Sex Issues Essays - Human Sexuality, Sexuality And Religion

Sex Issues Have you heard of sex before? I'm sure you have simply because it is a human part of life. Sex is natural and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it whatsoever. You often hear of the "birds and the bees" and how reproduction is the point of life. Is sex made for more than that? Answer: ABSOLUTELY!!!(in my opinion) I believe sex is merely for married people who love one another and know what they are doing. Those who are married for such a commitment-eternity is quite along time,well not forever, but long enough to die with eachother. Marriage is made for those who are not afraid to commit, not afraid to make promises simply because they are not afraid to keep them. They are ready for anything that is dealt at them. Sex is made for those ready for marriage. Premarital sex is not the answer to love. Babies grown up in a situation where mommy and daddy aren't responsible enough to take care of their young. Sex is awesome. Why not wait for the right one?

The Best MBA Programs in the World

The Best MBA Programs in the World The best MBA programs in the world equip their students with the skills and support necessary to launch and/or advance a business career. Each of the MBA programs on this list provides rigorous coursework, experienced professors, extensive career support, and a global perspective. Stanford Graduate School of Business Founded in 1925, Stanford Graduate School of Business is located in Stanford, California. The schools two-year full-time MBA program provides students with a world-class general management education. The curriculum encourages innovation and collaboration. Each student is also required to participate in a global experience. Some of the options that are available to students include Global Management Immersion Experience (GMIX), faculty-led Global Seminars, Global Study Trips and self-directed experiences, such as a global internship or an independent study course. London Business School Located in London in the United Kingdom, London Business School is widely believed to be the best non-U.S. business school. The MBA program is not only prestigious, it also offers flexibility that cant be found in every program. Students can choose customize the curriculum based on their desired career path and complete the program in 15, 18 or 21 months. London Business School also offers many unique opportunities, including a Global Business Experience and an Entrepreneurship Summer School. Harvard Business School Established in 1908, Harvard Business School is one of the most recognized names in business education. The full-time MBA program at Harvard Business School places a heavy emphasis on real world experience. Students learn through the case method, which allows them to evaluate real business scenarios and decide how they would respond to the types of problems and challenges facing todays businesses. They also participate in personal leadership activities and team-based projects. Harvard Business School is located in Boston, Massachusetts but has global research centers located all over the world. It takes two years of full-time study to complete the MBA program. INSEAD INSEAD is not as old as some of the other schools on this list (it was founded in 1957), but it is consistently ranked among the best business schools in the world. The school has campuses in Fontainebleau, France (Europe campus), the Buona Vista district of the city-state of Singapore (Asia campus), and Abu Dhabi (Middle East campus). Students choose their preferred campus at the time of application, but can choose to spend one of three periods studying at another campus. INSEAD offers an accelerated full-time MBA program that takes just 10 months to complete. The curriculum is rigorous and places an emphasis on management preparation. The Wharton School Along with Harvard Business School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School is consistently ranked among the best U.S. business schools. The Wharton School was established in 1881 and is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The MBA program provides good preparation in general business and leadership, but it is known primarily as a finance school. It takes approximately 20 months to complete the Wharton MBA program. Students can choose from nearly 20 majors and customize their education by picking and choosing from more than 200 electives. Columbia Business School Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is located in New York City. It is one of just six Ivy League business schools in the world and is known for being highly selective. The Columbia Business School MBA program takes approximately two years of full-time study to complete. Courses teach business theory that is applicable to real-world business situations. Students are encouraged to learn from the faculty as well as their peers. The MBA program has a core curriculum, but students are allowed to choose a specialization so that they can graduate with knowledge in an area that matches their career goals. University of Chicago Booth School of Business Located in the Hyde Park area of Chicago, Illinois, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business was established in 1898. It is the second oldest business school in the United States. The University of Chicago Booth School of Business MBA program combines theory and experiential learning to teach students how to analyze problems and create solutions. The school offers above average preparation in economics. The school has produced more  Nobel Laureates in the Economic Sciences than any other business school. The University of Chicago Booth School of Business MBA program takes two years of full-time study to complete and consists of 20 classes and an experiential leadership development program. University of Cambridge Judge Business School Formerly known as the Judge Institute for Management Studies, the University of Cambridge Judge Business School was established in 1990 and is widely recognized as one of the best business schools in the world. The schools full-time MBA program, often called the Cambridge MBA, is a rigorous program that takes just one year to complete. The University of Cambridge Judge Business School seeks to prepare students to lead teams on a global scale. Students participate in a lot of class discussions and participate in a Global Consulting Project requires them to consult for client companies and make touch business decisions with real outcomes. University of California at Berkeley Haas School of Business Founded in 1898, the University of California at Berkeley Haas School of Business, also known as Berkeley Haas, is one of the oldest business schools in the world. The full-time MBA program at Berkeley Haas is  21-month program. The curriculum has a heavy focus on management and leadership fundamentals. Students take 12 required courses and then choose electives to tailor their education to their chosen career path.  They also get the opportunity to participate in team projects and leadership development opportunities. IESE Business School Founded in 1958, IESE Business School is the graduate  business school of the  University of Navarra. The school has campuses in Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, New York City and Sao Paulo. The IESE MBA program includes a core curriculum with a focus on business fundamentals, internship programs that are designed to enhance entrepreneurship skills and electives that allows students to tailor their education to their career goals. Students who enroll in the IESE MBA program can choose from a 15-month MBA program or an 18-month MBA program.   Yale School of Management Located in New Haven, Connecticut, the Yale School of Management (SOM) was established in 1976. Students who enroll in the Yale School of Management MBA program must complete an integrated core curriculum. Each course within the core curriculum teaches management fundamentals, problem solving and ethical thinking. The Yale School of Management calls this approach to business education a raw case because it is based on the needs of real world organizations in modern business. The MBA program takes approximately two years of full-time study to complete.   University of Oxford Said Business School Formerly known as the Centre for Management Studies, the University of Oxford Said Business School was established in 1965. The University of Oxford Said Business School MBA program, also known as the Oxford MBA, takes one year to complete. The program emphasizes responsible leadership and is known for offering solid preparation in entrepreneurship and global business. Students study within a dynamic research environment and are encouraged to learn how to think logically and lead with purpose. MIT Sloan School of Management Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the MIT Sloan School of Management was established in 1914. The MIT Sloan MBA program is designed to encourage innovation. The school calls this approach action learning. Students participate in subject-based labs that allow them to apply classroom learning to real world situations. Every MBA student participates in a on-semester core that includes coursework in economics, accounting, leadership communication, business statistics and organizational processes. Students then complete 144 units of electives. The MBA program takes approximately two years of full-time study to complete.   Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management Established in 1908, the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management is located in Evanston, Illinois. The MBA curriculum at Kellogg combines a core curriculum that focuses on general management with electives that allow students to customize their education. MBA students are also given the chance to participate in global experiential learning opportunities. Kellogg School of Management has 37 exchange programs across 20 countries. Student can choose from a one-year MBA program and a two-year MBA program.   China Europe International Business School Co-founded by the Chinese government and European Union (EU) in 1994, the China Europe International Business School  (CEIBS) is known for its academic rigor. It is located in Shanghai, China. Students who enroll in the CEIBS MBA program complete a core that focuses on managerial foundation skills, business fundamentals, and special topics in China management before choosing a concentration in general management, finance or marketing.  Students can choose from a one-year program or a two-year program. Cornell University's Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management Established in 1946, Cornell Universitys Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, also known as Johnson, is an Ivy League business school located in Ithaca, New York. The school has a performance learning approach that combines classroom learning with practical experiences, such as  Kaizen projects.  Johnsons MBA program combines a core curriculum with flexible electives that allow for complete customization. Students can choose from a one-year program or a two-year program. Duke University Fuqua School of Business Established in 1969, Duke University Fuqua School of Business is located in Durham, North Carolina. The MBA program at Fuqua has fewer core courses than most business schools. This approach allows students to begin taking electives sooner than normal. MBA students can customize their education by choosing electives in 14 different concentrations. The Fuqua MBA program takes approximately two years of full-time study to complete. National University of Singapore Business School Established in 1965, the National University of Singapore Business School is located in Singapore and is widely recognized as one of the best business schools in the Asia Pacific region. The MBA program at National University of Singapore Business School focuses heavily on global business. It integrates Western business models and Asian leadership tenants. Students take core classes in management and then choose electives to tailor their education. National University of Singapore Business School MBA program takes 17 months of full-time study to complete. International Institute for Management Development Established in 1990, the International Institute for Management Development  (IMD)  is a Swiss business school known for providing top-ranked executive education. It is located in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IMD MBA program is designed to give students a global mindset through a combination of practical experience and thought leadership. While enrolled in the program, students take core courses and apply what they have learned through projects and labs. The IMD MBA program takes one year to complete. ESADE Business School Established in 1958, ESADE Business School is a global academic institution that is located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. ESADE employs a flipped-learning methodology. This teaching method allows students to learn basic concepts prior to participating in face-to-face sessions. The ESADE MBA curriculum encourages students to think creatively, customize their education and participate in international experiences. Students can complete the ESADE MBA program in 15, 18 or 21 months.

Adaptability to Cultural Change Essay Example

Adaptability to Cultural Change Essay Example Adaptability to Cultural Change Paper Adaptability to Cultural Change Paper Adaptability to cultural change plays a crucial role in the selection of expatriates. This paper provides an overview of the impact of cultural environment on expatriates, how expatriates suffer from cultural distance, which results in cultural shock, the inability to adapt to new environment. It then further discusses the coping strategies characterized by socio-cultural and psychological adjustments and characteristics candidates should possess for foreign assignments, and finally some important criteria are given for the determination of candidates. Influence of cultural environment on expatriates  The selection of an expatriate manager for a global assignment could be strongly influenced by the type of cultural environment to which the individual will be assigned (Harvey, 1996). Harvey Novicevic (2001) state that the cultural distance between the home and host countries needs to be assessed in the expatriate selection process because it affects the nature of the expatriate task. They note that it is significantly more difficult for expatriates to contribute to the expertise of foreign operations if the cultures of the two countries are too dissimilar. As noted by Gomez-Mejita and Palich (1997), cultural distance is measured as a composite index of Hofstedes cultural dimensions. Cultural distance affects an expatriates understanding of decision-making processes, work values, negotiation patterns, wholly owned subsidiaries, and fairness in reciprocity (1997). Also, Kashlak (1999) indicates that the degree of cultural distance will influence performance ambiguity and task definition. As a result, an expatriates task programmability and performance measurability will be inversely related to the cultural distance (Harvey Novicevic, 2001). Stone (2002) finds that most expatriates living overseas experience culture shock as the result of stress overload. Culture shock, according to Harzing Ruysseveldt (1995, p126), is a multifaceted experience resulting from numerous stressors occurring in contact with a different culture. Research (cited in Hodgetts Luthans, 2003) shows that many managers are exhilarated at the beginning of their overseas assignment. It indicates many of the most effective international managers encounter frustration and feel confused in their new environment, which may results in the improper implementing of company strategies. Adapting to a new environment  Mendenhall Oddou (1994) discover that the top two reasons of expatriate failure in U.S. multinationals, which are the managers inability to cope with a different physical or cultural environment, and inability of the managers spouse to adjust to a different physical or cultural environment. Stones study also found that both managers and expatriate managers perceive the essential selection as being the expatriates ability to adapt and adaptability of the spouse and family (Stone, 2002). Caligiuri (cited in Hodgetts Luthans, 2003), after examining how nationals help expatriates adjust, has reported that certain types of personality characteristics are important in this process. In particular, her findings suggest that greater contact with host national helps with cross-cultural adjustment when the person also possesses the personality trait of openness; she also found that sociability was directly related to effective adjustment (Hodgetts Luthans, 2003). In research recently conducted among expatriates in China, Selmar (cited in Schell Solomon, 1997) found that those who were best able to deal with their new situation had developed coping strategies characterized by socio-cultural and psychological adjustments including: feeling comfortable that their work challenges can be met, being able to adjust to their new living conditions, learning how to interact well with host-country nationals outside of work, and feeling reasonably happy and being able to enjoy ones day-to-day activities. Guodu Michael Tucker (cited in Schell Solomon, 1997) of Tucker international has studied expatiate assignments since 1973. His research with thousands of expatriates identifies six basic characteristics that distinguish those who adapt well to a new society. They are acceptance, knowledge, positive emotions, lifestyle, interaction, and communication. Michael (cited in Schell Solomon, 1997) states that the task facing managers who select expatriates is to find people who will exhibit these six characteristics. With these characters, she notes, expatriates can successfully decrease their tress lever, understand behavior of foreigners, and effectively interact with others. Selection criteria  Since expatriates confront many new challenges both in the workplace and the foreign society, expatriate selection is much more difficult than the selection of personnel for a position in the home country (Raymond J. Stone, 2002). Hodgetts Luthans (2003) state that overseas managers need a degree of cultural toughness. Organizations examine a number of characteristics in determining whether an individual is sufficiently adaptable. Examples include work experiences with culture other than ones own, previous overseas travel, knowledge of foreign languages (fluency generally is not necessary), and recent immigration background or heritage. Others include: The ability to integrate with difference people, cultures, and types of business organizations; The ability to sense developments in the host country and accurately evaluate them; The ability to solve problems within different frameworks and from different perspectives; Sensitivity to the fine print of differences of culture, politics, religion, and ethics; And flexibility in managing operations on a continuous basis despite lack of assistance and gaps in information. These criteria, explained by Hodgetts Luthans (2003) are essential in the process of international HR selection. They note that organizations may be aware of the importance of such factors, but give them little weight in the actual selection process. However, people with those abilities are most likely to succeed in the foreign assignment. To accomplish the task, Tucker (cited in Schell Solomon, 1997) developed an assessment instrument called the Oversea Assignment Inventory (OAI), a tool that identifies and measures 14 predictors of success on a foreign assignment. Part of the predictors include expectations, open-mindedness, respect for other beliefs, social adaptability, spouse communication, interpersonal interest, Sense of Humor. According to Tuckers research, different country has different preference for the OAI criteria. For example, candidates considered for assignment to Malaysia are required to have high degree in the area of respecting for others, spouse communication, and sense of humor. On the other hand, assignments in Saudi Arabia highlight the characteristics of Open-mindedness, and tolerance (Schell Solomon, 1997). Conclusion Culture environment could strongly influence expatriate manager for global assignment. Researches show that one of the top reasons for failure of international managers is their inability to adapt to a new environment. Many of them, including the most effective international mangers, suffer from culture shock because of the culture distance among countries. Some personality characteristics and coping strategies are found to be critical for expatriates to conquer cultural barriers, such as open-mindedness, acceptance, etc. Based on these researches, various criteria are provided in the paper for international human resource selection. References: Gomez-Mejita, L. and Palich, L. (1997), Cultural diversity and the performance of multinational firms, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 309-35. Hamilton, R.D. and Kashlak, R.J. (1999), National influences on multinational corporation control system selection, Management International Review, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 167-89. Harvey, M. (1996), The selection of managers for foreign assignments: a planning perspective, The Columbia Journal of World Business, Winter, pp. 102-18.

Top 10 Tips On Saving Your Time

Top 10 Tips On Saving Your Time Top 10 Tips on Saving Time as a College Student Often as a college student, there is never enough time in a day with all the juggling between classes, homework, study sessions, family time, work and a little fun. To be successful as a student, its important to learn how to manage the most critical resource, which is time. Here are 10 tips to help students get a grasp on the busy college life, so they can save time and reward themselves with a college degree as soon as possible. 1. Get the help of a professional writing service As the semester kicks off, many students look forward to studying and completing different assignments in time, but it reaches a point when their schedule is filled up, and there is no time to write every single essay/paper. Buying a college paper from a professional writing service goes a long way to keeping you on top of assignments and exams in the midst of tight and demanding schedules. You will not only save on time to attend to other important tasks, but you will get high-quality written assignments that are delivered on time and by the best writers. By using this service, you will live a stress and challenge-free life in whatever program you may be enrolled in, knowing that you will receive well researched, 100% unique work that is created just for you. Dont hesitate to find the help of professional writers in your essay writing needs for a productive and efficient academic journey. You may order your essay, dissertation or another type of college paper on our order page. 2. Set Priorities Note the most important tasks and tackle them first even if they are things you would usually dread to do. When you start each day by organizing your tasks and knowing ahead what needs to be done, you will achieve a new level of productivity you never thought possible. You can use simple apps that let you create a daily list of tasks so you will never forget a major task or miss a deadline like homework or test dates. 3. Study Smarter Some students study really hard but only get average results while others invest half the amount of time and get outstanding results.Well-performing students dont necessarily study for long hours, but they study smartly. Develop a study game plan to allow you to direct your focus on what is important. Make a summary of what you read, join a group discussion and organize ideas in a way you can recall (memory retention strategies). 4. Know Yourself It helps knowing when you function best as a learner so that you can make the best use of the time you have. Some people perform better in early mornings while others prefer to stay late. Whatever kind of person you are, you will achieve better outcomes if you schedule your classes and study sessions around your preferences. Reserve peak times for more intensive tasks and low concentration times for less intensive tasks like copying notes or typing assignments. 5. Find a Way of Doing Things Faster Many times as college students you waste time doing things for longer periods than you normally should. You can figure out a way of getting things done faster may be by multitasking and getting a couple of things done at the same time. For example, you could listen to your recorded lecture notes while folding laundry or doing your nails. 6. Avoid Procrastination Procrastination only results in wastage of time and energy. Stay dedicated to what you have set out to accomplish and dont push it for later. You have so much to lose with continued inaction so its better to get done with it when you can. 7. Be Healthy to Improve Productivity What you eat affects your productivity. Eating a well-balanced diet will significantly boost your energy levels so that you stay productive throughout the day. Your moods will greatly be improved while keeping you in top physical form to carry out your errands efficiently. Remember to get enough sleep and clear your head by engaging in fun activities for a more engaged mind when doing school work. 8. Do Away with Distractions You may want to consider eliminating certain distractions that eat away at your time. Television, mobile phones and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. are typical time wasters we dwell on. Check on such distractions in moderation making sure you take a break completely when doing important tasks like studying or doing assignments. 9. Use Spare Moments Always put something you can study in your bag or save it on the phone so you can take advantage of those long hours you spend waiting in lines, stuck in traffic or eating alone. During such times, you can also memorize, review or reflect on what you have already covered. 10. Be Flexible in Your Routine Many times things will happen that you hadnt seen coming. It is critical for adult college students to have a flexible mindset and flexible schedule to help manage unforeseen circumstances. Flexibility and adaptability will enable you to be in a better position to make the most use of the available time. Therefore dont wait for longer free hours so as to meet with your professor but get it done in the time you have, even between your commitments.

Co-evolved relationship between two organisms Essay - 1

Co-evolved relationship between two organisms - Essay Example Mycorrhizal association are due to a relative diffusion process of co-evolutionary. While the initial mycorrhizal symbioses events may have included reciprocal changes in the genetic composition of free-living fungi and ancestral plants, the existing evidence indicate that the current parallel partners evolution as they respond to the changes in the environment. Co-evolved relationships involve a vast number of relationships between animals and plants and in some cases between plants with other plants. Among the many co-evolved situations, there is commensalisms where different species coevolved so as to intimately live with each other without any harm on the participants and symbioses where the coevolving species live together literally (Cairney and Burke 63). Such relationships which are intertwined may assume a mutualism form where no partner involved is harm and they both benefit from each other or only one benefits. An example of such relationships includes algae and fungi in lichens, roots and fungi in mycorrhizae and acacia trees and ants in symbiotic mutualism where the ant protects the acacias from herbivores (Cairney and Burke 64). In parasitism relationship, one of the partners stands out to benefit at the others expense. A good example of such relationship is between the oak tree and mistletoe parasite. The interaction of organisms encompasses the entire ecosystem and it influences the communities and natural population’s structure. For example, more than ninety percent of the terrestrial plants exist naturally through mutualistic symbiosis together with soil fungi, to form what is referred to as mycorrhizal association (Read 380). Such symbioses have proved to be fundamental to most plant’s biology in the environment as they enhance the ecological fitness and nutrition of individual plants while at the same time shaping the dynamics and structure of plant communities and

Liberty of Conscience and Individuality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Liberty of Conscience and Individuality - Essay Example Individuality means one separate object or one only and it is a quality of state as being an individual. Besides, it also includes the status of independence. The main focus of this paper in presenting the concept will be Chapter 3 of On Liberty by John Stuart Mill. In this chapter, he describes about importance of individuality and freedom of action. Mill has composed this chapter by indicating the limitations of personal freedom. He points out his belief in self government excluding individuals who are interfering in others liberty. He also dwells on the significance of a person’s wishes and incitements such as incitement produces energy, which will be the fuel for change and actions, including both good and bad. Mill states that the religious and other forces stifle the individuality of persons and he does not believe in the restrictive view, which is injurious to the inner good of humans. He also emphasizes on the significance of original thought and naturalness. Mill beli eves that even if the people do not hold on freedom and naturalness, they will automatically mingle with that environment. It is because of the government, which become more effective only if there is a society, allows people to innovate and spread new ideas and to confront the majority’s opinion. ... It meant to be a society, who allows people to select their choice in life. The quote elaborates on different social activities of religious worship, family organisation of changing and testing all aspects in life which none can imagine. He actually means that every person should be allowed to live in his or her own way and it should be controlled only when they are interfering in other’s life. He also points out the reasons which support experiments of living. There is a bilateral meaning on the argument – the author tells that there do exist unsatisfactory factors in our society, and allow the growth of experiments of living taking place. Mill highlights other lifestyles. Mill illustrates that freedom within the society will lead to the formation of genius, and he believes that genius can live only in a free society. Besides, he thinks that religious freedom is one of the important aspects of liberty. Therefore, people who are taking offence against others are unaccep table and that some modifications should be made to the current understanding of liberty. Mill expresses his view that moral principles are important for a person’s freedom that he does not harm others. On the contrary, through the concept of making harm, Mill shows the rational point of view and the changes such action can bring about in the society. Individuality is one of the main topics of discussion in Mill’s On Liberty. It may differ from person to person. Mill, quoting the words of Wilhelm von Humboldt, who was a German thinker and a politician, argues that each person’s motive is the â€Å"highest and most harmonious development of his powers to a complete and consistent whole†

Organisation and Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organisation and Management - Essay Example The goals would be looked from the eyes of the person whose interest lies in the implied strategy. There may arise some biasness in terms of tasks being done. The information here needs to be gathered by the expert professionals to ensure that it is accurate and according to the modern technologies. Once the information is gathered it is normally communicated through a one-way process, either through senior or expert representatives to the recipients. Communication is done on the basis of understanding and not redefining of what the experts had gathered. The actual gatherings of data must be discussed thoroughly to avoid the self-interests of some of the employees. Normative-Reeducative in this kind of a change people are more focused on things that satisfies and fulfill their needs. Over here the issue is not to find the right information but to find an effective relationship between the values of the employees and the organization on whole. In this the organization tries to involve as many employees as they can to get an overall picture of the needs and values that the employees crave for. Intense interactions between the employees are required. For the change strategy to be successful the organization has to take into consideration the surrounding culture like broader system, habits and values of the employees that dominate. ... This process takes a longer period of time as compared to empirical rational. In such a change if the organization goes by the values and culture of a specific culture then they may find difficult competing with the international world if the global culture does not contain the same values and needs. Power-Coercive in this kind of a change those who possess knowledge hold the power. This approach focuses more on the use of political and economic sanctions as the main strategy to bring about change. Political power normally involves policies, laws and other agreements, and economic on the other hand is the logical extension of political power. Here the issues focus on jail and other personal liberty sanctions. Some of the specific strategies that come under this approach may include over throw of political regimes or changing of organizational management through stakeholder pressure and so on. This kind of a strategy maybe de-motivating for some employees to work. Today employees want empowerment and job rotation in order to increase the interest in their work schedules, but working under such authoritative strategy may affect their output. The authority imposing employees may show biasness to some of the other employees causing differences. Environmental-Adaptive People are not happy with the disruptions that occur within the organization but they do adapt to new circumstances as required. It is more like building a new organization and gradually transferring people from the old one to the new one. Not all organizations are willing to change when the need arises. They are more scared of what if the changes do not suit the organization over all, and therefore they continue with the orthodox ways of achieving goals where as the

History Lectures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

History Lectures - Essay Example Islamic Beginnings In its initial years, Islam has been considered a nomadic culture until it found a home in the Arab territories. Islam’s most famous prophet is someone you most likely have heard of--Muhammad or Mohammed. Muhammad was known to have united the Muslim religion and culture. He is considered their prophet because it is said that the teachings of Allah were revealed to him by an angel. These teachings are now present in the Muslim bible called the Qur’an (Khanbagi, 2006). When Muhammad, Islam’s holy man, passed away, various problems of succession arose. The succeeding years of the Muslim civilization brought on more conquered lands. One after another, we have seen other cultures and territories fall to the Muslims, including the Byzantines, Syria, Persia, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain. But, as the Muslims were conquering these territories, the fighting within their group got worse. Many of us have heard about Islam through the latest media coverag e; and if so, you may have heard of the two infamous groups, the Sunis and the Shiites. These two groups were borne out of the infighting Muslims, due to differing ideas on governance. The Shiites followed Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law, and the Sunis followed the Ummayads, who were the first Muslim dynasty to rule the Arab Kingdom (Jelen & Wilcox, 2002). Islam’s Golden Years Of course, during the older rule of Islam, it was not all about fighting. There was a golden period; a time when the Arabic, Byzantine, Persian, and Indian cultures were integrated with one another. They refer to it as a golden age because learning reached its peak through Muslim associations with the Greeks and the Byzantines. The interplay became more than what one would expect—a predatory or conqueror-slave type of interaction. The relationship became as simple as a teacher and a student (Kreis, 2006). As the conquered groups learned about Islam, Islam learned from the conquered. Knowledge b ecame alive and in the process, science and philosophy was also preserved. Allah taught these Muslims to seek out knowledge and truth and to protect it (Kreis, 2006). And, this is what they did as they allowed knowledge to become a major part of their life and their daily activities. African Beginnings Most of the southern part of the African continent has been occupied by tribes known as Khoisan (Hupston, 2009). The Khoisan language is characterized by clicking sounds, very similar to that of the Bushman. From the Khoisan tribes, more divisions are later seen: the San (Bushmen) and the KhoiKhoi or Hottentots (History World, n.d). The Pygmies, which includes the Bambuti, Batwa, Bayaka and Bagyelil divisions are scattered over a huge area in central and western Africa, to include the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Congo (Brazzaville), Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda (The Africa Guide, 1996). The Pygmies were known to occupy the tropical fore sts of central Africa, but it was the Negroes which dominated sub-Saharan Africa. Primeval Tribes The Negroes, were an African tribe who found their home in the so-called Negro systems, in western and central Sudan, Upper Guinea, and the Upper Nile regions. They spoke the Bantu language, a language which dominated much of Africa in later years. It is composed of about 500

One Preaching Journal Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

One Preaching Journal - Lab Report Example There is also a fellowship time offered after the service with coffee and cookies available for all. The community of which the congregation is a part is a small city of 50,000 people. The city is surrounded by a rural agricultural area. A large food processing company has a manufacturing plant in this city and is its major employer. There is also a small hospital to serve basic health care needs. The community also has its own newspaper and a local radio station. There is a public library and one post office located in the center of town. There are also small bus and train stations servicing the city. The public school system has four elementary schools, two junior high and two high schools. There is one Catholic school with grades kindergarten through 8; and there is also a Christian school with grades kindergarten through 8 which several Christian congregations in the community help to support. A large city of 300,000 is a little over an hour’s drive from this community. The church building of this congregation is located in the middle of an older residential neighborhood just six city blocks from the center of town. The downtown of this community is suffering an economic decline as large and popular discount stores and shopping centers have built close to a major highway that runs just outside of town, drawing business to that area and forcing the closure of several downtown businesses. The community is suffering a significant amount of unemployment at this time as the result of the current economic crisis. This congregation is predominately white working middle class people. About half of those in the congregation who work, work in agriculturally related occupations either in the food processing plant, on the farms directly, or in businesses related to the agricultural industry. About 10% are unemployed due to layoffs and cutbacks. About 30% work in stores, banks

Computer science coursework Merit Essay Essay Example for Free

Computer science coursework Merit Essay Essay Record shops, cinemas, radio stations, video rental stores and even libraries are losing customers to the global trend that is OIS (Online Information Sharing the official MPAA and RIAA term for internet piracy). It once used to be a common sight to see small record shops filled with teens picking their favourite artists new records from the well stacked shelves, paying at the desk, discussing music with others and making new discoveries. It was not uncommon for people to buy or rent VHS tapes or sit at home listening to the radio. Piracy of course was alive here, the market for pirate radio, pirate tapes and pirated videos was enormous, the difference between then and today? Equipment. Nearly every person below 40 has a computer in MEDCs and also has the knowledge to share everything they want from their media collection with others. The most significant difference between the days of pirate radio and the days of worldwide networking is that you no longer need to know how it works to do it; millions of parents mindlessly expose their young kids to P2P networks such as KaZaA and LimeWire which are full of adult content, viruses and include open chat programs which might allow sexual predators access to their children. The first consumer P2P (peer-to-peer) network of note (others such as MC2 , Direct Connect and TinyP2P had existed before but were not widely adopted by the average user) called Napster allowed only for the sharing of music files such as WAVE and . mp3 (leading to MPEG 3 becoming the most popular music format in years to come). This was the most organised piracy or the time among teenagers and young adults through the internet but had problems in terms of the danger that faced the user (being caught) in that the centralized nature of the service meant that the server not only listed the files bring shared by members but all of the files passed through it in an effort to prevent the proliferation of malicious programs. This was extremely bad news for the user as Napster now had the IP address of each and every user, an integral flaw which would come back to bite the company and its user base later on before it could change its process and remove the evidence from its servers. Napster had finally made stealing music easy but was considered flawed by many in the IT community who wanted easier methods of sharing software, video and text files and a safer method of sharing music. Audiogalaxy was the first mainstream centralized P2P client that was capable (although not by design) of sharing any kind of file whatsoever, it gained popularity after the downfall of Napster and was the first time that the MPAA took note of file sharing software as connections became more capable of allowing fast download of high quality video. Audiogalaxy only indexed *. mp3 files, the obvious way round this limitation was found quickly: by (for example) naming a *. exe piece of software from tree. exe to tree exe . mp3. This made AG extremely useful for illegal distribution of both legally and illegally purchased data between users with experience in CGI and Batch (CGI parameters had to be edited to share non mp3 files) but was not as popular as eDonkey2000 (another P2P later to become known as eMule) program which did not have the security limitations of previous P2P clients as it was much faster to decentralize and allow open sharing and indexing. Especially in the case of Napster, facilitating thousands of minor crimes led to a series of lawsuits launched by musicians against the company (Metallica, Dr.Dre, Madonna) but received praise from other artists (Radiohead, Dispatch, Editors) for allowing distribution of singles prior to an albums release. Eventually a larger lawsuit was filed against the company which eventually resulted in bankruptcy after a lawsuit (which inadvertently increased the services user numbers) filed by the RIAA resulting in Napster closing down their network and being blocked from selling the company without liquidating assets under Chapter 7 of the US Bankruptcy Act meaning that the company was forced to close. The name was later sold to Swedish pornography company PMG who run it as a paid for service using similar looking software. AudioGalaxy was also sued and shut down as its out of court settlement rendered the service effectively useless and resulted in the services user base abandoning it en masse as a result AG too, opened a pay service to distribute music. In efforts to decentralize and avoid federal prosecution, modern networks designed for file sharing are de-centralized, often encrypted and use proxies to disguise IP addresses, for these reasons modern networks make it much less likely for a user to be discovered and served with a court order or other legal reprimand. A de-centralized system does not have a server which holds the files but instead a server that indexes a list of all available files rather than storing them. Most modern p2p systems also use (as mentioned previously) a process of encryption and proxy servers to make them untraceable. The servers often do not ask uploaders and downloaders of content to register accounts as they have previously done, this prevents user name linking: a process that the CIA reportedly used wherein they would search a napster username through a series of websites trying to gain personal data on a pirate in order to find and prosecute them. Another security feature of modern P2P protocols is the streaming swarm structure which works on a rarest first basis, splitting files into multiple parts and downloading these parts (to be reconstructed into a usable file on the leech (downloading) computer) rather than an actual file. As none of these individual parts is usable as the intended finished product on its own Swedish law allows the redistribution under its own piracy laws for this reason, the most prolific pirating groups are based in the country. One such group is the Swedish pirate political party called Piratbyran, the Piratbyran, (whose motto Pirate and Proud has itself caused problems for the group) this organised group has demanded that (along with the Pirates website piratgruppen. org) pirates be treated fairly by the law of the world as they believe they have the right to appraise things and decide if they are worth purchasing before doing so. For this reason, Piratbyran have set up Kopimi, a copywright alternative (said copyme) which declares others right to use your work as they see fit (this being a more extreme version of many other previously concocted alternatives like creative commons which permit a user the right to use works for non commercial reasons of their choice) for anything at all. The group also used Bram Cohens bit torrent protocol and created the worlds largest tracker a website that indexes all of the files available through the protocol which is called ThePirateBay. com (a. k. a. TPB), this site is distributed in over 20 languages and is currently the most popular tracker for the most advanced, secure and efficient protocol that is commercially available at this time. They are however intending to create their own protocol to remove their reliance in Bram Cohen (the creator) who has recently cut distribution deals with Hollywood film studios and is believed to be considering taking the protocol commercial. Governments across the world are certainly taking note, shown in hundreds of adverts which have only proven ineffective thus far. In the USA and the UK the governments have been running multiple adverts against piracy on legally purchased DVD videos and Blu ray / High Definition DVDs which are fairly useless: the advert assumes You wouldnt steal and lists a series of items before telling you piracy is a crime and showing w young girl getting up from her computer where she is downloading a film and walking out of the door. Most people tend to be offended at the fact that, after legally paying for something, they are forced to watch an advert telling them not to steal. This string of adverts alone has caused a series of parody adverts which take off the script of the original You might steal a book and even inspired a film called Steal this movie. Of course there are also positive sides to the increase in stealing and sharing among internet users, the little guy for example is heard far more than the major executive, companies are embracing the freedom culture and popular bands are pre releasing their albums for free to gain fan support. Sharing is even curing cancer! A largely adopted project ([emailprotected]) launched by a US university is folding protein strings over a massive decentralized network in an effort to discover a cancer cure or prevention in lieu of the supercomputer they would normally require. Those passing records about in the early days probably never saw that coming when they connected their first networks! Back in the early 1980s, piracy (albeit not online) was rife amongst office workers and the computer competent, these early criminals would exchange software through floppy disk and share records between each other. As the 90s started and the first networks were being created within offices, the stealing only increased as files could be copied between computer terminals via cable rather than by hand. Now, with the age of the internet: it is estimated that over 300 million of the worlds population routinely steal information and data over the internet with millions more borrowing DVDs and books from each other, whether or not these people are stealing more or less because of the internet is unquestionable, with our ability to access millions and millions of people we are able to share and steal far more than we previously could have done and this only provides incentive to give and take more than we would normally have done in a spirit of world community that is evoked by groups that exist in this sphere such as piratgruppen and the piratbyran.

A Report On International Marketing Strategy Marketing Essay

A Report On International Marketing Strategy Marketing Essay This paper focuses on the international marketing strategy of two companies: one operating in the developing world and one operating in both the developed and developing worlds. These are Spice Jet, operating in India only and JetBlue airways, operating in USA, Mexico and Central America. Jet blue is a low cost service provider in the airline industry. JetBlue headquarters are situated in the Forest Hills near New York. Their major operations are in the United States, Mexico and Central America. In just five years, JetBlue has become one of the most profitable start-up airlines. They have managed to be profitable during the present recession. JetBlue operates in a very competitive low fare sector of the airline industry. The positioning of JetBlue has been done as an affordable and quality airline with extra facilities. JetBlues CEO David Neelemen and a few Southwest Airlines employees. The second most important thing after security is customer service for JetBlue Training staff, and this very well justifies what Mr. Gareth Edmondson-Jones, VP of Corporate Communications JetBlue said- We want to bring humanity back to airline travel. Its not enough just to launch a low-fare airline that can be unsold by big carriers[1]. According to 2008 reports there are more than 10,000 employees working for JetBlue and 134 aircrafts to 54 destinations in 6 countries. MARKETING STRATEGY of JetBlue Reaching the Customer Within the initial 2 years, JetBlue established a widely recognized brand name. They also have a customer loyalty program known as True Blue[2]. JetBlue mainly competes with its competitors on high quality service provided by its employees[3]. It has been positioned as a low cost and high quality service provider. To keep its operations cost effective JetBlues fleet consists of only one type of aircrafts i.e. AIRBUS A320 because this brings down their maintenance cost. JetBlues marketing strategy is attracting potential customers by effectively communicating its idea that low fares and good quality service are not always mutually exclusive[4]. The main reasons for JetBlues operations being so cost effective are the importance given to technology and innovation and the search for highly skilled and efficient staff known as Crewmembers. While hiring, they seek to match their corporate values with individuals values. In the last 10 years JetBlue has adopted a strategy of innovative marketing and profitability in the industry. Customers are given a $5 discount for booking online. They use different methods to advertise their offers and services such as promotional efforts, newspapers, radio, television and targeted public relations. JetBlue also relies on promoting through Word-of-Mouth. They are socially responsible and believe in CSR- Corporate Social Responsibility. After the earthquake in Haiti on January 12th 2010, they collaborated with American Red Cross and asked people to donate for those who have lost their families and their lifes earnings in the devastating earthquake[5]. DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING WORLD FOR JETBLUE JetBlue is a young and dynamic low fare airline but it has been facing problems due to the economic downturn. But they have been successful in differentiating their services from their competitors by providing high quality service at low fares. They have always tried to increase the number of their operating destinations to overcome the financial crunch and increase their market base. Currently JetBlue operates in USA, Mexico and Central America and the advantage it has of working in developed countries like USA and the developing ones like Mexico and Central American countries is that they have similar culture and similar expectations from their airline services and substantial amount of American population is Mexican so there are numerous frequent fliers which increases their customer base by substantial numbers. According to Pew Hispanic report of 2008, there were 12.7 million Mexican immigrants living in USA in 2008[6]. There are potential threats also while operating in both developed and developing worlds i.e. the different political environment and their economies being interdependent. Due to the economic crisis in USA, economy of Mexico was also hugely affected. There are different rules and regulations for the airline industry in different countries which also depend on their economic condition i.e. whether they are developed or developing. Developed economies would probably deregulate more and developing economies would try to protect their own airline companies from the ones who come from outside to tap into the local market because this way they actually import services and the local currency goes out. This depreciates their currency with respect to other foreign currencies. Government regulations, political stability and economic condition of the countries differ from each other which make operations of industries like the Airline industry very difficult and makes the business environment very uncertain. SPICEJET AIRWAYS Spice jet is the second largest low cost airline in India. Earlier it was Modiluft airline. ModiLuft airline was the partnership between Indian industrial group Modi and Lufthansa. It is based in New Delhi and offers domestic short haul services with 195 daily flights to 18 destinations in India including the big cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad[7]. SpiceJet is using a single-aircraft-type fleet like other low cost airlines. They are currently using 16 Boeing 737-800 and 5 Boeing 737-900ER. MARKETING STRATEGY SpiceJet is using the names of various spices for eg. Cinnamon, thyme etc. for their aircrafts. They handle their marketing campaigns with very catchy tag line Flying for everyone. As SpiceJet is low cost airline, they are more focused upon offering lowest air fares to gain more market share. They entered the market using vary different pricing strategy i.e. Rs.99 fares for 99 days and 9000 seats available at this rate[8]. SpiceJet maintained their low price spice fare strategy and started to sell the air tickets for Rs.500 and Rs.999. The main idea behind this is that they wanted to keep their prices very similar to first class tickets of Indian Railways so that any person who affords that fare can be attracted by these airline fares. Another advantage of doing this is that saves in travel time. Corporate benefit programs, Students discounts, discounts on group bookings are also one of the parts of their marketing strategy. They also offer air tickets with Rs.0 basic fare. Another thing we can observe is that almost 25% of their sales are on their website which shows that SpiceJet encourages the online bookings to eliminate the travel agents thus to bail out travel agents fee. They are also planning to increase their number of fleets in order to increase their market share. They also rely on Word-of-Mouth like JetBlue does. SpiceJet also launched a new communication strategy which clearly moves away from strategies based on price to value based strategies. This strategy focuses on long term prospects and positioning SpiceJet in a different way[9]. COMPLEXITIES REGARDING MARKETING AIRLINE INDUSTRY IN DEVELOPING WORLD The market size for the low fare airline services is really small i.e. just 18 cities in 28 states. That amounts for a very small size of the total population. Airline is not like other products with which consumers have to interact with on daily basis. The regular Indian traveler expects the same whether they are traveling from a low fare airline or a full service carrier with respect to some services like normal sanitation etc[10]. ENHANCING PERFORMANCE Spicejets fleet includes Boeing 737-900ER, which earlier was fine for them to use because of cheap fuel prices but lately fuel prices have increased. Therefore to decrease their operating cost they can also include more fuel efficient aircrafts like ATR-72 for short distance flights and Airbus 320 for long distance flights. They can also increase the number of destinations to reach economies of scale and to increase their revenues. STAY HERE OR EXPAND Given the current economic condition of other countries and the financial situation of Spicejet they should stay in India only because in the developed countries the competitors are more financially stable and they can have a competitive advantage with respect to price and also being there before SpiceJet. Other airlines already operating in the developed countries have well established network and the experience to operate their because the government rules and regulations regarding differ from place to place and also depends on the current economic condition of the country. The cultural difference and the standard lifestyle of the customers are also different. The meaning of a low fare airline might be different for people from different countries and the minimum expectation from the airline services as well. Its true that to increase the revenues they should tap into the other markets but right now its not the right time to that. When they decide to do so they can consider an opti on of collaborating with some other players in the developed country market and gain some experience and know how while working with them before they decide to enter the market themselves. CONCLUSION [1] http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?id=41 [2] https://trueblue.jetblue.com/web/trueblue/home;jsessionid=F854ECF662888C47BD9AD0E3415B9862.l1 [3] http://www.jetblue.com/about/ourcompany/annualreport/2002/our-people.html [4]http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/chr/pdf/showpdf/chr/research/casestudies/AAJetBFinal_with_2002_financials.pdf?my_path_info=chr/research/casestudies/AAJetBFinal_with_2002_financials.pdf [5] http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=corp_evergreens_company=jetblueairways-pubs_companycontent=jetblueairways-pubs_active=1s_dis1=0s_dis2=0s_dis3=1s_genops=0s_national=0s_military=0s_international=0s_local=0s_match=0s_src=FZZWGW00s_subsrc=jetblueairways-pub [6] http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/47.pdf [7] SpiceJet Retrieved Jan 20 2010 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpiceJet [8] SpiceJet Debuts with Rs.99 fare for 99 days   Retrieved Jan 20 2010 http://www.spicejet.com/newspage.asp?strNews=99fares [9] http://www.campaignindia.in/news/2009/08/10/spicejet-s-new-communication-strategy-attempts-to-delivervalue- [10] http://www.campaignindia.in/news/2009/08/10/spicejet-s-new-communication-strategy-attempts-to-delivervalue-

Lost Lady Essay -- essays research papers

The diction and detail used by Willa Cather in the book A Lost Lady, paints a picture in the readers mind by her prose selection of diction and arrangements of graphic detail, which conveys a feeling of passion, sadness, tense anger and unending happiness through Neil Herbert. Throughout the book, Cather describes Neil Herbert ¡Ã‚ ¯s life from his childhood, to his teenage years, and then to his adulthood with surpassing diction and supporting detail.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As the story begins, Cather describes Neil Herbert as,  ¡Ã‚ °a handsome boy of twelve whom she liked. ¡Ã‚ ± This description gives us a mental picture of this boy with a smile on his face and always being courteous. In his younger years, the reader can assume that Herbert was very energetic and always merry. He ¡Ã‚ ¯d even try to catch a bird in a tree so Ivy Peters couldn ¡Ã‚ ¯t kill it with a rock.  ¡Ã‚ °If I can get it now, I can kill it and put it out of its misery. ¡Ã‚ ± Through Cather ¡Ã‚ ¯s details the reader can tell that Herbert had a strong determination to catch the bird. Herbert ends up falling from the tree and breaking his arm of which he gets treated at Mrs. Forrester ¡Ã‚ ¯s house.  ¡Ã‚ °What soft fingers Mrs. Forrester had, ¡Ã‚ ± and he though,  ¡Ã‚ °what a lovely lady she was. ¡Ã‚ ± The author states that  ¡Ã‚ °The little boy was thinking that he would never be in so nice a place again. ¡Ã‚ ± Through Cather's descriptio n the reader can tell that Neil had a yearning passion for Mrs. Forrester and that her house was like heaven on earth. &nbs...

Free Speech Should Not be Restricted -- Argumentative Persuasive Argum

Free Speech Should Not be Restricted I have an idea!   How about we let everyone freely speak their minds about issues and ideas.   Some will be better than others will of course, but the outcome will be a compilation of everyone’s best thoughts.   Everyone that is, except you.   We, meaning the country, decided that whatever it is that you have to say isn’t all that important and it is recommended that you keep all your thoughts to yourself as it is hard not to be offensive to everyone at the same time.   By offensive I mean to displease someone.   In general, no one really likes what you have to say.   Therefore it has been decided that you and only you will be silenced. â€Å"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.†Ã‚   John Stuart Mill could not have been more correct in his statement, using the first paragraph as an example. Walking into any airport, post 9-11, a series security checks is nec...

Distracted Driving Kills Essay

It is not uncommon today for driving crashes to be in our daily evening news. Almost every day, there are reports and newspaper articles about drivers who were distracted or under the influence of something. Most of us have probably seen drivers swerving in their lanes or barely dodging a pedestrian because they are not focused. In fact, each day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that â€Å"more than 15 people are killed and more than 1,200 people are injured in crashes that were reported to involve a distracted driver†. Some victims sustain minor injuries while others suffer from permanent damage, or possibly even die. Drivers are putting those around them at risk when they whip out their phone and began to text while driving. The Tiger’s Roar talked with Kiera Gold ’15 about her opinions on multitasking while behind the wheel. â€Å"So many people think they can multitask,† Gold comments. â€Å"Sure, maybe with testing and hom ework, or texting and cleaning, but driving?! That’s crazy.† It is not uncommon for people our age to multitask on almost everything. The biggest problem with this issue is that the most serious offenders are us. WE are the ones who are most at risk. Yet many of us continue to assume that we can drive and text or talk simultaneously. Some kids and adults do get away with it, but there are many more that do not. Distraction.gov is a website created by the U.S. government to address the problems of distracted driving in general. Ray Lahood, secretary of transportation, states that â€Å"any time you take your eyes off the road, your hands off the wheel, and your mind off your primary task: driving safely†, distraction occurs, increasing your risk of crashing. â€Å"Some people still don’t know how dangerous distracted driving is. Others know about the risks of texting†¦while driving, but still most choose to do so anyway. They make the mistake of thinking†¦that they can defy the odds† (D istraction.gov). They incorrectly think that the statistics do not apply to them. The most surprising of all is that there are all sorts of distractions that may be experienced. Texting, calling, eating, drinking, fixing your makeup, reading, adjusting music players, you name it. These are all potential factors that can put your life at risk. To ban texting and driving may sound like a reasonable action to take, but there may be difficulty enforcing such laws. To make texting while driving illegal will encourage drivers to hide their phones when they are texting instead of having it in front of them. This may make situations worse because some drivers will divert their eyes and attention to the phone instead of the road. In addition, it will be problematic for officers to know if someone was actually texting. â€Å"One Text or Call Could Wreck It All.† This is the message the U.S. Department of Transportation when it reaches out to millions of Americans. It is likely that a TV ad appeared while watching a favorite show about the consequences of texting while driving. They include the disabled and injured victim of a car crash due to distracted driving along with the one, simple text message that completely flipped their world upside down. This is reality, people. The purpose of the ads is not to depress you or give your something to laugh about. The way that person is now could be how you will end up living the rest of your life. In fact, if the trend of texting while driving continues just to disprove this article, you are only playing with your life and those around you. If you want to live your life to the fullest, then maybe that one text message does not need to be replied right away. Maybe it can wait until you have arrived at a resting place or your destination. Perhaps you won’t be involved in a fatal crash and film a texting while driving advertisement to make the public more aware. But that will depend on how you will deal with a ringing phone when your hands are on the wheel, your eyes focusing on the road. Stop the texts, stop the wrecks.

Branding Universities Essay

The end of the 1990s witnessed the corporatization of public universities in Malaysia resulting in the publication of corporate literature in these universities and the type of writing Fairclough (1993) refers to as the marketization of academic discourse. Marketization is necessary in public universities due to stiff competition in attracting students among the public universities as well as from the increasing number of private universities. This article reports how Malaysian universities re-brand themselves using the results of an investigation on corporate brochures from these universities. The investigation employs a structural analysis and a textual analysis. Although informative in nature, these corporate brochures exhibit the use of promotional elements in the texts as seen in the contents and the language use. The communicative functions of university brochures are viewed to be more promotional than informative. ABSTRACT KEY WORDS: brochures, corporate culture, genre analysis, re-branding, universities Introduction Academic institutions, particularly public universities, used to be regarded as the pinnacle of learning. Most of these universities were reputed for providing the best tertiary education and the mere mention of their names lit up the faces of those who had the privilege of learning from these fountains of knowledge and those who aspired to be associated with them. There was a time when admission was ‘by invitation only’, otherwise young men and women were seen struggling to gain admission into these prestigious institutions. These public universities acquired a promotional value (Wernick, 1991) without having to promote or market themselves. In advertising terms, these universities did not go through the process of branding. Branding is a fundamental strategic process of effectively marketing a product or service which includes creating a brand name and identity, designing Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 58 Discourse & Communication 2(1) the packaging and promoting the product or service (Randall, 1997). Although Randall (1997) argues that ‘brands (and therefore branding) are so fundamentally important to the survival and success of many firms’ (p.2), this was not the case in public universities in the past. This is significantly due to the fact that these academic institutions were claimed to be free from other influences as evidenced by Cardinal Newman’s view of universities cited by Wernick (1991) as: . . . the high protecting power of all knowledge and science, of fact and principle, of inquiry and discovery, of experiment and speculation; it maps out the territory of the intellect, and sees that . . . there is neither encroachment nor surrender from any side . . . (Cardinal Newman, 1847, cited in Wernick, 1991:151) That was the traditional image of public universities, independent of political or societal influence and this image was not built by advertising or branding. As centres of academe, public universities were known for their quality education based on the results of their graduates and their performance in the careers they embarked on upon graduation. As years passed, more aspiring young people would apply for admission in certain universities due to their reputation. This reputation in turn became the  image of the universities which automatically created the promotional value (Wernick, 1991) of these universities, mentioned earlier as the pinnacle of learning. Each university was identified by its name or logo and no further promotional strategies were required. By providing quality education, these universities successfully built ‘a distinct brand personality’ (Randall, 1997: 67) for themselves as the success of branding is justified when people are reminded of a particular brand just by looking at the logo or hearing its brand name. The traditional role of public universities was to manage society (Jarvis, 2001) by producing scholars in the various fields of study so that they can go out to make the world a better place to live or join the academia to continue producing scholars. However, towards the end of the 20th century, the role of universities started changing from serving the state in managing society to serving the industry and commerce in ensuring that people are employable (Jarvis, 2001). This is partly due to the demands of the contemporary knowledge-based society (Veitch, 1999) where consumers have become more knowledgeable and have started demanding for better education and improved quality of life. Changes started taking place in public universities in the West as early as the 1980s where the governments were forced to abolish academic tenure and decrease funding for these universities. This was when many traditional universities started transforming into corporate universities (Jarvis, 2001) where they have to assume a more corporate form and function more like a corporation. From being the centre of academe, universities have become business-like entities (Connell and Galasinski, 1998). In Malaysia, a number of public universities have recently been corporatized, a move taken by the Malaysian government in its effort to inculcate better and more efficient management of these institutions. As corporate culture (Treadwell and Treadwell, 2000) is a new culture in all these universities, most of them Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 Osman: Re-branding academic institutions with corporate advertising have set up corporate communications departments (Hajibah Osman, 2005) to handle corporate matters. Among the functions of these departments are managing corporate information and publication and projecting a positive image of the universities which are part of corporate advertising. Corporate advertising Business corporations use corporate advertising to enhance the image of the whole organization, or of the general brand in order to influence social values or to establish a connection between the corporation/brand and an already established positive value and in this era of identity, a lot of emphasis has been put on the importance of brand and corporate identities (Richards et al. , 2000). Unlike business organizations, universities are non-profit institutions. Public universities are viewed to use corporate advertising to enhance the strong foundation and to highlight the quality of these institutions of higher education. While it is common for business corporations to publish informative or promotional literature from time to time to inform the public about new developments in the organization (monthly or yearly reports) or to introduce new products or services (product launch leaflets), the use of promotional literature in academic institutions is a recent development. Malaysian public universities have started producing informative literature in the form of university brochures and special booklets in conjunction with certain celebrations in the universities as well as promotional literature in the form of leaflets providing brief information on academic programmes offered by the universities or introducing new programmes (Hajibah Osman, 2005). By employing new strategies to market their traditional image, from the advertising perspective, these universities are re-branding their products and services. Re-branding is the process of marketing an existing product or service of one brand with a different identity involving radical changes to the brand name, logo, image, marketing strategy and advertising themes (Wikipedia, 2006). In the advertising industry, re-branding is often referred to as re-positioning, that is, re-positioning a product or service in order to improve sales. Although there was no actual initial branding taking place in universities, being non-profit making institutions, the term ‘re-branding’ is used in this article to illustrate the change in the image of these universities particularly since the late 20th century. Significantly, this change has been effected without compromising the traditional characteristics and values of these institutions as the pinnacle of higher learning. The process of re-branding is aimed at improving the image of the universities by focusing on the facilities and highlighting the quality of the academic programmes. This article attempts to investigate the process of re-branding in public universities in Malaysia by conducting a genre analysis on university brochures, one type of print materials published by the institutions that represent corporate advertising. Analysing genres can lead to a ‘thick description’ (Bhatia, 1993) Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 59 60 Discourse & Communication 2(1) of the texts contained in these genres, explaining why certain texts have been constructed the way they are. The specific objective of this article is to identify and discuss the strategies used in the re-branding process based on the structural organization of university brochures and the communicative functions of this type of brochure. Previous investigations of advertising genres mostly focused on straightsell advertisements of products or services. Bruthiaux (2000), for instance, investigated how advertisers make use of a limited space available to them to create successful advertising copies by examining the syntactic features in an undisclosed number of display and classified advertisements. His results show that the degree of syntactic elaboration ‘varies substantially even when content of equal simplicity/complexity or familiarity to readers is being presented. This variation appears to correlate with perceptions of status on the parts of both writers and readers’ (p. 298) and the persuasive elements lie in the vacuous displays of linguistic sophistication designed to create a largely artificial sense of exclusiveness among status-conscious readers (p. 369). Investigations have also been conducted on the language of advertising in Asia, for instance, Tej Bhatia’s (2000) investigation of language of advertising in Rural India and Henry and Roseberry’s (1998) investigation of the linguistic features in tourist information brochures from Brunei. Thus far, there have been very few linguistic analyses conducted on the genre of corporate advertising. Therefore, the genre selected for analysis in this article is brochure, specifically corporate brochure from academic institutions. A brochure is a printed document of six or more pages, used to introduce an organization, published only once and distributed to special publics for a single purpose (Newsom and Carrell, 2001). The discourse community of Public Relations (PR) specifies five characteristics of brochures, three of which are related to the present article: always having a singular message statement; having a purpose – to persuade or to inform and educate; and attracting and holding the attention of the audience. Brochure genre makes an interesting study because, first, this genre is viewed as a ‘blurred genre’ (a term borrowed from Scollon et al. , 1999) in that the term ‘brochure’ has been used to refer to other forms of publications including booklet, flyer, leaflet and pamphlet (Newsom and Carrell, 2001). Second, a brochure is a genre of persuasive discourse shaping the thoughts, feelings and lives of the public (Dyer, 1993) placing it under the field of advertising. However, according to Newsom and Carrell (2001), brochures are produced by PR practitioners rather than advertising practitioners. This is probably due to the fact that PR, among other things, incorporates looking after the reputation of an organization ‘with the aim of earning understanding and support, and influencing opinion and behaviour’ (Beard, 2001: 7). The question of ownership arises placing brochures in an even more ‘blurred’ state as the communicative functions of brochures have been set by the discourse community to which the genre belongs. In the context of this article, brochures are categorized as a corporate genre (basically PR) involving the principles of corporate writing (Treadwell Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 Osman: Re-branding academic institutions with corporate advertising and Treadwell, 2000). Brochures are readily available, particularly in print version, and are easily accessible electronically. Finally, brochure genre needs to be investigated because brochure format is one of the most frequently used information formats in advertising and PR but is ironically the least written-about (Bivins and Ryan, 1991). Corporate genre in academic institutions This article establishes that any publications from universities, particularly those produced by the Corporate or Public Relations Office, are referred to as corporate genre. Corporate brochures are usually categorized as informative brochures (Richards et al. , 2000) providing all the necessary information about the organizations they represent. There are certain corporate elements present to qualify them as corporate brochures, but mostly these brochures are informative. However, an analysis of corporate brochures from multinational corporations by Askehave and Swales (2001) prove that these brochures also function to promote the organization. This is evident in the presence of promotional elements selected as syntactic choices in these brochures. Corporate brochures also function to establish long-lasting trading relationships which are in fact paramount in today’s industrial market. Hajibah Osman (2005) also notes that corporate brochures from academic institutions are promotional in nature with the use of promotional strategies apart from corporate and informative strategies. Another corporate genre in academic institutions, the university prospectus, started changing in form in the 1990s (Fairclough, 1993) where apart from providing information on the core business of the university, that is, the academic programmes, the prospectus has also included information on other aspects of the universities. Based on a critical discourse analysis of prospectuses from a number of British universities, Fairclough notes that these universities started promoting their programmes because they have come increasingly under (mostly government’s) pressure to operate like other types of businesses competing to sell their products to consumers. The university prospectus has become a ‘genre of consumer advertising colonising professional and public service orders of discourse on a massive scale, generating many new hybrid partly promotional genres’ (Fairclough, 1993: 139). Academic institutions in Malaysia have also published promotional leaflets (Hajibah Osman, 2005) to advertise their academic programmes and these are circulated to potential students particularly before a new academic year begins. These leaflets are no longer the plain, boring information sheets but colourful and interesting ones. This article concurs with Askehave and Swales (2001) that corporate brochures function as promotional brochures more than projecting the corporate image and providing information. Thus, the investigation in this article attempts to identify and discuss the strategies that realize the promotional functions in this type of brochure as part of the re-branding process in public universities. Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 61 62 Discourse & Communication 2(1) Methodology In 2005, there were 11 public universities in Malaysia (currently, there are 20). Brochures were obtained from the 11 universities and were initially analysed to identify the possible structural organization. Based on the organization, the communicative functions of these brochures were determined. The 11 public universities included in this investigation are: International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM/UIA); Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM); Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM); Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS); Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS); Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM); Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris (UPSI); Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM); Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM); Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM); University of Malaya (UM). A textual analysis was conducted to examine the strategies used in the rebranding process. The strategies in the context of this article are tactical choices (Bhatia, 1993) which are cognitive processes ‘exploited by the writer to make writing more effective keeping in mind any special reader requirements, considerations arising from the use of medium or constraints imposed by organizational and other factors’ (p. 20). The strategies used by universities in re-branding the institutions are discussed within the framework of the sociolinguistic theory which considers writing as ‘part of the overall activities of a group and organization’ (Gunnarsson, 1997: 140) and in relation to the corporate culture (Hagberg and Heifetz, 2000) practised by the universities. As a genre is a typical form of utterances, it should be studied in its social contexts of use (Berkenkotter and Huckin, 1993). Sociolinguistics does not only describe linguistic variation and the social context in which such a variation occurs, but also shows how linguistic differentiation reflects social structure (Coupland, 2001). The sociolinguistic perspective in this article considers the existence of factors underpinning the construction of university brochures and the concept of promotional culture (Wernick, 1991). Re-branding academic institutions It has been established that university brochures form part of the corporate advertising strategies in Malaysian universities which in turn are part of the rebranding process in these traditional institutions. The structural organization in these brochures consists of 10 sections identified as moves (Table 1). Some of the moves are exemplified with extracts from the university brochures in Figure 1 (see Appendix). In identifying the moves, the term ‘service’ is used to refer to the educational services and the support services offered by the universities. All the brochures from the 11 universities include Moves I, C, L, D, J and S, indicating that these six moves are obligatory. Ninety-one percent of the brochures include Moves A, T and E, while 81 percent include Move V, making them optional moves. The 10 moves have been used to realize three communicative functions of the university brochures which are: †¢ To inform the public about the academic programmes offered in the university and the facilities and other services available to support the academic programmes; Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 Osman: Re-branding academic institutions with corporate advertising †¢ †¢ To portray a corporate image of the university; and To promote the university as an academic institution based on the quality and the variety of academic programmes offered as well as the facilities available. These communicative functions of university brochures correspond with the general functions of brochures (Newsom and Carrell, 2001) set by the discourse community of PR. Re-branding strategies The 10 sections in university brochures have been identified as moves and these moves are realized with the use of strategies, and for the purpose of discussion in this article, re-branding strategies. The article discusses how the strategies contribute to the re-branding process and what their communicative functions are. NAME AND LOGO The first move in university brochures is called identifying the service which presents the name and the logo of the university. Although the brochures are in English language, the names of the universities are in Malay, the national language of Malaysia except two universities, International Islamic University Malaysia and University of Malaya. The names of the public universities were officially changed to Malay when the national language was made the medium of instruction in the mid-1970s. In the case of IIUM, however, the acronym by which it is commonly referred to by Malaysians is the Malay version, UIA. Similarly, University of Malaya is now popularly known as Universiti Malaya (UM). Interestingly, alumni up to the early 1980s still refer to this oldest university in the country as MU (Malaya University). TA B L E 1. Structural organization of university brochures Section Move identification Name of the university University slogan or motto Vision/Mission statement Profile or background of the university Location and size of the university Academic programmes offered at the university Facilities available to support the academic programmes Entry requirements, fees charged and duration of the programmes Career opportunities and recognition received by the university Contact addresses and telephone numbers Identifying the service (I) Attracting reader attention (A) Targeting the market (T) Establishing credentials (C) Locating the service (L) Describing the service (D) Justifying the service (J) Indicating the value of service (V) Endorsing the value of service (E) Soliciting response (S) Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 63 64 Discourse & Communication 2(1) In the past, universities were identified by their crests but now these crests have been generally referred to as logos. Although it cannot be ascertained when the change exactly took place, this is the first re-branding strategy. However, this is not an obvious re-branding element because some of the established traditional universities in the world still use the term crest, for example, Oxford University (http://www. ox. ac. uk/web/crest.shtml). As far as Malaysian universities are concerned, both terms are similar and a recent survey of the university websites shows that most of the public universities in Malaysia refer to the crest as the logo while two universities (UKM and USM) refer to them as emblems. Most of the websites also provide the rationale for the design of the logo (e. g. UiTM, UPM). Whether used as crest, logo or emblem, interestingly, there are two common shapes observed: the shape of a shield (six universities) and a round shape (five universities) (Figure 2, see Appendix). The shape of USM’s emblem differs significantly from other logos in that it resembles a state emblem. This qualifies for the use of the term ‘emblem’ (a heraldic device or symbolic object as a distinctive badge of a nation, organization or family – Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, 2001) by the university. Although the current shape of UPSI’s logo is round, it once had the shape of a shield (Figure 3, see Appendix). Compared with the logos of established universities which include traditional designs representing the academe, the current logos of Malaysian public universities include elements of modern designs. In fact, some of these logos have gone through some kind of ‘evolution’ as in the case of UiTM, UPM and UPSI. UPM ‘evolved’ from a training school to a college to a university focusing on agriculture. Later, the university started including more disciplines and the name was changed from Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (Malaysia University of Agriculture) to Universiti Putra Malaysia (Putra University of Malaysia) in 1997, taking after the name of the first prime minister at the same time keeping the same acronym. UPSI and UiTM underwent almost similar ‘evolution’; from a centre to a college to an institute and finally to a university. Throughout the ‘evolution’, the logos have also gone through many changes where the concept incorporated in the logos mainly represents the focus of the university. While UPSI’s logo changed in shape but not in concept, UiTM’s and UPM’s logos underwent a total facelift (Figure 3, see Appendix). This is probably due to the fact that UPSI’s focus of training teachers remains throughout. MOTTO AND SLOGAN A motto is a short sentence or phrase that expresses a rule for sensible behaviour, especially a way of behaving in a particular situation (Collins Cobuild Dictionary, 2001). Most of the university logos have the motto inscribed on them as the motto represents the culture or the way of life in the university. Once again, all the mottos of the public universities are in Malay. The more established universities still retain this culture inscribed in the logo as seen in UM’s motto (translated as) ‘Knowledge, the Source of Development’, UPSI’s ‘Knowledge, the Beacon of Pure Character’, UTM’s ‘By the Name of God for Mankind’ and UUM’s ‘Scholarship, Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 Osman: Re-branding academic institutions with corporate advertising Virtue, Service’. UPSI keeps the same motto inscribed on the logo throughout its ‘evolution’ but UiTM left out its motto of 39 years from its new logo. The newly established universities (UMS and UNIMAS) do not have a motto inscribed in their logos. While a motto is a traditional feature of a public university, having a slogan is a new phenomenon. A slogan is a distinctive catchphrase that serves as a motto for a promotion campaign (Wells et al., 2003) used to sum up a theme for the benefit of the product or the service in order to deliver a message in a few words which are easily remembered. There are two types of slogans (Russell and Lane, 1990): hard-sell slogans are strongly competitive, epitomizing the special significant features of the product or service being advertised. Institutional slogans establish a prestigious image for companies which they need in order to enhance their products or services. Slogans in university brochures fall under the category of institutional slogans. Again, it cannot be ascertained when universities started creating slogans but there is a strong probability that they started at the same time when Malaysian public universities were undergoing corporatization in the late 20th century. Slogans started appearing on brochures and prospectuses of these public universities. The use of slogans has been viewed as a significant re-branding strategy as slogans represent the most promotional element in advertising. The purpose of having a slogan is to attract the reader’s attention and to let it linger on the reader’s mind. According to Russell and Lane (1990), the memorability of slogans can be enhanced by making use of literary techniques. These techniques consist of certain types of words including: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Boldness – use of strong powerful words, and startling or unexpected phrases; Parallelism – use of a repeated structure of a sentence or phrase; Rhyme, rhythm, alliteration – use of repeated sounds; Aptness – use of appropriate, direct words (Russell and Lane, 1990). Slogans in university brochures have been created based on good advertising principles as they have been observed to make use of the literary techniques, for example: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ boldness: Garden of Knowledge and Virtue (IIUM) parallelism: The National University with an International Reach (UKM) aptness: Your Inspiration parallelism: Contemporary and Forward Looking (UNIMAS) boldness: Towards a World-Class University (UPM) boldness: Towards Excellence and Supremacy (UPSI) Boldness is exemplified with words such as ‘virtue’, ‘world-class’ and ‘supremacy’ where the universities are bold enough to associate themselves with such high stature. Traditionally, public universities are centres of academe which do not portray an image of flaunting. Slogans using parallelism aim for jingle-like sounds so that readers can remember them easily while aptness acts like punchlines, strong and effective to be easily remembered. The bottom line is that a slogan is an Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 65 66 Discourse & Communication 2(1) advertising concept and a marketing tool. The fact that public universities as nonprofit making academic institutions use slogans place them in a different light. They are currently functioning more like business entities. MISSION STATEMENT This move is identified as targeting the market based on the communicative functions of the mission statements. A mission statement provides information about what type of organization it is and what it does (Falsey, 1989) at the same time highlighting the positive factors in the organization. Stating the mission of the university is viewed as one of the two crucial strategies (the other being using slogans) in re-branding academic institutions as this move never appeared in academic genres before. This move has placed public universities in the same league as other successful corporations. Mission statements of public universities in Malaysia are observed to provide information as to what and how they can contribute to the public in terms of tertiary education as highlighted (underlined) in the following examples: (10) To become a distinguished university, aspiring to promote academic excellence in higher education and professional training necessary for the country’s socio-economic development (UiTM). (11) To be a premier university seeking excellence in the advancement of knowledge to meet the aspirations of the nation (UM) (12) To become an exemplary university of internationally acknowledged stature and as a scholarly institution of preference and choice for students and academics through the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research and scholarship (UNIMAS) (13) To lead in the development of creative human resource and technology in line with the aspirations of the nation (UTM). The words ‘distinguished’, ‘premier’, and ‘exemplary’ are used to emphasize the quality of the universities. Other words like ‘excellence’, ‘advancement’ and ‘stature’ as well as ‘to lead’ are all bold words of promise by the universities. PROFILE OF THE UNIVERSITY This section is identified as the move to establish the credentials of the university as it provides information on the background and/or the current status of the university. The background information includes the date of establishment and the reason for the establishment while information on the current status of the university usually includes the achievements of the university in terms of academic programmes and physical development as well as the quality of the programmes offered. This move is supposed to be informational but there are a number of instances where the brochures provide the information on the current status of the university using ‘promotional’ words and phrases. For example: (14) UNIMAS is an ISO-certified university . . . Its undergraduate programmes have been designed to suit the needs of society and industry. Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 Osman: Re-branding academic institutions with corporate advertising An ISO certification for an organization confirms the quality of that organization and it is now a common practice among public universities to obtain such certification to convince the public about the quality of the university, particularly the academic programmes on offer. Universities with ISO certification usually highlight it in their brochures as a strategy to promote the institutions. Other instances of promotional words can be observed in the following examples: (15) The university is the catalyst for regional growth in the northern region of Peninsula Malaysia (UUM) (16) From these humble beginnings, UM grew hand-in-hand with the young nation to become the nucleus for producing graduates of the highest quality and calibre. The word ‘catalyst’ denotes the importance of the university in the regional growth of the northern region of the country, without which there would not have been much growth in that region, thus promoting the significance of the university. Similarly, the word ‘nucleus’ conveys the significance of UM to the developing nation. Another instance is when a university states the commitment of the university to the public or the nation. UPM boldly states its commitment to become a worldclass university to convince the public to come and enrol in this university. (17) Named Universiti Putra Malaysia in honour of the pioneering Prime Minister of Malaysia, . . . has adopted this pioneering spirit and is committed to become the world class Univers.