Featured Post

Internship Report Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Temporary position Report - Term Paper Example In the recorded time of its foundation, it used to work as a basically inventive office. I...

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Classical Rhetoric Origins, Branches, and Concepts

What do you think of when you hear the word rhetoric? The practice and study of effective communication  Ã¢â‚¬â€ especially persuasive communication — or the rascally bloviations of pundits, politicians and the like? Turns out that, in a way, both are correct, but theres a bit more nuance to speaking of classical rhetoric.   As defined by the Twente University  in the Netherlands, classical rhetoric is the perception of how language works when written or spoken aloud or becoming proficient in speaking or writing due to proficiency in this understanding. Classical rhetoric is a combination of persuasion and argument, broken into three branches and five canons as dictated by the Greek teachers: Plato, the Sophists, Cicero, Quintilian, and Aristotle.   Core Concepts According to the 1970 textbook Rhetoric: Discovery and Change, the word rhetoric  can be traced back ultimately to the simple Greek assertation eiro, or I say in English. Richard E. Young, Alton L. Becker and Kenneth L. Pike claim Almost anything related to the act of saying something to someone — in speech or in writing — can conceivably fall within the domain of rhetoric as a field of study.   The  rhetoric  studied in ancient Greece and Rome (from roughly the fifth century B.C. to the early Middle Ages) was originally intended to help citizens plead their cases in court. Though the early teachers of rhetoric, known as  Sophists, were criticized by Plato and other philosophers, the study of rhetoric soon became the cornerstone of a classical education. On the other hand, Philostratus the Athenian, in his teachings from 230-238 A.D. Lives of the Sophists, posts that in the study of rhetoric, philosophers considered it both praise-worthy and suspect of being rascally, and mercenary and constituted in spite of justice. Not only meant for the crowd but also the men of sound culture, referring to those with skills in invention and exposition of themes as clever rhetoricians. These conflicting perceptions of rhetoric as either proficiency in language application (persuasive communication) versus mastery of manipulation have been around for at least 2,500 years and show no sign of being resolved. As Dr. Jane Hodson observed in her 2007 book Language and Revolution in Burke, Wollstonecraft, Pine, and Godwin, The confusion which surrounds the word rhetoric has to be understood as a result of the historical development of rhetoric itself. Despite these conflicts over the purpose and morality of rhetoric,  modern theories of oral and written communication remain heavily influenced by the rhetorical principles introduced in ancient Greece by Isocrates and Aristotle, and in Rome by Cicero and Quintilian. Three Branches and Five Cannons According to Aristotle, the three branches of rhetoric are divided and determined by three classes of listeners to speeches, for of the three elements in speech-making — speaker, subject, and person addressed — it is the last one, the hearer, that determines the speechs end and object. These three divisions are typically called deliberative rhetoric, judicial rhetoric, and epideictic rhetoric.   In legislative or deliberative rhetoric, the speech or writing attempts to get an audience to take or not to take an action, focusing on the things to come and what the crowd can do to influence the outcome. Forensic or judicial rhetoric, on the other hand, deals more with determining the justice or injustice of an accusation or charge that happened in the present, dealing with the past. Judicial rhetoric would be the rhetoric used more by lawyers and judges who determine the core value of justice. Similarly, the final branch — known as epideictic or ceremonial rhetoric — deals with praising or blaming someone or something. It largely concerns itself with speeches and writings such as obituaries, letters of recommendation and sometimes even literary works. With these three branches in mind, the application and usage of rhetoric became the focus of Roman philosophers, who later developed the idea of five canons of rhetoric. Principle among them, Cicero and the unknown author of Rhetorica ad Herennium defined the canons as the five overlapping divisions of the rhetorical process: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Invention is defined as the art of finding the appropriate arguments, using thorough research of the topic at hand as well as of the intended audience. As one might expect, arrangement deals with the skills of structuring an argument; classic speeches often were constructed with specific segments. Style encompasses a broad range of things, but most often refers to things like word choice and speech structure. Memory is less known in modern rhetoric, but in classical rhetoric, it referred to any and all techniques of aiding memorization. Finally, delivery is similar to style, but rather than concerning itself with the text itself, its focused on the style of voice and gesture on the orators part. Teaching Concepts and Practical Application There are a number of ways throughout the ages that teachers have offered students a chance to apply and sharpen their rhetoric skills. The  Progymnasmata, for example, are preliminary writing exercises that introduce students to basic rhetorical concepts and strategies. In classical rhetorical training, these exercises were structured so that the student would progress from strictly imitating speech to an understanding and application of an artistic melding of the concerns of the speaker, subject, and audience.   Throughout history, many major figures have shaped the core teachings of rhetoric and our modern understanding of classical rhetoric.  From the functions of figurative language in the context of particular eras of poetry and essays, speeches and other texts to the various effects created and meaning conveyed by a variety of nuanced vocabulary words, there is no doubt of the impact classical rhetoric has on modern communication.   When it comes to teaching these principles, its best to start with the basics, the founders of the art of conversation — Greek philosophers and teachers of classical rhetoric — and work your way forward in time from there.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Narcissistic Personality Disorder Essay - 1575 Words

Everyone knows someone who seems to be completely wrapped up in themselves. They seem to only care about themselves, and they seem to think that they are better than every one. Some of these people probably have narcissistic personality disorder. This personality disorder is defined as, â€Å"...a broad pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy† (Comer, 2010, p. 531). People with narcissistic personality disorder are convinced of their own greatness; whether it be their success, artistic skill, or beauty. They also require the constant attention and admiration of the people around them. But, this is not all that is involved in this disorder. People with narcissistic personality disorder are extremely self†¦show more content†¦This too is typical of people with narcissistic personality disorder. People with this disorder tend to be very picky, or choosey, when it come to who their friends and associates are. Since they consider themselves to be s pecial, they think that only those who are also â€Å"special† are deserving of their time. A narcissistic personality may also surround themselves with dependent personalities, because those with dependent personalities will give them the constant praise and adulation that they require. Again we turn to Brother John for an example, â€Å"He is an excellent teacher and has inspired many students. He has always had a group of students, usually dependent personalities...† (Rosetti, 1999). These students would often be called upon to defend Brother John when his behavior was questioned by supervisors. Brother John using his students in this way touches upon another trait common to those with narcissistic personality disorder. People with this disorder are often manipulative, and use other to achieve their own ends. According to Ronald Comer, they may do this partly out of envy (2010, p. 234). I think that it is more likely that this is just a branch of another common cha racter trait amongst those with narcissistic personalities, that being a lack of empathy. People with this disorder are seldom interested in the feelings of others, and so they probably never take those feelings into consideration when they are manipulatingShow MoreRelatedNarcissistic Personality Disorder ( Npd )1536 Words   |  7 Pages One disorder that interest me would be the Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I find Narcissism interesting because honestly it wasn t until now that I learned it was an actual disorder, I was misled and thought it was just a flaw or bad trait some people possessed. In actuality narcissism makes somebody rude and obsessive over themselves and is a real disorder that you can get diagnosed with. I am also interested in Maslow s hierarchy of needs theory that consist of 5 different sections of motivationsRead MoreNarcissistic Personality Disorder ( Adhd ) Essay2029 Words   |  9 Pages Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a complicated disorder whi ch has many implications for how one might act and think of themselves. It is categorized as a personality disorder in which the person thinks highly of themselves, that they are a superior being. They are often envious or jealous of others, lack empathy, and carry with themselves a sense of entitlement (Maniacci, 2007). Someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder may expect special treatment from others. For example, they may haveRead MoreWhat Narcissistic Personality Disorder800 Words   |  3 PagesA narcissistic personality disorder is basically a person who feels that they have self-importance. The person thinks that they should have control and power above anything. The person is unable to mentally realize how much damage they are doing to others and themselves. To be specific on a certain type of people who has a NPD are narcissistic parents. Narcissistic parents fall into two type of categories which damage their children. There is engulfing parents which mean the parents are overly protectiveRead MoreNarcissistic Personality Disorder ( Npd )1784 Words   |  8 PagesThe personality of a person is what ultimately defines who they are. This is what 99% of us look for in a person actually knowing who they really are. A person may be fun, loving, caring, and charismatic and a million other traits, but there is none like being narcissistic. A narcissistic person is one who truly believes that the world revolves around them and them only. This is someone who has an excessive or erotic interest in themselves, he/she craves constant admiration and never want to recognizeRead MoreIs Narcissism A Narcissistic Personality Disorder ( Npd )1645 Words   |  7 PagesIn today s society, all types of personalities can be found on every corner, but has anyone ever interacted with a person that requires an overwhelming amount of respect and admiration. This action could be considered an arrogant personality trait; however, it could also imply that this person has a narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). These individuals can be quite charming at first, making friends quickly and can be the life of the party until it doesn’t fit their needs any longer. A personRead MoreCharacteristics Of Narcissistic Personality Disorder1175 Words   |  5 Pagescommon disorders, known to scientists as the most heritable personality disorder in humans (Thomaes, et al ). It affects temperament, an individual’s nature pertaining to their permanent behavior, which can be affected through inheritance and their surroundings. In humans, the earliest stages in life affect the development of temperament the most, according to Thomaes et al ( ). It is also understood that the culture and atmosphere surrounding a human affects the maturati on of narcissistic tendenciesRead MoreNarcissistic Personality Disorder ( Npd )1176 Words   |  5 Pagesunfortunate and incurable mental illness, known as Narcissistic Personality Disorder. This disorder, otherwise known as, NPD, is a personality trait that reflects an inflated and grandiose self-concept (Buffardi Campbell, 2008). Basically, someone with this disorder thinks very highly of himself or herself, which typically results in a lack of empathy for others. Cognitive behavioral therapy is the preferred treatment for Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) because specific biomedical approachesRead MoreNarcissistic Personality Disorder ( Npd )1574 Words   |  7 PagesAbstract Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a continuing pattern of irregular thinking, and behavior. Normal interaction with a narcissist can be difficult and confusing for others. This paper will allow you to identify the signs and symptoms of this disorder, and what interventions or medications to help these individuals, plus the best time to get them to a doctor. *Keywords: Mental Disorder, Signs, Symptoms, Interventions, Medications â€Æ' NPD is portrayed by an enduring pattern of grandiosityRead MoreNarcissistic Personality Disorder ( Npd )1612 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction What is Narcissistic Personality Disorder? Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is a mental disorder where someone has an exaggerated sense of their own presence, a need for constant admiration from others and they also have a lack of empathy for anyone (Mayo Clinic). A couple questions I have include: How does social media effect society? How does social media have an effect on someone diagnosed with NPD, What are ways you can help someone with NPD, and what are some ways we canRead MoreNarcissistic Personality Disorder ( Npd )835 Words   |  4 PagesNarcissistic Personality Disorder Background Narcissism can be defined as â€Å" a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of ultra confidence lies a fragile self-esteem that s vulnerable to the slightest criticism† (Narcissistic personality disorder, n.d.). With this disorder people generally are unhappy and disappointed when they are not privileged to special favors or given admiration

Monday, December 9, 2019

Marketing Strategy And Plan in Hotel Sector

Question: Conduct secondary market research to collect appropriate market data and information to provide evidence of market demand, customers needs and buying behaviour to justify current position in terms of this sector and resources? Answer: Pestle analysis of uk hotel sector focussing on radisson blu in london Pestle analysis is the structure that is used to analyze an organizations external macro environment. Following are the words or aspects which pestle: Political Economic Socio-cultural Technological Environmental Radisson Blu, a supreme brand of service hotel in UK, an ideal place to discover what UK has to offer to its customers from the busy cities to the peaceful rural surrounding (Hocutt and Bowers, 2005). Now if we do a pestle analysis of the hotel we will find the following: 1. Political: It is seen that with the practical and constructive partnership of the UK Government, it has brought the hospitality industry into the primary success of the economic development. In UK, hospitality industry is in the fifth largest industry which employs directly more than 2.5 million people which contributes to the gross tax revenues. Radisson Blu, being a concrete part of this sector contributes to the revenues of UK.2. Economical: The stays and the spa treatments with all other lucrative facilities, Radisson Blu has fundamentally appealed to ones unrestricted income which in return has a growth in the unrestricted income of the country (Chen and Yeh, 2012).3. Socio-cultural: The superiority of spa is now seen as the change in lifestyle which is steadily growing amongst the both middle and as well as upper class. Radisson benefits from the holidaying to the extent take holidays and their facility to get off from work for the holidays has a direct impact on the demand which is experienced by the hotel.4. Technological: Radisson is seen utilizing an escalating amount of technology with the point of accomplishing more customer satisfaction. Now in this technologically advanced society it is seen that customers are using online informations very extensively including the comments and reviews about the hotel (Kayaman and Arasli, 2007).5. Legal: Radisson Hotel mission is to see that their customers are happy with their stay which in return makes way to the hotels profit. The minimum wage rate in UK is increased to 15.5%, which the hotels keep in mind to maintain their standard and avois legal issues, so the hotel has to be subjected to various legal activities (Siddique, 2014). A systematic analysis of the probable legal issues that attach to the operations of the hotel will require the articles that cover everything from the law contract, tort claims and negligence to the state securities and the federal.6. Environment: A hotel uses a high amount of resources such as detergents, soap, water which cause a fairly amount of pollution. Radisson Blu is signed green for being friendly with the environment. Market demand of hotel sector London is one of the most visited spot for the people round the world. The visitors from international to UK have solidly increased over the years. The arrivals from international gas grown over 15% and a steady increase of 5.5% was predicted in 2006. The hotel sector in UK has proved to be proved flexible regardless of many drawbacks for last five years. But its also seen that the domestic customers are very weary about the hotel sector as many of them do not provide much accommodation (Asirifi, 2014). The trend says that the growth of the hotel sector is anticipated to increase in the near future (Kayaman and Arasli, 2007). With hotels like Radisson Blu doing very well in the market, customers interest is also increasing. The hotel sector in UK has also come up with the innovative model of Yotels, Pod hotels and aparthotels and thus the demand is increasing with these ideas. Customers need in hotel sector The taste and the preferences of the customers change with time. Many years ago customers were focused only with the stay but now they are also focused with the other facilities that a hotel provides with their stay (Kwortnik and Vosburgh, 2007). Hotel which are premium are expected to give quality service to their customers but in a recent survey in UK it has been seen that hotels which are less superior are able to provide high quality service compared to the superior ones. Thus this changes the notion of a customer. Radisson hotel compared to the others has been said to provide top notch service with excellent customer satisfaction. In a recently done survey of SWOT analysis it has been that Radisson has extremely motivated team of professionals who focuses on the customer care service along with corporate social responsibility. It has a highly developed and sophisticated customer reservations system. All these factors play as motivators to the customers so as to bring them back t o the same hotel. Radisson follows the Critical Success Factors Model which is specially developed and designed for the operations of the budget hotels in UK on the customer research basis (Manaktola and Jauhari, 2007). Buying behaviour of customers The buying behavior or buying decision of the customer is not judged through their needs but their decisions and behavior is influenced by the identity, status and lifestyle. It is the key factor to understand the buying behavior of the customers in the hotel sector. It is mainly complicated to understand the hotel industry (Manaktola and Jauhari, 2007). A customer is satisfied with the quality and service provided by the hotel such as ambience, food, room, spa, accommodation, etc. As we all know that customer satisfaction leads to the loyalty of the customers. If the quality is maintained than the behavior towards that particular remains unchanged. But it is not always this what works in case of the hotel sector. A customer visiting a hotel frequently will be lethargic enough to visit that hotel again so it may go back to its competitors. The customers want something new and afresh from the hotel every time. Thus Radisson understands this particular behavior of the customers and ret ains by giving them continuous satisfaction. The behavior of the customers is complicated as the hotel industry provides both tangible and intangible products so it makes difficult to monitor and control the same. We see that business people are the ones who often visit hotels for their trips often want a hotel which has primary transport hubs and provide enough linkages of transport. The customer always prefers this type of hotels. Radisson hotels are spread in good locations where the customers would not face transport problems which determine its growth (Mkono, 2010). References Asirifi, G. (2014). Quality Service in the Hotel Industry: Evidence from Alisa Hotel Ghana. SJBM, 2(5), p.131. Chen, C. and Yeh, C. (2012). The causality examination between demand uncertainty and hotel failure: A case study of international tourist hotels in Taiwan. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(4), pp.1045-1049. Hocutt, M. and Bowers, M. (2005). The Impact of Service Guarantees on Consumer Responses in the Hotel Industry. Journal of Hospitality Leisure Marketing, 13(1), pp.5-23. Kayaman, R. and Arasli, H. (2007). Customer based brand equity: evidence from the hotel industry. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 17(1), pp.92-109. Kwortnik, R. and Vosburgh, J. (2007). Driving Demand for the Quarterdeck: A Case Study. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 48(3), pp.323-341. Manaktola, K. and Jauhari, V. (2007). Exploring consumer attitude and behaviour towards green practices in the lodging industry in India. Int J Contemp Hospitality Mngt, 19(5), pp.364-377. Mkono, M. (2010). In defence of hospitality careers: perspectives of Zimbabwean hotel managers. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 22(6). Siddique, C. (2014). Impediments to market orientation. Education, Business Society, 7(1), pp.33-56.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Propaganda, Persuasion and Public Relations

Propaganda is a method of communication which is used to influence the attitudes of specific groups of individuals towards a particular cause or position (Propaganda, 2010).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Propaganda, Persuasion and Public Relations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In essence, instead of a sense of impartiality propaganda actually presents information in such a way so as to influence an audience through selective dissemination of information in order to create an emotional rather than a rational response to certain issues (Propaganda, 2010). For example in the case of the Australia’s cancellation of the Fuel Watch program Senator Xenaphon utilized propaganda stating that Fuel Watch was not an effective means of helping consumers stating the need to tackle the big four oil companies using another method, what most people fail to notice is that he omits the details the successes the Fuel Wat ch program actually had which indicates possible ulterior motives on his part (Battersby, 2008). His actions resulted in the end of the National Fuel Watch scheme which to an extent could be considered a step back from giving consumers more control over how they purchase gasoline (VACC, 2008). What must be understood is that propaganda utilizes elements such as loaded questions, partial synthesis or even lying by omission in order to gain the desired response (Wilcox Cameron 2009). One use of effective propaganda can be seen in the online article â€Å"Cultural Cringe where the writer selectively introduces facts which lambasts and derides the Australian video presentation for its World Cup 2022 bid (Hunter, 2010). Throughout the article there is little mention of the creativity that went into the video, the unique approach that Australia took or the overwhelming positive response viewers had for the commercial, rather, what is mentioned is nothing more than a continuous tirade fo cused against commercial itself (Hunter, 2010). It must be noted though the use of the term propaganda, as stated by Wilcox, has been connected to falsehoods, lies and deception (Wilcox Cameron, 2009). It is true though that propaganda used by various PR departments have been utilized in various political campaigns as a form of political warfare where detrimental facts on rival candidates are released to the general public (Propaganda, 2010).Advertising Looking for essay on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More On the other hand propaganda is also used in various public information campaigns by governments for positive effects such as the Australian governments fight against illegal downloads connoting their use with stealing and its use by the U.S. during the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq as a supposed â€Å"war on terror†. In essence the use of propaganda and its effects can be associated with the ethical reasoning behind its usage. The ethics of persuasion Wilcox states â€Å"perception is interpreted as being used in the following manner: to change or neutralize hostile opinions, to crystallize latent opinions and positive attitudes, and finally to conserve favorable opinions† (Wilcox Cameron, 2009). As such the importance of persuasion to successful contemporary public relations all boils down to its ability to influence individuals towards a certain train of thought. As such it can be stated that persuasion shapes perceptions and thus the way people interpret and accept information. As seen in the examples related to propaganda, persuasion should always attempt to follow a certain ethical guideline when used in Public Relations. The concept of corporate social responsibility should be considered an integral part of most PR practices due to its ability to sway public opinion either in favor for or against a particular company (Berenbeim, 2006). For PR departments what should be considered good for the company should also be directly proportional to what is beneficial for consumers. In such cases where the good of the company is put above that of the consumer that in itself is in direct violation of the ethical guidelines of persuasion (Messina, 2007). One example of honest and effective persuasion can be seen in the Bowen article summarizing the necessity for the fuel watch scheme and outlining exactly what it entails (Bowen, 2008). On the other hand an example in Australia of the ethical violation of persuasion is the production and sale of vitamin water by Glacà ©au in which the company states that the water being sold has been â€Å"enriched† with vitamins in order to aid people attain a healthy lifestyle (Adam, 2008). Far from actually contributing to a person’s health and well being vitamin water and its additives could potentially cause health problems in the future, especially if the product is consumed on a regular bas is as a replacement for water (Glaceau lands Coke in deep water, 2010).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Propaganda, Persuasion and Public Relations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More On average a single bottle of vitamin water produced by Glacà ©au contains 32 grams of crystalline fructose which is nothing more than a derivative of high fructose corn syrup which numerous scholarly articles and independent journals have linked to the rapid onset of obesity in various populations. In this case not only is the company marketing drinks with vitamins which might not even be absorbed but the amount of sugars present in each drink is actually detrimental for the future health of a person especially if they replace ordinary water with vitamin drinks. This example is a clear case of what not to use persuasion for, not only is it in direct violation of corporate social responsibility but convincing people to think that a d rink is healthy when in fact it could cause health is problems is highly unethical by most standards. Persuasion should be done when either trying to establish an idea, state relevant facts or modes of thought, it should not be used to directly lie to an audience and convince them to do something which could possibly endanger their well being (Messina, 2007). Conclusion Based on the information presented it can be stated without question that effective persuasion truly does shape perceptions and thus the way people interpret and accept information which makes it an important tool in contemporary public relations. It must be noted though that just because a persuasive argument is effective does not make it ethical. Examples such as the case of vitamin water show that at times persuasive arguments are used in such a way that their results are actually detrimental towards people. It is up to people taking PR whether to discern through proper ethical reasoning whether what they use pers uasive skills for will result in either beneficial or detrimental results. References Adam, C. 2008, Coke uncorks water brand in Australia, BT Magazine, 58, 2646, p. 3, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost.Advertising Looking for essay on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Battersby, L. 2008, Senate kills off FuelWatch, The Age, p. 1. Web. Berenbeim, R. E. 2006, ‘Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility’, Vital Speeches of the Day, 72, 16/17, pp. 501-504, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost. Bowen, C. (MP) 2008, A national fuelwatch scheme, joint media release with Hon. Kevin Rudd MP, Australian Government Treasury, p. 1. Web. Glaceau lands Coke in deep water 2010, Marketing Week (01419285), 33, 31, p. 12, Vocational and Career Collection, EBSCOhost. Hunter, T. 2010, Cultural cringe: World Cup roo has critics hopping mad, The Age  Online, p. 1. Web. Messina, A. 2007, ‘Public relations, the public interest and persuasion: an ethical approach’, Journal of Communication Management, 11, 1, pp. 29-52, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost. Propaganda 2010, Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, p. 1, Literary Reference Center, EBSCOhost. VACC 2008, VAAC welcomes the end of the national Fuelwatch Scheme, media rele ase, p. 1. Web. Wilcox, D. L. Cameron, G. T. 2009, Public relations: strategies and tactics, 9th edn, p. 229 – 242,(international edn), Pearson Education, Boston, Massachusetts. This essay on Propaganda, Persuasion and Public Relations was written and submitted by user Samantha Hodge to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Patterns of Similarity in English and Spanish Vocabulary

Patterns of Similarity in English and Spanish Vocabulary One key to expanding your Spanish vocabulary quickly, especially when youre new to the language, is learning to recognize the word patterns seen in many English-Spanish cognates. In a sense, English and Spanish are cousins, as they have a common ancestor, known as Indo-European. And sometimes, English and Spanish can seem even closer than cousins, because English has adopted many words from French, a sister language to Spanish. As you learn the following word patterns, remember that in some cases the meanings of the words have changed over the centuries. Sometimes the English and Spanish meanings can overlap; for example, while a discusià ³n in Spanish can refer to a discussion, it often refers to an argument. But an argumento in Spanish can refer to the plot of the story. Words that are alike or similar in the two languages but have different meanings are known as false friends. As you learn Spanish, here are some of the more common patterns of similarity youll come across: Similarities in Word Endings nation, nacià ³nstation, estacià ³nfraction, fraccià ³nperforaction, perforacià ³npublication, publicacià ³n Words that end in -ty in English often end in -dad in Spanish: fidelity, fidelidadfelicity, felicidadfaculty, facultadliberty, libertadauthority, autoridad Names of occupations that end in -ist in English sometimes have a Spanish equivalent ending in -ista (although other endings also are used): dentist, dentistaartist, artistaorthopedist, ortopedistaphlebotomist, flebotomista Names of fields of study that end in -ology often have a Spanish cognate ending in -ologà ­a: geology, geologà ­aecology, ecologà ­aarchaeology, arqueologà ­a Adjectives that end in -ous may have a Spanish equivalent ending in -oso: famous, famosonervous, nerviosofibrous, fibrosoprecious, precioso Words ending in -cy often have an equivalent ending in -cia: democracy, democraciaredundancy, redundanciaclemency, clemencia English words ending in -ism often have an equivalent ending in -ismo: communism, comunismocapitalism, capitalismoatheism, ateà ­smohedonism, hedonismosolecism, solecismo English words ending in -ture often have an equivalent ending in -tura. caricature, caricaturaaperture, aperturaculture, culturarupture, ruptura English words ending in -is often have Spanish equivalents with the same ending. symbiosis, simbiosispelvis, pelviscrisis, crisis Similarities in Word Beginnings Nearly all the common prefixes are the same or similar in the two languages. Prefixes used in the following words make far from a complete list: antipathy, antipatà ­aautonomy, autonomà ­abilingual, bilingà ¼eexportation, exportacià ³ncounterattack, contraataquecontend, contenderdisobedience, desobedienciahomosexual, homosexualparamedic, paramà ©dicopolygamy, poligamiaprefix, prefijopseudoscience, seudoscienciasupermarket, supermercadounilateral, unilateral Some words that begin with an s followed by a consonant in English start with an es in Spanish: stereo, està ©reospecial, especialsnob, esnob Many words ending in ble in English have Spanish equivalents that are identical or very similar: applicable, aplicablecomparable, comparabledivisible, divisiblemalleable, maleableterrible, terrible Some English words that start with a silent letter omit that letter in the Spanish equivalent: psalm, salmoptomaine, tomaà ­napsychology, sicologà ­a Patterns in Spelling Many English words that have a ph in them have an f in the Spanish version: photo, fotometamorphosis, metamorfosisgraph, grfica A few words in English that have a th in them have a Spanish equivalent with a t: empathy, empatà ­atheater, teatrotheory, teorà ­a Some English words that have double letters have a Spanish equivalent without the letter doubled (although words with rr may have an rr equivalent in Spanish, as in correspond, corresponder): difficulty, dificultadessence, esenciacollaborate, colaborarcommon, comà ºn Some English words that have a ch pronounced as k have Spanish equivalents that use a qu or a c, depending on the letter that follows: architecture, arquitecturachemical, quà ­micocharisma, carismaecho, ecotechnology, tecnologà ­achaos, caos Other Word Patterns Adverbs that end in -ly in English sometimes have a Spanish equivalent ending in -mente: rapidly, rpidamenteprofusely, profusamenteprudently, prudentemente Final Advice Despite the numerous similarities between English and Spanish, youre probably best off to avoid coining Spanish words - not all words work in the above way, and you may find yourself in an embarrassing situation. Youre a bit safer following these patterns in reverse, however (because youll know if the resulting English word doesnt make sense), and using these patterns as a reminder. As you learn Spanish, youll also come across numerous other word patterns, some of them more subtle than those above.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Quagga Facts and Figures

Quagga Facts and Figures Name: Quagga (pronounced KWAH-gah, after its distinctive call); also known as Equus quagga quagga Habitat: Plains of South Africa Historical Period: Late Pleistocene-Modern (300,000-150 years ago) Size and Weight: About four feet high and 500 pounds Diet: Grass Distinguishing Characteristics: Stripes on head and neck; modest size; brown posterior About the Quagga Of all the animals that have gone extinct over the past 500 million years, the Quagga has the distinction of being the first to have had its DNA analyzed, in 1984. Modern science quickly dissipated 200 years of confusion: when it was first described by South African naturalists, in 1778, the Quagga was pegged as a species of genus Equus (which comprises horses, zebras, and donkeys). However, its DNA, extracted from the hide of a preserved specimen, showed that the Quagga was actually a sub-species of the classic Plains Zebra, which diverged from the parent stock in Africa anywhere between 300,000 and 100,000 years ago, during the later Pleistocene epoch. (This shouldnt have come as a surprise, considering the zebra-like stripes that covered the Quaggas head and neck.) Unfortunately, the Quagga was no match for the Boer settlers of South Africa, who prized this zebra offshoot for its meat and its coat (and hunted it just for sport as well). Those Quaggas that werent shot and skinned were humiliated in other ways; some were used, more or less successfully, to herd sheep, and some were exported for display in foreign zoos (one well-known and much-photographed individual lived in the London Zoo in the mid-19th century). A few Quaggas even wound up pulling carts full of tourists in early 19th century England, which much have quite been an adventure considering the Quaggas mean, skittish disposition (even today, zebras are not known for their gentle natures, which helps to explain why they were never domesticated like modern horses.) The last living Quagga, a mare, died in full sight of the world, in an Amsterdam zoo in 1883. However, you may yet have the chance to see a living Quagga- or at least a modern interpretation of a living Quagga- thanks to the controversial scientific program known as de-extinction. In 1987, a South African naturalist hatched a plan to selectively breed back the Quagga from a population of plains zebras, specifically aiming to reproduce the Quaggas distinctive stripe pattern. Whether or not the resulting animals count as genuine Quaggas, or are technically only zebras that look superficially like Quaggas, will likely not matter to the tourists that (in a few years) will be able to glimpse these majestic beasts on the Western Cape.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Poverty and Discrimination Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Poverty and Discrimination - Research Paper Example Poverty is not a disease, rather a condition which can be overcome if proper steps are taken by the policy makers of a country. Furthermore, it’s not only even up to the policy makers alone to alienate poverty, it needs the contribution from people of all walks of society including technocrats, rich and the poor alike. People often argue that poverty isn’t really a problem as such and that the poor are poor as they don’t do much effort to get out of the vicious chain of poverty. Just mentioning a few facts and figures at this stage would give an idea of how widespread this cancer actually is. According to a research carried out by an agency of the United Nations, about three million people (or almost half the population of the entire world) thrive on less than $2.50 a day. According to yet another research, if the wealth of seven of the world’s richest men is combined, it would be much greater than the overall gross domestic product or GDP or 41 of the world’s most indebted and poor countries. Just to give a rough estimate, the population of these 41 countries combined stands at around five hundred and sixty seven million people (National Bureau of Economic Research & National Bureau of Economic Research, 2000). Yet another research goes on to say that there are almost a billion people in the current century who are so poor and illiterate, that they’re even unable to cast their signatures or read a book. Poverty is one of the most major economic issues of the current times since it involves so many people. A solution needs to be discovered not only to manage this problem in the short term, but to eventually alienate it in the longer term. Addressing the issue of poverty would mean a lot more people would gain employment, they would be able to live a healthy life style, be able to finance their own day to day expenses, be able to achieve their basic necessities and finally be

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Unemployment after graduation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Unemployment after graduation - Essay Example In the American workforce, for example, millennial are less than 30%. The remaining 70% attended college in the 1970s and 1980s. This workforce educated in the 1970s is responsible for making decisions whether one can join their business based on their conservative and primitive ideas of what the ideal candidate should have. Before reaching the interview phase, someone screens out tons of resumes that a company receives. If one’s resume does not have the perfect majors, one never comes to know them in person but hopes to be the best match for the job. Lots of recruitment are not done by HR professionals but are carried out by technical managers who seek for individual with similar career and academic backgrounds as them. University and college education is more of innovation, which many managers fail to capture (Medien n.d.). Graduates who were leaving college and university found it hard to get jobs in 2011 more than students finishing A-level courses. This observation was made while youth unemployment reached its highest level since the 1980s. About one in 10 students is unemployed six months after graduation. Approximately 9% of those who finish full-time degrees are out of work. In 2011-2012, out of more than 230,000 graduates, 72% were working, 15 % were studying while 9% were unemployed (Sharma 2014). When unemployed graduates seek work for six or more months is considered as the worst form of joblessness. The consequences of long periods of joblessness are significant. The graduates face personal, financial, and health care hardships. An analysis of long-term unemployment for the period running from 2000 to 2003 reveals that people without employment for six or months has increased at a high rate of 198.2%. Job seekers with college degrees have hard times getting employment and their long term unemployment rises by 299.4%. In an effort to the jobless recovery, job creation

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Biovail Case Essay Example for Free

Biovail Case Essay In the case when ownership changes hands upon receipt of the product at the distributors facility (FOB destination), the second condition for revenue recognition under SAB101 has not been met. In this case the company would not recognize revenue because delivery did not occur. Part 3: The shipment left Biovail on September 30, 2003, which is in the 3rd quarter. Under FOB shipping point guidelines it would be correct to recognize revenue for the shipment in the Q3 report. Assuming revenue associated with this shipment was included in Q3 earnings as originally stated, no further impact. Under the FOB destination guidelines it would be incorrect to recognize revenue. In that scenario the truck does not reach it’s destination in the 3rd quarter and thus no shipment is made and revenue should not be recorded. Assuming that this shipment would take longer than 1 day to reach the distributor, based on the fact that it is in Chicago on 10/1, this shipment shouldn’t have been planned as revenue in quarter three anyway. The accident will have an impact on Q4 revenue. Part 4: Biovail’s treatment of analysts who cover their stock is concerning. It is still unclear whether Treppel was correct or too harsh, but Biovail’s fierce retaliation against Treppel highlights their willingness to go to great lengths to suppress any negative analyst reports. This combined with, the lack of clarity around their accounting practices and conflicting arguments from their distributor lends us to question their integrity. This would create a difficult environment for an analyst to create a unbiased report and significantly discourages us to be an analyst covering this company.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Freedom of Speech in Cyberspace -- Internet Web Cyberspace Essays

Freedom of Speech in Cyberspace Since the public has logged onto the internet there has been vast amounts of information available. Since the 1990s more and more countries have entered into the information age. Due to the lack of freedom of speech in several countries, censorship has now taken on a prevalent role in the suppression of information. Many countries view a great deal of information as a threat if put into the wrong hands and as a consequence attempt to reduce its availability. However, unlike many of its other counterparts, the United States takes a very liberal stance towards the access if information on the Internet, which is protected by the First Amendament. In contrast to this philosophy, the Saudi Arabian government, in an act to suppress and censor the prevalence of the information on the internet, has established laws and regulations that prohibit public access to the internet for religious and social reasons. The United States has had internet access for over a decade now and information and usage has flourished. The technology development over the last five years has promoted internet access across the country with internet access in homes and businesses increasing exponentially. With any ISP a person decides to use there is no censorship or filtration system which limits their access to any part of the internet. ISPs and multiple companies’ offer software which helps restrict children’s access to pornographic sites or sites that parents deem harmful to their children, but the companies to explicitly filter the content that is received at a personal computer. There have been laws that have been revoked by the Supreme Court or regional courts which have tried to regulate or filter Internet access[i... ...4/22/2004) [iv] McCarthy, Martha. (2003). Internet Censorship: United States v. American Library Association. (4/22/2004) [v] Committee to Protect Journalists. (2003) Attacks on the Press 2003: Mideast (4/22/2004) [vi] Human Rights Watch. (1999) The Internet In the Mideast And North Africa – Country Profiles-Saudi Arabia (4/22/2004) [vii] Zittrain, Jonathan and Edelman, Benjamin. (2002) . Documentation of Internet Filtering in Saudi Arabia. (4/22/2004) [viii] Human Rights Watch. (1999) The Internet In the Mideast And North Africa – Country Profiles-Saudi Arabia (4/22/2004) [ix] Committee to Protect Journalists. (2003) Attacks on the Press 2003: Mideast (4/22/2004) [x] Committee to Protect Journalists. (2003) Attacks on the Press 2003: Mideast (4/22/2004) [xi] Jehl, Douglas. (1999). The Internet’s ‘Open Sesame’ Is Answered Warily. (4/22/2004)

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Compare Darwin’s Theory of Evolution to Lamarck’s Essay

There have been many theories explaining evolution. Two of the most well known of these are the Lamarckian theory, which was mostly believed before the Darwinian theory, which is the theory which is believed to have the highest probability of it being the case. In Lamarck’s theory of evolution, he stated that an organism was able to pass on required traits to their offspring. This theory is commonly shown through the giraffe’s evolution to having longer legs and a longer neck. According to Lamarck’s theory, during a bad season when all the vegetation in lower areas (easily reachable by the giraffe with the shorter neck and legs) had gone, the giraffes were forced to stretch their necks, to reach for food on a higher level. These giraffes would then have longer necks and would pass this trait of having a longer neck to their offspring. Lamarck’s theory then states that over time, each generation will pass on their traits of having a longer neck than the previous generation, accounting for the evolution of the giraffe from being an animal with a shorter neck and legs, to one seen today with its long neck and legs. Darwin’s theory relied on a process of natural selection. In his theory, at the start there would have been many giraffes of varying heights, which would be so due to the variations in organisms through the process of sexual reproduction. Darwin stated that all life competes in a struggle to exist. Therefore, during a dry season when there is not as much nutrition available on lower levels for the shorter giraffes, the giraffe’s that are more likely to survive are the ones with the longer necks and legs. The giraffes with the shorter necks and legs would die, disabling them to pass on their genes for the shorter legs and necks, resulting in a new generation of longer necked and legged giraffes. These theories can also be shown using other animals such as the horse. The ancestors of horse were once much smaller than the modern day horse. They had four toes on the front legs and three on the back. These toes were padded so they allowed the horse to easily move through wet ground. As the horse moved out of the forest and swamp areas to the plains its head, neck and legs became longer, allowing faster movement and it adjusted to standing  on only one toe. Lamarck would have said that this change was from the horse changing its traits to match its environment. The horse would have had to struggle to run faster to escape from predators when out in the open, and therefore developed a stronger, body to cope with the need for speed. Darwin’s theory would of course differ to this, saying that the horses that survived were the ones, which were able to run faster. These would have been the horses with the longer legs, and so the genes for the horses with the longer legs would be passed on to the next generations. These theories have been widely believed to be the explanation for the varying species of animals on the earth. It is well known now that the Lamarckian theory is not possible, and therefore the Darwinian theory is the explanation that is believed to be the means of evolution. This, however has not yet been proven, however the probability is very great.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Comparative study between Blade Runner & Frankenstein Essay

Victor’s attitude is reactionary and domineering as he ostracises the Creature and employs diabolic epithets towards him such as ‘daemon’, completely disregarding the value of responsibility prevalent in Shelley’s era the perpetual darkness enveloping the ambient world echoes the ecological concerns of deforestation and global warming of the 1980s and thereby Blade Runner parallels Frankenstien insofar as both Shelley and Scott admonishes the disregard for nature as a reflection of shifting values toward artificial compromise. Pathetic fallacy of ‘the dreary glaciers are my refuge’ mimics the Creature’s isolation to convey the inherent role of nature in Shelley’s Romantic context as weather supplements his emotions. gothic conventions of heightened emotions are embodied with the Creature’s exaltation anthropomorphised nature ‘My spirits were elevated by the changing appearance of nature’, which values the subli me’s ability to inspire spiritual renewal. Intertextual ‘Immortal Game’ where Roy outplays Tyrell, symbolic of Tyrell’s eventual demise as a ramification for usurping God’s omnipotence. rapid technological progression of the 1980s forward, to represent a society where empathy has been replaced by pervasive commoditization. Scott incorporates the idea of people as commodities suggested by Roy labelled as a ‘prize’ embodies a cautionary message through a foreboding biblical reference to Lucifer, â€Å"you seek knowledge†¦may be a serpent to sting you’ to reinforce the irony of Victor’s prolonged toil of pursuing more knowledge with little benefit. Hence, Victor’s unchecked scientific investigation is depicted as ultimately self-destructive and to that end, Shelley induces us to appreciate the need for moderation by exposing the complications of intellectual extremism. ‘I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel’ Here, the Creature’s rational lexis is juxtaposed with Victor’s insect imagery â€Å"Begone! Vile insect†, whereby the Creature’s developed sense of morality in comparison to Victor’s tyrannical behaviour reflects Shelley’s concerns of morally deficient humans and by extension; Shelley berates the use of oppression as a means of governance.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Smoke-Free Policy Essays

Smoke-Free Policy Essays Smoke-Free Policy Essay Smoke-Free Policy Essay Smoke-Free Policy BY allowancing The Final Report Smoke-Free Policy Purpose of the Survey and the Survey Basics The main research purpose of the survey Smoke-Free Policy was to measure the effectiveness of the smoke-free policy among the students which recently went into effect at Branch College. The questionnaire which our project team designed and administered contained twelve questions including two demographic questions about the gender and the age range of the participants. We wanted to conduct the survey which will contain clear, balanced and well-structured questions and matched espouse categories to have a better response and coverage rate on the issues of smoke-free policy on the campus. The survey was conducted by Danville Tumults, Loan Chattanooga, Marc Farewell, Army Vasquez, and Abdul Sharon. We used the Qualities System of Branch College to create and administer the survey, and the link to the survey questions have been sent over the email to the fellow classmates in PAP 3105 course. The students were allowed one week to answer the questionnaire and submit their responses. The email invitation to participate in the survey was sent on Monday May April 15, 2013, and we closed the survey in a week on Monday, April 22, 2013. Questions asked why selected? Problems with questions The construction of the questionnaire is a very important part of the survey. This is why it is required to keep the research purpose and goals in mind at each step and also determine in advance which topics must be covered, what specific questions must be asked and in which order the questions will be maintained. From the very beginning, our project team defined the issue and the purpose of the survey to measure the effectiveness of the smoke-free policy among the students which gently went into effect at Branch College. In order to get satisfying response and coverage rates, a great amount of time has been devoted to the questions which would be asked, on the pretest and revision of the questionnaire. We also focused on the complete wording of questions and a balanced set of answer choices. To keep the conversational flow and build trust with respondents, it has been determined to start first with general questions before specific ones, open-ended questions before close- ended, and also keep in mind that it is crucial to construct the questions in the allowing order awareness, opinion, behavior, and demographics. We also paid close attention to the response categories to make sure they are balanced, not exhausting, and clear enough to the respondents and matched to the question asked, and are also likely to produce variability. The questionnaire contained 12 questions in total including 2 demographic questions. As an example, the first question reflected the awareness mode of the questions order. It helped our team measure how concerned students are with the effects of cigarette smoke on their health. It has men revealed that 47% of the respondents were very concerned whereas 21% were not concerned at all. The second and third questions reflected the opinion of the respondents, such as, for example, the second question showed that 68% of students think that the number of smokers has not been decreased since the smoke free policy went into effect, and the third question also showed that 42% are still unsure auto ten JODI wanly ten security department does at mentoring ten smoke Tree policy on the campus of Branch College. And we also included two demographic questions t the end of the questionnaire to find out about the gender and age range of the respondents. We managed to be very specific and asked two separate questions in order to get precise information. It has been revealed that there were 47% of male respondents and 53% of female respondents. And as for the age category, 53% of the respondents fell under 18-21 age category, 32% under 22-26 age category and under 27-34 age category respectively. However, one of the problems we encountered while conducting the survey was related to the questions for smokers only. As an example, one of the questions revealed that there were only 9 smokers, and out of them only 22% continued to smoke where it was still disallowed, whereas 78% did not do so. Another question which has also been designed for smokers only showed that there were 16 smokers, and out of them 19% believed that the smoke- free campus policy made it harder for them to get to class on time while 81% responded it was not hard. Perhaps the reason is that either some of the smokers decided to skip the question for the smokers only, or the question itself was not important to their personal understanding of the problem. Another problem was that 4 students still did not submit their answers even after the follow-up email has been sent to remind them about the survey completion and the deadline. Data Collection Mode: Advantages and Disadvantages It is very important to design and implement the data collection mode. In order to conduct the survey Smoke-Free Policy, our team decided to use the Qualities System of Branch College to create and administer the survey. The first step we took was the creation of the survey through Quick Survey Builder which allowed us to create each question in the appropriate order as well as the response categories to cake sure they were clear, balanced and matched to the asked questions. Then our team took the next step the distribution of the survey. We uploaded the list of the respondents email addresses and their full names who we were interested in reaching out to through our survey link. The target of our interest was the students, and we kindly asked our fellow students in our Public Affairs 3105 class to complete the survey. We sent an email invitation to complete the survey online on Monday April 15, 2013. Students had one week from that day to complete the survey until it as closed on Monday April 22, 2013. Out of 23 respondents, we received a response from 19 students who answered all the questions. Through View Results tab the system allowed us to create the final report of the answers given to the questions we provided including the response rate to each question, the percentage rate and even the graph for our convenience. We could also compute the crossbars for each question using the variables age and gender we were interested in to evaluate the results properly. In terms of the advantages, this mode of data collection did not cost us any money, ND it was a very fast and easy way to collect the information, also view the responses and percentage rates and create cross-tabulations by the variables. Advanced options of the online Qualities System allowed us to modify the questions and create some colorful backgrounds and visuals to seem more eye-catchy to the respondents what also could increase the response and coverage rate. Another advantage of this data collection Moe Is ten accuracy. Since ten participants entered tenet responses directly into the Qualities System, the margin of error could be smaller. It was also say and convenient for the respondents to use this kind of the survey as they could pick the time which suited them best, and of course the time required to complete the survey was much shorter. To sum up, this survey mode is certainly less time consuming, allows flexibility, lower costs, faster results and easy construction and administration. However, some of the disadvantages are related to the coverage and sampling problems, respondent availability, and lower response rates. It has been noticed that the level of cooperation is much weaker since there is no interviewer to sky questions directly and build trust and understanding among the participants. This, in turn, could slightly affect the reliability of data. This mode of data collection can also have some technical issues and problems which could affect the results of the questionnaire as well as the final report to review the given answers. As an example, one of the technical problems could be the browser freeze, error messages, or the questionnaire can be completed by same person several times. All these problems may prevent the participants from providing the responses to the questionnaire. Sampling/Selection: Advantages and limitations. Suggestions for the future The survey sample consisted of all the fellow students in the PAP 3105 class and also the professor. 23 surveys have been sent out, and we collected the responses from 19 participants. Since we had the email address of every student in the class, it allowed us to conduct this survey as a census. One of the advantages of taking a census is that with such a small population we would need to take a survey of everyone in the population in order to get significant results. We had almost minimal limitations as we had a target group, the email address of every participant n this group and we also received the responses from almost every student who participated in the survey. However, we encountered one problem. 4 students still did not submit their answers even after the follow-up email has been sent to remind them about the survey completion and the deadline. Therefore, our census might not be representative of the entire group opinion. The results represent the opinion of the students in the class but it is unlikely we could apply their responses for a larger population such as Branch College undergraduates. As for the suggestion for the true, we could recommend to reach out to more potential participants in order to be able to generalize the results too larger population. Coverage: Who was included ? Who was excluded? Did anyone have a better/worse chance of being included ? Why [why not? The survey Smoke-free policy was targeted to the whole class of PAP 3105. It was a census of the whole class so everyone had an equally likely chance of being selected. No one had either a greater or a less chance of being included . Our project team excluded all the faculty members and students who were not in this class. Response and Non-response: Who and how many answered/did not answer the survey? Were any items skipped? Implications? As it has been mentioned above, the survey questionnaire was sent to 23 participants in the class. However, out of 23 surveys which have been sent out, we received the responses from only 19 respondents who answered all the questions. Almost all questions were answered, except of those ones which we designed specifically for the smokers such as the question #4: Does the smoke free campus policy make it harder for you to get to class on tile-e Ana ten quest # Do you continue to smoke winner It Is disallowed? This is where we encountered the problem. As an example, one of the questions revealed that there were only 9 smokers, and out of them only 22% continued to smoke where it was still disallowed, whereas 78% did not do so. Another question which has also been designed for smokers only showed that there were 16 smokers, and out of them 19% believed that the smoke-free campus policy made it harder for them to get to class on time while 81% responded it was not hard. This created a certain degree of inaccuracy as the number of smokers did not match. Perhaps the reason is that either some of the smokers decided to skip the question for the smokers only, or the question itself was not important to their personal understanding of the problem. Analysis: How was the data analyzed? This step was crucial in the process of conducting the survey as it provided our project team with the results of the questionnaire which was distributed to the students in the class. The Qualities System of Branch College allowed us to process the data we collected, analyze and sort out the data using the demographic questions gender and age range. Some of the questions were designed specifically for the smokers or non-smokers but mostly all of the questions were open to every participant in the class. We created cross tabulations of our survey based on the variables of age and gender to find out about existing patterns among male and female respondents of a certain age range. We found out that there was no consistent pattern relating to each age strut or gender what could be considered as a characteristic or a feature for a specific group of students who participated in the survey after we selected which question would be in the banner (in our case age and ender variables), and which question the stub. Findings: Frequencies and crossbars I covered the following issue questions, and therefore, my findings have been based on the information/responses we collected from the participants in the class. 1 . Question #3 How does security do at enforcing the smoke free policy? (N=19) As we can notice from this table, 5% of the respondents believe that the security department does an excellent Job at enforcing the smoke free policy; 21% think it is just good; 42% are still unsure; 26% believe it is bad; and 5% think it is terrible. Question #6 Do you believe you are still exposed to second-hand smoke on campus since the smoke free policy has gone into effect? (N=19) As we can notice from this table, 58% of the respondents think that they are still exposed to second-hand smoke on campus since the smoke-free policy has gone into effect; 32% said no; and 11% are still unsure about this issue. It was also very important to create the cross tabulations for these issue questions by the variables I selected gender Ana age range. I compared ten approval responses Tort total as well by gender and by age. I also compute the percentage rates, and it was quite interesting to see the difference in the responses when applied to specific age or gender categories. Crossbar by 2 variables: gender and age How does security do at enforcing the smoke free policy? (N=19) Crossbar by 2 variables: gender and age Do you believe you are still exposed to second-hand smoke on campus since the smoke free policy has gone into As an example, 58% of the respondents believe that they are still exposed to the second-hand smoke on campus since the smoke-free policy has gone into effect. If we kook at this problem through the findings of the crossbar, we may notice that out of 58% of the respondents who said yes, 8 participants were female (80%) and only 3 participants were male (33%). However, out of 32% (6 respondents) who believe they are no longer exposed to the second-hand smoke on campus, only 2 students were female (2%) and 4 male (44%). It was also quite interesting to observe under what age category the respondents fell. As an example, out of 11 respondents who answered yes to this question, 7 students fell under the age category 18-21; 3 dents 22-26 age category; and 1 student 27-34 age category. Summary All in all, it was very interesting to conduct and administer the survey about the smoke-free policy on the campus of Branch College. The findings of the survey which we obtained from the students helped us measure the effectiveness of the policy which has gone into effect recently and also what students think about this policy in general. As we encountered one problem 4 students did not submit their answers even after the follow-up email has been sent to remind them about the survey implosion deadline, we can conclude that our census might not be representative of the entire group opinion. The results represent the opinion of the students in the class but it is unlikely we could apply their responses for a larger population such as Branch College undergraduates. Perhaps we could recommend reaching out to more potential participants in order to be able to generalize the results to a larger population. The results we obtained were also informative and interesting, and the Qualities System of Branch College allowed us to collect and process the data and analyze the findings in a very easy and fast way. We discovered that the majority of students do not smoke in our class and are concerned about the negative effects of smoking on their health. Students believe that the smoke-free policy should include all areas of the campus. They also believe that the security department is helping increase the effectiveness of this new policy on campus of Branch College, and we strongly believe in the nearest future students who smoke will respect the ones who do not, and pay close attention to the signs where smoking is allowed and where it is not.

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

How to graduate to business - Emphasis

How to graduate to business How to graduate to business Youve spent the past three or four years writing essays and reports, and now youre in your first professional job and ready to start writing for business. But does your degree have you covered? Well, yes and no, writes Cathy Relf. The good news is that because youve developed good analytical and organisational skills, youll be well versed in sorting your ideas into separate sections or chapters, and supporting your arguments with facts, figures and evidence. The bad news is that the style and structure of academic writing varies hugely from the style and structure youll need to adopt for professional business writing. Whereas academic writing tends to be wordy, expansive and, well, a little dull, business writing needs to be lively, straight to the point and immediately engaging. Follow these three steps to shake off the academic shackles and bring out your business voice. 1. Engage your reader immediately The biggest difference between writing for university and writing for work is that, at work, no ones obliged to be interested. Interested though they surely were, your lecturers were paid to read your essays. However verbose the style or tenuous the argument, they had to pay attention to every sentence on every page, right through to the bitter end. In the professional world, no one will do that unless you hook them in at the start and keep them interested. You have to earn and then retain your readers attention at every step. Luckily, theres a radical yet simple change you can make that will instantly improve your ability to engage the reader. At university, you probably laid out all your evidence and information first, and followed them with a conclusion at the end. In business, you generally need to get to the point right at the start youre not discussing the topic, youre offering your expert opinion and backing it up with hard evidence. Heres a simple, four-point formula for grabbing your readers attention and getting straight down to business. a) Outline the context Establish the common ground between you and your reader, in no more than a line or two. b) Describe the trigger Explain why you are writing this now. What is it that has changed or must change? Again, keep this to just a line, two at the maximum. c) Ask a question Raise an action-orientated question, such as How do we prevent this?, How do we prepare for this? or How do we reduce the cost of this? d) Give the answer Answer the question with your recommendation or key finding, giving a complete solution in no more than 25 words. Now you have their attention. Use the rest of your document to explain how and why you have arrived at this recommendation. 2. Take your brain for a pint Remember all those student nights you spent trying to make your words of wisdom heard above the combined noise of a bad DJ, 30 drunken friends and the call of tequila? They werent wasted. The rest of your document should comprise organised sections or chapters that back up the recommendation you made in step 1. Before you start writing each section, imagine you had 30 seconds to tell it to a friend in a noisy pub. Itll help you do the following three things naturally: a) Use everyday words and as few as possible The more directly your reader can understand you, the better. So cross out ameliorate, expeditious, and promulgate and replace them with improve, fast and issue. And do you really need to say in order to, rather than to? Could you cut down in the field of to in? Is eliminate altogether really more effective than just eliminate? Go through your draft and remove any words that arent pulling their weight. The clearer your writing is, the clearer your message. b) Be active, not passive As a general rule, use active verbs, rather than passive. It keeps your writing lively, direct, personal and accountable. Just put the doer at the start of the sentence. So instead of writing it is hoped that the project will be completed in December, write we hope to complete the project in December. c) Prefer verbs to nouns Verbs are more direct than nouns. So when youre editing your work, cut out nominalisations such as achieve cost reductions and undertake the implementation of and replace them with reduce costs and implement or, simply, do. 3. Focus on your formatting Good formatting can make such a difference to the clarity of your document. There are few things as off-putting as pages of block text. Well-formatted text is kinder on the eye, easier to navigate and more memorable. a) Keep it short and simple Dont try to cram too much into your sentences. Break them down so that each sentence deals with just one idea, and link your ideas logically. Its fine to start a sentence with and or but if it helps clarify your message. Similarly, its not unusual to see suffocatingly long paragraphs in academic writing. But in business writing, youll need to be more succinct. Vary the length of your paragraphs, but try not to go beyond five sentences in each. And if you have a particularly important sentence, dont be shy of giving it a paragraph all to itself. b) Use engaging headings and sub-headings Use regular, clear headings and sub-headings to break up the text. Avoid label-style headings, and instead use explicit ones that sum up the section. This helps the reader find sections most appropriate to them, and also makes it easy for them to refer back to relevant sections later. c) Put a bullet in it When youre writing a list of points that can speak for themselves, use bullets or numbers. They will stand out much better than if you cram them all into a paragraph of text, and its easier on the readers eye. d) Would a graph work better? When writing about data, figures and processes, ask yourself whether a graph, pie chart or diagram could communicate the same information more effectively. Keep this checklist handy when youre writing your documents, and soon it will begin to become habit. And if youd like practical training in applying these techniques (and many more), why not get us in to train your team, or book a place on one of our High-impact business writing courses in London?

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Multiversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Multiversity - Essay Example ty thus resulted in the incorporation of different communities within a single setting thus; developing holistic individuals with a propensity to interact ad integrate ideas. Clark Kerr in his article the idea of a multiversity investigates the history of the idea and its ramification to the contemporary world and the academic environments. The brainchildren of the idea had a number of specific convenience issue that they sought to address by developing the idea. The historical evolution of higher education through the subsequent introduction of the idea of a multiversity was progressive and a result of several structural and management changes in the governance of the facilities of higher education as the discussion below reveals. Kerr begins his article by investigating the origin of universities as institutions of higher learning. The earliest universities such as Oxford, Bologna, and Edinburg had specific structures that necessitate the management of the single institutions that specialized in single courses offered in single campuses. The administrative structures of the facilities necessitated the management of the facilities as single entities with each university at the time specializing is single disciplines. However, with time and the resultant changes in the social environment, the society became more liberal with the demand for education increasing in the western world among other regions globally. Such leading and prestigious institutions therefore led the change into more liberal and diversified learning institutions thereby permitting the inclusion of more courses and campuses leading to the development of the multiversity concept â€Å" it was clear that by 1930 that universities have changed profoundly and commonly in the direction of social evolution of which they are part† Kerr 3. In this statement, Kerr acknowledges that institutions of higher learning such as universities existed as part of the society and therefore had to represent the social

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Position paper 7 see below Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Position paper 7 see below - Essay Example The action to be taken should be determined by a court of law. Killing without trial is only allowed in incidences self-defense or as a necessity to save more lives. That said target killing of terrorists, in my opinion, is an immediate necessity executed with the aim of saving more lives. Therefore, the United States should be allowed to continue killing terrorist based on their intelligence. The benefit of targeted killing is that, unlike an arrest operation, there are fewer risks. For example, in U.S, targeted killing are mostly executed using an automated drone craft. According to Becker  and  Shane (2012), among the counterterrorism tactic applicable, targeted killing has proved to be the most effective in the prevention of terror attacks. A targeted killing meant to kill a leader of a terrorist organization disrupts terrorist organization’s plans to a point of collapsing. For example, killing the Gaza military commander, Salah Shehadeh, prevented six terror attacks he planned to execute in Israel. Base on the outcome of targeted killing Obama’s regime has embraced the tactic as the most effective approach to eradication Al-Qaeda and Taliban members Afghanistan-Pakistan border. However, United States need make targeted killing acceptable in other countries by justifying the tactic. For instance, United States should not engage enforcement operations in a foreign country without their knowledge. Doing so is a violation of peaceful relations and international norms (Taylor, 2013). The government should come up with a set of norms that support targeted killing but upholds and acknowledge the principles of peace. Additionally, the collateral damage that comes with targeted killing need to be considered. Regardless the fear of an attack plot advancing following delays to counterattack, consideration should be given to damage expected. The government need to form policies that validate all operations

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Revised proposal Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Revised proposal - Dissertation Example Project Title: (Your title should tell the reader the key objective of the research) Proposal Submission Date: Version Number of the Proposal: DA Class ID: (A full and accurate number is a must!) Name of DA: RMT Class ID: (Specify the RMT class that you attended) Name of GDI: Ethical Checklist Completed: (Yes or No)? Name of SSM: The Program: IT or ISM: MSc in IT / MSc in Internet Systems / MSC in Computer Security / MSC in Engineering / MSc in Information Systems and Technology / MSC in ISM [Please erase the non-relevant domains] Domain: Computer Science / Communication and Internet / Software Engineering / Computer Security / Management and Resources / Information Systems Management [Please erase the non-relevant domains] Proposal approved by: (To be filled by the approver) Date of the approval: (To be filled by the approver) Verification of the Proposal's Domain: (To be checked and verified by the approver) Sponsor's Details: (Name, Company. Address) Sponsor's Background: (Who the sponsor is. Contact name(s). Location. Agreement. ) Sponsor's Agreement: (Has the person you have requested agreed to sponsor the project? Please note that quoting the agreement will suffice at this stage. When the proposal is approved and there is an external sponsor, a document signed by the sponsor agreeing to the project must be sent to the Student Support Manager prior to the start of the project. The form is found in the Forms section in the RMT class.). The Project Aims and Objectives: The aim and objective of the paper is multi fold. The first part entails understanding the concept of VOIP, its benefits, its applicability and then in the last part creating a prototype to evaluate its practical implementation, the conditions attached with, the probable resources needed in form of the hardware, the software package and the implementation in different scales such as medium to large scale which depends upon the size of organization. Literature review: Broadband technologies hav e found large usage in recent times with regard to their application in the healthcare organizations. The time taken in responses to the queries, emergencies and other services has largely been reduced with help of broadband and other relevant technologies (Gawande, 2008). A report published late in the 20th century revealed that large number of human lives was lost due to errors as a result of manual operations and lack of technology. Citing this, stress has been laid on bringing about digital trends in the health care field for the purpose of improving the healthcare functions. Wireless technology and VOIP are two of the recommended functions in this regard (Meru, 2006). Faxcom is one similar device that allows the patients staying in touch with the health care center. This would allow for easy and health driven operations that allow for reduction of casualties and other incidents which pose direct threat to the safety of patients in one way or the other (Horowitz, 2012). The earl ier traces of VOIP can be traced to the mid 1990s (Kelly 2011 74) when a sound card set of headphones and internet connection would allow for connection establishment. With time, the overall domain got expanded and the business enterprises gained interest in this field and also the common users and thereby it started expanding and a new set of standard in form of VOIP. The concept of VOIP gained prominence in the early days of 21st century when the technology took a

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Multinational Enterprises Engage In Foreign Direct Investment Economics Essay

Multinational Enterprises Engage In Foreign Direct Investment Economics Essay A multinational enterprise is defined as an enterprise that engages foreign direct investment (FDI) and owns or controls value adding activities in more than one country (John H. Dunning, 1992). Today all big multinational enterprise was once a small firm with a less number of employees. Once the firm started manufacturing the product according to customer needs and satisfaction, then the firm can achieve high success in the market. To start a business a firm needs a capital amount. In the beginning stage of business the firm does not know how to market the product and who are the entire customers and what actually the consumer want. The main reason that firms outsource the products is to know what actually the consumer really needs and to understand the market conditions. Outsourcing helps to reduce the overall costs in an organization. So the cost factor becomes less. Once the firm satisfies customer needs and satisfaction then the business and market can be globally expanded. To achieve high success in business, the firm has to design products according to consumer needs and satisfaction than market conditions. Market conditions are also an important factor; the firms should know how well the product is playing into market and how long it lasts in the market. Customers are the king source in business. To reach our product to all kinds of customers is through advertising, the advertising costs are expensive. So if the firms outsource the product then there is no problem to worry about advertising costs. To expand the business globally the firm has to manufacture products with good quality. A national enterprise is the one which does business within the country and it has no foreign direct investment (FDI) and no exchange value. The difference between national enterprise and multinational enterprise is national enterprise has less number of competitors and multinational enterprise has more number of competitors. Once the business started growing globally the multinational enterprise contributes fifty percent of funds to its organization. To do a business in a particular product, the product has to be patented. The cost of obtaining the patent license is expensive. So if the firms outsource the products then the patent cost becomes less. If the patent license is obtained, then the business can be expanded globally and export cost is also reduced. Globalization is the circulation of goods, services and capital, but also information, ideas and people. It has shaped all of the twentieth century, albeit with large cyclical variations and has become an increasingly visible force in recent decades (World Bank, 2000). FDI Local Packing Assembly Export through own Supply representative or sale subsidiary vxfczxfgd Representative or sales subsialary Export via agent or distributor License Time Depth of involvement in foreign market Fig: 1 Entry into foreign Market Source : Rugman A.M., and Collinson S,2009 Once the business starts growing globally, the competitive advantage also starts increasing. We will come to know about latest technology in the market and more firms in the world. In the initial stage the firm should target only one country to market the product. Once the firms become success in that country then the firms can target many other countries. If the firm exports the product through agents or through distributors then the firm will come to know about the market conditions and the competitive advantage of the product. The important thing is that firms should concentrate mainly on quality, customers need and satisfaction and market condition of the product. The reason that firms export the product through agents or through distributors is the exportation cost. The exportation cost is less. Once the quantity of customers is increased, then the firm can achieve high profits. Then gradually the firm can increase its production and globally the market is also expanded. The firms can exchange ideas and information, improves communication and networking is developed. Initially the main reasons for outsourcing the business are the cost factor. Cost is an important factor to design a business. While doing business the firms should know how to control the overall costs and expenditure. The main aim is to manufacture products with good quality and low costs. The raw material costs are high and the availability of raw materials is very low. Once the number of consumers is gained the business is expanded globally and the firm itself can directly market the product. The main reasons for multinational enterprises are responsiveness to environmental forces such as competitors, customers, suppliers, financial institutions and government. Attracts common pool of resources including assets, patents, trademarks and human resources. More number of competitors starts increasing once the firms become multinational enterprise. The level of development of each country vis-à  -vis the aforementioned prerequisites clearly differs (Patrick, 2000). Central Europe is advanced in terms of infrastructure and privatization than south-west Europe. Mainly western countries give tax benefits and the government itself will provide funds for the firms which are all sick. Foreign direct investment takes an increasingly important role in the restructuring process which hinges on a number of variables. The main reasons that firms go for multinational enterprise is the job opportunities. Job opportunities will be expanded and a large number of employments are provided to large number of people. The national enterprise face pressure from trade union activity to avoid company spread their bases around the world; this in turn weakens the companys growth and economy. One of the important reason firms go multinational is to increase sales and to expand production activities. National firms naturally do not become multinational firms; the company has to expand its production, manufacture good quality products and should solve the problems. There should be a smooth flow in running the firms. Then only the company has improved in its production, profit, technology and growth. The advantages of multinational company are as follows:- Marketing opportunity: When they expand over different countries their market expands. The products can be marketed world-wide in different parts of the world and the exports also can be increased. Joint -venture with overseas countries also makes a national firm multinational. Research and Development: This helps us to manufacture products with good quality. If any failure occurs, while designing a product, this helps us to rectify the errors. And immediately the problem is solved. Export promotion: Export and import plays a key role for the countries income. Lot of foreign exchange is earned through supply of raw materials, technology and various other product. Growth of industry: The growth of multinational companies are considered to be quick when compared to others. It also helps the domestic companies to grow by giving work opportunities. They also help them enter global market through their network. Gives latest technology: it plays the role of manufacturing good quality products and reduces the cost of production. Multinational companies are basically rich. It solves the bridge between developed countries and developing countries. Optimum utilization of resources: this helps us to utilize the natural and artificial resource in a preserved manner. Uses natural and artificial resources of the home country. Home country gets benefited by the growth of these companies. Help to local industry: This provides a ready market to domestic suppliers of raw materials or semi-finished products Management opportunities: Opens management opportunities to management students who can be appointed as professional managers to earn a handsome salary and build reputation of the company. National development: Developing countries are highly benefited by the multinational companies. It helps them to increase their efficiency and improve the technology and most importantly foreign direct investment. It helps the developing country improve economically as well by providing financial and technical support. Monopoly: When multinational company enters in to domestic market they compete with existing competitors and break the monopoly of selected few companies. Conclusion Firms go multinational as they are bound to have many advantages such as cheap labour, cheap raw materials which will help them in cost cutting. They enter into a competitive market and strive to increase their sales. There are three important stages to become a multinational firm. They greatly depend up on export and expansions of export sales to justify building new plants out of the countries. Secondly overseas production, there must be a limit to overseas sales that is being halted by a multinational company. Lastly the firm needs to start their research, planning, organizing, coordinating, production, marketing and financial support which is said to be RD (Research and Development) to go multinational. In deciding whether the reasons for becoming multinational have changed, considering the buzz word has only been around for the best part of forty years it is fair to say that it has not. If we look back at the end of the last century the only difference is that the huge petroleum companies, gold mines and fruit growers only became multinational. To get closer to their market, the transport of such goods are difficult than it is today. Indeed, as recently as it could still be taken as axiomatic that it was both desirable and feasible for firms that were diversified both by product and to develop multidimensional strategic capabilities. To build broader organizational capabilities those transcend formal structure. Referencing Artisien.P and Maksimenko 2000.  Multinationals in Eastern Europe. London: St.Martins Press Inc. pp.11-35 Coolreferat. 2008.  Why Do National Firms Become M Essay. [ONLINE] Available at:http://pda.coolreferat.com/Why_Do_National_Firms_Become_M_Essay. [Accessed 29th March 2011] Haider. M.J. 2010.  Advantages of Multinational Company  . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/125324-Advantages-Multinational-Company.aspx. [Accessed 24th March 2011] John H. Dunning, 2000. The eclectic paradigm as an envelope for economic and business theories of MNE activity, International Business Review 9 (1), pp.163-190. Needle,D. 2004. Globalization: Paoli,L. and Cooke,A.  Business in Context. 5th ed. Hampshire: Rennie,T. pp.11-46. Rugman A.M., and Collinson S, 2009.  International Business. 5th ed. Essex: MCGraw-Hill. pp.7-21,39-45. World Bank. 2000.  Poverty in Age of Globalisation. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.sph.umich.edu/symposium/2004/pdf/povertyglobalization.pdf. [Accessed 29th March 2011]

Friday, October 25, 2019

Attitudes of War in Ancient Civilizations Essay -- essays research pap

Chapter Eight War and Society reveals the attitudes about war in both ancient Rome and China. These attitudes prove that in these cases perhaps it is safe to say that wars are not inevitable or natural but were caused by warlike societies and social situations. After reading bits and pieces of both the ancient Roman and Chinese history, one can only gain a greater perspective on how these attitudes derived. In 391 nomads called the Gauls defeated a small army of Roman aristocrats and burnt down the town of Rome. After this attack, Rome rebuilt its town and changed it into an empire, which spread its laws, culture, and peace from the North. Rome was convinced that after this first invasion, it was necessary to change their military. Over time the Romans were able to conquer most of Italy. As the Romans began to gain power and land, they set their eyes on larger obstacles. This is when Roman attitude was perhaps revealed about the subject of war. Romans believed that their expansion had been inevitable so they were to believe that they were blameless, and that their ancestors had been more than a passive tool of destiny. They believed that other areas, posed as possible threats and that it was necessary â€Å"for defensive reasons† to attack first. Today, these can be viewed as possibly preventive wars. But during the time of the expansion of the Roman Empire, a preventive war wasn’t a concern. Other views were demonstrated in their actions, that although at first Romans were unable to take Carthage, they kept trying, and over time, and most likely many deaths, the Roman soldiers wore them down. Rome was like a bulldozer and used their skilled military to their advantage, to take over and destroy anything that it set its eyes on. Their actions, such as later completely destroying Carthage and massacring the majority of its population all because it posed as a potential economic threat to Roman land. These views or attitudes of war can be easily seen, war was not considered a preventive war, but a necessary war, although many times, it was clearly unnecessary and the fall of the Roman Empire, eventually gave the Roman commanders what they deserved. On the flipside, ancient Chinese attitude toward war was quite similar to that of the Romans. Warfare in this society was common and accepted, the idea of honor also coincides with their attitude toward war. â€Å"When ... ...e end. I believe that this closely relates to the early context of â€Å"Is the Glory of War a Boy Thing?† Because I believe one can easily glorify both the rise of the empires as a courageous and powerful movement, rather then closely looking at the true outcome of these wars. A Pericles type of funeral oration would have possibly been effective in ancient Rome or China, because at the time both were such powerful empires, people would have easily been convinced to believe practically anything. How can one find it just, to kill practically a whole society because they pose as a possible threat to economy because they too, are growing grapes? Pericles states in his oration that the people under his society are the best, and that it was perfectly acceptable to dominate other areas. He also mentions ancestors, and the pride in Athens, so its important to praise and glorify those who died. Isn’t it funny how history repeats itself? The Romans believed that because felt threatened it was okay to dominate other lands, and their ancestors faced hardships with the nomads it was acceptable to do so in return. Or the Chinese, who believed that war a proper, powerful, and masculine act of man.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Case Study and Implementing Diversity Policies

Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles A guide for ITEC and other engineering businesses who want to benefit from employing a diverse workforce Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles A guide for ITEC and other engineering businesses who want to benefit from employing a diverse workforce Christina Evans, Judith Glover, Yvonne Guerrier and Cornelia Wilson School of Business and Social Sciences Roehampton University 80 Roehampton Lane London SW15 5SL Tel: +44 (0)20 8392 3000 www. roehampton. ac. uk For correspondence about this report please email mailto: c. [email  protected] ac. uk September 2007  © The Royal Academy of Engineering ISBN: 1-903496-37-3 Content Foreword Acknowledgements List of figures Executive summary 1. Introduction 1. 1 Why the need for a set of Guiding Principles for embedding diversity in the ITEC sector 1. 2 How the Guiding Principles have been derived 1. 3 Summary of the Guiding Principles 1. 4 Schema of the Guiding Principles Sugge stions on how organisations might use these Guiding Principles Guiding Principles 3. 1 Vision and leadership 3. 2 Well-defined business case 3. Company wide policies to mainstream diversity 3. 4 Education, training and knowledge building 3. 5 Supportive work practices and organisational culture 3. 6 Open and transparent recruitment and career development practices 3. 7 Partnering with external bodies 3. 8 Targeted outreach and widening the recruitment net 3. 9 Management of suppliers 3. 10 Monitor, improve and celebrate success 3. 11 Matrix of key supporting organisational case studies Conclusions Resources to help with your diversity journey Notes 3 4 5 6 9 9 10 11 12 14 2. 3. 15 15 20 23 29 36 40 45 49 53 56 60 62 63 66 . 5. 6. Appendices I. List of acronyms 68 2 The Royal Academy of Engineering Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles Foreword I am delighted to welcome this new report – Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles – funded by The R oyal Academy of Engineering and produced in partnership with Equalitec. Equalitec, funded in part by the European Social Fund, under the Equal Programme, is a broad-ranging partnership of organisations committed to promoting and supporting women’s advancement in Information Technology, Electronics and Computing (ITEC).ITEC is a key driver of change in the global knowledge economy and a key contributor to the productivity and competitiveness of the European economy. But growth is being affected in some areas by a shortage of skilled ITEC workers. To meet the continuing growth in ITEC we need to encourage more individuals with diverse backgrounds and skills, particularly women, to consider a career in ITEC and ITEC related businesses.It is now well recognised that there are many business and social benefits from encouraging greater diversity within the workplace. Yet women are currently under-represented in the ITEC sector, especially in more senior roles. This report provides some practical guidelines on how to build an organisational culture where women and others from diverse backgrounds with business critical ITEC skills are encouraged to participate and reach their full potential. It contains many examples of good practice drawn from a range of ITEC employers.I would encourage you to use this report with a range of people in your organisation to help stimulate debate and change polices and practices to encourage greater diversity. Dr Rosalie Zobel Director Directorate G/Components and Systems Information Society and Media Directorate General European Commission The Royal Academy of Engineering 3 Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the many organisations and individuals that have made this report possible.In particular we would like to thank The Royal Academy of Engineering for sponsoring the project; Professor Wendy Hall, CBE FREng, Senior Vice President of The Royal Academy of Engineering, for chairing each of the Equalitec Diversity Fo rums; Dr Elizabeth Pollitzer, Director, Equalitec, for the initial inspiration for this report, as well as her continuing support, and all of the Equalitec partners and other participating organisations that have contributed to the ideas and case examples contained within this report.A list of Equalitec partners and contributing organisations can be found on the back cover of this report. 4 The Royal Academy of Engineering Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles List of figuresFigure 1 Summary of the Guiding Principles Figure 2 Schema of the Guiding Principles Figure 3 Diversity – Balanced Business Scorecard Figure 4 Development options to help managers manage a flexible workforce Figure 5 Recruitment strategies to assist entry and re-entry of women into ITEC Figure 6 Equalitec Career Model (reproduced with permission from Portia Ltd) Figure 7 REC – Diversity Pledge for Recruiters (reproduced with permission from REC) Figure 8 Intellect’s Women in IT Forum Survey – ‘Perceptions of Equal Pay’ (reproduced with permission from Intellect) 11 12 20 31 40 41 54 57The Royal Academy of Engineering 5 Executive summary This report draws together key learning from earlier Equalitec Diversity Forums and reports, as well as other research on implementing diversity, in the form of ten Guiding Principles that can be applied in organisations that want to build a more diverse workforce. It is intended to act as a practical guide for managers and diversity practitioners in Information Technology, Electronics and Computing (ITEC) businesses, and other organisations. ITEC is now a major driver of change in many businesses, particularly in the service sector.But a shortage of skilled workers is making it difficult for some firms to compete successfully in the global economy. Despite this skills shortage, fewer than one in five ITEC professionals and managers are women and the number of women employed in ITEC is declining in most industrialised countries. With organisations chasing fewer and fewer skilled workers, there is a strong business case for increasing the proportion of women in ITEC. Within the UK it has been estimated that removing barriers to women’s employment and increasing their labour market participation could be worth between ? 5 billion and ? 23 billion. This is equivalent to 1. 3 – 2. 0% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the Women and Work Commission’s report – Shaping a Fairer Future [1]. Yet many ITEC companies find it difficult to attract and retain women. One reason may be that IT continues to have a macho male image that can put women off. In addition many women and young girls are not aware of the diverse roles on offer in the ITEC sector and so do not see a match between their career aspirations and what is on offer.Building a diverse workforce is not easy. It requires on-going commitment from senior leaders to bring about cultural change, un derpinned by investment to develop a cohesive set of employment policies and practices. Furthermore, a concern raised at the November 2006 Equalitec Diversity Forum [2] is that the growing trend of global sourcing in IT is affecting the diversity and inclusion agenda in the UK. Where organisations can easily ‘buy in’ labour from other countries there is less of a business imperative to invest in growing its own workforce.So why does this matter? Is diversity, particularly gender diversity, more difficult to achieve in the ITEC sector? Wider research suggests that women in Science, Engineering and Technology workplaces face difficulties over and above those experienced by women in other occupations, as these workplaces have traditionally been male dominated [3]. Industry commentators also acknowledge that the sector does create additional pressures for employees something that can make it more difficult for women and others with caring responsibilities.First, there is of ten a need to deliver projects to specific deadlines, involving working long hours. Second, individuals need to spend significant amounts of time keeping abreast of the latest developments in the field and maintaining their skill levels; for women with caring responsibilities this can be especially problematic as updating of skills is costly and time consuming. Many women working in ITEC are concerned that maternity leave and career breaks accelerate skills obsolescence.Although funding is allocated to training graduates (new entrants) this is generally not the case for women returners [4]. In addition women, and indeed men, who choose to work part-time often find their commitment questioned. 6 The Royal Academy of Engineering Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles Whilst the equality duties (race, disability and gender) have created a ‘burning platform for change’ in public sector organisations, this same burning platform does not currently apply to privat e sector companies.But changes in the public sector tendering process, to ensure compliance with the general duties, are beginning to influence practice in private sector companies who bid for public sector contracts; this change forms a key component of the business case for some private sector companies as this set of Guiding Principles shows. Equalitec, originally supported by funding from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and latterly the European Social Fund (ESF), was established to promote and support women’s employment in ITEC.Over the six years that Equalitec has been running it has worked with over 50 organisations to help build and disseminate good practice for employing and retaining women in ITEC. The Guiding Principles covered within this report, and listed below, are supported with many examples of good practice drawn from a range of ITEC employers. Many of these employers are working in partnership with Equalitec. Adopting the good practices containe d within this report will help build workplaces that benefit all workers, not just women.Guiding Principles for embedding diversity in ITEC and other related businesses 1 Vision and leadership 2 Well defined business case 3 Company wide policies to mainstream diversity 4 Education, training and knowledge building 5 Supportive work practices and organisational culture 6 Transparent recruitment and career development practices 7 Partnering with external bodies 8 Targeted outreach and widening the recruitment net 9 Management of suppliers 10 Monitor, improve and share success Recommendations for taking these Guiding Principles forward Business leaders  ¦ Use this Guiding Principles report creatively to help raise debates and develop policies and practices in your own organisation. Some initial suggestions on how to do this can be found later on in the report. A key policy to review is your career and succession planning, making these more open and transparent. This will help address the needs of individuals at different life-stages and with different needs and aspirations, thus encouraging them to join your organisation. Revisit data monitoring policies and practices to find ways of enabling greater availability and transparency of data. Where firms are reticent about making specific data public they could perhaps share techniques of data gathering.This would help the measurement of progress both within and between organisations and help establish industry-wide benchmarks, against which broader change could be measured, particularly in relation to the gender pay gap.  ¦ The Royal Academy of Engineering 7  ¦ Consider partnering with a range of educational and professional bodies to ensure that the skills needed to work in the sector meet changing employers’ needs. One possible way of achieving this is to work in partnership with HE institutions, professional bodies, and other employers, to create an ITEC Academy, something similar to the Power Academy recently established to address the shortage of skilled power engineers. This would help continue the excellent work started by Equalitec.Equalitec partners have found the Equalitec brand, underpinned by the European Social Fund and support from the DTI, has created a legitimacy for the various activities that they are engaged in to bring about change. Without a similar body going forward there is a concern that change will not happen at the pace that is needed. Central government and other policy makers  ¦ Provide more resources for educational institutions as well as the careers service to promote the diverse career opportunities available within ITEC.  ¦ Review policies to help women returners, especially occupational returners (i. e. returners to the industry after an extended career break), who are an under-utilised pool of talent.A key policy area for change is education, where there is an opportunity to develop conversion courses for people with a degree in a discipline other than computer science, enabling them to take up an ITEC role. This would not only help women returners, but other people who may want to move into ITEC at a later stage in their career. e-skills UK: work more closely with businesses to develop skills frameworks and progression pathways for ITEC professionals working in different business sectors.  ¦ Professional bodies  ¦ Work closely with educational partners to change the general perception of the ITEC sector and encourage more people to seek employment in the sector. Encourage and assist ITEC employers to introduce and develop good employment development practices. This could be achieved by gathering data on the gender balance among members, promoting cultural change, and brokering learning networks. Develop the range and accessibility of professional development programmes, qualifications and networks, that address the development needs of women on maternity leave, as well as men and women who want to take a career bre ak. Apply these Guiding Principles within their own professions and organisations.  ¦  ¦ 8 The Royal Academy of Engineering Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles 1. Introduction 1. 1 Why the need for a set of diversity guiding principles for ITEC organisations?In today’s global knowledge economy the innovative use of ITEC technologies is fundamental to business survival in an ever complex and competitive business world. The ITEC sector continues to be a growth sector. Ten percent of the GDP in the UK comes from the ITEC sector, according to Intellect, the Trade Association for the UK high-tech industry. Furthermore 34% of the worldwide GDP comes from the ICT market according to the Public Technology Association [5]. With this amount of investment and growth in ITEC it is not surprising that the demand for skilled ITEC workers is outstripping supply. This is the case in all businesses, not just amongst the major ITEC producers.Despite this increasing demand, the number of women employed in ITEC roles remains much lower than women’s participation in the workforce more generally and is declining in most industrialised countries. In the UK fewer than one in five ITEC professionals and managers are female and this figure is even lower in IT strategy and software development roles [11]. With 40% of business requirements being for skills at advanced levels, the gender imbalance in the IT workforce creates a continuing challenge for businesses according to Karen Price, CEO, e-skills [6]. What these figures indicate is evidence of horizontal and vertical segregation [8] in a sector that was optimistically viewed in the 1960s and 1970s as a golden era for women’s employment.As a relatively new sector it was anticipated that some of the traditional barriers experienced by women in the workplace would be removed, and that women would be able to participate on a more equal basis with men. Sadly the reality has not matched this optimis m. A concern voiced at one Equalitec Diversity Forum is that the growing trend of global outsourcing in IT is affecting the diversity and inclusion agenda [2] . Where organisations can easily ‘buy in’ labour from other countries, there is less of an imperative for firms to invest in developing its own workforce. However having IT systems developed and serviced by third parties does have skills implications for organisations’ internal workforce. In practical terms this means a growing need for IT literate staff who understand the business and know how to use IT to drive the business forward [7].With organisations struggling to attract and retain skilled knowledge workers, it does not make business sense to under-utilise diverse pools of talent, including women. Speaking at the November 2006 Equalitec Diversity Forum, Meg Munn MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Women and Equality) endorsed this view: â€Å"If the UK is to further develop and sustain a fle xible, highly skilled workforce – one that is able to cope with the twin challenges of globalisation and rapid demographic change – then we have to ensure that all our talented people are involved. † The Royal Academy of Engineering 9 Yet the reasons for the lack of participation of women in ITEC roles are complex.Sector image, as well as organisational culture, has a role to play here. ITEC work is still perceived as a place for ‘geeks’ and ‘anoraks’, working long hours and with little interaction with others. However as other Equalitec publications have shown this image does not reflect the reality of ITEC work, or the diversity of employment opportunities [8]. The changing nature of ITEC work, particularly as offshoring and outsourcing has become more commonplace, has led to an increased demand for ‘hybrid’ workers. These are workers who can demonstrate both technical and behavioural skills, such as team working, communic ation, relationship management, flexibility and innovation, and project management.Behavioural skills are viewed as those that women are able to contribute, drawing on these from their multiple roles inside and outside the workplace. But if businesses want to capitalise on these behavioural skills they need to find more creative ways of attracting and retaining women. 1. 2 How these Guiding Principles have been derived Working with a diversity agenda is challenging. There is no single simple solution. Organisations have to ensure a common understanding of diversity and the link with Equal Opportunities (EO). Whereas EO is concerned with difference at the social group level, diversity management is focused on individuals, with organisations striving to recruit and retain individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences [9].In addition, the diversity agenda is heavily contextualised: economic, political, legal and social forces each impact on business priorities and internal organ isational practices. Despite these broader forces there do seem to be a number of key practices that organisations can focus on if they want to mainstream diversity. Developing an organisational culture that is supportive of diversity and where women are encouraged to reach their full potential is not easy. The nature of some ITEC roles can make it difficult for women, and others with caring responsibilities, to combine their work and family lives. Yet as other Equalitec projects have identified, some organisations are actively trying to change their culture so that people from diverse backgrounds, and with diverse talents, feel included.These Guiding Principles draw together some of the good practices developed in a range of private and public sector organisations. They have been derived from categories drawn from various sources: Equalitec Diversity Forum reports; the DTI and Equalitec sponsored report – Successful Recruitment Strategies and Practices; Times Top 50 ‘W orkforce Diversity’ index; BCS Women in IT awards; Aurora’s ‘Where Women Want to Work’ awards; US National Academy of Engineering – Diversity in Engineering report, as well as the National School of Government’s Diversity Excellence model and the Civil Service diversity performance indicators. The supporting case examples are drawn largely from Equalitec publications.They have been tested out with Equalitec partners, and other organisations closely involved with Equalitec’s work, to ensure that they cover the key areas that ITEC and other organisations need to focus on to build a diverse workforce. 10 The Royal Academy of Engineering Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles 1. 3 Summary of the Guiding Principles From the background sources outlined above we have identified 10 Guiding Principles. These are shown in Figure 1. 1 Vision and leadership: senior leaders demonstrate an on-going commitment to mainstreaming diversity by ensuring that the relevant policies, practices, metrics and action plans are in place. Ongoing commitment is also demonstrated through frequent and consistent communication, internally and externally, about the organisation’s achievements against its published action plans.Well defined business case: the diversity agenda forms an integral part of the strategic business planning agenda – not something that is a ‘nice to have’, perhaps especially for private sector firms that are bidding for contracts within the public sector. In the public sector the ’effectiveness argument’ i. e. ensuring the diversity of the workforce matches the diversity of service users, is perhaps more of a key driver. Company wide policies to mainstream diversity: overall diversity policy is supported by changes to other organisational policies e. g. recruitment, reward, flexible working and work-life-balance, performance management, career management and retention p olicies. Education, training and knowledge building: on-going commitment to education and training for all employees in order to change behaviours and develop organisational practices.Supportive work practices and organisational culture: a workplace that is open and welcoming of people from diverse backgrounds and which can demonstrate good examples of implementing different forms of flexible work arrangements. Transparent recruitment and career development practices: commitment to changing the recruitment and promotion practices so that women and others from diverse backgrounds are able to develop satisfying careers. Partnering with external bodies: relationships are developed with a range of partnering institutions to advance the diversity agenda, using this as a way of further developing internal knowledge and capabilities.Targeted outreach and widening of the recruitment net: resources (time, energy and money) are invested in developing awareness of the changing nature and oppor tunities within the ITEC sector and encouraging young girls and women of all ages to develop a career in ITEC. Management of suppliers: current and future suppliers understand the organisation’s diversity agenda and the organisation ensures that suppliers adapt their practices appropriately. Monitor, improve and celebrate success: demonstrates a commitment to gathering quantitative and qualitative data to monitor progress on the diversity journey, using this as a way of further refining policies and procedures. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Figure 1: Summary of the Guiding Principles The Royal Academy of Engineering 11 1. Schema of the Guiding Principles Mainstreaming diversity is not a simple linear process. There are a number of inter-related areas that require working on simultaneously. The schema in Figure 2 is intended to illustrate the dynamic relationship amongst the Guiding Principles defined earlier. Depending on the organisational context, change may be initiated from any one of these areas at a given point in time. In some organisations, for example, data on female attrition rates, or lack of diversity in the recruitment pipeline, may act as a catalyst for change. In others a change in leadership, such as the appointment of a new CEO, may act as the catalyst. At different times in the business life cycle organisations may eed to focus on developing policies and practices that have more of an internal focus and at other times they may need to work on policies and practices that have more of an external focus. Vision & leadership Well-defined business case Company wide policies to mainstream diversity Internal focus External focus Education, training & knowledge building Supportive work practices/ culture Open and transparent recruitment & career development practices Partnering with external bodies Targe ted ou treach & widening the recruitment net Management of suppliers Monitor, improve and celebrate success Figure 2: Schema of the Guiding Principles 1 2 The Royal Academy of Engineering Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding PrinciplesWhat is clear from the background research carried out to produce this report is that implementing polices and practices to mainstream diversity is not easy, given the complexities that we are dealing with. Other reports on diversity have likened this to the complexities of the software engineering process itself, highlighted in the book The Mythical Man Month by Fred Brookes, formally of IBM: â€Å"There is no silver bullet, no magic potion that can fix things. Things only get fixed if you take the problem personally, and you want to make a difference. It is that simple. If you care enough about it to put your money where your mouth is, and you put somebody in a eadership position to do something about it, you can make a difference. † [10] It is not surprising therefore to find leadership at the top of these Guiding Principles. The Royal Academy of Engineering 13 2. Suggestions on how organ isations might use these Guiding Principles One of the key aims of Equalitec is to share and disseminate good practice in the employment and progression of women in ITEC. This report draws together much of the good practice gathered through Equalitec projects. Whilst many organisations have made great progress on increasing the representation of women in ITEC roles, most would agree that they still have more to do.It is hoped that this set of guiding principles will support change in organisations, thus helping to stem the current decline in the number of women in ITEC. Some suggested ways that organisations could use this report include:  ¦ Using this report in your diversity training programmes for line managers, helping to raise awareness of the issues and stimulate debate for change. The questions at the end of each section would provide a start point. Recognising that successful change involves a top-down and bottom-up approach, consider using specific sections of the report with different employee groups/forums to help stimulate a dialogue about change. You could perhaps start with the section ‘Monitor, improve and celebrate success’ with a group of senior managers.This could prompt a review of the diversity data that are currently available, as well as where the gaps are. Using the section on ‘Supportive work practices and organisational culture’ with different employee groups could generate further ideas for change. Making the report available to all staff as part of your e-learning resources. This could help those aspiring to leadership roles broaden their awareness of the diversity agenda. Using the report as a basis for reviewing existing policies and practices.  ¦  ¦  ¦ 14 The Royal Academy of Engineering Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles 3. Guiding principles â€Å"having the genuine support of senior leaders sends a powerful message to the rest of the organisation that diversity matters. † 3. Vision and leadership Effective leadership is crucial in all culture change programmes and developing an organisational culture that embraces diversity is no exception. When testing out these guiding principles with experienced managers there was general consensus that vision and leadership needs to be the number one guiding principle. It needs to be number one for a very simple reason – having the genuine support of senior leaders sends a powerful message to the rest of the organisation that diversity matters. Without this, as many Equalitec partners will testify, diversity does not happen. So what type of leadership is required?  ¦ Leaders with a personal commitment to diversity Effective management of diversity requires ongoing commitment from the CEO and other senior leaders.This commitment can be demonstrated in many ways: setting a clear vision for diversity, linked to the business case; making sure that others understand the business case in the context of their organisations; modelling the behaviours needed to build a diverse workforce; making sure that the appropriate structure and polices are in place, as well as ensuring that all employees are aware of their responsibilities and where they fit into the diversity agenda: â€Å"Chuck Prince, who is our chairman, aims to make sure that we are not only the largest financial services organisation but also that we are the most respected. All of us, as employees, have to attest to our shared responsibilities.Those are our responsibilities to the organisations, the franchise through to our clients and also to each other, to make sure we recognise and respect diversity – which includes gender diversity. † Sharon Pagram, Recruitment Manager, Europe Middle East and Asia (EMEA), Citi [2]. Many organisations have introduced Diversity Councils as one of their supporting structures. These can help build insights and knowledge to support the change agenda. A case example of this from Sym antec appears at the end of this sub-section.  ¦ Leaders who demonstrate ‘mindset flexibility’ A key skill referred to time and time again is that of ‘mindset flexibility’, particularly amongst those in leadership roles: â€Å"I think there is something about having men with the right attitude.I don’t know quite how you articulate this, but it is to do with having a diversity of thinking and approach in the senior executive team. Having men who are different from each other and function well in a flexible remote culture. Men who encourage interaction at all levels and really believe that difference is a good thing. I really do believe that if you have a culture which encourages bright, creative individual men to stay at senior levels, women will benefit too. † Rebecca George, Partner, Deloitte [11]. Mindset flexibility is seen as being important to help rethink jobs and how best to resource these: The Royal Academy of Engineering 15 What you are looking for [when recruiting] is a set of outcomes and you try to be more flexible about the people who might be able to provide those outcomes for you. You’re much less prescriptive about the inputs. † Steve Palmer, London Borough of Hillingdon [12]. It is also important when considering flexible work options to ensure that all options are considered: â€Å"We have just gone through a reorganisation at Citigroup Technology Infrastructure (CTI) and we now have two very senior members who are direct reports to the head of EMEA for CTI †¦ One of these will be working remotely, using flexi-working as well as other means. She will be working from Scotland whilst playing a major role in the CTI organisation.She is working flexi-hours and she is working remotely and that has enabled her to take on a position of the size that she has. † Sharon Pagram, Recruitment Manager, EMEA, Citi [2]. HR and diversity practitioners in particular need to demonstrate effectiv e leadership by challenging line managers who are reluctant to try out different flexible work options.  ¦ Leaders who listen to and communicate openly with their staff Open and honest communication is crucial if employees from diverse backgrounds, and with diverse needs, are to feel fully included: â€Å"I believe that communication is very important †¦ ensuring that there are adequate team briefings, newsletters, bulletins and staff gatherings. There are one-to-one meetings, for example for all staff.I think that this mix ensures that there is the opportunity to accommodate individuals and that those for example who are on flexible working, or those who are part-time are kept fully informed and up-to-date just as much as the staff who are there full-time. † Angela Clements, Head of ICT and Business Development, West Dunbartonshire Council [2]. As the Microsoft example below indicates, senior leaders can send out a powerful message if they are personally involved in f inding out what women are looking for in the industry: â€Å"Simon Brown is the general manager for Developer and Partner Evangelism and he is looking to attract more females into technical evangelist roles. He has been helping by investing time and thinking about what it is that women want in the industry, and what they want at Microsoft at different levels. † Helen Duguid, Partner to Microsoft EMEA [2].It is just as important for female leaders to listen to the needs of their junior female colleagues, rather than make assumptions that they all have the same needs: â€Å"†¦ so many of the women who are at the top, they don’t have families, or else they might have had them, but it’s been with a totally supportive background, or they haven’t needed to be the carer in the family †¦ but you wouldn’t necessarily get from somebody at the top who didn’t have that empathy, let’s hear about you and what’s it like for you? Yo u don’t get enough of that. † [13]. 16 The Royal Academy of Engineering Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles  ¦ Leaders who act as role models and who champion change The importance of senior leaders acting as role models during organisational change is well documented.But as so much change involves top down and bottom up thinking it is important that organisations mobilise and nurture leaders at all levels to support the change journey. An innovative practice identified from a non-ITEC sector organisation, but one that could be adapted, is illustrated in the case example below. Case: Recruiting internal diversity champions at Wigan & Leigh College [14] The college has 23,000 students located across six different sites. The college recognised that although it had achieved the disability element of the diversity agenda it needed to do more on the other strands. To support its philosophy of inclusion, the college introduced a leadership and management pro gramme to help change behaviours amongst its senior managers.This programme highlighted a need to do more to create a genuine culture of inclusion across the whole of the college. Following an equality and diversity ‘health check’ the college went on to recruit internal equality and diversity champions to help promote their diversity agenda. The role was open to individuals at all levels and in different areas: management, administration and academic staff. All applicants went through a structured selection process. The rationale for such a rigorous process was to ensure that those selected could act as role models, as well as have the skills to help deliver the organisation’s diversity learning programme.Staff recruited into the Diversity Champion roles, were then given additional training to ensure that they were able to perform effectively in their new role. Having a diversity of role models could help junior staff feel a greater sense of belonging, as well as develop a sense of where they might aspire to: â€Å"I like the idea of people from throughout the organisation at all levels, who are happy to be kind of champion †¦not just the high-flyers. If you have people where you are, or the next level up, where you are aspiring to be, its doable and you can relate. † [13].  ¦ Leaders who are willing and able to change Developing an organisational culture that is committed to diversity requires leaders who are willing and able to change.A key point made by Terry Marsh, from the Women into Science, Engineering and Construction (WISE) Campaign: â€Å"We talk a good deal about changing culture but actually the culture that we have to change is one that does not cope with change in many cases. You do not have to change the culture but you have to change people's ability to want to change, or their ability to cope with change †¦ We therefore have to look at whether there is a culture, in certain companies and certain sectors, that cannot cope with change at all. † [2].  ¦ Leaders who reinforce the diversity message Given that change takes time, leaders need to find different ways of promoting and praising those who are helping the organisation achieve its diversity goals:The Royal Academy of Engineering 17 â€Å"One of the practices that we have in place is that whenever a requisition is posted in our system the hiring manager receives a letter, signed personally by our senior VP for the EMEA region, talking about why a diverse workforce is important to the future of HP, for innovation, again referencing the business case. It reminds them that we have hiring goals and encourages them to work with the recruiter for a diverse source pool. † Lisa Kepinski, Diversity & Inclusion Director, HP [13]. Case: Supporting structures to mainstream diversity in Symantec Symantec Corporation is the fourth-largest independent software company in the world.It is the world leader in IT security, providing security and storage products solutions and services, to virtually the entire Fortune 1000 companies. One of Symantec’s best known products is the Norton consumer security solutions. The organisation employs just over 18,000 employees in 40 countries. Deborah Davis, Vice President, Enterprise Support Services, EMEA and India, explained how commitment to diversity within Symantec comes from the top. The group president, Tom Kendra, is the global leader and executive sponsor of the diversity and inclusion initiative within the organisation and Chief Technology Officer, Mark Bregman, is the executive sponsor of the organisation’s global women’s initiative.The organisation has established five goals for increasing the representation of women: a) increase the percentage of women in leadership positions to reflect the overall female demographic and management hierarchy; b) increase the percentage of women at the high end of the technical track in engineering; c) incre ase the number of women in sales; d) increase the number of women across all of our technical fields, not just software development areas; and e) build a work environment that supports and encourages women in their career aspirations. As well as executive commitment to ensure that goals and metrics are in place, the organisation has created a number of structures to sustain its diversity and inclusion initiative, as shown below. Supporting Structure Global Structure Global Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee †¢ Executive D Steering Committee meets quarterly †¢ 16 Diversity & Inclusion Councils established †¢ D Office – – – – Global Diversity & Inclusion Office 16 Diversity & Inclusion Councils – – 18 SWAN Champions – –Act as a link between SWAN and Executive Leadership Seek support for SWAN recommendations Identify, share and implement best practices Build Symantec brand as an employer of choice for women Id entify external women’s organizations and build long term partnerships Establish Metrics and Reporting Build collateral to support activity of SWAN Champions Conduct quarterly conference calls with SWAN Champions 1 18 The Royal Academy of Engineering Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles There is an overall Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee as well as a network of 16 Diversity and Inclusion Councils, a figure that is expanding across the globe.In addition the organisation has a Symantec Women’s Action Network (SWAN). SWAN champions attend external women’s conferences and organisations, acting as a spokespeople for the company, and build the Symantec brand as the employer of choice for women. There is also a dedicated diversity and inclusion office that acts as a link between the SWAN networks, the Councils and the executive leadership, to ensure that information and knowledge from the various fora and groups are shared. Source: Equalitec D iversity Forum, June 2007 [13]. Points to discuss in your organisation  ¦  ¦  ¦  ¦ Do staff believe that the leadership is really committed to the diversity agenda? What do they believe that they are committed to?How is this monitored, communicated and acted upon? How diverse are the role models in your organisation? How is personal commitment to the diversity agenda monitored in your organisation? Is it something that current and aspiring leaders need to demonstrate in order to gain promotion? How is ‘mindset flexibility’ developed in your organisation? The Royal Academy of Engineering 19 3. 2 Well-defined business case There are several drivers for implementing diversity policies and practices: ethical and social justice, regulatory, economic, and business case. In private sector companies it is the business case argument that provides the main driver for change.There are many dimensions to this. It can help organisations tap into new markets, as well as appea l to a broader customer base. In an increasingly diverse society the importance of the demographics of the workforce mirroring that of clients and customers is also a powerful business case argument. Access to wider pools of labour can be a powerful argument particularly where critical talent is in short supply, as in the case of ITEC. Increasingly organisations are adopting a balanced scorecard approach to the business case for diversity, as indicated in Figure 3. †¢ Enhanced understanding of new and emerging markets Marketplace †¢ ‘Mirroring of clients’ – Customers Winning new business †¢ Products and services that meet the needs of diverse customer base demographics of client base reflected in the workforce †¢ Better understanding of needs of diverse customers †¢ Access to wider customer base †¢ Leveraging diversity of suppliers and other partnerships †¢ Enhanced reputation and profile amongst clients and other stakeholders W orkplace Access to wider pools of talent †¢ †¢ Better staff retention – lower recruitment costs Productivity/effectiveness Enhanced creativity, innovation and problem solving †¢ †¢ Enhanced employer image/reputation †¢ Richer business processes †¢ Greater organisational flexibility and responsiveness to change Employer of choice †¢ Inclusive work environment where all employees are fully †¢ Better utilisation of diverse/scarce engaged and performing talents optimally Figure 3: Diversity – Balanced Business Scorecard Although it is important for those working in change agent roles to have a broader awareness of the business benefits of diversity, it is crucial that they are able to focus on the key business benefit for their organisation, as this is what gets the attention of the senior leadership team: â€Å"For us in Pfizer, the diversity business case rests on the values of creativity and innovation because we want to bring ne w medicines to patients. † Trish Lawrence, Diversity Initiatives Manager, Pfizer PGRD [15]. 20 The Royal Academy of Engineering Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles The Value Proposition Profitability and Business Success Invention and High Performance The Business Advantage Creativity and Productivity Diversity and Inclusion 14 August 2007Having got the attention of senior leaders, those working in change agent roles also need to find ways of communicating the business case in a form that line managers identify with: â€Å"One of the things we have learned is that to get the attention of line managers, we need to make the business case much more explicit. In our early efforts, we had a business case but we did not publicise the financial implications enough. † [16]. One way of doing this is to link cost/benefit data directly to line managers’ budgets: â€Å"If it's someone you know, who was a good employee, who wants to come back and they need ? 2,000 of training, but you're not paying for an agency to recruit them, it's a no-brainer from a business case viewpoint. † [23]. A continuing challenge for those working in diversity roles is being able to make direct linkages between diversity policies and enhanced operating performance and bottom line results.As Stephen Alford, HR Manager at Fujitsu Services, pointed out at the first Equalitec Diversity Forum [15] this problem arises as often a range of policy interventions are needed to address a specific diversity issue. The following case study from Fujitsu Services provides further guidance on how diversity champions can build a sound business case for diversity. Case: Building the Business Case at Fujitsu Services Fujitsu Services design, build and operate IT systems and services for customers in the financial services, telecom, retail, utilities and government markets. It employs 21,000 people worldwide. Around 12,000 of those are located in the UK working for a wide range of Public and Private sector organisations.At the 2006 Diversity Forum Stephen Alford, HR Manager, pointed out that one of the key arguments he uses to get senior business leaders to focus on diversity is to link back to the goal of ‘winning new business’. As an IT services company a key business driver is winning new contracts, something that as Stephen explained is now influenced by the changing legislation especially when tendering for public sector contracts. The Race Relations Act 2001, Disability Discrimination Act 2005 and the Equality Act 2006 mean that public sector organisations have a statutory duty to The Royal Academy of Engineering 21 promote equality in these three areas in their own organisation. In addition they have a responsibility to audit their suppliers to ensure that they too have equality schemes in place.Some of the arguments that Stephen draws on to convince managers about diversity include: Legal drivers – focusing on the pre-tend er bid situation where questions are asked about whether there have been any cases taken against the organisation and whether any have been lost. In particular pointing out how the discrimination legislation which underpins equal opportunities is uncapped and how claims can hit the bottom line significantly if the organisation gets it wrong. Raising the profile of Fujitsu – using the strapline – ‘Why focus on diversity inclusion? ’ – to point out how as an organisation Fujitsu wants to be employer of choice in the IT service sector and partner of choice for winning business.As an organisation they are now monitoring their workforce more closely, so that they have the facts to be able to manage the business more effectively. Recruiting and retaining the best talent – pointing out how with changing demographics you may not always be able to recruit the talent from the same place as you have always recruited from. In addition women, and those fr om ethnic minorities, are more likely to join an organisation where there are role models and where they feel that they can get on. Having attracted the best talent then the organisation needs to focus on retention. Losing key talent is expensive. At Fujitsu Services mothers returning to work after maternity leave return on 120% of their salary until their child is 15 months old.The more senior the women then the more this costs the organisation, but as Marjan Kuyken, Practice Manager, Programme and Project Manager points out â€Å"†¦ with that seniority comes more knowledge of the organisation and more expensive skills†. Clearly these are knowledge and skills that the organisation would not want to lose. Limitations of a lack of diversity on performance – diversity practitioners need to be able to provide a number of case examples to show how other organisations have made productivity gains from building a more diverse workforce, as well as examples of where thin gs can go when there is a lack of diversity in the decision-making teams. Sources: Equalitec Diversity Forum, May 2006 [17]; Effective Recruitment Strategies and Practices Report [12].Questions to stimulate debate in your organisation:  ¦  ¦  ¦  ¦ Do you have key data to support your business case? Are they in a format that line managers can easily understand? Do you have a range of case examples, internal and external, that you can use to support the business case? How do you communicate the business case for diversity in your organisation? Do line managers have easy access to the data on changing demographics so that they can make informed recruitment and retention decisions? 22 The Royal Academy of Engineering Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles 3. 3 Company wide policies to mainstream diversity Building an organisational culture that supports diversity and inclusion is not easy.As Juliet Webster, Involvement and Participation Association (IPA), points out organisations need to go beyond value statements and develop a coherent set of policies to ensure that they attract, develop and retain employees from diverse backgrounds: â€Å"The most ‘women-friendly’ ITEC organisations are, not surprisingly, those which have clear, coherent and thoroughgoing equality and diversity frameworks encompassing their employment policies and practices. These frameworks underpin and support a variety of practical initiatives which help organisations to attract, promote and retain women †¦ some of the strongest examples of good equality practice are not always labelled as such, but what distinguishes them is a coherence of approach to staff development and progression and the express inclusion of all employee groups. † [8].Many organisations, large and small, have realised the importance of planning for diversity from the outset when developing their policies and practices, especially when the company is growing, or plans to grow in size: â€Å"If you find yourself with 15 engineers, none of whom are women, you’re suddenly in a bad position for trying to hire your first woman. As you build up from zero, you’ve actually got to be especially careful in the early days. There is something about thinking early on, when we’re working in a field that is by its nature male heavy, to think carefully about those early hires. † Doug Fraley, Head of People Programmes for EMEA, Google [12]. So what key policies and practices should organisations focus on? †¢ Recruitment and selection The Effective Recruitment Strategies and Practices research [12] highlighted how the ITEC sector has developed a reputation for informal ‘grapevine’ recruitment, where job openings are transmitted via established networks.Employee referral schemes, which have become increasingly popular with organisations, operate on a similar principle of tapping into employees’ existing networks. Howeve r there is a concern that practices like these can make it more difficult for women, especially returners, to gain entry into ITEC organisations. Where organisations want to attract a more diverse workforce it is important that they use a number of recruitment methods to signpost their vacancies and employment opportunities – we say more about this in the section on ‘Targeted outreach and widening the recruitment net’. Selection methods should also be clear and consistent, as we explain in the section on ‘Open and transparent recruitment and career development practices’. †¢Induction In some organisations, such as Fujitsu Services, the induction process is used to ensure that all new staff are aware of the organisation’s position on diversity and the actions that the organisation is taking to build a diverse and inclusive work environment. Performance management Wider research suggests that a key policy that needs to be revised in organis ations committed to diversity is performance management. According The Royal Academy of Engineering 23 †¢ to the Corporate Leadership Council, organisations that are the most successful in building a diverse workforce are those that have developed their performance management systems so that managers in particular are held accountable for achieving the organisation’s diversity objectives. In the US, some organisations link Executive bonuses to the achievement of diversity goals [18].In other organisations performance ratings are based on the ’How’ as well as the ‘What’ and a specific case example of this occurs at the end of this subsection. A range of tools can be used to gather feedback on whether management behaviours support organisations’ diversity goals: 360 degree feedback, peer review, and employee attitude surveys [19]. However, ORC, a US based consultancy suggest that organisations should be cautious about linking diversity goa ls to managerial performance, as it might distort behaviours. An additional strategy could be to publicise a list of managers that have met the goals for increasing the diversity of their unit [20]. †¢Flexible working and work-life-balance policies Wider research suggests that offering flexible work arrangements, including high quality part-time work, is part of the ‘new business case’ argument [9]. Flexible work arrangements can help women sustain their career through the child rearing phase. The benefit to organisations is better retention of skilled female employees, thus lowering overall recruitment costs. Whilst a policy on flexible working is important, as it signals the organisation’s intent, making flexible working work in practice is more problematic. This requires line managers who are committed to the principle, as well as having the necessary skills to manage flexible working. This point will be covered in more detail under ‘Supportive work practices and climate’ later in this subsection. †¢Pay and reward The government’s survey on earnings (Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2006) shows that women’s mean full-time hourly pay in computing and related jobs is 79. 6% of men’s [12]. Thus there is gender pay gap in the sector of just over 20%. This is larger pay gap than the overall UK one [20]. The main reason for the greater pay gap in ITEC is the tendency for women to be concentrated in lower paid jobs. If organisations want to attract more women to work in the sector then the gender pay gap needs to be addressed through the use of equal pay audits and job evaluation schemes. Intellect’s annual survey – ‘Perceptions of Equal Pay May 2006’ [22] – identified that only a small number of firms had carried out an equal pay audit.Yet as the survey also showed; perceptions of unequal pay can affect recruitment. †¢ Talent management and succession planning Having attracted more women into the organisation it is important that they then have every opportunity to progress. Several organisations seem to be developing their succession planning policies to ensure greater diversity amongst their leadership population. A good example of this is shown in the IBM case study at the end of this section. Michael Chivers, Vice President, Human Resources for Sales and Marketing at Sony Ericsson spoke of the importance of organisations moving away from the 24 The Royal Academy of EngineeringImplementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles ‘rear view mirror’ approach to succession planning [11]. By this he meant that instead of appointing leaders that are clones of the current leadership there is a need to think more about the leadership qualities that will take the organisation to where it wants to be in the future. Ensuring that women are given early responsibility in their career so that they build up their reputation and visibility was raised as a good strategy by several participating Equalitec organisations. This is something that will be discussed in more detail in the section on ‘Open and transparent recruitment and career development’. †¢Restructuring and downsizing As part of the background research for this report we had several illuminating conversations with HR managers about what happens to diversity when organisations are restructuring or downsizing. Some interesting perspectives emerged. One was that where organisations have made significant investment in their diversity policies and practice they need to make sure that all of that good work is preserved in the new structure. A further perspective was that restructuring could create opportunities to bring in people with different experience because that is what the business needs. In addition to the key policies discussed above there are many other policies that may need revising, or developing, to build a diverse and i nclusive workplace, as the following case from HP indicates.Case: HP Policies and Practices Supporting Diversity and Inclusion Within HP there are three main areas of focus for diversity: attracting diverse talent, promoting and developing diverse talent, and retention of diverse talent. The term ‘diverse talent’ is used within HP as it is broad and allencompassing. The organisation also has a number of policies and practices to support its diversity and inclusion strategy. These include: Non-discrimination policy Electronic job posting Diversity Hiring Goals VP’s message to hiring managers Harassment-free work environment Degree education program Domestic partner benefits Employee resource groups Development opportunities Open door policy Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) Open communication Management by objective Work-Life-Policies and Resources Common Thread’ diversity newsletter A key policy lever is the ‘Diversity Hiring Goals’, which r eflects the philosophy that having a metric in place gives diversity a business grounding and helps the business get to where it wants to get to – a rich, gender diverse workforce -faster. As Lisa Kepinski, Diversity and Inclusion Director, EMEA Region points out â€Å"Having a metric creates a focus for the The Royal Academy of Engineering 25 business and it encourages a partnership between the business and HR, as it is the business that sets the metric, not HR. † A practice that reinforces the ‘Diversity Hiring Goals’ policy is the – ‘VP’s message to hiring managers’.Each time a new recruit is taken on the hiring manager receives a personal letter from the senior VP for the EMEA region, pointing out why a diverse workforce is important to the future of HP, thus reinforcing the business case. Lisa acknowledges that organisations need to watch out for the impact that metrics might have on the focus of their work – â€Å"I f you only have metrics in place for hiring and ignore promotion, development and retention, then you could have the revolving door syndrome. † Source: Equalitec Diversity Forum, June 2007 [13] Organisations that have effective monitoring in place should use these data to develop new policies, as well as refine existing policies (see section on ‘Monitor, Improve and celebrate success’ later in this section).Policies need to be initiated with the use of statistics, but they also need statistics so that monitoring and evaluation, reconstitution and re-evaluation can happen. Finally, policies need to reflect the legislation in the country in which they are being introduced. The legislation makes it easier to introduce family-friendly polices. With an increasingly mobile workforce, opportunities for sharing different policies for attracting and retaining women in ITEC in different country contexts is something that would be most valuable. But again without appropriate data, policies can be meaningless or at worst pointless; this relates as much to individual companies as to countries.Case: Managing the female talent pipeline at IBM IBM is a global company that invents, develops and manufactures information technologies, including computer systems, software, storage systems and microelectronics. These technologies are used to provide professional solutions, services and consulting for businesses worldwide. It employs around 160,000 technical professionals, worldwide. Diversity is critically important to the business: having a diverse workforce is crucial for developing diverse products and services. The organisation has developed its employment policies and practices to ensure that it attracts and retains people from diverse backgrounds, including female employees.As part of the Effective Recruitment Strategies and Practices research [23], Wendy Papworth, Gender Programme Manager, EMEA Workforce Diversity, outlined some of the practices to develo p, progress and retain women. â€Å"We run regular pay audits, as part of our salary rounds. We always look very closely at the gender element of the pay rounds, to make sure there’s fairness and it’s a level playing field. But we do run specific exercises where if there’s something that maybe suggests we should have a look at it, then we do. And we dig quite deep down into the data, and, you know, on pay for graduates, when I last looked at it about two years ago, there was no discrepancy.And there are so many factors involved in the determination of pay, so it was quite a lengthy exercise, but it was really positive. 26 The Royal Academy of Engineering Implementing Diversity Policies: Guiding Principles So, a couple of things we do. We have women’s leadership councils in each country, looking very closely at pipeline and progression. We’ve worked with the HR teams in each country to specifically identify the creme de la creme of the female talen t, and actively manage those women to make the next step change. That could be a move outside their business, or promotion. The women’s leadership council can assist by profiling role models, by getting women more actively involved in mentoring or networking and engaged in education programmes.We also look at our attrition rates in terms of propensity to leave, so if there’s a particular part of our structure where we’re seeing a higher increase of women likely to leave, say, for example, in the UK compared to that same position in the structure in another country, or overall in Europe, we conduct round tables with that part of the structure, and the band just below as well. It’s very important that we know how the women in the level below see, their future opportunities. So we conduct focus groups and round tables to get a feel for what will keep you with IBM. We keep an eye on where the key pressure points in our pipeline for women are.