Reflection and Evaluation Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reflection and Evaluation Paper - Essay Example Reflection and evaluation enables the communication practitioners understand whether the communication has attained its objectives of ensuring attitudes and behaviour changes of the stakeholders in the organization (Bryman, 2001). Accordingly, reflection will enable the management to identify any gaps and omissions in their communication strategies and especially in the design of the messages (Bryman, 2001). The results of evaluation will be used by the hospital in determining the further course of action in order to ensure further messages contain the required content and are suitable for the audience. Accordingly, evaluation is necessarily in order to understand whether interpersonal conflicts have been solved and how power needs to be managed in the company (Reddy & Sinha, 1991). The reflection will enable the management understand the best approaches in ensuring intercultural communication and tools that are necessary to continuous assess the systems, tasks and people in order to prevent future crisis in the company (Bryman, 2001). The organization will be capable to assess whether there is a open communication climate that encourages cultural diversity and interpersonal relationships in order to facilitate communication within the organization. The evaluation will enable the management assess the management of press releases and press conferences during the critical event and identify any sources of misleading information and the impact of using several media such as interviews, press releases and electronic media (Bryman, 2001). There are several things that should be done differently next time in order to ensure timely resolution of the interpersonal conflicts and power struggles at Patton-Fuller Community hospital. I believe the first step would have been to understand the sources of the interpersonal conflicts at the

Operation Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 2

Operation Management - Research Paper Example Introduction Fairmont hotel is a leading traditional five star pit stop for many international tourists visiting Singapore. Due to high market penetration by various leading hotel chains Fairmont is anticipating a major shift in bringing operational efficiency by focusing on increased staff training to rise up the bar in terms of customer satisfaction. Secondly traditional procedures enrooted across the management in each department lacks competitive throughput as compared to other systematically superior newer hotels. Another reason why Fairmont failed to sustain its lustre is due to its lack of emphasis towards replacement of its traditional equipment, fixture and fittings in order to keep abreast with the changing trends. Singapore city had remained economically vibrant over the past few years and thus had attracted both business travellers and tourists alike from across the borders at an increased pace. Demand had remained stable throughout hospitality sector and hotel segment, b ut the hotel’s management had felt an alarming situation whilst its occupancy rate dropped immediately in times when the pressure from either group faded. In instances like business holiday season the occupancy rate dropped more abruptly compared to other industry players or far more than the industry rate. Likewise as soon as the peak season for tourists diminished the rate drop for Fairmont surpassed that of its peers. Management is concerned regarding hotel’s obnoxious performance and fears that if no prompt action is taken to bring in higher efficiency that would match performance of its peers, it might have to face consequences like complete closure. Methodology Business Risk Management is concerned regarding the prevalent obnoxious performance and fears that if no prompt action to bring in higher efficiency that would match that of its peers, it might have to face consequences like complete closure. So in order to implement and transform a strategy shift through change management the solution is to be devised based on the current factors that relate to the business. Fairmont is making handsome profits as far as its financial statements records states. But the gap between its profitability and operating cash flows is widening day by day. The GM who had been with the hotel till his retirement last year, had hands on experience and expertise over business marketing and management, his intervention to uplift and upgrade the hotel’s outlook had remained quite low. Performance measurement standards had been predominantly relied over simpler profitability ratios under his regime. It is truly a managers’ job to bring about the relevant change within each process and critically evaluate management with acute yardstick that would enable an enterprise to foster efficient practices and remove inefficiencies. Traditional models have their certain life after which new advance theories builds upon already defined principals as with time impr ovements are crafted naturally. For such reasons product cycle and stage within this cycle is important to be defined that would translate the

Development of Graffiti as an Art Form

Development of Graffiti as an Art Form Graffiti: The Urban Canvas The Development of Graffiti as Art There are many ways in which the Graffiti we see today has developed over time to become known and recognised as an art form. However, it is a controversial subject often covered by journalists in the media as to whether Graffiti today is an up to date urban artistic development or simply mindless vandalism as often thought by society. The history of Graffiti can date back as early as prehistoric cave paintings and stone carvings created by early man to tell and record stories and news of the day. Using stone tools and natural pigments, which over time have developed into similar tools and materials that artists also use at present, produced these pieces. However, we can start to relate the conventional lettering we see today with the style of Roman Graffiti. The Romans would create signs and notices on the walls of buildings and businesses. An example of this was when Brothels would advertise business. The most recognisable motif behind Graffiti, particularly from the twentieth century into the twenty-first century would be music. Rock and Roll music of the nineteen-fifties and sixties proved as influential to youth then as it does now. One of the most famously photographed pieces of graffiti during this time was the Clapton is God slogan that one young fan of Musician Eric Clapton spraypainted onto a wall in London. This proved music had become influential upon youth culture within society. Not only this, but the effects of American culture on the impressionable juveniles of London. Rock and Roll, many say was the start of younger peoples rebellion in their teen years and the Graffiti that occurred to publicise fans love for their favoured band is strong evidence of this. Although, not so much as the effects of American Hip Hop from the eighties continuing on until the present day. Hip-Hop culture truly became popular in the nineteen-eighties, originating on the streets of New Yor k in the late nineteen-seventies. Hip-Hop Graffiti started to move from the subways to the streets in favour of the gang culture that started to arise with the increased popularity of the movement. Like many, the artist Jean Michel Basquiat started his artistic career in the music industry, associating with several Hip-Hop musicians who began in New York. In his time Another popular theme strongly associated with the increasing popularity of Graffiti is Politics. Graffiti has always been a tool for people to speak their mind, but its power has evolved over time from simple war propaganda of World War One and Two, to heightened political ridicule focused on the English and U.S governments current involvement in the war in Iraq and combating Terrorism. Graffiti has the advantage of being read by thousands of people. True, that speech is also effective but it seems that Graffiti has that edge when it comes to putting a point across. Graffiti can last a lot longer than words and its almost eerie silence to say something yet simply appear in a matter of seconds emerges as a bold statement and can be as big or small as its creator insists. Of course not all political Graffiti that has emerged over the years has been positive. For instance, during World War two, Nazi occupancy in Europe encouraged the etching of Swastikas and Anti-Semitic phrases such a s schweizer wehrt euch, kauft nicht bei Juden! meaning, Dont buy, Jews! Which were scribbled on Jewish occupied businesses in bold lettering. Even still, such political and social prejudices still exist through Graffiti. An example of this being the murals that have been painted on the sides of houses, buildings and walls in Northern Ireland to represent IRA territory and power or protests against the establishment. Such pieces of Graffiti seem to be overhanging reminders of the current political situation that drastically effects the area. Furthermore the subject of crime has always had a lot of association with Graffiti. Even though countless individuals see Graffiti as art nowadays, there is still very much the stereotypical belief that a spray can used on a wall to create an image constitutes vandalism. Sadly, crime is a contradicting element to Graffiti. An example of the law against Graffiti is a statement released by police in Norfolk, England, declaring A neglected physical environment is unsafe as it undermines pride in the local community that can lead to further degradation. It can also trigger other anti-social behaviour activities. It is therefore very important that Graffiti crime is stamped out and offenders challenged and penalised for it. Graffiti should be removed swiftly and offenders prevented from doing it again. which is clearly a tool of propaganda in recruiting people to stamp out Graffiti, whatever its purpose or appearance. However, there is a very important matter concerning chalk marks left b y burglars on the walls of homes or residences to signify the significant details of the establishment. For example, a circle with a cross through it, to indicate there is nothing of interest here. Perhaps more disturbingly though an upside down triangle with a wavy line on top denotes that a burglar knows that women live here alone. This shows that seemingly harmless markings in chalk that to an innocent eye could be made by a child encourage burglary and perhaps other crimes on top of this. One of the most notable issues that occurred, however, from the late eighties into the nineties, particularly in New York with the Hip Hop gang culture, was the vast increase in drug crime and demise of safety on the streets. As a consequence, the amount of graffiti artists and writers diminished as it was deemed too unsafe to walk the streets for fear of being shot, for example. It seems that within todays society the main argument is finding the distinction between art and vandalism. Since the development of lettering and tagging, which is the technique of posting your nickname wherever, you have been, there has been the expansion into Graffiti artists creating murals and spray-caned images that look like they should be in galleries. Maybe that is the difference between a conventional painting and a Graffiti piece is that the aim of a painting is to be hung in a gallery, whereas a Graffiti piece is constantly viewed by a very public gallery around the clock. One of the more prominent developments of Graffiti over the past couple of years is the expansion of Graffiti into the art world by existing commercial artists experimenting with techniques often associated with this particular style. Artist Tracy Emin for example has completed etchings and paintings consisting of lettering, random brush strokes and figure outlines. Another element that has contributed to the influx in Graffiti around town is the increase in spray paint products, including various shape nozzles to achieve different spray effects. Therefore it is no wonder that people have started to create larger and more complex pictures and murals because the tools have evolved over the years to make the process easier. However there is an argument with the Graffiti world that there is a clear divide between the commercial artists and the average urban artist. As we can see today, we have become a multicultural society in which we have taken on many different forms of artistic expression to convey issues that we feel matter to us. However, the ways in which this has come about has evolved through time along with the rights of man. Graffiti is a gateway to free speech in many aspects and we have become a lot more able to speak out. The Berlin wall was a good example of demanding peace through graffiti, insisting that divides in society are not the answer. Graffiti has definitely been able to become a form of artistic installation, with the widespread method of producing murals to decorate derelict or downtown communities around the world, such in Brazil and Spain, where it is a celebrated part of youth culture. Graffiti has definitely moved on from being a solely negative aspect of society and developed into a true urban art form, with walls becoming urban canvases of the modern age. Of course there are still those who do still use graffiti as vandalism, but many have now come to recognize graffiti as the major artistic genre of the 21st century.

Baldwin In A Microcosm :: essays research papers

Baldwin in a microcosm "Not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin Racism has been a part of American and world history for centuries, and has become a pattern in cultures. James Baldwin was an African-American author who, like many black men and women, struggled against the inherent hate/racism in America. Baldwin had the opportunity to travel to a microcosmic Swiss village atop a mountain. His story of the native's curiosity towards him and eventually fondness challenges the idea that racism is quickly overtaking the world. A microcosm, by definition is a representation of something on a smaller scale. In the Renaissance age, philosophers considered the world to be a macrocosm hosting millions of individual microcosms: people. The term microcosm signifies the creation of the human being as a complete world. In contrast, macrocosm refers to the idea of the whole universe outside humanity. This idea that an individual person is a world unto himself, surely influenced Baldwin in the writing of his essay pertaining to the small Swiss village that was "virtually unknown" (124). The village that Baldwin verbosely writes about is not specified although he tells us that the warm springs are a tourist draw and that the village is "only four hours from Milan and three hours from Lausanne" (124), but this gives the reader little information about the city. The imagery that forms while reading the passage comes directly from the population of the village. The men, women, and children, are all astounded by Baldwin's skin color and hair texture. Some of the inhabitants believed that Baldwin's hair "was the color of tar, that it had the texture of wire, or the texture of cotton" (125). The sheer astonishment of the village natives took Baldwin by surprise, as did the young children shouting "Neger Neger!" The people of the town, although geographically sheltered, are the same people that Baldwin knew as he grew up. He says that "America comes out of Europe, but these people have never seen America, nor have most of them seen more of Europe than the hamlet at the foot of their mountain" (127). Baldwin grew up in Harlem and suffered from racism in many ways. He recalls be called the very same derogatory word that the children in the Swiss village called him, but the difference was that the children in Harlem had an inbred racism and the Swiss children had never seen a black man before.

Theories of Crime

Describe how you think Intelligence-Led Policing in the United States should be conducted. Intelligence-led policing is the latest means by which police authorities solve crimes instead of acting only after a crime has been consummated (â€Å"Intelligence-Led Policing in the United States†). This shift from the old practice needs more development in order to cope up with the changing technological advancement around the world. Besides, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, made this revolution essential.I know that such huge attack in the United States became successful because of negligence and underestimating the capabilities of criminals in using technology to evade the law. For me, there are three ways wherein intelligence-led policing should be conducted in the United States. First, there should be constant look-out of people coming in the country and going out of the same. The possibility of criminals coming in the country not detected by the police is high due to their networks and resources.Second, there should be a more effective system wherein all intelligence units across the country could interact directly through the development of technology to that effect. And third, all suspicious and non-suspicious but possible perpetrators must be constantly monitored for possible crime or terrorism activities, and such action must be done in accordance with law. Specifically, how would you recommend setting up the intelligence community in the United States?Globalization, fast-tracked by development in technology and transportation, has transformed the world smaller for criminals and bigger for state and local law enforcement (â€Å"Intelligence-Led Policing)†. In that sense, setting up the domestic intelligence or the FBI must be magnified to the effect that it is no longer limited to domestic perpetrators but to all their possible accomplices and accessories within the country.The CIA, which is the foreign intelligence must focus on sma ll groups of individual who are capable of consummating criminal acts and study their possible allies and supporters. The role of the militaries is vital in having access to these groups of criminals as they are capable to use bigger force to solve crimes. It would be better if a unified action be made in every intelligence reports received by all authorities in order to prevent commission of crimes against national security and individual well-being.References Suburban Emergency Management Project. 2007. Intelligence-Led Policing in the United States. Retrieved July 22, 2009, from http://www. semp. us/publications/biot_ reader. php? BiotID=474. Bureau of Justice Assistance. 2009. Intelligence-Led Policing. Retrieved July 22, 2009, http://www. ojp. usdoj. gov/BJA/topics/ilp. html.

Counselor Ethics and Responsibilities Essay

As a counselor we’re taught to put our own values and beliefs aside and provide services to our clients even if our values and beliefs do not coincide. When topics such as abortion and assisted suicide are brought up, I express my personal values about them. Abortion is a very sensitive topic for some individuals. My personal values towards abortion are I am for it and I’m speaking from my own personal experience. As a woman, it’s hard to decide to get an abortion but there are a lot of reasons as to why a woman may get the procedure done. For instance, a 19-year-old rape victim came to me for help because she wants to get an abortion and wants my help changing her parents’ attitude towards her wanting the procedure done. The ethical issue that I would have to consider while trying to consider on how I am going to counsel this client is trying to persuade her parents’ to have the same values and beliefs as her in order for her to have her parent’s blessing to get the abortion. This would be an issue because I have to be aware of her parents’ beliefs and trying to change their beliefs on behalf of my client would be wrong. My personal values towards assisted suicide are different than abortion. It is my belief that an illness should not make you want to take your life. If Eleanor came to me stating that she wants to end her life because of her health condition, I am responsible as a counselor to do my best and make sure she does not cause harm to herself. Even though I am against suicide, it’s my duty to counsel my client in need. The ACA (2005) states that counselors must take measures that enable clients to be given every opportunity possible to engage in informed decision making regarding their end of life care. Moreover, I would consult my supervisor as to how should I go about counseling Eleanor and I would also look into finding the appropriate professional to refer her too that specializes in end-of-life practice. Client Rights The four most important client rights that I believe a counselor has an obligation to protect are confidentiality, informed consent, privacy and cultural sensitivity. The first important client right is confidentiality. It is important that we ensure our clients’ confidentiality because it is our duty to make sure we do not provide any confidential information to another individual without consent from our client or if we have to there is a legal or ethical justification. Informed consent is the second most important client right because it allows clients the right to be informed about their therapy and to make decisions about it. Moreover, it is important to respect your client’s privacy. According to ACA (2005), a counselor should only solicit private information from the client only when the information will be potentially beneficial to the counseling process. Additionally, it is important to be culturally competent because â€Å"everyone is deeply embedded in one or more cultures and subcultures that shape the thinking, feeling, and acting of an individual and if counselors cannot see the ways that culture has shaped them, they are unlikely to be able to see the important and deep-seated ways that culture has shaped their clients (Values, n. . ). † As a counselor, I will incorporate these rights into my professional practice by following the Code of Ethics, consulting a colleague or supervisor and continuing my education to ensure that I am culturally competent. Responsibility to Warn and Protect One factor that will make me consider my â€Å"duty to warn† responsibility as a counselor is if my client has a contagious, life-threatening disease. When clients disclose that they have a disease commonly known to be both communicable and life threatening, counselors may be justified in disclosing information to identifiable third parties, if they are known to be at demonstrable and high risk of contracting the disease. Prior to making a disclosure, counselors confirm that there is such a diagnosis and assess the intent of clients to inform the third parties about their disease or to engage in any behaviors that may be harmful to an identifiable third party (ACA, 2005). Once I confirm that my client does have the communicable and life threatening disease, I would inform the individual that would have the possibility of contracting this disease. Another factor that will make me consider my â€Å"duty to protect† responsibility as a counselor is if my client disclosed to me during a session that they have plans to do harm to another individual. The ethical issues that I would consider while making my decision to ensure the well being of the individual would be if I should notify them of the potential harm or just notify the police. As a counselor, I still have to protect my clients’ confidentiality and my decision to disclose the possibility of harm to the individual would be based on the extent of the threat. Poland and McCormick (1999) stated that â€Å"notifying police is not sufficient action to protect the counselor from a lawsuit if the client’s threat is carried out. † Client Record-Keeping Client record-keeping is related to competent, ethical practice because as a counselor you have to document the clinical assessment and treatment process to ensure that the plan that was set for them is consistent with their diagnosis and assessment information. It is the responsibility of the counselor to make sure they document each time they have contact with their client in detail in order for their supervisor to review and ensure that the clients’ sessions are showing past progress and future outcomes. The components of a clinical record that I believe are most important for protecting the client’s right to a professional standard of care is informed consent to treatment forms, fee agreements, signed client rights statements, treatment plans, and treatment team staffing notes, often signed by clients or parents as well as by professionals. Authorizations to release information provide clients’ written consent to disclose protected information within very specific parameters (Poland & McCormick, 1999). Additionally, the components of a clinical record that are important for protecting the counselor from liability are a thorough assessment, a congruent treatment plan, detailed progress notes consistent with the plan, supervisory notes, billing notes consistent with the services documented, and the client rights documents (Poland & McCormick, 1999). As long as the counselor keeps detailed documentation of each meeting with each client, they will be able to defend themselves against allegations of misconduct. Topic of Choice One ethical issue that I find that will be controversial is confidentiality. This issue is significant for me because if I had a client disclose to me during a session that they had a communicable life threatening disease and they were practicing unsafe behaviors in order to pass the disease along to as many people as possible, I would find it hard to protect their confidentiality. Once I’ve received enough information from my client, I would consult with my supervisor as to what should be my next step. After I consult with my supervisor, I would take the proper steps to confirm that my client does have a communicable life threatening disease and if they do I would inform all possible parties.

Teacher Interview Essays - Rafe Esquith, Eleanor Duckworth

Teacher Interview Essays - Rafe Esquith, Eleanor Duckworth Kayla Cardwell Teacher Interview ECED 1310-W91 Karen Stooksbury 04-16-15 Teacher Interview The teacher I chose for this interview teaches second grade. She has been teaching for six years now and she loves it! You can tell she really enjoys her job. That is a quality you do not see in a lot of teachers anymore. I learned a lot from this interview. I learned what it really takes to be a great teacher. I learned different ways to teach. I learned different ways of communication with the parents. One thing that really surprised me was what this teacher found most challenging. She said that a lot of the parents do not interact in their childs education. She said you will have parents who really care and do as much as they can, and then you will have parents who do not care at all. Some parents do not work with discipline and homework at home with their children. This makes it very hard on their teacher. This really surprised me and upset me because you would think parents would want to help and do as much as they could to enhance their childs learning experience. It is very sa d to think that there are parents out there who simply do not care. The part of this job that would be most rewarding to me would be making a difference in the childs life. For some children, they look forward to going to school, and it is the only stable thing in their lives. Something I did not know about this job would be all of the training they have to complete. I knew training was required for the job, but I did not realize it was quite that much. This interview was very helpful to me as I think about myself as a future teacher. It helped me to understand that all the training I am receiving is very beneficial. I felt that it was something I am really going to enjoy doing. I look very much forward to not only building a career for myself in my own life, but doing as I observed from the teacher and making a difference in the kids that I will be teaching. I am excited to be a part of building a future for young children, and showing them, even if they arent being brought up in t he best household, that they can hold a future for themselves, and make it a great experience for them. 1.Why did he/she choose this career? I love to be with kids and watch them grow. 2.Ask him/her to describe a typical workday. You get there 30 minutes before the kids to get your day started. You greet the kids at the door. You get started with the curriculum. Then lunch comes. You come back and do more work. Then send kids to special area classes. Get ready to go home. Then sometimes car duty or bus duty. 3.What is his/her teaching philosophy? With the curriculum I try to teach to the ability of the children and focus on small groups rather than whole groups. 4.What curriculum approach or model does his/her program use? What can he/she tell about it? Common core standards. I implement ways to help the kids understand it better and use state standards. 5.What tools or methods does he/she use to assess the childrens learning and development? Start testing which is a benchmark test taken 3 times a year. RTI- daily. I use more hands on activities and use classwork to assess. 6.How does he/she communicate with and involve families/parents? What does he/she like best about her job? A weekly newsletter sent out on Monday. Remind.com and app on phone. Emails I love being with my kids and watching them understand what you teach. 7.What does he/she find most challenging? What education or training is required for his/her position? Getting parents on board and reinforcement at home. Also parents not being interactive. Gen. Ed., bachelors in teaching, training all the time. 8.What attributes or qualities does he/she associate with a professional in early childhood? What suggestions does this person give regarding steps a beginner can take when starting the journey of professionalism? Loving, caring, knowledgeable of each student. Get into school, 1st hand learning is best, and just jump right in. Reflection Reflect on the

Summary On The Articles About Second Hand Smoking Essays - Smoking

Summary On The Articles About Second Hand Smoking Essays - Smoking Summary On The Articles About Second Hand Smoking Secondhand Smoke, Is It a Hazard? In the 1950's and 60's scientists gave the people a lot of evidence on the deadly effects of smoking where the tobacco companies on the other hand tried to put the doubt in peoples minds through the campaigns to show that it is not all true. By the time people actually decided to take care of their health and finally saw how life-threatening smoking could be by real life examples, the tobacco companies already got rich from its sales. Nowadays, nobody doubts that firsthand smoke is deadly to your health and it causes lung cancer and heart disease in adults and asthma and bronchitis in children. Now the industry is onto the secondhand smoke. Scientists and researchers are representing a lot of evidence and research that has been done throughout the years showing that the secondhand smoke can also cause a lung cancer in nonsmokers. The study has been done of people who have been long exposed to secondhand smoke and it shows that 26 out of 33 published studies indicate a link between secondhand smoke and lung cancer. The study estimates that the people that were breathing secondhand smoke were 8 to 150 percent more likely to get lung cancer. The tobacco companies are trying to argue the facts and are still in serious debate about the health hazards of breathing a secondhand smoke. A lot of anti-smoking organizations are trying to turn smoking in public into a private activity that does not have to involve nonsmokers breathing secondhand smoke. What is even more important is that many of these organizations convinced a lot of smokers to cut back or quit completely. The problem of secondhand smoke is increasing because it is so common in our society. It makes secondhand smoke the third-ranking cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers. Mothers who live with a smoking spouse have to realize the ill effects of secondhand smoke on children even before they are born. The smoking components reach the developing fetus through the mother. Infants that are born in a smoking environment weigh less and have a weaker chance of becoming a fully developed child. Secondhand smoke leads to blood clots and damages arterial linings which are the two most leading factors in the development of heart disease. The tobacco companies got scared of the effect that the secondhand smoke research can do to the cigarette makers. The tobacco companies started their own secret studies on how to fight the growing success of antismoking activists. They are trying to show the people that there is no definite evidence to prove that the secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer or any other diseases that the scientists accuse it of. The tobacco industry is trying to influence the science by commissioning a research from sympathetic scientists and sponsoring scientific meetings where they try to carefully bring out their point of view and publish the results in the medical literature. Only 4 percent of the articles that were published from the meetings that were sponsored by the tobacco industry said that the secondhand smoke was unhealthy. The debate on secondhand smoke has reached the boiling point. When different scientists are using different study designs and different researches and still come up with the same result, it is time to start paying more serious attention to secondhand smoke. When the human evidence is combined with the laboratory experiments showing that the secondhand smoke can cause cancer it is impossible to ignore it any longer. The nonsmokers should have the right to breathe smoke-free air. It is important to have restrictions on where people are allowed to smoke and in particular to keep the work place as a smoke-free environment. The declining rates of smoking show that people can actually quit. Everybody should make an effort to quit for the sake of the people they love.

Do Third-Party Social Media Tools Impact Facebook Organic Reach

Do Third-Party Social Media Tools Impact Facebook Organic Reach â€Å"So, does Facebook penalize posts from your tool?† This is a common question we get asked. Typically, it’ll be sparked by underperforming posts. Or, a curious marketer will stumble upon rumor claiming posts third-party tools receive diminished organic reach. It’s easy to see why this issue causes concern. You put a lot of work into building your social media presence. While scheduling posts manually is very nearly impossible at scale, you don’t want to risk your business with tools that hurt more than help. Let’s answer this question once and for all. What You Need to Know about Social Media Tools and Facebook Organic ReachCan I Get a Yes Or No Answer? If you’re busy, the short answer is no. Facebook does not penalize posts from third-party tools. The posts you create with (or any other tool) will perform as well as those posted manually. While it’s true that Facebook used to penalize such tools, that changed in 2011. When that announcement came out, the folks at Buffer had it covered. Here’s what Facebook development consultant Matt Trainer had to say: â€Å"†¦we recently made a fix that added more signals to detect good quality posting behavior. This should improve the situation with the distribution of posts coming from third-party apps in the News Feed.† *cue deep sigh of relief* And with that, we’ll let you get back to work. *cue deep sigh of relief* And with that, we’ll let you get back to work. The Source of the Problem Facebook organic reach has been declining on brand pages for a long time. That much isn’t a secret. In fact, Marketing Land reported back in August of 2016 that organic reach was down 52%  for brands at that time. It certainly hasn’t gotten any better since then, either. What brands can actually do about it, though, is another matter. The fact is there are no easy solutions for marketers to succeed on Facebook. It takes strategy, creativity, and a lot of hard work. No short cuts. When it comes time to report metrics though, marketers need answers for their organizations. â€Å"Reach is down, and we don’t know why† isn’t something any business owner wants to hear. Even if your organic reach is hitting the slopes, you still need two things: A compelling answer for what’s going on. A plan to mitigate the technical challenges to marketing on Facebook. In trying to address the issue, the tools involved are bound to be questioned. Sometimes, rumors die hard. The old yarn about Facebook penalizing third-party tools refuses to go away. And as long as reach declines, it’ll likely remain in the discussion. The truth is that Facebook has explicitly said posts from third-party tools aren’t penalized. In fact, data from Buffer  and this report from AgoraPulse supports this. So, If My Reach Still Looks Low, What’s the Real Issue? There could be at least a couple factors at play. Everyone’s situation is different, though. It’s tough to guess at why one page may underperform while another excels. But, here are two different areas where we’d recommend taking a look. Do People Like Your Content? Engagement (likes, clicks, and shares) can help give your reach a post. Facebook wants to reward content people enjoy, after all. If people aren’t interested in your posts, engagement is naturally going to drop. In this case, it might be worth reassessing your Facebook content strategy. Mixing it up with different types of messaging, or different forms of content  might help. For example, you might try posting more videos. Or, perhaps multi-image posts might be more appealing. These are just some examples. Of course, there could be other intangible elements of your content to investigate, too. Here are some things to consider: Are my images strong?  Visual content is important on Facebook. Analyze images that have done well in the past, and reverse-engineer your own success. Is my copy off-target?  It’s possible your messaging might not be resonating with your audience, either. Try approaching this the same way you would with your visuals. Take a look at posts that have done well in the past, and see if you can identify any common themes. Do all of my posts include links? Facebook is an important platform for driving traffic back to your blog or website. However, not every post necessarily needs to have a link. Facebook wants you to spend more time on their own platform, right? So, feed Facebook creative content that can stand on its own without a link. You might not always get referral traffic, but you can still reinforce your brand message. Are You Posting At the Best Times? If reach is partially influenced by engagement, then you need to be posting when your audience is most active. So, if your social posts are underperforming, it could be that your posting times aren’t optimized for your audience. mitigates this problem with our Best Time Scheduling feature, which intelligently schedules posts at the best times for your audience. Take a look at your Facebook Insights and see which times appear to perform best. Or, if you’re setting times manually for your posts in , take a look at your Social Engagement Reports. Dig through your past 20 or 30 posts or so (to have a decent sample size), and make note of which times appeared to perform best. You might learn your audience is more active at certain times, or on certain days. Recommended Reading: What 16 Studies Say About the Best Times to Post on Social Media How to Use Social Media Analytics to Create the Best Content How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way (+84 Free Images) How to Write for Social Media to Create the Best PostsIs your #Facebook #reach declining? Heres what to do about it.Are Your Posts Overly Promotional? Facebook cracked down on promotional posts back in late 2014. What is a promotional post exactly? Promotional posts are most easily categorized as organic posts that sound like ads. If your posts Include hard calls-to-action (ex: Buy Now, Read This, etc.). Incorporate dollar signs or other dead giveaways that youre directly selling something. Promote contests without creative context (ex: Like this post to win a free iPad) then you can expect your posts to be demoted in the newsfeed. Heres the official word from Facebook: According to people we surveyed, there are some consistent traits that make organic posts feel too promotional: Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads And heres an example of what Facebook considers a promotional post: So, whats a marketer to do? Put your users first. Think, What would my audience want to see on Facebook? Get creative. Create Facebook content thats entertaining and connects with your audiences interests. Pay to promote posts or run Facebook ads. If you want to directly push products on Facebook, then pay for those posts. If youre just getting started with Facebook advertising, check out this guide from Neil Patel. We also recommend this guide from Convince And Convert on promoting posts, too. There You Have It, Another Case Closed You now know that third-party tools aren’t penalized by Facebook. In addition, you now have some starting points to help you improve your organic reach on the platform, too. If you have any lingering questions, comments, or concerns, drop us a comment below!

How to Prepare for Final Examinations Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

How to Prepare for Final Examinations - Article Example Before, the beginning of examinations, the student should set certain goals which he likes to achieve or reflect in the examination results. Subsequently, all the efforts should be made to attain those predetermined goals. The goals should be realistic ones. In other words, the student should never set goals which are beyond his capabilities. There are many students who struggle to get even the desired grades in the final examinations because of the unrealistic goals just before the examinations. It is difficult for an average student to achieve first grade even if he tries extremely hard during the final examinations. If he wants to achieve first grade he should begin his preparations at the beginning of the course itself. When it comes to preparations of final examinations, different students opt for different ways. However, there are some general principles which are followed by the majority of the students while they prepare for their final examinations. First, it is better to start examination preparations as early as possible in order to avoid problems later. Early preparations help the student to avoid stress and anxiety with respect to final examinations. Majority of the students fail to perform well in final examinations because of their anxiety and stress related to the outcomes of the examination. Self-assessment of the level of knowledge in each subject is the second step in the preparations of final examinations. Before the beginning of the preparations, the student should decide which subjects need more attention and which subjects need less attention since he is the only one who knows his mastery in different subjects very well.  Ã‚  

The UK Anti-Discrimination Law Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

The UK Anti-Discrimination Law - Research Paper Example The significance of protection of human rights in terms of equal rights to one and all and the treatment of all humans with dignity and respect has been recognized by the world community which has enacted several laws to prevent cases of discrimination and punish those who resort to such uncivilized behavior. These laws seek to ensure and propagate the idea that all humans irrespective of their race, sex, physical disabilities, and preferences be treated equally and with the same degree of respect and dignity enjoyed by their fellow beings. Such opinions have also been voiced by the United Nations in their Charter which states that â€Å"Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or another opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or another status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty†2. Discrimination is divided into four distinct categories which include discrimination on the basis of age, sex, race, disability etc and is further categorized as direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment, and victimization. The definition and scope of each of the term are discussed hereunder: This form of discrimination is one of the most common and widely experienced forms of discrimination.

Business communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 8

Business communication - Essay Example Under the integrating conflict resolution method, the negotiator applies the cultural diversity of the two parties, by selecting the strength that is presented by each culture, and then integrates the strengths to form a formidable neutral ground, that suits the cultural diversity of the different groups (Kelman, 102). Therefore, considering that Prasan is an Indian with a strong preference for making impression, while Andreas is a Swedish with a strong preference for accuracy in information communication and delivery, the two cultural aspects can be blended, to form a single concept that incorporates the strengths. Thus, in combining the two strengths, the US trainer will negotiate with Andreas to adapt impression as a fundamental aspect of winning the hearts of others, considering that other than making a straight forwards response to the effect that it is not possible to provide the documents within a duration of two days, Andreas can adapt the Indian culture of making impression, by giving a response that will express good impression as well as accuracy. Similarly, Prasan can adapt to the accuracy culture of the Swedish, through incorporating the element of accuracy in the response. This can be achieved through Prasan and Andreas adapting the culture of ‘accurate-impression makingâ€℠¢ communication, which would give an answer like; â€Å"I will try to avail the documents in two days, although I am not sure about that, since I have more workload to address’. Such an answer will reflect both impression and accuracy, since Prasan will have made a good impression in indicating the willingness to avail the documents within the required two days, while expressing the accuracy of the difficulty existing in presenting the documents as indicated by Andreas. Therefore, through the combination of these two strengths that emanate

MGT506 - Strategic Leadership, Mod 2 Case Assignment Essay

MGT506 - Strategic Leadership, Mod 2 Case Assignment - Essay Example The success behind such unprecedented growth of SAS is attributed to the CEO of the company, Jim Goodnight. Jim Goodnight has been with the company for more than 35 years and ensured that the company grew each year without having to face any layoffs. Jim Goodnight strived for an open system for the organization with a flat structure to ensure efficient working of the company. Jim Goodnight has been considered to be one of the greatest American business leaders of the 20th century by Harvard Business School in 2004 (Stamper, 2010). The paper attempts to shed light on the leadership qualities of Jim Goodnight as a situational leader. This paper will analyze how SAS is able to prosper and continuously show growth on account of having a leader such as Jim Goodnight. Lastly, the paper would discuss whether situational leadership style is bred or born. Situational Leadership style was another style of leadership developed by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard. As the name implies, leaders falling in this category take action according to the situation. They combine elements of both autocratic and participative styles in order to achieve the desired results. This leadership style takes into account that there is no best leadership style but the best leaders are those that understand that core of the issue and take action accordingly. Thus situational leadership relies on the external environment heavily which includes not just the people within the team but also the task they have to accomplish. Hersey and Blanchard use the four quadrant model of Situational leadership to properly explain the characteristics of such leader and the action they take given the situation. The Situational leadership model as presented by Hersey and Blanchard is: Structuring: Leaders need to adopt this approach in the bleakest situation, that is, the morale of the employees in not just low, they also do not have the ability to deal

Cross cuiltur managment (Expatriation and Culture Shock in China ) Essay

Cross cuiltur managment (Expatriation and Culture Shock in China ) - Essay Example Cardozo (2007) believes that these opportunities are being sought and preferred because of the excitement of foreign travel and the challenges presented by the new posts. It would appear, however, based on studies and recent developments on expatriation, that the figure is not altogether rosy for the expatriates. One of the undesirable effects of expatriation is culture shock, a condition defined as â€Å"coming to understand and adapt to differences in culture† by Kwintessential Ltd., a company engaged in cross cultural services. It is the objective of this paper to take an in-depth look at expatriation and culture shock in China, how expatriation leads to culture shock and how this condition is experienced by the expatriates. The choice of China is made for the simple reason that China is an interesting case for cultural study especially in its present role as the bearer of a new economic order, and for many expatriate managers, is a stimulating environment in which to live and work (Kaye and Taylor, 1997). The paper further aims to examine the causes of this undesirable state using research data gathered from secondary sources. It is hoped that the examination will add more insights into this problem and possibly contribute to a deeper understanding and resolution of the same. Extent of Failure of Expatriation According to Harzing (1995), almost every publication on the topic of expatriation defines and evaluates expatriate failure as the â€Å"percentage of expatriates returning home before their assignment contract expires.† Harzing (1995) cites Buckley and Brooke who claimed that expatriate failure would be in the range of 70 per cent for developing countries and 25-40% in developing countries. Rosalie Tung in Shilling (1993) puts a second to this claim by citing survey results among US, European and Japanese multinational corporations indicating a high percentage of failures in overseas assignments. In another report by Sharon Lobel, failed assignments were reported to have occurred in as often as 70% of the time in many developed countries (Shilling, 1993). Addler and Ghadar in Harzing (1995) attribute a range of 25-40% for failed American expatriates while Tung’s estimate of the failure rate among expatriates in Europe is 10%. It is easy to see from these percentages that the returning expatriates, known as repatriates, represent a substantial sum of money lost on their failure to adapt to the country of assignment. If the losses are substantial from the returning assignees, what is more disturbing is the finding in recent studies that showed the decreasing number of candidates now refusing foreign assignments (Rao, 2010) Other studies have shown, according to Kaye and Taylor (1997), that 16-40% of expatriates terminate their foreign assignments early because of their poor performance on the job or their inability to adjust to their new environment. Not only that, the same studies show that as many as 50% of those who stay would be functioning at low levels of effectiveness (Kaye and Taylor, 1997). It is estimated that the average cost to the parent company of a failed assignment would be in the range of $65,000 to $300,000 per failure (Mendenhall and Oddou in Kaye and Taylor, 1997). Culture Shock: A Major Cause of Failure The Oxford Dictionary of Sociology refers to culture shock as â€Å"

Mini proposal JUST (SAMPLING& METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION) Essay

Mini proposal JUST (SAMPLING& METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION) - Essay Example The selected sample will be subdivided into three different groups which will be used in conducting the research. A combination of various sampling techniques will be utilised in seeking to ensure the researchers get the most representative and balanced sample. This will be critical in ensuring that the findings of the research can be generalised to other groups of individuals. The sampling methods will include the ones discussed below. This approach is commonly utilised in seeking to ensure inclusion of individuals with specific qualities that are being analysed by the researcher. The fundamental reason for utilising purposeful sampling in this research is to provide an in-depth understanding of the perceptions that teenagers have regarding their body image following involvement in sport and physical activity (Suri, 2011). Purposeful sampling techniques will be utilised in seeking to ensure that the researcher gets only the individuals who fit into the specified research sample. This will be based on the women’s capability to participate in sport and other related physical activities. The research will involve different groups of samples in seeking to present the different elements that have been defined within the research. This will involve the establishment of a sample and then selecting a few individuals from the sample to become the research participants. The samples will be stratified according to the specification for the different groups of participants involved in the research. This will ensure that the small sample size becomes representative of a population upon which they can be generalised. The research seeks to collect qualitative data which will be utilised in establishing the perceptions of the teenage girls regarding their image after participating in sport and physical activities. The data collection process will involve conducting interviews with the selected population

Cross cuiltur managment (Expatriation and Culture Shock in China ) Essay

Cross cuiltur managment (Expatriation and Culture Shock in China ) - Essay Example Cardozo (2007) believes that these opportunities are being sought and preferred because of the excitement of foreign travel and the challenges presented by the new posts. It would appear, however, based on studies and recent developments on expatriation, that the figure is not altogether rosy for the expatriates. One of the undesirable effects of expatriation is culture shock, a condition defined as â€Å"coming to understand and adapt to differences in culture† by Kwintessential Ltd., a company engaged in cross cultural services. It is the objective of this paper to take an in-depth look at expatriation and culture shock in China, how expatriation leads to culture shock and how this condition is experienced by the expatriates. The choice of China is made for the simple reason that China is an interesting case for cultural study especially in its present role as the bearer of a new economic order, and for many expatriate managers, is a stimulating environment in which to live and work (Kaye and Taylor, 1997). The paper further aims to examine the causes of this undesirable state using research data gathered from secondary sources. It is hoped that the examination will add more insights into this problem and possibly contribute to a deeper understanding and resolution of the same. Extent of Failure of Expatriation According to Harzing (1995), almost every publication on the topic of expatriation defines and evaluates expatriate failure as the â€Å"percentage of expatriates returning home before their assignment contract expires.† Harzing (1995) cites Buckley and Brooke who claimed that expatriate failure would be in the range of 70 per cent for developing countries and 25-40% in developing countries. Rosalie Tung in Shilling (1993) puts a second to this claim by citing survey results among US, European and Japanese multinational corporations indicating a high percentage of failures in overseas assignments. In another report by Sharon Lobel, failed assignments were reported to have occurred in as often as 70% of the time in many developed countries (Shilling, 1993). Addler and Ghadar in Harzing (1995) attribute a range of 25-40% for failed American expatriates while Tung’s estimate of the failure rate among expatriates in Europe is 10%. It is easy to see from these percentages that the returning expatriates, known as repatriates, represent a substantial sum of money lost on their failure to adapt to the country of assignment. If the losses are substantial from the returning assignees, what is more disturbing is the finding in recent studies that showed the decreasing number of candidates now refusing foreign assignments (Rao, 2010) Other studies have shown, according to Kaye and Taylor (1997), that 16-40% of expatriates terminate their foreign assignments early because of their poor performance on the job or their inability to adjust to their new environment. Not only that, the same studies show that as many as 50% of those who stay would be functioning at low levels of effectiveness (Kaye and Taylor, 1997). It is estimated that the average cost to the parent company of a failed assignment would be in the range of $65,000 to $300,000 per failure (Mendenhall and Oddou in Kaye and Taylor, 1997). Culture Shock: A Major Cause of Failure The Oxford Dictionary of Sociology refers to culture shock as â€Å"

A Modest Proposal Essay Example for Free

A Modest Proposal Essay A Reading of A Modest Proposal concentrating on how Swift criticised the society in which he lived. A Modest Proposal is a satirical pamphlet written by Jonathon Swift in 1729. It outlines the dreadful way in which Catholics were treated by the protestant minority in Ireland during these times. During the time Swift wrote this piece of prose, a series of laws called the Penal Laws excluded Catholics from society. They made it illegal for them to own any land and if they made a profit of more than a third of their rent, they could face eviction. They lived in absolute poverty and had no human rights. Swift may have written this text for innumerable reasons but one can suggest that there were three main points: (1) to cause outrage and shock in order to get the author, Swift, much attention, (2) to draw attention to the governments refusal to do anything about child poverty and (3) to draw attention to the plight of the poor by showing that his proposal was no more monstrous than the situation that already existed. The text works by combining many elements of literary techniques, such as irony, shock tactics and moral pronouncements, in order to create the maximum response possible from the reader- shock. It can be suggested that this shock was hoped to achieve anger throughout the protestant communities and maybe to cause some civil unrest until something was done about it. The title also covers up what the proposal actually is. In a rough translation, the title could mean A humble suggestion for preventing the children of the poor from being a burden to their parents as they are of no use to their parents or society, and making them useful to the public. Though this translation may give an insight to what the suggestion is about, the reader still does not know what it actually is. The text can be split into four parts: (1) the problem, (2) the plan, (3) the solution and (4) the benefits.   The first criticism made by Swift can be found in the first paragraph, It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town crowded with beggars of the female sex. This shows that Swift may be implying that the proposal is about the poor people of Ireland. One may notice that this quotation is also a criticism about how many poor Catholics there are in Ireland and that something should be done about it. The next criticism is in the fourth paragraph supported by her milk for a solar year with little other nourishment. This could suggest that there is not enough food for Catholics, so they have to feed the babies on just their mothers milk, however, this quotation could just show that babies can survive on just their mothers milk so it could be a statement of fact. The next criticism can also be found in the fourth paragraph, wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives. This can be connected with paragraph one as this may mean that the catholic children would be begging for food and clothing for the rest of their lives unless something is done about it. Another criticism can be found in paragraph six, able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend that there cannot be so many. This may appear to some readers that the author is writing about the poor state of Catholics and that they are so poor, that cannot provide for their own children but it could also be translated that Protestants think so badly of Catholics that they do not care how their children are treated. In paragraph seven, there is a further criticism concerning Catholic children. He says that a boy or girls before twelve years old is no salable commodity meaning that young children are useless to society. Swift then compares the poor children to animals in paragraph fifteen, will make admirable gloves for ladies and summer boots for fine gentlemen. Here, Swift is comparing childrens skin to leather from a cow. Going back to paragraph twelve, yet another criticism can be found within the quotation landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of their parents, seem to nave the best title to the children. This could be seen as a pun with the word devoured literally meaning that the landlord has consumed virtually all of the Catholics assets. By using this word, Swift as linked to the suggestion of eating children by saying that the landlords have already destroyed the Catholic tenants lives, so what difference will it make if they eat their babies? To make this pamphlet seem real, Swift has used a number of literary techniques, for example, he has used a vast amount of irony such as in paragraph twenty eight, he implies eating babies at wedding and christening ceremonies. Swift also uses a large amount of shock tactics, par se, paragraph fifteen, will make admirable gloves for ladies Though it may seem true, Swift does not actually mean to eat the children of Catholics. By suggesting such a hideous and shocking proposal, he would have gained much attention and reveal the way in which Protestants were treating the Catholic majority. Overall, it can be said that this pamphlet was very successful in trying to eliminate racism toward the Catholics but this prejudice can still be seen today between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland and parts of Scotland. It is also a great example to show how satire has changed very little throughout the centuries, for example, The Office is set out very much in the same way as A Modest Proposal. The same techniques can be applied (Irony ect) and some of the same subjects can still apply such as government and other races of people but most of all, this pamphlet shows the reader just how effective using satire is to get the authors point across successfully. Simon Garlinge Pre 1914 prose coursework first draft Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Jonathan Swift section.

Wedding planning in China

Wedding planning in China CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Wedding is once-a-life event in peoples life. For most of families, they are willing to spend a considerable amount of money to ensure the wedding is organized as perfect as possible. According to Howard (2006), wedding today is a $70 billion business in U.S., and the average cost of wedding is $26,000 per couples. As a spinoff the larger discipline of event management, the business of wedding planning will provide business to a broad array of supporting industries, such as hotels, retails, and catering service. Comparing with the other personal events, such as birthday, anniversaries, wedding is more complicated, because it involves friends and families and a range of related service activities covering from catering to entertainments (Shone Parry, 2004). In order to make sure everything goes smoothly in the wedding day, most of the prospective couples would like to plan the wedding in sometimes year in advance. Both brides and grooms put much effort into the wedding preparation including the venue selection, honeymoon booking and dress design etc. However, not all of them have enough time and energy and knowledge in wedding planning to arrange everything themselves. They need someone to assist them in wedding planning, budget preparation, planning detail checklists, venue arrangement as well as onsite supervision and coordination on the wedding day. Wedding planners, the professional dealing with all the details of wedding, provide a one-stop service to potential couples by charging some considerable consultant fee (Wikipedia org, 2009). The role of the wedding planners is to save time, look after details, make couples dream come true, stay on the budget and save money. Wedding planners have become one of the outsourced labours in modern society (Blakely, 2007). With the rapid development of the society in the last decade, more and more couples prefer to go to college and start their own careers after graduation. Marriage is happening later in brides and grooms life (Mayling, 2002). This means couples have more disposable income to afford the wedding expenses; and they are more likely to look for some special unique wedding styles, such as theme wedding, green wedding etc., which probably involves different elements, such as ethic, religious custom, family tradition, class identity, regional practice and individual tastes and preference (Howard, 2006). As a result, wedding planners, who are providing professional advices and assistance to the couples from the moment of distributing the invitations, arranging the style of cake ceremony, table setting, and setting for banquet, are necessarily needed and developed dramatically (Markby, 2006). 1.2 Wedding in China In traditional Chinese culture, marriage was creating alliances between families. Therefore, it was strictly arranged by parents or elder people in families. Wedding should be planned strictly according to the customs. For example, people should choose a good year, a good month, a good day as well as a good time for wedding ceremony; and use red in the declaration for everything with the purpose of auspicious. Wedding is also one of the ways for Chinese families to present their social classes therefore the families are willing to spend a large mount of money on wedding, and much of which were supported by parents or relatives. Because of the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, nowadays, the living standards in China have been dramatically increased. According to the China Statistic Yearbook 2008 (2009), the GDP per capita in Mainland China is increasing steadily and has reached 18,934 RMB in 2007. At the mean time, the social culture is becoming diversified. More and more Chinese people, especially the younger generation who have better education, began to accept the western culture. Most of the prospective couples would like to experience different types of weddings that can make their special day more measurable. For example, some people choose white wedding instead of traditional Chinese red wedding; some may prefer destination wedding instead of having wedding at home, which may require more time and professional planning and organizing throughout the wedding preparation. Therefore, wedding planners, as a new business in China, has developed rapidly during the last decade. According to the ministry of commerce of the PRC (2008), wedding service today has become a big business in China covering about 76 industries, such as matchmaking business, wedding planning as well as banquets, tourism industries etc. where the photographer has the highest profit that is above 30% while the wedding planner is 15%. The average expenditure for more than 3.7 million new Chinese couples in 2006 was about 126,600 RMB. Based on the statistics of Ministry of Civil Affairs of the PRC (2009), about 11 million couples got married in 2008 with the growth of 10.8% than 2007. All the statistics above show that wedding business in China has a huge market and potential. This research will focus on Pearl River Delta, the most economically dynamic region in southern part of China. PRD covers nine prefectures of Guangdong province including Guangzhou, Shenzhe, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Foshan, Huizhou, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing; and has become one of the leading economic regions and a major manufacturing center of China, which accounted for 10.2% of Chinas GDP. People in PRD have more purchasing power than the other region. The per capita GDP in PRD ranges from 35,700 to 79,600 RMB which is much higher than the national per capita GDP (HKTDC, 2008). Because of the advantages of its location and open-door policy, PRD became the first region in China which allowed the foreign investments. Thus, apart from the economic strength, people in PRD were influenced by the western cultures earlier than the other places of China. 1.3 Research problem statements Due to the low entry cost in the wedding planning business, the number of wedding planners has increased rapidly in China in the last decade. Generally, two to three persons having relevant planning experience can establish a wedding planning company with around 100,000 RMB investments in China. They just need an office for meeting with clients and an official blog or website for promotion. Despite of the rapid development of the wedding business, the service/product offered by the wedding planners is similar. Comparing with the wedding photo service business, there is a lack of leading brand in the wedding planning business. With the growth of income level and education level, the couples in China are becoming more and more demanding towards the wedding service/products and face a problem that how to choose a suitable wedding planners who can provide excellent service/product. Thus, from the supply side, identifying and satisfying the important and unfulfilled needs of prospective c ouples is one of the ways for wedding planners to differentiate their products from the competitors, and make success in the competition. However, there is few studies indentifying prospective couples needs or attitudes toward products or service of wedding planner in Pearl River Delta even though in Chinese mainland, nor research about how well the wedding planners in China is meeting the needs of prospective couples. Therefore, this study will focus on the following questions to find out the needs of prospective couples (demand side) towards the wedding planners in PRD Whats the reason for couples hiring wedding planners? Whats the factors affecting the selection of wedding planners? Reputation? Price? Or other? Do the needs of prospective couples toward wedding planners in Pearl River Delta vary according to the different demographical characteristics? 1.4 Research objectives: To find out the needs of prospective couples when hiring the wedding planners in the Pearl River Delta; To investigate the relationship between the needs for prospective couples and the choice of product/service offered by wedding planners in Pearl River Delta Region; To investigate how the needs of potential couples are influenced by their demographic profiles; To make recommendations to the wedding planners in Pearl River Delta. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, the previous studies related to wedding, wedding planners as well as the consumer purchase behavior will be reviewed. 2.1 Nature of wedding From the view of sociology, Edward (1987) defined that weddings are rites of passage, which belong to the class of rituals that everywhere mark the transition of a person or persons from one status to another. Wedding therefore becomes a private and highly-personalized event in peoples life. Event is held for a purpose that brings people together to share an experience and produce a measurable outcome no matter public or private, commercial or charitable, celebratory or commemorative (Silvers, 2003). Shone and Parry (2004) defined the wedding, together with the other personal events (e.g. birthday or anniversaries), as a type of special events. Their phenomenon arise from leisure, cultural, personal or organizational objectives which are set apart from the normal activity of daily life and their purpose is to enlighten, celebrate, entertain or challenge the experience of a group of people. The characteristics of special events include personal interactions, ritual or ceremony, intang ible, fixed timescale, labor intensive, ambience and service, perishability as well as uniqueness. Getz (2007) also defined wedding as a form of planned events because it is held in venues that cater to individual and small-group clients which may require professionals or be entirely arranged by the participants. From this point of view, Getz (2007) believed that the wedding is a multi-meaning experience in both personal and social aspects, and it is can be considered as celebrations in which a theme and emotional stimulation are essential. Although, wedding is usually defined as a type of small or personal events, it is still an area lack of study and research compared with meeting, exhibition, incentives or other events. There is quite a few academic book or journal devoted to the planning and design of weddings, parties or other private functions. 2.2 Wedding planners 2.21 The nature of wedding planner Arranging an event is complicated as it involves different elements such as the specialist sets, props, customers for participants or guests, and all the range of support requirements from special effects and lighting to music and entertainment. Event management companies are increasingly common in the events business in the last decades, which have specialized in providing of the complete event by careful planning and management. People can enjoy a number of benefits of having an EMC including the expertise, ideas and experience they can draw on (Shone Parry, 2004). Shone and Parry (2004) found that although there are some major companies in the event business, there are a wide range of smaller organizations and individuals that are willing to provide events-related service particular for the personal event market, which include the organization of parties, celebrations, weddings, anniversaries and many of similar events. Professional party planners or event organizers are those pr ofessional who deal with the nitty-gritty details of planning, organizing, operating and managing an event to ensure everything goes smoothly. According to Wikipedia (2009), wedding planners are the professionals who deal with all the details of the wedding, which includes planning, organizing, operating and management, to ensure everything goes smoothly and correctly. Ellis-Christensen (2008) defined that wedding planner as an event professional whose responsibility is not only to plan a memorable wedding, but also to give some professional advices to the couples including the venue selection, equipments preparation etc. They usually act as a wedding advisor, coordinator, supervisor, financial planner and mediator during the wedding (Brush Creek Weddings, 2008). Peters (2007) also stated that the range of service offered by wedding planner is widely. Some may prefer to offer consulting service only while some may prefer to provide comprehensive wedding package. At the meantime, Peters (2007) also pointed out that the global trend of the wedding business has been toward offering total coordination of the entire blessed even t from the beginning to the end, which includes identifying the needs of new couples, budget preparation, planning detailed checklist, venue arrangement, identifying the professionals (e.g. florists, photographers etc.) as well as on-site supervision and coordination on the wedding day. The consultant fee varies widely depending on different locations or different packages. The consultant fee may be higher in larger cities where disposable income of couples is higher than the other places. 2.22 The requirements of a wedding planner Having a strong organizational skills as well as an eye for details are necessary and basic requirements for a successful professional meeting planner because meeting process is both comprehensive and meticulous. Moreover, meeting planners must have the ability to work successful under pressure, to react calmly to constant change, and to make quick decisions (OBrien Shaw, 2002). Howard (2006) stressed that wedding planning is highly customer oriented as most of the couples are looking for special, unique and memorable wedding. Ethic and religious custom, family tradition, class identity, regional practice, and individual tastes and preferences certainly all played a role in shaping wedding consumption. Peters (2007) suggested that good communication skills, good organizational skills as well as good interpersonal skills are very essential for being a successful wedding planner, because wedding planners act as a middle person who deals with both clients and suppliers. The appearance of the professional wedding organization was an important benchmark in the rise of wedding planner business, indicating that wedding planning service today are more and more professional. These professional organizations help wedding planners naturalize particular customs and practices on a potentially national scale by sharing etiquette and customs. They provide some training course for wedding planners. Getting a certificate from professional organization has became one of the evidences for professional and made the customer confident with the service quality. Additionally, the organization also centralized and rationalized a consultants business, providing important resources and information regarding the markets as well as the trend (Howard, 2006). 2.23 Demand of wedding planners Wedding is an important event in peoples life that many people are willing to organize by themselves on the small and more intimate scale. However, not all of them have the time and wish to expend the effort on doing so and happier to pay a professional to come along and deal with all the details of planning, organizing, operating and managing to ensure everything goes smoothly (Shone Parry, 2006). According to Blakely (2007), the supply of commercial service increases dramatically along with the growth of demands for family jobs. Wedding planners are a form of outsourced labor in the modern society. These jobs which are transported from home to the public marketplace are responding to the time crunch produced by work-family conflict. From this point of view, Blakely defined wedding planners as commercial substitutes. Besides, Edwards (1987) conducted a research to examine the relationship between the weddings commercial development and its nature as a rite of passage. He found that the reason of the success of the wedding business was the convenience offered by the wedding planners and the demand from consumers for larger and more sumptuous celebrations. Consumers were looking for a wide range of wedding-related service (one-stop service) through a single organization. 2.4 The trend Firstly, the wedding today tends to be more customized than before. According to Hensdill (1996), because of the cultural exchange among the global village, traditional wedding customs are giving way to the trends of Western societies. Some new styles of wedding exist, such as theme wedding, destination wedding and green wedding, because more and more couples are looking for unique wedding. Destination wedding is a new wedding style that a couple decides to hold their wedding in a location where neither one of them resides (Daniels Loveless, 2007). There are several top destinations for wedding in the world, such as Caribbean, Las Vegas, Hawaii as well as Maldives. Generally, some special theme may be adopted into the destination wedding. For example, hotel in Las Vegas has organized Italian-style wedding for wedding couples (Stratton, 2001). Moreover, the destination wedding often merges into the honeymoon (Daniels Loveless, 2007). Secondly, the internet and e-commerce has shaped the modern wedding consumption and gave it a new immediacy and flexibility. As a result, the wedding planners can target different segments of the bridal markets through developing website that advertised their goods and services and allowed consumers to make agreement or shop directly through their online site (Howard, 2006). 2.2 Consumer purchase behaviors toward wedding Consumer behavior is defined as the behavior that consumers display in searching form, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. It focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007). 2.32 Factors affecting consumer purchases As people are willing to devote time and effort to the ritual occasions like Christmas and Thanksgiving, some researches regarding the types of purchases associated with ritual occasions have been conducted by researchers in consumer behavior (Lowery, 1994). According to some market analysis, consumer purchase behavior is strongly influenced by social, cultural and individual characteristics. a) Social factors According to Schiffman and Kanuk (2007), consumer behavior is influenced by two major groups, namely the reference group and families. A reference group that is perceived as credible, attractive, or powerful can induce consumer attitude and behavior change (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007) Based on the traditional family life cycle, the prospective couples belong to the stage II, honeymooners, who have available a combined income that often permits a lifestyle that provides them with the opportunities of more indulgent purchasing of professions, which means that the honeymooners are happy to accept the professional products and service and willing to pay more money for them as they pursuit high quality of life. The reason hidden behind may be because they have more disposable income and more free time for themselves before the born of young children. Additionally, for the newlyweds, the advice and experience of other married couples (e.g. parents or friends) are likely to be important when they start-up their expenses to establish a new home (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007). For many consumers their family is their primary reference group for many attitudes and behaviors. The members of a family assume specific roles in their everyday functioning; such roles or tasks extend to the realm of consumer purchase decisions. Key consumer-related roles of family members include influencers, gatekeepers, deciders, buyers, preparers, users, maintainers, and disposers. A familys decision-making style is influenced by its lifestyle, roles, and cultural factors. (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007). Different social classes have different preferences in clothing, home decoration and leisure activities as well as saving, spending and credit habits. Based on the market study by Brides magazine, 20% of the buyers of the wedding products identified themselves as buyers of Brides magazine who were mainly middle class women employed in white-collar, professional and technical fields and had higher medium annual income, when combined with their future husbands. This means that the bride had more control over future consumer decisions that the couple would make (Howard, 2006). Another research about the division of wedding labor and its meaning for couples by Sniezek (2005) indicated that women complete the a disproportionate amount of wedding work just as women do more of kin-work, housework, childcare and managerial family work. He also pointed out that couples were not likely to label the unequal division of labor as unfair which may potentially put the relationship in a state of conflict. From this point of view, his statement highly support Blakelys study (2007) which stated that the wedding planning businesss targeted market is modern career women. Blakely also used the case study of wedding planning to confirm Hochschilds thesis (2003) that feminism plays and important ideological role in the expansion of the commodity frontier. However, after comparison of the emphases that brides and grooms place on artifacts selected for use in their weddings and reception, Lowery (1994) found out that the brides participating in the focus group had no difficulty describing artifacts that were important to them; while grooms had greater difficulty. They also suggest that the emergence of traditional or modern gender roles in wedding planning is partially determined by the attitudes of the bride and groom toward these roles. This is also proved by Schiffman Kanuk (2007) that wedding purchase is a joint-decision in the family where the couples may play different roles in the decision making procedure. b) Cultural factors Culture is the sum total of learned beliefs, values, and customs that serve to regulate the consumer behavior of member of a particular society. (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007) When explaining how culture affects the consumer behavior, Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) indicated that all phases of human problem solving are directed and guided by culture, which includes various ritualized experiences and behaviors. For instance, in practice, rituals accompany with people throughout the human life cycle form birth to death, including a host of intermediate events such as confirmation, graduations and marriage. Besides the culture, subculture also plays an important in consumers behavior which includes nationality, religion, geographic, location, race, age and sex. For example, when comparing the husband-wife decision making between United States and China, Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) found out that there were substantially fewer joint decisions and more husband-dominated decisions for many household purchases in China. Even in the same country, another research showed that in larger city like Beijing, couples were more likely than rural couples to share equally in pu rchase decisions. c) Individual factors Apart from the social and cultural factors which affecting the consumer behavior, individual factors play an important role when people make decision (Dholakia, 1979). Schiffman Kanuk (2005) explained the influences of the individual factors through several categories: motivation, personality, perception, learning as well as attitudes. As a driving force within individuals that force them to take actions, motivation is produced by a state of uncomfortable tension unsatisfied needs. Liking to our topic, hiring the wedding planner may be motivated by the needs of couples, such as lack of time for preparation, looking for professional service etc. Personality determines and reflects how a person responds to his or her environment. Generally, people are looking for the balance between the perceived self-image and their behavior including the purchasing products or service. Some may prefer innovative wedding style (e.g. destination wedding, green wedding) while the other may choose trad itional wedding. Moreover, each individual has its own process when he or she selects, organizes and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world. This process is highly subjective and is based on what the consumer expect to see. There are several factors that can influence the perception including physical appearance, stereotypes, halo effects, irrelevant cues, first impressions, and the tendency to jump to conclusions. 2.3 Theoretical foundation- Consumer decision making process This research is based on consumer decision making process, which is one of the theories of consumer behavior. Decisions are about the selection of an option from two or more alternative choices. According to Kotler, Bowen and Makens (2006), consumer decision process consists of five essential stages: 2.31 Need recognition From the moment that the consumer recognizes a problem or need, the consumer buying process starts. The consumers needs can be stimulated by both internal and external factors. Advertisements, word-of-mouth, social cues from families, friends and anyone within the families can influence the customers need recognition. In the case of wedding planner, potential couples, their internal stimuli probably is lacking of time for preparation, looking for some unique and special wedding while the external stimuli may be the advertisement in the internet, the promotional events held by wedding planners, especially by the friends or families who have previous experience. 2.32 Information search Searching information about their needs or problems is the second step of buying process. How much information a consumer looks for will depend on the strength of the drive, and the amount of initial information, the value placed on additional information. Linking to the wedding planners, couples will take some time for information searching. This is a stage that couples can decide if they would like to hire a wedding planners or if the products/service offered by wedding planner can satisfy their needs. 2.33 Evaluation of alternatives After searching the relevant information, customers will use the information to arrive at a set of final brand choices. At this stage, potential couples may set up a personal comparison system through different attributes such as reputation, price, theme etc., in order to identify which would be the most ideal brand. 2.34 Purchase decision Subsequently, consumer will buy the most preferred brand based on their evaluation in the previous stage. This is the stage that potential couples choose which brand, what kind of services and check if the product/service is available. This is also the stage that potential couples decide if they would like to hire a wedding planner or not. 2.35 Post-purchase behavior Based on the performance of the service/products, the final stage determines whether the consumer satisfy the service/products or not. 2.4 Summary After reviewing the previous studies related to wedding and wedding planners, we can find out that most of the studies were conducted in the developed countries such as U.S or United Kingdom, while there is a blank area regarding this field in China. Moreover, there is little study regarding the consumer purchase behavior towards the wedding planners conducted before. This research will based on the theories of consumer behavior to conduct three in-depth interviews to find out the reasons for potential couples hiring wedding planners; and the factors affecting their decision. Then, a quantitative research will be conducted to express the findings in statistical terms. CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY This research will be designed as an exploratory, quantitative, cross-sectional investigation of prospective couples needs towards the service/products offered by wedding planners in Pearl River Delta. 3.1 Research Design The advantage of semi-structure interviews is that it can allow issues to be explored deeply while questionnaire survey is that it can collect information from a large number of people and express the findings in statistical terms (Jennings, 2001). As limited study regarding the needs of potential couples towards the wedding service has been conduced in China so far, for this research, the important variables are not clear and still need to be defined. In order to develop a more reliable questionnaire to conduct quantitative research at the second stage, the first stage is to explore the important variables through a qualitative research. In-depth interviews with three potential couples will be conducted, which will facilitate the identifying the different requirements made by potential couples when selecting the wedding planners. These in-depth interviews are critical for the whole research because the finding of these interviews will be used to develop the questionnaire. 3.2 Questionnaire design There will be four main parts in the questionnaire. The first part will be the screening questions with the purpose of screening the invalid sample through some questions. Then, the second part will include some questions regarding the prospective couples attitudes towards the service/products offered by wedding planners in Pearl River Delta. Respondents are required to indicate their personal opinions on each statement on a five-point Likert type scale: 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. In the third part, open-end questions will be included in order to examine the personal experience and intention of hiring a wedding planner. Finally, there will be a set of questions regarding the demographic characteristics of the respondents, which will include gender, age, income level, marriage status, and education level. In order to explain the purpose of the research to the respondents, a covering letter will be attached to the questionnaire. The covering letter will include the information that how the sample was selected, the time will take to complete the survey, contact person for questions and assuring the response would be kept confidential and only used for statistical purposes. 3.3 Samp

Anorexia Nervosa :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anorexia nervosa is a serious problem that many people are dealing with in today’s society. Though this is a serious problem, the severity of the illness can easily be lessened with quick intervention from parents, friends, and other caring individuals. People who are close to the victim can notice early warning signs and symptoms, which are characteristic of this condition. Anorexia nervosa may be a life threatening illness, but can be treated if detected early on. There are many effective treatments that are currently available for patients. These different treatments will help the patient regain a healthy, normal lifestyle.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The only real answer to the question of what type of people anorexia nervosa affects is that there is no valid answer even though researchers have found that the amount of people who develop anorexia nervosa is rising drastically. Researchers have also found that many patients with anorexia nervosa typically lack self-esteem and often feel that weight loss will make them more liked or even popular.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many different symptoms that anorexics display. The symptoms can be both physical and psychological. The physical symptoms only occur after a severe amount of starvation has occurred. The symptoms often include constipation, loss of hair on the head, growth of faint body hair, low pulse rate, and the patient is unable to tolerate cold temperatures. Anorexics also experience many different endocrine problems. The psychological problems can range from social withdrawal to distortion of body image.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is no real answer as to exactly what causes anorexia nervosa. Researchers believe that environmental, psychological, and physiological factors all play a major role in the happening of this disorder. Many scientists believe that the part of the brain called the hypothalamus has a part in the development of anorexia nervosa. Other researchers think that abnormalities in particular endocrine functions may be key to discovering what may cause anorexia nervosa.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are three different ways that patients with anorexia nervosa can be treated. These treatments consist of nutritional therapy, family counseling, and psychotherapy for the patient. The foremost concern when beginning nutritional therapy is that the patient needs to gain weight. A physician can accomplish this by adding an amount of calories to a patient’s daily intake of food. Family counseling basically deals with the relationship between the patient and the members of the family. Psychotherapy is very necessary to the patient because it helps the individual realize the effects and the process anorexia nervosa undergoes.

Exhange Risk Faced by Multinational Corporations (MNCs) Essay -- Exhan

â€Å"Exchange rates are the amount of one country’s currency needed to purchase one unit of another currency (Brealey 1999, p. 625)†. People wanting to exchange some money for their vacation trip will not be too much bothered with shifts if the exchange rates. However, for multinational companies, dealing with very large amounts of money in their transactions, the rise or fall of a currency can mean getting a surplus or a deficit on their balance sheets. What types of exchange rate risks do multinational companies face?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One type of exchange risk faced by multinational companies is transaction risk. If a company sells products to an overseas customer it might be subject to transaction risk. If a UK company is expecting a payment from a US customer in June and the invoice was made in January, the exchange rate is bound to have changed during the period. If the deal was worth  £1,000,000 and the american dollar compared to pound sterling weakened from US$1.40 in January to US$1.50 in June, the UK company would loose  £47,619 (Appendix A).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Economic risk is another type of exchange risks companies have to consider when dealing globally. Changes in exchange rates are bound to affect the relative prices on imports and exports, and that will again affect the competitiveness of a company. An UK exporter dealing with companies in the US would not want the US$ to depreciate, because it would make the exports more expensive for the US market, thus the company will loose business.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Other types of exchange rate risks are translation risk and so-called hidden risk. The translation risk relates to cases where large multinational companies have subsidiaries in other countries. On the financial statement of the whole group, the company may have to translate the assets and liabilities from foreign accounts into the group statement. The translation will involve foreign exchange exposure. The term hidden risk evolves around the fact that all companies are subject to exchange rate risks, even if they don’t do business with companies using other currencies. A company that is buying supplies from a local manufacturer might be affected of fluctuating foreign exchange rates if the local manufacturer is doing business with overseas companies. If a manufacturer goes out of business, or experience heavy losses, it will affect all the companies it does business with. The co... ...he curve. Appendix A. Transaction Risk:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A UK exporter invoicing US$1,000,000 in January for payment in June. Spot rates: January: US$1.40  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚ £714,286   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  February: US$1.50  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚ £666,667   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Loss on transaction:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚ £47,619 ( £714,286 -  £666,667) Appendix B. Interest Rates: i.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A company borrows  £100,000 from a bank at 8% interest rate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚ £100,000 X 1.08 =  £108,000 ii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A company borrows  £2,000,000 in 1998, with a fixed interest rate of 8%, payable annually for a 5 year period. Fixed annual interest, 8%:  £2,000,000 X 0.08 =  £160,000 New annual interest, 6%:  £2,000,000 X 0.06 =  £120,000 Annual loss, 6% vs. 8%:  £160,000 -  £120,000 =  £40,000 References: http://www.expedia.com, 22/11/2000, http://www.expedia.com/pub/Agent.dll Brealey, Richard A., Marcus, Alan J., Myers, Stewart C. 1999, Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, 2nd edn, Craig S. Beytien, USA. Howells, Peter., Bain, Keith 2000, Financial Markets and Institutions, 3rd edn, Henry King Ltd., Great Britain. Ritter, Lawrence R., Silber, William L., Udell, Gregory F. 2000, Money, banking, and Financial Markets, 10th edn, USA.