Choosing Among Two Aspirant in an Office Essay

During the work hunting days of the newly graduates and other professionals, there are lots of pressure and competition among the applicants in different offices or jobs that they are applying for. Let us take a closer look between these two candidates in an office, Obama and Hiliary.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Assuming that they are competing for a job in an office of personnel and communication of a corporation, Obama and Hiliary should meet the qualifications identified by the office as requisites before they could be accepted as staff. The office of personnel and communication is also commonly known as human resource department of a company. However, it scopes further networking and creation of press releases and other researches. It is very necessary for a person who is working in that particular department of the corporation to be socialized with different people, first and foremost, her co-workers. It is because in this job, staff will be meeting people from different walks of life. They are to deal and communicate with different networks. And since there could be loads of works in daily basis, one should be efficient enough to finish a one day job of paper works. Obama, is a graduate of a business related course three years ago in a one of the top universities in California. She graduated with honors and a very good scholastic background and affiliations. She has already three years experience from previous work in a non-government organization as training officer. She is very young at an age 23 going to 24. Hiliary, on the other hand, is of the same age of Obama. However, Hiliary graduated without any special commends but also from one of the top universities Los Angeles. She studied there also a business related course and took several extra short courses in psychology. After her graduation she works in a private company as personnel staff, and eventually, after consistent eight months of excellent work, she seats as the assistant head of human resource department of her previous company. And now, these two young ladies are candidates in an office as head of the personnel and communication of the corporation. There have been qualifications that are being specified a while ago. To choose among these two candidates, their educational background, credentials, and their personality could be tested and compared so as to choose the right person to fit the job. Obama, has a better scholastic standing and background as it shows by her honors and awards during her college education, than Hiliary, who graduated with her diploma only, taken into considerations that they both come from top universities in the world. However, Hiliary, as checked in her working experience and from the company where worked, it was found out that she had a very good social skills and was able to deal with top position people in the corporate world down to the most ordinary worker. She was promoted at the very early eight months of her work period as the assistant head of the human resource department. But Obama, was also found a very persevere and dedicated employee. In terms of their personality, both of the two could socialize and work well with different kind s of people. Since they are candidate in work of a head of the personnel and communication of a corporation, the one who deserves the position, must be acquainted enough and familiar enough with the nature of work. In case of Obama, she worked as training officer in her previous company. Meaning, that she could communicate and lead and guide other people in the company and outside the company. Both of the two have already endured the pressure of professional works. However, Hiliary has already her experience of working as assistant head of human resource department, which is very similar to the work that she is applying now.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In selecting for the right position holder in the corporation, these comparisons and contrast could be one of the bases that could be used. Works Cited â€Å"Ethical Office Politics.† Lifehack.org. (No Date). November 19, 2007

Time Warner Cable

Large-scale mergers between media companies are becoming more and more commonplace in recent years causing alarm to consumers and industry analysts. The result of these mergers has been a consolidation of market competitors causing media ownership and influence to be controlled by a smaller and less diverse group of firms, the essence of anti-competitiveness. Most recently, Compact announced its intent to acquire Time Warner Cable (ETC) which, if approved, will unite the two biggest companies in the cable television market (Steelers, 2014).The merger would give unprecedented power to the newly merged company which would over 30 percent of the pay television subscribers (Baker, 2014). The fact is that separately, Compact and ETC already have market power in numerous local geographic markets. Compact is the nation's largest provider of pay television with 22 million subscribers (41 percent of all homes and businesses in the geographic areas in which Compact operates). ETC is the second largest cable television company with 1 1. 2 million subscribers.After the merger, approximately one third of all cable television bickerers will be Compact customers sparking concern about the amount of leverage and influence one company should control (Rhombohedra & Camilla, 2014). There are varying opinions about the kind of economic industry cable television market operates in. Many argue that cable television is a â€Å"natural monopoly' (source). Economics professor, Thomas Delivered, explains, natural monopolies occur when production technology, such as relatively high fixed costs, causes long-run average total costs to decline as output expands.In such industries, the theory goes, a single reducer will eventually be able to produce at lower cost than any two other producers, thereby creating a ‘natural' monopoly. Higher prices will result if more than one producer supplies the market. (Delivered, 1996, p. 43) Natural monopolies are created when the initial investment in the framework and infrastructure required to enter the market are so high that it discourages other firms from coming into the market. Installing cable lines is an example of the high cost of starting a business in the television industry and a â€Å"first come, first serve† mentality for natural monopolies.Implementing the cable lines is considered a sunk cost and is one reason why there are such overwhelming difficulties to entry in the cable industry. With natural monopolies, economies of scale are also very significant so that minimum efficient scale is not reached until the firm has become very large in relation to the total size of the market allowing it to recoup its investment. The graph below shows the demand curve of a natural market economy (Economics Online, 2014). When price is allowed to be set by the company (P), it results in higher levels of profit and manipulation of the market.The company's main concern is in the bottom line and maximizing its profits. The chart also shows a potential price (Pl) that would result if there was some regulation; for example, government imposes a price cap and the company operates at a loss. The cable television industry has also been described as a â€Å"patchwork of micro-monopolies† (Honda, 2011, p. 1). Since there are a small number of large companies that compete on the national scale, some argue that the industry cannot be classified as a monopoly or natural monopoly.However, the market structure, permitted and/or encouraged by the government, is set up so that Hess companies do not compete on the local level which results in small scale monopolies and little to no choice for the consumers. A 2011 survey by the Federal Communications Commission concluded that 61. 5 percent of customers had only one choice of cable provider in their neighborhood (Marten, 2012). The theory is that through local government legislation and result in nearly non-existent competition on the local level between c able companies has led to a non-competitive oligopoly (Shafer, 2014).Although the cable industry natural monopoly may have made sense initially, the companies that have been able to benefit from this market structure have exploited the consumer and been able to charge high prices for mediocre products. Many of the government regulations that were initially implemented at the onset on the industry were controversial; firms paid franchise fees enabling them to obtain decisions through offers of building public access studios and regulating the rates of the politicians' Jurisdiction (Shafer, 2014).Notwithstanding the exact classification, there is a general consensus that too few companies in the cable television industry hold too much power. It is evident when comparing the service that the American public receives in terms of cable television and broadband from these companies to other developed nations that we consumers receive far less. Americans pay more for their personal service that in any other industrialized country except Chile, Mexico and Turkey (Crawford, 2014).In the United Kingdom, the government forces the cable companies which dominate the market to lease their networks to competitors at cost. This weakening of one of the major barriers to entry in the system has created competition and brought prices down considerably to the UK population (Caddis, 2014). There are many negative consequences for consumers when industries operate in monopolistic or near monopolistic competition. This is especially true when the industry is related to the media and has a great deal of influence on what the public is seeing and hearing.First, the media market will be too reliant on and loyal to large corporate sponsors. The industry will become singularly focused on what it can get from the consumer rather than concern with public interest. Second, a small number of colossal companies will represent the interests of their stockholders, usually America's upper-class. Third, there is a lack of competition in the marketplace which leads to higher prices to the consumer and a lack of innovation in the products offered. These problems are exemplified by both ETC and Compact.In 2012, ETC spent Just 9 percent of its $41 billion revenue on maintaining and upgrading their equipment and networks (Hilt, 2013). Compact spent even less, 3. 7 percent of its $118. 3 billion revenue. There is little reason to believe that two companies spending such a small percentage of their revenue on making improvements to their products and services would change their strategy cost-merger. Consumers are already troubled with the possibility that the merger will be approved. Cable television companies already have critically low satisfaction scores among their clients.ETC and Compact are the two worst offenders in the industry. In 2013, the American Consumer Satisfaction Index gave the two companies the dubious distinction of having the lowest rated television and interne t services in the United States (Ezra, 2014). According to Yogurt's Barehanded, Americans do not want ETC and Compact to merge (Including, 2014). The television cable industry is notoriously retrieved by consumers in general and the announcement of the merger has caused the perception of the two companies to drop even further. The following chart shows how consumers are reacting to the $45 billion deal.In many cases, customers have no recourse other than cutting the cable cord completely if they do not choose Compact or ETC. There are many non-cable media options for the public to patron however, one major section of the population has no choice but to subscribe to cable: sports fans. This is of particular concern to the Dodgers and Lasers fans in Los Angles. Currently, ETC spent billions to obtain eradicating right to both massively lucrative sports franchises (Baker, 2014). This allows ETC to extract steep subscriber fees to its non-cable competition.When the negotiations between the companies stall or are incomplete, ETC blacks out the games to those who do not subscribe to ETC. This is especially problematic for sports fans who do not have the choice to become customers of ETC since the company does not even offer services in their region. Additionally, those customers who cut the cable cord are likely only able to access internet through the same company that was already overcharging for their television service. They will be able to watch Nettling or Hull instead of cable television but will still have to pay Compact in order to do so.It creates a catch-22 in the industry and very little choice for consumers in terms of who they select as their service provider. The merger between Compact and ETC will have a much greater impact than simply in the cable television industry alone. There will be a ripple effect in internet and phone service as well as the other media that these companies own such as NBC Universal and Sportsmen. The merged company's control will be more widespread because of their various endures making it all the more potentially harmful to the consumer.

Reading Response on Four by Veronica Roth

To have a successful fife in the right faction when a boy or girl turns sixteen they must take the aptitude test which helps them pick their faction. However, they may choose their faction based off of opinion or interest. There are five factions to choose from. Abnegation, the ones who value selflessness, Candor, the ones that honor honesty, Amity, the ones that honor the peaceful, Erudite, the ones who honor the intelligent, and Dauntless, the ones that honor the brave. Each faction honors a certain trait. They believe that if a person was brave, or selfless, or kind, there would be no war and only peace.At the Choosing pick their factions. They may choose to stay with Ceremony the teenagers their faction and their families or they can abandon them. Later on, if they prove to be unfit for their new factions they will become factionists; these are the people that have no family, no home. They live together or alone in abandoned buildings or homes, and even on the streets. Tibias Eat on, originally from Abnegation, has turned sixteen and has to decide what he was going to do with his life and what faction he will spend it in. However, one thing is clear for him.He will run from Abnegation, and he will run from his father. Tibias has to escape his father, and find a place where he is safe, and hidden. Tibias is tired of living in fear and is ready to take on his own path in a different faction. When Tibias returns to his plain Abnegation home he goes to his room and reviews his most precious possessions that were given to him by his mother. Tibias was informed that his mother died of child labor when he was a young boy. This made his family fall apart and caused the tension between him and his father.The author made this connection teen Tibias and his mother to show how his mother was the glue of their family and that Tibias was closer to her than he is to his father. When Tibias reviews all of his possessions he is caught by his father and has it all taken away from him. His father throws all of his treasures around the room, destroying them in the process. Tibias is now deprived of the only connection he had to his mother. Yet, we are about to discover more about Tibia's and his fathers relationship. Tibias has developed a fear of his father and this is because of the abuse his father puts on Tibias. His hands oiled with my chest. I stumble back and hit the dresser. Then he draws his hand back by his face to hit me, and say my throat tight with fear ‘ ‘The Choosing Ceremony, Dad! † † tomorrow was Tibia's Choosing Ceremony. His last chance to escape, to be free of fear. â€Å"When we get there, my father puts a hand on my shoulder as we walk to the entrance, sending shocks of pain through my body. Have to get out. † The day of the Choosing Ceremony is the day Tibias changes his life and the person he will become. Tibias is desperate to escape Abnegation and to escape his father.As the ceremony goes on, Tibias is thinking of what faction he will choose. Where will he fit in the most? Where will he be safe? He decides that Candor, Erudite, and Amity are not choices that he can live with. His only choice is Dauntless. â€Å"l open my palm over the coals. Feel like they're burning in my stomach, filling me to the brim with fire and smoke. I am free. † The minute the ceremony is over, Tibias begins initiation. He and the rest of the initiates must prove their bravery by jumping on to a moving train, then jump off of a moving train on a roof, and finally they must jump off of the roof.My stomach drops and my limbs fumble in the air for something, anything to hold onto, but there is nothing, only the drop, the air, the frantic search for the ground. † As initiation goes by Tibias changes his name to Four. After facing his worst fears Tibias and his initiation instructor Mar find out that he only has four fears. This new name gave Tibias new power, a new identity. â€Å"My name is Four,† I say. â€Å"Call me ‘Stiff again and you and I will have a problem. † During initiation, Four makes many friendships and becomes close to Mar. However, he is still quite different from the rest.He likes to be alone, to have a peace of mind once in a while. The first stage of initiation is physical training and combat. Four has the drive and the practice from his childhood abuse to become the best initiate. He proves his bravery by beating the other initiates in combat fights and using his strength and his thinking skills to his advantage. By the end of stage one, Four is ranked first out of his entire class and is considered someone to look out for. In the second stage of initiation Four has to prove that he can overcome his fears mentally using critical, fast thinking and by asking decisions that may be risky but courageous.However, Four thinks differently and beats the system by being aware during his stimulations that it is not reality. By being able t o do this he gets out of the stimulation by realizing that if he jumps he won't die because it's not real. Its just a test. Later on, Mar teaches Four to go through the stimulation like any other Dauntless would; with bravery. At the end of initiation the initiates are ranked to show who has more potential and more strength than others. For Four, his rank surprised him a bit. â€Å"Instantly, some of the tension disappears. I follow he list up, and panic stabs me for just a second when I can't find my own name.But then, there it is, right at the top. 1. Four. † After initiation Four becomes a full pledged Dauntless. Finally, he is rid of Abnegation, rid of his father. When Four gets his apartment he also gets a job offer to become a dauntless leader. Even though Four wanted to have a job where he would be the initiation instructor, like Mar, he was expected to have a more prestigious job since he was ranked first. Four agrees to take the job but his heart isn't with it. Later on, Four realizes that if he becomes a leader he will eve to face his father, an Abnegation leader. My fingers start to go numb. I've faced my fears so many times in simulations, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to face them in reality. † Four has to learn what it would be like to be a Dauntless leader but he also needed to learn the basic lifestyle of the Dauntless and needs to learn that Dauntless is more ‘out there' than Abnegation with their feelings, thoughts, and emotions. When Four goes to the meeting for dauntless leadership he quietly disagrees with the way the leaders handle situations and the changes that they want to make to aunties initiation.As the days go by, Four takes multiple tests that will determine if he has what it takes to become a leader, there is still tension and competition between Four and Eric and the fact that Eric has information that threatens Fours identity, and Four still has the suspicion of an intruder coming into his apartment. Four f inally faces his new life as the new â€Å"best† initiate of Dauntless. After a day of hard work, Four returns home to find that once again somebody was in his apartment. This time they left a note. â€Å"On the day you hated most. At the time when she dies. In the place where oh first jumped on. Four figured out that someone that had some connection to his childhood wanted to meet him. Instinctively, Four thinks its Marcus, his father. Four decides that he needs to know what Marcus wants and why he risked getting caught to contact him. When Four arrives at the platform in the middle of the night, its not Marcus that shows up. Its Evelyn Eaton. His mother. Right away Fours mind races with memories of his mothers the death. The funeral, the gathering, the ashes. The only thing Four can say is â€Å"You're supposed to be dead. † Fours mother tries to explain to IM that she didn't leave to hurt him.She had to get away from Abnegation, from Marcus. Just like Four. The aut hor here shows a similarity where both the mother and the son needed to escape from Fours father and his lifestyle. This show that Marcus might hide his temper and his real self from the public and only shows and acts like him true self at home. However, Four doesn't want to hear her pity story and he acts like she is the last person he wants to talk to. â€Å"Stop wasting my time. What are we doing here? † Evelyn reveals to Four that she is a leader to the factionists and that there is a big chance of a pricing among the factions and that Four should be on her side. Our city is changing, Tibias. The factionists are coming together, and so are Dauntless and Erudite. Sometime soon, everyone will have to choose a side, and I know which one you would rather be on. I think you can really make a difference with us. † Four doesn't care about any Of the problems, really. He just can't let go of the fact that Evelyn hasn't talked or reached out to him in seven years and now she actually wants something from him. A favor. Four chooses to run from her. Like he ran from him. Now that Four is trying to find who he ally is he wants to get a tattoo that will represent him as a person.While Four is getting the tattoo, Tort, the tattoo artist tells him about being Divergent. â€Å"That's a word for people who are aware during simulations, who refuse to categorize. † Four realizes that fits the description of Mar. Mar was aware during the Simi ululations. Divergent fit Mar, and it fit him. When Four meets with the dauntless leadership group again, he proves to have a less strategic protocol for initiates than no one other than Eric. Four realizes that this is his chance to change jobs and to escape leadership. To be honest, sir, I don't think that this is the right place for me.I told you when you first asked me that I'd like to be an instructor, and think I'm realizing more and more that that's where I belong. † Days have passed by after Four's meeti ng with Evelyn. He had time to think if leaving Dauntless, betraying his faction to join the factionists is the best thing he can do right now. He decides that it's not. He has friends that support and understand him and he knows that no way is he leaving them behind. â€Å"If the factions are deteriorating, as my mother loud have me believe, this is not a bad place to watch them fall apart. Four makes the choice to stay loyal to the faction that set him free. Two years later, Four is the initiation instructor for a group of transfer initiates which means that they come from other factions. There were initiates from Candor, Erudite, Amity, and Abnegation. The girl from Abnegation sparked Fours interest. Her name was Tries. She had a small form and looked as if she can snap like a twig in a second. Whenever Four is next to her he acts a certain way. He loses his hard, mean personality and opens up to her like he doesn't veer do to anyone.

Metaphorical Criticism of American Beauty Essay

Metaphorical Criticism of American Beauty - Essay Example As the paper declares the underlying message in the film is every human being’s quest for happiness and beauty, but this message is communicated through metaphors rather than stated directly in the dialogues. One of the most significant metaphors in the film is the use of the color red, as represented in the rose and rose petals that occur periodically in the film. The red symbolizes love and lust, yet it also symbolizes violence and death. Similarly, the metaphor of a garbage bag is used to present a message that is quite the opposite – that of beauty and transience. Each one of the characters in the film is involved in the same search – the search for happiness, although in each character’s case, the object of happiness is different. For the protagonist Lester, happiness lies in sexual conquest of his daughter’s friend by becoming youthful again, which reflects his desire to pull himself out of his current family situation where he is controlled b y his wife and her perceptions of what is socially correct. According to the report findings a metaphor is an outward symbol that helps in the process of attaining knowledge about the world. It is a group of things related in a particular manner in order to discover similar relations within another group, through the agents of language, categorization, comparison and contrast. It presents visually, the message that is being transmitted mentally, through the cognitive abilities of association.

Most Common Attribute Error Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Most Common Attribute Error - Essay Example According to Huczynski & Buchanan, (2013), fundamental attribution error is a â€Å"tendency to attribute another’s behavior to dispositional qualities, rather than the situation itself.† (p. 34). For this type of error to occur, there must be a valid situational factor in that people end up overestimating the dispositional attributions. Psychologists have proved that humans have a tendency to judge others without having any prior knowledge of what actually happened and thus apply dispositional attributions. Since it is something impressed in a society, Brookwell (2013) proposed that this type of attribution error is purely a cultural bias because it focuses on personal responsibilities and not behavior. Self-serving bias is a tendency to stable, dispositional factors and failures to temporary, and its link to self-presentation and self-esteem (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2013). Therefore, if an outcome, either success or failure, contradicts expectations, people will be likely to make situational attributions. When taking exams, a good number of students have hopes of performing well. However, when the results are out and they realize they have failed or performed far below their expectations, they always justify their failure with external factors, which are not controllable in most cases. Therefore, when people fail in cases where they put in a lot of efforts, they always attribute their failure using situational factors. Considerations that affect self-serving bias include projection of self-esteem in future, emotional state, desire for positive self-esteem, and culture. When people perform well with lots of efforts, they attribute their success to dispositional factors. In most cases, talking about failure is something everyone tries to avoid because of the unexpected reactions from friends and family. In the context of failing an exam, it is very easy for people to know even if they are not told

Personal Responsibility for College Success after 50 Essay

Personal Responsibility for College Success after 50 - Essay Example Despite the many forms of academic support, personal responsibility plays a significant role in college success. Most emphasis lies on out of class work and studying. With pending duties other than education, one needs to utilize time efficiently (Blerkom, 2008). Students need to organize their time and activities properly in order to accomplish their objectives. One needs to set their priorities first in order to enhance both the mission and vision, after joining university (Groccia, 1992). Time management should also apply in the professional and social life of a student in order to ensure that one has enough time for family and work, which are also important. As mentioned earlier, university schedules vary from high school schedules. Universities lack a rigid timetable; therefore, management of time poses as a great challenge. The student benefits from organizational tools such as a timetable, calendar, folder and personal timetable. On the other hand, signing up for evening classes or weekend classes assist in time management. Sometimes the absence in class is inevitable, but one has to catch up and update their notes to avoid any backlog. Elderly students face a great challenge in college. With time as the greatest enemy, proper time management assists in prompt achievement of goals. Additionally, setting one’s priorities allows easy achievement of target objectives, which involves getting good grades and utter

Mexican Politics and Culture Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Mexican Politics and Culture - Research Paper Example Since it gained independence from Great Britain, America has chosen the federal presidential form. Canada has long been federal parliamentary. Mexico on the other hand, seems to base its government structure with America. The United Mexican States (commonly known as Mexico) has no royal families unlike Canada. Mexico appears to have a very similar political system with United States due to the following factors: (1) presidential system (2) three autonomous branches (executive, legislative and judiciary) with checks and balances (3) federalism with a good amount of local autonomy. Notably, despite their sameness in political system, America and Mexico do not have the same economic status (Stacy, 2002). Like Canada, United States is one of the developed and industrialized countries of the world whereas Mexico belongs to the developing nations (Stacy, 2002). In lieu of that fact, this research paper will explore the respective political system of Mexico and United States. This will be f ollowed by a brief analysis of their similarities. At the end, an assessment shall be provided on whether or not their similar political structure is the reason for their economic disparity. The Mexican Political System Rogelio Hernandez-Rodriguez (2003) described the Mexican government as authoritative and the most successful to maintain a system which is dominated by one party. The PRI or the Institutional Revolutionary Party has long been controlling Mexican politics. This political party has ruled Mexico for almost seventy-one years (Klesner, 2005). Majority of the elected government officials of Mexico are affiliated with PRI. The authoritative nature of Mexican government is attributed to this fact. Nevertheless, despite the hegemony of PRI, Mexico has been politically stable (Rodriguez, 2003). The other political parties have done nothing bad for the government. It has been stressed that the country’s single party and presidential type of government are the major eleme nts of its effective institutional structure (Huntington, as cited in Rodriguez, 2003, p. 97). This is quite logical since a political party which continues to rule for several years can always focus on implementing its platforms. A one-party system promotes continuity of projects and more social services. Nonetheless, it does not allow other parties to contribute ideas to a great degree. The interest of the dominating party is always at the forefront of every political move. In fairness to Mexican citizens, they have been observed to recognize the reign of a single political party. Social acceptance of this reality has been imminent (Rodriguez, 2003). It could even be asserted that to a certain point, these citizens have been passive about the party’s dominance. Significantly, PRI experienced defeat in the last 2000 presidential election. The outcome of the election has shocked many journalists and politicians (Klesner, 2005). It was almost unbelievable on the part of Instit utional Revolutionary Party. One possible reason for the party’s defeat is the Mexican citizens’ discontentment or dismay with the administration largely controlled by PRI. The National Action Party’s (PAN) Vicente Fox won that particular election and served as Mexican president from 2000 to 2006 (Klesner, 2005). In the 2006 presidential race, a PAN candidate was also elected named Felipe Calderon (Klesner, 2005).

Managed Health Care Delivery with Healthcare Reform Act Essay

Managed Health Care Delivery with Healthcare Reform Act - Essay Example These legislative developments will no doubt bring about tremendous changes in the managed care sector impact immensely on the system of care delivery. Studying managed healthcare relative to the Health Care Reform Act is therefore a very important topic affecting healthcare professionals, care providers, medical students, policy makers and other stakeholders. The Act will particularly have far reaching impacts on models of business for insurance providers and the Managed HealthCare Sector. Insurers and self funded care plans for instance are required to overhaul some practices of underwriting as well as structures of benefit. The act will therefore see insurers receive more customers since most Americans are expected to acquire covers or attract penal measures. Ultimately premium rates expected to hike as insurers struggle with costs of registering new clients some with very high costs of medication. Another area of concern to the Health Care Reform Act has to do with compensation for physicians especially given the amount and nature of work given the changes that will be occasioned by the reforms. The future of managed healthcare is thus going to be marred with a myriad of changes all in the best interest of the patient in America. It is important for these reasons that I believe this is as very relevant and timely topic for students in the entire medical field. In this article, the author reflects on physician compensation, cost and quality in the U.S. He also explains three ways to reimburse physicians for services rendered; the ways are salary, capitation, or fee for service. Physicians reimbursed on the basis of salary receive a certain sum at the end of every month or year worked. Those on capitation schedule receive their payments commensurate with the number of patients attended to or the number of patients placed under their responsibility. On the other hand, professionals compensated based on fee-for-service receive payment for

Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 12

Research Paper Example At the age of three Chang Emigrated to the United States of America. Before turning to the full time writing career, Lee was the financial analyst of Wall Street. His first and the famous novel Native Speaker appeared in 1995, which won numerous Awards (Nguyen, 2012) The story of the Native Speaker rotates around the character named Henry Park. Park spends all his life to become a Native American, a true America. His Korean inheritance seems to float further and further away as the force of his adopted country continues to evade him. Harsh upbringing of Park back in Korea, has taught Park how to hide his emotions and how to remember everything he learns and the weirdest of all, how to feel an increasing sense of alienation. We can say in other words, that his Korean Heritage had taught him how to become a natural spy. But the only factor that assist him to shine in his profession put a tension to his American and rise in the approach of his coming to conditions with the death of his young son. When he is offered to spy on growing American-Korean politicians, he must find out that that the people are in his surroundings? This was the true test of his identity. He has to figure out the conflicts, which are prevailing within the political and ethnic sectors of New York (Kim, 2005). Henry Park, who is also the narrator, is an American-Korean immigrant. Explorations begin when the Henry’s Caucasian spouse leaves him. The novel Native Speaker is based in New York City. It takes place for the period of a time when black customers and American-Korean councilman boycotted the American market. The councilman was names as John Kwang. John was also a possible candidate for the post of mayor. Henry Park is employed to an investigative company of CIA –style. The Assignment which was offered to Henry by his company was to keep a check on John Kwang. Park does not know the purpose of investigation and who is paying for this investigation? He thinks

Can the direct targeting of civilians ever be morally justified Essay

Can the direct targeting of civilians ever be morally justified - Essay Example The Second World War caused numerous consequences to different nations owing to its magnitude and scale involving a vast geographic proportion of the world economies. It has been noted in this regard that the Second World War had been commenced with the participation of the then topmost nations of the world, which apparently signified the polarized world of the 20th century, where one side was apparently stronger and powerful than the other side. Comparing the casualties caused due to the First and the Second World War, especially those suffered by the civil societies around the world excluding the military property losses, historians revealed that area bombing campaign in the latter had a more devastating result. To be noted, the concept of area bombing was first developed by the British military during the war, where they had planned to attack certain specific areas of Germany as a part of their war strategy. The decision of Britain to attack German civil areas through the bombing strategy was mainly with the intention to deindustrialize the conditions of Germany and to make the nation weak from within. To be precise, with the civilians being affected due to the warfare, it was quite likely to increase threats for domestic social as well as political unrests. Also, with the destruction of such a huge proportion of civilians, Germany would eventually become weak to afford the continuously rising need for soldiers to fight its enemies. This further meant that Germany will not be able to attack or pose a threat to any other nation during the Second World War. Therefore, it can be apparently observed that the intention behind area bombings by British on German civilians was to make the country vulnerable both economically as well as socially, with the expectation that it would eventually drive the nation away from participating in the wars. Apparently, this area bombing approach taken by the British military against Germany,

Most dangerous game Essay Example for Free

Most dangerous game Essay In the short story,† The Most Dangerous Game†, by Richard Connell, the author uses irony in the short story to support the theme of the book – the roles of hunter and hunted frequently reversed. In the short story, Rainsford, a big game hunter, believes that he is being persuaded by General Zaroff hunt humans with the general. However, Rainsford realizes the truth – he is going to get hunted by Zaroff, not hunting with him. â€Å"You don’t mean – â€Å"cried Rainsford. †My dear fellow,† said the general, â€Å"have I not told you I always mean what I say about hunting? †(11)is an example of situational irony because the reader didn’t expect Rainsford, the big game hunter, to become hunted . The quote supports the thesis because it shows the quick reversal of the role of hunter and hunted in the short story. This quote shows that the role of hunter and hunted are not set in stone; Rainsford realizes that he is losing a role that he had always assumed he would always have. He is big game – not a big game hunter. However, the fluidity of the roles of hunter and prey also works to Rainsford’s favor. After jumping into the ocean, Rainsford swims to Zaroff’s lair and confronts him in a duel. † I congratulate you,† He [Zaroff] said. †You have won the game. † Rainsford did not smile. †I am still a beast at bay†(15) shows the change in the roles of Zaroff and Rainsford. Rainsford infiltrated into Zaroff’s home and is now getting ready to kill the general, regardless of the fact that the â€Å"game† is over. It is what the reader least expects, thus a piece of situational irony because prey run away and get hunted down and killed by the predator Instead Rainsford becomes the hunter, and now his demands rules supreme. Zaroff was ambushed by Rainsford and is now at his mercy. He is now the prey, and the rules that he made while hunter are irrelevant. This situation was clearly different from page 11, where the general cheerfully informed Rainford that he was going to be hunted down and killed, thus supporting the thesis that the roles of the hunted and the hunter are changed around. This shows that the author used irony to show that the roles of predator and prey are interchangeable.

Logical and physical networking Essay Example for Free

Logical and physical networking Essay As used in computer world, networking is simply the connection of two or more computers in order for the computers to communicate to each other and share resources and information. This is very important for an office set up. It enables the office workers to transfer computer files without moving from their respective work stations. It also makes it possible for all the computers in an organization to be connected to one printer. This in return brings about considerable reduction of the employees movement in the office leading to reduction of wasted time due to unnecessary movement. The movement of information is also very fast. Networking of computers consists of two parts which is the physical networking and logical networking. Physical networking As depicted from the term, this is where the physical aspect of the networking is addressed. The components to be networked are listed and the exact location of these components put into consideration. The distance of the components from each other is considered as this affect the cable length to be used. If a client consults an expert to help him in networking then he/she will give more of the physical networking details. The expert in return might fine tune the details in order to come up with a drawing that represents the actual physical network. The physical layout map represents the diagram of the actual floor (the way it would appear when viewed from the ceiling). Various physical components like the, printers, fax machines and scanners are represented using the appropriate symbols. The other unique components which are useful in networking are as listed below Hub- this acts as the connecting point of the devices and is usually placed at the centre of the network. Bridges These are the devices that are incorporated in the network to improve it, though put and operated at a more intelligent level than the hubs. They are always placed between two hubs in the network. Switch This uses a bridging technology to forward traffic between ports. Routers – A router has two basic functions namely path determination using a variety of metrics and forwarding packets from one network to another [Difference between Logical and Physical Network Designs]. Logical networking Before addressing the issue of the type of cable to be used and other related components the logical design network should come first. This involves assessing the needs for network and it serves as the basis of coming up with the appropriate physical infrastructure. This design should address the basic issues such as what the users are doing on the network, and the applications in immediate and distant future. The major issue is the logical addressing used to describe the network itself or the network it connects to. It shows the different IP addresses associated with each part of the network. The class of the network is to be chosen. The logical network can be a simple class C network such as 192. 168. 0. 0 with subnet mask of 255. 255. 255. Such a network will allow a host of up to 254 computers connected to it without the necessity of routing. The future growth and expansion should be put into consideration when designing a logical networking. This is a point which many people tend to overlook only to be faced with problems such as running short of IP Addresses. It is advisable when designing a network to leave room for future expansion of up to 60% of the current size. The budget, the implementation deadline, security requirement for the network and the impact of downtime and network drag on users are the non technical consideration that should be in logical networking [Difference between Logical and Physical Network Designs]. Physical and logical diagrams When networking the network design can be represented both physically and logically. The diagrams are helpful as they act as troubleshooting tool for the IT employee when there is a problem with seeing a device on the network, adding items to the network, understanding what IP addresses are available, adding items on the network and sharing devices across the network. The physical network is more of a pictorial representation as compared to the logical diagram. For example a certain work station with three computers can be represented by one computer symbol in the logical diagram with the three computer addresses. For the physical diagram this station will be represented by the three computer symbols which will sometimes depict the actual positions of the computers in the work station [Logical and Physical Network Designs, 2005]. The physical diagrams are vital in capturing a variety of information in the network. Computers are connected to the hub and a cable line shows how they are connected. The diagram helps in visualizing how much equipment is needed and to show the contractor what the client needs. The administrator creates the physical network diagram to represent the physical layout of the network. The following are typical ways of representing the physical and the logical diagram. Physical network representation Source: http://www. edrawsoft. com/network-drawings. php Logical network diagram Source: http://www. edrawsoft. com/Logical-Network. php The logical network helps one in understanding IP addresses and also used to represent how the network connections are using the upper layer of the OSI. The logical network diagrams are created after the physical network diagrams. References Difference between Logical and Physical Network Designs. Retrieved 20 February 2009 http://www. firewall. cx/ftopict-1176. html Edraw Networks (2009). Logical network diagrams. Retrieved 20 February 2009 http://www. edrawsoft. com/Logical-Network. php Logical and Physical Network Designs (2005), Retrieved 20 February 2009 from http://www. oppapers. com/essays/Logical-Physical-Network-Design/57593

Negative Effects of the Industrial Revolution

Negative Effects of the Industrial Revolution 1834 in Lowell, Massachusetts; chants of Union is Power could be heard as the young girls of Lowell Mills took to the streets to protest a wage cut of 15-20% to their already meager salaries. Banded together as one, with a common sense of companionship and unity bred from long hours of working side by side; the girls attempted to keep their earnings. An attempt that only ended in defeat, and the firing , of many. This is only a small example of the many indecencies done to society during the Industrial Revolution of America. From 1824 to 1840 the Jacksonian Era raged in America, a period in time in which the common man became the focal point of politics and the Industrial Revolution reared its head; changing the country economically as well as socially. In this time period The United States of America went from a mainly agricultural based economy to one that relied heavily on textiles and manufacturing. Several factors contributed to this occurrence: new technology, new fuel sources, advancements in transportation, a rise in immigration, and the creation of the telegraph which led to faster communication not only in America but also across the sea. Technological advancements were accompanied by a drastic rise in the population, not only had the average birth rate risen, immigration had added hundreds of thousands new residences in a relatively small period of time, mostly coming from Ireland and Germany. In the mid-1840s Ireland was faced with the Potato Famine, an extreme drought that left more than two million dead. In an attempt to escape this condition, and find a country that could not only support them but in which they could also make a living, many Irish immigrated to America. Unfortunately, many of these immigrants reached the land of plenty with insufficient means and were forced to stay in the cities being unable to afford expanding westward into new territory, or even owning any land at all. Due to their financial situations, many Irish immigrants were taken advantage of by the natives. Boston was a good example of the abuse that occurred to the Irish. Landlords were known to divide former single family dwellings into inexpensive housing charging a single Irish family living in a nine by eleven foot room with poor ventilation, no water, unsanitary conditions, and no daylight for around $1.50 a week. The demand for housing was astronomical and the cramped, overpopulated conditions that steamed from this need became a breeding place for diseases; especially cholera. Of all the Irish children born in Boston during this period, sixty percent did not live to see their sixth birthday, and the adult Irish lived an average of only six years after stepping off the boat into America. Most of this death and disease was simply caused by poor housing. A Boston Committee of International Health described an Irish slum as, a perfect hive of human beings, without comforts and mostly without common necessities; in many cases huddled together like brutes, without regard for to age or sex or sense of decency. Under such circumstances, self-respect, forethought, all the high noble virtues soon die out, and sullen indifference and despair or disorder, intemperance and utter degradation reign supreme. Not only were the new Irish immigrants faced with horrible living conditions, they were also discriminated against heavily by the native Americans. The Protestant population that could trace their origins all the way back to the earliest English settlers did not take very kindly to the newcomers. Not only were they stealing scarce jobs that were in high demand in their eyes, but they were also Catholics. Protestants were extremely against any religion that wasnt theirs, especially Catholics who were rumored to be cannibals among other things. It was this resentment that helped fund a strong nativist/ anti-Immigration movement and helped to later form the Know-Nothing Party. This discrimination along with the fear that the Irish immigrants would take much needed jobs led to the placement of NINA signs on many factories, or No Irish Need Apply . Germans, the other major European nationality emigrating to America at this time, faired slightly better due to the fact that they arrived in North America in much better financial standings. However, they were still forced to deal with discrimination and were still forced down to the bottom of the social ladder. Many ended up pushing westward and keeping to themselves, forming German communities. Women were another group that was greatly affected by the Industrial Revolution. Before the Industrial Revolution farm women and girls made a living for their families; spinning yarn, weaving cloth, and making candles, soap, butter, and cheese. However, with the new technology in manufacturing goods, these women were displaced by factories that could produce the same products at a much quicker pace and at greater quantities. While these factories took away one part of their livelihood, they attempted to make up for it by offering employment to them, promising a new economic independence and the ability to afford all of the manufactured products of the time. This promise was misleading; the reality of the matter was that these factory girls typically worked long, grueling thirteen hour days, six days a week. They earned a meager salary, much below the male workers of those days, for limb-numbing, mind-draining, dangerous work in which the machinery could seriously or even fatally injure a girl of she made a mistake. On top of that, they were made to live in a small boarding house owned by their employers, carefully watched and held at a very strict time schedule that ran their lives leaving these young women with no free time. Their lives were lived from whistle to whistle, its blowing signaling when to wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, and every other aspect of their lives including going to church every Sunday. The factories also claimed that they would provide education for their young workers. However, this was generally meant to be done on the ladies own time that of which there was little. A young woman who worked in the Lowell M ills of Massachusetts in 1845 wrote about her living conditions, Crowded into a small room, which contains three beds and six females, all possessing the without end tongue of women, what chance is there for studying?Despite the constant restriction these women were set in a new environment far from home with no mother-like figure to guide them. These boarding houses provided plenty of temptations and the lack of guidance was surely an equation for trouble. Another problem that arose with women in the workplace was the rearing of the next generation. Long hours in the factories, year after year, led to a physically and emotional premature breakdown of these women. When it came time to raise their own children who were to be the next generation, many times they had to continue working or were ill after the added stress that child birth put on them. A young Lowell Mill girl simply known as Julianna commented that, It has been remarked by some writer that the mother educates the man. Now, if this be a truth, as we believe it is, to a very great extent, what, we would ask, are we to expect, the same labor prevailing, will be the mental and intellectual character of the future generations of New England? The Industrial Revolution which led to the employment of women completely disrupted the cult of domesticity that was in place at this time. Despite the fact that this cult of domesticity was almost necessary to the bringing up of children at this time, it was also something that most women wanted. They looked forward to raising their children at home; this was a society that was still predominantly family orientated. A new way of looking at life was becoming prominent with the Industrial Revolution. The strive to make money in order to survive and obtain the luxuries now available to the general population through the new manufacturing technologies brought about the idea that money equaled happiness. That, To get, and to have the reputation of possessing, is the ruling passion ( Bellows, Henry W. The Influence of the Trading Spirit ,1845) is the new American ideal. According to Henry W. Bellows , this new drive for material possessions and money was creating an anxiety in the people of America, making them fundamentally unhappy. The basic moralities that used to drive the nation were no longer, and the new need for material conquests had taken over creating an every man for himself environment. In other countries in the world, happiness is as easy as maintaining a family business and making enough financially to support a family, but not so in America. Where work had driven American families ti b e gone from the home for most of the day and to neglect the family. This bread an unfortunate consequence of unhappiness during the Jacksonian period. All of these factors can add up to and attribute to one of the most influential social changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution; a widening of the gap between the rich and the poor. Through the new market enterprise, those in charge continuously took advantage of the less fortunate, gaining wealth without fail. Whereas those who were poor only continued to become more so. This widening of the social gap was beneficial to none but the highest of classes leaving the majority to despair and strive to survive. The Industrial Revolution from 1824 to 1840 was a time of drastic change. An influx of new immigrants, over population, new social roles for women, a new American ideal, and a widening gap between social classes were all unfortunate repercussions of this movement that drastically changed the way society ran for the worse. Creating a negative impact that categorizes this era and provides a building block for unrest in the Civil War. Sources Cited: 1834 Lowell Mill Girls Turnout to Protest Wage Cuts. Massachusets AFL-CIO. Web. 26 Feb. 2011. . Bellows, Henry W. The Influence of the Trading Spirit. 1845. Print Robinson, Harriet H. Memories of a Factory Girl. 1898. Print. A Young Woman Writes of the Evils of Factory Life in 1845. Documents Workbook Out of Man A History of the American People. Fifth ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2007. 146-47. Print. A New England Woman Describes the Responsibilities of American Women in 1847. Documents Workbook Out of Man A History of the American People. Fifth ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2007. 148-49. Print. A Young Woman Writes of the Evils of Factory Life in 1845. Documents Workbook Out of Man A History of the American People. Fifth ed. Upper Saddle RIver: Pearson Education, 2007. 146-47. Print. A New England Factory Issues Regulations for Workers. Documents Workbook Out of Man A History of the American People. Fifth ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2007. 146-47. Print.

To Kill A Mockingbird Essay :: Kill Mockingbird essays

Modes of Communication in To Kill a Mockingbird      Effective communication is a result of the utilization of different techniques to convey a particular idea or perspective. Different methods used to express a person's feelings are found throughout society and aid in creating a learned individual, family, and community. In the novel To Kill a Mocking Bird, Harper Lee uses several modes of communication to display her feelings on moral, political, and social issues. Lee's tactics parallel those used by one character in her novel, Atticus Finch. In order to express his feelings to his children, Atticus uses three simple teaching devices; the use of examples, verbal statements, and learning through experience. Although Atticus uses these techniques to develop his children into positive members of society, Lee uses them to create an image for the reader that will ultimately constitute a general understanding of growing up in the south in the mid-nineteen thirties.    One of the methods of communication that Atticus Finch uses is that of an example. By providing his children with a realistic and visual model, Atticus establishes an exemplary learning environment. The most prevalent display of Atticus' utilization of examples is the one he sets himself. He makes it a common practice to live his life as he would like his children to live theirs, and thus displays the attributes of an honest, respectable, and kind man. Atticus demonstrates his character by defending Tom Robinson, a black man on trial for the rape of a white woman. Throughout the trial process, Atticus shows Jem and Scout that true courage is standing up for what you believe in and that all worthy human beings, despite their race, deserve respect. Atticus also tries to be a perfect southern gentleman, teaching Jem and Scout to have grace and compassion for all people. His treatment of Mrs. Dubose proves this characteristic. Even though Mrs. Dubose makes vicious comments and criticisms of Atticus and his children, he still manages to treat her in the kindest manner; complimenting her appearance and helping her into her chair. Atticus sets examples to teach Jem and Scout some values a good person should have. Harper Lee, however, uses examples of life in her novel to give a broader view of humankind.    In order to depict the values, attitudes, and class structures of a small southern town in the mid-nineteen thirties, Harper Lee created various examples.

Larry Summers Memo :: essays research papers

Larry Summer’s Memo   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A controversy exists whether the World Bank should be encouraging migration of dirty industries to less-developed countries. Larry Summer challenges that the World Bank should persuade such a migration. Others contend that these less-developed countries, despite their economic plight, should not be coerced into harboring dirty industries, a position I support. (A1) In his first argument Summer wants to force a sudden increase in pollution, which would cause an improvement in the economy, of lower wage countries. Summer justifies his beliefs by giving an example of circumstantial as hominem. He states, â€Å"Health impairing pollution should by done in the country with lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages.† An assumption is made by Summer, where he concludes that lowest cost countries will have the lower wages. He concludes by saying, these low wage countries should contain high pollution. The premise of Summer’s argument is assumed true, so his argument is invalid, but strong.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  (C1) Many agree with Summer on his stance of high-pollution industries in lesser-developed countries. They claim that it is economic logic to fill the countries with low wages with profitable industries. By doing this, it would cause more people to want to live in a less populated area and work for higher wages. A sudden increase in population would also increase the number of the labor force. By doing this, more workers and industries would rapidly affect the growth of the economy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  (R1) In closing the first argument Summer commits to subjective fallacy when he states dumping toxic waste is â€Å"logical† and â€Å"impeccable†. He develops this argument by using errors in reasoning, such as these examples. Summer also makes ambiguous claims by make a personal attack on the reader. The phrase â€Å"we should face up to that† tells the readers they have been denying something. Summer uses this phrase to conclude his argument of pollution dumping.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (A2) In the second argument, Summer’s discusses his opinion of Environmental issues. He states, â€Å"I’ve always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly under-polluted.† This is clearly a subjective claim and Summer’s opinion. He vaguely assumes that a country could be â€Å"under-polluted†. The pollution of the world is not a natural occurrence; the waste of man creates it. This waste should not be pressured upon a geographical area if they do not create it. A clean and healthy environment is the only thing many lesser-developed countries have to cherish.

The Injustice of Female Genital Mutilation :: essays research papers fc

The horror of female genital mutilation is a global issue, and it is also one surprising foreign to Americans although an estimated ten thousand girls in the United States are currently at risk of this operation (Sarkis par. 1). This is a cultural practice that is both unethical and incredibly detrimental to its victims besides obviously being in direct violation of basic human rights. In order to attain a broader view of this issue the following will be examined: basic information about this practice, organizations fighting it, current news pertaining to it, recent academic articles evaluating it, and the question of how it can be stopped. FGM has recently been receiving growing media attention due to the controversy surrounding it, but the newfound attention is also in hopes that widespread awareness will bring about change. Female genital mutilation, or FGM when abbreviated, is also known as female circumcision, but this practice is far more drastic than male circumcision and is actually more comparable to a surgery in males where the entire penis is removed (Sarkis par. 4). FGM is classified into three different categories based on the extent of the procedure, but it usually entails the removal or the clitoris and/or the adjacent labia. The third degree of FGM is so severe that the female must be cut open to engage in sexual intercourse from that point on (Sarkis par. 5). This surgery is commonly performed in unsanitary conditions with unclean sharp tools like razor blades, kitchen knives, scissors, and pieces of glass (Sarkis par. 6). Female children usually undergo this procedure at three years of age (Sarkis par. 10). Sarkis also states, â€Å"Besides the obvious initial pains of the operations, FGM has long-term physiological, sexual, and psychological effects† (par. 7). It is done for a number of reasons ranging from the prevention of marital infidelity to using it as a cultural rite of passage, but more numerous than the reasons behind it are the countries that partake in it. FGM is most common in Middle Eastern countries and throughout Africa (Sarkis par. 2). FGM is by no means a one-dimensional problem or something that can be recovered from. It is, most significantly, a life-altering procedure. One of the major groups fighting FGM is The Female Genital Mutilation Education and Networking Project. It focuses primarily on the â€Å"knowledge is power† aspect, meaning that it concentrates more on educating the population of FGM in an effort to bring reform instead of direct actions.

International Issues Essay

Abstract No two countries have the same political and legal system. Each country has its own laws and regulations on business and products. When doing business in another country it is important to know the laws and abide by them. Culture plays a huge part in a business’s success when venturing into a foreign market. Being sensitive to the cultural and religious beliefs in that country is important to a business’s long term success. A business needs to be educated in the laws, customs and cultures of that country so that business will be able to comply and coincide with that country. A business needs to know how and where to resolve any legal issues that may arise while doing business in that country. Disputes need to be handled in a way that is respectful to that country and adheres to the contract in which the parties agreed. International Issues Issues in Legal Disputes in International Transactions â€Å"International transactions and dispute resolution requires both an understanding of the law and a sensitivity to foreign culture, politics, formal and informal power structures and decision-making approaches† (White and Williams LLP, 2013). When entering into a contract with a foreign country, one needs to be very specific in the contract about how to resolve any issues that could come up between the two companies. Deciding and agreeing on where issues will be resolved is a key element in the contract. Going to court can be costly for both companies and the decision made by the court could take an extended amount of time. If the companies were to go to court, deciding in where the court hearing would take place is another issue. If the hearing was to be held in the foreign country, the laws might not be the same and that country might not have much experience in international disputes. If the hearing was to be held in the United States, the other company and the country’s government it resides in could become hostile and not uphold the ruling. Arbitration would be the best way to resolve any disputes between the two countries. Arbitration can save a lot of time and money for both companies while also protecting the images of both companies by not having a lengthy trial in the press. â€Å"Arbitration is often less costly, less litigious, and less time-consuming, and offers more privacy to the parties than litigation† (Companies Export, 2008).The ruling from the arbitration could be binding or non-binding depending on what is agreed upon in the contract. Practical Considerations When trying to resolve a dispute with a company in a foreign country, one would need to look over the written contract that was drawn up at the beginning of the relationship. â€Å"The governing law clause will set out which country’s law will apply to any dispute under the contract, and the jurisdiction clause will state in which country the legal action must be taken† (Smith, 2007). The U.S. based company needs to be aware of the laws that affect the company and the business dealings in the other country. The company needs to consider the cultural aspects, the ethical behavior, and the legal structure within that country. â€Å"U.S. laws governing the international business activities of the U.S. companies fall into two categories. The first consists of laws, such as antitrust, employment, and economic-espionage laws, that are also applied frequently in the domestic context. With respect to these laws, the international business activities of the U.S. companies are a rguably at special risk because management educated and trained outside the United States might be less familiar with these laws than management educated and trained in the United States† (Winer, 2013). Bribery is also a consideration when taking legal action against a foreign business partner because this is illegal under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). In some countries, bribery and gift giving is not seen as an illegal or unethical act but a form of showing respect and gratitude. A company needs to be careful on how this is perceived because it could be seen as an illegal act on the company’s part. Factors against CadMex Time and money would work against CadMex in the sublicensing agreements. In the simunlation, Candore is under an epidemic and needs the medicine ViroBlax at a subsidized price. There would not be enough time, due to the epidemic, to work out a contract that both parties will agree upon. Each separate pharmaceutical company in Candore would have to be sought out and a new contract would have to be drawn up for each different company. This is not only costing CadMex time but countless dollars on man hours. CadMex would have to invest a lot of money into properly training the employees and building the proper facilities. CadMex would also have to insure that the generic products were to the proper standards and up to regulation. Even if CadMex was to invest the time and the money into sublicensing the drug, CadMex would lose money because the drug is being sold at a subsidized price. The royalties that would be paid out with sublicensing still would not gap the margin of loss that CadMe x has. When Customs and Laws Conflict When the local customs and the local laws conflict with the customs and laws of an organization operating abroad; the organization should look at the customs and laws in which it is operating under and those should prevail, as long as the company is following the laws in which it is to operate by. When operating abroad, it is important to be aware and sensitive to the customs of that country. Allowing employees to observe religious and cultural holidays will not only keep moral high but also will keep the company within the laws that country has. Knowing the cultural normalities and integrating those into the business model will allow for the employees and members of the community to feel that the business has their interests mind. Being able to comply with the laws of the country in which the business is in while also complying with the laws set by the country, in which the mother company resides, can be a hard line to walk. Complying with the laws of the country in which was agreed upon in the contract at the onset of the partnership would prevail. Making sure to follow the rules of the country that the business is in is important because that is where the business will produce its goods. â€Å"Employees who engage in international business are responsible for knowing and complying with both the laws and regulations of the countries in which the businesses operate and the U.S. law and regulations that apply outside U.S. borders. If U.S. law conflicts with the local customs, or if the local law is more restrictive than U.S. laws or company policies, one must follow the more restrictive law, custom or policy† (Olin, 2012). Resolving Domestic and International Issues Resolving domestic issues can be done through arbitration or through the court system. It can be as simple as suing a party and showing up to court. When trying to resolve an issue domestically, the laws are well known for both parties and the venue in which the issue will be settled is easily accessible to both parties. Resolving an issue internationally is more work involved. The issue has to be resolved through which venue both parties agreed upon when signing the contract. Both companies need to know the laws of that country and travel might be needed. If arbitration was selected, both parties would need to submit all paperwork to a panel of arbitrators and adhere to the judgment in which the panel decides. If one party does not comply with the ruling, then legal action must be taken. Conclusion When doing business internationally, a company needs to be aware of many factors. Conforming to the culture and abiding by the laws that are set in that country are essential to that business and its success. A company needs to know how to resolve issues that will come up in the daily running of the business. Being sensitive to religious and cultural norms will not only help with the moral of employees but the community as well. Adhering to the contract in which the company agreed upon will help avoid any legal action being taken against them. By following the laws and cultures of the country the business resides in will ensure success of the company and future dealings in that country. References Companies Export. (6/4/2008). Retrieved from http://export.gov/regulation/eg_main_018226.asp Olin. (2012). International Business. Retrieved from http://www.b2i.us/profiles/investor/fullpage.asp?BzID=1548&to=cp&Nav=0&LangID

The Five Essential Characteristics of Project Managers

Week 7– Case Study Tiantian Shi Keiser University Dr. Salas-Amaro Project Management February 23, 2013 Introduction In the case 4-1, Pureswing Golf prefers to promote voluntary and promising engineers to project managers because they are familiar with the company’s philosophy of competitive success and they can run new product projects well. However, because project managers are volunteers, the failure rate of projects is high to 40%. Pureswing Golf has realized this issue and wants to search high-performance managers in more scientific way.This paper focus on the positive personality traits of project managers which can contribute to project success and negative personality traits of project managers which would hamper the effective management of projects. The Five Essential Characteristics of Project Managers 1, Good interpersonal and communication skills The ability of communication is always one of the most important skill for effective management. Project managers need to know how to clearly and accurately present the right information to the right people in the appropriate manner (Rosenhead, 2012).For the external environment, project managers need to be able to explain the needs and decisions to a wide variety of stakeholders (Pinto, 2010). It is also necessary to convince stakeholders to keep focus on project benefits to get more supports. For the internal environment, project managers need to have a good interaction with team members throughout the project implementation process which include talking and listening concerns and potential problems of the project, giving the feedback and coach to team members, motiving team members keeping high-performances (Pinto, 2010).It is good to create an openness and directness communication environment for the project team. Obviously, a bad communicator cannot be a project manager. 2, Team-Building skills Because the team member come from different department of the organization, it is hard to make t hem from a group strangers to a single cohesive unit. Project managers must understand this progress and relevant requirements for the transformation (Rosenhead, 2012).In order to build a motivated team, project managers need to take time to understand each team member’s personality, strengths, and weaknesses (Barry, 2013). Meanwhile, project managers also need to have the ability to handle the conflicts. It is also necessary to provide the substance to hold team members together toward the project goals, such as to praise outstanding team members (Brown, 2012). 3, Leadership abilities Good leadership is commitment to ethical practices (Barry, 2013). Project managers create standards of ethical behavior for themselves and team members.The team living by these standards are responsibilities of project leaders. For example, project leaders should reward team member who exemplify these practices. Leadership based on integrity and a set of values, behavior consistent with values (Brown, 2012). In other words, the project leader earns trust from to do what he/she say. Good leadership requires appropriate reaction to changes (Barry, 2013). There are a lot of uncontrolled factors could affect project implementation. Under any of situation, project managers cannot be panic.A leader should show a positive image to the world and let everyone to see that he/she are not flustered by any sudden changes to the plan. â€Å"Being able to react in the right way and show everyone else that you are still in control is a tremendous attribute for any project manager (Rosenhead, 2012). † 4, Ability to Delegate Tasks Project leaders need have the ability to delegate tasks to team members, especially, there is a huge amount of work that need be done in a limited time (Barry, 2013).Trust is an essential element in the relationship of project leader and team members (Rosenhead, 2012). To delegate tasks to others is an action to prove the trust to team members. Some of pro ject leaders do not want to risk to let somebody else to do a poor-performances job, they almost do everything. However, this is a wrong perspective. The project leader often fail who are unable to trust his/her team members (Barry, 2013). It is important to allow team members to participate project tasks.Project managers have to delegate tasks to right people which depends on the understanding of each individuals’ level of skill or limitations (Brown, 2012). 5, Understanding and appreciation of differences As the word is becoming more global, the workplace is becoming more diverse, project leaders have to learn how to manage projects globally. Sensitively to deal project personnel who are from various ethnic, cultural, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds is critical to build an effective project team (Barry, 2013).Conclusion The characteristics of project managers have a great influence to the success of a project. How to choose right people to lead a project is critica l or the company. Basically, an effective project managers should have good interpersonal and communication skills, team-Building skills, leadership abilities, tasks distribution ability, and the understanding of multi-culture. References Pinto, K. J. (2010). Project management: Achieving competitive advantage, 2nd ed. Pearson Education Rosenhead, R. (2012).Can the personality traits of a project manager contribute to project success? Retrieved from http://www. ronrosenhead. co. uk/4630/can-the-personality-traits-of-a-project-manager-contribute-to-project-success/ Brown, S. (2012). Factors most critical to the success of a project manage. Retrieved from http://www. brighthubpm. com/resource-management/63002-factors-most-critical-to-the-success-of-a-project-manager/ Barry, R. T. (2013). Top 10 qualities of a project manager. Retrieved from http://www. projectsmart. co. uk/top-10-qualities-project-manager. html

Customer Service in Travel and tourism Essay

Communication skills is important an important part of the travel and tourism industry. It is important to use the appropriate methods of communication for a given situation. Communication takes place face-to-face, by telephone, in writing electronically (e-mail and fax). Face to face is dealing directly with customers either face to face, individually or in a group situation. Dealing with customers face to face has a few ground rules. You must always smile greeting the customer, listen to what they are saying and always make eye contact, stay interested, address your customer by names, always thank when appropriate. Communicating by telephone is an essential part of daily life for businesses especially in the tourism sector. Using the telephone is a way of keeping in touch with one another weather its’ with customers booking or asking for advice. Customers find communicating by phone convenient and fast and cheap with instant feedback. As a travel and tourism staff it is important to answer calls quickly, greet the customer with your name and organisation, smile while you’re talking speaking clearly, listen carefully and take notes. Written communication comes in many different forms such as letters and faxes, brochures, memos, reports, documents for meetings and advertisements. This can be formal, informal or complaint. It is important to make sure there are no spelling or grammar mistakes, the intended message should be conveyed, make sure it is made clear who the letter is from when it was received and who it is to, handwriting should be legible and it should be appropriate language. Effective listening and questioning should be the key characteristic of customer service staff. This is important when customers are unsure about something or don’t fully understand a situation. Effective listening and questioning should be performed by maintaining eye contact when facing the speaker. Non-verbal communication is all about the way you present yourselves to others and transmit messages either intentionally or unintentionally. Making eye contact, orientation, postures, physical proximity, and gestures are all a form of non-verbal communication. Presentation is how staff and the working environment are presented to  customers which is the important in the travel and tourism sector. Personal appearance is important like wearing an appropriate dress because what you wear at work says a lot about you and the organisation that employed you, the appearance of the work place and personal hygiene is key! Staff will not tolerate a staff member with poor body odour or bad breath. A tidy workplace enforces a positive attitude and environment. Staff should be clean and well groomed. Teamwork is about getting along with your staff members and having an understanding of each other but at the same time getting things done accordingly together. Most work in the tourism sector is carried out by teams rather than individually. Good services and products all happen from the effort produced as a team to achieve a common goal. Team work will enforce a positive fun environment for an organisation by having the same understanding as one another developing each other’s character. Business skills are needed by customer service staff in order to carry out duties effectively which includes completing documentation that is relevant to the organisation. This also includes keeping records that are needed for internal purposes, IT skills such as sending e-mails accessing internet and using computerised reservation systems. Accuracy, legibility and complying with normal business conventions are important points to be followed. Complaint handling can be challenging but it is also rewarding and interesting. Staff in the industry must know how to handle situations and turn complaints into positive advantages. Complaints should be handled correctly with feedback so that the customer can give the organisation a second chance to put things right. Staff should listen, thank, apologise and provide support to the customer. Selling skills is bottom-line when selling products and services in travel and tourism organisations. Even staff not employed as salesman come into contact with selling when they themselves are customers, expecting the highest levels of customer service, courtesy and attention when making a purchase. Being successful isn’t something that happens. Building rapport is a state of understanding with another individual or group that enables greater and easier communication. In other words, building a rapport involves getting along with another person or group of people having things in common making communication easier and more effective. This can occur in a shop, hotel, restaurant, at home, or in an office. Factors that influence customers to buy from a business or elsewh ere  is the tidiness and cleanliness of the sales environment, the appearance of the staff, and the attitudes received by the customer. Establishing customer needs and expectations is to help the customer to state their needs and expectations clearly. Always remember that customers purchase products and services because they believe they need them. Expectations are what a customer expect to gain from the service or product received. Staff should start communication with an open question rather than questions that simply have responses like yes or no to gain more information. Features and benefits come after determining a customer’s needs and expectations. The next step is to present the product or service based on their specified requirements. The main aim in this stage of sales process is to concentrate on the features and benefits of the products using these statements during the presentation of the product†¦ Features statement highlighting the key features of the particular product, Advantage statement indicating what the product or service can do in general, and benefits statement expressing specifically what the product can do for the customer. Overcoming objections may occur after explaining the features and benefits. These may be based on price or availability of services or may resulting in insufficient choice range by the salesperson. In this stage questions will need to be asked to discover exactly why the customer is not happy and you use of persuasion will come into effect. Closing the sale is all about the persuasion of a customer to make a commitment. Product knowledge and communication skills have been used already to discover and match the customer’s needs and expectations with the right product or service. As a professional salesperson, one must truly believe that they can satisfy the prospect’s needs.

Potbelly Sandwich Works

â€Å"Potbelly Sandwich Works† Summary: Potbelly Sandwich Works is a privately held restaurant chain that sells submarine sandwiches in the United States. Potbelly Sandwich Works began in 1977 founded by Peter Hastings. The original store is located in Chicago, in a retail space that was previously an antique store, Hindsight, also owned by Hastings. Many of the items that decorate the store were taken from the former business. Despite the fast-paced, never-a-dull-moment world of antique dealing, the couple decided to bolster their business by making sandwiches for their customers. What began as a lark, turned out to be a stroke of genius. Soon, people who couldn't care less about vintage glass doorknobs were stopping by to enjoy special sandwiches and homemade desserts in this unusual atmosphere. Its name is derived from potbelly stoves common in the late 19th century. In 1998, Bryant L. Keil purchased the original store and expanded Potbelly to over 200 stores in Illinois, Indiana Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington D. C. , Kentucky, and Wisconsin. When Bryant Keil paid $1. 7 million for Potbelly Sandwich Works in 1996, people thought he was crazy. Convinced he could take the unique sandwich joint to the next level; Keil acquired Potbelly and has since grown the concept into a 10-state chain that posted 2006 revenue of $140 million. Although Potbelly has many sandwich shop rivals and competition in the fierce quick-serve segment of the restaurant industry, Potbelly has more than held its own. Billed as â€Å"a unique and quirky sandwich joint,† it has a unique appeal. Potbelly’s core strategy elements include the 4P’s- Product, Place, Promotion, and Price. As the years passed, the lines grew. Booths were added, along with ovens for toasting sandwiches to perfection, vista-coolers, napkin dispensers, hand-dipped ice cream – even live music. The little antique shop had become the full-fledged, totally unique sandwich joint that you enjoy today. Potbelly’s core strategy elements include the 4P’s- Product, Place, Promotion, and Price. First is the Product. Anyone can sell a sandwich; you need to be able to sell an experience. Industry observers point to several aspects of the Potbelly experience that make it the first choice for young professionals on a quick lunch break. Friendly service and an unbeat atmosphere, live music, antique fixtures, real books for customers to read or borrow create a homey environment for customers. Then there is the Place. Geographic locations are selected carefully. Bryant Keil looks for cities that are not saturated with sandwich chains and have an urban/suburban density of core customers-young professionals less than 35 years old. Locations must be convient for them since Potbelly stores rely on high repeat business. Then there goes Promotion. Promotions are keyed to events like store openings and National Sandwich Day. For example, on National Sandwich Day, Potbelly hosts a â€Å"Belly Buster† sandwich eating contest at Potbelly stores. Prizes are awarded to winners and runners-up. Other event promotions raise money for local charities such as food banks, and community- based reading and music appreciatin programs. Then goes the last P which is Price. Potbelly sandwiches sell for $3. 79. Pricing is an integral part of the value Potbelly offers customers and can be summed up as, â€Å"Just good food at good prices. Considered separately, any one of Potbelly’s marketing strategy elements may not seem overly powerful as a competitive weapon, but combined and implemented with zeal, they are a significant competitive threat to national, regional, and local competitors. The idea behind Potbelly is simple: superior value, fun-filled atmosphere, warm, comfy decor, and quick friendly service.

Identity Theft: Exaggerated Risk or Real Threat? Essay

Introduction â€Å"You have $92.13c left in your Chase bank account, contact us today with your details to switch from telephone banking to online banking† – I was in the country barely 72 hours and I was already subject to someone attempting to steal my Identity! I am referring to the past summer that I spent in America working under a student visa. After registering my mobile phone and opening my first American bank account, I started getting texts like the one above. This my was my first personal exposure to the problem of Identity theft, and after a quick Google search to enquire what I was dealing with, I found that it was a very common occurrence in America; More than 57 million American adults receive â€Å"phishing† attack emails & texts every year – from hackers or cyber thieves who pretend to be trusted service providers to steal consumer account information, and more than half of those who responded become victims of Identity Theft (Gartner Research, Phishin g Attack Victims Likely Victims for Identity Theft). Lucky I didn’t respond to that text then, aren’t I? That was just my small run in with what has become a global problem over the last decade. And, the more I delved into the reading for this topic, the more I became aware of the vast amounts of literature available to me. I felt none of the other topics for this assignment had such in depth reading, which was mostly available online to me. There was online e-books, some of which I purchased; â€Å"Identity Theft Secrets: Exposing The Tricks of The Trade† – By Dale Penn, and â€Å"Double Trouble† – by Neal O’Farrell. Research websites were also helpful, like the Gartner Research website. I found some very interesting websites online, one of which I’ll give a mention; â€Å"Publications USA† – an American government run website, it had a section to provide American consumers with information on Identity Theft. Sites like these helped me understand the impact of Identity Theft on the consumer, how the consumer battles it – and ultimately this showed me how business must deal with it, in their every day transaction s with consumers. There was a vast amount of Scholar articles I found online, through Google scholar of course, they took very interesting views on the problem, and posed some very good questions. These articles included; â€Å"Did Privacy issues cause identity theft?† to articles such as â€Å"Identity theft: Myths, Methods and the New Law†. Also, simply with a quick look at the papers every Sunday for the past few weeks, I found plenty of material in them – Papers such as the Sunday Business Post, The Financial Times, The Guardian & The Irish Times. They always provided me with something to read that was related to identity theft. After reading all this material, I saw both sides of the argument. Most do believe Identity theft is a Real Threat to business and consumers alike. I will quickly look at how much of a problem this has become, and I will then point to some of the major cases, and the impact of these cases on business. However, there are the those that believe Identity theft is over exaggerated, I will look closely at how researchers collect their data for research, and I will also look at the impact of this over-exaggeration within business, how it has sparked some companies within the protection business to come under scrutiny for over-exaggerating the risk of Identity Theft. Why and how do Identity Thieves do it? â€Å"Cybercrime has surpassed illegal drug trafficking as a crime enterprise† – [Symantec Corporation, 2009] Identity thieves use the Internet as a weapon against individual consumers by taking personal and financial information, such as credit card numbers and social security numbers, and then using that information to, purchase products or launder money (Identity thieves have been known to purchase cars and homes or even create criminal records under another individual’s identity) [Overseas Digest, When Bad Things Happen To your Good Name]. Such a scheme can be devastating for an identity theft victim and can create financial costs for credit card companies and other commercial entities. According to Columbus state university research, computer fraud in general, within the U.S. alone, exceeds $3 billion each year, and in the U.K. exceeds  £2.5 billion each year [Columbus State University, 2011]. These statistics alone show the huge impact of computer fraud and identity theft on the economy and businesses in the world we live in today. It shows what a lucrative business Identity Theft has become today. Cases of Identity Theft Causing a â€Å"Real Threat† in Business Arguably the most famous case of Identity Theft is that of Frank Abagnale, who was depicted in the 2002 Hollywood blockbuster movie â€Å"Catch Me if You Can† [DreamWorks (film), 2002]. In the 1960’s, Abagnale eluded authorities by posing as characters such as an airline pilot, doctor, assistant Attorney General, and history professor, all the while racking up $4 million in bad cheques [Posing Facts, 10 bizarre cases of Identity Theft]. This bizarre case of Identity theft is portrayed in a comical sense in the film, with Tom Hanks left chasing shadows. But for businesses in today’s society it is far from comical, as the protection of consumers’ information poses major issues within business today. The best way to see the affects of Identity Theft on business is to actually take a look at some of the major cases within the last few years. This will show the business issues and the impli cations it is having on business on a daily basis. The headlines within the last few years have highlighted the threat that Identity Theft poses. In what was dubbed at the time the largest ever case of identity theft to be prosecuted by the American Department of Justice [CBS News, 23rd Feb 2010], the â€Å"Miami Hack Pack† (dubbed that by [Miami New Times, May 20th 2010]) stole over 100 million credit Card details over the course of 4 years. The credit card details, which they hacked, were stored by a number of companies; one of which was T.J. Maxx, a British retailer (they would be known here in Ireland for their chain of stores called â€Å"T.K. Maxx†). The hackers gained access to the company systems of T.J. Maxx and stole personal information of over 45 million credit card and debit cards in July 2005. These cards belonged to the company’s customers who purchased items from January 2003 to November 23, 2003, however the company did not discover the theft until much later in 2007 [Identity Theft Awareness, 2011]. Deepak Taneja, chief executive of Aveska, a firm that advised the company on information security commented at the time; â€Å"It’s not clear when information was deleted, it’s not clear who had access to what, and it’s not clear whether the data kept in all these files was encrypted, so it’s very hard to know how big this was,† [St. Petersberg Times, 30th March 2007] – This quote shows the issues TJ Maxx faced at the time. They simply didn’t know how large this was, added to this was the fact that it took nearly 2 years to find the breach. A combination of the above led to huge consumer outrage at the way T.J. Maxx handled their customers’ information, and left consumers baffled as to why T.J. Maxx held onto the details for 2 years after the transactions had taken place. Many experts speculated that TJ Maxx would pay dearly for the incident. Customers would abandon the brand for fear their personal information would be exposed, and investors would avoid the brand because of crippling fines and costs faced by the company. However, in the 12 months that followed the announcement of the breach, TJ Maxx never looked better. Revenues increased Profits increased, and share price increased [Neal O’Farrell, Double Trouble; 12 Reasons why we’re Losing the Battle against Identity Theft]. But what does this mean? Could this have been contrived as a clear message to TJ Maxx and other businesses that not only is a data breach no big deal any more, but it may just be another acceptable cost of doing business? Perhaps. But there is still no doubting the potential impact of a company’s consumer information being breached. And, in the case of TJ Maxx, if the right procedures were followed, this kind of occurrence may have been preventable. Despite the fact their Brand and profits didn’t suffer, TJ Maxx realised this was a major wake up call. And it was still a learning curve for any business looking in. Lessons must be learnt: 1) Collect only the minimum personal customer information needed to complete a business transaction. 2) Retain the collected personal information for only as long as needed per business and legal requirements. 3) Monitor systems to detect unauthorized software and suspicious network traffic such as unusual data download in terms of size and time. [Identity Theft Awareness, 2011]. Businesses must constantly consider their risks and assess their internal controls to prevent costly incidents and their unintended consequences. As far as TJ Maxx, the company spent over $130 million to deal with the consequences of this international identity theft case. Even though their Brand didn’t seem to suffer, and profits rose and investment wasn’t hindered, TJ Maxx couldn’t afford to take this risk again. [Neal O’Farrell, Double trouble] The second case I’ll look at is that of Sony’s PlayStation Network hack earlier this year. The details of 77 million of Sony’s online PlayStation Network customers were breached. This most recent major intrusion has shown that Identity Theft is still a major issue for large corporations. This case again raised major questions about online transactions [The Guardian, April 2011]. Confidence in E-Commerce has always been a major problem for business [OECD; Reinforcing consumer confidence- Key to Boosting e-commerce], it has been for years, after all, it’s the reason that most think twice before making an online purchase, it’s that lingering feeling that overshadows an online purchase. It is an obstacle that is being slowly removed, but set backs like this do not help, as Steve Curran, creative director at the Brighton-based studio Zoe Mode, told Develop Magazine; â€Å"From my perspective, the bigger issue is not about the PlayStation Network, but confidence in digital distribution generally. For every story like this that breaks in the mainstream press, consumer confidence about their details being safe is eroded. Confidence [in online transactions] has been building up, and I think will continue to, but this is a blip. It could be a little step back† [Develop Magazine, †Digital distrust could follow†, 2011]. This hack was a major set back for the company’s on going battle for control of the gaming market with Microsoft’s Xbox. And it was up to Sony to rebuild confidence in their brand after the major breach [The Guardian, April, 2011]. Is it an â€Å"Exaggerated Risk†? One thing I did notice when I was doing my research was that, most of the information we have on cyber crime losses is derived from surveys. But can one form an accurate estimate by survey alone? J. Ryan & T. Jefferson claim in their book â€Å"The Use, Misuse, and Abuse of Statistics in Information Technology†, that losses are extremely concentrated, so that representative sampling of the population does not give representative sampling of the losses as a whole. They also argue that losses are based on unverified self-reported numbers. Not only is it possible for a single outlier to distort the result, we find evidence that most surveys are dominated by a minority of responses in the upper tail [J. Ryan and T. I. Jefferson; The Use, Misuse, and Abuse of Statistics in Information Security Research]. In the 1983 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances an incorrectly recorded answer from a single individual erroneously in inflated the estimate of US household wealth by $1 tr illion. This single error added 10% to the total estimate of US household wealth [Dinei Florencio & Cormac Herley, Microsoft research; Sex, Lies and Cyber-Crime Surveys]. In the 2006 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) survey of Identity Theft the answers of two respondents were discarded as â€Å"not being identity theft† and â€Å"inconsistent with the record†. Inclusion of both answers would have increased the estimate by $37.3 billion, in other words it would have changed the estimate 3 fold [Federal Trade Commission, 2007]. In surveys of sexual behaviour men consistently report having had more female sex partners than women report having had male sex partners (which is impossible). The difference ranges from a factor of 3 to 9. It is pointed out that a tiny portion of men who claim, e.g., 100 or 200 lifetime partners account for most of the difference. Removing the outliers all but eliminates the discrepancy [Florencio & Herley, Microsoft Research]. These seem like simple mistakes, which could be avoided, however safeguards against producing these erroneous results seem largely ignored when it comes to Cyber-Crime surveys [Florencio & Herley]. So, what does this potential over exaggeration mean for business? This over exaggeration and bad estimates can have huge consequences on both resource allocation and in policy issues within business and government alike. Imagine this, in a simple scenario; a research company comes out with staggering new figures about the rise in Identity theft, online fraud, and the number of companies being sued by customers who were affected by their bad data protection protocols. This type of scenario has happened before; take for example the research conducted by the ITRC (Identity Theft Resource Center) in 2008. They reported that Data Breaches soared by 47% over 2007 [ITRC, 2008 Data Breach Totals Soars]. These kind of estimates can cause alarm bells to ring for some businesses, they in turn may pump more funds into the data protection systems in their own firm to prevent what they believed were â€Å"Real Threats†. Yet, as highlighted above there could be major issues with these statistics, and Florencio & Herley even mention the discrepancies of the ITRC yearly surveys in their book. Again, imagine the implications of such research on policy issues, especially government policy issues. If the government take the results of a certain survey on Identity Theft as a perceived â€Å"Real Threat†, and adopt major measures to tackle it, it could have major implications on business. For starters, it could damage consumer confidence in E-Commerce. Like I mentioned before, it’s the reason we all think twice before making a purchase online and isn’t it the reason for the introduction of Prepaid Credit Cards? People who have never experienced Identity Theft take measures to avoid it. And this could be all down to policy measures. Exaggerated Risk on business in the industry On 29th March 2011, CPP Group PLC, a British based company selling life assistance products, announced that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) would be launching an investigation into the sale of one of its products to U.K. customers. The product included services such as credit-score monitoring, an Internet search facility alerting the user of inappropriate use of their data and a caseworker to help the person reinstate their identity [The York Press, 30th March 2011]. The financial services Authority’s investigation centres around allegations that CPP overstated the risk of identity theft when selling insurance for that purpose. As a result in the investigation, CPP had to suspend all sales of its identity theft protection product with immediate effect. The product includes services such as credit-score monitoring, an Internet search facility alerting the user of inappropriate use of their data and a caseworker to help the person reinstate their identity. And, after announcing the news to the London stock exchange, shares in CPP fell a staggering 46% from  £2.35 to  £1.50, within one day of trading [Financial Times, March 2011]. The reason for this dramatic fall was, as Chief Executive Eric Woolley stated, â€Å"Card and identity protection products in the U.K. accounted for more than 60 per cent of CPP’s business† [Eric Woolley, March 2011]. This shows how exaggerating the risk of Identity theft within this type of organisation can cause massive losses for a business. In one fowl swoop CPP Croup PLC lost almost half its market capitalisation, just because they were â€Å"under investigation† for over stating (A.K.A Exaggerating) the risk of Identity theft through calls to potential customers. This example shows that some can, and do, overstate the risk of Identity theft, and they reap the rewards as a result, as they can sell the technology to tackle it. Conclusion In the introduction I provided an overview of some of the literature and then within the assignment I took a look at both sides of the argument. Through the major cases above I have shown how Identity Theft is a Real Threat to business. However it is also a threat to small businesses, small businesses must follow the same guidelines as highlighted in the TJ Maxx instance. Failure to could possibly lead to the damaging effects of major fines, lawsuits and the damaging of the brand image of a company, as well as deterring investors. Don’t forget the wider implications for business, with the growing trend towards e-commerce, many companies want to take advantage of this, however major data breaches as seen above can hamper the consumer confidence and set back this industry. Again this is a threat to business in this area. Is Identity theft over-exaggerated? You may think I strayed from the point a little here, but I felt it was important to look at this side of the argument, and what drives it. What mainly drives it is that backing of the argument that the surveys conducted are unreliable. I am personally not over awed by this argument, however the people who make the argument point to some interesting evidence of the inaccuracy of surveys from some top researchers in Identity Theft. A look into the CPP Group case gives another side to the exaggerated risk argument. Do people/corporations over-exaggerate the risk for their own benefit? Perhaps. But that is where regulation steps in, and in the case of CPP they had to change their marketing strategy within a few weeks once the FSA began an investigation. Overall, this was a very interesting topic to research, and it opened my eyes to some new areas of IT within business and some of the problems it must tackle. Bibliography 1.Gartner Research, Phishing Attack Victims Likely Targets for Identity Theft, 4th May 2004; (http://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/IdTheif/IdTheif-phishing_attack.pdf) 2.Symantec Corporation; â€Å"Cyber Crime has Surpassed Illegal Drug Trafficking as a Criminal Money-maker; 1 in 5 will become a Victim† – Sept 10th 2009; (http://www.symantec.com/about/news/release/article.jsp?prid=20090910_01) 3.Overseas Digest; â€Å"Identity Theft: When Bad things Happen to your Good Name†. – February 2001; (http://www.overseasdigest.com/odarticles/idtheives.htm) 4.Columbus State University;â€Å"Is There a Security Problem in Computing?† -17 February 2011; (http://csc.columbusstate.edu/summers/notes/security.htm) 5.DreamWorks (film); â€Å"Catch me if you Can† – December 25th 2002; (http://www.angelfire.com/biz7/netmeeting/catchme.html) 6.Stefan Nagtegaal; â€Å"Data Theft: 100 million Records stolen† – 13th August 2008; (http://whereismydata.wordpress.com/tag/tjx/) 7.CBS News; â€Å"11 Indicted in Largest ID Theft Case Ever† – Feb 23rd 2010; (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/05/tech/main4323211.shtml) 8.Miami New Times; â€Å"The Biggest Identity case ever. Right here in Miami† – May 20th 2010; (http://www.miaminewtimes.com/content/printVersion/2270696/) 9.Identity Theft Awareness; â€Å"TJ Maxx Identity Theft† – 2011; (http://www.identity-theft-awareness.com/tj-maxx.html) 10.St. Petersberg Times; â€Å"TJX Hacker Theft May be Largest Security Breach. Data from 45.7-million Cards illegally Obtained† – March 30th 2007; (http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/30/Business/TJX_hacker_theft_may_.shtml) 11.Neal O’Farrell; E-BOOK: â€Å"Double Trouble; 12 Reasons why we’re Losing the Battle against Identity Theft† – 2011; (http://www.identityguard.com/downloads/ebook-double-trouble.pdf) 12.The Guardian; â€Å"PlayStation Network Hack: Industry Reactions and Theories† – 29th April 2011; (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/apr/29/psn-hack-industry-reactions?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487) 13.OECD; â€Å"Reinforcing consumer confidence- Key to Boosting e-commerce† – 16TH November 2009; (http://www.oecd.org/document/20/0,3746,en_21571361_43348316_44078356_1_1_1_1,00.html) 14.Develop Magazine; â€Å"Dvs on PSN hack; digital distrust could follow† – 27th April 2011; (http://www.develop-online.net/news/37568/Devs-on-PSN-hack-Digital-distrust-could-follow) 15.J. Ryan and T. I. Jefferson; â€Å"The Use, Misuse, and Abuse of Statistics in Information Security Research† – 2003. (http://www.belt.es/expertos/HOME2_experto.asp?id=5752) 16.Dinei Florencio & Cormac Herley, (Microsoft Research) â€Å"Sex, Lies and Cyber-Crime Surveys†. (http://www.belt.es/expertos/HOME2_experto.asp?id=5752) 17.Federal Trade Commission; â€Å"2006 Identity Theft Survey Report† – November 2007. [http://www.ftc.gov/os/2007/11/SynovateFinalReportIDTheft2006.pdf] 18.ITRC; â€Å"2008 Data Breach Total Soars† – June 15th 2009; (http://www.idtheftcenter.org/artman2/publish/m_press/2008_Data_Breach_Totals_Soar.shtml) 19.The Financial Times; â€Å"CPP in free fall amid FSA worries† – March 29th 2011; (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/89a516dc-5a38-11e0-86d3-00144feab49a.html#axzz1eB8FvcKU) 20.The York Press; â€Å"FSA’s concerns contested as CPP Claims ‘highest level of integrity’ â€Å"- March 30th 2011; (http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/business/news/8941469.Watchdog___s_concerns_contested_as_CPP_claims____highest_levels_of_integrity___/)