Fuck Tha Police an Analysis of the Role free essay sample

Gangs Rap submerge of HIP-HOP, that the question: What were the underlying cultural reasons for the Los Angles Riots of 1992? can be answered. This paper will examine rap lyrics from prominent Los Angles Hip-Hop acts In order to investigate the deteriorating rapport between the citys oft;biased police department and the citys increasingly restless black urban youth, from the perspective of the latter group. These lyrics will be juxtaposed with statements various accounts of events involving racially motivated police actions, in order to assess their validity. In ongoing so, it is shown that hip-hop reveals the problematic culture of aggression that led to the riots the militant mindset of both the LAPPED and the young inner-city African American community, and the increasingly antagonistic and violent relationship between the two. Word Count (132) Summary of Evidence In the late asses, the hip-hop submerge known as Gangs Rap, which focused on the oft-violent lifestyles found In the poverty-ridden Inner scales, emerged as a phenomenon. We will write a custom essay sample on Fuck Tha Police: an Analysis of the Role or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page .The participants In the Gangs Rap scene were not third person observers of the situations they depicted; the majority of these rappers were minorities and came from low-income backgrounds. If a rapper was not from the hood he commanded no respect, and if he rapped about things he had never been through, he instantaneously lost all credibility. Songs were written in the first person, and subject matter came from personal experience. In the words of Ice-T, who is widely recognized as one of the forefathers of the genre , the goal of Gangs Rap was to provide street-level Journalism, real-life observations told in poetry . And at its best, it was successful in doing so. Its ability to Inform the marginalia lack youth about the problems plaguing their community led politically driven rapper Chuck Doff Public Enemy to credit rap as the Black folks CNN . And Its ability to supply a forum to express grievances and call for change led It to also be praised as a voice for those Impoverished and overlooked by governments, police, and politicians that had the power to change urban communities, but that failed to represent their needs .The LAPPED was a frequent target Hip-Hop artists, who characterized the department as racist and excessive. These accusations are understandable. Ender Commissioner Gates, the LAPPED Went after crime before it occurred, Gates said. Our people went out every single night trying to stop crime before it happened, trying to take people off the street that they believed were involved in crime. And that made us a very aggressive, proactive police department. This mentality opened up the door for frequent employment of racial profiling. In 1 987, C. R.A. S. H (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums), a special operations unit of the LAPPED, launched the Operation Hammer Annihilative. The operation consisted f a series of arrests and drug raids that were made In an attempt to crack down on the gang violence that plagued the city. However, due to the stereotyping utilized by From 1984 to 1989 the number of citizen complaints about police brutality increased 33% , and the LAPPED developed a reputation for accepting and even encouraging the use of excessive force, especially with minority suspects.This excessive use of force on minorities was demonstrated on March 3rd, 1991, when Rodney King, an African- American construction worker, was brutally assaulted by a group police officers using lily clubs. The beating became front-page national news, due to on-looker George Holiday, who recorded the incident on camera, and sent the videotape, which showed King getting stuck by a baton 56 times too local news station. Four of the officers involved in the beating were charged with excessive violence, but were acquitted of all charges by a Jury of ten Whites and one Asian, e nraging the minority community.The perceivably unjust acquittal caused the long-building social tension caused by the crack epidemic, economic hardship, racial inequality, antagonism teen races, racial profiling, and police brutality, to completely erupt. Angry citizens took to the streets, and from April 29,1992 to May 4, 1992, the city of Los Angles fell victim to the most violent riots of the 20th century in the United States. During these tumultuous six days, $735,000,000 worth of property was damaged , 53 people died , and 248 people were critically uninjured.Word Count (591) Evaluation of Sources Source: Video of Rodney King Beating, Taken by George Holiday This source is a video of Rodney King getting brutally abused by members of the LAPPED. It was taken using a personal video camera by on-looker George Holiday, who sent the tape to local news stations. The purpose of the video was to capture the extreme violence that the LAPPED used to subdue King, and to show this evidence to the public. The value of the video is that it played a major role in the start of the riots.The video circulated extremely rapidly, stirring up racial tensions, and increasing animosity towards the LAPPED. The source is also valuable because it provides a direct look into the beating that led to the riots, allowing the viewer to aka his or her own Judgments of the events without the influence of any outside opinion. The video is limited because of its low resolution, which makes some of the action difficult to decipher, and also by its lack of interpretation or analysis of the beating. Source: Gangs Rap group N. W.Ass 1988 protest song Buck That Police This source is a recording of the song Buck That Police by Gangs Rap group N. W. A. (which stands for Inning with Attitudes) off of their debut album, Straight Auto Compton. Its purpose was to express the frustration that the members of the rope held against the LAPPED, and to help the sale of Straight Auto Compton. This is a valuable source because it demonstrates the intensity of the hatred that the black community had towards the LAPPED that caused the riots. The song became a soundtrack to the riots, and was used by rioters to explain their actions.The source is limited due to its bias. The song does not show the viewpoints of most of those in Los Angles, it merely shows those of the rappers in the song. Word Count (294) Analysis The Juxtaposition of the video of the beating of Rodney King and the song by N. W. A provides a good of example of hip-hops role in the riots. Hip-Hop served as the black community response to the prejudiced actions of the police. While these songs Holidays show that the descriptions told by artists many Gangs Rappers were justified.For example, rappers often complained about being pulled over while driving without cause. In Cop Killer, Ice-T complains A pig stopped me for nothing12. The Christopher Commission, a 1991 post-Rodney King beating independent investigation that looked into the practices of LAPPED, led by future secretary of state Warren Christopher, validates their sentiment: Routine stops of young African-American and Latino males, seemingly without probable cause or reasonable suspicion, may be part and parcel of the Laps aggressive style of policing17 the commission declares.In Buck that Police Ice Cube further analyzes the prejudices of the LAPPED, claiming that police stop him when he is driving expensive cars because they would rather him conform to their image of an African- American, than accept the fact that he has achieved economic success mound rather e me in the pen/then me and Lorenz rolling the Benz14. In the Fuhrman Tapes, LAPPED Detective Mark Fuhrman specifically mentions that he arrested a black person in Westwood because He was a Niger.He didnt belong18, and muses, Niger driving a Propose You always stop him18, By arresting a black person in Westwood without cause, and suggesting all black people driving expensive cars should be pulled over, Fuhrman conforms to Ice Cubes description, further displaying rap as a genre it which its artists describe real world experiences in order to make a political argument. Hip-Hop also demonstrates the animosity that existed between the LAPPED and the minority communities of the city.For example, many rappers hurled extremely derogatory slurs in the direction of law enforcement officials. In Cop Killer by Ice T and in many songs by Los Angles based Latino Hip-Hop group Cypress Hill, police officers are referred to as pigs on numerous occasions . In their song Buck That Police, N. W. A. Refers to one as a Punk ass motherhoods With a fake ass badge and a gun and on the same track, member MS Rene mocks the police officers by calling their Billy clubs silly clubs11.And in the Cypress Hill song Looking Through the Eyes of a Pig, a-Real demeans the character of the police department of Los Angles, describing them as the biggest gang youve ever seen, above the law . While these insults may seem to be a bit over the top, the passion and anger behind them can be understood when one looks at the culture of racial bias that existed within the LAPPED during this era..The Christopher Commission found evidence of officers referring to Blacks as gorillas and proclaiming Monkey-slapping time! 9 before entering black neighborhoods. In his series of interviews with Laura McKinney, LAPPED detective Mark Fuhrman refers to African-Americans as naggers 49 times . Yet despite Fuhrman clear prejudicial attitudes (attitudes that resulted in a self-estimated 3000 or 4000 pages of internal affairs investigations concerning him), he received 55 commendations throughout his police career . Darryl Gates, the police chief of the LAPPED during this era, was quoted as calling Mexican police officers lazy and making a distinction between blacks and normal people . That the head of the entire police department would behave in such a manner, and that a Alice officer with a reputation for overt displays of bigotry would be commended so frequently, reveals the fundamental problem within the LAPPED during this time the tolerance or even celebration of comporting oneself in a prejudiced fashion.Word Conclusion The Los Angles Riots of 1992, so often attributed to the verdict of the Rodney King trial (to the point where they are sometimes referred to as the Rodney King riots), were not the product of one singular incident. The source of the riots lies in the problematic culture of Los Angles during the late asses and early asses-?the poor Tate of the urban community, the violent and antagonistic relationship between the police and the minorities of the city, and the tensions that e xisted between races within the city.This culture is best understood through the context of hip-hop, the biased actions of the police and the increasingly frustrated and aggressive mentality of the poor and oppressed community of minorities. The Rodney King verdict served merely as a trigger to an inevitable event caused by a long developing rage caused by the systematic oppression of a group of people. Word Count (150)

Compare a product(beer) in two different brand

Compare a product(beer) in two different brand IntroductionIn order to understand the purpose and significance of the integrated communication process, it is useful to compare to brand within the same product category. This report seeks to provide an understanding of the effectiveness on campaign strategies. In doing so, a critique of the contrasting creative strategy and communication objectives will be attained. An insight on target market and market partitioning approach comes into the scope of this report.Product CategoryThe product category chosen is food/drink product, especially on beer product. The following two brands are both from foreign market, with high reputation in Asian and Europe respectively.Our Tiger Beer campaign was "Discover the tiger" sourced from The Face (February 2003) (See Appendix A).The competing brand for comparison will be the "Reassuringly Expensive" campaign from Stella Artois done by BBDO, which was an award-winning ad on several advertising ceremony. (See Appendix B)Communication ObjectivesSince Tiger Beer is unfamiliar to Western market, the objective here mainly focuses on brand awareness to the target customer.English: Stella Artois can and bottleEncouraging consumers who have never try our brand to try it by using a creative headline. In this sense, our brand is informing target customers the existence of our brand, try to penetrate into the Western market. We aimed to change the target market's image of Asian brand and move consumers through to purchase. In fact, Asian beer brand are rarely advertised on Western countries magazines, Tiger Beer wish to differentiate itself from other foreign competitors through the message "Discover the tiger". Which achieve a high awareness by leaving a question mark to most of the reader.The communication objectives for Stella Artois include brand attitude and brand recognition. As this beer has been on the market for a long time, advertising has moved from brand awareness to brand recognition, it...

Literature Review and Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Literature Review and Report - Essay Example The growth of wines in the market urged Fosters to move in these wine industries, and he earns more than expected compared to its previous business, the beer company. In the USA, it’s been stated that its continuous growth in the past 30 years has enjoyed and has never experienced two years of falling demand. But this summed up had changed when overcapacity in the production of wines occurred. And unfortunately, this instance is now the source of many of Foster’s problems. Beringer Blass Wine Estates (2004), for instance, consolidated some production and warehousing facilities, wrote down the book value of excess bulk wine inventory, and selected "non-strategic vineyards" in California and Australia to put up for sale. Same with what happened to Fosters when he encountered the overcapacity in his production, forcing Fosters to make changes before his wine business will automatically descends By the first half of 2003, Fosters earnings had dropped to 64 percent due to deep price cutting since other wine business, or its competitors had cut away their profit margins. The immediate fall of earnings of Fosters obliged him to cut costs levelled with the costs of its competitors. But Fosters didn’t engage immediately in planned change before its wine business got into trouble. Fosters was expecting that, sooner, the sales he produced on the preceding years will continue on the following years. But he rather experienced more difficulties and therefore cleared that Fosters needed to undergo significant changes to get back on track. The first he does was the appointment of a new chief executive, Trevor O’Hoy, which also headed the wine business. Their main focussed under the new chief executive, which are the biggest threats to Fosters successfully carrying out this change program, was focussed on cutting costs and improving efficiencies. An established company in a maturing market is

MercadoLibre Case Study Management Report Essay

MercadoLibre Case Study Management Report - Essay Example Introduction MercadolLibre is a Portuguese website company which is dedicated to online auctions and to e-commerce. It is basically eBay’s Latin American Partner. In Latin America it is the number one e-commerce site. It has its headquarters located in Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. The literal market of MercadoLibre is free market in Spanish. Anyone can register in this site and use it to do online auction. The organisational culture in MercadoLibre is an open one. It serves as their backbone. Their IT infrastructure is also an open source one. It uses Varnish cache to enhance the web experience of their user. Such infrastructure gives a better performance as compared to their competing products. Basically varnish stores the web pages in the memory and hence they get loaded faster. Discussion This part of the study will discuss about the business environment and strategy of the organization. In addition to this, the strategy of MercadoLibre has been critically evaluated i n this part of the study. Business Environment Analysis Porter’s five force model and PESTLE analysis has been implemented in this study to determine the effect of environmental factors on the business process of MercadoLibre. Porter’s Five Force Analysis This analytical tool will help the organization to determine the industry opportunities and threats that can help the organization to develop future strategies. Buyers’ bargaining power Each and every Latin American country is achieving significant economic growth rate due to the globalization, technological advancement and growth of several domestic organizations. MercadoLibre is one of the emerging online trading and payment platforms in Latin America. This internet auction site has gain huge popularity due to its effective business operation strategies. Recent financial crisis and economic downturn affected the purchasing power of the people (Belz and Peattie, 2010, p. 224). Therefore, the online selling and purchasing activities in these countries have reduced. Although the organizations offers huge ranges of differentiated products for buying and selling, but affected purchasing power of people increased the threat of high bargaining power of customers or buyers for organizations within this particular industry. Suppliers’ bargaining power Suppliers’ bargaining power is quite low as the industry has reached to the growth stage of the industry life cycle recently. The business operation of this organization highly depends on the effectiveness of the supply chain network (Blenkhorn and Fleisher, 2005, p. 115). Huge availability of the suppliers can give cost effective supply chain options for the organizations. Therefore, it can be stated that the threat of suppliers’ bargaining power is not high. Threat of Substitutes Threat of substitute for MercadoLibre is quite low as the market demand for online purchasing and selling or internet auction is significantly incre asing among the target customers. This virtual market place gained huge popularity in recent past due to technological advancement. The demand for traditional purchasing and selling process is reducing. Therefore, it can be stated that the threat of substitute is low for the suppliers (Etzel, Stanton and Walker, 1997, p. 74). Threat of New Entrants Threat of

Human Adaptation Essay Example for Free

Human Adaptation Essay Even though human being is the next evolution of animal, people still have the basic thing that both animal and human being always have, and they cannot deny which is the adaptation of survival. The movie â€Å"Bicycle Thieves† is director Vittorio De Sica told the viewers a story of a poor father, who was searching for his stolen bicycle, and without the bicycle he will lose his job, which was to be the salvation of his young family. At the end, he cannot even find his bicycle; instead to steal from other but he was fail. All the quiet on the Western Front† is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, who is a German veteran of WWI, shows people a painful picture, line of thought, and the adaptation of the young group soldier in the war. The adaptation is not always good but it is depend on the situation they are in. The adaptation from generation of Paul and his friends has suffered is bad because they got experience during the war, which they have to adapt for their survival throughout the grenade, bullet, and boom. Paul and friends from this generation adapt too much from the war to get the experience of survival. Therefore, they lost their youth, connection with family, and lost their future. Sometimes, Adaptation could make a person, who has a different thought, speak, and vote into the one whom is speechless, and the same thought as others, or simply that the one lost his or herself. â€Å"Shooting an Elephant† wrote by George Orwell, gives people an example of the adaptation from the police who being force to kill the elephant, and made the ridiculous excuse for his action. The story tells people how the police feels about the elephant if he shoot or not. At first, he thinks the elephant is innocent, however, the shooting still happens and he makes an excuse that the elephant might be dangerous to people who lives here even thought he knows the elephant stays far away from the town people lives. Actually, the adaption makes him thinks that if he did not shoot the elephant, those black people might beat him until death, and he has to adapt for his survival. Things might change, or something happens that makes people have to adapt at the environment, or situation they are in. There might be something force people to adapt or there might not, however, it is true that in people’s mind, they do not want to lose anyone else, therefore their brain force them to do something that develops their ability to adapt the right situation. As soon as the police see the elephant, he already knows that he â€Å"ought not to shoot him† (Orwell). Watching the elephant eat at a peaceful time, he â€Å" did not in the least want to shoot him†(Orwell). He recognizes that â€Å"every white man’s life in the East was one long struggle not to be laughed at. (Orwell). He was too scared to let the elephant alive because people will make fun at him as fool. The only thought in his mind â€Å"was that if anything went wrong those two thousand Burmans would see him pursued, caught, trampled on and reduced to a grinning corpse like that Indian up the hill†. At the end, Orwell has to adapt the opinion of two thousand Burmans as being what they want h im to be, otherwise; he would be like the man up hill. In â€Å"All the quiet on the Western†, Paul and his friends have show their suffer during WWI that they have to adapt it. They have to adapt harsh living condition; sometimes they might be starving, defecation with others, someplace does not supply any food, Paul and his friends has to find it by themselves. Kat, who always find food for the entire group, â€Å"He has two loaves of bread under his arm and a blood stained sandbag full of horse-flesh in his hand† (Remarque, 39). Sometimes, Paul and his friends have to see his partner or young soldiers die in front of their eyes and they have to adapt it. â€Å"Such a kid† Kat repeats it â€Å" young innocent† (Remarque, 73). Antonio, who is searching for this stolen bicycle. The only thing he cares it is his bicycle but it makes he mad because the neighborhood is trying to protect the thief, and the old man in the church refuse to give him the address of the thief (The Bicycle Thief). Sometime, people know who did that but most of them choose to be silent because they do not have enough evidence to prove it. It becomes the rule of this world, and people need to adapt it. Antonia knows exactly about the thief but he cannot prove when the thief hides the bicycle. He has to adapt this rule that he needs a lot of proof to prove it; otherwise, the thief can get away from the case. Adaptation likes the wind cause no one starts it, it just comes unexpected and people just entrain it. When people realize those changing by looking back at the past, they might lost their identity because of what they have done compare to an â€Å"old† in themselves. The war broke because of the pride of government that lead to the stupid decision. War is meaningless because both sides have to suffer a lot of painful from physical to psychological. Paul and his group have to adapt to the war for survival. They adapt too much for the meaningless war, which loss their youth, their connection with family, and their future. To them, the line between death and alive is too close that they do not know tomorrow they still pass it or not. Everyday, they are living in hope and dream that if the war is going to end tomorrow, what they will do. At the end, they are no longer a human being instead a war machines (Remarque). After finding the thief, and seeing people protect him, Antonia adapts to the rule of this world, however, he is misunderstanding and choosing the wrong way. He does not trust the society and a man who lost his bicycle. However, he still cares and wants to find his bicycle because the bicycle is the only income to feed him and his son. At the end, he becomes a bicycle thief just like the one who stole his bicycle. The movie ends with part that Antonia walk slowly into the society just like others because he lost his identity, and it likes others people, and there is no different between him and this society that force him to adapt it (The Bicycle Thief). As same as the police in the story â€Å"Shooting the elephant†, he is too scare to stand up and refuse to shoot the elephant. He is afraid to be alone, and he has to adapt himself into the situation or two thousand Burmans is going to beat him. Adaptation and changing himself likes others, and he lost himself by shooting the elephant. At the end, he realizes that he becomes a part of this society, and he does not even know this is who he is, he â€Å"could not stand it any longer and went away† (Orwell). Adaptation could release the natural of human that stays deeply inside of them, and when it outbreaks, people do not know who they are or they are unbelievable that is their natural. In The Bicycle Thief, the series of annoying events from the old man from the church who did not want to give Antonia the address of the thief. Then the neighborhoods that tried to protect the thief and blamed Antonia again. At the end, the adaptation has changed Antonia, or it seemly that the adaptation has released the natural that stays inside Antonia, and he slapped his son, which he will never do before (The Bicycle Thief). As same as All The Quiet on the Western Front, while the bomb war happens, Paul saved a new soldier in his group. Later, Paul finds that recruit is lying on the ground with his hip a mess of flesh and bone splinters at the joint. Kat and Paul know he will not survive cause of his wounds. Kat whispers to Paul that they should end his life with a gunshot before the wound is going to torment him. The adaptation of the war has changed their thought in the way of life. They thought that It would be better if someone take a bullet through their brain to stop the life that they has suffered, and it would be better to die rather than the wound is going to torment them. In Catholic, if someone still survives, they should try to save him or her rather than kill him even though they know it would be better when they just let him or her go. After shooting the elephant, the police did not feel guilty for what he did, beside, he defend himself that â€Å"legally he had done the right thing, for a mad elephant has to be killed, like a mad dog† (Orwell). Once again, the adaptation shows the real natural of this man who â€Å"avoid looking the fool†, believe what he did it is right, and defend himself because he does not want to feel guilty, and people feel shame on him. Life likes the wind, and people just like the clouds floating in the sky. Whenever the wind rise, the fragile cloud and easy to break that has to follow it, or it is going to vanish in the sky. Human is a one of the kind that has a complicated history from traveling around the global. Dr. Petrov who has the research about the genetic of human adaptation say that â€Å"The work suggests human beings have undergone rampant adaptation to their environment in the last 200,000 years of history†(New). When Antonia lead his son go to the expensive restaurant, but he cannot let his son eat the food as well as the child who eating on the next table. He says â€Å"if we want to eat like that, we need to earn lot† (The Bicycle Thieves). However, even though he does not have money, he still let his son eat at the expensive restaurant because he holds a hope, which will give his son a better life. they have to adaptation the situation right now, and when they find the bicycle he can give his son more than that( The bicycle Thieves). Under rapidly changing environments nowadays, skills that were functional are quickly outmoded requiring continual self-renewal. (Albert Bandura), and the key to get over this harsh life, it is adaptation.

Building A World Class Hr Organization Management Essay

Building A World Class Hr Organization Management Essay The situation facing Sonoco is that the company has grown rapidly over a period of several years, largely through acquisitions in a growing packaging industry. This has led to the development of a large number of silo based HR systems for each of the companys divisions, which are largely influenced by the specific demands of the divisions and by the acquired businesses, and hence are divergent in nature without a strong level of strategic direction. This is causing issues for the company, as HR is now an expensive function that is not providing significant strategic value. As a result of this, the company has appointed a new senior vice president of Human Resources, Cindy Hartley, with a mandate to develop new organisational structures for HR in order to save costs; improve talent management; develop more effective performance management systems; and provide customised strategic support to the overall business. Hartley has already implemented a number of new systems and process chang es, and has seen some benefits, but still needs to overcome issues related to ineffective talent management and a lack of alignment between performance management and company strategies (Sonoco Products Company, 2012, p. 5). This essay will critically reflect on your own personal learning by drawing upon various academic themes and concepts around managing human resources in order to offer and propose interventions on the case study, as well as to assess the actions already taken and their effectiveness. Diagnosis As noted above, the core issue in the case study appears to be the fact that the company has grown by acquisition with a relatively rapid pace of growth, including making over 60 acquisitions in just a single decade (Sonoco Products Company, 2012, p. 1). When a company grows through such an acquisition focused approach, it is almost inevitable that the HR resourcing and development functions will not be perfectly aligned, and this will hence create silos of HR functionality, with each individual silo only considering their own specific role and function rather than the strategic goals of the organisation (Alberg, 2007, p. 9). This form of silo based approach to HR can be very damaging for a company, as it will create an HR function which is aligned to the requirements of each individual division or department, rather than to the requirements of the business as a whole. The negative impacts of this can be seen in the case of Sonoco, where HR is focused primarily on day to day employee relations issues rather than strategic concerns, and where there are high levels of non cooperative competition between the individual divisions (Sonoco Products Company, 2012, p. 3). The other major crucial HR problem that exists in the company is that there has been a lack of effort to develop a strategic and proactive HR culture in Sonoco. This has resulted in the emergence of an HR culture which is highly reactionary, with the HR function viewed primarily as a watchdog to head off legal and employee relations problem, as well as to assist managers with specific employee issues such as helping managers tell employees they are being terminated even when they have excellent performance evaluations (Sonoco Products Company, 2012, p. 3). The reactionary nature of the HR culture also sees the company being broadly unable to hold underperformers accountable. This has resulted partly in poorly performing employees being able to free ride through the company, and partly in compensation being viewed as an entitlement rather than a reward, and hence failing to improve performance levels. This has led to employees generally being paid at or near the midpoint for all indiv iduals and jobs, which has prevented the creation of any form of meritocracy on the company. According to Weinberger (2003, p. 29), this creates the peanut butter issue where wages are simply spread evenly to avoid any discontent that can come from rewarded highly performing employees and penalising others. This is again evidence of the reactionary culture that avoids conflict and thus fails to boost performance. These two main issues can be seen to be responsible for the majority of HR problems encountered by Sonoco. Specifically, the company is failing to achieve good talent management due to a lack of a coherent HR approach across the company and a lack of desire to identify the best individuals out of all employees. The silo based approach to HR also prevents effective performance management leading to the peanut butter issue identified above. These silos and the reactionary culture also mean that HR is not able to provide strategic support to the business as a whole. Finally, the lack of a mechanism for identifying and disciplining or terminating poorly performing employees has prevented the company from eliminating poor performance, thus hindering cost control as the company cannot effectively save costs by removing the poorest employees. Analysis This section of the work will focus on appraising the environmental and organisational context of the case to identify the main issues these contexts create for the company and the strengths and weaknesses of the HR policies, practices, and systems in light of these issues. The analysis will also consider Cindy Hartleys objectives for changes at Sonoco and the drivers of these objectives. The primary environmental issues at the time of the case came from the changes in the packaging industry. In particular, the industry was going through a period of stagnation and change, with volume now less likely to increase and revenues under threat from low cost foreign competition whilst the industry as a whole began to consolidate (Sonoco Products Company, 2012, p. 2). These trends highlighted the major weakness in Sonocos silo based approach to HR and the resulting disparate systems they created. Specifically, Sonocos HR practices tended to make it difficult for the company to control costs, and hence made it difficult for the company to respond to market changes in a manner as aggressively as its rivals. This can be seen in the fact that the companys stock price significantly trailed the SP 50 between 1995 and 2000, despite the company increasing net income at this time (Sonoco Products Company, 2012, p. 1). This indicates that investors felt the company was underperforming r elative to the market, implying that costs could be cut in a more effective manner. The other main change in the packaging industry was that customers were becoming more demanding, with more variations in packaging and higher levels of segmentation of many markets. As a result of this, clients expected the packaging companies they purchased from to be able to supply them with competitively priced packaging that was highly responsive to industry trends, and to be able to apply new technologies and innovative tools to provide higher levels of customised service (Sonoco Products Company, 2012, p. 2). This is another area in which Sonocos reactionary policies and practices made it difficult for the company to compete, and hence acted as a strong weakness. Specifically, the company lacked a strategic and proactive approach to HR, which reduced its overall ability to respond to trends in the marketplace. This meant Sonoco was restricted to developing new approaches as they were required, thus slowing the packaging concept to market delivery cycle. The company hence had fa iled to align its HR function with the demands of the market, which is a key weakness in any HR system (Aswathappa, 2005). In light of these two issues, it can be seen that Cindy Hartleys objectives for changes at Sonoco are not simply those addressed in the case. The case states that the objectives were to increase accountability for talent management; to distribute HR talent and make systems and processes more consistent; and to provide strategic support to the individual business units. However, in light of the environmental issues identified, her objectives can also be seen as being to improve talent management and performance management in order to increase overall performance; to improve performance management in order to facilitate cost control by allowing the company to terminate underperforming employees; and to provide strategic support to enable the company to be more proactive when responding to the demands of the market. Evaluation This section will consider the success of the HR changes at Sonoco, as well as the extent to which they are in line with state of the art HR policies, practices, and systems, and how they could be improved through the implementation of best HR practices relevant to the case. The fundamental change at Sonoco has been the introduction of a top down approach to performance management, with goal setting and targets being implemented at corporate level and trickled down to individual performance goals through negotiation. This practice has the benefit of attending to employee development needs and career development, as well as linking to the financial rewards system. The system as it stands appears to delegate significant authority to the divisions to set their own goals, and lacks the crucial control and assessment techniques such as business intelligent and analytics to ensure that the performance management system provides strong support to the goals of the business (Elbashir et al, 2011, p. 155). On the other hand, the system has the benefit of being relatively simple and easy to implement, which Muras et al (2008, p. 65) argue is more important that using complex processes which often confuse employees and managers. The system also implements 360 degree feedback for managers, which is vital in ensuring strong managerial development (Carson, 2006). One of the main issues that can be identified with the new performance management system is that it is focused on the value added by the individual. Whilst individual performance important, and will help overcome the problem of employees free riding, it is not in line with best practice performance measurement techniques. These techniques generally focus on the combination of individual and team performance, in order to ensure a balance between the individual and team levels of performance (Addison and Haig, 2012, p. 37). In particular, a failure to incorporate team performance into the performance measurement approach risks harming team identification levels as employees see themselves as individuals rather than members of a team. As Solansky (2011, p. 247) notes, team identification is a vital driver of performance, and hence by failing to attend to this there is the risk the new performance measurement system will hamper levels of team work. This is thus something that needs to be addressed through the implementation of best practice in the future. Design This section will focus on identifying ways of improving the existing HR policies, practices, and systems and how they can become state of the art or best practices. It will hence focus on making recommendations for improving the HR practices and addressing the problems identified in the case, as well as determining the right HR structure for Sonoco: either centralisation or hybrid. As noted above, one of the key methods that can be used to improve existing HR practices is to improve the performance management system to measure team work and individual contributions to team performance. According to Levasseur (2011, p. 204), contemporary organisation development theories hold that this needs to be achieved through consideration of various issues such as team development, conflict management and change management in the team context in order to create high performing teams. Hartley should thus look to include these factors in the new performance measurement framework to ensure high quality outcomes. The other primary issues to be resolved are how to ensure effective talent management, how to be responsive to industry and market requirements, and how to save costs. All of these issues are linked to the fundamental question of which HR model to implement: the centralised model or the hybrid structure. Of these, each option has its own specific focus on different aspects of the organisation. The centralised model will offer greater cost savings as well as improved talent management across the entire organisation, as HR will be able to identify talented employees on an organisation wide basis and move or promote them as necessary. In contrast, the hybrid model will allow for greater responsiveness to industry and market requirements due to the support provided to the general managers. The hybrid model also offers improved talent management at the divisional level as managers are encouraged to invest in their own people and staff them accordingly, although there are concerns over the level of companywide coordination and change management under a hybrid model (Sonoco Products Company, 2012, p. 6). In general, the hybrid model appears to be more desirable as it improves market responsiveness and proactive behaviour due to the support offers to the general managers. Whilst it saves $400,000 less in costs, it still comes close to meeting the $2,800,000 cost saving target, and the improved revenue is likely to be much more important for a business with revenues of around $2.5 billion (Sonoco Products Company, 2012, p. 1). In general, current HR best practice is that the HR function and HR metrics should be focused on strategic alignment ahead off cost saving, as this will allow for higher levels of performance and a more positive HR strategy (Gates and Langevin, 2010, p. 111). The main question is hence which approach to talent management and change management is more appropriate. In this regard, it is important to note that, according to Martà ­n-Alcà ¡zar et al (2008, p. 103), best practice HR is moving away from universalistic and centralised approaches, and towards the acceptance of more contingent approaches. This provides further support to the hybrid model, as a model which is more contingent on divisional requirements and hence better able to adapt to specific organisational requirements, including providing the general managers with the specific intelligence, support and responsiveness they need in order to deal with the more competitive industry environment. At the same time, it is important to note that organisational strategy itself has an impact on the most effective HR practices, and hence the company should consider a more universal and centralised approach if its strategy will better lend itself to such an approach. Determining the most e ffective approach to support the organisational strategy should thus be what Cindy Hartley should attend to next. 5. Implementation This aspect of the essay will consider how the changes should be sustained and the schedule and resources required in order to effectively bring about the suggested changes, as well as how the company will you know that the changes are effective. The first aspect of the implementation should be to implement the hybrid model, once this has been formally selected and adapted as necessary to fit the organisational strategy. This will require the concerted effort of all the HR resources, with the specific implementation strategy depending on the availability of these resources and the ability of the company to organise them to obtain the necessary capabilities (Wright et al, 2001, p. 701). The relative success of these implementation efforts should be measured by considering the levels of support provided to the managers, as reported by the managers, as well as the achievement of the cost savings projected from the implementation of the new model (Becker and Gerhart, 1996) A similar appr oach can then be used to adapt the performance management approach in the company to the new organisational realities in order to improve team work, with levels of team performance used as a way to know these changes are effective (Armstrong and Baron, 2011). Reflection The learning activities undertaken in this module and during the analysis and completion of this case study have provided significant abilities with regards to my ability to provide solutions to the case. In particular, whilst studying this module I have learnt how to apply theoretical techniques and models from organisation development and human resources to specific cases and examples. This can be seen in my ability to apply theoretical concepts such as universalistic and contingent HR practices, as well as team work and performance management to the case of Sonoco. This will also assist me in my future managerial career, as I will be able to apply these concepts to the companies I work for. The other primary way in which the learning activities on this module have contributed to my ability to provide solutions to the case is that they have helped me to analyse a practical situation and determine the root causes of the situation from the symptoms. For example, in this case I was able to use the literature to link the acquisition based nature of the companys growth to the development of its HR silos, and use this to make recommendations to address this issue. I was also able to identify and analyse the implications of the hybrid and centralised models using theory, and hence make appropriate recommendations in this area, something which will be useful if I face a similar situation later in my career.

Consumer buying preferences towards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices Essay

1. Abstract This report shows data on consumer behaviour as primary research and secondary data from literature about sustainability, sustainable business practices and consumer behaviour towards sustainable produced goods. The terms sustainability and sustainable business practices will be examined in more detail. Data gathered from primary research will help to get a better understanding on consumer behaviour, by analysis and presentation in pie charts and bar charts. Methods of data collecting will be examined and the use of surveys and questionnaire as well. 2. Introduction This report will investigate consumer buying preferences towards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices. The term sustainability was first defined by the UN World Commission in its 1987 published report called â€Å"Our Common Future†, which defined it as: †¦development which meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Since the climate change and its impact on the environment people became more aware of the significance of sustainability. Also companies strive to implement sustainable business practices to prevent further harm to the environment and to improve their efficiency to lower costs and to enhance quality, which in turn satisfies customers and employees. This report will show that companies using sustainable business practices have an advantage in today’s economy and consumers will invest more time and money in technological goods produced using sustainable business practices. Techniques on how information was gathered will be elucidated in the methodology section and the results will be presented in section 5. 3. Literature Review Several literature resources about the topics sustainability, sustainable business practises, consumer behaviour and the environment were available. Key findings in literature show that impacts on the environment have led businesses as well as people to rethink the way they use resources. Due to media influence in past decades many people became aware of global warming, pollution, the ozone layer depletion and its negative effects on nature and health of humanity. An article about sustainable business practices suggests that companies of various sectors should use their own set of techniques to achieve their own version of sustainability. Furthermore various literatures show that most developments in business practices came from creative thinking about redesigning production cycles while maintaining consumer needs with the environment in mind. Ecoefficiency is the term used by some companies to describe their aims towards more sustainability. The World Business Council, an association of big corporations defines Ecoefficiency as: â€Å"as being achieved by the delivery of competitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life, while progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource intensity throughout the life cycle, to a level at least in line with the Earth ´s estimated carrying capacity†. This definition is remarkable in its position to human needs and value of life, and can be interpreted as a move away from â€Å"materialism† and contribution to meeting needs for human well-being. Most literature offered a big variety of subtopics around sustainability, su stainable business practices and consumer behaviour, which may go way far for purposes of this report. 4. Methodology Primary research was conducted with the aid of surveys and questionnaires. The sample consisted of 40 people, who answered 10 questions around the topic consumer buying preferences towards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices. The questionnaire took approximately 10 minutes to complete and participants were asked that the oldest member of each household should return the results by end of the month. Surveys are one of the fastest methods to gather information nowadays, due the possibility to conduct them online as well. In the questionnaire participants of ages 30 and above were asked basic questions like name, email, gender and age. Furthermore the questionnaire asked more specific questions like how would you best describe your household, annual household income, if participants would buy sustainable produced goods over normal competitors even if the price was little higher and more to gather information about consumers buying preferences. The questionnaire was designed to gather a lot of information in a short time. To achieve better results, phrases around the topic sustainability and sustainable business practices were formed so that participants had just to tick their favourite answers. Limitations in primary research may be that the sample size could be increased more by surveying under 30 year olds as well. Secondary research was undertaken with the aid of online databases like summon, which is a database for all kinds of academic articles. Also the survey was based online due to its efficiency, because nowadays majority of people have internet connection. 5. Results When asked the question if participants would buy an electronic device which is produced using sustainable business practices rather than one that is not, even if it is more expensive 60% responded with yes. 15 % of participants responded with sometimes and 25% with no. Furthermore the research was refined and responses by household were considered as well, to get more details on consumer behaviour: The bar chart above illustrates that families with under 16 year old children are most likely to invest in sustainable produced goods, while elderly couples are least likely to invest in electronic devices. The most remarkable sign when looking at the bar chart is that all except the elderly couples seem to invest more in electronic devices produced using sustainable practices. Singles seem to care as well with response of 3 votes indicating the value sometimes and 4 indicating yes. Families indicate 7 yes, 0 sometimes and 1 no. As seen families with under 16 year old children respond with 8 yes, 1 sometimes and 4 no. Overall couples, singles and elderly people seem to care less than families and families with under 16 year old children. The results could have been improved by investigating more questions and designing more charts for presenting and interpreting data. One more approach to improve the results would have been to increase the number of participants by giving under 30 year olds the opportunity to participate as well. 6. Conclusion The aim of this report was to investigate consumer behaviour in relation to sustainability. A survey was conducted to gather information and to see how participants would respond. Data collected using this method helped designing bar charts and pie charts, to illustrate percentages of participants voting for a specific answer. As conclusion majority of consumers prefer to invest in goods produced using sustainable business practices rather than products which are not, even if the price is higher. Families seemed to be most likely to invest, while elderly couples seemed not as much interested. Overall consumers tend to invest more in sustainable goods. Secondary research showed that environmental awareness may be a trigger for such decisions. This report also showed that companies investing in sustainability can insure a long run profitability in every sense, be it lowering production costs or driving up consumer and employee satisfaction.

Stefan’s Diaries: Origins Chapter 5

The next morning, I awoke to breathless news from Rosalyn's servants that her prized dog, Penny, had been attacked. Mrs. Cartwright summoned me to her daughter's chambers, saying nothing had stopped Rosalyn from crying. I tried to comfort her, but her wracking sobs never abated. The whole time, Mrs. Cartwright kept giving me disapproving glances, as if I should be doing a better job calming Rosalyn. â€Å"Y have me,† I'd said at one point, if only to ou appease her. At that, Rosalyn had flung her arms around me, crying so hard into my shoulder that her tears left a wet mark on my waistcoat. I tried to be sympathetic, but I felt a stab of annoyance at the way she was carrying on. After all, I'd never carried on like that when my mother had died. Father hadn't let me. You have to be strong, a fighter, he'd said at the funeral. And so I was. I didn't cry when, just a week after Mother's death, our nanny, Cordelia, began absentmindedly humming the French lullaby Mother had always sung. Not when Father took down the portrait of Mother that had hung in the front room. Not even when Artemis, Mother's favorite horse, had to be put down. â€Å"Did you see the dog?† Damon asked, as we walked into town together that night to get a drink at the tavern. Now that the dinner where I was to publicly propose to Rosalyn was just days away, we were heading out for a whiskey to celebrate my impending nuptials. At least, that's what Damon called it, elongating his accent to a flat Charlestonian drawl and wiggling his eyebrows as he said it. I tried to smile as if I thought it was a great joke, but if I began talking, I knew I wouldn't be able to hold back my dismay about marrying Rosalyn. And there wasn't anything wrong with her. It was just †¦ it was just that she wasn't Katherine. I turned my thoughts back to Penny. â€Å"Y Its es. throat had a gash in it, but whatever the animal was didn't go for her innards. Strange, right?† I said as I rushed to keep up with him. The army had made him stronger and faster. â€Å"It's a strange time, brother,† Damon said. â€Å"Maybe it's the Yankees,† he teased with a smirk. As we walked down the cobblestone streets, I noticed signs affixed to most doorways: A reward of one hundred dollars was being offered to anyone who found the wild animal responsible for the attacks. I stared at the sign. Maybe I could find it, then take the money and buy a train ticket to Boston, or New Y ork, or some city where no one could find me and no one had ever heard of Rosalyn Cartwright. I smiled to myself; that would be something Damon might actually do–he never worried about consequences or other people's feelings. I was about to point out the sign and ask what he'd do with one hundred dollars when I saw someone frantically waving at us in front of the apothecary. â€Å"Are those the Salvatore brothers?† a voice called from up the street. I squinted across the twilight and saw Pearl, the apothecary, standing outside her shop with her daughter, Anna. Pearl and Anna were two more victims of the war. Pearl's husband had died at the Vicksburg siege just last spring. After that, Pearl had found a home in Mystic Falls, and she ran an apothecary that was always busy. Jonathan Gilbert, in particular, was almost always there when I walked by, complaining about some ailment or purchasing some remedy or another. Town gossip was that he fancied her. â€Å"Pearl, you remember my brother, Damon?† I called as we walked over the square to greet them. Pearl smiled and nodded. Her face was unlined, and a game among the girls was trying to determine how old she was. She had a daughter who was only a few years younger than me, so she couldn't be that young. â€Å"Y two certainly look ou handsome,† she said fondly. Anna was the spitting image of her mother, and when they stood side by side, the two looked as if they could be sisters. â€Å"Anna, you look more beautiful each year. Are you old enough to be going to dances yet?† Damon asked, a twinkle in his eyes. I smiled despite myself. Of course Damon would be able to charm both a mother and a daughter. â€Å"Almost,† Anna said, her eyes sparkling in anticipation. Fifteen was the age when girls were old enough to stay through dinner and hear the band strike up a waltz. Pearl used a wrought-iron key to lock the apothecary, then turned to face us. â€Å"Damon, can you do me a favor? Can you make sure Katherine gets on tomorrow night? She's a lovely girl, and, well, you know how people talk about strangers. I knew her in Atlanta.† â€Å"I promise,† Damon said solemnly. I stiffened. Was Damon escorting Katherine tomorrow night? I hadn't thought she'd come to the party, and I couldn't imagine proposing in front of her. But what choice did I have? Tell Father that Katherine wasn't invited? Not propose to Rosalyn? â€Å"Have fun tonight, boys,† Pearl said, breaking me out of my reverie. â€Å"Wait!† I called, the dinner momentarily forgotten. Pearl turned around, a quizzical expression on her face. â€Å"It's dark, and there have been more attacks. Would you like us to escort you ladies home?† I asked. Pearl shook her head. â€Å"Anna and I are strong women. We'll be fine. Besides †¦Ã¢â‚¬  She blushed and glanced around, as if afraid to be overheard. â€Å"I believe Jonathan Gilbert wants to do that for us. But I do thank you for your concern.† Damon wiggled his eyebrows and let out a low whistle. â€Å"Y know how I feel about strong women,† ou he whispered. â€Å"Damon. Be appropriate,† I said, slugging him on the shoulder. After all, he wasn't on the battlefields anymore. He was in Mystic Falls, a town where people liked to eavesdrop and loved to talk. Had he forgotten so quickly? â€Å"Okay, Auntie Stefan!† Damon teased, raising his voice in a high lisp. I laughed despite myself and slugged him again on the arm for good measure. The punch was light, but felt good–a way to unleash some of my annoyance that he was able to escort Katherine to the dinner. He good-naturedly slugged me back, and we would have broken out into an all-out brotherly brawl if Damon hadn't pushed open the wooden door to the Mystic Falls Tavern. We were immediately greeted by an enthusiastic smile from the voluptuous, red-haired barmaid behind the counter. It was clear that Damon had made himself at home here on several occasions. We elbowed our way to the back of the tavern. The room smelled of sawdust and sweat, and men in uniform were everywhere. Some had bandages on their heads, others wore slings, and some hobbled to the counter on crutches. I recognized Henry, a dark-skinned soldier who practically lived at the tavern, drinking whiskey alone in a corner. Robert had told me stories about him: He never socialized with anyone, and no one ever saw him in the light of day. There was talk that maybe he was associated with the attacks, but how could he be, if he was always at the tavern? I peeled my eyes away to take in the rest of the scene. There were older men tightly grouped in a corner, playing cards and drinking whiskey and, in the opposite corner, a few women. I could tell from the rouge on their cheeks and their painted fingernails that they weren't the types to spend time with our childhood playmates, Clementine Haverford or Amelia Hawke. As we walked past, one of them brushed my arm with her painted fingernails. â€Å"Y like it here?† Damon pulled out a wooden ou table from the wall, an amused smile on his face. â€Å"I suppose I do.† I plunked down on the hard wooden bench and surveyed my surroundings once again. Being in the tavern, I felt I'd stumbled into a secret society of men, just one more thing I knew I'd have little chance to discover before I was a married man and expected to be at home every evening. â€Å"I'll get us some drinks,† Damon said, making his way to the bar. I watched as he rested his elbows on the counter and easily talked to the barmaid, who tilted her head back and laughed as if he'd said something hilarious. Which he probably had. That's why all women fell in love with him. â€Å"So, how does it feel to be a married man?† I turned around to see Dr. Janes behind me. Well into his seventies, Dr. Janes was slightly senile and often loudly proclaimed to anyone who'd listen that his longevity was due exclusively to his prodigious indulgence in whiskey. â€Å"Not married yet, Doctor.† I smiled tightly, wishing Damon would come back with our drinks. â€Å"Ah, my boy, but you will be. Mr. Cartwright at the bank has been discussing it for weeks. The fair young Rosalyn. Quite a catch!† Dr. Janes continued loudly. I glanced around, hoping no one had heard. At that moment, Damon appeared and gently set our whiskeys on the table. â€Å"Thank you,† I said, drinking mine down in one gulp. Dr. Janes hobbled away. â€Å"That thirsty, huh?† Damon asked, taking a small sip of his own drink. I shrugged. In the past, I'd never kept secrets from my brother. But talking about Rosalyn felt dangerous. Somehow, no matter what I said or felt, I still had to marry her. If anyone heard even an inkling of regret from me, there'd be no end to the talk. Suddenly, a new whiskey appeared in front of me. I glanced up to see the pretty bartender Damon had been talking to standing over our table. â€Å"Y look like you need this. Seems you've had out a rough day.† The barmaid winked one of her green eyes and set the sweating tumbler on the rough-hewn wooden table in front of me. â€Å"Thank you,† I said as I took a small, grateful sip. â€Å"Anytime,† the barmaid said, her crinoline skirts swishing over her hips. I watched her retreating back. All the women in the tavern, even those with loose reputations, were more interesting than Rosalyn. But no matter who I glanced at, the only image that filled my mind was Katherine's face. â€Å"Alice likes you,† Damon observed. I shook my head. â€Å"You know I can't look. By the you end of summer, I'll be a married man. Y ou, meanwhile, are free to do as you please.† I'd meant it to be an observation, but the words came out as a judgment. â€Å"That's true,† Damon said. â€Å"But you do know you don't have to do something just because Father says so, right?† â€Å"It's not that simple.† I clenched my jaw. Damon couldn't understand because he was wild and untamable–so much so that Father had entrusted me, the younger brother, with the future of Veritas, a role I now found stifling. A sliver of betrayal shot through me at this thought–that it was Damon's fault I had to shoulder so much responsibility. I shook my head, as if trying to remove the idea from it, and took another drink of whiskey. â€Å"It's very simple,† Damon said, oblivious to my momentary annoyance. â€Å"Just tell him you are not in love with Rosalyn. That you need to find your own place in the world and can't just follow someone's orders blindly. That's what I learned in the army: Y have to believe in what you do. Otherwise, ou what's the point?† I shook my head. â€Å"I'm not like you. I trust Father. And I know he only wants the best. It's just that I wish †¦ I wish I had more time,† I said finally. It was true. Maybe I could grow to love Rosalyn, but the thought that I could be married and have a child in just one short year filled me with dread. â€Å"But it'll be fine,† I said with finality. It had to be. â€Å"What do you think of our new houseguest?† I said, changing the subject. Damon smiled. â€Å"Katherine,† he said, drawing the name into the full three syllables, as if he could taste it on his tongue. â€Å"Now, she's a girl who's difficult to figure out, don't you agree?† â€Å"I suppose,† I said, glad that Damon didn't â€Å"I suppose,† I said, glad that Damon didn't know that I was dreaming of Katherine at night, and by day pausing at the door to the carriage house to see if I could hear her laughing with her maid; once I even stopped by the stable to smell the broad back of her horse, Clover, just to see if her lemon and ginger scent had lingered. It hadn't, and at that moment, in the barn surrounded by the horses, I'd realized how unbalanced I was becoming. â€Å"They don't make girls like her in Mystic Falls. Do you think she has a soldier somewhere?† Damon asked. â€Å"No!† I said, annoyed once again. â€Å"She's in mourning for her parents. I hardly think she's looking for a beau.† â€Å"Of course.† Damon knit his eyebrows together contritely. â€Å"And I wasn't presuming anything. But if she needs a shoulder to cry on, I'd be happy to lend it to her.† I shrugged. Even though I'd brought up the subject, I was no longer sure I wanted to hear what Damon thought of her. In fact, as beautiful as she was, I almost wished that some far-flung relatives from Charleston or Richmond or Atlanta would step forward to invite her to live with them. If she were out of sight, then maybe I could somehow force myself to love Rosalyn. Damon stared at me, and I knew in that moment how miserable I must have looked. â€Å"Cheer up, brother,† he said. â€Å"The night is young, and the whiskey's on me.† But there wasn't enough whiskey in all of Virginia to make me love Rosalyn †¦ or forget about Katherine.

Definition and Examples of the Greengrocers Apostrophe

Definition and Examples of the Greengrocers Apostrophe Greengrocers apostrophe is an informal term in British English for the nonstandard use of an apostrophe before the final -s in the plural form of a word. Examples and Observations There was formerly a respectable tradition (17c - 19c) of using the apostrophe for noun plurals, especially in loanwords ending in a vowel (as in We doe confess Erratas, Leonard Lichfield, 1641, and Commas are used, Phillip Luckcombe, 1771) and in consonants s, z, ch, sh (as in waltzs and cotillions, Washington Irving, 1804). Although this practice is rare in 20th c. standard usage, the apostrophe of plurality continues in . . . the nonstandard (illiterate) use often called in BrE the greengrocers apostrophe, as in apples 55p per lb and We sell the original shepherds pies (notice in a shop window, Canterbury, England).(Tom McArthur, The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University. Press, 1992) The ubiquity of apostrophes to signal the plural of fruits and vegetablesas in Carrots, Bananas, and (gasp!) Peacheshas created the term, at least in England, the greengrocers apostrophe. The worst offender found by John Richard and the Apostrophe Protection Society: Golden Deli-cious.Greengrocers, butchers, and supermarket managers have received polite notes from the Apostrophe Protection Society reminding them of the differences between plural and possessive nouns. Among the targets of polite letters that the APS has sent was a local cafe that serves Chips, Sausages, Rolls, Eggs, and every other foodstuff with a garnishing of apostrophe. But the establishment calls itself Bennys Cafe.(Richard Lederer and John Shore, Comma Sense: A Fun-damental Guide to Punctuation. St. Martins Press, 2005) The greengrocers apostrophewhere a simple plural is turned into a singular possessiveis probably the main cause of distress for the many people who would like punctuation to be used properly. It is so public that it encourages even more wrong use.(Christine Sinclair, Grammar: A Friendly Approach. Open University Press, 2007) The Restaurant Apostrophe We could just as well call this misuse of the apostrophe to create a plural noun the restaurant apostrophe, for it appears on countless menusoften miswritten menuseven in chichi establishments. The menu of an Italian restaurant in my neighborhood has some especially outrageous specimens: pizzas, pastas, appetizers, soup salads, and lunch specials. You can even order a pizza with sauteed onions. . . .The grocers or restaurant apostrophe also occurs in the curious way some people have of pluralizing their surname. They write the Simpsons or sometimes the Simpsons when all they need to do is say Doh! and write the Simpsons. (Of course, if a plural possessive is involved, a terminal apostrophe is required: the Simpsons house.)(Charles Harrington Elster, The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly. St. Martins Press, 2010) An Atrocity? Think of the word atrocity, and certain appalling behaviours spring to mind. Add barbaric, and the picture gets worse. How about a barbaric atrocity thats detestable and provokes horror? At this point, its surely time for a UN intervention. We must act to halt this outrage! Except that all the words just quoted come from discussions of the uses and abuses of English. Simon Heffer, in his recent book Strictly English, thinks the so-called greengrocers apostrophe is an atrocity, and that academics write barbarically . . ..Anger delivers ego-enhancing pleasure; so does strengthening the boundaries of group membershipand carping about language is far more socially acceptable than explicit class snobbery or nationalism (not to mention less bother than confronting actual atrocities). Still, can we get, sorry, may we have, a bit of perspective, please? (Oliver Burkeman, Why Do They Adopt an Error-Hunting Mindset? The Guardian, Dec. 16, 2011) The Demise of the Apostrophe? In our period . . . came the arbitrary codification of its and whose without apostrophe as the genitives of it and who, respectively, and its, whos with apostrophe as the contraction of it, who with is or has. It is hardly surprising that these conventions seem to be in rapid collapse, with what has been called the greengrocers apostrophe (apples 60p, Antiques, linguistics, and perhaps even meant, all personally attested) just one symptom of what may well turn out to be the imminent demise of the apostrophe. Distressing though it is to purists, it must be admitted that genuine ambiguities caused by omission or misuse of the apostrophe are very infrequent indeed. (David Denison, Syntax. The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume 4, ed. by Suzanne Romaine. Cabridge University Press, 1998)

Capstone Checkpoint Week9 Hcr 230 Essays

Capstone Checkpoint Week9 Hcr 230 Essays Capstone Checkpoint Week9 Hcr 230 Essay Capstone Checkpoint Week9 Hcr 230 Essay There are five steps in the claims adjudication process. Initial processing is the first step. Initial processing finds any problems such as; name, identification number, or the plan of service code is wrong. This has to be fixed before anything further can happen. Automated review is a system that checks for ten things that maybe reflected on their payment policy. The review checks for the following; patient’s time limits for filing claims, referral forms, preauthorization, and the patient’s eligibility benefits, bundled codes, non-covered services, medical review, concurrent care, utilization review, and duplicate dates of service. The third step is manual review. Manual review happens if problems occur from the previous review; the claim is suspended and set aside for development. This step is usually followed to review the medical necessity of an unlisted procedure. Determination is the fourth important step. This is where the decision is made to pay it, deny it, or to pay it at a reduced level. If the service falls within normal standings, it will be paid. If it is not reimbursable, the item on the claim is denied. If the examiner determines that the service was at too high a level for the diagnosis, a lower-level code is assigned. The last step is making a payment. If payment is due, the payer sends it to the provider along with a transaction that explains the payment decisions to the provider. Adjudication process is an important process because it checks for any errors that may have been missed on the claim, this will allow for a more accurate process and things will be done in a timely manner. Five steps Initial Processing Automated Review Manual Review Determination Payment

Public safety debate Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Public safety debate - Research Paper Example There is a growing concern among the human rights group regarding the morality of such stringent punishments as a means to deter crime. However regardless of such public outcry against the immorality of death penalty, and the violation of human and civil rights it continues to be implemented in different parts of the world. In the wake of high-profile international cases such as terrorism and war crimes which are continuously on the rise which threatens to disrupt the social fabric of the society, capital punishment or death penalties have garnered more support bringing the topic back to public consciousness. Historically, diverse forms of punishment which were implemented to ensure law and order in society have been influenced by a range of factors including social, economic, political as well as cultural, regardless of its impact on the outcome (Strange, 1996; Garland, McGown, and Meranze, 2011; Pate, Laurie, and Gould, 2012). Thus the issue of capital punishment is not merely rest ricted to legal issues but extends far beyond that and the only crucial question that looms large is the one concerning its moral legitimacy rather than its efficacy. It has been often observed that with respect to issues aimed at questioning the legality, efficacy and credibility of policymaking process and its implementation, opinions are often sharply divided and staunch supporters as well as opponents exist that defying the claims made and weakening the arguments put forward by the rivals on either end of the spectrum (Weiss, 1991; Majone, 1989). The literature supporting and dismissing the credibility of capital punishment is on the rise; pointing to opposing conclusions, which itself acts a barrier preventing the formation of an informed public opinion. Some such discussions are included hereunder: Death penalty as a crime deterrent: Proponents of death penalty argue that the threat of punishment acts a deterrent to criminal offenders and prevents them from committing crime. I t attracts large scale public disapproval and has a serious impact on their attitudes towards the criminals thus affecting the morality of those convicted of serious crimes. There is large amount of literature which provides empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of criminal punishment as an effective crime deterrent. Researchers have argued that the fear of such harsh punishment instills a fear of execution among the people and hence results in the reduction of homicides (Dezhbakhsh, Rubin, and Shepherd 2003; Mocan and Gittings 2003; Shepherd 2004; Zimmerman 2004; Shepherd 2005). Furthermore it has also been argued that the threat of punishment induces compliant behavior among the public which results in following the law by the citizens as a matter of habit, thus successfully establishing a natural law and order in the society and safeguarding the well-being and security of the citizens in the process (Siegel, 2012). However contrary to such claims, it has been observed by various researchers that most criminals are unyielding to harsher punishments either due to their ignorance regarding the perceived risk associated with the crimes and the severity of the punishment or their complete lack of knowledge regarding the consequences of their actions (Siegel, 2010; Brody & Acker, 2011). The proponents of death

Case study on the overall audit process Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

On the overall audit process - Case Study Example They did not aid the embezzlers, did not know about the embezzlement, and did not perform recklessly. But they failed to comply adequately with GAAS and thus failed their role as auditors. Not knowing about the embezzlement was the problem: It is the role of an auditor to discover embezzlement, financial impropriety and dishonesty. The definition of â€Å"duty of care† has changed over the centuries of auditing tradition. In 1896, Justice Lopes defined the duty of care thusly: â€Å"It is the duty of an auditor to bring to bear on the work he has to perform that skill, care and caution which a reasonably careful, cautious auditor would use...An auditor is not bound to be a detective, or, as was said to approach his work with suspicion, or with a forgone conclusion that there is something wrong. He is a watchdog, not a bloodhound. He is justified in believing tried servants of the company in whom confidence is placed by the company. He is entitled to assume that they are honest and rely upon their representations, provided he takes reasonable care† (Morgan, 2000). Under this standard, Mitchell & Moss did no wrong. But this standard is no longer sufficient, especially as the complexity of financial transactions mount. In 1958, Lord Denning established a new norm: â€Å"To perform his task properly he must come to it with an enquiring mind - not suspicious of dishonesty - but suspecting that someone may have made a mistake somewhere and that a check must be made to ensure that there has been none†. Finally, in 1997, UK Law changed to require a â€Å"suspicious† attitude. US law is the same now: Mitchell & Moss acted as watchdogs, not bloodhounds, and thus were deficient and negligent. The United States GAAS is now divided into ten standards split into three categories. Mitchell & Moss clearly were adequately trained and proficient, independent and used professional care (AICPA). But where Mitchell and Moss failed is