economic Essay -- essays research papers

Globalisation - Economic Growth and Development and development indicators. â€Å"Outline the differences between economic growth and economic development. Discuss how economic development may be measured. Outline how globalisation may impact upon a nation’s development. Where appropriate make reference to a relevant case study.† Although economic growth and development are similar in meaning, they have some essential differences. Economic growth refers to the increasing ability of a nation to produce more goods and services. Economic development basically implies that individuals of that nation will be better off and takes into account changes in economic and social structures that will reduce or eliminate poverty. Economic development can be measured in a number of different ways including the Human Development Index, a Gender Empowerment Measure, a Human Poverty Index and a Human Freedom Index. All of these measures were developed by the United Nations Development Program. The World Bank also has its own indicator called the World Bank Development Indicator. Globalisation can have both negative affects on a nation. It can impact on the levels of economic growth a country may experience, impact on levels of unemployment or it may impact on a country’s quality of life. Economic growth is the expansion of a country’s productive capacity. This leads to a rise in total national output. Growth can occur in two different ways; the increased use of land, labour, capital and entrepreneurial resources by using better technology or management techniques and increased productivity of existing resource use through rising labour and capital productivity. While theoretically having an increasing national output means greater material welfare and a rise in living standards, it does not equate to having higher levels of well being for individuals in that nation. Economic growth can, in fact, have negative impacts on a nation including environmental degradation and the loss of traditional cultural values. It also may mean there is greater inequality between different classes in society, that is, the gap between the rich and the poor may grow. It is for these reasons that economic development measurements are also used. Economic growth as a measure fails to account for other important social and economic factors such as the size of the black market, domestic work ... ...e strong progress. Although in the very early nineties Poland experienced a sharp decline in GDP, it has since resumed steady growth. In 1999 its GDP growth was 4.1%. The private sector now accounts for over 55% of the total GDP. In early 1990, Poland was experiencing hyper-inflation with levels of up to 1200%. In 1999 the inflation rate was lowered to 7.3%, which although is still high by developed world standards, is slowly dropping. Also in the early nineties, Poland had huge unemployment rates with most sectors at around 30%. This has now been lowered to 13%, which again is high by developed nations’ standards but is a lot less than the rates experienced early in the decade. Essentially, the difference between economic growth and economic development is that one is a quantitative measure (growth) and the other is a qualitative measure (development). Economic development can be measured using a variety of indicators, mostly developed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), though another widely used indicator was developed by the World Bank. Globalisation can have many affects on nations, depending on their government policies and also on their economic status.

Art Censorship Essay examples -- essays research papers

Art Censorship   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In recent news there was a controversy over art shown in Santa Fe Community College’s gallery. The artist Pat Payne created obscene religious pictures that for the most part were mocking the Catholic religion. I feel that there is no need for artwork to be censored if in an appropriate place. Placing paintings that may seem to be obscene in an art museum, gallery, or anywhere else that attract mostly mature individuals is appropriate and obviously placing those same pieces of art in an elementary school would be inappropriate. My point being that artworks of any type being placed in Santa Fe’s art gallery should not be an issue. The majority of individuals looking at Santa Fe’s gallery are older and mature, and if children are being brought into a place like this, ad...

Issues Relating Diverse and Cross Cultural Management Essay

The diverse workforce has become a reality today. The impact of cultural diversity varies with the type of environment and firm’s overall strategy. As more and more number of firms move from domestic, multidomestic, multinational strategies to operating as a truly global firm, the significance and impact of cultural diversity increase markedly. Management of cultural differences has become more important for creating advantages and getting competitive edge. Companies must also consider stakeholders as employees. The viewpoints of stakeholders such as shareholders, suppliers, public agencies, and government regulators should be considered in shaping the culture of performance and approaching the diverse markets. In number of situations employees, customers and other stakeholders in the service environment interact to produce the ultimate service outcome. To solve the problem of unfair, inequitable treatment of diverse people, both as employees and customers, managers must recognize that such treatment is bound with bureaucratic structure, subjectivity and irrationality, inappropriate policies and practices, ineffective implementation of human. Companies should completely reshape the working culture that make possible the integration of a broad range of viewpoints that leads to a redefinition of how work gets done and how diverse markets are approached and capitalized upon. All employees should be held accountable for their behaviors and human resources results. There are certain arguments for creating a diverse workforce, those are as follows: 1. As the number of women, minorities etc. in the workforce increase, so will their influence as consumers. Hiring women, minorities, disabled, etc. will help the organizations to tap these niche markets. . As all the segments of society have stake in the development and prosperity of the society as a whole, the creation of diverse workforce should be seen as a social and moral imperative. 3. Diversity enhances creativity and innovation and produces advantages. 4. Diversity helps organizations for entering the international arena. 5. Diverse teams make it possible to enhance flexibil ity and rapid response to change. Diversity also causes certain problems those are as follows: (i) Communication becomes more difficult. Employees from different cultures fail to understand one another. Firms operating in different language areas find difficulty in communicating with the local employees as local employees speak different language. (ii) Diversity increases ambiguity, complexity and confusion. (iii) Diversity also causes problems when managers and employees over generalize organizational policies, strategies, practices and procedures. (iv) Cultural diversity creates difficulties for an organization when it wants to reach on a single agreement. (v) Cultural diversity increases the complexity and problems in developing overall organizational procedures. A company with a diverse workforce can better serve and compete in diverse markets. Hiring a diverse workforce can be challenging but the greater challenge is to retain the diverse workforce. Exploring best HR practices helps in identifying the best tools for retaining a diverse workforce. These practices include establishing open communication, supporting ongoing training and mentoring programmes and linking pay to diversity goals. Ultimately, the key to create, develop, and retain diverse workforce is to find a way to make workforce to feel connected to their company Cultural Diversity and Management  The cultural impact on management is reflected by basic values, attitudes, beliefs and behavior of the people. Culture can affect technology transfer, managerial attitudes, managerial ideology and even government-business relationships. Moreover culture affects how people think and behave. In some societies important decisions are made by few top managers, while in others, these decisions are diffused throughout the enterprise. American society comes under the first case and Japanese comes under the latter case. American and other Western countries’ cultural norms require individual rewards that are not so in Japanese culture. In some societies, risk-taking is encouraged which is not so in others. People identify themselves very strongly with their company as in Japan against America where people identify themselves with their occupational group. Some societies encourage cooperation between people. Others encourage competition between people. The managers and employees vary on four primary cultural dimensions: * Individualism/collectivism * Power distance. * Uncertainty avoidance. * Masculinity/femininity (Career success/quality of life). Managing Cultural Diversity The five cultural dimensions highlight the important cultural differences in organizations. To manage effectively in a global or a domestic multicultural environment, we need to recognize the differences and learn to use them to our advantage, rather than either attempting to ignore differences or simply allowing differences to cause problems. Rather managers should be taught how to respect the differences at work and how to work with them to maximize the contribution of each employee. Strategies for managing cultural differences The extent to which managers and employees recognize cultural diversity and its potential advantages and disadvantages defines an organization’s approach (strategy) to manage cultural diversity. Ignore Cultural Differences – managers do not recognize cultural differences (diversity) or its impact on the organization. This strategy is very popular in parochial type of organizations. * Minimize Cultural Differences – managers do recognize cultural diversity but only as a source of problems. In an ethnocentric organization, managers believe that â€Å"our way is the best way† to organize and manage. * Manage Cultural Differences – The organizations which adopt the strategy of managing differences are synergistic organizations. These type of organizations recognize the impacts of cultural diversity that leads to both advantages and disadvantages. Synergistic Organizations Assume I. that groups within society differ across cultures and that each maintains its cultural distinctness. II. that the similarities and differences are of equal importance. III. that there are many culturally distinct ways to live, to work, and to reach a final goal. IV. that there are many different good ways to reach the final goal. The best way depends on the cultures of the people involved. Cross-cultural Training Cross-cultural training stresses on training employees about other cultures and sensitizing them to the discrimination and biases diverse employees feel. Cross-cultural training aims at helping employees live and work comfortably in another culture. Organizations can use two approaches of training that can play a big role in managing diversity. (i) First approach offers training to diverse groups of employees. People from diverse groups can be trained for an entry-level skill. (ii) Second approach is to provide training to managers and other employees who work with diverse employees. Many organizations impart practical, real-life training to teach employees how to handle situations those arise due to cultural differences. Environmental briefings: to provide information about history, geography, climate, schools, government, economy, etc. Orientation in culture: to familiarize the employees with value systems and culture of the host country. Cultural assimilator: is a programmed learning technique that is designed to expose employees of one culture to some of the attitudes, customs, etc. of another culture. Language training: to teach conversational language skills.

Village Volvo

1. Describe Village Volvo’s service package. The service package consists of five points: supporting facility, facilitating goods, information, explicit services and implicit services. †¢Supporting facility: The car repair is based in a new Butler building in a suburban location with four work bays, an office, a waiting area and a storage room. Because of the location Village Volvo considers a shuttle service two or three times a day. The waiting room is equipped with a television se, comfortable chairs, coffee, a soft-drink vending machine, magazines and the local newspaper. †¢Facilitating goods: Facilitating goods are on the one hand the parts which are used to replace worn-out parts of the cars and on the other hand goods which are provided in the waiting room like coffee, soft-drinks, magazines and the local newspaper. †¢Information: The client and the mechanic who will be working on the vehicle discuss the problems the client has noticed and sometimes they may take a short test drive. Another source of information is the Customer Care Vehicle Dossier (CCVD) which is a continuing file of each vehicle the garage services. The CCVD can help the mechanic to diagnose problems and provides a convenient record if a vehicle is returned for warranty service on an earlier repair. †¢Explicit services: On the basis of 22 years of training and experience with the local Volvo dealer, they have earned a respected reputation and they offer any repair service on Volvo cars. For services which are not part of Village Volvo the owners developed a network of other service providers who can satisfy the customers’ needs. Care is taken throughout the repair process to keep the car clean, and the inside is vacuumed as a courtesy before pickup. After the repairs are finished, the vehicle is taken for a short test drive. Another explicit service is the availability. They have set aside specific â€Å"drop in† times (3 to 5 PM Wednesdays and 8 to 10 AM Thursdays) each week when clients may drive in for quick routine services. Between 7 and 8 AM and 5 and 6 PM the two owner-mechanics do not repair, because they want to be available for customer contact. †¢Implicit services: Implicit services include good attitude of mechanic, the comforts of the waiting area, and the convenience of the services offered. Mechanics take time to discuss problems with their clients; they even take a short test drive with the finished car and inform the customer about any other steps necessary whilst reparation. Although the customer will be consulted before any work other than the agreed-on job is done. Village Volvo 1. Describe Village Volvo’s service package. The service package consists of five points: supporting facility, facilitating goods, information, explicit services and implicit services. †¢Supporting facility: The car repair is based in a new Butler building in a suburban location with four work bays, an office, a waiting area and a storage room. Because of the location Village Volvo considers a shuttle service two or three times a day. The waiting room is equipped with a television se, comfortable chairs, coffee, a soft-drink vending machine, magazines and the local newspaper. †¢Facilitating goods: Facilitating goods are on the one hand the parts which are used to replace worn-out parts of the cars and on the other hand goods which are provided in the waiting room like coffee, soft-drinks, magazines and the local newspaper. †¢Information: The client and the mechanic who will be working on the vehicle discuss the problems the client has noticed and sometimes they may take a short test drive. Another source of information is the Customer Care Vehicle Dossier (CCVD) which is a continuing file of each vehicle the garage services. The CCVD can help the mechanic to diagnose problems and provides a convenient record if a vehicle is returned for warranty service on an earlier repair. †¢Explicit services: On the basis of 22 years of training and experience with the local Volvo dealer, they have earned a respected reputation and they offer any repair service on Volvo cars. For services which are not part of Village Volvo the owners developed a network of other service providers who can satisfy the customers’ needs. Care is taken throughout the repair process to keep the car clean, and the inside is vacuumed as a courtesy before pickup. After the repairs are finished, the vehicle is taken for a short test drive. Another explicit service is the availability. They have set aside specific â€Å"drop in† times (3 to 5 PM Wednesdays and 8 to 10 AM Thursdays) each week when clients may drive in for quick routine services. Between 7 and 8 AM and 5 and 6 PM the two owner-mechanics do not repair, because they want to be available for customer contact. †¢Implicit services: Implicit services include good attitude of mechanic, the comforts of the waiting area, and the convenience of the services offered. Mechanics take time to discuss problems with their clients; they even take a short test drive with the finished car and inform the customer about any other steps necessary whilst reparation. Although the customer will be consulted before any work other than the agreed-on job is done.

Ice fili case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Ice fili case - Essay Example Although the local companies register commendable profits, they lack the capacity to grow (Xin 4). The ice cream market in Russia is set to experience more competition in future. The main reason for this stems from the fact that competition among local producers has been high over the years. In addition to the local producers, foreign companies have infiltrated the Russian ice cream market, increasing the level of competition. Although the Russian ice cream producers remain dominant in the market, it is expected that if they do not change their marketing strategies, the foreign companies will dominate the market. Today, foreign companies have influenced a number of local consumers, through advertisements. Investing in intensive advertising is affordable to most foreign companies such as Nestle, while the local Russian ice cream producers claim to lack advertising funds. Although these remain popular today, in future, the Russian ice cream market might be taken over by foreign companies (Xin 3). Since competition is high in the Russian ice cream market, Ice Fili should develop an effective differentiation strategy. Ice Fili competes with Nestle in the production of high quality ice cream. Therefore, this company should build differentiation in order to compete favourably. First, Ice Fili should increase its brand recognition through more promotions and advertisements. Currently, the company has limited brand recognition. Secondly, the company should invest only in its strong brands. Today, Ice Fili has a wide range of products it produces, and it has failed to cater for the cost of advertising and promoting all the products. Therefore, by choosing to invest in the strongest brands, the company will have easy time managing them. Finally, the company should widen its distribution networks locally and globally. This will help the company build their brand and brand

Global warming after see incinvenience truth Essay

Global warming after see incinvenience truth - Essay Example They believe that the atmospheric temperature rise is caused by solar variations and we have nothing to do with it. An Inconvenient Truth was a documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim, in 2006, about former United States Vice President Al Gores campaign to educate citizens about global warming. Al Gore has shown many slides about the consequences of global warming to educate the people about the importance of this issue in this film. He has presented the scientific opinion about the climate change and the possible future effects of global warming in this film (An Inconvenient Truth) Scientific studies showed that atmospheric temperature rise and sea level rise may continue for more than 1000 years even if we manage to stabilize the greenhouse gas levels now. Increased atmospheric temperature is definitely a threat for the sustainability of life on earth. Sea level raise, increased extreme weather intensities, changes in agricultural yields, complete destruction of some living things etc are some of the immediate difficulties we can anticipate. â€Å"Sea level has trended upward for the past 150 years at a rate of 7 inches per century† (Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide). As per another study, sea level might rise by as much as six feet by 2100 (Eilperin). The over atmospheric heat may expand the seawater and it may raise more than one feet in the coming 100 years as per the evidences collected by the scientists. Such a sea level rise may sink the countries like UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait etc. The increased warming of atmosphere may melt the huge snow deposits on Arctic and Antarctic regions which will cause the sea level to be further raised. Scientists already proved that the height of Everest decreases and also the Snow Mountains disappearing slowly due to global warming. â€Å"Today the amount of carbon dumped globally into the atmosphere corresponds, on average, to one ton per person on the

What is the heart of Catholicism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

What is the heart of Catholicism - Essay Example For salvation and redemption, people need to gather around the bishop since he is the true descendant of God and, therefore, of Jesus. In Catholicism, this institutional approach to belief and the importance of communion with the Holy See through a religious medium like church or other religious authority are essentially inspired by Biblical evidences and history. One of Jesus’ speeches supports Catholicism’s claim about the importance of a believer’s communion with the religious authority is as following: â€Å"I say to you, something greater than the temple is here† (Barron 24). Indeed in Catholicism, the ideas of ‘temple’ and ‘bishop’ are the representatives of each other. In this regard, Barron says, â€Å"If Jesus is, in his person, the true temple, then he should be the definitive source of teaching, healing and, forgiveness and this is just what the Gospel tells us† (Barron 24). Indeed this very basis of Christ’s persona as the sole source salvation and redemption lies at the heart of Catholicism. Indeed, proper religious authority plays an important role in shaping the rites and rituals of Catholicism. The propriety of religious authority is often determined by sacramental evidences. While the Catholics unanimously believe in the ministration of Christ as the temple of teaching, salvation and redemption, the bishop is believed to be the true spiritual descendant of Christ himself. Therefore a bishop plays a very important role in catholic rites and rituals. For an instance, Catholic dogma asserts that the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper must be administered by certain qualified persons. According to the Roman Catholic Church, â€Å"only a Catholic Priest ordained into the apostolic succession can administered the Eucharist† (Erickson 1122). Erickson further says in this regard, â€Å"If any other person should take the same physical elements and pronounce the same words over them, they would remain bread and