Kant’s Categorical Imperative: Suicide Essay

There are over thirty-thousand suicides a year in the United States alone. Whether or not suicide is acceptable is a moral issue. Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative can be applied to this moral issue. Kant strongly disagreed with suicide, because it was not a morally responsible decision; I will give a summary of the Categorical imperative, and use this information to develop an argument that Kant or a Kantian would use to argue against suicide. Kant’s Categorical imperative argued that an action or rule is moral if it is universally good. If everyone sees an action as good and can perform the action than it is moral. The categorical imperative applies to all rational beings regardless of one’s personal motives and desires. Kant believed that we those actions that if you would want an action performed on you than it are moral. â€Å"Act only on that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law (309). † Based on the categorical imperative, Suicide is immoral because it is our purpose to acquire happiness. If we all committed suicide as we pleased, then we would seize to exist, which is unethical. Because suicide prevents us being happy, it is not morally permissible under Kant’s categorical imperative. Humans should be thought of as a means not an ends. If we committed suicide than we are not achieving our potential to be happy, which is unmoral. To Kant suicide was â€Å"in no circumstance permissible. † Kant believed that any man, who would survive a suicide attempt, had now discarded his humanity and was lower than a beast. Suicide degrades our humanity, because it takes away our basic purpose. One could argue that Kant biased to a religious view of suicide being immoral. Kant believes that our lives belong to God and are not ours to end. It is also questionable to categorize our lives as a thing, and debase his humanity over a decision that they have made. Suicide is immoral because it does not bring happiness, and is not universally acceptable. Because we can no longer make moral decisions Kant argues that suicide is not morally acceptable. Kant states that â€Å"It cannot be moral to root out the existence of morality in the world. † Suicide prevents you from performing anymore acts of morality. According to the Categorical imperative, if we can perform a good deed we should, regardless of whether there is anything to be gained. We are bound by a set of universal laws that all should follow unconditionally. We should not commit suicide because; we have an obligation to perform good deeds in the world. Our purpose as humans is to perform good actions in the world, but we cannot do this if we are dead. Committing suicide prevents us from performing actions and is an irrational decision to make, which violates the Categorical Imperative. If one wants to commit suicide they should think of all of the actions that they would no longer be able to perform in death. One should strive to perform moral actions in life and to continue living as long as possible. We are each unique, and have actions that only we can complete. Works Cited Cahn, Steven M. , and Peter J. Markie. Ethics: History, Theory, and Contemporary Issues. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.

Emily Martin: The Egg and the Sperm Essay

It is human nature to place confidence into science because it is heavily researched and perceived as the truth. However, Emily Martin shows that the female role in the reproductive process is not thoroughly depicted. Martin said, â€Å"part of my goal in writing this article is to shine a bright light on the gender stereotypes hidden within the scientific language of biology. † This article demonstrates how the female role in the reproductive cycle is just as insistent, if not more, as the male’s role. Emily Martin proposes that science defines women as having a non-active and less significant role in the reproductive process. The role in which women play in the cycle of life is depicted through science as far more passive function than that of the male. The egg is seen as passive. It does not move and is transported along the fallopian tube. In contrast, sperm are seen as active. They deliver their genes to the egg and development starts. Martin quotes Gerald Schatten and Helen Schatten in that the egg acts as a Sleeping Beauty, â€Å"a dormant bride awaiting her mate’s magic kiss, which instills spirit that brings her to life†, while the sperm is on a â€Å"mission† to â€Å"move through the female genital tract in quest of the ovum. However, through recent research, scientist concluded that the egg performs several functions and is quite active itself in the reproductive process. Before this research it was thought that sperm were powerful penetrators capable of thrusting itself through the inner vestments of the egg. After much research, scientists in biophysics labs at Johns Hopkins University determined that the propelling force of the sperm is very weak, and that only through the adhesive molecules on the egg and sperm do the two stick. The zona acts as a â€Å"sperm catcher† and has to â€Å"capture and tether† the sperm before it can penetrate. But the most active and interesting roll the egg plays is that it â€Å"serves as a sophisticated biological security system that screens incoming sperm, selects only those compatible with fertilization and development, prepares sperm for fusion with the egg and later protects the resulting embryo from polyspermy. † Here the egg plays three vital roles in the developmental process of the embryo. It chooses which sperm is well-suited, sets up the fertilization process, and protects the sperm through the whole process. The author was effective in providing textual examples of the scientific language that wrongly represents the female role in the reproductive cycle. She quotes medical textbooks as referring to the menstrual cycle as â€Å"†debris† of the uterine lining, the result of necrosis, or death of tissue. † Martin goes on to counter this quote with an example of the positive language used to describe the sperm in saying, â€Å"Whereas the female sheds only a single gamete each month, the seminiferous tubules produce hundreds of millions of sperm each day. Both quotes provide strong examples of the scientific language used. Quoting such language not only provides the audience with examples to better prove her point, but that because this information is coming from a medical textbook provides the reader with confidence in the cited source. One way in which this scientific discrepancy can be improved is by teaching it at a young age. This could be done by implementing a new curriculum in sexual educational classes in public schools. It is important that the new curriculum use different language and metaphors to deter from the stereotypical view of the reproduction process. This may at least curb the sexual bias of this subject to future generations. This article reveals how scientific language can create misconceptions about the truth about the sperm and the egg. Martin cautions us about metaphors in science. While many of us believe science to be undoubtedly true, bias can be lurking.

The Youth in the Journey of Excellence

The Youth in the Journey of Excellence Every Filipino child has the talent to share and to be developed. This is the reason why we always go to school- to showcase our talents for us to succeed and achieve our goals in life. Our talent is our path for us to excel in the quest of excellence. Some children know how to sing and dance while some know how to paint. You see, children like us have different talents to share and to be showcased. All of us have the talent and skills to be proud of. This Valleygsahan event is one way to develop our learnings and knowledge.It is because we know that we can always excel in life if we have the passion and the hard work in every single thing that we do. It is also because we know that we can fulfil our ambitions in life. Although we may lose in some battles, it is just the challenge for us to excel to be a better person and to be an individual who perseveres in life. It is not enough that we only have the knowledge or talent for us to succeed but it must be coupled by hardwork and prestige.. But we, the youth, let us not forget to follow our dreams because our dream is the hope for us to excel in life. Education is the key to success†. Let this saying be our strength for us to study well in school because we all know that as a child, we have many ambitions that we want to come true. As the youth, we have many goals in life that we want to fulfil and achieve. We want to excel in our careers no matter what barriers would come because we won’t ever give up our dreams and we also know that achievement and excellence come only to those who have the courage, strength, and perseverance to fulfil their goals in life†¦We will continue to fight and fight for us to excel without giving up. With the word â€Å"education† ,we know that this powerful word can lead us into a better future for us to excel and for us to achieve excellence in our journey in life. Just like the other children, I also have many dreams a nd ambitions. For me, I want to become a writer someday because writing is my passion and no matter what, I will work hard to achieve my dreams because I want to have excellence in my life.In this society where I live, there are many well-known personalities here that serve as the inspiration for the youth because we know that those prominent individuals encountered hardships for them to achieve what they are right now. As the youth, we will follow their footstep and we will also be passionate in everything we do. Just like them, we will walk in the path of excellence for we know that in that path, excellence awaits. Let us always bear in mind that we should never give up even though we will encounter hardships and trials because it is just the challenge for us to be stronger.To my fellow Filipino children, do not be afraid to dream because those dreams and ambitions will lead us to excellence. Education will serve as our key to success. Hardwork and passion will be our path to achi eve our goals in life. Our dreams and ambitions will be the hope for us to excel . The youth will be the inspiration for our fellow Filipino children who want to achieve excellence in life. It has been proven, the Filipino youth had reached success, achievements and excellence in their journey of life.

Controversial Issues in Entertainment Paper Essay

Controversial Issues in Entertainment Paper - Essay Example Since discussions on such topics are open to public the questions regarding its ethicality are disputable. According to Kuypers (2002) â€Å"Controversial issues are news, and for news we look to the press." (p. 1). This essay aims to discuss the various issues and debates surrounding the coverage of controversial issues / news by the media. For the purpose of this study, the recent highly dramatic photo of a subway train bearing down on a man who was pushed off the platform, published by the New York Post on front page is used. The highly graphic depiction sparked widespread debates and criticisms condemning the unethical publication of the image, the misuse of the freedom of press, and insulting the dignity of humanity. Nature of controversy: On December 4, 2012 The New York Post published a photo on its front page, sensationally titled "Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die. DOOMED" (See Appendix Fig. 1) Immediate after the sensational publication of the disturbing image by the newspaper, wide-ranging debates and criticisms surrounding the ethics in photojournalism and dignity of humanity began pouring in from all quarters of the society. The criticisms mainly questioned the photographer's choice of action in the face of adversity. The intent of the photographer, R. Umar Abbasi was questioned raising serious concerns over the incident, particularly since he chose to capture and then sell the image to New York Post, rather than do the obvious – i.e. intervene and try to help the man. The inaction of the photographer highlighted his apparent apathy towards the victim, inviting severe criticisms concerning his lack of judgment and gross violation of human rights. The publication of the photo by the New York Post on the front page also called for debates and criticisms surrounding the blatant use of liberty of the press by the publication. The news journalists and photographers are bound by a strict code of ethics and good conduct which en tails them to act prudently towards an individual or group and adhere to the standards of morality and principles normally attributed to and deserved by the humanity. According to the National Press Photographers Association's Code of Ethics: "Photographic and video and images can reveal great truths, expose wrongdoing and neglect, inspire hope and understanding and connect people around the globe through the language of visual understanding. Photographs can also cause great harm if they are callously intrusive or are manipulated" (NPPA (2012) Although the publication of the photo did not in any way violate the code of ethics, it however did cross the line of human dignity, especially considering that the graphic image was published on the front page. The photo was used since it was ‘newsworthy’, and such images / shocking news items are quick to catch the audience’s attention, as is apparent from the widespread reactions garnered overnight from all aspects of so ciety including journalists and citizens alike. Soon after the publication of the photo by the New York Post, other newspapers and tabloids as well as the television media covered the incident with varied reactions on the issue. Most of the print and visual media condemned the publication of the graphic image but continued to cover the story as more and more videos and images captured by

Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 15

Personal Statement Example Moreover, I have taken part in volunteer work for different social institutions such as my local church and my local students association. For the local church, I volunteered as a math tutor for the children. My duty as a volunteer was to impart mathematical skills to children with difficulty in the area. Through this, I learnt the values of giving back to society. Moreover, in the process of volunteering, I worked as a treasurer for the Hong Kong Student Association accountable for funds in the association. Being a treasurer meant balancing the books of all income and expenditure that occurred in the association. As a result, I familiarized myself with basic manipulations in the accounting industry, and grew much passion with Business Accounting profession. It was also in this association that came to terms with language used in the accountancy field in the course of making presentations and preparing. In the association, I had to present to the members during meetings the budget of the association and account for funds that had been spent previously. I gained experience on how to use official business language and be accountable on large scale. At the end of all the volunteer programs and responsibilities I have participated in, I have amassed substantial experience and skills to motivate me to pursue business accounting. These skills range from responsibility and patience to hands on experience. As a result, I have the confidence and ability to join your institution and pursue my major without any

Those who pray and those who fight Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Those who pray and those who fight - Essay Example Those who work comprised mainly the peasants in the society; the slaves and the serfs. The serfs comprised the peasants who were owned by a lord. Their duty was to work for the lord, in the field of the lords, in consideration of being allowed to use a piece of land by the lord for their use and that of their families. In addition, the lords had the duty to protect the serfs and to administer justice to them. Serfs would work for their lords for about 3 days a week, or more, during the harvest period, while they would employ the rest of their time to work in their own field set for them by their lords. Most of the serfs were illiterate and poor but religious. Their lives were limited on their fields and their village church. To add, the serfs were not allowed to leave the manor of their lords. In essence, most of them ended up spending their entire lives on one estate. Those that pray included powerful popes, clergy, bishops and priest. They had diverse religious roles, for instance, the village priests had the task to satisfy the serfs’ spiritual needs. This group also consisted of the monks who lived in the monasteries, and consisted mostly of educated monks and who were responsible for producing most of the books made during that period. The last order consisted of those who fought. During the medieval periods, wars were prevalent and were mostly fought by knights. Wars were expensive and since peasants could not afford arsenals of war such as horses, swords or a suit of armor, this group, therefore, consisted of people from the wealthiest order, that is, the nobles. They were mainly the land owners, living in manors, and owned all the people that lived in that Manor. They had military obligations, for instance, to the higher nobles, and were in turn owed military obligations by the lower nobles called the vassals. The nobility never worked, but were supposed to be fierce and warlike and they spent their time in military training and attending fight t ournament with other nobles. Each of the three orders contributed in a way to the aggressiveness of Christian kingdoms during the Crusades (1096-1204). The peasants worked on the lands of their lords, and though they were not allowed to leave, they contributed to the financial might of their respective lords, who in turn contributed military might to the crusaders. To add, they contributed directly in the crusades, for instance in 1095, Pope Urban II urged both the nobles and peasants to join him in the war against Muslims, with the mission of reclaiming the Holy land of Jerusalem. The Pope promised them a lot of things from salvation to wealth, and they, therefore, joined him because of these assurances. Those who pray were mainly the religious leaders, and who wielded a lot of powers. The pope for instance, commissioned and blessed the crusaders before they waged war against people the church had declared to be heretics, including a Christian King (Hunt 2010, 354). This order enco uraged their followers to wage crusades against the non believers. Most of them were sanctioned by the pope. For instance in 1198, pope innocent III declared a crusade against the Livs, and four years later, the Pope declared the fourth crusade to the holy land. The religious leaders exploited their monopoly over salvation, wealth and charity, and confession to promote crusades. For instance, during the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229), innocent suspended the crusaders monetary debts and promised that their

The effects of the US 1965 Immigration Act Introduction and Annotated Essay

The effects of the US 1965 Immigration Act Introduction and Annotated bibliography - Essay Example To accomplish this it restricted immigration on the basis of how many existing proportions of the population there already were. The 1965 Act, however, set an annual limit to no more than twenty thousand from each country, regardless of how many peoples from that country already occupied the United States. By 1968 the annual limitation to any country from the Western Hemisphere was set to one hundred and twenty thousand immigrants, and visas were given on a first come-first serve basis. The equalization of immigration policies resulted in a shift in immigration from European-Asian immigrants, to Central-South American immigrants. Immigration also doubled from 1965-1970 and then again from 1970-1990. This flux of immigrants not only changed the ethnic makeup of the United States, but with the introduction of so many to the U.S workforce it also shifted the male earnings inequalities. This prompted congress to pass the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and the 1990 Immigra tion Act, in an attempt to stabilize the influx and the economy.

(Macroeconomics) A company that did well during the recession. For Term Paper

(Macroeconomics) A company that did well during the recession. For example (Ferrari) - Term Paper Example According to the Company Website, â€Å"Ferrari S.p.A. designs and manufactures sports cars that are synonymous with speed and performance. Ferrari sports cars are among the most prestigious automobiles in the world, along with Porsche, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, and Lamborghini. The name Ferrari is still venerated on the international racing circuit, and many automotive experts regard the Ferrari GTO as one of the most exotic sports cars ever made. Only 35 Ferrari GTOs were built, and some of them have been sold as collectors items for more than $10 million. About 3,800 Ferraris are sold each year, at prices starting at $120,000 apiece. Ferrari S.p.A., which has been affiliated with Fiat S.p.A. since 1969, also owns the Maserati brand. About 20 percent of Ferraris and Maseratis are sold in North America, with the second largest market being Germany, at around 18 percent†. The latest financial statements for Ferrari show that ,† On 2008 revenues of nearly 59 billion euros (12.9% higher than 2006), Fiat Group posted a trading profit of 3.2 billion euros, well ahead of previous guidance and nearly 66% higher than in 2006, with all major Sectors contributing to the improvement. Trading margin rose accordingly to 5.5% from 3.8% in 2006, with the Automobiles business more than Doubling trading profit to 1.1 billion euros, CNH at 1 billion euros (+34.3%; +46.7% in dollar terms) and Iveco at 0.8 billion euros (+48.9%)†. In the same report, it states that â€Å"Ferrari closed 2007 with a trading profit of 266 million euros, up 45.4% from 183 million euros in 2006. The improvement is mainly attributable to higher sales volumes and efficiency gains, offset in part by increased R&D expenses and unfavorable US dollar exchange rate. Trading margin was 15.9% in 2007 against 12.6% in 2006†. The domestic environmental factors that the company face may be divided into the production volumes that the company sets itself targets for and the domestic market that it caters

Policy memo summarizing a public hearing Assignment

Policy memo summarizing a public hearing - Assignment Example Sally Clark, the Chair of the Committee on the Built Environment, opened the Public Hearing at 5:30, in the Seattle City Council Chambers. Also present were Vice-Chair Tim Burgess, and Council Member Sally Bagshaw.1 Three basic categories of debate and comment were heard on the evening: a) development proposals in urban areas; b) neighborhood planning; and c) complaints regarding the process of the plan amendment process. THE PROCESS FOR ADOPTION OF PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE ANNUAL COMPREHENSIVE PLAN The Comprehensive Management Plan of the City of Seattle is open to amendments once a year, according to the Washington State Growth Management Act.2 During 2010, the schedule for the submission, proposal and adoption of specific amendments to be examined was as follows: May 14, 2010: Deadline for the submission of a maximum of 10 applications;3 June 19, 2010: Introduction and briefing regarding the proposed amendments to the Council Committee on the Built Environment;4 July 8, 2010: Pu blic Hearing at which particular proposals are considered, at which argument for or against proposals may be raised, and the proposals to go forward are evaluated; July 14, 2010: Briefing of Committee and further discussion to determine which proposed amendments will be given further review and analysis, in light of the commentary at the Public hearing; July 28, 2010: Voting is conducted;5 December 1, 2010: Final recommendations on the proposed amendments are submitted to the Council.6 SELECTION CRITERIA FOR AMENDMENTS Specific criteria are considered by the City Council in identifying amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, according to Resolution 30976, adopted on May 14, 2007. These criteria can be categorized under the following central statements as follows: A. The amendment is appropriate for the Comprehensive Plan. B. The amendment is legal. C. It is practical to consider the amendment. D. There has been a neighborhood review process to develop and proposed change to a neighbor hood plan, or a neighborhood review process can be conducted prior to final Council consideration of the amendment.7 For the amendment to be appropriate, it has to be in line with the State Growth Management Plan, referred to above. Likewise, it should not contradict national planning, nor should it be possible to implement it by a change in regulations only. If the amendment could be implemented by changes to budget, or already existing programs, or processes, it will not be adopted. Further, the timing, the available staffing requirements suggested by an amendment, and the information available for analysis of the proposal will be considered. Only when the Mayor or Council are in favor of changing policy significantly, if necessary, as proposed by a specific amendment, will it be considered, as long as it does not as mentioned, contradict the Comprehensive Plan. If a proposal has been rejected by the City Council already, it may not be re-tabled. Finally, it must not break nationa l or state laws. SUMMARY: PUBLIC COMMENTARY AND DEBATE The first proposed amendment (Proposed Amendment Number One: PA #1) was tabled by the Department of Planning and Development.8 The essence of the proposal included the suggested update of the shoreline master program, to include comment on a container

Report on the Case Study of the Red Bull Brand Essay - 1

Report on the Case Study of the Red Bull Brand - Essay Example Although Red-Bull is a single product offering, it has been able to achieve brand equity across the world through its uniqueness and other factors that enable customers to identify it as unique and different from other soft drink and energy drink offerings on the market. In summary, it's unique packaging (the blue, silver and red 250ml can) is famous around the world. Also, the unique content and effects on users is a very strong element of brand equity since it gives consumers a very positive physical, mental and health advantages that most competitors do not give. The Burnett model states that a brand equity has four main facades: personality image, source, differences and functions (Randall, 2000). In terms of personality image, customers around the world feel good about the health and mental alertness that Red Bull provides. They respect it as a premier energy drink because it does what a normal cup of coffee would do but with a very positive impact on the individual. Secondly, Red Bull seems to stand for good health, vitality, and productivity and that is exactly how it is promoted and packaged as a revitalized. Also, Red Bull was originally created to be different from all other soft and energy drink offerings on the market. Now that several similar products are available, Red Bull still maintains its distinct packaging and content which keeps it embedded in the mind of consumers. In spite of the universal nature of Red Bulls brand, there was the need for some variation in the brand offering in markets around the world. Dunn (2004) points out that there are six main processes that a business needs to go through before they can create brand equity and they are: Market analysis involves scanning the dominant environmental factors in a country before offering your products in a country.

Discussion Week 7 Advertising Media and Integrated Marketing Assignment

Discussion Week 7 Advertising Media and Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) - Assignment Example The social media is least costly, can demonstrate the product vividly, and is able to reach a wide range of clientele. The weaknesses noted in social media are its lack of emotional appeal or ability to vividly demonstrate the product. Finally, newspaper is also least costly and could provide more information on the product, as required. However, the weaknesses of newspapers include the lack of target, reach and vividness in presentation; as well as in providing emotional appeal (Selecting Advertising Media and Determining Advertising Budgets, 2014). To create the advertising budget, three ways were actually suggested: (1) to use historical figures or a percentage of past year’s sales; (2) to determine the amount that competitors spend and earmark a similar budget; and (3) determine the advertising goal and the resources of the company and work out how the goal could be reached (Selecting Advertising Media and Determining Advertising Budgets, 2014). 2. From the e-Activity above, outline the design for an IMC campaign that would use a different media other than the one used in the product or service you reviewed. For example, if the advertisement you reviewed was designed for the radio, consider the details for a complimentary Web or magazine advertisement. One of the most effective advertisements shown is the â€Å"Volkswagen-Darth Vader 2011 Super Bowl Commercial† (Volkswagen-Darth Vader 2011 Super Bowl Commercial, 2011). The design of an IMC campaign for the same advertisement, using a different media would actually be challenging. According to Iacobucci (2014), the IMC should â€Å"ensure that a company’s various advertising efforts send a coherent story across the different customer touch points† (p. 159). Therefore, the most appropriate medium to relate the main thrust of the advertisment (other than through the commercial shown through YouTube) would be in a magazine advertisment. The details that could be provided

Bshs305 R2 Ethical Scenario Essay Example for Free

Bshs305 R2 Ethical Scenario Essay Read the following scenario: Shannon is a juvenile probation officer with the Department of Juvenile Justice. Recently, she covered her coworker, Janet’s client load, while Janet was on vacation. Shannon met with several of Janet’s clients. After meeting with clients, she discovered a pattern in which the clients would report that they have not seen Janet in 2 to 3 months. However, the case files reflected face-to-face contact with all of her clients, despite what her clients stated. When Shannon investigated further, she found that the client notes were all at the same day and time, which is unlikely. Further, several of Janet’s clients needed referrals for counseling, but Janet never completed them and has not followed up to ensure her clients are receiving the necessary services. Janet is a close friend of Shannon. Shannon does not want to get Janet in trouble but realizes something must be done. Answer, in a 75- to 100-word response, each of the following questions: 1. What are the ethical issues involved in the scenario? Human service professionals are obligated to provide high-quality service to their clients. Most codes of ethics indicate that the helper’s first responsibility is to enhance and protect the client’s welfare. One of the ethical standard is the human service professional’s responsibility to clients. Standard 2: â€Å"Human service professionals’ respect the integrity and welfare of the client at all times. Each client is treated with respect, acceptance, and dignity†. Unfortunately in this scenario Janet failed to respect her clients’ welfare. She not only had issues of breaking several ethical codes she literally failed her moral responsibility. 2. What client rights are involved in the scenario? The client has a right to actively participate in their treatment plan. They are privy to view their personal chart which would show them the fabricated notes of the helper. The system failed this client and the client is able to request for a new helper. Although the client has a right to a professional disclosure statement as to see the qualifications of his helper, chances are this helper would not disclose their unethical behavior. 3. What, if any, client rights were violated? I feel the clients rights were violated by the misguided treatment of the helper. The client was not treated with dignity, respect or integrity. They were violated in a as â€Å"helpers are ethically obligated to provide quality services†. Also the helping professional is committed to helping clients develop to the best of their abilities. The helper was not even servicing the client and in that aspect the client has been violated on several different levels of ethical codes. Ethical Decision Scenario BSHS/305 Version 2 2 4. How you would use the ethical decision-making model to address or resolve the situation? First of I would identify the problem which are two issues, first one is the clients are not receiving necessary services. Second issue is Janet lied on legal documents. I would review the ethical guidelines and consult with a co-worker as to how I should proceed with the probable course of action. I would then select the course of action and follow through with my obligation to assure clients receive due services and I would make sure Janet does not make this mistake again. I would report Janet’s actions to my supervisor and hope Janet understands that I am just doing my job.

A Literature Review On Adventure Tourism Tourism Essay

A Literature Review On Adventure Tourism Tourism Essay Adventure tourism has become more popular as an outdoor recreation activity in the tourism industry (Travel Industry Association of America, cited 2005). The term adventure can actually mean differently to different tourists because things that fill up the fear of one tourist may not fill up for another tourist (Buckly, 2006). Therefore, there is no any specific way to define adventure tourism. The word adventure is described as the risky activities in nature that are taken on by the tourist or the risky destination visited by the tourist and the tourist get an exciting and unusual experience from what the tourist had did (Farlex, The Free Dictionary). Adventure also is where the participants voluntarily putting themselves in a position that the participants believe that they are taking a step into the unknown where challenges will be faced and something valuable from the experience will be discovered or gained (Swarbrooke, Beard, Leckie, and Promfret, 2003). Consequently, adventure tourism is something related to nature and it is consisting of risk taking. Muller and Cleaver (2000) (cited in Swarbrooke et al. 2003, p. 29) defined adventure tourism as the capability to provide tourists with relatively high degrees of sensory stimulation. It is usually contained some physical challenging elements with the (typically short) tourists experience. While Buckley (2006) mentioned that the term adventure tourism is used to mean as guided commercial tours where these major attraction is an outdoor activity that has natural environment features and normally needs specialized sporting or equipment. It must be exiting for the tourists also. This definition does not mean that the tourists or clients have to prepare the equipments themselves, they may purely be travellers and rely on the agents to prepare the equipments for them. For example, tandem parachute harness or white water raft, etc. Therefore, adventure tourism can refer to activities done by the tourists, which have high level of perceived or real risk like diving, hiking, mountaineering, mountain biking, caving, sky-diving, skiing, snowboarding, white water rafting, kayaking, sailing, and sea kayaking. It also refer to a specific location of place with high degree of risk such as visiting desserts, jungles or mountaintops, polar regions and safaris. All these places have strong elements of adventure. Adventure tourism can be divided into soft adventure and hard adventure. These terms are developed by researchers who devised a scale to explain the diversity of behaviour, beginning with mild adventure also known as soft adventure at one end of the scale and progress to hard adventure at the other extreme. This continuum, illustrate in Figure 1.1, involves different degrees of challenge, uncertainty, setting familiarity, personal abilities, intensity, duration and perceptions of control (Lipscombe, 1995: 42). A simpler way to describe soft and hard adventure is that soft adventure does not necessarily require past experience whereas hard adventure requires some experiences and proficiency in the activity prior to the tourism experience (Millington and Locke, 2001). Hard Adventure Refers to activities with high levels of risk, requiring intense commitment and advanced skills. Soft Adventure Refers to activities with a perceived risk but low levels of real risk, requiring minimal commitment and beginning skills; most of these activities are led by experienced guides. Figure 1: The continuum of soft and hard adventure (source: Hill, 1995, cited in Beard et al. 2003, p. 33). Tourist behaviour is an in-depth topic as the behaviour of tourist change from time to time and sometimes it can be difficult to judge because not everyone shares the same behaviour. In order to understand tourist behaviour, psychologists have found that certain concepts are useful to understand the behaviour (Bhatia, 2006). According to Bhatia (2006), tourist behaviour can be understand by determining the motive, drives, or concerns being satisfied by the action and the attitudes and information that the person use to decide what kind of response should be made in a given situation. Motivation is one ways to describe tourist behaviour. Motivation is a verb derive from motivate Motivation is factor that influence or motivate trekkers to travel to Everest Base Camp. Motivation is defined as a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way or the desire or willingness to do something (Oxford online Dictionary). Hence, motivation of travel is why tourists travel to a place . It is important to know tourist travel motivations because motivations will affect travel decision process (Crompton and McKay, cited in Pan 2009, p. 216) and motivations are drivers that influence and affect the specific behaviour of a person or traveller. Furthermore, it also helps to develop strategies to attract tourists to a particular destination by understanding tourist behaviour. For example, travel agent or local authorities can find a way to increase the volume of tourists visiting a destination by understanding the tourist behaviour when the destination is kind of new in the tourism market or the number of tourists in the destination had decreased. Travel motivation is a wide theory where it can not be understood by looking at one part of the theory only. Figure 2: The Motivation Process (source: Holloway, Humphreys Davidson 2009, p.62). The process of translating a need into motivation to visit a specific destination or undertake a specific activity is quite complex and can be best demonstrated by means of a diagram (refer to Figure 2) (Holloway, Humphreys Davidson 2009, p.62). Potential consumers must be able to recognize their needs and wants and know what kinds of product actually satisfy their needs. Figure 2 shows that consumer perception of what will satisfy their need has to match with consumer perception of the attractions. Only when the consumer agrees on these 2 points, consumer will be motivated to visit a particular destination. For example, customer A and customer B have the same kind of need, where both of them like to do adventure activities and their think that trekking up to a mountain satisfies their need. Both customer A and B have the same interest but their perception on a particular destination may be different. Customer A may think that trekking to Mount Everest actually fulfils what he wants and his perception towards the destination is positive. While customer B may think that trekking to Mount Everest fulfil what he wants but he has a bad perception towards the destination as he think that the destination is very risky to him. Therefore, customer A will be willing to buy the package and climb up to Mount Everest because both the perception of the need and the attraction match. Customer B will not be motivated to go to Mount Everest as the perception of need and attraction do not match. According to Beerli and Martin (cited in Correia, Valle and Moco 2007, p. 46), motivation is the needs that drives and individual to act in a certain way to achieve the desire satisfaction. Therefore, people travel base on many different reasons. Motivation has also been referred as psychological / biological needs and wants including integral forces that arouse, direct, and integrate a persons behaviour and activity (Dann; Pearce; Uysal Hagan, cited in Shin 2009, p. 32). Travel motivators are the factors that create a persons desire to travel and are usually the internal psychological influences affecting individual choices (Bhatia, 2006). Travel motivations usually include a wide range of personal experiences and behaviours. Various studies have been done to find out why people wish to travel after the advent of mass tourism, especially after the Second World War. Macintosh (cited in Bhatia 2006) has group the basic travel motivators into four categories. Physical motivators, which are related to physical relaxation, refreshment of body and mind, sports, pleasure, and special medical treatment. All these are connected with individuals bodily well beings and connected to activities which help to reduce tension. Cultural motivators, which are related to individuals desire to travel in order to know more about other countries, natives of the countries and cultural heritage of the countries which expressed in art, music, dance, folklore, etc. Interpersonal motivators, which are related to individuals desire to meet new people, visit friends and relatives, and to seek new and different experiences. Travel is simply to escape from the daily routine or get away from the usual life or environment. Status and prestige motivators, which are related to the needs of personal esteem and personal development in an individual. Such motivators are more likely to be concerned with the desire for recognition and attention from others, in order to boost personal ego. Under this kind of motivations, people usually travel for business, for the purpose of education and the pursuit of hobbies. Crandall (cited in Hall Page 1999) who did a study on the motivations of the leisure travellers, outlined 17 motivational factors which derived from a synthesis of previous studies in this field. Below are the 17 motivational factors listed by Crandall. 1 ENJOYING NATURE, ESAPING FROM CIVILISATION To get away from civilisation for a while To be close to nature 10 RECOGNITION, STATUS To show other I could do it So other would think highly of me for doing it 2 ESCAPE FROM ROUTINE AND RESPONSBILITY Change from my daily routine To get away from the responsibilities of my daily life 11 SOCIAL POWER To have control over others To be in a position of authority 3 PHYSICAL EXRCISE For the exercise To keep in shape 12 ALTURISM To help others 4 CREATIVITY To be creative 13 STIMULUS SEEKING For the excitement Because of the risks involved 5 RELAXATION To relax physically So the mind can slow down for a while 14 SELF-ACTUALISATION (FEEDBACK, SELF-IMPROVEMENT, ABILITY UTILISATION) Seeing the results of your efforts Using a variety of skills and talent 6 SOCIAL CONTACT So I could do things with my companions To get away from other people 15 ACHIEVEMENT, CHALLENGE, COMPETITION To develop my skill and ability Because of the competition To learn what I am capable of 7 MEETING NEW PEOPLE To talk to new and varied people To build friendships with new people 16 KILLING TIME, AVOID BOREDOM To keep busy To avoid boredom 8 HETEROSEXUAL CONTACT To be with people of the opposite sex To meet people of the opposite sex 17 INTELLECTUAL AESTHETICISM To use my mind To think bout my personal values 9 FAMILY CONTACT To be away from the family for a while To help bring the family together more Table 1: Crandalls list of motivations. Source: Crandall 1980 (cited in Hall Page 1999). Pearce (cited in Pan 2009, p. 218) who had based and expanded on the theory of Maslows hierarchy of human needs, first developed the travel career ladder approach to travel motivation in 1988 and later made conceptual adjustment to the travel career ladder in 2005. The fundamental nature of this model connects the level of travel experiences with the hierarchy of travel needs. According to Pearce (cited in Pan 2009, p. 218), travellers who had more experiences in travel usually seek experiences that meet their higher order of travel needs such as self-esteem and self-actualization. On the other hand, inexperienced travellers will tend to seek experiences that meet their basic travel needs such as security and psychological ones. Tourism industry is a services industry and the products which offer in tourism industry are intangible. It is widely known that to travel is to experience. Consequently, tourist experience is fundamentally a service experience. The five level of travel career ladder, starting from the bottom are (1) concern with biological needs (including relaxation), (2) safety and security needs or level of stimulation, (3) relationship development and extension needs, (4) special interest and self-development needs, and (5) fulfilment of deep involvement needs which formally defined as self-actualization (Pearce cited in Marafa, Ho Chau 2007, p.8). This travel career ladder is later presented graphically by Ryan (cited in Marafa, Ho Chau 2007, p.8), refer to figure 3. It is not necessary that everyone has to start from the bottom because people change from time to time and some may try to seek for activities which satisfy high level of needs in pursuit of leisure and recreation (Marafa, Ho Chau, 2007). Figure 3: Travel Career Ladder by Ryan (cited in Marafa, Ho Chau 2007, p. 9). Another theory which often use by researchers when describing travel motivations is the push and pull theory. This theory shows that people travel because they are pushed and pulled to travel by some factors. Dann (cited in Pan 2009, p. 219) whom had combined and analyzed the relevant travel motivation literature, concluded that travel occurs due to the internal factors of indentified and unfulfilled desires (motivational push) and reinforce by external factors which is destination pull. Push factors are either internally generated or externally induced (Dann, cited in Pan 2009, p. 218). The desire to conquer a mountain by reaching the summit of the mountain is one of the examples of push factors. While pull factors are related to the attributes of the destination that serve to satisfy the needs and wants of travellers. Several authors assume that internal and external factors are factors that motivate human behaviour. For example, Kotler (cited in Correia, Valle and Moco 2007, p. 46) states that motivations can be the result of internal and external stimuli. Internal factors are factors derive from personal needs and wants such as psychological, social egocentric, self-actualization and safety. While external factors are usually result from promotion and publicity. Travel motivation can be either personal (personal training, compensation rest and knowledge) or interpersonal (resulting from social relation) (Crompton, 1979; Dann, 1977; Yoon and Uysal, 2005, cited in Corriea et al. 2007, p.47). Iso-Ahola; Ryan Glendon (cited in Pan 2009, p. 219) argued that travel motivation is closely related to leisure motivation and the former should not be studied independent of the latter. Iso-Ahola (cited in Alexandris, Kouthouris, Funk Giobani 2009, p. 482) defined tourism motivation as a meaningful set of mind which adequately disposes an actor or a group of actor to travel. Approach (seeking) and avoidance (escaping) are the two components in leisure motivation, identified by Iso-Ahola. Therefore, people travel in order to seek friendship, novelty, challenge, achievement, experience, and etc. while at the same time escape from the daily routine or personal problems. While Ryan Glendon (cited in Pan 2009, p. 219) applied an abbreviated version (14 items) of the Leisure Motivation Scale of 1,127 United Kingdom holidaymakers and identified four motivation factors from the scale which were intellectual, social, competence mastery and stimulus avoidance. The first three factors could be categorized as seek components and the last factor as escape component. Crompton (cited in Kao, Patterson, Scott, and Chung 2008, p. 18) studied travel motivation by using push and pull model and developed seven socio-psychological or push motives (escape from a perceived mundane environment, self-exploratory, relaxation, prestige and regression, enhancement of kinship relations, facilitation of social interaction) and two cultural motives or pull motives (novelty and education). This study refers to motives which are more specific and direct that can affect tourists decision on the travel decision or the type of holidays (Crompton, cited in Corriea et al. 2007, p.47). The author identify that psychological or social motives (push motives) sustain the desire to travel. While on the other hand, travel decision if affected by pull motives and pull motives are also associated to the destinations characteristic (Lundberg, cited in Corriea et al. 2007, p.47). A study was done to explore the motivations and satisfactions of Taiwanese Tourists who visit Australia (Kao, Patterson, Scott, and Chung, 2008). Push and pull approach was used to find 17 push motivations and 18 pull motivations for travel in this study. The most important push factor found in this study is Travelling around the world, while the most important pull factor is sunshine and scenery and most of the Taiwanese tourists are satisfied after visiting Australia. Study done by Chang (2007) on travel motivation of package tour travellers suggested that socio-psychological needs were an important motivation for travel, and socio-economic considerations were regarded as a crucial motivation for travel decision making. Furthermore, social relationships friends or relatives recommendations had a strong impact in the decision makings of the Taiwanese travellers (Chang, 2007). This study was done to examine travel motivations and travel decision-making of Taiwanese tourists with a g roup package tour abroad. Therefore, it can be said that tourists travel to a destination is strongly influenced by their socio-psychological needs. Tourist builds his/her perceptions based on intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (Gartner, 1993; Dann, 1996; Baloglu, 1997; cited in Corriea et al. 2007, p.47). Everyone receives and processes information differently. Therefore, individuals perception is also formed differently base on how the information is received and transformed. According to Oxford online dictionary, perception means the ability to see hear, or become aware of something through senses or the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. Perceptions are also defined as the perceived value of product by many previous researchers (Correia and Crouch, 2004; Correia et al., 2007C; Holbrook, 1996; oh, 2000; Sheth et al., 1991; Zeithaml, 1998; cited in Correia and Pimpao 2008). This concept develops based on cognitive and behavioural perspectives which result from the learning and motivational processes rendered by the tourist. Therefore, perception is the point of views about what the tourist think ab out the destination. Perception of a destination is linked to the destination image. Based on the image of the destination, perception of the destination will be generated and each tourist will have their own perception about the destination. Destination image is described as overall perceptions of individuals regarding a place or total set of impressions about a destination (Bigne et al., 2001; Fakeye and Crompton, 1991; cited in Alvarez and Korzay 2008). Destination image is usually formed through media, either positive or negative images. This is based on how the country promotes the destination in its country and through world news, people can easily know the problems or issues in the country. Hence, the destination image will be easily affected and it changes over time because people build up the destination images and representations based on the information that they receive (Avraham, 2000; So ¨nmez and Sirakaya, 2002; cited in Alvarez and Korzay 2008). In 21st century, internet is the most powe rful media that affect customers perception and destination image. In the world of internet, people can easily source for information regarding the destination and leave comments on the blogs or travel discussion forums after visiting the destination. Therefore, people nowadays not only listen to their friends past travel experiences but also read the worldwide tourists experiences from travel blogs or travel discussion forums. It is important to know what Malaysian trekkers think about Everest Base Camp which can be risky. Corriea et al. (2007) did a research on why people travel to exotic places by combining motivations and perceptions. This is the first time and they are the first few researchers that combine motivations and perceptions in order to understand how people can be pushed to travel to exotic places and how they form their perceptions. In this research, Corriea et al. (2007) try to find the relationship between push and pull motivation, push motivation and perception, and pull motivation and perception, based on a group of Portuguese tourists who go to exotic places such as Brazil, Morocco, Egypt, Sao Tome, and Principe. This study proves that perception of tourist destinations are formed based on push and pull factors but the relationship between push factors and perceptions in not significant and this proves that tourist decides to go for travel because he/she need to solve a conflict arousal (rest, social, and intellectual rewards) (Corriea et al. 2007). After that, the tourist will dec ide where to go based on the destination attributes. Destination attributes (pull motives) are seen as the way to solve intrinsic motives (push motives) in this study, but these constructs are not directly related to the overall perceptionof the destination because they are apparently solved when the tourist turns the attention to specific attributes (Corriea et al. 2007). Gnoth (1997) reports that the perception of a destination may be analysed from a cognitive or behavioural perspective. There are several types of perceptions which are cognitive component (which results from the evaluation of the destination attributes) and personal component (which results from the evaluation of the destination attributes) that a person can have, argued by Gnoth (1997). Travel motivation is an extensive researched area in tourism (Pan, 2009). Consequently, there are many theories that describe about tourist motivation to travel suggest by several authors or researchers as different tourist have different mindset and behaviour. Furthermore, there are many forms of tourism and tourists can be clustered into various types of groups. Perceptions of travellers on a particular destination can be unlikely because everyone thinks differently. Due to different in culture and the way they receive and transform the information will affect the perception of the tourists. Conceptual Framework Figure 4: Conceptual Framework Hypothesis Trekking in Everest region is the dream of most of the Malaysians trekkers. Its part of self-fulfillment of the trekkers and they want to challenge themselves as Malaysia does not have mountains which are more than 5000m and Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Malaysians trekkers travel to Everest Base Camp but not to the summit of Mount Everest because budget and time limit them to trek to the summit of Mount Everest. Additional information Objective To know the factors that motivate them to take Everest base camp trek To understand travelers perception on Everest base camp, Nepal as a tourism destination

The Aims Of Writing A Literature Review Education Essay

The Aims Of Writing A Literature Review Education Essay What is review of the literature? A literature review is a write-up that aims to review the critical aspects of current knowledge on a particular topic. Its an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. Most often associated with science-oriented literature, such as a thesis, the literature review usually precedes a research proposal, methodology and results section. The purpose is to bring the reader up to date with current literature on a topic and form the basis for future research that may be needed in the area. A good literature review is characterized by: a logical flow of ideas; current and relevant references with consistent, appropriate referencing style; proper use of terminology; and an unbiased and comprehensive view of the previous research on the topic. It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries. Besides enlarging your knowledge about the topic, writing a literature review lets you gain and demonstrate skills in two areas Information seeking: the ability to scan the literature efficiently, using manual or computerized methods, to identify a set of useful articles and books Critical appraisal: the ability to apply principles of analysis to identify unbiased and valid studies. A literature review must do these things Be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing Synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known Identify areas of controversy in the literature Formulate questions that need further research A literature review is a piece of discursive prose, not a list describing or summarizing one piece of literature after another. Its usually a bad sign to see every paragraph beginning with the name of a researcher. Instead, organize the literature review into sections that present themes or identify trends, including relevant theory. You are not trying to list all the material published, but to synthesize and evaluate it according to the guiding concept of your thesis or research question If you are writing an annotated bibliography, you may need to summarize each item briefly, but should still follow through themes and concepts and do some critical assessment of material. Use an overall introduction and conclusion to state the scope of your coverage and to formulate the question, problem, or concept your chosen material illuminates. Usually you will have the option of grouping items into sections-this helps you indicate comparisons and relationships. You may be able to write a paragraph or so to introduce the focus of each section How to do a literature search? Defining the topic In order to begin your literature review you must first define your research question. What is the purpose? What does it mean? What are the key words? Are there other words which could be used, such as synonyms, variations in spelling? What do you already know about the topic? What is the scope? Compiling a list of keywords Analyzing the topic of an essay question or research topic usually involves making a list of keywords or phrases. You will need to include all the key concepts or ideas contained within the essay or research question. It might be useful to include alternative ways of phrasing and expressing concepts and ideas. Think about both general terms and very specific terms for broadening and narrowing your search. The keyword or phrase is the basic unit of any search. You may find it helpful to consult subject dictionaries and encyclopedias, or a textbook glossary for the common terminology of the subject area. The use of an index and/or thesaurus is also advisable to establish the useful terms. Identifying Resources Information is available in a number of formats. It is important for you to understand the significance of various formats so that you know what will best suit your information requirements. Books Reference Materials Journals Conference Papers Dissertations Internet Indexes/Abstracts Printed Electronic Databases Government publications Thesis Putting tables and figures If you found the table or figure in a source, or if you developed the information in the table or figure from a source other than your own primary research, you must cite the full source just below the table or figure, and again include the full source in your list of references at the end of the thesis. Table number and headline is always mentioned on top of the table. Figure number and headline is mentioned at bottom of the figure. The source reference below the figure/table should be in a smaller font, in a bracket, in italics. Like this: Table 4: Numbers Unemployed in Co. Roscommon, 2000 2004 Electoral District Male Age range Female Age range Total (Source: Jones, D. 2004. Impact of unemployment in rural areas of Connacht 2000 2004. Dublin: Folens, p. 56.) Figure 4: Air Supply in Burma (June 1944 to April 1945) (Source: Jones, D. 2004. Environmental Concerns. Dublin: Folens, p. 56.) 2. Bibliography Formats Each citation in a bibliography has to describe a resource in enough detail that someone can go to a library (or out on the net, or to a bookstore), and see it for themselves. Imagine going to a bookshop and saying, Hi. I need that book on World War II. You know, the one that mentions Hitler? Thats why the specifics-formats, titles, authors, dates, etc.- are important. Writing the assessment: What do I need to reference? When you are writing your assessment, be sure to type in reference information as you add in the ideas of other authors. This will save you time and will ensure that you reference all sources properly. Whenever you use someone elses ideas or words, you must put in a reference. The only exception to this rule is when the information you have read somewhere is common knowledge or public domain information. For example, you would not need to include a reference if you stated in an assignment that Shakespeare wrote plays and sonnets in Elizabethan times. You must always reference the following (i) Direct quotations this is when you copy another authors material word-for-word. You should show the reader that it is a direct quote by placing the material in inverted commas. Traditionally, double inverted commas have been used () but it is now acceptable, and preferable to use single inverted commas (). Sometimes it is difficult to avoid the direct quotation as the authors words may precisely describe the point you are trying to make. However, do try to avoid the overuse of direct quotations; try to paraphrase the authors work where possible. Please note that when you use direct quotations, you must reproduce the authors words exactly, including all spelling, capitalisation, punctuation, and errors. You may show the reader that you recognise an error and that you are correctly quoting the author by placing the term sic in brackets after the error. (ii) Paraphrasing this is when you take another authors ideas and put them into your own words. You are still copying someone elses work, so you must reference it. You do not need to use inverted commas when you paraphrase, but you must clearly show the reader the original source of your information. 1. INTERNET RESOURCES In the easy-come, easy -go world of the free internet, dates and addresses are particularly important. Two dates are required: the date that the material was published or updated, and the date on which you actually used it. The address, or URL, of the site must be complete. This means including the access-mode identifier (e.g., http, ftp, gopher, telnet, news) as well as the path and file names. The address should also be enclosed in angle brackets . For an entire web site the bibliographic form is : Author or Creator of site. Title of Site. Date of site. . Date you used the site. The entry will look like this: Hsu, David. Chemicol Periodic Table. 2005. . September 6, 2007. For an article within a web site the bibliographic form is : Author of article. Title of Article. Title of Site. Date of site. . Date you used the site. The entry will look like this: U.S. Department of State. Sudan. Background Notes. March, 2007. . September 10, 2007. For online newspaper magazine articles , the bibliographic form is Author of Article. Title of Article. Title of Magazine or Newspaper. Complete date. . Date you used the site. The entry will look like this: Jamieson, Alastair. Chinas Toy Story Turns Nasty After New Recall. The Scotsman. September 6, 2007. . September 12, 2007. 2. â‚ ¬Ã‚  REGULAR BOOKS A regular book usually has just one author, and comes in just one volume. The bibliographic form is Author. Title. Place: Publisher, Date. The entry will look like this: Hammond, Jeff. Real Men Work in the Pits: A Life in NASCAR Racing. PA: Rodale, 2005. When there are two authors, the bibliographic form is First Author (last name first), and Second Author (first name first). Title. Place: Publisher, Date. The entry will look like this: Angeletti, Norberto, and Alberto Oliva. In Vogue: The Illustrated History of the Worlds Most Famous Fashion Magazine. NY: Rizzoli, 2006. When there are three or more authors, the bibliographic form is First Author (last name first), et al. Title. Place: Publisher, Date. The entry will look like this: Bos, Samone, et al. Go!: The Whole World of Transportation. NY: Dorling Kindersley, 2006. Books with an anonymous or unknown author The University Encyclopedia (1985) London: Roydon 3. COLLECTIONSâ‚ ¬Ã‚   EDITED BOOKS A collection is a book (or set of books) that contains works by many different authors-like an edited book or proceeding, an encyclopedia, an Opposing Viewpoints book, or an anthology of short stories or poems. You usually use just one or two parts of it in your paper and the bibliographic form is Author of the Part. Title of the Part. Editor (or Compiler) of the Collection. Title of the Collection. Vol. # (if present). Place: Publisher, Date. The entry will look like this: Cohen, Steve. Snowboarding. World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. 17. IL: World Book, Inc., 2003. Tatum, Becky L. Studies Have Not Established a Link Between Rap Music and Youth Violence. Gerdes, Louise I., ed. Media Violence, Opposing Viewpoints. CA: Greenhaven Press, 2004. If you use several different works from the same anthology, you neednt cite each separately. The bibliographic form for citing an entire collection or anthology is: Editor (or Compiler) of the Anthology. Title of the Anthology. Vol. # (if present). Place: Publisher, Date. The entry will look like this: Nelson, Marilyn. A Wreath for Emmett Till. MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. 4. â‚ ¬Ã‚  NEWSPAPERSâ‚ ¬Ã‚   MAGAZINES When citing an article from a print copy of a newspaper or magazine, the most important thing to put down is the complete date. The bibliographic form is Author of Article. Title of Article.Title of Magazine or Newspaper. Complete date, Edition (if present): page number(s). The entry will look like this: Randall, Lisa. An American Physicist in Italy. Discover. July, 2007: 56. LeBlanc, Emma. Refugees Tell NH Woman Their Stories. New Hampshire Union Leader. September 10, 2007, State Edition: A1. 5. JOURNALS The conventions for listing journal articles are similar to books, but note the extra information required in the example below and apply this to all journal article listings. Muller, V. (1994) Trapped in the body: Transsexualism, the law, sexual identity, The Australian Feminist Law Journal, vol. 3, August, pp. 103-107. Journal article with both volume and issue number Muller, V. (1994) Trapped in the body: Transsexualism, the law, sexual identity, The Australian Feminist Law Journal, vol. 3, no. 2, August, pp. 103-107. 5. NON-PRINTMEDIA If the item is not print-based (like a film on DVD or VHS, an MP3 file or audio CD, or a set of slides), the bibliographic form is Producer or Director. Title. [Format] Place: Distributor, Date. The entry will look like this: Hampton, Henry. Eyes on the Prize II. [VHS] VA: PBS Video, 1993. Lansing, Alfred. Endurance: Shackletons Incredible Voyage. [MP3] OR: Blackstone Audio Books, 1991. May, Robert, and Steve James. The War Tapes. [DVD] NY: Docurama, 2007. Paschen, Elise, and Rebekah Presson Mosby. Poetry Speaks: Hear Great Poets Read Their Work from Tennyson to Plath. [CD] IL: Sourcebooks MediaFusion, 2001. 3. How to avoid plagiarism Scientific Misconduct and Plagiarism: Many people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character Albert Einstein In centuries of reading, writing, experimenting and hypothesizing, a persons work will inevitably incorporate and overlap with that of others. However, occasional overlap is one thing; systematic, unacknowledged use of the techniques, data, words or ideas of others is another. Your work has to be carried out honestly and objectively without bias and the results should be reported truthfully. Deviations may occur from the ideal due to ignorance or, at times, they may be willful deceptions. These deviations from the ideal, willful or otherwise, constitute what is known as scientific misconduct. While various types of scientific misconduct have been identified, those that comes to notice usually include fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, cyber-plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and duplicate publication. It is desired that all students should be made aware of these. This note defines plagiarism and sets guidelines. What is Plagiarism? Failure to acknowledge other colleagues scientific work-their ideas, language, or data. Verbatim copying of passages without citing the original contributor, rewording of ideas, paraphrasing, and even total reproduction by simply changing the authors names and trying to pass the material as ones own. Unauthorized use of ideas or unique methods obtained by a privileged communication, such as a grant or manuscript review. Passing off retrospective studies as prospective ones or deliberately omit references to earlier works. How Plagiarism can be detected? One of the important responsibilities of a reviewer is detection of plagiarized text due to his/her familiarity with published material in his/her area of interest. Technology has made it possible to carry out checks for sentences that are copied from previously published articles. There are dedicated web sites available that provide information on plagiarism ( www.plagiarism.org ) and software to detect plagiarism has made it easier for reviewers and editorial staff of journals to detect copying (www.ithenticate.com, www.writecheck.com and www.turnitin.com ). We have recommended to you the VIPER software. Dos and Donts of Plagiarism Some simple tips to be followed to avoid plagiarism are: Take short notes from the source and then write back in your own words without looking back at the original source. Attribute references to any information or idea you are using from other sources, even if you are not directly using it. describe all sources of information Give acknowledgments to the original source by quoting author details at the end of the statement. Give details of the original source by providing footnotes . Use quotation marks wherever required If you are paraphrasing, credit the original source For extensive quotations, obtain permission from the publisher of the original work Obtain permission for use of published drawings or other illustrations Dos and Donts of Research: DO: Make sure you know what question youre trying to answer. Look at all kinds of sources before you narrow in on the ones that will be most useful. Read and digest. Give yourself time to do this. Think critically about what youve just read and how it directly relates to the question. Evaluate what youve got, the holes in your research, and where you need to go from here. Keep a running annotated bibliography going, sorting facts by source or marking your notes with a coding system so as to remember where individual facts came from. Divide your thesis into sections before you begin researching. Make sure you devote energy and time to finding information about all the topics you want to tackle. Remember that the beginning of a thesis presents existing knowledge on a topic, whereas towards the end of a paper, you present your own thoughts. Use a variety of sources. Journals, books, e-books, newspaper and magazine articles, legitimate web sites, and course books can all be good sources, but which ones you use will depend on your topic. Talk to your professor about his or her expectations and ideas for sources. Talk to other students about their strategies for mapping out the research ahead. DONTS: Stuff so much information into your head at once that you cant remember what you learned and where you learned it from. You will lose sight of the point of the research project. Cite Wikipedia. Wikipedia is good for getting general information, but find an absolutely reliable source for your citations. Plagiarize. Learn what constitutes plagiarism and how to use sources responsibly. Dos and Donts of Internet Research The internet provides a rich resource of information and data however; there is great risk in using this all-too accessible resource. Self-regulating resources like Wikipedia and Google- or yahoo-search readily provide us with answers to just about any question we may pose. But which is it the right answer? And, is it the right answer? The very accessibility of online information makes it risky and often questionable. You need to be more vigilant of the veracity and reliability of your sources when acquiring information from the internet. To ensure that your information you have got is sound, one can do several things: Use more than one source, particularly for important things; this will give you a wider range of material from which to discern accuracy and reliability. Verify your sources and preferably cross-reference to measure out objective truth vs. bias. Try to use primary sources (original) vs. secondary or tertiary sources (original cited and open to interpretation); the closer you are to the original source, the closer you are to getting the original study.

Lifes a Beach, and then... Essay -- Descriptive Essay, Narrative

I turned off the car and took a deep breath. Looking slowly up into the pink sky, I began to watch the golden sun go to sleep. The beach seemed deserted, quiet, but peaceful. I opened my door and put my feet out on the soft sand. I started taking my shoes off, then my socks. I threw them in the passenger seat, and then shut the door. I looked out over horizon of the lake and started walking towards the still water. With each step I took, I could feel the warm sand crunch between my toes. Then suddenly, a sharp rock, but not sharp enough to break the skin. Closer and closer to the calm water, I began sinking deeper in the sand. It was comforting, the silence, tranquility, and warmth of the faint sun. There is a slight breeze, warm, but cold and lonely. I could smell the scent of fish blowing through my hair and body. The sun was still fading, slowly but surely the day was almost over. About half of it is gone now. I could see shades of blue, red, purple, and pinkish-yellow. They were mixed with puffy clouds that lined the beginning of the sky and the end of the water. I noticed the darker shades on the bottom of the lower clouds. I stopped walking and looked up at the faint stars. The seagulls were flying overhead. They were screeching and swooping at the water. I started to wish I were one of them, flying free without any restrictions or limits. I listened to their voice, the screech. Deep down in I could understand what they were saying. I can't explain it, but I was so in love with the moment I thought I saw things as they did. I was in company of animals that had no concept of time, and no worries, and I was contempt with that. I closed my eyes and the faint sun warmed my face, as if shining only for me. The warmth made ... ...mb. I had no feeling because I was lost in a rare beauty that a lot of people take for granted. The millions of scattered stars that covered that silent night sky made a lonely beach seem a little more at home. I went to this beach in hope of finding someone, perhaps a soul mate. But instead, I found that everything comes and goes. The sun left me with a memory of its beauty with a sunset. The sunset left me with a reminder that the sun is not for ever. The lone bird that stayed with me and watched the sunset showed me that you don't have to know someone to share a beautiful moment with them. Beautiful moments are beautiful moments, but they have a little more definition behind them if you share them with someone or something. The night sky and stars, gave me a sense of peace, knowing that we are never alone. The stars are always there, even if we can't see them.

Emersons Aphorisms :: essays research papers

Have you ever had a pair of shoes cherished so much that you were afraid to run the risk of wearing them, for fear of them getting scuffed, but by the time you wear them their too small? The aphorism by Ralph Waldo Emerson, â€Å"We are always getting ready to live, but never living.† is still valid today. It is often that we prepare to live rather than living instead.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Often people are unwilling to take opportunity, Emerson tries to show this in his aphorism. Due to the risks involved, people sometimes miss their chance at opportunities. Just like the kid unwilling to wear his shoes for fear of scuffing them, we are often caught in the same struggle between risk and desire. The kid desires to wear, and to be seen in his new shoes. But the risk of scuffing his new shoes outweighs wearing them, in his mind. People often do not realize what they’ve missed because of risk involved, until its too late. Finally the little kid decides he’s willing to accept the risk of scuffing his shoes, but by the time he tries to slip his feet into the little shows he realizes he’s outgrown them and they’ll no longer fit. Disgruntled and distraught, the kid wants to wear the shoes more than anything now that he can’t wear them. Emerson hints that we should take opportunities as they come; and never hide in the face of risk.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Emerson’s aphorism could also be interpreted as a plea to enjoy what you have now, rather than always strive for more. It is not uncommon to see a prominent member Tillman 2 of society spend the majority of their time working, rather than enjoying the wealth they have already acquired. Emerson is trying to say that we should stop and appreciate what we have, rather than spend our time trying to obtain more. After all, how can one fully enjoy what they have, when they are too busy trying to acquire more. Emerson hints that we should not spend our lives preparing for life rather than living life. Throughout our lives it’s common to see people with high goals, but never tackle them head on.

Essay --

The film Kinsley was an interesting film to say the least. I must admit that I was a little uncomfortable at times while watching this movie. The study that was conducted by Alfred Kinsey was something that I believe the people of society are interested in but are conditioned to pretend like we are not. His finding in Sexual Behavior in the Human Male put many people at ease because I think inside everyone is very curious about what everyone else is doing. This is because we all have the desire to be normal and fit in with society. But as Kinsey found the sexual behaviors of males could not be further from what society thinks is normal. But what is normal really? I myself had this certain view about sexual behavior and there were certain things that I believed to be normal. But because of this movie my eyes are now open to the truth about sex. I think that for society sex is a very touchy subject and because of this people are oblivious to everything about sex. Different cultures have different views on sex and how it is suppose to be done. From the time we are young the culture tha...

Radisson Blu Methodology

The capacity of the hotel is 188 different types of rooms (economy, business class). Also, the toll offers the opportunity for business meetings or special events in the 9 meeting rooms including help of coordinator and personalized menus. These 9 meeting rooms are capable to accommodate up to 220 people. The Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel cooperates with three other service enterprises: restaurant Ever Gusto that serves Italian cuisine, Sunshine Piano Bar which offers various selections of cocktails and Casino Labor.The Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel enterprise offers facilities such as 1 2-hour room service, free high-speed wireless internet, sauna and car parking. Nightly rates in Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel are from 876 DECK (1 17 EURO). 2 The purpose of this project is to analyze what problems Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel is encountering and be able to conclude with reliable solutions. In this project we are going to focus on two main topics: service delivery system and cus tomer's satisfaction as they are inherent from each other. We will use both primary and secondary data.The primary data consists of information from questioners that We asked visitors of Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel to answer. The secondary data will be based on reliable books, customer's reviews and official weapon of the hotel. Also we will use two theoretical frameworks in order to make our project valid and make an objective conclusion. The first one will be SMS model (service management system model), which consists of five elements: market segment, service concept, service delivery system, image and culture and philosophy.Precise description of five elements of SMS model will help us to characterize the service enterprise of Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel. The second model is The Gap Model. Main purpose of using this model is that it is orientated directly on customer Hotels in Denmark 2014, available from: http://www. Radiation's. Com/hotels/ mark, accessed on 16 of Decembe r RADIATIONS BLUE ELMSFORD, LABOR 2014, available from: http www. Radiation's. Com/hotel-labor accessed on 1 7 of December 3 satisfaction. We will take a closer look on all the possible areas where problem could be at by analyzing each area with five gaps.Finally, we conducted anonymous survey among hotel clients as we tried being close in contact With the one decision maker – the guests – providers of reliable information. In our project we decided to balance the value of primary and secondary outcome data to prove we took in consideration every possible aspect of customer satisfaction. Therefore we decided to take in consideration customer ‘ s reviews on page www†. Trapdoors. Com considering this page as a reliable source. Applying critical thinking by evaluating customer satisfaction was essential for us.The reason why our project is going to be based mostly on secondary data is the flexibility of it. All data that is going to be used in our project will be specified at the end of it. We chose to write our project about Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel in Labor because we found this topic interesting. We want to find out how it is possible that four-star grand chain hotel can have so many complaints. And also, we think that this issue is relevantly serious because it is important that customers expectations would be similar to what hotel can actually provide. 2.Delimitation As a part of our delimitation we delimiter ourselves from doing qualitative research with the management of the hotel as We did not get the opportunity to talk to the manager of the Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel, as the topic of our project is mostly about customers complains, we understand that the manager was not interested and did not give us an opportunity to interview him. We delimiter ourselves from budgeting how much the renovation and Seibel changes would cost Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel. It is not possible for us to calculate possible budget in this s tage as we are not in direct contact with the management of the hotel.Other fact is the prices for materials and labors are also unknown for us. 3. Problem area We were interested to find out what is the reputation and how does Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel deal with the customers. According to the reviews that we managed to find on the weapon www. Trapdoors. Com the hotel had 1 80 reviews and in only 50 visitors rated the hotel as â€Å"Excellent† (1 1 travelers) Very good† (40 travelers). This gives us information that only 4 28. 33% of actual customers that rated the hotel were satisfied with the provided service. The most of visitors rated hotel as â€Å"Average† (76 travelers) which is 42. 2% and the part that made us focus on service delivery system and customer satisfaction in this hotel was the number of people that rated hotel as â€Å"Poor' (39 travelers) or â€Å"Terrible† (14 travelers) which also gives approximately 29,44% of unsatisfied cus tomers. Despite the fact that it is a famous chain hotel, which is represented as a luxurious hotel, it has a lot Of complaints. The most common complaint is that the Radiations Blue Limned Hotel is old and due to that customers are experiencing sleeping pattern disorders because of noises. The hotel from outside looks renewed, but inside it needs capital renovation.For example, as Hotel is next to the famous street Comfort Anne Gad with all bars and clubs of Labor city, guests can hear everything through old, non-sound proof windows. Another complaint would be related to service delivery system. Customers are complaining about the staff and its attitude to hotel's guests. They are complaining that employees are rude, impolite and that they do not perform heir job. And other very common complaint was the price. Most of the customers that rated Radiations on BMW. Trapdoors. Com said that the price does not match with the service that hotel actually provides. Our goal is to find the s olution how Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel could improve their service delivery system and manage to match the expectations of their customers to what they actually receive after visiting the hotel. 4. Research questions In Order to keep our project well coherent, we will develop three research questions, on which will be based our whole report and which we will answer later. 1. What are guest complaining in Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel in Labor? 2. Why are customers of the Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel in Labor complaining? 3.How should the service delivery system be improved in Radiations Blue Limited Hotel in Labor in order to reduce guest complaints? Radiations Blue Limited Hotel, Labor 2014, available from: http:// www. Trapdoors. Co. UK/Hotel_Review-g189529d206747-Reviews- accessed on 18 of December 5 5. Methodology As already mentioned before, in this project the main focus will be on service delivery system and customers satisfaction. Our main goal is to represent the Rad iations Blue Elmsford Hotel in Labor by using primary and secondary data and two theoretical frameworks.Furthermore, based on our gathered information we are going to analyze what exactly customers are complaining about. And finally we will try to make a solution of which the hotel could benefit. We will concentrate on service delivery system and how it should be improved. Theoretical Frameworks In this project we are going to use two theoretical frameworks. The first one is Service Management Model (SMS model), which will help us to represent precisely the Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel in Labor and also present what toll has to offer to their potential customers.The second one is GAP model – Diagnosing Failure Gaps in Service Quality. By using Knowledge Gap, Standards Gap, Delivery Gap, Communications Gap we will be able to diagnose where is the main problem and it will help us to conclude with reasonable solution. 4 5. 1 SMS Model The SMS model (service management system m odel) has the character of a system consisting of components and emphasizing the relations among them. 5 Thus now we are going to use SMS model, which consists from five elements: service concept, service delivery system, market segment, image ND culture and philosophy.Precise description of five elements of SMS model will help us to characterize the service enterprise of Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel. The market segment Radiations Blue Limited hotel does not have a precise market segment. However, according to www. Trapdoors. Com, 96 customers was visiting hotel for business purpose, which is 53% of all 180 reviews. Besides, in the official website of the hotel it is emphasized that there are available rooms for business conferences. So, we can make a conclusion, that the common guests in hotel are business travelers.Nevertheless, families, couples and people who travels alone, also chose Radiations Blue Limned hotel. 4 4th edition Services Marketing -? page 327-328 , Diagnosing F ailure Gaps in Service Quality 2nd edition Service management: Strategy and leadership in service business – page 58-60, SERVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 6 The location of the hotel is very convenient as it is located in the city center, where customers can use public transport. Besides, Labor train station is 750 meters away and Labor airport is 6 kilometers away, which says that market segment focuses not only on local visitors, but on foreign as well.Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel is a part of Radiations Hotel Group, which makes the enterprise of hotel to be the part of international group. 6 Speaking about customers visiting enterprise, they are expecting what hotel says it can provide. However, Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel does not meet customer's expectations and that is way hotel has complaints. The service concept The service concept often consists of a complex set of values, where some products are more important and may be called core services, while others are periphera l.Also there are both tangible and intangible services, which is he reason why often it is difficult to specify them in concrete form. The service enterprise Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel sells the rent of the rooms, food and drinks at the restaurant ‘Ever Gusto†, play of the games (e. G. Blackjack, poker) at the â€Å"Casino Labor† and other hotel facilities, such as wireless internet, room service or sauna. All of these services are intangible, except food and drinks at the restaurant. The core product in Radiations Blue Limned hotel is the rent of the rooms. This is the most common service that customers of the hotel buy.Meanwhile customer's interaction with other customers can be seen waiting in the line in reception, playing games in casino and eating at the restaurant. In conclusion, customer's copulation operates through complaints, reviews, recommendations and interaction with other customers. The service delivery System Service delivery system depends fr om three subcomponents: personnel, client and technology and physical support. Service organizations are personality-intensive, which means they are focusing on developing human resources.Client plays and complex role in the service 7 5th edition Marketing for hospitality and tourism – page 231, What Is A Product? 8 organization, since he not only receives and consumes the service but also serves as a component in Its production and delivery. Thus, in a service business, clients must be selected and managed as carefully as employees. Finally, services almost always involve social interactions and physical tools are critical to the functioning of such interactive systems. It is difficult to describe this part due to it is the biggest problem in Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel.In this part we will describe how hotel is represented in the official website of the hotel. Physical evidence and technology plays a big role as it is grand chain hotel. Exterior of the hotel is good-look ing, but interior needs renovation. However, hotel from the inside on the official website looks attractive as well. Customers claims (www. Trapdoors. Com), that in certain rooms smell is not pleasant and because of the street Comfort Anne Gad it is noisy during the nights. On the website it is emphasized, that rooms are modern. Also it states that room services are available 12 hours per day.Service delivery system does not meet needs and expectations expressed by the customers. Customers interact with service delivery system while ordering the room, buying food and drinks, during check in and check out and during room services. However, guests are complaining about employees. It means that personnel have a lack of knowledge how to deliver sciences, when there should work well-trained employees. The image The image mainly depends on what company actually provides and who the customers actually are. Although, deviating from current reality, image can be used as toll for the creation of a new reality.Radiations Hotel Group has a good reputation worldwide, however it's part Radiations Blue Limited does not have a positive opinion from the customers ho has visited this hotel. Considering all information on official website, we think that this hotel is presented as luxurious grand chain hotel and this image is attempted to be establish in the market. Logo of this hotel says â€Å"Radiations Blue, Hotels & resorts†. â€Å"Radiations† is the name of the founder of this group. â€Å"Hotels & resorts† is the name of one of the brands that Radiations group owns. And â€Å"Elmsford† is the name of the fjord that is next to the hotel. The weapon Of Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel is well-design, it is easy to use. There is provided all information about hotel (e. G. Rooms, services, history ND price), where guests can search for 8 Radiations History 2014, available from: http://www. W. Radiations. Com/section/ about. Story/about. Sidemen, acces sed on 1 2 of December 9 other Radiations Blue hotels as well. The service enterprise wants their customers to recognize them. And it is already achieved – Radiations Blue operates more than 230 hotels in the whole world and it is worldwide known group.The culture and philosophy The efficiency of the service organization depends on its culture and philosophy, which shape and rejuvenate the very values and ethos on which the company thrives. The main value for Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel is customer satisfaction. As already mentioned in our project, Radiations Blue Limned Hotel is a part of Resized Hotel group, which is working with â€Å"Yes Can! † special customer satisfaction pogrom since 1995. It is a core service philosophy, reflecting and powering commitment to always offer alternatives taking in to consideration guests, supplies, personnel and community.This programmer is applied to all Resized groups and it is a tradition of innovative and contemporary servic e concepts, based on customer needs. 9 5. 2 GAP model In order to explain the GAP model itself, it is easier to start with defining and explaining the basic knowledge needed to successfully understand the model. The main purpose of GAP model is to define the service quality that is provided by certain company or organization towards their customers or clients. Logically we should start with explain what the quality and service quality is.There are many definitions of what service quality is, so in this case we decided to not stick with only one but many other theories of different researchers and scientists as we think it suits for our project the most. Many scientists and researchers are trying to develop certain definition of service quality and service perspective. Gar ¶morons presented his research about service quality which focuses on a model that is a comparison between customer expectations of the service and their experience of the service they have received before. This model is named â€Å"total perceived service quality'.He puts the main focus on what customer is really looking for and what they evaluate, the service quality is 9 OUR CULTURE 201 3, available from: http://move. Resized. Com/ accessed on 1 7 of December 10 based on two dimensions. The first dimension is the technical quality and this dimension refers to the outcome, what is delivered or what the customer test from the service. The next dimension is the functional quality which refers to the manner in which the service is delivered or how it is delivered. Both dimensions affect the corporate image and the perception of quality in various ways.

Owens & Minor case for aligning supply chain incentives Essay

Executive Summary description of rewards Due to the qualifyings of business environment, O&M suffered a unbroken loss on business. Instead of acting individu exclusively(a)y, guests organise barter for groups and combined acquire power to acquire advantages in negotiating gross margin with electrical electrical allocator. With the maturation popularity of JIT and job slight(prenominal) idea, clients getiness to shift be and lay on the line associated with memorandum to distributor, and they everywherely want distributor to suffer f faultlessly apart inspection and repairs at its own expense. to a greater extent(prenominal)(prenominal)over, competitions from surreptitious pronounce distributors and manu concomitanturing distributors but squeezed pro sound margin of our ships social club.Owens and excellent(a) fulfil a very important habit in the entire SC. They ar in charge of providing entropy to manufacturers on harvest-tide flow. Their att end tos to the hospitals include storing the caudex in their w atomic come 18house and reservation constant send outments establish on stock slight and JIT dodge, thus taking provided the financial stake in stock list handling and storage. They dont conduce quantify to the harvest-home itself, but they do add a lot of apprize to the SC.The nature of statistical distribution has changed over m. The negociate power of hospital has incr lull receiv desirable to mergers and on the wholeiances, pressuring the distributors to go down their margins. Upstream members of the SC name as well as put round pull on O&M to eng peculiarityer supernumerary greet in their operations.If the ABP strategy could be successfully mechanismed, few(prenominal) distributors and customers incentives could be solelyied. clients would be uncoerced to align dear(predicate) cross shipway via distributors channel quite of acquire directly from manufacture.Generally, customers w ho could scale down or change the activities happened done the publish range of mountains would buy out ABP faster. Also, customers who chthonicstood and were allowing to break a sustainable relationship with distributors would adopt the ABP scratch line.ABP was a upstart model and its economic value had non been proven. Aggressiveslaying of untested idea such(prenominal) as ABP power involve customers away and fed competitors. there be internal obstacles exist in the ABP execution of instrument. Hospitals clear to re organise its organizational structures to follow in ABP agreement. Rearranging employees and reallocating facilities would increase the distrust to ABP system. Also, a positive aggregate of investment is need for establishing the EDI system. How to overcome these obstacles and ferment ABP carrying into action hushed is a big take exception.In revise to illustrate the idea of ABP to a greater extent clearly, we earn come up a transp at omic follow 18nt de considerationine intercellular substance ground on ABC manner. We eat up identified twain personify drivers and separated meliorate and multivariate star approach from general follow information. However, for relief we go non deemed the damage end of EDI and non-EDI rewriteing in this naive hyaloplasm.Owens and pocket-size should c atomic number 18fully deal with its customers resistance to the new-fashioned set system by making them truly understand the new system and hug drug a realise profit they would pop later on the carrying out. Owens and Minor too indispensable to launch a master program before full implementation and provide help and support to its customers to gibe the success of the implementation.Statement of issuesHistorically O&M was doing very well in the industry, thus far, for recent years connection suffered continuous loss on business. At the end of 1995 O&M had ended with an $11 million loss due(p) to str ike in gross margin and an increase in expense. thither be somewhat reasons that caused this result, and we are going to identify the intimately important ones.Healthcare industry has changed a lot since 1980. Historically, hospitals purchased health care products individually. However, in coordinate to achieve economies of scale and gain more(prenominal) control over supply cost, hospitals conjugated forces with separate hospitals to form large buying groups. With such combined buying powers, hospitals are much more powerful in negotiating gross marginsand help take aims with distributors. Distributors are oblige to cut gross margins and increase helping level. A quote from O&M manager domiciliate illustrate this mail very well whoever had the strongest allow for would pull ahead the price. Apparently, in catamenia supply chain, the relationship between distributors and customers is non harmonious.Moreover, with the increased popularity of Just-In-Time and stoc kless care ideas, hospitals are reluctant to prepare large line of descent because they wouldnt wellbeing from JIT whose primary principle is to lower inventory carrying cost by put ining when need. Instead, they want distributors provide Just-In-Time delivery help. Also customers film special handlings such as littler package and different products batching and these services are at distributors own cost.Distributors also pick up margin pres certain from the manufacturing case because manufactures do no compromise on the already low healthcare product price. Competitions in the industry also results profit decomposition of O&M, especially with distributors who also put forward healthcare products entered the market. Those distributors are able to spree extremely low price to customers because they are the manufactures as well. Even though O&M commits to provide discontinue service, it preoccupied many customers because of this.Analysis of Data operate rendered by O &M and changes in Distribution.Owens & Minor play a horrible enjoyment in this industrys Supply-Chain. They are in charge of providing information to manufacturers on product flow such as market trends, buying patterns and product penetration, so that their suppliers use this valuable information in order to manage their operations and labor schedules. By doing so, manufacturers are able to produce the right quantity of supplies, which in turn reduces stockouts and/or excess stock cost, in other words O&M provide the necessary tools for the upriver members to have adequate inventory production planning.As for their customers, their role is to purchase the products from the manufacturers and ship those medical supplies to their warehouse where they leave alone lay in them until delivery to the hospitals. So O&M owns and manage the inventory themselves, taking all the financial risk associated with product handling, freightage and storage. O&Ms important operational functions included receiving, put-away, order choose and shipping.O&M dont add value to the product itself since they clean act as an mediator to pass the products from the manufacturer directly to the hospitals, however they do add value to the Supply-Chain. They ameliorate the SC with the necessary information needed to avoid phenomena such as the Bullwhip incumbrance and they bring expertise in stockless and JIT inventory management systems, consequently lowering be on the chain.However, it is certain that the nature of distribution, that is, the role of O&M has changed through era and not for the greater honest. This change has occurred chiefly with its downstream partners the hospitals. They have shifted they costs to their distributors and demanded better and faster service without any additional rewards, this is why O&M relies intemperately on its logistics department to make form more efficient. This was do executable for hospitals due to their increase in power by mergi ng or joining forces with other hospitals.Voluntary Hospitals of America member hospitals delineate $1.2 billion in annual receipts to the company, meaning that O&Ms switching cost is too spicy. They are able to minimize their own costs by forcing distributors to hold their inventory and maneuver in smaller units, sending it to the treat and running(a) units instead of leaving it at the loading dock as before. gross profit pressures have also been present upstream with manufacturers, which were reducing discounts even as small as 0.5%, thus lowering importantly up to 31% distributors net profits before tax.A main issue assimilaten from this case is that incentives along the Supply-Chain are not aligned. The risks and rewards of doing business are not fairly distributed across the network. Even if the manufacturers and hospitals are better off with the indeterminate strategy, the alone SC allay does not have a win-win situation and they top executive drop against other Su pply Chains. The truth underside this issue lies in that there is no trust in the SC, this assumption is made make watern that nobody wants to share decisive information, which enhancesImpact of Cost-Plus Pricing on the members of the Supply-Chain.On the side of the distributors O&M, harming in a undetermined price strategy means charging a 7% markup, meaning that profits lie on valuable products, which they dont have the change to deliver cause Hospitals rotate them and deal directly with manufacturers in order to avoid the 7% increase in prices. The most important aspect to consider about this strategy is that it does not take into account the services added. In addition, this method caused the effect of Distributor giving more and better service holding more inventories, which increases carrying costs and risk of damage during storage. Distributors administer supply-chain speed without any additional profits.On the customers side, cost-plus determine implies less risk on i nventory carrying cost, creating more incentive for hospitals to order much due to flat rate. Nevertheless, there is just about unethical activities in which they brook participate. They lav avoid paying high costs on expensive products to their distributors by leap them through the SC and dealing with manufacturers instead, an use called cherry-picking.Finally, the manufacturer engaging in cost-plus strategy needed to handle some shipment to deliver, mainly expensive products, to hospitals. This resulted in inefficiency for both parties due to the fact that manufacturers need hospitals to buy in bulk and they did not have the space or management systems as distributors did to handle the product. Mishandling, damaging and loosing expensive spots often occurred in the cherry-picking process.Alternative Courses of legal action for O&M.Based on our tail fin quantitative and qualitative decision criteria cost, time, ease of implementation, customer contentment and future benef it for thecompany, we are able to compare the advantages and disadvantages of to each one option and help us make the best decision.1)Status Quo The easiest option for O&M is to limit operating as they are, which is not the best alternative for them for financial reasons. They soon have customers who are not fat for the company, customers who keep asking for high service at the same price that would keep profit margins low as personnel office costs increase. For the year of 1995 they get holdred a net loss of $11.3 million, which compared to last years profit of $7.92 million represents a prominent and also unstable change. Based on this data, the assumption is that the upstream and downstream partners get out not change their business habits and incentives leave alone keep unaligned and that the company will not be able to reduce costs to an extent where they can offset service costs and generate profits.O&M will keep generating loses for the company and will ultimately yield to bankruptcy. The time to implement is inexistent, since no actions are made. The cost of implementation is also inexistent nevertheless the companys cost on the long eat will be very high because cost-plus strategy is not advantageous for them. There is no ease of implementation. The customers benefit is high, since they dont have to pay additional service and inventory carrying cost. The future benefit for the company is very low, mogul loose repress with clients because of their lack of ability to fulfill all products and keep taking all the costs.2) tumid Integration Our second proposed alternative is plumb consolidation, which means to acquire a manufacturing plant. By employ this strategy, O&M would be able to produce its own healthcare product brand and reduce the purchasing price on that. Thus, O&M could offer a more private-enterprise(a) price to its customers and might get some recovers from the high operating costs. However, there are some problems associ ated with this alternative. O&M had to dangle time on finding suitable getting target, understanding manufacturing process and integrate the manufacturing plant into the company system. Therefore, this strategy requires a relatively continuing time dot to get things work. On the other hand, in order to do vertical integration, O&M had to prepare a extensive amount of cash. Based on the fact that O&Ms modern cash flow was very tight, acquiring a manufacturewould have a big impact on companys financial health. Implementation of this strategy would be quite difficult as well.Since O&M had no experience on healthcare manufacturing, it has to get long-familiar with the process from very motherning. Also, how to control manufacturing cost at a competitive level is a new repugn to O&M. Because O&M can create its low-cost private label products under this strategy, it has the incentive to promote private label products to hospitals. However, hospitals do not like private label pro ducts since it limits the scope of choice so under this strategy customer satisfaction level is low. In general, vertical integration is effective in reducing companys cost on healthcare products purchasing but requires a substantial investment and long implementation period. customer satisfaction is also low in this case.3)Selected ABP Another alternative that O&M could use is to use ABP system all on certain type of customers. More specifically, O&M could choose trifling customers to implement ABP and keep its profitable customers consideration quo. The time required for this alternative will not take too long, less than 6 months would be a apt estimation. The majority of time would be spent on the analysis of positiveness of customers. The challenge of implantation this alternative is to make sure the customer profitability analysis would be done under a tight-laced and correct result would be produced. To image customer satisfaction after the implementation, we needed t o split our customers into two groups.Those customers determined as profitable to us under real cost-plus system would likely to fend for the current satisfaction level, but customers viewed as unremunerative would tipl less satisfactory since they would have to pay more after ABP implemented. The downsides of this alternative are the risk to drive some customers away and the increased complexity of our pricing system which might mite increased error rate. The good side is that O&M would benefit in the long run because of the elimination of unprofitable customers. If O&M would have all the information and could develop correct ways to conduct the analysis, this alternative would be a possible choice to lead O&M succeed.4)ABP for all Customers this final alternative considers implanting ABP to all customers, both profitable and non profitable. The cost of this optionis higher than Selective ABP antecedently mentioned, due to the fact that all customer buttocks will be effect to EDI technology and connecting to all of them takes organization at heart the company and thus training cost by employees for both O&M and hospitals. The time to implement will be longer compared to Selective ABP however ground on our assumption that O&M will be located higher on the learning curve, their time per implementation per customer will be less the more customers they have oldly served. The simplex mindedness of implementation therefore is not effortless due to the large customer base dealt and new systems and training needed. However, the future benefits, not only for O&M, but also for the entire SC will be substantially improved in the maven that incentives would be aligned.Based on former analysis on alternatives, we conclude that ABP for all customers is the most feasible solution that can maximise companys profits, as well as aligning the incentives along the SC. This is important not only for the nobble term, but also for the long term of the entire chain .Impact of ABP on Customer Behavior.Before the implementation of ABP (activity establish pricing), the current predominate form of pricing in the medical/ surgical industry was cost-plus pricing. If the ABP strategy could be successfully implemented, both distributors and customers incentives could be allied. low ABP, the distribution pay was no longer based on the value of item but the value of service. In that way, Owen & Minors customers would begin to think about the real cost of various activities through the supply chain.Instead of wanting to order as less as possible per time and increasing order frequency, customers would begin to weighk a way to reduce the order frequency to reduce the distribution fee charged by Owen & Minor. Also, since instantaneously the fee was not determined by product value, customers would be willing to order expensive products via distributors channel instead of buying in bulk directly from manufacture. So the possibility of mishandling, damag ing and lost of expensive items would be reduced. From the distributors side, it would be more happy to provide good service because it would be paid based on the service it provided not the value of item.Of course, its unlikely to ask all Owen & Minors customer to turn to the new pricing system at the same time. Depends on the type of customers, some of them might be adopt the ABP faster and with less resistance. Generally, customers who could reduce or simplify the activities happened through the supply chain would adopt ABP faster. First, customers willing to simplify or reduce the order frequency would be more likely to adopt the ABP. By doing that, the fee charged by distributor would be decreased.Also, those customers often ordering large amount of expensive items would adopt the ABP first. By doing that, it shits the risk of mishandling, damage and lost to the distributor. Compared with previous fee charged by item value, at present they would more likely to pay less but ge t better service. Furthermore, those customers who mum and were willing to develop a sustainable relationship with distributors would adopt the ABP first. They understood that if distributor was losing money because of the improper pricing system, the entire supply chain would collapse someday and both of them would be hurt finally.There were also risks associated with ABP for Owens and Minor. ABP was a new concept and cost-plus pricing system was still a dominant form in the medical/ surgical industry. It was hard to persuade customers adopt the new and even unproven concept. Some customers might turn to other competitors and the relationship that need built over long time might get hurt.Proposed ABC pricing matrixIn order to have a better demonstration, O&M designed a simple pricing scheme apply activities-based costing. The pricing scheme is based on two major cost driversnumber of purchase orders per month and number of lines per purchase order. The number of orders was tied up to O&Ws fixed administrative costs and number of lines was tied to inconsistent costs such as the press handling cost of different products. This is a very primitive matrix because it only listed two cost drives and priced based on them. In reality, there should be a price for every value-adding service provided by distributor and the number of cost drives is huge. However, this simplepricing matrix could effectively build our clients that their operating cost is associated with level of service they demand, and lower cost is achievable if they can optimize their behaviors. Because we designed this pricing matrix based on two cost drivers, costs included in matrix are directly related to number of orders and lines.For example, fixed order costs such as procurement, labeling, account management fees and inconstant costs like shipping & handling, delivery, evoke cost are all included. However, some costs are not comprised in the matrix. O&M believes all costs associate with n umber of orders are fixed but there are variable costs incur in placing orders. Activities such as taking orders, processing and stage & processing are not fire so in the future we need to include these costs in more sophisticated pricing matrix. Moreover, operating cost of an EDI system and a non-EDI system are very different. For simplicity reason we just ignore the difference and assume akin prices for both systems but actually using non-EDI system would incur more cost due to high level of manual(a) works.We have worked out some simple examples on ABP and it shows that companys profitability increased dramatically under ABP system. amuse nominate to exhibit 1 fro more details.Risks & Challenges.Although this selected alternative presents many future benefits for the company and the Supply-Chain, certain risks are involved.Risk associated with ABP for Owens and Minor. ABP was a new concept and cost-plus pricing system was still a dominant form in the medical/ surgical indus try. It was hard to convince customers adopt the new and even unproven concept. Some customers might turn to other competitors and the relationship that needs built over long time might get hurt.Customers entire internal system such as budgeting and incentive programs are formed based on old cost-plus system, and a change in pricing structure is very time consuming. restructure of pricing system will also affect customers buying personnel because their compensation was related to the destiny they negotiate with distributor, and under ABP structure that component part disappearedEmployees on the customer side might have problems understanding the system and change their behaviors to reap maximum savings. Organizational structure will be adjusted to fit ABP which means some employees will be reassigned or resigned, but this decision will have negative impact on morale and productivity.EDI system implementation requires a substantial commitment in resources. share valuable informatio n with customers can be misused at their advantage with O&Ms competitors.The main challenge will be to build coarse trust among the parties involved.Implementation Plan.The successfully have a fully implemented ABP system we suggest the following action locomote1.Establish ABP System within the company first and find out cost drivers (services which incur costs). Upgrade IT infrastructure to facilitate tho implementation steps.2.Analyze the benefits of SC based on ABP, benefits such as improvement on inventory management, aligned incentives to efficiently deal with other Supply Chains, reveal mysterious costs on activities, and build long-time relationships, among others.3.Communicate to selected customers with the previous benefit analysis.4.Initiate ABP pilot program.5.Setting up EDI and give continuous support.6.Adjust and upgrade ABP system based on feedbacks from pilot program7.communicate to all customers with the success of pilot ABP system8.Full ABP implementation.(For suggested time-line refer to exhibits.).ConclusionIn general, we do see huge potential benefits on the implementation of ABP system. However, risks and challenges will emerge from this alternative and contrary will be strong on the customer side. The implementation steps provide an easy guideline to have a successful ABP system in the SC.