What Are You Doing - 1578 Words

Joan turned around to face him, her gaze sliding down to his crotch. â€Å"I came home and I was alone, so I sat down and started to undress because I thought I might take a rest,† he babbled, â€Å"but I never finished†¦ Never mind.† Perceval glanced at the pillow covering his now flaccid cock. â€Å"You can see exactly what I was doing.† Her face turning bright red as she tried to stifle her laughter, Joan unwrapped Percy from the nursing shawl as she crossed the room. After she tucked him into his bassinet and planted a kiss to his cheek, Joan ambled back to the bed, hopped onto the mattress beside Perceval, and drew the bed hangings. She placed her hands against his chest and gave him a gentle shove. â€Å"Lie back.† â€Å"What are you doing?† he asked. Joan straddled him. His cock, still covered by the pillow, sprung to life once more. â€Å"I saw Mary and Alis at the midwifery cottage today, and they said we can resume our regular marital activities.† She ran her finger from his throat down his body, stopping at his bare hip, which made him shudder. â€Å"It took me a touch longer to heal than usual because of the difficult delivery, but I’m ready. And thank you for waiting so patiently. I know it must have been hard.† Hard was one way of phrasing it. â€Å"Are you sure, Joan? Because even if you’re healed, I want you to be ready and not completely exhausted so you can enjoy it.† â€Å"I am ready for you.† She pulled away the pillow and tossed it onto the floor, revealing his hardness, which grown fully erectShow MoreRelatedHenry : What Are You Doing? Essay976 Words   |  4 PagesHenry: what are you doing in my class Socrates? Socrates: I come to learn from your fountain of knowledge. Henry: Tell me my dear Socrates, what you want to know? Socrates: Is there any difference between ethic and morality. This matter has been bothering me and I want to know your view about it. Henry: Socrates do you think there is any difference between ethics and morality? Socrates: Yes, but it seems the same to me my dear friend. Henry: â€Å"The most common way of defining ethics are normsRead MoreDean, What Are You Doing Here?1669 Words   |  7 PagesDean, what are you doing here? I asked, I wanted to check up on you. He explained, I peeked over his shoulder to see an old beaten up truck with an empty passenger seat sitting in the snow. Where s Sam and what happened to the Impala? I asked, changing the subject. By the way, I don t need anyone to look out for me. I hinted, Dean rolled his eyes and pushed passed me, Uh huh, that s what they all say. He strolled through the house, looking around and taking in the warmth. Dean,Read MoreWhat Are You Doing Here, Human?1941 Words   |  8 PagesWhat are you doing here, human? 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So it is imperative always to be inquiring, ask lots of questions to show that you are interested and dedicated to your jobRead MoreJapans Global Growth and What You Doing App2533 Words   |  11 PagesI. Executive Summary This paper explores Japans global opportunities and the launching of an instant messaging application called WYD, which is an acronym for What you doing. This application allows users to send each other unlimited text, messaging, images, video, audio media messages and make VoIP calls free. A survey conducted by research group comScore’s MobiLens service found that three out of every four Japanese consumers use their cell phones to browse the Web, access applications orRead MoreWhat Do You See Yourself Doing When You Grow Up?890 Words   |  4 PagesGrowing up the big question we were asked was, â€Å" what do you see yourself doing when you grow up?† When we are young answers would vary from princess to singer to astronaut. As we grew into adulthood we had to be think more realistically about what we wanted to become. We would say occupations such as doctor, lawyer, police officer, and even therapist. As children we dream of going far away and making something out of ourselves. Even as adults we had the need of wanting to go places. Children haveRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Mark Edmundson s Who Are You And What You Doing Here?854 Words   |  4 Pagesopportunity to truly discover who you are. Often enough, you hear people saying â€Å"You should really major in this field, I think you would really enjoy this career.† or, â€Å"Do you think you really want to study that? Have you thought about what you will be doing ten years from now?† filling your mind with self doubt, uncertainty, and the anxiousness of not knowing what you want to do with the rest of your life. Mark Edmundson wrote an article titled, Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?, published in OxfordRead Moreâ€Å"Peter! Peter! What Are You Doing? Peter, What’S Wrong?†948 Words   |  4 Pages â€Å"Peter! Peter! What are you doing? Peter, what’s wrong?† This is what I remember hearing when I came to the next day, the words sp oken in my mother’s voice and coming in between sobs while Daisy was barking ferociously. When my vision came back, I saw my terrified mother curled up and hugging the leg of our kitchen table, tears streaming down her imbued eyes. Daisy was closest to me, stationed between me and my mother, her teeth bared and snapping at me like a shark. â€Å"Whoa, hey girl,† IRead MoreBeing A Physical Therapist Has Done You Know What You Are Doing But After Graduation?1681 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"So, do you know what you are doing yet after graduation?† This is a notorious question everybody gets asked at one point in their lifetime. Most people do not know the answer to this question, for there is a very broad range of things to do. 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Effect of Rapid Urbanization on Housing Free Essays

string(176) " families from the Island to the Mainland \(Oko Awo scheme\) and since then, the activities of planning authorities have assumed considerable importance in metropolitan Lagos\." THE IMPACT OF RAPID URBANIZATION ON HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA FROM 1950 -2010 (Focus on urban developments and housing problems case study: Lagos) Urbanization according to Aluko O. E is rather subjective and can be given various interpretations. However in this concept it can be defined as the expansion of the number of people living in an urban area that depicts the rate at which people move from rural areas and populate the urban areas. We will write a custom essay sample on Effect of Rapid Urbanization on Housing or any similar topic only for you Order Now Reports however, from the united nation show that the population at the urban centres has multiplied four times its initial growth since 1960 and would have risen to a projected number of about 5 billion in the year 2030. Report also has it that over 70 per cent of these populations would settle in cities and towns. Following independence, many administrative centres experienced major unplanned rapid urbanization . The ripple effect of these on cities being the core of urban development is enormous especially on the housing development which has eventually resulted in overcrowding, inadequate dwellings, deplorable urban environment, degrading public infrastructure, and to an extreme, â€Å"outright homelessness† (Adesoji David Jiboye, 2011) . Nonetheless, According to Femi Olokesusi, 2011 quoting Onibokun et. al. 1987) and Onibolun and Kumuyi (1999), assert that various political and socio-economic factors have resulted in rapid growth of urban population resulting in informal settlements, poor housing and slums in Nigeria. The rate of influx of people into major cities has been so high that the pace of settlement development and housing provision could not accommodate them. Since they must have shelter, all forms of informal procedures are adopted to provide housing. This has resulted in non-compliance with physical planning regulations and development control standards. Thus there have been cases of incompatibility of land use activities, overcrowding (due to high occupancy ratio, high density of development), poor construction standards (due to use of substandard building materials and construction methods), and ill-serviced dwelling Units, among others. The impact of rapid population growth however, on urban development and conditions is far more than merely a demographic or quantitative one especially on housing development as a whole which is a direct consequence of the push of the rural areas and the pull of the town. Current studies however indicate that the impact of rapid urbanization in terms of housing is revealed both in its quantity and quantity such that the little number of available houses is being overloaded infrastructurally and spatially leading to a reduction in the level of comfort and a rapid development in the number of slums being created and the level of substandard houses being built in an unplanned and unhealthy environment. However, the level of impact on the adequacy of housing has been compounded particularly by the high rate of population growth, through influx of immigrants, exaggerated real estate values etc. Nonetheless, housing according to Aduwo 2011, Daramola 2006 et al is the measure of the level of housing inadequacy and its quality. According to pelu Awofeso, one out of every two Nigerians now live in a city leaving limited infrastructure to be engulfed by millions of individuals. In his report he stated that 16 million housing units would have to be provided to address the shortage in urban shelters since the inflow of people supersedes the rate at which affordable housing is being constructed. Housing however, according to Abbas Olukunmi Owoade, 2007 quoting Tannerfeldt and Ljung ‘06)does not only relate to provision of houses but also basic infrastructure of a neighbourhood as well as schools clinics , recreational facilities and other amenities. CASE STUDY:LAGOS The city of Lagos was first inhibited before the 15th century and grew from a typical small fishing and farming settlement due to certain factors such as, the construction of the railway in 1895 that linked the city, the hinterland and the port with the development of the Lagos harbour. In the twinkle of an eye, Lagos became the centre of trade and commerce bringing migrants from every nook and cranny. As the population increased so did the spatial expansion which posed a great deal of problems especially housing development. kehinde George, 2002). Population explosion in lagos became noticeable after 1950 amongst other reason, it was the national capital and in ’67 became a state on its own attracting funds from both the federal and state government there by introducing more migrants. However, Over 90 per cent of the typical housing standard is being provided by the private sector and individual efforts bringing about a gap between its demand and supply finding expression in the cost of rented values that eventually leads to vercrowding, growth of slums and rise in the number of substandard housing (Owoade,Abiodun ‘97). Two major factors that accounted for the rapid growth in lagos can tied to net migration and natural increase According to the old United Nations university website, prior to 1928, planned residential areas in Lagos were limited. They included Ikoyi, which was a reservation area for expatriates who were colonial administrators and executives of foreign firms, and had a population of 4,000, or 3 per cent of the population of the city in 1931. Apapa, Ebute Meta, and Yaba, with a combined population of 22,000, or 17 per cent of the total, also had some element of planning, in the sense that road networks in Ebute Meta and Yaba were laid out on a grid and residential development was confined to the blocks within the road pattern. On Lagos Island, apart from the areas around the racecourse and marina, the indigenous housing was unplanned and was left to develop haphazardly, with houses built quite close together. Such overcrowded, unhealthy housing and poor environmental conditions stimulated the rapid spread of influenza epidemics and bubonic plague, which ravaged the city between 1924 and 1930. These led to the emergence, in 1928, of the pioneer planning authority in Nigeria, the Lagos Executive Development Board (LEDB), which embarked on slum clearance and the relocation of families from the Island to the Mainland (Oko Awo scheme) and since then, the activities of planning authorities have assumed considerable importance in metropolitan Lagos. You read "Effect of Rapid Urbanization on Housing" in category "Papers" The government of Nigeria has interceded at different times to solve housing problems with particular focus on Lagos by providing housing units as well as establishing site and service programmes to make available plots of lands to individual to build their own houses, the period 1979-1983 under the Jakande administration witnessed a massive housing development programme. evertheless, These programmes had little impact in that it provided limited number of housing units with a major setback in the year 1994 due to increase in price of building materials. Thus, making a considerable number of Lagosians lack â€Å"shelter† a basic need of human existence. The wide gap between the supply of and the demand for has operated in escalating house rents, rent edict were promulgated to reduce this hardship by working population . In 1973 for instance the mid-west state government proclaimed an edict which limited the maximum rent payable on dwelling units. However, such edicts have not been effective in arresting increase in house rents (Josephine Abiodun,1976) Planned housing schemes in metropolitan Lagos |Housing agency |Scheme |Remarks | |Lagos Executive Development |Slum clearance of Central Lagos, 1955 to|1,847 families housed in Surulere. ,337 families resettled | |Board, 1955 -1975 |early 1960s, Olowogbowo Rehousing |in low-income rented houses. Subsidized by Ministry of Lagos| | |Scheme, Lagos Housing Scheme |Affairs | |   |Other housing schemes in Surulere |14,537 family units (dwellings) provided. In all, 128,800 | | | |people were provided with housing | |Lagos State Development and |Resettlement of slum dwellers from |1,000 families housed | |Property Corporation (LSDPC), |Central Lagos to Ogba and low-income | | |1972-1979 |housing in Isolo | | |Federal housing |Under 1975-1980 and 1981-1985 plan |6,000 housing units | | |periods | | |LSDPC, 1979 to date |Low-income housing |16,878 housing units | |   |Medium-income housing |1,790 housing units | Source: LSDPC In Lagos, like elsewhere in Nigeria the access to privately owned housing units through traditional channels has made it immensely possible for a relatively large number of people to be house owners at certain cost which includes the sale of the same plot to more than one buyer owing to a lack of a comprehensive land register and sometimes conflict over rights of ownership between the state and private individuals or family groups or between members of families â€Å"omo onile† (owoade, abiodun ‘97). However, over 60% of these residents are under a tenement kind of arrangement constructed by â€Å"absentee landlord† with this kind of arrangement ending abruptly due to unforeseen evictions(Owoade, abiodun et al) The issue of land acquisition at the same time is far more complex because government acquired land is rarely made available or affordable for the average or even made accessible due to lack of basic infrastructure. Alternatively, in order to live closer to job opportunities there’s need for settling in centrally located pieces of abandoned land left due to unsuitability for housing either for being along railway paths or under high tension electric cable or marshy lands. (Owoade ’07, Tannerfeldt and Ljung 2006). David Owoade in his report emphatically stated that the Problems of rapid urbanization have increased and become more glaring as the cities expand and many attempts to curb these problems have not achieved the desired results. Housing continued to be supplied through informal self-help landlords and a majority of tenants live in homes with unsecured tenure while many holders find home in slums and shantytowns. Examples include Ajegunle, Makoko, Badiya, Maroko etc. Those that have been fortunate enough to build their houses on the periphery of the cities (ota in sango) have to live without basic services and infrastructures such as clean water, sewers, electricity and roads. In 1976, it was estimated that 111000 residential houses were available in Lagos to provide accommodation for a population of 3. 2 million keeping it at an average of 28 persons per building. By 19080, it had gotten worse with 30 persons living in a building and it was further projected that 2 per cent of the population lived in self-contained buildings leaving the remaining 98 % to rooming accommodations connoting shared facilities like the kitchen and the toilet. It was further estimated that by the year 2000, a total number of 1. 5 million housing units would be needed to cater to fast growing population. It is no surprise that there is no more land for the government to build that they have resulted in sand filling of certain areas ( Raji Rasaki, 1988). However an updated article by lookman oshodi,2010 quoting the Lagos ministry of housing 2010 brings the demography to a total number of 91% of the total population living in the metropolis, about 20,000 persons per square kilometre in the built up areas. The occupancy ratio however are 8-10 persons per room with 72. 5% of household occupying one room apartment’s . ince the rate of growth in Lagos has assumed a geometric progression the provision of houses has never been commensurate leading to decay in structure either by quantity or quality. Hence, multiplying the number of inhibited slums from 42 in the year 1985 to over a hundred in 2010. (slums and squatter settlement)also, this à ¢â‚¬Å"urban poor† pay house rents that are almost 50-70% of their income since most accommodations as earlier said are provided by private landlords. Thus, dividing the metropolis into classes such as low income/high density, medium income/medium density, high income /low density. (Lawanson 2007, lookman oshodi 2010) The population in Lagos seems to growing each day with its problems. onetheless, according to aduwo,2011 quoting (Okupe, 2002; Oruwari, 2006), Public housing was birthed as a solution to the proliferation of slums and squatter settlements but Housing specialists have revealed that public housing has failed to provide decent housing, claiming that it has succeeded in segregating tenants by income, race, and that it has isolated residents from the larger community. However, all these problems have resulted in overcrowding of buildings leaving room for no access, urban sprawl, lack of open spaces, high cost of building materials etc. [pic] Population in lagos Source: case study of lagos:geography and climate [pic] Source: case study of lagos:geography and climate Reference 1. MANAGING METROPOLITAN LAGOS ,Raji Rasaki ,Inaugural Programme of the Africa leadership forum, 1988 2. HOUSING TRANSFORMATION AND ITS IMPACT ON NEIGHBOURHOODS IN SELECTED LOW-INCOME PUBLIC HOUSING ESTATES IN LAGOS, NIGERIA: A PhD Thesis: Egidario Bridgette ADUWO,2011 3. THE IMPACT OF URBANIZATION ON HOUSING DEVELOPMENT: The Lagos Experience, Nigeria. ;Aluko O. E; Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management ; Vol. 3 No. 3 2010 4. PUBLIC HOUSING DELIVERY IN NIGERIA: PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES; World congress on Housing Transforming Housing Environments through the Design south Africa, L. M Olayiwola, O Adeleye L Ogunshakin, 2005 5. CHALLENGES AND GROWTH OF DEVELOPMET IN METROPLOLITAN LAGOS, archive. unu. edu/unupress/unupbooks; old United Nations university website. 6. ANALYSIS OF THE INTERPLAY OF MIGRATION AND URBAN EXPANSION, ON HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT: THE CASE OF LAGOS by Okuneye P. A, Adebayo, K, Opeolu B. T. and F. I. Baddru; University of Agriculture, Abeokuta and University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria 7. LAGOS: THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF AN EMERGENT AFRICAN MEGA CITY by Femi Olokesusi Paper Presented at the NISER Seminar Series on 5 July, 2011 8. HOUSING PROBLEMS IN NIGERIAN CITIES, Josephine Olu. Abiodun, reprinted from the town planning review, vol. 47, no. 4, October, 1976. How to cite Effect of Rapid Urbanization on Housing, Papers

International Economics Gerber free essay sample

The Growth of World Trade Capital and Labor Mobility New Features of the Global Economy New Issues in International Trade and Investment The Role of International Organizations Regional Trade Agreements Trade and Economic Growth Twelve Issues in the International Economy The Gains from Trade Wages, Jobs, and Protection Trade Deficits Regional Trade Agreements The Resolution of Trade Conflicts The Role of International Institutions Exchange Rates and the Macroeconomy Financial Crises and the Global Contagion Capital Flows and the Debt of Developing Countries Crisis and Reform in Latin America Export Led Growth in East Asia The Integration of India and China into the World Economy .2 A Thumbnail Sketch of the Material Covered in Chapter One The re-emergence of international economic integration theme tries to put globalization in perspective. Most features of globalization aren’t new, and international economic integration could be described as re-emerging after a period of disruption during time periods surrounding WWI and WWII. There are three aspects of international economic integration considered: 1. The growth of world trade. World trade has grown over the last sixty or seventy years but is still fairly comparable in percentage terms to what existed 110 years ago. Trade has become a larger share of national economies as measured by the: Index of Openness ? (Exports ? Imports)/GDP This index does not tell us about a nation’s trade policies. Nations with higher figures for the index of openness do not necessarily have lower trade barriers. Large economies are less dependent on international trade and often have lower measures of openness than small countries. Figure 1. 1 shows the openness index for six nations at different points in time. It shows the drop in trade from 1913 to 1950 and its growth (even above 1913 levels) for most nations by 2000. A trend obscured in the overall trade data is that in 1890 most U. S. trade was in agricultural products and raw materials, while today most is manufactured goods. The relative importance of capital goods has increased dramatically. 2. Capital and labor mobility. Labor is much less mobile internationally now than it was in 1900. For capital, it is somewhat more mobile. There is a difference between financial capital and physical capital. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is the flow of capital representing physical assets such as real estate, factories, and businesses. While capital flows to developing countries have increased over recent decades, the level of investment in any country is still correlated with its domestic level of savings, making national savings rates far more important than global capital flows. However, capital flows today are different from earlier periods in three ways. More types of financial instruments exist today, and flows of financial capital are likely much greater. In 1900, the world operated on a fixed exchange rate standard and much of today’s financial market transactions are aimed at protecting against exchange rate risk caused by floating exchange rates. Transactions costs associated with foreign capital flows have also fallen significantly. Volatility in international capital flows, while often a subject of intense attention today, is not new. Movement of prices in different markets. The text does not develop this, but points out that in the late 1800s wheat farmers, meat packers, and fruit growers all produced for a global market where international rather than domestic supply and demand determined prices. News reports today could easily demonstrate this for most commodities. New issues in international trade and investment: Barriers to manufactured goods have fallen significantly as a result of a process that began at the end of WWII. As formal restrictions on imports  have been reduced, domestic policies on issues such as the environment, labor, and fair market conditions have become the barriers to further increases in trade flows. Reducing trade barriers has been the focus of negotiations between nations. Eliminating the traditional barriers to trade, tariffs and quotas, is referred to as shallow integration because it just changes policies â€Å"at the border. † Eliminating domestic policy differences that create trade barriers is much more complicated and is referred to as deep integration. International organizations created at the end of WWII play a key role and are an entirely new element in the international economy. Agreements between nations are not new, but there has been a significant increase in the number of regional trade agreements signed, especially in the 1990s. The formation of these regional trade agreements is controversial for different reasons for both trade opponents and trade proponents. The growth of world trade can potentially lead to a variety of consequences, but generally economists remain committed that the benefits outweigh the costs. This position is supported by the casual empirical evidence of historical experience, evidence supported by models and deductive reasoning, and evidence from statistical comparisons of countries. Open economies grow faster and prosper sooner than more closed ones. .3 What Students Should Know After Reading This Chapter Chapter 1 challenges the belief that the world has embarked on an entirely new and unprecedented era of globalization. Looked at from the long run, it seems clear that the period 1870 to 1914 was an earlier era with similar trends. Those years experienced rapid technological change in the form of railways, steamships, and telegraphs that all came into widespread usage and spanned the oceans; they underwent business and financial sector innovation through the rapid growth in the corporate form of business organization, the invention and spread of demand deposits, and the development of stockmarkets; trade policies were liberalized in many nations; and there were widespread protests against immigration and the global economy. In the United States, the protest movement was centered in populist movements that are reminiscent of some politicians and commentators today. This is not an argument about history repeating itself. Rather, it is an attempt to get students to think of the period from World War I to the end of World War II as an aberration in the last 150 years of world history. The long run trend is toward integration, punctuated by protests and nationalistic movements that halt or reverse the trend. When students are asked what they think is new about today’s economy, they inevitably answer: technology. E-mail, faxes, satellite systems, jet aircraft, and less visible forms such as container cargo transportation systems have each made significant contributions to increasing trade flows. It is useful to engage students in a discussion over the marginal impacts of these new technologies versus the marginal effects of steam powered ocean going vessels or trans-Atlantic telegraphy. Telegraphy cut the time it took information to cross the ocean from around three weeks to relatively instantaneously, and reduced the time it took to buy a foreign bond from around three weeks to about one day. It is useful for students to realize there was a disruption for two reasons. First, much of what has happened over the last 50 years was aimed at fixing something that was broken, not creating a new phenomena. Second, the international institutions that deal with the global economy are new and were created because of some shared recognition that integration was important and helpful and needed to be encouraged. An important sub-theme of the text is the idea of deep versus shallow integration and the institutional process that nations go through to create deeper levels of integration. The chapter also points to some things that are new about today. Important ones for the text will be flexible exchange rates, regional trade agreements, and the changing mix of the types of goods nations produce. Domestic policies will be a key focus when trade barriers and capital flows are considered. Another important issue will be the evolving role of international organizations in negotiating and enforcing changes in domestic policies. .4 Assignment Ideas 1. I like to use the index of openness to contrast the importance of trade to various nations and to drive home the fact that relative value matters. The chapter also lends itself to students developing some factual knowledge about U. S. trade history. One possibility is to look at U. S. trade policy in various time periods. The U. S. had relatively high tariffs (greater than 40 percent on average) throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1890, Congress passed the McKinley Tariff, followed in 1897 by the Dingley Tariff. Both tariffs raised rates further from their already high base. Wilson tried to reduce tariffs but was thwarted by World War I. Rates in the 1920s fell, but the Tariff Act of 1930 (Smoot-Hawley Tariff) raised the rates back up to nearly 45 percent. In the midst of the Great Depression (1934), Roosevelt and his Secretary of State, Dulles, persuaded Congress to pass the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act. The Act authorized Roosevelt to negotiate bilateral, reciprocal tariff reduction agreements. This piece of legislation marks an historic shift in U. S. tariff policy, away from protectionism and toward more openness. Answers to End-of-Chapter Questions 1. How can globalization and international economic integration be measured? Answer:The chapter offers three ways to measure globalization and economic integration: (1) trade flows; (2) factor movements; and (3) convergence of prices (goods, factors, and assets). 2. In what sense is the U. S. economy more integrated with the world today than it was a century ago? In what ways is it less integrated? Answer:The U. S. ’s openness indicator is about sixty percent greater today than it was in 1890 ((25. 3 – 15. 8)/15. 8 ? 0. 601), or almost one hundred and nine percent greater than in 1910. While this is a very significant increase, it is hardly the revolution in economic relations that many people claim. The sixty percent statistic might be considered misleading, however, in that a much larger share of total goods output is traded (more than thirty percent in 1990 versus less than ten percent in 1950). While we cannot compare the latter statistic to 1890 or 1900, it does appear that there is a clear trend toward a greater role for international commerce. This is consistent with the observation that world trade has been growing faster than world output, at least since 1950. Much of the growth in trade since then, however, simply brought us back to where we were before World War II. In terms of labor flows, the U.S. is probably less integrated with the world economy than it was in 1890 or 1900. At those latter dates we had an open door immigration policy (for all but Chinese citizens), and a larger share of our population was foreign born (fourteen and one half percent in 1890 versus less than eight percent in 1990 and twelve percent today). Capital flows are more difficult to generalize since they can be measured several ways. While the absolute volume of capital flows has increased dramatically, as a share of world GDP it is probably no more than it was at the turn of the century, and it may be less. While the absolute volume of capital flows to developing countries has increased, the level of investment in any country is still highly correlated with its domestic savings rate. What is different, however, is the ease at which capital can cross international boundaries (lower transaction costs) and the much greater variety of assets that are traded. The need to protect against exchange rate risk is a key component of today’s international financial markets and is a primary difference from the fixed exchange rate standard of the past. The incidence of financial crises has not increased and, as a metric of integration, it implies no increase in capital market integration. The growth of regional trade agreements is also an indicator of increased integration. A growing role for international institutions such as the IMF or the World Bank may also indicate an increase in international integration. 3. What is â€Å"openness†? How is it measured? Does a low openness indicator indicate that a country is closed to trade with the outside world? Answer:Openness is a measure of the relative importance of trade to a national economy. It is measured by the ratio of exports plus imports to GDP. A relatively small openness indicator does not necessarily mean that an economy is intentionally closed to the outside world. Large countries like the U. S. or China have big domestic markets that enable firms to specialize and produce in volume in order to attain their optimal scale. Specialization and high volume in manufacturing is often associated with increased productivity, so firms in large markets can achieve the highest possible level of productivity without having to sell to foreign markets. Firms  located in smaller countries have to trade their output across international boundaries if they want to have the same technology and the same level of productivity. Consequently, large countries tend to have lower openness indicators regardless of their trade policies. 4. Describe the pattern over the last century shown by the openness index for leading industrial economies. Answer:The indicators fell between 1913 and 1950, when it begins to rise relatively rapidly. The main causes of the pattern shown in Figure 1. 1 are the two world wars and the Great Depression of the 1930s and changes in trade policy that accompanied that period. In 2000, they are mostly higher than they were before WWI. Another pattern the chapter notes is that the index is smaller for the larger population countries of Japan and the United States, and higher for the Netherlands, with its small population. 5. Trade and capital flows were described and measured in relative terms rather than absolute. Explain the difference. Which term seems more valid, relative or absolute? Why? Answer:Absolute values are the dollar amounts of trade and capital flows. Relative values are the ratio of dollar values to GDP. Relative values are a better indicator of the importance of a variable. Large economies like the U. S. may have large export and import values, but the importance of trade to the national economy is not nearly as great as it is for other economies. The U. S. is the world’s largest exporter and importer, but the national economy is so large that trade is much less important for the U. S. than it is for many smaller countries such as Canada, Belgium, or the Netherlands. 6. The relative size of international capital flows may not be much greater today than they were 100 years ago, although they are certainly greater than they were 50 years ago. Qualitatively, however, capital flows are different today. Explain. Answer:Major qualitative difference between late nineteenth and late twentieth century capital flows include the fact that there are many more types of financial instruments available now compared to a century ago. These instruments can be finely tailored to the income and risk preferences of investors. Secondly, a large share of the total flow of capital across borders is related to the need to protect against fluctuations in the value of currencies. This use of international capital markets was not as necessary when nations operated within fixed exchange rate systems. And third, the transaction costs of participating in international capital markets is much lower today than it was a century ago. 7. What are the new issues in international trade and investment? In what sense do they expose national economies to outside influences? Answer:The new issues involve policy differences between nations that until recently were considered the exclusive responsibility of local or national governments. Examples include labor standards, environmental standards, competition or antitrust policies, and industrial support policies. Negotiations between nations potentially give foreign interests a voice in setting domestic policy. The scope and the depth of the negotiations determine how great a voice foreigners will have. It is often the case, however, that negotiations either occur or are proposed because some aspect of domestic policy is perceived by foreigners as a barrier to trade, and they seek to alter the domestic policy that creates it. 8. Describe the three kinds of evidence economists use to support the assertion that open economies grow faster than economies that are closed to the word economy. Answer:These are: (1) casual empirical evidence of historical experience; (2) economic logic and deductive reasoning; and, (3) evidence of statistical comparisons of countries. (1)The historical evidence examines the experiences of countries that tried to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. First, not only did trade protection exacerbate the depression of the 1930s, but it also led to the misery and tragedy of World War II. Second, an examination of countries such as the former West and East Germany, South and North Korea, and other countries with the same historical, economic, and ethnic background that were divided by war, indicate that those who closed their economies from the rest of the world suffered in terms of prosperity and environmental degradation. East Asia experienced an economic take-off when it decided to integrate with the rest of the world, while Latin America, which had the same economic background with East Asia but chose to remain partially closed, experienced mediocre growth. The logic of economic theory also suggests a strong causal relation between trade and faster economic growth. The following is a summary of this linkage: Following Adam Smith, David Ricardo proved that comparative advantage leads to trade and this in turn leads to the reallocation of resources and the improvement of the standard of living of any nation, large or small. Modern trade theory also makes the case for exports and open trade as the causes for economic expansion. Exports and open trade foster competition, innovation, and learning-by-doing, and bring international best practices to the attention of domestic producers, spurring greater efficiency and export expansion. This helps domestic producers to realize economies of scale when they attempt to produce for the world market, rather than for their own limited domestic consumers. Larger markets create incentives for firms to engage in research and development, and allow countries to import important production inputs and foreign capital by minimizing the foreign exchange constraints. They facilitate the transfer of technology and managerial skills. It follows that open trade and exports increase the demand for the country’s output and therefore contribute strongly to positive economic growth. (3)Even though the statistical evidence is not quite conclusive (mainly due to measuring trade policy), the evidence of statistical comparison of countries (cross-sectional time series) indicates that countries benefit from open trade.

Michael Shi Essays (536 words) - Narratology, Rhetoric, Reason

Michael Shi Reading Response 2 I chose to read "Animals Are Goo d to Think and Good to Prohibit " written by S. J. Tambiah . This is an ethnographic study published in 1969 that focuses on dietary rules regarding animals in a village in northeastern Thailand. He investigates the relationship between dietary restrictions and the animal classification scheme as well as the connection between dietary restrictions and sex and marriage. Tambiah does this by analyzing language, rules of sexual conduct and house arrangement and connecting specific marriage and sex rules to housing space rules and to eating rules. "The Aliens Have Landed! Reflections on the Rhetoric of Biological Invasions" is a more contemporary piece and was written in 2001 by Banu Subramaniam . Subramaniam analyzes the way we describe and think about invasive species and draws parallels to xenophobic attitudes towards immigrants. Subramaniam examines the language we use to speak about invasive species, looking at a variety of sources, including newspaper headlines and academic studies. For example, she argues that our use of the words "native" and "alien" are used as it suits our purposes. The "re-invention of the native' as the white settlers and not Native Americans'" ( Subramaniam , 36) appears again when it comes to exotic species that benefit us, such as crops that we find easy to grow. These two readings both focused on attitudes towards animals that came about from human societies. They look closely at human attitudes and find that they are consistent whether they are dealing with each other or animals. The piece by Tambiah deals with just one village in Thailand, whereas Subramaniam's essay focuses on the United States in modern time. As a result, Tambiah was able to be much more detailed and specific and draw complex relationships between animal classification systems, house arrangement, and eating rules. Subramaniam , on the other hand, drew from a larger variety of sources but didn't go as i n-depth. Both pieces made me think about how our views in human society translate to our attitudes towards animals and about how we view plants and animals similarly to ourselves. However, t he essay by Subramaniam was especially interesting to me as a result of recent events in the United States . Whenever I read things that uncover something unexpected or shocking about the world using select pieces of evidence or case studies such as in this essay , I'm always skeptical and question where the author gets their evidence. For example, I wonder how many articles and pieces of writing that describe invasive species don't speak about them in language similar to immigrants. I also wonder if Subramaniam is overanalyzing and creating something where there is nothing and I'm just going along with it because she has good logical reasoning in her thought process. I generally end up just accepting the author's conclusions, since I'm not sure how to verify their conclusions myself. Subramaniam , Banu . 2001. "The Aliens Have Landed! Reflections on the Rhetoric of Biological Invasions." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 2 (1): 26-40. Tambiah , S. J. 1969. "Animals Are Good to Think and Good to Prohibit." Ethnology 8 (4): 423-59.

How to Face It †English Literature Essay

How to Face It – English Literature Essay Free Online Research Papers How to Face It English Literature Essay Often it’s hard to make the right decision. It’s much easier for people to go out and have fun rather than stay home and fix dinner for their children. A lot of people just go out and get a divorce rather than try to work things out with their spouse. It’s easier to stop going to school after finishing high school as opposed to going on to college. People who make better decisions end up doing better in life. Decisions and problem solving are the subject of many articles, books, and poems, such as Stephen Dobyns’ poem â€Å"How to Like It.† â€Å"While many of the poems have the illusion of an almost documentary objectivity, they reveal instead the soulful confessions of one individual in turmoil†¦Ã¢â‚¬  says Andy Brumer about Dobyns. In â€Å"How to Like It† the man in the poem is having trouble facing a problem of life, but ends up making the right decision in the end. There are several lines that indicate that the man is trying to avoid a problem. He wants to run away when the narrator says â€Å"like an unsettled feeling in the blood,/The desire to get in a car and just keep/driving† (Dobyns 6-8). The man is trying to run away from a problem or situation that he does not want to deal with. The dog says â€Å"Let’s go downtown and get/crazy drunk† (Dobyns 10-11). Drinking is a way many people use to forget or avoid their problems. Then the dog says, â€Å"Let’s tip over all the trashcans we can find† (Dobyns 12) as if the man is distraught and has an urge to trash everything in his life. He wants to leave everything behind and start new, which is symbolized by â€Å"†¦will be the lights/of a city entirely new to him† (Dobyns 71-72). It’s as if he wants to go where no one knows him to remind him of his problem. The man may be remembering something that happened to him earlier in life and its causing him distress. The narrator says, â€Å"†¦the man/is struck/by the apprehensiveness of his past†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Dobyns 15-17). The man apparently always has memories of his past but now they are coming in clearer to him, as if he’s been thinking about them more than usual. This is shown by the lines â€Å"†¦how memories/which were shifting and fluid have/ grown more solid† (Dobyns 17-20). Then the man looks into the trees â€Å"until it seems he can see remembered/faces† (Dobyns 21-22). He is seeing people that he knows â€Å"caught up among the dark places/in the trees† (Dobyns 23-24). The word choice that the narrator uses is dark places and since dark is usually a symbol of evil or bad then these are not good memories that the man is having. Possibly he tries to block these memories out but on this night, he has been unsuccessful. Tonight they have come out to haunt him. Another part of this poem that shows the man is having trouble facing a problem is the dog. The dog seems to be the man’s conscience. When the dog speaks to the man, he is usually giving the man ways to get around the problem at hand without actually facing it. For instance the dog says, â€Å"Let’s pick up some girls/and just/rip off their clothes† (Dobyns 25-27). Going out and picking up women would be a way to try and have fun now and forget the problem until another time. Later in the poem the dog says â€Å"Let’s stuff ourselves on burgers† (Dobyns 46). People often eat when they are lonely although the food only makes them feel full physically, not emotionally. Then the dog says, â€Å"Let’s go to sleep. Let’s lie/down/by the fire†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Dobyns 57-59). People often go to sleep as a way of escaping their problems. While it may help somewhat, it is still just a way to run away from them. Everything the dog sugge sts is a way of feeling good right now with no regard to the consequences that will happen later, until the last few lines. Then the man’s dog, or his conscience, seems to have a change of heart. The dog says, â€Å"Let’s just go back inside. / Let’s not do anything tonight† (Dobyns 73-74). So they go up the steps and back into the house, which is a symbol for going in to face the problem. The man chooses in the end to stand and fight, instead of running away. He is left â€Å"staring into the refrigerator/as if into the place where the answers/are kept† (Dobyns 88-90). The man isn’t sure of the answers, but he has made the decision to stick around and try to find them. The narrator says the man is looking for â€Å"what comes next and how/to like it† (Dobyns 95-96). The man is trying to deal with his problems in a way that is bearable to him. Problems occur in peoples’ lives all the time. Often when the situation seems unbearable, there is a struggle to not run away, or to not take the easy way out. Possibly he has realized that a superficial solution never really solves the problem; it just delays the time for having to face the music down the road. Brumer, Andy. â€Å"Dobyns, Stephen.† Contemporary Authors 18 (1986): 120-121. Dobyns, Stephen. â€Å"How to Like It.† ENG113 Poetry Handout. Fall 97. Research Papers on How to Face It - English Literature EssayThe Spring and AutumnThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationHip-Hop is ArtWhere Wild and West MeetStandardized TestingInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalResearch Process Part OneComparison: Letter from Birmingham and Crito19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided Era

Planilla N-400 para ciudadanía por naturalización

Planilla N-400 para ciudadanà ­a por naturalizacià ³n Se puede adquirir la ciudadanà ­a de los Estados Unidos de varias formas, entre ellas la naturalizacià ³n. El formulario N-400 es el indicado para iniciar estos trmites. Este artà ­culo te guà ­a de manera sencilla para que puedas completar sin problemas la planilla N-400 y puedas jurar como ciudadano en aproximadamente 6 meses desde la fecha de inicio de todo el proceso. Quià ©n puede naturalizarse y asà ­ convertirse en estadounidense Los residentes permanentes legales pueden adquirir la nacionalidad americana por naturalizacià ³n. Si bien tienen que pasar un nà ºmero de aà ±os como titulares de la tarjeta de residencia (green card) antes de poder aplicar. El  tiempo de espera  varà ­a segà ºn cà ³mo se consiguià ³ la green card. Aunque hay varios supuestos y excepciones la regla general es que los esposos de ciudadanos deben esperar 3 aà ±os, mientras que el el resto de los residentes deben esperar 5 aà ±os. Extensià ³n de la planilla para pedir la ciudadanà ­a y quà © te vas a encontrar En cuanto a la extensià ³n de N-400,  tiene exactamente 21 pginas.   A tal fin, se hace una serie de preguntas divididas en 17 partes: Parte 1: elegibilidad.   Parte 2: Informacià ³n sobre ti (nombre, Nà ºmero del Seguro Social, fecha de nacimiento, solicitud de acomodacià ³n especial para la entrevista, peticià ³n de que se aplique una excepcià ³n para no presentar el examen de inglà ©s y/o cà ­vico, etc). Parte 3: Informacià ³n de contacto: telà ©fonos y cuenta de correo electrà ³nico. Parte 4: Datos sobre dà ³nde has vivido en los à ºltimos cinco aà ±os. Parte 5: Informacià ³n sobre tus padres. Parte 6: Con el objeto de poder identificarte fà ­sicamente al verificar un posible expediente delictivo, Inmigracià ³n te pide que le informes sobre ciertos datos personales: altura, color de cabello y ojos, grupo à ©tnico, raza y gà ©nero. Parte 7: Informacià ³n sobre las escuelas o universidades a las que has atendido en los à ºltimos cinco aà ±os y tus empleos en ese mismo periodo de tiempo. Parte 8: Descripcià ³n detallada de los viajes que has hecho fuera de Estados Unidos que han durado ms de 24 horas y que has realizado en los à ºltimos cinco aà ±os. Esta informacià ³n es muy importante ya que los residentes permanentes tienen limitado el tiempo que pueden pasar fuera de EEUU. Si lo sobrepasan pueden perder su condicià ³n de residentes y, consecuentemente, no podrà ­an aplicar por la ciudadanà ­a. Parte 9: Inmigracià ³n tambià ©n quiere saber con quià ©n ests casado/a y con quià ©n lo has estado en el pasado. Es decir, la historia de tus matrimonios, divorcios, separaciones o estado  de viudedad.   Parte 10: Inmigracià ³n tambià ©n quiere saber toda la informacià ³n relevante sobre tus hijos: biolà ³gicos, adoptados legalmente (no simplemente de crianza) o hijastros. No importa la edad, si viven en EEUU o en otro paà ­s, si estn solteros o casados o si son fruto de un matrimonio o de una relacià ³n extramatrimonial o anteriores al casamiento. En otras palabras, hay que incluir los datos de todos los hijos (incluidos los fallecidos). Parte 11: Informacià ³n adicional. Ms sobre esta parte, casi al final del artà ­culo, porque merece una explicacià ³n amplia. Parte 12: Tienes que firmar. En casos excepcionales de incapacidad fà ­sica o psà ­quica podr hacerlo un representante, que deber firmar primero con el nombre del representado y luego con el suyo propio, aà ±adiendo la aclaracià ³n designated representative. Esta persona NO es la preparadora que ayuda a llenar este formulario, si es que se precisa. Parte 13: Si tà º aplicas, pero es  tu esposa/o, primo, amigo, abogado, contable, etc, quien llena por ti este formulario, entonces deber completar esta parte. Parte 14: Si tus conocimientos del inglà ©s son limitados y necesita que alguien te traduzca el documento, entonces tà º y la persona que te hace de intà ©rprete tienen que completar esta parte. Parte 15: Dà ©jala en blanco en el momento de llenar el formulario. Tendrs que firmar pero lo hars en el momento de la entrevista cuando el oficial de inmigracià ³n te diga que tienes que hacerlo .No antes. Parte 16: en el poco probable caso de que seas un prà ­ncipe, condesa, marquesa o conde de otro paà ­s o tengas otro tà ­tulo nobiliario, debers renunciar a à ©l. Parte 17: Esta parte dà ©jala en blanco cuando llenes el formulario. Se trata de la parte de Juramento de lealtad a los Estados Unidos y se llenar delante del oficial de inmigracià ³n en la entrevista. Explicacià ³n con mayor detalle de la parte 11   Se hacen muchas preguntas donde hay que contestar Sà ­ o No. Algunas ya existen en el formulario actual. Pero se incluyen muchas nuevas, ms especà ­ficas.  Se trata de determinar tu carcter moral y si eres un peligro para la seguridad. Hay preguntas de todo tipo, desde si has votado alguna vez en EEUU o te has declarado ciudadano sin serlo a si has pertenecido a la policà ­a o al ejà ©rcito de cualquier paà ­s, si has militado o colaborado directamente con un partido comunista o uno totalitario. Si has formado parte de un grupo vigilante, guerrillas, paramilitares, etc. Tambià ©n quieren saber si has sido arrestado o condenado por un delito o falta. Incluso si has colaborado en grado de tentativa en un delito del que ni siquiera has sido arrestado. Es muy importante entender cà ³mo contestar en caso de tener un rà ©cord sellado. Asimismo, Inmigracià ³n quieres saber si alguna vez has sido ingresado en un hospital mental o institucià ³n similar, si has tenido un problema grave con el alcohol, si consumes droga, si te dedicaste a la prostitucià ³n, si has ayudado a cruzar ilegalmente la frontera a un extranjero o si no has pagado una pensià ³n alimenticia, cuando estabas obligado a ello. La lista es muy larga y hay que contestar honestamente. Si crees que alguna respuesta te puede acarrear problemas o se te pasa por la cabeza la idea de mentir, entonces este es el momento de parar de llenar el formulario y buscar ayuda legal. Un abogado de inmigracià ³n es el à ºnico que puede proporcionar asesorà ­a legal para tu caso en concreto. Aquà ­ puedes acceder a una base de datos para buscar por tu localidad. Pero puedes tambià ©n pedir consejo a una organizacià ³n acreditada de ayuda a inmigrantes para que te refieran a un abogado de confianza. Detalles de seguridad del formulario N-400   Desde hace unos aà ±os esta planilla incluye un  cà ³digo de barras en 2D. Esto hace que segà ºn se va cubriendo el formulario en la computadora y se pasa de pgina, la informacià ³n se codifica.   Despuà ©s imprimes el formulario, lo firmas y lo envà ­as al USCIS. Al llegar a las oficinas de inmigracià ³n un escner podr descodificar rpidamente la informacià ³n y à ©sta  se incorpora  a su sistema de computacià ³n. Entre las ventajas del nuevo sistema destacan: Reduce tiempo y cantidad de trabajo para incorporar al sistema de computadoras de Inmigracià ³n la informacià ³n que contienen  las solicitudes.Evita errores de transcripcià ³n.De una manera muy rpida se puede compartir informacià ³n entre las agencias del gobierno que requieran acceso  ¿Cules son los puntos bsicos con los que te tienes que quedar? El USCIS sà ³lo admite una  planilla actualizada que puedes obtener en ese enlace. Mentir en un formulario de inmigracià ³n para obtener un beneficio es un fraude de ley, lo que podrà ­a dar lugar a muchos problemas. En caso de dudas, lo mejor es aconsejarse con un abogado o con una organizacià ³n reputada de asistencia a migrantes. Despuà ©s de enviar el formulario con el pago correspondiente, recibirs una cita para presentarte en una oficina para que te tomen datos biomà ©tricos como huellas digitales y fotos. Posteriormente, debes pasar un examen de conocimientos cà ­vicos, histà ³ricos y de inglà ©s. Diversas organizaciones en todo EE.UU. brindan ayuda gratuita para tomar clases para preparar el examen de ciudadanà ­a. Si te da miedo el examen de inglà ©s, verifica si puedes  rendir el examen en espaà ±ol. Adems, si tienes alguna discapacidad, comprueba si calificas para no rendir el examen o para pedir un acomodo especial. El à ºltimo paso es la jura de lealtad a los Estados Unidos y la adquisicià ³n de la ciudadanà ­a. En ese acto se entrega el certificado de naturalizacià ³n, que asà ­ lo prueba. Entrà ©nate para el examen de ciudadanà ­a con este test de respuestas mà ºltiples Uno de los pasos que implica adquirir la nacionalidad americana por naturalizacià ³n est tener que pasar un examen de conocimientos cà ­vicos.  Toma este test con preguntas reales para comprobar si ests preparado.   Este artà ­culo no es asesorà ­a legal. Sà ³lo tiene un carcter informativo.

Origin and the Possible Effects in Health and Disease Term Paper

Origin and the Possible Effects in Health and Disease - Term Paper Example As the paper stresses scientific research shows that some bacteria existing in maternal guts could also be transferred to the breast milk in the latter periods of pregnancy in mothers and during lactation. This is through a process characterized by gut monocytes. It is consequently important to consider that during the latter stages of pregnancy or in the course lactation period, the alteration of the maternal microbiota system could be very significant in an infant’s health. Mammary dysbacteriosis, a condition of microbial imbalance, could lead to inflammation of the breast, hence causing mastitis. Such a condition could prompt for unanticipated weaning.This research paper highlights that  a significant amount of bacterial phylotypes usually found on human skin have also been shown to exist in breast milk. These include Propionibacteria and certain phylotypes of Corynebacteria. Consequently, the probability that the composition of breast milk microbiota could also be a fact or for the interactions with the maternal skin. Studies, however, have shown a difference in the genotypic variations between isolated lactobacilli present in the skin to that in the breast milk. The discovery has therefore led to the assertions of the unlikeliness of the speculation. It has however been shown that there exists a possibility that through the endogenous pathway, bacteria could reach the mammary glands from the maternal gut.

Foreign Influence on English Football Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Foreign Influence on English Football - Essay Example The article written by Patrick Mcgovern challenges the basis behind the import of foreign players into English football. He states that the global market is a free process which changes the nature of the economic competition. Having investigated hiring practices for the English football league during 1946 to 1995, one aspect of the conclusions was that globalization might be a reasonable thing to expect. It points out that global influence is not just about players. It is also about economic social and political factors that can have either national or indeed British origins. However, this article also points out that there is consistency in the types of foreign players that are chosen to play in the English league. This can be in terms of climate, culture, language and, the style of football. This would fit countries such as Scotland, Ireland, northern Europe and Australia. However, the article fails to point out that quite a number of foreign players have come from South America, s uch as Argentina or Brazil. Their influence cannot be discounted. Therefore, the choice of fine players is partly due to culture choices.

Business Decision Making Assiment Essay Example for Free

Business Decision Making Assiment Essay You should sign this sheet to show that you comply with these regulations. Student’s Signature Date Acknowledgement I take this chance to thank Miss. M. PriyanthimalaWho helped me to improve and developed this particular project. She explained well about the project and sacrificed her most of the time to explain and also made sure that all the students understood. She was ready to help out in any time and gave her full support for this particular project. I finally would like to thank my parents, friends and others for helping to do this project. Thank you TASKS| PAGE NO| Task 01| 04| Task 02| 09| Task 03| 14| Task 04| 16| Task 05| 24| Task 06| 27| Task 07| 31| Task 08| 32| Task 09| 34| Task 10| 35| Task 11| 38| Task 12| 43| Task 13| 44| Task 14| 47| Task 15| 49| Reference | 51| Task 1 T 1. 1 Difference between a sample and a population Population| Sample| * Population is the area in which you are trying to get information from. * This meaning of population is also used in survey research, but this is only one of many possible definitions of population. Examples: Cedar Crest students; trees in North America; automobiles with four wheels; people who consume olive oil. | * Sample is a section of your population that you are actually going to survey. It is important to have a sample that will represent your entire population in order to minimize biases. Survey research is based on sampling, which involves getting information from only some members of the population. * Samples can be drawn in several different ways, such as probability samples, quota samples, purposive samples, and volunteer samples. Examples assuming the populations stated above: 47 Cedar Crest students chosen randomly; 8463 trees randomly selected in North America; 20 sample autos from each make (e. g. , GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda, etc. ); 1% of the oil consuming population per country| T 1. 2 Describe the advantages of sampling * Sampling  saves money  as it is much cheaper to  collect  the desired information from a small  sample  than from the whole population. * Sampling  saves a lot of time and energy as the needed data are collected and processed much faster than census information. And this is a very important consideration in all types of investigations or surveys. * Sampling  provides information that is almost as accurate as that obtained from a complete census; rather a properly designed and carefully executed  sample  survey will provide more accurate results. Moreover, owing to the reduced volume of work, persons of higher caliber and properly trained can be employed to analyze the data. * Sampling  makes it possible to obtain more detailed information from each unit of the  sample  as collecting data from a few units of the population (i. e. ample) can be more complete and thorough. * Sampling  is essential to obtaining the data when the measurement process  physically  damages or destroys the  sampling  unit under  investigation. For example, in order to measure the average lifetime of  light bulbs, the measurement process destroys the  sampling  units, i. e. the bulbs, as they are used until they burn out. A manufacturer will therefore use only a  sample  of  light bulbs  for this purpose and will not burn out all the bulbs produced. Similarly, the whole pot of soup cannot be tasted to determine if it has an acceptable flavor. Sampling  may be the only means available for obtaining the needed information when the population appears to be infinite or is inaccessible such as the population of mountainous or thickly forested areas. In such cases, taking $ complete census to  collect  data would neither be  physically  possible nor practically feasible. * Sampling  has much smaller â€Å"non-response†, following up of which is much easier. The term non-response means the no availability of information from some  sampling  units included in the  sample  for any reason such as failure to locate or measure some of the units, refusals, not-at-home, etc. Sampling  is extensively used to obtain some of the census information. * The most important advantage of   sampling  is that it provides a valid measure of reliability for the  sample  estimates  and this is one of the two basic purposes of  sampling. * Reliability: If we collect the information about all the units of population, the collected information may be true. But we are never sure about it. We do not know whether the information is true or is completely false. Thus we cannot say anything with confidence about the quality of information. We say that the reliability is not possible. This is a very important advantage of sampling. The inference about the population parameters is possible only when the sample data is collected from the selected sample. * Sometimes the experiments are done on sample basis. The fertilizers, the seeds and the medicines are initially tested on samples and if found useful, then they are applied on large scale. Most of the research work is done on the samples. * Sample data is also used to check the accuracy of the census data. T 1. 3 Difference between primary data and secondary data T1. 4 Difference between a statistic and a parameter Parameter is any characteristic of the population. Statistic on the other hand is a characteristic of the sample. Statistic is used to estimate the value of the parameter. Note that the value of statistic changes from one sample to the next which leads to a study of the sampling distribution of statistic. When we draw a sample from a population, it is just one of many samples that might have been drawn and, therefore, observations made on any one sample are likely to be different from the ‘true value’ in the population (although some will be the same). Imagine we were to draw an infinite (or very large) number of samples of individuals and calculate a statistic, say the arithmetic mean, on each one of these samples and that we then plotted the mean value obtained from each sample on a histogram (a chart using bars to represent the number of times a particular value occurred). This would represent the sampling distribution of the arithmetic mean. T1. 5 Define sampling errors with example? Sampling error is an error that occurs when using samples to make inferences about the populations from which they are drawn. There are two kinds of sampling error: random error and bias. Random error is a pattern of errors that tend to cancel one another out so that the overall result still accurately reflects the true value. Every sample design will generate a certain amount of random error. Bias, on the other hand, is more serious because the pattern of errors is loaded in one direction or another and therefore do not balance each other out, producing a true distortion. These are the errors which occur due to the nature of  sampling. The  sample  selected from the population is one of all possible samples. Any value calculated from the  sample  is based on the sample  data and is called  sample  statistic. Task 2 T2. 1 Advantages and disadvantages of arithmetic mean. Advantages * Fast and easy to calculate- As the most basic measure in statistics,  arithmetic average is very easy to calculate. For a small data set, you can calculate the arithmetic mean quickly in your head or on a piece of paper. In  computer programs  like Excel, the arithmetic average is always one of the most basic and best known functions. Here you can see the  basics of arithmetic average calculation. * Easy to work with and use in further analysis- Because its calculation is straightforward and its meaning known to everybody,  arithmetic average  is also more comfortable to  use as input to further analyses and calculations. When you work in a team of more people, the others will much more likely be familiar with  arithmetic average  than  geometric average  or  mode. Disadvantages * Sensitive to extreme values- Arithmetic average is extremely sensitive to extreme values. Therefore,  arithmetic average  is not the best measure to use with data sets containing a few extreme values  or with more  dispersed (volatile) data sets  in general. Median  can be a better alternative in such cases. * Not suitable for time series type of data- Arithmetic average  is perfect for measuring central tendency when you’re working with data sets of independent values taken at one point of time. There was an example of this in one of the previous articles, when we were  year. However, in finance you often work with percentage returns over a series of multiple time periods. For  calculating average percentage return over multiple periods of time,  arithmetic average is useless; as it fails to take the different basis in every year into consideration (100% equals a different price or portfolio value at the beginning of each year). The more volatile the returns are, the more significant this weakness of arithmetic average is. Here you can see the example and reason why  arithmetic average fails when measuring average percentage returns over time. * Works only when all values are equally important- Arithmetic average treats all the individual observations equally. In finance and investing, you often need to work with unequal weights. For example, you have a portfolio of stocks and it is highly unlikely that all stocks will have the same weight and therefore the same impact on the total performance of the portfolio. Calculating the average performance of the total portfolio or a basket of stocks is a typical case when  arithmetic average is not suitable  and it is better to use weighted average instead. You can find more details and an example here:  Why you need weighted average for calculating total portfolio return. T2. 2 Comparative picture of median, mode, mean The Median The Median is the middle value in your list. When the totals of the list are odd, the median is the middle entry in the list after sorting the list into increasing order. When the totals of the list are even, the median is equal to the sum of the two middle (after sorting the list into increasing order) numbers divided by two. Thus, remember to line up your values, the middle number is the median! Be sure to remember the odd and even rule. That is, if the data is in meters, the standard deviation is in meters as well. The variance is in meters2, which is more difficult to interpret. Neither the standard deviation nor the variance is robust to outliers. A data value that is separate from the body of the data can increase the value of the statistics by an arbitrarily large amount. The mean  absolute deviation (MAD) is also sensitive to outliers. But the MAD does not move quite as much as the standard deviation or variance in response to bad data. The  interquartile range (IQR) is the difference between the 75th and 25th percentile of the data. Since only the middle 50% of the data affects this measure, it is robust to outliers. T3. 2 What are the different characteristics of the following measures of dispersion. The  range  is the simplest measure of  dispersion. The range can be thought of in two ways. 1. As a quantity: the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution. 2. As an interval; the lowest and highest scores may be reported as the range. By far the most commonly used measures of dispersion in the social sciences are  variance  and  standard deviation. Variance  is the average squared difference of scores from the mean score of a distribution.

Dickens Era--Child Labor :: History

Dickens Era--Child Labor Even though many of you parents out there are in fact opposed to sending your children to work in these textile factories, there are, in fact, many parents who do feel differently. However, there aren’t enough of these kinds of parents to satisfy factory owners, so they went as far as to purchase innocent children from orphanages and workhouses. These poor children are now called pauper apprentices. They are forced into signing contracts that pronounced them the property of the factory. Because these Pauper apprentices are quite a bit cheaper to house and pay than adult workers these types of children labor workers have become extremely popular. These children work and live under terrible conditions. There are even children as young as three years old put into work in these factories. Normally, however they began work at age 5, and generally die before they reach age 25. This leaves them about four years away from working. Many of them are released at age 21. Punishment is a common activity in these factories. Because maintaining the speed the over lookers of these laborers can get very difficult after a while, the over lookers, with their hearts of stone, have no sympathy and punish the children for slowing down. They are either hit with a strap to make them work faster or sometimes get their heads dipped into the water boiler. If late to work or caught talking to their peers, they are punished as well. Runaways are immediately sent to jail as well as suspected runaways. The owners are supposed to supply their workers with meals. The quality of the food isn’t good and the quantity is meager. Often, these children have to eat while working causing dust and other particles to smother the food. I was given the opportunity to briefly interview one little boy from a factory. However, our interview was cut off because he had to return to his duties. He is an eight year old named Jeremy who works at the Quarry Bank Mill. It broke my heart listening to him: How old are you Jeremy? I’m eight How long have you been working here? Since I was 4 years old Jeremy, I noticed that your leg is injured, how long has your leg been this way? It’s been this way for a few years—I think it’s because I never get a chance to really rest it.

How Does Steinbeck Present the Character of Curley’s Wife? Essay

Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife as dangerous as she has the power as she is married to the owner’s son and she is not afraid to exercise that power. But also she is a victim of loneliness as Curley is not that interested in her and she has to stay on the ranch doing nothing but wondering around looking for company. This makes Curley’s wife both guilty and innocent. Steinbeck uses candy to forewarn the reader about Curley’s wife in their first meeting, this is significant as it shows that Curley’s wife is interpreted as ‘jail bait’ as George says. The fact that George is pre-warned about this potential danger is ironic as despite the warning she is the problem that ends up getting Lennie killed. Steinbeck describes her physical appearance first, she is described as very sexually attractive and uses this to bait guys in. she uses her physical appearance as her main weapon, and in the end of the book Lennie gets in trouble because she tem pts him to stroke her soft hair. Steinbeck shows moments of her being overly cruel. She gets lonely and looks around for people to talk to but when she realises that the guys don’t want to talk to her she turns on crooks telling him that she can get him hanged because she would accuse him of rape. Steinbeck uses her talk with Lennie to make you sympathise with her. She talks about how she could have been in the pictures but she thought her mum threw away the letters about it and that how she is now stuck on a ranch were everyone ignores her and she is lonely. Steinbeck finishes by saying that she is a nice, good person but the only way she could get noticed was if she expressed her sexuality to the guys on the ranch, that’s the only way they would pay attention to her.

The Start of the Contamination in Man’s Environment

In the late 1960s to 1970s, Americans realized that industry was doing serious damage to air, water, and the earth itself, the most essential natural resources. The whole awareness of the damage being done to the environment stemmed out from the energy crisis of the 1970s. The energy crisis was a ‘slap-in-the-face' for America. They needed to realize the harm that was being done to the natural resources and their decreasing availability as a result. With the decreasing availability and increasing prices of oil, new energy sources had to be discovered. Although scientists found nuclear power to be a clean, cheap, and unlimited source of power at first, the environmentalists fought to minimize its usage for fear of nuclear meltdowns, which could spread nuclear waste. Alternative energy sources were possible, and what appeared to be the most effective were tidal energy and solar energy. These environmentally safe methods of harnessing energy were just what the environmentalists had aimed for, and a new movement had been started – environmentalism. If you read this circle it. The environmentalists also tried to advocate the conservation of energy, so that the cleaner but less effective ways could be manipulated to produce more energy. Despite many efforts to keep the environment clean, some 200 million tons of pollutants were filling the air each year, and clean air in many cities had been replaced by smog. The earth, air, and water were deteriorating as construction of highways, malls, and housing developments caused the destruction of fertile, irreplaceable farmland. Disposal of wastes was another dilemma to be dealt with. Burning could release poisonous gases into the air, and burial could cause harmful decay. By the mid-1960s, people began to really realize the need to conserve the nation's resources. Much credit for arousing public concern belonged to Rachel Carson for her book Silent Spring. This book warned of the central problem of our age being the contamination of man's environment. During the next few years, growing numbers of ecologists, biologists, and other scientists showed their concern about the reckless abuse of the environment. In 1970, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which helped set laws regulating use of pesticides, insecticides, and other potentially dangerous sprays. They protected endangered wildlife, and ordered that car manufacturers had to provide pollution control devices on exhausts of their vehicles. New waste disposal and sewage treatment plants were being built to prevent further pollution of the land and water and to clean up the rivers and lakes. Government also regulated unsightly junkyards and dumps to restore the natural beauty of the countryside. Federal government set aside more areas as national parks, not to be tampered with, and considerable progress had been made in the management and conservation of America's forests, soil, and water. However, many people felt that it was not necessary for the government to take all this action. President Reagan gave in and allowed the search for minerals on federal lands and oil exploration off the coast of California, which some felt was very risky, because of the chance of an oil spill, which would devastate all ocean life in the area. Environmental decisions were important in the sixties era, as many other nations followed them with concern. With the world's population increasing so rapidly, the earth's natural resources will be heavily taxed, and many people, the environmentalists, believed that resource conservation was extremely important in maintaining the living conditions of the world population.

Free Essays on Jacksons Indian Wars

â€Å"The result reminds us that the grand events of history often involve considerable suffering. Romanticizing them risks forgetting the ugly lessons that need to be learned. Demonizing them can have the same result.† ~Robert V. Remini Considering Jackson’s support for Indian Removal and his refusal to follow the Supreme Court’s decision in Worcester v. Georgia, Jackson’s goals, motives, and intentions are clear, especially when paired with the political ideals of his contemporaries. It is easy, today in 2004, to claim that Andrew Jackson’s motives and intentions behind Indian Removal were nothing more than racist narcissism inherent of radical expansionist politics. However, it is also difficult for contemporary students to place ourselves in the mindset of the antebellum South. Jackson had several reasons for going forth with the Indian Removal Act; perhaps reasons deemed indecent in the eyes of those studying his actions as history, but reasons not illogical when taken in context. Jackson, as president of a new and expanding nation, had to make the decision of removing Indians in order to benefit his own people; Indian Removal was a matter of opening up millions of acres of land to settlement and slavery, thus promoting the essential strengthening of the economy of a new nation. During the time of President Jackson most of the people of the United States did not entertain the notion that the United States would ever expand west of the Mississippi River, therefore, forcing the native Indians further west would allow space for both the Indians and the white settlers. However, one idea gathered from the documents of Jackson’s era needs no clarification: Jackson’s personal perspective on Indian Removal was simply that it was not considered feasible for the Indians to live among white Americans. Perhaps indeed a racist, Andrew Jackson did not make his decisions... Free Essays on Jackson's Indian Wars Free Essays on Jackson's Indian Wars â€Å"The result reminds us that the grand events of history often involve considerable suffering. Romanticizing them risks forgetting the ugly lessons that need to be learned. Demonizing them can have the same result.† ~Robert V. Remini Considering Jackson’s support for Indian Removal and his refusal to follow the Supreme Court’s decision in Worcester v. Georgia, Jackson’s goals, motives, and intentions are clear, especially when paired with the political ideals of his contemporaries. It is easy, today in 2004, to claim that Andrew Jackson’s motives and intentions behind Indian Removal were nothing more than racist narcissism inherent of radical expansionist politics. However, it is also difficult for contemporary students to place ourselves in the mindset of the antebellum South. Jackson had several reasons for going forth with the Indian Removal Act; perhaps reasons deemed indecent in the eyes of those studying his actions as history, but reasons not illogical when taken in context. Jackson, as president of a new and expanding nation, had to make the decision of removing Indians in order to benefit his own people; Indian Removal was a matter of opening up millions of acres of land to settlement and slavery, thus promoting the essential strengthening of the economy of a new nation. During the time of President Jackson most of the people of the United States did not entertain the notion that the United States would ever expand west of the Mississippi River, therefore, forcing the native Indians further west would allow space for both the Indians and the white settlers. However, one idea gathered from the documents of Jackson’s era needs no clarification: Jackson’s personal perspective on Indian Removal was simply that it was not considered feasible for the Indians to live among white Americans. Perhaps indeed a racist, Andrew Jackson did not make his decisions...

Building Trust

You want results! Group Work (optional): Assume it is the ? rst day on the job as the new manager of this team. Discuss what you should do. Writing Exercises (optional): Write a message to the managers of your new organization, setting expectations about the team and goals they will be working towards moving forward. Describe your leadership style and approach to the challenge. Make your message motivational. Discussion Questions: †¢ Have you ever had to build trust with a large number of people who are fundamentally different than you? What did you do? What are the advantages of disadvantages of being the boss who is feared? †¢ Do you agree with all the things Jim does to earn the trust of his team? Why or why not? †¢ Do you think Jim will still have the respect of his team if he is so focused on serving them and their needs? Why or why not? Oral Presentations (optional): As the new manager, give an introductory speech to the managers in your organization about you an d the goals you hope to achieve. Clearly state the messages you want to convey to your direct reports. Role Play (optional): Discussion between Manager (Jim) and his Supervisor (Sam) whose leadership philosophy is very different and thinks a manager should be feared by his people. Explain yourself and try to gain your supervisor’s trust. †¢ Background for Manager (Jim): You believe you should think of your team as your customers and make every effort to make their job easier. You do not want to be feared by your people and think you will be even more productive thanks to your leadership style. †¢ Background for Supervisor (Sam): You think the new manager needs to come in strong and put fear in his employees to achieve. Discuss how they will be distributed. Will you incentivize the high performers by awarding them with new headsets ? rst? Discussion Questions: †¢ Do you agree with all the things Jim does to earn the trust of his team? Why or why not? †¢ Do you think Jim will still have the respect of his team if he is so focused on serving them and their needs? Why or why not? †¢ Is there anything Jim should do differently and how successful do you think he will be with his approach? †¢ As a manager, what are the advantages and disadvantages of seeing your team as your customers? Role Play (optional): Discussion between Manager (Jim) and direct report (Fred) who believes everybody needs new headsets and new chairs. †¢ Background for Manager (Jim): You believe you should make your people more comfortable, but you are limited in budget and must make your people and Fred understand there are limits to what you can do for them. †¢ Background for Direct Report (Fred): You think everybody needs new headsets and chairs. You know the new manager is anxious to make a positive impression and you think this purchase could help. Group Work (optional): What does Jim mean by having an â€Å"early victories† when he talks about getting new headsets? What kind of a precedent does this set and how should he manage expectations for the future? 3 Building Trust | Jim Roth Copyright  © 2007 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All Rights Reserved. Teaching Notes Building Trust (DVD Title: Building Trust in a Large Organization) Center for Leadership Development and Research Leadership in Focus Video Segment 3 and 4: (Run Time: 2 minutes 10 seconds) Writing Exercises (optional): As the Manager, write an email to your team telling them how you want them to come to you when they have problems. You want them to understand you are there to help them, but also don’t want them to abuse this privilege. Make the message motivational. Result and Lessons Learned: Manager receives feedback from his people and sees this as a victory that he has earned their trust. To earn trust and improve performance, it is important to learn the details about your people to determine why they come to work everyday.

Promise and peril Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Promise and peril - Essay Example Though many studies have been conducted on pay-for-performance, not much has been investigated on managers’ pay-for-performance implementation strategies. Managers usually face potential problems in their attempt to implement pay-for-performance programmes. Under pay-for-performance plans, significant effort of the management is focused on motivating employees at the expenses of other tasks relevant for organisational growth. However, the proponents of pay-for-performance argue that intelligent design of the plans remains crucial for evading implementation challenges for pay-for-performance programmes. There is need for training on how to effectively implement pay-for-performance programs. According to the authors, it is essential to gain adequate knowledge of the scenario under which pay-for-performance implementation is taking place in order to develop an unbiased understanding of the topic. Using HP case studies, Beer and Cannon discovered that the management used pay-for-performance as extra inducement to achieve higher employee performance. While creating a line between individual employees or teams in terms of performance so as to maintain fairness, the challenge of attaining desirable results becomes evident, especially when it is essential for teams or individuals to work together. In their article, the authors argue that managers abandoned their pay-for-performance plans because they perceived the programmes to bear more costs than benefits to the

Urban tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Urban tourism - Essay Example In fact after WWII, Haiti was among the leading countries that had taken advantage of the international tourism that had aroused from the global economic restoration. This had created in Haiti an estimate of more than 60,000 direct and indirect jobs, contributed a 3.5% share to the country’s GDP, and earned an annual income of $50 million. (International Monetary Fund 34) According to Americas, during 1950s and ‘60s Haiti had been one of the strongest competitors in the tourism industry in the Caribbean (qtd. in Pawlowski 1). However, the development of tourism in Haiti has been historically lopsided and marred with many setbacks. Even during the most auspicious times, Haiti’s tourism has never attracted a significant portion of the total Antilles tourist market. Only Labadie on the northern coast has achieved consistent success, being the docking site of tourist cruises in the Caribbean (Lundahl 64). It was in Labadie where the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has been landing in Haiti for nearly 30 years, without informing tourists that it is actually part of Haiti, instead referring to it as an ‘island’ on Hispaniola (Lazar, par. 12-3; Pawlowski 2). Furthermore, the worsened political and social instability since the ending of Jean-Claude Duvalier’s dictatorial regime in 1986 (Hudman and Jackson 134) plus the inadequate infrastructure needed by a flourishing tourist industry – the focus of Duvalier’s later investments, have greatly pulled Haiti’s tourism indu stry backward, leaving a mere 800 hotel rooms available for tourists by the latter part of 1990s (Street 5). After Duvalier’s fall, though Haiti’s political leadership remains unstable, the second ascension to Presidency of Renà © Prà ©val in 2004 has brought a slow yet better changes to Haiti, such as, a stabilizing Haiti’s political climate; a

Windows Server 2003 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Windows Server 2003 - Essay Example They need to know and understand the benefit of upgrading to Windows Server 2003 so they can make the right decision. A company with an already stable system perhaps would wonder why I should upgrade my system when it seems fine and sufficient. Some will also probably ask why I should spend some more when I already have what we want. What's new What is the benefit Shall I gain from it Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for the comprehension of a typical user is simply an enhancement to Microsoft's previous server products such as NT 4.0 and Windows Server 2000. However, this latest operating system contains over 340 (Eurodata, 2004) improvements for Windows 2000 Server and the capability to handle different server functions that can significantly increase productivity and security that will give businesses added benefits. Similar to its predecessor, Server 2003 was built in the same tradition of strengths, superiority, and cost effectiveness to sustain business growth. In the real world, business are constantly changing, expanding, and seeking new ways to improve and support the demands of their organization. Growing organizations that are heavily relying on their computer network are looking for flexible and scalable systems that can greatly reduce their operating and administration cost. In addition, to ensure greater success, an organization wants real value on the ir investment and demand greater reliability and innovative functionalities with their server operating systems. Microsoft is much aware of these necessities and since the released of Windows 2000 Server substantially reviewed and studies all possible bugs and weak points to produce a much better operating system. According to Microsoft's Server 2003 White Paper (Microsoft, 2002), this operating systems provides various utilities, services, and features that could convince users to upgrade. One of the enticing new features of Server 2003 aside from being stable is its integrated platform that can be easily deploy and manage without security implications. This is to a certain extent viable considering the real world situation of company networks where combinations of Intranets and Internet are being used and continually being stretched to satisfy the organizations growing requirements. When an operating system is stable, it means more uptime and secured. This is exactly what Microsoft wants to sell; a fast, reliable, and secured platform with advanced connectivity that can provide a company gre ater competitive advantage in global marketplace (Eurodata, 2004). Improved Reliability, Windows Server 2003 provides device driver's resiliency that prevents defective drivers (that are known to be incompatible) that could unfavorably harm the server and holdup the company's operation. Furthermore, similar to XP, the Server 2003 is capable of device rollbacks (Ivens, 2003), restoration of last known good configuration, file protection, and application compatibility options. These features will ensure more uptime for the company network eliminating the possibility of system shutdown due to maintenance and restoration works (Microsoft, 2002). Improved Availability further fortifies network operational stability by

Cross Cultural Awareness in Management

Cross Cultural Awareness in Management Task 1 The FIVE most important competencies for managing internationally in my country, Hong Kong, for these three American managers of TDS are: Interpersonal Skills – If this is not the most important skill of all, it is the crucial one. This skill helps the expatriate managers to establish relationships, coordinate with others, satisfying the needs for friendship and intimacy when they are abroad. It also helps in building trust and form relationships with the people around them. The expatriate managers are often experiencing uncertainties and getting stressed when dealing things with work and personal life in a new environment. So with good interpersonal skills will be able to reduce the stress coming from every angle. Referring to a recent book (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 190-1), the primary selection of many companies for the expatriate managers in practice is their track records on reaching their targets or getting their jobs done. Companies also would like to send those that are eager to climb further on their career ladders or those with technical or conceptual abilities instead of those with interpersonal skills abroad. These expatriates are often too focused on their personal agenda to make things happen and ignore the pressure that are given to the local staffs which would create tension at work. Moreover, feelings of mistrust and resentment of the local staffs towards the head office will also be exacerbated. Therefore, interpersonal skills should be taken into account when the American managers are being chosen to manage in a foreign country like Hong Kong. Motivation to live abroad – It is a key factor for the expatriate managers and their families to adapt into the local culture successfully (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 192). Basically they should have real interests in the country they will live in, in order to have the curiosity to get to know it better and experience it well. It is the desire that makes them easier to understand the culture with ease. Patience and respect – Different countries have different cultures so it is necessary that the international managers have the patience and respect when dealing with the new culture. It takes time to cope and learn the differences between the culture at home and the culture of the new place so the international managers should be patient (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 193). They also need to have respect for the local of how the things happen in some ways when dealing with different circumstances in any aspects. Cultural empathy – This is a not skill that can be easily acquired because it is deeply rooted in someone’s character to have the mentality of empathy for others with cultural differences (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 193). It is required in order to respect the local staffs by the international managers to be a good listener to focus on what they have to say. Being non-judgmental is also important for those managers to be able to understand others’ points of views. The psychological development of a human being allows narcissism to be evolved to a point that interfere the capacity for empathy (Kets de Vries, M. and Mead, C. 1992). Managers that are narcissistic usually are self- centred and think that others are paltry or just the extensions of their own. They make the values of others hard to be recognized, let alone appreciate, because they see others as objects or tools for them to get what they want in order to achieve their goals and they also think of others as the mirrors to reflect their own glory. This type of managers would use all their efforts to prove their worth instead of considering the needs and the existing values of the other staffs. Flexibility, tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity – These managers also need to have the flexibility, tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. Changing circumstances that are unexpected makes the managers face with thread of uncertainty and ambiguity because the reactions and the behaviors of the local staffs may be unpredictable. Managers are intended to reinforce greater controls and restrict on the information flow when they face this kind of tread especially during an international assignment (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 192-3). It often results in a stereotypical response and not well adapted to the situation on hands. Although it is difficult for the managers that are usually awarded by being in charged and staying on top of things, expatriates need to ‘go with the flow’ and let go of control. Everyone doesn’t always need to go by the book because actions are often taken base on insufficient, unreliable or/ and conflicting information. Task 2 Controlling model and Adapting model are the names and characteristics of two specific models of strategy related to cultural assumptions and approaches in adapting to external environment as discussed in the literature. The differences between controlling and adapting approaches are described below: Controlling model is based on active search that is focused and systematic. The planning system of the controlling approach is formalized and centralized using expert consultants to assist in devising strategy. The information being used by the controlling method is objective, quantitative and impersonal also interpreting information relies on formal models and methods like strategic forecasting with scenario planning. The people involve in this model are those from the top management or the experts of the particular area. The decisions for the controlling approach would be made by the top management and pass down to be implemented. The strategic goals and action plans are clearly defined, articulated and it would be explicitly measured and rewarded in this controlling method. As it assumes that the environment is known to reduce environmental uncertainty. This approach is usually sequential and short term (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 124). Adapting model is broad, sporadic, decentralized and mostly based on monitoring. It is the opposite from the controlling model, informal and decentralized. The adapting approach is personal, subjective and qualitative; the information would be interpreted by some informal methods with discussions and debate. It would have the employees involved from all across the ranks. The decisions for the adapting approach would be made by the front lines staffs, neither the people from top management nor the experts. The strategic goals tend to emerge and action plans are broad, implicit and vaguely monitored. Also it assumes that the environment cannot be readily known or controlled. This approach is long term and simultaneous (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 124). The model of adapting approach is more appropriate in this situation with TDS because TDS is new to town and not quite familiar with the culture and environment in Hong Kong. Also the environment cannot be controlled or readily known, it would be wise to have the responsibilities to be diffused throughout the organization to make all the staffs from different ranks to get involved. Strategic direction tends to emerge when different people come with different perspective on the business point of view. The implementation should be locally determined to keep it within this strategic frame. Strategy can be refined on an ongoing basis and the adjustments can be made to any unexpected circumstances. TDS should be flexible in order to deal with any sort of unforeseen events or sudden change in any situation. A broad scan is needed in case of any subtle change in the environment and also accountability should be assigned to the collective too because everyone is involved to contribute to make things happen. Task 3 The Five methods of discovery that I would recommend to the three American managers transferring into my country, Hong Kong, are: Architecture and design – According to a recent book (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 24-6) the most obvious artifact is the architecture and design of the building when you enter the organization. In the United States, most of the office design would be opened space with partitioned off by half walls with each individual cubicles personalized by personal interested items such as photos, plants or aphorisms. By not being able to see each other directly allows a sense of privacy to be established. Also opened doors are usually signaled as accessible and available while closed doors are indicated as a sign of privacy desire in the United States. To the contrary, Japanese prefer to have some of the walls knocked off so informal communication would not be inhibited. On the other hand, Germans experience difficulty to work in an open-plan office due they feel it is lack of privacy. Although Hong Kong has a majority of 95 percent Chinese people according to a website (The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, 2008), and was also a British colony for over 150 years, the main business partner of its own is still the United States as shown by the figures provided from the Business Expectation Statistics Section, Census and Statistics Department, (2007a) (2007b). Therefore, most of the office design in Hong Kong is followed to the same style as those in the United States. Greeting rituals – In the United States, the greeting rituals are tended to be paid less attention according to a recent book (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 26-7). But for the other countries, the protocol is taken quite seriously. There are different forms of way in greetings such as showing respect by exchanging and inspecting business cards in Japan, greeting individual by name, shaking hands and making eye contact by French. The degree of body contact expected in greeting creates a fair amount of confusion in another part of the rituals too. In the United States, people might greet others with a hug even when the acquaintanceship is ordinary. In some countries like France, kissing hello and goodbye are common while people from countries like Hong Kong might feel uncomfortable and uneasy about it. According to a website (The Economist Newspaper Limited, 2008), handshaking followed by an immediate swapping of business cards is the most common form of greeting in Hong Kong. Dress Codes – It is another cultural artifact varies from the degree of formality. Schneider Barsoux (2003, 29) pointed out that Anglo and Asian managers do not want to get too much attention or stand out by the way they dress while the Latin managers really care about their personal style. Moreover, corporate dress seems to be color coded in some countries. For example in the United Kingdom, some women are advised not to wear suits and dresses in bright color to work such as red and some bankers of a Dutch bank even avoid to wear suits in brown. It also signals task orientation. In the United States, rolled up shirt sleeves is considered as a signal of hard working while in France means ‘relaxing on the job’. Not to mention that some US companies have designated days to encourage people to appear in casual clothes at work such as Fridays. According to a website (World Business Culture, 2008), dress codes differ base on the size of company and industry sector in Hong Kong. Men mostly wear dark suits, shirts and ties while women wear conservative suits and dresses. Trousers and causal wear are tended to be worn only on informal occasions or designated days. Written versus verbal contracts – In different parts of the world people have different definitions toward the sealed business agreements as mentioned in a recent book (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 30). In some places, one’s word means more than a legal document while others need to put down all the details on a paper in black and white. Problems would appear when the contracts are expected by the head office to be signed, sealed and delivered from a place where one’s reputation and honor are way more valuable than some legal documents. Figures from Schneider Barsoux (2003, 30) for the estimated numbers of lawyers per capita of some countries like United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan reflect the differences on expectations. American managers will bring it to the legal department to retrieve whenever a business deal has been fell through while some other countries would sort things out through the relationship. Since Hong Kong is a Common Law Jurisdiction like most of the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2008a), people most likely to expect to have a written contract over a business deal. Criteria for success – It depends on the importance of stakeholders whether it is the benefit of the shareholders, the customers or the employees. Beliefs and values differ when there are different stakeholders; there are different criteria for success. Schneider Barsoux (2003, 31) claimed that American companies only exist for the benefit of the shareholders. This might be disagreed in Japan or even shock the Japanese as they believe customers have the divine rights. Some countries in Europe such as Germany or Sweden believe that the employees have the divine rights instead. Although all these factors are crucial to the business success, you still need to have a closer look to the cultural preferences in different countries like Hong Kong. Task 4 In my opinion, the key functions for managing people and human resource management are recruitment and selection, compensation and rewards, employee relations, and career development. Recruitment and selection – This can be the most challenging and important function for managing people and human resource management. It is because finding ‘the right people for the right job’ is essential. It is often a challenge as well especially when the nature of the local labor market or the available human resources is not familiar. The company needs to understand how to access the local labor pool in order to get the equivalent people to work for the company. So finding those candidates who have the abilities and requirements to finish the task and get the job done is also hard and essential, not to mention to get those who seem to likely match with the existing corporate culture. Moreover, the standard profile of one country might be very different from another in terms of representation and the differences in education systems also play a part to make the selection difficult in selecting which person fits the profile for the job (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 151). Compensation and rewards – The cultural differences play a role when it comes to determine the terms of reward and who gets it. Different cultures have different type of value in relations to the reward and vary to the extent in the belief that reward should be collective or individual. Pay for performance is assumed to be based on contribution or ‘equity’ instead of the belonging to the group or ‘equality’ (Eretz and Early, 1993). In the contractual view of employment, the notions of equity, ‘you get what you deserve’, are embedded while the notions of equality, ‘you deserve what you get’, correspond to the social view (Pennings, 1993). According to Susan Barsoux (2003, 165), the current trend of linking salary payment to working performances is especially suspect to be cultural related. It has been discovered that in some countries like France, it would be shocked for the French executives to have clearly stated quantifiable objective relating increased performances to increased bonus. It is because the French executives found that discussion about money and finance is such a turned off. It also provoked outcries when the merit pay was attempted to be introduced in Japan. It created uproar as the Japanese executives were scared that it would ruin the harmony of the group and might also encourage short term thinking especially when the employees only focus on the performance in order to get the bonus. On the other hand, the dominant influence in American managerial thinking is the principle of equity that each one should be rewarded based on the solely contribution by that particular person. Nowadays in the view towards team management that demands group cooperation instead of competition among individuals finds the merit-based pay in the United States demotivating (Susan Barsoux, 2003, 167). The preference between financial or non financial incentives is also related to the culture. The motivating potential of money, status, vacation time is also affected and changed across countries. Swedish would prefer to have some time off rather than a bonus because they are more concerned with the quality of life and monetary rewards are less motivating while giving time off might seem to have not much point in Japan when most of the employees only take half of their holiday entitlement (Susan Barsoux, 2003, 167). So the internationally operated companies should learn to appreciate the different values and evaluate the potential impact as well because the remuneration package is a very strong indicator of the culture and the behavior expected and also can be used in order to encourage cooperation or competition, risk taking or conservatism, and information sharing or information hoarding. The remuneration package is also a very important signal when it comes to aspiring recruits. When the company wants to attract local elite, it can choose to align itself with the local norms or the alien one when the preference of the company changes to attract the less mainstream or adventurous or those that are frustrated with the local practices and looking to be rewarded for their efforts and success (Susan Barsoux, 2003, 168). Employee relations – It is important to have a good relations and mutual understanding between the management and the staffs of the company. Any staff grievances of the company should be dealt with and well listened to in order to promote a harmony environment. An open dialogue is needed to be promoted between the management and the unions of the company to eliminate any conflicts or fictions that may occur between the staffs and the management specially when there is a new implementation of company policies. Also the employees’ political standing should be respected and well listened to especially when it is toward the company policy and issues. Good employee relations help increasing the engagement of the employees to the company so as their commitment and involvement as well. It also helps with the staff retention which is necessary for a company setting up in a new country like TDS (CIPD, 2008). Career development – National culture has an impact on career development and the natures of the managerial tasks on what management should do or be are depended on assumptions of being versus doing. The determinants for success varies across cultures when some places have it based on achieving results like the United States while in the United Kingdom having good interpersonal skills and personal connections are the keys for success at the career front. Favored career paths also differ culturally and it is bound up with cultural assumptions regarding the importance of the individual versus loyalty to the company, doing versus being, and tolerance for uncertainty. So a multinational company should make sure that the perceptions of what it takes to get to the top and the patterns of career development would include people with different skills, abilities, knowledge and perspectives (Susan Barsoux, 2003, 168 -70). With the references to managing people and HRM, I feel the four department managers, two from the United States and two from Hong Kong, should focus on during their first three months is selection because it is vital to get the right people for the right job in any organization (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 151). Local talent may have different types of abilities, skills, knowledge and strength owing to the national values differences placed on the education so it is also a challenge to get the right people who fit the requirement for the particular job and also fit with the company culture. The managers should consider the differences in attitude towards the hiring practices in Hong Kong and also the cultural differences will influence on how to recruit as well. So getting access to the local labor pool to get the people that match with the job criteria is important too. Therefore, selection should be focused by four department managers for the first three months to get the right people in place and help them to adjust and fit into a new culture and way of life in order to make the launch of TDS in Hong Kong a success. The trade unions in the United Kingdom has a culture as a collective bargaining tool with management while the one in the United States has more of a hire and fire culture. In Hong Kong, there are four trade unions and the largest one among them is the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and their main slogans are patriotism, solidarity, right, welfare and participation (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2008b). Although the unions in Hong Kong are focused on the rights and welfares of the workers as much as those in the United Kingdom and the United States but they are still at the stage of establishing as the largest unions in Hong Kong was founded in 1948 while those in United Kingdom have been existed for over 100 years like the General Federation of Trade Unions (UK) (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2008c) and so as those in the United States like the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations was founded in 1886 (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2008d). Since the United States is the biggest trade business partners of Hong Kong, most of the companies would contain the culture of the United States to remain individual. Task 5 The benefits of creating and working within the context of a multicultural team are given the larger complexity and speed of change in the international business environment. It seems obvious that bringing people together from different cultures enhance the quality of decisions taken. These multinational cultures contribute a greater range of perspectives and options with even more successful marketing strategies and ideas to attract different types of customers. It can also provide a different or new way of looking at the old or existing problems and help to promote the chances for greater innovation and creativity with the cultural differences as well (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 218). Combining people from different cultural backgrounds also benefits the organization integration and learning so as the managerial development. It improves lateral networks for the communication and information flow. Also when bringing the people with the different cultural backgrounds together, it can be a solution to help minimize the risk of uniformity and pressures for conformity which can appear in the company when there are too many like minded people working at the same company together at the same time (Janis, 1971). Also teams that are composed by members with different profiles are far more effective than teams that are made by the best and the brightest performers or with the members who are having the similar profiles. Teams that have included a mixture of members with profiles of different areas performed better as they have the balance of roles. Different cultures have different assumptions toward the business issues and also have different ideas about the reasons of teams. So that to share information and discuss about any problem at work with people from different cultural background would often generate greater results in a dynamic way. Furthermore to the benefit of the combination with people from different cultures background would enhance the productivity for the organization. The challenges of creating and working within the context of a multicultural team are that bringing people together from different cultures is given more ambiguity and uncertainty in decision making. Also it would be much more complex in the organization from the procession to implementation due to the cultural differences in assumptions. People with different cultural backgrounds work together might create interpersonal conflict and communication problems at work. Also it would create greater potential for frustration and dissatisfactions that might lead to higher turnover of team members within the group (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 231). The choice of language using within the multicultural team might also creates friction and misunderstanding especially when the native language for the three American managers is English while the native language for the local managers is Chinese, there is a huge scope for misunderstandings that could hamper the cohesion and effectiveness of the team no matter how fluent the local managers could speak in English (I-change, 2008). According to the personal upbringing and values, technical background and training, and also the national backgrounds can distort and filter the messages in many layers of meaning within a multicultural team that can lead to further misunderstanding and frustrations. Barriers would also be created for the multicultural team due to the direct versus indirect communication; trouble with accents and fluency; differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority and so as the conflicting norms for decision making (Brett, Behfar Kern, 2006). Direct versus indirect communication is that in western cultures, the communication is typically direct and explicit. The listener does not need to know much about the speaker in order to interpret the context because the context of the meaning of the conversation is on the surface while the meaning of the conversation is embedded in the way the message is presented in many other cultures. Although the language of international business is English, the trouble with accents and fluency may lead to deep frustration and misunderstanding because of nonnative speakers’ accents, problems with translation or usage and lack of fluency would also influence the perceptions of status and competence. A challenge inherent in multicultural team with differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority is that by design, teams have a rather flat structure. But team members from some cultures that people are treated differently according to their status in an organization probably are uncomfortable on flat teams. If they defer to higher status team members then their behavior will be seen as appropriate when most of the team members are came from a hierarchical culture; but they may damage their stature and credibility and even face humiliation if most of the team members are came from an egalitarian culture. Cultures differ enormously when it comes to decision making due to the conflicting norms for decision making particularly on how much analysis is required beforehand and how quickly the decisions should be made. American managers like to make decisions very quickly and with little analysis relatively when compared to the managers from other countries that may also be the challenge too. Task 6 Management Approach The four profiles are Village Market Well oiled machine Family or tribe Pyramid of people Ethical considerations: Managers and companies need to access how different spheres of cultural influence contribute to ethnical behavior. Ethical considerations could include such things as ‘harsh capitalism’ which could include laying off workers, breakdown of psychological contract, corruption, codes of conduct, and the Sullivan Principles. Common rationalizations in explaining unethical behavior can be: It is not really illegal or immoral It serves the best interest of the individual or company It is safe because it will never be found out or publicized The activity helps the company and therefore it will be condoned and protected References: Brett J., Behfar K. Kern M.C. (2006) Harvard Business Review[online]. Available from:http://web.gsm.uci.edu/~kbehfar/Behfar-HBR%202006.pdf [Accessed 27 July 2008] Business Expectation Statistics Section, Census and Statistics Department. (2007a). Hong Kong Statistics – Statistical Tables [online]. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Available from: http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hong_kong_statistics/statistical_tables/index.jsp?htmlTableID=133excelID=134chartID=tableID=133ID=subjectID=5 [Accessed 29 June 2008] Business Expectation Statistics Section, Census and Statistics Department. (2007b). Hong Kong Statistics – Statistical Tables [online]. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Available from: http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hong_kong_statistics/statistical_tables/index.jsp?htmlTableID=134excelID=chartID=tableID=134ID=subjectID=5 CIPD. (2008) Employee Relations: an overview [online]. Available from: http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/empreltns/general/emprelsovr.htm [Accessed 13 July 2008] Eretz, M. and Early, P.C. (1993) Culture, Self-identity, and Work, New York: Oxford University Press. I-Change. (2008) Multicultural teamwork Communication[online]. Available from: (http://www.i-change.biz/multiculturalteamworkcommunication.php [Accessed 27 July 2008] Janis, I.L. (1971) Victims of Groupthink, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Kets de Vries, M. and Mead, C. (1992) Development of the global leader, in V. Pucik, N. Ticy and C.Barnett (eds) Globalizing Management, New York: John Wiley, pp.194-205 Pennings, J.M. (1993) Executive reward systems: A cross – national comparison,, Journal of Management Studies, 30(2), pp.261-80, p.264. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, pp.24-6, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, pp.26-7, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, p.29, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, p.30, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, p.31, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, p.124, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, p.151, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, p.165, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, p.167, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, p.168, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, pp.168-70, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, pp.190-1, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd edition, p.192, Prentice Hall. Schneider, S.C. and Barsoux, J.L. (2003), Managing Across Cultures 2nd Cross Cultural Awareness in Management Cross Cultural Awareness in Management Task 1 The FIVE most important competencies for managing internationally in my country, Hong Kong, for these three American managers of TDS are: Interpersonal Skills – If this is not the most important skill of all, it is the crucial one. This skill helps the expatriate managers to establish relationships, coordinate with others, satisfying the needs for friendship and intimacy when they are abroad. It also helps in building trust and form relationships with the people around them. The expatriate managers are often experiencing uncertainties and getting stressed when dealing things with work and personal life in a new environment. So with good interpersonal skills will be able to reduce the stress coming from every angle. Referring to a recent book (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 190-1), the primary selection of many companies for the expatriate managers in practice is their track records on reaching their targets or getting their jobs done. Companies also would like to send those that are eager to climb further on their career ladders or those with technical or conceptual abilities instead of those with interpersonal skills abroad. These expatriates are often too focused on their personal agenda to make things happen and ignore the pressure that are given to the local staffs which would create tension at work. Moreover, feelings of mistrust and resentment of the local staffs towards the head office will also be exacerbated. Therefore, interpersonal skills should be taken into account when the American managers are being chosen to manage in a foreign country like Hong Kong. Motivation to live abroad – It is a key factor for the expatriate managers and their families to adapt into the local culture successfully (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 192). Basically they should have real interests in the country they will live in, in order to have the curiosity to get to know it better and experience it well. It is the desire that makes them easier to understand the culture with ease. Patience and respect – Different countries have different cultures so it is necessary that the international managers have the patience and respect when dealing with the new culture. It takes time to cope and learn the differences between the culture at home and the culture of the new place so the international managers should be patient (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 193). They also need to have respect for the local of how the things happen in some ways when dealing with different circumstances in any aspects. Cultural empathy – This is a not skill that can be easily acquired because it is deeply rooted in someone’s character to have the mentality of empathy for others with cultural differences (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 193). It is required in order to respect the local staffs by the international managers to be a good listener to focus on what they have to say. Being non-judgmental is also important for those managers to be able to understand others’ points of views. The psychological development of a human being allows narcissism to be evolved to a point that interfere the capacity for empathy (Kets de Vries, M. and Mead, C. 1992). Managers that are narcissistic usually are self- centred and think that others are paltry or just the extensions of their own. They make the values of others hard to be recognized, let alone appreciate, because they see others as objects or tools for them to get what they want in order to achieve their goals and they also think of others as the mirrors to reflect their own glory. This type of managers would use all their efforts to prove their worth instead of considering the needs and the existing values of the other staffs. Flexibility, tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity – These managers also need to have the flexibility, tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. Changing circumstances that are unexpected makes the managers face with thread of uncertainty and ambiguity because the reactions and the behaviors of the local staffs may be unpredictable. Managers are intended to reinforce greater controls and restrict on the information flow when they face this kind of tread especially during an international assignment (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 192-3). It often results in a stereotypical response and not well adapted to the situation on hands. Although it is difficult for the managers that are usually awarded by being in charged and staying on top of things, expatriates need to ‘go with the flow’ and let go of control. Everyone doesn’t always need to go by the book because actions are often taken base on insufficient, unreliable or/ and conflicting information. Task 2 Controlling model and Adapting model are the names and characteristics of two specific models of strategy related to cultural assumptions and approaches in adapting to external environment as discussed in the literature. The differences between controlling and adapting approaches are described below: Controlling model is based on active search that is focused and systematic. The planning system of the controlling approach is formalized and centralized using expert consultants to assist in devising strategy. The information being used by the controlling method is objective, quantitative and impersonal also interpreting information relies on formal models and methods like strategic forecasting with scenario planning. The people involve in this model are those from the top management or the experts of the particular area. The decisions for the controlling approach would be made by the top management and pass down to be implemented. The strategic goals and action plans are clearly defined, articulated and it would be explicitly measured and rewarded in this controlling method. As it assumes that the environment is known to reduce environmental uncertainty. This approach is usually sequential and short term (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 124). Adapting model is broad, sporadic, decentralized and mostly based on monitoring. It is the opposite from the controlling model, informal and decentralized. The adapting approach is personal, subjective and qualitative; the information would be interpreted by some informal methods with discussions and debate. It would have the employees involved from all across the ranks. The decisions for the adapting approach would be made by the front lines staffs, neither the people from top management nor the experts. The strategic goals tend to emerge and action plans are broad, implicit and vaguely monitored. Also it assumes that the environment cannot be readily known or controlled. This approach is long term and simultaneous (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 124). The model of adapting approach is more appropriate in this situation with TDS because TDS is new to town and not quite familiar with the culture and environment in Hong Kong. Also the environment cannot be controlled or readily known, it would be wise to have the responsibilities to be diffused throughout the organization to make all the staffs from different ranks to get involved. Strategic direction tends to emerge when different people come with different perspective on the business point of view. The implementation should be locally determined to keep it within this strategic frame. Strategy can be refined on an ongoing basis and the adjustments can be made to any unexpected circumstances. TDS should be flexible in order to deal with any sort of unforeseen events or sudden change in any situation. A broad scan is needed in case of any subtle change in the environment and also accountability should be assigned to the collective too because everyone is involved to contribute to make things happen. Task 3 The Five methods of discovery that I would recommend to the three American managers transferring into my country, Hong Kong, are: Architecture and design – According to a recent book (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 24-6) the most obvious artifact is the architecture and design of the building when you enter the organization. In the United States, most of the office design would be opened space with partitioned off by half walls with each individual cubicles personalized by personal interested items such as photos, plants or aphorisms. By not being able to see each other directly allows a sense of privacy to be established. Also opened doors are usually signaled as accessible and available while closed doors are indicated as a sign of privacy desire in the United States. To the contrary, Japanese prefer to have some of the walls knocked off so informal communication would not be inhibited. On the other hand, Germans experience difficulty to work in an open-plan office due they feel it is lack of privacy. Although Hong Kong has a majority of 95 percent Chinese people according to a website (The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, 2008), and was also a British colony for over 150 years, the main business partner of its own is still the United States as shown by the figures provided from the Business Expectation Statistics Section, Census and Statistics Department, (2007a) (2007b). Therefore, most of the office design in Hong Kong is followed to the same style as those in the United States. Greeting rituals – In the United States, the greeting rituals are tended to be paid less attention according to a recent book (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 26-7). But for the other countries, the protocol is taken quite seriously. There are different forms of way in greetings such as showing respect by exchanging and inspecting business cards in Japan, greeting individual by name, shaking hands and making eye contact by French. The degree of body contact expected in greeting creates a fair amount of confusion in another part of the rituals too. In the United States, people might greet others with a hug even when the acquaintanceship is ordinary. In some countries like France, kissing hello and goodbye are common while people from countries like Hong Kong might feel uncomfortable and uneasy about it. According to a website (The Economist Newspaper Limited, 2008), handshaking followed by an immediate swapping of business cards is the most common form of greeting in Hong Kong. Dress Codes – It is another cultural artifact varies from the degree of formality. Schneider Barsoux (2003, 29) pointed out that Anglo and Asian managers do not want to get too much attention or stand out by the way they dress while the Latin managers really care about their personal style. Moreover, corporate dress seems to be color coded in some countries. For example in the United Kingdom, some women are advised not to wear suits and dresses in bright color to work such as red and some bankers of a Dutch bank even avoid to wear suits in brown. It also signals task orientation. In the United States, rolled up shirt sleeves is considered as a signal of hard working while in France means ‘relaxing on the job’. Not to mention that some US companies have designated days to encourage people to appear in casual clothes at work such as Fridays. According to a website (World Business Culture, 2008), dress codes differ base on the size of company and industry sector in Hong Kong. Men mostly wear dark suits, shirts and ties while women wear conservative suits and dresses. Trousers and causal wear are tended to be worn only on informal occasions or designated days. Written versus verbal contracts – In different parts of the world people have different definitions toward the sealed business agreements as mentioned in a recent book (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 30). In some places, one’s word means more than a legal document while others need to put down all the details on a paper in black and white. Problems would appear when the contracts are expected by the head office to be signed, sealed and delivered from a place where one’s reputation and honor are way more valuable than some legal documents. Figures from Schneider Barsoux (2003, 30) for the estimated numbers of lawyers per capita of some countries like United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan reflect the differences on expectations. American managers will bring it to the legal department to retrieve whenever a business deal has been fell through while some other countries would sort things out through the relationship. Since Hong Kong is a Common Law Jurisdiction like most of the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2008a), people most likely to expect to have a written contract over a business deal. Criteria for success – It depends on the importance of stakeholders whether it is the benefit of the shareholders, the customers or the employees. Beliefs and values differ when there are different stakeholders; there are different criteria for success. Schneider Barsoux (2003, 31) claimed that American companies only exist for the benefit of the shareholders. This might be disagreed in Japan or even shock the Japanese as they believe customers have the divine rights. Some countries in Europe such as Germany or Sweden believe that the employees have the divine rights instead. Although all these factors are crucial to the business success, you still need to have a closer look to the cultural preferences in different countries like Hong Kong. Task 4 In my opinion, the key functions for managing people and human resource management are recruitment and selection, compensation and rewards, employee relations, and career development. Recruitment and selection – This can be the most challenging and important function for managing people and human resource management. It is because finding ‘the right people for the right job’ is essential. It is often a challenge as well especially when the nature of the local labor market or the available human resources is not familiar. The company needs to understand how to access the local labor pool in order to get the equivalent people to work for the company. So finding those candidates who have the abilities and requirements to finish the task and get the job done is also hard and essential, not to mention to get those who seem to likely match with the existing corporate culture. Moreover, the standard profile of one country might be very different from another in terms of representation and the differences in education systems also play a part to make the selection difficult in selecting which person fits the profile for the job (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 151). Compensation and rewards – The cultural differences play a role when it comes to determine the terms of reward and who gets it. Different cultures have different type of value in relations to the reward and vary to the extent in the belief that reward should be collective or individual. Pay for performance is assumed to be based on contribution or ‘equity’ instead of the belonging to the group or ‘equality’ (Eretz and Early, 1993). In the contractual view of employment, the notions of equity, ‘you get what you deserve’, are embedded while the notions of equality, ‘you deserve what you get’, correspond to the social view (Pennings, 1993). According to Susan Barsoux (2003, 165), the current trend of linking salary payment to working performances is especially suspect to be cultural related. It has been discovered that in some countries like France, it would be shocked for the French executives to have clearly stated quantifiable objective relating increased performances to increased bonus. It is because the French executives found that discussion about money and finance is such a turned off. It also provoked outcries when the merit pay was attempted to be introduced in Japan. It created uproar as the Japanese executives were scared that it would ruin the harmony of the group and might also encourage short term thinking especially when the employees only focus on the performance in order to get the bonus. On the other hand, the dominant influence in American managerial thinking is the principle of equity that each one should be rewarded based on the solely contribution by that particular person. Nowadays in the view towards team management that demands group cooperation instead of competition among individuals finds the merit-based pay in the United States demotivating (Susan Barsoux, 2003, 167). The preference between financial or non financial incentives is also related to the culture. The motivating potential of money, status, vacation time is also affected and changed across countries. Swedish would prefer to have some time off rather than a bonus because they are more concerned with the quality of life and monetary rewards are less motivating while giving time off might seem to have not much point in Japan when most of the employees only take half of their holiday entitlement (Susan Barsoux, 2003, 167). So the internationally operated companies should learn to appreciate the different values and evaluate the potential impact as well because the remuneration package is a very strong indicator of the culture and the behavior expected and also can be used in order to encourage cooperation or competition, risk taking or conservatism, and information sharing or information hoarding. The remuneration package is also a very important signal when it comes to aspiring recruits. When the company wants to attract local elite, it can choose to align itself with the local norms or the alien one when the preference of the company changes to attract the less mainstream or adventurous or those that are frustrated with the local practices and looking to be rewarded for their efforts and success (Susan Barsoux, 2003, 168). Employee relations – It is important to have a good relations and mutual understanding between the management and the staffs of the company. Any staff grievances of the company should be dealt with and well listened to in order to promote a harmony environment. An open dialogue is needed to be promoted between the management and the unions of the company to eliminate any conflicts or fictions that may occur between the staffs and the management specially when there is a new implementation of company policies. Also the employees’ political standing should be respected and well listened to especially when it is toward the company policy and issues. Good employee relations help increasing the engagement of the employees to the company so as their commitment and involvement as well. It also helps with the staff retention which is necessary for a company setting up in a new country like TDS (CIPD, 2008). Career development – National culture has an impact on career development and the natures of the managerial tasks on what management should do or be are depended on assumptions of being versus doing. The determinants for success varies across cultures when some places have it based on achieving results like the United States while in the United Kingdom having good interpersonal skills and personal connections are the keys for success at the career front. Favored career paths also differ culturally and it is bound up with cultural assumptions regarding the importance of the individual versus loyalty to the company, doing versus being, and tolerance for uncertainty. So a multinational company should make sure that the perceptions of what it takes to get to the top and the patterns of career development would include people with different skills, abilities, knowledge and perspectives (Susan Barsoux, 2003, 168 -70). With the references to managing people and HRM, I feel the four department managers, two from the United States and two from Hong Kong, should focus on during their first three months is selection because it is vital to get the right people for the right job in any organization (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 151). Local talent may have different types of abilities, skills, knowledge and strength owing to the national values differences placed on the education so it is also a challenge to get the right people who fit the requirement for the particular job and also fit with the company culture. The managers should consider the differences in attitude towards the hiring practices in Hong Kong and also the cultural differences will influence on how to recruit as well. So getting access to the local labor pool to get the people that match with the job criteria is important too. Therefore, selection should be focused by four department managers for the first three months to get the right people in place and help them to adjust and fit into a new culture and way of life in order to make the launch of TDS in Hong Kong a success. The trade unions in the United Kingdom has a culture as a collective bargaining tool with management while the one in the United States has more of a hire and fire culture. In Hong Kong, there are four trade unions and the largest one among them is the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and their main slogans are patriotism, solidarity, right, welfare and participation (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2008b). Although the unions in Hong Kong are focused on the rights and welfares of the workers as much as those in the United Kingdom and the United States but they are still at the stage of establishing as the largest unions in Hong Kong was founded in 1948 while those in United Kingdom have been existed for over 100 years like the General Federation of Trade Unions (UK) (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2008c) and so as those in the United States like the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations was founded in 1886 (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2008d). Since the United States is the biggest trade business partners of Hong Kong, most of the companies would contain the culture of the United States to remain individual. Task 5 The benefits of creating and working within the context of a multicultural team are given the larger complexity and speed of change in the international business environment. It seems obvious that bringing people together from different cultures enhance the quality of decisions taken. These multinational cultures contribute a greater range of perspectives and options with even more successful marketing strategies and ideas to attract different types of customers. It can also provide a different or new way of looking at the old or existing problems and help to promote the chances for greater innovation and creativity with the cultural differences as well (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 218). Combining people from different cultural backgrounds also benefits the organization integration and learning so as the managerial development. It improves lateral networks for the communication and information flow. Also when bringing the people with the different cultural backgrounds together, it can be a solution to help minimize the risk of uniformity and pressures for conformity which can appear in the company when there are too many like minded people working at the same company together at the same time (Janis, 1971). Also teams that are composed by members with different profiles are far more effective than teams that are made by the best and the brightest performers or with the members who are having the similar profiles. Teams that have included a mixture of members with profiles of different areas performed better as they have the balance of roles. Different cultures have different assumptions toward the business issues and also have different ideas about the reasons of teams. So that to share information and discuss about any problem at work with people from different cultural background would often generate greater results in a dynamic way. Furthermore to the benefit of the combination with people from different cultures background would enhance the productivity for the organization. The challenges of creating and working within the context of a multicultural team are that bringing people together from different cultures is given more ambiguity and uncertainty in decision making. Also it would be much more complex in the organization from the procession to implementation due to the cultural differences in assumptions. People with different cultural backgrounds work together might create interpersonal conflict and communication problems at work. Also it would create greater potential for frustration and dissatisfactions that might lead to higher turnover of team members within the group (Schneider Barsoux, 2003, 231). The choice of language using within the multicultural team might also creates friction and misunderstanding especially when the native language for the three American managers is English while the native language for the local managers is Chinese, there is a huge scope for misunderstandings that could hamper the cohesion and effectiveness of the team no matter how fluent the local managers could speak in English (I-change, 2008). According to the personal upbringing and values, technical background and training, and also the national backgrounds can distort and filter the messages in many layers of meaning within a multicultural team that can lead to further misunderstanding and frustrations. Barriers would also be created for the multicultural team due to the direct versus indirect communication; trouble with accents and fluency; differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority and so as the conflicting norms for decision making (Brett, Behfar Kern, 2006). Direct versus indirect communication is that in western cultures, the communication is typically direct and explicit. The listener does not need to know much about the speaker in order to interpret the context because the context of the meaning of the conversation is on the surface while the meaning of the conversation is embedded in the way the message is presented in many other cultures. Although the language of international business is English, the trouble with accents and fluency may lead to deep frustration and misunderstanding because of nonnative speakers’ accents, problems with translation or usage and lack of fluency would also influence the perceptions of status and competence. A challenge inherent in multicultural team with differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority is that by design, teams have a rather flat structure. But team members from some cultures that people are treated differently according to their status in an organization probably are uncomfortable on flat teams. If they defer to higher status team members then their behavior will be seen as appropriate when most of the team members are came from a hierarchical culture; but they may damage their stature and credibility and even face humiliation if most of the team members are came from an egalitarian culture. Cultures differ enormously when it comes to decision making due to the conflicting norms for decision making particularly on how much analysis is required beforehand and how quickly the decisions should be made. American managers like to make decisions very quickly and with little analysis relatively when compared to the managers from other countries that may also be the challenge too. Task 6 Management Approach The four profiles are Village Market Well oiled machine Family or tribe Pyramid of people Ethical considerations: Managers and companies need to access how different spheres of cultural influence contribute to ethnical behavior. Ethical considerations could include such things as ‘harsh capitalism’ which could include laying off workers, breakdown of psychological contract, corruption, codes of conduct, and the Sullivan Principles. Common rationalizations in explaining unethical behavior can be: It is not really illegal or immoral It serves the best interest of the individual or company It is safe because it will never be found out or publicized The activity helps the company and therefore it will be condoned and protected References: Brett J., Behfar K. Kern M.C. (2006) Harvard Business Review[online]. Available from:http://web.gsm.uci.edu/~kbehfar/Behfar-HBR%202006.pdf [Accessed 27 July 2008] Business Expectation Statistics Section, Census and Statistics Department. (2007a). Hong Kong Statistics – Statistical Tables [online]. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Available from: http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hong_kong_statistics/statistical_tables/index.jsp?htmlTableID=133excelID=134chartID=tableID=133ID=subjectID=5 [Accessed 29 June 2008] Business Expectation Statistics Section, Census and Statistics Department. (2007b). Hong Kong Statistics – Statistical Tables [online]. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Available from: http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hong_kong_statistics/statistical_tables/index.jsp?htmlTableID=134excelID=chartID=tableID=134ID=subjectID=5 CIPD. (2008) Employee Relations: an overview [online]. 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