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. 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Bus 630 Week 1 Discussion Free Essays

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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

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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). 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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.