There are far too many (women) who are discriminated against and far too many employers who are using every single legal argument and loophole to dodge their obligations under equal pay law

Introduction The Equality Act 2010 (EqA)[1] came into force on the 1st October 2010, replacing the earlier Equal Pay Act 1970[2], with the aim of offering greater certainty. Despite this, there is largely a replication of the terms of the 1970 Act and there remain difficulties in enforcing the fundamental rule of equal pay for equal work, which is set out in Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union[3] (TFEU). This has several elements which can potentially be argued by employers looking to discriminate against women, two of which areas will be looked at here, in order to confirm or deny the statement made at the outset that employers are using the legal argument to dodge their obligations. For the purposes of arguing this point, two issues will be considered, in more detail: the need for a comparator and the material justification defence. Comparator The sex equality requirement prohibits pay discrimination based on sex and therefore a woman looking to bring a claim of this nature will need to be able to compare her contractual terms with a comparable or sufficiently similar male comparator. This notion of a comparator is used across the whole area of discrimination however it is treated somewhat more stringently in the case of equal pay. In accordance with the EqA, it is necessary for the comparator to be actual. Unlike other areas of discrimination where the comparator can be hypothetical, it is necessary for the woman in this situation to find an actual comparator. It is also necessary for the comparator to be in the same employment, i.e. employed by the same employer or at least an associated employer. The comparator must also be a current or former employee, but cannot be a successor and the comparator is fundamentally the claimant’s choice. Bearing in mind all of these requirements, it is possible to see that there a re several options available to the employer, when it comes to arguing the validity of a comparator. In the case of Macarthys in 1980, it was held that there needed to be an actual comparator with the judge stating: â€Å"Comparisons are confined to parallels which may be drawn on the basis of concrete appraisals of the work actually performed by employees of different sex within the same establishment or service†[4]. It is noted that this is not the case with a direct pay discrimination claim, where a hypothetical comparator may be allowed for the purposes of evidencing sex discrimination and less pay for the same work. A similar difficulty emerges in the area of working in the same establishment. In the case of the City of Edinburgh Council, 2012[5], where the Inner House of the Court overturned the previous decision of the EAT that had previously argued that the terminology â€Å"establishment† could have a broad meaning. Instead, the Inner House restricted this substantially by saying that the comparator had to work at an establishment that was largely in the same geographical area. An employee looking to claim that they are being paid less will also need to find a comparator who is broadly employed on common terms (as stated in Section 1(6) of the 1970 Act and restated in EqA). For example, in the case of Leverton (1989)[6], it was possible for female nursery nurses to argue that they were being paid less than their comparators who were male clerical staff. All staff had a â€Å"purple book† of terms and conditions and this was sufficient to argue that they had common terms. Finally, there is the time frame over which the comparator has worked, with the ability of the claimant to look at a predecessor but not a successor. This was supported by the case of Walton, 2008[7], where it was held that a successor could not be used, as this would require the courts to hypothesise as to whether the comparator would have been treated differently, had they been employed at the same time. This is based on the argument that by looking into the future this would be hypothetical situation and impossible to consider how the employer would act in the future. It can therefore be seen that there are multiple issues involved in locating a comparator, which can potentially make it easier for an employer to escape their obligations and to allow them to look at ways of paying female employees less, either directly or indirectly, or at the very least making the matter difficult for an employee to prove, in the absence of an obvious and exact comparator. Material Justification Another area which presents a real opportunity for the employer to look at escaping liability is the use of the material factor defence contained in both the EqA and the 1970 Act. This defence allows an employer to pay an employee less than a comparator for whom they would otherwise be required to ensure equal pay, due to some non-discriminatory reason. There is non- specific requirement to deal with the notion of material defence, after the issue of equal pay has been discussed and it may be that the tribunal will in fact consider the material justification defence, at the outset, when looking at whether the jobs were of equal value[8]. The material factor defence is dealt with in Section 1(3) of the 1970 Act, where it is stated that the employer would have a defence, if they could show that the difference in salary â€Å"is genuinely due to a material factor which is not the difference of sex†. This is a genuine requirement and allows for employers to have a distinction between pay where it is required for the business need. An employer can show that they have a material factor defence where they can prove the following. Firstly that the explanation is genuine, secondly that the reason for less favourable treatment was down to that explanation, thirdly that the reason was not considered to be the difference of sex and finally that the reason is a significant and relevant difference between the man and woman in the instance[9]. When looking at the genuineness of the situation, the House of Lords stated in Bury Metropolitan Council that tribunals should not become too concerned over the issue of genuineness and should instead simply look at the facts surrounding the situation[10]. In this case, it was also stated that the difference will only be a sham, if it â€Å"has been deliberately fabricated in order to present things otherwise than as they are†. Crucially, it is also necessary for the factor to be material meaning, in accordance with Rainey, 1987, where the difference is significant and relevant, but this could be with reference to external factors, such as the market and not necessarily simply down to the skills and knowledge of the individuals in question[11]. When it comes to material justification, the burden of proof shifts from party to party in such a way that offers a real opportunity for the employer to escape liability. Once the employee has shown that there is a prima facie case for an equal pay claim, the employer then has the burden of showing a material factor defence, before the burden then travelling back to the employee to show that this was not genuine or in error in some way. For example, it may be argued, as was the case in Cooksey and Others (2011)[12], that the use of an on call allowance had the impact of men getting paid more than women, due to men being typically more available to undertake such work; this was sufficient to constitute a material factor defence and the case was allowed, with the employer being culpable. Conclusion It is concluded here that the original statement made that employers have been able to use legal argument and loopholes as a key way of escaping liability under the equal pay legislation is not merely a theoretical argument, but one that is supported and shown time and time again through the tribunals and court system. It is argued here that by just looking at the area of identifying a comparator and the area of a material factor defence, there is a multitude of complexities that can be used by the employer to evade liability. This area needs to be revisited carefully, if there is to be sufficient protection offered to women, in the future. As it stands, all but the most obvious of discriminatory scenarios are likely to evade the full extent of the legislation and this matter requires review, as a matter of urgency. Practicality is such that there are a variety of factors which may lead to a discrepancy of pay yet this needs to be addressed to ensure that any differences are material ly justifiable and are appropriate in all circumstances so as to reduce the overall pay gap as far as possible. Bibliography Bury Metropolitan Borough Council v Hamilton and other cases [2011] IRLR 358 City of Edinburgh Council v Wilkinson and others [2012] IRLR 202, Cooksey and Others v Trafford Borough Council and others UKEAT/0255/11 Equality Act 2010 Equal Pay Act 1970 Forex Neptune (Overseas) Ltd v Miller [1987] ICR 170, Glasgow City Council v Marshall [2000] ICR 196 (HL) Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union Leverton v Clwyd County Council [1989] IRLR 28 (HL). Macarthys Ltd v Smith [1980] IRLR 210 Prentis D, Unison. 2013. commenting on North and ors v Dumfries and Galloway Council 2013 SC 45 Rainey v Greater Glasgow Health Board [1987] ICR 129 Walton Centre for Neurology & Neuro Surgery NHS Trust v Bewley [2008] IRLR 588

Bower’s Network Theory and its Link in Depression and Anxiety

Bower's (1981, 1991) influential network theory assumed that mood states automatically activate all associated representations in memory. Bower (1981) suggested that the approach to the development of this theory is considering humans as biological machines endowed with a cognitive system (for acquiring and using knowledge), and to ask what role motives and emotions should play in such a system. Bower (1981) suggested that mood can be represented as a node, or unit, within an associative network model of memory.Within such a network, a particular mood may become linked or associated with events that occur during one's life when the mood was experienced. Given these relations, when someone is in a happy mood they may be more likely to retrieve and become consciously aware of events that occurred at a previous time when the happy mood was experienced. Bower (1981) referred to this as mood-state dependent memory. However, a reversal of this effect should also be plausible: taking a part icular event associated with a mood.Schwarz (1998) informed that Bower’s model made two key predictions: First, memory is enhanced when the affective state at the time of encoding matches the affective state at the time of retrieval (state-dependent learning). Thus, we are more likely to recall material acquired in a particular mood when we are in the same, rather than a different, mood at the time of recall. Second, any given material is more likely to be retrieved when its affective tone matches the individual's mood at the time of recall (mood-congruent memory).Thus, information of a positive inclination is more likely to come to mind when we are in a happy rather than sad mood. In relating mood-memory and its effect to cognitive processes in emotion, studies have helped in understanding individual differences in emotionality, and particularly differences in vulnerability to pathological emotional states. Two general types of study are therefore of special interest: those comparing groups differing on trait measures of negative emotionality and those that contrast individuals with or without emotional disorders such as depression or anxiety states.In most of this research the implicit or explicit hypothesis is that differences in how individuals process emotional information may be a causal factor in the development or maintenance of emotional disorders (Mathews & Macleod, 1994). Several researchers have reported that depressed mood states elicit more pronounced cognitive biases in those individuals who report a past history of depressive episodes, suggesting a high level of trait vulnerability to this emotion (Miranda et al 1990). Similar findings have been reported concerning the patterns of selective attention associated with elevated anxiety.Using the dot probe detection paradigm to assess distribution of visual attention, MacLeod & Mathews (1988) tested separate groups of high trait and low trait anxious students on two occasions, again when sta te anxiety was low (early in the semester) and once when state anxiety was high (in the week before an important examination). When state anxiety was low, neither the high trait nor the low trait anxious groups showed any selective attentional response to emotionally negative stimuli words.High trait anxious students responded to elevated state anxiety by displaying increased allocation of visual attention toward emotionally threatening examination-related stimulus words. In contrast, low trait anxious subjects responded to the state anxiety elevation by showing a marginally significant effect in the opposite direction. Depending on how one thinks emotional information is represented in memory, emotional states could activate all congruent representations; that is, those consistent in valence and meaning with that emotion.Alternatively, only some kinds of congruent information might be activated, such as that involved in causing the emotion or relating to the individual's current co ncerns. Finally, emotions could be associated with effects that are relatively specific not only to particular cognitive content but also to certain types of cognitive operations on that information (Mathews & Macleod, 1994). The problems with Bower’s (1981) network theory include: 1. ) failure to replicate mood state-dependent memory effects, 2.) presence of instructional effects on judgmental bias and mood-incongruent recall, 3. ) failure to find (single) lexical decision effects of mood state, 4. ) restriction of mood-congruent recall to self-encoded stimuli, 5. ) specificity of attentional bias to domain of current concern, and 6. ) facilitation of different types of cognitive operation in different emotions. Bibliography Bower G. H. 1991. Mood congruity of social judgments. In Emotion and Social Judgments, ed. JP Forgas, pp. 31-53. Oxford: Pergamon. Bower, G. H. 1981. Mood and memory.American Psychologist, 36, 129–148. MacLeod C. & Mathews A. M. 1988. Anxiety and the allocation of attention to threat. Q. J. Exp. Psychol: Hum. Exp. Psychol. 38:659-70. Mathews, A. , & Macleod, C. 1994. Cognitive Approaches to Emotion and Emotional Disorders. Annual Review of Psychology, 45: 26-45. Miranda J. , Persons J. B. & Byers C. N. 1990. Endorsement of dysfunctional beliefs depends on mood state. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 99:237-41. Schwarz, N. 1998. Warmer and More Social: Recent Developments in Cognitive Social Psychology. Annual Review of Sociology, 24(1): 239.

SWOT Analysis Tencent Limited Holding

IntroductionIn March 2010 McKinsey published an article dealing with the obsession of the Internet of the Chinese population by concluding the following statement „People in the country’s 60 largest cities spend 70 percent of their leisure time online. Seismic changes in the consumer market are likely as a result.â€Å"1 China’s Internet population increased at the end of 2012 to a total number of 564 million users compared to approximately 250 million users in 2008, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIN).2 The main reasons for this enormous growth is strongly connected with different aspects, as for instance the general growth of Gross-Domestic-Product (GDP), lower priced computers, more affordable telecom connection fees, government support to Internet usage, and low-cost entertainment aspects. This affected, that also lower income groups started to use the Internet.3 Answering to this fast development and growth of Chinas Internet p opulation, the Internet service industry is about to increase up to 17 percentages in 2013. In the last years, the Internet service industry achieved even annual growing rates up to 20 percentages, resulting of the booming demand.The Internet market seems to be quite satisfied for the moment but even in the next years researches forecast an annual growth of approximately 10 percentages. This is due to the expansion of existing offers in the area of e-commerce and advertisement services.4 Observing the numbers, 148 million people have already experienced Internet shopping since 2010 and it is expected that 30 million people will additionally make use of it by the end of 2015.5 The Economist stated, â€Å"the future of e-commerce is China†.6 Besides the e-commerce and advertisement services also the application services became more and more important over the last years because of the introduction of smartphones and tablets.7Recognizing the trends, Tencent Holdings Limited deci ded 20 years ago to enter the market and finally became the largest Internet Service Portal in China. Tencent still enjoys a quasi monopoly position, which is hardly endangered due to rising competition. That is the reason why they need to think about using new opportunities and fending upcoming threats. Consequently Tencent should carry out a Strengths-, Weaknesses-, Opportunities-, Threats-Analysis (SWOT-Analysis), which includes the study of their own weaknesses and strengths in the internal dimension and the resulting opportunities and threats giving from external influences.This paper will firstly give an overview about the internal strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore Tencent’s external environment will be analyzed and the results will be used for defining the opportunities and threats of the company Before starting with the literal SWOT-Analysis for Tencent the first Chapter gives a short explanation about SWOT-Analysis in general.2 Definition SWOT- Analysis As mentio ned in the introduction, there are two different parts of changes in the environment, which lead to affect the performance of companies. This chapter will explain the difference between internal and external environment and their interaction. Furthermore the next part will explain the so-called SWOT-Analysis in detail.Internal environment analysis points out strengths and weaknesses of a company that in turn, supports decision-making processes concerning the handling of upcoming threats and opportunities.8 Knowing which strengths and weaknesses the company has to face, the internal environment analysis studies aspects like assets, people or knowledge on the one hand and financial deadlines or gaps in capabilities on the other hand.9 Analyzing the internal environment is very important because it defines the capability of the company to deal with the threats and opportunities given by the external environment.10 External environment deals with all developments on the marketplace, inc luding political, economical, social, legal and technical conditions as well as customers, competitors, suppliers and the public. Changes in the external environment or the so-called STEEP (socialcultural, technological, ecological, economical, political/legal)  force the companies in most cases to rethink their actual strategy, to make use of the emerged opportunities and to prevent occurring threats.11 As for instance using the development of a new market as opportunity or dealing with threats as new competitors or decreasing demand.12 To use opportunities means to develop a best-practice strategy. Regarding this, companies have to decide, whether it is the best opportunity to offer something in short supply, to provide something in a better way what already exists, or to create a totally new product.13 Concerning to that, the company has to know if there exists demand, needs and wants for the product they want to provide.14 Facing threats and not trying to fend them often leads to decreasing profits or lower sales. On the one hand knowing these threats gives the opportunity to react and trying to avoid, that threats are going to influence the company’s performance.15 On the other hand firms often do not have control over the threats, which affects the company negatively like for instance new competitors are entering the marketplace. This results in giving up potential customers and thus decreasing demand.16Bringing the internal and external environment analysis together is what you call a SWOT-Analysis. The SWOT-Analysis evaluates all strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a company, which builds the base for a strategy formulation.17 Meaning that knowing the strengths and reduce weaknesses help companies to use opportunities on the one side, On the other side to use strengths and develop strategies to avoid that weaknesses will become the target of threats. After this short definition of the SWOT-Analysis the next step will be to work out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Tencent Holdings Limited. 3 SWOT-Analysis of Tencent Holdings Limited3.2 Internal Environment AnalysisAs mentioned in the Introduction the Internet Industry in China is booming. To cover all possible marketplaces in the Internet Tencent offers a broad range of products and services. Besides the most popular service, the instant Messenger called QQ including numerous added services, Tencent provides online media, (wireless) internet value added services, interactive  entertainment services, especially in the online-gaming sector, e-commerce platforms and services as well as online advertisement services.18 Tencent also follows latest trends, as for instance launching a mobile application of a messaging service and added games and a mobile payment system, because of the latest development of using smartphones and tablets instead of personal computers.19 Tencent is one of the oldest Internet corporations in China and wi th its QQ platform the company reached 798,2 million user accounts by the end of 2012.20 As a result, Tencent influenced the communication world in China fundamentally. Another strengths lies definitely in the broad product and service offer of Tencent and the way in which they create synergies. The company offers seven main business lines, starting from instant messaging to online advertisement services. Besides just offering free services, Tencent tries to bind their users to the company’s value-added and paid services, in order to make profit.21 The strategy aims to offer the Internet population the possibility to use a wide variety of services in one company.Furthermore Tencent could gain a lot of experiences and knowledge over the past 20 years as one of the first providers in the Internet service sector, which significantly strengthened the company’s research and development abilities. Despite having already the mature technology in the market, half of the employ ees of Tencent belong to the Research and Development department, to ensure Tencent’s current market leading position and sustain this competitive advantage. Additionally to that the Tencent Research institute, which is China’s first Internet institute with the main goals in research and development of core technology on the Internet, supports the corporation in being innovative.22 Another strength of Tencent is their workforce as Tencent sees them as the â€Å"most precious asset and emphasized on the training of employees† by using different Training Systems.23 Moreover Tencent Holdings Limited is the third largest Internet operator in the world and the largest listed company in China.24 Benefitting from many advantages due to the companiescompany’s size there are also weaknesses the company has to face. In the following part the internal environment focuses on revealing the weaknesses of Tencent.Regarding the large variety of the product range Tencent, Tencent faces the fear of cannibalization because it creates a competitive situation in between their products. An example can be giving by the different instant  messaging services WeChat and QQ or TM and RTX, which serve the same purpose. Besides that QQ mobile messenger gets more and more the look of WeChat, which makes it even more competitive and leads to higher confusion for the consumers.25 Moreover Tencent greatest weakness is being not really innovative rather than being a â€Å"copy cat†. This occurs with the fact, that Tencent copied a lot from successful western companies. QQ for example is a copy of the Israeli invention ICQ and SOSO, the search engine of Tencent uses especially Google as a model.To conclude the internal environment analysis, one can summarize, that Tencent is a highly developed company with a lot of market power due to their long existence. On the opposite Tencent can notcannot convince with real innovative power. To get an idea what influence s TencentsTencent’s decision externally the next step will be to analyze the current market situation of the Internet market in China.3.1 External Environment AnalysisTencent operates in a highly challenging and rapidly changing environment. To get an idea what external impacts Tencent has to face it is important to know, what external factors the Chinese Internet market is about. As already mentioned China, faces a fast growing market in e-commerce because of the increasing number of Internet shoppers. The government noticed the importance of this growing market as well and plans to â€Å"upgrade the technological capabilities of e-commerce†.27 Another importance opportunity lies in using the governmental support, which is communicated in the 12th five-year plan and includes the support for the â€Å"new-generation IT† and additionally the advance of the information networks, mobile communication and the Internet.28 China is nowadays the largest Internet market in the world, which implicates that it is also one of the most competitive markets in the world.In addition to the high development of the Internet scene many companies entered the market in the last years, which leads to a highly competitive situation in general. Chinas Internet population is still growing but the annual growing ratio halved already from 20 percentages in the last years to 10 percentages as forecasted. Besides that, more and more  startups enter the markets, which results sooner or later in a fully satisfied market and a loss in profit and market share.As an example for the highly competitive market, the image below shows the current competition situation on the search engine market in China.There are already eight providers only for search engines on the market including international companies like Yahoo and Google. The low market share of these international companies underlines the fact, that there are still restrictions from the government concerning the fu lly market entry of these companies.Image : China Search Engine Market Share in August 201330Even if governmental regulations already have relaxed a bit, Chinese Internet sector faces still a lot of restrictions. Chinas Internet companies benefit by this, because many foreign websites are still blocked and they are not exposed to powerful competitors like Facebook. This in consequence creates the possibility to develop and strengthen own applications. On the other hand it could become a threat as soon as the government decides to abolish this restrictions. Chinese Internet companies then have to face the full international competition against global players as for example Google.31 After giving this overview about the external and internal environment the next chapter will use this information by concluding recommendations about Tencent’s future strategy.3.3 SWOT-Analysis and RecommendationsTencent entered the Internet market in many different dimensions and accordingly place s their product and service offering. Due to the previous analysis, there are especially three main product categories where Tencent should use their opportunities in further expansion. Firstly, Tencent should, due to the growth-intensive market segment, expand their e-commerce offer by developing for instance their website Papai.com. To even attract more possible Internet shoppers, they also should expand their online advertisement services. Thus, they can make use of synergies they already created through their broad offers, by linking their advertisements services with the shopping sites they own. This second measure, leads to the creation  of new potential profit zones.Thirdly, Tencent should not only focus on expanding existing offers but also develop new products, as for instance in the sector of cloud computing. By doing so, they can fully exhausting governmental support. Taking into consideration, that the market will be opened up in the long-term, Tencent should emphasis their innovation process on new products and services for the national and also international market. This should not be very difficult to accomplish, since Tencent disposes of a highly experienced workforce in Research and Development. This in consequence will enable the company to expand international and compete with other global players. If Tencent wants to keep their position as the third largest Internet company in the world they have to continue growing their business. Considering the slower growing Internet population in China, Tencent needs to go international to keep their growing position.Tencent did this by investing in foreign companies as for instance in the case of FAB.3233 This expansion should be continued in order to gain international market share and increase their portfolio in other Internet based services, as well as to improve their overall operational capability. Another possibility to do so is by expanding through strategic alliances†¦ By building strat egic business partnerships within China and gaining market share in several sectors Tencent is also able to fend the threat of market entry by international Internet companies in turn. Tencent furthermore has got a highly influence on the communication world in China as one of the oldest Internet company and built already a lot of barriers for international companies.Taking the messenger service QQ as an example for the mostly used messenger in China it enjoys a very high customer liability. Consequently Tencent could prevent loosing their position in China because although of the feared abolishment of several governmental restrictions concerning the entry of international companies. Additionally Tencent should try to avoid that QQ gets more and more the look of WeChat. As already explained, this could tempt users to change to competitors because of confusion. In this case, Tencent should favor cannibalization by offering differentiated products of the same purpose, to avoid losing costumers to competitors. The image below shows a summery of the named points and what the SWOT-Analysis and recommendations for the Tencent Holdings Limited contain.Image 2: SWOTs of Tencent Holdings Limited344 ConclusionInternet business in China is still one of the fastest growing industries in the world and Tencent used and uses this opportunity a lot in expanding existing products, launching new services and developing better solutions for the internet population in general. These actions are supported by the try of going more and more international. Even though the external environment analysis showed that the Internet market is influenced by many factors, which co-determines the performance of Tencent an all the other Internet companies. To reach the best performance they could get, Tencent has to use its strengths and to improve its weaknesses to make the best out of every trend, meaning using opportunities and fending threats.To summarize what the work pointed out in the pr evious chapter, Tencent shouldTencent should expand their e-commerce and their online advertisement services. Moreover there is a big opportunity to create national and international strategic businesses trough the investments or the development of own innovations, which should be easily possible due to he strong research and development activity of Tencent. Additionally to that, Tencent already is the third largest Internet company worldwide, which makes it easier for them to enter international markets and gaining new customers all around the world.Regarding the governmental aspects, Tencent needs to use the supports given by the government and stress the development of new systems. Furthermore Tencent should definitely try to further build their market entry barriers. As a conclusion, the SWOT-Analysis of Tencent Holdings Limited showed, that the company is rightly positioned at the top in the world ´s largest Internet market, due their numerous strengths. But in times of liber alization, globalization and an almost satisfied domestic market, Tencent has to fight against the identified threats in the upcoming years.

The Creation of Modern Capitalism- The history of multinationals and Essay

The Creation of Modern Capitalism- The history of multinationals and the creation of global capitalism have been distinctly u - Essay Example Globalization is a course of action by which regional economies, societies and cultures have become incorporated in the course of global network of political thoughts through interactions, trades and transportations (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2010). Also, with the rise of multinational firms and corporation making and creating a world of collaboration, highly-dependent from each other by means of economy as well as political to survive in the global eco-political battle. Thus, we could view our world now being a spider web wherein each and every country is connected by one another through its dependency in resources and information. Moreover, with the rise of advanced technology like internets, telecommunications and alike, creating a stronger bond between and among countries through faster exchange of information. In this case, we are bounded by the things that these corporations had created. We shall tackle aspects on the history of globalization and its effects in the sphere of economy, politics and even in the society. Thus we shall see the benefits of this phenomenon and its disadvantage though comparative analysis to the studies, investigation and critical analysis made by other people. History It is believed that the process of globalization had started long time ago during the early ages where trades are used by the people to exchange goods and services. Also, in colonization era where one needs to import goods like spices, gold and even cultures from their colonizing countries. What seems to be the turning point of this event is during the 19th century where Industrialization occurs in the Western countries whereas processed goods are being introduces and new inventions are being catered to the business owners. During that time, Europe being the lead country producing goods highly needs materials that it will utilize to materialize the inventions of machineries in support to their production. Also, the dependency of the country to other country to ai d its resources for it to create the materials needed and the invention of communication gadgets like telephones strengthen the globalization. The first phase of modern globalization break down during the Word War I in the 20th century because of several monetary forces brought by this phenomenon boost the conflicts between the states during that time (Yeates, pp54-55, 1962). Countries during these times were focused on the battle and their triumph in it. Thus, multinational firms are being used by the state as an asset to support the spending on their warfare. Globalization eventually reached its peak after the World War II wherein international organizations like the United Nations (UN) were being established to solve state-to-states conflict in the international arena and that to settle disputes between and among states in matters of economy as well as politics. Furthermore, the attempt to cut down boundaries of trade was done through the Bretton Woods conference creating a frame work of international

G & P Trucking Company, Inc Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

G & P Trucking Company, Inc - Assignment Example Apart from these, G&P holds various service awards for deliveries to Eastman Chemical, Wal-Mart and W W Grainger etc. in addition to service awards for commendable service provided, G&P also holds more than 40 safety awards since the year 2000. Further strengths for G&P lay in their operations systems. They have a dense infrastructure system equipped with secured trailer storage, 24/7 central dispatch, repower capabilities, a dense terminal network, pioneering enterprise software, local dispatch at port terminals, mobile satellite communication capabilities, customized reporting and web tracking etc. ii. Weaknesses However, there are still weaknesses that G&P has to face as well. There is a driver shortage because drivers have moved to construction and warehousing jobs. This is because drivers that are employed are required to put in long hour which results in them spending more time on the job than they get to spend at home or otherwise in leisure activities. 14 hours of duty is req uired in a day’s work of which 11 are driving hours. iii. Opportunities G&P faces opportunities from the external environment in the form of the room for growth in the trucking and freight business. Since there is a lot of demand for reliable freight companies that actually provide the quality service that they claim to provide in this globalised world, G&P has great potential for further growth and success. iv. Threats Threats from the external environment include rising fuel costs. There is a base rate for fuel that is almost always non-negotiable. Trucks average 5 miles per gallon and there is no compensation for fuel costs for any empty miles driven or when the drivers stop to rest. There are also hurdles associated with government and agency regulations which sometimes make it difficult for a trucking company like G&P to operate by erecting bureaucratic barriers which slow operations down. (Trucking-How Hard Can It Be?). 2. Environmental Analysis i. External environmenta l Factors When conducting an analysis of the external environment we look at the competitors to G&P. There is Atlantic Trucking Co, Inc. and F & I Trucking Corp. Between the two of them Atlantic Trucking Co poses a bigger threat of competition to G&P Trucking because they have been operating for roughly the same number of years in the same industry, with experience and results almost at par with each other. However, ATC’s operations may be considered more expansive in terms of types of service provided. ii. Current State of Business Target Markets According to an article in USA Today, the trucking industry is facing some difficulties, mostly because of the driver shortage. The U.S government has predicted an increase of 31% in the amount of haulage sent by road from 2005 to 2117 and with a shortage of drivers, the trucking industry will find it hard for this increased workload to cope with. (Glen Creno and Dennis Wagner, 2008). iii. Evaluation of current Marketing Objectives and Performance The trucking industry should join the herd of business entities using the internet and social media to promote and market themselves. Websites and social media websites can be used to more effectively reach out to prospective customers and employees alike. Many trucking companies have improved their current performance by improving their operating costs. G&P trucking needs to further align this area to changes in

Family nursing diagnoses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Family nursing diagnoses - Essay Example The X family united 10 years ago through a family friend. The blended family also lives with JK’s brother who assisted her in parenting the two kids (PT and MM). The two parents in X family hold various positions in the society as JK is a social worker while ST is a retired serviceman. The children in X family have an age difference of 3 years with close bounds to JK who is the mother. MM is a first born girl in the family who helps the family meet the daily needs by working at a local restaurant. PT is a second born boy child who studies at a local college within the environments of the X family. The family’s description is a closely related association as every family member works towards improving the family life. Jean Watson’s theory focuses on the holistic provision of human caring services related to a given public. The defining pillars of the theory focus majorly on caring transactions based on caring relationship that is effective for public health. As such, the patient care is of central focus defining the relationship between a member of a given society and the medical practitioner specifically the nurse. Human services are of significance under Jean Watson’s theory due to the elaborated action plan of public health contentment. The theory also is noteworthy in public health due to the specifications on personal health by the nursing professionals. The interaction segment provides moral support to the patients within various aspects of life. The story sharing structure is a significant provision for the community health programs (Schnabel et al., 2014). Jean Watson’s theory identifies the significance of enhancing a patient to nurse relationship based on optimal re sults. The possible nursing diagnoses for family X include a stress tolerance program. The suggested program is effective in dealing with post-trauma complications that could arise from the family

Fashion Brand - FCUK Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fashion Brand - FCUK - Assignment Example The paper "Fashion Brand - FCUK" discusses the cause of FCUK’s current financial crisis and propose methods that can help the company re-strategise their branding and market position. French Connection or popularly known as ‘FCUK’ is a fashion-led clothing retailer and wholesaler business that was founded and based in the United Kingdom. Its retail and wholesale business operates mainly in the UK, in other parts of Europe, in the U.S., and other licensed stores around the world carrying several products such as its own French Connection/FCUK brand, a designer label called Nicole Farhi, a popular UK whole sale brand called Great Plains, and the mail-order business known as Toast. Aside from their clothing lines, French Connection has also expanded its product range by producing what they call ‘complimentary products’ to their fashion collections. These complimentary products are in the form of eyewears and various fragrances. The company was founded in 1972 by its current chairman and chief executive Stephen Marks. FCUK had eventually made its mark in the fashion industry by introducing fashionable clothes at very affordable prices catering primarily to the middle-market customers with ages ranging from 18 to 35 years old (News, 2006). For so many years, FCUK have managed to put up a competitive brand against its High Street counterparts; however, just recently, FCUK had been continuously incurring noticeable decline in its sales and profits. There were actually several reasons. behind this high turnover for the company's revenues, primarily it is due to the soaring up of its prices which seems to have become quite expensive for their High Street target market to afford; another reason would be the company's effort of changing its image - trying to level it with competitors of bigger labels in an attempt to improve its market share and position thus resulting to pricing themselves out of the High Street competition; and finally, the recent advertising tactics of the company simply did not made an impact to its target market, not only in Europe but in other parts of the world as well which even contributed to driving its customers away from the brand. FCUK Current Situation Since 2002, FCUK's annual reports on its sales and profits all over the world have been progressing positively; it only means that the company has been performing well on the High Street market competition. However, due to recent events, it would really be alarming to know that the company this year has been continuously issuing warnings to investors that profits would surely be lower than expected (News, 2006). French Connection has reported a substantial pre-tax loss of 3.6 million in the first half of the year which ended on the 31st of July 2006 compared with the 5.1 million pre-tax loss it incurred the previous year; group revenues had also fallen by 6% from the previous year to 112.2 million (Interim Statement French Connection Group PLC, 2006). The problem of these declining figures originated mainly from a range of smaller problems that the company must resolve in order to hopefully gain back its losses in the future. It was found that one of the problems is that the company gravely needs to rethink of the prices it is setting on the range of their clothing lines in relation to their target market - which is

Bless Me Ultima Character Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bless Me Ultima Character Analysis - Essay Example Another example that illustrates Antonio’s wisdom and seriousness ness is his early understanding of the conflicts between his father’s and mother’s respective goals for him. This demonstrates his acute sensitivity, because he is aware that he is trapped between two different worlds and cultures. While his father wants him to be a vaqero and follow in his own footsteps by riding a llano, his mother is from a farming community and she wants her son to become a priest, insisting that he display model behavior when Ultima arrives because of his destiny to become a priest. The bond between Antonio and Ultima derives from the folk healer’s understanding of the boy’s inherent wisdom and moral aptitude, despite his uncertainty about his own destiny. In fact, it is this very duality in his heritage which is the foundation for Antonio’s understanding of the duality of contrasts that exists in the world. His father’s and mother’s people are different, Ultima tells him – the Lunas are constantly orbiting the moon while the Marez associate with the restless, ever changing ocean. This is the basis for Antonio to understand the duality of God – the father who is stern and not always forgiving vis a vis the virgin who is loving and always forgiving. Antonio is brought face to face with death at an early age, when he witnesses the death of Lupito, one of the village residents. This is the catalyst that sparks Antonio’s moral side and plunges him into a deep and intense crisis of faith, where he becomes unsure of the validity and strength of his Catholic faith. However, throughout the novel, it is Ultima and her calm wisdom that help the boy to weather his internal crisis and growth. Slowly he learns how to trust and make his own moral choices, he learns how to rely upon himself and his own decisions in determining his own future. He learns to draw solace from nature and to

Define corporate governance and explain why it is used to monitor and Essay

Define corporate governance and explain why it is used to monitor and control managers strategic decisions - Essay Example Therefore, since the corporate governance encompasses all the management spheres of the company, it forms the vital tool in monitoring and controlling all the strategic decisions of the company’s managers. From the above definition of the corporate governance, it is clear that it governance both internal and external factors driving the operations of a company. It is usually the responsibility of the entire management to understand and determine how to balance between the external and internal factors affecting a company (Joshi 46); hence, under the umbrella of corporate governance, the management of the company is capable of determining what affects both the external and internal player of the company. For instance, quality of a product will affect the response of the consumers. In this case, the quality of the product is manly affected by laxity of the internal factors but may also be attributed by external factors (suppliers supply poor quality of raw material). However, the whole issue lies with internal quality management that could have detected the quality of the raw material and rejected the same due to poor quality (Fernando 72). Nonetheless, the corporate governance forms a vital management aspect of a company and every aspect of corporate governance must be considered effective to ensure smooth and efficient company

Critical Thinking And Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Critical Thinking And Communication - Essay Example To be precise, the presentation of information through the statistical method can make easier for the persons who have least knowledge about the statistical process to comprehend the findings and thus gain better insight to the issue concerned. Statistics is also considered as one of the crucial supporting tools in planning for the organizational progress for government owned institutions as well as for private institutions. In this modern competitive world, planning is regarded as the most important aspect for developing the different levels of the organizations involving production processes, investment decisions, pricing of the products and/or services, supply chain management initiatives, and so on. Hence, the statistical method signifies the proper estimation of the previous records along with represents the graphical portrait assisting virtuously to take the initial decisions related to a particular issue (Calem & Longhofer, 2002). With the increasing demand for innovation and development of the existing commodities used for human activities and initiatives with the virtues of technology, the significance for statistical methods are also observed to be at increase. It is due to this fact that statistical measures are observed to assist the research and development groups engaged with technology innovations as well as development to execute complex processes by a significant extent such as in the medical science, computer science and other segments which involve technology as an inseparable facet (Roberts, 2010) The Information Technology (IT) sector, in the current phenomenon, is observed to be highly influenced by the competitive movements taking place among the competitors. With this concern, the IT companies need to emphasize on... Furthermore, the statistical method is also considered to overlook the importance of qualitative data which again creates a constraint on the implication of statistics as evidence. Moreover, the statistical tools are often observed to provide an approximation to the obtained result rather than rendering a clear understanding of the issue researched. For instance, graphical representation developed through statistical processes are often observed to be based on scaling techniques such as Likert Scaling which renders an aggregate or rather approximation to the values perceived by the respondents. Hence, this indicates that statistical tools cannot be regarded as the sources of best evidence. With reference to the above discussion, it becomes quite apparent that statistics can be certainly considered as evidence for establishing a lucid understanding regarding a particular issue. However, it might not be categorized as the best available evidence to gauge the findings obtained as it is also identified to possess various limitations in terms of its methodical implementation process. Various aspects, thus, needs to be taken into concern while referring to statistics as evidence such as the relation or role of qualitative data in the issue identified, the source of statistics obtained as well as the consistency of the statistical method to identify and explore the required data. Conclusively, the method can be regarded as a complex one which requires additional effort to be signified as the "best form of evidence".

Infosys HRM Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Infosys HRM - Case Study Example The company has had to overcome several difficulties since its inception to stamp its authority in the market. The company has had a commendable annual growth rate of 65 percent from 1993 to 2003. The company first strategy was to be an off shoring company, but in the early stages, it had engaged in body shopping. Body shopping involved the sending of its IT experts to foreign countries to solve their client’s problems. However, the company moved back to its original plan of off shoring due to the restrictions that were facing it inn having the control of a specific project (Delong, 2006). The company prior to the preparation of the case was ranked as the best employer. The company had however dropped in the ranking necessitating for serious restructuring at its human resource department. The company placed a lot of importance on its current and future employees ensuring they were satisfied in terms of their welfare. The remuneration of the company’s employees was over ten to fifteen percent that offered by other companies in the same industry (Delong, 2006). Analysis of the company’s performance The company was founded by Murthy and six of his colleagues who had previously worked at start-up software firm against the discouragement from many of their friends. They started the company on two hundred and fifty dollars that they had borrowed from their spouses. The company’s vision was founded on the principles of creating wealth while adhering to the law and a strict code of ethics (Delong, 2006). All the founders of the company were professionals and they aimed at ensuring that they hired professionals to work for them in their endeavors. The founders envisioned a professionally run company that dealt fairly with all its stakeholders who included the customers, shareholders and employees. The initial face of starting the business was faced with challenges occasioned by the bureaucracy and regulations present in India. The regulations hampered the transactions of the business and limited its ability of becoming a global company. The company had a single client up to 1986 and matters became worse when the United States government placed restrictions on the issuance of visas (Delong, 2006). The action by the U.S. effectively reduced the customer base of the company that nearly collapsed. The company was faced with difficulties when one of the partners left to pursue other avenues in the U.S., which dent a blow to the company’s efforts of growth. Murthy convinced the rest of the partners to stay on in the company with a promise of turning it around into a successful company. The company’s management engaged in restricting efforts that were boosted by the liberalization of the Indian economy. The Indian economy had been faced with negative macroeconomic conditions that forced the government to liberalize its economy dismantling the licensing system that had been used (Delong, 2006). The new conditions in the business market allowed for the conversion and a hundred percent ownership of high-technology companies. The company took advantage of the liberalization of the economy to venture into the Indian capital markets through an initial public offer (IPO). The company moved from body shopping to off shoring as a strategy to counter the restrictions placed by the U.S. government on the limitations of obtaining a visa (Delong, 2006). T

Gender and Socialization Essay Example for Free

Gender and Socialization Essay The main purpose of this paper is to focus on gender socialization. Human beings that belong to different societies have varied perceptions, opinions, and manners toward socializing with the same or opposite sex. Categorized in the main gender types, male and female are known to react in different ways when given and exposed in the same situation. Regardless of cultural norms or mores of any society in particular, interaction with peers, family, classmates, and other people depend on the male’s and female’s orientation in gender socialization and gender roles. Some concepts attempt to explain the gender issues faced by the two gender types. These attributions of concepts then play an important role in understanding the different societies’ construct of their existing mechanisms of gender roles and expectations including the societies’ gender markers as determinants of sex and gender (SparkNotes, 2008). Gender Socialization Gender and socialization are two different terms that have a relationship with each other. Gender refers to the behavioral characteristics of an individual regarding an individual’s essence of womanhood or manhood, masculinity or femininity, while socialization refers to the social and interpersonal instincts of human in interacting, communicating, and dealing with others. A newborn infant for instance, may be oriented towards its gender by its first experience of socialization after being born. The infant may be more exposed to male socialization rather than female socialization or vice versa which would later on affect the behavior of the infant while growing up. Another example is the way parents choose what the appropriate toy is to be played by their sons and daughters. Usually, parents buy their baby girl a mini-kitchen or ironing set to orient them (however, it is subconscious for the parents’ part) with the future maternal role. For the baby boy’s part, they are usually given toy trucks or tools for various chores in the house for the same underlying purpose. Moreover, upon receiving the presents, the girls usually react more appreciative and smiling than the boys. The essence of gender socialization then, is for the infants to learn the behavior appropriate for their designated sexes (SparkNotes, 2008). Reaction By the time an infant reaches ten months after the day of birth, gender socialization is already executed through the infant’s interaction with the environment, its family members, and caretakers. This is the time when the infant starts to identify him- or herself in either of the two sexes: male or female. Thus, this is also the time for newborn infants to associate the specific gender roles (the attributes and behavior that the culture constructively defines) that are appropriate for their sex and gender. Later in the life of infants, the effects of the previous experience in gender orientation would reflect in their current behavior. Meanwhile, I should say from personal experience that I was mostly given a Barbie doll for Christmas or birthday present. In so doing, I grew up to become a very neat lady who has the taste for fashion and luxury Further, I attribute the idea that I have become a fashionable and finesse lady to my previous hobby of playing, dressing and undressing my Barbie doll (SparkNotes, 2008). Conclusion Gender socialization teaches the infants that would grow as adults the appropriate roles defined by culture and behaviors that are expected of them by the society. Submission to the expectations of the culture and society is important, as every living individual has to interact with others in whatever society he or she belongs to in order to survive and attain a sense of belongingness. Family, peer groups, school, mass media, and some texts play a part in honing this cultured set of beliefs regarding the appropriate roles and expected behaviors for men and women. Men who are accustomed to playing tough games in their childhood result to be future tough guys and women are the opposite. Reference SparkNotes. (2008). Gender socialization. In SparkNotes 101: Sociology. Retrieved December 9, 2008 from http://www. sparknotes. com/101/sociology/socialization/gender_socialization. html.

The History Of The Monopolistic Competition Economics Essay

The History Of The Monopolistic Competition Economics Essay Introduction There are four types of market structures are Perfect Competition, Monopoly, Monopoly Competition and Oligopoly. Long run is the period of time that the firms are able to adjust the variable cost and fixes cost. In the long run, seller has sufficient time to enter or exit the market but need to base on the profits. Short run is not a definite period time and it can just modify the variable cost only. Short run dont have sufficient time to entry and exit the market because it didnt register the business. Variable cost is a periodic cost that can change or based to the sales profit of a company. Examples for the variable cost are labor, raw material, etc. Fixed cost is a cost that cannot change when the quantity is increase or decrease. Examples for fixed cost are rent, buildings, capital, machinery, etc. Marginal Revenue is when selling goods or doing business gains the total profit from the product or business. Marginal cost is the total cost that when making a product, the purpose of analyzing marginal cost is to determine an organization can achieve their economics of limits. Main Body Perfect Competition What is Perfect competition? Perfect Competition are describes markets such that not enough market power to set the price of an identical product. The multi-national example for the perfect competition is egg, rice, wood and flour. Characteristics There are many characteristics under perfect competition; the first is Identical or Homogenies Product. This characteristics means the qualities and characteristics do not diversification between different suppliers. Each firm in a perfect competition market also has selling their identical products; all the goods are perfectly the same one, so the buyer cannot distinguish whether the goods came from another firm and no firm could raise the price above the market price and still retain its sales. The second characteristic in perfect competition is the firms and household are got the perfect knowledge. In perfect knowledge, all the firm and household are aware of sellers price changes such that a firm cannot sell their goods higher price than another firm. The firm and household must have all the information regarding the market situation and the how does the economy work. Thus the price change, the technological development also can immediately signal to all the firm and household. The third characteristics in perfect competition are freedom entry and exit the market; there are no barriers to them. In the long run business, when the register firm need to exit the market, it needs to show a prove, but in the short run there is no restriction to entry or exit the market. The entire firm in a perfectly competition market make a normal profit in the long run. Monopoly What is Monopoly? A Monopoly is a market that just got only one producer and many buyers, the producer sell the goods may be is differentiated or identical but the importance point is the goods have no close and no replacement. The multi-national for Monopoly is Vegetables and Fruit from Farmer. Characteristics There are many characteristics under monopoly; the first is the monopoly is the price maker, monopolist can control the price, and he can brand itself and set the price, the monopolist has to deal with its market price. The second characteristic under monopoly is Barrier to Entry and Exit the market, some of the barriers are government license, patents and copyright, control of marketing channels. This is the reason that monopoly is very hard to entry. Barrier to exit must go to apply to public utilities such as local telephone companies, natural gas distribution companies, electricity companies, and garbage collection companies. The third characteristic under monopoly is Household and Firm must have Perfect Information, when selling a product in the market the producer must have a perfect knowledge about cannot selling their goods higher price than another firm and this perfect knowledge can comes from legally-established patents, copyrights, or trademark. Monopolistic Competition Monopolistic competition is a type of imperfect competition, its market structure which combines elements of monopoly and the competitive markets, the producers are able to differentiate their products. The multi-national example for monopolistic competition is some high precision products, such as multi-cylinder diesel engine fuel injection pumps. Characteristics The first characteristic under monopolistic competition is Freedom Entry and Exit the market. In the long run market there is free entry and exit. In monopolistic competition each market with its own identical product, any firm unable to cover its costs can leave the market without pay the liquidation costs. This assumption implies that there are low startup costs, no loss costs and no exit costs, so the cost of entering and exit is very low. The second characteristic under monopolistic competition is the different shape product. There is a single product being manufactured by some firms, and the product of each firm is basically the same one. The producer tries to create their own different packaging, different conditions of sale with respect to guarantees, after-sales services and different geographical location. The third characteristic under monopolistic competition is household and firms didnt have perfect knowledge. In monopolistic competition, buyers do not know everything, but they have relatively complete information about alternative prices. They also have relatively complete information about product differences and brand names. Each firm also has relatively complete information about production techniques and the prices charged by their rivals. Oligopoly An Oligopoly in which firm is dominated by many small seller, it is the firm that selling similar product. Oligopoly is similar like monopoly but oligopoly is at least two firms supplying the market. The multi-national examples for oligopoly are aluminum, gas, cell phone, television and film. Characteristic The first characteristic under oligopoly is Interdependent. There are only few firms under oligopoly but each firm will have to take account of the others, this means that they are dependent. A firm under oligopoly not only considers the market demand, they also need to compare the price and output policies to their rivals. No firm can therefore afford to ignore the actions and reactions of other firms in the market. The second characteristic under oligopoly is they have a heavy advertising. Oligopolistic must have a heavy advertising to promote their products in the market structure, and then can give the household know about their company. Under oligopoly the advertising is such like life-blood for oligopolistic firm. The third characteristic under oligopoly is high barrier to entry the market. Government restrictions, copyright issue, undivided resource ownership and huge setup cost are the high barrier to oligopolistic to entry the market. Sometimes the cost is very high, ownership and control of the raw materials is a factor, patents and brand loyalty are also barriers of entry into an oligopolistic market. Summarization Characteristic / Market Structures Perfect Competition Monopoly Monopolistic Competition Oligopoly Many Buyers √ √ √ √ Many Sellers √ √ Price Taker √ Price Maker √ √ √ Identical Product √ √ Differentiate Shape Product √ √ √ Barriers To Entry And Exit √ √ Perfect Knowledge √ √ Advertising √ √ Conclusion

Historical Understandings of Madness in Nigeria

Historical Understandings of Madness in Nigeria Madness in culture: is mental disorder universal? This paper will look at the issue of madness in culture, looking at the issue of whether mental disorders are a universal concept, with particular reference to the Nigerian culture. As Sadowsky (2003) argues, the crude maxim â€Å"what is mad in one culture might be considered sane in another† described the approach to ‘cultural psychiatry’ research regarding mental illness for many years; that psychiatric disorders were viewed relatively suggested that these disorders were no more than cultural constructions and thus not ‘real’ diseases (see Sadowsky, 2003; p. 210). In his book, Imperial Bedlam: Institutions of Madness in Colonial Southwest Nigeria, Sadowsky focuses on madness, insanity, as a social process. Whilst not denying the reality of madness as an illness, Sadowksy (1999) argues that madness and normalcy must be viewed at all times, and especially in the context of a Nigerian colonial setting, as part of a continuum: as Sadowsky states, †Å"the insane occupy a position on the spectrum containing the normal and the pathological† (1999; p. 51), and are products of specific social and political circumstances, which must be fully understood in order to understand the label ‘insane’ within a colonial Nigerian setting. Thus, this essay looks at how madness in Nigeria evolved in the colonial period, and beyond, and how madness was understood within a colonial framework. The essay then moves on to look at cultural treatments of madness in Nigeria, and genetic and physiological accounts vs. cultural and historical differences in understanding madness within a colonial context, using examples from Nigeria. Finally, syndromes that come and go, such as hysteria and delusions, will be discussed, using the example of persecution delusions from studies of two mental asylums in Nigeria, as discussed in the work of Sadowsky (1999). The history of madness in Nigeria Focusing on two mental asylums in Nigeria, the Yaba ‘lunatic asylum’ and the Aro Mental Hospital in Abeokuta, Sadowsky (1999) provides a review of madness in Nigeria, from colonial times to independence. Sadowsky’s argument in his 1999 book, Imperial Bedlam: Institutions of Madness in Colonial Southwest Nigeria, is that through developing an understanding of these institutions, it is possible to come to understand â€Å"the struggles within the colonial state over the use of asylums, negotiations in colonial society about the definitions of insanity, the processes which led to confinement and release and the formation of specific psychiatric discourse (p. 9). The book provides an examination of how, when and, most importantly, why Africans were defined as insane and the ways in which definitions of insanity were related to the political context pf colonialism (Stilwell, 2000). Sadowsky (1999) does not argue that colonialism caused insanity but, rather, argues tha t the content and expression of madness reflected the pressures, stressed and strains brought on by colonial rule, thus providing a social history of insanity in a colonial setting. As Sadowsky (1999) argues, the debate surrounding psychiatric labeling theory must be centered on the ways in which mental illness is a construct of â€Å"the particular historical formations† (p. 112); colonial asylums could be placed on a spectrum from ‘custodial and coercive’ to ‘supportive and therapeutic’, although the vast majority of mental asylums in colonial Nigeria were crudely coercive, due to the cross-cultural barriers and the different perceptions of social relations as held by African patients and colonial medical staff and authorities. It was only well in to post-colonial times that subtler forms of social control and therapeutic practice evolved. Cultural treatments of madness in Nigeria As has been seen, Sadowksy (1999) argues that madness and normalcy must be viewed at all times, and especially in the context of a Nigerian colonial setting, as part of a continuum: as Sadowsky states, â€Å"the insane occupy a position on the spectrum containing the normal and the pathological† (1999; p. 51), and are products of specific social and political circumstances, which must be fully understood in order to understand the label ‘insane’ within a colonial Nigerian setting. Thus, the cultural context of madness, in terms of understanding madness from a culturally relativistic viewpoint, and from the viewpoint of colonialism, is fundamental in understanding the cultural treatments of madness in Nigeria. Accounts of madness and understanding the responses to madness in a colonial Nigerian setting cannot be understood, interpreted, without also fully understanding the historical, social and political setting at that time. In general, however, it can be seen, from Sadowsky’s work, that madness was treated, in a blanket manner, as a response to colonialism, as a manifestation that the ‘primitive’ Nigerians could not cope with modernization and that, as such, delusions, deliria and hysteria were almost to be expected, as a reaction against colonialism. Responding to these outbreaks of madness with force, by opening asylums and confining ‘the mad’ to these asylums, with little actual medical care, was a way in which to ‘silence’ the ‘mad’ and to be able to continue on with the aims and practices of colonialism. The genetic and physiological accounts vs. cultural/historical difference Mental illness is currently well understood, and treated, as that: an illness. However, as has been shown by Sadowsky (1997; 1999; 2003), within a colonial context in Nigeria, mental illness was often only understood in the context of colonialism i.e., mental illness was understood as a reaction to the modernization brought about by the colonizers, which, it was hypothesized, the ‘primitive’ Nigerians could not cope with, leading them to madness. However, as Sadowsky (2003) points out, â€Å"even within colonial governments, there were some who believed, in some degree, in cultural relativism†¦.I discovered many administrators who believed that building asylums was a bad idea because Europeans could not know what madness was to Africans, and that, therefore Europeans should not be imposing alien cultural forms† (p. 211). Thus, at least within the context of colonial Nigeria, madness was not understood, or treated, as an illness, rather as a response to coloni alism, and the debate surrounding madness and its genetic and physiological bases, and the different cultural or historical manifestations of madness were not entered in to during colonial rule. Syndromes that come and go hysteria Focusing on two mental asylums in Nigeria, the Yaba ‘lunatic asylum’ and the Aro Mental Hospital in Abeokuta, Sadowsky argues in his book, Imperial Bedlam: Institutions of Madness in Colonial Southwest Nigeria, which uses first hand accounts of delusions of the mentally ill, as gathered from actual case histories of these two mental asylums, the ‘ravings’ of patients are important historical documents in that they can be used for social analyses, showing that the social context of colonization fostered the development of certain kinds of delusions, especially delusions of persecution. Such madness, Sadowsky argues, threatened the colonial worldview, and, to some extent, colonial power, drawing attention, as they did, to the structures and inherent contradictions of colonial power, and, as such, the psychiatric environment tended to class any actions that threatened colonial ideology as ‘madness’, such that, as Sadowsky argues, the ideologies of colonial medical staff reflected the anxieties and insecurities of the colonizers themselves (Sadowsky, 1999). As Sadowsky states, â€Å"the content [of delusions] repeatedly referred to specifics of Nigerian colonial history: religious conversion, foreign domination, the changing justice system†¦and the struggle for independence† (1999; p.115). Conclusion According to Sadowsky (1997; 1999; 2003), historically, madness in Nigeria seems to have been understood entirely in terms of colonial power, in terms of madness being understood as a reaction against colonial rule, not as an illness per se, and, as such, madness was not treated objectively, but as one more manifestation of dissatisfaction against colonial rule. The ‘mad’ were thus treated almost as dissenters rather than being treated correctly, as ‘ill’ individuals. No more is this highlighted than when accounts of treatments for delusions are given in Sadowsky (1999) as taken from individual case histories. As shown in these histories, medical staff often played a purely custodial role, not a medical role, with only modest therapeutic programs being offered, if any at all (Sadowsky, 2003; p. 211). It was with some trepidation, and opposition, that mental asylums were set up at all, in a colonial Nigerian context, with little medical help being offered, an d these asylums quickly becoming overcrowded, with squalid living conditions (Sadowsky, 2003). Thus, as has been seen throughout this essay, based on the work of Sadowsky (1997; 1999; 2003), which looks at madness in colonial times in Nigeria, the understanding of madness in culture is an extremely relative matter, perfectly illustrated through the study of this time period and in this place, which explained madness as a product of colonial rule. Madness, as we understand it now, is obviously not culturally relative and is a universal concept: it is an illness, which needs correct treatment in order to overcome the illness. If this had been understood during the period of colonial rule in Nigeria, the many years of suffering for many thousands of insane individuals would not have had to have been endured: they would have received correct, timely, treatment and would not have whiled away their lives being little more than captives in colonial asylums. References Sadowsky Jonathan, Psychiatry and colonial ideology in Nigeria, Bulletin of the History of Medicine,71 (1997):94-111. Sadowsky, Jonathan, Imperial Bedlam: Institutions of Madness in Colonial Southwest Nigeria, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Sadowsky Jonathan, The social world and the reality of mental illness: lessons from colonial psychiatry, Harvard Review of Psychiatry 2003, 11(4):210-4. Stilwell, S., ‘Imperial Bedlam: Institutions of Madness in Colonial Southwest Nigeria by Jonathan Sadowsky’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 31(2) (2000): 322-323.

Shapes Investigation :: Papers

Shapes Investigation Summary I am doing an investigation to look at shapes made up of other shapes (starting with triangles, then going on squares and hexagons. I will try to find the relationship between the perimeter (in cm), dots enclosed and the amount of shapes (i.e. triangles etc.) used to make a shape. From this, I will try to find a formula linking P (perimeter), D (dots enclosed) and T (number of triangles used to make a shape). Later on in this investigation T will be substituted for Q (squares) and H (hexagons) used to make a shape. Other letters used in my formulas and equations are X (T, Q or H), and Y (the number of sides a shape has). I have decided not to use S for squares, as it is possible it could be mistaken for 5, when put into a formula. After this, I will try to find a formula that links the number of shapes, P and D that will work with any tessellating shape - my 'universal' formula. I anticipate that for this to work I will have to include that number of sides of the shapes I use in my formula. Method I will first draw out all possible shapes using, for example, 16 triangles, avoiding drawing those shapes with the same properties of T, P and D, as this is pointless (i.e. those arranged in the same way but say, on their side. I will attach these drawings to the front of each section. From this, I will make a list of all possible combinations of P, D and T (or later Q and H). Then I will continue making tables of different numbers of that shape, make a graph containing all the tables and then try to devise a working formula. As I progress, I will note down any obvious or less obvious things that I see, and any working formulas found will go on my 'Formulas' page. To save time, perimeter, dots enclosed, triangles etc.

Female Discrimination In The Labor Force Essay -- Gender Discriminatio

Female Discrimination in the Labor Force   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the past decades there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women participating in the labor force. This expansion has unfortunately shown how women are still being treated as inferior citizens when comparing their wages and the jobs they are hired for to that of men. Many women in similar occupations as men, and having the same qualifications are only paid a fraction of what their male counterparts are paid. The only reasonable explanation that can be found for this income gap is discrimination. This unfair treatment shown throughout the handouts illustrate how far people still have to go before equal treatment becomes standard.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The increase in female participation started occurring during the 1970's. The number of women in the civilian labor force jumped from 23 million in the 1960's to 31 million in the 1970's. This leap would continue and increase in the 1980's and on into the 1990's. The result, in 1995, is a female labor force that numbers over 60 million. This comprised 46 percent of the civilian work force (10).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A reason for the rise in participation by women may be in the way women saw marriage and children. Fewer women saw marriage as a settling down. Women who had children began to return to their jobs. The number of working women that were either married or had children or both increased dramatically. In 1965, women with children under 18 years of age numbered 35.0 percent of the labor force. This number increased to 47.4 percent in 1975. In ten years it was 62.1 percent and finally in 1995 it had grown to 69.7 percent (7). This showed that the female attitude towards having children and marriage has changed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  According to the handouts, in 1970 women were paid poorly when compared to their male counterparts. The female worker had a median yearly earning of 19, 101 dollars. This was only 59.4 percent of what the males made. This does start to change in the 1980's as female earnings rose to 60.2 percent of men's. Five years later it had reached 64.6 percent. By 1990, the female's earnings had risen to 71.6 percent of what a man would make (2).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Women in the workplace have always been discriminated against. Ever since the first women started to work... ... that women were in some way not as accomplished or competent as men. Yet, a more in depth investigation would show that women are just as qualified, if not more so, than men. A principal of equal pay for equal work should be employed by all businesses and would definitely close the income gap.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most people want to correct the unequal treatment of women in the work force. One method that can be used to support equality would be to introduce a federal legislation to guarantee equal pay for equal work if there isn't one already. The logistical problem with this solution though would be great. How would people measure the value of one person's work to another's? Who would decide this and how would it be implemented? Much still has to be done before this important issue is laid to rest.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  People's attitudes towards women in the work force is slowly starting to change. More opportunities are appearing for women workers. The unequal treatment of working women will take years to change, but change is occurring. This topic will remain until the day people are treated and paid equally based upon their abilities and not anything else.

Adinkra

Adinkra symbols, like many other visual symbols, have been used over many years to communicate, represent and characterize a myriad of ideas, beliefs and concepts. Originally created by the people of Gyaman, Adinkra has grown to become the most extensively used and widely known traditional symbolic art in Ghana and to an appreciable extent, West Africa. By carefully considering the depth of wisdom in the meanings of these symbols, is not surprising that they are often linked with a host of several proverbial maxims.The very essence of the word ‘Adinkra’ is ‘farewell’; as such, every symbol that is encapsulated in the whole body of Adinkra communicates or corresponds to a unique message or idea. Documented history has it that, as far back as the nineteenth century, unique Adinkra symbols were used in customary and traditional rites of society to depict the ideological stance of that society as regards to the ceremony or event in question. The art was showcase d in various forms during festivals, funerals, marriages among others.Today, the use of Adinkra has been widely extended to cover almost every facet of life. In recent times, Adinkra symbols have become a suitable choice of branding the modern, competitive, and trendy Ghanaian clothing lifestyle. Over the years, Adinkra has gone beyond traditional cloth-making designs and has been fashionably incorporated into the designing of t-shirts, buttons, linen fabric clothes. Today, young people would prefer t-shirts with screen-printing inscriptions like ‘Me firi Ghana’, with an Adinkra like ‘Gye Nyame’ boldly designed beneath.Indeed, some acclaimed Ghanaian fashion designers like Mawuli Okudzeto, Kofi Ansah among others, have received international recognition by carving such niches for themselves, with popular brand names like MKOGH and PKOG, just to mention a few. Beyond that, apparels like footwear have also had a taste of Adinkra art. Artisans who make local f ootwear like sandals, slippers and ‘ahenema’ have also included these symbols in their designs. For instance, a locally made ‘ahenema’ has a carefully designed Adinkra symbol of three concentric rings encircling each other, known as ‘adinkrahene’ at the nose of each slipper.One other art is the design of bags with Adinkra symbols woven or sewn on the surface with fabric, (often kente pieces). The most popular addition to this art collection is the use of these designs in making jewellery and other fashion accessories. It is popular to see rings, pendants, earrings, necklaces, anklets, beads and many others designed with symbols like ‘ohene aniwa’, ‘epa’, ‘nkonsonkonson’, etc. In Ghana, the Precious Mineral Marketing Company (PMMC) is a typical example of an enterprise in this regard.Thus, on the international stage, Adinkra symbols have been employed as one of, if not the best indigenous symbols that give all manner of clothing, a unique fashion identity easily recognisable as truly Ghanaian. Quite apart from clothing, these symbols have formed part of locally designed fine and visual art. This has been such that, in creation of several Ghanaian sculptures, Adinkra has been one of the most recognisable themes. There many instances of metal and wooden sculpture designed into Adinkra. More often than not, these visual and fine arts have been used by individuals for decorative purposes.It is now commonplace to see a wall hanging in someone’s home, at the lobby of a corporate institution or in the sitting area of an afro-centric restaurant with the caption ‘welcome’ and a popular symbol like ‘Gye Nyame’ underneath it. Without a shred of doubt any Ghanaian who sees this in any institution in any distant part of the world, feels quite homey and comfortable, to some extent, immediately. Moreover, the designs of wooden plaques lately have also adopted Adinkra symbols. For instance, African institutions of late present Adinkra-designed plaques to individuals and entities, as gifts and awards for splendid performances.Woodcarvers as at today, still design stools for domestic as well as traditional purposes with these popular symbols. In Akan traditional homes, stools often known as ‘asesedwa’ are carved out of wood with these designs. Today as a unique of catching up with the west, local artisans have modernized their design of home furniture placed in areas like the living room, dining room and the study. Beautiful and attractive-looking sets are being carved daily. A common example is wooden coffee-table, which has an Adinkra symbol like ‘sankofa’ at the base with a glass plane on the surface.Hence it is ordinary to see the prolific use of Adinkra in fine and visual art because of the inherent artistic merits they possess. In present day, the use of symbols for trademarks and emblems cannot be over-emphasized. In corporate branding and marketing, many institutions have resorted to the use of symbols, both tactile and visual, as a mark of exclusivity and Adinkra are symbols of no exception. There are countless examples of institutions of all sorts who have adopted these symbols as logos, emblem, etc.In Ghana, for instance, a corporate institution like HFC Bank uses the symbol ‘ebankese’ as its corporate logo. Interestingly, Vodafone Ghana has designed their recharge cards such that whichever denomination has a long strip Adinkra symbols in front of the card. A popular plastics company by name ‘Strong Plast Ltd’ also uses the popular symbol, ‘Gye Nyame’ as a brand name for its plastic chairs. A very popular flour mill also uses ‘sankofa’ as the brand name of it flour. On a lighter side, along the coastal area it is fun to see fishermen decorate their canoes with these symbols as an interesting way of ownership.

Laptop and Samsung

A. Executive Summary This paper is center on Samsung Electronics Co. , and it has 4 major harvest- national posts. digital Media line produces digital electronics for twain(prenominal) person-to-person and assembly line uses. Telecommunication line produces variety of officious ph wizs and put out to carriers liquified crystal debunk line produces level screen monitors use on TVs, cellph wizs and electronic electronic computers. Last, semiconducting materials carrefour line produces re cristaltion chips utilize on computers and cell ph champions. For all(prenominal) harvest-tide lines, we forget be lecture ab surface their history, interprets of success, risks and opportunities, and recomm deceaseations.Lastly, we will give recommendations regarding how the companion should develop itself to be much lovable to investors. B. Introduction Samsung was founded in 1938 and be locate in Seoul, southern Korea. The founders name is Byun-Chull Lee. Samsung means three stars in Korean. It started as a trading exportation follow. In 1969, they became Samsung Electronics Co. And now it has become one of the largest applied science companies known knowledge domainwide (Samsung Electronics, 2011). It is al roughly known for its flagship convergences the Galaxy smart earphone and its liquid crystal display screens.Samsung became a publicly traded comp some(prenominal) in 2000. It has four major lines of worry, Digital Media, Telecommunications, liquid crystal display, and semiconducting material unit devices. C. Four Lines of pipeline 1. Digital Media Digital media is the line of business that consists of all of Samsungs digital consumer products, both foundation and in-person use. These products include individual(prenominal) computers, MP3 p storeys, cameras, telecastings, and home appliances. Samsung puts forward innovative designs, consume humanity- handing products, and power efficient products. Digital media consisted of 37% of all sales in 2010 (Sustainability Report, 2012).Samsung diffusion ChannelAs you shtup take heed from the graph downstairs is was the majority of Samsungs sales. In the 1970s, Samsung came out with its start black and white televisions, serve machines, refrigerators, and by the end of the decade blazon televisions. In the 1980s, Samsung was marketplaceing air conditioners, individualised computers, and the earthly concerns smallest video show rec sound out. Since the 1990s, Samsungs psychiatric hospital boomed. They came out with the spheres freshman digital television, the worlds start-off Blu-ray disc player, the worlds first HD camcorder, and the worlds thinnest television ( about Samsung, 2012).Samsung in like manner led the home entertainment business into the 3D market. Digital medias record of success is by all odds significant. Its sales numbers deal add-on by about 4 jillion USD. Unfortunately, the bread are rattling pocket-size compared to its sale s. This is payable to Samsungs high coronation in research and maturement. You can see the difference amongst sales and profits in the graph shown below. The biggest risk for the digital media line of business is whether the large coronations in research and development will liquidate off against its competing products.Many electronic companies invest firmly in creating better products and imbedding innovative technology in them, so the competition is very high for this line of business. The only path for a company to be prospered is getting its products in the virtually consumers hands. So that is why Samsung invests about 6. 2% of be sales into research and development (Sustainability Report, 2012). This enables Samsung to envision that its products are of the best quality, have the most innovative technology, provide convenient and move features, and have a stylish design.Research and development will always be one of the biggest investments of a successful technolog y company. Samsung should hold out its high investments to secure its place as the draw in technology and innovation in this industry. Since Samsung is a worldwide leader in technology, it should use this advantage to lead the rest to the next level of innovation. Samsung has already lead differents in the 3D home entertainment business now it has the hazard to go further and create more advanced products that will lead its consumers to a more advanced and convenient lifestyle. 2. TelecommunicationsSamsung Telecommunications is one of the essence(predicate) line of Samsung Electronics. It is known as Samsung lively and wireless, which provides a variety of personal and business communications performances, much(prenominal) as spry phones, tablets, and wireless infrastructure equipments (Samsung, 2011). In 1988, Samsung Electronics merged with telecommunication, which then became a product line of Samsung Electronics ( follow history, 2012. ). In 1986, Samsung released its first inherent car phone, merely it failed due to the poor people products qualities. But, the company did not give up on telecommunication product line.In 1992, Samsung essential its own mobile phone systems. In 1997, they developed worlds smallest CDMA mobile phone (Company history, 2012). Samsung became the leader in the personal communications service market. Samsung Electronics has been successful since the company expended business into global market. Samsung took first musical note and exported its personal phones to Sprint, an American CDMA carrier, and then Samsung extended into GSM market. The companys phones are harmonious with the remunerationworks of leading wireless service providers, including AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Communications.It has powered Samsungs developing in the telecommunications industry. The bestselling Galaxy S smartphones was launched in 2011. It has been sold more than 20 trillion units around the world. In 2012, Samsun g Electronics was ranked the seventeenth of global 500 companies by the pecuniary Times (Samsung annual report, 2012). By end of second take out 2012, Samsung Electronics accounted for 330 million or 21. 2% of worldwide read of mobile phones (Samsung annual report, 2011). (See Fig. 1. ) Fig. 1. Samsung Smartphone Market shares in 2011 19. 9% (Samsung) The major risk was apparent(a) law wooings.Samsung Electronics has baffling with lawsuits in more than 10 countries between Samsung and Apple (Wingfield, 2012). Opportunity for Samsung is that partnership with more carriers, which would serve Samsung Telecommunication to expand their business and market share. The recommendations for Samsung telecommunication is that centering on unique technology design. I ideate that will not only help Samsung avoid lawsuits, but also augment the market share and customer royalty. 3. Samsungs LCD Display A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a flat screen monitor that is made of a thin liquid crystal layer in the middle.LCDs are used in more different applications such as, televisions, mobile phones, laptops and computers. LCD screen has been one of the popular products of Samsung, yet it still faces risks and needs whatever improvement to perpetrate more customers ( blood cell, Stansell, & Greenland, 2010). Mote et al. (2010) state that Samsung created LCD technology in 1991. The LCD circuit card was first used for laptop computers and showed at a world trade event in Japan. The first LCD display for laptop computer was 9. 3 inches. In 2002, Samsung introduced a 54-inch digital LCD television monitor-the largest LCD television in the world at that time.Today, Samsung is the most famous LCD maker in the global market (Mote, Stansell, & Greenland, 2010). According to About Samsung (2012), Samsung sustained the highest profit among LCD manufactures oer the world in 2007. In 2009, Samsung became the first company that sold more than ten million LCD televisions in the first half of the year and more than fiver million LCD beautifys per calendar month. Epperson shows that, total element revenue of LCD was about 62. 6 trillion U. S dollars in 2011. thither were about 330 million shares, and the bell was 1,067 dollars per share.Samsung has also maintained the largest market share in the global LCD televisions from the first quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2012 (About Samsung, 2012 Epperson, 2012). (Data collected from www. statista. com) Although the record of success of LCDs seems really outstanding, Samsung is facing many risks. One of the risks that Samsung confronted was about LCD unornamented infringement. In 2008, Sharp filed the suit against Samsung in the U. S. District Court for violating its four patents connect to a technology to improve the compute quality of LCDs. Then, Sharp expanded the suit to southern Korea in December of the uniform year.Samsung fought back in the same month with lawsuits in Japan and the U. S. F or some reasons, Samsung win over Sharp in Japan, but lose the case in the U. S. In 2009 US International Trade focussing began to block Samsung LCD products. Samsung also faces price war from other serious competitors such as LG, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic. In standardised & pitifuls Equity Research, Samsungs LCD sales are decreasing due to the very rivalrous prices other competitors tolerate consumers (Patel, 2012). Base on LexisNexis Academic (2012), Samsung beneficial created a new technology of LCD called Active-matrix OLED (AMOLED).This is another type of flat panel display which is very thin and whippy. Samsung inform that it will use AMOLED to invent a new model of its mobile phone named Youm, and the product will be introduced at the beginning of 2013. This is considered as a lustrous opportunity for Samsung in the future to increase its LCD revenues and profits (Samsungs flexible, 2012). (Google images) To overcome risks and be more cunning to investors, Samsu ng should obtain LCD patent comfortion. For example, when any LCD design is created, Samsung should register for a license or trademark to protect the company from copyright.Samsung also need to focus on Research and Development investment to create new technology, new products and take a chance out ways to lower the yield costs, so they can compete on price with others. 4. Semiconductors The decision of entering the semiconductor device business is essential to Samsung. Byung-Chull Lee, the founder of Samsung, know how big the high-tech electronics market would be in the future in mid-1970s, and that Samsung has to be a major player. Because of that, he immovable to form Samsung Semiconductor and Telecommunications Co. in 1978.However, due south Korea is lack of technological expertise, and thats when the South Korean government steps in. The South Korean government required contrary telecommunications equipment manufacturers to hand out advanced semiconductor technology, i n order for them to get recover to the South Korean market. (Data collected from IBIS World) Semiconductor is one of the most successful product lines in Samsung. The sales of semiconductor have increased from 32. 6 billion dollars in 2010 to 33. 5 billion dollars in 2011. Moreover, its net income has also increased from 16 million dollars in 2010 to 48 million dollars in 2011.In fact, the companys semiconductor segment consists two major parts repositing and LSI (Large-Scale Integration). Like the past 15 years, Samsung has transcend the position in the dynamic random-access computer storage in 2011 with 42. 2% of shares. For the LSI segment, Samsung produces LCD panels for computer monitors and notebook displays. In 2011, Samsung has about $26. 5 million of revenue from LCD panel business (IBIS world, 2012). One of the biggest customers to Samsungs semiconductor product line is Apple, which is recently considering turn to another semiconductor manufacturer.Losing this huge cu stomer will definitely risk the market position of Samsung, as it is now at the top of the semiconductor manufacturing market. Opportunity for the product line would be its rising exact. thither is a growing convey on semiconductor out in the market. Although the demand of desktop computers is slowing down, which will simulate the sales of memory part of semiconductors, demand of tablets and smartphones is raising rapidly, which will lead to a rise in demand of semiconductor (Epperson, 2012). There are still a lot of rooms for the sales of semiconductor to grow.Increasing yield of semiconductor due to its cosmetic surgery in demand may not seem hard in the future. Manufacturers are now developing automated production in order to decrease their production cost. Samsung can start increase semiconductors supply to these robots, since those parts will boost the demand for the sophisticated electronics that control the robots. D. Conclusions and Recommendations for Samsung One of the important recommendations is technology innovation. Samsung Electronics is a high-tech company, which provided buy at for innovation in the areas of technology.Product lines involved with other companies regarding the patent lawsuits. Lawsuits have negatively impacts on companys growth. In order for company to maintain sustainability and remain competitive in the industry, we recommend that the Samsung Electronics should focus on unique technology designs. In that way, it will protect the company from getting sued and attract more customers. Samsung should also increase semiconductors productions by finding opportunities to cooperate and be a supplier to other smaller electronic companies. Again, the company hould invest more in R&D projects, so it can built new technologies and new products in order to compete against its competitors. E. References About Samsung. (2012). collective profile. Retrieved from http//www. samsung. com/us/aboutsamsung/corporateprofile/ Epperson, L. (20 12). Samsung Electronic Co. , Ltd. make cleans. Retrieved Oct. 27, 2012, from Hoovers database. Mote, D. , Stansell, C. M. , Greenland, P. R. (2010). Samsung Electronics Co. , Ltd. In International Directory of Company Histories, 108, 433-440. Retrieved Oct. 27, 2012, from Gale Virtual Reference Library database. Patel, A. (2012).Samsung Electronics. Standard & Poors Equity Research. Retrieved Oct. 27, 2012, from discharge Advantage database. Samsung Electronic. (2011). FY 2011 Annual report. Retrieved from http//www. samsung. com/us/aboutsamsung/ir/newsMain. do. Samsung. (2012). Samsung Company history. Retrieved from http//www. samsung. com/us/aboutsamsung/corporateprofile/history04. hypertext mark-up language Samsung. (2011a). Samsung 2011 annual report. Retrieved from http//www. samsung. com/us/aboutsamsung/ir/newsMain. do Samsung. (2011b). Samsung Telecommunications. Retrieved from http//www. samsung. com/global/business/telecommunication/productInfo. do? tgrygroup=11&ctgryt ype=18&b2bprdid=146 Samsungs flexible AMOLED display codenamed Youm in the works. (2012, April 11). Kashmir Monitor (India). Retrieved Nov. 28, 2012, from LexisNexis Academic database. Sustainability report. (2012). orbicular harmony with people, society, and environment. Retrieved from http//www. samsung. com/aboutsamsung/sustainability/sustainabilityreport Wingfield, N. (2012, August 24). Jury awards $1 billion to Apple in Samsung patent case. The New York Times. Retrieved from http//www. nytimes. com/2012/08/25/technology/jury-reaches-decision-in-apple-samsung-patent-trial. html? _r=0