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Incorporating Nonverbal Communication into Dietetics and...

1.1 Introduction This research paper makes recommendations for incorporating nonverbal communication into Dietetics and Nutrition. 1.2 Limitations This report is limited to paralinguistics, gestures, clothing and adornment within nonverbal communication in the field of Dietetics and Nutrition. 1.3 Scope This report aims to highlight the importance of paralinguistics, gestures, clothing and adornment in the setting of Dietetics and Nutrition. Peer reviewed articles and theoretical evidence provided to address how we change individual’s perceptions of professionals by using nonverbal behaviours therefore effecting client health outcomes. Advice and strategies for improving client /professional relationships are included.†¦show more content†¦The appearance of a person helps to make a positive impact. The way one looks and presents oneself indicates the importance one attaches to one’s presence or participation in the occasion. (p. 22). A uniform can identify a professional and implicate a certain level of trust and respect by a client. However, in the field of dietetics and nutrition there is no particular uniform, therefore choosing appropriate clothing attire to gain clients trust can be an issue. Therefore, it is identified that â€Å"The nursing, medical and communication literature shows that a professional’s dress attire is relevant to client-professional interactions because it strongly influences client’s perceptions of their professional’s characteristics† (Heitmeyer Goldsmith, 1990; Nair et al., 2002, as cited in Cant, 2009, p. 504). Hence, clothing and adornment can affect client/professional relationships. 4.0 Paralinguistics 4.1 Paralinguistics in Dietetics and Nutrition Paralinguistics conveys meanings of the words used and not used during communication. â€Å"Paralinguistics: the properties of voices, separate from the words being spoken, that can convey meanings† (Eunson, 2012, p. 263). Mishra (2009) explains; Communication is not merely the use of words, but also includes nonverbal cues, such as, pauses and silence, in addition to the demonstration of vocal characteristics

CTV Newsnet Case Analysis Free Essays

string(240) " her work carried considerate significance to CTV’s philosophy which addresses social commitment; thus, not only she was under great pressure but also her co-workers, which increased the possibility of the occurrence of the tape mistake\." Chapter 3 CTV Newsnet [pic] 1. Abstract In January 2000, the CTV Newsnet was confronted with a threat to its reputation and growth. A tape with offensive remarks made by the News broadcaster Avery Haines’ were aired mistakenly, and it aroused great public indignation. We will write a custom essay sample on CTV Newsnet Case Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now By means of OB analysis, we found that Haines’ dispositional characteristics such as low emotional stability and lack of conscientiousness, heavy workplace stress, and different attribution processes conducted by the anchor, her coworkers and the audience may all be causes of that crisis. Therefore, we suggest that CTV Newsnet could deal with its reputation crisis and prevent the similar technical and behavioural mistakes in the future as the following: 1) communicating effectively with the viewers about the company’s value and attitude toward this incident, 2) setting up positive reinforcers and punishment rules to encourage desirable behaviour and eliminate undesirable behaviour, 3) holding periodical seminar to strengthen employees’ awareness of work ethics, 4) doing job redesign to verify job tasks and reduce working pressure, and 5) providing proper training programs to improve employees’ cognitive abilities and professional skills. Table of Contents 1. Abstract 2 2. Introduction 4 3. Case Analysis 4 3. 1 Personality 4 3. 2 Stress 5 3. 3 Actor-observer Effect7 4. Solutions8 4. 1 Operant Learning Theory8 4. 2 Coping with Stress 9 4. 3 Attribution Theory 10 5. Conclusion 11 6. Bibliography12 7. Appendices13 2. Introduction The news channel, CTV Newsnet, had been playing important role in practicing the CTV Inc. ’s philosophy which emphasizes the social commitment, such as caring about farming issues. However, in January, 2000, CTV Newsnet had faced a severe challenge to maintain its reputation. This incident started with the CTV Newsnet anchor Avery Haines, who had stuttered and flubbed while recording a report introduction on farmer issues. In order to cover her own embarrassment and ease the tension for other co-workers in the studio, she made a private self-deprecating joke which included inappropriate remarks about various minorities. Of course, they retaped this part, but later that day, a CTV technician mistakenly aired the wrong tape which included the error and the offensive comment to the public. Soon after, mountains of criticism and suspicions about CTV’s professionalism and integrity flooded into the company. The happening of this fatal mistake indeed had adverse impacts on the company’s reputation as well as its further expansion plan. Thus, the purpose of our report is to decrease the possibility of making small but fatal mistakes among employees and to improve their sense of responsibility. 3. Casa Analysis 3. 1 Personality and the Big Five Personality can be described as the individual’s personal style to deal with the world. For Haines, there is a whole mixture of features that describe her personality. When hiring Haines as a â€Å"Hostess† for CTV, Kowalski, the CTV News senior vice-president and general manager was applying one of the key concepts of OB: the fit concept (textbook P41). Indeed, Kowalski felt immediately that Haines is the right person to fit in the fast-paced and demanding milieu of TV. Kowalski was impressed by her personal and professional qualifications. At the professional level, Haines had won many awards, shown a high level of performance, and earned wide popularity. At the personal level, and according to the five-factor model of personality, Haines showed her openness (she was creative and eager to move forward from radio to television), agreeableness (she humbly accepted criticism and advice, and completely committed to the job) and extraversion (she was interested in everything and had quickly gained the support and affection from her co-workers) (Ng, et al. , 2005). However, her lack of emotional stability (self-confidence) and consciousness (responsibility) didn’t appear to Kowalski until the fatal errors occurred. In fact, Haines’ self-depreciating joke to cover her embarrassment and hide her vulnerability and awkwardness is a display of the lack of confidence and consideration of the consequences. According to the intereactionist approach, organizational behaviour is a function of both dispositions and the situation (George, 1992). Indeed, Haines was facing a weak situation where there are loosely defined roles and few rules, so it’s hard to define appropriate behaviour (Adler Weiss, 1988). As a result, personality tends to have most impact in weak situations, which was the case of Haines behaviour. 3. 2 Stress It was a very long day in CTV, they were preparing for a show talking about the farmers’ story which attracted growing attention all over Canada, and Haines due to being stressed made her famous mistake. Stress can be defined as a psychological reaction to the demands inherent in a stressor that has the potential to make a person feel tense or anxious (McGrath, 1970). In our case, the viewers of the broadcasting on the farmers’ issue were the potential stressors to Haines, whereas Haines was also the potential stressor to her co-workers. Haines’ personality which was discussed earlier can mainly determine the extent to which the potential stressor becomes a real stressor, and it also determines how she reacted to stress behaviourally, psychologically, and physiologically. This can explain why Haines can be a potential stressor who exerted in turn stress on the work environment in which employees actions were affected and the wrong tape mistake was made. In terms of Locus of control (which is a set of beliefs about whether one’s behaviour is controlled by mainly internal or external forces), Haines reacted in this way since she was an external person. This type of people are more likely to feel anxious in the face of potential stressors (Ng, et al. , 2006), and that’s the case of Haines when she made her famous mistake; she was stressed and started making jokes to overcome her mistake, unlike if she was an internal person (which internal factors determine her personality) she would have confronted her stressors. Furthermore, Haines suffered from managerial and executive stress, since she had a work overload on the day of the incident. Also, Haines has a heavy responsibility and her work carried considerate significance to CTV’s philosophy which addresses social commitment; thus, not only she was under great pressure but also her co-workers, which increased the possibility of the occurrence of the tape mistake. You read "CTV Newsnet Case Analysis" in category "Essay examples" Finally, other general stress factors such as work-family conflict, Job insecurity, and role ambiguity might affect the level of stress among CTV employees and led to the problem in the workplace. 3. 3 Actor-observer Effect According to Attribution theory, people’s behavior can be attributed to dispositional and situational causes though they are not always accurate. When people are forming attribution to explain others’ behavior, biases and errors are hard to avoid. Thus, in the CTV Newsnet case, Haines and her colleagues in the studio did not perceive her joking as a big problem  ; on the other hand, viewers were more likely to attribute her comments to her real disposition. The fact that viewers and her co-workers had different perceptions of Haines’s joking reflected the actor-observe effect in attributing process (Watson, 1982).. In this case, Haines tended to attribute her making joke to some external factors. They may include her extreme tiredness with the heavy workload, the attempt to ease the embarrassment, and the certainty of a second recording. This is because Haines as an â€Å"actor† is more sensitive than â€Å"observers† (the audience) of the pros and cons that the environment offered (Textbook, p83). Moreover, she knew exactly her own thoughts and intentions which is to get herself and her co-workers relaxed. In general, people know better anout how and why their behavior varies by situations, while the observers tend to guess. In terms of the perspectives of Haines’ co-workers, they would also attribute Haines’ behavior to the external causes because they understood Haines’ motivation and thoughts in that specific situation, and they also know her personality well. They usually saw Haines as a talented, reliable and unbiased person. Thus, coworkers might perceive her making improper joke as an accident due to the low consistency and high distinctiveness of her this behaviour (Medcof, 1990). As the observer of Haines’s behaviour, CTV viewers had high possibility to commit the fundamental attribution error through overemphasizing dispositional causes and ignoring the possible environmental factors that may incur her joke making (Jones, 1979). Because viewers lacked the knowledge about the constraints, private thoughts, feelings, and intentions regarding Haines’s behaviour, they intuitively assumed that the anchor’s making discriminatory remarks reflected her real thoughts. Hence, they inevitablly felt horrified and annoyed. 4. Solutions: 4. 1 Operant Learning theory What happened to the CTV Newsnet indicated two main problems that threatened the maintenance of its reputation and integrity, less professional broadcasting and inferior technical error. Both behavioural mistakes should be eliminated for the sake of the entire company. According to the operant learning theory, two approaches could help CTV newsnet to improve their operationing effectiveness. One approach is to use appropriate positive and negative reinforcement to stimulate desired behaviour. The other is to use extinction and punishment to stop undesired behaviour (Textbook P49-55). In order to avoid such basic technical misconduct on the short-term basis, the CTV managers could adopt positive reinforcement by establishing periodical employee recognition programs. They include offerring financial rewards quarterly or annually to error-free employees and employees who made significant progress in their work. Moreover, a long-term training and development program can be conducted for technicians to learn how to operate the broadcasting equipment properly and efficiently as well as to adopt new technologies and upgrade their professional knowledge. To minimize the similar mishap made by Haines, CTV should create clear communication channel between company and employees to encourage a more direct feedback. It will give help the organization find out their employees’ personal or work-related difficulties so that their performance can be enhanced (Peterson Luthans, 2006). If employees’ problems were incurred by too much workload, managers should consider hiring extra staff or enhancing the efficiency of management to cut the workload for employees. If making mistake was due to the lack of job interest and enthusiasm, the company could offer employees the opportunity to rotate among different positions or grand employees more controling power over their tasks to raise their sense of involvement. Meanwhile, through the negative reinforcement, the upper management may also monitor employees’ job performance and behaviour. Building up a more strict set of operational rules helps prohibit undesirable behaviours in the studio. Any breach of the rules could lead to disciplinary actions such as a verbal warning, a written warning or an ultimate dismissal. Employees’ attemppt to eliminate these unpleasant outcomes (warning and dismissal) can motivate them to obey the rules (textbook, p50). Although punishment might cause unwanted impacts on employees’ working enthusiasm, it is a effective way to prohibit seriously adverse behaviour sometimes. It also serves as a sound warning for other potential mistake-makers and a necessary compromise for easing the public anger. In CTV case, Haines should be fired for her unprofessional behaviour though unintentional since it already incurred a huge wave of public irritation. The technician who played the wrong tape should also be punished for his or her carelessness. However, using punishment should always be careful. 4. 2 Coping with stress In order to reduce and overcome the stress which could occur in the work place now and in future, CTV should start implementing concrete actions. For example, doing job redesign that changes the job depth and breadth can rebuild the job tasks with more diversity and authority. CTV could socially support its employees by planning events and activities which can improve the employee’s social life. The human resource department could establish a family friendly policy for the employees, which will allow the staff to balance better between their job duties and family responsibilities (Grant Parker, 2009). Finally CTV could also introduce stress management programs and work balance programs to allow its employees to arrange their time and tasks effectively with a wisely designed working schedule. . 3 Attribution theory Concerning the above analysis, some work-related attitudes among employees in CTV Inc. should be modified or reinforced. Since attitudes can be modified through persuasively changing people’s beliefs and values (Textbook, p120), holding seminars and developing training programs can indeed help improve the work-related attitudes of CTV workers. First, employees should improve their awareness of the limitation of viewers’ knowledge about the journalists’ or broadcasters’ personal conditions. Interactive activities involving CTV employees and CTV viewers can be conducted to help them establish better mutual understanding. Then, mangers can hold discussion panels to reinforce the belief that working in CTV requires rigorous work ethics and extensive sense of responsibility, especially as journalists and broadcasters. And through these trainings, the employees will be encouraged to ponder internal factors for their own behavior and be more aware that their self-perceived minor mistakes could be fatal to the further growth of their company. Besides, CTV Newsnet should enhancee its employees’ personal skills to maintain its professionalism and reliability. According to the concepts of job performance, individual job performance is heavily affected by his or her general cognitive ability, which refers to intelligence (Textbook, P149). Training programs can be conducted to refine speaking skills of the anchors so that they can be more careful and thoughtful about wording when broadcasting the public information. Moreover, periodical seminars can be held to retain employees’ proper consciousness of political, religious and ethnic issues and to enrich their storage of the relevant knowledge. 5. Conclusion About decade ago, CTV Newsnet anchor Avery Haines’ offensive remarks were aired mistakenly and caused great controversies in the public. The management was facing a severe challenge: the news station’s reputation and growth were threatened. Through OB analysis we have found that certain traits of Haine’s personality, i. e. low level of emotional stableness and ack of conscientiousness, workplace stress from too much workload and pressure, as well as different attribution processes conducted by the anchor, her coworkers and the audience may all causes contributing to the problem. CTV Newsn et could deal with its reputation crisis and avoid these technical and behavioural errors in the future by taking the right steps: communicating effectively with the audience about the company’s value and attitude toward this incident, setting up positive reinforcers and punishment rules to encourage desirable behaviour and eliminate undesirable behaviour, doing job redesign to clarify roles and reduce workload, and providing proper training programs to improve employees’ cognitive abilities and awareness of work ethics. Bibliography 1. Adler, S. , Weiss, H. M. (1988). Recent developments in the study of personality and organizational behaviour. In C. L. Cooper I. Robertson (Eds. ), International review of industrial and organizational psychology. New York: Wiley. 2. George, 1992; Weiss, H. M. , Adler, S. (1984). Personality and organizational behaviour. In B. M. Staw L. L. Cummings (Eds. ), Research in organizational behaviour (Vol. 6, 1-50). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. 3. Grant, A. M. , Parker, S. K. (2009). Redesigning work design theories: The rise of relational and proactive perspectives. Academy of Management Annal, 3, 317-375. 4. Jones, E. E. (1979). The rocky road from acts to dispositions. American Psychologist, 34, 107-117; Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 10, 173-220. 5. McGrath, J. E. (1970). A conceptual formulation for research on stress. In J. E. McGrath(Ed. ), Social and psychological factors in stress. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston. 6. Medcof, J. W. (1990). PEAT: An integrative model of attribution processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 23, 111-209. 7. Ng, T. W. H. , Eby, L. T. , Sorensen, K. L. , Feldma, D. C. (2005). Predictors of objective and subjective career success: A meta-analysis. Personal Psychology,58, 367-408. 8. Ng, T. W. H. , Sorensen, K. L. ,Eby, L. T. (2006). Locus of control at work: A meta-analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27, 1057-1087. 9. Parasuraman, S. Alutto, J. A. (1981). An examination of the organization antecedents of stressors at work. Academy of Management Journal, 24, 48-67. 10. Peterson, S. J. , Luthans, F. (2006). The impact of financial and nonfinancial incentives on business-unit outcomes over time. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 156-165. 11. Saks. A. M. , Gary. J. (2011). Organizational Behaviour. Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall. 8th edition. (textbook) 12. Watson, D. (1982). The actor and the observer: How are their perceptions of causality divergent? Psychological Bulletin, 92, 682-700. How to cite CTV Newsnet Case Analysis, Essay examples

Contemporary Issues For Management Business -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the Contemporary Issues For Management Business. Answer: Introduction This report considered the organization, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), which is the country's leading company for crude oil production and natural gas supply (Pdo.co.om 2018). The government of Oman owns 60% of the PDO and the rest of the part of the organization is obtained 34% by Royal Dutch Shell, 4% by Total and 2% by Partex (Pdo.co.om 2018). The concerned organization has 130 producing oil fields, 8,000 active wells and 14 producing gas field (Pdo.co.om 2018). The organization employed a total of 8500 diversified workforce which comprised of people from 64 different nationalities (Pdo.co.om 2018). PDO have to manage this large diversified workforce so that all of them can collaboratively work for obtaining the organizational objectives. Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) give equal chances to men and women based on their skills as a result, out of the 8500 employee, more than 1,000 employees are women and 4 women also get the opportunity to perform the role of member of the Ma naging Directors Committee (MDC) (Pdo.co.om 2018). The organization also has Diversity and Inclusion (DI) team that is controlled by the Managing Directors and six members of the Managing Directors Committee that maintains the aspect of diversity in the workplace. In this business report, the strategies for managing the business ethics will be highlighted from the perspective of the considered organization that is Petroleum Development Oman (PDO). The cultural and leadership role in the company will be assessed that addressed the components of setting standard of ethical behavior, managing stakeholders relations and assessment of ethical performance. These aspects are also supported with relevant examples. Moreover, the diversity management program of the PDO will also be demonstrated followed with evaluation of basic issues of managing diversified employees. These findings of the discussion are then presented under the conclusion section which is also accompanied with recommendations for overcoming the identified issues. Discussion of business ethics management Strategies that companies utilizes for managing business ethics Carroll and Buchholtz (2014) highlighted that contemporary companies consider managing business ethics is an associated behaviors and the managers are also emphasized on standard management practices. Moreover, these organizations also develop ethics program for demonstrating the values to appropriate behaviors through codes of ethics, generate lists of ethical values, generate policies, procedures for ethics and give training to the employee on ethical behavior (Trevino and Nelson 2016). Bowie (2017) furthermore stated that organization also assesses the possible ethical dilemmas according to the business functions and avoid their occurrence of the ethical issues in the first place. In addition to that, the ethical decisions include all the stakeholders and make the decision in public so that transparency in the workplace can be maintained (Weiss 2014). Pearson (2017) portrays that management integrate their management practices with ethics management during strategic planning. Last ly, the most important aspect of the ethics management in the business is development of cross-functional teams while formulating and incorporating ethics management program (Carroll and Buchholtz 2014). Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) considers ethics management in the personal policies, safety codes and manpower development programs (Pdo.co.om 2018). The ethical principal based on which the Omani society is founded is utilized for developing the statement of General Business Principles. Thus, the nations respect is also maintained through the organizational policies of PDO. The organization also includes shareholders, employees and business partners in the formulation of the ethical principle (Pdo.co.om 2018). Apart from the core business practices, the organization has developed code of conduct that highlights highest standards of honesty, integrity, fairness in the aspects of people and safety, corrupt practices, safeguarding of the organizational assets and information, communication management and international trade (Pdo.co.om 2018). Cultural and leadership role and strategy of an organization to maintain business ethics The leaders of the PDO develop legal and ethical norms with shareholders, employees and stakeholders, with whom the organization is associated to do business. Moreover, there are series of standard practices that the leaders of the PDO incorporates- Setting standards of ethical behaviors The PDO establishes some standards that highlight the ethical behavior for their organization. The ethical behavior standards include equal behavior with all the employees irrespective of their different cultural and transitional beliefs (Minnee et al. 2013). PDO also give chances to men and women in their organization (Pdo.co.om 2018). The company also offers training and career development options to their employees and behaves well with all of them. (Matriano and Suguku 2015) highlighted that PDO officials strive for excellence and allow employees to take initiatives for implementing innovations. All the organization regulations and policies are shared with the employees and all the remaining stakeholders and in this way; transparency is maintained properly in the workplace. The concerned organization endeavors to disclose information about the activities to interested parties (Weiss 2014). PDO also takes accountability for all the actions taken by the employees (Pdo.co.om 2018). Trevino and Nelson (2016) thus stated that in contemporary organizations leaders celebrate the success as well as the failure so the employees and provide the employee a positive feedback so that they can always be motivate for obtaining their organizational goals. Managing stakeholders relations Warner and Sullivan (2017) highlighted that in order to manage the stakeholders relations, public relations must have to be included. Bridoux and Stoelhorst (2014) however, argued that apart from the incorporation of public relations, correspondence with the government policies should also be considered. This will allow the organization to proceed with their operational functionalities in accordance to the nations obligations. The Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) deals with the energy supply and have its 60% the stake owned by the Government of Oman considered public relations and correspondence with the government policies for ensuring the corporation with key requirements of the relationship with stakeholders (Weiss 2014). Taken for instance, PDO also considers stakeholder engagement plan that includes the MDC and Functional Directors. These functioning bodies rank the stakeholders according to their priority in the business like government, shareholders, suppliers and contactors and community people (Garbie 2016). The prioritized lists allow the PDO to formulate the engagement plan. Image 1: Stakeholder Engagement management (Source: Bridoux and Stoelhorst 2014) Assessing ethical performance The PDO evaluates the ethical performance of the employees and the management through their individual performance and group performance (Gyrd-Jones and Kornum 2013). Crane and Matten (2016) stated that the performance of the person is also classified into two aspects- legally mandated and discretionary. PDO is an organization that deals with the oil and gas and energy supply to the users, the organization also measure the ethical performance of the organization by keeping track of the lost numberof workdays due to fatalities. The measurement also includes the behavior of the employee towards each other along with measuring the number of employee bullying, voluntary turnover and internal complaints (Weiss 2014). Discussion of diversity management program Diversity management program Harvey and Allard (2015) stated that the variety of differences between people working in the same organization is known as workplace diversity. Moreover, strategy of using best practices so that people from diverse culture and tradition intends to work for a single organization is referred to as diversity management. The diversity management program in the PDO is maintained by Diversity and Inclusion team (Madera 2013). The diversity management team of the organization also has women in the committee. Their diversity management in the organization involves considering the diversity management as a critical business activity, valuing the braid range of the cultural and personal differences among the people, respecting each employee, provision of equal opportunity, offering a trustful base that allow the employees to share their concern without any hesitation and demonstrating fairness and respect in the interaction with the external stakeholders (Cole and Salimath 2013). The statistics shows that the Omanisation rate is 77% and out of 8789 employees, 6772 are the Oman employees and the rest of the 2017 employees, belongs from other culture (Pdo.co.om 2018). The report also represents that out of total 935 women employees, 98 are from other nations and remaining 837 employees are Omani (Pdo.co.om 2018). In addition to that, the women are also offers with management roles and this can be witnessed through the fact that 4 Omani is have been included on 15 member committee of Managing Director (Pdo.co.om 2018). Image 2: People and staff management in PDO (Source: Pdo.co.om 2018) Issues in managing employee diversity There are series of diversity management issues in contemporary organizations like- resistance of the diversity management, poor communication among the employee due to difference in language, lack of employee involvements, language and cultural differences and high rates of employee bullying (Madera 2013). Crane and Matten (2016) stated that Oman on signing the treaty of WTO, all the residing business willingly and unwillingly become flatter, flexible and diverse and formulated into a manpower pool with mixtures of vivid religion, religion, races, races cultures and origins. This resulted in the poor incorporation of perfect diversity in the Omani workplace. In case of PSO, there are involvement of the women officials in management designation and people from other culture as the member of the organization but this involvement is very less in number. These women are not allowed to take sole decisions for the business and have to share their concern with the male officials which on getting approved by the senior officials gets valued (Crane and Matten 2016). Thus, it can be stated that women remain extremely underrepresented when considering the senior roles in Omani organizations. Another issue is that the business operations are operated in a global context; however, the number of member allocated for the operation is lesser from other religion and PDO intends to recruit people from Oman (Minnee et al. 2013). This issue raises the lack of understanding of the host nations business requirement and approaches as the Omani employee takes time to assess the situations (Minnee et al. 2013). This non- inclusion of the non native people also delays in business operations and poor business deals in the host country. Garbie (2016) furthermore highlight the issue of poor communication among the employees in the organization while managing the diversity. In PDO also people from Oman have strong national identity that makes them to remain more connected with the Arab culture and Islamic roots. This rises to the issues of lack of establishing the interpersonal relationship among the employees and the likeliness of cases of employee bullying gets higher. Moreover, the organization follows the code of conduct for sharing almost all the information related to the organization. However, Rajasekar and Khan (2013) stated that in most of the Oman organization, the policies and legislations are published in their native language and English. Rajasekar and Khan (2013) furthermore suggested that this creates a problem for the employees, who are not able to read these languages and hence cannot enhance their knowledge based regarding the companys operations. Moreover, since the majority of the employees are from Oman, in the formal meeting also sometimes they talk in their native language, which is also a reason that the employees from other culture do not participate in the meetings or some important decision- making sessions. This aspect resulted in poor relationship among people from Oman and other culture. Belwal and Belwal (2014) stated that the non- native people do not understand whether or not they have been bullied or appreciated from their colleagues as they are unable to understand their language. Another issue that is raised while managing the workplace diversity is the disagreement of the employee with the officials and sometimes it invites the stage of employee strike, poor productivity and turnover of the employee from diverse culture and race religion. Conclusion Thus, it can be stated that PDO obtain strategies for managing business ethics and emphasized on standard management practices. The practices involve development of ethics program, assessing possible ethical dilemmas, including all the stakeholders in ethical decisions and integrating their management practices with ethics management. It is also found that PDO considers ethics management in the personal policies, safety codes, manpower development programs, highest standards of honesty, integrity, fairness in the aspects of people and safety, corrupt practices, safeguarding of the organizational assets and information and communication management and international trade. Moreover, setting standards for ethical behaviors, managing stakeholders relations, evaluating the ethical performance through their individual performance and group performance, keeping track of the lost number of workdays due to fatalities and measuring the number of employee bullying, voluntary turnover and intern al complaints are some of the aspects for managing business ethics. Moreover, for diversity management program, it has been found that out of total 935 women employees, 837 employees are Omani and the total Omanisation rate is 77%. It is also found that only 4 Omani is having been included on 15 member committee of Managing Director. Thus it can be stated that, the number of people from other nation, diverse culture and religion are less in number and this rises to the issue of poor communication, poor development of interpersonal relations, more number of employee bullying and high rate of employee turnover. Recommendations Formulate a more diverse management team It is a fact that if management team belongs to same nation, the regulations they will formulate can be biased. Thus, rather including female from same nation as the member of the managing directors, it is more effective to include people from diverse culture and religion in the management team. Developing organizational policies in all languages There are some employees, who face difficulty in communicating with people from other race and origin. The effect of the problem is more if the people are in other nation as they hesitate to share their difficulty and concern regarding language barrier. Thus, the organization need to publish all their booklets of organization policies and letters in all possible languages so that people from the concerned area can easily understand and implement the same in obtaining the work goal collaboratively. Set reward to follow all the ethical consideration People tend to follow instructions willingly if they have some personal benefits. Thus, set rewards like monetary facility, effective recognition in the workplace can motivate the employee to follow all the ethical regulations and treat equally with all the members of the organization. Reference Belwal, S. and Belwal, R., 2014. Work-life balance, family-friendly policies and quality of work life issues: studying employers' perspectives of working women in Oman.Journal of International Women's Studies,15(1), p.96. Bowie, N.E., 2017.Business ethics: A Kantian perspective. Cambridge University Press. Bridoux, F. and Stoelhorst, J.W., 2014. Microfoundations for stakeholder theory: Managing stakeholders with heterogeneous motives.Strategic Management Journal,35(1), pp.107-125. Carroll, A. and Buchholtz, A., 2014.Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education. Cole, B.M. and Salimath, M.S., 2013. Diversity identity management: An organizational perspective.Journal of business ethics,116(1), pp.151-161. Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016.Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press. Garbie, I., 2016. Sustainability in Service Sector: Oil and Gas Industry. InSustainability in Manufacturing Enterprises(pp. 217-236). Springer, Cham. Gyrd-Jones, R.I. and Kornum, N., 2013. Managing the co-created brand: Value and cultural complementarity in online and offline multi?stakeholder ecosystems.Journal of Business Research,66(9), pp.1484-1493. Harvey, C.P. and Allard, M., 2015.Understanding and managing diversity: Readings, cases, and exercises. Pearson. Madera, J.M., 2013. Best practices in diversity management in customer service organizations: an investigation of top companies cited by Diversity Inc.Cornell Hospitality Quarterly,54(2), pp.124-135. Matriano, M.T. and Suguku, D., 2015. Entrepreneurship Growth in Oman: Position, Prospects and Growth of Entrepreneural Education.IJAEDU-International E-Journal of Advances in Education,1(2), pp.127-131. Minnee, F., Shanka, T., Taylor, R. and Handley, B., 2013. Exploring corporate responsibility in Omansocial expectations and practice.Social Responsibility Journal,9(2), pp.326-339. Pdo.co.om., 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.pdo.co.om/SiteAssets/Miscellaneous/PDO%20Code%20of%20Conduct.pdf [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018]. Pdo.co.om., 2018.About PDO. [online] Available at: https://www.pdo.co.om/en/about/Pages/default.aspx [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018]. Pearson, R., 2017. Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the idea of dialogue. InPublic relations theory(pp. 111-131). Routledge. Rajasekar, J. and Khan, S.A., 2013. Training and development function in Omani public sector organizations: A critical evaluation.The Journal of Applied Business and Economics,14(2), p.37. Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2016.Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley Sons. Warner, M. and Sullivan, R. eds., 2017.Putting partnerships to work: Strategic alliances for development between government, the private sector and civil society. Routledge. Weiss, J.W., 2014.Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Thursday Caption Contest - January 7th

Hes cool, hes smart, and his voice aint half bad, either. So, in this picture of John Legend about to graduate from UPenn, whats running through his mind? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. We’ll pick our three favorites, taking into account the number of likes your submission gets (hint: it helps to share)!Winner gets a $20 Amazon Gift Card, $20 in site credits, plus bragging rights. The two runners-up each get $10 in credits to apply towardsunlocking successfulapplication examplesand/or chatting withmentors. Contest ends Thursday, December 10th. Three submissions max. Congrats tolast weeks winners!

Comparing the Hydrogen Bomb and the Atomic Bomb

Comparing the Hydrogen Bomb and the Atomic Bomb A hydrogen bomb and an atomic bomb are both types of nuclear weapons, but the two devices are very different from each other. In a nutshell, an atomic bomb is a fission device, while a hydrogen bomb uses fission to power a fusion reaction. In other words, an atomic bomb can be used as a trigger for a hydrogen bomb. Take a look at the definition of each type of bomb and understand the distinction between them. Atomic Bomb An atomic bomb or A-bomb is a nuclear weapon that explodes due to the extreme energy released by nuclear fission. For this reason, this type of bomb is also known as a fission bomb. The word atomic isnt strictly accurate since its just the nucleus of the atom that is involved in fission (its protons and neutrons), rather than the entire atom or its electrons. A material capable of fission (fissile material) is given supercritical mass, while is the point at which fission occurs. This can be achieved by either compressing sub-critical material using explosives or by shooting one part of a sub-critical mass into another one. The fissile material is enriched uranium or plutonium. The energy output of the reaction can range to the equivalent of about a ton of the explosive TNT up to 500 kilotons of TNT. The bomb also releases radioactive fission fragments, which result from the heavy nuclei breaking into smaller ones. Nuclear fallout mainly consists of fission fragments. Hydrogen Bomb A hydrogen bomb or H-bomb is a type of nuclear weapon that explodes from the intense energy released by nuclear fusion. Hydrogen bombs may also be called thermonuclear weapons. The energy results from the fusion of isotopes of hydrogen- deuterium and tritium. A hydrogen bomb relies on the energy released from a fission reaction to  heat and compress the hydrogen to trigger fusion, which can also generate additional fission reactions. In a large thermonuclear device, about half of the yield of the device comes from fission of depleted uranium. The fusion reaction doesnt really contribute to fallout, but because the reaction is triggered by fission and causes further fission, H-bombs generate at least as much fallout as atomic bombs. Hydrogen bombs can have much higher yields than atomic bombs, equivalent to megatons of TNT. The Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, was a hydrogen bomb with a 50 megaton yield. Comparisons Both types of nuclear weapons release vast quantities of energy from a small amount of matter and release most of their energy from fission, and produce radioactive fallout. The hydrogen bomb has a potentially higher yield and is a more complicated device to construct. Other Nuclear Devices In addition to atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs, there are other types of nuclear weapons: neutron bomb: A neutron bomb, like a hydrogen bomb, is a thermonuclear weapon. The explosion from a neutron bomb is relatively small, but a large number of neutrons are released. While living organisms are killed by this type of device, less fallout is produced and physical structures are more likely to remain intact. salted bomb: A salted bomb is a nuclear bomb surrounded by cobalt, gold, other other material such that detonation produces a large amount of long-lived radioactive fallout. This type of weapon could potentially serve as a doomsday weapon, since the fall-out could eventually gain global distribution. pure fusion bomb: Pure fusion bombs are nuclear weapons that produce a fusion reaction without the aid of a fission bomb trigger. This type of bomb would not release significant radioactive fallout. electromagnetic pulse weapon (EMP): This is a bomb intended to produce a nuclear electromagnetic pulse, which can disrupt electronic equipment. A nuclear device detonated in the atmosphere emits an electromagnetic pulse spherically. The goal of such a weapon is to damage electronics over a wide area. antimatter bomb: An antimatter bomb would release energy from the annihilation reaction that results when matter and antimatter interact. Such a device has not been produced because of the difficulty synthesizing significant quantities of antimatter.

Economic Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Economic Development - Essay Example Therefore, in most developing countries, a wide gap can be seen between the rich and the poor unlike that in the developed nations. This gap widens more as long as rural development is ignored by economists and politicians. But there is a sudden change being experienced in the approach of economists and intellectuals. Those who have merely ignored the rural development in the past are now propagating for its development. Next sections of the essay will analyze the reasons behind ignoring rural development and the sudden change of approach. Reasons for Change of Approach Rural development mainly refers to the role of agriculture for the development of the nation. â€Å"Agriculture constitutes the main source of employment of the majority of the world’s poor. In total, the share of agriculture in total employment in developing countries constitutes 53% of the total workforce in 2004. In Sub-Saharan Africa 60% of the economically active population works in the agricultural secto r.† (Meijerink & Roza, 2007). This shows that agriculture or rural sector is the back bone of many developing economies. But the increased importance given to the industrialization opened up many industries and reduced the share of agriculture to the overall economic growth. Agriculture gradually became less attractive for the economies. This made the economists and intellectuals to reduce the focus on rural areas. But now economists and governments are seemed to be increasing their focus on rural development especially in developing countries. Some of the disadvantage of urbanization and industrialization helped them for this late realization. The main factors that lead to the change of approach are as follows: 1. Poverty 2. Unbalanced growth 3. Food Security 4. Lack of Infrastructure 5. Rural Marketing Poverty: Increased poverty in the rural area is the main reasons for this change of approach. Poverty is seen as a drawback for the development of a nation. Overall developmen t of an economy is not possible if there is a considerable percentage of poor among the population. Eradicating poverty became the major agenda of many countries. While looking back to the 19th century, economists realized that irrespective of the size of the nation, the sole factor that drove the economy was agriculture. But somewhere with the advent of technologies, countries reduced the focus on agriculture. This is one of the reasons that helped the economists to change their mind. Unbalanced Growth: In most developing countries, there is a wide gap between rich and the poor. Though such countries are recording tremendous economic progress, it could not be categorized as a developed nation when there is an unbalanced growth in the economy. Majority of the population should experience more or less similar growth and living conditions for a balanced growth in the economy. Food Security: Another major reason for the change of approach of the economists is food security. â€Å"At i ts June 2003 summit, the G8 group of countries recognized the need to increase investment in rural and agricultural development to achieve lasting food security. It pledged to reverse the decline in ODA for agriculture and to increase trade opportunities for developing countries.† (Bage, 2004) Food security is now a cause of concern for many countries. As a result of this, countries are increasing their respective funding to the agriculture sector in order to

Developing Marketing Capability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Developing Marketing Capability - Essay Example What are their approaches, challenges, needs and ambitions to structure a marketing function The aim is to identify the relationship between marketing and organization performance, which is to assert marketing as a significant business function. Objectives Challenges faced by organizing in measuring marketing performance. To organize a marketing function in order to bring competitive advantage and true organizational success. To align marketing function with organizational goals, structure, capabilities and resources. This is to bring competitive advantage and success for the organization. Organizational Challenges in measuring Marketing Performance In an objective to improve marketing performance, organizations first have to measure marketing performance (Richardson, 2012). Without assessing or measuring performance organizations cannot get on with the improvement of capability, skill or performance. There are certain major challenges which organizations face in measuring marketing performance (Shaw & Pont, 2003). Likewise there are challenges to measure intangible customer value, loyalty or marketing outcome which inevitably leads organizations to incomplete assessment. Similarly, by setting numerical data as performance measures bring incomplete information on assessment (Gronholdt & Martensen, 2006). Relatively big financial data feeds like return on investment, balance sheet, or profit or loss statements do not provide the real sketch of marketing, which eventually give distractive information. Moreover more operational activity of marketing does not mean it is performing well as if the marketers are found busy does not mean that there work is productive or based on outcomes (profits or revenues). Intensive marketing does not allocate productive marketing, and hence cannot be taken as a performance measure (Shaw & Pont, 2003). To access marketing performance organizations have to find a purposive method, in which first thing is to set a right performance m etrics. For measuring marketing performance there are different metrics which can reflect the operational and functional performance of marketing (Gronholdt & Martensen, 2006). In the most adaptive metrics used in critical evaluation of marketing performance are activity based metrics. This may include metrics of numerical counting and control and in-depth reporting to scan the intrinsic performance of the function (Raab, 2009). The most adaptive metrics include rate of customer acquisition, customer engagement, events successes, popularity of labels, and competitive brand reception respectively. There are certain limitations behind such metrics as they all are intangible but to a great extend provide the explicit information of how the marketing functioning is performing (Gronholdt & Martensen, 2006). Similarly, a well reported system is itself a performance scanner for marketing. When organizations demand performance assessment, it means they have well organized and well establish ed reporting systems (DCI, 2004). Such systems are obligatory, obligatory in terms of intensive reporting, periodic reporting and reporting with respect to each marketing activity. With time to time reporting, the whole picture comes out on front giving a projection of marketing delays, inefficiencies or unproductiveness (DCI, 2004). Organizations which imply MPM (marketing performa

The Meaning of Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Meaning of Life - Essay Example In my understanding, an absurd man should live freely and not within the limits of any rules. The world is indescribable (due to its chaotic nature) hence everyone is free to describe absurd art in his/her own way. In order What is the meaning of life? This is the most fundamental question for everyone, from the complicated philosopher to a 5 year old child. All the other queries, whether the sun goes around the moon or not and if there is life on other celestial bodies come second to the purpose of existence. What some refer to as their reason for living also serves as their reason for death. For example, many there are many reports of people committing suicide from losing their loved ones. Others like Jesus’ disciples willingly chose death over giving up their Christianity. Suicide, on the other hand, results from the realization of the lack of purpose of one’s life. Everyone looks towards tomorrow with hope and death in the juxtaposition. As Bertrand Russell stated, â€Å"†¦all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and the whole temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins†¦only on the firm foundation of this unyielding despair, can the soul?s habitation henceforth be safely built† (Bertrand Russell). In the pursuit of a purpose for existence, there are only two conclusions; there is no meaning in life and the purpose of life lies only in the hands of God who exists beyond physicality. Still, from the first conclusion arises another query; does the lack of meaning in life mean that it is not worth living? If ‘yes’ is the answer to this question, suicide is the next action logical to take. There, however, arises a third option; what if a person accepts to pursue a life with no purpose? A person who lacks faith in a supernatural deity can never find any reconciliation with the absurdity of life and those who claim to do so, only end up committing ‘philosophical suicide’. In philosophical suicide, a person acknowledges the lack of order and meaninglessness of the world yet at the same time, tries to assign himself or any other member of humanity a purpose in life. Living in absurdity (accepting the meaninglessness of life) is possible but requires constant awareness of its presence. Examples of abstract lives, those lived by seducers who engage in the short term passions of life and actors who impersonate numerous personalities. In an absurd life, one does not try to explain the purpose of his/her experiences, but simply enjoys life’s freeness like NikoKzantzakis when he said, -â€Å"As I watched the seagulls, I thought: â€Å"That?s the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust† (Nikos Kzantzakis). Is there any importance in the question? Everyone, wheth er consciously or not, has an insatiable appetite to know the truth of this unfamiliar existence. As T.S. Eliot stated, "We shall not cease from our exploration and the end of all

Management Accounting Case Study

Management Accounting Case Study INTRODUCTION: This is a report of management accounting will focus more on cost and budget. According to reports, the issue of cost method, information analysis, computation, theory and applications of gold companies that can help readers may clear understanding of this topic. The problem in making the cost of the largest organizations will also be mentioned in the report. Moreover, there are many examples of information expected costs for the next year and analyze the information that can make the reader practical experience in accounting environment. I. Identify and classify the different types of costs incurred in Wine Company 1. Cost classification The cost classification is divided into three categories called cost classification for stock valuation and profit measurement, cost classification for decision making and classification for the control. According Vang Company, they have adopted the classification of expenses for stock valuation and profit measurement that can help them make the kind of cost-effective and also predict risk or revenue for their future. There have costs that are present in all organizations can help accountants can easily calculate the cost of an organization. Accordingly, the cost will be divided into direct material costs, direct labor costs and direct costs for each corresponding indirect. Moreover, the cost also refers to a number of other costs such as administration overhead, high on S D, production costs and time costs. ( Case Study ) 1.1 Direct costs Direct costs means costs that are directly attributable to production of a product or service provider. A direct costs include direct material costs, direct labor costs and other direct costs ( financial accounting and management financial statements, p6, 2010 ) . The first is the direct material costs. Direct material costs are the direct costs of materials used to make and sell products or provide services ( financial accounting and management financial statements, p7, 2010 ). At Vang Company, because this is a company specializing in producing custom t-shirts for corporate events, family and group, they should have sufficient material to produce t-shirts as fabric, sewing. So to have the documents, the company needs to pay for the provider. Next is the direct labor costs. Direct labor costs are the specific costs of employees or workers directly used in the production of goods and services ( Ukessays, 2014 ). Direct labor costs include salaries, wages, allowances and deductions from wages as social insurance, health insurance. According to the law of Vietnam, workers minimum wage is 1,150,000 VND / month. At Vang Company, has 25 employees, including 21 in production and 4 in management and sales ( Vang Company Case Study, 2014 ). So Vang Company must pay their employees at least 1,150,000 VND / month and can pay more depending on the job level ( Wikipedia, 2013 ) . Direct expenses are part of the direct costs that are spent in making a product or providing a particular service, or run a department ( financial accounting and management financial statements, p7, 2010 ). To ensure the quality of T shirts, Vang Company using electric sewing machine to sew and hand silk screen printed. Using the device s power costs incurred to produce T -shirts ( case studies vang Company, 2014 ). They are tools to be purchased or leased by Vang Corporation to make T -shirts . 1.2 Indirect costs : Indirect costs or overhead costs include indirect costs that material, indirect salary costs, indirect costs, administration costs, S D costs . Indirect materials related to products, but not derived from the finished product. That the documents without material used as direct but it also helps to finished product. For example : A number of indirect materials in their wine companies are sewing machines, chemicals for cleaning cloth or machine, scissors, gloves protect workers when they work or some tools that can help to determine product . Indirect salary costs for wages that but it is not related to the production process and to not participate in the product. For example : Vang Company also need to pay for the management, monitoring and help them search activities and enterprises but they do not work on the product line. The security and cleaner for Vang company also not working on product activity so that Vang company also have indirect wages for them. Indirect costs which are not charged directly to production ( management accounting and financial statements, 2010). Vang companies also pay insurance for employees, their production and also pay rent for the old buildings that they rent for offices and factories . The administration costs that the costs related to the management and operation of the company ( SmallBusiness, 2014 ). For example, Vang Company will pay the wages office concluded wages of secretaries, accountants and also they have to pay rent, rates, insurance, light, sanitation, telephone, portal, bank charges, legal costs . The S D costs, including marketing materials, advertising, packaging, salary and commission sales staff, rent, rate, insurance, cost of product delivery Vang company. They also change the quality and packaging of individual products are wrapped in recycled brown paper bag 1.3: Fixed cost, step cost, variable cost and semi-variable costs: Fixed cost is a cost which remains constant within a certain level of output or sales is unaffected by changes in the level of activity (Finance management accounting and financial reporting, p11, 2010). Figure 1: Graph of fixed cost (Google, no date) In Vang Company, the fixed cost could be salary of employees, the rent of factory building and equipment. However, in Vang company case study, fixed factory cost changed from 2006 to 2008. It increased from 20,000$ to 30,000$ in 3 years. This proves that the economy is not stable. Step cost is fixed cost when paying company but costs have risen because of the increase of production volume or something it might be reduced because of reduced production volumes. The cost steps can occur due to the companys expansion. For example: For Vang company if they received more T-shirt from customers that they will make more t-shirts, and they need to have more staff will make them increase the cost or they need to hire to plant because the increase of the laborers. Variable cost is a cost of labor or material change with activity level (Rosemary Peavler, 2014). In Vang Company, variable costs include raw materials, packaging, and labor directly involved in the production process of the company. Variable cost plants raised from $ 70,000 to $ 120,000 in 3 years from 2006 to 2008 (Case Vang Company, 2014). Figure 3: Graph of variable cost (Google, no date) Semi-variable cost are the costs that contain fixed cost and variable cost components. For example: Vang company also need to pay salary (fixed cost) and commission (variable cost) for salesperson and its a semi-variable cost. Figure 5 : Semi-variable cost (google)

Claude Debussy and Ludwig van Beethoven Essay -- music, composer, clas

Dmitri Shostakovich, a 20th century Russian composer and pianist, once said, â€Å"A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one." Is this why composers can compose many pieces in such a short life span? Take Claude Debussy for example. He composed 141 pieces even though he only lived for 56 years. And what about the great Ludwig van Beethoven? He composed 138 pieces although he only lived for 56 years and despite the fact that he began to lose his hearing at the age of 29. But how do these two great composers have the inspiration of writing song after song without running out of ideas? Well, the appropriate word to describe all of this is â€Å"influence†. Of course, Debussy and Beethoven had their own trademarks in the music world but they do share some similarities in their works. Many people know that Debussy and Beethoven composed many great classical works but they did compose some ‘jazz like’ works over their music career. Noted composer, scholar, and educator Gunther Schuller wrote an article entitled â€Å"Jazz on Classical: Classical on Jazz†. In this article, he mentioned that jazz musicians of today and yesteryear have been attracted to works by classical composers and have drawn upon the inventive usage of harmonies employed by classical composers, including Debussy and Beethoven. Debussy had a profound impact on contemporary soundtrack composers such as John Williams because Debussy's colorful and evocative style translated easily into an emotional language for use in motion picture scores. Unfortunately, Gunther Schuller did not follow Beethoven’s influence on today’s jazz artists. He did not write more about his influences toward jazz (Schuller,2013). One thing that bo... .../www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/2013. Last accessed 23 Oct 2013. Chronicle of Jazz. (2013). Changing Modes. Available: http://www.abbeville.com/jazz/146.asp. Last accessed 21 Oct 2013. Emerson, R. (2013). Quotes. Available: http://danthemans.squidoo.com/favourite-quotes-about-strength. Last accessed 23 Oct 2013. Famous People. (2013). Claude Debussy. Available: http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/claude-debussy-400.php. Last accessed 22 Oct 2013. Kamien, R. (2011). Music An Appreciation. New York: McGraw-Hill. 374-377. Pearson Education. (2013). Claude Achille Debussy. Available: http://infoplease/com/encyclopedia/people/debussy-claude-achille.html. Last accessed 21 Oct 2013. Schuller, G. (2013). Jazz on Classical: Classical on Jazz. Available: http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Jazz-on-Classical-Classical-on-Jazz/11351. Last accessed 26 Oct 2013.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Chapter 32~33

Thirty-two Catfish and Estelle â€Å"That was a good guitar,† Catfish said. He had his arms around Estelle, who had pressed her face to his chest when the monster attacked Winston Krauss. â€Å"I didn't realize,† Estelle said. â€Å"I didn't think it would do that.† Catfish stroked her hair. â€Å"That was a good car too. That car never broke.† Estelle pushed Catfish away and looked in his eyes. â€Å"You knew, didn't you?† â€Å"What I knew is that boy wanted to get up close to a sea monster and that's what he got. Case you didn't notice, he was happy when it happened.† â€Å"What now?† â€Å"I think we ought to get you home, girl. You got some paintings gonna come out of this.† â€Å"Home? Are you coming with me?† â€Å"I ain't got no car to go anywhere. I guess I am.† â€Å"You're going to stay? You're not afraid of losing the Blues and getting content?† Catfish grinned, and there was that gold tooth with the eighth note cut in it, glistening in the morning sunshine. â€Å"Dragon done ate my car, my guitar, my amp – girl, I got me enough Blues to last a good long time. I'm thinkin I'll write me some new songs while you makin your paintings.† â€Å"I'd like that,† Estelle said. â€Å"I'd like to paint the Blues.† â€Å"Long as you don't go cuttin your ear off like old Vincent. A man finds a one-eared woman stone unattractive.† Estelle pulled him tight. â€Å"I'll do my best.† â€Å"Course, there was a woman I knowed down Memphis way, name of Sally, had only one leg. Called her One Leg Sally†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I don't want to hear it.† â€Å"What you wanna hear?† â€Å"I want to hear the door closing behind us, the fire crackling in the stove, and the teakettle just coming to a whistle while my lovin man picks out ‘Walkin' Man's Blues' on a National steel guitar.† â€Å"You easy,† Catfish said. â€Å"I thought you liked that,† she said, and she took his spidery hand in hers and led him up over the bluff to find a ride home. Theo and Molly Theo had never felt quite so overwhelmed in his entire life. He sensed that the excitement and the danger of it all was over, but he still felt as if a beast every bit as intimidating as the one that had just sunk into the sea was looming over him. He didn't know if he had a job, or for that matter a home, since his cabin had been part of his pay. He didn't even have his bong collection and victory garden to crawl into. He was confused and horrified by what had just happened, but not relieved that it was over. He stood there, not ten feet from where Molly Michon was standing in the surf, and he had no idea what the rest of his life had to offer him. â€Å"Hey,† he called. â€Å"You okay?† He watched her nod without turning around. The waves were breaking in front of her and foam and sea-weed was splashing up over her thighs, yet she stood there solid, staring out to sea. â€Å"You going to be okay?† Without turning, she said, â€Å"I haven't been okay for years. Ask anybody.† â€Å"Matter of opinion. I think you're okay.† Now she looked over her shoulder at him, her hair in a tangle from the wind, tear tracks down her face. â€Å"Really?† â€Å"I'm a huge fan.† â€Å"You had never heard of my movies until you came to my trailer, had you?† â€Å"Nope. I'm a huge fan, though.† She turned and walked out of the surf toward him, and a smile was breaking there on her face. A smile with too much history to it, but a smile nonetheless. â€Å"The narrator says you did good,† she said. â€Å"The narrator?† Theo found himself smiling too, as close to crying as he had come since his father had died, but smiling nonetheless. â€Å"Yeah, it's this voice I hear when I don't take my meds for a while. He's kind of a prick, but he's got a better sense of judgment than I do.† She was right there in front of him now – looking up at him, a hand on her hip, a challenge in that movie-star smile – looking more like Kendra the Warrior Babe than she ever had in the posters, the five-inch-long scar standing glorious over her left breast, seawater and grime streaking her body, a look in her eyes that comes from watching your future get nuked – repeatedly. She took his breath away. â€Å"Do you think the three of us could go out to dinner sometime?† â€Å"I'm on the rebound, you know?† His heart sank. â€Å"I understand.† She walked around him and started up the bluff. He followed her, understanding for the first time how the pilgrims had felt following the Sea Beast to the cave. â€Å"I didn't say no,† Molly said. â€Å"I just thought you ought to know. The narrator is warning me not to talk about my ex over dinner.† His heart soared. â€Å"I think a lot of people are going to be talking about your ex.† â€Å"You're not intimidated?† â€Å"Of course. But not by him.† â€Å"The narrator says it's a bad idea. Says the two of us put together might make one good loser.† â€Å"Wow, he is a prick.† â€Å"I'll get some meds from Dr. Val and he'll go away.† â€Å"You're sure that's good idea?† â€Å"Yeah,† she said, turning back to him again before climbing up to where the pilgrims waited. â€Å"I'd like to be alone with you.† Skinner What the man in the driver's seat didn't seem to understand was that as far as this Mercedes was concerned, Skinner was the alpha male. The man smelled of fear and anger and aggression, as well as gunpowder and sweat, and Skinner didn't like him from the moment he got into the car: Skinner's new mobile territory. So Skinner had to show him, and he did so in the traditional way, by clamping his jaws over the Challenger's throat and waiting for him to take a submissive posture. The man had struggled and even hit Skinner, but hadn't said bad-dog, bad-dog, so Skinner just growled and tightened his jaws until he tasted blood and the man was still. Skinner was still waiting for the Challenger to submit when the Tall Guy opened the car door. â€Å"Good dog, Skinner. Good dog,† Theo said. â€Å"Get this fucking animal off me,† the Challenger said. Skinner wagged his tail and tightened his jaws until the Challenger made a gurgling sound. The Tall Guy scratched his ears and put some metal on the Challenger's paws. â€Å"Let go now, Skinner,† the Tall Guy said. â€Å"I've got him.† Skinner let go and licked Theo's face before the constable dragged the sheriff out onto the ground and stood on the back of his neck with one foot. The Tall Guy tasted like lizard spit. That was strange. Skinner considered it a moment, then his doggie attention span ran out and he bounded out of the car to go see what the Food Guy was doing in the back of the truck. The Tall Guy's female was breaking out the back window of the truck with a metal stick. Skinner barked at her, trying to tell her not to hurt the Food Guy. Good Guys â€Å"Is the creature still there?† Gabe asked Molly as he climbed out of the back of the Suburban. Skinner was frisking and jumping on him, and with the handcuffs he couldn't ward off the damp affection. â€Å"Down, boy. Down.† â€Å"No, he's gone,† Molly said as she helped Val and Howard out of the Suburban. She nodded to Val. â€Å"Hi, Doc. I think I've had an episode or something. You'll have to debrief me in session or something.† Valerie Riordan nodded. â€Å"I'll check my calendar.† Theo came around the back of the Mercedes. â€Å"You guys okay?† â€Å"You have your key?† Gabe asked, turning his back to Theo to show the handcuffs. â€Å"We heard shots,† Val said. â€Å"Did†¦?† â€Å"One of the SWAT team is dead. Burton shot him. A few of your patients are scraped and bruised, but they'll be okay. Winston Krauss was eaten.† â€Å"Eaten?† The color ran out of Val's face. â€Å"Long story, Val,† Theo said. â€Å"Mavis set it all up after you guys left. Catfish and Estelle came in and drew the monster out. Winston was sort of the bait.† â€Å"Oh my god!† Val said. â€Å"She said something about my not being in trouble.† Theo held his finger to his lips to shush her, then nodded to where Sheriff Burton lay on the ground. â€Å"It never happened, Val. None of it. I don't know a thing.† He spun her around and unlocked her handcuffs. Then did the same for Gabe and Howard. The gaunt restaurateur seemed more morose than usual. â€Å"I had really hoped to lay eyes on the creature.† â€Å"Me too,† said Gabe, putting his arm around Valerie. â€Å"Sorry,† Theo said. To Val he said, â€Å"The reporters from those helicopters are going to be here in a few minutes. If I were you, I'd get out of here.† He handed her the keys to the Mercedes. â€Å"The district attorney is sending a deputy to pick up Burton, so I'm going to stay here. Will you give Molly a ride back into town?† â€Å"Of course,† Val said. â€Å"What are you going to tell the reporters?† â€Å"I don't know,† Theo said. â€Å"Deny everything, I guess. It depends on what they ask and what they got on tape. Having lived most my life in denial, I may be perfectly suited for dealing with them.† â€Å"I'm sorry I was – I'm sorry I doubted your abilities, Theo.† â€Å"So did I, Val. I'll call you guys and let you know what's going on.† Gabe called Skinner and they loaded into the Mercedes, leaving Theo and Molly facing each other. Theo looked at his shoes. â€Å"I guess I'll be seeing you.† She stretched up and kissed him on the cheek. Then without a word she crawled into the back of the Mercedes with Howard and Skinner and closed the door. Theo watched them back away, then turn and head across the pasture and out of the cattle gate. â€Å"You're going down with me, Crowe!† Burton screamed from the ground. Theo spotted something shiny lying in the grass near the back of the Suburban and went over to it. It was Molly's broadsword. He felt a smile breaking out as he picked it up and went over to where Burton was lying. â€Å"You have the right to remain silent,† Theo said. â€Å"I suggest you exercise that right. Immediately.† Theo plunged the sword into the ground half an inch from Burton's face and watched the sheriff's eyes go wide. Thirty-three Winter Winter in Pine Cove is a pause, a timeout, an extended coffee break. A slowness comes over the town and people stop their cars in the street to talk with a passing neighbor without worrying about a tourist honking his horn so he can get on with his relaxing vacation (damn it!). Waiters and hotel clerks go to part-time shifts and money slows to a creep. Couples spend their nights at home in front of the fireplace as the smell of rain-washed wood smoke fills the air, and single people resolve to move somewhere where life is a full-time sport. Winter near the shore is cold. The wind kicks up a salty mist and elephant seals come to shore to trumpet and rut and birth their pups. Retired people put sweaters on their lap dogs and drag them down the street on retractable leashes in a nightly parade of doggie humiliation. Surfers don their wetsuits against the chill of storm waves and white sharks adjust their diets to in-clude shrink-wrapped dude-snacks on fiberglass crackers. But the chill is crisp and forgiving and settles in a way so that the town's collective metab-olism can slow into semihibernation without a shock. At least that's the way it is most winters. After the coming of the Sea Beast, winter was a juggernaut, a party, an irritation and a windfall. News footage from the helicopters was beamed out over satellites and Pine Cove displaced Roswell, New Mexico, as the number one crackpot travel destination. There wasn't much on the tapes, just a crowd of people gathered on the shore and the fuzzy image of something large in the water, but with the footprints and the eyewitness accounts, it was enough. Shops filled with cheesy ser-pent souvenirs and H.P.'s Cafe added to the menu a sandwich called the Theosaurus, which was the official scientific name of the Sea Beast (coined by biologist Gabriel Fenton). The hotels filled, the streets congested, and Mavis Sand actually had to hire a second bartender to help serve the im-ported wackos. Estelle Boyet opened her own gallery on Cypress Street where she sold her new series of paintings enigmatically entitled Steve, as well as the new Catfish Jefferson CD entitled The What Do I Do Now That I'm Happy? Blues. As the story of the Sea Beast spread and was sensationalized, interest rose in an obscure B-movie actress named Molly Michon. Discs and videocassettes of the Warrior Babe series were remastered and rereleased to an enthusiastic audience, and the Screen Actors Guild came down on the producers like an avenging accountant angel to capture a piece of the profits for Molly. Valerie Riordan's practice stabilized as she struck a balance between therapy and medication and she was able to schedule a sabbatical to join her fianc? ¦, Gabe Fenton, on an oceanographic expedition aboard a Scripps vessel to look for evidence of the Theosaurus in the deep trenches off California. After he testified against John Burton, putting him away for life, winter settled on Theophilus Crowe like a warm blessing. In the second month of his recovery, he realized that his addiction to marijuana had been nothing more than a response to boredom. Like the child who whines away a summer day because there's nothing to do, but makes no effort to actually do anything, Theo had simply lacked the ambition to entertain himself. Sharing his life with Molly solved the problem, and Theo found that although he was often exhausted by the demands of his job and his lover, he was never bored. Molly's trailer was moved to the edge of the ranch by his cabin. Every morning they shared a hearty breakfast pizza at her place. In the evening, they ate dinner on his cable spool table. She answered his calls while he was at work, and he ran interference with the geeky fans who were rabid enough to seek her out at the ranch. Not a day passed that he did not tell Molly how special she was to him, and as time passed, the narrator in her head fell silent and never spoke again. There was no winter in the deep submarine trench off California, two miles down. Everything was as it had been: a dark pressurized sameness where the Sea Beast lay by his black smoker, grieving for love lost. He stopped grazing on deep water worms that grew on the rocks and his great body began to waste away under the weight of the water and the years. He had resolved never to move again – to lie there until his great heart stopped and with it the throb of heartbreak – when sensor cells along his flanks picked up a signal. Something he had not felt for half a century, the signature of a creature he thought he would never feel again. He flipped his tail and shook off the crust of loneliness that had settled over him, and that organ buried deep beneath his reptile brain picked up a message coming from the female. Roughly translated, it said, â€Å"Hey, sailor, want to get lucky?†

Lady with the Dog Film Review essays

Lady with the Dog Film Review essays The film representations simple cinematography and dialog accurately capture the mood created in Chekhovs story, but it fails in other areas. The motives and thoughts of the characters could not be easily discovered, as the film focused on carrying on the plot with little attention given to characterization; leaving the actors to fill the void with expression and specific actions. The actors tended to over-do this, creating more of a caricature than character. While some may contend the short story translates better into film I do not believe this to be true. Often certain aspects purposely left out of short stories for the sake of conciseness and brevity are replaced with Hollywood traditions that take away from the nature of the literature. The acting most prominently stood out to me as a major conflict with Chekhovs intentions of what the characters should be like. The actors overportrayed Gurov and his wife most prevalently. He turned Gurov into a lifeless, dull, and almost villainous character. The actress playing Gurovs wife combined with the scripting made her appear to be an unrealistically arrogant woman. Chekhov no more than hinted at these characteristics in the text, and the perception of his wife to be such a disgusting person what that of Gurovs. Opposite of these flaws, Iya Savina portrayed the character of Anna to perfection. Her mild yet desperate disposition reflected exactly how I pictured the character in my mind when reading the story. Contrasting moments of strong emotion and struggle kept my interest at times when the plot inched along. Had Gurov and his wife followed suit and fit the characters more accurately I could have easily overlooked the other pitfalls. The short story tends to omit details about emotion, focusing on driving the plot and making a strong point in doing so. Minority Report personifies a recent example of Hollywood going against su...

Free Essays on Roar

â€Å"Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of All England† (201). There was a tournament held in London and all were invited to come and the one who pulled the sword out would be the new King of England. Wart and Kay went along with Sir Ector to London. In addition to having people try to pull out the sword they have activities like jousting. While in London, Kay joins in on the jousting but he left his sword in the house they were staying in so Wart went back to the house but it was locked and as he walked back he saw the sword in the anvil. He decided to borrow the sword, and he went over to it and pulled it out. When he told Kay where he got the sword Kay announced that Wart was the new King of England, but Merlyn changes his name to Arthur and from then on he was King Arthur. Lancelot is a knight for King Arthur. He is a very good knight but his main downfall is that he is very ugly. Lancelot goes through many problems but his biggest problem is that he falls in love with Arthur’s wif... Free Essays on Roar Free Essays on Roar White, T. H. The Once And Future King. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York. 1958. The main character in the novel is Wart. He lives with his foster brother Kay at Sir Ector’s castle in a Forest. Kay and Wart are really good friends and they go on a lot of adventures in the woods. One day Wart is out in the woods and he finds Merlyn. Wart takes Merlyn back to Sir Ector’s castle. Merlyn is a magician and he becomes Wart’s tutor. Merlyn turns Wart into many different animals ,such as a fish, an ant, and a badger, and sends him on many adventures. Merlyn teaches Wart many lessons. One day the castle receives a letter that says that the King of England had died and since he had no kin it was going to be a hard task to find a new King of England. A sword stuck in an anvil appeared in front of the church in London and on the anvil were inscribed the words â€Å"Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of All England† (201). There was a tournament held in London and all were invited to come and the one who pulled the sword out would be the new King of England. Wart and Kay went along with Sir Ector to London. In addition to having people try to pull out the sword they have activities like jousting. While in London, Kay joins in on the jousting but he left his sword in the house they were staying in so Wart went back to the house but it was locked and as he walked back he saw the sword in the anvil. He decided to borrow the sword, and he went over to it and pulled it out. When he told Kay where he got the sword Kay announced that Wart was the new King of England, but Merlyn changes his name to Arthur and from then on he was King Arthur. Lancelot is a knight for King Arthur. He is a very good knight but his main downfall is that he is very ugly. Lancelot goes through many problems but his biggest problem is that he falls in love with Arthur’s wif...

Self reflection on culture and communication Assignment

Self reflection on culture and communication - Assignment Example Due to the research work, we came across valuable information regarding Japan. It is known as the â€Å"Land of rising sun†. Japan is a developing country with one of the largest economy as well as largest import-export facilities (MacQueen, 1998). Besides, information that was gathered was that Japan can improve the life expectancy along with lowering the rate of the infant mortality and the total population of Japan is approximately 126 million. With this large amount of population, Japan has an enriched traditional culture, which evolve from the culture of Asia, Europe along with North America. It has the heritage culture in terms of traditional Japanese crafts, paintings, literature as well. During the time of gathering all these information about Japan, we all faced some difficulties but we worked hard to manage the successfulness of the project (MacQueen, 1998). Our teachers give us this type of presentation, in order to enrich our knowledge and learning. Besides, this helps to develop our basic inner selves in terms of group activity, leadership, collectivism, as well as motivation while working in a team. During this research, three of us worked in a team, to find out several cultural determinants, which distinctively differentiated from other culture. My part of job in this presentation is to research about following dimensions, which would show clearly; ‘Power distribution’ is unequal for this Asian country, which means that the country has ‘high power’ as well as ‘low power’ distances. From the understanding gained after collection of research, I can conclude that Japan has a centralised structure, where a former instruct the juniors. The culture of Japan is different from others as they obeyed instructions from seniors and follow collectivism to work efficiently. On the other hand, from the infor mation gathered regarding cultural differences it can be stated that European countries has a flat as well as

Small Firms in UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Small Firms in UK - Essay Example For these reasons, small business industry is critical to UK economic development and social cohesion. They provide a medium for retirees and other potential unemployed persons to have gainful employment and contribute fully and independently to wider society. Small businesses have been contributing to employment and manufacturing since the 1960s. The increasing rates of self-employment have been attributed to; a parallel rise in rates of unemployment (e.g., retirees, unspecialised graduates); reductions in levels of unemployment benefits and government incentives; and the increasing importance of technology in the information service industry. In the early 1970s there were changes to the industrial structure across the globe of industrialised nations. Initially, the value of the small business decreased, but by the 1970s the structure of manufacturing saw dramatic changes and small firms began to provide better quality of products and services than larger corporations, particularly in areas of rapid technological changes (e.g., electronics). Over time, small firms began again to add value to the UK economy, and among many small businesses their rates of employment increased. So that there has been a significant shift in industrial structure back to the small firm amongst industrialised nations (Landstrom, 2005).The shift brought within environmental opportunities to be exploited by entrepreneurs with their innovations and business developments. Political discourse began to focus upon entrepreneurship, receiving support from Margaret Thatcher in the mid 1980s and strong policy was introduced to support small businesses and entrepreneurship. The research interest in small business increased during this period, and social scientists began to contribute to research directions and understandings. This has led to a strong multi-disciplinary approach to small business research in the UK today. (Landstom, 2005). During the 1990s the interest become more about growth orientated established businesses. Tony Blair took a much more narrow and focused approach to reforms as compared to Thatcher, targeting technology-based firms and socially inclusive entrepreneurship as ways to bring 'life' back to weak regions of industry (Landstrom, 2005). The present government provides most of the funding for research into small business dynamics and the contributions of such entities to the growth and strength of the UK nation. However, this also biases the areas that research goes into, what interests the government and this could counter advances in knowledge and processes. However, funding from the government does require the use of empirical investigative techniques, ethical considerations and a policy focus to research endeavours. With the consolidation of small business research there was a great support for entrepreneurship.As industrialised nations shift manufacturing sectors to less developed natio ns to lower the costs of production, the likelihood of unemployment has increased. This global shift in industry structure has fostered employment opportunities for some through small businesses (AusIndustry, 2006). Current trends of redundancy for older workers, such as those in middle management positions have seen some retirees adapting self

Operations & Service Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Operations & Service Management - Assignment Example Orientation, Legal Restriction, Layout and Design, Composition, Process Photography, Darkroom Procedures, Stripping, Plate making, Offset Ink and Paper, Bindery Operations, Offset Press Operation, Production Problems, and Occupations and Evaluation .Main is the usage of special paper for printing for M& S. Note: All corporate and promotional material (e.g. booklets, leaflets and posters) must be approved by the Publications Officer, before being passed to the Print Unit for reproduction. 3-5 working days should be allowed for this, depending on the complexity of the job. In order to obtain order from M&S,Wace Burgess need to focus and assess on the potential risks and reward for its sustenance and integrity .It is ideal to sign a printing services agreement including the expectations of the client stating all the possible format for orders, Costing ,Capacity planning,Utilisation,Turn around time ,Accuracy parameter, designing process and die cutting etc .There should also be stringent clause on payment terms and penalty or adjustments in terms of late completion of order based on impact of loss incurred by W&S. Wace Burgess should also the need to commercialize the new technology on a large scale and to make profits and prove its sustainability." It is important to note that the Wace Burgess is noticed by M&S because they have been successful in printing technology. Now they are faced with a new challenge of managing creativity while getting a big order from a profound organization like M&S: an identity-shift from a small organisation to larger organisation is a bit

Cultural Differences in Business Essay Example for Free

Cultural Differences in Business Essay I have read a lot about the cultural differences between Asia and the United States. I have talked to some of my Asian acquaintances here in Okinawa. There are quite a few cultural differences in the business worlds in Hong Kong and the States. In the states, employees have stronger feelings about and opinions of the intrinsic contracts of a business. The employees inner images come into play with these feelings because they feel that if they have a good and strong inner image then the outer image will automatically be a good one. They feel that extrinsic contracts are not as important, but still an issue when it comes to business. Employees in the United States are not as respectful to management and will even argue if they feel they have a strong point. In some cases this may be a good thing. In the United States we tend to be more aggressive and have strong opinions rather than suggestions. In Hong Kong, they believe that extrinsic contracts are everything. They believe as long as they have a strong front and image then there business will succeed. This is a good thing when it comes to public images because if you look like you have a strong business then the public will not know any different. Intrinsic contracts are not a main concern in Hong Kong. They are pushed to the side until they have a strong front and then it may be worked on.

Air Passenger Duty Tax In The Uk Economics Essay

Air Passenger Duty Tax In The Uk Economics Essay According to the new system, commercial flights are divided into four bands which differ in price and distance. This essay will attempt to determine whether the new policy is justified and how it will affect the market for short haul flights, the competition, environment and the revenue for the government. a) In order to find out how the increase in Air Passenger Duty affects the market for short haul flights, it is necessary to carry out a supply and demand analysis of air travel. Figure 1: Market for short haul flights after the APD increase (Adapted from Sloman Garratt, 2010). Figure 1 shows airplanes supply and passengers demand for flights after the APD increase. According to Sloman and Garratt (2010), when price of a product or service rises, quantity demanded falls, and when price descends, quantity demanded increases. Therefore, the demand curve is downwards sloping to the right. On the other side, as price rises, quantity supplied goes up. As price decreases, quantity supplied goes down. In effect, the supply curve is upwards sloping. The point in which both curves intersect is the equilibrium price. At this point the amount supplied equals the amount demanded. Before the hike of the tax the seats (Q1) were sold at the price of P1. The increase of APD causes the supply curve to shift upwards to the left. It is because change in supply can be triggered by determinants other than price, like government policies (i.e. taxes), which in result increase costs of production (Sloman Garratt 2010). In order to cover it, an airline needs to raise the price per seat. This increase in fares affects passengers, who are now willing to purchase fewer seats. This is shown by a movement along D curve to the new equilibrium point P2 Q2. If the movement did not happen, it would result in a surplus, i.e. the quantity of plane seats would exceed the number of customers willing to buy it. Basing on the law of demand, the quantity demanded of plane seats drops due to the increase in fares, illustrated by P2 and Q2. However, taking into account the fact that a rise in APD is relatively low ( £1 in economy and  £2 in premium class), it is unlikely that the drop from Q1 to Q2 will be steep. b) The increase in APD on short haul flights will not necessarily mean that the passengers will foot the whole bill. Such flights are frequently used and the rise in APD is relatively low, so in many cases the increase will be shared by customers and airlines. Sloman and Garratt (2010) explain that consumers pay to the extent that price rises. Producers pay to the extent that this rise in price is not sufficient to cover the tax. So, passengers should face a rise of the price difference between P1 and P2 (Figure 1), which is less than  £1. The remaining part should be paid by an airline. However, this will depend on specific airlines: their revenue, policies and popularity of their offer. The more price inelastic is the demand for the airline, the bigger customers share. So budget airlines, like Ryanair and easyJet, are very unlikely to cover the increase in APD. This is due to the fact that their fares are very competitive, thus customers will be better off choosing their service even if the whole APD is passed in them. On the other side, traditional airlines (like BA) operating on domestic and short European routes could decide to bear the burden of the whole amount due to the fact, that they face a numerous competition in the industry and from other means of transport. Therefore, it could be reasonable for such airlines to cover some share of APD increase and keep the demand and profit high. They could achieve it by, for instance, reducing ticket prices and sales or scrapping other charges where possible. Therefore, if the increase is shared by customers and airlines, the price-increase for passengers will be less than  £1 in the cheapest class. c) Long distance fast train travel is considered to be the closest substitute to short haul fights. Therefore, if the price of the flights rises due to APD increase, customers (especially leisure travellers) may switch to the cheapest alternative, i.e. trains. According to Sloman and Garratt (2010), if demand is affected by other factor than price, the whole demand curve shifts to the right or to the left. The number and price of substitute goods is one of the determinants of the shift in demand. This means that if the price of one product rises, the demand for its substitute will go up. Figure 2: Market for train journeys after the price increase of short haul flights. (Adapted from Sloman Garratt, 2010). The graph illustrates the effect of the increase in short haul prices on the market for train journeys. The horizontal axis represents a number of passengers, whereas the vertical axis shows prices for a train ticket. Before the increase in flights prices, the equilibrium for train journeys was at the price P1 and quantity Q1. However, the demand for train journeys reacts to a high price of the substitute good, as more people travel by train rather than fly. Thus the demand curve shifts to the right. As a result, at the current point of price P1 there is shortage of the service, as more customers are willing to choose train travel than is available on the market. In order to eliminate the shortage, there must be a movement upward to the right on the supply curve to the new intersection point P2 Q2. In effect, more commuters use train service at a higher price. d) Knowing how elastic the demand for air travel is, it is possible to predict the effect of the increase in APD on the demand, as well as on the environment and tax revenue. Sloman and Garratt (2010) suggest that as the price of goods rises, the quantity demanded falls. Therefore, demand responds to a change in price. This is called the price elasticity of demand. To examine this concept, the percentage change of quantity demanded must be divided by the percentage change in price. The result of the calculation determines whether demand is elastic or inelastic. Demand is elastic when the result is greater than 1. It indicates that a change in quantity demanded is larger than a change in price. Consequently, inelastic demand occurs when a change in price causes relatively small change in quantity demanded. When quantity demanded and price change by the same proportion, then demand is unit elastic (Sloman Garratt, 2010). The price elasticity of demand is affected by various determinants, like substitutes, proportion of income spent on the product and the time period. The more alternatives there are, the bigger is the price elasticity of a good. The more income is spent on a good, the less elastic it is. Finally, with a passage of time, demand for a product may become more price elastic, because consumers may have time to find better options. Overall, average price elasticity for air travel is below 1 (Department for Transport, 2009). According to IATA (2009), prices of short haul flights and are more elastic than prices of long haul flights. This is due to the fact that companies operating on short haul routes face bigger competition from other airlines and different means of transport. Taking into account delays and time consuming check-in process, travel by car, coach or train seems to be a good alternative. However, the long haul flights cannot be easily replaced as there are not many substitutes for them. According to HM Revenue and Customs (2009), APD increase will reduce the demand by 1% in 2010-11 and by 1.5% in the following year. This small reduction in demand is supposed to save hundreds thousands tonnes of CO2. Therefore, other things being equal, the policy has a potential to help the environment. This, however, depends on the customers, because if they switch to cheaper airlines, the effect on pollution will be less significant than expected. APD increase is predicted to raise additional hundreds million pounds in tax revenue, because people, even if the demand falls, will still need to fly and pay extra charges. e) The reform of APD has been endorsed by the government and environmental agencies as a necessary green tax. They claim that the aviation is under-taxed in comparison with other industries. According to IATA (2008), the rise could possibly generate over  £700 million additional revenue per year, which could help in reducing the deficit. Moreover, the policy has a potential to reduce flights by 0.4% in 2010-11 and by 0.6% which could save 0.4 and 0.6 million tonnes of CO2 respectively. Other pollutants will also be reduced, as well as congestion and noise around airports (HM Revenue Customs, 2009). The policy divides flights into four bands, ensuring that passengers on long haul flights pay more, due to the bigger environmental impact. It also encourages business passengers to use clean alternatives, like video-conferencing or high-speed train. The government emphasise that thanks to the increase in APD, other methods of transport are given a green light, because other than price, they would not be able to compete with air travel. Another benefit of the reform is that it ensures that regional employment on domestic routes is not largely affected by it. Therefore the increase in Band A is only  £1  £2. What is more, the policy does not discourage airlines from opening new routes or keeping the routes in rural areas. If there was a tax per plane instead of APD, connections with a low passenger load would be discontinued (HM Revenue Customs, 2009). On the other side, the reform has many opponents who argue that APD is unjust for passengers and environment. The Independent (2010) points out that the new division is not based exactly on the mileage, but on the distance from London to the capital of the country destination. Therefore, in some cases it will be cheaper to go further, for example Hawaii falls into Band B, whereas Cancun, Mexico into Band C. This negates the whole idea of APD as a green tax. What is more, the policy rewards inefficiency by charging tax per passenger rather than per plane. A flight with empty seats is charged less tax than one which is full, even though they both have the same effect on environment. Also, charter planes are unfairly exempt from APD. Moreover, APD reform strikes families who would have to pay extortionate charges to go on holiday abroad. Decrease in demand for exotic package holidays may bring a loss to British travel agencies, as well as to many developing countries who count on revenue from tourism. As it was mentioned above, the policy favours certain destinations over other, even if the distance is very similar (e.g. Turkey and Egypt). Also, the tax hike can force many budget airlines to cancel unprofitable routes and move their businesses to Europe, where the charges are not as severe. Many UK travellers may want to reduce the burden of long haul prices by flying from Europe. Finally, foreign visitors may be put off by the highest tax in Europe, which they have to pay on the flight back home. They can decide that their visit in UK is not worth the price and instead they pick up different destinations. All these cases suggest that British aviation and tourism could suffer a loss and the government would lose much revenue from both industries. In conclusion, the policy seems to bring more damage than good. Because it raises many controversies, especially with regard to rewarding inefficiency, the government should look for another solution, possibly more competent tax per plane. To sum up, according to the law of demand, APD rise should slightly reduce the demand for flights and increase the demand for substitutes, like train journeys. In many cases the additional charge will be partially covered by airlines. The policy could raise an additional income for the government and reduce the pollution. However, all these optimistic objectives depend on the decisions made by passengers. Soon it will be known if the policy is a blessing or a curse for economy and environment.