The Movie: Flicka

Flicka Flicka is a heart wrenching movie about the love of family, nature, and horses. This movie shows you the summer of a ranchers daughter. Katy McLauglin (Alison Lohman) is the teenage daughter of a horse rancher who is looking to hand over the reins of the family business. While her family is on the ranch, Katy is studing at a private school feeling like her own kind of misfit. One day, while out riding, Katy finds a beautiful black mustang and instantly feels an emotional connection with the wild horse.Katy begs her father, Rob McLaughlin (Tim McGraw), to let her keep the animal but he is convinced that the mustang would be bad for both his thoroughbred horses and his daughter. But Katy is certain she can break the strong-willed mustang and make her a champion. Katy then names her Flicka, a name meaning † beautiful, young girl†. As she struggles to tame the headstrong Flicka, she also tries to prove to her father that she knows horses as well as he does and that she 's every bit as capable of running the ranch as her brother. The fight for respect and the love of an animal will make you want a ranchers life.And a beautiful horse named Flicka. Flicka shows you the journey that a young teenage girl takes to earn the respect that she rightfully deserves. Katys story is like many stories of women over the years. The fight to be seen as an equal and not as a servent. As we all may know in the United States men had the right to vote long before women did. Women fought for the chance to vote for years. Some, like Susan B. Anthony, were put in jail or shunned for fighting for this right. It took tell World War I for women to recieve this right, but with a couple restrictions.Susan B. Anthony was born February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. She was brought up in a Quaker family with long activist traditions. Early in her life she developed a sense of justice. After teaching for fifteen years, she became active in temperance. Because she was a woman, she was not allowed to speak at temperance meetings. This experience led her to join the women's rights movement in 1852. Soon after, she dedicated her life to woman suffrage. Ignoring the cruel works and abuse, Anthony traveled and lectured across the nation for the vote.She also campaigned for the abolition of slavery, the right for women to own their own property and keep their earnings, and she advocated for women's labor organizations. In 1900, Anthony persuaded the University of Rochester to admit women. Anthony, who never married, was aggressive and compassionate by nature. She had a strong mind and a great ability to fight for what she believed in. She remained active until her death on March 13, 1906. In the movie, Flicka, the McLaughlin family fights to keep their beloved ranch.With the trouble to pay the bills, big time bankers have come to the ranch hoping to talk the family into selling the ranch and all the land with it. With the knowledge that selling means the destur ction of their lovely home and the land surrounding it, they fight to make all the money they can. Needing the cash, Rob McLaughlin sees the perfect chance to earn money and get his daughter away from the parasite that she calls Flicka. Rob calls up the head chairman for the local rodeo and makes the deal to sell off the beautiful mustang. When Katy finds out that her horse was sold she's heartbroken and furious.But she's not about to give up. With the hope to get her horse back Katy enters the Bucking Broncos contest in the rodeo in hope to win and use the money to buy back her horse. After realizing that it wasn't going to be as simple as she thought she takes her horse and rides her into the woods. With night coming and a serious storm, Katy and Flicka are in trouble. After finally getting onto some of their land Katy feels safe. Just as she was about to ride herself and Ficka the rest of the way home they are attacked by a mountain lion. Flicka is able to scare away the cat but sustains major injuries in the process.Once found Katy is brought home but has fallen sick. While Katy fights for her life, Flicka fights for hers. Then Rob decides that it isn't fair for an animal to suffer. Then Katy speaks the most heartbreaking line in the story saying â€Å"it's ok daddy, you can kill us†. The next morning Katys temperature has broken and Flicka is safe and healing. The two found each other at the moment of need and have beaten all the odds. This beautiful movie distributed by 20th Century Fox, shows viewers what it takes for a woman to fight for her right and what she loves.

Best Practices for Social Science Writing Essay

When social scientists write their research papers, they usually discuss the methods that they employed in gathering and analyzing their data and the results that they were able to generate using these methods. They however seldom concentrate on the writing process itself (Cuba, 1997). Writing in the field of social science requires the use of insight and research to better understand and make concrete observations and findings about the various behavioral elements. There are many methods of conducting social science studies namely through observations, interviews, surveys and case studies. However, when one starts writing the research paper that would embody these pertinent findings, the writer usually faces the challenges that many social science writers encounter. These problems include the complexities of achieving clarity, the potential for committing biases, writing in the first-person perspective, the use of quotations and in-text citations to support the analysis, and formatting styles particular to the field of social sciences. When writing one’s own research paper, it is important for a scholar in the field of social science to have a grasp of the basic writing techniques peculiar to social science in order to produce an academic paper that is relevant, informative and worth reading. The prevalence of search engines and the use of the World Wide Web have made it easier for scholars nowadays to conduct their studies and research with ease and in an expeditious manner. The libraries and other academic centers which make available to the public the latest references has also contributed to a great extent to achieving academic quality of various writings. Complexities in Achieving Clarity Like any other field of study, effective writing requires constant practice. This entails continuous process of writing, editing and rewriting ideas and use of words to convey these thoughts clearly to the intended audience (Cuba, 1997). Oftentimes, students of social science put off writing their research paper until they have completed doing all their research and compiled their bibliography. This practice however sometimes leads to insufficient time in writing the paper itself. In order to achieve clarity when writing a social science research paper, Hult (1996) enumerated the two components that must be considered: rhetorical question and organization. The components of a rhetorical situation include 1) the writer’s purpose; 2) the writer’s persona; 3) the potential readers or audience; 4) the subject matter and; 5) the appropriate language or tone (Hult, 1996). In starting the research write-up, the writer must determine the purpose of his paper and he must be able to define it clearly throughout the entire paper. The purpose need not be complex. A simple purpose will do so long as the readers can have a grasp of what the research is all about. Writers in the field of social science must also avoid writing in the first-person persona as this will affect the objectivity of their research. Identifying the intended audience will also help the writer in deciding what specific issues to discuss and what areas to avoid. For example, a person writing in the field of political science will have to consider political analysts as his potential readers. The subject matter is the most important aspect of the rhetorical situation (Hult, 1996). A writer must carefully select his thesis statement and decide from the materials gathered what facts must be included as well as those which need not be discussed. Furthermore, the research writer might also consider providing a glossary of terms when writing on a technical subject in order to make it easier for the readers to understand the language and tone of the research paper. Omitting Biases and Avoiding First Person Writing Style It is not uncommon practice in the field of social science to write using the first person persona. Writing from the first person perspective however indicates subjectivity in arriving at one’s own research findings and this in turn diminishes the objectivity of the research. In order to be more persuasive, the writer must couch his paper from a third person perspective so as to avoid the impression that he is impelled more by his own biases rather than reporting the facts gathered from relevant data. Omitting biases should be the foremost consideration of every social science writer because this field requires objectiveness and keen understanding of the facts and data. Unlike writers in the field of literature who have unbridled discretion to unleash their feelings and emotions in their papers, social science writers are bound by their duty to report the facts as they appear and not as they think it should be. The field of social science is primarily detail-oriented and must be supported by relevant, empirical, and reliable facts. In order to avoid biases, the writer must always dwell on the facts gathered and must use relevant sources to support his findings. Primary and secondary sources play an important role in the persuasiveness of one’s research work because the extent of the credibility of a research paper is to a great extent determined by the depth of research done by the researcher to support his study. The writer must also avoid labeling his chosen population or individual participants to avoid offending the readers. When dealing with a particular ethnic group or race, it is advisable to call them as they would like to be called. In order to avoid language biases, use the terminology applicable in the research itself. For example, when reporting on a study conducted on two types of participants, it is advisable to describe them according to how they were classified in the given study provided the labels are in themselves not offensive per se. Minimizing the Use of Quotations A writer’s source material must be in the form of paraphrases and summaries. However, paraphrased materials must still be properly documented either through in-text citations or footnotes or endnotes. Hult (1996) added that putting source material in your own words will improve the flow of your paper since the paraphrased style will blend with your own writing style and will thus contribute to its consistency. Minimize the use of direct quotations. The use of too many direct quotations distracts the reader and it also minimizes coherence of the writing style. It also leaves the impression that the writer knows little about his topic and is in fact relying heavily on what others have come up with (Hult, 1996). What the writer can do is paraphrase or summarize the portion of the materials used and document it properly. If using direct quotes cannot be avoided, the following principles are helpful in incorporating them smoothly in the research paper. First, when using quotations with four lines or less in length, enclose them with quotation marks and incorporate them in the text. Second, quotes should be introduced using the verb tense which is consistent with the tense of the quoted material. Third, change the capital letter to lower case and vice versa, within the quote if necessary. Fourth, enclosed in brackets the letter or words inserted inside the quoted material to separate them from the quoted material itself. Fifth, use ellipsis to signal that a material has been omitted from the quote. Sixth, punctuate the direct quote as it appears from the original. Seventh, a period or a comma which is part of the quote should be placed inside the quotation marks. Eighth, use a colon to introduce a quote which is more than one sentence or if the introductory material prior to the quoted portion is too long. Ninth, use a comma for short quotes (Hult, 1996). Using In-text Citations to Support Analysis A researcher who intends to make use on in-text citation in his write-up should keep in mind the American Psychological Association (APA) style which requires the use of past tense or present perfect tense when referring to earlier research materials. For example, it is incorrect to say â€Å"Smith (2008) states that†¦Ã¢â‚¬  when referring to Smith’s research findings. Instead, the researcher must employ the past or present perfect tense; hence, the in-text citation should appear like this: â€Å"Smith (2008) stated/has stated that†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In-text citations must follow the author-date format under the APA citation style, e. g. , (Smith, 2008) and a complete documentation of the source must appear in the reference list. Electronic sources are cited in the same manner as citing a printed document, e. g. , (Purdue University Online Writing Lab, 2008). For sources with no date available, place â€Å"n. d. † (meaning â€Å"no date†) after the author’s last name, e. g. , (Smith, n. d. ). Formatting Expectations A writer must see to it that his paper is professional in appearance. This is not to say however that attention to format should be every social science writer’s foremost consideration. It is also equally important to confer with your instructor as to what should be the appropriate format style for the particular paper. When preparing the paper, it is best to be conservative when it comes to formatting style rather than be ostentatious and vulgar, thus making the paper look less serious and informal. Hence, margin must not be justified on both side of the page but only on the left side only. The American Psychological Association (APA) is the most commonly used citation style format in the field of social sciences. The guidelines provided under the APA provides a useful tool in writing research papers, using in-text citations and reference page and using footnotes or endnotes. Under the APA formatting style, page headers are required to be placed in the upper right-hand of every page. This page header must contain the first two to three words of the title followed by the page number. The title page should already show include the page header. A running head must also appear on the first line of the title page flush-left. On the upper half of the page, centered, the full title of the paper, the name of the writer and university or affiliation must be indicated (Purdue University Online Writing Lab, 2008). Research papers are normally comprised of the title page, the abstract (if appropriate), the main body, the references, and the appendixes (if appropriate). The abstract need not be written for short research papers but for published research reports, an abstract is always required regardless of the length of the paper (Hult, 1996). Appendix may be used to include raw data and other information that need not appear in the main body but is likewise important in the research paper. It is located after the reference page and is labeled sequentially in letters. The reference page must include all the sources used in the research paper. The sources must be in alphabetical order by author’s last name and need not be numbered. Conclusion Writing is a necessary aspect of social research (Cuba, 1997). A good research means that the writer gave great effort in collecting and organizing his data as well as in organizing his findings in a coherent and scholarly manner suitable to the academic community he intends to present his study to. In preparing the research paper, every writer in the field of social science must consider the pertinent style guides applicable. The writing process is an analytic strategy that can only be improved through practice. This necessarily means that every social science researcher preparing his paper must open to revisions. The first draft must not be the final paper. Every writer must be also be willing to take constructive criticism from his colleagues because all too often, a writer cannot see the errors of his own work unless others point them out. Letting others read your research paper will help you in assessing some of the loopholes in your own arguments. Writing in the field of social sciences is an important aspect of the research itself because the manner in which a given study is presented contributes to the persuasiveness of the one’s findings and output. As such, it is important to be familiar with the writing techniques, styles, and formats applicable in your field of research so as to avoid mistakes and errors in presenting your research. The APA citation format style is a helpful tool in the social sciences and every scholar in this field must familiarize himself this formatting to avoid the inconvenience of revising and rewriting the research paper. The social science paper must be formal as to its structure and form and the writer must avoid using first person persona that is usually employed in the literary field. The sentences must be well-crafted and concise and must clearly reflect in a coherent and thorough manner the findings of the researcher without the need of extravagant words or details. Social science research writing is a challenging task for every writer. It requires practice and hard work just like collecting the data itself. It is an inevitable part of every researcher’s academic life and it cannot be avoided. Hence, every researcher must be familiar with the format and style peculiar to this field in order to increase the success of one’s research paper. References Cuba, Lee (1997). Short Guide to Writing About Social Science (4th Ed. ). Addison-United States: Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. Gerring, John, Yesnowitz, Joshua & Bird, Stephen (2004). General Advice on Social Science Writing. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from http://people. bu. edu/jgerring/documents/Adviceonessaywriting. pdf Hult, Christine (1996). Researching and Writing in the Social Sciences. Boston, Allyn and Bacon. Hess, Diana (2007). From Banished to Brother Outsider, Miss Navajo to An Inconvenient Truth: Documentary Films as Perspective-Laden Narratives. Social Education 71 (4), 194-199. McDonald, Susan, MD. Social Science Writing Guide. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from http://www. emayzine. com/lectures/writing. htm Mullen, Carol (2006). Best Writing Practices for Graduate Students: Reducing the Discomfort of the Blank Screen. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from http://cnx. org/content/m14054/latest/ Przeworski, Adam and Salomon, Frank (1995). The Art of Writing Proposals: Some Candid Suggestions to Social Science Research Council Competitions. Social Science Research Council. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from http://fellowships. ssrc. org/art_of_writing_proposals/ Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) (19 June 2008). APA Formatting and Style Guide. Retrieved August 2, 2008 from http://owl. english. purdue. edu/owl/resource/560/01/http://Web address for OWL resource. Watts, Michael. The Holy Grail: In Pursuit of the Dissertation Proposal. Institute of International Studies. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from http://globetrotter. berkeley. edu/DissPropWorkshop/process/InPursuitofPhD. pdf

Group Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Group Decision Making - Essay Example There are studies which support the concept that groups influence work behavior. A group is composed of individuals working together towards common goals by interacting with one another and utilizing appropriate resources. They need a certain period of time for common interests to be discussed, explained and internalized so that stability and efficiency would ensue. From the cohesiveness that a group develops, certain level of performance is achieved. It is therefore the objective of this paper to proffer issues pertinent to group decision making by focusing on experiences with group decision making in a professional setting. One successful and one unsuccessful experience would be identified. Likewise, the reasons for the group’s good or poor performance, drawing from concepts in the course readings would be identified and discussed, accordingly. A group is composed of individuals working together towards common goals by interacting with one another and utilizing some resources. They need a certain period of time for common interests to be discussed, explained and internalized so that stability and efficiency would ensue. According to Martires & Fule (2000, 109), â€Å"many specific roles can be categorized according to the actual behaviors of the group members. Group-building roles lead the group toward positive member interaction and interpersonal behavior†. Different studies present varying models of a typical decision-making process depending on their perspectives. Some models follow eight steps, others five. For purposes of making intuitive choices, one structurally follows six steps in decision making. The six steps of this natural, intuitive decision-making process, according to Ethics Resource Center (2009) are: â€Å"Step 1: Define the problem; Step 2: Identify available alternative solutions to the problem; Step 3: Evaluate the identified alternatives; Step 4: Make the

Analyse Political Discourse in One or More of the comedias you have Essay

Analyse Political Discourse in One or More of the comedias you have studied - Essay Example This creates a weakness in the comedy and changes the value of the play as it is depicted in different times. The main association with Vega is not only associated with the politics of the time. More important, Vega is concerned with creating dramatic effects, showing opinions and working as a motivational and entertaining force for the culture of his time period. Fuentovejuna and Political Discourse The comedy by Vega is one which is defined by political discourse first. The play is one which is defined by the time frame in which it is written and the politics which were taking place at this time. The play begins with describing an event which occurred in 1476 in Spain, located in a small village in Fuente Obejuna in Castile. The main depiction is from the Order of Calatrava, who was a commander at the time and which mistreated the villagers by branding and killing them. The massacre which occurred gathered the attention of King Ferdinand II of Aragon to investigate the villagers. E ven when tortured, none would give the information of the ill treatment and would only respond by stating that â€Å"Fuentovejuna did it.† This depiction is then told in Vega’s description of the play and is shown in the writing from 1612-1614. The main point of this specific event is one which was passed down to several with political discourse, specifically because of the silent rebellion which the peasants took over the king and which didn’t allow the king to have a specific amount of power over the village. The legend became one which was essential in the changes which began to occur in Spain at later dates, specifically with noticed victories that were from the peasants (Edwards, 7). The main depiction of the political discourse is one which is noted throughout the play; however, there are many controversial concepts which are associated with the way in which Vega displays the information. Throughout the play, Vega uses specific characters to represent the historical incident and to show what has occurred during this time frame. However, the discourse is one which is combined with both comedy and with opinions of what has occurred during this time. The result is the understanding of what has occurred with representations of what the politics meant during this time as well as what was most important to the author. More important, more universal themes, such as justice, ending the incident and developing the plot and character become more relevant than the political facts which are associated with the play (Blue, 295). The opinion and the discourse as one which is specific to universal themes and opinions throughout the play are seen from the first portion of the play. For instance, when the commander is speaking about the king, he speaks not of the history which occurred during this incident, but instead alludes to the opinions of the ruler and what was expected during this time. â€Å"Grand Master Don Rodrigo / Tellez Giron, you who have been bourne to this exalted station by the valor of that famous father of yours who, when you were eight, renounced the position of Master in your favor†¦ understand that your honor demands that in this situation you adhere to your kinsmen’

Pioneer women by joanna stratton Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Pioneer women by joanna stratton - Essay Example In the book, â€Å"Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier,† Joanna Stratton gives details some of the astonishing women from the Kansas frontier, one of the toughest region, viewed from any angle, how bravely they fought for the day to day existence and for the welfare of the members of their families. Their heroism was not ordinary. The author begins the book with an argument against men, which is difficult to counter. She writes, (1982, p.12) â€Å" As my father dryly observed sixty years ago in New Viewpoints in American History, ‘ All our great historians have been men and were likely therefore to be influenced by a sex interpretation of history all the more potent because unconscious.† Way back in 1867, Carrie Stearns Smith began the interesting and tough journey from Kansas City, Missouri to her new abode to south of Fort Scott. Since then women have taken giant strides and their contribution for the development of Kansas Frontier Culture has been ou tstanding. The mode of travel was through a stagecoach, through the rough terrain and bumpy roads and difficult mud paths. Stratton created history in literature related to Kansas, by rediscovering the oral histories of 800 Kansas pioneer women collected by her great-grand mother in the 1920s. She classified the mammoth and unorganized collection into 15 themes and 15 chapters to give it the form of historical evidence for the contribution of those women to the Kansas society and culture. She writes, â€Å"So the voices in this book are fresh and new—voices of the marvelous women who survived the bushwhackers and the redskins (and the Kansas men), the blistering sun and the angry wind, pursuing the daily round in quiet heroism without ostentation or complaint.†(p. 12-13) So, the authenticity of the contents of the book is unchallengeable, as they are from the primary sources. With fortitude and by remaining true to the traditions of the societal conditions prevailing t hen, the women tamed the Kansas frontier. The contents of the book will generate strong sentiments amongst the women readers and for valid reasons. The life of the prairie women, their endurance and loneliness makes an incredible reading. It is not only history—it is a profound mystery. If facts are stranger than fiction, they are in abundance in this book. No woman, in any part of the world, should ever be called upon to live that type of life. Their faith in God did play a role in their determination to survive in the tough social and geographical conditions. The endurance capacity of the Indians was much more and the author observes, â€Å"After the draught of 1860 Kansas lost nearly a third of its white population.†(p.12) This means, the white settlers had alternative sources and place to look forward to but the native Indians had to struggle on with the existing situation, with nowhere to go! The challenges of the prairie women were too difficult for the printed p age to capture as compared to the present day standards. They took active part in building their new homes as bull snakes showed up in rafters. Their life was entirely self-made and they got no help from any quarters, all through their struggle. Stratton throws up a meaningful question, â€Å"What was the work of a farm woman in those days?†(57) This is a profound observation. They helped men in plowing and sowing and danger from snake-bites was an open invitation. It was a do or die-situation for them all through their life, as men did not prevent them from

Financial Industry Megamergers Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Financial Industry Megamergers - Research Paper Example One of them is connected with the regulatory agreements of megamergers which actually are dependent on the antitrust concentration. Hoenig (1999) is worried that when megamergers become the prevalent financial institutions, governments will be forced to close down those that become less influential, out of fear to create unsecure financial system. Thus, the government implicitly guarantees such mergers that might be uninsured depositors or creditors, which eventually lead to unstable and less efficient financial structure (Hoenig, 1999). Hoenig (1999) says that he is less optimistic about the challenges that occur in the merging processes. He also suspects that in the near future financial specialists have to cope with merger institutions that are "too big to fail" and advises that experts have to carefully balance between the "economic benefits of consolidation" and the "potential costs to the financial system (p.2)." Hoenig (1999) remarks that consolidation in the financial services happen in three dimensions: within the banking industry, between banks and other financial organizations and across national borders. Up to 1999, there is an apparent decline of banking institutions. In the 1980s the number of banks in the United States is about 12 thousand. The estimated number in 1999 is 7 thousand (Hoenig, 1999). The same trend is occurring in most of the European countries. In the U.S the alliance is between commercial banking and investment banking services. In Europe, the model unifies the banking and insurance operations (Hoenig, 1999). Hoenig (199) discusses that the primary reason for consolidation in the financial services industry is to overcome possible problems and weaknesses caused by real estate lending, for instance. Another important factor is the development of telecommunication and information technology which lowered the prices of the banking sector. Greater economies of scale are achieved through merging various services, forcing small companies to merge in order to increase the competition (Hoenig, 1999). Legal boundaries have also been removed, so that interstate banking is now feasible. International consolidation is a fact with many countries opening up their "domestic financial markets by liberalizing foreign ownership of domestic financial institutions (Hoenig, 1999, p.3)." Megamergers pose serious questions about the public policy, such as whether the consolidation is in the public interest. Thus, banking agencies and Justice Departments have to take into consideration public policies before confirming an acquisition (Hoenig, 1999). To satisfy the public interests banking organizations continue to be active even after merging especially in order to create good records for servicing their communities. Hoenig (1999) highlights that megamergers in the U.S do not have antitrust problems and follow the traditional merger recommendations, focusing on different range of financial activities. The new policy issues that Hoenig (1999) mentions concern the protections of the financial conglomerates guaranteed by the government as "too big to fall" institutions. This can lead to serious consequences. Because the activities of these megamergers constitute a large proportion of the country's payment system, possible

Outline what Kant understands by the sublime and the beautiful and Essay

Outline what Kant understands by the sublime and the beautiful and evaluate their usefulness for understanding the aesthetic - Essay Example In this regard, Immanuel Kant, one of the greatest (if not the greatest) modern philosophers has provided a guide with which humanity may be able to understand and explicate visions and experience of beauty in the human world. This paper intends to present an outline of Kant’s understanding of the sublime and the beautiful. And then, the author will determine and evaluate the usefulness of Kant’s discussion of the sublime and the beautiful for understanding the aesthetic experience. In lieu with this, the paper will have the following structure: first part will be the introduction where the intention and structure of the paper is presented. The second part will be a discussion Kant’s concept of beauty. The third part will be on Kant’s concept of the sublime and fourth part will be the evaluation of Kant’s discussion on the beautiful and the sublime. In the end, it is the hope of the author that the understanding gained from this exposition helps in creating a vision of a world that is authentically responsive to the presentations and representations of what it means to be a human person. Kant’s discussion of the beautiful starts with the claim that the judgement of taste is disinterested, â€Å"Taste is the faculty of judging an object or a method of representing it by an entirely disinterested satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The object of such satisfaction is called beautiful.†1 This implies that judgment of taste is impartial of any feelings or emotions since â€Å"We must not be in the least prejudiced in favour of the existence of the things, but be quite indifferent in this respect, in order to play the judge in things of taste.†2 This is the first condition of beauty.3 The second condition is that the pleasure from the disinterested satisfaction should be a universal voice bereft of any personal satisfactions or

Agricultural Tourism in Cameroon Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Agricultural Tourism in Cameroon - Assignment Example It has beautiful rain forests in the south eastern part of the country and desert at the northern end in addition to this it has regular rainfalls which makes travelling through the country even more attractive for tourists (West). However despite of all the beautiful location and tropical crops available throughout the country tourism is comparatively very low. People are usually unfamiliar with the hidden beauty of the place or they do not have sufficient guidance to travel there. This project on Agricultural Tourism in Cameroon is based on the objective of increasing tourism in the country by a significant percentage which will ultimately result in increased economic growth. Initially the hidden adventure of visiting Cameroon shall be unveiled in order to attract tourist (Fund). For this purpose the project will limit its scope only at the Tropical Crops and Landscapes of the country as these are the major components which influence tourism. Cameroon is blessed with immense natura l resources in addition to cultural heritage and inhabitants of majestic characteristics. It has the unique ecotourism sites of the world with Kapsiki summits in the North and in Kibri located in the Atlantic Ocean which directly falls in to the sea portraying a beautiful scene for the tourists. Building Agricultural Tourism Project in Cameroon is a challenging task because there is no cultural of tourism in the country, people do not like many foreigners roaming around them neither they encourage to build tourism supportive organization either on public or private level. Additionally it is very difficult for tourists to reach there and find accommodation for them since Africans of Cameroon do not provide accommodation services to the tourists coming to their land. Animals found in the forest are extremely dangerous and tourists cannot risk traveling without a proper tourist guide (West). The most important landscape open for tourism in Cameroon are (West): Mountains: They are usual ly found on the western part of the country. They provide extensive activities and sports to tourist such as mountain hiking, etc. Deserts: The famous Sahara desert is present in the north of the country. Forests: Rainforests are present in the southern and eastern parts which are primarily responsible for the overall climate of the country. National Parks: Various national parks are located at different places with in the country some of them are centuries old and attract great many tourists from all around the world. Following are most attractive tropical crops for tourist visiting Cameroon (Atangana) : Banana: Cameroon produces more than 400,000 tons of bananas which are far more than the actual needs of the population. The bananas of Cameroon are famous because of their distinctive characteristics including their smell and size which is very attractive to the tourists visiting the country. Coffee: It is produced from the Western highlands of the country. The sweet aroma of coffe e, its flavor and the real qualities of Boyo Arabica coffee makes it a part of the tourist packages which is highly attractive for all the coffee lovers. Sugar: Cameroon is active in trade of sugar. There are several mills within the country which produce and exports sugar to other parts of the world. Tourists who also travel for the purpose of identifying business opportunities then Cameroon is the most suitable place for them. Time Period The Project will start by the mid of 2013 and will be completed within one year i.e. by the mid of 2014. It is a team based work consisting of five core team members and a group of 10 members acting as supporters to the project. Plan The project will perform its

Slavery in British North America and the Caribbean Essay

Slavery in British North America and the Caribbean - Essay Example While slavery certainly had some significant economic factors, and which were vastly different in the north from the south, the fact remains that slavery was primarily an institution based on race and dehumanization rather than economics. Slavery in the northern and southern colonies were very different institutions, largely because of the divergent economic development that occurred in those areas. In the northern colonies, cash crops were not the staples of the economy, rather manufacturing and other early industrial practices reigned supreme. These are areas that were not especially suited to the practice of slavery, because they needed highly skilled, willing workers. In this economy slaves usually served either in service professions (maids and so forth) or else as assistants, but were not fundamental to the economy and could easily be changed into low-paid workers. In the south, on the other hand, much of the economy developed around a select group of cash crops, most importantly tobacco and cotton. These crops were both some of the most labor-intensive crops to develop – cotton especially took hundreds of hours to pick and process before the development of the cotton gin in the later 19th century. This m eant that the southern economy found slavery an especially useful convention, and began building itself more and more around having plentiful unpaid labor. The huge amount of slaves that were involved in the development of the southern colonies also meant that any attempt to move away from the practice of slavery would be especially costly – instead of a business having to pay one or two extra employees, they would have had to pay hundreds, and vastly improve working conditions. This meant that slavery became a much more prolific and important structure in the south than in the north.

Case study Pedophile Housing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Case study Pedophile Housing - Research Paper Example However, some argue that the offender's civil liberties are being violated in conjunction with these laws. In regard to Ms. Abaca's decision to change the current legislation she must consider the different types of offenders. The federal government requires the federal registration of all sexual offenders to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. However, sexual offenders can be further classified by their crimes. All sexual offenders have committed a violation of the victim's privacy. However, this violation can differ based upon classification. Presently differentiations divide sexual crimes into two categories. According to the United States Department of Justice (2008), "(i) any type or degree of genital, oral or anal penetration , or (ii) any sexual touching of or contact with a person's body either directly or through clothing" (6). However, there are strong differentiations between the two categories. Penetration of the victim's body is a serious violation of both the victim's civil liberties and personal space. In comparison category two as defined by the federal government is a broad category. These differentiations raise ethical questions if offenders that do not penetrate the victim should be required to register with both the federal and state sex offender registries as this maybe construed as a violation of the offenders civil liberties. The age of the victim plays an important role in sentencing the offender. Aggravated factors include imprisonment, kidnapping, making videos, prostitution of minors, possession/distribution of child pornography and any type of sexual violations that involve a minor. Currently sexual offenders cannot live within a specific distance of schools, churches, daycare centers, park and community centers. In certain states sexual offenders are not allowed to work within a specific mileage of these places. However, one can argue that this is not just to have broad rules and restrictions placed upon all offenders. Sexual offenders that do not have aggravated circumstances (which include the involvement of a minor) are classified into the broad classification of rules applied to sexual offenders. Like other offenders these offenders that have not committed sexual offenses against minors and do not have aggravated circumstances are not able to reside or work within a certain distance of places t hat involve children. These circumstances are unjust to these offenders as these limitations do not allow for the offender to pursue life in many different aspects. To further complicate the differentiations among sexual offenders, individuals over the age of 18 can be prosecuted for having sexual interactions with individual's fewer than 18. Although, this may appear to be a valid and important point there are instances in which this categorization can be unethical. For example, is it ethical to prosecute an 18 year old senior in high school that has had sexual interactions with his sixteen year old sophomore girlfriend In these cases, should the individual be forced to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life Instead of focusing on ethics these cases often slip through the system and are meant to be exemplary. According to Students Against Destructive Decisions (2007), "Currently 46.8% of all high school students report they have had sexual intercourse." With regard to these statistics one must wonder if it is fair to punish as eighteen year old senior that is having sexual

Poor Lifestyle Essay Example for Free

Poor Lifestyle Essay In the modern world, the modern urbanites are living in a tense community. Consequently, they might have different kinds of poor lifestyle in their life. According to Woods (2010), poor lifestyles always include smoking, drinking, poor diet and lack of exercise, which perhaps lead to a higher chance of cancer. However, it could be environmental pollution. Health plays an important role in people’s life. Therefore, it is essential to choose the right food or the right healthier way in your life. Moreover, environmental pollution could influence people in their lives as well. This essay will discuss about health issue on quality of life and how environmental pollution affects human’s lives nowadays. On the one hand, the healthy diet is more and more popular in this society. Hamer, Molloy and Stamatakis (2008) claim that there is a connection between the level of physical activity and diet or nutrition that people consume from the different foods. When a person eats immoderately, the calorie would be transformed to fat or cholesterol which is harmful for people’s health. It means that they will become overweight or obese. There are some dangerous factors if they are suffering obesity such as cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, body pain, being out of breath, easily tired and disability. Although people also eat a great deal of fruits or some natural food at the same time, it might be produced some harmful effects. For instance, eating too much animal fat is a main cause of sickness or ill health also our bodies need a little but most of us eat too much. Some people know saturated fat. Therefore, it could make the person get a disease and be overweight (BBC n.d.). However, there are numbers of fats in fish, chicken, eggs, turkey, duck, beans, dog, lentils and foods made from these. Unsaturated fat may be better for the people, but eating too much fat of any type can gain their weight. It is better to buy a small amount of lean meat rather than fatty meat or solid fat. The best way is to eat more fish or different kinds of nutritional food and do not forget to get a high iron intake by eating something like liver and bitter foods. Some traditional meal, they use pulses provide good nutrition, to reduce the use of animals fat in the cooking. (Morbidity, Mortality, 1996) On the other hand, environmental pollution could lead to poor lifestyle as well. The pollution could happen in many different sources such as contaminate water, air, and light. At first, the indoor air pollution will make children and teenager getting diseases. Cooking and heating with solid fuels on some open fires or traditional stoves will produce small particles and carbon monoxide, especially for young children and women. According to the Global Health Risks, indoor air pollution leads to 2.7% of world diseases. (WTO n.d.) Furthermore, air pollution also leads to higher temperature and green house effect. Take Chicago as an example. Many residents feel like it is too dangerous because of the high humidity and air pollution. People with pulmonary and respiratory diseases are very sensitive so they should limit their activitiesï ¼Ë†CDT, 2011ï ¼â€°. Secondly, water pollution would threaten tap water quality. According to the EWG, the biggest sources of contaminants are agriculture and industry. The environmental group finds the water that people drink everyday which contains about 260 chemical contaminants altogether. The pollution will be more dangerous to the citizens and pose a great threat on the human beings. (Larry West, n.d) As suggested above, environmental pollution is divided into several aspects, such as air pollution and water pollution, which might contribute to poor lifestyle. Nevertheless, every kind of pollution will damage our lifestyle so people should be aware of the risks. In addition, the government ought to lay down some laws to stop air pollution. This is because it could avoid deterioration of contamination. However, in developing countries , where pollution is strictly regulated, it still has much more things need to do. In conclusion, health and environmental pollution have a huge effect in the life. Air pollution is known to could affect people’s health as well.If a person had good health, they can do anything they want. As a result, people need to be care about their diet and lifestyle. It could save their health and lead the people more happy. Nevertheless, environmental pollution could affect the person. Even though the people are healthy. All show that poor lifestyle is unhealthy in this community. Reference: 1. Hamer M, Molloy GJ, Stamatakis E. (2008) Psychological Distress as a Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Events J Am Coll Cardiol. 52:2156-2162 2. Woods T. (2010) , Poor Lifestyle Means Poor life Span, [online] Available at: http://www.emaxhealth.com/1357/poor-lifestyle-means-poor-life-span.html [Accessed 1 August 2011] 3. BBC n,d, The risks of a poor diet and being overweight [online] Available at:[Accessed 31 July 2011] 4. Morbidity Mortality Weekly Report. June 14, 1996; 45 (RR-9):1-33.Guidenlines for School Health Programs to Promote Lifelong Healthy Eating. 5. WTO, n.d, Indoor air pollution, [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 August 2011] 6. CDT, (2011) Pollution alert today, heat index could reach 100 degree, [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 August 2011] 7. Larry West, n.d, Tap Water in 42 States Contaminated by Chemicals, [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 August 2011]

The five levels of employee motivation

The five levels of employee motivation Title Impact of economic stability on the employees motivational levels and sustainability Aim The aim of this research is to find the strategies and theories of motivation for economic stability and sustainability of Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd employees and explore the effectual ways by examining the factors that employees made their decisions for their development. Introduction Motivation amplifies as employees or team members take pleasure in one another and struggle not to let each other down. For motivating employees organizations must always work to support employees for their sustainability and for their financial growth. Satisfied and happy employees about their work are motivated to work better in an organization. Other factors also play a vital role in motivating employees then pay rates. Therefore management must do best to make available an environment of work which increases employee satisfaction even if the market is in uncertain conditions. Then economic instabilities would never affect organizations employees bank. The Hawthorne study proves this point after conducting a research on the employee productivity and its effects on working environment (William M. Pride, Robert J. Hughes and Jack R. Kapoor, 2009). Motivation leads to higher productivity and longer sustainability of employees in an organization. As self motivating is crucial for empl oyees it is also necessary for organizations to ensure that their employees are motivated. To some level, a great level of motivating employees obtains from valuable management practices. Hence this research will identify the strategies in order to motivate employees under economic instability conditions. Therefore choosing this topic for conducting research will help to learn and experience the practical conditions of employees in economic crises. Example for this topic is Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd. Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd is a service provider of web designing and development. Company believes in thoughts as the starting and ending of all creative work. This is a total creative workshop handling a to z things of internet and intranet solutions including ASP, PHP, ASP.NET, website and brochure design and development etc. It is situated in London, and servicing to provide complete end to end internet solutions to customers requirements. Major services provided by the company are web designing and development, graphic design and SEO services, to provide these services with the best technology based solutions, company has to maintain speed in terms of following latest technological changes with the support of their employees. A discussion on the Sumudra technologies pvt Ltd issue As discussed above, it is one of the best companies to provide best internet solutions to the customers in London and it also worries about its employees pay packages due to the fear of their productivity and sustainability in their company. Though, from the employees perspective over a 3years there was about 86% higher total return to shareholder for the companies which have maintained elevated levels of trust evaluated to those with low levels of trust (Watson Wyatt, 2002). Regional or global strategies of sustainability of employees should be chosen wisely by companies. Strategies chosen according to the regional requirements would give fruitful results to companies or to individuals (SAS, 2008). Hence, company should improve its strategies of motivation and sustainability to pace according to the new changing market conditions in order to overcome the hurdles of market situations. This research work will give valuable information on how company can improve its strategies to motiv ate its employees. Literature Review Motivation Motivation is a drive which leads people towards achieving their goals. Its a enthusiasm and determination with a kind of excitement that directs one to continue to achieve greater heights, whether it is personal or professional. Motivating oneself is a continuous requirement for constant growth. Kanfer (1990) says that it is a imaginary construct that cannot be seen or cannot be felt. People can observe the impacts that are indicative of various motivation levels. Another author Pinder (1998) resolves the direction, form, strength, and duration of work-related behavior. He argues that by observing these dimensions of behavior, one can make conclusions about the effects of motivation on employees behavior (Steve M. Jex, 2002). This is a crucial factor because in economic instability of the present market conditions its very important to have a workforce with high spirits of motivation. This is a factor which normally produces results that are incompatible to study the employee behavi or. It can also be defines as the quality of actions, initiation, persistence and it can be categorized with their comparative constructs, goals and strategies. Strategies are the techniques used to get the goals and therefore to assure the goals and motives are the direct objectives of specific sequences of employee behavior. It is all about an individual moving towards the goal to understand the thing that sends them into deed. Intrinsic and extracts are the two types of motivation. These two types help to achieve and develop skills of a particular species. Jere E. Brophy (2004) says that motivation is differed from its related parts called goals, approaches which are used to achieve aimed goals and objectives. It is used to boost people to initiate useful activity sequences. Motivation is considered as an important factor in making employees upbeat and down to business which results in increasing organizations output. Levels of motivation Motivating employees would be a challenging task for management. The decision on how dedicated and committed will be an employee towards the company will totally depend on the individual employee. Here management of Sumudra technologies need to understand that applying one strategy to all employees cannot help to motivate everyone in the organization. While looking at the levels of motivation Maslows hierarchy theory of needs has helped us to guide to recognize what to look for management with their employees. Level 1: Security and safety Employees need to be assured about their safety and security at the work place; management must provide security services and create an fear free environment. Level 2: Incentives This is a level which is known by every individual. Most of the people dont work after winning a huge amount of reward. With this perception companies try to satisfy the compensation and benefits requirements of employees. Level 3: Affiliation This level discusses about the sense of belongingness. It contains being in the know and being part of the team. This is too a variance in professional and personal values can have a great affect on the motivation of employees. Level 4: Development Employees wish to have the faith that success is taking place. They feel secure, obtain all the money they want to earn and feel part of the group. But if there are no development opportunities employees think about absconding from the organization. Level 5: Life or Work Harmony Employees may have all types of rewards which are desired by them, but they will burn out closer or later if employees dont have the sufficient time to spend it on the other things they desire for (Derik Mocke, 2010). Therefore it is advisable to be aware of these five levels of motivation of employees when management employ with their employees. Company should assess what are the needs and desires of every individual employee before applying these levels in their organization. Employ with every individual and explain them about the various levels and inquire them where employees find themselves suitable on the pyramid. Engaging with greater teams and eventually with the entire company about the levels of motivation of employee etc are some points which are to be remembered when management engages these five levels with their employees. This needs a detail discussion which will be done in the research dissertation project. As there are six more steps to high levels of motivation. Thi s needs to be discussed in detail in order to understand the intensity of motivation factor when applied on employees. Theories of motivation Motivation of human beings is a study which has been carried from past many years. But none of them were not developed to explain employee behavior at workplace or were they practical enough to apply in the working environment. The following are some theories which specially explain motivation for employees. Theories of motivation are categorized into four: Require based theories explains work motivation in terms of the level to which employees satisfy their necessary needs at the place of work. Job based theories rest the resource of motivation majorly in the content of jobs that employees execute. Cognitive procedure theories highlight the decisions and choices that employees make when they distribute their attempts. Lastly behavioral approach highlights principles of learning. These will be discussed in detail in the research dissertation. Motivation and Communication Motivation is depended on having clear goals and objectives. As motivation is personal, goal is align staffs individual constrains with the companies uses in common and units in specific. Motivation can be done through communication organizational goals correctly to the employees (John Kotter, 1995). Author says to analyze how much communication of the vision is required, and then multiply that attempt with ten. He mentions that management should not limit to the meeting rooms. Actions adjoined with words are powerful communicators of the fresh ways. Here one needs to understand that transformation effort will fail if most of the employees doesnt understand, realize, commit and try to make the effort occur. The principle behind this is utilize every possible communication channel and opportunity to motivate in order to achieve the organizational goals. Teach fresh behaviors by showing the example of the guiding coalition team to the companys employees. Communication at the workplace can acquire numerous forms and has a lasting cause on motivation of employee. If employees feel that communication from organization is valuable it can show the way to feelings of employee work satisfaction, loyalty towards the company and increase trust at the workplace. This is an area of which a detail research and review is required. This will be done in dissertation part. Process of motivating employees Some standards are required to motivate the employees to achieve the objectives (quality) and to continue improvements and growth of the organization. Achievements of an organization completely depend upon the workforce and its activities so the organization will recruit the staffs who are motivated to attain the organization goals. Motivation is a key to the performance where it depends upon the environment, motivation and ability to perform the task. Motivation can be simply defined as it is an inner mental state to prompt intensity, directions and persistence. The proposed dissertation will explain about the motivation process which operates inside the individuals (Marjaana Gunkel, 2006). From the diagram motivation occurs if the employees satisfies their personal requirements and also work expectation from the company. Usually any employee can be motivated if an organization recognizes his efforts and appreciation and hence they can feel like, they are the main part of an organization or team. This process also explains about the barriers which affect the motivation process like job related, goal related, fear of failures, suspect of management, not a challenging environment, little respect, no rewards, no responsibilities. So the manager has to motivate the employees by removing these barriers to achieve the organization goals. Employees can be motivated if proper training and counseling sessions should be conducted to improve the process under the controlled conditions (David Hoyle, 2000). Sumundra technologies are also providing the motivation process to increase the employee capabilities in order to enhance the business prospects. Here the employees should have proper communication skills because this organization majorly deals with the customers throughout the world so better understanding of the customer requirements is very important. So the staff should have good communication skills to interact with the various customers and they ought to know American and UK accent to understand the clients without any disappointments (David Hoyle, 2000). Culture and leadership Culture is defined as learning values, norms, symbols, beliefs, traditions which are common to the group of people. Sharing these qualities of a group will make people unique. According to gudykunst and ting Toomey (1988), culture is the way of different customs, different scripts of group and their lives. Whereas nature of the leadership itself is the complex and it can be defined as stepping forward to solve the problems by sheer force of will. It is the influenced relationship between the followers and the leaders who plan for real revolution and outcomes to replicate their shared purpose (Richard L. Daft, 2007). The main important task that the leaders can do is, managing and creating the culture in addition to this they (leader) also have the capability to understand the work with culture. Studying the organizational culture can be focused more on performance and behavior of an employee than the values. If the interaction or the communication between the employees and management is good then the organization culture could be created. If it not good then the culture of an organization has to be changed inside and outside of an organization. But changing the organizational culture is not an easy task and it takes more time through the relationship of individuals and interactions (Mary J. Davis, 2000). Proposed dissertation will give a detailed description about the culture and leadership definitions and with some examples. It also discusses about the organizational cultures and how will be the organization if it does not maintain proper leaderships and culture inside and outside the company, how it effects on the present economy will be discussed. Present sumundra technologies are maintaining proper culture and leadership qualities among themselves. This is a corporate culture and they are completely aware of how to behave, how to understand, how to manage the things, how to communicate, how to work in a team. Their managerial staff also recognizes what the present culture is expecting, and how to nurture and feed the current culture is. Here the corporate changes has been occurred and is successful because of its good team work and proper leadership. From this I can say that culture can effect on a strong leader. And if and only if the culture and leadership of an organization is maintained well then that particular organization can give best customer satisfaction and good customer service. Psychological contract levels and factors Rousseau, D.M. (1989) describes psychological contract as an entitys belief in mutual compulsions among this entity or person and another person or party, like employer. This faith is forecasted on the perception that an exchange of promises have been prepared to which the parties are vault. Tekleab (2003) in the book Supervisor Psychological Contracts Management suggests designing realistic job previews to comprise data on employee obligations and socialization agendas to contain information on companys obligations. Psychological contract levels and individual factors that influence data formation of the contract are discussed by many authors in their articles. Like in the same book Vos et al (2005), views at how work values and locus of manage or control influenced data seeking during socialization. He also agrees that individual factors influence psychological contract level developments. But these factors are of limited significance when talking about psychological contract level s which intends to indentify organizational and supervisor chances to make easy positive psychological contracts (Maida Petersitzke, 2009). A 3rd group of extra-organizational factors contains wider political, economic and legal changes that in turn form observations of the psychological contract (Neil Conway and Rob B. Briner, 2005). Psychological contracts would be operationalised from a diversity of viewpoints. A prior cut on operationalization happens with the decision whether to focus or not on the aspects of the psychological contract considered to simplify across persons and settings. And a 2nd cut on the operationalization happens with the decision of whether to concentrate upon content, characteristics, evaluations. This refers to the terms and elements which have the contract (Rousseau, D.M. and Tijoriwala, S.A., 1998). Economic Circumstances Economic conditions play a major role in motivating employees and in creating sustainability. Assessment, tax rates, revenues, municipal debt, financial assets like development charge accounts, reserve funds, complete fire protection system charges, employment and unemployment conditions, previous and present political philosophy regarding the budget up/downs, borrowing, etc, loss affect of one employer, main industry institution, barriers to rebuilding like zoning and climatic needs are some of the economic circumstances which effects the employees (Ontario, 2010). For example decreasing prices have not allowed decreasing nominal pensions in a way of prevailing monetary circumstances. So for the time being undoing the move from payment to price indexation would result in the level of pension waiting, comparative to national income, anticipated for the year 2008 was attained in 2002. This is presented by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2004). Perceptual Process Perception or awareness is a process through which people choose, systematize, understand and react to data from the world in the region of theirs. This is the data which is collected from the 5 senses like hearing, seeing, touching, tasting and smelling. It responds to the psychological process whereby people take data from the atmosphere and make sense of their particular worlds (Don Hellriegel and John W. Slocum, 2007). Perceptual process permits management to test their present level of perceptual expertise. Perception engages several sub-processes like Stimuli, attention, translation, recognition, behavior, performance and satisfaction etc are some of the things which takes place only after giving some attention to them (Perception, 2010). Sumudra Techonologies pvt ltd has to know and understand all these procedures and processes to motivate and sustain their existing employees. Conclusions According to the discussion happened above makes clear that there are some questions which have risen out from the initial literature review: There is a minute literature which examines theories of motivation. There is also a minute literature that investigates theories and processes of motivation with respect to Sumudra technologies. There is no literature that evaluates Sumudra Technologies management in detail. There is no discussion about the surveys of relationship between motivation and communication. There is no research that scrutinizes the benefits of motivating employees by Sumudra Technologies Company. There is also no literature that revises the gap of perceptual apprehension recruitment management among management and employees concurrently. There is no discussion done on the sustainability benefits which can be earned if Sumudra technologies motivate their employees in down turn economic situations too. Therefore, this proposal proposes the following objectives for the proposed dissertation: To find out the effect of economic instability on the Sumudra Technologies employees motivation levels. To identify the advantages of motivating employees in Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd. To examine the sustainability aspect of employees in detail. To study the various elements of motivation theories and levels in order to fulfill the proposed aim for the dissertation. To suggest Sumudra Technologies to the way that its motivational strategies are able to manage employees effectively. Hence there is need for conducting enough research on this topic to know the sustainability and motivational levels of employees to be consistent in this company. Bibliography David Hoyle (2000), Automotive quality systems handbook, A division of reed educational and professional publishing limited, Linacre house, Jordan hill. * Derik Mocke (2010), The Five Levels of Employee Motivation, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 1st April, 2010]. Don Hellriegel and John W. Slocum (2007), Organizational Behavior, Published by Cengage Learning, ISBN: 0324377126. Jere E. Brophy, (2004), motivated students to learn, published by Routledge, pp.418. John Kotter (1995), Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail, Harvard Business Review, pp. 3. Maida Petersitzke (2009), Supervisor Psychological Contracts Management, Published by Gabler Verlag, pp. 377. Marjaana Gunkel (2006), Country-compatible incentive design: a comparison of employees performance reward preferences in Germany and the USA, Published by Springer, pp. 189. Mary J. Davis (2000), TCRP synthesis, Published by Transportation Research Board, pp. 91. Neil Conway and Rob B. Briner (2005), Understanding Psychological Contracts at Work: a critical evaluation of theory and research, Published by Oxford University Press, pp. 226. Ontario (2010), Economic Circumstances, Economic considerations, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 5th April, 2010]. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2004), OECD Economic Surveys: Japan 2003, Published by OECD, pp. 224. Perception (2010), Elements of Perception, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 4th April, 2010]. Richard L. Daft (2007), The Leadership experience, Published by Cengage Learning, pp. 493. Rousseau, D.M. (1989), Psychological and implied contracts in organizations, Employee Rights and Responsibilities Journal, 2, 121-139. Rousseau, D.M. and Tijoriwala, S.A. (1998), Assessing psychological contracts: Issues, alternatives, and types of measures, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 19, 679-695. SAS (2008), Sustainability across Borders, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 30th March, 2010]. Steve M. Jex (2002), Organizational Psychology: a scientist-practitioner approach, Published by John Wiley and Sons, pp. 540. Watson Wyatt (2002), Weathering the Storm: A study of employee attitudes and opinions, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 29th March, 2010. William M. Pride, Robert J. Hughes and Jack R. Kapoor (2009), Business, Published by Cengage Learning, pp. 627.

History of Iron Smelting Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa

History of Iron Smelting Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa Introduction: The arrival of iron smelting technology in sub-Saharan Africa played a significant role in shaping the historical record of the area by bringing profound changes to the lives and societies of its inhabitants (Haaland Shinnie 7). In the parts of Africa south of the Sahara and south of the Ethiopian highlands, there has been no archaeological evidence supporting a Bronze Age (Van Der Merwe 463; Alpern ; Holl 6) and the evidence archaeologists do have point to iron being the first metal used to replace stone tools (Fagan 1). One area of intense debate regarding the African Iron Age is the process in which the technology of iron smelting arrived in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past half-century, the interpretations and reconstructions of the origins of iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa have changed considerably. The initial theory was based on an unquestioned belief of the superiority of Ancient Egypt over sub-Saharan Africa (Kense 12). Based on this framework, the site of Meroe was pr oposed by Arkell as an important link and the general belief was that the collapse of the Kingdom of Kush precipitated the spread of technology and Meroitic culture into the southwest (Kense 13). However excavations conducted in the 1960s determined that the iron smelting furnaces found at Meroe mostly dated to the first few centuries B.C.E (Shinnie 30) and its pivotal role in the spread of iron smelting technology was shown to be increasingly hard to defend (Kense 13). Three theories regarding the origins of iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa have emerged and are currently disputed amongst scholars (Holl 7). Two of the theories are diffusionist meaning these theories claim the technology originated elsewhere and was transported into the region. These theories are based on the premise that iron smelting originated somewhere in Anatolia and from there the technology was adopted by other populations and spread throughout the Mediterranean and into Africa. The main diffusionist theory was first proposed by Raymond Muany in 1952. He argues that since the Phoenicians had iron by about 1100 B.C. and that they started colonizing Northern Africa at around the same time; it was possible that the knowledge of iron smelting was transmitted into sub-Saharan Africa with the Berber tribes living in the Saharan Desert as a medium (Alpern 46). The other diffusionist hypothesis arose as a counter to early iron smelting furnaces found west of Lake Victoria in Tanzania. This hypothesis proposes that the technology came from Arabia via the Horn of Africa (Alpern 80). The theory that has gained the most acceptance recently is the one arguing for the independent invention of iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa (Alpern 41). A slew of archaeological discoveries in the past twenty years have strengthened the case for independent invention. Some people have even gone as far as arguing that, based on controversial discoveries made in 2008, inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa were the first to smelt iron, preceding Anatolia by about 700 years (Pringle ). The strongest case against independent invention is the complexity of iron smelting. Iron requires specialized knowledge in order to transform iron ore into usable iron (Kense 19) and it has long been held that people without prior knowledge of smelting techniques would not be able to smelt iron successfully (Sassoon 5). Two areas of sub-Saharan Africa have emerged as candidates for areas where iron smelting could have developed, the Western Africa region around the Niger-Nigeria border or north-western Ta nzania. This essay will argue for the independent discovery of iron smelting technology in sub-Saharan Africa based on discoveries made in Western Africa. Background: To understand why there has been such a strong opposition to the idea of sub-Saharan Africa independently inventing iron smelting technology, it is necessary to consider the difficulty and skill required to smelt iron. It is hypothesized that iron was first used as a flux, a substance that is smelted together with the desired ore in order to make the slag, or waste rock, more liquid, in the smelting of copper (Wheeler Madden 114). The iron mixed with slag would have been spongy at the temperatures inside a copper smelting furnace. It could only then be shaped into something usable through repeated hammering and heating (Wheeler Madden 114). The difficulty in creating iron objects is testament in the value iron objects had during the early and mid Bronze Age. In Egypt, for example, Tutankhamen was wrapped in with a golden dagger and a matching iron dagger with a gold hilt (van der Merwe 466). So although ancient smiths, masters of smelting bronze and copper, knew about iron, the diffi culties in smelting the metal took a long time to overcome. The smelting of iron occurs when iron ore is heated together with a charcoal fuel. This causes the iron in the ore to fuse chemically with the carbon from the charcoal. The more carbon dissolved in the iron, the lower its melting point. The amount of ore to fuel, and the supply of combustion air determine whether cast iron, steel, wrought iron, or a useless lump of metal will form (Alpern 82). Copper on the other hand melts readily at 1084ÂÂ °, temperatures that can be reached in a charcoal fire or during ceramic firing (Holl 6). In sum, the reduction of iron ore requires much more sophisticated expertise than does the smelting of other metal ores. Without pre-existing furnace technology, the likelihood of stumbling upon the process required is slim (Sassoon 5). Due to these foundations and a lack of archaeological evidence supporting very early iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa at the time, Mauny proposed the most plausible scenario for the diffusion of iron metallurgy (Alpern 45). He speculated that when the Phoenicians settled in North Africa, the Berbers living in the region, being from a nomadic warrior culture, would have been keen to acquire improved weapons made from iron metal. These Berbers living near the coast would then pass on this technology to their fellow Berbers living in the Sahara (Kense 24). He then suggested that the technology could have been taken south into the sub-Saharan savannah by fleeing slaves, or deliberately transmitted to the lands of black farmers where both iron ore and the wood to fuel smelting furnaces were relatively abundant. The farmers would in turn supply the Berbers with raw metal for ironworking in exchange (Alpern 46). Mauny offered some linguistic evidence for his model. Derivatives of the Phoenician word for iron, barzel, are found in Berber vocabularies throughout the Sahara and also in the Teda (Tubu) language of Tibesti and the Fezzan.20 Mauny also saw affiliations with the terms for iron among several savanna-dwelling black peoples, including the Bariba, Jukun, and Kanuri.21 He might have added that Carthaginian influence on the Berbers may be attested to this day by the Tifinagh alphabet of the Tuareg, which is thought by some scholars to derive ultimately from a Punic script. There is a strong case that Africa independently invented ceramics, however there does seem to be evidence for Berber transfer of metallurgy across the Sahara, but it comes not from Niger but from Mauritania in the far west. Ancient copper artifacts began to be noticed in that region in the early twentieth century. By 1951 enough had been found for Mauny to wonder, in print, whether Mauritania had experienced a Copper Age.70 An answer came in 1968, when French archeologist Nicole Lambert began excavating what was known as the Grotte aux Chauves-souris (Bat Cave) on a hill called the Guelb Moghrein near Akjoujt in western Mauritania. It was not a cave at all, but an ancient mining gallery dug by humans following a rich vein of malachite ore. The ore was not only extracted, but locally smelted, as furnace remains and slag attest. Four other ancient exploitation sites were found later on the Guelb Moghrein. Ra-diocarbon datings, eventually calibrated, are nearly all in the range 800 to 200 cal BCE. Subsequently at least three other metallurgical centers from the same period were discovered in the Akjoujt region. The number of ancient copper objects found in the western Sahara and attributed to the Akjoujt industry exceeded 160 at last count. The great majority are weapons: arrowheads, lance points, and daggers. Tools include hatchets, pins, awls, burins, and hooks. There are the inevitable personal ornaments-rings, earrings, pendants-and some ingots. All the items are very small and very light; when the number reached about 140, the total weight barely topped two kilograms. They were produced in a Neolithic context in which stone tools vastly outnumbered the metal ones, so one can hardly speak of a Copper Age on the basis of present evidence. How did copper mining and working get started at Akjoujt? It is possible the industry was indigenous, but no one yet seems to have made a real case for that. Lambert saw a resemblance between the Akjoujt products and those of the El Argar culture in southeastern Spain, where copper was being manufactured by at least 1700 BCE and bronze some 200 years later. She thought the few ancient brass and bronze artifacts also found in Mauritania might have been imported from the western Maghreb. She noted that chariot engravings had been found on rocks in three places near Akjoujt and thought they might be road signs indicating an early traffic between Morocco and Mauritania.71 Mauny discerned Phoenician or Carthaginian initiatives behind the Akjoujt industry, with Berbers actually importing the technology, but Lamberts idea of an Iberian connection might have some merit.72 In the late 1960s and early 1970s, British archeologist Colin Renfrew, in a sweeping challenge to the then-reigning diffusionist orthodoxy, suggested that copper metallurgy was independently invented on the Iberian Peninsula long before Phoenicians or Greeks reached the western Mediterranean. 73 Since then much evidence has accumulated that he was right, and that Iberian copper metallurgy dates back at least to 3000 BCE.74 It also seems that the technology crossed from Spain to Morocco before the Phoenicians set foot on the Moroccan coast. Until the mid-twentieth century, it was thought the western Maghreb had not experienced a Copper or Bronze Age. Finds of metal objects, ancient mines, and, especially, rock engravings have undercut that notion: copper in Morocco may date all the way back to the third millennium BCE, according to some leading researchers.75 Rock art in the High Atlas shows weapons typical of the El Argar culture, especially daggers, halberds, and axes.76 Conceivably, cuprous objects reached Morocco in exchange for two North African products, ivory and ostrich eggshells, that have been found in third- and second- millennium-BCE graves in southeast Spain.77 But no certain proof of early copper smelting has yet turned up in the Maghreb. Did the Akjoujt copper industry, whatever its origins, lead to an independent invention of iron metallurgy? The malachite of Bat Cave occurred in a matrix of hematite and magnetite that was discarded in the smelting process. There is no evidence that the coppersmiths ever produced iron, although the raw material was at hand. However, proof of ironworking from the same period has recently been found some 250 miles south of Akjoujt in the middle Senegal river valley. At a site called Walalde, iron artifacts dating to somewhere between 800 and 550 cal BCE have been found, and in a second phase of occupation, from ca. 550 to 200 cal BCE, clear evidence of iron smelting has been excavated. The latter phase also yielded three copper artifacts with a telltale chemical signature of the Akjoujt ores-more than 1% of arsenic and a smaller amount of nickel. Further excavation and study are required to evaluate the find, but it is clearly an important contribution to the history of metallurgy in sub-Saharan Africa.

Hiram Ulysses Grant :: essays research papers

Hiram Ulysses Grant was born near Pleasant Point, Ohio, on April 27, 1822. His parents were Hannah Simpson and Jesse Grant. Jesse Grant was the owner of a tannery. He was shy boy while growing up. At the age of one year he was taken to Georgetown where he was educated at local and boarding schools. He graduated 21st in a class of 39, from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1843 where he had enrolled under the name of Ulysses Simpson Grant. He was assigned to Jefferson Barracks, MO, where he met Julia Dent. They married after the Mexican War in 1848. Grant served in the Mexican War under the name of Gen. Zachary Taylor and Gen. Winfield Scott. In 1854 while stationed at Fort Humboldt, California, Grant resigned his commission because of loneliness and drinking problems. He spent the following years in unsuccessful farming and business ventures in Missouri. He moved to Galena, Illinois, in 1860 where he worked in his father’s leather shop. Grant was appointed colonel and soon afterward brigadier general of the Illinois volunteers at the outbreak of the Civil War. Grant wanted to fight for the Union. He was an officer of dogged determination and won a series of brilliant victories. On one occasion, the commander of a Confederate fort asked on what terms Grant would accept his surrender. "No terms," he replied, "except an unconditional and immediate surrender." From then on he was known as "Unconditional Surrender Grant" since his initials were U.S. On March 8, 1864, President Lincoln made him commander of all the Union forces. Grant helped to bring the war to an end in a little over a year. In 1868 Grant was elected Republican president of the United States. Although Grant was a wonderful soldier, he made a poor president. He was honest, but some of those he appointed to high office were not. They caused financial difficulties for the government and the country. He was not blamed for this and was reelected in 1872.

Save the Whales Essay -- Environmental

Every day whales around the world are being killed. Although some whales are being killed for scientific purposes, the majority of them are killed for their meat by poachers or whalers working for different countries. Careless companies dispose of their waste incorrectly, and in today's society, people do not seem to care about anything but themselves. Arguments can be made both for saving the whales and for killing them; this is a topic that has caused much debate over the past two decades, not only in America, but worldwide. Environmentalists and international governing groups have squared off against whale poachers and countries who ignore the laws governing whales, in an attempt to stop the ongoing, unnecessary killing. All marine life is affected by careless human activity. Man-made pollution from dumps, chemical plants, power plants, and pesticides all flow and spread throughout the oceans of the world. Even low-level contamination of small, sometimes microscopic species causes highly concentrated contamination in larger marine life, specifically whales. Plankton, the main constituent of a whale's diet, is a very small organism that drifts for thousands of miles throughout the oceans, and as a result easily spreads pesticides, toxic metals, and other contaminants throughout the ocean. When the whales eat the plankton, the small amounts of contamination become highly concentrated in the whales systems. Pollution, although deadly over long periods of time, is not the main source of unnecessary whale death worldwide. A recent technology developed by the US Navy emits the most powerful sound known to man straight into the ocean waters. This newly developed technology, called low frequency active sonar (LFA), was d... ...a> http://files.hsus.org/web-files//PDF/SWNW_IWCFctsht.pdf Defenders of Wildlife: http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/new/marine/whales/climate.html Save the Whales: http://www.savethewhales.org Humane Society of the U.S.: http://www.hsus.org/ace/19943 WhaleNet Population Study: http://whale.wheelock.edu/whalenet-stuff/ser_population.html Pro-Whaling Nations: http://files.hsus.org/web-files//PDF/SWNW_ProWhalingFctsht.pdf

Leadership That Gets Results Essay

The article Leadership That Gets Results by Daniel Goleman provided an interesting view on leadership in the workplace. In a recent study by consulting firm Hay/McBer, data was gathered from a random sample of 3,871 executives from a database consisting of 20,000 executives, taking the mystery out of effective leadership. The study revealed that effective leadership is composed of six distinct styles – all draw from components of emotional intelligence. The six style of effective leadership are: Coercive, Authoritative, Affiliative, Democratic, Pacesetting, and Coaching. Coercive demands immediate compliance; it is a â€Å"Do what I tell you† style. Authoritative mobilizes people towards a vision, a â€Å"Come with me† style. Affiliative creates harmony and builds emotional bonds; it a â€Å"People come first† style. Democratic forges consensus through participation: â€Å"What does the group think?† Pacesetting sets high standards for performance, as in â€Å"Do as I do, now.† Finally, Coaching develops people for the future; it is â€Å"Try this† style. The study found an effective leader uses each one of these styles at the right time for the right reason. An example of this right time – right reason ideology is most often seen in golf. A good golfer knows how and when to choose the right club for the hole. Additionally, the study showed that a combination of styles could be used in effective leadership. However, the study did confirm there are a few styles that are more effective than others. Authoritative ranked the highest among the six leadership styles. Affiliative was ranked second followed by Democratic ranking third. In contrast, Coercive and Pacesetting were ranked the lowest and produced a negative effect when not used in the right context. In summary, the study did take the mystery out of effective leadership. It concluded that there are six leadership styles and each one can be used individually or in a combination to achieve maximum results. Throughout the article I was able to determine my personal style leans towards Affiliative; however, I would like explore the vision of the Authoritative and collectiveness of the Democratic leadership styles.

Air Transat Analysis Essay

Introduction: Air Transat is a Canadian airline based in Montreal, Quebec. It was founded in 1987, and is owned by Transat A.T. Inc. According to Air Transat’s website, their mission statement is: â€Å"Air Transat is Canada’s leading holiday travel airline. Every year, it carries some 3 million passengers to nearly 60 destinations in 25 countries aboard its fleet of Airbus wide-body jets. The company employs approximately 2,000 people. Air Transat is a business unit of Transat A.T. Inc., an integrated international tour operator with more than 60 destination countries and that distributes products in over 50 countries. Air Transat was named World’s Best Leisure Airline at the Skytrax annual World Airline Awards, held in July 2012.† â€Å"Transat A.T. Inc. is an integrated international tour operator with more than 60 destination countries and that distributes products in over 50 countries. A holiday travel specialist, Transat operates mainly in Canada and Europe, as well as in the Caribbean, Mexico and the Mediterranean Basin. Montreal-based Transat is also active in air transportation, destination services and distribution. (TSX: TRZ.B, TRZ.A)† Air Transat presents its products and services by stating that is a leading holiday travel airline that is owned and operated by Transat A.T. Inc. The types of customers served are international passengers within the 60 destinations that they operate in. Air Transat geographically covers 60 destinations in 25 countries. One of the ways Air Transat is distinguished from its competitors within the industry is by being give the world’s Best Leisure Airline two years ago in July 2012. Nothing has been mentioned about customer needs in their mission statement as well as they type of customers they are targeting. We could assume that Air  Transat is seeking holiday-oriented customer rather than business oriented customers for example. This mission statement shows no insight on how the firm will continue to compete with its competitors. According to Air Transat’s website, their vision statement is: â€Å"At Transat, we recognize the prime importance of the environment, host communities, cultural diversity, and our relationships with our employees, customers and partners. At Air Transat too†¦ Then, Air Transat is committed to reducing its ecological footprint, and has adopted an environmental policy.† This vision statement does not focus on the future they see in their vision with host communities, diversity, employees, customers, and partners. However, it focuses on the environment. It has done that by creating an environmental policy, which is committed to doing the following according to Air Transat’s website: 1. Complying with all applicable municipal, provincial, federal, and international legal requirements, exceeding compliance wherever practical and possible. 2. Certifying our environmental systems and performance to the highest standards, such as ISO14001, IENVa, LEED, ICI ON RECYCLE and Fly-360-Green. 3. Conserving natural resources, such as energy and water, and preventing pollution in our operations, buildings, and supply chains through source reduction, re-use, recycling and control. 4. Continuously improving our environmental performance by setting and reviewing objectives and targets, and by training and involving our employees and stakeholders whose activities have a significant environmental impact. 5. Collaborating with all of our key stakeholders (employees, suppliers, communities, governments and industry groups) regarding environmental, sustainable development, and corporate social responsibility initiatives and issues. Surprisingly, I did not find a strategic objectives statement on Air Transat’s website. There were no statements regarding how they will put their mission statement into action, or how their goals will be achieved.  However, there is a page that lists and summarizes all Air Transat’s awards, rewards, and recognition. PEST analysis: The definition of PEST analysis according to businessdictionary.com is: â€Å"A type of situation analysis in which political-legal (government stability, spending, taxation), economic (inflation, interest rates, unemployment), socio-cultural (demographics, education, income distribution), and technological (knowledge generation, conversion of discoveries into products, rates of obsolescence) factors are examined to chart an organization’s long-term plans.† POLITICAL ECONOMIC SOCIO-CULTURAL TECHNOLOGICAL Fuel taxation, and landing taxation Fear of terrorist attacks after 9/11. New European union regulations have led to higher levels of competition on European routes. Increase in the price of oil Increase in transportation costs Increase in disposable income due to rise in incomes and lower interest rates (people have more money to spend on leisure trips) Change in consumer behavior resulting from the aging population in Canada may affect the number of leisure trips taken Increased popularity in travelling abroad – Carbon dioxide emission – Emirates airlines launching double decker aircrafts (A380), serving 25 destinations – Wireless internet being launched in aircrafts – Frequent flyer programs The increase in the price of oil and the rate at which it is increasing is a global issue. For Air Transat, this means an increase in cost and expenditure. Since oil is essential in this industry, there is not much that Air Transat can do. The increase in the price of oil could cause force Air Transat to increase their prices for flight tickets. In more extreme cases, Air Transat may not be able to increase the prices for certain routes, and be forced to terminate their services to these routes. Air Transat could benefit from the change in consumer behavior resulting from the aging population in Canada by targeting the elderly population through advertising and promotions. For example, they could offer retirement packages, and certain promotions for specific destinations or at specific seasons of the year. Air Transat would need to conduct extensive market research about this matter to take into consideration that most retired people are on a fixed income or might not be healthy enough to fly etc. With the increased use of technology, wireless Internet is not only important for business traveler but also for leisure travelers. Even though it is not that common for aircrafts to offer wireless Internet during their flight, it being launched. Air Transat should consider offering this service, as it might be an attractive feature for many travelers. Porter’s Five Forces: According to investopedia.com, the definition of Porter’s Five forces is: â€Å"Named after Michael E. Porter, this model identifies and analyzes 5 competitive forces that shape every industry, and helps determine an industry’s weaknesses and strengths. 1. Competition in the industry 2. Potential of new entrants into industry 3. Power of suppliers 4. Power of customers 5. Threat of substitute products† The threat of new entry into the airline industry is very weak due to a few factors including very large capital required, major airports are highly congested, slow growth rates and with many reputable airlines already, brand loyalty may not be easy to establish due to the competition. This force is likely to remain weak. Competitive Rivalry is ranked as high because there are a high number of airlines operating both domestically and internationally with very competitive prices that Air Transat will need to constantly try to match. The fixed cost is very high such as the cost of oil, which cannot be controlled to a great extent. There is also a low product differentiation meaning that even though Air Transat is a leisure airline, there are still many other airlines that offer service to the same destinations at similar prices. Most airlines offer some type of frequent flyer program, which causes passengers who are members of these programs to be loyal to their airlines. This force could become even higher due to the increased competition. Bargaining power of suppliers is Moderate. Airlines are usually in a long-term contract with airline manufacturers, which also limit drastic increases in prices during that contract but because there are only two airline manufacturers; Boeing, and Airbus. They have a lot of power to make changes that Air Transat would be bound to accept. Labor my also be an issue because positions such as pilots, aerospace engineers, managers, and marketers may require high salaries and may not be easily found in the market. However, the salaries for labor in the airline industry are standardized over similar airlines. This force is likely to stay the same. Bargaining power of buyers is weak. Individual flyers, travel agencies, and online portals can all easily switch to different airlines due to low switching costs. However, the pool of customers is very large ranging from individual customers to large organizations. This force is likely to become weaker over time. Threat of substitutes is moderate within the airline industry because there are numerous airlines that offer service to the same destinations as Air Transat with similar prices, which does not limit the chance of customers switching to different airlines. However, that kind of standardization over the industry does not make other airlines more attractive than Air Transat. Threat of substitutes outside the industry is low because many destinations cannot be reached in a timely manner without flying, specially international ones. Flying is faster and safer than road, rail, or marine. I believe this force will become weaker over time. New Opportunities: Since Air Transat is well established in Canada, they have the chance to grow internationally beyond Europe. They can also take advantage of the current growth in the aging population in Canada by targeting that market and researching different ways to attract older customers. They could create a frequent flyer program specially designed for seniors. With Air Transat’s sold reputation, they could also have contracts with European organizations to provide them services. Air Transat could take advantages of the new developments in technology by providing wireless internet on their aircrafts and also by launching a new type of aircraft for European destinations such as the double decker plane that Emirates airlines launched. Threats: The main threat is the price of oil increasing is the highest cost for airlines now. A sudden spike in the price of oil could have negative impacts on Air Transat causing it to terminate service to one of their 60 destinations. There are other threats such as safety concerns due to the fear of terrorist attack, changes in government regulations and environmental issues. The airline/aviation industry overall is a great industry to be in for existing airlines, but a very hard one to get into for new airlines. Air Transat has a lot of potential to grow in the European market, and even  farther. Citations: Air Transat Environmental Policy. In Resp.Transat. Retrieved February 5, 2014, from http://www.resp.transat.com/_pdf/en/airtransat.environmental.policy.pdf?v=2. Emirates A30 News & Events. In Emirates. Retrieved February 5, 2014, from http://www.emirates.com/english/flying/our_fleet/emirates_a380/news_and_events/news_and_events.aspx External environment theory. In Business case studies. Retrieved February 5, 2014, from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/business-theory/external-environment/pest-analysis.html#axzz2sW4YAx8I. Pest Analysis. In Business dictionary. Retrieved February 5, 2014, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/PEST-analysis.html. Porter’s 5 Forces. In Investopedia. Retrieved Febuary 8, 2014, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/porter.asp. Porter’s Five Forces. In Mind tools. Retrieved February 5, 2014, from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_08.htm Porter’s Five Forces. In Sites google. Retrieved Febuary 8, 2014, from https://sites.google.com/site/admn703ai/the-team Profile. In Air Transat. Retrieved February 5, 2014, from http://www.airtransat.ca/en/About-us/Profile?ID=35&type=voyageur&tmpl=GEN.