Ikea’s Organizational Behavior

INTRO: IKEA is known for its strong organizational values, which are based on Swedish norms and in particular the opinions and values of the founder himself. It is not unusual to see IKEA employees following the norms and values even outside the working hours, but how important is OB really for IKEA? IKEA’S BRIEF HISTORY 1940-1950 A Swedish 17-year-old man named Ingvar Kampard founded Ikea in 1943. It all began with the Ikea catalogue that was sent from house to house, which is still known today as Ikeas signature. In 1948 the range of IKEA products extended to furniture and by 1958 the first store is opened. 960-1970 By the end of the seventies, Ikea manages to not only open stores all over Europe, but in Canada and Australia as well. 1980s The large cash flow start coming in once Ikea enters the US in1985. By this time IKEA has 10,000 co-workers and 60 stores. Ingvar Kampard retires from Group Management and becomes an advisor to the parent company INGKA Holding B. V. 1990s In 90s IKEA expands in Eastern Europe as well as China. In 1990 the first environmental policy and social responsibility policy is introduced in IKEA.In 1997 IKEA launches Children`s furniture and becomes a retailer with offers to the entire family. By 1999 IKEA group grows to 50,000 co-workers and has 158 stores in 29 countries. 2000s In the year 2000 IKEA arrives to Moscow, Russia and same year Code of Conduct is introduced, called IKEA WAY. Following years IKEA is actively participates in world donating events and promotion of social responsibility. IKEA AT A GLANCE 287 IKEA GROUP STORES WORLDWITE In 2011 IKEA Group opened 7 new stores in 7 countries. As of 31. 08. 2011 it had 287 stores in 26 countries 13 0888 3 144 49 Top 5 purchasing countries: 1. China 22% 2. Poland 18% 3. Italy 8% 4. Sweden 5% 5. Germany 4% Top 5 Selling Countries: 1. Germany 15% 2. USA 11% 3. France 10% 4. Italy 7% 5. Sweden 6% CO -WORKERS PER FUNCTION * Purchasing, distribution, wholesale, range & other: 1 4,300 * Retail: 100,000 * Swedwood: 16,000 * Swedspan: 700 * Total co-workers in FY11 131. 000 TOTAL SALES: Sales increased by 6. 9% compared to 2010. Total sales amounted to EUR 24. 7 billion. SUPPLIERS IN 2011: 1,018 suppliers in 53 countriesPRODUCTS: The IKEA range consists of approximately 9,500 products. PRINTED CATALOGUES, LANGUAGES & EDITIONS: The IKEA catalogue was printed in more than 208 million copies in 30 languages and 59 editions. STORE VISITS: In 2011, the IKEA Group stores had 655 million visits. IKEA . COM: IKEA websites had 870 million visits in 2011 As for Ikeas competitors, there is Wal-Mart, Howden and Ashley Furniture. Company Employees According to Emil Svallingsson who is an employee at IKEA for 10 years, about 50% of the employees are proud of their jobs.The other half refers the individuals who do not share the exact same vision about the company, and need to be told how to do things and have a stereotypical â€Å"boss†, rather than be all a part of one team. Culture Center – Together In the hometown of IKEA, Almhult, there is a Culture Center called â€Å"Together†. It is a place for employees all over the world to attend education, meetings and to learn about the company culture. There is a lecture hall, access to product archives and documents, as well as exhibitions and interactive installations.Employees are stating that the center is a great help to keep their foundational values alive and that it makes them more motivated in the everyday work life. â€Å"Together† works as a meeting place for people working at IKEA as well as a place for developing employment skills. The main idea is to gather the IKEA culture in to one building. Since there are more and more warehouses build over the world, it is not always easy to keep the same values for everyone, and therefore the center is the beginning to keep the company culture as Ingvar first created it to be. Our heart is in Almhult and it's amazing to be a ble to have a cultural center here. † -Ingvar Kamprad â€Å"Together† is also a great example of their flat organizational structure. Hopes are that employees, by themselves, will get a deeper understanding for the culture and by that develop IKEAs future together. † Ikeas center provides different exercises to the employees that show the entire IKEA concept and how it works at its best; how all the employees’ jobs together create one big job structure, and how products are being made and the importance of raw materials.At IKEA, training is crucial to keep the social work environment functional. From the training sessions, the hope is to develop awareness, knowledge and responsibility. All employees receive this training in order to take charge of their own development. In general, IKEA wants to give the opportunities for co-workers to grow, both at an individual level, but also in their professional roles. In return, IKEA expects their co-workers to do the ir job as well as possible depending on their ability and experience, take responsibility, and be willing to develop and grow continually and to act in an open and straightforward manner.Workforce Diversity Gender The gender diversity at IKEA is probably among the best one's over the world. They have applied special workforce diversity programs in all departments, and are working for a continuing development. The program is based on â€Å"stomach feeling† and employee’s opinions in order to fill the positions in a fair way. In the warehouses, there is quite an equal diversity between genders. Right now, globally it is about 54% are women and 46% men. Even among the higher positioned jobs such as warehouse responsible, it's equally divided, 52. % measured to be women and 47. 5% men. However, when you are getting really high up in the working positions, such as the top board, there are no women. According to Hakan Sandman, the Marketing Director of IKEA France, the gende r diversity is very equal overall; but that it also depends on what department one is looking at. Human Resources department tend to be mostly women, as well as the Marketing department where Mr. Sandman is the only man. THE AGE DISTRIBUTION OF CO-WORKERS IN IKEAThis pie chart represents employees’ gender distribution at IKEA globally, but for example in Sweden it looks different: The age distribution in IKEA Globally: Workforce Diversity: Ethnicity Ikeas main philosophy is â€Å"The People Philosophy†: though in the past their strategy was â€Å"Swedes†, they have abandoned it in 1998 with the rise of globalization. Currently they have a lot of long-time workers from different cultures and backgrounds. IKEA sees the diversity matter as a subject for creating more challenging business atmosphere.France’s new store in Avignon has staff from 21 different nationalities. Since 1998 they have changed their recruitment base to: including everyone and not just S wedish people. Recruited staff are immediately made aware of IKEA`s cultural diversity philosophy; first day at work new staff get exercise to tell their group members something unique or different about themselves. â€Å"As a global player it is very important for IKEA to be aware of what the world looks like today, and how it will change in the future. The only common thing for all of us is that we are different.If we accept and understand this fact we can start to use this Diversity for the best of ourselves and for IKEA† (Fajtova, 2007) The corporate language of IKEA is English and in their TV commercials they feature a wide variety of different ethnicities, ages, genders and race. Holistic Responsibility: â€Å"IKEA is a leader in setting high environmental standards for its product. That means employing strict manufacturing methods and supply processes so that materials, technologies and transportation have the least amaging effects on the environment. â€Å"1  œ Rene Hausler, Partner, IKEA-San Diego Franchisee. â€Å"We consider IKEA to be setting an excellent example for other corporations to follow. IKEA is prepared to go further than just saying ‘no' to a supplier who exploits children. The company is showing a genuine interest in bringing about improvement for children by assuming a responsibility for child labour issues. â€Å"2 – Ingvar Hjartso, UNICEF Representative. It seems as if today everyone is praising Ikea, and it is not without a reason.Ikea is a remarkably socially responsible company, it sets example to so many other companies that simply are profit driven, and do nothing but destroy the eco system, or poison the environment with chemicals such as â€Å"the monstrato†. Therefore, Ikea is rewarded and recognized highly for its CSR, it has received numerous awards, including the one on April 2005, the Outstanding Sustainable Style Achievement (OSSA)3 Award for eliminating the usage of Polybrominated Di phenyl Ether (PBDE),4 a toxic fire suppressor used in manufacturing furniture.In addition, earlier in 2004, IKEA had received the BUPA Healthy Communities award for Excellence,5 an award funded by the Ministry of Health, UK. The company pays a great deal of attention to different problems in the society and the environment; this did not begin recently, for more than twenty years Ikea has been environmentally conscientious. It began in 1989 when the then president of Ikea said that the â€Å"Environment is not just a new fashion, it will not fade away, it is the new reality and we have to adapt to it. And so, in 1990 in association with Karl-Henrik Robert, was initiated The Natural Step (TNS) environmental program in IKEA. And so throughout the years, one by one it began tackling different environmental issues; waste management were the first thing that Ikea took seriously, and so each IKEA store started having an â€Å"environmental coordinator† who worked towards waste recy cling and energy conservation, and also trained employees on environmental aspects. Since 1999, IKEA has works actively to reduce waste in manufacturing. Where possible, waste from one manufacturing process was to be used in the production of other items.And it did not end there; most IKEA stores provided collection points for customers to return waste. In the recent years, Ikea has been trying hard to be environmentally friendly, and it began rewarding the same behavior in its employees. It varies throughout the Ikea’s in different countries; IKEA Poland stores provide facilities for bikes, maps of bike paths and tools to repair customer bikes, IKEA Denmark lends out bicycles equipped with trailers at its stores, IKEA UK stores offer interest free loans and a 15 percent rebate to co-workers travelling to work by public transport.And in May 2007, IKEA Canada launched a Hybrid Parking Program, rewarding customers driving a hybrid or fuel-efficient car, with a premium parking s pot. Throughout the years, Ikea’s interest rose in a better future for our children through a better environment rose; when it came to energy consumption, the company’s data showed that IKEA it consumed a huge amount of energy for electricity, but, Ikea did not simply decide to switch off the lights on earth day. The company went a step further; it tried to consciously reduce its energy consumption. Therefore, in 2003 IKEA launched a ‘Kill-a-Watt-Energy Saving Competition. The competition was open to all IKEA stores across the world and it aimed to achieve reduction in energy consumption and also to create awareness among employees regarding electricity costs. By the end of the competition, IKEA had saved energy equivalent to providing electricity to 2,000 households, or two IKEA stores for a year. From waste to energy, Ikea then focused on forestry; around 75% of the raw materials used for Ikea’s furniture, catalogs and packaging came from timber. Hence, conservation of forests was an important environmental issue. IKEA worked with groups such as Greenpeace to formulate policies for sustainable forestry.IKEA was also a member of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). As a result of consultations with these organizations, IKEA banned the usage of timber from intact natural forests. Many companies in industries, such as the diamond industry, choose to be ignorant; companies ignore or lack interest in where their diamonds come from, but often the blood diamonds that they purchase give life to more slavery. And even though there are a lot of different forms of slavery throughout the world, Ikea is one of the companies that does not tolerate it and even though child labor oes exist in countries where IKEA products are manufactured, IKEA does not accept child labor at its suppliers or their sub-contractors, and works actively to prevent it. The company has a special code of conduct called The IKEA Way on Preventing Child Labor, and monitor ing of compliance with The IKEA Way on Preventing Child Labor is done by IKEA trading service offices and with unannounced visits by KPMG to suppliers and sub-contractors in South Asia. As listen above, we can see that throughout the years Ikea has demonstrated over and over again that its responsibility goes beyond home furnishing.It undertook several projects for community development and a lot of its projects were centered on children, such as the one in August 2000, IKEA initiated the Child Rights Program in India in association with UNICEF. The project started in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and the aim of the project was to prevent child labor in ‘the carpet belt' of UP, by addressing root causes such as poverty, illiteracy and ill health. The company’s CSR extended from the community and environment, to the suppliers. Ikea did not choose to be ignorant about where their suppliers got their goods.So it launched ‘The IKEA Way on Purchasing Home Furn ishing Products (IWAY)' in September 2000, this way all of Ikea’s 2,000 suppliers spread across 55 countries, had the ‘code of conduct' to adhere to. Student Support Programs: Ikea helps students of all ages throughout the world; it has aligned with is Save the Children’s Early Steps to School Success (ESSS is designed to assist children with language, social and emotional development); an early reading readiness program that IKEA supports through financial and in-kind product donations.In addition, since early 2001, the IKEA Group supports one-year scholarships for students from Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia to study forestry at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science in Alnarp, Sweden. The purpose of the scholarships is to support competence building in sustainable forestry in countries that are important wood sources for IKEA, and to help future forestry professionals in those countries develop relationships with each other.And it doesn’t stop there; due to the fact that many IKEA products are made with cotton, they partnered with the WWF to run Farmer Field Schools in Pakistan and India. Ikea over and over again displays its care for the society and the environment, it is because the company is not simply profit driven, it has a vision; and the vision is â€Å"to create a better everyday life for the many people. This includes doing what we can to help create a world where we take better care of the environment, the earth’s resources, and each other†. Internal Communication: Communication & EqualityThe CEO of the company has a specific culture that has been passed on since Ikea was founded, and this culture is communicated to all of the employees. She states that when she hires a â€Å"co-worker,† as IKEA terms employees, her plan is to help the person through his or her slumps. One of her greatest rewards is to see a worker she has worked with excel, and she believes all super visors and managers should serve as mentors. Every manager is also a team member, â€Å"I’m responsible but not the center of the universe. There is always someone who knows more than you do.And there are always new things that you can learn, which I think is the essence of why I work with IKEA. † Par Sundqvist Store distribution manager Sweden In Ikea a manager is not â€Å"the boss† or the one who commands and rules his department. Due to the low power distance in Sweden, Ikea was founded on the basis that everyone is equal. And based on the chart below of Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory, one can see that because of the relatively low power distance in the U. S. , it was quite easy to communicate this approach to all the â€Å"co-workers† in Ikea North America. Exhibit 1.A Cultural Dimensions Theory Exhibit 2. A Cultural Dimensions Theory In Exhibit 1. A, one can see the power distance in both Sweden and the United States, though ther e may seem like there is a difference, once it is compared with Exhibit 2. A one can see that compared to countries such as China who have a high power distance, on average, the power distance is relatively the same in both the U. S and Sweden. Therefore, it can be concluded that Ikea’s Scandinavian way of doing business with the absence of the traditional â€Å"boss† was understood and quickly absorbed by Ikea North America.Equality within the company is emphasized and communicated to all of Ikea’s stakeholders; and though according to â€Å"glassdoor† Ikea employees give the company’s ability to communicate an average 3. 5 rating, they give serious leadership a poor rating of 3. 1 because according to the employees â€Å"there is a little too much equality†, employees want to be guided and told what to do a little more. It seems that not all employees are ready to be treated equality with their bosses and be all a part of one team. Based o n the latest updates on glassdoor, the company rating is a 3. ; the employees say it is â€Å"ok†. This company rating is based on eight components; career opportunities, communication, compensation & benefits, employee morale, recognition and feedback, senior leadership, work/life balance, fairness & respect. The lowest scores of 3. 1 were in career opportunities and in senior leadership. Two of the â€Å"Top Ten Reasons Why Good Employees Quit† are listed in the components that make up glassdoor’s company rating; employees have given to â€Å"Recognition and feedback† a score of 3. , and when it came to rating the â€Å"work/life balance†, IKEA employees gave the highest rating to it. Employees believe that better than anything else the company takes good care of their employee’s need of the work/life balance. Even though the rating seems to be solely satisfactory, it doesn’t truly represent the reality. Based on the rating one will assume that the company’s job demand is at a mediocre level, however, IKEA jobs are actually highly demanded; in Florida USA, IKEA had over 10 000 applicants for only 450 job.And in Sweden, Ikea ranks on the top 5 companies that university graduates want to work for. In addition, Ikea was on the â€Å"Top 200 World's Most Reputable Companies† (#2), Forbes, in 2009 and on the same year it was on the list of â€Å"Best Places to Work in Orange County† (Large companies), Best Companies Group, 2009. Pay and Benefits According to glassdoor. com Ikea employee’s rating of Compensation ; benefits is a mediocre 3. 4, however it does not portray the full picture. Where some believe that Ikea does a mediocre job, others are enjoying the vast benefits that Ikea provides them.Last fall Working Mother magazine named IKEA North America one of the 100 best companies for working mothers and singled out Spiers-Lopez for its Family Champion Award. The award was given for I kea great paid maternity leave and flexible work schedules. In addition, Ikea provides a number of benefits that are not usually offered to retail workers in the U. S. such as â€Å"full medical and dental insurance for those who work as little as 20 hours a week, including coverage for domestic partners and children; tuition assistance; and a 401(k) matching plan†.In addition, they receive long breaks, free uniform and the company has a food plan, it is known as the â€Å"$3 meals†. As for the facilities, there are lounges, relaxation rooms and showers. Ikea has all sorts of benefits from end of the year gift, to long service awards to sick pay and first day of school leave. Lastly, Ikea unlike most companies provides even part time workers with benefit packages. Bonuses in the company may vary, but on average the bonus of a sales associate is $785, and the team leader receives $1,002.However no all positions receive such high bonuses, when it comes to Ikea cashiers, they receive $50, and customer service associates receive $100. And all full time employees receive a 10% discount; it increases to 15% after 7 years of work. The employee discount comes hand in hand with home delivery and assembly of the furniture, always free of charge. All employees in Ikea receive above the minimum wage rate; most are paid by hour except a few who receive a fixed salary; the team leaders receives $39,908 and the department supervisor $34,712.Sales associates hourly pay is $10. 39, Ikea cashier’s is $9. 65/hour, customer serve associates receive $9. 38/hour, floor associates receive $10. 00/hour, Safety ; Loss prevention agent’s pay is $12. 69/hour and the pay of a co-worker is $13. 15/hr. On average the pay is around $12 per hour, with exception the interior designer who receives $16. 56 per hour. As for pension, at the moment, IKEA is building a new global pension package where they want to construct a global second-pillar retirement benefit struc ture. It is planned to be a fixed interest rate of 3. % on contributions. In 2000, IKEA introduced a multi-fund pension arrangement for their employees, which also can be used as a private retirement fund if they leave. The arrangement also offers workers who moves between countries a choice of asset mixes in which they can invest contributions. Co-workers at IKEA are able to transfer money between funds or split contributions between different plans, depending on their age and risk taking profile. It can also be mentioned that even if you choose to leave your job at IKEA, you may remain in the pension agreement. Everyone should have the same amount† – Ingvar Kamprad Ingvar also wishes to start a bonus program for employees over the world, but it is not yet defines how much money we are talking about. IKEA has 131 000 employees so the amount will easily reach very high numbers. So far, there are only 3 principles decided around the future wish; Everyone gets same amount , everyone can take part and its related to Inka holdings financial results. (Inka holdings is IKEA’s Dutch holding company) Improvements and Changes in 2011:The workforce turnover has decreased to 22% in 2011, and 81% of employees now come back from maternity leave: 100% at management level and 78% of hourly-paid workers. Thirdly, 2011 employee satisfaction survey came up with results that employees` favorability to rewards and benefits boosted by 5% in IKEA. Fourthly, IKEA launched family-friendly benefits such as a staff support program and childcare vouchers, as well as an loan with no interest in order to cover costs a month after birth. IKEA: TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IKEA uses mostly 3 different types of training: * Induction training (35%) Mentoring (40%) * Coaching (25%) 85% of training is on-the-job training and only 15% off-the-job training. Differences between IKEA houses per region in relation to Educational background of co-workers IKEA`s workforce has reached al ready 131,000 employees and these people are an epicenter of IKEA values. Value is a core word for company`s strategy and co-workers` involvement in it. IKEA is doubling their sales every five years; however it does not doubling their staff. One of its keys to such a success lies in training and development programs constantly offered to the employees.Each employee is offered 40-hour training every year in average. Since the very beginning employees` development was perceived as a non-stop process in IKEA. The first period for all newcomers is training in IKEA’s culture. It usually implicates learning about the company’s history by watching the educational videos. Many co-workers start they way in IKEA as part-time co-workers and shift progressively to full-time, seniors, deputies etc. Along their career path they are getting cultural training and regularly acquire IKEA’s values.The major part of training is acquiring the core aptitudes and skills such as teamwo rk, efficiency, mobility, leadership, that were considered necessary for a successful career at IKEA. Networking in IKEA takes important role in training and development. When new employee joins the â€Å"family† he/she gets immediate access to a local network. Curt Temin, who works globally with learning and development within IKEA Group, regards â€Å"networking as the ultimate tool for professional development†. One of the very first things new employee learns is an ancient Swedish word â€Å"fika† (coffee break).In IKEA they understand that even informal meetings and communication between people lead to knowledge transfer and this is where development starts. â€Å"People’s careers are only as limited as they want them to be at IKEA,† concludes Jeff Wilson, learning and development manager for IKEA US. 90% of all positions inside IKEA globally are filled inside, and 35% of those jobs are managing positions. To keep such a high data company has launched a personal development program called â€Å"PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE†, which has 3 components and takes place ones a year.This program is open to employees who already became aware with companies values, understand their position within the company and ready for self-development. At the first step staff is invited to investigate strengths, weaknesses, self-awareness and career pathways. The second step includes meeting with manager to discuss previous conclusions, perform a skills gap examination and choose position to develop toward desired path. There are online career centers available at this stage to provide all necessary reference materials to complete this stage. Last third step in the program leads to setting goals by employee and making an action plan.IKEA has created environment for growth founded on belief that good people can be even better. In the year 2002 the â€Å"SKILLS ESCALATOR† program was born from this idea. The Skills Escalator is compound of 4 main steps. When employee starts job as a trainee comes the first step. The second comes when employee actually step into planned responsibility. The third step is called â€Å"senior† because at this stage staff becomes leading with tasks of coaching others in their specific work. When the employee has become a mentor and expert it means the last fourth step of program has been reached.This program was created due to willingness of the company to employ people not solely for one role but to take a leading position in long-term. The core idea lies in progress, in order to learn and then train others. In IKEA nobody is a trainee longer than one year. The â€Å"SKILLS ESCALATOR† always gives opportunity for staff to get higher skills level. Employees are progressing while working, they perform work and see which skill are necessary and how attain them during the working process and receiving feedback Employees are confronted with a coach, who is not telling exactly what to do, but help to ind an answer by giving few leading questions. Therefore employees receive help and support, but in such a way they describe what they need to know rather told in advanced. It gives employees control over own development. This relates to on-the-job training, which is most used training process in IKEA. In fall 2011 IKEA launched mentoring initiative â€Å"PARTNERS FOR GROWTH† which was directed by famous mentoring consultant Dr. Lois Zachary of Leadership Development Services. This program was set up to help co-workers establish vital relationships to maintain them in piloting IKEA and in pursuing their own personal development.This program targets only to the IKEA`s key management. Jeff Wilson, Leaning & Development Manager in US explains that â€Å"Partners for Growth† will have a crucial influence on IKEA, he believes, that among many other programs this one is one of the most important. As IKEA has big expansion plans for next 10 years this program will lie in the very heart of the process. A lot of efforts will be given to co-workers` development programs such this one, due to the need of greater capability for people to take superior responsibilities in US and Canada.Pernille Lopez, President of IKEA NA admits that Zachary`s knowledge helped to line up a triumphant monitoring strategy with his own. Lopez confirms, that IKEA`s main goal is to help co-workers to do their job better by developing and empowering staff. In IKEA they take extra steps in mentoring program. IKEA base mentoring program on growth of both mentee and mentor holding expectation of creating better employees by making them a partners. Innate result of this program turns IKEA`s mentees to future mentors. Major mentor to IKEA`s mentoring support groups, Dr.Zachary praises company`s commitment to development processes and finds those innovative and hopes to see mentoring process as a natural aspect of the IKEA`s culture in the next few years. â€Å"P ARTNERS FOR GROWTH† soothes the progress of individual learning, encourages professional and personal development, and has 4 strategic goals: * Develop Leaders from top to bottom – Support career development across the board – Develop and support diversity through IKEA organization – Strengthen IKEA culture Interest of employees in IKEA for more internal training | Percentage| Yes| 79%| No| 4%| Don`t know| 16%| Totals| 100%|PASSIONATE CAREER IN IKEA In IKEA at entry level all employees are hired externally, then those employees are making their way up through promotions. Only 10% of employees on higher levels are hired externally mostly because of lack of eligible candidates. Career planning in any organization is based on how the organization may help and helps its employees in planning their careers. IKEA behave as a supportive partner, in managing its employees careers, for example, by lowering the work load while employee is taking any educational prog ram, by giving time off to study, or by paying a part of the tuition fee.Therefore, career planning may include anything from policies on hiring and promotions and collecting data about personal preferences to Educational Assistance Programs and flexible working hours. Educational Assistance Program gives employees monetary benefits for taking certain training or courses. To be eligible for those benefits the employee must pass the course with the mark of 75% or higher. Those benefits depend on the course taken and on the level at which the employee is. Nonetheless, IKEA offers also its own training and development program.Whereas the company and the level of employment require certain training programs, others are optional. IKEA says that career planning mostly depends on their employees if they want to be pro-active rather than reactive, if they are willing to take more responsibility and to learn more, positions are always posted in the store and every employee may apply upon mee ting certain requirements and having good performance appraisals. IKEA as being in retail industry hires many people on a part time basis, therefore it may offer what is called flexible working hours.This primarily means that employees have a choice what day to work and what hours to work, since they are not required to work 40 hours a week. Flex work enables co-workers to balance home and work careers as well as to spend more time on personal development. Nonetheless, flex work program depends on where the co-worker is working, for instance, in some departments, such as IKEA Trading, co-workers are required to work 8 hours a day but it does not have to be in straight time as long as they have eight hours a day worked.Whereas, in other departments it means that co-worker may choose which days to take off and which days to work. Promotions within IKEA may be vertical or lateral. The policy states that in order to be eligible for promotion for a position lower than management position , the candidate must work with the company at least six months, and to be eligible for promotion for management position the candidate must work at least three years. IKEA provides good program for those employees that would like to, and are eligible for, relocation to different country.Interested co-worker needs to meet certain requirements and be the best candidate for that position. In case of not having the language knowledge IKEA provides language training therefore upon arriving in the new workplace the promoted candidate can communicate with others. This tactic ensures that all employees meeting the requirements may be chosen and the language is not a barrier. IKEA, as a part of career planning of its employees, also does succession planning in conjunction with management. It means that IKEA has charts with listed higher positions, employees on that positions, and relationships between those positions.In case of any vacancies the chart lists prospective successors that may st ep up into that position. IKEA in developing such charts takes into consideration performance appraisals, experience, personal characteristics, and personal preferences of the candidate. As mentioned earlier IKEA does it in conjunction with managers, it means each candidate's qualifications are confirmed by the manager and that manager decides whether the candidate is ready to be promoted or not. Feelings of employees in relation to competences utilized in the right way within the company TAKING CARE OF PEOPLE: EMPLOYEESIKEA always tends to give greater value to its people by calling them co-workers, in such a way highlighting the importance of workforce in this company. The most important values for communication strategy in IKEA are respect, cost consciousness, togetherness and simplicity. During the hiring process IKEA is willing to take people who are willing to growth both professionally and individually, it is always stressed and emphasized during the recruitment. IKEA wishes to create sort of a partnership with its co-workers, it is ready to listen to their ambitions and particularly interested in hiring people who share IKEA`s values.In IKEA responsibility is given to co-workers and strategy of empowerment is applied. Therefore co-workers in IKEA are not afraid of making mistakes and are encouraged to innovative way of thinking. Worst enemy or evolution in IKEA is fear of mistakes. One of the factors IKEA using to make their employees feel better at the work place is absolute avoidance of status symbols. This system allows people to feel equal. The inspiration comes from the top management, and particularly from Ingvar Kampard who brings a great encouragement through his own life.For instance, he always uses public transport instead of taxis or car whenever it is possible. This again sets a good example for cost-consciousness from the highest level on, shows that managers do not expect things from their co-workers that they aren’t willing to do themselves. For Christmas 2006 IKEA has given 9000 bicycles to its employees with a purpose of cutting down the pollution and stick to idea of togetherness and cost-consciousness, which comes from top management. The staff is getting 15% off travel tickets on public transport to sustain same goals.Another example of how IKEA takes care of its employees is training and learning which not necessarily be important for the jobs performed. In 2002 Scottish IKEA introduced IT training for co-workers even thou most of those employees were not using computers in their jobs. IKEA tries to support co-workers, increase self-awareness and encourage them through continuous motivation and incentives. As mentioned before, preference during the recruitment process is given to people who are ready to grow both professionally and personally in IKEA.Regarding the motivating theories, when we begin using McGregor’s theory of X and Y, it can be safely stated that IKEA recognizes its employees as theory Y. IKEA consequently supplies the employees with benefits and incentives in order to give the opportunity for the workforce to grow themselves and their careers. Success of IKEA does not lie in cheap prices, but particularly in treatment of so-called co-workers and direct outcome of it. IKEA has two programs directed towards older employees: The duration of notice of termination of employment is increased by one month per year of employment for employees who are 40 years of age or older.The maximum raise is six months and is in addition to the length of notice according to the law. After ten years of work in IKEA, employees going on pension are allowed to a period of six months of reduced working time with full payment before the retirement. This helps to ease the transition from work to retirement by letting leisure to gradually take the place of work. Differences between IKEA per region in relation to Perceived Stress on the workplace Differences between IKEA per region in relation to how loyal employees feel towards the companyDifferences between IKEA per region in relation if they see themselves working in the company in the next 5 years TAKING CARE OF PEOPLE: CUSTOMERS * 1 million customers visit IKEA every day * The average customer makes 3. 5 store visits per year * The average age of a customer is 42 * 60 per cent of them are female * 150 million meatballs a year are served in IKEA restaurants * 145 million catalogues are printed in 48 editions and 25 languages * IKEA staff conduct 50000 yearly â€Å"home visits† where they visit customers' homes (in exchange for an IKEA credit voucher) to find out what frustrates customers about IKEA products.All business organizations need to make sure that their customers are satisfied with the service they receive because customers are the most important part of any successful organization. IKEA is acting according to the A. R. T. of great service, to carry out a good customer service: Approachable- a n organization must create an open and friendly environment that will influence customers to come in with self-assurance so that their matter can be dealt with. Responsive -all staff should take responsibility of their action. Customer service should be flexible and provide precise and honest information, at all times.Timely – done accurately and efficiently at all time. Many businesses record customer complaints so that, they can review the matter, and to improve its customer service. THE WORK WELL PROGRAM HEALTHY PEOPLE= HEALTHY ORGANIZATION Retention of senior co-workers in IKEA in ways of: * twice a month offered body massage; * specialized course in healthy lifestyle containing a personal diet program, and guidance on losing (or gaining) weight; * help to stop smoking, handle stress or manage situations of conflict; * providing discount on fees to fitness centers; providing comprehensive health insurance coverage providing medical treatment and rehabilitation therapy in private clinics to encourage quick recovery and return to the workplace after illness; * a local project promoting good working attitude through colleague-to-colleague guidance in standing, sitting and lifting correctly Discrimination in IKEA USA Ikea has their way of conduct called the IWAY standing for ‘The IKEA Way on Purchasing Home Furnishing Products’. It defines what suppliers can expect from IKEA and specifies what IKEA requires from its suppliers. Moreover the IWAY guides the work of employees.It covers working conditions, the prevention of child labor, the environment, responsible forestry management and more. Suppliers are responsible for communicating the content of the IKEA code of conduct to co-workers and sub-contractors and ensuring that all required measures are implemented at their own operations. For example, talking about discrimination the IWAY mentions: ‘The IKEA supplier shall not discriminate with regards to workers based on race, religion, beliefs, gender, marital or maternal status, age, political affiliation, national origin, disability, sexual orientation or any other basis. Discrimination is therefore forbidden not only concerning the race but also the gender, religion, beliefs, marital or maternal status etc. However in April 2011, complaints of racial discrimination were present in Virginia, more precisely in the city of Danville. Six African American employees have filed discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that black workers at Swedwood's (an industrial group within the IKEA Group of companies) U. S. actory are assigned to the lowest-paying departments and to the least desirable third shift which means from 11 p. m. to 7 a. m. One of the women, Jackie Maubin, mentioned that white people were more likely to receive more money than black people. Swedwood found solutions to face those issues by showing those complaints through mediation and Ikea had offered Maubin 1000 dollars. The company Ikea is trying to eliminate discrimination by hiring based on workers individual skills and ability to do the job.CONCLUSION: As shown thoroughly throughout this report, in both theory and practice, OB is IKEA’s top priority; the company pays a great deal of attention and energy to the company’s organizational behavior. It is part of Ikeas foundation, which results in great success. Though of course, whether OB is IKEA’s number one, or number two priority, it varies depending on factors such as the country in which that particular IKEA is located, as well as the culture in which it operates in.Though the origin of the Swedish IKEA has OB as a number one priority, it slightly varies depending on the location of each IKEA store or warehouse, that is due to the fact that cultures and norm and ways of doing business vary all over the world, and even though IKEA does its best to keep OB its number one priority, it is not the number one prior ity in every single IKEA all over the world. There is still room for improvement though in comparison to other companies, IKEA certainly never neglects the important of OB, but whether it is the number one or number three priority, that varies all over the world.Appendix: Interview With Emil Svallingsson, Warehouse Employee at IKEA Sweden for 10 Years According to you, how are employees being treated at the IKEA warehouse? In an equal way? In general, all employees are treated well, even though some bad things has shown during my 10 years at IKEA. If you are complaining, you are risking to not get a promotion. People were always quitting and new were starting, mostly because of annoying costumers and due to a too small number of employees. IKEA is constantly trying to cut down on their staff in order to have the consumers doing as much as possible.During a very long time, no new people were hired at my department. Additionally, I have to say that there always have been a good diver sity between men/women, religion and age. It's a good mix! Are employees proud about their jobs? †No, it's about 50/50 I would say. 50% thinks IKEA is amazing and a wonderful place to work. We call those certain people the â€Å"IKEAns†, like Indiens. The other 50% are mostly working there because of a lack of other things to do. †Is IKEA a good environment for new initiatives? You always have to push yourself forward and be initiative if you want something to happen with your carrier. It is almost expected from the employees to do more than it says in their contract if they want to achieve higher positions. †Are employees actively involved to develop IKEA, or are they according to you, in need of being â€Å"pushed† forward in order to develop? †Again, that's 50/50. The ones who believes in the IKEA concept (the IKEA`ns) loves to be a part of the IKEA family and they do not have to be pushed. The rest of us might need a clear goal to be motivat ed.I would have liked to just have a small percentage of the extra money I earned if my selling went extra well for example. They don't have systems like that. Time to time, they did have a small competition or party for the employees though. That was fun. Interview with the French marketing director Hakan Sandman How are decisions in general being taken at IKEA? Ikea is very democratic in general, even though it's different between different countries. It differs depending on a country's general values and how the people are looking at the word Trust. It is easy to say, Yes†- we trust our employees! but not as easy to live. I would say that IKEA Sweden trust their employees most of all countries, but in comparison to other companies in France, we are very good at trusting and giving away responsibilities. How are the people at IKEA helping each other in order to move forward as a group? At IKEA, it is important that it's easy for our employees to understand and live our value s and beliefs. In the retail department, there are so many people who comes and goes, so it is important that the new ones are able to learn quickly and that the old ones are willing to teach.One of our most important slogans is: â€Å"Lead by Example† which basically means that you have to live as you learn. When the founder, Ingvar Kamprad, where in his forties, he was driving around in a Porsche, drinking champagne with beautiful women and he was living a very different life from today. He later on realized the importance of guiding people by being the example himself, and started to behave in a more appropriate way for IKEA. So what is â€Å"appropriate† for IKEA? It is important for anyone who works at IKEA to be a good example when it comes to money. You have to live as you learn and you are not opposed to waist them.An example of this is when a person at IKEA Russia once where spending a bit too much, which lead to that the company lost 50 million euro. Ingvar h imself then went to the person who was responsible for the act, but instead of yelling at him for what he did, he started to lecture about good behavior and the norms of IKEA. In this case, Ingvar saw that it wasn’t the money that were important in the situation, but the symbolic act to waist 50 millions. It was just not good for IKEAs reputation. At the same time he managed to â€Å"Lead by Example† by being a really good and understanding leader. Is it really that equal at IKEA?IKEA is a flat organization, which means it is not hierarchic. Our decisions may take longer time, but when letting everyone decide, people all over the organization will truly believe in the decision and work more efficient to get through with the new idea. At IKEA, it is important to feel the â€Å"We- Spirit†. Since we are doing things together, that leads to more personal energy and everyone will be more effective. Do you prefer it like that or the other way around? Sometimes, it ma y be hard to take a decision within the overall budget for example, cause we don’t really have anyone who Really decides.Everyone might want different things and that can require more time and energy than it would have done in a hierarchical organization. But in the end, I really prefer the flat type of organization. How to you get a flat organization to be effective? It's all about a balance between time efficiency and democracy. In the warehouses, there is somewhat a hierarchy, but as flat as possible. It wouldn't work otherwise. Ingvar himself is very concerned about his employees though and likes to spend time in warehouses in order to take in the opinions of people working there. He wants them to also have power.But is it really that equal between men and women? Every department sets its own goals every year. The goals are based on feeling form the employees but also on measured facts. In the very top, there are more men than women. A lot of women are working in HR depar tment and marketing. I'm the only man at the marketing department! It is really well divided between warehouse bosses though, I would say very close to 50/50 for men and women. References: http://geert-hofstede. com/sweden. html http://www. glassdoor. com/Salary/IKEA-Salaries-E3957. htm http://www. glassdoor. com/Bonuses/IKEA-Bonuses-E3957. tm http://www. ikea. com/ms/en_US/about_ikea/our_responsibility/national_community_involvment/index. html http://www. gulftalent. com/home/Training-and-Development-Manager-IKEA-jobs http://www. treehugger. com/bikes/ikea-thanks-usa-staff-with-12400-free-bicycles. html http://www. icmrindia. org/casestudies/catalogue/Human%20Resource%20and%20Organ ization%20Behavior/HROB066. htm http://www. ajc. com/hotjobs/content/hotjobs/careercenter/articles/2007/12/04/1202_divikea. html http://goliath. ecnext. com/coms2/gi_0199-15937449/Ikea-sales-rise-brings-new. html http://theroast. com. au/story/262 ttp://www. workforce. com/article/20040730/NEWS02/3073099 82# http://www. ikea. com/ms/sv_SE/about_ikea/facts_and_figures/index. html https://home. workforce. com/clickshare/authenticateUserSubscription. do? http://www. glassdoor. com/Reviews/IKEA-Reviews-E3957. htm#Awards http://www. ikea. com/ms/en_US/the_ikea_story/working_at_ikea/co_worker_stories_par. html http://www. morten-rask. dk/2007c. pdf http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/IKEA http://publicculture. org/articles/view/19/3/on-the-ikeaization-of-france/ http://consumerist. com/2007/07/8-ikea-shopping-tips-from-a-former-employee. tml http://www. vault. com/survey/employee/IKEA3_2146. html http://www. ehmac. ca/everything-else-eh/51467-ikea-employee-discount. html http://forums. moneysavingexpert. com/showthread. php? t=145248 http://forums. redflagdeals. com/ikea-employee-discount-735501/ http://curbed. com/archives/2011/05/19/ikea-responds-to-charges-of-discrimination-and-poor-labor-conditions. php http://mangans. blogspot. com/2011/04/ikea-workers-complain-of-discrimination. html htt p://www. ituc-csi. org/ituc-condemns-ikea-anti-union. html? lang=en http://reocities. com/TimesSquare/1848/ikea. html http://www. uthorstream. com/Presentation/aSGuest9557-133416-ikea-business-finance-ppt-powerpoint/ http://www. ikea. com/ms/en_US/about_ikea/our_responsibility/working_conditions/preventing_child_labour. html http://www. ikea. com/ms/en_US/the_ikea_story/people_and_the_environment/index. html http://www. icmrindia. org/casestudies/catalogue/Business%20Ethics/IKEA%20-%20Social%20and%20Environmental%20Responsibility%20Initiatives. htm http://www. ikea. com/ms/en_US/the_ikea_story/working_at_ikea/co_worker_stories_par. html http://knowledge. wharton. upenn. edu/article. cfm? articleid=959 http://www. expology. o/expose/sites/expology_se/default. asp? s=387&id=642 http://www. smp. se/nyheter/almhult/ingvar-kamprad-oppnade-nytt-center-for-ikea-kultur(2076302). gm http://www. ikea. com/ms/sv_SE/about_ikea/pdf/sustainability_05. pdf http://www. efinancialnews. com/story/200 5-01-24/ikea-builds-global-pensions-package http://www. paraplyprojektet. se/news. php? id=1655&categoryID=4 http://www. ifmab. se/Vetaom/Pdf/Tiotaggare. pdf http://www. ikea. com/ms/en_US/about_ikea/our_responsibility/iway/index. html http://www. ikea. com/ms/en_US/about_ikea/pdf/SCGlobal_IWAYSTDVers4. pdf http://www. swedwood. com/ http://www. outube. com/watch? v=Z1pfI0xI6FQ http://www. ikea. com/gb/en/catalog/categories/series/21132/ http://www. ikea. com/gb/en/catalog/products/20196303/ http://www. personneltoday. com/awards/shortlist/award-for-reward-and-benefits/ http://gupea. ub. gu. se/bitstream/2077/2370/1/gbs_thesis_2002_22. pdf http://gupea. ub. gu. se/bitstream/2077/23217/1/gupea_2077_23217_1. pdf http://lup. lub. lu. se/luur/download? func=downloadFile&recordOId=598845&fileOId=598846 http://www. scribd. com/doc/44925799/IKEA-Corporate-Culture http://www. bitc. org. uk/resources/case_studies/ikea_diversity. html http://www. cmrindia. org/casestudies/catalogue/Human%20Re source%20and%20Organization%20Behavior/IKEA%20Innovative%20Human%20Resource%20Management%20Practices%20and%20Work%20Culture. htm Academy of Management Executive Magazine 2003, Vol17, No1 , Interview written by Katarina Kling and Ingela Goteman: â€Å"IKEA CEO Anders Dahlvig on international growth and IKEA`s unique corporate culture and brand identity† http://www. morten-rask. dk/2007c. pdf ——————————————– [ 1 ]. 1 Barret, Richard M. , â€Å"IKEA San Diego Supports ‘Green' Movement by Developing Stricter Manufacturing and Supply Standards,†

Nickel And Dimed Essay

You must create a dialectical journal with fifteen (15) entries. I want five (5) entries for each section. I expect a thorough analysis of the devices/strategies identified in the text. Points: 90 Part II Create a monthly budget for a single parent with one child household living in the DMV area making minimum wage. You are to research the necessary information. You must include the current minimum wage, living accommodations, child care, grocery, transportation, and any luxuries (jewelry, dinners at restaurants, a night on the town, etc.). I expect you to find an actual place to live and include their rental rates. If your expenditures exceed your income, you must compute what it would cost for only necessities and calculate the minimum amount of money you must earn to meet those needs. Your research information may be submitted in chart or graph form. You must cite your sources using APA style!! Points: 40 Part III Choose one of the following prompts to write an effective 2 full page double spaced 12† font AP level essay. 1. In â€Å"Evaluation,† the final chapter of Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich observes: Some odd optical property of our highly polarized and unequal society makes the poor almost invisible to their economic superiors. The poor can see the affluent easily enough-on television, for example, or on the covers of magazines. But the affluent rarely see the poor or, if they do catch sight of them in some public space, rarely know what they’re seeing, since-thanks to consignment stores and, yes, Wal-Mart- the poor are usually able to disguise themselves as members of the more comfortable classes.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 12

Chapter 12 Well, by pretending to have an overactive bladder, I've managed to sneak enough time in the bathroom to finish reading this Gospel of Matthew. I don't know who the Matthew is that wrote this, but it certainly wasn't our Matthew. While our Matthew was a whiz at numbers (as you might expect from a tax collector), he couldn't write his own name in the sand without making three mistakes. Whoever wrote this Gospel obviously got the information at least secondhand, maybe thirdhand. I'm not here to criticize, but please, he never mentions me. Not once. I know my protests go against the humility that Joshua taught, but please, I was his best friend. Not to mention the fact that this Matthew (if that really is his name) takes great care in describing Joshua's genealogy back to King David, but after Joshua is born and the three wise men show up at the stable in Bethlehem, then you don't hear from Joshua again until he's thirty. Thirty! As if nothing happened from the manger until John baptized us. Jeez. Anyway, now I know why I was brought back from the dead to write this Gospel. If the rest of this â€Å"New Testament† is anything like the book of Matthew, they need someone to write about Joshua's life who was actually there: me. I can't believe I wasn't even mentioned once. It's all I can do to keep from asking Raziel what in the hell happened. He probably showed up a hundred years too late to correct this Matthew fellow. Oh my, there's a frightening thought, edited by the moron angel. I can't let that happen. And the ending? Where did he get that? I'll see what this next guy, this Mark, has to say, but I'm not getting my hopes up. The first thing that we noticed about Balthasar's fortress was that there were no right angles, no angles period, only curves. As we followed the magus through corridors, and from level to level, we never saw so much as a squared-off stair step, instead there were spiral ramps leading from level to level, and although the fortress spread all over the cliff face, no room was more than one doorway away from a window. Once we were above the ground level, there was always light from the windows and the creepy feeling we'd had when we entered quickly passed away. The stone of the walls was more yellow in color than the limestone of Jerusalem, yet it had the same smooth appearance. Overall it gave the impression that you were walking through the polished entrails of some huge living creature. â€Å"Did you build this place, Balthasar?† I asked. â€Å"Oh, no,† he said, without turning around. â€Å"This place was always here, I simply had to remove the stone that occupied it.† â€Å"Oh,† I said, having gained no knowledge whatsoever. We passed no doors, but myriad open archways and round portals which opened into chambers of various shapes and sizes. As we passed one egg-shaped doorway obscured by a curtain of beads Balthasar mumbled, â€Å"The girls stay in there.† â€Å"Girls?† I said. â€Å"Girls?† Joshua said. â€Å"Yes, girls, you ninnies,† Balthasar said. â€Å"Humans much like yourselves, except smarter and better smelling.† Well, I knew that. I mean, we'd seen the two of them, hadn't we? I knew what girls were. He pressed on until we came to the only other door I had seen since we entered, this one another huge, ironclad monster held closed with three iron bolts as big around as my arm and a heavy brass lock engraved with strange characters. The magus stopped and tilted an ear to the door. His heavy gold earring clinked against one of the bolts. He turned to us and whispered, and for the first time I could clearly see that the magus was very old, despite the strength of his laugh and the spring in his step. â€Å"You may go anywhere you wish while you stay here, but you must never open this door. Xiong zai.† â€Å"Xiong zai,† I repeated to Joshua in case he'd missed it. â€Å"Xiong zai.† He nodded with total lack of understanding. Mankind, I suppose, is designed to run on – to be motivated by – temptation. If progress is a virtue then this is our greatest gift. (For what is curiosity if not intellectual temptation? And what progress is there without curiosity?) On the other hand, can you call such a profound weakness a gift, or is it a design flaw? Is temptation itself at fault for man's woes, or is it simply the lack of judgment in response to temptation? In other words, who is to blame? Mankind, or a bad designer? Because I can't help but think that if God had never told Adam and Eve to avoid the fruit of the tree of knowledge, that the human race would still be running around naked, dancing in wonderment and blissfully naming stuff between snacks, naps, and shags. By the same token, if Balthasar had passed that great ironclad door that first day without a word of warning, I might have never given it a second glance, and once again, much trouble could have been avoided. Am I to blame for what h appened, or is it the author of temptation, God Hisownself? Balthasar led us into a grand chamber with silks festooned from the ceiling and the floor covered with fine carpets and pillows. Wine, fruit, cheese, and bread were laid out on several low tables. â€Å"Rest and refresh,† said Balthasar. â€Å"I'll be back after I finish my business with Ahmad.† Then he hurried off, leaving us alone. â€Å"So,† I said, â€Å"find out what you need to from this guy, then we can get on the road and on to the next wise man.† â€Å"I'm not sure it's going to be that quick. In fact, we may be here quite some time. Maybe years.† â€Å"Years? Joshua, we're in the middle of nowhere, we can't spend years here.† â€Å"Biff, we grew up in the middle of nowhere. What's the difference?† â€Å"Girls,† I said. â€Å"What about them?† Joshua asked. â€Å"Don't start.† We heard laughter rolling down the corridor into the room and shortly it was followed by Balthasar and Ahmad, who threw themselves down among the pillows and began eating the cheeses and fruits that had been set out. â€Å"So,† Balthasar said, â€Å"Ahmad tells me that you tried to save a bandit, and in the process blinded one of his men, without so much as touching him. Very impressive.† Joshua hung his head. â€Å"It was a massacre.† â€Å"Grieve,† Balthasar said, â€Å"but consider also the words of the master Lao-tzu: ‘Weapons are instruments of misfortune. Those who are violent do not die naturally.'† â€Å"Ahmad,† Joshua said, â€Å"what will happen to the guard, the one I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"He is no good to me anymore,† said Ahmad. â€Å"A shame too, he was the best bowman of the lot. I'll leave him in Kabul. He's asked me to give his pay to his wife in Antioch and his other wife in Dunhuang. I suppose he will become a beggar.† â€Å"Who is Lao-tzu?† I asked. â€Å"You will have plenty of time to learn of master Lao-tzu,† said Balthasar. â€Å"Tomorrow I will assign you a tutor to teach you qi, the path of the Dragon's Breath, but for now, eat and rest.† â€Å"Can you believe a Chinaman can be so black?† laughed Ahmad. â€Å"Have you ever seen such a thing?† â€Å"I wore the leopard skin of the shaman when your father was just a twinkle in the great river of stars, Ahmad. I mastered animal magic before you were old enough to walk, and I had learned all the secrets of the sacred Egyptian magic texts before you could sprout a beard. If immortality is to be found among the wisdom of the Chinese masters, then I shall be Chinese as long as it suits me, no matter the color of my skin or the place of my birth.† I tried to determine Balthasar's age. From what he was claiming he would have to be very old indeed, as Ahmad was not young himself, yet his movements were spry and as far as I could see he had all of his teeth and they were perfect. There was none of the feeble dotage that I'd seen in our elders at home. â€Å"How do you stay so strong, Balthasar?† I asked. â€Å"Magic.† He grinned. â€Å"There is no magic but that of the Lord,† Joshua said. Balthasar scratched his chin and replied quietly, â€Å"Then presumably none without his consent, eh, Joshua?† Joshua slouched and stared at the floor. Ahmad burst out laughing. â€Å"His magic isn't so mysterious, boys. Balthasar has eight young concubines to draw the poisons from his old body, that's how he stays young.† â€Å"Holy moly! Eight?† I was astounded. Aroused. Envious. â€Å"Does that room with the ironclad door have something to do with your magic?† Joshua asked gravely. Balthasar stopped grinning. Ahmad looked from Joshua to the magus and back, bewildered. â€Å"Let me show you to your quarters,† said Balthasar. â€Å"You should wash and rest. Lessons tomorrow. Say good-bye to Ahmad, you'll not see him again soon.† Our quarters were spacious, bigger than the houses we'd grown up in, with carpets on the floor, chairs made of dark exotic hardwoods carved into the shapes of dragons and lions, and a table that held a pitcher and basin for washing. Each of our rooms held a desk and cabinet full of instruments for painting and writing, and something neither of us had ever seen, a bed. A half-wall divided the space between Joshua's room and mine, so we were able to lie in the beds and talk before falling asleep, just as we had in the desert. I could tell that Joshua was deeply troubled about something that first night. â€Å"You seem, I don't know, deeply troubled, Josh.† â€Å"It's the bandits. Could I have raised them?† â€Å"All of them? I don't know, could you?† â€Å"I thought about it. I thought that I could make them all walk and breathe again. I thought I could make them live. But I didn't even try.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Because I was afraid they would have killed us and robbed us if I had. It's what Balthasar said, ‘Those who are violent do not die naturally.'† â€Å"The Torah says, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. They were bandits.† â€Å"But were they bandits always? Would they have been bandits in the years to come?† â€Å"Sure, once a bandit, always a bandit. They take an oath or something. Besides, you didn't kill them.† â€Å"But I didn't save them, and I blinded that bowman. That wasn't right.† â€Å"You were angry.† â€Å"That's no excuse.† â€Å"What do you mean, that's no excuse? You're God's Son. God wiped out everyone on earth with a flood because he was angry.† â€Å"I'm not sure that's right.† â€Å"‘Scuse me?† â€Å"We have to go to Kabul. I need to restore that man's sight if I can.† â€Å"Joshua, this bed is the most comfortable place I've ever been. Can we wait to go to Kabul?† â€Å"I suppose.† Joshua was quiet for a long time and I thought that he might have fallen asleep. I didn't want to sleep, but I didn't want to talk about dead bandits either. â€Å"Hey Josh?† â€Å"What?† â€Å"What do you think is in that room with the iron door, what did he call it?† â€Å"Xiong zai,† said Josh. â€Å"Yeah, Xiong zai. What do you think that is?† â€Å"I don't know, Biff. Maybe you should ask your tutor.† Xiong zai means house of doom, in the parlance of feng shui,† said Tiny Feet of the Divine Dance of Joyous Orgasm. She knelt before a low stone table that held an earthenware teapot and cups. She wore a red silk robe trimmed with golden dragons and tied with a black sash. Her hair was black and straight and so long that she had tied it in a knot to keep it from dragging on the floor as she served the tea. Her face was heart-shaped, her skin as smooth as polished alabaster, and if she'd ever been in the sun, the evidence had long since faded. She wore wooden sandals held fast by silk ribbons and her feet, as you might guess from her name, were tiny. It had taken me three days of lessons to get the courage up to ask her about the room. She poured the tea daintily, but without ceremony, as she had each of the previous three days before my lessons. But this time, before she handed it to me, she added to my cup a drop of a potion from a tiny porcelain bottle that hung from a chain around her neck. â€Å"What's in the bottle, Joy?† I called her Joy. Her full name was too ungainly for conversation, and when I'd tried other diminutives (Tiny Feet, Divine Dance, and Orgasm), she hadn't responded positively. â€Å"Poison,† Joy said with a smile. The lips of her smile were shy and girlish, but the eyes smiled a thousand years sly. â€Å"Ah,† I said, and I tasted the tea. It was rich and fragrant, just as it had been before, but this time there was a hint of bitterness. â€Å"Biff, can you guess what your lesson is today?† Joy asked. â€Å"I thought you would tell me what's in that house of doom room.† â€Å"No, that is not the lesson today. Balthasar does not wish you to know what is in that room. Guess again.† My fingers and toes had begun to tingle and I suddenly realized that my scalp had gone numb. â€Å"You're going to teach me how to make the fire-powder that Balthasar used the day we arrived?† â€Å"No, silly.† Joy's laugh had the musical sound of a clear stream running over rocks. She pushed me lightly on the chest and I fell over backward, unable to move. â€Å"Today's lesson is – are you ready?† I grunted. It was all I could do. My mouth was paralyzed. â€Å"Today's lesson is, if someone puts poison in your tea, don't drink it.† â€Å"Uh-huh,† I sort of slurred. â€Å"So,† Balthasar said, â€Å"I see that Tiny Feet of the Divine Dance of Joyous Orgasm has revealed what she keeps in the little bottle around her neck.† The magus laughed heartily and leaned back on some cushions. â€Å"Is he dead?† asked Joshua. The girls laid my paralyzed body on some pillows next to Joshua, then propped me up so I could look at Balthasar. Beautiful Gate of Heavenly Moisture Number Six, who I had only just met and didn't have a nickname for yet, put some drops on my eyes to keep them moist, as I seemed to have lost the ability to blink. â€Å"No,† said Balthasar, â€Å"he's not dead. He's just relaxed.† Joshua poked me in the ribs and, of course, I didn't respond. â€Å"Really relaxed,† he said. Beautiful Gate of Heavenly Moisture Number Six handed Joshua the little vial of eye drops and excused herself. She and the other girls left the room. â€Å"Can he see and hear us?† Joshua asked. â€Å"Oh yes, he's completely alert.† â€Å"Hey Biff, I'm learning about Chi,† Joshua shouted into my ear. â€Å"It flows all around us. You can't see it, or hear it, or smell it, but it's there.† â€Å"You don't need to shout,† said Balthasar. Which is what I would have said, if I could have said anything. Joshua put some drops in my eyes. â€Å"Sorry.† Then to Balthasar, â€Å"This poison, where did it come from?† â€Å"I studied under a sage in China who had been the emperor's royal poisoner. He taught me this, and many other of the magics of the five elements.† â€Å"Why would an emperor need a poisoner?† â€Å"A question that only a peasant would ask.† â€Å"An answer that only an ass would give,† said Joshua. Balthasar laughed. â€Å"So be it, child of the star. A question asked in earnest deserves an earnest answer. An emperor has many enemies to dispatch, but more important, he has many enemies who would dispatch him. The sage spent most of his time concocting antidotes.† â€Å"So there's an antidote to this poison,† Joshua said, poking me in the ribs again. â€Å"In good time. In good time. Have some more wine, Joshua. I wish to discuss with you the three jewels of the Tao. The three jewels of the Tao are compassion, moderation, and humility†¦Ã¢â‚¬  An hour later, four Chinese girls came and picked me up, wiped the floor where I had drooled, and carried me to our quarters. As they passed the great ironclad door I could hear scraping and a voice in my head that said, â€Å"Hey kid, open the door,† but the girls made no notice of it. Back in my room, the girls bathed me and poured some rich broth into me, then put me to bed and closed my eyes. I could hear Joshua enter the room and shuffle around preparing for bed. â€Å"Balthasar says he will have Joy give you the antidote to the poison soon, but first you have a lesson to learn. He says that this is the Chinese way of teaching. Strange, don't you think?† Had I been able to make a sound, I would have agreed, yes, indeed it was strange. So you know: Balthasar's concubines were eight in number and their names were: Tiny Feet of the Divine Dance of Joyous Orgasm, Beautiful Gate of Heavenly Moisture Number Six, Temptress of the Golden Light of the Harvest Moon, Delicate Personage of Two Fu Dogs Wrestling Under a Blanket, Feminine Keeper of the Three Tunnels of Excessive Friendliness, Silken Pillows of the Heavenly Softness of Clouds, Pea Pods in Duck Sauce with Crispy Noodle, and Sue. And I found myself wondering, as a man does, about origins and motivations and such – as each of the concubines was more beautiful than the last, regardless of what order you put them in, which was weird – so after several weeks passed, and I could no longer stand the curiosity scratching at my brain like a cat in a basket, I waited until one of the rare occasions when I was alone with Balthasar, and I asked. â€Å"Why Sue?† â€Å"Short for Susanna,† Balthasar said. So there you go. Their full names were somewhat ungainly, and to try to pronounce them in Chinese produced a sound akin to throwing a bag of silverware down a flight of steps (ting, tong, yang, wing, etc.) so Joshua and I called the girls as follows: Joy, Number Six, Two Fu Dogs, Moon, Tunnels, Pillows, Pea Pods, and, of course, Sue, which we couldn't figure out how to shorten. Except for a group of men who brought supplies from Kabul every two weeks, and while there would do any heavy moving, the eight young women did everything around the fortress. Despite the remoteness and the obvious wealth that the fortress housed, there were no guards. I found that curious. Over the next week Joy tutored me in the characters that I would need to know to read the Book of the Divine Elixirs or the Nine Tripods of the Yellow Emperor, and the Book of Liquid Pearl in Nine Cycles and of the Nine Elixirs of the Divine Immortals. The plan was that once I became conversant in these two ancient texts, I would be able to assist Balthasar in his quest for immortality. That, by the way, was the reason that we were there, the reason that Balthasar had followed the star to Bethlehem at Joshua's birth, and the reason that he had put Ahmad on notice to look for a Jew seeking the African magus. Balthasar sought immortality, and he believed that Joshua held the key to it. Of course we didn't know that at the time. My concentration while studying the symbols was particularly acute, helped by the fact that I could not move a muscle. Each morning Two Fu Dogs and Pillows (both named for their voluptuousness, which evidently came with considerable strength) would pull me from bed, squeeze me over the latrine, bathe me, pour some broth into me, then take me to the library and prop me in a chair while Joy lectured on Chinese characters, which she painted with a wet brush on large sheets of slate set on easels. Sometimes the other girls would stay and pose my body into various positions that amused them, and as much as I should have been annoyed by the humiliation, the truth be told, watching Pillows and Two Fu Dogs jiggle in paroxysms of girlish laughter was fast becoming the high point of my paralyzed day. At midday, Joy would take a break while two or more of the other girls squoze me over the latrine, poured more broth into me, and then teased me mercilessly until Joy returned, clapped her hands, and sent them away well scolded. (Joy was the bull-ox concubine of them all, despite her tiny feet.) Sometimes during these breaks, Joshua would leave his own lessons and come to the library to visit. â€Å"Why have you painted him blue?† asked Joshua. â€Å"He looks good blue,† said Pea Pods. Two Fu Dogs and Tunnels stood by with paintbrushes admiring their work. â€Å"Well, he's not going to be happy with this when he gets the antidote, I can tell you that.† Then to me Joshua said, â€Å"You know, you do sort of look good blue. Biff, I've appealed to Joy on your behalf, but she says she doesn't think you've learned your lesson yet. You have learned your lesson though, haven't you? Stop breathing for a second if the answer is yes.† I did. â€Å"I thought so.† Joshua bent and whispered in my ear. â€Å"It's about that room behind the iron door. That's the lesson they want you to learn. I got the feeling that if I asked about it I'd be propped up there next to you.† He stood up. â€Å"I have to go now. The three jewels to learn, don't you know. I'm on compassion. It's not as hard as it sounds.† Two days later Joy came to my room in the morning with some tea. She pulled the tiny bottle from inside her dragon robe and held it close in front of my eyes. â€Å"You see the two small corks, a white one on one side of the vessel and a black one on the other? The black one is the poison I gave you. The white one is the antidote. I think you've learned your lesson.† I drooled in response, while sincerely hoping she hadn't mixed up the corks. She tipped the little bottle over a teacup, then poured some tea down my throat, with half of it going down the front of my shirt as well. â€Å"That will take a while to work. You may experience some discomfort as the poison wears off.† Joy dropped the little bottle down into its nest of Chinese cleavage, then kissed me on the forehead and left. If I could, I would have snickered at the blue paint she had on her lips as she walked away. Ha! â€Å"Some discomfort,† she had said. For the better part of ten days I'd had no sensation in my body at all, then suddenly things started to work again. Imagine rolling out of your warm bed in the morning into – oh, I don't know – a lake of burning oil. â€Å"Jumpin' Jehoshaphat, Joshua, I'm about to crawl out of my skin here.† We were in our quarters, about an hour after I'd taken the antidote. Balthasar had sent Joshua to find me and bring me to the library, supposedly to see how I was doing. Josh put his hand on my forehead, but instead of the usual calm that accompanied that gesture, it felt as if he'd lain a hot branding iron across my skin. I knocked his hand aside. â€Å"Thanks, but it's not helping.† â€Å"Maybe a bath,† Joshua suggested. â€Å"Tried it. Jeez, this is driving me mad!† I hopped around in a circle because I didn't know what else to do. â€Å"Maybe Balthasar has something that can help,† Joshua said. â€Å"Lead on,† I said. â€Å"I can't just sit here.† We headed off down the corridor, going down several levels on the way to the library. As we descended one of the spiral ramps I grabbed Joshua's arm. â€Å"Josh, look at this ramp, you notice anything?† He considered the surface and leaned out to look at the sides of the tread. â€Å"No. Should I?† â€Å"How about the walls and ceilings, the floors, you notice anything?† Joshua looked around. â€Å"They're all solid rock?† â€Å"Yes, but what else? Look hard. Think of the houses we built in Sepphoris. Now do you notice anything?† â€Å"No tool marks?† â€Å"Exactly,† I said. â€Å"I spent a lot of time over the last two weeks staring at walls and ceilings with nothing much else to look at. There's not the slightest evidence of a chisel, a pick, a hammer, anything. It's as if these chambers had been carved by the wind over a thousand years, but you know that's not the case.† â€Å"So what's your point?† Joshua said. â€Å"My point is that there's more going on with Balthasar and his girls than he lets on.† â€Å"We should ask them.† â€Å"No, we shouldn't, Josh. Don't you get it? We need to find out what's going on without them knowing that we know.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Why? Why? Because the last time I asked a question I was poisoned, that's why. And I believe that if Balthasar didn't think you had something that he wants, I'd have never seen the antidote.† â€Å"But I don't have anything,† said Joshua, honestly. â€Å"You might have something you don't know you have, but you can't just go asking what it is. We need to be devious. Tricky. Sneaky.† â€Å"But I'm not good at any of those things.† I put my arm around my friend's shoulders. â€Å"Not always so great being the Messiah, huh?†

Wooden Baseball Bats Are Better than Metal Bats Essay

Wooden Baseball Bats Are Better than Metal Bats - Essay Example But, it is important to let the reader know beforehand that using a wooden bat is a tradition in major league baseball (MLB). For reasons, the reader must refer to the advantages of wooden bats described in the coming lines. Halter (1981, p. 22) asserts that â€Å"big-league rules say a bat must be wood, round, and no more than 42 inches long†. As one goes from little leagues to major ones, the use of wooden bats becomes a tradition keeping in view their material, weight, safety and affordability as compared to aluminum (metal) bats. Wooden bats are heavier than metal bats because they are solid and metal bats are hollow from within, and that is why they require more effort to sway than aluminum bats. They also have a smaller sweet spot due to which the hit remains within range, that is, the hit zone is small. In other words, the weight in wooden bats is concentrated far from hands, or in other words, the center of gravity lies in the barrel. Thus the â€Å"swing weight† (Nathan, 2007, p. 1) is higher which keeps the ball within range. A metal bat is lighter because of a larger sweet spot (Zumerchik, 1997, p. 52) and the weight is concentrated very close to the hands which will have the hit swing much higher as the swing weight is lower. Wooden bats are safer than metal bats because the exit speed of the ball is much slower in the case of wooden bats. Thus, the ball comes off with slow speed which is good as it reduces the danger of injury if the ball hits another player or pitcher. This is why MLB endorses the use of wooden bats considering the hit power of the professional players. Metal bats, as they are lighter, can easily get tossed away to injure another player. Also, the larger sweet spot in case of metal bats causes larger exit speed of the ball, that is, the ball will â€Å"jump off† (Wolff, 1997, p. 23) faster which could injure anybody within the hit zone very seriously. There have been unfortunate events in past, like, as Chandler (2010) states,

Equity, Conscience and Things of Confidence and Fiduciary Obligation Essay

Equity, Conscience and Things of Confidence and Fiduciary Obligation Discuss - Essay Example It represents a clear delineation of information deemed as confidential as well the constituents of a brief of confidentiality. In a confidentiality agreement, there are typical requirements. Those requirements include not disclosing the items discussed as well as the scope and ramifications of discussions between the parties, not utilizing confidential information for any purpose other than is clearly delineated in the agreement, and not disclosing any information deemed as confidential to individuals or entities other than the employees or representatives of the recipient without the prior written consent. If employees or representatives of the recipient are granted access to confidential information, the party revealing the information should engage in a subsequent agreement binding the recipient to the same obligation as the original obligation of confidentiality. In addition to this, the original party remains responsible for the actions of those individuals who were provided wi th subsequent confidentiality agreement. Fiduciary obligation is defined as the legal duty of one party to look after the well being of another. Fiduciary obligation can apply to governments, corporations and individuals alike. By acting in the capacity of a fiduciary, a party is bounded to act ethically, responsibly and with the best interest of the appointee at hand. In so doing, a fiduciary obligation is subjected to breach and pertinent remedies when a breach takes place. The case of Canson Enterprises Ltd. v. Boughton & Co (1991) addresses a breach fiduciary obligation wherein Boughton & Company failed to disclose information on the secret profits obtained on a flip. This case dates back to May, 1977, wherein Cranso Enterpise Ltd. Entered into an agreement with Peregrine Ventures Inc. wherein it was agreed they would enter into a joint venture to purchase a piece of property and develop it.

Violence in Video Games - Does it train to kill Essay

Violence in Video Games - Does it train to kill - Essay Example For example, a nationwide conversation ensued regarding what connection video games had to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre where two students murdered 13 and wounded 23 before killing themselves. While many motivations were likely involved, it is not possible to identify precisely what provoked these teenagers to shoot their classmates and teachers but violent video games have been mentioned as one possible contributing factor. The two students had often played Doom, a brutal and bloody firearms game that is used by the military to teach the U.S. armed forces how to kill more efficiently. To what degree this game influenced the actions of these two youths has been argued since this incident. The entertainment media, it is widely accepted, is an extremely influential factor in everyone’s lives. â€Å"What behaviors children and adults consider appropriate comes, in part, from the lessons we learn from television and the movies† (Huesmann & Miller, 1994). It is re asonable to expect video games, especially those that portray violence, will have similar and possibly a more expansive effect on violent behavior. Currently, few papers exist which have thoroughly studied the connection between violent video game and subsequent violent actions. As video games are progressively becoming more ferocious and explicit as well as more prevalent, additional research continues to suggest that violent video games have significant capability to affect the impressionable minds of the young people who play them and illuminate to parents the risks associated with these games. When video games first appeared about 30 years ago, they were simplistic and seemingly innocuous. Atari pioneered the video game with Pong in the mid-1970’s which was a video version of table tennis. The 1980’s saw arcade games such as Asteroids and Pac-Man become popular. â€Å"In Pac-Man, a yellow orb with a mouth raced around the screen chomping up ghosts and goblins. At this point,

The Impact Of Economic Globalization And The Rise Of The MNCs On The Essay

The Impact Of Economic Globalization And The Rise Of The MNCs On The Developing World - Essay Example This report stresses that the phenomenon of globalization not only includes rise of global trade, internationalism of economic markets, development of advanced information and communication technologies, increased number of MNCs, increased mobility of people, capital, goods, ideas, and data but also pollution, infections, and diseases. On a precise note, the United Nations has defined economic globalization as the process that facilitates the increasing independence of global economies in consequence of the expanding scale of cross-border trade of services and commodities, rapid and wide spread of advanced technologies, and increased flow of international capital. The rapid advancement of science and technologies and the growing marketization are the two primary triggering forces for economic globalization. This paper makes a conclusion that the increased number of migrants is fuelling economic and social burden on destination countries but it is providing a growing source of foreign exchange for the origin countries. The temporary migration of low-skilled workers has offered positive effects for less developed countries, especially in terms of brain circulation, skills upgrading, and remittances. Remittance plays a crucial role as a source of comparably stable foreign funding. It is reported that remittances to developing states went well above $166 billion in 2005. Many less industrialized countries, like Bangladesh, Lesotho, Cambodia, Nepal, Yemen, and Sudan have become heavily dependent on remittances as a major source of foreign exchange.

Groups and organizations promoting racial equality Essay

Groups and organizations promoting racial equality - Essay Example However, efforts made by numerous players gradually allowed the incorporation of the Native Americans into the civilized American society. Over the years, federal legislations and other amendments have allowed the establishment of greater racial equality for the Native Americans and other minority groups. By doing so, the government institutions have been successful in implementing equal rights for all citizens of America. While many historical texts have been produced from a White perspective, the Native Indian perspective has rarely been produced until recently. The revived interpretation has allowed the world to vie Native Americans as being oppressed individuals who have been enslaved in their own home land while the invaders and colonialists have formed an imperialist government over them. The perspective of viewing the Native Indian as a â€Å"good man† was the result of various historical products including films. The civil rights movements allowed the Native Americans to raise their voices for their own rights as equal citizens of America. Native Americans have experienced America from a time of colonial rule to civil rights as US citizens. Although the Native Americans still inhabited the same land, the fact that there were cultural differences between them and the White Americans could not be ignored. The first question which the reformers faced was about incorporating the highly distinct Native Americans in the American society thereby forming a national identity rather than a horde of uncivilized people. Attempts to assimilate the Native Indians as part of the American society involved recruiting young Native American boys into boarding schools so as to enable them to gradually lose out their native cultural essence and adopt an American way of living (Flavin, 4). US history saw a series of laws, rules, regulations, tribal laws, treaties, and other jurisdictions. The United States Constitution as well as the Trade and Intercourse Act regulate d any economic activity carried out with Native Indian tribes and granted power to the President along with the Senate to make agreements with the tribes (Stancel, n.pag.). By the end of the French-Indian War, the Constitution was adopted and this brought the Indian tribes under the government’s rule. Three departments were set up including Northern, Southern, and Middle, each being headed by a commissioner whose duty was to maintain harmonious terms with the Indians (Cohen & Ickes et al., 9). This was also done so as to discourage the local Indians to participate in the revolt against the Whites. Passed in 1887, the Dawes Act or the Allotment Act gave the President the power to break the reservation land which was being held by tribal members (‘Dawes Act†, n.pag.). According to the law, land which had not been allotted to Native Americans would have to be sold to the government which would then be opened for farming. However, this resulted in Native Americans bei ng dispossessed of their lands. Apparently, the law was meant to provide greater property rights to the Native Indians however many Native Indians saw a reduction in their land holdings. Further laws limited their rights and economic dealings by giving more power to the President and Senate to regulate treaties with tribal Indians. The Indian Bill of Rights also

A study of communication strategies employed by Chinese EFL learners Literature review

A study of communication strategies employed by Chinese EFL learners in oral contexts - Literature review Example ?....14 2.4 Communication Problems of Chinese EFL Learners†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..15 References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦17 1. Introduction For communication to take place, a message needs to be transferred from the sender to the receiver. But sometimes the communication process may break down when the intended message fails to be sent to the receiver. In those situations, the speaker will try to solve the problem and re-establish the conversation by adopting certain techniques. These techniques are commonly known as â€Å"communication strategies† (CSs). It was a term firstly coined by Selinker (1972) in his paper on â€Å"Interlanguage†. Selinker considered these strategies as one of the five processes central to second language learning. All language us ers need communication strategies to help them convey their intended meaning. ... The time constraints of naturally-occurring conversations impose an extremely heavy burden on these learners, forcing them to retrieve appropriate TL items from their memory and respond quickly. As claimed by Wagner and Firth (1997), â€Å"CS is a very prominent element in speech production and therefore an important element in natural discourse† (p. 342). 1.1 Definitions In the past three decades, a great amount of scholarly research and discussion has been generated on the nature, taxonomies and use of CSs (Dornyei and Scott, 1997). For so many years, however, the definition of CSs has still remained controversial. Although Selinker was the first to put forward the term â€Å"communication strategy†, he did not dig deep into the nature of such strategies. The first ones to provide a definition of CS were Tarone and her associates (1976), who defined it as â€Å"a systematic attempt by the learner to express or decode meaning in the target language, in situations wher e the appropriate systematic target language rules have not been formed† (p. 78). Moreover, Tarone (1980) emphasized that â€Å"CS relate to a mutual attempt of interlocutors to agree on a meaning in situations where requisite meaning structures do not seem to be shared† (p. 420). This definition introduces an interactional perspective. In Tarone’s words, â€Å"communication strategies are seen as tools used in a joint negotiation of meaning where both interlocutors are attempting to agree as to a communicative goal† (p. 420). Simply put, it means that both parties in the communication process try to compromise on meaning by adjusting their perspectives to see just one meaning both of them understand, and this may include some repair mechanisms in the breakdown of

The Relevance of Victim's Volunary to a Charge of Rape Essay

The Relevance of Victim's Volunary to a Charge of Rape - Essay Example The Act replaced the Sexual Offences Act 1956, and all its amendments. The said Act saw the evolution of the definition of rape – the actus reus – from its original definition in the Sexual Offences Act 1956 which was â€Å"unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman† to â€Å"penile penetration of the vagina, anus or mouth of another person without their consent.† The inclusion of the anus and mouth as body parts renders it now legally possible for a male to be raped, but the retention of the word â€Å"penile† limits the defendant in a charge of rape to only male. The charge of â€Å"assault by penetration† is used to cover circumstances wherein objects other than a penis are forcibly inserted into the aforementioned orifices, and exacts the same penalty as rape. The next issue is the â€Å"mens rea† or the guilty mind – this means that the person accused of committing the crime knew that he was committing the crime. In the conte xt of rape, it means he knew that he did not secure the victim or the complainant’s consent when he proceeded with having sexual congress with her. In the past, UK law relied upon the â€Å"mistaken belief clause† which was in the case Morgan4 in 1976. Here, the accused men were informed by the husband that his wife would struggle and say ‘no’, but they should just continue because she was in truth enjoying it. Whilst they were eventually convicted anyway, the case set a troubling precedent: if there was an honest belief engendered in a man’s mind that a woman consented to sex, even if that belief is unreasonable, the requirement of men rea is unsatisfied and therefore the rape charge will not prosper. Westmarland (2004: 7) provides a succinct summary of the definition of rape in the Sexual Offences Act 2003, to wit: The... The research looks at the feminist critique of the rape law, as it is framed. Feminists who have called for the reform of rape law have demonstrated that â€Å"the law of rape historically has regulated competing male interests in controlling sexual access to females, rather than protecting women’s interest in controlling their own bodies and sexuality†. This is a fascinating proposition, and jibes with the conflict theory of criminal justice, which looks as criminal laws as having an agenda supportive of a dominant class. In the case of rape, the dominant class might be the male gender. This paper proceeds to look into the whole issue surrounding involuntary intoxication, which goes into the heart of the notion of consent. Whilst there are differing opinions as to whether or consent is a state of mind, or it is an action, either way, alcohol ingestion makes consent problematic. If consent is a state of mind, alcohol at a certain level addles and distorts the mind in a state of inebriation. If consent is an action, alcohol has behaviour-altering effects and can impair speech and physical movement in such a manner that consent becomes ambiguous. To use the definition given by Cowan, â€Å"to be in a state of intoxication means that one’s mental and physical capacities are substantially altered from one’s ‘sober’ state, through the ingestion of intoxicating substances. To better understand the situation at hand, researchers look at the two important cases of R v. Dougal and R v. Bree.

Advertising and Identity through Consumer Culture Essay Example for Free

Advertising and Identity through Consumer Culture Essay Never before in the history of the modern world has advertising become so prevalent, ubiquitous, and an â€Å"undeniable essential† to a modern man’s everyday life than that of our century. Advertising images of all sorts, now flood public spaces: from billboards with eroticized images to the blinding electronic billboard, down to the â€Å"comfort ads† which oddly stares back in the rest rooms of malls. Magazines and televisions are also full of products that entice the readers and the audience to buy and patronize a certain brand. Similarly, cultural events cannot be seen without a popular brand nor is a sporting event complete without a corporate ad. Indeed, advertising has become part of today’s culture and has become an inescapable ghost that dominates our media, our road, and our home. The road towards the advertising era began its transition during the 1880’s to1920’s. It is during this period that ads focused largely on the products themselves. Products took the center stage, using heavy texts to introduce, feature and market the product. â€Å"Real† representation of people were absent in advertisements, but rather representation of people who stand for the social values such as   family structure and status differentiation were seen during this stage (Jhally, 1990, p. 228). With the written material properly explaining visual the visual imagery, ads during this period were instructional. At the same time they were also educational as well as promotional. These ads taught the consumer audience how to read commercial messages. However, by the postwar period, education was replaced for a puzzle of numerous visual messages. Visual images then took the limelight during the 1950’s. Texts were highly reduced and were then replaced by icons and images to allure the consumer. These visual imageries eventually took over the product. The image, rather than the product, became the main message that is communicated to the consumer audience. The once educational ads were now replaced with a hodge-podge of photos and visuals (Jhally, 1990, p. 229). As the 21st century ushered in, the idea of â€Å"identity† was then marketed to the buying audience, convincing the public that the products they buy represent their identity; identity which can now be brought in the nearest mall and will assure not only satisfaction but happiness as well. This paper will discuss the contemporary culture in the advertising industry as it permeates and even molds today’s idea of beauty, style, as well as identity. Similarly, it will discuss how people are influenced by this media medium by citing several studies and researches related to the mentioned topic. Apart form this, it will also discuss the benefits and the disadvantages brought about by the culture of advertising. Ours is an era whose society is in constant struggle to find their true identity. Never before has a mankind been so engrossed in a quest for an identity, life, and beauty only to be directed to the market place. Ads that promote images with identity are prevalent. A popular celebrity endorsing this line of clothing, for instance, will give the audience the message that buying these kinds of clothes will make you happy, beautiful, or popular. Likewise, purchasing this brand of shoes will make you a part of the â€Å"cool† or â€Å"in† group. Through these visual representations, consumers desire to be like the image they see on ads, and the consumption of this certain product will help them imagine, create, and sustain their idea of themselves, their image, and their identity. The idea of beauty is perhaps one of the most capitalized and used advertising ideas. Numerous magazines often represent a beautiful woman as someone who is skinny, blond, tall, and has a porcelain-like skin.   These faces are evidently plastered on every magazine cover. Of course, a brand logo is placed along side the photo of the model as if saying: You can be just like me if you use this brand†. Aside from this, almost every celebrity has the same body type. A small or fat woman would consequently mean that she is not conforming to society’s image of beauty, which therefore automatically makes her ugly. With all of these images, it is no wonder why millions of girls from different parts of the world accept the idea that in order to be beautiful, one should look like a cover girl or a celebrity. This also means that buying that certain skin care line or wearing the same brand of clothes would automatically transform them as they conform to the idea of beauty as well as their identity. In a report which studied the consumption patterns of youth, consumers regard consumption not as a mode of cultural activity, but rather as a rationalized process of fulfilling their desires. This means that a number of individuals actually believe that buying a product will fulfill their desire to look a certain way. Since their idea of perfection is duly represented by images of stunning models and celebrities, their pursuit of what is perfect can only be realized by using the same products or items that these models endorse. Although these ideals of perfection somehow give directions to the consumers, the truth is the images presented are first and foremost unattainable. More often than not, the audience is oblivious to the fact that the images they see, both on screen and on print, has already undergone a process of â€Å"editing† in order to make it even more perfect. The idea of beauty did not used to be boxed up with the idea of being skinny. In fact, during the prehistoric times, women are portrayed not as a wafer thin woman but rather as a full-bodied female with breasts, hips, abdomen, and thighs. The statuette called Venus of Willendorf for instance, has been revered as a goddess of beauty and fertility. Similarly, the statuette Venus of Moravany and Mal’ta are both revered because of their physical attributes. These images of beauty however, began to change as advertising emphasized the need to fit in a size two dress. This is particularly used by companies who promote diet and weight -lose products. Likewise, other manufacturers and business also saw the need to create slimming pills, slimming tea, and so much more. This eventually led other manufacturers to create clothes that will emphasize a woman’s thin frame. Apart from a person’s physical attribute, a person’s lifestyle is also used as a handle by the advertising world to create a market-based image. According to the same report, more than half of the young consumers believed that the products they buy represent their identities and lifestyle in some way. For them, identities are expressed in a variety of products such as shoes, clothes, cosmetics etc. Even seemingly trivial things are supposed to express their lifestyles. For instance, 36 percent of young males answered that their choices of telephone/ mobile equipment represent in some way their identities, and 63 percent of young females think that their choices of hair salon is a representation of their identities (Report on Youth Consumption Trend, 1994, p. 114). The one hour documentary entitled â€Å"Merchants of the Cool† is perhaps one of the most scathing examinations of how popular culture and advertising are entwined together. Exactly as the title suggests â€Å"Merchants of the Cool† chronicles how the media both reflects and influences pop culture. A large amount of money is paid to â€Å"cool hunters† in order to find out what is cool and what is hip. This information is then coursed through mediums such as the television. MTV for example, pay its â€Å"cool† audiences as well as the hosts and performers to attend to their party to make it look even â€Å"cooler†. Behind all these happening, there lies a big logo of a soft drinks brand. Much like how a ventriloquist controls a puppet, it is also the same with how a company and how advertising is behind how the image of â€Å"coolness† is presented (Frontline, 2001). This construction of a sense of identity, according to British sociologist Robert Bocock (1993), can be seen as a process which may make use of items of consumption such as clothing, footwear, popular music or sporting activities, including being a supporter of particular music groups, singers or soccer clubs. Such consumption patterns could be used as a central means of defining who is a member and who is outside a specific group. It is through material items that eventually determine an individual’s social group, which then ultimately gives him or her identity. A brand is a powerful tool that associates commodities with consumers because it symbolizes various elements of the product so that consumers have relative liberty in finding the association between their identities and commodities. The visual images, even the endorser of the brand also plays a crucial role in alluring the consumer to believe that by purchasing this product, you will become like me or that you will be popular or will have an identity like mine (Bocock, 1993, p. 4). However, the more important question is how does an individual associate his or her identity through the purchase of a certain brand or a certain product? The research mentioned above illustrates the characteristic mentality of a young consumer. I do not care about what other people choose. I think of design as an important consideration when I choose things, and my choices of commodities express a part of my personality. This statement underlines the prevalent belief that the freedom of choice of the consumer leads to the expression of his or her identity. In other words, since it is the choice of the individual that made him or her wear this particular pair of shoes, this particular pair then represents the identity of the individual who made the decision. Representative form of their self-identities derives from the individual level; individual consumers make a decision by themselves to buy things in order to express their own identities (Hattori, 1997, p.10).