Discrimination on the Basis of Wearing Islamic Attire - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 13 Words: 3782 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2019/03/29 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Discrimination Essay Did you like this example? Prejudice on the Basis of Wearing Islamic Attire Physical appearance including skin colour and clothing preference are the basic information that shapes our first impression. These features also initiate our stereotypes and prejudices either in an implicit or explicit way and provide easy categorization. Headscarf as a form of clothing is a way of identifying the woman as Muslim and it helps people to draw lines as ‘us and others’ on a religious and also cultural basis. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Discrimination on the Basis of Wearing Islamic Attire" essay for you Create order Due to the visibility of headscarf, women wearing them are under the risk of stereotyping, labeling and stigmatization. As well as this categorization is seen in Muslim and non-Muslims, it is also possible to see the differentiation among Muslims, especially in places where both covered and uncovered Muslim women are located together. Turkey is one of the best suitable countries among the examples of those places. In general, regardless of the segregation of Muslim-non Muslim or among Muslims, Muslim women who wear headscarf are labelled as backward, oppressed, undereducated or as politically manipulated. When dealing with such a conflict like covered/uncovered, the context must be considered. The reasons to be covered, or what those religious attires mean change within time and place (Bhowon Bundhoo, 2016, p. 41). Shirazi and Mishra’s study (2010) highlights the importance of the context. In the study, researchers investigated the semantic versatility of the veil in different cultures, including Saudi, Iranian and Indian and concluded that the veil has no fixed meaning and its meaning depends upon the social context. In literature, there are plenty of investigations regarding the prejudice and discrimination on the basis of wearing a headscarf both in psychology and other disciplines such as sociology and politics. In these investigations, it is possible to see different highlights regarding the content of prejudice towards covered Muslim women. By combining those different contents of prejudices from several resources and regarding the classification of levels of analysis (Doise, 1980), in this article we attempt to classify the common justifications for these prejudices and to explain them regarding social psychology theories. Justifications for Headscarf Prejudice 1. Intraindividual Level of Analyses Individual characteristics. Women with headscarves are commonly labeled as backward, bigot, unattractive, uneducated and such kind of negative characteristics. A study done in England (Mahmud and Swami, 2010) confirms these labels. Results indicate that, women with headscarves are seen more religious but also less physically attractive, popular, sociable, approachable and competent. However, as both Social Identity and Social Dominance Theory emphasize, context must be considered within the examination of such kind of justifications; these labels vary in different occasions. For example, there is evidence that women who wear the Islamic headscarf would receive higher ratings for personal characteristics within Muslim communities. The study of Pasha-Zaidi (2014, p. 11) revealed that in societies in which such attires are accepted, women wearing religious clothings are perceived as more family-oriented, communal and virtuous. Other characteristics such as being more traditional in soci al and gender relationships like being submissive to men are also seen positively in those societies whereas those behaviors are commonly perceived negatively and criticized by Western societies. Another example is that in Bahrain, wearing hijab is seen as a rite of passage to adulthood and associated with positive characteristics such as goodness and morality while women without hijab are considered as less Muslim (Mahfoodh, 2008; as cited in Pasha-Zaidi, 2014, p. 4). The meaning loaded on hijab based on wearing a religious attire in this context can be explained with the arbitrary-set system in Social Dominance Theory. In addition, there may be other factors affecting those labeling. For instance, according to Zempi (2016, p. 3), some special clothings are not investigated well and mainly ignored by researchers. Such under-representations by society in general tend to strengthen the view that women who wear such attires are passive or disengaged. Emphasis on preference. Another point regarding the individual based features is the emphasis on the reasons to wear such kind of religious attires. Mainly, the reasons to cover can be due to personal religious convictions, family pressure, acceptance as a good Muslim, neutralisation of sexuality and protection from male gaze (Bhowon and Bundhoo, 2016). Therefore, the reason cannot emerge as a personal choice each time. Pointing out this rationale, some of the European feminists support headscarf bans because they believe Muslim women do not voluntarily adopt it. As mentioned above, the idea that women with religious attires are submissive to men is usually negatively perceived in Western societies, and also some specific groups with an ideology such as feminists. Overall, the reason behind covering is highly contested site of gender controversy between traditionalists and feminists (Shin, 2015, p. 31). In literature there are plenty of studies showing that women wearing Islamic attire exposed to discrimination in employment settings (King and Ahmad, 2010; Unkelbach, Schneider, Gode and Senft, 2010). Putting in a nutshell, covered women tend to be perceived more negatively and less likely to get the job compared to uncovered women. Indeed, the employers argue that as long as a woman keeps on her headscarf, she should be already declaring a choice to remain outside the visibility norms of large-scale retailing and to work in shops that cater specifically to the Islamic population. (Sayan-Cengiz, 2016, p. 151) Prejudices related to individualistic characteristics for sure cannot be justifiable. According to Zempi (2016) the local environment is also a contributing factor to women’s decision to wear the religious garment such as nijab, hijab or headscarf. As mentioned before, if there is a necessity to figure out the reason why the person chose to cover, we cannot search it onl y within the individualistic features. Also, according to Social Identity Theory, when people are categorized into groups, they come to be seen in terms of characteristic group features that define their social identities, while neglecting individual traits which define their uniqueness (Ellemers Haslam, 2012, p. 381). This kind of categorization explains the individual based prejudices towards women with Islamic attire. 2. Interindividual Level of Analyses Headscarf as an identity mark. Before talking about prejudices that can be grouped under this category, it would be appropriate to propose some related study results. Bhowon and Bundhoo (2016) found that, participants who identified themselves as Muslims placed their Muslim identity before their national one. Results also indicate that they all endorse a positive self attitude. These results are not surprising regarding Social Identity Theory. According to Turner (1984), as people define themselves and others as members of the same category, they self-stereotype in relation to the category and tend to see themselves as more alike in terms of the defining attributes of the category (as cited in; van Lange, Kruglanski Higgins, 2012, PAGE EKLE). However, the strong identification of Muslims with their groups is interpreted as a form of self-segregation, the separation of a religious or ethnic group from the rest of society in a state by the group itself. Indeed, along with as being per sonal choice, wearing religious attire emerges as an expression of belonging to the ‘ummah’ (Zempi, 2016, p. 1). Rokeach (1960) alternatively proposed that prejudice is expressed against a person not because of the persons identification with an ethnic or racial group, but rather because the person holds beliefs, or is perceived to hold beliefs that are dissimilar to the prejudiced persons beliefs (Tan and Vera, 1970, p.18). In this context, wearing headscarf is seen as an identity mark. Women with religious attires are perceived as a public expression of having deep religious commitment, therefore as a mark of difference from those whom do not wear it (Zempi, 2016, p. 5). Moreover, by being marked, women wearing headscarf are also being under an examination about the consistency of their appearance and behaviors: How much do they cover? Are their attitudes in line with their headscarves? Are they properly religious? (Sayan-Cengiz, 2016, p. 103). As a result, being under examination continuously induces the necessity of being proper, in other words necessity of perfection. From Terror Management Theory perspective, having a religious commitment provides both literal and symbolic immortality. Islamic attire is a form of symbolic immortality by strengthening the group membership and influencing others. However, noticing others with different worldviews signal the possibility that one may be wrong in his/ her belief or his/her worldview is invalid (Çaml?, 2010, p. 4). In this context, religious attire serves as a mark of differentiation between groups and trigger the basic existential anxiety and leads to negative evaluation of out-group members. This negative evaluation can exhibit itself as prejudice. Gender Oppression. From feminist perspective, there is a gender oppression in Islamic lifestyle against women. Accordingly, there should be a gender equality and women shouldn’t have to be under obligation regarding social life, while men can behave in more self-directed manner. Therefore, Islamic attire serves as a legitimacing factor of inequ ality and women with Islamic attire tend to be seen as oppressed from this perspective. The feminist perspective equated the veil with female oppression, subordination and discrimination (Pasha-Zaidi, 2014, p. 3). The idea of gender oppression is in line with the invariance hypothesis in Social Dominance Theory, suggesting that when everything else is equal there will be a men dominance towards women (Sidanius Pratto, 2012, p. 427). In addition, the feminist ideas also can be explained with hierarchy-enhancing legitimizing myths in Social Dominance Theory. The inequality between genders depends on pre-existing social norms with respect to interpretation of Islam. 3. Positional Level of Analyses Class-based assumptions. The covered-uncovered conflict led to a view on a hierarchical base regarding the position and status of women with headscarves. The main standpoint is that, women with headscarves occupy a subordinate position in society. The feminist ideas suggesting that there is men oppression to women in Islamic lifestyle gave rise to this point of view. However, if we talk about Turkey, mainly the previous legal obstacles for covered women related with attending universities and working in the public institutions provided roots for this attitude. Although currently there is no legal restriction for women with headscarves about where to study and work, it is still possible to talk about presence of a glass ceiling for those women. If we look at large-scale retail settings as chain stores or shopping malls, we can easily observe that women with religious attires are rarely engaged with these kinds of working places, they are rather engaged with small-scale, individually owned stores, especially in stores selling religious attires (Sayan-Cengiz, 2016, p. 150). The reasons for this situation can be found in large-scale retail settings’ purpose of representing an outlook related with being presentable and fashionable, young urban, middle-class, heterosexual, slim appearance with no hints of ethnic, religious, gendered, bodily particularities (Sayan-Cengiz, 2016, p. 150). In some cases, a ‘negotiation’ comes into point in which the woman is asked to not wear any religious attire in order to get the job, especially high-status ones in private sector. However, this kind of request puts the woman in a hard position because she would raise suspicions about her modesty if she accepted such request. Another point about the class-based assumptions relies on socio-economic statuses. Toprak and Uslu (2009, p. 62) showed that there is a meaningful differentiation among people with different socio-economic statues (SES) to the headscarf issue in Turkey. Accordingly, the positive attitude toward the freedom to wear the headscarf decreases as the SES increases. According to SDT, the combination of high Social Dominance Orientation and high ingroup identification among dominants produces especially strong derogation and against subordinates. Considering that, both employers and people with high socio-economic statuses can be counted in dominant groups, there is a likelihood of them to discriminate and show negative attitude towards subordinate group, women with headscarves. 4. Ideological Level of Analyses Politically manipulated. In order to understand the base of this assumption, first the differentiation between traditional and the modern, urban headscarf referred as turban should be made clear. The traditional headscarf did not always cover the hair completely like the modern turban which had no predecessor in Islamic garment (Kreiser, 2005, p. 456) and assumption is that traditional headscarf is motivated by a conscious Muslim identity whereas turban wearers are seen as a kind of activists or a new social movement (Sayan-Cengiz, 2016, p. 120). Therefore, the preference of turban is generally attributed to some political based reasons and those women who wear turban are assigned with a new kind of identity in which it is represented by turban. As Sayan-Cengiz points out (2016, p. 101) some scholars attribute a novelty to young, urban wearers of the headscarf by also emphasizing that their motivations are contoured by the modern Islamist movement. The rates of political parties in Turkey provide another base for this assumption. There is a great distinction between the followers of other parties and Republican People’s Party supporters, who think in considerably high rates that wearing the headscarf in universities and public offices is contrary to secularism (Toprak and Uslu, 2009, p. 59). Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the attitude toward the headscarf can be shaped by political party preferences. In addition, it is possible to see more robust form of prejudice based on ideological reasons in the Western side of the World. Because of the Anti-Muslim stereotypes in a post-9/11 and 7/7 era, especially Muslim women who wear face veil are stigmatized, criminalized and marked as ‘dangerous’. Hence, the wearing of the face veil is often understood as a practice synonymous with religious fundamentalism and, as such, one which fosters political extremism (Zempi, 2016, p. 1). Against modernization. Modernization theory focuses on the convergence to the Western culture patterns. Accordingly, at the end of the industrialization period, each culture will resemble to Western societies. Therefore, the predominant Western values referred as modern. The main values that are emphasized by Western societies are freedom and personal autonomy. As mentioned before, Islamic attire, especially veil, is seen as a form of accepting predominance of men therefore regarded as opposed to fre edom, equality and personal autonomy. This kind of thinking leads to prejudice and discrimination on a basis of clothing preference. Women with religious attire are commonly labeled as pre-modern and they are seen as a threat to the ideal figure of Westernized citizen of the Turkish Republic (Sayan-Cengiz, 2016, p. 101). However, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that by discriminating on a cultural base concerning Western values, those people are actually behaving contradictory. Indeed, Saraoglou et al.’s study showed that people who gave importance to freedom tended to show less negative attitude towards veil (Saroglou, Lamkaddem, Pachterbeke, Buxant, 2009, p. 426). From another perspective, some women with Islamic attire see this kind of clothing as a form of resistance to imposition of Western clothings and they reported that they feel more in control of their bodies in this way (Zempi, 2016, p. 9). Some similar results (Dunkel, Davidson and Qurashi, 2010, p. 63) indicate that women with Islamic attire have a preference for larger body shape, which is against the Western beauty values. Against secularism. In general, secularism which emphasizes the life in the real world rather than the hereafter and other religious or spiritual issues is identified with ‘modernization’. Along with secularism and modernization, the visibility of the headscarf increases and it has caused controversy between some groups of society. Especially secularists’ and feminists’ ideas became inconsistent with the ideas of women with headscarf and their supporters. As mentioned before the headscarf is seen as backward, rural, traditional, and as an indicator of women’s submission. In addition, in the eyes of secularists and feminists, the headscarf is the symbol of backwardness rather than women conscious of their rights and freedoms and demands on this issue carry the threat of radical Islam and a theocratic state. Moreover, men fulfill duties in the public place while women are isolated from outside and are mainly responsible for bringing up children and doi ng daily housework. Therefore, headscarf serves as a symbol of this division of labor and the banning women from public life (Genel Karaosmano?lu, 2006; as cited in Toprak Uslu, p. 52). According to this view, women do not cover their heads based upon personal choice, rather they are forced to do so by Islamist men. According to Ç?nar (2008, p. 907), the headscarf has been declared by the Islamist political elite as â€Å"the symbol of struggle of Islam against secularism† (as cited in Sayan-Cengiz, 2016, p. 120). This statement represents the situation in a very clear manner. These notions are embedded within the concern that the headscarf is a threat against the achievements of Turkish modernization project, especially with regard to women’s rights. In Turkey, the secular elite as well as women organizations including feminists do not have any sympathy toward women wearing the headscarf and do not promote their welfare or do not support them in getting an education, participating in public life and benefiting from public goods (Seà §kinelgin, 2006; Marshall, 2005; as cited in Toprak and Uslu, 2009, p. 52) An important point is that, the perceptions towards Muslim women with religious attire may not necessarily be as dichotomous as the debate between secular feminists and Is lamic feminists. El Hamel (2002) found that secular feminists tend to equate the hijab with oppression and subjugation of women, whereas Islamic feminists perceive the hijab as a symbol of freedom from materialism and the imperialism of Western ideals (Pasha-Zaidi, 2014, p. 3). In summary there are two contrary aspects, on the one hand according to feminism perspective headscarf is a symbol of oppression; and on the other hand, it was said that meaning of headscarf is biased and overstated (Bhowon Bundhoo, 2016 p. 34). Conclusion People use different types of justifications to explain their prejudices. However, none of them is able to legitimate such kind of negative attitudes. Prejudice leads to discrimination and causes problems in social life, especially for disadvantaged group members. In this article, we aimed to group the justifications for headscarf prejudice and it is possible to conclude that the justifications on the basis of wearing Islamic attire considerably vary. On the other hand, there is an outstanding emphasis on the macro level factors such as political and cultural agents. Understanding prejudice with respect to theoretical framework can help us to provide some solutions to reduce them. Regarding the theoretical framework, we believe that Social Dominance Theory is able to explain headscarf controversy in more detailed manner whereas Social Identity Theory is more powerful in terms of its ability to explain various aspects of prejudice. Several suggestions can be argued in order to reduce prejudice. First of all, if people get educated about prejudice, this could help them to be aware of their own prejudices and make self-regulation which might turn into automatic manner eventually (Monteith et al., 2016; as cited in Kite Whitley, 2010, p. 535). Also, the self-awareness could help to question the social norms and how much they actually identify themselves with those norms. However, because prejudices are learned in early years of life, simply getting educated about them might not be enough to control them. In this regard, although it is necessary to get educated no matter what, just relying on individual based solutions would not be realistic. Therefore, as Allport (1954) suggest, institutional support should come to view and authorities need to focus on prejudice issue for finding solutions to reduce them (as cited in Kite Whitley, 2010, p. 537). Also, regarding the prejudice towards women with Islamic attire, em phasizing a shared Muslim identity by disregarding the interpretation differences can reduce prejudice between Muslim groups. References Bhowon, U., Bundhoo, H. (2016). Perceptions and Reasons for Veiling: A Qualitative Study. Psychology and Developing Societies, 28(1), 29–49. doi:10.1177/0971333615622894 Çaml?, ?. (2010). Attitudes Towards Allowance Of Headscarf In The Universities: A Terror Management Theory Perspective. Unpublished thesis, Middle East Technical University. Çarko?lu, A., Toprak, B. (2016). De?i?en Tà ¼rkiye’de Din, Toplum ve Siyaset. Retrieved from: https://tesev.org.tr/tr/yayin/degisen-turkiyede-din-toplum-ve-siyaset/ Doise, W. (1980). Levels of explanation in the European Journal of Social Psychology. European Journal of Social Psychology, 10(3), 213–231. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420100302 Dunkel, T. M., Davidson, D. Qurashi S. (2010). Body satisfaction and pressure to be thin in younger and older Muslim and non-Muslim women: The role of Western and nonWestern dress preferences. Body Image 7: 56–65. Ellemers, N. Haslam, S. A. (2012). Social identity theory. In P. A. M. van Lange, A. W. Kruglanski E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology. (Vol. 2) (pp. 379-398). London: Sage Pub. Jost, J. T., Banaji, M. R. Nosek, B. A. (2004). A decade of system justification theory: Accumulated evidence of conscious and unconscious bolstering of the status quo. Political Psychology, 25(6), 881-919. King, E. B., Ahmad, A. S. (2010). An Experimental Field Study of Interpersonal Discrimination Toward Muslim Job Applicants. Personnel Psychology, 63(4), 881–906. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.2010.01199.x Kite, M. E. Whitley, B. E. Jr. (2010). The psychology of prejudice and discrimination (2. Ed.). Wadsworth: Cengage Learning. Kreiser, K. (2005). Turban and tà ¼rban: â€Å"Divider between belief and unbelief†. A political history of modern Turkish costume. European Review, 13(3), 447–458. doi:10.1017/s1062798705000566 Mahmud, Y., Swami, V. (2010). The influence of the hijab (Islamic head-cover) on perceptions of women’s attractiveness and intelligence. Body Image, 7(1), 90–93. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2009.09.003 Pasha-Zaidi, N. (2014). The Hijab Effect: An exploratory study of the influence of hijab and religiosity on perceived attractiveness of Muslim women in the United States and the United Arab Emirates. Ethnicities, 15(5), 742–758. doi:10.1177/1468796814546914 Saroglou, V., Lamkaddem, B., Van Pachterbeke, M., Buxant, C. (2009). Host society’s dislike of the Islamic veil: The role of subtle prejudice, values, and religion. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 33(5), 419–428. doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2009.02.005 Sayan-Cengiz, F. (2016). Beyond Headscarf Culture in Turkey’s Retail Sector. (1st ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan Shin, A. L. (2015). Muslim women and the veil: an experimental study of social bias. Unpublished postgraduate thesis. Iowa State University. Shirazi, F., Mishra, S. (2010). Young Muslim women on the face veil (niqab). International Journal of Cultural Studies, 13(1), 43–62. doi:10.1177/1367877909348538 Sidanius, J. Pratto F. (2012). Social dominance theory. In P. A. M. van Lange, A. W. Kruglanski E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology. (Vol. 2) (pp. 418-438). London: Sage Pub. Tajfel, H., Turner, J. C. (2004). The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior. In J. T. Jost J. Sidanius (Eds.), Key readings in social psychology. Political psychology: Key readings (pp. 276-293). New York, NY, US: Psychology Press. Tan, A. L., de Vera, G. (1970). A test of Rokeachs belief congruence theory of prejudice. Philippine Journal of Psychology, 3(1), 18-21. Toprak, M., Uslu, N. (2009). The Headscarf Controversy in Turkey. Journal of Economic and Social Research, 11(1), 43-67. Turner, J. C. Reynolds, K. J. (2012). Self-categorization theory. In P. A. M. van Lange, A. W. Kruglanski E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology. (Vol. 2) (pp. 399-417). London: Sage Pub. Unkelbach, C., Schneider, H., Gode, K., Senft, M. (2010). A Turban Effect, Too: Selection Biases Against Women Wearing Muslim Headscarves. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(4), 378–383. doi:10.1177/1948550610378381 Zempi, I. (2016). ‘It’s a part of me, I feel naked without it’: choice, agency and identity for Muslim women who wear the niqab. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39(10), 1738–1754. doi:10.1080/01419870.2016.1159710

Analysis Of Nothing Gold Can Stay - 1355 Words

Robert Frost wrote Nothing Gold Can Stay in 1923. Frost wrote this poem out of fear the world would end. He did not publish the entire poem and modified the first section. The first section is what is featured in print. By not publishing the entire piece, this leads me to believe he was going to publish the whole piece for a different reason than the reason he only published part of it. He may have targeted one audience with all of the piece, but then another audience with only part of the piece. Although Nothing Gold Can Stay has rhyming and emotions, it is a narrative, a poem that tells a story. It is a story of the seasons. It starts with spring and summer, and then it transitions into fall. To others, it could be a story that†¦show more content†¦Although it is a passage of time through the seasons, it could also be a passage of time throughout life, like I mentioned previously. Whenever we start as a baby, that is like spring. As we start aging, we also start dying, which is like fall. Nature is the name of the character in Robert Frosts, Nothing Gold Can Stay. Since Nature is the name of the character, it does suggest extra meaning to the poem. Provided that Nature is the character of the poem, the poem is definitely about the coming and going of the seasons. Rather than Robert Frost deliberately concealing information from the readers, he lets the readers imaginations float free by providing them with just enough information. The only thing that he doesnt tell us is what the gold symbolizes, which is up to us to decide. For the poem to have meaning to the reader, the reader has to have something that the gold symbolizes. The poem doesnt stress cultural ideas, such as the behavior, dress, or speech habits of a particular group or a historical period or event, whereas other poems about life and death could stress cultural ideas with ease. Robert Frost doesnt use any dialect, slang, or foreign words, provided that he is talking about nature and the seasons, which is everywhere in the world. Because Nothing Gold Can Stay talks about real things, it is an obvious reality; it is about the changing of seasons and the passing of a lifetime. The poem doesnt mention anything that is unrealistic orShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Nothing Gold Can Stay937 Words   |  4 Pagespolitical climate. This piece is a collection from 20th century poetry. This poem is a narrative about how nothing gold can stay. It is telling about anything perfect and beautiful and how they end up not staying. For example, when a baby is born and a mother gets to see her child for the first time, that is gold. Once it grows up it will not be innocent and perfect. The title Nothing gold can stay is relatively self explanatory with a little help from someone who knows a little about the poem. I didntRead MoreAnalysis Of Nothing Gold Can Stay1440 Words   |  6 PagesNothing Gold Can Stay was written post-World War 1, even though the poem was actually originally written in fear of the world ending. Eventually, however, the original poem did not make the mention to the Garden of Eden and rather expressed the poets fears of the world ending. Nothing Gold Can Stays style is a narrative, telling the story of natures or humans gold in a very musical and lyrical way, one where you could almost sing it as a song, should there be more lines of verse, like how itRead MoreAnalysis of Nothing Gold Can Stay2767 Words   |  12 PagesNOTHING GOLD CAN STAY Robert Frosts poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay, although quite short, contains powerful images that provide a unique insight to one of the many cycles of life. The title of the poem infers that the subject of this poem is something that was once beautiful and pure, but cannot remain so. On the surface, it seems the speaker of the poem is referring to Natures beauty can never remain. The first couplet Natures first green is gold/Her hardest hue to hold could represent theRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem Nothing Gold Can Stay756 Words   |  4 Pagespoem, ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’, by Robert Frost is an important part of S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. Explain how the poem relates to the key events in the novel. The Outsiders, a coming-of-age novel written by S.E.Hinton, tells the story of the loss of innocence due to violence and grief through fourteen year old Ponyboy Curtis’ eyes. Robert Frost’s 1923 poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay, is referred to in the novel. The author deliberately includes the poem to reject the idea of Nothing Gold Can Stay; showRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem Nothing Gold Can Stay1262 Words   |  6 Pagesonce the poem was published the author of the poem Nothing Gold Can Stay was Robert Lee Frost. I think Robert frost based his poem on things he has seen in his life and based it off of nature. the poem was written in 1923. the poem was one of many poems the author robert frost wrote, its own poem but has the same author of multiple poem the main style of this poem is narrative. I think its narrative because the poem tells a story and digs deep into things found in nature. its not focused on a personRead MoreAnalysis Of Nothing Gold Can Stay By Robert Frost742 Words   |  3 Pagespoems story behind it. The title Nothing Gold Can Stay gives us a mood of sadness and loss. The title is not representing a contrast between two things, it is simply giving you an idea of the poems meaning. When you hear Nothing Gold can stay you think of loss and something precious being lost. Repetition in the Poem Even though the poem is rather short and doesnt contain much repetition; the word gold is used frequently because gold is what is symbolizing somethingRead MoreLiterary Analysis Of Robert Frosts Nothing Gold Can Stay970 Words   |  4 Pagespoetry. The style of Roberts Frosts poem Nothing Gold Can Stay, is a little bit of a confessional poem. I think this because it is maybe reflecting someones memories or experiences from the past about creation. As well as talking about seasons changing. An example of this is in the poem when it says But only so an hour. is talking about how our memories and life experiences are short. I think the title of Robert Frosts poem Nothing Gold Can Stay is not completely obvious. I know this becauseRead MoreEssay on Analysis of Robert Frosts Poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay707 Words   |  3 PagesAnalysis of Robert Frosts Poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay Robert Frost has a fine talent for putting words into poetry. Words which are normally simplistic spur to life when he combines them into a whimsical poetic masterpiece. His Nothing Gold Can Stay poem is no exception. Although short, it drives home a deep point and meaning. Life is such a fragile thing and most of it is taken for granted. The finest, most precious time in life generally passes in what could be the blink of an eye.Read MoreLiterary Analysis : Nothing Gold Can Stay By Robert Frost975 Words   |  4 Pagesbecause it is short and rhymes. There is a longer verision that has more stanzas. That poem would be a narative because it was long and told a story. Frost had intence feelings in Nothing Gold Can Stay. Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost was not obvious the reader had to make inferences of what the phrase nothing gold can stay is talking about. Since Frost was taking a political and dark view on might assume he would be representing how he believed the world was ending and being changed. In the 1920sRead MoreLiterary Analysis Of Robert Frosts Nothing Gold Can Stay893 Words   |  4 PagesThe author of Nothing Gold Can Stay is Robert Frost. He wrote the poem in 1923. Frost was born March 26, 1874 in San Fransico. His parents were William Prescott Frost and Isabelle Moodie. When he was in high school he started to get intersed in reading and writing poetry. After leaving school, Frosthad jobs as a teacher, a cobbler, and the editor of Lawrence Sentinel. His first poem published was My Butterfly, on Nov. 4th 1894 it appeared in the New York newspaper The Independent. And in 1895

Bus 630 Week 1 Discussion Free Essays

BUS630 WEEK 1 Ashford University MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING: This week students will: 1. Explain the primary ethical responsibilities of the management accountant. 2. We will write a custom essay sample on Bus 630 Week 1 Discussion or any similar topic only for you Order Now Illustrate the key principles of managerial accounting including cost concepts. 3. Distinguish between the behavior of variable and fixed cost. 4. Explain the significance of cost behavior to decision making and control. 5. Determine the necessary sales in unit and dollars to break-even or attain desired profit using the break-even formula. FINANCIAL VS MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING- Financial accounting is the branch of accounting that organizes accounting information for presentation to interested parties outside of the organization. The primary financial accounting reports are the balance sheet (often called a statement of financial position), the income statement, and the statement of cash flows. The balance sheet is a summary of assets, liabilities, and shareholders’ equity at a specified point in time. The income statement reports revenues and expenses resulting from the company’s operations for a particular time period. The statement of cash flows shows the sources and uses of cash over a time period for operating, investing, and financing activities. Managerial accounting is the branch of accounting that meets managers’ information needs. Because managerial accounting is designed to assist the firm’s managers in making business decisions, relatively few restrictions are imposed by regulatory bodies and generally accepted accounting principles. Therefore, a manager must define which data are relevant for a particular purpose and which are not. In managerial accounting, however, the segment is of major importance. Segments may be products, projects, divisions, plants, branches, regions, or any other subset of the business. Tracing or allocating costs, revenues, and assets to segments creates difficult issues for managerial accountants. Two important similarities do exist. The transaction and accounting information systems discussed earlier are used to generate the data inputs for both financial statements and management reports. Therefore, when the system accumulates and classifies information, it should do so in formats that accommodate both types of accounting. Discuss a possible negative managerial scenario that the regional manager may be sensing. The Regional Manager is piecing together trends and abnormalities in order to predict the near future of store #9. At a glance, we determine that store 9 run by an effective manager with a successful track record. However, the lack of investment in training signals an attempt to cut overhead cost in order to show a larger store profit. Cutting employee training may be an effective tool for the short term but may create issues in the future. Additionally, we see that the Store has decided to withdraw from several costly, but high visibility events. Again, this may be a reduction in variable cost in order to reduce store overhead in the short term and increase profitability. The Regional Manager’s concern is that the entire company profits from these community events, not just the single store, and therefore, the impact may be detrimental to sales in multiple areas. Lastly, we see that store #6 has increased its operating costs since the store manager in question departed. This signals an issue consistent with the concerns above that this manager simply aims to reduce overhead as low as possible in order to increase the overall store profit. Might the manager of Store 9 be an exceptional manager? Although on the surface, the three trends above may appear to be negative; this store manager may in fact be a very effective manager. For example: Perhaps instead of accounting for the trainee’s hours as overhead in training costs, he has put that individual in a position to learn-on-the-job, therefore, making the employee’s working hours into a direct labor cost and minimizing overhead. When it comes to advertising, we saw the manager spent most of his advertising dollars early in the year. It may be possible that the manager elected to spend his variable expense advertising dollars during a time period where they would produce the most sales, and then tapered off his advertising dollars during a time period of steady business flow. Lastly, the cancellation of high visibility events may have been due to the determination that cost was not yielding substantial sales or visibility. Despite this fact, it stands to reason that a store manager would inform a regional manager of any choices having a broader impact to the overall company. If there was a lack of communication here, I believe it is to the detriment of the store manager’s credibility. What are the ethical implications of the scenario? Variable Cost defines the cost of a single assembled product based on the materials consumed and labor invested directly in unit production. To illustrate our point, we can say that making a single baked potato with all of the fixings will cost $3. 00 to produce (potato, sour cream, chives, plate, fork, napkin and labor). If we decide to go into the baked potato business, we must then sell these potatoes for at least $3. 00 per unit. Any less would cause us to lose money on the endeavor. This cost cannot be made up by increasing volume of sales. Judy Koch discussed the fact that bulk purchases can benefit you reduce these variable costs. If we decided to purchase potato-making materials in larger quantities and hired more workers to produce these products, we could then possibly produce our product for a lower Variable Cost based on the new price. Fixed cost will remain the same no matter how our potato shop does. As an example, our potato restaurant rental costs will be the same whether we sell one hundred potatoes or zero potatoes per month. The electricity, the heating costs, the manager’s salary. All of these factors will stay consistent no matter how many units we sell. Judy Koch’s statement is in reference to the fact that these costs are indeed changeable, however, they do not vary per unit sold. We can decide to upgrade our successful restaurant and pay higher rental fees, the government can increase our tax liability and we can hire more management. None of these costs will increase if we sell more potatoes. They are independent of unit sales. How to cite Bus 630 Week 1 Discussion, Papers

Journal Software Engineering Applications †Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Journal Of Software Engineering Applications? Answer: Introducation Project quality management is the application of skills, tools, techniques and knowledge to ensure that a project is complete and successful (Munier, 2013). A project is basically a contractual assignment that is given to a group of team members to be completed within a certain time period. In a project, there are certain specific common constraints that face project team member which are: the project scope, project time period, the budget and the resources to be used to complete the project. This means that for a project management to be successful, the project managers or team members have to achieve the objectives set (produce the expected product or service in terms of quality, quantity, physical appearances etc.) within the constraints (Basu, 2016). Therefore, for that to be possible, project quality management has to be used to guide the project activities and members. Project Quality management can be said to be the process of controlling, planning, directing and organizing al l the activities that are directly responsible for developing and improving the project quality or rather the quality of the projects end result (Kerzner, 2013). Project quality management involves operations that work towards ensuring that the project will satisfy the expected needs. This operations may include identifying and modifying activities like: management activities, objectives, quality policies, roles and responsibilities (Levin, 2014). The project manager, business owners and stakeholders ought to ensure that these activities are guided and implemented towards improving the project quality as well as that of the end result or product. In a project management process, there are four major components which are: quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement (Tinnaluri, 2016). These four components are to be used by the project managers by coordinating them with other activities being carried out by the project team members to ensure project completion and success. Project quality management also refers to ensuring that all activities that are being conducted by the project team members are done according to the rules and regulations and towards the common goal and objective. Therefore, the project managers should ensure that the team members have strong skills, technical knowledge and ability and are great experts at their field of operations (Liberatore et al, 2013). This will certainly ensure that the project quality is of no question. However, for such a coordination to be manageable, the project managers should develop and implement a quality management plan which is basically a sch edule or an outline of what requirements are needed and relevant for the achievement of the quality standards. This means that the business owners and stakeholders have to identify the quality standards while the project managers and team members determine the techniques, procedures and methods of achieving those standards. For global project teams, the project quality management plan can be a very difficult process to develop and implement. This is simply because the team members, stakeholders and business owners are technically in different parts of the world. Global teams means that the team members have a common goal and objective at the end of the project, but are placed in different countries or continents in the world. In such a scenario, there are very many differences between the members which makes any project management plan possible or easy to execute. However, with an agreed project management plan before the project begins, a global project team can achieve the quality management of a project as well as that of the product itself. Components Of Project Quality Management As mentioned earlier, quality management typically involves four components. These components are capable of managing a project quality or rather they are used to determine the quality of any project. For a global project team to be successful in any project, these components must be identified and procedures developed and implemented to achieve them. The following are the components: Quality Planning Quality is a characteristic or feature of something. Project quality planning is the identification and determination of the quality standards that are relevant to a project. Also, it involves the identification and development of the procedures, techniques and methods that can be implemented to achieve those quality standards. In this phase, the project goals and objectives are set, project deliverables or requirements listed, policies and procedures identified and roles and responsibilities divided among the team members. This is one of the most important phases of a project management plan. By conducting this phase, the project team members will be working towards achieving a common goal. Therefore, this component should be communicated effectively to the stakeholders and business owners simply because they are the ones to determine the project quality in the end. In addition to that, their participation is needed and important to ensure that all the project requirements are liste d before it begins. Quality Assurance This phase involves the analysis and evaluation of the project performance frequently to determine whether the project will meet its expectations or not. However, this components involves the satisfaction of the project quality standards only. This phase is used to track the projects progression to determine that it is on the right track, i.e. towards achieving the quality standards of the customer. In other words, quality assurance is used to identify the project failure, mistake or problems and determine the corrective measure to be taken (Nicholas et al, 2017). To add to that, quality assurance ensures that the corrective measures fall towards achieving the quality standards for the project. Therefore, quality assurance can be said to be a project process that helps in the improvement of the activities and processes conducted during a project execution to ensure that the quality standards of the project are met. Quality Control This is a component that is involved in a projects final phases, mostly after a project is completed. It inspects and conducts project reviews with an aim of ensuring its success. In other words, quality control involves monitoring the project activities, procedures and schedule to ensure that they comply with the quality standards set to be achieved. In addition to that, this phase identifies possible problems (in relation to quality control or quality plan) and devices solutions to the problems. However, if the solutions fail to meet the expected standards, other alternatives are used until the quality standards of the project as well as the end product are met. Fundamentally, the quality control phase ensures the elimination of unsatisfactory project performance, in regard with quality. Quality Improvement In general terms, quality improvement involves finding new or better ways and methods to make the quality of a product or service better. Project quality improvement includes introducing better resources to carry out a project. This means involves better qualifies, skilled and knowledgeable team members in the project (Schwalbe, 2015). Also, it involves including strong experts into the project. This phase ensures that the project team members have got what it takes to produce the expected quality of project. During this phase, the project managers and users are required to interact with other project managers with an aim of learning anything that can improve the quality of the project in any way. However, this will limit the people involved only to quality related information. According to Simona et al, 2011, this is a component that is fundamental in a global project members because they are all required to participate and share any information or knowledge that can improve the qua lity of a project. On the other hand, it can be a very beneficial aspect because in a global team, different people with different views and knowledge on quality are involved. For a global team to achieve project quality management, they must work together in creating an effective and efficient quality management plan to use during the project implementation. This simply means that the business owners, stakeholder, project managers and the other project team members have to rely on each other for information and support. Furthermore, they all have to let go the differences between them to achieve the expected quality standards of the project. However, they have to need to ensure that all the components listed above are identified and procedures for their achievement determined (Alami, 2016). There are challenges that face global project team members that should also be identified. Challenges Facing Global Project Team Members Cultural Differences In a global project, the management of any project becomes a difficult task for the project managers because of the cultural differences among the members. Due to these differences, there are additional challenges, e.g. with communication. The different attitudes and behaviors caused by cultural differences increase the possibility of problems arising during the project executing. Furthermore, the cultural diversities increases the possibilities of project failure which is caused by the failure of the team members to adapt to the culture or behavior that is meant to complete the project successfully (Alami, 2016). In that case, the project quality management plan creation becomes a challenge for the whole team as well. In case of an IT project, the cultural differences may involve operations like different ways of handling and using technology to produce a product. Therefore, for global teams, effective and efficient technology should be used but should not influence the cultural practices of the members or the users. Technological Differences In a global team, there are different team members from different countries. These countries certainly have different technological advancement status which brings inequality in a project. Therefore, in a case of IT project, the team members are likely going to underrate or underestimate the ideas and opinions of a member whose origin is a less developed country (Lima et al, 2014). This differences can cause problems for the members which creates a non-conducive environment for project success, e.g. disputes and arguments involved. This also affects the creation of an effective project quality management plan that should guide the team. Geographical Boundaries In a global project team, the members are always very far apart which means that the management process becomes a challenge. This also means that there are no meetings to be held on a regular basis (either for update of the project status or assurance of the projects track) like in a local project. The long distance between the members make communication difficult. These teams mostly communicate through emails, Skype, phone calls, video calls among others. However, these also are challenges because of the time differences in the world. All of these challenges have the capability of affecting the creation and implementation of a project quality management plan which becomes a challenge to the project itself. Management Differences Different countries have different project management structures, techniques and methods. Therefore, for a global team, this becomes a challenge because every member would think that their structure is better or more effective that the others (Gulesin et al, 2015). This means that each member will want their structure to be implemented in the project. This challenge is capable of causing arguments and disputes among the members which will affect the project implementation, performance and success. Differences in Legal Matters This is in relation to the laws that govern a country. A global project will have a specific goal and objective for every member no matter their location. However, different countries have different laws and regulations governing certain specific projects, products or services. According to ul Haq et al, 2011), there are chances that the rules and regulations of the countries will go against those of the project objective. This means that it becomes a challenge for a team member to comply with the country laws or focus on achieving the project objective. For instance, laws that govern quality regulations of a product or service. In case of an IT project, legal matters may involve things like laws governing the technology use in the country. In this case, the global project team member should not be involved with any activity or operation that will break the countrys law, especially concerning use of the technology. Culture Recognition This involves the project managers and the other team members recognizing and respecting the culture of every team member involved in the project. Also, it involves being aware of the differences between the members, e.g. being aware of the cultural celebrations like national and religious holidays. To add to that, culture recognition include also recognition of the different ethnic groups and races among the project team members (Aarseth et al, 2011). Through this, each team member will certainly feel respected and valuable despite their differences with others. Also, it will help the members work together hence encouraging team work and better understanding. Navigation of the Time Zones With the long distances between the members, great differences in time zones is involved. This causes communication difficulties and hence no effective communication structure or process. This basically means that sometimes it is challenging to conduct a meeting or set up a meeting time for everyone in the team spread over the globe. The solution for this can be to come up with a way of coordinating the members and knowing the time suitable for each member to meet, e.g. by using the TimeAndDate.com which is a world clock that also has a meeting planner tool. Effective Leadership Effective leadership or management team can solve most of the challenges involved in a global project team. However, most of the challenges that may be solved by this include: issues to do with different management structures and techniques, technological differences, legal matters among others (Aarseth et al, 2013). A good project manager will ensure that all members are comfortable with carrying out any project activity without breaking the country laws. Conclusion For every project, the quality characteristics of the project or product are defined by the business owners and stakeholders. However, project managers and the project team members have to implement the procedures and methods of achieving those quality features demanded by the client. The four components of project quality management plan (quality control, assurance, planning and improvement) should be used to achieve the quality standards in every project. From project initiation stage to the completion stage, these four aspects should be checked and kept on track. On the other hand, global project teams are usually faced by a number of challenges that affect the quality of a project or product. These teams should hinder some of the solutions discussed above to solve the related challenges. References Aarseth, W., Rolstads, A., Andersen, B. (2011). Key factors for management of global projects: a case study.International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems,1(4), 326-345. Aarseth, W., Rolstads, A., Andersen, economics. (2013). Managing organizational challenges in global projects.International Journal of Managing Projects in Business,7(1), 103-132. Alami, A. (2016). Global Project Management Challenges. Ale Ebrahim, N., Ahmed, S., Taha, Z. (2009). Virtual teams and management challenges. Anantatmula, V., Thomas, M. Managing Global Projects.A Structured Approach. Basu, R. (2016). The best practices of managing quality in projects.Further Advances in Project Management: Guided Exploration in Unfamiliar Landscapes, 13. Fellows, R., Liu, A. (2016). Sensemaking in the cross-cultural contexts of projects.International Journal of Project Management,34(2), 246-257. Gulesin, Z., Can, E. (2015). A Theoretical Overview on Challenges and Solutions for Global Project Management.Research Journal of Business and Management,2(3), 238-250. Kerzner, H. (2013).Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley Sons. Levin, G. (2014). Project Quality Management: Why, What and How.Project Management Journal,45(5). Liberatore, M. J., Pollack-Johnson, B. (2013). Improving project management decision making by modeling quality, time, and cost continuously.IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management,60(3), 518-528. LIMA, N. C., SOUZA, C., Geraldo, S., CARVALHO, D. (2014). Managing Global Projects: Collaboration and Conflicts in Virtual Teams.Revista ESPACIOS| Vol. 35 (N 12) Ao 2014. Low, S. P., Ong, J. (2014). Construction Quality Assessment System. InProject Quality Management(pp. 11-27). Springer Singapore. Munier, N. (2013). Project Quality Management. InProject Management for Environmental, Construction and Manufacturing Engineers(pp. 201-208). Springer Netherlands. Nicholas, J. M., Steyn, H. (2017).Project management for engineering, business and technology. Taylor Francis. Rodrigues, I., Sbragia, R. (2013). The cultural challenges of managing global project teams: a study of Brazilian multinationals.Journal of technology management innovation,8, 4-4. Schwalbe, K. (2015).Information technology project management. Cengage Learning. Simona, D., Adela-Eliza, D., Badea, L. (2011, April). Project Quality EvaluationAn Essential Component of Project Success. InProceedings of the 12th WSEAS international conference on Mathematics and computers in biology, business and acoustics(pp. 139-142). World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society (WSEAS). Stevenson, W. J., Hojati, M. (2007). Operations management (Vol. 8). Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Tinnaluri, V. S. N. (2016). An Approach of Software Quality Management.Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research,2(7). Ul Haq, S., Raza, M., Zia, A., Khan, M. N. A. (2011). Issues in global software development: A critical review.Journal of Software Engineering and Applications,4(10), 590.

Market Auditing and Planning in Accor Group

Introduction With 3,645 hotels and more than 470,000 rooms in 92 countries that are spread across all continents, Accor Group of Hotel is one on the largest chain of hotels in the world. As at June 2014, the company had an estimated â‚ ¬8.2 billion market capitalisation. It had revenue of â‚ ¬5536 million as at 2013.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Market Auditing and Planning in Accor Group specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Accor Group is a market leader in Europe and a major player in the world. The hotel group is ranked among the world’s top ten largest hotels in the world. With over 45 years and its presence worldwide, the hotel has a well-deserved position (Accor Group 2014). The company has a portfolio of hotel brands that cover all market segments from economy to luxury. The portfolio ensures a wide coverage of as many consumers as possible. Its five-star brands of hotels include the Sofitel b rand, while its four-star brands include the Novetel brand. Its three-star and two-star hotel brands are the Ibis and Hotel F1 respectively. Despite its presence in nearly all continents, the company’s profits have lagged behind other competitors’ earnings. The situation has been attributed to many factors, among them being its expansion model through leases. The new planned measures of dividing the company into two divisions, namely HotelServices and HotelInvest, will go a long way in improving profits and better returns to investors. It will also position the group to be more competitive. As the company moves ahead, it will have to put more resources to market its brand and cement it in its existing market locations to boost its profitability while at the same time playing an important role in enabling future successes in its expansion plans. This paper will discuss important aspects of market auditing and planning to position the company to be more competitive in it s market segment. Importance of Market Planning and Auditing at Accor Group of Hotels The hotel industry is a highly essential business. It is important in providing accommodation for people on transit, holidays, and conferences among others. It also supports other essential sectors of the world economy such as tourism, transport, and agriculture (Middleton Clarke 2012). With the increasing globalisation and movement of people between countries, as well as within their respective nations, the hotel industry will continue to grow and provide essential services to the society. However, the industry is highly competitive. Hotels are competing to offer similar or differentiated services to consumers (Tollin Carà ¹ 2008).Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More While goods in the form of food are sold in the hotel industry, the focus of the paper is the marketing of services such as accommodation and related luxuries such as security, experience, comfort, entertainment, and dinner experiences.  Marketing auditing is a major aspect of any organisation’s marketing planning process since it seeks to position itself to be more competitive and profitable in the industry (McDonald Wilson 2011). It allows an organisation to look into its macro and microenvironments and effectively identity the trends in the industry, its strengths and weakness, opportunities, and threats, which allow it to have competitive advantage over its rivals. Further, it allows the organisation to come up with a corporate strategy with goals that it is sure of achieving based on its strengths and opportunities that are identified in the auditing process. As Accor Group of Hotels moves ahead with its plan of dividing its hotel management approaches into two segments, it is important to have a marketing audit, which will guide its marketing plans and strategies towards more profitabilit y. Further, due to the high competition in the industry, marketing audit is a very good tool for ensuring that the company can identify the trends and best practices in the industry. It also stands a chance to identify its strengths and opportunities that it can maximise to its advantage. Consequently, marketing audit is an important and relevant tool that Accor Group of Hotels must use to guide its market planning process and development of the corporate strategies. Specific Business Tools for Marketing Auditing and Planning at Accor Accor can utilise various marketing audit tools to evaluate its marketing assets and/or review its marketing strategies, objectives, policies, and the means it seeks to use to achieve these goals and objectives. In the changing business environment, it is important to not only do auditing before the planning process, but also during the implementation process and the evaluation of the company’s future possible marketing actions (Taghian Shaw 20 08). The marketing audit allows an organisation to understand its external and internal environment, as well as its strategy development (Violeta 2012). To carry out marketing audit, various business tools are used to cover both external and internal business environment. At Accor Group of Hotels, a SWOT analysis can help the organisation to establish the key areas that it can emphasise while reducing its weak areas in its marketing strategies in an effort to boost its competitiveness through its restructuring plan.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Market Auditing and Planning in Accor Group specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More For example, this tool can be used to identify the viability of its marketing plans that are focused on expanding its business in locations such as North America and Africa where it has less presence. It can help the company to ensure that its marketing strategies are aligned with the prevail ing market conditions in the specific markets. SWOT Analysis for Accor Group of Hotels Strengths Weaknesses Strong financial resources as evidenced by its market capitalisation of â‚ ¬8.8 billion Strong global brand identity and recognition Its 45 years of experience in the hotel industry The company has less risk for its business due to its presence in many locations It has a strong reach of different levels of clients Strong and good relationships with its business partners such as suppliers Strong brand name, image, and reputation, both locally and internationally An inefficient business model that has seen it lag behind other rivals in terms of profitability Low profits as compared to the industry trends Low product differentiation as compared to those of others Opportunities Threats The emerging markets in Asia and Africa offer opportunity for expansion and profits Its low penetration to the North American market at 1% shows that the company has the pote ntial to invest more in this market The company has an opportunity to invest more in product innovation and differentiation The growing market of travel and tourism presents a good opportunity for the company to grow even higher Increasing competition from other players in the industry who are ready to dominate the market Threats of new hotel entrants and models that may affect it, especially in emerging markets such as Africa Threats of global market volatility due to recession and currency fluctuations Increased insecurity in places such as Africa and Asia, which may greatly affect the number of people travelling to those regions and hence less business for the company Another tool that Accor Group can use for marketing audit is the PEST analysis, which analyses the political, environmental, social, and technological conditions of the various markets where it exists. For instance, the company can use this tool to identify the conditions in the market and the viability of expanding its luxury hotels in specific market locations that the company may consider now or in the future. Macro-environment for Accor Group in Asia Macro environmental elements are the factors that happen in an organisation’s external environment that it cannot control, yet they are important in guiding its decision-making processes (Chabra 2012). They relate to the political, economic, social, and technological matters that must be considered at all times in an organisation’s strategic planning process. Looking at Accor’s Asia market, the organisation must consider various important macro-environment factors as shown below: Pest Analysis For Accor Group Of Hotels Political Factors Economic Factors Governments’ policies on foreign investors and businesses in emerging markets Political stability, especially in Asia where the company seeks to expand and dominate Punitive tax measures Consumer perception and willingness to spend on luxury hol idays Economic growth rates of the countries High rentals for business premises Availability of credit finance Stability of interest rates Dollar exchange rates with local currencies Income levels of the target groups Social Factors Technological Factors Buying and access trends Changing societal values Changing lifestyles and consumer demographics Level of education Brand and company image Fast-changing technological environment Technology access patents and licensing Intellectual property issues Consumer buying mechanisms E-commerce infrastructure From the above table, political stability is a major factor that must be considered by Accor Group. The hotel industry is highly dependent on tourism and travel sectors, which only flourish where there is political stability. Therefore, it is important for the company to strive to ensure that its expansion plans consider the political climate of the respective countries. For example, major uprisings in the Middle East fr om groups such as Al-Qaida and the ISIS are a real threat to the tourism industry and in extension the hotel industry. Therefore, it is important for Accor Group to consider these factors in its expansion plans for its Asian market. Micro-environment for Accor Group in Asia The microenvironment refers to the immediate business factors in a business’ area of operations. They can influence its performance and its decision-making capabilities. These factors are unique to the business. They include customers, suppliers, producers, distribution channels, and the public among others (McDonald Wilson 2011).Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Porter’s five-force model is an important tool for analysing Accor Group’s microenvironment. The model considers supplier powers, threats of new entrants, customer powers, substitutes, and competitive rivalry.  In the case of Accor Group, the threat of new entrants is not very high since the company targets different consumer segments to ensure that is has a competitive advantage over others, especially the new and emerging players. However, considerable threats of entrants are evident with reference to other existing and reputable companies that can set base and compete effectively with Accor Group in the areas where it dominates. For instance, the Intercontinental Hotel Group is a major competitor. It also has a wide coverage as Accor Group. Secondly, the threat of substitute is very high in the industry due to the high number of hotels in the sector. However, the company has remedied this situation by establishing hotels that target various levels of consumers fro m five-star to two-star hotels. The plan ensures that the company is competitive in terms of pricing. The company should also guarantee quality services and reduced operation costs to improve its profit margins. The third important factor is customer bargaining authority. The hotel industry serves a wide array of customers. Hence, it experiences a moderate to low pressure with reference to customer powers in the sector. Further, customers are driven by many factors such as quality services, pricing, and security. Hence, no customer can monopolise the industry. There is also an increasing brand loyalty for Accor Group, which erodes customer bargaining power.  Fourthly, supplier bargaining command can play an important role in Accor Group’s microenvironment. However, with its presence in numerous countries, and consequently a high number of suppliers, it is difficult for suppliers to leverage a significant power over Accor Group of Hotels.  Lastly, rivalry in the industry i s very high. Accor Group of Hotels must consider this factor the most important. The process of attracting customers with various offers and services is competitive. In addition, other players are increasingly adopting cost-effective strategies to increase their profit margins. For instance, automating management systems and the adoption of technologies are the new frontier for competition in Accor Group’s luxury market segment. Market Research and Market Intelligence Timely and informed research is an important ingredient for successful decision-making in any given industry. For instance, looking at the hotel industry, especially in the mid-market segment in Asia where Accor Group has interest in, it is worth carrying out an informed decision-making process that is guided by market research. In the Asian market, the region has been experiencing phenomenal economic growths that are fuelled by the emergence of economic powerhouses such as China and the oil-rich Middle East Asi an nations (Kurkarni 2014). These encouraging conditions have attracted many hotels that are keen on increasing expenditure on luxury and transport. For instance, major hotel players such as Intercontinental, Starwood, and Mantra have focused almost 80% of their expansion plans on this area of the world. Further, with more than 250 million visitors coming to China each year, the hotel industry will continue to surge even higher. Further, hotel occupancy has consistently been higher than 82% since 2012. This finding is an encouraging trend, which hotels must recognise and maximise. Another important fact is that the luxury segment of 35% dominates the Asian market while the mid-market segment constitutes only 24%. Hence, by focusing on this segment, Accor Group will serve an obviously underserved and overlooked market segment. By carrying out market research and intelligence, the company will be in a better position to understand market trends and competition levels. Hence, it will i dentify the target customers, especially in the middle class for its mid-market segment hotels. Segmentation and Specific Segmentation Variables Segmentation is an important factor for any business. It allows an organisation to identify and divide its target customers into various groups that have specific characteristics (Rusten Bryson 2010). These characteristics or variables may include age, sex, and income among others. For example, the luxury segment of Accor Group mostly targets high-income individuals, especially people in executive positions or corporate clients. These clients can be found in major cities of the world. Such clients are mostly in the age working bracket of 30 to 55 years. By segmenting the market, Accor Group is in a better position to design its marketing strategies that best suit this group of customers. Market Positioning Positioning involves the efforts that an organisation exerts towards creating a specific brand image. For instance, through its various brands, the company has positioned itself as a flexible company that can satisfy the expectations of other businesses while at the same time offering the highest luxury levels to all its customers (Tollin Carà ¹ 2008). The company’s luxury segment has positioned itself as an excellent segment that offers outstanding and memorable experiences to its customers, regardless of the location where they receive the services. In other words, the organisation seeks consistency of services across its outlets in the world. Understanding Buyer Behaviour The customer is always the king. This claim cannot be far from the truth, especially in the hotel industry. For instance, Accor Group must always understand the prevailing customer preferences and trends and implement them as soon as they arise. Consequently, market research should be an ongoing process to guarantee innovation and creativity, and hence organisational competitiveness. Conclusion Marketing is an elaborate subject that co vers diverse areas that are critical in an organisation’s strategic planning. As discussed herein, Accor Group of hotels must undertake marketing audit that involves identification of its powers, flaws, success chances, and threats that will guide its marketing planning. It is also an important process of understanding competition. The company needs to identify and appeal to its customers through segmentation and positioning of its brand. References Accor Group 2014, Key Figures. Web. Chabra, T 2012, Marketing management, University Press, New York, NY. Kurkarni, A 2014, Hotel views 2014: Asia Pacific. Web. McDonald, M Wilson, H 2011, Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to use them, John Wiley Sons, New York, NY. Middleton, V Clarke, J 2012, Marketing in travel and tourism, Routledge, New York, NY. Rusten, G Bryson, J 2010, Industrial design, competition and globalisation, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK. Taghian, M Shaw, R 2008, ‘The marketing audit and organisational performance: an empirical profiling’, The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, vol. 16 no. 4, pp. 341-350. Tollin, K Carà ¹, A 2008, Strategic market creation: A New Perspective on, John Wiley and Sons, Cambridge, UK. Violeta, R 2012, ‘The role of market analysis in developing efficient marketing audit’, International Journal of Academic Research in Economics and Management Sciences, vol. 1 no. 5, pp. 222-229. This report on Market Auditing and Planning in Accor Group was written and submitted by user Jaeden C. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Solubility Rules for Inorganic Compounds

Solubility Rules for Inorganic Compounds These are the general solubility rules for inorganic compounds, primarily inorganic salts. Use the solubility rules to determine whether a compound will dissolve or precipitate in water. Generally Soluble Inorganic Compounds Ammonium (NH4), potassium (K), sodium (Na) : All ammonium, potassium and sodium salts are soluble. Exceptions: some transition metal compounds.Bromides (Br–), chlorides (Cl–) and iodides (I–): Most bromides are soluble. Exceptions: salts containing silver, lead, and mercury.Acetates (C2H3O2–): All acetates are soluble. Exception: silver acetate is only moderately soluble.Nitrates (NO3–): All nitrates are soluble.Sulfates (SO42–): All sulfates are soluble except barium and lead. Silver, mercury(I), and calcium sulfates are slightly soluble. Hydrogen sulfates (HSO4–) (the bisulfates) are more soluble than the other sulfates. Generally Insoluble Inorganic Compounds Carbonates (CO32–), chromates (CrO42–), phosphates (PO43–), silicates (SiO42–): All carbonates, chromates, phosphates,  and silicates are insoluble. Exceptions: those of ammonium, potassium and sodium. An exception to the exceptions is MgCrO4, which is soluble.Hydroxides (OH–): All hydroxides (except ammonium, lithium, sodium, potassium, cesium, rubidium) are insoluble. Ba(OH)2, Ca(OH)2 and Sr(OH)2 are slightly soluble.Silver (Ag): All silver salts are insoluble. Exceptions: AgNO3 and AgClO4. AgC2H3O2 and Ag2SO4 are moderately soluble.Sulfides (S2–): All sulfides (except sodium, potassium, ammonium, magnesium, calcium,  and barium) are insoluble.Aluminum sulfides and chromium sulfides are hydrolyzed and precipitate as hydroxides. Table of Ionic Compound Solubility in Water at 25 °C Remember, solubility depends on the temperature of the water. Compounds that dont dissolve around room temperature may become more soluble in warm water. When using the table, refer to the soluble compounds first. For example, sodium carbonate is soluble because all sodium compounds are soluble, even though most carbonates are insoluble. Soluble Compounds Exceptions (are insoluble) Alkali metal compounds (Li+, Na+, K+, Rb+, Cs+) ammonium ion compounds (NH4+ Nitrates (NO3-), bicarbonates (HCO3-), chlorates (ClO3-) Halides (Cl-, Br-, I-) Halides of Ag+, Hg22+, Pb2+ Sulfates (SO42-) Sulfates of Ag+, Ca2+, Sr2+, Ba2+, Hg22+, Pb2+ Insoluble Compounds Exceptions (are soluble) Carbonates (CO32-), phosphates (PO42-), chromates (CrO42-), sulfides (S2-) Alkali metal compounds and those containing the ammonium ion Hydroxides (OH-) Alkali metal compounds and those containing Ba2+ As a final tip, remember solubility is not all-or-none. While some compounds completely dissolve in water and some are almost completely insoluble, many insoluble compounds are actually slightly soluble. If you get unexpected results in an experiment (or are looking for sources of error), remember a small amount of an insoluble compound may be participating in a chemical reaction.

Two Tail Hypothesis Scholarship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Two Tail Hypothesis - Scholarship Essay Example The analysis can be used by the manager to study if there is the significant difference between position and extrinsic job satisfaction in the company. This would enable the manager to make a plan on which strategy to use either Hourly Employee or Salaried Employee in respect of job satisfaction. Since ÃŽ ±=0.05 and confidence level is 95%; t- statistic=-54.60, the critical value is  ±1.96 we reject null hypothesis because p-value 1.67 E-91 is less than 0.05 and adopt alternative hypothesis. The t-test is used when the sample is small; it can be used to test the difference in population mean, that is when the population is n≠¤30 and the standard deviation of the population is estimated from the standard deviation of the sample. Whereas z-test is used when the population means is known together with standard deviation. Researchers do not have enough time to study the whole population. To study the entire population would be tedious and time-consuming; therefore, representative sample from the population is appropriate in the data collection. In statistical inferences, conclusions are drawn about the attribute of the population, e.g. the standard deviation or mean based on sample data analysis. Supposing there was a need to calculate the average weight of the population of youths in America, it would be unreasonable except at massive cost to weigh up each individual and calculate the mean weight. Another scenario is that testing process may be very destructive such that sampling becomes the only sufficient way.

Genesis in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible Essay

Genesis in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible - Essay Example Mankind now has to work the ground to obtain his needs for survival. (Genesis 3:23). Eve's downfall is due to Satan's temptation. The lesson teaches to focus on God's Word with complete obedience and never be tempted by Evil. The serpent told Eve to take and eat the forbidden fruit. Jesus tells his followers to take and eat his body and blood in the holy sacraments. The forbidden fruit makes the consumer a sinner while Jesus' offering heals a sinner. Adam's son, Cain killed his brother Abel. God tells Cain that He knows what has happened and that he will be punished. Adam has another son, Seth, to replace Abel. Seth in turn has his most famous son, Noah, who is chosen by God to build his Ark. (Genesis:4). God favors obedient people. He saves Noah from the Great Flood because he was 'blameless among the people of his time.' (Genesis 6:9). God tells Noah to build an Ark and take his family inside it, along with certain species of animals. God flooded earth and killed every living thing. At the end of two months, the waters dried up and Noah knew it was safe to descend back to land. Noah immediately built an altar to offer sacrifice to God. Noah is an example of a righteous man who maintained his relationship with God despite living in an environment full of wickedness. This is a lesson to teach that God will help those who follow God's Word. God makes a covenant to Noah; '"I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind."'(Genesis 9:13-15). God speaks to Abram and reveals prophecies to him. When Abram travels into Egypt, he is afraid that the Pharaoh would kill him to take over Sarai because she is beautiful. He instructs Sarai to lie and say that she is Abram's sister. The Pharaoh does not know the truth and takes Sarai to become his wife. God is angry and inflicts diseases upon the Pharaoh and his household. The Pharaoh eventually discovers the truth and releases Abram and Sarai. (Genesis:12). When Abram and Sarai cannot conceive a child, Sarai sends her servant, Hagar, to sleep with her husband so that they will get a descendant. Sarai cannot wait for God to do His work but takes matters into her own hands. Then, Sarai makes a mistake when she ill treats her servant Hagar because she was jealous of Hagar's pregnancy with her husband Abram. Hagar runs away but God comforts her and she returns to Abram and Sarai. God tests Sarai with the birth of Ishmael. Thirteen years later, God makes Sarai pregnant with a son called Isaac. It has been a hard time waiting for Sarai and Abram while maintaining their beliefs. Sarai is ninety years old and Abram is one hundred when they become parents. This is His reward to them. He renames Abram as Abraham, and Sarai as Sarah to celebrate God's blessing on them. God says to Abraham; ' I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you , and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.' (Genesis 17:6-7). Isaac is soon born. God decides to test Abraham by ordering him to offer Isaac as a human sacrifice to God.

Read the three articles in the instructions . Then, write three Assignment

Read the three articles in the instructions . Then, write three synopsis of the work - Assignment Example uses direct communication). He comments that the concepts of high-context and low-context cultures and polychronic (i.e. multitasking) versus monochronic time (i.e. one thing at a time) orientation are useful, but ambiguous. The next theory comes from Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. These dimensions pertain to: power distance, individualism /collectivism, masculinity/femininity and uncertainty avoidance (Dahl 12). Dahl commends the model for its simplicity and widespread application on different cultural interactions. Dahl also explains Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s seven value orientations. These orientations are: universalism versus particularism; communitarianism versus individualism; neutral versus emotional; defuse versus specific cultures; achievement versus ascription; human-time relationship and; human-nature relationship (Dahl 14). Dahl explains the connections between these orientations and other intercultural theories. In addition, Dahl describes Shalom Schwartz’s Schwartz Value Inventory (SVI). SVI has two categories: individual-level analysis and cultural-level analysis. Dahl concludes that there is no one theory of cultural dimensions. In the article, â€Å"What Do Employers Really Want? Top Skills and Values Employers Seek from Job-Seekers,† Randall S. Hansen and Katharine Hansen discuss the major skills and values that employers desire from their employees. They want to help job-seekers become more employable for target employers by explaining these skills and values and how the latter can appear in resumes, cover letters, and interviews. Hansen and Hansen discuss that the top main skills that employers want from employees are: communication skills, analytical/research skills, technical literacy, flexibility, interpersonal abilities, leadership and management skills, multicultural sensitivity, planning and organizing skills, problem-solving/reasoning/creativity skills, and teamwork

The Different Kinds Of Truth Philosophy Essay

The Different Kinds Of Truth Philosophy Essay There are two different kind of truth which is something that is true and something that is believed to be true. We must accept the idea that man can acquire all kind of truth but let us not mix them up. We would risk that the mixture will dissolve them up. Truth consists in the agreement of our thought with reality. The Aristotelian definition of truth states  [1]  : To say of something which is that it is not, or to say of something which is not that it is, is false. However, to say of something which is that it is, or of something which is not that it is not, is true. A belief is called true if it agrees with a fact or stated otherwise  [2]  . Beliefs determine how we see, interact and experience the world around us. Beliefs are ideas that are made after repetition and contemplation, that are accepted as truth and reality and therefore impact how we see life  [3]  . Believes and truth are often in conflict. For something to be true it must be public, eternal, and independent. By using different way of knowing such as reason, emotion, perception and language it can help us to distinguish the truth. Some knowledge can be taught and some we learn by our self through a process of reasoning. In our daily life, sometimes our logical thinking affects our believed about something. The fact is our logical thinking based on our experiences. Our reasoning is based on our pass experiences and from that we make a generalization. It is just the matter of how far our logical thinking based on our experiences can distort our attempt to distinguish between truth and believed truth. By putting down your hand into hot fire thus teaches us not to do it again. The implication of reasoning is of the greatest importance because it comes from our inner instincts. Logic attempts to help us determine whether our argument is true or false, or whether it is logical. Based on pass experience, it is logical if we tend not to do the same mistake by putting hand on fire because it is painful. Similarly with the truth, we tend to be selective in choosing knowledge based on our pass experienced and logical thinking. Sometimes mistake do happen during the process because we are easily influenced by our surrounding. The last question that will be dealt with is the question of what people know. According to the psychologist Jean Piaget  [4]  Ã‚  certainly regarded thinking as secondary to the actions of the intelligence. For him, logic was a science of pure forms, structures simply representing the processes of thought. As for me, logic was too narrow, arid and mechanical to properly represent human thought processes. Therefore, I can say that the truth which is true and believed to be true is not conforms and affirms through logic as ways of knowing alone because human have many limitations to count of. Logic work alone cannot really distinguish between something that is true and something that is believed to be true. Is emotion is the effective way? For some people, emotion plays an important role when it comes to decision making. Whether we like it or not, our emotion is depending on degree of logic that is include during the process of decision making. Imagine if you are a doctor and you have two make a decision whether to give a kidney to two of your patients who suffer kidney failure. One of the patients is your family. Which one would you give the kidney? Would the priority go to your family? The doctor tends to be bias if the decision made is involving with emotion. If I was the doctor, I would personally give the kidney to my family. But, based on what reason? The only reason why is because of strong love emotion. We tend to be bias in the process of seeking the truth because of our emotion. Based on scientific explanation, emotional situation triggers the release of chemicals in the bloodstream that alter the functioning of the brains neurons and other bodily functions as well. In effect, the situation requires some special behavior different from what we would do in the normal course of events. We only accept truth that will give us pleasure and make us happy. Emotional states seem to occur when things of particular importance occur in our lives. The neurobiologist Antonio Damasio  [5]  (1994) provides a somatic marker hypothesis  [6]   which explains how emotions make decision making possible. The doctor try to believe by giving the kidney to his family will save her/his live by ignoring the other patience live. How the doctor would know which operation will succeed? In this situation, we can say that the doctor is in believed truth. Thus, we can conclude that emotions are ordinarily conceived as irrational occurrences that cloud judgment and distort reasoning. It would be better if we separate our emotion when make a judgment. However it is impossible to that. Some philosophers, particularly those identifying themselves as postmodernists  [7]  , assert that truth is not absolute, but depends upon the individual point of view. Perception is one the ways of knowing that can help us to distinguish the knowledge whether it is true or just believed to be true. Everyone has different perception regarding on certain thing depends on own personal background, knowledge, experiences and our perceptions grow as we mature. I still remember during my childhood, my mom always told me to finish my meals or else the unfinished foods will cry. To be frankly, I believe on what my mom had told me. As I grow, I know that the foods will never cry as it is non-living thing. It just my mums trick to make sure I finished my meal. The perception of children will not be the same as adult. The problem is our perception constantly changing as we increase the scope of our knowledge. Thats why in science subjects we always come across with the term evolution and revolution. As scientist doing more research, they found that the previous theories are no longer applicable to support their new discovery. During the 20th century, in the history of biology, biologists mostly accepted that living organisms is classified into five kingdoms  [8]  . However, in 1978 the American Biologist Carl Woese  [9]  proposed a three domain classification. From the example and explanation above, we can conclude that our perception is not fixed and differ from one another. But without perception, it is hard for us to differentiate the truth. Last but not least, we can use language as one of the way of knowing to help us distinguish whether the truth are the real truth or believed to be the truth. According to R.A Hall: language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols  [10]  . Language plays an important role in our lives in seeking the truth. Language allows us to form statement, express concept and our idea. Let we take the example of a statement all bird can fly. From the statement, we can express our idea to other people that all type of birds has the ability to fly. Imagine how could we explain the word bird, all, fly without word? Without the  statements it would be hard to organize our ideas and to then determine if these ideas are true or only we believe them to be true. We could use other alternative such as gesture, sounds and drawing to represent our ideas. As it connected to the ideas that they portray they als o become part of the language. The statements created by language help us to determine if an idea in true or not. Since a sentence expresses the relationship between objects we can check the validity of the statement. If ostrich cannot fly, then we can prove the statement all bird can fly is not true. The presence of evidence can always prove the statement is false then we know the statement is not true. The problem with language is sometimes it is misinterpreted due to the word that has many different meaning. For example the word gampang. For Indonesian it means easy but for Malaysian it is insulting. Admittedly, all knowledge could be regarded as a combination of truth and believed truth, and since all information needs to pass our subjective minds to become knowledge. By using the four ways of knowing logic, emotion, perception and language can helps us to distinguish the truth. One ways of knowing stand alone to distinguish the truth and believed truth would not be very fruitful. 1450 words.

Teamwork Analysis Essay -- Team Building Papers

Teamwork Analysis Abstract The purpose of this assignment is for each learning team to apply what team members are learning about successful teams to an in-depth analysis of itself. As teams go through development stages, the members learn how people feel about themselves and what the content of the task that is to be accomplished, based on each stage that is achieved. Describe the process your team has used to form, storm, norm, and perform. At this point, where do you believe your team is in the team formation process? Team A was initially formed by our professor, and everyone had their anxieties and questions about the other members. After the team was formed, a Team Charter was developed to gather information about everyone on one document, so we would all know each others strengths, weaknesses, and contact information. We realized that our team was a diverse team, with members scattered in several different time zones, including Africa. We had an initial conference call to check the temperature of everyone, but not everyone could participate in the call. Once everyone agreed to the team charter, it was suggested that each person on the team be a leader for a week, leaving the last week without an actual leader. The plan was to let the last week have everyone work together without a leader, but to draw virtual straws to decide who would post that week’s team assignment. The team members were listed in alphabetical order, which is the same order each person was assigned a week. Team A was successful at reaching the next stage of development, which is storming. The team had some initial problems durin... ... Caouette, M.J. & O’Connor, B.N. (1998). The impact of group support systems on corporate teams’ stages of development. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 8(1), 59-60. Chupp, M. (2002). Reaching for Higher Ground in Conflict Resolution. International Journal of Conflict Management. 13(2). Retrieved February 11, 2005, from EBSCOhost database. Horton, T. R. (1992). Delegation and team building: No solo acts please. Management Review, 81 (9), 58. Mckenna, P.J., Meister, D.H. (2002). Playing by the rules. Industrial Management. 44 (5), 8-14. Retrieved February 14, 2005, from EBSCOhost database. McShane, S.L. & VonGlinow, M.A. (2004). Foundation of team dynamics. Organizational Behavior, second edition (pp 238-240). Â ©The McGraw-Hill Companies.