Essay

Pregnancy and childbearing dramas important function in female parents ‘ lives. The birth of babe brings assorted emotions of joyful clip, and besides it brings tremendous alterations in physical and psychological facets of adult females ( CMHA, 2010 ) . Adjustments of these alterations puts adult females to be susceptible of holding anxiousness, fright, unhappiness, hopelessness and feeling of ineptitude, which are foundations of depression ( CMHA, 2010 ) . Such feelings of depression symptoms may take into a mild depression – which is called babe blues and tends to travel off in shorter period of clip ( 3-5 yearss ) ( CMHA, 2010 ) . However, if the mild depression left untreated, continuity of depressive symptoms turns intoA terrible type of postpartum depression ( PPD ) which interferes with female parent ‘s ability to take attention of ego, her bond and fond regard with kid, every bit good as puts strain on the household ( Edhbrog, Friberg, Lundh, and Widstrom, 2005 ) . The strength and grade of a adult female ‘s get bying responseA may be influenced by feeling of failure, guilt, hurt, concerns, solitariness, uncertainness, and unrealized outlooks ( Edhbrog et al. , 2005 ) . Therefore, the purpose of this scholarly paper is to an analysis of a wellness issue ( PPD ) by utilizing four different equal reviewed articles to back up the grounds of how increasing depressive symptoms, deficiency of societal support and low economic position can do break in wellness of kid denudation and kid rise uping household which can be prevented with the aid of wellness attention supplier ( nurse ) by utilizing proper intercession to advance better wellness attention. Second foremost factors in PPD impacting wellness of households are deficiency of societal support web which has important consequence on the female parents to obtain expected support from society, household, relations and friends. The handiness of societal support is an of import variable in easing a female parent ‘s load and taking to better accommodation to the new demands made on her ( Benoit, Westfall, Treloar, Phillips, & A ; Jansson, 2007 ) . However, in some civilization male childs are consider as inheriting the household ‘s belongings and wealth, where misss are consider as decreasing a adult female ‘s position and a menace to her felicity in the PPD ( Bina, 2008 ) . Harmonizing to article three, during PPD, the importance of societal support differs chiefly depending on female parents ‘ cultural background such as: an association between ‘gender bind ‘ is an illustration, in which gender of the kid culturally desired before the baby is b orn ( Bina, 2008 ) . If the expected desire does non fit with the outlook of the civilization, it greatly affects the societal support given to the female parent from the household and society by cut downing importance of her position in household. At the same clip, when society frissons at the household ; comparative, friends, household every bit good as spouse besides feels ashamed and creates maltreatment and hatred towards female parent for giving birth to a miss in which female parent may meet feelings of weakness, isolation and depression rupture the bond between female parent and baby ( Bina, 2008 ) . Sometimes, female parents who give birth to the twins ( one babe male child and other babe miss ) tends to hold more depression because fostering one kid ( male child ) more kindly than other kid ( miss ) affects the developmental growing of the kid ( Bina, 2008 ) . Furthermore, sufficient societal support mechanisms such as community groups, churches, and school or sports-relat ed activities, can move as a barrier against negative thought and allow female parents who are prone to depression, in order to do better, more positive picks and prosecute in healthy kid development ( Bina, 2008 ) . Therefore, female parents frequently suffer from function strain over conflicting and overpowering duties in their life, because of the tendency of society, desired expectancy and expected support shapes the wellness of kid bearing and kid rise uping households. The 3rd last, but non a least, factor in the PPD impacting the wellness of household is low economic position. It has been demonstrated in the article oneA that deficiency of employment of female parents due to the added duty of kid establishes greater hazard forA developing depression subsequently in life than those who are transientlyA hapless ( Benoit et al. , 2007 ) . Women populating in low-income households increases opportunity for force, deficiency of resources for aid, a survival attitude, poorer nutrition and general wellness, and lower opportunity of holding a good instruction for healthy nurturance of kid ( intervention for upset ) – all of these factors affect the wellness of single household members ( Benoit et al. , 2007 ) . For illustration, alterations in hours of employment due to the extra duty of kid and house jobs, low income addition comparison to more end product, consequences in higher degree of depressive symptoms. Overall low income in family can besi des do hard for female parent to fulfill the demands of babies and household which welcome the hazard factors of disease such as: high blood pressure, anemia, and anorexia nervosa ( Benoit et al. , 2007 ) . So, low income in household can do incapable of providing consistent child care. Thus, economic position dramas outstanding function particularly with the deficiency of societal support and increased in mental emphasis, financially non merely impacts the female parent but besides it has inauspicious consequence on the baby every bit good as the household. Furthermore, I as a function of nurse, it is significantly of import to construct up accurate intercessions schemes depending on badness and necessity, to eliminate the consequence of the postpartum depression happening in wellness of household by the aid of the nursing diagnosing. Get downing with, to stamp down the depressive symptoms in PPD would assist me as nurse to reflect on female parents ‘ ego construct to busy more in depth cognition of factors, effects and affects to see different state of affairs of single household with new lenses of attention ( Wang et al. , 2005 ) . It would besides assist me as a nurse to supply individualised, flexible, and non-pharmacological interventions attention based on badness degree and maternal penchant ( Wang et al. , 2005 ) . I, as a nurse would besides follow best pattern guideline for verification, bar, and intervention of female parents with depressive symptoms in the first postpartum twelvemonth. Traveling on towards supplying su fficient societal support can be done by directing towards available resources such as speaking therapies which will promote female parents to show their feelings and speaking on phone and cyberspace web based back uping groups will back up female parents straight from place ( RNAO, 2005 ) . In add-on, I as a nurse will besides turn connexion of female parent with cultural groups sing person ‘s belief and values to supply cultural sensitive attention. Last, to better the economic position of family-mother related to infant, I as a nurse would seek to increase the nexus of household with other members in society to heighten more societal support which will assist female parent and household to derive financially relief and sustain basic necessities for endurance ( Benoit et al. , 2007 ) . For illustration, doing household and female parent aware of economic support groups such as nutrient casts, public assistance aid will assist to relieve economic emphasis ( Benoit et al. , 20 07 ) . Therefore, through intercessions, I as a nurse, being cognizant of the effects and indispensable stairss to be taken to forestall and better wellness of kid bearing and kid rise uping households more expeditiously will impound the long term complication of PPD. Therefore, postnatal depression is mental wellness issue where it ‘s of import to acknowledge its features to originate appropriate early intercessions and cut down the long term affects on mother-child relationship every bit good as wellness of kid bearing and rise uping households. As facts mentioned in four article throughout the scholarly paper illustrates different intercessions, affects and symptoms used for the different factors of increasing depressive symptoms, deficiency of societal support and low economic position leads to hold negative result on interpersonal relationship between kid, female parent and within household. Harmonizing to the household system theory, alterations happening in one member influence the whole household ( Perry, Hockenberry, Lowdermilk, & A ; Wilson, 2010 ) . Similarly in order to concentrate on separate person in household the impact of beef uping the whole household will be greater than the amount of its parts ( Perry et al. , 2010 ) . Fu rthermore, three factors related to PPD are interrelated because economic emphasis was associated with depressive symptoms and appeared to exercise portion of its influence by cut downing societal support. As a consequence, minimising the PPD minimizes the impact of symptoms on female parents ‘ ability to nature her new born kid which will procure the attachment bond with baby and every bit good as societal support will let herself to be strengthen and beef uping her failing will better the overall wellness of kid bearing and rise uping households ( Benoit et al. , 2007 ) . Hence, PPD is disorder where there is n't any peculiar medicine for it, but there are interventions and schemes that can assist in decreasing this issue that is impacting about every kid bearing and rise uping households.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Analysis of Wal-Mart Managerial Accounting Process Essay

Company Description For the final project of managing finance Wal-Mart Stores Inc is chosen as the discussion target. Being one of the grocery retail shop leaders in the world, Wal-Mart (WM) operates business with 10,000 retail units in 27 countries with about USD444 million of sales in 2012 (Wal-Mart homepage 2012). Driven by the corporate strategies, WM growth rapidly around the world. To support the growth, managerial effectiveness in the operations is very important. Since budget is the first step which put manager’s plan into operation, let’s take a close look at WM’s budgeting process. Budgeting Process Budget reflects a company’s plan, both long and short term, to accomplish business objectives. The focus of the WM’s budgeting system is on providing  better quality and services to the customers. WM follows needed considerations in its budgeting process and procedures. They implements flexible budget in its business that identifies overhead cost drivers and allocates capital to those over head costs properly. Through this way, WM is able to make a budget for different levels of activity. WM set goals and objectives and define their mission and vision clearly in their budgeting process. They plan for the stock requirement in order to achieve the forecasted level of sales. Budgeting process is also helpful to measure the performance of different departments in WM. It enables them to manage costs of different levels of action by weighing the actual costs against the budgeted cost (Plunkett, Attner & Allen, 2011, p. 558-560). WM takes corrective action to control those costs in order to make this closer the flexible budget prepared in advance. WM communicate goals and targets of each employee through budget and continuous report back to the corporate on operation, investment and financial activities based on budget information. Its budgeting procedures help WM to be competitive in cost and to economically use the resources that made better revenue for the company. In contrast to this, in this procedure, prediction is difficult for the manager because they believe on a range of estimates of what to expect financially. In addition, this process also depends on various variables that affects to each other. It is very complicated to prepare and difficult to understand for other employees of the company (Axson, 2010, p. 132-140). Management Accounting System Management accounting system (MAS) in WM play a crucial role to improve their business activities effectiveness. Management accounting information are collected, stored and prepared through use of well designed accounting information system. It simplifies getting information to people outside of the organization when necessary. Through use of MAS, WM determines its initial purchase price of raw material including subsequent operating and maintenance costs. MAS help to evaluate the pricing structure’s effectiveness by showing cost, sales and revenue data. It gives idea to the company to decide the price of the product to be competitive in the market. WM disseminates this information to its various parties through conducting  formal and informal meetings, conferencing, global network and employees’ survey techniques (Needles, Powers & Crosson, 2010, p. 720-722). Moreover, WM mainly uses its accounting reports based on principles of GAAP to make inform its stakeholders about its financial position. WM uses the strategic management accounting system which helps to enhance the effectiveness of decision making within the company. WM use MAS for everything from entering in new market to vendors/products selection and even new pricing process, promotion strategies and to distribution (Needles, Powers & Crosson, 2007). The accounting information from MAS of WM helps in planning, controlling and other managerial activities. Their system also able to come up all kind of alternatives with integrated accounting information which assist management to find out the best strategy for organizational effectiveness improvement (Wal-Mart homepage 2012). WM disseminate managerial accounting information through budgets for all departments which help all departments to facilitate proper integration in all kind of activities within the company. WM currently uses Vision Suite accounting software that includes different aspects of finance like AR/AP, general ledger, check writing and external accounting integration. This software is faster and relatively cheaper and generates accounting documents automatically. Through this, many types of useful reports can be generated for management to make decisions. On the other side, it can be susceptible for computer viruses and hackers. In absence of proper control and security, it can create problems for the confidentiality of the company (Gilbertson & Lehman, 2008, p. 6, 437 ). Costing System In term of costing process, WM is focus on inventory control since that is the most important part of their business to determine its profitability. To determine the cost of inventory, WM uses several costing method. In order to reduce inventory cost as well as determining accurate cost of products, WM uses both LIFO and FIFO. By using the retail method of accounting, inventories are at low cost or at least at market rate. This will help to increase the effectiveness of operation since WM is retail  business and this will facilitates competitive advantage over competitors. According to WM’s 2012 annual report, they use LIFO to determine weighting average cost for products in US and for inventories for international operations are using the FIFO method (Wal-Mart annual report 2012, page 31). These differences way of costing will enhance effectiveness of the company in managing cost. WM accomplish their strategy, â€Å"everyday low cost approach† (EDLC) through these co sting method (Wal-Mart annual report 2012, page 18). So as to allocate cost to different products, WM uses the activity based costing (ABC) system. ABC system enables the WM to better understand the cost structure and cost drivers. On the basis of this, WM takes effective decisions regarding price structure. The ABC approach can exhibit the actual work done relating with production more accurately in order to be useful in management accounting. The ABC system is used by management to collect a full cost view. VM can reduce the overhead cost by minimizing the number of cost drivers (Leitner, 2007, p. 5). In contrast to this, there is possibility that as per this method, costs can be more than profits. Apart from this, it also requires data input from multiple departments that can create greater risk of failure of data inputs. The cost of managing the system is also high due to having more cost pool volume. For instance, Wal-Mart is a large organization, as cost accounting information is difficult to separate, due to the presence of multiple product lines and numerous machine setups in complex production environments (Drury, 2006, p. 350-362). Capital Decision Making Process Evaluation of investment appraisal techniques is useful in capital decision making process by bringing together financial and strategic aspects of the project. The capital investment decisions of WM are mainly driven by its financial priorities such as growth, leverage and returns on investment. The major concern of WM is international expansion and its profitability (Wal-Mart annual report 2012, page 28). WM select and manage projects through the below steps: 1. Project information collection – collect information such as past performance, costs, benefits and associated risks. 2. Evaluating the project – Use cost benefit analysis, net present value, IRR etc to evaluate the project. WM uses discounted cash flow (DCF) investment appraisal technique in capital decision making process. They only invest its capital in projects that meet stringent payback periods and yield at least a required rate of return in a DCF analysis (Brigham & Daves, 2012, p. 544-549). 3. Selecting project – WM uses NPV and IRR method to evaluate projects’ alternative. For selecting projects, they will based on different criteria of the projects, but also taking into account the incremental revenue, time, company reputation etc.. The above help WM to ensure optimal utilization of their capital resources. For example, WM’s new solar project in California, they focused on DCF method to decide that it should invest its capital in this project or not. After implementing this technique, WM determined the average payback period for its energy saving projects that was 6.3 months. It also provided an annual return on investment of 190 percent on these projects that was profitable for the company. Therefore, WM wants to consider these discount flow values for its new solar project in order to make profits as future prospective (Ailworth, 2012). Capital Structure In term of capital acquisition decision, the main criteria are the long term sustainability and stability in performance. The cash flow is the main source of capital that ensures the long term success. WM considers market position, market trend, credit policy, financial status and stakeholders’ interests before deciding the best sources of acquiring financial capital. Sometimes, it also considers the financing cost to arrange the capital for running its operations. Credit rating of the company influences the WM’s decision on capital structure because its good rating helps it to take the credit from the financial institutions (Kronwald, 2010, p. 5-16). Instead of issuing common equity, WM is relying more on funds borrowing from market. Additionally, capital structure of WM is risky as their financing  rely heavily on debt or loans that may impact earnings. WM has been operating at 1.71 debt equity ratio (Yahoo Finance, 2012). Funding decisions of WM is associated with capital rising through debt more because of taking benefits of tax deduction and lower financing cost. â€Å"It has some implications such as funds generation; positive impact on financial result or company performance and meeting needs on operation and investment† (Seidman, 2004, p. 77-80). This is important to maintain low capital cost while achieving the company goals in the capital structure of the company (Wal-Mart Annual report 2012 page 28). Conclusion In order for the company to make effective managerial decision, various kinds of processes and approaches in budgeting and costing are necessary. WM implemented a well quality budgeting process which improves their effectiveness in accomplishing their objectives. Their budgeting process helps to motivate and improve effectiveness of employees and also help to create long term objective for the organization. They use MAS to do have the most cost effective vendors and products selection and also to manage all the accounting information to improve the effectiveness of the managerial decision. In order to reduce the total cost of products and maintain competitive position in the market, WM selected the appropriated costing process and procedure. Given their effective method of capital resources and effective capital structure for obtaining capital which helps WM to be efficiency in a lot of capital decision making as well as objectives accomplishment. In summary, the overall managerial a ccounting practices with WM is quite effective. Information Sources and Methodology Most of the information of this discussion was collecting from the annual report of WM for 2012. In addition, finance text books, journals and web sites are being used as well. For the annual report, 3 years has been reviewed in order to have a more clear picture of their growth as well as if there were any managerial practices or process been changed. A lot of information about WM’s financial and managerial accounting systems such as budgeting/costing process, capital structure etc are available in those resources. Observation methodology is used to analyze information. References Ailworth, E. (2012). â€Å"Walmart to install solar panels on 27 stores in Mass.† Retrieved from: http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/14/walmart-install-solar-panels-stores-mass/kxHjt9sQrPxSvN5sPWTjsN/story.html Accessed on : Oct 25, 2012 Brigham & Daves, P. R. (2012). â€Å"Intermediate Financial Management†. USA: Cengage Learning. Drury, C. (2006). â€Å"Cost and Management Accounting: An Introduction†. USA: Cengage Learning EMEA. Gilbertson, C. B. & Lehman, M. W. (2008). â€Å"Fundamentals of Accounting: Course 1†. USA: Cengage Learning. Kronwald, C. (2010). â€Å"Credit Rating and the Impact on Capital Structure†. Germany: GRIN Verlag. Leitner, A. (2007). â€Å"Activity Based Costing†. Germany: GRIN Verlag. Needles, B. E., Powers, M. & Crosson, S. V. (2010). â€Å"Financial and Managerial Accounting†. USA: Cengage Learning. Plunkett, W. R., Attner, R. F. & Allen, G. S. (2011). â€Å"Management†. USA: Cengage Learning. Axson, D. J. (2010). â€Å"Best Practices in Planning and Performance Management: Radically Rethinking Management for a Volatile World†. USA: John Wiley & Sons. Seidman, K. F. (2004). â€Å"Economic Development Finance†. UK: SAGE. Yahoo Finance (2012). Retrieved from: http://in.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=WMT Accessed on : Oct 25, 2012 Walmart Homepage 2012. Retrieved from: http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/our-stores Accessed on : Oct 25, 2012 Walmart Annual report 2010 to 2012. Retrieved from: http://stock.walmart.com/annual-reports Accessed on : Oct 25, 2012

Monday, July 29, 2019

Coral Divers Resort Case Analysis Essay

Strategic Recommendation: What do you advise Coral Divers to do? Core divers Resort (CDR) should focus on making their current business operation more efficient by keeping an eye on operating costs and partnering with adventure resorts for customers who wants adventure diving. The company financials cannot support any expansion for family oriented resort with the company being over leveraged with little cash and liquidity. Secondly, this strategy has ease of implementation and provides a profit increase of 10% with little capital expenditure Also, Greywell has built a lifestyle around the Coral Divers Resort business and enjoys it with his family. Selling the resort with his little equity in the business will not provide enough money for him to start a new business in another location. Focusing on being more efficient is more profitable for the company as the industry is in its maturity phase with stiffer competition and readily available substitutes. What do you think Coral Divers would like to accomplish over the next 5 years? Coral Divers is experiencing declining revenues and unprofitability for the past three years. Other resorts that have been able to specialize in certain segments of the diving industry, Coral Divers have been unable to distinguish themselves from other resorts. Coral Divers Resort (CDR) is looking to differentiate itself from other resorts in the New Providence, Bahamas region. The company is looking for opportunities in the diving industry to find a unique niche and gain a competitive edge that will lead to an increase its revenues. Strengths The resort has a beachfront location, the rich resource of the ocean is within close proximity and have developed a good reputation as a quiet and safe resort which appeals to vacationers looking to get away from busy tourist resort hotels. The diving instructors in the resort are certified by PADI and NAUI. Weakness It is a family- run one-service business that is inefficiently operated. It is heavily leveraged making it difficult to get funding for further expansion while facing stiff competition. Opportunities There are opportunities in the diving industry to find a unique niche market (adventure diving, family oriented resort) for Coral Divers and gain a competitive edge that will lead to an increase in its revenues like providing additional service to customers eg picking and taking clients to the airport and other educational services about scuba diving which requires less capital expenditure. Threats The bleaching impact of climate change on coral reefs makes them to lose their beauty, making diving less attractive for divers. The recent surge in airfares and the changing demographics are potential could reduce the customer base of diving resorts. Current Ratio The current ratio of CDR shows that the company is not able to service its current obligations. The resort’s short –term assets cannot cover its current obligations of $88,476. However quick ratio value of CDR will provide a clearer indication of the company’s liquidity and success in meeting its obligations. Quick Ratio CDR quick ration of 0.1875 suggests that the company has a very low ability to service its maturing short- term obligations. This ratio is a more  reliable variation of the current ratio because inventory, prepaid expenses, and other less liquid current assets are removed from the calculation. In other words, it shows how CDR can quickly convert its assets to cash without a loss in value if necessary to meet its short-term obligations? The resort’s low quick ratio makes it difficult for the resort to meet creditors requirement and obtain further funds for future business expansion since they operate a business that does not provide a steady and predictable cash flow. Favorable liquidity ratios are critical to creditors within the resort’s industry. Return on Assets The negative return on CDR’s asset shows that the company’s asset is not used effectively to generate profit and shows the business is not profitable. However, the assets in the resort are highly depreciated which is unusual and it is affecting the return on assets. CDR should reduce its depreciation expense since the resort is not fully booked in the low rental seasons of the year. The resort’s return on assets of -5.75% indicates there is a need for improvement in this area to ensure the company can remain competitive and continue to operate successfully. Return on Equity The percent rate of return on equity for Coral Divers Resort is -87.04%, which indicates that there is absolutely no profits earned based on the owner’s investment in the resort and it would be harder getting a positive return when extra capital is added to the resort. Debt to Total Assets CDR debt to asset ratio of 0.934 indicates that the company can barely meet its long-term obligations, remain solvent, and avoid bankruptcy. This shows that the company can barely withstand more losses without harming creditor interests making it really difficult to obtain additional financing for expansion. Debt to Equity The debt to equity ratio for CDR is 14.12 show which that the company is  heavily leveraged and that most assets the resort has is financed by debt. This creates issues around controlling stake in the company when more debt is added to the company. On what basis do customers choose Coral Divers or competitors? Scuba diving trips to Bahamas tend to be luxury items and therefore it is more likely people would travel during good economic conditions, the amounts of disposable income people have and the weather condition. Are the driving forces causing demand for this service likely to increase or decrease? The driving forces are likely to increase in the future, there has been increase in the population of scuba divers in the last 20 years and the economy is recovering from the last meltdown. Are the driving forces acting to make competition more or less intense? The driving forces are making competition more intense. There are 26 officials diving operators in Bahamas with different program offerings. Most of the resorts are well known for their high quality services and the brand awareness and recognition is present between the groups of tourists who choose to dive in the Bahamas. The capacity and additional services offered by the hotels for additional revenues makes the competition even harder. Will the driving forces lead to higher or lower industry profitability? The driving forces has the potential of leading to greater industry profitability due to the increase in the number of active high paying divers. Does this industry offer good prospects for attractive profits? The profits of the industry is limited, there is higher competition, and the scuba diving industry entering into the maturity phase. Although there is some industry growth, the current marketing appeal of a diving resort is facing high competitions from other leisure alternatives. Sustainable Competitive Advantage Tests: Does this business have a resource that is valuable/rare? The resort has a beachfront location, the rich resource of the ocean that is within close proximity and have developed a good reputation as a quiet and safe resort which appeals to vacationers looking to get away from busy tourist resort hotels. The diving instructors in the resort are certified by PADI and NAUI. Is the resource competitively superior? The resource of Coral Divers is not competitively superior when compared to its competition. Do they have a resource that is hard to copy? Coral Divers resource is easy to copy as anybody with a nice location, boats and the necessary certification from PADI can start a resort. Can the resource be made obsolete by the different capabilities of competitors? With the emergence of different types of diving, CDR’s resource is been made obsolete due to non-distinguishing brand, adventure diving and family oriented resorts Is the firm organized to exploit its valuable, rare, costly to imitate resource? Coral Divers has failed to exploit its resource due to increasing cost, negative return on equity and three years of loss Do you think this company has a sustainable competitive advantage? The company does not have a sustainable competitive advantage and would face stiffer competition in the future. Other resorts that have been able to specialize in certain segments of the diving industry (adventure diving, family resort) and have been successful over the past years as the industry continue to grow. How intense is the rivalry of existing competitors for consumer dollars? The rivalry is really intense; the additional services offered by the hotels for additional revenues makes the competition even harder. How likely/easy would it be for new competitors to enter this market? Anybody  with a nice location, and the necessary certification from PADI can start a leisure resort. Do customers have a lot of competitors to choose from or very few? There are 26 officials diving operators in Bahamas with different program offerings. Most of the resorts are well known for their high quality services and the brand awareness and recognition is present between the groups of tourists Are there any firms in other industries offering suitable substitutes? There are several firms and industries offering substitute e.g. movie, sports, game etc. Porter Five Forces Analysis Supplier Power The supplier power is minimal, the business is service based and is vertically integrated. Degree of Rivalry There is high degree of rivalry and cost of competition in the diving industry leading to lower profitability Buyer Power Buyer power is high, there is low cost in comparing price and services of resorts. Service and amenities provision to customers is really important. Threats Of Substitutes There are several substitutes ranging vacation elsewhere to other leisure activities like sports, golfing, boating, skiing and other technology products e.g. video games, and movies. Threat Of New Entrants Although it is easy to open a resort, there is medium threat of new entrants due to high competition and the industry being in maturity phase.

You are to produce a review of the strategic situation of Kepak, the Essay

You are to produce a review of the strategic situation of Kepak, the Irish meat company, based on the provided case study Kepak and the future of the Irish beef industry - Essay Example sis of the organization’s internal operating environment to identify the organization’s strengths and weaknesses (Irish Fresh Meat Exporters, Ireland 1981). The firm should then select the strategies that build on the organization’s strengths and correct its weaknesses in order to take advantage of the external opportunities and counter external threats. The final step would be to implement the strategies (Bell, Mcloughlin, Shelman, 12). The implied (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) SWOT analysis, however, is not entirely sufficient (United States Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency, 2009). Other strategies need to be adapted as will be discussed in this paper. Kepak’s challenges inspired its CEO, John Horgan, to formulate new business strategies that will influence the firms resurface. Having realized its unfavorable business environment, Kepak adapted new business strategies that were sustainable. Kepak’s business environment suffered threats because of external forces. The Irish beef industry consequently faced adverse economic constraints. These external forces endangered the integrity and profitability of the company’s business. Kepak found itself competing against firms in markets with substantially lower costs structures. Policy makers began to undervalue the potential of the food and agribusiness sector. Another challenge in Kepak’s business environment was the unpredictability in financial performance from year to year. There were no listed companies, so access to capital was through borrowing or trading profits which is a very cash-hungry business. Kepak suffered from the swings and roundabouts of the beef market. It also suffered the inability to plan effectively for the future (Bell, Mcloughlin, Shelman 2-3) Kepak’s competitive forces within its business environment can be analyzed using The Porter Five Forces Model illustrated on the following page. It was developed by Michael E. Porter at the Harvard

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Speech Comprehension and the Human Language Essay

Speech Comprehension and the Human Language - Essay Example The question therefore is what sets the human language apart from another How is human language defined Moreover, with so many diverse languages known in the world (associated with country, race and culture), can human language actually be characterized as a whole to represent the vast array of languages used by all sorts of people The answer to this, of course, is yes and the unifying elements that weave all these languages into a universal method for communication are the properties of human language that are common to all. These will be detailed in the succeeding section. The other aspect of human language that this paper intends to explore is how people understand the spoken language or speech. It is widely known that humans begin to learn to speak during the early childhood years. As such, what are the processes and elements involved in learning and understanding speech Are these the same for everybody To answer these questions, an overview of speech comprehension shall be provided in the following sections of this article. Speech development generally occurs during the first two years of a child's growth. At the first stage, the infant produces his/her first sounds in the form of cries, vocal grunts and cooing. These are said to be phonetically indicative of the ug, ng or ungh sounds. Studies have shown that the consonant sounds are developed earliest, in particular the consonant h (Goodenough & Tyler, 1959). The infant then progresses to the stage wherein he/she utters single syllables repeatedly such as "da-da-da" or "ngee-ngee-ngee". At first, these utterances are used by the infant to amuse itself. Later on or during the third stage, these utterances already become useful for social interaction with the parents or whoever is considered as the care giver. At the fourth stage, which occurs during the second half of the first year, the infant learns to combine these mono-syllables to two or more different syllables to form a more complex word. Thus to give an example., the "da-da-da" becomes "daddle- daddle-daddle". This is the last period before true speech is actually produced. The infant then proceeds to learn how to select specific sound-combinations out of the wide variety of utterances that it has produced and to apply these sound-combinations to particular situations in which he has heard others use them (Goodenough & Tyler, 1959). Understanding Speech Understanding spoken language connotes a processing level by which meaning is derived from the combination of words and sounds that form sentence structures. Before this happens, however, several other operations occur that eventually lead to meaning attribution. One of these operations is called Semantic Processing which concerns working out what words and sentences mean (Harley, 2001). Syntactic operation, on the other hand, pertains to the recognition of how words are organized within a sentence (i.e., their relationships, how they are transformed by inflections or affixes, etc.) so that the order of the words becomes meaningful. The phonological process, which is the third set of operations, involves the transformation of the message into sounds uttered as speech through the use of the articulatory mechanisms - the tongue,

Saturday, July 27, 2019

What Are the Fundamental Purposes of Business and the Responsibilities Assignment

What Are the Fundamental Purposes of Business and the Responsibilities of Strategic Leaders - Assignment Example the consuming public, reference will not only be made to those who patronise the products and services of particular businesses but all other people who in a way may be affected by what a business entity does. It is not surprising that in the 1970s, Milton Friedman saw the sole purpose of business as making profits but with time, this changed to a much holistic responsibility of creating and keeping customers by Peter Drucker. Based on the dynamic needs of society by the years, it will strongly be accepted that today, the primary purpose of business is to solve peoples problems. This is certainly an all-in-all purpose that comes with a lot of implications for doing business. First, it implies that people are the real focus for doing business. With people being the real focus of doing business also, it is not just about creating business around people and taking opportunity of them but then engaging in a shared-responsibility that ensures that the people also benefit from the business (Porter & Kramer, 2006). There are a number of theories and concepts that have been used in literature to explain the form of shared-responsibility between businesses and the people. One of these is the concept of sustainability. Under the sustainability framework, businesses are expected to be functional from three major perspectives which are economic, social, and environmental (Porter & Kramer, 2006). As far as economic su stainability is concerned, the old school of thought on the purpose of making profit can be said to be applicable. In the remaining two which are social and environmental however, businesses are deemed to operate in a way that makes them useful to the larger society and the environment surrounding them (Wolfe, 2011). Because of the change with the purpose of businesses, the responsibility of the people behind the wheels of any typical business has also changed very significantly. Today, it can be said that the primary responsibility of senior leaders is to

Friday, July 26, 2019

Business research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Business - Research Paper Example It is social investigation methods where different questions are being asked by researchers to collect data for their researches. It is a method which will help the researcher to get information about customer’s satisfaction levels from South Wales University. In this research participants of the survey are university students. In this research students of the university are given some question. Those questions are to be answered on the basis of one to seven scales. Starting from scale one which signifies that the participants strongly agree with the statement and scale seven signifies that participants strongly disagree with the statement. In this research the survey is having 27 questions. The survey has been divided into six parts. In the first part of the survey questions were related with Demographics of university students (Roger, 2006). This part is consisting of 5 questions and here one to seven scales have not been used. Here all questions are very simple in nature an d all questions are having more than one option for furnishing information. This part will help researcher to get all different information related with customer’s demography. The next portion of the survey is related with different aspects of lecturers in the university. This portion of the survey is having six questions. Here all six questions are have to be answered on the basis of one to seven scales. Third portion of the survey focuses on class rooms of the university. This part is having seven questions. Those entire questions are to be answered on the basis of 1-7 scales. It would give clear information to researcher about class rooms of the university (Keith, 2003). The fourth stage of the survey is related with library of the university. The portion is having 4 questions to answer on the basis of 1-7 scales. 5th portion of the survey is related with course materials of the university. This portion is having 3 questions on

Thursday, July 25, 2019

A WOMAN'S CURSE Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

A WOMAN'S CURSE - Assignment Example A woman going through such situation could be certain that she could become pregnant, though presently not pregnant, but healthy enough to become pregnant. Writing through the Beverly Strassmann empirical research work, having lived for over two years among the Dogon of Mali in West Africa, being part of their culture, and the menstruating women were being confined to menstrual huts that are behind the compound of the village. Urine samples collected by the researcher showed that the women did not visit the huts throughout the pregnancy or during the period when there is an absence of menstruation. This means that the menstrual taboos of the Dogon traditional culture were useful in providing men with the genuine signals of female reproductive status. An implication of Strassman’s work might be reflected that modern lifestyles and the proliferation in the use of contraceptives might be in conflict with a woman’s naturally evolving biological developments. To support this proposition, she noted that the Dogon women menstruate 10 times while western women counter parts menstruate at least 400 times and even more. A feature may lead to cancer prone among the western women folk more than he Dogon traditional women folk. The study by Strassman, as analyzed by the author has proposed the interplay between biology and culture in human reproduction, a leading factor in human behaviour

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Significance of imperfect competition models for explaining the Essay

Significance of imperfect competition models for explaining the pattern of international trade - Essay Example The researcher states that international trade is growing day by day as a result of globalization and liberalization policies implemented by different countries at different parts of the world. The major obstacles for the smooth flow of goods and commodities between different countries have been diminished a lot as a result of globalization. At the same time one of the major problems associated with international trade is the fact that the problems happened in one part of the world can have detrimental effect in other parts of the world as well. Competition is growing immensely in the market as a result of the rapid growth of international trade. Ideally, all organizations would like to have some kind of monopoly or some kind of control over the price mechanisms in the market. However, growing competition prevent organizations from controlling the market effectively. Competition in the market can be labelled as perfect competition and imperfect competition. Perfectly competitive mark ets refer to the markets in which the firms do not possess any market power whereas in imperfectly competitive markets, some organizations definitely have control in the market as far as price mechanisms are concerned. â€Å"Competitive markets provide strong incentives for good performance - encouraging firms to improve productivity, to reduce prices and to innovate; whilst rewarding consumers with lower prices, higher quality, and wider choice† whereas imperfect competition denies all these things. ... tition†(Pomphret, 1992, p.1).This paper analyses the significance of imperfect competition in the market as far as international trade is concerned. International trade and imperfect competition â€Å"Imperfect Competition exists when more than one seller competes for sales with other sellers of similar products, each of which has some control over price† (Models of Imperfect Competition, n. d, p.1). In other words, in an imperfectly competitive market, firms may have some power in the market as far the fixing of the prices of its commodities is concerned. Monopoly or oligopoly exists in such markets. For example, Microsoft enjoys monopoly in operating system market. They are capable of fixing the prices of their operating systems like Windows 7 in global market because of lack of competition. Even though Linux and Apple’s Macintosh operating system are raising some kind of competition, still Microsoft is able to maintain their monopoly in the imperfectly competit ive operating system market. Same way, OPEC countries are enjoying oligopoly in the oil market. It should be noted that monopolies or imperfect competition helped Microsoft and OPEC to dictate the market with the help of least efficient products. Consumers forced to pay more than the actual prices of a product in an imperfectly competitive market. In short, â€Å"Firms in a competitive market have very little control over what price they receive for their output†(Perfect Competition, n.d.) whereas â€Å"Monopolies have the most market power, which yields the least efficient outcome† (Monopoly and Perfect Competition Compared, n.d., p.4) According to Krugman et al (2011) â€Å"In a competitive economy, supply decisions are determined by attempts of individuals to maximize their earnings† (Krugman et al, 2011,

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Self Consciousness Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Self Consciousness Issues - Essay Example The first question is based on the understanding that the level of memory humans rely upon to recall early events in life operates from about the age of three or four years old. Prior to that, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are not fully developed (Mastin, 2010). If this question, then, is asked of a human, their earliest memory is unlikely to be a recollection from before age three or four. An artificial intelligence machine, however, has working memory activated immediately upon being turned on. I reason that a machine will answer this question with literally their first experience and not with a later one. The second question assumes that machines with artificial intelligence do not experience altered states of consciousness, and therefore do not dream. I suspect they would not be able to describe a dream that would fool me into thinking they are human. I pay attention to my dreams and the dreams of other people, and I have noticed that describing a dream is done in a diffe rent narrative style than describing an ordinary awareness event. Dreams are often fragmentary, have confused chronology, incorporate magically changing imagery, are usually symbolic, may be vague upon recall. Furthermore, AI machines do not experience emotion, so fear would be a foreign experience to them. Even if the machine has been programmed to articulate emotional expression, what a machine would find â€Å"frightening† would no doubt be qualitatively distinct from what a human finds frightening.

All Firms Should Produce at MR=MC Essay Example for Free

All Firms Should Produce at MR=MC Essay In economics, the point of profit maximizing and loss minimizing is called MR=MC. This point is where marginal revenue equals marginal cost, meaning that cost does not exceed revenue and revenue does not exceed cost. This is a profit-maximizing zone, meaning that total cost is not the lowest, but is farthest away from the total returns. The optimal point of production for the firm is at the point MR=MC. Marginal revenue is defined as the change in total revenue as a result of producing an additional unit, while marginal cost is the increase or decrease of a firms total cost of production as a result of the change in production by one additional unit. When these two are equal, the firm is not losing money, and is making the most profit possible. In the area of the graph where less quantity is being sold, the firm still obtains a profit but it is not maximized, and in the area of the graph where more quantity is being sold, profit is less and money can be lost from the firm. To the left of MR=MC, cost is low to the firm and revenue is high. As the graph progresses toward the point of MR=MC, each unit provides less and less profit. As the first unit is produced, the profit is high for that unit, but the profit for each extra unit produced declines toward the point of profit maximization. This may sound absurd, and may make the reader wonder why the firm does not produce at the first unit. However, as each unit is produced, the firm gets to keep the profit from every unit produced previously. This would add up to far more profit than if the firm produced when cost is lowest and revenue is greatest. The point where marginal revenue equals marginal cost is the point where all of the profits from the previous units are combined. At this point, total cost is not at its lowest, and total revenue is not the greatest, but are farthest away from each other, which is represented in the graphs attached. It is true that in the less quantity level of the graph revenue exceeds cost, however, the profit at MR=MC is far more than any of the units produced. To the right of MR=MC, total costs exceed total revenue. The firm would spend more money on workers, resources, and the production of goods, and not get a  great profit back. Once the quantity of goods produced passes the point where MR=MC, the firm not only does not make a great profit, but after a while, it loses the money that the company has already, and soon the company would go into debt. The point of profit maximization and loss minimization is the ideal point of production because if the firm was to produce more, all previous profit would be lost and the firm could possibly close down. As shown in the graphs attached, the profit depletes until the point where money is being taken from the firm just to produce more. When the firm cuts down its production and gets to the point of MR=MC again, the profit will once again be maximized. To conclude, the point of loss minimization and profit maximization is where marginal revenue equals marginal costs. This way, all profit from previous units sold is combined for a large profit and all costs do not exceed the total revenue. The firm should always produce at the point where MR=MC. If they move to the left or right of this point, total profit would drop. As the change in total revenue changes, so does the cost of production. The optimal point of production is when both of these are equal to each other. The graphs attached show how profit is still being made on other points of the curve, but MR=MC is the greatest. If a firm wants to increase revenue and profit, the best bet is to produce where marginal return is equal to marginal cost.

Monday, July 22, 2019

John Locke Short Introduction Essay Example for Free

John Locke Short Introduction Essay John Locke, who is widely known as the Father of Liberalism, is a great writer, philosopher and physician of the 17th century. He was born on 29 August 1632 and died on 28 October 1704 when he was 72. He was baptized on the same day as he was born. He was a gifted man and David Hume once described him as â€Å"wrote like a water-drinking local councilor, his style ungainly, his idioms commercial, his imagination puritanical, his humor labored, his purposes wholly practical. † As he is a talented thinker and uses different perspectives to see and think on certain things, he revolutionized the Theory of Mind to the world in his masterpiece, â€Å"An Essay Concerning Human Understanding†. On the other hand, he also developed the idea of liberty among people in society. His contributions to the world are incredible as his ideas of social contract and state of nature laid the theoretical foundation of the Constitutions of the United States of America. In Locke’s life, he came from a very intelligent and faithful Baptist family that gave him a good education and took him to a good school Christ Church, Oxford. Though he studied medicine but not philosophy or other critical thinking courses, he met prominent people (e. g. Robert Boyle, Thomas Wills) who inspired him immensely in every perspective. One eminent scholar was Thomas Sydenham, who imposed a huge impact on the idea of how man accumulates knowledge. Thanks to Sydenham, Locke wrote one of his famous works – â€Å"An Essay Concerning Human Understanding†. Thomas Sydenham gave advice to Locke in treating Shaftesbury’s liver cancer. Locke realized in the file of Shaftesbury that knowledge in a book could be different from the circumstances Locke was facing. Hence, he raised the pivotal question in his essay: â€Å"Is the foundation of knowledge based on theory or experience? † This essay stimulated several fresh ideas to philosophers in the 17th century. One of the famous philosophers who were greatly influenced by Locke was David Hume, who described John Locke as a magnificent man. After Shaftesbury survived from the liver cancer, he became Lord Chancellor and led Locke to be involved in the field of politics. In the political struggle of Shaftesbury, Locke assisted him by writing another famous work – â€Å"Two Treatises of Government. It is believed that the ideas mentioned in the essay were influenced by Hobbes’ thinking, but Locke never referred or mentioned the name of Hobbes. Locke countered the statements raised by Hobbes in the book of Leviathan that â€Å"everyone is living in terror† and â€Å"war of every man against every man†. Locke raised a counter statement that everyone is created equally and everyone in society has rights to fight for their life, freedom and property. To accomplish it, we shall hold together and grant greater power to protect ourselves. This also explains how civilization works. The original purpose of this piece is an argument to attack Shaftesbury’s opponents (supporters of Absolute Monarchy). However, the ideas of natural rights and a new reformation of government mentioned inside the essay are recognized as the most influential ideas on the political system in the 17th century. The basis of liberty was widely used by the founding fathers of the United States of America to write the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitutions. The influences of John Locke did not just stop in the 17th century. They still last today. Every time we hear about liberty and freedom, the basis of these concepts had been defined by Locke clearly. Besides, the issue of free religion which is still discussed nowadays was also originated by Locke. The theory of religious tolerance was one of the most controversial ideas during Locke’s lifetime. In this perspective, some historians even regarded the European War as the war between religions. In some statements made by Locke, he argued human knowledge was possibly false unless there was definite proof. By the same token, he considered that religion, which did not have clear proof, was possibly false. Because of this, religious tolerance was necessary. Religious tolerance is still being debated nowadays and it has greatly changed the outlook of modern society after this idea was promulgated. Locke’s life was a legend. He was born in a Baptist family and his writings are full of elements related to Christianity. From the statement of â€Å"All men are created equally†, it clearly shows Locke’s belief in the perspective of equality. Besides, he was also greatly influenced by the idea of knowledge. He questioned the fundamental of knowledge and questioned whether knowledge is true as always. I believe he wrote such ideas because of his experience in the treatment of Shaftesbury’s cancer that led him to start questioning that the things he had learned from the medical books were not really practical. Instead, to him, they were much more proper to be described as imaginary notions. From this perspective, he was inspired to write the essay concerning human understanding. Besides, Locke also influenced the world and created waves of revolutionary ideas in many fields. The great philosophers Voltaire and Rousseau were deeply inspired by Locke’s theories. Ultimately, Locke – Father of Liberalism – was not simply a gifted person born to be the father of liberalism, but also because of circumstances, situations which he encountered in his life to make him the father of liberalism.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Employee Motivation And Organisational Performance Commerce Essay

Employee Motivation And Organisational Performance Commerce Essay As the hospitality industry keeps on growing, the competition has turned into a battle now. During this tough time it is very pragmatic to hold on to our loyal guest even though there is a ceaseless change in the organization. To overcome this challenge of holding our loyal customers and to keep on attracting new guests, it is very important that the employees are highly motivated. This research critically analyses the factors affecting the motivation of the employees in an organization, it evaluates the effects on the performance of the organization due to motivated employees. It suggests a relationship between the employee motivation and the organizational performance. The research was carried out by taking interviews of the employees as well as the executive member of the hotel in order to get hold of perspective of both the sides. The important factors have been acknowledged and critical analysis has been done. The findings of the research exhibits that the organisation is constantly doing well but there is always a scope of improvement. It also gives the recommendation to improve the organizational performance by motivating the employees. 1 .INTRODUCTION When we think of the term hospitality, different things come in our mind. The first thing what we can think of is hotels. Many people also think about the famous pineapple which held an important part in history when it came to the term hospitality. Hospitality word comes from Latin language i.e.hospitalitem, hospes, and hostis (friendliness to guests) mean to welcome with warmth and care. Hospital also comes from the same source with the concept of caring about human beings who are ill and who want care, support and love. When we speak about hospitality we talk about guests and not customers, as the word guest brings out the full dimension of hospitality and in real terms. The word customer appears less welcoming and it focuses on financial transaction. In hospitality industry we need to greet our guests with a warm and genuine welcome. In order to achieve this we need to create a surrounding which is totally different from outside world. We are talking about warm and hospitable sur rounding with a prompt, pragmatic and professionally delivered service which requires employees who are willing to deliver it. Now the word service comes Latin word servitium meaning act of serving, demonstrates a creative and incorporating function with many shades and intricacies. The meaning of hospitality and service are almost intertwined, it can also be said that if hospitality is strategy than service is tactics. (Sturman et al., 2011). Now in this ever growing hospitality industry, consumer expectation and demands for quality in increasing and consumer tastes is varying on the other hand. To deliver service in this cut throat competition internationally and nationally is very difficult and it requires highly motivated staff. Customer loyalty is another big issue in todays hospitality industry, in order to overcome this issue there has to efficient, motivated staff. Employee motivation is by far the most serious issues in any of the organisation. It is very important to understand and use the motivation technique for managing the people in hospitality industry. Furthermore, customer satisfaction is highly affected by customers perception of employees effort. (Mohr and Bitner, 1995 cites in Kusluvan, 2003.p.339) and effort is what motivation is about. There has been tremendous amount of research done for different employee motivational theories which are conducted outside hospitality industry. Many empirical studies which are done in past on motivational theories have somewhat failed to show the direct linkage between employee motivation and organisational performance. It has been always said that employees are the biggest asset for any organisation and there has been efforts to motivate them without knowing the exact factor that is behind the employee dissatisfaction. To improve any organisations performance three things are very necessary which are productivity, labour efficiency and staff turnover. This is quite evident that if the employee is happy and motivated then the productivity is going to increase by itself. If the employees are happy then loyalty towards the firm increases and it ensues less staff turnover and higher labour efficiency. This research will review the empirical studies done by other researchers on employee motivation and will integrate all the theories and hypothesis in one discussion. The author will also establish a direct linkage that how employee motivation affects organisations performance, how employee motivation helps in increasing loyalty towards the organisation. 1.1 AIM OF THE RESEARCH The aim of the research is to study the relationship between the motivation of the employees and organizational performance. 1.2 OBJECTIVES To critically analyse the employee motivational factors affecting the growth of an organization. To study the relationship between the motivation and organizational performance. To critically evaluate the interpersonal relationship and effects of communication on the level of motivation of employees in West India quay Marriott. To suggest recommendations based on the research and analysis in order to increase the motivation of employees and hence the productivity of an organisation. 2 .LITERATURE REVIEW In order to become good in anything, the only talent you need is motivation Charles de Gaulle. Literature review gives a proper framework to evaluate and critically analyse the various motivational theories and conceptual models which are necessary for the operational functioning of an organization. It relates to various working models of motivational theory used by the organization to keep their employees motivated and increase the productivity of the organization. It is very necessary to understand that the motivational level of the employees working in a particular organization should be on optimum level because of this ever changing dynamics and structure of the hospitality sector. A detailed critical evaluation of the various motivational theory and many empirical research done recently is been carried out by the author, so that a proper understanding of steps which are necessary to launch a proper motivational program for the employees is fulfilled. 2.1 MOTIVATION CONCEPT Its very difficult to give an exact definition of motivation because it varies from individual to individual and culture to culture. The word motivation derives from the Latin verb movere and means to move (Pintrich Shunk, 2002, p.5. cited in Lins (2005).According to Pintrich schunk, the motivation refers to the process whereby goal-directed activity is instigated and sustained (2002.p.5).The term motivation is like a force which moves arouse and direct people. Work motivation therefore refers to a personal desire to work hard and work well to the arousal, direction, and persistence of effort in work settings (Rainey, 2009, p.248.cites in Vellnagel, 2012).Motivation can be referred to as the willingness to exert maximum level of efforts toward organizational goals, conditioned by the efforts ability to satisfy some individual need (Robbins, 1993, cites in Jang, 2008, p.17). Motivation is defined as the direction and persistence of actions (Mullins, 1992 cites in Jang, 2008, p.17).Mullins also states that the motivation is the driving force which drives an individual towards certain goals and expectation. Now the term motivation is explained by various people in the past like Abraham Maslows in his motivation hierarchy, Hertzbergs concept of intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors. Maslow (1943) explains in his theory that every human being has five needs which are in hierarchy. Hertzberg (1966) critically analyses in his motivation hygiene theory that there are two factors affecting the individuals satisfaction or dissatisfaction with work. Employee motivation research is done by many people to name few of them are Charles and Marshall (1992) and Simon and Enz (1995) but kovachs instrument is the most comprehensively used for all the employee motivation studies. According to Kovach there are ten factors affecting motivation of the employees when he c onducted a study consisting of ten industrial workers in United States, which are as follows: Good wages. Tactful obedience. Job security. Appreciation and praise for work done. Feeling of being involved. Sympathetic help with personal problems and opportunities for growth and advancement. Good working conditions. Personal loyalty to employee. Interesting work. (Kovach.1980, 1987) Kovach in his long study between 1946 and 1986, found a very slow changes of industrial workers wants and needs. For example, higher ranked appreciation and praise was replaced by interesting work. Also it was seen that good wages was always ranked 5th among the ten factors which shows that good wages may not be the most important factor what the employees are seeking when it comes to job. The following changes were based upon the general improvement of Americans standards of living and quality of life. Thereafter Charles and Marshall(1992) simulated Kovachs study among 255 employees of seven Caribbean hotels and the study showed very different results compare to what Kovachs result was. The result showed that the two most important factors of job motivation were good wages and good working conditions. These findings were supported by Simon and Enz (1995), who conducted a survey among 278 hotel employees in different hotels located in United States and Canada. Simon and Enz study showed that good wages, job security and growth were the three most highly ranked factors for job motivation among hospitality employees. These studies can be related to Maslows hierarchical theory of motivation where it is critically analysed that the human behaviour is affected by five needs system in which the most primitive or the basic one is at the bottom of the pyramid and accordingly promotes itself to the most mature one .The five needs of the human being in the Maslows pyramid are as follows Being needs Deficit needs (Created by author Adapted from Maslow 1954) 2.2 EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION The definition of employee satisfaction can be either an overall feeling about the job, or as a linked set of approaches about various aspects of the job (Spector, 1997). Locke (1976) defined employee satisfaction as a satisfying or optimistic emotional state resulting from the appraisal of ones job or job experience. Levy -Garboua and Mont Marquette (2004) defined employee satisfaction as a guide of preference for the experienced job against outside opportunities qualified on information available at time. A comparison is made in the given definition between the real job experience in the past and the mental experience of outside opportunities available. It also contains the comparison between future expectations of own job and outside opportunities in the future(Levy-Garboua et al.,2007).Employee satisfaction is an important variable which gives a general preview of the employees attitude towards their job and workplace. Hence employee satisfaction is the expectations of an employe e about workplace and attitude towards his job. As a result, job satisfaction is a function of the extent to which ones needs are satisfied in a job (Togia et al., 2004).Considering the different definition of employee satisfaction author argues that expectation can vary from employee to employee from monetary gains to career advancement. Depending upon the needs of the employees, organisations carry out the motivational training program. In this modern time various hospitality industry are concentrating more on HRM i.e. Human Resource Management. Different HRM policies consist of various techniques. In one of the similar research carried out in UK comprising of four organisations showed the link between employees perception of these high commitment performance management practices by HRM and their commitment towards an organisation. The research carried out in UK consisted of 524 questionnaire responses collected from four organisations. The findings in the research clearly posit t hat there is a strong relationship between employee perception on HRM practices and their commitment towards the organisation. The performance of the employee is elevated when there is a trust on HRM policies and employee pursue it as fair (Farndale et al., 2011p.16).HCPM (high commitment performance management) practices achieve their goal of higher commitment provided the practices followed are perceived to be fair by the employees which in turn benefits the overall performance of the organisations (Dirk And Ferrin, 2001 cites in Farndale et al., 2011 p.16). HCWPs should therefore include performance management elements which allow employee engagement (Gardner et al., 2001 cites in Farndale et al., 2011 p.16) and prospects for development, but it also needs to be made on procedures and interactions that are considered fair by employees. Now, the author would like to add that since employees make most important aspect of any organisation, so definitely all the HRM practices put for ward should be benefiting the employees rather than just profitability of the organisation. Having said that, HRM practices should also be pragmatic enough to avoid overdoing of any procedures or practices. The core Motivational idea related with HRM performance research is simple and intuitive. If the people enjoy the work they are given and they do the work with full of their abilities and work harder, they will be motivated to perform at a higher level when given the opportunity to do challenging and enjoyable work. Employees want challenge and personal growth (Walton, 1972.p.71 cites in White and Bryson, 2011.p.4). McDuffie (1995, p.201 cites in White and Bryson, 2011.p.4) argues that employees will only offer discretionary effort if they believe, among other things, that the company will make reciprocal investment in their well-being. Furthermore, another author Appelbaum et al.(2000.p.46 cites in White and Bryson,2011.p.2) posits Jobs that are challenging and make use of worke rs skills are intrinsically rewarding. As HRM is designed to provide jobs that are more satisfying and involving for employees it is natural to assume linear increments in motivation as with Appelbaum et al. (2000.p.46).But authors like Becker and Huselid (2006) and McDuffie (1995) put forward views which are contradictory and they said at after certain level of threshold point the motivation of employees follows a non-linear effects. A contrary view adopted by Marxian labour process theorists is that HRM implies labour escalation and that can have negative incremental effects (eg.Ramsay et al.2000 cites in White and Bryson, 2011.p.3).Finally there is the non-linear model of Godard (2001) where HRM initially has positive effects but at later stages turns negative at high levels of implementation due to work strain. Here author argues that although HRM practices are very much necessary for any organisation and in order to reap profitable results it should strongly signal employees. H RM practices should not be confined to only on specific opportunities for employee participation and personal development but also whether the HRM practices helps in total transformative development that conjures employee identification. 2.3 FACTORS AFFECTING EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION As we saw in research done by Kovach, Charles and Marshall, Simon and Enz that there are many factors which affect employee motivation and satisfaction. These factors keep on changing depending upon the needs of the employees at different time. As Maslow in his famous theory said that the human needs are divided into five basic needs. Then Herzberg came up with dual factor theory stating that man has two sets of needs one of an animal to avoid pain and another of a human to grow psychologically. During all these after much empirical research it has been found that there are many factors which affect employee motivation. In order to measure job satisfaction and motivation of an employee, its very important to measure different facets of the job which is generating employee motivation. Now, Facets of job satisfaction can involve any aspect of the job such as pay, colleagues, supervisors, organisational factors and work conditions (Coomber and Barriball, 2007 cites in Akman et al., 2011 p.677). Pearson (1991 cites in Akman et al., suggests that the employees wait for their job to provide a combination of features (e.g. pay, promotion and autonomy) for which the employee has certain favourable values. Furthermore, while discussing the factors Luthans (1992 cites in Akman, 2011.p.677) posits five factors which affects the employee motivation. These factors are pay, job characteristics, working conditions, management politics and working colleagues. While pay was considered as external factor by Luthans (1992) other factors like job characteristics have been defined as internal factors (Rose, 2003 cites in Akman, 2011.p.677). Mcafee et al., (1995 cites in Akman 2011.p.677) investigated effects of discretion, result feedback and process feedback on employee job motivation. It was found that only discretion and result outcome doesnt affect employee job motivation but it is very necessary to give them process outcome also. Drummond and Stoddard (1991 cites in Akman 2011 .p.678) add to the discussion that employee satisfaction contains an evaluation of various features of the job. These characteristics are working conditions, pay, and relationships with colleagues and supervisor, organisational policies and nature of the work itself. When talking about characteristics of job like working hours, It has been proven in the research that employees who get flexible working hours are more happier and content and they give back more to the organisation. Berg et al., and Dockery (2004,2005 respectively cites in Atkinson and Hall,2011.p.101) posits that flexible working hours helps to promote active states such as being pleased and cheerful because they feel that they are treated well. It also helps to generate passive state which reflects in feelings like contentment and calm, since there is reduction of work-life stress and this all was possible because of flexible hours provided to the employees. Furthermore author adds to the discussion that if the employees are happy, it shows in the overall productivity of an organisation. Basically it is a two way effect if the employee feels that they are taken care of by the organ isation, employees tend to reciprocate this gesture by generating revenue or profit. Management has to create trust among the employees which is another factor that is important for employee motivation. Various people investigated about employee motivation and job satisfaction and among one of them were Kazemzadeh and Bashiri (2005 cited in Akman et al., 2011.p.678) who identified ten main groups which are as follows: Management and personnel relationship. Relation between employees. Employees job satisfaction. Education. Wage and salary. Other welfare facilities. Employees commitment. Job promotion. Performance. Organisations systems and processes. Another author named Bodur (2002 cites in Akman et al., 2011.p.678) suggested that work content, age, gender, educational level, working conditions, location (rural or urban), co-workers, salary and working hours are some of the factors related to job motivation and satisfaction.Kuo et al.,(2010) cites in Akman et al., (2011,p.678) that both job characteristics and employee empowerment are important factor in order to maintain high employee commitment and loyalty towards the organisation. Taking the research even further Jun et al., (2006) investigated direct and indirect relationships among top management commitment, HR-focused TQM practices, and employee satisfaction and employee loyalty. They found a strong relationship between TQM practices and job satisfaction loyalty. Author would like to add further that factors affecting employee motivation can differ from employee to employee depending upon their needs and desires. For e.g. one employee is looking for monetary gains then mon ey will be motivating factor for him and if another employee who is looking for career advancement then promotion and rewards, recognition will be motivating factor for him. 2.4 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND LOYALTY TOWARDS ORGANISATION Loyalty is an emotional state it signifies the relationship of an employee with the organisation for which they work and that has implications for their decision to remain with the organisation (Allen and Grisaffe, 2001 cites in Akman et al., 2011.p.682).According to another definition loyalty means as attachment to the organisation specially when one is having strong believes in organisational goals and values and has a strong desire to maintain membership of the organisation. Furthermore Becker et al., (1995) defined loyalty in Akman et al., (2011.p.682) as a strong desire to be a part of the organisation and put high levels of effort for the sake of an organisation and definite belief in the goals and values of the organisation. Thus, loyalty is strong belief in goals and values and a desire to be a part of the organisation. Chen (2006) cites in Akman et al., 2011.p.682) that while job motivation represents an effective response to specific features of the job with proper attitude, employee loyalty is in effective response to the whole organisation. Furthermore, empirical evidence suggests that employee motivation and satisfaction are precursor to organisational loyalty of employees. This suggests that organisational loyalty of employees develop from job satisfaction and motivation and which nullifies the effects of staff turnover. Also, author will like to add to the discussion that loyal employees help in organisations growth as they believe in goals and values of the organisation. This also reduces the staff turnover issue leading to high profitability by saving money on recruitment and training of staff. 2.5 LINKAGE BETWEEN EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE For any organisation its employees are the major assets to look for. Employees are the people who help the organisation grow in terms of profitability and revenue. In order to keep the employees motivated HR has a major part to play. One of the first empirical studies carried out to show the linkage between Employee motivation by HR and organisational performance was done by Arthur (1994). Arthur in his study posits that the explicit sets of HR policies, practices and systems that were designed to enhance the employee commitment (e.g. empowerment, due process, high wages and benefits, etc.) was linked to three proficiency measures of firm performance (i.e. productivity, labour efficiency and staff turnover).A similar study was carried out by Huselid (1995) a year later which showed a similar sets of 13 of HR practices known as high performance work system, was related to both efficiency (i.e. employee turnover) and financial measures (i.e. sales, profit, and market value) of firm per formance. There were many studies which were carried out after that which highlighted the important relationship between employee motivation by HR and firms performance. Furthermore author adds to the discussion that although initially efforts broadened the understanding of about this important relationship, a number of scholars challenged the authenticity of the research. One of the most commonly voiced concerns was that most of the research till date used cross sectional research design (Gerhart et al., 2000 cites in Tracey, 2012. p.910). But research has proved that the relationship between employee motivation and firms performance cant be denied. As one the studies carried out by White and Bryson (2011) posits that if the employees believe in the HR policies and practices they feel motivated and it reflects in their work which leads to higher productivity. 2.6 DIFFERENT MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES USED IN HOSPITALITY SECTOR There are several motivational theories which are used in hospitality sector to improve the employee motivation. Author has briefly evaluated few of them in the below tree diagram. (Created by author adapted from Vellnagel 2012) Furthermore, the difference between the content theory and the process theory is that content theories focuses on factors which leads the individual feel motivated within inside whereas process theories concentrates on the dynamics of motivation and how it takes place. Content theory consists of: Maslows needs of hierarchy theory. Hertzbergs two factor theory. Achievement motivation theory. ERG theory. Process theory consists of: Vrooms Expectancy theory. Goal setting theory. Adams Equity theory. Porters Performance Satisfaction Model. As the concept of motivation is very broad and since it would go beyond his scope of work author has liked to discuss and analyse only selected theories of motivation in the research. 2.6.1 CONTENT THEORIES The content theories supposed that all the individuals have same sets of needs (Fincham, Rhodes: 2005 cited in Vellnagel 2012).They gave importance to the reasons for motivated behaviour (Tosi, Mero, Rizzo: 2000, p.129) of individuals. The most famous of all the content theories are Maslows hierarchy of needs(1943),Hertzberg two factor theory(1959),the job characteristics approach(Hackman,Oldham:1980) and McClellands achievement power theory(1961). 1. Maslows Hierarchy of needs theory The most simple and well known motivational theory was put forth by Humanistically oriented psychologist Abraham Maslow (Arnold et al, 2005.cited in Vellnagel 2012).In 1943 Maslow put proposed a theory of humans function namely according to the sequential hierarchical order of the development of five basic needs (Latham, 2007. cited in Vellnagel 2012).According to Maslow if any of these needs are fulfilled then the individual goes on to fulfil the other needs. If the all the needs are satisfied then the level of motivation goes down. 2. Hertzbergs two factor theory In 1959, Hertzberg proposed a theory on his findings that the man has two set of needs, one of an animal to avoid pain and the other of a human to grow psychologically. These findings led him to put forth a dual theory of motivation which is being used for management training and work motivation program worldwide. This theory critically analyses the factors which makes the employee feel happy at work and leads to job motivation and these factors were called motivators for obvious reason. These motivators are intrinsic factors which are directly affecting the inner feelings and self-esteem of the employees (e.g. Career advancement, achievement, work itself, responsibility, job growth).On the other hand factors which lead to job dissatisfaction are extrinsic factors and are related to external working conditions, relationship with colleagues and supervisors, wages, personal life and these are called hygiene factors. (House, R.Wigdor, L.2006) 2.6.2 PROCESS THEORIES The process theory aims at the identification of relationships among dynamic variables which make up motivation (Mullins, 2001.p.237).They look at mental processes which cause the motivation in an individual. The process theory is all about how behaviour is being created. There are various classical process theory like Adams Equity theory (1963), Expectancy theory by Vroom (1964), Lathams and Lockes goal setting theory (1984). 1. Adams equity theory An American behavioural psychologist named John Stacey Adams, proposed the Equity Theory in 1963 which is possibly the most readily understandable psychological process(Riley,2000.p.26 cited in Vellnagel,2012).Equity theory aims at an individual feelings of how fairly he has been treated in comparison to others. According to this theory people develop a belief of what is fair reward for ones job contribution that is an exchange. Most exchanges involve a number of inputs and outcomes. People compare the exchanges with their employer to exchanges with other insiders and outsiders. If an employee then believes that he is unfairly treated then he will seek justice. 2. Vroom expectancy theory A sophisticated theory of motivation was put forth by Victor Vroom in 1964 and it focuses on the concept of expectancy (Van der Wagen, Davies.1998, p.31 cited in Vellnagel.2012).Instead of aiming on the factors of work which maintain and energize behaviour (Latham, 2007.p.44 cited in Vellnagel, 2012).The theory was inspired on thoughts that a individuals activity leads to a certain behaviour and then this behaviour leads to a certain result. Vrooms theory consist of three variables which are expectancy(E),instrumentality(I) and valence(V) due to which it is also called as the valence-instrumentality-expectancy theory. Both expectancy and instrumentality are possibilities or probabilities. It is about what the individuals estimates to be the likelihood of good performance leading to valued rewards, and of effort leading to good performance. The product of the three variables equals the force (F) of an individuals motivation to perform. Therefore F=E*I*V FINDINGS In order to find the research study satisfactory an overall practical approach of all the four motivational theories should be considered. Maslows theory was one of the basic motivational theories but it was also one of the most criticised theories. The reason was because it was vague and didnt predict behaviour; also it was based upon the socio-philosophical approach reflecting only middle class of white Americans from mid twentieth century (Buchanan,H,2010.p.269).It should also be noted that even though Maslows theory was criticised but this theory has huge influence on todays management practice. The two factors theory put forth by Hertzberg was another motivational theory which was not spared from criticism. Its believed that there might be a gap between what people think motivates them and what actually motivates them. People could relate their success to their personal efforts and blame people or the organization for the failure. However, the two factors theory describes the employees needs and also the rise in motivational level after the redesigned job (Fincham, R.2005.p.200). The two process theory are good but not good enough. The best Adams equity theory is best when comparing salaries. As it is well known fact that money can be measured but education. Knowledge, training and effort are not measurable. Same can be said about the Vrooms theory of expectancy, after a critical analysis its been found that Vroom theory is a nice mathematical approach but when it comes to identifying and quantifying the expectancy of a certain motivation to a task, it is becomes very complicated and also the practical approach is very low (Fincham,R.2005.p.209 et seq.) 3. METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction This part of the research concentrates on the methods that need to be adopted in order to conduct the research. Research can be defined as the systematic approach of seeking solutions towards a problem. Research comprises of investigation, recording and analysis of evidence for the sole purpose of gaining knowledge. Every research has this issue of choosing the most appropriate method so that the objectives

Saturday, July 20, 2019

William B. Willcoxs The Age of Aristocracy Essay -- European History

William B. Willcox's The Age of Aristocracy This compact little book is Volume III of a series entitled A History of England, edited by Lacey Baldwin Smith, and its inclusion in this series reveals much about its scope and intent. Smith writes in the Preface to the series that "their authors have tried by artistry to step beyond the usual confines of a textbook and conjure up something of the drama of politics, of the wealth of personalities, and even of the pettiness, as well as the greatness, of human motivation." Some of this can be found in The Age of Aristocracy; some of it cannot. William B. Willcox's device for covering the significant people and events of one hundred forty-two years in only two hundred thirty-seven pages is to view them through the lens of the changing power of the oligarchy, and the evolving relationship between Monarch and Parliament. Important military and social events thus become the results of political maneuvering between these governing forces; the book's focus is upon the interdependency of so ciety and event to recreate a sense of what Smith calls "the majestic sweep of history" from 1688 to 1830. Willcox begins and ends his history with the spoils and applications of revolution. Between the Glorious Revolution and the introduction of the Reform Bill in 1831, Willcox sees the rise and gradual fall of a British aristocracy that "ruled. . . as never before or since" (236), and provided the transition from the world of post-medieval feudalism to the beginnings of the imperialistic British Empire. This is a lot to cover, and Willcox attacks the process by focusing his attention primarily upon the individuals who served as high-ranking ministers in the evolving Cabinet. By explaining the polit... ...s and patterns many years in the making. The book's 237-page length is appropriate for such a goal, in order that we might not forget how those patterns began and from what forces they were born. For Willcox, these patterns extend even into our own century, and he is careful to remind us of the similarities between figures such as William Pitt and Winston Churchill while raising the spectre of modern Fascism in "the revolutionary idea of nationalism that the French had sown, particularly in Germany and Italy" (211). Willcox's book hobbles a bit on a few too many legs without enough muscle, but it is unassuming and involving. The British aristocracy, writes Willcox, "did not battle to the death" (237), and neither does his brief study of its twilight. Work Cited William B. Willcox. The Age of Aristocracy: 1688-1830. Boston: D.C.Heath and Company, 1966. 237 pp.

Maternity Leave in Australia Essay -- Papers

Maternity Leave in Australia Maternity leave allows women to take leave of absence from their job to give birth and care for their children. The International Labor Organisation sets minimum standards for maternity leave. These include a right to 12 weeks' paid maternity leave and prohibition against dismissal during maternity leave. Although a member of the ILO, Australia has never ratified its convention concerning maternity protection ---- we have no standard maternity leave provisions. Australian law entitles women to 12 months' unpaid leave and for more than 25 years the Commonwealth Employees Act has entitled Commonwealth employees to paid maternity leave. About two-thirds of women in the workforce, however, are not entitled to paid maternity leave and many working women are ineligible for unpaid leave because they are casual employees. Is it time to change maternity leave entitlements in Australia? Australia has one of the least generous maternity leave provisions of industrialised nations. Australiaand the...

Friday, July 19, 2019

Mathematics in the Primary School Essay -- education, teaching, learnin

â€Å"A successful learner in mathematics involves constructing understanding through exploration, problem solving, discussion and practical experience and evidentially through a teacher who has a clear grasp of the underlying structure of the mathematics being taught† (Haylock 2010:3). Analysing my personal journey through mathematics will allow me to explore if my experiences have influenced my attitudes towards mathematics. Beginning by exploring the ways in which I was taught as a child, examining what framework was used for the teaching of mathematics, before continuing to explore if education reforms and learning strategies could have influenced by experiences. Concluding by reflecting on my attitude towards mathematics as an adult and trainee teacher, discussing how they will affect or influence the methods of teaching I will adopt. Entering formal education in 1991 I was taught by means of the revised version of mathematical national curriculum 1991 (DfE 2013b) brought about by the Educational Reform Act 1988.The main two principles of the national curriculum were: firstly to ensure all pupils learn and achieve and secondly to promote pupils spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (DES 1987) The basis of therevised curriculum and its associated testing was to standardise the content taught across schools in order to raise standards of attainment in mathematics. With the introduction of a national curriculum came the introduction of national tests SATs, programmes of study, attainment targets and levels. This was the framework for my memories of mathematics to be established (DfE 2013a). My early recollections of being taught mathematics are through teacher explanation followed by an activity to complete to show you we... ...Utusun Ofsted. (2010). Learning: creative approaches that raise standards. Available: http://www.creativitycultureeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/learning-creative- approaches-that-raise-standards-250.pdf. Last accessed 8th Nov 2013. Orton, A (2004). Learning Mathematics: Issues, Theory and Classroom Practice. 3rd ed. London: Continuum. 49-57. Pound L and Lee T (2011). Teaching Mathematics Creatively. Oxon: Routledge Skemp, R (2002). Mathematics in the Primary School. 2nd ed. London: Taylor and Francis . Stewart, I (2013). The Great Mathematical Problems. London : Profile Books William, P. (2008). Independent Review of Mathematics Teaching in Early Years Settings and Primary Schools. Available: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/https://www.education.go v.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/Williams%20Mathematics.pdf. Last accessed 1st Nov 2013.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

American Modernism

Has modernism any relevance to the South of the world? Black people have always united together in order to create and maintain positive definitions of Blacks. The most important and common form of this racial union has been Afro-American folk culture: the musical, oral, and visual artistic expressions of Black identity that have been handed down from generation to generation. The Harlem Renaissance, whose spirit Hurston's work reflects, was a manifestation of this bonding, although it had many false revolutionaries and failed in some respects to realize its radical potential.The modernist black writers who arose in the first three decades of the twentieth century introduced a new stereotype into American literature. Zora Neale Hurston wrote as a Black woman about her own experiences and therefore, in some way, spoke to the general Black female experience in America. Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) offers an excellent source for demonstrating the modern Black fema le literary tradition. A large and chief part of Hurston's career took place during the Harlem Renaissance, which began in the twenties while she was attending Howard.Hurston's best work, especially her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, is the product of a Black female folk aesthetic and cultural sensibility that emerged from the best revolutionary ideals of the period. It also anticipates the comparable renaissance in black women’s literature. Despite, or perhaps because of, these achievements, Hurston, like many Black women writers, has suffered â€Å"intellectual lynching† at the hands of white and Black men and white women (Brigham 23).Their Eyes Were Watching God appeared at the tail end of what is termed in American literature as the American Modernism. Roughly between 1917 – the end of World War I – and the 1930 stock market crash that marked the beginning of the Great Depression, throngs of southern African Americans migrated north -a migration that technically began as early as 1910 – primarily to the northeast for economic and social reasons, escaping more overt and often violent manifestations of tensed black-white race relations.A time when â€Å"the Negro was in vogue,† this was a time of cultural celebration of blackness – black visual arts, black music, black intellectual thought, black performing arts, and black identity (Hemenway 34). Leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance challenged black authors and artists to define African American life beyond the prescribed boundaries of stereotype and caricature, sentimentality, and social assimilation. Arguably a movement among intellectuals, the Harlem Renaissance proved spiritually and aesthetically liberating for African Americans and established global connections with an African past.Hurston's accent on rural common folk of the south both challenged and continued some of the essential tenants of the Harlem Renaissance: national and global communi ty, self-determination, and race pride. The most concentrated place of this cultural explosion was Harlem (New York). Published in 1937, Hurston most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was not immediately famous. In fact, the novel was largely mistreated and greatly criticized by her black male contemporaries, because it allegedly presents blacks in stereotypical ways that white readers enjoyed and encouraged of black writers.This criticism was particularly harsh from those who thought that Hurston should be writing more overtly protest pieces about whites as blacks' enemies. While Hurston does not center around white people in the novel, their Jim Crow presence is apparent from the opening through the closing pages. The novel was not printed some thirty years after its initial publication. In 1971, it was reprinted but again was not printed by 1975. In 1977, Hurston's novel was on the top of reading lists among American colleges and universities and continues that even tod ay (Kenner 234).Their Eyes Were Watching God is the story of Janie, a black woman of mulatto ancestry, in search of spiritual liberation from patriarchal control. The format of the book is Janie's telling of her own story in her own voice as she remembers the details of her own life. As the narrator, Janie has an authority that even the readers cannot challenge when they want details, particularly technical details, that Janie does not remember or choose to share.While Janie's story is on many levels gender and racially related -readers never forget that Janie's grandmother was a slave or that the characters are living during Jim Crow segregation in the period of the 1930s and 1940s – much of Janie's social relations within the community of black people is gender specific. Her plot is mainly based on others' opinions of how a woman should live, what a woman and especially a woman her age should and should not be doing. Moreover, Janie in the narration is one of a person who i s able to self-define and to transcend restricted boundaries ultimately through communal storytelling rituals (Lemke 90).One of the new ways in which Hurston demonstrated alternative ways of writing is that she often collapsed the boundaries between fact and fiction. The cultural and contextual situatedness of Their Eyes Were Watching God reflect a Black woman's interpretation of social reality in the sense in which the ‘real world' is constituted, in terms of personal and cultural experience, is likely to be at variance with the interpretation of these notions by Euro-American males.Central to appreciating Zora Neale Hurston's genius, versatility, and identity politics is knowing the ways in which she frequently stepped over disciplinary boundaries in her practice of anthropology, intermixing social science with the humanities so many years in advance of what we now call postmodernist practices within anthropology. Hurston's lifelong concern with the self and its limitations (those imposed from without and from within) is, of course, the natural, perhaps even the proper subject of an autobiography. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the narrator observes that â€Å"Pheoby [is] eager to feel and do through Janie †¦ and Janie [is] full of that oldest human longing -self-revelation† (18). Pondrom claims that the â€Å"adoption of myth as a principle of meaning and order is Hurston's most important link to modernism† (1986:201). For Pondrom, Hurston's utilization of myth links her to the modernist writers approaches of Eliot, Yeats, Joyce, Pound, and Crane. Pondrom writes that Hurston's â€Å"'mythic method' links her even more powerfully to the great female modernists, who found myth a means to affirmation of the self rather than simply a stay against disorder.†For Pondrom, Hurston takes a place among H. D. , Stein, and Wolff â€Å"in a current now [mid-1980s] being recognized as fundamental to the modernist movement† (202). Pondrom discusses overlaps between Their Eyes and Babylonian, Greek, and Egyptian mythologies. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, she writes how everyone is drawn â€Å"on stage† in the cross-gender verbal jousting: â€Å"The girls and everybody else help laugh. They know it's not courtship. It's acting-out courtship and everybody is in the play.The three girls hold the center of the stage till Daisy Blunt came walking down the street in the moonlight. † Showing the proximity of immersion and recuperation images in Hurston's diasporic underground, the African rhythm infuses the dramatic scene: â€Å"Daisy is walking a drum tune. You can almost hear it by looking at the way she walks† (1995:229). Janie's experiences in Their Eyes Were Watching God take place in relation to Hurston's deepening appreciation of the ordering potential of black culture and its West African underpinnings.Her juxtaposition of sunrise/set images and the chaotic and cosmopolitan experiences of modernity recalls accounts of Yoruba mythology cited early in the twentieth century from divination priests in Badan, Nigeria. In â€Å"The Religion of the Yoruba† Leo Frobenius records a myth invoking this structure: Long, long ago, when everything was in confusion and young and old died, Olodu-mare (God) summoned Edshu-ogbe and said: â€Å"Create order in the region of the sunrise. † To Oyako-Medyi: â€Å"Create order in the region of the sunset. † Next morning Edshu-ogbe created order in the east and in the evening Oyako-Medyi created order in the west.(1973:188–89) From the external correlatives of several scenes to her explicit invocation of Esu/Elegba, in Their Eyes Were Watching God Hurston's points of reference for Janie's emerging consciousness are markedly West African. In ways that echo the narratives recorded by Frobenius, Hurston uses sunrise and sunset descriptions as a changeable and timeless witness to chaotic developments in the plot of the novel. After Janie's initial march through Eatonville creates a swirl of envy, Phoeby enters through â€Å"the intimate gate with her heaping plate of mulatto rice† (1995:176).As Janie reflects on her experience and prepares to tell her tale, Hurston's sunset provides the backdrop: the â€Å"varicolored cloud dust that the sun had stirred up in the sky was settling by slow degrees† (178). When Janie tells Phoeby about living under Nanny's and Logan Killicks's control, Hurston uses the deepening night to underscore the danger in the tale and the telling: â€Å"the kissing darkness became a monstropolous old thing† and Janie â€Å"saw her life like a great tree with†¦Dawn and doom in the branches† (181– 82).On the morning of the conflict with Logan Killicks, the â€Å"sun from ambush was threatening the world with red daggers† (199). In the scene in which Janie awakes after having spent the night alone, wondering, while Tea Cake sp ent her money on a party, the sunrise is paranoid, â€Å"sending up spies ahead of him to mark out the road through the dark† (272). Hurston images the false calm before the final storm â€Å"even before the sun gave light dead day was creeping from bush to bush watching man† (301).The first moments of Janie's excavation are imaged as she connects the mysteries of her emerging consciousness to the eternal rhythms of movement and variability: â€Å"mostly she lived between her hat and her heels, with her emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods—come and gone with the sun† (236). Hurston's new technique in Their Eyes combined the excavation of consciousness with an improvised relationship to a living tradition that she encountered during her research in New Orleans and Haiti. Central to her mythic method is Hurston's brilliant use of Esu/Elegba in relation to the patterns of Janie's descent and emergence.Hurston's novel Their Eyes offers an e xcellent source for demonstrating the value of an interdisciplinary approach to Black women's culture in general and American Modernismin particular (Awkward 23). Hurston locates her fiction strongly in Black women's traditional culture as developed and displayed through music and song. In presenting Janie's story as a narrative related by herself to her best Black woman friend, Pheoby, Hurston is able to draw upon the rich oral legacy of Black female storytelling and mythmaking that has its roots in Afro-American culture.The reader who is aware of this tradition will understand the story as an overheard conversation as well as a literary text. The struggle between communal relationships and modern institutions is the core of Hurston's blues critique in Their Eyes. Janie appreciates Starks's store as a social center (Baker 98). But she is chronically inept at the tasks that relate to the business. Is Hurston implying that Janie is stupid? Unlikely. Instead, for Janie, selling things in the store distracts her from the essential rhythms of nature and the homegrown power of stories that take place on the porch.In Hurston's narration, the natural beauty of the South and the communal cool squeeze the business of the store from both sides: Every morning the world flung itself over and exposed the town to the sun. So Janie had another day. And every day had a store in it, except Sundays. The store itself was a pleasant place if only she didn't have to sell things. When people sat around on the porch and passed around the pictures of their thoughts for the others to look at and see, it was nice. (Hurston 1995:215)As the sense of social decay and the power of modern economics increases their hold on people's lives and as Janie moves outside of her middle-class economic position in Eatonville, Hurston's blues images become collective, intensify, and grapple openly with the forces of fragmentation. As a new season opens on the muck, Hurston images the economically and e xistentially threadbare workforce and the hard times: Permanent transients with no attachments and tired looking men with their families and dogs in flivvers. All night, all day, hurrying in to pick beans.Skillets, beds, patched up spare inner tubes all hanging and dangling from the ancient cars on the outside and hopeful humanity, herded and hovered on the inside, chugging on to the muck. People ugly from ignorance and broken from being poor. (282) But heeding Pound's warning to devise an adequate technique or â€Å"bear false witness, † Hurston depicts the economic ‘dehumanization’ in relation to the humanizing forces of living cultural traditions: â€Å"Blues made and used right on the spot. † On â€Å"the muck† the blues voices pierce through the â€Å"mud which is deaf and dumb† as â€Å"the jooks clanged and clamored.Pianos living three lives in one. Blues made and used right on the spot. Dancing, fighting, singing, crying, laughing, w inning, and losing every hour. † Instead of the urban realist's trope of ever-warm boardinghouse beds used three shifts per day, in Hurston's vision the keys never get cold, â€Å"pianos†¦live three lives in one. †Refusing to resolve the struggle between the â€Å"deaf mud† and â€Å"live muck, † she concludes the passage with an asymmetrical image of â€Å"rich black earth clinging to bodies and biting the skin like ants† (282).Ambiguous and improvised, impulses swirl through Hurston's modernist schema of the mud and the muck. She leaves no fixed path, no pro-forma method for descent. â€Å"Permanent transients† ride the crest of the wave where Wright's â€Å"walleyed yokels† are long since washed over and submerged by his ideological approach to the blues horrors in his memory. Instead, Hurston's excavation of â€Å"the muck† explores uncharted personal and communal territory. Janie's improvised diasporic modernist quest advances with the mantra that â€Å"new words would have to be made and said† (200, 268).At the end of Their Eyes Were Watching God Hurston describes Janie in a space of continuing diasporic modernist process. In connection to various relationships, Janie explored the patterns of inner and interpersonal experience and met many of Esu/Elegba's challenges at the communal and personal gates (Pavlic 234). She excavated new depths in her consciousness and from these depths she examined her relationship to social space with deepened insight. In death, Tea Cake becomes an ancestor and joins the patterns of Janie's consciousness.Alone in her house again, Janie opens the window to allow Tea Cake's presence to come to mind. Hurston emphasizes the modernist dimensions of ancestry. They inform the combination of communal and solitary processes and present guidance which, at best, can mitigate against the pitfalls of Afro-modernist seclusion. Hurston describes Tea Cake's ancestral presenc e now combined with her own energy (the wind) and with Janie's asymmetrical space of communal loneliness: â€Å"The wind through the open windows had broomed all the fetid feeling of absence and nothingness.She closed in and sat down. Combing road-dust out of her hair. Thinking† (1995:333). As an ancestor, Tea Cake will continue to â€Å"live† in the images of Janie's mind but, possibly in tribute to Tea Cake's performative skill, Janie's telling of the story to Phoeby demonstrates she is not isolated in Afro-modernist seclusion. Unlike Hurston's other characters, Janie is capable of articulating the depths of her experience in interpersonal terms. Hurston emphasizes how the combination of sense impression and thought prevent abstraction of the ancestors: â€Å"Of course he wasn't dead.He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking† (333). The close of the novel seems romantic and resolved; however, Tea Cake' continued ancestral prese nce will disrupt the resolution. Esu/Elegba's role doesn't cease in death. Janie will have to pursue the patterns and enable Tea Cake to overcome the â€Å"dogged† stasis that caused his demise. Janie will have to feel the wind and share the thunder. The descendant becomes part of the redemption of the ancestor, because Esu/Elegba will return (Pavlic 243).In Their Eyes, Zora Neale Hurston, is using modernism to bring her intellectual characters out of their isolation and into contact with the needs, concerns, and traditions of black people generally. Zora Neale Hurston’s fiction, especially her novels, leads us to examine ourselves in relation to the world around us. Without exaggeration, her novels enlarge both our minds and our hearts. Hurston, however, would not make such a claim; instead, she would keep moving towards some goal to be reached, some project to be started.Her anxious restlessness about herself and her work makes her a very contemporary writer, a moder nist who tried to enlarge the very notion of what it is to be American. She wrote about traditional subjects—love and loss, displacement and home, failure and triumph—at the same time she attempted to redefine our notion of American culture. Their Eyes Were Watching God offers us the same vital contrasts and the same struggle to reconcile the harp and the sword.Works CitedAwkward, Michael, ed. New Essays on â€Å"Their Eyes Were Watching God. † New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.Baker, Houston. Blues Ideology and Afro-American Literature: A Vernacular Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.Brigham, Cathy. â€Å"The Talking Frame of Zora Neale Hurston's Talking Book: Storytelling as Dialectic in Their Eyes Were Watching God. † College Literature Association 37, no. 4, 1994.Frobenius, Leo. â€Å"The Religion of the Yoruba. † In Leo Frobenius: An Anthology, ed. E. Naberland, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1973.Hemenway, Robert E. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977.Hurston, Zora Neale. Novels and Stories. New York: Library of America, 1995.Kenner, Hugh. A Homemade World: The American Modernist Writers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.Lemke, Sieglinde. Primitivist Modernism: Black Culture and the Origins of Transatlantic Modernism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.Pavlic, Edward M. Crossroads Modernism: Descent and Emergence in African-American Literary Culture. University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, 2002.Pondrom, Cyrena. â€Å"The Role of Myth in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. † American Literature 58, no. 2, 1986.