Analysis Of Pregnancy And Childbirth Health And Social Care Essay

Pregnancy and childbearing dramas important function in female parents ‘ lives. The birth of babe brings assorted emotions of joyful clip, and besides it brings tremendous alterations in physical and psychological facets of adult females ( CMHA, 2010 ) . Adjustments of these alterations puts adult females to be susceptible of holding anxiousness, fright, unhappiness, hopelessness and feeling of ineptitude, which are foundations of depression ( CMHA, 2010 ) . Such feelings of depression symptoms may take into a mild depression – which is called babe blues and tends to travel off in shorter period of clip ( 3-5 yearss ) ( CMHA, 2010 ) . However, if the mild depression left untreated, continuity of depressive symptoms turns intoA terrible type of postpartum depression ( PPD ) which interferes with female parent ‘s ability to take attention of ego, her bond and fond regard with kid, every bit good as puts strain on the household ( Edhbrog, Friberg, Lundh, and Widstrom, 2005 ) . The strength and grade of a adult female ‘s get bying responseA may be influenced by feeling of failure, guilt, hurt, concerns, solitariness, uncertainness, and unrealized outlooks ( Edhbrog et al. , 2005 ) . Therefore, the purpose of this scholarly paper is to an analysis of a wellness issue ( PPD ) by utilizing four different equal reviewed articles to back up the grounds of how increasing depressive symptoms, deficiency of societal support and low economic position can do break in wellness of kid denudation and kid rise uping household which can be prevented with the aid of wellness attention supplier ( nurse ) by utilizing proper intercession to advance better wellness attention. Second foremost factors in PPD impacting wellness of households are deficiency of societal support web which has important consequence on the female parents to obtain expected support from society, household, relations and friends. The handiness of societal support is an of import variable in easing a female parent ‘s load and taking to better accommodation to the new demands made on her ( Benoit, Westfall, Treloar, Phillips, & A ; Jansson, 2007 ) . However, in some civilization male childs are consider as inheriting the household ‘s belongings and wealth, where misss are consider as decreasing a adult female ‘s position and a menace to her felicity in the PPD ( Bina, 2008 ) . Harmonizing to article three, during PPD, the importance of societal support differs chiefly depending on female parents ‘ cultural background such as: an association between ‘gender bind ‘ is an illustration, in which gender of the kid culturally desired before the baby is b orn ( Bina, 2008 ) . If the expected desire does non fit with the outlook of the civilization, it greatly affects the societal support given to the female parent from the household and society by cut downing importance of her position in household. At the same clip, when society frissons at the household ; comparative, friends, household every bit good as spouse besides feels ashamed and creates maltreatment and hatred towards female parent for giving birth to a miss in which female parent may meet feelings of weakness, isolation and depression rupture the bond between female parent and baby ( Bina, 2008 ) . Sometimes, female parents who give birth to the twins ( one babe male child and other babe miss ) tends to hold more depression because fostering one kid ( male child ) more kindly than other kid ( miss ) affects the developmental growing of the kid ( Bina, 2008 ) . Furthermore, sufficient societal support mechanisms such as community groups, churches, and school or sports-relat ed activities, can move as a barrier against negative thought and allow female parents who are prone to depression, in order to do better, more positive picks and prosecute in healthy kid development ( Bina, 2008 ) . Therefore, female parents frequently suffer from function strain over conflicting and overpowering duties in their life, because of the tendency of society, desired expectancy and expected support shapes the wellness of kid bearing and kid rise uping households. The 3rd last, but non a least, factor in the PPD impacting the wellness of household is low economic position. It has been demonstrated in the article oneA that deficiency of employment of female parents due to the added duty of kid establishes greater hazard forA developing depression subsequently in life than those who are transientlyA hapless ( Benoit et al. , 2007 ) . Women populating in low-income households increases opportunity for force, deficiency of resources for aid, a survival attitude, poorer nutrition and general wellness, and lower opportunity of holding a good instruction for healthy nurturance of kid ( intervention for upset ) – all of these factors affect the wellness of single household members ( Benoit et al. , 2007 ) . For illustration, alterations in hours of employment due to the extra duty of kid and house jobs, low income addition comparison to more end product, consequences in higher degree of depressive symptoms. Overall low income in family can besi des do hard for female parent to fulfill the demands of babies and household which welcome the hazard factors of disease such as: high blood pressure, anemia, and anorexia nervosa ( Benoit et al. , 2007 ) . So, low income in household can do incapable of providing consistent child care. Thus, economic position dramas outstanding function particularly with the deficiency of societal support and increased in mental emphasis, financially non merely impacts the female parent but besides it has inauspicious consequence on the baby every bit good as the household. Furthermore, I as a function of nurse, it is significantly of import to construct up accurate intercessions schemes depending on badness and necessity, to eliminate the consequence of the postpartum depression happening in wellness of household by the aid of the nursing diagnosing. Get downing with, to stamp down the depressive symptoms in PPD would assist me as nurse to reflect on female parents ‘ ego construct to busy more in depth cognition of factors, effects and affects to see different state of affairs of single household with new lenses of attention ( Wang et al. , 2005 ) . It would besides assist me as a nurse to supply individualised, flexible, and non-pharmacological interventions attention based on badness degree and maternal penchant ( Wang et al. , 2005 ) . I, as a nurse would besides follow best pattern guideline for verification, bar, and intervention of female parents with depressive symptoms in the first postpartum twelvemonth. Traveling on towards supplying su fficient societal support can be done by directing towards available resources such as speaking therapies which will promote female parents to show their feelings and speaking on phone and cyberspace web based back uping groups will back up female parents straight from place ( RNAO, 2005 ) . In add-on, I as a nurse will besides turn connexion of female parent with cultural groups sing person ‘s belief and values to supply cultural sensitive attention. Last, to better the economic position of family-mother related to infant, I as a nurse would seek to increase the nexus of household with other members in society to heighten more societal support which will assist female parent and household to derive financially relief and sustain basic necessities for endurance ( Benoit et al. , 2007 ) . For illustration, doing household and female parent aware of economic support groups such as nutrient casts, public assistance aid will assist to relieve economic emphasis ( Benoit et al. , 20 07 ) . Therefore, through intercessions, I as a nurse, being cognizant of the effects and indispensable stairss to be taken to forestall and better wellness of kid bearing and kid rise uping households more expeditiously will impound the long term complication of PPD. Therefore, postnatal depression is mental wellness issue where it ‘s of import to acknowledge its features to originate appropriate early intercessions and cut down the long term affects on mother-child relationship every bit good as wellness of kid bearing and rise uping households. As facts mentioned in four article throughout the scholarly paper illustrates different intercessions, affects and symptoms used for the different factors of increasing depressive symptoms, deficiency of societal support and low economic position leads to hold negative result on interpersonal relationship between kid, female parent and within household. Harmonizing to the household system theory, alterations happening in one member influence the whole household ( Perry, Hockenberry, Lowdermilk, & A ; Wilson, 2010 ) . Similarly in order to concentrate on separate person in household the impact of beef uping the whole household will be greater than the amount of its parts ( Perry et al. , 2010 ) . Fu rthermore, three factors related to PPD are interrelated because economic emphasis was associated with depressive symptoms and appeared to exercise portion of its influence by cut downing societal support. As a consequence, minimising the PPD minimizes the impact of symptoms on female parents ‘ ability to nature her new born kid which will procure the attachment bond with baby and every bit good as societal support will let herself to be strengthen and beef uping her failing will better the overall wellness of kid bearing and rise uping households ( Benoit et al. , 2007 ) . Hence, PPD is disorder where there is n't any peculiar medicine for it, but there are interventions and schemes that can assist in decreasing this issue that is impacting about every kid bearing and rise uping households.

Dual Core processors: A New and Better CPU Technology Essay

Most modern personal computers are based on a single-core processor – that is, a single processing unit in one integrated circuit. Never designs have integrated multi-core processors, which have more than one processing unit, integrated into a single chip. The most common design of commercial multi-core processor is a dual-core processor, which combines two processing units in one chip. These processors are used in most new Apple products, many Windows-based personal computers and many gaming systems. Major chip manufacturers AMD and Intel both offer dual core processors for use in consumer electronics. Other chip manufacturers such as Fujitsu and Pennsylvania Semiconductor have followed suit with their own dual core offerings. Manufacturers aren’t stopping at dual core offerings – they continue to increase the number of processing units in their multicore offerings, with four or even eight processing units available. Most dual core processors are RISC-based processors (Reduced instruction Set Computing), which offers faster processing than the standard single processor chip (Mears, 2005). Dual core processors have a number of advantages over the older single-core processors. They use less power, run cooler and are faster in some applications than the older chips, decreasing the possibility of overheating as well as reducing the device’s use of power (Lynch, 2005). Virtualization, or the abstraction of multiple resources into a single virtual resource or a single resource into multiple virtual resources, also is made possible by dual core chips (Lynch, 2005). This process greatly increases the efficiency of multitasking, or running multiple programs at the same time. Dual core processors were first introduced to the consumer market in mid-2005, with both AMD and Intel, the two largest chip manufacturers, bringing their products onto the market at about the same time (Lynch, 2005). They quickly became popular, particularly with graphic artists and gamers, who required the faster performance of the dual core processor. However, machines built with the processors had a steep price tag, slowing the consumer adoption of the processors. Dual core processors were at first only offered in high-end workstations intended for graphics-intensive gaming or graphics creation, and the machines often had price tags of $5,000 or more (Begun, 2005). Today, they are offered in most major computer lines, including Apple, IBM and others. Notebook computers also offer dual core processors. By the time dual core processors were introduced in 2005, single core processors had reached their speed limit due to limits on the size of chip components (Lynch, 2005) Dual core processors did not offer faster speeds for all programs at first. Because of the design of the chip, only programs that were able to run multithreaded (dividing the required calculations between two different processors) would see an increase of speed when used with a dual core processor. At the time the processors were introduced, this included operating systems such as Windows, some graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop and many graphics-intensive games, particularly multi-player Internet based games (Begun, 2005). Lynch (2005) noted that a popular consumer application of the dual core chip would be to download media such as television or movies while playing a game using the other core. More impressive than the efficiency games in high-calculation applications is the reduced power requirement and heat production. Wong’s analysis of the PA Semiconductor PA6T dual core chip demonstrates the gains made over single core chips in this area. The PA6T chip uses the 64 bit Power architecture, and uses a fine-grain clock gating approach to reduce the power usage even further (Wong, 2007). The chip uses only 13W of power for a 2-gHz chip, offering a significant advantage over a single-core processor. Lynch (2005) stated that while a single core AMD chip used 89 Watts, a dual core chip with twice the processing power used only 95. Lynch noted that the heat gains that were realized with the dual core architecture were especially important in reducing fan noise and emissions. Single core chips could not run faster than they did without producing significant, sometimes dangerous levels of heat, which required ever-larger processor fans to disperse. The dual core architecture, which ran far cooler than single core architecture, resolved this problem easily (Lynch, 2005). The ability to use virtualization is a major benefit of dual core processors. Virtualization originated as a distributed computing concept. Using virtualization, physical computing resources such as processing units, memory, and disk storage are overlaid with a virtual representation which reorganizes the physical resources into a virtual architecture, creating a single virtual resource out of more than one physical resource or partitioning a single physical resource into multiple virtual resources (Ernest & Fellenstein, 2004). Virtualization not only increases efficiency and reduces spending on physical computing resources; it can greatly reduce power usage (Information Week, 2006). This technique is used in Web services development, grid computing and a number of other areas of computer science. Application of virtualization to personal computers with dual core processors has been very successful in speeding applications and multitasking. VMWare, a popular implementation of virtualization for personal computers, began to support dual core processors shortly after their commercial introduction, offering their first dual core product in 2005 (Mears, 2005). Sun Microsystems is another major provider of virtualization software. In 2006, Sun announced plans to provide virtualization software that could run up to 32 processes on a single multicore processor, increasing to 64 processors the year after introduction (Information Week, 2006). Sun’s new systems immediately showed the benefits of the power-saving multicore processors. David Young, CEO of Joyent, a provider of e-mail and storage services, says he saw immediate benefits in moving to UltraSparc T1-based systems. With a customer base doubling each of the past two years, Joyent attempted to increase capacity at a co-location facility, but was told there was no available power. Joyent consolidated a number of older Intel-based Dell servers onto 20 Sun servers. Each Sun server saved the company more than $1,000 per year in power and cooling costs, and generated an additional $1,000 per year in rebates from the utility provider. â€Å"If I can save $4,000 a month, that’s someone I else I can hire to improve our service to our customers,† he says. (Information Week, 2006). Dual core processors have gained increasing acceptance in the consumer and business market. According to Lynch (2005), the majority of the consumer processor market was predicted to be dual core processors by 2007. However, there are even bigger and better things on the horizon. Multicore processors don’t stop at only two processing units – processors with up to 1,024 processing units have been designed in the laboratory, and commercial offerings now range up to 8 processing units. Apple has announced that their Mac Pro desktop machine can now be configured with two 3. 0 gHz quad-core Intel Xeon processors, for a total of eight processing units (eWeek, 2007). The machine, targeted to graphic designers, software developers and researchers, can support up to 8 displays, has 16MB total of L2 cache and a 1333 MHz front side bus. Although the Mac Pro is on the high end of consumer desktops, the Apple spokesperson stated â€Å"The eight-core Mac Pro gives pro software developers a platform to prepare new versions of their application for the future, when eight-core technology is more prevalent on the desktop (eWeek, 2007)†. If the enthusiastic consumer adoption of dual-core technology is an indication, the future Apple dreams of is not too far off. Dual core processors offer a wide margin of improvement over the older single-core processors in many areas. Increased speed for popular applications such as 3-d gaming and graphics programs make the processors attractive; decreased heat output and power requirements ease environmental and operations concerns. The benefit of virtualization has brought levels of computing previously only enjoyed by users of large-scale grid computing, multi-processor servers or other industrial or academic computing environments home to the desktop. Ever-widening horizons of multicore processing offer the promise of even greater and more powerful home computing. Dual core processors are only the start of the future of consumer computing. Works Cited Wong, William. â€Å"Judicious clocking subdues power-architecture cooling needs: this 2- GHz, dual-core processor uses thousands of gated clocks to cut power requirements by more than a factor of three. (LeapFrog). † Electronic Design 55. 9 (April 27, 2007): 34(2). Begun, Daniel, Rich Brown, and Matthew Elliott. â€Å"Maximum multitasking: dual-core CPUs double up for faster multithread processing. (Central processing units). † Computer Shopper 25. 7 (July 2005): 96(2). Joseph, J. , M. Ernest, and C. Fellenstein. â€Å"Evolution of grid computing architecture and grid adoption models. † IBM Systems Journal 43. 4 (Dec 2004): 624(22). Mears, Jennifer. â€Å"VMware virtually primed for dual core. † Network World (July 25, 2005): 25. â€Å"Sun Expands Virtualization Products, Services; Sun is introducing enhanced virtualization technology for its UltraSparc T1 CoolThreads servers that will let customers run up to 32 applications simultaneously on a single processor. (Sun Microsystems Inc. ). † InformationWeek (Oct 17, 2006): NA. â€Å"Analysis – Dual-core processors speed to market. More is most definately better that less when it comes to CPUs. With the ability to run numerous applications in tandem, the new product will dominate the PC market in no more than a couple of years says Martin Lynch. † Computer Reseller News (Oct 17, 2005): 27. â€Å"Apple Unveils Eight-Core Mac Pro. † eWeek (April 4, 2007): NA.

Differences Between Private And Public English Language Schools In Dissertation

Differences Between Private And Public English Language Schools In Northern Cyprus - Dissertation Example In Cyprus, as elsewhere – the ongoing race of education as it keeps pace with technology opens up the potential to establish the fabled global village with respect to the development of human capacities through modern educational institutions now becoming available in North Cyprus. The value of specialized language education programs is recognized throughout Europe and neighboring regions. Across a diverse continent, and nearby islands there is considerable potential for Diversity – but also a similar potential for isolation and prejudice as existed in centuries past. Among one of the central tenets of the European Union is the promotion of mobility and communication within the population of Europe and neighboring regions. The most immediate and practical way to address the need for equality and mobility is through a policy of linguistic equality. The goal of multilingualism is achievable through the promotion and facilitation of a common language or languages among diverse groups in formerly isolated regions to create a broader cultural framework in which populations can move and interact with one another more freely, as well as receive visitors from other countries and more readily accommodate them for educational and economic purposes. With different languages endemic to various regions throughout the greater European sphere, the teaching of English opens up expanded opportunities for communication and concourse both for travelers from their native lands, and to receive visitors for the economic invigoration of islands such as Cyprus. English remains a popular choice, and a useful starting point for an overall goal of multilingual aptitude throughout Europe and the Mediterranean region. Turkish Cyprus boasts a large population of expatriate English speakers, but with less tourism in the Turkish north, demand is somewhat le ss for new English speakers as language instructors than the Greek South. Throughout the island, the state system boasts widespread English instruction, and while there are private English-language academies of various quality and price throughout the country, academies include primary and secondary schools in English. But there are smaller numbers of Russian, French, and Greek academies as well. English-speaking academies tend to be fewer in number in Turkish areas (Global-English.com, 2010). In terms of the political geography of the region, the island is divided into the Turkish north, officially known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus –

Comparison of two articles about bias in the News Media Essay

Comparison of two articles about bias in the News Media - Essay Example The profession of a journalist, albeit regulated by its own set of regulations and ethical guidelines, is not an exception. Journalists, just like everyone else, carry intrinsic biases which are structurally transmitted to their work environment. The author of the â€Å"Bias in the News Media† article coins the name frames to refer to this structural formations. The frames reference suffices because it is through such structures that journalists literally frame the messages that are carried in new media outlets such as television. It is the presence of these biases that always influences how the message is packaged. The author of â€Å"Bias in the News Media† then proceeds to list the various types of biases that influence how news is packaged by broadcast journalists and the possible causes for these biases. Notably, biases are popular in broadcast journalism because of the commercial nature of the media business. Capitalism dictates that only those messages, services or products which are likely to be popular among the majority of the customers should be given a priority. This is undertaken for purposes of profit maximization. The author employs logical rhetoric to further implore the readers that news outlets in their variant forms do introduce biases due to the internal supporting structures which are normally established with the profit maximization motive. According to the essay, the presence of these biases makes it impossible to have media outlets that can be deemed to be objective in news dispensation.

A Critique of the relationship between power and desire in Foucaults Essay

A Critique of the relationship between power and desire in Foucaults analyses of the Repressive Hypothesis - Essay Example As he argues in the opening of his seminal work, â€Å"for a long time, the story goes, we supported a Victorian regime, and we continued to be dominated by it even today . . . thus the image of the imperial prude is emblazoned on out retrained, mute, and hypocritical sexuality† (Foucault, 1990, p.1). According to the traditional view of â€Å"repression† (one that Foucault palces firmly within a Freudian context), the Victorians were â€Å"repressed† and we in the modern age, with constant talk of sexuality and a relative openness regarding the subject, have broken free of that repression. Sexuality had power over the Victorians through its denial, the modern age is freed from these shackles. This Foucault presents as the traditional view of sexual repression, and also of power. For Foucault power is not â€Å"a general system of domination exercised by one element or one group over another, whose effect . . . traverse the entire body social . . . .†. Foucault’s view of power is one in which â€Å"the condition of the possibility of power . .. should not be sought in the primary existence of a central point . . . it is the moving based of locations of force that incessantly induce, by their inequality, states of power, but always local and unstableâ €  (p.121-122). Foucault’s view of â€Å"power† is of a force that is not centered within a particular individual or group (however much that may appear to be the case), but rather as something that is separate from human beings and transfers between different groups, individuals, ideas, spaces and times according to a system that is essentially unstable. This has a direct influence upon both repression and desire. The traditional view has it that when a sexuality appeared which â€Å"was not ordered in terms of generation† it would â€Å"be driven out, denied, reduced to silence . . . not only did it not exist, it had not right to exist and would be made to

Pg 194 Case Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Pg 194 Case - Assignment Example The band remained true to their calling in offering the best to the public as far as advertising is taken into consideration. In this they remain constant to their intended purpose (Sandra, 2008). From the case in question it’s evident that Black Eyed Peas band had moved forward in their work ‘without missing a beat’ as this chapter reckons. Source credibility is another dimension to look at since many sponsors have the trust that this band will always deliver the very best together with the message they relay in the market .This therefore builds on the persuasiveness of the information to the benefit of the company that own the product seeking endorsement. Consumers will therefore agree with any message that is passed to them as the gospel truth following the credibility of the band. Source attractiveness, on another hand, makes the recipient of the advertising message to identify and gain confidence with the band (Miles, 2011). The source of the message is duly identified by the intended receiver who synthesizes the same to come up with the ultimate decision to purchase a good or a service. Potential buyers tend to feel happy about the advert such that they are even persuaded to try the product on offer. Everyone seems elated to be associated with this band thus any brand that they endorse is likely to find its way into the basket of consumers due to high level of persuasiveness exhibited. The Black Eyed Peas band is best suited to endorse electronic brands and automobiles like Apple, television sets and vehicles. This is so because of the high expertise levels bestowed in them. For example the band had successfully endorsed Samsung’s 3D televisions in Times Square. They can therefore develop ads that suit to endorse an electronic product. On one hand, rock bands can generally be suited to endorse consumer goods like drinks and food. With this therefore they can successfully endorse a brand into the

Supply chain inventory, people, technology and risk Assignment

Supply chain inventory, people, technology and risk - Assignment Example People involved if not well trained and equipped can be a major source of risks. In the recent years, companies have been introducing advanced technology that is relatively more reliable and accurate. Perhaps one of the main challenges facing most companies in their operations is obsolescence and fraud. Over the past years, cases of fraud have highly been reported in the UK. The government has established specialized bodies to fight fraud. Serious Fraud Office is one of the bodies together with National Fraud Authority are but examples of such bodies. The technology industry has greatly been affected in the UK with Obsolescence over the last decade. This is highly associated with the quick advance in technological advancement. In order to be prepared against these two obstacles, companies have to develop well planned strategies. In these strategies, three factors are inevitable; inventory, people and technology. This report analyses how O2, the second largest telecommunication company in UK. The report tries to put into perspective the challenges and strategies used by the company in its operations in an effort to have an effective supply of its products and also fight fraud. This has jointly been attained through training of its employees and use of cloud based inventory system. O2 is the second leading telecommunication company in the UK. The company offers a wide range of services and products from mobile phones, SIM cards, internet bundles, and also financial services like the O2 Money which allows people to send money, receive money, pay bills among other transactions. The diversification of its products and services has seen the company expand its market and customer base over the past years. The high number of customers comes with its challenges. Among the challenges is how to handle demand and supply. This is mainly depended on their management on the inventory. The supply chain has to be well

MENTORING PROJECT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

MENTORING PROJECT - Essay Example The beneficiary allows the European Commission, the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency and the National Agencies to make available and use all data provided in this report for the purposes of managing and evaluating the Youth in Action Programme. All personal data collected for the purpose of this project shall be processed in accordance with Regulation (EC) NÂ ° 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies. Data subjects may, on written request, gain access to their personal data. They should address any questions regarding the processing of their personal data to the Agency (National or Executive) in charge of the management of their application. For projects selected at national level, data subjects may lodge a complaint against the processing of their personal data with the authority in charge of data protection in their country at an y time. For projects selected at European level, complaints may be lodged with the European Data Protection Supervisor at any time. The beneficiary declares having informed the promoters and participants in its project on the provisions and practices regarding data protection applied under the Youth in Action programme Beneficiary Name, stamp (if available): Legal representative Name in capital letters: Place: Signature: Date: Part I. Project identification and summary (cont.) Type of Activity Please tick the box corresponding to the project for which you are submitting this final report. This project was of the following type: (tick one box only)  National Youth Meeting  Trans-national Youth Seminar Please specify the main target (only for National Youth Meeting):  debating relevant topics to the Structured Dialogue or EU policies  preparing the official youth Presidency event  organising activities linked to the European Youth Week  enhancing dialogue and cooperation between formal and non-formal education areas Relevance to the general objectives of the Youth in Action Programme Please tick relevant box(es). The project:  promotes young people’s active citizenship in general and their European citizenship in particular;  develops solidarity and promotes tolerance among young people, in particular in order to foster social cohesion in the European Union;  fosters mutual understanding between young people in different countries;  contributes to developing the quality of support systems for youth activities and the capabilities of civil society organisations in the youth field;  promotes European cooperation in the youth field. Relevance to the priorities of the Youth in Action Programme Please tick relevant box(es). Permanent thematic priorities  European Citizenship  Participation of young

Case Study of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company - Case Study Example This is highlighted by the famous words of its founder: "Never say no when a client asks for something even if it is the moon. You can always try" (Lampton 2003). Thus, "guests remark that they are "pampered," "respected," "treated like royalty," and "incurably spoiled" (Lampton 2003). Recognizing the importance of customer service in extending the Ritz-Carlton experience, the company has been passionate in training their staff and treating them as their strategic partners. The hotel chain makes it a point to make employees absorb the core value in the organization, train them, prepare them to serve the market. What is remarkable is the company's strong adherence to strategic human resource management. Ritz-Carlton's staff irrefutably becomes its competitive advantage (Lampton 2003). Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company's popularity is highly due to its upscale, luxury brand of hotels and resorts with locations in major cities in the United States and other internationally famous destinations such as Montego Bay, Jamaica, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Bali, Hong Kong and Qatar. The hotel company owns 59 hotels in 20 countries 37 of which are hotels while 22 are resorts. The operation of the hotel company began in 1983 with the purchase of the Ritz-Carlton, Boston by William B. Johnson. However, the legacy of the hotel is attributed to the celebrated "king of hoteliers and hotelier to kings," Csar Ritz. The company states that "his philosophy of service and innovations redefined the luxury hotel experience in Europe through his management of The Ritz in Paris and The Carlton in London." The company's quest of providing quality accommodation and service named it one of the best hotels in the world as it consistently reaped awards from prestigious organizations like Forbes, Travel Weekly, Luxury Institute, and Consumer Reports. In 2006, it was awarded the Mobil Five-Star Award and AAA Five Diamond Award (Ritz-Carlton 2007). Serving Ladies and Gentlemen Ritz-Carlton's market segmentation is reflected on its different product offerings. The company irrefutably utilized geographic, psychographic, as well as behavioral factors in designing their product line. In terms of geographic it can be noticed that Ritz-Carlton offers accommodation in four key strategic locations-tourist spots, business districts, metropolitan, and countryside. The company offers luxurious accommodations in scenic tourists' destinations like Bali, Milan, and Barcelona as well as in the business districts of New York, Tokyo, and Dubai International Financial Center. Metropolitan like areas like Seoul and Kula Lumpur as well as the countryside of Florida and Montego Bay are conquered by the pleasure offered by Ritz Carlton (Ritz Carlton 2007). In terms of psychographic and behavioral factors, Ritz-Carlton segments its market by looking at the general and specific interests of its customers. The hotel company divides its target company according to the purpose of their use of facility. Three general classifications are generated: those who stay in the hotel for business purposes;

Effects of Video Games on Children Essay Example for Free

Effects of Video Games on Children Essay Although video games can increase aggressive behavior, they can improve memory and logistical thinking, as well as teach perseverance. Over the course of the last few decades video games have been integrated into the lives of our children. Video games are very appealing to children of all ages, and even to some adults. There is a variety of video games out there, and they range from educational to very violent. Because of this diverse selection of video games, there is a wide range of positive and negative side effects that these games can have on children. Because a large percentage of our children’s time is spent playing video games, there has been a lot of research in recent years on the positive and negative effects these games have on them. â€Å"Among elementary and middle-school populations, girls play for an average of about 5. 5 hours/week and boys average 13 hours/week,† (Gentile, D. A. 2004). Teenagers also spend a time playing video games. According to Media Analysis Laboratory (1998),†Eighty percent of teens said they played at least occasionally and the average amount of time spent gaming for the sample was 5 hours per week† (para. 19). Video game play has become not only a leisurely pastime for children, but for families also. When parents are not involved in some of their game play the outcome can become a little scary. Children who play video games with their families have a more pro-social attitude compared to their counterparts who play alone. Children who are less social or somewhat anti-social tend to develop aggressive tendancies when spending long hours gaming alone especially when violent video games are involved. Video games have been shown to increase aggressive behavior in some children. Neubert, S. P. (2004) said, â€Å"Individuals high in hostility are more likely to become aggressive when exposed to violent video games. † â€Å"Games in which the only positive outcome is the violent demise of enemies reinforces anti-social behavior. Violent video games desensitize people to aggression,† (Neubert, S. P. , 2004). According to a study done by Douglas A. Gentile. References Media Analysis Laboratory (1998). Video game culture: Leisure and play preferences of B. C. teens. Retrieved from http://www. media-awareness. ca In-Text Citation 1. [Insert the paraphrased material] (Simon Fraser University, Burnaby B. C. , 1998). 2. The Media Analysis Laboratory (1998) website [Insert the paraphrased material]. 3. , [Insert the quotation]† (para. 19).

Investigation and evaluation of environmental analysis

Investigation and evaluation of environmental analysis This assignment was given to me as well as to everyone else in the group by Ms. Karen Abberton. It is requested to be done as part of the course work experience in order to see how well students understood business management structure of the company they completed their work experience in. The brief for this assignment was given to us on the 16th of September 2009 and was requested to be submitted by the 16th of December 2009. As a business course student it is very important for me to understand business management, how a well organized business works and how it can change the wellbeing of an organization. In order to create a successful company or to upgrade an existing one, we should know what opportunities this organization has. We should be able to position the organization in the market scale against its competitors if there are any. The environmental analysis of a company helps us to see negative and positive elements of the organization, what in future might make us change s ome of the strategies in order to make the company more confident and invulnerable. 3. Methods of procedures Quite a few different sources were used by me in order to construct this report. In the first place based on the information received during Marketing Management Classes in Balsbridge College a lot of handouts were given to me as well as examples based on work of real existing companies and practical exercises. Also based on my work experience in KWE World Express where I have spent over two years working as Exports coordinator. I have included mainly secondary research and applied academic theories in order to support my assignment. Books, internet and newspapers. 4. Findings 4.1 Description of organization Is a Freight Forwarding International company which started its business in 1948 and was established in 1970 in Japan. At present there are 297 offices in 192 cities in 31 of the world it and employs over 8,000 people around the world. It is a tall company with LTD-limited Liability. Its product is the service the company provides to its customers. KWE is one of the leading freight forwarding companies in the world. Domestic and foreign air and ocean freight forwarding business, trucking company agent, customs agent, and transportation agent.There are two offices in Ireland: Dublin and Cork. Dublin office is located beside the Dublin airport in Horizon Logistics Park. It employs 26 people working in the office and 1 person working as sales representative visiting potential customers, (so called sales on the road). Dublin office organizes imports and exports of freight by road, sea-ocean and air. It has been established in Ireland in 1998 and managed to gain and keep quite a number of big and growing customers. Some of them are quite known pharmaceutical companies like Takeda, Astellas. Takeda is has been Dublins branch customer for over 10 years and there are two people in the company who are responsible for Takeda account. Astellas is a new pharmaceutical company which imports and exports up to 5 tons of cargo weekly with the KWEs help. I cant go any further until I mention such a well known customer of KWE as Dell. Dell have been KWEs customer for quite a long time, but as far as I know just before I left the company last spring Dell moved its main production to Poland which means the account was lost. There are still some transactions but only occasionally. Below I would like to show the structure of KWE in a chart. The first chart will show the main offices and the second chart will give information of the Dublins branch. Now I would like to point out the countries which go under the supervision of the areas shown in the chart: Americas: Brazil, Canada, Mexico, USA Asia and Oceania: Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE, Vietnam. Europe and Africa: Belgium, Czech, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland Russia, South Africa, Sweden, U.K., Switzerland. Japan is the head office, each country should report to the headquarters main office, and the headquarters main office reports to Japan. Dublin Office Chart: As you can see it is a tall company, but lets start from the bottom. Each staff member should report to its supervisor, the supervisor reports to the department manager and the manager should report to the M.D. For Example I would report to Sandra White, she in her turn would report to John OShaugnessy and John should report to Thomas Weppelmann. In reality Thomas Weppelmann is responsible for more than just Dublin office. It means if the issue is not very big it will be resolved within the company, but if a decision has to be made like who to make redundant than Thomas Weppelmann will have to take part in the final decision, but still the opinion of John OShaugnessy is essential here as he spends more time with his staff and he knows everyones performance abilities. As already said the company is a freight forwarding agent. Its job is to safely transport goods from point A to point B, with the help of haulers, shipping lines or airlines.   Sales Department: Manager Karl OReilly Mark Fuller and Josephine Kill under his supervision. The aim of the department is to sell the companys product, which is service. They are a kind of companys advertisers. It is also under their responsibility to give price quotes to any customer inquiring a service to any destination of the world. Sales department is the start point of any shipment. They should know: 1. What kind of cargo 2. Where is it going to? 3. Dimensions and weight of goods 4. When the goods can be ready for transportation? 5. What is the desired date of transportation? And many more, the reason I say many more is because each customer and each type of cargo is different in its way. It can be smaller or bigger, it might be urgent on normal, it may go to different destinations and so on, it can be different types of goods and so on. The sales department goal is to give customer an impression that we are the only company in the country who can provide the cheapest, the safest and the best service off all. The information they give to the potential customer should be as accurate as possible, in order to avoid any issues later down the line. Imports Department: Eamonn Grogan and David Howell are responsible for Air Imports, the aim of these two people is to proceed the imported cargo as per government rules and regulations and to make sure that nothing bad happens to the cargo from the moment it arrives into Dublin and until the moment it is delivered to the final destination. They should make sure that the information they fill in the customs docs should be 100% correct, because any wrong steps or wrong information can lead to big fines for the company. Paul Byrne is dealing with DHL account, his job is to look after road exports and imports. Sarahs job is to look after sea imports and exports. She should be aware of the timetable of the ships and feeder vessels; she should daily check if the ships with different containers arrived into the transit port and left it as pre the time timetable.   On the import side the procedure is pretty much the same as air imports, all the goods should be customs cleared and delivery organized unless customer wants different. Exports Department: Sandra White, Joanne Howe and myself, responsible for air exports. Responsibilities include negotiating the prices with the airlines, checking the post flights on daily basis, organizing pickups and deliveries to airport. I was working in the Air Exports Department. I personally was responsible for some of the imports and accounts jobs as when I joined the company there wasnt too much job in the exports department and people from other departments used to give me staff to do. In general my main responsibility was checking the post flights in the mornings, than I was preparing the airway bills for that days shipments arranging collections, customs clearance for the shipments. My duties also included Cass Reports twice a month they are bills from the airlines which have to be checked if the amounts to be paid match the amounts on the bills, reports for customers, earlier mentioned    Astellas account is one of the customers who require weekly and monthly reports of the shipments KWE handle for them it was also one of my responsibilities. Accounts department: Sylvia Smith is the H.R. representative but geographically she is part of the accounts department, and her job is closely related to accounts. She is responsible for payroll. Her duties include to staff and operate the organization. Nicolla Uzell and Michelle Boylan are responsible for the accounts of the company. I think this departments duties dont have to be explained. Avril Reilly receptionist, she is the first person anyone speaks to on the phone. She has to sort the post, make sure that no unattended people are on the territory of the company. Warehouse: Mickael Tallon ahs 3 people under his supervision, their duties include packaging the goods for exports, delivering cargo and documents to the airport. Collecting cargo from the customers, delivering imported cargo to the customer, labeling the shipments with the referenced stickers. That is pretty much the structure of the KWE and the explanation of the different departments duties. 4.2 Internal influence on organization. Tangible assets:   these are the things which can be touched; we can also call it touchable: furniture, transport, equipment, it system. Furniture is the one of the assets KWE has which belongs strictly to the company as well as transport (Kintetsu Dublin owns one company car which is mainly used by the manager but it can be also used by any member of the staff unless they dont possess a full driving license), Also KWE owns a 20ft container truck which is used on the daily basis for collections and deliveries of the cargo. Equipment is a property owned by KWE, it includes copy machines, printers, fax machines, computers, a fork lift in the warehouse. IT system is another tangible asset the company owns. It belongs wholly to KWE and cannot be used by any other company. Intangible assets: The difference from the tangible assets is that intangible assets cannot be physically touched but it doesnt mean that its value is less than of those tangible ones. Intangible values of the KWE are: name, intellectual property. KWE name is a well known brand in the freight forwarding business circle. KWE is in the first ten biggest and known freight forwarding companies of the world. KWE has a good service reputation, and a good relationship with its customers built during many years with the help of the services provided.   Intellectual property is one of the strongest assets of KWE. Most of the people working for the company have many years of experience working in the business, which is supported by completing different courses from time to time, which gives staff the ability to be up to date with any innovations. Capabilities: It is the ability of the company, its staff to achieve the objectives, which lid to the achievement of the mission. What KWE capable is of: each department has an objective which is to gain as many customers as possible, and customers are money profit. But how strong are the capabilities of the company to achieve. What KWE are well capable for is to keep the existing customers, of course it gained a few new ones in the last period of time but only a few not because they are not capable to, because of the already mentioned economical crisis. Value chain analysis: Is one of the tools we can use to see the companys steps taken for creating the greatest possible value for its customers. It shows how the product of a company looks from its infinitive conditions and step by step it becomes a finished product which is a value for customers, who are ready to use it only in its final, result condition. In KWE it is the service they provide. But the customer is not interested and some of them dont even know what is used to provide the service they require. Value chain is a chain of procedures, and action taken which are applied in any organization. It includes: Inbound logistics Operations Outbound Logistics Marketing and sales Service I would like to demonstrate this chain in a real example. I will describe a day of work dealing with a particular customer in exports department. Inbound Logistics: 1. 10 am a call received from a ones off customer by our sales department for an urgent shipment to Japan. Customer needs a quote. 2. Sales get the information required in order to proceed the quote. 3. Sales let know the air exports department about a potential shipment to Japan and the information about the goods, dimensions and weight in order for the exports department to book a collection. 4. If the shipment was going let say to Canada than sales would have to contact different airlines for a quote, but because KWE have a daily consol going to Narita and Osaka in Japan they know how much it will cost the company for that particular shipment. All sales do is add up collection fee different airline fees, security if applies VAT and give the customer an estimated time of arrival of the shipment to the final destination and the total price. If customer agrees to the price the first part is done. Customer cannot refuse to go ahead because of the ETA estimated time of arrival, because any other airline can give whether later arrival time or the same one, the choice here is not a major one. There are only 2 airlines flying directly to Japan from London, none from Dublin. The inbound logistics part is done. Operations: After shipments arrival into KWE warehouse it has to be repacked (usually put on a pallet and wrapped with plastic cover to avoid any loss of the boxes from the pallet or water damage and so on.) A sticker with correct ref number matching the reference on the documents has to be labeled to the box now the shipment is ready to be loaded on the truck to go the port and connect Ulysses vessel to London.   Outbound Logistics: It is the main process of the transportation. Next morning exports department have to ring Japan airlines in order to see if cargo managed to get to their warehouse for the cut off time to go on the plane. If so we can advice our customer, if requested, that the shipment is in London as scheduled and should arrive Osaka next morning. Marketing and Sales: As you can see the sales department did its job in the very start of this operation. And in this particular case all they can do is to send a thank you for using our company service and a kind of advertising to this new customer who may appear to be not just a once off one. Advertisement can include the information of thee services KWE provides and letting the customer know about different destinations and our availability anytime with mobile all the details included and company mobile numbers. Service: Is the final result. The cargo arrival to the final destination point. It is in time as promised. All safe without any damage, this is where the value to our product is added in the eyes of the customer. And trust me this customer will advice our services to its friend, and thats how KWE becomes a brand name. The main winning point for any business is TIME. A company cannot become famous in 1-2 months time from the moment it opened. 4.3 External influence on organization. Marketing Environment consists of the macro and micro-environment. The macro-environment includes large social forces that affect micro-environment, and usually cant be controlled by the company. It is an external structure which includes the following: Political Economical Opportunities and Threads Social PEST and Porter Five Forces Technology   Natural And micro-environment consists of forces that are under control of the company. Micro-environment influences the ability of the company in producing a required service to its customers. It is an internal structure which includes the following Suppliers Customers Company Strengths and Weaknesses Marketing intermediaries Publics PEST analysis. Quite often someone who starts a business doesnt realize how important environmental factors for an organization are. I mean the country a certain business will be started in. It is very important for a new business owner to understand and to be aware of the political, social, economical and technological factors of the country the business is going to work in. A PEST analysis is one of those tools that help to understand the external environment of the organization. P Political  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   S Social E Economical  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   T Technology Political factors Can have a direct impact on the way a company operates. This factor does not depend on internal work of the company. Only decisions made by government affect the operations. Political factors include such areas as: v What is government policy on the cargo transportation? v Labor Law  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   v Government Stability   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   a)   There is a law referring to imported and exported goods in Ireland. This would include: goods imported or exported to or out of Ireland have to be customs cleared; all goods have to be declared on the paperwork, airway bills or bill of ladings. There is a law referring the goods for resale or personal effects goods. There is a law concerning import or export of medical goods and many other laws and regulations which strictly have to be obeyed by the transportation agents.    b) Labor law can influence a companys performance a lot. Ages ago people could work 24 hours a day and for very cheap pay, nowadays people cannot work more than 4 hours without a brake of 1 hour and no more than 8 hours a day. Total hours worked in a week should be no more than 40 hours. Min pay per hour has been implemented. During my employment in KWE I noticed that the rules and labor law regulations were followed as per law, every employee has been given a copy of the KWE handbook where everyone coul d see a detailed description of the companys policy and entitlements procedures     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   c) All the factors included above depend on how stable the government is. Any of the above can be easily changed due to government change or government instability. Government changes or coming of the new political parties can influence the organizations total figures. Business owners feel better to move the business to a country with growing economy rather than keep it in Ireland, where economy is down at present. Poland for example, labor is chea per, government taxes are lower. Transportation laws are softer. This follows with loss of clients for KWE. Economical Factors All types of organizations are affected by economical factors locally and globally. It doesnt matter if the economy is in a boom, recession or recovery all these affect consumer confidence and behavior. Economical factors affect the purchasing power of potential buyers. It also influences the internal and external economy. Economical factors include: v Exchange Rates v Economic downturn v The level of inflation v VAT rate a) Interest rates influence the company sometimes positively, but sometimes negatively. Because KWE deals with customers and agents all over the world, invoices the company gets are in different currencies, so the exchange rates which are in place of the payment day can influence the amount to be transferred for payment in foreign currency. Quite often payments are queried because of the exchange rate changing every day.   b) The present economical crisis negatively influences not only KWE but the general business structure of Ireland. People get redundant, companies lose experienced staff. A team which is used to perfectly fulfill its duties when everyone is in, looses the ability to do it in case of some people (not just one) of the team are not present. Performance of the companies is down, because not a full team works in the operations department. c) Level of inflation if it lows down than the customers are not very confident in using a service or buying a good. Social Factor: Social factor include the demographic changes of the country and of the world. KWE is a company who has offices all over the world so not only local demographics affect the business. These factors affect customers needs and size of potential markets. Information about demographical situation in Ireland can be found on the website: www.cso.ie . Social factors include: v How are views expressed? v Age v Career attitudes Technological factors. Technological factors are very important tools for an organization. Up to date technology can change the level of production, can improve peoples work performance and can change internal environment of an organization. Technological factor includes: v Impact of the internet v Software v Online Customs Clearance Internet is one of the most powerful technology inventions which were ever created. It helps people instantly send and receive information to and from agents, customers, suppliers and so on. Software- used in KWE for printing the documents for cargo and invoices was an old one, just before I left the company people started to be trained to use a new software which was easier to use, more friendly and could save time to staff because of the features and benefits it had and the old system didnt. Online Customs a few years ago I order to customs clear exported or imported goods the staff of the company were fill in all the customs declaration attach the documents for the shipment and physically go to the customs office and hand everything in. it was taking hours but sometimes days to customs clear the cargo. It was a problem for more people you can imagine: transportation agent, customer, customers customerand so on. After that an online system was brought to life to customs clear the goods. It saved people time increased the shipments, increased performance and increased the profits for customs office (which is regulated by the government), and for freight forwarding agents. From this analysis we can see how the PEST analysis can change the performance and may be predicting the near future of an organization even though a PEST as we know is an external factor which doesnt depend of the companys strategic. The most important of all four factors of PEST for KWE are the PET. We can see that technology had a huge impact on the company and freight forwarding business itself; economical factors like exchange rates have permanent influence different laws and regulation like the goods imported within EU are going under T1 status which means they dont need to be customs cleared and it eases the procedure and makes it cheaper as no customs charges apply. It was said that on tomorrows budget meeting 09-12-09 the government wants to bring the VAT up, which will hit the customers and KWE even more, negatively. It will work out better for companies to buy the goods they need across the border in England as the VAT is much lower there.   Porter Five Porters This model was invented by Michael E. Porter he wrote a book called Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. Since then, people use this structure for analyzing a companys industry structure and its corporate strategy. Porter described five forces that shape every single industry and market. These forces help us to analyze everything from the intensity of competition to the profitability and attractiveness of an industry. The structure below:   Threat of substitute. 1. The time is wrong (economy is low). Bad time for any industry to be started right now. 2. This type of industry might need a much bigger capital to start the company than a local shop for example. 3. A lot of companies producing the goods for exports move out of Ireland to cheaper countries in Europe or Asia. (Dell moved to Poland, Xilinx-who were one of the biggest customers of KWE for nearly 10 years, moved to Asia) Cheaper countries means: cheap labor, cheap government taxes, VAT on imported goods and so on. Threat of new entrants. 1. If we look to substitute service KWE is providing than rivalry is quite high. There tens of companies at present competing for business in freight forwarding domain who can offer better service or rates. Due to high number of competitors with the same strategies and a lot of them being the same size the mission of KWE and many other organization in that industry is to just stay in for the moment until things pick up. Power of Supplier. Suppliers just like KWE are not in a very strong position at present. KWE can chose from many different suppliers and negotiate the rates to KWEs advantage. From many years of working in Ireland KWE managed to set up accounts and to build a business relation with many different suppliers, so at present if they move from one to another it wont be a totally new one which means there will be no switching cost involved. Switching doesnt affect KWE it only affects   the airlines, trucking companies or feeder vessels. Power of buyer. This is exactly who is in a winning position at the moment. If we look at it, it can be whether KWE or their customers in this position. Customers now win as they buy cheap transportation of cargo worldwide. KWE wins as well as it buys cheap service from its supplier another side of it is that KWE have sell thing they for very cheap as well, so the profit they make at present is minimum. Competitive rivalry of freight forwarding business. Conclusion: from the point of view of new entrants into the business rivalry is minimum and from the point of view that customers may move to a substitute supplier, rivalry is maximum. Competitive rivalry is high for KWE at present. So we cannot say for definite now that there is someone in a winning position in the present economical crises. Product can be easily substituted, suppliers can be easily substituted, each of them buys cheap and sells cheap. The only definite winner is the final consumer like us who doesnt buy imported goods for resale. The prices in Ireland on different products decreased a lot. The only problem is that the final consumer doesnt have the ability to buy as the income of people is very low and even worse people lose their jobs. 4.4 Internal and External influence on organization SWOT analysis Strengths: v Staff v Name v Experience v Global coverage v Long term contracts with suppliers v Consolidation Weaknesses: v Price of Services v Large number of players v Staff v Overseas agents. Opportunities: v Funding v New Services v Staff training v Technology investments Threats: v Economy v Falling Sales v Cash Flow Internal analysis Strengths of KWE Kintetsu World Express: Staff is one of the most important strengths of the company. A well trained and experienced staff is companys biggest advantage. Name KWE is a well known, recognized name in freight forwarding business area. Companies who supply different types of goods worldwide are well familiar with KWE as a freight forwarding company. Experience Many years worked in freight forwarding area gives the company an advantage. Global Coverage KWE provides services into main and secondary destinations worldwide. It can deliver any type of goods into most cities in the world. Long terms contracts with suppliers gives KWE the opportunity to offer its customers competitive rates as the rates they have with their suppliers are based on long term relationship. Weaknesses of KWE Kintetsu World Express: Prices of Services Air freight for example, some competitors might have their own planes flying to different destinations worldwide (ex. DHL) of course no matter how low the rates are DHL offers to KWE they can steel offer cheaper transportation to the customers and KWEs rates are going to be higher in comparison.   Large number of players a lot of competitors in freight forwarding business quite a big number of which might offer better rates and bigger service Staff as well as staff can be a strength it can also be a weakness. Some workers are not very competent in doing their job; some are not team players which is very important in an organization. It gives birth to a weak operating performance. External analysis. Opportunities of KWE Kintetsu World Express: Funding Investments could help the company in present economical crisis to gain new customers. Example: Invest in companys transport; trucks 40 foot containers could help offer customers cheaper transportation charges on road freight. New Services could gain new customers or provide new business for existing customers. Threats of KWE Kintetsu World Express: Economy is one of the external factors of macro-environment. As said before it doesnt depend on the companys strategy. This is exactly what happens in the current economical environment, when economy negatively influences the business. People losing jobs, sales drop, annual profit targets fail to be reached and so on. Falling Sales this is also what is happening at present due to economical crisis. But it can also happen when economy rises, depending on the companys marketing management.   How good are the strategies of the company, and how efficient are they for the org

The Life of Edgar Allan Poe Essay -- Edgar Allan Poe Writers Authors E

The Life of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be the father of the short story by many. Over the course of his life, he wrote hundreds of short stories and poems. His writing style is unique and influenced by the tragedies that occurred over the course of his life. In fact, he is most well known for writing morbid stories and gruesome, dismal poems. Indeed his writing habits were heavily influenced by his life. His life was full of depression, angst, and woe. Many of the people he cared for fell victim to deadly plagues and diseases. To cope with this pain, Edgar Allan Poe sought comfort in the bottom of a bottle. In his times of depression he would drink heavily and become sick for days at a time. In between his fits of alcoholism and depression, he wrote. When he wrote, he wrote well. Edgar Allan Poe led a life full of tragedy and troubled times. Although he kept an air of dignity and pride around him, he often felt very lonely and depressed. This feeling of desperation greatly influenced his unique and often morbid writing style. Edgar Allan Poe had very humble beginnings. Within the first three years of his life, he lost both of his parents and was separated from his siblings. Edgar Allan Poe’s parents had a background that can be credited for his imagination and love of writing poems and short stories. His parents, David and Elizabeth Poe, were both actors and stage performers. Although poor, David and Elizabeth were well known on the stage, and played as important characters in assorted plays including comedies and Shakespearean dramas. David Poe preferred to take on minor roles in plays, but was credited by critics as good nonetheless. Elizabeth scored many lead actress roles, but still the two only had enough money to live poorly. They were too poor to care for their firstborn son, William Henry Poe, and had to send him off to his grandparents who were to care for him. On January 19, 1809, Edgar Poe was born. Edgar’s father was suffering heavily from alcoholism, and eventually left Elizabeth to care for her son alone. Elizabeth, however, was showing signs of tuberculosis and was pregnant with a third child. She was struggling to support her family by playing various theatrical roles for money. Soon she was too weak to continue acting. The owner of the theater company she worked for placed adds in newspapers to rais... ...aring, the man orders to bird to vacate his door and his life, and â€Å"Take thy beak from out my heart.† The bird does not leave and the poem ends describing how the bird’s looming shadow crushes the man’s soul beneath it, trapping the man forever in a state of gloom and misery. So it was that Edgar Allan Poe led a life filled with misery, depression, loss, and heartbreak. He sought respect from his foster father and fame among his peers. But because of the ravages of alcohol, he drank all of his blessings away, and what he was left with, abandoned him. His life long dream was to own his own magazine but his lifelong financial problems kept the dream always just out of reach. He did however manage to become the father of the short story, and the first comprehensive detective story author. During his time, his literary works were overlooked or slandered by his many enemies. But now, to this day, Edgar Allan Poe is a household name. His works such as â€Å"The Raven† are known to almost everyone for their rhythmic meter and captivating emotions. The tragedies in Edgar Allan Poe’s life left him lovesick and depressed, and compelled him to write about tales of beauty, love, and loss.

Diversity in Young Goodman Brown, Ethan Brand, and The Birthmark :: Young Goodman Brown YGB

Diversity in Young Goodman Brown, Ethan Brand, and The Birthmark "... it is no delusion. There is an Unpardonable Sin!" , a quote by Ethan Brand that is at the root of many stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthornes gloomy, dark style of writing is an emphasis on his theme of evil at societies heart. Writing about what he knew, Hawthorne described the puritan society in different periods of time and defined different characters but all connected through his style. The stories that exemplify the diversity of Hawthornes writing are "Young Goodman Brown", " Ethan Brand", and "The Birthmark". Having read these stories it is possible to become engrossed in the darkness that is portrayed and none is better than "Young Goodman Brown" . Young Goodman Brown, the character, is first introduced to us in the clearing of Salem village and we learn that he has faith in the goodness of the village and Faith for his companion as well. The people that we meet in Salem village in the first few paragraphs are just Goodman and Faith. These two characters are very important to understand for their surface characters or illusional characters. It is soon learned that Goodman Brown is not such a good man and later Faith shows us just as much false character. Goodman and Faith are not the only characters that are not all they seem to be. We come to meet more characters in the short story that are superficial as is the village itself. Goodman Brown leaves the bright, warm, goodness of his village to make a journey in the woods to meet a stranger. A good place to meet a stranger would be these surrounding woods of Salem for it is here that described by Nathaniel Hawthorne that "He had taken a dreary road,darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind." and like the scheming mind of an evil person the dark woods leads one down the wrong pathway. The woods are not an allusion as was the village, the woods are exactly what they seem to be therefore the characters met inside the woods will

What is Feminism Essay examples -- Social Issues, Womens Right

Introduction This essay aims to critically evaluate feminist arguments against the present social system of science. It begins with defining feminism and different waves which happened in the history of feminism. It then moves on to introduce different approaches in feminism. The arguments will be critically evaluated and the essay will be finished by a conclusion. What is feminism? Feminism can be described as movements which aimed at defending and establishing and providing equal social, political and economical right for women as well as equal opportunities for them (Butler, 1993). Because some people argue the gender as a social construction which can harm all people, thus, feminism look for liberate men as well as women (Butler, 1993). A person who practices feminism who can be either a man or a woman is called a ‘Feminist’. The history of western modern feminist movements can be divided into three â€Å"waves† (Humm, 1992). First-wave feminism looked for changes in marriage relationships, equality in property rights and eventually in women’s right to vote or women’s suffrage (W...

European History: Fascism Essay

After World War I, Europe struggles to return to peace and stability. Many new democratic governments fell apart under the attack of the Great Depression. As a result, new totalitarian regimes emerged such as Fascism and Communism. Totalitarian is a relating system of governments that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state. By making the most out of new technologies of mass communications, dictators were able to gain support of their populations. Europe’s inability to deal with economic depression and the political movements lead to World War II. People lost faith in capitalism and then turned to a new system of government called fascism, which contributed to economic issues, political movements and dictatorship. At the end of World War I, Europe was faced with economic problems. More than 25 million were unemployed worldwide. (Document #5) The Great depression effected economy, with global industry dropping 36%m and world trade decreasing by 62%. The governments during World War engaged in heavy borrowing which caused iflation. Much of European economy was built on the loans from the United States. One country, Germany had high level of interest, which crushed agriculture and industry, a burden on taxes and external debt. In the beginning of the year of 1931 with the highest unemployment rate of 23. 3. (Document #6) Fascism preached several ideas that benefited a country. Fascists believed that a nation must struggle i n order to be safe and strong, peaceful countries were attacked. Germany, a fascist country under the rule of Adolf Hilter was one of them. (Document #2) Fascism, the new militant political movement, emphasized loyalty to the state and respect to its leader. Politician, Benito Mussolini founder the Fascist Party in 1919. In October 1922, about 30,000 fascist marched to put Mussolini in charge of the government. He abolished democracy, outlawed all political parties, and control the economy by allying the Fascists with the industrialist and landowners. (Document #1) Unlike Hilter joined a political group where their goal was that Germany should overturn the Treaty of Versailles and fight against communism. The political group was later on called the Nazis. Unlike communism, which supported the working and lower class, the Nazis were supported by the middle or lower middle class, whereas later formed a branch of fascism. Germany’s economy was desperate during the depression, and unfortunately people eventually turned to Hilter. (Document #2) Hilter wanted more than political and economic power. He turned to mass communications, such as radios literature, press, paintings and films as propaganda tools. Media that was against Nazism was burned and churches were forbidden to criticize. Hatred towards Jews was one main point about the Nazi ideology. Hilter figured that Jews were the cause of trouble. (Document #12) They passed laws that took away most right from Jews in 1933. By 1932, Nazis were the biggest political leaders and was continuing to grow. (Document #7) Hilter had absolute power for years, causing Germany to change into a totalitarian state. â€Å"Adolf Hilter is Germany and Germany is Adolf Hilter. † Hess says. (Document #2) Fascism was similar to communism. They both were ruled by dictators and denied individual rights. People who were frustrated by the peace treaties after World War I and the Great Depression were please to hear the message and accepted Fascism because it was â€Å"beneficial. † This brought many issues to Europe once again, then later causing World War II.

Descriptive Essay: “My Professor” Essay

On a Monday afternoon, after discussing my computer science project with my professor, I find myself seated in a visitor’s chair in his office on the second floor of the Glatfelter Hall. The professor is about to leave the room to grab some books and a cup of coffee, but he allows me to stay. (Seeing myself as a professor in the future, I enjoy hanging out in my professor’s office.) I am facing the door. Nothing is blocking my view. Twenty feet in front of me, the hallway intersects my vantage point, so I’m able to see students and professors moving left and right like pedestrians on a New York City street corner. Quickly, I put my computer science notebook in my backpack, get my ASUS pro-book, and create a blank document in Microsoft Word. My viewpoint is set and I now begin looking for subjects. My computer clock reads 4:13PM. To my left I can see wooden shelves of well-thumbed books on java, c++, unix, linux, a stack of Wired magazines, a coffee maker and a coffee mug, an out of box macbook air and an amazon box. In the hallway, coming from right, two short and skinny Asian looking males (subjects# 20130128/1 and 20130128/2) appear in view. As they head in my direction, I can hear their excited chatter in Chinese. With little smiles on their tan faces, they greet me. Straight black hair frames their flat faces with a narrow nose and wide cheekbones. They do not find the professor at his desk, so I tell them that the professor is expected to be back shortly. With the excited look in the faces, the subjects introduce themselves to me as Chang and Lionel. Wearing boat shoes, worn and tattered jeans and t-shirts with intricate logos, the subjects mention recently returning to campus from the study abroad program in Florence, Italy. In a few seconds, they leave and I do not see them again. Read Also:  Ideas for Descriptive Essay At 4:25 pm, suddenly, a pigeon-chested male, age 35-40,( subject# 20130128/3, â€Å"the Professor†) with a height of about five feet and eleven inches, a rectangular body shape and a flat stomach smiles, walks toward me and settles to my right into a height-adjustable, blue swivel chair with armrests. In front of him, I notice a chestnut brown, cluttered desk that could easily accommodate four people, but is accommodating around forty four thousand pages of books, exams, and magazines. I see no personal touches on his desk. There are no pictures or little knickknacks. Instead, a seventeen-inch black Lenovo monitor, with two slim speakers on each side, sits in the middle of the desk top. He mentions that he would like to use my help as a assistant in one of his introductory courses this semester. Politely, I nod. Sitting in his chair, the subject is lifting his coffee to his lips, taking baby sips. With his thick-framed glasses, his close-set, brown eyes carefully examine the computer screen directly in front of him. Intently focused, he barely blinks. Bushy dark black hair frames a square face, with a cleanly-shaven rounded chin, a pointed nose, lopsided lips, and large ears. The face is not handsome, but rather engaging in its varied features. Casually attired in a dark blue polo shirt, navy blue jeans, and black sketchers with a lace-up closure, he is dressed for comfort, function, and minimal maintenance rather than for appearance. His chair has a tilt-function, but he is sitting straight as if he is in the economy seat of a Boeing airliner. His long fingers are slowly moving on the keyboard, suggesting no errors. Hanging around the back of his chair is a black, weathered rain jacket and a hook of an umbrella indicating his awareness of today’s rain forecast. Suddenly he stands up. Intelligent, scruffy, intense, and abstracted, he stares on the blackboard to his right. With a small piece of chalk in his hand, he writes feverishly the points that would like to explain in the colloquium this week. His handwriting is terrible: he is block-printing each letter like a junior draftsman. Intensely occupied with his work, he seems oblivious to my presence. A few seconds later, he sinks back into his seat and stares back into the screen. An attractive blond female student (subject # 20130128/2) appears at the door. We make an eye contact and smile at each other. She is wearing an orange and blue Gettysburg track and field sweatshirt, crinkle blue tight jeans, a snug and agile pair of pink, Nike running shoes. She makes an eye contact with the professor, greets him, and the two begin chatting. I pick up pieces of the conversation. Seeming to ignore my presence, the student is explaining that last night’s electronic homework was delayed because her computer crashed. Professor, with a mildly flippant attitude but underlying seriousness, squeezes a genuine smile: he seems to be giving the benefit of doubt to the student, although his look tells me that he has a well-honed bullshit detector. Unlike the hurried words from student, he speaks slowly using a careful word choice and without contradictions, is sensitive to the nuances and precision of language, but not devoid of empathy. Interestingly, both appear intent on avoiding eye contact, and after a few minutes, sensing the conversation is coming to a close, she looks up at him again as a sign to leave, and, seeming to receive assent, turns around to exit. I eye my computer clock. It reads 4: 47 PM. I sit for three more minutes. Nobody is around now, the professor back at his computer. I conclude my mission, shut down my laptop, say goodbye to my professor and head out of the room.

Let your life speak Essay

Questions for Reflection During which moments/activities do you feel most alive? What are your feelings about someone doing the right thing for the wrong reason? In what ways do you hear from God? What kinds of things most drain you? Stress you? What activities give you the space to reflect on what is going on inside you? How often do you do them? Consider the aphorism â€Å"Your greatest strength can also be your greatest weakness.† What is the connection between your strengths and your limits? Suggested Activity Pray through St. Ignatius’ Prayer of Examen. See www.marshill.org/groups/hc/ Select the link titled Prayer of Examen in the Practices section. Parker Palmer Let Your Life Speak Chapter 2-Now I Become Myself Quotes to think about â€Å"What a long time it can take to become the person one has always been. How often in the process we mask ourselves in faces that are not our own† [p. 9]. â€Å"We ourselves, driven by fear, too often betray true self to gain the approval of others† [p. 12]. â€Å"But inspected through the lens of paradox, my desire to become an aviator and an advertiser contain clues to the core of true self†¦clues, by definition, are coded and must be deciphered† [p. 13]. â€Å"If you seek vocation without understanding the material you are working with, what you build with your life will be ungainly and may well put lives in peril, your own and some of those around you† [p. 16]. â€Å"In the tradition of pilgrimage†¦hardships are seen not as accidental but as integral to the journey itself† [p. 18]. â€Å"I saw that as an organizer I had never stopped being a teacher-I was simply teaching in a classroom without walls. Make me a cleric or a CEO, a poet or a politico, and teaching is what I will do† [p. 21]. â€Å"People like me are raised to live autonomously, not interdependently. I had been trained to compete and win, and I had developed a taste for the prizes† [p. 22]. â€Å"Because I could not acknowledge my fear, I had to disguise it as the white horse of judgment and self-righteousness† [p. 28]. â€Å"Self care is never a selfish act-it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on the earth to offer to others† [p. 30]. â€Å"They decide no longer to act on the outside in a way that contradicts some truth about themselves that they hold deeply on the inside† [p. 32]. â€Å"Some journeys are direct, and some are circuitous; some are heroic, and some are fearful and muddled. But every journey, honestly undertaken, stands a chance of taking us toward the place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need† [p. 36]. Questions for reflection What role does gaining the approval of others play in how you live your life? As Palmer recalls his childhood, he is able to uncover clues to his true self. Parents, siblings, and even spouses are great sources of information to find out what you were like when you were younger. What were your childhood fascinations? Were you an artist? Were you building forts in the woods? What sorts of things held your attention? Are there connections between the things that fascinated you then and the life that you want to live now? Half-truths go hand in hand with fear. In our fear, it is much easier to look at another person, institution, or situation and point out shortcomings than it is to look at our own. Fear may motivate us to do the right thing for the wrong reasons. What are some of the fears that â€Å"trigger† you to lash out at others? Palmer says that â€Å"self care is good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift that I was placed on earth to offer others.† He goes on to say that a lack of self care hurts not only the individual but others as well. What does â€Å"self care† look like for you? What restores you? What are the things in your life that make your soul tired? Who are the Martin Luther King Jr.’s, the Rosa Parks’, and Gandhis: of your life? Who are the people that you admire so much that you seek to model aspects of your life after them? Why these people? Learning who you are doesn’t simply mean learning your strengths but also your limitations. â€Å"Who are you?† is a very broad and difficult question to answer. I may not be able to tell you â€Å"who I am,† but I’ve got a list of stories to tell you who I am not! Finish the sentence â€Å"I could never_____ it’s just not me.† Suggested Activity Palmer says that â€Å"clues are coded and must be deciphered.† Turn a blank sheet of paper on its side and draw a straight line from the left side to the right side. The line will serve as a chronological timeline of your life from birth until now. Place significant experiences and events that have shaped who you are today on the timeline. Examples: family of origin, deaths, births, school and work experiences, relationships, spiritual journey, great moments of joy, or great moments of sadness. Take time to share with one another about what is on your timeline and why it is significant. Parker Palmer Let Your Life Speak Chapter 3-When Way Closes Quotes to think about â€Å"There is as much guidance in what does not and cannot happen in my life as there is in what can and does-maybe more† [p. 39]. â€Å"If you are like me and don’t readily admit your limits, embarrassment may be the only way to get your attention† [p. 42]. â€Å"As Americans†¦we resist the very idea of limits, regarding limits of all sorts as temporary and regrettable impositions on our lives†¦We refuse to take no for an answer† [p. 42]. â€Å"When I consistently refuse to take no for an answer, I miss the vital clues to my identity that arise when way closes-and I am more likely both to exceed my limits and to do harm to others in the process† [p. 43]. â€Å"There are some roles and relationships in which we thrive and others in which we wither and die† [p. 44]. â€Å"It took me a long time to understand that although everyone needs to be loved, I cannot be the source of that gift to everyone who asks me for it† [p. 48]. â€Å"When I give something I do not possess, I give a false and dangerous gift, a gift that looks like love but is, in reality, loveless-a gift given more from my need to prove myself than from the other’s need to be cared for† [p. 48]. â€Å"Our strongest gifts are usually those we are barely aware of possessing. They are a part of our God given nature, with us from the moment we drew first breath, and we are no more conscious of having them than we are of breathing† [p. 52]. â€Å"Limitations and liabilities are the flip side of our gifts†¦a particular weakness is the inevitable trade-off for a particular strength. We will become better teachers not by trying to fill the potholes in our souls but by knowing them so well that we can avoid falling into them† [p. 52]. â€Å"If we are to live our lives fully and well, we must learn to embrace the opposites, to live in a creative tension between our limits and our potentials. We must honor our limitations in ways that do not distort our nature, and we must trust and use our gifts in ways that fulfill the potentials God gave us† [p. 55]. Questions for reflection Can you identify a moment in your life when God used a â€Å"closed door† instead of an â€Å"open door† to guide your life in the direction it needed to go? Discuss your experience.  Palmer says that embarrassment is sometimes the only way we become aware of our limitations. Identify and discuss an embarrassing moment that helped you become aware of your limitations. How does humor get used to avoid dealing with our shortcomings? In American culture, weaknesses and limitations are often viewed as things that need to be turned into strengths. Palmer seems to argue that in trying to turn our weaknesses into strengths we become something that we are not and end up living outside of ourselves. How does the idea that weaknesses should be identified and honored rather than turned into strengths strike you? If our strongest gifts are usually the ones that we are most unaware of, what types  of things do people tell you are your strengths that you feel unaware of? Suggested Activity Identify and write down two recent moments in your life. 1. A moment when things went so well that you felt confident that you were born to do whatever you were doing at the time. 2. A moment when something went so poorly that you never wanted to repeat the experience again. Break into groups of two or three people and share these moments. In the groups, begin by helping one another see the strengths that made the great moment possible. After doing that, reflect with one another about the moment that went poorly. Instead of offering critiques, think about the strengths discussed in the first moment. Knowing that our strengths and weaknesses are often opposites, help each other identify if there is a connection between the strength of the first moment and the weakness of the second moment. How are they two sides of the same coin? When everyone has finished gather back together as one group and discuss what you discovered. Parker Palmer Let Your Life Speak Chapter 4: All the Way Down *Before your discussion of chapter 4, it is very important to lay a framework for your discussion. Anytime people are discussing their brokenness, it must be done in a place of safety and confidentiality. Ask the group to be attentive to not try to â€Å"fix† one another as you interact. If you sense this beginning to happen, remind everyone that you are not trying to fix one another but to help one another hear. Also, be sure to communicate how important it is that what is discussed remains confidential. Quotes to think about â€Å"I had no choice but to write about my own deepest wound†¦I rarely spoke to him about my own darkness; even in his gracious presence, I felt too ashamed† [p. 57]. â€Å"Second, depression demands that we reject simplistic answers, both  Ã¢â‚¬Å"religious† and â€Å"scientific,† and learn to embrace mystery, something our culture resists† [p. 60]. â€Å"I do not like to speak ungratefully of my visitors. They all meant well, and they were among the few who did not avoid me altogether† [p. 61]. â€Å"Depression is the ultimate state of disconnection, not just between people but between one’s mind and one’s feelings. To be reminded of that disconnection only deepened my despair† [p. 62]. â€Å"I heard nothing beyond their opening words, because I knew they were peddling a falsehood: no one can fully experience another person’s mystery† [p. 62]. â€Å"One of the hardest things we must do sometimes is to be present to another person’s pain without trying to â€Å"fix† it, to simply stand respectfully at the edge of that person’s mystery and misery† [p. 63]. â€Å"Functional atheism-saying pious words about God’s presence in our lives but believing, on the contrary, that nothing good is going to happen unless we make it happen† [p. 64].  Ã¢â‚¬Å"First, I had been trained as an intellectual not only to think-an activity I greatly value-but also to live largely in my head†¦Ã¢â‚¬  [p. 67]. â€Å"I had to be forced underground before I could understand that the way to God is not up but down† [p. 69].  Ã¢â‚¬Å"One of the most painful discoveries I made in the midst of the dark woods of depression was that a part of me wanted to stay depressed. As long as I clung to this living death, life became easier; little was expected of me, certainly not serving others† [p. 71]. Questions for reflection Identifying our wounds is a critical part of the inward journey. Think back to the timeline you drew in the Chapter 2 activity. What are the wounds you have suffered? In what ways does shame cause you to hide who you are from others? Discuss the following statement: Sometimes not having answers to some of life’s questions can be comforting. Do you agree? Why or why not? Do you feel it is important to â€Å"show up† when others experience hardship or tragedy? Why or why not? Discuss Palmer’s suggestion that no one can fully experience another person’s mystery and misery. How is the phrase â€Å"I know exactly how you feel† a positive statement between two people? How is it a negative statement? How do you see â€Å"functional atheism† in the world around you? In your life? What does â€Å"the way to God is down† mean to you? Palmer says â€Å"part of me wanted to stay depressed.† Why do you think we hold onto our pain despite the fact that we want it to stop? Suggested Activity Have someone read Job 2:9-13. What can we learn about how Job’s friends respond in these few verses? Read Job 4:8 and then Job 13:5. What is Eliphaz suggesting about Job in 4:8? What can be learned from Job’s response in 13:5? Parker Palmer Let Your Life Speak Chapter 5-Leading from Within Quotes to think about â€Å"I lead by word and deed simply because I am here doing what I do. If you are also here, doing what you do, then you also exercise leadership of some sort† [p. 74]. â€Å"Why must we go in and down? Because as we do so, we will meet the darkness that we carry within ourselves-the ultimate shadows that we project onto other people. If we do not understand that the enemy is within, we will find a thousand ways of making someone â€Å"out there† into the enemy, becoming leaders who oppress rather than liberate others† [p. 80]. â€Å"But why would anybody want to take a journey of that sort, with its multiple difficulties and dangers? Everything in us cries out against it-which is why we externalize everything. It is so much easier to deal with the external world, to spend our lives manipulating materials and institutions and other people instead of dealing with our own souls† [p. 82]. â€Å"Why would anyone want to embark on the daunting inner journey about which Annie Dillard writes? Because there is no way out of one’s inner life, so one had better get into it. On the inward and downward spiritual journey, the only way out is in and through† [p. 85]. â€Å"But extroversion sometimes develops as a way to cope with self-doubt: we plunge into external activity to prove that we are worthy-or simply to evade the question† [p. 86]. â€Å"the knowledge that identity does not depend on the role w e play or the power it gives us over others. It depends only on the simple fact that we are children of God, valued in and for ourselves† [p. 87]. â€Å"A few people found ways to be present to me without violating my soul’s integrity. Because they were not driven by their own fears, the fears that lead us either to â€Å"fix† or abandon each other†¦Ã¢â‚¬  [p. 93]. Questions for reflection Palmer suggests that anyone who is alive is a leader. He broadens the typical definition of leadership to include things like family dynamics and relationships. Discuss your thoughts on this.  What monsters do you need to â€Å"ride all the way down?† What might that look like?  What activities have you been part of in order to prove your worth or value? Palmer finishes the chapter by saying that it is possible for communities to be with one another in a way that is safe and honoring. What do you think makes communities feel unsafe? We are meant to support and journey with one another. What alternatives are there for journeying together beyond â€Å"fixing or abandoning?† Suggested Activity  Read Matthew 15:2,10, and 11.  Have someone wrap an empty box as you would a birthday or Christmas gift. Decorate the exterior with ribbons, bows, and other gift decorations. Set the gift in the middle of the room and ask people to make observations about the wrapping: What can we tell about the person who wrapped the box based on the wrapping? After several minutes of observation, have someone open the  gift to reveal the empty box. Jesus observes that the Pharisees are so concerned with the exterior that they neglect what is inside. How is this true in our lives? Parker Palmer Let Your Life Speak Chapter 6-There Is a Season Quotes to think about â€Å"Animated by the imagination, one of the most vital powers we possess, our metaphors often become reality, transmuting themselves from language into the living of our lives† [p. 96]. â€Å"We do not believe that we â€Å"grow† our lives-we believe that we â€Å"make† them† [p. 97]. â€Å"We are here not only to transform the world but also to be transformed† [p. 97]. â€Å"In my own experience of autumn, I am rarely aware that seeds are being planted† [p. 98]. â€Å"In retrospect, I can see in my own life what I could not see at the time-how the job I lost helped me find work I needed to do, how the â€Å"road closed† sign turned me toward terrain I needed to travel, how losses that felt irredeemable forced me to discern meanings I needed to know† [p. 99]. â€Å"There is in all visible things†¦a hidden wholeness† [p. 99]. â€Å"Until we enter boldly into the fears we most want to avoid, those fears will dominate our lives† [p. 103]. â€Å"If you receive a gift, you keep it alive not by clinging to it but by passing it along†¦If we want to save our lives, we cannot cling to them but must spend them with abandon† [p. 105]. â€Å"Authentic abundance does not lie in secured stockpiles of food or cash or influence or affection but in belonging to a community where we can give those goods to others who need them-and receive them from others when we are in need† [p. 108]. â€Å"Community doesn’t just create abundance-community is abundance. If we could learn that equation from the world of nature, the human world might be transformed† [p. 108]. Questions for reflection  What season do you feel that you are currently in? Why? In your mind, what is the weirdest most obscure animal in all of God’s good creation? Why do you suppose God is so detailed and extravagant with his creation? What things contribute to the loss of imagination? In what ways do you â€Å"make your life† rather than listen for what God desires to make of your life? God asks that his people join him in redeeming and restoring the world. How are you joining God to redeem and restore the world? Remember that God is about details and extravagance. We can sometimes feel that the way we join God is small and insignificant compared to the way others do. But it isn’t. God created you to be a gift to Him and to the world and you have something to offer. What is it? How is this process transforming you? The way of Jesus, which is the way of the cross, compels us to use our freedom and abundance for the benefit of others. What does it look like for you to live for the benefit of others? What does it look like for your community? Suggested Activity After discussing what it might look like for your community to live for the benefit of others, finish by holding hands in a circle and reciting the Lord’s Prayer. [Matthew 6:9-13].