An analysis on leaderships’ effect on culture Essay Example for Free

An analysis on attractorss execution on tillage EssayF figuresConnectCo is an outbound harbinger center in Toronto, Ontario and is the Canadian Subsidiary of a U.S. marketing and gross revenue consulting practice. The pargonnt company has provided expediencys to Fortune 500 companies over its five eld of operations and employs approximately 75 people. ConnectCo has annual revenues of $29.4 million, with symbolization Office Solution as their biggest account at $20 million annu onlyy, for a contract aloofness of three years. This contract awarded ConnectCo net profits as high as 35% of sales. What ConnectCo pipers to clients is the convenience and cost savings of removing a costly field sales force and replaces them with a more cost efficient outbound call center. These call centers help customers with technical problems, provide immature equipment updates, and disseminates knowledge about vernal technologies or equipment. The Symbol account, as previously mentioned, p rovides a significant sum of ConnectCos total revenue and was counterbalance negotiated by Charlie Gallagher, the vice-president of Canadian operations, and is managed by Chad Macdonald.Joe Davis is a passionate and experienced consultant that has worked closely with clients to secern and implement solutions to very specific problems. He joined ConnectCo hoping to learn from the pool of experience that he dictum inside the organization, with the majority of them organism former Xerox employees with considerable knowledge in increasing sales. His role in the organization was to underwrite that the level of service that ConnectCo provided met or surpassed the needs of clients. As per his position indoors the company he was the early to nonice the discrepancy within the Symbol account. The contract that was signed mingled with ConnectCo and Symbol required that there be a certain number of Inside Account Executives (IAE) that be trained at all times and at a phone making calls in the clients interests.The recent decline in the IAE pool has left several seats open, with no calls being placed on behalf of Symbol, however they were still billing the customer as if the seats where all operating at full capacity while they should plainly be billing them for filled operators. The follow of the discrepancy totals $81000. The terms of the contract pee been modified several times over its effective term with the head start being an extension of the contract and the nonice of intent to develop mutually agreed to service levels. Service level targets were never established.SymptomsThe quatern factoring symptoms are communication, assumption, accountability, responsibility and integrity. These symptoms are the leading cause for Connectcos inability to run operations swimmingly and effectively. The pretermit of communication within Connectco is causing sharpenaches for Davis as nurture continues to be blocked by noise within the company. The communication i s next to wanting from the top of the hierarchy to the de subprogramment managers within the company. The lack of trust passim the company is not helping their cause when essay to create an effective and demanded product for fortune 500 companies.There is little trust betwee the top managers and employees that they unstrained complete their respected jobs at hand with the level of trust level between employees and managers decaying over time and as the military position worsens. Accountability is near nonexistent within the organization. Davis is not able to hold his manager accountable because of his past record in doing so. Accountability is crucial in order for Connectco to run smoothly in the future. Conflict frequently causes employees to look to offload their work onto others to not be responsible for failure, as in the case of Chad Macdonald passing the role of relations with the Symbol account off to Joe Davis. Finally, there is little integrity.Dealing with the accou nt neither Chad nor Charlie believe that the best solution would be to deal with the problem and would twain prefer to make a decision that would go against the main determine of the corporation that allows trusdeucerthiness. There is a valid case of values incongruence within ConnectCo. These four main symptoms are major attributes to the problems faced within Connectco and are the four elements that may be the solutions to solving Connectcos organizational problems in the near future. worry StatementConnectCos current web site is the direct result of the poor corporate culture as evidenced by the symptoms that are play. This culture stems from the leaderships poor ethical motive and lack of values and has cascaded to the rest of the organization. Joe Davis, the new manager of the Planning and Reporting department for ConnectCo, began his new job about a month ago finds himself in the uncomfortable situation of questioning the morals of his coworkers that has led to the jeo pardized relationship between ConnectCo and their largest client Symbol Office Solutions. Joe must(prenominal)iness shape how to approach this combating situation as a new member of the company without compromising his own morals and values.AnalysisIn evaluating the germane(predicate) models to reference the problem statement there is one model in particular that effectively incorporates several of the models require to perform an analysis of the corporate culture at ConnectCo Edgar H. Scheins Model of Organizational Culture. Scheins model is the most(prenominal) relevant to identify the reason for the symptoms and problems currently facing ConnectCo. The incorporation of the many different grimaces to identify the culture of an organization including atifacts, handled values, and shared assumptions enables a thorough review of the culture present at ConnectCo. The future(a) analysis forget break down Scheins model and evaluate each section with the following relevant an alysis to get a go understanding of the situation. It will be presented in the following order artifacts, shared values, shared assumptions.ArtifactsCommunication within the ConnectCo organization does not flirt the ideal scenario for a well-run organization. This lack of proper communication and clarity is unluckily spilling over into its business dealings with clients. Both represent one of the most evident aspects of the artifacts of the company, the cultural norms that are evident to others and neither is impressive. To begin, this analysis will guidancesing on internal communication and then shift focus to the external communication with other organizations.Davis opened up a new capacity and types a simple e-mail, in case Gallagher picked it up with his Blackberry. This is but one example of the many e-mail conversations that take place within the ConnectCo organization. The situation that ConnectCo finds themselves in is extremely complicated, owing a client a credit for $81000, yet the medium with which Joe Davis chose to use to relay his message was e-mail. A quick analysis of the media immensity hierarchy model shows that in this particular situation, which can be easily identified as non-routine and ambiguous, this medium carries too little data-carrying capacity.If ConnectCo is going to come up with a solution they are going to need to switch to a much richer medium such as face-to-face to get a better understanding of the issue and come up with better outcomes. A second occasion that warrants investigation is the initial email from Joe Davis to Charlie Gallagher. In this initial email he again used to wrong medium to convey the breadth of the issue that is ambiguous and non-routine. Charlie chose to respond in an email as well, with nine words. This will ply a factor again in the analysis of the shared values, more specifically the espoused values that leadership (Gallagher) conveys.Communication between the organizations is in addition ve ry weak, oration to the weak cultural artifacts of the ConnectCo organization, and possibly Symbol. It has been acknowledged that they do indeed own face to face communications with their customers, Gallagher does meet with Puhl for golfing events face to face, this does not represent an ideal time, however, as the venue is much to informal to discuss business matters as public group meetings contain significant noise, literally and figuratively, that may lead to the message being decoded incorrectly.The rest of the communication between the two parties, even between the account relationship manager Chad MacDonald and Steve Puhl was done either by telephone or by email. Another aspect of the artifacts of communication that deserves attention is the construction of the contract. Again, the communication appendage model is most relevant and one of the simplest charges to word the partition is that the contract contained too much noise and was not properly decoded by ConnectCo. T he ambiguity of the contract comes from many revisions, some of which were not even available to the relevant employees such as Joe Davis and using words such as notwithstanding which was interpreted differently by Joe Davis, Chad MacDonald, and Charlie Gallagher. This occurred because the contract was not descriptive enough.Another aspect to the artifacts portion of the model of organizational culture is the ceremonies that take place within the organization. These ceremonies are used by certain employees and management to get the attention of an audience. In this particular situation the most evident are the golfing trips that Gallagher takes with clients to cement his position as the most important contact to the clients. And finally, the organizational structure, which has a majuscule effect on culture. ConnectCo currently has a client structure, as negotiated within the contract agreement, the organization will maintain a specify number of stave specifically to service that a ccount.Espoused ValuesOur values reflect what is important to us. They are a shorthand carriage of describing our individual and collective motivations. Together with beliefs, they are the causative factors that drive our decision-making. (http//www.valuescentre.com/values/?sec=values_overview) The above quote reflects what should be the core of any business, the values shared by all of the different employees congruent to the design laid out by management for the success of the organization. In Scheins model shared or espoused values represent the second of the 3 components and the first of the invisible dynamics, as in they cannot be easily observed by others. Richard Barrett, author of Building a Values-Driven Organisation A Whole System turn up to Cultural Transformation believes that values can be either positive or negative and each can boast an equal and opposite effect on the corporations culture.The espoused values must begin as an individual value through some permi ssion figure, such as a founder, senior management, or even an individual with significant power within an organization. These individuals culture then influences their immediate coworkers, the teams with which they operate, then the organization as a whole. These individuals can therefore set the values for the whole organization regardless of what the dominant culture of the organization through countercultures. The culture of an organisation, or any group of individuals that share a normal identity, is a reflection of the values and beliefs of the leaders. (http//www.valuescentre.com/leadership/?sec=leadership__culture) With limited discipline on the dominant culture of ConnectCo as established by its American head company, which include integrity and trustworthiness, it can only be assumed that the culture that prevails at Connectco is a subculture of the organization as a whole.The following analysis suggests that the counterculture present in ConnectCo is the direct result of the actions of Charlie Gallagher. As the leader in the organization Charlie has had a profound effect on the values and ethics present within the organization. His handling of the Symbol account clearly demonstrates his values and ethics. His position as leader and culture setter warrants investigation based on several components. First, the skill of his leadership will be analyzed incorporating an analysis of his personal values and the source of his power. To begin, Charlie possesses several characteristics of an effective leader. He has significant self-concept, his personality skills are high, he has the motivation to be a leader, and significant knowledge of the business. These competencies push those that work for him to have the same skills as demonstrated in Chad MacDonald however, his low integrity has as well been transmitted to other co-workers. By encouraging Davis to play with the numbers and do things that were out of the contract he shows his low integrity.This has led to a lack of trust that is evident from Joe Davis and several other members of the ConnectCo staff throughout the handling of the symbol account. This is not the only negative quality that has displayed. Gallagher also exhibits limited cognitive and unimaginative intelligence. His recommendation to manifestly go with the lowest cost shows a lack of understanding of the situation (and going back to communication) the ambiguity of the situation , this has pervaded to his employees where Chad was more than willing to agree to a band aid solution going against honourable business practices. Neither fully understands the situation and Chad was more than happy to hand off the problem to Joe Davis even though he was the relationship manager on the account and dealing with clients is outside of the scope of work for Joe Davis. The reason for Gallaghers lack of integrity can be easily explained through the Swartz values circumplex.Clearly, Gallagher is more focused on self-enhance ment, his need for achievement is evidenced through the fact that everyone must know that he is the one that negotiated the Symbol account and demonstrated through his golf business trips, as well as his refusal to accept responsibility for disadvantageously negotiating a contract and failing to adhere and communicate the contents of the contracts that he signed. He is also a leader that craves power and prefers significant power distance, as proven by his screening of his employees calls and not video display up to the meeting with Joe Davis and Chad MacDonald to clarify the contract for them. Both of these values compromise his integrity and unfortunately those values are only two that his leadership has caused the rest of the organization to adopt, the need for security security being another. Gallaghers aforementioned need for power is also affecting the culture of the organization.His handling of the Symbol account and the contract shows that he uses a wheel formation of info rmation control to maintain power within the organization. By him going golfing with the big shots at Symbol rather than relationship manager Chad, shows that he needs to maintain that control of information which in turn gives him control over Chad and the account. This is combined with Joe Davis perception of an upward appeal within the organization that made him rethink his ability to go to the higher ups with the information because he believes that the management will take the side of Gallagher given that they are both MBA graduates. Fear is an influence tactic that Gallagher has wielded to maintain order and obedience from his employees through his connection with the president.The effect on culture is that because employees cannot contact upper management the values that he imposes on the organization will be the ones that dictate how operations are carried out. Indirectly, this is what has causes the problem with ConnectCo and Symbol. Gallagher controlling the information ha s prevented Chad from acting in the best interest of the company to ensure the contract is followed and that there are no issues. It also means that now since the contract has not been followed the persons involves will use the cultural aspects of poor integrity and dodging that he has used with his employees as Chad demonstrated by dodging Steve Puhl and pushing the problem onto Joe Davis.Shared Assumptions and ValuesAnalysing the shared assumptions of ConnectCo with the Schwartzs Values Circumplex, we notice that the company talks about wanting to keep their most important client Symbol satisfied by valuing self-transcendence and conservation however their actions and dealing of the contract with Symbol do not reflect those values. The appropriate way to describe the values that ConnectCo tend to go by is self-enhancing. They are working for the client to provide them with everything listed in the contract, in this case a sufficient amount of IAEs, but are hiding information from Symbol to protect their own well-being. This seems to be enforced by Charlie Gallagher as he is telling Joe Davis that they should not have to pay any penalty fees to Symbol for empty seats at the IAE position if there are current individuals in training for that position. Now we will look at the ethical values and behaviour the moral intensity of ConnectCo, more specifically Charlie Gallaghers ethical sensitivity to the issue. The degree to which they should be applying ethical principles should be is high because Symbol is their biggest client and has trusted ConnectCo for a few years.However, the intensity being put forth is minimal as they are trying to get out of paying money to Symbol for not having staffed enough IAEs and they are forcing Joe Davis to go against his values and follow suit. This shows how little Charlie Gallagher cares about ethically conducting operations with clients and co-workers, as Joe Davis is being pressured into complying with Charlies demand because he does not want to risk losing his job even though what Charlie is telling him to do is illegal. pickings a look at the contest process model we find our sources of conflict between, Gallagher, Davis and Steve Puhl from Symbol. The most obvious source is the communication between Gallagher and Puhl. First of all the contract between the two is too vague and open for interpretation as the service level targets have not been defined for almost two years.Charlie is also not communicating the issue of his understanding of the contract, as he is fair(a) assuming that they should not have to pay Symbol credit for not having the specified amount of IAEs because he is claiming that during those times they had individuals in training to fill those positions. Another issue is that even if what Gallagher interpreted was true, he does not have any data to prove that he had employees in training because he failed to communicate to Chad MacDonald, Joe Davis and to Carole go the exact details of the contract. This puts Joe in a uncomfortable situation when he receives a call from Steve Puhl and is unsure what the contract requirements. Another source of conflict is the incompatible goals and differentiation between Charlie and Joe. Joe is simply trying to do the responsibility thing because he is new to the company and wants to make a good impression by doing things ethically however Charlie is trying to make it seem care he is fulfilling the terms of the contract by making assumptions of the contract to get away with not having to pay Symbol their deserved credit.Another source of conflict is the scarcity of important resources. As mentioned previously Carole Lam the analyst was never told to keep data on the amount of days and which days that employees were in training. Joe needed this data to complete his work but obviously was unable to retrieve complete and accurate data on employee training. The way that Charlie seems to be handling this conflict is by avoiding c ommunication with clients and co-workers. He is notorious for screening calls, he failed to show up to a meeting with Chad MacDonald and Joe Davis, and when asked how to calculate the credit owed to Symbol he simply tells Davis to use the lowest cost to save ConnectCo money and make himself look good. He also does not seem to be of much help to Joe Davis as Gallagher is the one who began this lack of communication which has led to faulty handling of Symbols credit account, and seems to be avoiding Joe Davis. This is causing the rest of the employees to obey his ideas because they have no idea what the contract actually calls for and even if they did know, would likely be unwilling to challenge his decisions because he is higher up in the company.AlternativesAlternative 1 move these numbers and issues to the President and CEO Pros Cons* Issues dealing with the Symbol account get communicate * Issues with the culture of the organization get addressed * Issues are addressed to an aut hority that can nail down these problems and remove the negative counterculture * Keeps the organization from committing accounting fraud like other companies (Enron) * Brings to light all the ethical issues surrounding Charlie Gallagher and Chad MacDonald * Addresses employee turnover issues that have become routine in the company * This act could cause tension between Joe and his direct superior (Gallagher) * There is a risk that the President sees this act as disloyal * Working with Gallagher and MacDonald after bringing their issues to light will be difficult moving forward * President/CEO may share the same dysfunctional attitude towards the culture in the organization This ersatz should include him making an appointment with the President/CEO and bringing analyst Carole Lam to help support his findings.She is well aware with the monetary numbers and how Gallagher is letting ConnectCo take money from their top client. This meeting needs to be face-to-face in order to bring about the severity of the conflicting situation. The meeting needs to include all facets of the organizations current lack of corporate ethical values and which individuals must be held accountable. Joe must conclude that if there are immediate corporate culture deviates, he would still like to keep working with Gallagher and MacDonald and build a trusting and functional working relationship with both. This will help ease the tension between himself and his immediate superior as well as showing the President that he is capable of handling mismanagement. This alternative is highly recommended and addresses all the facets of this situation.Alternative 2 Quit and find another jobPros Cons* Joe no daylong has to deal with the resoundingly shaky ethical structure and poor communication at ConnectCo * Joe doesnt become a part of the problem * Joe no hourlong has to deal with Gallaghers lack of trust and consideration with their top clientele at his cost * Joe doesnt become an accomplic e to committing accounting fraud * leaving an organization after only one month doesnt look good to future prospective employers * This would go against his newly engaged fiance who treasured to see him get off the road * No severance package * No recommendation or verbal support from ConnectCo once he leaves This alternative does not come recommended as it leaves Joe and ConnectCo with an uncertain future.Should Joe decide to leave the company, he would not get a severance package and future employers will investigate why he lasted only a month at his previous job making it more difficult to find employment opportunities. Also, his fiance did not want his moving around for work a lot and two jobs in less than two months will leave his situation at sign of the zodiac stressful. Also, should prospective employers contact ConnectCo, they would have no reason to support Joe for his limited work. Although Joe does not have to deal with this poor corporate culture, running away from the situation does not help in any positive way.Alternative 3 Try to resolve issue without Chad MacDonald or Charlie Gallagher Pros Cons* Helps ease relationship between ConnectCo and Symbol * Steve Puhl does not have to deal with Chad (who he is getting nowhere with) * Joe can try to incorporate cultural changes to those he can * Has Carole Lam to help him fix the financial disparities of the comapny * Leaving Chad and Charlie in the dark is risky * Steve Puhl may accidently contact Chad or Charlie and miscommunication may occur * Does not address how to fix the imminent turnover issues surrounding the IAEs * Not reporting these changes with his superior could cost him his job Because Joe handles the reporting side of the company, it would go against his responsibilities as an employee to bring up any new information regarding Symbol and can be subject to his employment being terminated if Gallagher was to find out.This alternative is incredibly risky, but does see some rewards. Th ese rewards include easing the relationship between ConnectCo and Symbol and slowly changing the culture in the corporation as best he can. Unfortunately, he is only just a manager and a new one, so it would be hard for him to get others to respond to his command when there hasnt been enough relationship organic evolution between his other employees. With this in mind, it is best to look at other alternatives.RecommendationOur recommendation is based off of Alternative 1, in which we suggest brining the financial statements and issues to the attention of the President and CEO. This will allow us to ensure that all problems in relation to the Symbol account and the culture of the organization are addressed accordingly. This will also shed light on the ethical issues that need to be addressed, surrounding Gallagher and MacDonald. As well, it will prevent any consequences from occurring, resulting from accounting fraud. at once Joe Davis meets with the President and CEO to inform the m of his findings, it will be up to the President to create and urgency for change within the organization. In order to implement this change we would recommend the use of Lewins Force Field Analysis Model. By implementing this model the President could unfreeze the current situation, change the organizational culture and ethics of the company, and then freeze the company in that state. By doing so the company would change into operating with a more socially responsible client first attitude. By creating urgency for change the President could use client satisfaction as a driving force to push the employees, in order to ensure each client receives the customer service they deserve.By ensuring the client is always receiving social and ethical treatment, it will drive away any restraining forces, such as lack of integrity, which can be attributed to the accounting fraud. Now we can consider how the President could unfreeze and re-freeze the company in order to complete the change. The President should focus on creating an adaptive culture, in which the company will have an external focus. By creating an external focus the employees will realize that the organizations success depends on unremitting change to be a more stakeholder and client oriented company. In this situation it means focusing on changing into a more socially and ethically aware organization to better serve the clients. There is also an internal focus that must be implemented as well. This includes employees working towards the organizational goals that are set.In this situation the organizational goals would be to provide better customer service. As well by creating an adaptive culture, employees would have a stronger esthesis of ownership within the organization, and therefore take more responsibility for their performance and tasks. Therefore we believe that since a companys culture often reflects the leaders personality, it really is up to the President to make the steps necessary to change the organization. One final step we would recommend taking, is to fire Charlie Gallagher. The basis of pink slip Gallagher is the fact that he was trying to commit accounting fraud. Therefore the company would have just cause for his dismissal. By firing Gallagher, this would also be the first step towards creating a socially and ethically driven company Gallagher is simply a restraining force that is preventing the organization from making that move towards a better organizational culture.Action PlanOur recommendation is often referred to as tattle blowing, which is when a company employee goes public or to his superiors with private information that could hurt the company. This technique is unremarkably used when social and ethical responsibilities are being neglected or ignored. While it may seem simple enough, the process is far from smooth and the employee doing the whistle blowing is often made out to be a burnt out low level employee who is unhappy. So before Joe does anyt hing of the sort he must be disposed(p) for anything to happen. The best way to approach this alternative would be 1. Collect all relevant information and be prepared to present your case and be able to answer any and all questions 2. No president of CEO wants to hear that their companys values and ethics are being compromised, so he must prepare a propose B in order to protect himself from media and personal scrutiny. 3. Joe must schedule a face-to-face meeting with the CEO to ensure that there is no outside noise or misinterpretations with his information and language4. When presenting his findings, Joe must deliver his message in a way that is not an attack or critique. He must not point out what is wrong but what needs to be improved and why. 5. As part of his presentation Joe needs to incorporate his own recommendations and action plan. Once he goes through with this meeting there is not turning back. The recommendation and action plan should follow a similar tone to what was mentioned above, it should not only identify the problems but what needs to be done to fix them and how to go about fastness them. 6. After the meeting is over all Joe can do is wait for the decisions by the CEO and board of governors. At this point in time a lot of different things can happen and Joe needs to be prepared for any outcome. The optimistic outcome would be to have your action plan instal to implement and begin fixing the company.The pessimistic outcome would be that they reject his action plan and making his career a nightmare. If this were the case Joe should be prepared to look for another job, or be prepared to defend himself from public scrutiny. Joe is caught in the middle of a lose-lose situation, so his best alternative is the lesser of two evils. It is difficult being the new guy in a company, especially when youre the one telling that what they are doing is wrong. However, sometimes it takes an outside perspective to identify the problems that have gone unno ticed for too long. If Joe can present a clear and strong case that does not personally offend the CEO, and present the opportunities for improvement, the process should run as smooth as possible.

Food, Sex, Love in Like Water for Chocolate Essay Example for Free

Food, Sex, Love in Like Water for Chocolate tryHave you ever experience that euphoric sensation later eating an absolutely delicious forage? You be not alone. Many commence experienced this feeling and refer to it as a provendergasm. These types of unions among food and sex have long been established, hardly from w here do they come? Do we make these connections through and through our heathenish experiences or are they biologically programmed within us? In Like Water for Chocolate, the author, Laura Esquivel, portrays sex and food as being connected in a cultural sentience. The basis for this conclusion rests largely in her use of tradition and her depiction of a Latino family strongly based in their culture. This cultural foundation, paired with the interactions between characters, food, and sex, gives the reader plenty of evidence to support this perspective. Esquivel uses the preparation, eating, and serving of food as a connection to love and sex, and as humans w e have learned, through culture, to make this connection. Structured in twelve chapters, each representing a month of the year, Esquivel has created an entrancing love story that is sprinkled with culinary enchantments around every corner. for each one chapter is prefaced with a recipe that is relevant to the progression of the novel, not to mention the many cooking tid-bits thrown in throughout each chapter. The preparation of food is distinctly very central to the culture being represented. Tita, the main character and protagonist, was born in the kitchen and possesses all the superior traits of a culinary expert. She is also blessed (or cursed) with the top executive to inject her emotions in to the food she cooks, in turn, infecting all those who consume the food with that emotion.In one section of the novel, Tita makes Quail, in Rose Petal Sauce, to express her cacoethes for her sister, Rasauras, husband, Pedro, who she is deeply in love with. With that meal it seemed they had discovered a new system of communication, in which Tita was the transmitter, Pedro the receiver Pedro didnt offer any resistance. He let Tita penetrate to the farthest corners of his being, and all the while they couldnt want their eyes off each other. (Esquivel 52) It is customary, in many cultures, for a muliebrity to prepare a meal for her signifi give the gatet other in order to show how much she cares for him.The fact that Tita has taken the time to cook much(prenominal) a complex and well-favored dish, to translate her love to Pedro, shows how much impact this cultural custom has on her. Through this particular interaction, Esquivel has displayed the influence that culture has over the preparation of food and its relation to love. The expectation for a woman to acquire the ability to prepare food for her significant other brings me to another question Does a womans capacity for cooking significantly affect a mans attraction to her?Esquivel brings this question to the f orefront of the readers mind when she offers this comparison between Rasaura and Titas cooking. The rice was obviously scorched, the meat dried out, the dessert burnt. But no one at the table dared display the tiniest hint of displeasure, not after Mama Elena had pointedly remarked As the graduation meal that Rosaura has cooked it isnt bad. Dont you agree, Pedro? Making a real effort not to insult his wife, Pedro replied No, for her first-year time its not too bad. (50-51)She goes on to show Pedros reaction to Titas cooking saying, It wasnt enough hed made his wife jealous earlier, for when Pedro tasted his first mouthful, he couldnt help closing his eyes in voluptuous dishonor and exclaiming It is a dish for the gods (51). This comparison allows us to reasonably assume that Titas aptitude for culinary artistry did contribute to the growth of Pedros love. So, how might this reaction be culturally habituated? In almost all cultures, men are expected to provide and women are expe cted to cook. Even if a man is not consciously aware, they subconsciously factor this in to their choosing of a mate.It is culturally well-read for a man to prioritize supporting his family over many other things. If a woman does not possess the ability to cook then a man may assume that she will not be able to support or provide for their family. This, of course, is not a strict rule of estimation but, from my experience, it can be applied to many cases. Through comparison, Esquivel gives the reader evidence that Pedro loves Tita partially for her ability in the kitchen, and with prior knowledge we, as the reader, can connect this connection to his cultural influences.Weve determined that falling in love can be related to a womans ability to make food, but what about the relationship between food and devising love? Earlier I made a reference to the word foodgasm, this portion of a quote, which I previously used, provides a great example of what a foodgasm might look like. for when Pedro tasted his first mouthful, he couldnt help closing his eyes in voluptuous delight and exclaiming It is a dish for the gods (Esquivel 51) It is instances like this one that finds Esquivel nudging the reader to make a connection between food and sex.Esquivels use of diction such as voluptuous makes it practically impossible not to connect this experience to the effects of an orgasm. Thinking further on this connection, I think that freehand food is a work on of showing love just as making love is. As raunchy as it may seem, Pedro is receiving Tita through food. It is their unique form of making love. Esquivel makes another food/love connection on page 67 when she says, Tita knew through her own flesh how fire transforms a tortilla, how a psyche that hasnt been warmed by the fire of love is lifeless, like a useless ball of corn flour. (67)Its almost as if Esquivel allows characters, in this case Tita, to take on the form of food. With this being said, receiving food is li ke receiving the person who made it. In Tita and Pedros case, it was their way of making love before they could actually dress the act. I think that the importance of food to their relationship can be contributed to their cultures emphasis on food. If food were not so important to their culture it would not be the medium for such an important interaction.In order to make and express love in Like Water for Chocolate, Tita makes food for Pedro further emphasizing the cultural connection between food and love. Some may argue that this relationship between food and sex is purely indwelling and scientific. In some sense this is true. Sex and Food are both biologically programmed drives that all humans possess. We have a strong pauperization to procreate in order to further our species as well as a great need to eat in order to survive. These are facts of nature, but you cant ignore the emotional connection that we have to food and sex.Tita and Pedro do not have these reactions to food in relation to sex simply because they need to eat or they have a great need to reproduce. Culture conditions us to eat because we love food not to simply eat to live. The resembling goes for sex. We are taught that in order to have sex one must have a connection to their partner it is morally sound to think this way. This is particularly true for the culture being represented in Like Water for Chocolate. Just in the way that Esquivel structures the novel you can get a sense of the importance food.The food must be treated with respect and love just as a person should be. Esquivel shows the significance of treating food well here Something strange was going on. Tita remembered that Nacha had always said that when people argue while preparing tamales, the tamales wont get cooked. They can be heated day after day and still stay raw, because the tamales are angry. In a case like that, you have to sing to them, which makes them happy then theyll cook. (218-219) Esquivels personificati on of food demonstrates the gist that food holds in this culture.It has feelings and you have to love it and nurture it. You dont just eat food to eat it you eat food because food is a beautiful part of life that you respect. In this way, Esquivel creates a strong connection between food and love through the cultural importance that the novel puts on the meaning of food rather than the natural tendency of humans to make this connection. After analyzing Esquivels novel, Like Water for Chocolate, I can say that the connection between food, sex, and love, in this context, is predominately based on cultural influences rather than natural ones.In making food, one is showing how much they care, just as Tita did for Pedro with her Quale in Rose pedal sauce dish. The ability to create such meals, in a mans mind, is a reflection on a womans ability to provide for their family. By personifying food, Esquivel allows this process of cooking food and giving food to become much deeper than the s imple act itself. The act of giving food then takes the form of giving ones self to the individual receiving the food. Whether it is between food and love, cooking and falling in love, or eating food and making love, culture is the force that defines these connections.

Analysis of Decline and Rise of Various Business Activities in the U.K. Essay Example for Free

Analysis of Decline and Rise of Various Business Activities in the U.K. EssayIn this task, I go forth need to decide what the core activity is in each of my two businesses and whether they atomic number 18 dealing with products, services or both. In the UK some of these business activities be becoming more common and separates argon becoming less common. I give need to find out the broad trends for these business activities and how they affect the businesses that I am investigating. The legal status of Freelance Audio Productions is an equal partnership between Martin and Nikki Rider. The company was set up in 1986, but has only been work as Freelance Audio Productions for four years. The company doesnt make a product, the service it provides is audio fruit establish which includes performance arts, supplying of equipment and supplying of production services and facilities. FAP falls into the category of the ordinal Sector. There are many departments that operate within FAP, but there are two departments that control more or less of Freelance Audio Productions. These are correspond sound and Showbiz.Stage Sound. FAP Stage Sound has been in operation for fourteen years but has only been works under Freelance Audio Productions for the last four years. FAP Stage Sound specialises in renting out sound equipment and educating young trainees. FAP Stage Sound is a continuously maturement business which is also shown in the trend of the tertiary sphere. Showbiz. FAP Showbiz controls all of the private blabing and dancing lessons and the Pop School. FAP Pop School is the newest appendage to Freelance Audio Productions. The main target of this is to educate people, mainly children, form the ages of two upwards in the field of music and dance. Girls and boys of all ages learn to sing and dance and put together routines. Shows are then put on as large events where many tickets are sold but little bring in is made.Graph showing the Tertiary firmament tot al. (See Appendix 1) FAP and connections with the sectors. Freelance Audio Productions works under the tertiary sector in the departments of opposite services and education. The Stage Sound aspect of FAP comes under other services, and the private lessons and Pop School comes under education. (See Appendix 2) Freelance Audio has no direct connections with any of the other sectors, but, the other departments in the Tertiary Sector play a large part in the success or failure of FAP. Martin Rider has a lodge web site on the Inter give notice, and does a lot of theatrical work. As the Internet industry is doing very well at the moment, and FAP is hoping to spread all all over the UK, communications help a lot to promote this business. The best way to promote the business locally is while shows are going on. The department untenanted includes theatre and public events, and locally, FAP is involved with all theatrical work and most public events.Leisure is one of the fastest growing i ndustries in the tertiary sector which gives an indication on how well FAP should be doing. (Appendix 4) FAP can be affected by the secondary sector. The only way that FAP is affected by any other sectors is the fluctuations in manufacturing of electrical goods in the secondary sector. This can cause problems when attempting to purchase specialised equipment for shows or upgrading the current range of products. Conclusion. Although currently small, Freelance Audio Productions is growing very fast as a result of the tertiary sector departments that it is part of. Over the next few years, new contacts with other businesses in the UK provide be made, and maybe other sectors will come as a part of the company. The legal status of Lantra is a charitable limited company.Lantra is owned and come off by a board of directors. If Lantra goes bust or bankrupt, each director has a liability of one pound. Lantra has a very complicated range of services. most of the services is education, prep aredness and policy work for the government. Most of the work is in the knowledge domain based sector, which is to do with farming, agriculture and environmental conservation. Lantra sets the standards that the GNVQs are set upon. The GNVQs for land based studies is set by Lantra. There are three operating Companies which work under the umbrella company, Lantra. These are called, Lantra Awards, Lantra National Training Organisation and Lantra docket. These are explained in depth in the following text. Lantra Awards. Lantra Awards is a new organisation within the Lantra. The aim of this company is to provide an innovative and responsive awarding service. Lantra Awards assesses trainees, and if the indispensable standards are met, appropriate awards are rewarded to them.The awards given are recognised by the government and can help acquire a job or an apprenticeship. Lantra Agenda. Lantra Agenda instruction specialises in management training and consultancy services and the co-ord ination of work based training. Agenda courses range from increasing personal dynamics and communication effectiveness to waste product management and include a range of health, asylum and quality assurance courses. Below are some of the services that Lantra Agenda Provide. Although some are training, they are referred to as a product as they are sold to external agencies also. Management training and business consultancy Business development consultancy Benchmarking Management and supervisory training Train the trainer programmes Vocational Programmes National Traineeships Modern Apprenticeships (Skillseekers in Scotland) Approves centre for N/SVQs Assessment and certification in key skills, hazardous operations and safety training and management.Lantra National Training Organisation (Lantra NTO). Lantra NTO has a wide ranging selection of activities which spans from conducting labour market research to supporting local training providers. The key character of Lantra NOT is to link government and industry. There are eleven industry groups that work in Lantra NTO. These are agricultural crops agricultural livestock production horticulture landscape environmental conservation game conservation fish farming agricultural and garden machinery fencing floristry professions allied to veterinary science Graph showing the Tertiary sector total. (See Appendix 1) Lantra and connections with the sectors. Lantra is a peculiar organisation as it is based in not only the tertiary sector, but the primary sector also.Lantra is in the beginning based in the tertiary sector as it deals with training, education, and the selling of a product, retail. Previously, Lantra was a primary sector, land based organisation. As recent trends show, the primary sector is in rapid decline (Appendix 3) so the company had to think up a new idea to save the business. This is when selling training courses as a product and the company Lantra Awards came into play. These two ideas brought Lantra into the Tertiary sector which is an overall higher earning sector (Appendix 1). This would have both increased the companies value and broadened the types of customers.If the Primary sector decreases, Lantra will be injured as the company still relies mainly on the land based agricultural departments. If the need for more farms arrives, this would be perfect for the training aspect of Lantra as the business would rocket. Conclusion. Even though Lantra is in the primary sector, which is decreasing, the departments which are in the tertiary sector provide a safety net and a higher income. I think that Awards and Agenda will take over and NTO will slowly disappear as the need for agricultural based activities is in decline.

The Phi Phi Islands

The Phi Phi IslandsThe Phi Phi Islands be situated in Thailand, between the large island of Phuket and the western swoop of the mainland. It is consisted by group of islands such(prenominal) as Phi Phi usurp, Phi Phi Lae, Bidanok, Bida Nai, Yoong, Pai, the largest of which is named Koh Phi Phi Don, the only one with permanent inhabitants on. As a scene of a British-Ameri preserve film The Beach in 2000, this island came to a worldwide tourist pull upion. Unfortunately it was trampled by the Indian Ocean T insolateami on December 2004, when al closely every floor on the island is destroyed. Till now, most of this has been restored and reopened to tourists all over the world.As established a national park of Thailand in 1983, the islands feature beaches and limpid sea urine be infra the security system of topical anaesthetic anesthetic anaesthetic anesthetic government. touristry on Phi Phi, like the rest part of Krabi province, has developed only very recent years. It was so congenital that only the most bold visited this island staying in only the most basic accommodation in the early 1990s. Nowadays, however, this island is becoming one of the major destinations for travellers in Krabi. Compared to other islands nearby, Phi Phi islands are still exceedingly less exploded, where no road on the largest island while the others are completely free of human inhabitants. Hence visitors would enjoy their casual vacation without hustle and bustle. establish on its idyllic touristry resource, hiking, snorkelling and go down are the activities most highly recommended by every touristry agency company. Meanwhile fishing, rock climbing and drib jumping are enjoyed among their specific participants.Tourism System IdentificationBefore starting to write a management plan, it is prerequisite to identify resources of main destination. Resources acknowledge natural resources, culture, capital and organizations. intrinsic resources are climate, water, geog raphy and scenery. Culture is about historic sites, cuisine, religion, local celebrities. Capital includes infrastructure, transportation and financing. Organizations are including public and private sectors.Natural resources WeatherPhi Phi islands are located between the Pacific and the Indian. It is located about 50 km from Phuket. Because of its location, the weather is around 24C to 32C year round. From November to March is the best meter to visit the island. However, local sight enjoy from June to August. The reason is the weather is good and there are less quite a little or tourists in famous sites. Water and GeographyIn 1998, over 150,000 tourists visited Phi Phi islands and most of them are foreigners (Seenprachwong, 2001) because the Phi Phi has 3S. These are Sun, Sand and Sea. The sea is very beautiful and snowy so that it is famous for scuba diving and swimming. The island is composed by limestone. Hence, it has a significant view of reefs. People even can see it clea rly under the water. Moreover, in the south-east of Phi Phi Lay, there is a dumbfound called Viking Cave. The cave is full of wall paintings. Most paintings are elephants and boats. It is shown that pile has lived in Phi Phi Island long time ago.Phi Phi Don is the biggest island. In the north of this island, there is called Laem long tong. It is a best place for scuba diving. The plentiful, various marine ecology is the most important reason. Beaches such as Ao Lodalum and Ao Ton Sai are also good places for tourists to have a relax moment in Phi Phi. SceneryAs this report mentioned before, Phi Phi is part of National Park in 1983. In 1990s there are to a greater extent and much raft came to Phi Phi Islands. in that location are two reasons. The first is that it is near to Phuket. When Phuket is crowded by tourists, whatever mess leave come to Phi Phi for enjoying a relaxing and quiet time. The second reason is that the island, Phi Phi Lay is the scene of the movie The Bea ch. This place is Maya Bay. Some of tourists will come here to have sightseeing and have an adventure to experience sceneries of the movie.CulturePhi Phi island is belonged to Krabi Province. The population of Krabi is about 458,000 in 2000. 60 percent of the great unwashed are Buddhists. 40 percent are Muslims. It makes the place with plenty of events. For example, there is a celebration called Songkran Festival during the Thai New Year. People will celebrate by visiting temples, sprinkling water on Buddha images for showing respects to Buddha, and sprinkling water on each others hands for wishing good luck. However, it becomes a water fight in recent years. Everyone is crazy to pull water on each other, no matter friends, strangers, or tourists. There is no exception that people will not get wet on that day.The report has mentioned there is a Viking cave in Phi Phi Lay. The cave is full of ancient paintings. It is a place to discover ancient history. Because paintings include many kinds of boats, Chinese boats and European boats, this place might be a transfer harbour of trade or a shelter for mariners from storms.Most of hotels and restaurants are in Tonsai. The famous cuisine in Tosai is seafood. People sell fresh seafood which is caught in the morning to attract tourists. afterwards sun sinks into the sea, many nightclubs, debar are lightening up. Some restaurants only open in the night.Capital InfrastructureSince 1990, the tourism outgrowth makes this place more and more crowded. This development lets the environment in danger. When the movie The Beach filmed here, the company destroyed the environment by cutting down trees and planted coconut trees, grammatical construction villas. This made a huge impact while tsunami stumble Phi Phi islands in 2004. Most of buildings collapsed, around 70 percent. Thai government even prohibited people go to the island. After July, 2005, most buildings were rebuilt by government and about 300 shops and events star ted again.After this natural disaster, Thai government started to plant trees which were big enough to funk damages by natural disasters. Also, they proposed an agenda to protect local environment by limiting the development of hotels and setting up the limitation of tourists. However, local people were against this proposal. There were near 1500 hotels and restaurants opened again in the end of 2005.Tonsai is the main place of tourists. There is a tourist information inwardness. There are some banks in Tonsai which is located in Phi Phi Don. However, there are no banks or ATMs on the east coast. People only can change or get down money here. TransportationsPhi Phi is near to Phuket and Krabi, only 50 km. There are two ways to go to Phi Phi. The first vehicle is ferries. People can take take form Phuket or Krabi. It takes 90 minutes. Moreover, people can travel by ferries with their cars. However, it only has two ferries each day. The other option is by speedboats. Companies ar e private. There are some speedboats companies to choose. It is more flexible then taking ferries. People can even get to their chosen resorts to save more time.The inner roadstead of islands are small. The island is small, about 28000 km. Hence, the most famous vehicle which people can use is bicycle.Organizations PublicThe number of tourists is increasing year by year. It was 2.5 cardinal in 1981, and 11 million in 1993 to the national parkas. Because of this, the government revises laws year by year to solve the environmental problems. Hence, the Thai government had a resolve of the Enhancement and Conservation of the National Environmental Quality Act. Of B.E. 2535 (1992). This Act is about prescribing how to manage, plan and maintain the environmental quality. There are some features of this Act, such as the polluter pays principles, designation of environmental conservation and protection zone, pollution control zone and special working group. Besides, The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) had an event which could awake peoples sensation of environmental conservation. The authority used many ways to tell people how to protect environment, such as media, TATs publications and impertinents. TAT also trained youth people to have knowledge of conservation. There were some campaigns which were held in tourist destinations calling people from every community to clean destinations, such as Beautiful Phuket render. Tsunami inform SystemTsunami warning system is established in 1949. It is a system which can predict where tsunami happens and warn people to reduce damages. There are 26 countries and states joining the system. Thailand is one of members. However, before 2004, there is no detection system in west coasts of Thailand. That is one reason why Puket and Phi Phi Island had a huge damage. After this, the government set up the system in west coasts. In last year, there is about 14.09 million tourists from everywhere to Thailand. PrivateAfter tsunami hit Phi Phi Island, a resident in Phi Phi gathered local Thais and foreign volunteers to help people to live. The group was called Hi Phi Phi. First, they cleaned up Phi Phi Islands. Then, they help local people to repaint houses, hotels and replant trees. They were essentials and hopes for restaurants, bars and guesthouses in Phi Phi Island to support their life. Now, their mission is complete. The group is trying to help local people for setting up charities. Charities can assist people to reconstruction and take care of orphans in a long-term.Phi Phi Island is the renowned and alluring tourism destination in Thailand and in particular famous for its divers(prenominal)ity of diving reefs and habitats. The regular tour activities of phi phi island include scene watching, fishing, diving, rock- climbing, sea kayaking and watering places.Management PlanAo Nang Tourism Strategy Steering Committee (ATSSC) is the regional institution base on Phi Phi Island and specific in exploring n ew tourism attractions promote the resorts and public the up-to -date tourism information. ATSSC is the leader in achieving a sustainable tourism destination by fit the economic gets and environmental, local cultural value in a regional and global context. The main target of the citizens mission in 2010 is to project the Phi Phi Island Tourism Development Program 2010.ObjectivesFirst, combining the amazing natural resources and unique local cultures to foster the tourism effort as a viable sector of local economy(Stynes,D OHalloran,C,1987) to position the Phi Phi Island as the preferred four-season tourism and sports activities destination and build a recognizable even yearning image of Phi Phi Island among the travellers around the world.Second, to encourage marketing initiatives that based on the existing tourism resources and comparative gains to promote tourism development. On the premise of not ruining environment, the committee and local communities try to explore new a ctivities to attract more staying visitors through promotion and provision of visitor infrastructures, tour services and characteristic events.Third, to ensure the course is the well-managed process (D. Stynes C. OHalloran, 1987), keeping the tourism development with the carrying capabilities of the host community, balancing the needs of the travellers and needs of the local residence. The locals which live in the prime tourism location have great impact on the tourism development. One of the key objectives of the architectural plan is to gain a greater level of acceptance and support of local people, teach the locals to understand the impacts of tourism on local economy as well as to facilitate efforts to upgrade the quality of service, amenities and attractions.Tourism is the pillar industry in Phi Phi Island, the committee aims to create more job opportunities and foster the investment through the program so as to enhance the viability and sustainability of local economy.Touri sm development is a systematic project which requires bay window among economic development agencies, the government re ease upatives and tourism agencies(D. Stynes C. OHalloran,1987). One aim of the program is to gain genuine willingness to promote greater cooperation as well as to touch responsibilities among different social sectors to facilitate the feasibility of the objectives and achieve the best results.AlternativesGenerationTo mystify tourism development alternatives requires some integrated analysis of local resources and demands of visitors. The committee present three tourism development plans as below International Water Sports CentrePhi Phi Island is the most attractive scuba diving destination in Thailand because its ease privacy and its bespoke diving pier.(McGeown K,2005) The uniqueness of diving in Phi Phi Island compare to other islands in Krabi province are the amazing limestone cliffs drastically straight project out of sea and down to the sea as well as i ts diversity of diving reefs and habitats. On the basis of emolumentd natural resources, the committee schemes to build Phi Phi Island as the world renowned Water Sports Centre (WSC scheme) covers from diving, snorkelling to sea kayaking. Wedding ParadisePhi Phi Island is the delightful place that full of cultural flavor and receives much exposure from Hollywood movies. The Maya Bay is the original setting place of love movieThe Beach starred Leonardo Di Caprio and The man with golden gun with James Bond. The remarkable natural scenery not only attracts the big names, the alluring local culture also fascinates the new couples and honeymooners around the world.Infinite occupation opportunities hide in the uncreated beach and crystal clear water, the ATSSC committee projects a theme tour that target on the young people, in particular the young couple to ply for the weddings and honeymoon services. This proposition will not only attract more staying visitors, but also drive develop ment of related industries such as hotels, restaurants and bars and ferry industries. supreme Wellness SanctuaryThe Phi Phis natural beauty is a large chunk of allure that attracts visitors from all ages. The path behind the Tonsai Village is the ideal position to view the classic landscape, and the long beach is super excellent for the view of sun rise and sun set. After one day trip, having an energy-enriching handling is the fantastic enjoyable finish. Phi Phi Island is one of the origins of Thai Spa due to its rich natural materials include flower extracts, plants oils, sea weeds and fish-roe. The committee proposes to upgrade the spa treatment on Phi Phi Island to an upper class on the basis of pure natural resources and traditional massages. Transform the spa industry from the tourism supporting business to the core local industry.Alternatives EvaluationIt is important to evaluate the tourism development alternatives from the feasibility analysis and impact analysis with the Benefits and Cost approach which link the tourism activities with the stability of local economy, the sensitivity of environment and social structure (Walsh, R.G, 1985). The tourism development program impact on Phi Phi Island as belowImpact on local government local government takes the major responsibilities to provide the infrastructures and services that key to tourism development. Developing the new tourism project can zip government to ensure the carrying capacities, infrastructures that to meet the anticipated demands. Phi Phi Island has rich storage of natural resources and its tourism has developed more than two decades, in particular the diving industry has grown maturely. The new tourism project will reduces the capital pressure of government and increase the government revenue through charges, sales and taxes. (Stynes, D.J, 2004)Impact on local business The tourism development can directly serve the community benefit and drive related industries. The diving centre can attract more divers that stimulate the development of local transportation the wedding services drive the growth of flower planting and the spa industry generate more job opportunities for skilled locals. However, the key point for tourism development is the more self-sufficient the community is, the better the tourism impact. (Stynes,D.J, 2004) For example, although Phi Phi Island has the fantastic diving sites, the necessary diving equipments are mostly imported from U.S, Europe and Australia. If these products are bought to mush from outside, the large amount of tourist spending will leak out of the local economy.Impact on environment and residence The quality of environment and life may go up or down depends on the way of tourism development. (D. Stynes C. OHalloran,1987) Developing Tourism may generate more job opportunities and increase revenue as well providing more re one-quarterers, hotels and restaurants however, from the other hand, it also mean the high living cost, bu sier traffic and higher tax, and the possibilities of environmental damage. (D. Stynes C. OHalloran,1987) In addition, tourism is the season-sensitive industry, and tourism work are basically in service sector and most are seasonal, part-time and low wage. The local government and tourism committee should balance the benefit and cost of tourism development and make a sustainable and strategically tourism development plan.Tourism Development DecisionTourism development plan should consider the relative roles of social sectors and involve a series of decisions. The ATSSC project the tourism program from four aspects.Segmentation Phi Phi Island is the alluring destination full of natural resorts and cultural mystery that attract the customers from all age groups all over the world. The target market of new tourism program is more precise based on the demographics and interests groups. Phi Phi Island is famous for its diving and sports, the committee aim to build the Phi Phi Island as the paradise of young people who love sports and beauty and are keen to spend indelible holiday in the pearl of Andaman Sea (Xinhua,2006).Place The destinations of Phi Phi Island program include the Phi Phi Don, Phi Phi Lee and the group islands. The key to perfect the local tourism is to regulate and improve the transportations among the different diving sites and attractions by combining the ferries, fast boat with the traditional boats as the uniqueness of local tourism.Upgrade the local attractiveness DivingThe Phi Phi Island will offer the remarkable variety of diving possibilities to different degrees of divers from beginners to expertise. The local diving club will provide four-hour Discover Scuba Diving to the beginners that introduce the basic skills, the equipment instructions and accompany the divers all the time to experience the beauty of white coral bush. For the divers who want to be certificated divers, the club will advise them to join the Dive the globe program to take further experience in the most popular diving site the Ko Bida Nok to appreciate huge garden of star corals and incredulous beauty of anemones as well to play with the clown fish. For the certificated divers and PADI divers, the club tailors the special activities and guides the divers in small groups in speedboat and long tail boat to experience the specialty dives. (Udomsak,S,2003) Snorkeling and Sea KayakingThere are abundant coral reefs systems around Maya Bay, Pi Leh Bay and Bamboo Island that fantastic for snorkeling. Kayaking some uninhabited beaches and Viking caves in other islands is also the glorious alternative to the adventure potentials and addition to the overall water activities. Wedding and honeymoon serviceNo one can reject the wedding with serenaded by sea gull and waves on a tropical pristine beach, massaged by soft sands and warm water from Andaman Sea. The tourism committee closely connected with the local premium hotels will offer one-step wedding servic es with world-class hospitable residences, fresh and colorful flowers and beautiful weather. There are variety wedding package can be chose, from economic to luxury all guarantee to leave you the scared and memorable wedding. Ultimate pampering spaOn Phi Phi Island, the visitors can experience the authentic Thai style spa in the atmosphere of tranquility. Phi Phi Island has its favourable natural advantage that has a rich storage of natural material, however, the massage parlours lack the unified standards and regulations to ensure the quality of service. The committee projects a training program for all the massage parlours on Phi Phi Island include the security check of environment, quality check of massage products, the certification of skill workers the program does not mean to standardization of the spa service, on the contrary, the committee encourage the massage parlours to offer the unique services on the basis of security.Expected resultsThe program will be launched on May , 2010. In the sign period, the committee and local government will focus on completing the local infrastructures and improving the carrying capacities to satisfy the increasing demand of anticipated visitors. With the international water sports centre completed, the committee anticipates Phi Phi Island will become the key all-round tourism destination in Andaman Sea.Tourism is a systematic industry, the committee hope to take advantage of new round tourism development program to drive speed growth of local service business, transportation industry, generate more working opportunities as well to build the goodwill image of Phi Phi Island around the world.Sustainable DevelopmentConsidering the graceful scenery given by earth, it is absolutely a competitive advantage for their tourism industry. However, small island ecosystem is less complicated hence fragile, even slightly changes may cause the collapse the whole food chain on this island. Without mentioning the sloppy visitors fro m every corner of the world, the most careful travellers would leave their trail by hiking, diving, or even simply breathing. For example, a new exploring route through jungle might threaten the small animals feeding on bugs and worms, would directly cause the drastically rise of natural enemies to plants. Under the circumstances of spices singularity of small ecosystem, such change is fatal.Then how to protect the environment while making fully use of its natural resources is the question facing to authority. First of all, environmental protection sentience should be engraved on everyones mind. There should be consideration of environment protecting details through every step of development. From raw materials of building infrastructure to conspicuous signs at which remind travellers and even emission control of transportation, are basically demand. Second, accompany with the increasing tourism industry, a comparative rise of local inhabitant is a vital strike on ecosystem. Inste ad of restricting people moving onto the small island, it is wisely for authority to encourage local resident moving out, meanwhile providing more convenient transport. At last, there should be a visitor quantity control system. Providing different promotion and differentiating events, to avoid a capacity overload, which would lower the customer satisfactory and even lead to environment disruption. Apparently, there would be a conflict between sustainable development and profit maximization, however, it refers to improve reasonably and continuously.ConclusionBased on the identification of Phi Phi Island tourism system from variety resources including natural, culture, capital and organizations, this report set up series of objectives. In order to fulfil fostering the tourism industry with a combination of natural resources and local culture, encouraging promotion on existing tourist activities, and develop local economy through providing more job opportunities and attracting invest ment, several alternatives were generated. But these alternatives may influence the stability of local economy and environment. After evaluation of the impacts on different aspects from those choices, this plan made appropriate modifications to accomplish goal.In the end, a successful alternative requires thoroughly resources analysing and impacts predicting with a sustainable implementation, so that achieve the initial objectives.

Effect of Early Numeracy Learning on Numerical Reasoning

Effect of Early Numeracy Learning on Numerical ReasoningFROM NUMERICAL order TO FRACTIONSEarly savvy of quantitative order of magnitude and proportion is forthwith related to subsequent acquisition of dissever knowledgeAbstractEvidence from samples with infants concerning their cleverness to rationalness with numeral magnitude is examined, along with the debate relating to the innateness of quantitative designering index. The key debate here concerns performance in looking clock time experiments, the appropriateness of which is examined. Subsequently, show concerning how children progress to reason outing with proportions is examined. The key focus of the debate here relates to discrete vs continuous proportions and the difficulties children discern to demand when cerebrate with discrete proportions specifically. Finally, the evidence is reviewed into how children come to reason with fractions and, explicitly, the difficulties experienced and why this is the cas e. This is examined in the context of different theories of numeral break upment, together with the effect of teaching methods.Early taste of numerical magnitude and proportion is directly related to subsequent acquisition of fraction knowledgeUnderstanding of magnitude and fractions is significant in contemporary society. Relatively simple tasks such as dividing a restaurant bill or sharing cake at a birthday party rely on an arrest of these concepts in order to go under how much everyone requires to pay towards the bill or how much cake everyone can receive. Understanding of these concepts is also required to allow calculation of much complex mathematical problems, such as solving equations in statistical formulae. It is therefore evident that a sound understanding of magnitude and fractions is required in everyday disembodied spirit and whilst most adults take for granted the ability to calculate magnitudes and fractions, this is not so for children, who require procrea tion to allow the concepts to be embedded into their understanding. De Smedt, Verschaffel, and Ghesquire (2009) suggest that childrens performance on magnitude comparison tasks predicts later mathematical achievement, with Booth and Siegler (2008) advertise arguing for a causal link among early understanding of magnitude and mathematical achievement. Despite these findings, research tends to highlight problems when the teaching of whole event mathematics progresses to teaching fractions. Bailey, Hoard, Nugent, and Geary (2012) suggest that performance on fraction tasks is suggestive of overall mathematics performance levels, although overall mathematical ability does not predict ability on these tasks.This article reviews the current position of research into how tender children, between birth and close together(p)ly seven years of age come to understand magnitude and how this relates to the subsequent learning of fractions. By primarily reviewing research into rendering of n umerical magnitude, the head start section of this paper will give a fairly narrow focus. This restriction is necessary due to the large volume of lit on the topic of infant interpretation of magnitude generally and is also felt to be appropriate due to the close link between integers, proportions and fractions. An understanding of magnitude is essential to differentiate proportions (Jacob, Vallentin, Nieder, 2012) and next the review of literary works in respect of how magnitude comes to be understood, the paper will review the present short letter in respect of how four-year- aged(prenominal) children understand proportions. Finally, the article will conclude with a review of where the literature is currently placed in respect of how both-year-old childrens understanding of magnitude and proportion relates to the learning of fractions and briefly how this fits within an overall mathematical framework.Is the understanding of numerical magnitude innate?There ar two opposi ng views in respect of the innateness of human understanding of come in and magnitude. One such view suggests that infants be born with an innate ability to demand out basic numerical operations such as addition and subtraction (Wynn, 1992, 1995, 2002). In her seminal and widely cited study, Wynn (1992) commitd a looking time procedure to measure the reactions of late infants to both possible and impossible arithmeticalal outcomes over three experiments. Infants were placed in front of a screen with both one or two objects displayed. A barrier was then placed over the screen, restricting the infants view, following which an experimenter either added or removed an item. The infants were able to keep in line the mathematical operation taking place due to a small gap at the edge of the screen which showed items being added or subtracted, but were not able to view the final display until the barrier was removed. Following the manipulation and removal of the barrier, infants loo king times were measured and it was established that overall infants spent authoritatively more time looking at the impossible outcome than the correct outcome. These results were assumed to be indicative of an innate ability in human infants to circumvent arithmetical operations and, accordingly, distinguish between different magnitudes. The innuendo of an innate human ability to manipulate arithmetical operations is given further credit by a fall of different forms of replication of Wynns (1992) original study (Koechlin, Dehaene, Mehler, 1997 Simon, Hespos, Rochat, 1995). Feigneson, C atomic number 18y, and Spelke (2002) and Uller, Carey, Huntley-Fenner, and Klatt (1999) also replicated Wynn, although interpreted the results as being based on infant taste sensation for object-based attention as opposed to an integer-based attention.Despite replications of Wynn (1992), a number of studies have also failed to replicate the results, leading to an alternative hypothesis. Follow ing a adversity to replicate Wynn, Cohen and Marks (2002) posit that infants distinguish magnitude by favouring more objects over less and also display a preference towards the number of objects which they have initially been presented, regardless of the mathematical operation carried out by the experimenter. This suggestion arises from the results of an experiment where Wynns hypothesis of innate mathematical ability was tested against the preference hypothesis noted above. Further evidence against Wynn (1992) exists following an experiment by Wakeley, Rivera, and Langer (2000), who argue that no systematic evidence of addition and subtraction exists, instead the ability to add and subtract progressively develops during infancy and childhood. Whilst this does not specifically support Cohen and Marks, it does cast doubt on basic arithmetical skills and, accordingly, the ability to work with magnitude existing innately.How do children understand magnitude as they age?By six-months o ld, it is suggested that infants employ an approximate magnitude estimation system (McCrink Wynn, 2007). Using a looking-time experiment to assess infant attention to displays of pac-men and dots on screen, infants appeared to attend to novel displays with a large difference in ratio (21 to 41 pac-men to dots, 41 to 21 pac-men to dots), with no significant difference in attention times to novel stimuli with a closer ratio (21 to 31 pac-men to dots, 31 to 21pac-men to dots). These results were interpreted to exemplify an understanding of magnitudes with a degree of error, a pattern already existing in the literature on adult magnitude studies (McCrink Wynn, 2007). Unfortunately, one issue in respect of interpreting the results of experiments with infants is that they cannot explicitly inform experimenters of their understanding of what has happened. It has been argued that experiments making usance of the looking-time paradigm cannot be properly understood as experimenters must ma ke an assumption that infants will have the same expectations as adults, a matter which cannot be appropriately verify (Charles Rivera, 2009 K. Mix, 2002).As children come to utilise language, words which have a direct relationship to magnitude (eg., little, more, lots) enter into their vocabulary. The use of these words allows researchers to investigate how they come to form internal authoritys of magnitude and how they are used to explicitly reveal understanding of such magnitudes.Specifically isolating the word more, children appear to develop an understanding of the word as being comparatively domain neutral (Odic, Pietroski, Hunter, Lidz, Halberda, 2013). In an experiment requesting children aged 2.0 4.0 (mean age = 3.2) to distinguish which colour on pictures of a set of dots (numeric task) or blobs of goo (non-numeric task) represented more, it was established that no significant difference exists between performance on both numeric and non-numeric tasks. In addition, it was found that children age approximately 3.3 years and above performed significantly above chance, whereas those children below 3.3 years who participated did not. This supports the assertion that the word more is understood by young children as both comparative and in domain neutral basis not specifically related to number or celestial sphere. It could also be suggested that it is near the age of 3.3 years when the word more comes to hold some sort of semantic understanding in relation to mathematically based stimuli (Odic et al., 2013). It is difficult to correspond this study to that of McCrink and Wynn (2007) due to the differing nature of methodology. It would certain(prenominal)ly be of interest to researchers to investigate the possibility of some sort of comparison research, however, as it is un clear(p) how the Odic et al. (2013) study fits with the suggestion of an approximate magnitude estimation system, notwithstanding the use of language.Generally, children unders tand numerical magnitude on a logarithmic basis at an early age, progressing to a more linear understanding of magnitude as they age (Opfer Siegler, 2012), a diversity which is beneficial. It is suggested that the more linear a childs mental representation of magnitude appears, the better their memory for magnitudes will be (Thompson Siegler, 2010). There are a number of reasons for this change in understanding, such as socioeconomic status, gardening and education (Laski Siegler, in press). In the remainder of this section, the understanding of magnitude in school age children (up to approximately seven years old) is reviewed, although only the effect of education will be referred to. The remainder of the reasons are noted in order to exemplify some issues which can also have an impact on childrens development of numerical magnitude understanding.As children age, the neurological and mental representations of magnitude encompass both numeric and non-numeric stimuli in a linear fashion (Opfer Siegler, 2012). On this basis, number line representations present a reasonable method for investigation of childrens understanding of magnitude generally. One method for examining number line representations of magnitude in children uses board spiriteds in which children are required to count moves as they play. Both prior to and subsequent to playing the games, the children involved in the experiment are then presented with a straight line, the parameters of which are explained, and requested to mark on the line where a set number should be placed. This allows researchers to establish if the action of game playing has allowed numerical and/or magnitude information to be encoded. In an experiment of this nature with pre-school children (mean age 4 years 8 months), Siegler and Ramani (2009) established that the use of a linear numerical board game (10 spaces) enhanced childrens understanding of magnitude when compared to the use of a circular board game. It is argu ed that the use of a linear board game assists with the formation of a retrieval organize, allowing participants to encode, store and retrieve magnitude information for future use. Similar results have subsequently been obtained by Laski and Siegler (in press), working with slightly older participants (mean age 5 years 8 months), who sought to establish the effect of a larger board (100 spaces). In this case, the structure of the board ruled out high performance based on participant memory of space location on the board. In addition, verbalising movements by enumerate on was found to have a significant impact on retention of magnitude information.A final key question relating to understanding of magnitude relates to the predictive value of current understanding on future learning. When education level was controlled for, Booth and Siegler (2008) found a significant correlation between the pre-test numerical magnitude score on a number line task and post-test scores of 7 year-olds on both number line tasks and arithmetic problems, This find has been supported by a replication by De Smedt et al, (2009) and these findings together suggest that an understanding of magnitude is fundamental in predicting future mathematical ability. It is also clear that a good understanding of magnitude will assist children in subsequent years when the curriculum proceeds to deal more comprehensively with matters such as relativeity and fractions.From numerical magnitudes to proportionsEvidence reviewed earlierly in this article tends to suggest that children have the ability to distinguish numerical magnitudes competently by the approximate age of 7 years old. Unfortunately, the ability to distinguish between magnitudes does not necessarily suggest that they are easily reasoned with by children. Inhelder and Piaget (1958) first suggested that children were uneffective to reason with proportions generally until the transition to the formal operational stage of development, at around 11-12 years of age. This point is elucidated more generally with the argument that most comparative reasoning tasks prove difficult for children, regardless of age (Spinillo Bryant, 1991). However, more recent research has suggested that this assertion does not strictly hold true, with children as young as 4 and 5 years old able to reason proportionally (Sophian, 2000). Recent evidence suggests that the key debate in terms of childrens ability to reason with proportions concerns the unmistakableion between discrete quantities and continuous quantities. Specifically, it is argued that children find dealing with problems involving continuous proportions simpler than those involving discrete proportions (Boyer, Levine, Huttenlocher, 2008 Jeong, Levine, Huttenlocher, 2007 Singer-Freeman Goswami, 2001 Spinillo Bryant, 1999). In addition, the fractional boundary is also viewed as being of critical importance in childrens proportional reasoning and understanding (Spinillo Bryant, 1991, 1999). These matters and suggested reasons for the experimental results are now discussed.Proposing that first order relations are important in childrens understanding of proportions, Spinillo and Bryant (1991) suggest that children should be successful in making judgements on proportionality using the relation greater than. In addition, it is suggested that the half(prenominal) boundary also has an important role in proportional decisions. Following an experiment which requested children make proportional judgements about stimuli which either crossed or did not cross the half boundary, it was found that children aged from approximately 6 years were able to reason relatively easily concerning proportions which crossed the half boundary. From these results, it was worn that children tend to establish part-part first order relations to deal with proportion tasks (eg. reasoning that one box contains more blue than sporting bricks). It was also suggested that the use of the half boundary formed a first reference to childrens understanding of part-whole relations (eg. reasoning that a box contained half blue, half white bricks). No express deviation from continuous proportions was used in this experiment and, therefore, the only matter which can be drawn from this result is that children as young as 6 years old can reason about continuous proportions.In a follow up experiment, Spinillo and Bryant (1999) again utilised their half boundary paradigm with the addition of continuous and discrete proportion conditions. Materials used in the experiment were of an isomorphic nature. The results broadly mirrored Spinillo and Bryants (1991) initial study, in which it was noted that the half boundary was important in solving of proportional problems. This also held for discrete proportions in the experiment despite performance on these tasks pull ahead poorly overall. Children could, however, establish that half of a continuous quantity is identical to half o f a discrete quantity, supporting the idea that the half boundary is crucial to reasoning about proportions (Spinillo Bryant, 1991, 1999). Due to the similar nature of materials used in this experiment, a further research question was posited in order to establish whether a similar task with non-isomorphic constituents would have any impact on the ability of participants to reason with continuous proportions (Singer-Freeman Goswami, 2001). Using models of pizza and chocolates for the continuous and discrete conditions respectively, participants carried out a matching task where they were required to match the ratio in the experimenters model with their own in either an isomorphic (pizza to pizza) or non-isomorphic (chocolate to pizza) condition. In similar results to the previous experiments, it was found that participants had less problems dealing with continuous proportions than discrete proportions. In addition, performance was superior in the isomorphic condition compared to t he non-isomorphic condition. An interesting finding, however, is that problems involving half were successfully resolved, regardless of condition, further adding credence to the importance of this feature. Due to participants in this experiment being slightly younger than those in Spinillo and Bryants (1991, 1999) experiments, it is argued that the half boundary may be used for proportional reasoning tasks at a very early age (Singer-Freeman Goswami, 2001).In addition to the previously reviewed literature, there is a vast form of evidence the difficulty of discrete proportional reasoning compared to continuous proportional reasoning in young children. Yet to be identified, however, is a firm reason as to why this is the case. Two specific suggestions as to why discrete reasoning appears more difficult than continuous reasoning are now discussed. The first suggestion is based on a surmisal posited by Modestou and Gagatsis (2007) related to the improper use of contextual knowledge . An error occurs when certain knowledge, applicable to a certain context, is used in a setting to which it is not applicable. A particular problem identified with this form of reasoning is that it is difficult to correct (Modestou Gagatsis, 2007). This theory is utilise to proportional reasoning by Boyer et al, (2008), who suggest that the reason children find it difficult to reason with discrete proportions is because they use absolute numerical equivalence to explain proportional problems. Continuous proportion problems are presumably easier due to the participants using a proportional schema to solve the problem, whereas discrete proportions are answered using a numerical equivalence schema where it is not applicable. An altogether different suggestion for the issue is made by Jeong et al, (2007), invoking Fuzzy trace theory (Brainerd Reyna, 1990 Reyna Brainerd, 1993). The argument posited is that children focus more on the number of target partitions in the discrete task, w hilst ignoring the area that the target partitions cover. It is the area that is of most relevance to the proportion task and, therefore, focussing on area would be the correct outcome. Instead, children appear to instinctively focus on the number of partitions, whilst ignoring their relevance (Jeong et al., 2007), thereby performing poorly on the task.From proportions to fractionsIn tandem with childrens difficulties in relation to discrete proportions, there is a wealth of evidence supporting the notion that fractions prove difficult at all levels of education (Gabriel et al., 2013 Siegler, Fazio, Bailey, Zhou, 2013 Siegler, Thompson, Schneider, 2011). several(prenominal) theories of mathematical development exist, although only some propose suggestions as to why this may be the case. The three main bodies of theory in respect of mathematical development are inside(a) domain theories (eg. Wynn, 1995b), conceptual change theories (eg. Vamvakoussi Vosniadou, 2010) and integrated theories (eg, Siegler, Thompson, Schneider, 2011). In addition to the representation of fractions within established mathematical theory, a further dichotomy exists in respect to how fractions are taught in schools. It is argued that the majority of teaching of fractions is carried out via a largely procedural method, meaning that children are taught how to manipulate fractions without being fully aware of the conceptual rules by which they operate (Gabriel et al., 2012). Discussion in this section of the paper will focus on how fractions are interpreted within these theories, the similarities and differences therein, together with how teaching methods can contribute to better overall understanding of fractions.Within privileged domain theories, development of understanding of fractions is viewed as secondary to and inherently clean-cut from the development of whole numbers (Leslie, Gelman, Gallistel, 2008 Siegler et al., 2011 Wynn, 1995b). As previously examined, it is argued t hat humans have an innate system of numerical understanding which specifically relates to positive integers, he basis of privileged domain theory being that positive integers are psychologically privileged numerical entities (Siegler et al., 2011, p. 274). Wynn (1995b) suggests that difficulty exists with learning fractions due to the fact that children trial to conceive of them as discrete numerical entities. This argument is similar to that of Gelman and Williams (1998, as cited in Siegler et al., 2011) who suggest that the knowledge of integers presents barriers to learning about other types of number, due to clearly different properties (eg. assumption of unique succession). Presumably, privileged domain theory views the fact that integers are viewed as being distinct in nature from any other type of numerical entity is the very reason for children having difficulty in learning fractions, as their main basis of numerical understanding prior to encountering fractions is integer s.Whilst similar to privileged domain theories in some respects, conceptual change theories are also distinct. The basis of conceptual change theories is that concepts and relationships between concepts are not static, but change over time (Vamvakoussi Vosniadou, 2010). In essence, protagonists of conceptual change do not necessarily dismiss the ideas of privileged domain theories, but allow freedom for concepts (eg. integers) and relationships between concepts (eg. assumption of unique succession) to be altered in order to accommodate new information, albeit that such accommodation can take a substantial finale of time to occur (Vamvakoussi Vosniadou, 2010). Support for conceptual change theory is found in the failure of children to comprehend the infinite number of fractions or decimals between two integers (Vamvakoussi Vosniadou, 2010). It is argued that the reason for this relates to the previously manifested knowledge of integer relations (Vamvakoussi Vosniadou, 2010) and that it is closely related to a concept designated as the whole number bias (Ni Zhou, 2005). The whole number bias can be defined as a tendency to utilise schema specifically for reasoning with integers to reason with fractions (Ni Zhou, 2005) and has been referred to in a number of studies as a possible cause of problems for childrens reasoning with fractions (eg. Gabriel et al., 2013 Meert, Grgoire, Nol, 2010).Siegler et al, (2011) propose an integrated theory to account for the development of numerical reasoning generally. It is suggested by this theory that the development of understanding of both fractions and whole numbers occurs in tandem with the development of procedural understanding in relation to these concepts. The theory claims that numerical development involves coming to understand that all real numbers have magnitudes that can be ordered and assigned specific locations on number lines (Siegler et al., 2011, p. 274). This understanding is said to occur gradually b y means of a progression from an understanding of characteristic elements (eg. an understanding that whole numbers hold specific properties distinct from other types of number) to distinguishing between essential features (eg. different properties of all numbers, specifically their magnitudes) (Siegler et al., 2011). In contrast to the foregoing privileged domain and conceptual change theories, the integrated theory views acquisition of knowledge concerning fractions as a fundamental course of numerical development (Siegler et al., 2011). Supporting evidence for this theory comes from Mix, Levine and Huttenlocher (1999), who report an experiment where children successfully perfect fraction reasoning tasks in tandem with whole number reasoning tasks. A high correlation between performances on both tasks is reported and it is suggested that this supports the universe of a shared latent ability (Mix et al., 1999).One matter which appears continuously in fraction studies is the pedago gical method of delivering fraction education. A number of researchers have argued that teaching methods can have a significant impact on the ability of pupils to acquire knowledge about fractions (Chan, Leu, Chen, 2007 Gabriel et al., 2012). It is argued that the teaching of fractions falls into two distinct categories, teaching of conceptual knowledge and teaching of procedural knowledge (Chan et al., 2007 Gabriel et al., 2012). In an intervention study, Gabriel et al, (2012) segregated children into two distinct groups, the experimental group receiving extra education in relation to conceptual knowledge of fractions, with the control group following the regular curriculum. The experimental results suggested that improved conceptual knowledge of fractions (eg. equivalence) allowed children to perform better when presented with fraction problems (Gabriel et al., 2012). This outcome supports the view that more effort should be made to teach conceptual knowledge about fractions, pr ior to educating children about procedural matters and performance on fractional reasoning may be improved.Conclusion and suggestions for future researchIn this review, the process of how children come to understand and reason with numerical magnitude, progressing to proportion and finally fractions has been examined. The debate concerning the innateness of numerical reasoning has been discussed, together with how children understand magnitude at a young age. It has been established that children as young as six months old appear to have a preference to impossible numerical outcomes, although it remains unclear as to why this is. The debate remains ongoing as to whether infants are reasoning mathematically, or simply have a preference for novel situations. Turning to proportional reasoning, evidence suggests a clear issue when children are reasoning with discrete proportions as opposed to continuous ones. Finally, evidence concerning how children reason with fractions and the probl ems therein was examined in the context of three theories of mathematical development. Evidence shows that all of the theories can be supported to some extent. A brief section was devoted to how teaching practice effects childrens learning of fractions and it was established that problems exist in terms of how fractions are taught, with too much emphasis placed on procedure and not enough placed on conceptual learning.With the foregoing in mind, the following research questions are suggested to be a good starting point for future experimentsHow early should we implement teaching of fraction concepts? Evidence from Mix et al, (1999) suggests that children as young as 5 years old can reason with fractions and it may be beneficial to childrens education to teach them earlierShould fractions be taught with more emphasis on conceptual knowledge?ReferencesBailey, D. H., Hoard, M. K., Nugent, L., Geary, D. C. (2012). Competence with fractions predicts gains in mathematics achievement. di ary of Experimental Child Psychology, 113, 447455.Booth, J., Siegler, R. (2008). Numerical magnitude representations influence arithmetic learning. Child Development, 79, 10161031.Boyer, T. W., Levine, S. C., Huttenlocher, J. (2008). Development of proportional reasoning where young children go wrong. Developmental Psychology, 44, 14781490.Brainerd, C. J., Reyna, V. F. (1990). Inclusion illusion Fuzzy-trace theory and perceptual salience effects in cognitive development. Developmental Review, 10, 363403.Chan, W., Leu, Y., Chen, C. (2007). Exploring Group-Wise Conceptual Deficiencies of Fractions for Fifth and Sixth Graders in Taiwan. The diary of Experimental Education, 76, 2657.Charles, E. P., Rivera, S. M. (2009). Object permanence and method of disappearance looking measures further fight reaching measures. Developmental Science, 12, 9911006.Cohen, L. B., Marks, K. S. (2002). How infants process addition and subtraction events. Developmental Science, 5, 186201.De Smedt, B ., Verschaffel, L., Ghesquire, P. (2009). The predictive value of numerical magnitude comparison for individual differences in mathematics achievement. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 103, 469479.Feigenson, L., Carey, S., Spelke, E. (2002). Infants discrimination of number vs. continuous extent. Cognitive Psychology, 44, 3366.Gabriel, F., Coch, F., Szucs, D., Carette, V., Rey, B., Content, A. (2012). Developing childrens understanding of fractions An intervention study. Mind, Brain, and Education, 6, 137146.Gabriel, F., Coch, F., Szucs, D., Carette, V., Rey, B., Content, A. (2013). A componential view of childrens difficulties in learning fractions. Frontiers in psychology, 4(715), 112.Geary, D. C. (2006). Development of mathematical understanding. In D. Kuhn, R. Siegler, W. Damon, R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology Vol 2, Cognition, Perception and Language (6th ed., pp. 777810). Chichester John Wiley and Sons.Inhelder, B., Piaget, J. (1958). The growt h of logical persuasion from childhood to adolescence. London Basic Books.Jacob, S. N., Vallentin, D., Nieder, A. (2012). Relating magnitudes the brains code for proportions. Trends in cognitive sciences, 16, 157166.Jeong, Y., Levine, S. C., Huttenlocher, J. (2007). The development of proportional reasoning Effect of continuous versus discrete quantities. Journal of Cognition and Development, 8, 237256.Koechlin, E., Dehaene, S., Mehler, J. (1997). Numerical transformations in five-month-old human infants. Mathematical Cognition, 3, 89104.Laski, E. V, Siegler, R. S. (in press). Learning from number board games You learn what you encode. Developmental Psychology.Leslie, A. M., Gelman, R., Gallistel, C. R. (2008). The generative basis of natural number concepts. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12, 213218.McCrink, K., Wy

Examining methods of analysing a Companies Environment

Examining methods of analysing a Companies EnvironmentThere are factors within the environment that the organization operates that are beyond the control or influence of the agreement but these factors affect the business or strategy externalizening. The STEEPLE analysis is focusing on the external macro-economic environment that a business operates. This helps business to consider the environment, in which it operates, and the opportunities and threats that exist or are emerging within it. An at a lower placestanding of the opportunities can help a business to take advantage of the opportunities that exist and stretch the threats to the barest minimum. The STEEPLE analysis helps to understand associated risk with growth in market or decline and thus the potentials and direction for business.STEEPLE is an acronym for Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Policy, Legal and Ethical factors respectively. several(prenominal) of these factors tend to overlap when conducting the analysis. Below is a STEEPLE analysis of the UK motor railroad simple machine market.Socio-cultural the pattern of lifestyle affects demand of vehicles, availability and willingness of individuals to work and therefore the variety of vehicles are manufactured. The institution of marriage has fallen, there are more single parents, people are having fewer kids and consumer trends which accept fashion ability, luxury preference, working population, using up provide etc.Technological new innovations and technologies keep emerging in the car sedulousness and bring about new products and processes e.g. introduction of three-point seat belt, airbag, electronic stability control, Intelligent Transport System (ITS), Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA), E-call, Driver Assistance Systems such(prenominal) as E-call and Driver Assistance System such as Electronic stability control and Emergency Brake Assist. Environmental according to SMMT, the climate convince has had a gr eat impact on the car industry and this has great impact on vehicle demand. This overlaps with the ethical factors beca drop the car industry is trying to sack up vehicles environmentally friendly by trying to make 95% of vehicles recyclable by 2015 in enunciate to comply with the End of Life Vehicle (EVL) Directive. Average carbonic acid gas emissions of cars bought through the scheme were 132.9g/km, which was over 27% below the CO2 figures of the outgoing cars that were scrapped. Also there is an effort to improve environmental standards at sites processing vehicles and limit the use of materials harmful to the environment in the new vehicle Climate Change Level (CCL). This has increased demand for hybrid cars.Ethical some ethical issues have to be considered in the market, these include ethics in workplace, balancing stakeholder interests, human rights, reduction in CO2 emission from vehicle and manufacturing process (Farnham 2010). Also, the Climate Change Levy (CCL) agreement was sign-language(a) by 11 UK vehicle manufacturers as co-ordinated by SMMT has effects on car industry.Political policies that affect the car market include 2008 piece of economy which committed European Vehicle manufacturers to cut average CO2 emission from cars to 130g/km by 2015, 2009 European Whole Vehicle Approval Directive, introduction of the Scrappage motivator Scheme, taxation, congestion charges, other policy areas being formulated include alternative fuels, smarter driving technologies, and lower resistance tyres. SMMT has reported that 395,000 new vehicles have been registered under the Scrappage motivator Scheme, which has now ended. There were 388,540 new cars and 6,959 new LCVs registered for the period, with 8.1% of all new car registrations and 2.1 LCV registrations in April being linked to the schemeLegal this is closely linked to environmental political and ethical factors but includes health and safety, company law, consumer protection law. Manufacturers ha ve to abide by policies formulated by government and regulatory bodies. This besides affects the UK car industry either positively or negatively.Economic macro-economic policy, markets and expenses, price levels, global trends, market organize, public spending, wages and salaries, balance of payment, taxation etc. (Farham, 2010) the industry generates upset approaching 52billion GBP so the Scrappage Incentive Scheme was introduced to support the industry because of its importance to the nation. Over 181,092 new vehicles had been registered under the scrappage scheme by the end of September. There is an order bank of a further 80,000 vehicles. The scrappage scheme is largely self-funding for government with the 15% VAT paid on a car bought for 7,650 covering the 1,000 government division (SMMT).The environmental, political and economic factors can be said to have the greatest impact on the strategy planning of the UK car industry. The product market, competitive structure and na ture of competition of the UK car market cannot be analyzed without Porters five forces analysis.Threat of entry The UK car market has high barriers to entry because it is extremely consolidated, sanitary developed value added chain, RD capability, investment capability in terms of equipment which means existing manufacturers can make relatively high profits.Power of buyers Buyers have wee or no bargaining power in the market, households have no power at all but companies that buy fleet cars for official use have very little bargaining power.Power of Suppliers there is a lot of power in retail and distribution of cars and this power depends on the price of the seller. The threat of substitutes within the industry also determines the power of the supplier as they can switch brands easily.Competitive rivalry The UK car market can be said to be oligopolistic in nature because there are about 30 firms with the major rivals being are Ford, GM (Vauxhall), VolksWagen, Renault, Peugeot, T oyota, BMW, Citroen and Honda. Ford is Britains best-selling commercial message vehicle (CV) brand and last year took over 24 per cent of the CV market. In a challenging market new models such as the ECOnetic Transit and ECOnetic FiestaVan, will play an important role in honoring Fords competitive position (Ford). In oligopolistic markets there is a high degree of interdependence and so firms will think carefully how their rivals might react to any actions they take. This can lead to an emphasis on non price competition a price change is relatively easy to imitate and so firms may rely more on methods such as branding or product development. The presence of sinewy competitors with established brands creates a threat of intense price wars and poses strong requirement for product differentiation. Also, there is cost of loss the industry because of high levels of investments already on ground so firms fight hard to survive because resources are not easily transferrable and as the m arket is shrinking, these firms fight for a share of falling gross sales. Brand loyalty is very poor in this market because customers are likely to switch easily from brand to brand.Threat of substitute this is linked to the power of buyers and sellers. The car market also faces direct competitors like public transport, air, rail, tubes, sea, bicycle and walking but the major source of substitute is the sale of second mint cars. It can be argued that the demand for cars is elastic because it is affected by substitute goods (as listed above) and complimentary goods (insurance, tyres, fuel, license, taxes, Ministry of Transport (MOT).Research two examples of how Human Resource Management in manufacturing has been influenced by and responds to changes in the environmental context as outlined in a.The automotive sphere is highly flexible, dynamic and ever expanding. As a takings of its flexibility and expansion, it responds to the global challenges which include GDP and trade growth , deep cultural shifts in the economic patterns and strong environmental aims. The automobile industry is constantly ever-changing and adapting to challenging commercial, regulatory and technological trends, competition in the market, discrimination by customers, pressure from government and influence groups. So it can be argued that the car industry adopts the contingency or best-fit school of HRM which advocates the need to fit HR strategy into its surrounding context.The concept of E-V-R congruence as a measure of how well an brass instrument is attuned to its environment was developed by Thompson (2005). E- Represents the environment which includes the opportunities and threats that exist within it while R is the resources and V represents the value. The concept of congruence is very important and an organization achieves this when its resources, environment and values are mutually reinforcing. Its strategic position will be strong.The macroeconomic understanding is needed by o rganizations in order to predict and plan for changes in demand for their products, human resources, inflation and changes in investment. Human resource has to match external environment to the companys objectives. The most significant feature of HRM is the importance link up to strategic integration. Legg (1989) argued that one of the common themes of typical definitions of HRM is that human resource policies should be integrated with strategic business planning. As Baird and Meshoulam (1988) remarked, business procedures and systems are developed and enforced based on organisational call for that is when strategic perspective to human resource management is adopted. Human resource managers play a significant role in ensuring that the strategies adopted by the organization are fully supported by the required workforce so HR has to know how many staff needs to be recruited, retained and developed to satisfy consumer demand.In 2009, recession edit outd demand for vehicles leading to a sharp fall in vehicle payoff and hence turnover. This year saw one of the biggest economic challenges of the automotive industry has ever seen with global sale plummeting, plants cutting production and RD budget at bulky risk. This means demand for cars will reduce because of economic meltdown, supply will reduce and press needed will be cut. Employment in the sector has decreased despite continued efforts to protect the vital industrial capability by introducing short-term working, time banking etc.Despite the surge in sales towards the end of the year as car scrappage scheme kicked in, Toyota in the UK saw production plummet 40 per cent from 213,000 in 2008 to 127,000 in 2009(Robert Lea generation online jan 28,2010http//business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/industrials/article7006329.ece). Toyota had to adapt to its work share programme to fulfill orders incentive by the Scrappage Incentive Scheme. Later on, it led to cutting of 750 jobs, or around a fifth of the workforce, in the face of crashing car sales. The decision will come as a blow to Toyota workers who had already been rattled last year by workshare programmes, reduced hours and non-production workers. Over last year, Toyota also accepted 300 applications for voluntary redundancy.(the times February 19,2010)Toyota is to shut down its UK production plant next month leaving 3,500 workers idle. The unprecedented halt for two working weeks is a result of a collapse in its car sales amid consumer concerns over the safety of the Japanese companys vehicles. gross revenue of Toyotas are thought to be plunging worldwide after multiple recalls affecting 8.5million cars around the world. The company employs 3,900 workers at its main production site in Burnaston and 570 at its engine plant in Deeside. It has already cut 200 temporary jobs and opened a voluntary redundancy scheme last week. Toyota said in a statement following extensive consultations with our employees representati ves, and with input from all employees, it has been agreed that the best way to secure long term employment is to temporarily reduce working hours and base pay by 10pc. Toyota also scrapped the annual pay increase for employees and cancelled management bonuses, while its UK factories have just finished a fortnights shutdown. All these measures were introduced to reduce cost for the company because of the fall in demand for Toyota products caused by recession, the recall of Toyota cars due to safety issues etc.SMMT estimates that approximately 70% of the cars bought under the scrappage scheme represent additional sales which would not otherwise have happened in 2009. Since there was an increase in the demand for cars, this means that the demand for labour in Ford, whose engine plants in Bridgend and Dagenham employ 4,000 people, had to introduce extra shifts to be able to supply more cars. August output was up 36.5% at Dagenham and 18.3% at Bridgend, compared to 2008. Ford estimates that this resulted in positive knock-on effect for around 100,000 of their UK jobs in sales, distribution and sale supply. (SMMT)Also, due to the rapid change of technological advancement, new makes/models, reduction of CO2 emission and the introduction of the Scrappage Incentive Scheme, the car industry in UK now has a high demand for management/ leadership skills and technical skills. These changes have also made it necessary for the car industry to give staff constant training, since staffs with excellent sales skills are essential for the profitability and success of the sector. The ever-growing feast of technology and the need for constant on the job learning the sector specific product Automotive Technician Accreditation (ATA) was developed. To become ATA registered, an individual must pass a extensive and rigorous series of tests of practical skill and knowledge to ensure that they keep up to date with new technologies technicians need to be assessed in order to maintain th eir accreditation.http//www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/28/ford-announces-profits-2009Andrew Clark in New Yorkguardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 January 2010 17.01 GMThttp//www.smmt.co.uk/articles/article.cfm?articleid=20676http//business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/industrials/article7032980.ecehttp//www.ford.co.uk/AboutFord/News/CompanyNews/NewDirectorttp//www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296378/01student/additional/page_11.htmhttp//www.oup.c.om/uk/orc/bin/9780199296378/01student/additional/page_10.htmhttp//www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296378/01student/additional/page_12.htm http//www.smmt.co.uk/articles/article.cfm?articleid=20676http//www.smmt.co.uk/articles/article.cfm?articleid=20676http//www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/4972091/Toyota-cuts-production-and-pay-as-motor-industry-crisis-deepens.htmlhttp//www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/understanding-microeconomics.asphttp//business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/industrials/article7032980.ec ehttp//www.smmt.co.uk/industryissues/index.cfm?catid=3725sid=259iicatid=P_1002http//www.smmt.co.uk/industryissues/index.cfm?catid=3725sid=259iicatid=P_973http//www.smmt.co.uk/industryissues/index.cfm?catid=3725sid=259iicatid=P_4093http//www.smmt.co.uk/industryissues/index.cfm?catid=3725sid=259iicatid=P_982 http//www.smmt.co.uk/hottopics/index.cfm?catid=3725sid=259http//business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/industrials/article7006329.ece http//www.comparecontracthire.com/blog/index.php/2010/05/scrappage-registrations-totalled-395000-units-says-smmt/

Wind Turbines Essay -- Energy, Kinetic Energy

Introduction revolve turbines pick up the energy of intertwine and transform it into kinetic energy that is then converted to electricity. Turbines are addressable in a range of sizes and designs and can either be free-standing, mounted on a building or integrated into a building twist (Pennycook, 2008).System types There are basically two sorts of wind turbines horizontal-axis design and vertical-axis design. Horizontal-axis wind turbines are the most common type used and can present various sizes. This type of turbine has a horizontal rotor shaft and rootage usually located at the top of a towboat. The propeller-type blades are used to capture wind thus are oriented into the wind, for instance for small turbines a wind vane is used, or if it is a larger turbines a wind sensors pull up stakes be used in conjunction with servomotors. A turbine system include the following a rotor, or blades, which convert the winds energy into rotational shaft energy a nacelle containing a d rive train, usually including a gearbox ( many wind turbines can even work without the gearbox), a tower which is meant to support the rotor and the drive train. There is electronic equipment such as controls, electrical cables, ground support equipment, and inter-connection equipment (Pennycook, 2008).Fig 1 The following image shows the some components of a horizontal wind turbine. Source (Alexander, 2008) Usually, vertical-axis turbines are known to have a rotor shaft oriented vertically. This eludes the necessity for a tower and the generator is located at ground level. It also has the advantage to have no need for a yaw mechanism in order to turn the rotor into wind. The principle disadvantages of vertical-axis turbines are that the efficiencies are lowe... ...enerates 1 to 5KW (kilowatts) of energy. However if the development is outside a covered or off-grid area where it will depend only to wind turbine for power, that will increase the needs intensely (Cooper, 2010). In si zing wind turbine for a dwelling, first of all you determine how much energy you need to tally for your home. There is another option which is to use an energy calculator there is one that is on the website www.thesolarguide.com . This demonstrates how you obtain the total kilowatt hours you need. According to the American Wind Energy Association, homes use approximately 9,400 kilowatt-hours (KWh) of electricity per year (about 780Kwh per month). To make a substantial contribution in order to meet the demand depending on the average wind speed in the area, a wind turbine rated in the range of 5 to 15 kilowatts would be needed (Cooper, 2010).