Case Analysis Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Analysis - Case Study Example He suffered from low self esteem. Therefore, he was looking to get back to working in accordance to his competence. The person came across the advertisements in the paper given by Carbon Manufacturing Company as the company was looking for new employees in all of their departments as there was strike going on in the plant. The strike was called by the union at Carbon Manufacturing. This meant the work at the plant was disturbed. The person in the case is eligible for the job. The job will pay him a similar salary as he was getting at the earlier plant. The management of Carbon was fed up with the union there. So, they decided to include a clause in the new employees contract which required them to agree to not to join a union ever during the stay at the company. The job was a permanent job as the company assured that even if the striking workers return, the new recruits will stay in the company. The non-union clause in the contract was a matter of concern for the person as he analyze d that other prospect of joining the company was good. Father of the person was strong union person. Therefore, he had background which suggested him to be in favor of unions. But the present job crisis and his family where he had wife and kids favored his mind to look for the option of appearing for the job interview. The ethical issue regarding the unions also came up in his mind as his neighbors and community received undue benefits from the presence of unions in the plants. His father also told him the scenario that the Americans had to face in the past when there was no presence of union. Long working hours, low payments, very few benefits, and also no security of job were the scenario that engulfed the country in the absence of the unions. The person though believed that such working conditions and scenarios were a thing of the past and in present day, the management of the companies was much more vigilant of the employee welfare. So,

Copper Corrosion Essay Example for Free

Copper Corrosion Essay In this experiment, I will be testing the corrosion rate of copper wire after leaving them in different liquids with different pH levels. By doing so I will be able to determine which pH level corrodes copper the fastest. I will conduct this experiment by pouring 250mL of different liquids with different pH levels in cups, followed by an iron strip placed into the cup. A stopwatch will be timing how long it takes the iron strip to fully corrode. The cups will be placed in the same environment right next to each other in order for the cups to be in the same temperature. All of the cups will be the same type of cup to make sure the cups won’t have a role determining the results. There will be three trials for each type of liquid. This will ensure the most accurate results. The pH level will be tested with a strip of litmus paper to determine the official pH level of the liquid. The stopwatch will start as soon as all of the copper wire are placed into the cups. I will be watching the cups, taking note of any qualitative data I see. When I see that the iron strip in one of the cups is fully covered in rust, I will record the time that was on my stopwatch. To analyze the data I will first find the average pH level for each of the liquids. Then I will average the total time it took for the copper wire to corrode. This data will be in hours. To see if there was any correlation between the independent variable and dependent variable, I will create a graph with the time it took the copper wire to corrode as the y-axis and the pH level as the x-axis. Hypothesis: If the pH level is more acidic, than the iron strip will corrode at a faster rate. Independent Variable: pH level of liquids Dependent Variable: rate of corrosion of iron strip Control: pH of 7 (Tap water) Constants: †¢ Same amount of liquid in each cup (50mL) †¢ Same sized copper wire (5x3/4x3/64) †¢ Same type of cup †¢ Cups placed in same temperature †¢ Cups placed in same environment Materials: †¢ 12 copper wire †¢ 4 see through cups †¢ 150mL of vinegar †¢ 150mL of bleach †¢ 150mL of tap water †¢ 150mL of hydrogen peroxide †¢ Litmus paper †¢ Stop watch †¢ Sharpie †¢ Paper towel Procedure: 1. On the see through cups, label which liquid will be poured into them 2. Pour 50mL of the liquids into their corresponding cups. 3. Put litmus paper into each liquid to get official pH level. Record pH level. 4. Place iron strip into liquid, making sure it is completely surrounded by liquid 5. Start stopwatch as soon as the copper wire are placed into cup. 6. Observe the copper wire. Record down the time whenever one of the copper wire is fully covered in corrosion. 7. Once all the times are recorded empty the cups and rinse them out with water. 8. Repeat steps 2-7 two more times. 9. Find the average time it took to corrode the iron strip. Abstract: I will be testing how pH levels of liquids affect the corrosion rate of an iron strip. The independent variable for this experiment is the pH level of the liquid. I will be using four different liquids, each having a different pH level. I will be using tap water, which is neutral; salt water, which is generally slightly basic; bleach, a very basic liquid; and vinegar, a very acidic liquid. The tap water will serve as my control. Having a variety of pH levels helps to give me a better perspective on how much of a factor pH level is on corrosion rate. The dependent variable will be the time it takes the iron strip to fully corrode. The unit for this measurement will be minutes.

Three Types of Friends Essay -- essays research papers friendship rela

Through my experiences I have come to realize that there are basically three types of friends a person can have. There are friends that I call â€Å"sometimes† friends, these people appear to be your friend but only when you are face to face with them, and when you are not around them they act more like a foe. They are often referred to as two faced or a back stabber. These types of friends are not very reliable nor should they be trusted. Another type of friend a person can have, and the best kind, is a â€Å"true† friend. A true friend is someone you know you can always trust and rely on no matter what. The last type of friend is the â€Å"acquaintance†. These are the type of friends that you do not necessarily hate, but at the same time you do not divulge your personal information with this person, simply because you do not spend a great amount of time with the person and do not know them well. It may be hard to determine if someone that you call a friend is actually a â€Å"true† friend or a â€Å"sometimes† friend. They can be very deceitful and scandalous towards you at times. If you notice...

Government and Politics - Time to Stop Lying Essay -- Argumentative Pe

Time to Stop Lying A great number of young adults have lost interest in the political system of this country. It is really quite simple- the power structure is not working in our favor, we see no great future achievements in legislation or politics, and we would much rather put our energies towards more fulfilling ends. The nature of politics in this country has progressed to a corrupt web of lies and deception that clearly favors the white male who spends his life working nine to five and has given his voice, his freedom, his manhood over to his government. Â   Those of us who refuse to succumb to this lifestyle find ourselves constantly battling to maintain even a base level standard of living. We have not chosen to close our eyes to the social conditions that surround us, and we have not chosen to be pretentious suburbians living life in a bubble of our own creation, fooling ourselves into believing that words and legislative acts will solve the many problems of these times. Â   We do not have much faith in the legislative system in America. We study our history, and realize that nothing has really changed, despite numerous amendments, acts, and programs. We find these to be simple attempts to pacify the masses in a scheme of the largest proportions to launder our riches and our wealth. Â   You ask why we do not vote or participate actively in politics. I ask why should we choose betwee... ...ve us some skills to enter into this rat race you have started. Give us computers, teach us to use them, and help us in our individual pursuits. Stop sucking us dry with taxes and fees, and give us financial assistance to start our independent pursuits. Repay the descendants of slaves and repay the Native Americans. Find some justice for the people of this country. Educate us on truth and the world. Don't shut us in a box, ignorant of the world community, perpetrating white supremacy and western "democracy." Give us something worthwhile to vote for and we might start showing up at the polls. Don't be afraid to admit the wrongs of the past and present; that is the only way to grow and move into the future. Â  

Bandura and Effective Classroom Management

Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory focuses on how a person is able to gain knowledge within a social context, wherein he learns from what is in his environment, along with the people around him. In this concept, it considers that people or groups of people are able to learn from each other through various ways like observational learning, imitation, modeling, and more. With this idea, Bandura shows that the environment is a great teacher, wherein it gives the people the information or the knowledge that could be the basis of their character formation.The theory of social learning is follows several principles. One is that people is able to acquire learning through observation of the behavior of other people, along with the results of those behavior. They don’t have to actually experience the situation some people are in so that they will learn. They could just look, observe and analyze other people’s actions and the outcomes of those actions. For example, a student may not have to be in a situation where he crosses the street and be bumped by a car because he didn’t look on both sides.A teacher or a facilitator could tell him that he should look both sides before crossing to avoid accidents. Another is when the child learns from what his parents do, since they are the ones directly close to the child. Also, learning can occur without expecting any change or development in the behavior of a person. This is in contrast to what is believed by the other theorists, the behaviorists. They believe that learning requires to be represented by permanent change in a person’s behavior, which was strongly opposed by the social learning theorists saying that learning may or may not result to behavior changes.Cognition is also an important aspect to consider as it is related to learning of human beings. Social learning theory is more on the cognitive aspect of learning. The behavior that people shows are their reactions towards reinforc ements and punishments posed by their actions. Concept of Reciprocal Determinism Albert Bandura was also able to relate the environment and behavior when it comes to learning. This is what he called as reciprocal determinism: the concept where the world and a person’s behavior come into terms and causes each other.He believed that a person’s behavior is an aspect that is able to influence and is influencing the person’s personal factors and also his environment (Bandura & Stanford University, 1978). The relationship is shown by the diagram below: Bandura’s idea was that a person’s behavior may be effectively conditioned in relation to the consequences that he experiences. It mold’s that person’s thinking, thus resulting to the behavior that he exhibits. He also associates it with the person’s environment, wherein this person’s behavior can have an impact on his environment.The same relationship can be seen when it comes to the personal factors like one’s skills or attitudes and behaviors or the environment, wherein each of these can directly or indirectly affect each other. Putting this concept of reciprocal determinism on a classroom setting, this can be illustrated by how a child acts out in school. The situations is that the child doesn’t want to go to class, that is why his actions in his class shows it. He is not interested in the lessons, and is indifferent towards his classmates.Because of this action, the teachers and administrators would develop as certain dislike on having the child around, since he acts like he doesn’t want to be in school. Looking clearly at the situation, the dislike that was developed by the teachers was all caused by the child himself. When the child is confronted, he would say that he actually hates school, and that the people in the scool hate him also. Thus, this situation leads to the child acting inappropriately, which also forces the teache rs and administrators to develop a dislike of the child to create an environment which is different compared to that of other children.This environment is more restrictive in nature, thus leaving the child to feel differently. Both the behavioral factor and the factors coming from his environment corresponds with the child that’s why it leads to the continuous cycle of the personal factors, the environment, and the child’s behavior. With the concept of determinism at hand, the teachers and administrators could then further improve the management of their class. They are able to understand better why some students tend to be indifferent in their outlook of going to school.Some students may hate going to school, but this shouldn’t be a reason for the teachers and administrators to hate the students also. They should be the ones to adjust and be considerate of the student’s situation. They should further encourage them to go to school rather than hating or d isliking them because they don’t want to attend class. These people could devise a teaching program for these students to make them enjoy going to class, thus changing the perspective of the children who hate school (Wong, Wong, & Mensah LL, 1983).Observational LearningThe bobo doll studies. One of the primary experiments of the observational learning concept of Albert Bandura was with the bobo doll – an inflatable balloon figure the size of a small person with a weight at the bottom in order for it to bounce back when it is hit or knocked down. The experiment Bandura did was to first film a woman beating a bobo doll; punching it as hard as she could as it bobs back and forth while shouting â€Å"sockeroo! † After it was filmed, it was then show to a class of kindergarten students who seemed to like it a lot.After that they were let out to play, wherein the play room has a bobo doll and a few toy hammers. It was then observed that children imitated the young lad y in the film, beating the bobo doll and shouting â€Å"sockeroo! † for no reason. They were doing everything that the lady did in the film without being told to do so or without the thought of a reward. This experiment may not be as extensive as other researches would be, but still, it showed a lot for Bandura to establish the concept of the observational learning or modeling, thus this theory was then known as the social learning theory.He afterwards made modifications on the experiment, varying factors, adding more variables, even changing the bobo doll with a live clown, thus getting the same or related results. He added rewards or punishments and other factors on that would register and affect the children’s reactions. With all these variations, he gathered all the necessary information which led him to various steps involved in the observational learning process. The observational learning process Attention. According to Albert Bandura, the first and foremost ste p in the observational learning process is the attention step.This is where the learners should put in mind that they have to focus in order to learn. They have to be paying attention so that they will be able to learn anything new. Anything that may hinder or be deterrent to the learner’s attention would probably decrease their learning, thus slowing the observational learning process. This includes various feelings of uneasiness like being sleepy, groggy, drugged, sick, or even when you are feeling â€Å"hyper. † Other stimulus that may catch the learner’s attention could also mean learning less.On the positive aspect, something that could catch attention which is integrated in the learning model would greatly induce the observational learning process. This includes various physical attributes of the model, like the color and shape, wherein something that could be appealing to the learner may get them more interested in the learning process. Applying this to t he classroom setting, if the attention step is properly assimilated by the teachers and facilitators, and then they would be assured that it would hasten the student’s learning. First of all, the teachers should consider the learning environment.They should make sure that there are no external factors that could compete for the attention of the students. The classroom should be conducive for learning, like there are no unnecessary noises in the area, or there are no objects that may attract the students and lure them away from the lessons, like unrelated posters or materials placed inside the room. The students themselves should be attentive, focusing their attention only to the lesson being taught. The teachers should encourage the children to have a good night’s sleep so that they won’t turn up sleepy in class.They should discourage going to class while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. They should not encourage them to go to class when they’re s ick, since it doesn’t make them attentive or prepared for any lesson, since they’re not feeling well. The teachers themselves should look presentable when showing up in class; the students would tend to focus more attention to what is being taught if it appeals to their senses. But teachers should not overdo it, since there is a tendency that the students would tend to focus more on the teacher rather than what is being taught. Retention.After paying attention, Bandura emphasized that the learners should be able to retain what they have learned and paid attention to. The best way for this is to be done is through the use of imagery and language: forming mental images by means of verbal descriptions. Retention is important so that the learners would be able to â€Å"store† the information that they have learned for future use. When these are stored, the learner could then be able to bring up the learning by remembering the image or the description, thus making it useful if they want to reproduce it with their own behavior.In the classroom setting, this is useful so that the students will be able to store the amount of information necessary for the learning process. This is with the help of the teachers or facilitators, wherein they are the once who encourage or induce the retention of what was learned by the students. The teachers are encouraged to use verbal description of a certain topic or concept so that the students could further visualize what is being taught to them. The teachers and facilitators could also utilize various visual aids so that the students will have a mental image of what they are being taught.It is easier for them to further remember this whenever they need to reproduce the same behavior for their future usage. Reproduction. For Bandura, reproduction is the actual application of what was learned by the learners. For the observational learning process to be fruitful, the learners should be able to translate what they have retained into actual behavior. Putting in an actual classroom setting, teachers should encourage their students to apply what they have learned in the practical situations. The teachers and facilitators should devise activities that would require the application of what they have learned from class.These could be outdoor activities like training camps wherein the students are given hands-on application of what they have learned in lessons like first-aid applications and other practical skill usage. This would induce the actual observational learning process, wherein they themselves could copy what they saw and observed from others and be able to apply what they have retained from the lessons in class. Motivation. The final step that Bandura gave was about motivation. This is the final part, wherein you are encouraging the application of what was learned in the observational learning process.This is by giving the learner a reason to do so. Motivation may come in both positive an d negative forms. The positive motivators include past reinforcements, promised reinforcements, and vicarious reinforcements. These things does not necessarily cause learning, instead it causes us to demonstrate what we have learned. Another form is the negative motivations, wherein they give the learners a reason not to imitate a certain model that they see from other situations. This includes past punishments, promised punishments or threats, and vicarious punishments.But for Bandura, these punishments which are forms of negative motivations doest not work well as compared to that of reinforcement. Instead, these punishments could possibly disrupt learning when they backfire or result into something different (Sheppard, 2006). Applying this in a classroom situation, teachers and facilitators may use this to encourage the students to perform according to what was taught to them. They are encouraged to imitate or reproduce a certain behavior by providing motivators. This includes pl us points in their grades if they have don’t have any records of absences or doesn’t come to class late.Punishment doesn’t promise much of a result, instead, the students may tend to hate the teachers or facilitators for doing so. That is the part when the negative motivators backfire instead of inducing the observational learning process. Summary Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory or observational learning theory encompasses various concepts in the process of learning for people. It does not only relate the person’s environment to a person’s behavior, it also emphasizes on the importance of observational learning to fruitful management of classrooms.Through this, Bandura is able to stress on how strongly the person’s behavior is attached to what is happening in his environment, thus various conditions may be taken so that learning could occur. It is a helpful tool for the teachers because it does not only encompass the understa nding of lessons; it also tackles on the application of what the students have learned. This strengthens the students’ knowledge, making him a better person because of everything that he has learned from school.

Machiavelli and Amorality essays

Machiavelli and Amorality essays Machiavellis treatment of ethics and morality is amoral. This is so because he simply talks about what it takes to be an effective leader. In no way is Machiavelli promoting immorality. He speaks of immorality acts in order for a ruler to serve the greater good of his people. He looks at politics without moral immoral thoughts. To argue that Machiavelli is amoral, one must understand how he treats religion and the primary source of moral standards that he has established in his amoral context. He stands by what must be done in order for a leader to be effective and lead his people. The Prince is a great guide for efficient and successful government. The goal Machiavellis overall point is to stay in power; any means necessary to accomplish these goals are acceptable. He clearly sees the importance of force when he states, Moses, Cyrus, Thesus, nor Romulus would have been able to make their peoples obey their new structures of authority for long had they been unarmed.(Wootton 20) And again, when he says the main foundation which all states must have, whether new, or old, or mixed, is good laws and good armies.(Wootton 38) He stresses the importance of the army to the extent of excluding any possible good laws where there are not good armies in which he concentrates his attention on describing its merits. He rejects the use of armies made up of mercenaries and considers them useless for maintaining security and stability. Mercenaries are motivated by their small stipend which is not enough to make them willing to die for you he also adds There is no difficulty in demonstrating the truth if this; for the present ruins of Italy can be attributed to nothing else. (Wootton 38) One could conceived this as immoral of Machiavelli to speak of mercenaries, but the fact of the matter is to maintain a resolute government you need dedicated soldiers who will at the drop of a dime will...

Georgian Speekle - A Giant Isopod

Georgian Speekle - A Giant Isopod The Georgian speekle is the name given to a giant isopod that was found in the state of Georgia in the United States. Photos of the monstrous-looking creature went viral on the internet, leading to comments like Fake! and Photoshop. However, the animal really does exist and yes, it really is over a foot long. Is an Isopod a Bug? No, the Georgian speekle is not an insect or a bug. One defining characteristic of an insect is that it has six legs. The speekle has many more than six appendages. A bug, on the other hand, belongs to the order Hemiptera and mostly resembles an insect, except it has hardened wings and sucking and piercing mouthparts. The speekle is a type of isopod. Isopods dont have wings, nor do they bite like bugs. While insects, bugs, and isopods are all types of arthropods, they are in separate groups. An isopod is  a type of crustacean, related to crabs and lobsters. Its closest land relatives are pill bugs or the common woodlouse. Of the 20 or so species of isopods, the largest is the giant isopod Bathynomus giganteus. How Big Is the Giant Isopod? While B. giganteus is an example of marine gigantism, its not particularly huge. Its not on the order of, say, a giant squid. A typical isopod is around 5 centimeters long (about 2 inches). An adult B. giganteus can be 17 to 50 centimeters (6.7 to 19.7 inches) long. While thats large enough to look scary, the isopod doesnt pose a threat to people or pets. Giant Isopod Facts B. giganteus lives in deep water, off the coast of Georgia (USA) to Brazil in the Atlantic, including the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Three other species of giant isopods are found in the Indo-Pacific, but none have been found in the East Pacific or East Atlantic. Because its habitat is largely unexplored, additional species may await discovery. Like other types of arthropods, isopods molt their chitin exoskeletons as they grow. They reproduce by laying eggs. Like other crustaceans, they have blue blood, which is really their circulatory fluid. The hemolymph is blue because it contains the copper-based pigment hemocyanin. Most photographs of isopods show them as gray or brown, but sometimes a sick animal appears blue. Although they look intimidating, isopods arent aggressive predators. Rather, they are opportunistic scavengers, mostly living on decaying organisms in the seas benthic zone. They have been observed eating carrion, as well as small fish and sponges. They use their four sets of jars to tear apart their food. Isopods have compound eyes that have over 4000 facets. Like cat eyes, isopod eyes feature a reflective layer at the back that reflects back light (the tapetum). This enhances their vision under dim conditions and also makes the eyes reflective if a light is shined on them. However, its dark in the depths, so isopods probably dont rely much on sight. Like shrimp, they use their antennae to explore their environment. The antennae house chemoreceptors which can be used to smell and taste molecules around them. Female isopods have a pouch called a marsupium that holds eggs until they are ready to hatch. Males have appendages called peenies and masculinae used transfer sperm to the female after she molts (when her shell is soft). Isopods have the largest eggs of any marine invertebrate, measuring about a centimeter or half an inch in length. Females bury themselves in sediment when they are brooding and stop eating. The eggs hatch into animals that look like their parents, except smaller and missing the last pair of legs. They gain the final appendages after they grow and molt. In addition to crawling along in the sediment, isopods are skillful swimmers. They can swim either right-side up or upside-down. Isopods in Captivity A few giant isopods have been kept in captivity. One specimen became famous because it wouldnt eat. This isopod appeared healthy, yet refused food for five years. It eventually died, but its unclear whether starvation is what killed it. Because isopods live on the sea floor, they can go a very long time before encountering a meal. Giant isopods at the Aquarium of the Pacific are fed dead mackerel. These isopods tend to eat four to ten times a year. When they eat, they gorge themselves to the point where they have trouble moving. Although the animals arent aggressive, they do bite. Handlers wear gloves when working with them. Like pillbugs, giant isopods curl up into a ball when threatened. This helps protective their vulnerable internal organs from attack. References Lowry, J. K. and Dempsey, K. (2006).  The giant deep-sea scavenger genus Bathynomus (Crustacea, Isopoda, Cirolanidae) in the Indo-West Pacific.  In: Richer de Forges, B. and Justone, J.-L. (eds.), Rà ©sultats des Compagnes Musortom, vol. 24. Mà ©moires du Musà ©um National d’Histoire Naturalle, Tome 193: 163–192. Gallagher, Jack (2013-02-26). Aquariums deep-sea isopod hasnt eaten for over four years. The Japan Times.  retrieved 02/17/2017

Anti-Valentines Day Quotes and Sayings

Anti-Valentine's Day Quotes and Sayings Love is on sale. Look around you on Valentines Day. Every retailer is cashing in on the Valentines Day circus. Kitschy love cards, gigantic teddy bears, and stereotyped heart-shaped balloons fill the air. The only ones laughing, their way to the banks, are the ones who do not care about the warm feeling called love. They only know about cold, hard, cash. Enjoy these anti-Valentines Day sayings and mock the world on Valentines Day. W. Somerset Maugham, A Writers Notebook Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species. Jay Leno Today is Valentines Day. Or, as men like to call it, extortion day. Josà © Ortega y Gasset We fall in love when our imagination projects nonexistent perfection upon another person. One day, the fantasy evaporates and with it, love dies. Love is exclusivity, selection. Bonnie Raitt I cant make you love me, if you dont. J. Geils Band Love stinks. Laurell K. Hamilton Love sucks. Sometimes it feels good. Sometimes its just another way to bleed. William Shakespeare The course of true love never did run smooth Mother Teresa There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives- the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. Lauren Hammond You, my dear, are a creature of the night, you are a vampire.

Drugs for off-label use Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Drugs for off-label use - Essay Example The use of off-label drugs is most common among oncology and pediatric patients due to the lack of appropriate medicines and therapies. In certain circumstances, the use of off-label medicines proved beneficial for children, especially when all the approved medicines fail to bring the desired results as in the case of cancer. American Cancer Society reveals that some of the chemotherapy medicines are approved for one type of cancer but it has the potential to cure the other types of tumors. Other example of beneficial use of off-label medicine is Beta-blockers. FDA approved it for the patients of high blood pressure but it proved in curing heart diseases also. But before prescribing the off-label drugs, it is the duty of medical practitioners to inform the parents or guardians of children about this very fact; and reveal the side effects that may occur. They should also inform the alternative remedies available with them. Besides, medical practitioners should inform the company or relevant medical authority about the adverse effects, if they occur. In the case of United States vs. Evers, the court even authorizes a medical practitioner to use off-label drugs if they were not contraindicated (Fauber, 2012). Some off-label drugs require extra care and attention when use in Pediatrics. Example includes diazepam rectal solution in children under 1 year (not licensed for age group), amiloride tablets in any children (formulation), or rectal injection of lorazepam for a child with an acute seizure (route). An example of unlicensed use is the preparation of a suspension from a tablet by the hospital

William Faulkner's use of Theme in A Rose for Emily Essay

William Faulkner's use of Theme in A Rose for Emily - Essay Example Perhaps this is most prominently witnessed in his short story ‘A Rose for Emily’. This story explores the macabre and desolate life of a woman named Emily as she experiences a number of life setbacks before finally settling into a reclusive existence. While containing southern gothic tendencies, the story is characteristic of Faulkner’s style in terms of theme. This essay argues that Faulkner implements a number of thematic elements in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’. Perhaps the most pervasive theme in ‘A Rose for Emily’ is the power and exploration of death. This is perhaps one of the most important elements in articulating the story as an element of southern gothic literature, and it gives the tale a sort of surreal touch. Faulkner begins the narrative in reverse, already stating that Emily Grierson, the main focus of the story is deceased. Faulkner writes, â€Å"When Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to the funeral† (Faulkner, web). While this is only a narrative element, it’s position as the first sentence of the story is notable as it sets the general thematic tone for the tale. In addition to Emily’s death the story also indicates that Emily’s father died. Faulkner advances the thematic power of death in this instance by demonstrating that it extremely impacted Emily’s existence.

Mid term exam Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mid term exam - Assignment Example He judges what his colleagues says by revealing that he does not agree with everything. His judging behavior is also illustrated by his judgment of the opinions of his colleagues by arguing that they are entitled to their opinions. Furthermore, Reuben shows that he would be judging the progress that each individual would have made in the next meeting. Reuben warns that the accountants should be able to back up their decisions during their next meeting which reveals his judging behavior. Support: Inequity in the reward structure of the organization is one of the perpetual errors made in the management of the organization. This is revealed by Joan’s assertion that â€Å"I believe that there is enormous inequity in this organization’s rewards and structure. As I look around the room, I don’t see any other female representatives.† Joan adds that â€Å"This Company seems to be run like an old boys club. To Cameron’s point, we encourage teamwork, while rewarding only individual effort. Support: Another perpetual error is the failure of the employees to give the graduate recruits an opportunity to learn and become better. This is revealed by James when he points out that â€Å"we have a tendency to ‘jump in and fix things before they mess up’, as they put it. It’s as though they feel we aren’t giving them the opportunity to learn or become better†. Support: This is because Raid shows his admiration for teamwork. He further says that an individual achieves success only if the team succeeds. Furthermore, Raid reveals his outgoing personality by revealing that there was need for the workers to know each other beyond their professional life. Support: This is due to the fact that he demonstrates relationships with the competitors whom he says are not offering better compensations for the graduate the company does. Reuben is persistent as a long term orientation attribute by showing that the graduates should work effectively

The Impact of Apple Devices on Society Research Paper

The Impact of Apple Devices on Society - Research Paper Example From the discussion it is clear that Apple Inc is a renowned America-based multinational conglomerate operating in software as well as hardware industry. The head office of Apple is situated in Cupertino in the region of California. It was established in the year 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. It possesses in its assortment variety of products such as iPod, iTunes, iPhone, Apple TV, Mac accessories, and software to gratify customers’ desires. There are about 364 retail stores of Apple operating to present excellent products and /or services to its customers. In addition, the company employs approximately 60,400 employees across the globe to maintain its operations in an efficient way. As the paper highlights Apple has offered more attention to the facet of constant research and development to present various types of innovative products to the people. It facilitated Apple to expand its market share and profitability by a considerable extent. Moreover, it also improved the total sales of its products, thereby amplifying its supremacy in the market as portrayed in the figure below. The sales growth of the products of Apple is also shown in the below diagram, which reveals that the citizens across the globe highly prefer the products of Apple. In fact, the demand and the supremacy of the products of Apple amplified in recent years. Apple is recognized as one of the most successful brands in software market across the globe.

DPB Portfolio Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

DPB Portfolio - Coursework Example es in International Context, Project, English Language Grade 6, Business Communication 3, International Marketing and Export Trade, International Trade: Payments and Law While studying BA (Hons) International trade and business communication at the University of Portsmouth, I describe the skills I learnt through the course as having given me a thorough grounding in various subjects I wished that I was interested in and wished to specializes or practice later in life. From, the first year I was introduced to the numerous problems or challenges faced by individuals in the business world. Moreover, the skills which were imparted through the course enabled me to develop an idea of how to solve the different challenges that came along the way. At the end of the course I was able to achieve a consolidation of my study through numerous aspects like personal studies and research. Moreover, the business skills which I learned also have opened other opportunities to study a wide range of subjects like those falling in the faculty of humanity and social sciences. I achieved the task of acquiring the skills I have today through am intense process of dedication and hard work in my studies. Being that the University of Portsmouth has entry levels, I studied heartily to pass my GSCE levels at Bay House School, Gosport with ten passes as between the grades A-B. After that I joined St. Vincent College for my A levels and passed with flying colors to be admitted at the university of Portsmouth which imparted me with the skills of accounting, marketing, business law, human resources, management dissertations, consumer led demand and other primary skills which has greatly played a significant role in my studies and career to date. At ST. Vincent College and in taking my BA (Hons) at Portsmouth University I reflect on various learning points which changed my views of what I would do when provided with another chance to pursue the same courses at the institutions. With flying

The Impact of Apple Devices on Society Research Paper

The Impact of Apple Devices on Society - Research Paper Example From the discussion it is clear that Apple Inc is a renowned America-based multinational conglomerate operating in software as well as hardware industry. The head office of Apple is situated in Cupertino in the region of California. It was established in the year 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. It possesses in its assortment variety of products such as iPod, iTunes, iPhone, Apple TV, Mac accessories, and software to gratify customers’ desires. There are about 364 retail stores of Apple operating to present excellent products and /or services to its customers. In addition, the company employs approximately 60,400 employees across the globe to maintain its operations in an efficient way. As the paper highlights Apple has offered more attention to the facet of constant research and development to present various types of innovative products to the people. It facilitated Apple to expand its market share and profitability by a considerable extent. Moreover, it also improved the total sales of its products, thereby amplifying its supremacy in the market as portrayed in the figure below. The sales growth of the products of Apple is also shown in the below diagram, which reveals that the citizens across the globe highly prefer the products of Apple. In fact, the demand and the supremacy of the products of Apple amplified in recent years. Apple is recognized as one of the most successful brands in software market across the globe.

Analysis of Syndicated Column Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis of Syndicated Column - Essay Example The purpose of his opinion piece was to ask his readers to analyze the merits of keeping the ObamaCare law as it was versus the reality of what would happen to the individual American's healthcare and economic needs if the law is not repealed by Congress. His main argument being that the ObamaCare law will further open the floodgates of debt and produce no benefits for our nation over a minimum of 10 years. Mr. Krauthammer, being one of the most highly respected columnists in The Washington Post, has never been known for writing his articles willy nilly. He pours countless hours into his research and takes great pains in order to prove the veracity of any claim that he makes by insuring that he gets confirmation or authoritative explanations pertaining to his research material from highly reliable and reputable resources. For his article â€Å"Everything Starts with Repeal†, he presents facts and figures that he gathered from his time spent speaking with CBO Director Douglas E lmendorf, using the man's very own facts and figures in order to disprove the Democrat theory that the passage of ObamaCare would result in a reduced deficit over a period of ten years. An explanation which, when heard for the first time from the Democrat point of view, most certainly points to savings for the nation. However, the savings come at the cost of more government spending and increased taxes. It is at this point that Mr. Krauthammer points out the obvious argument that most ordinary Americans, regardless of their political beliefs as Democrats or Republicans, would make after careful study and evaluation of the facts as presented by Elmendorf. How can our nation have any real savings or surplus if facts and figures are manipulated to never actually show an accurate portrayal of the money spent or saved? In other words, the joke is on us once ObamaCare finds itself fully implemented in 2014. These are arguments that Mr. Krauthammer makes based upon the facts and figures th at he managed to gather from the Congressional Budget Office. These are calculations and formulas that were given credence or denied by explanations from Yuval Levin, the National Affairs editor of The Washington Post. What makes his opinion piece in this highly syndicated column highly informative and accurate is the fact that he constantly argued the merits and demerits of ObamaCare from both a Democratic and Republican standpoint. Therefore, all possible avenues of debate and discussion pertaining to healthcare coverage for the regular Joes are openly and widely discussed within the article itself. He oftentimes refers to his own personal experience and the much highly publicized information pertaining to ObamaCare that is easily accessible via any public information portal. I must point out one small detail, however: the information used within the article is believed to point towards his article being part of a relative truth. This is why the information he has on hand can be b ent and shaped in order to serve the purpose of either political party. This is because, depending upon which side of the political spectrum Mr. Krauthammer's readers have chosen to place their fate in, the truth as they know it and see it can be explained in at least 2 different ways, thus, proving that truth can never be absolute, only relative. In terms of the information within the opinion article, I would have to say that its veracity level is quite high. This is owing to the method by which the information was collated and presented to

Minority Group and Multiculturalism Essay Example for Free

Minority Group and Multiculturalism Essay This research was commissioned by the Transatlantic Council on Migration, an initiative of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), for its seventh plenary meeting, held November 2011 in Berlin. The meeting’s theme was â€Å"National Identity, Immigration, and Social Cohesion: (Re)building Community in an Ever-Globalizing World† and this paper was one of the reports that informed the Council’s discussions. The Council, an MPI initiative undertaken in cooperation with its policy partner the Bertelsmann Stiftung, is a unique deliberative body that examines vital policy issues and informs migration policymaking processes in North America and Europe. The Council’s work is generously supported by the following foundations and governments: Carnegie Corporation of New York, Open Society Foundations, Bertelsmann Stiftung, the Barrow Cadbury Trust (UK Policy Partner), the Luso-American Development Foundation, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the governments of Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. For more on the Transatlantic Council on Migration, please visit: www. migrationpolicy. org/transatlantic.  © 2012 Migration Policy Institute. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Migration Policy Institute. A full-text PDF of this document is available for free download from www. migrationpolicy. org. Permission for reproducing excerpts from this report should be directed to: Permissions Department, Migration Policy Institute, 1400 16th Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20036, or by contacting [emailprotected] org. Suggested citation: Kymlicka, Will. 2012. Multiculturalism: Success, Failure, and the Future. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. Table of Contents Executive Summary. 1 I. Introduction.. 2 The Rise and Fall of Multiculturalism. 3 . II. What Is Multiculturalism?.. 4 A. Misleading Model. 4 . B. Multiculturalism in Context 5 . C. The Evolution of Multiculturalism Policies.. 7 III. Multiculturalism in Practice. 10 A. The Canadian Success Story 10 B. The European Experience. 13 . IV. The Retreat from Multiculturalism.. 14 A. Rhetoric versus Reality .. 14 B. Proliferation of Civic Integration Policies. 15 . V. Conclusion:The Future of Multicultural Citizenship. 21 Appendices 26 Works Cited 28 About the Author.. 32 MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE Executive Summary Ideas about the legal and political accommodation of ethnic diversity — commonly termed â€Å"multiculturalism† — emerged in the West as a vehicle for replacing older forms of ethnic and racial hierarchy with new relations of democratic citizenship. Despite substantial evidence that these policies are making progress toward that goal, a chorus of political leaders has declared them a failure and heralded the death of multiculturalism. This popular master narrative is problematic because it mischaracterizes the nature of the experiments in multiculturalism that have been undertaken, exaggerates the extent to which they have been abandoned, and misidentifies not only the genuine difficulties and limitations they have encountered but the options for addressing these problems. Talk about the retreat from multiculturalism has obscured the fact that a form of multicultural integration remains a live option for Western democracies. This report challenges four powerful myths about multiculturalism. First, it disputes the caricature of multiculturalism as the uncritical celebration of diversity at the expense of addressing grave societal problems such as unemployment and social isolation. Instead it offers an account of multiculturalism as the pursuit of new relations of democratic citizenship, inspired and constrained by human-rights ideals. Second, it contests the idea that multiculturalism has been in wholesale retreat, and offers instead evidence that multiculturalism policies (MCPs) have persisted, and have even grown stronger, over the past ten years. Third, it challenges the idea that multiculturalism has failed, and offers instead evidence that MCPs have had positive effects. Fourth, it disputes the idea that the spread of civic integration policies has displaced multiculturalism or rendered it obsolete. The report instead offers evidence that MCPs are fully consistent with certain forms of civic integration policies, and that indeed the combination of multiculturalism with an â€Å"enabling† form of civic integration is both normatively desirable and empirically effective in at least some cases. To help address these issues, this paper draws upon the Multiculturalism Policy Index. This index 1) identifies eight concrete policy areas where liberal-democratic states — faced with a choice — decided to develop more multicultural forms of citizenship in relation to immigrant groups and 2) measures the extent to which countries have espoused some or all of these policies over time. While there have been some high-profile cases of retreat from MCPs, such as the Netherlands, the general pattern from 1980 to 2010 has been one of modest strengthening. Ironically, some countries that have been vociferous about multiculturalism’s â€Å"failure† (e. g. , Germany) have not actually practiced an active multicultural strategy. Talk about the retreat from multiculturalism has obscured the fact that a form of multicultural integration remains a live option for Western democracies. However, not all attempts to adopt new models of multicultural citizenship have taken root or succeeded in achieving their intended effects. There are several factors that can either facilitate or impede the successful implementation of multiculturalism: Multiculturalism: Success, Failure, and the Future 1 MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE Desecuritization of ethnic relations. Multiculturalism works best if relations between the state and minorities are seen as an issue of social policy, not as an issue of state security. If the state perceives immigrants to be a security threat (such as Arabs and Muslims after 9/11), support for multiculturalism will drop and the space for minorities to even voice multicultural claims will diminish. Human rights. Support for multiculturalism rests on the assumption that there is a shared commitment to human rights across ethnic and religious lines. If states perceive certain groups as unable or unwilling to respect human-rights norms, they are unlikely to accord them multicultural rights or resources. Much of the backlash against multiculturalism is fundamentally driven by anxieties about Muslims, in particular, and their perceived unwillingness to embrace liberal-democratic norms. Border control. Multiculturalism is more controversial when citizens fear they lack control over their borders — for instance when countries are faced with large numbers (or unexpected surges) of unauthorized immigrants or asylum seekers — than when citizens feel the borders are secure. Diversity of immigrant groups. Multiculturalism works best when it is genuinely multicultural — that is, when immigrants come from many source countries rather than coming overwhelmingly from just one (which is more likely to lead to polarized relations with the majority). Economic contributions. Support for multiculturalism depends on the perception that immigrants are holding up their end of the bargain and making a good-faith effort to contribute to society — particularly economically. When these facilitating conditions are present, multiculturalism can be seen as a low-risk option, and indeed seems to have worked well in such cases. Multiculturalism tends to lose support in high-risk situations where immigrants are seen as predominantly illegal, as potential carriers of illiberal practices or movements, or as net burdens on the welfare state. However, one could argue that rejecting immigrant multiculturalism under these circumstances is in fact the higher-risk move. It is precisely when immigrants are perceived as illegitimate, illiberal, and burdensome that multiculturalism may be most needed. I. Introduction Ideas about the legal and political accommodation of ethnic diversity have been in a state of flux around the world for the past 40 years. One hears much about the â€Å"rise and fall of multiculturalism. † Indeed, this has become a kind of master narrative, widely invoked by scholars, journalists, and policymakers alike to explain the evolution of contemporary debates about diversity. Although people disagree about what comes after multiculturalism, there is a surprising consensus that we are in a post-multicultural era. This report contends that this master narrative obscures as much as it reveals, and that we need an alternative framework for thinking about the choices we face. Multiculturalism’s successes and failures, as well as its level of public acceptance, have depended on the nature of the issues at stake and the countries involved, and we need to understand these variations if we are to identify a more sustainable model for accommodating diversity. This paper will argue that the master narrative 1) mischaracterizes the nature of the experiments in multiculturalism that have been undertaken, 2) exaggerates the extent to which they have been abandoned, and 3) misidentifies the genuine difficulties and limitations they have encountered and the options for addressing these problems. 2 Multiculturalism: Success, Failure, and the Future MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE Before we can decide whether to celebrate or lament the fall of multiculturalism, we need first to make sure we know what multiculturalism has meant both in theory and in practice, where it has succeeded or failed to meet its objectives, and under what conditions it is likely to thrive in the future. The Rise and Fall of Multiculturalism The master narrative of the â€Å"rise and fall of multiculturalism† helpfully captures important features of our current debates. Yet in some respects it is misleading, and may obscure the real challenges and opportunities we face. In its simplest form, the master narrative goes like this:1 Since the mid-1990s we have seen a backlash and retreat from multiculturalism. From the 1970s to mid-1990s, there was a clear trend across Western democracies toward the increased recognition and accommodation of diversity through a range of multiculturalism policies (MCPs) and minority rights. These policies were endorsed both at the domestic level in some states and by international organizations, and involved a rejection of earlier ideas of unitary and homogeneous nationhood. Since the mid-1990s, however, we have seen a backlash and retreat from multiculturalism, and a reassertion of ideas of nation building, common values and identity, and unitary citizenship — even a call for the â€Å"return of assimilation. † This retreat is partly driven by fears among the majority group that the accommodation of diversity has â€Å"gone too far† and is threatening their way of life. This fear often expresses itself in the rise of nativist and populist right-wing political movements, such as the Danish People’s Party, defending old ideas of â€Å"Denmark for the Danish. † But the retreat also reflects a belief among the center-left that multiculturalism has failed to help the intended beneficiaries — namely, minorities themselves — because it has failed to address the underlying sources of their social, economic, and political exclusion and may have unintentionally contributed to their social isolation. As a result, even the center-left political movements that initially championed multiculturalism, such as the social democratic parties in Europe, have backed 1 For influential academic statements of this â€Å"rise and fall† narrative, claiming that it applies across the Western democracies, see Rogers Brubaker, â€Å"The Return of Assimilation? † Ethnic and Racial Studies 24, no. 4 (2001): 531–48; and Christian Joppke, â€Å"The Retreat of Multiculturalism in the Liberal State: Theory and Policy,† British Journal of Sociology 55, no. 2 (2004): 237–57. There are also many accounts of the â€Å"decline,† â€Å"retreat,† or â€Å"crisis† of multiculturalism in particular countries. For the Netherlands, see Han Entzinger, â€Å"The Rise and Fall of Multiculturalism in the Netherlands,† in Toward Assimilation and Citizenship: Immigrants in Liberal Nation-States, eds. Christian Joppke and Ewa Morawska (London: Palgrave, 2003) and Ruud Koopmans, â€Å"Trade-Offs between Equality and Difference: The Crisis of Dutch Multiculturalism in Cross-National Perspective† (Brief, Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen, December 2006). For Britain, see Randall Hansen, â€Å"Diversity, Integration and the Turn from Multiculturalism in the United Kingdom,† in Belonging? Diversity, Recognition and Shared Citizenship in Canada, eds. Keith G. Banting, Thomas J. Courchene, and F. Leslie Seidle (Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy, 2007); Les Back, Michael Keith, Azra Khan, Kalbir Shukra, and John Solomos, â€Å"New Labour’s White Heart: Politics, Multiculturalism and the Return of Assimilation,† Political Quarterly 73, No. 4 (2002): 445–54; Steven Vertovec, â€Å"Towards post-multiculturalism? Changing communities, conditions and contexts of diversity,† International Social Science Journal 61 (2010): 83–95. For Australia, see Ien Ang and John Stratton, â€Å"Multiculturalism in Crisis: The New Politics of Race and National Identity in Australia,† in On Not Speaking Chinese: Living Between Asia and the West, ed. I. Ang (London: Routledge, 2001). For Canada, see Lloyd Wong, Joseph Garcea, and Anna Kirova, An Analysis of the ‘Anti- and Post-Multiculturalism’ Discourses: The Fragmentation Position (Alberta: Prairie Centre for Excellence in Research on Immigration and Integration, 2005), http://pmc. metropolis. net/Virtual%20Library/FinalReports/Post-multi%20FINAL%20REPORT%20for%20PCERII%20_2_. pdf. For a good overview of the backlash discourse in various countries, see Steven Vertovec and Susan Wessendorf, eds. , The Multiculturalism Backlash: European Discourses, Policies and Practices (London: Routledge, 2010). Multiculturalism: Success, Failure, and the Future 3 MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE away from it and shifted to a discourse that emphasizes â€Å"civic integration,† â€Å"social cohesion,† â€Å"common values,† and â€Å"shared citizenship. †2 The social-democratic discourse of civic integration differs from the radical-right discourse in emphasizing the need to develop a more inclusive national identity and to fight racism and discrimination, but it nonetheless distances itself from the rhetoric and policies of multiculturalism. The term postmulticulturalism has often been invoked to signal this new approach, which seeks to overcome the limits of a naive or misguided multiculturalism while avoiding the oppressive reassertion of homogenizing nationalist ideologies. 3 II. What Is Multiculturalism? A. Misleading Model In much of the post-multiculturalist literature, multiculturalism is characterized as a feel-good celebration of ethnocultural diversity, encouraging citizens to acknowledge and embrace the panoply of customs, traditions, music, and cuisine that exist in a multiethnic society. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown calls this the â€Å"3S† model of multiculturalism in Britain — saris, samosas, and steeldrums. 4 Multiculturalism takes these familiar cultural markers of ethnic groups — clothing, cuisine, and music — and treats them as authentic practices to be preserved by their members and safely consumed by others. Under the banner of multiculturalism they are taught in school, performed in festivals, displayed in media and museums, and so on. This celebratory model of multiculturalism has been the focus of many critiques, including the following: It ignores issues of economic and political inequality. Even if all Britons come to enjoy Jamaican steeldrum music or Indian samosas, this would do nothing to address the real problems facing Caribbean and South Asian communities in Britain — problems of unemployment, poor educational outcomes, residential segregation, poor English language skills, and political marginalization. These economic and political issues cannot be solved simply by celebrating cultural differences. Even with respect to the (legitimate) goal of promoting greater understanding of cultural differences, the focus on celebrating â€Å"authentic† cultural practices that are â€Å"unique† to each group is potentially dangerous. First, not all customs that may be traditionally practiced within a particular group are worthy of being celebrated, or even of being legally tolerated, such as forced marriage. To avoid stirring up controversy, there’s a tendency to choose as the focus of multicultural celebrations safely inoffensive practices — such as cuisine or music — that can be enjoyably consumed by members of the larger society. But this runs the opposite risk 2 For an overview of the attitudes of European social democratic parties to these issues, see Rene Cuperus, Karl Duffek, and Johannes Kandel, eds. , The Challenge of Diversity: European Social Democracy Facing Migration, Integration and Multiculturalism (Innsbruck: Studien Verlag, 2003). For references to â€Å"post-multiculturalism† by progressive intellectuals, who distinguish it from the radical right’s â€Å"antimulticulturalism,† see, regarding the United Kingdom, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, After Multiculturalism (London: Foreign Policy Centre, 2000), and â€Å"Beyond Multiculturalism,† Canadian Diversity/Diversite Canadienne 3, no. 2 (2004): 51–4; regarding Australia, James Jupp, From White Australia to Woomera: The Story of Australian Immigration, 2nd edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007); and regarding the United States, Desmond King, The Liberty of Strangers: Making the American Nation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), and David A. Hollinger, Post-ethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism, revised edition (New York: Basic Books, 2006). Alibhai-Brown, After Multiculturalism. 3 4 4 Multiculturalism: Success, Failure, and the Future MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE of the trivialization or Disneyfication of cultural differences,5 ignoring the real challenges that differences in cultural and religious values can raise. Third, the 3S model of multiculturalism can encourage a conception of groups as hermetically sealed and static, each reproducing its own distinct practices. Multiculturalism may be intended to encourage people to share their customs, but the assumption that each group has its own distinctive customs ignores processes of cultural adaptation, mixing, and melange, as well as emerging cultural commonalities, thereby potentially reinforcing perceptions of minorities as eternally â€Å"other. † This in turn can lead to the strengthening of prejudice and stereotyping, and more generally to the polarization of ethnic relations. Fourth, this model can end up reinforcing power inequalities and cultural restrictions within minority groups. In deciding which traditions are â€Å"authentic,† and how to interpret and display them, the state generally consults the traditional elites within the group — typically older males — while ignoring the way these traditional practices (and traditional elites) are often challenged by internal reformers, who have different views about how, say, a â€Å"good Muslim† should act. It can therefore imprison people in â€Å"cultural scripts† that they are not allowed to question or dispute. According to post-multiculturalists, the growing recognition of these flaws underlies the retreat from multiculturalism and signals the search for new models of citizenship that emphasize 1) political participation and economic opportunities over the symbolic politics of cultural recognition, 2) human rights and individual freedom over respect for cultural traditions, 3) the building of inclusive national identities over the recognition of ancestral cultural identities, and 4) cultural change and cultural mixing over the reification of static cultural differences. This narrative about the rise and fall of 3S multiculturalism will no doubt be familiar to many readers. In my view, however, it is inaccurate. Not only is it a caricature of the reality of multiculturalism as it has developed over the past 40 years in the Western democracies, but it is a distraction from the real issues that we need to face. The 3S model captures something important about natural human tendencies to simplify ethnic differences, and about the logic of global capitalism to sell cosmopolitan cultural products, but it does not capture the nature of post-1960s government MCPs, which have had more complex historical sources and political goals. B. Multiculturalism in Context It is important to put multiculturalism in its historical context. In one sense, it is as old as humanity — different cultures have always found ways of coexisting, and respect for diversity was a familiar feature of many historic empires, such as the Ottoman Empire. But the sort of multiculturalism that is said to have had a â€Å"rise and fall† is a more specific historic phenomenon, emerging first in the Western democracies in the late 1960s. This timing is important, for it helps us situate multiculturalism in relation to larger social transformations of the postwar era. More specifically, multiculturalism is part of a larger human-rights revolution involving ethnic and racial diversity. Prior to World War II, ethnocultural and religious diversity in the West was characterized by a range of illiberal and undemocratic relationships of hierarchy,6 justified by racialist ideologies that explicitly propounded the superiority of some peoples and cultures and their right to rule over others. These ideologies were widely accepted throughout the Western world and underpinned both domestic laws (e. g. , racially biased immigration and citizenship policies) and foreign policies (e. g. , in relation to overseas colonies). 5 6 Neil Bissoondath, Selling Illusions: The Cult of Multiculturalism in Canada (Toronto: Penguin, 1994). Including relations of conqueror and conquered, colonizer and colonized, master and slave, settler and indigenous, racialized and unmarked, normalized and deviant, orthodox and heretic, civilized and primitive, and ally and enemy. Multiculturalism: Success, Failure, and the Future 5 MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE After World War II, however, the world recoiled against Hitler’s fanatical and murderous use of such ideologies, and the United Nations decisively repudiated them in favor of a new ideology of the equality of races and peoples. And this new assumption of human equality generated a series of political movements designed to contest the lingering presence or enduring effects of older hierarchies. We can distinguish three â€Å"waves† of such movements: 1) the struggle for decolonization, concentrated in the period 1948–65; 2) the struggle against racial segregation and discrimination, initiated and exemplified by the AfricanAmerican civil-rights movement from 1955 to 1965; and 3) the struggle for multiculturalism and minority rights, which emerged in the late 1960s. Multiculturalism is part of a larger human-rights revolution involving ethnic and racial diversity. Each of these movements draws upon the human-rights revolution, and its foundational ideology of the equality of races and peoples, to challenge the legacies of earlier ethnic and racial hierarchies. Indeed, the human-rights revolution plays a double role here, not just as the inspiration for a struggle, but also as a constraint on the permissible goals and means of that struggle. Insofar as historically excluded or stigmatized groups struggle against earlier hierarchies in the name of equality, they too have to renounce their own traditions of exclusion or oppression in the treatment of, say, women, gays, people of mixed race, religious dissenters, and so on. Human rights, and liberal-democratic constitutionalism more generally, provide the overarching framework within which these struggles are debated and addressed. Each of these movements, therefore, can be seen as contributing to a process of democratic â€Å"citizenization† — that is, turning the earlier catalog of hierarchical relations into relationships of liberaldemocratic citizenship. This entails transforming both the vertical relationships between minorities and the state and the horizontal relationships among the members of different groups. In the past, it was often assumed that the only way to engage in this process of citizenization was to impose a single undifferentiated model of citizenship on all individuals. But the ideas and policies of multiculturalism that emerged from the 1960s start from the assumption that this complex history inevitably and appropriately generates group-differentiated ethnopolitical claims. The key to citizenization is not to suppress these differential claims but to filter them through and frame them within the language of human rights, civil liberties, and democratic accountability. And this is what multiculturalist movements have aimed to do. The precise character of the resulting multicultural reforms varies from group to group, as befits the distinctive history that each has faced. They all start from the antidiscrimination principle that underpinned the second wave but go beyond it to challenge other forms of exclusion or stigmatization. In most Western countries, explicit state-sponsored discrimination against ethnic, racial, or religious minorities had largely ceased by the 1960s and 1970s, under the influence of the second wave of humanrights struggles. Yet ethnic and racial hierarchies persist in many societies, whether measured in terms of economic inequalities, political underrepresentation, social stigmatization, or cultural invisibility. Various forms of multiculturalism have been developed to help overcome these lingering inequalities. The focus in this report is on multiculturalism as it pertains to (permanently settled) immigrant groups,7 7 There was briefly in some European countries a form of â€Å"multiculturalism† that was not aimed at the inclusion of permanent immigrants, but rather at ensuring that temporary migrants would return to their country of origin. For example, mothertongue education in Germany was not initially introduced â€Å"as a minority right but in order to enable guest worker children to reintegrate in their countries of origin† (Karen Schonwalder, â€Å"Germany: Integration Policy and Pluralism in a Self-Conscious Country of Immigration,† in The Multiculturalism Backlash: European Discourses, Policies and Practices, eds. Steven Vertovec and Susanne Wessendorf [London: Routledge, 2010], 160). Needless to say, this sort of â€Å"returnist† multiculturalism — premised on the idea that migrants are foreigners who should return to their real home — has nothing to do with multiculturalism policies (MCPs) premised on the idea that immigrants belong in their host countries, and which aim to make immigrants 6 Multiculturalism: Success, Failure, and the Future MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE but it is worth noting that struggles for multicultural citizenship have also emerged in relation to historic minorities and indigenous peoples. 8 C. The Evolution of Multiculturalism Policies The case of immigrant multiculturalism is just one aspect of a larger â€Å"ethnic revival† across the Western democracies,9 in which different types of minorities have struggled for new forms of multicultural citizenship that combine both antidiscrimination measures and positive forms of recognition and accommodation. Multicultural citizenship for immigrant groups clearly does not involve the same types of claims as for indigenous peoples or national minorities: immigrant groups do not typically seek land rights, territorial autonomy, or official language status. What then is the substance of multicultural citizenship in relation to immigrant groups? The Multiculturalism Policy Index is one attempt to measure the evolution of MCPs in a standardized format that enables comparative research. 10 The index takes the following eight policies as the most common or emblematic forms of immigrant MCPs:11 Constitutional, legislative, or parliamentary affirmation of multiculturalism, at the central and/ or regional and municipal levels The adoption of multiculturalism in school curricula The inclusion of ethnic representation/sensitivity in the mandate of public media or media licensing Exemptions from dress codes, either by statute or by court cases Allowing of dual citizenship The funding of ethnic group organizations to support cultural activities The funding of bilingual education or mother-tongue instruction Affirmative action for disadvantaged immigrant groups12 feel more at home where they are. The focus of this paper is on the latter type of multiculturalism, which is centrally concerned with constructing new relations of citizenship. 8 In relation to indigenous peoples, for example — such as the Maori in New Zealand, Aboriginal peoples in Canada and Australia, American Indians, the Sami in Scandinavia, and the Inuit of Greenland — new models of multicultural citizenship have emerged since the late 1960s that include policies such as land rights, self-government rights, recognition of customary laws, and guarantees of political consultation. And in relation to substate national groups — such as the Basques and Catalans in Spain, Flemish and Walloons in Belgium, Scots and Welsh in Britain, Quebecois in Canada, Germans in South Tyrol, Swedish in Finland — we see new models of multicultural citizenship that include policies such as federal or quasi-federal territorial autonomy; official language status, either in the region or nationally; and guarantees of representation in the central government or on constitutional courts. 9 Anthony Smith, The Ethnic Revival in the Modern World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981). 10 Keith Banting and I developed this index, first published in Keith Banting and Will Kymlicka, eds. , Multiculturalism and the Welfare State: Recognition and Redistribution in Contemporary Democracies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). Many of the ideas discussed in this paper are the result of our collaboration. 11 As with all cross-national indices, there is a trade-off between standardization and sensitivity to local nuances. There is no universally accepted definition of multiculturalism policies and no hard and fast line that would sharply distinguish MCPs from closely related policy fields, such as antidis

Case Study Of Toyotas Vehicle Recall Management Essay

Case Study Of Toyotas Vehicle Recall Management Essay This study focuses on the risk of reputational damage from a crisis situation and uses the Toyota recall crisis as a case study. The study examines Toyotas actions as relates to preserving its reputation as more than 8 million of its motor vehicles are recalled from 2009-2010. In order to do this, Toyotas actions are benchmarked against critical risk factors identified in the Roads to Ruin report conducted by Cass Business School for Association of Insurance and Risk Managers in Industry and Commerce (AIRMIC). The findings from the case revealed that a serious breakdown in Toyotas culture and a violation of its clearly stated principles of quality and customer-focus were the root causes of its reputational decline. Upon closer examination of the Toyota case, we find that the Toyota crisis escalated majorly because the company seemed to have no plan whatsoever to prepare for a crisis of the magnitude it faced and hence failed to protect its reputation. The case goes on to highlight various risk management that can be incorporated by businesses, managers and CEOs to preserve their reputation in crisis situations and avoid common pitfalls that lead to reputational decline. Table of Figures Executive summary This paper explores the subject of corporate reputation and the risk a crisis situation poses to a companys reputation. The main objective of this study is to extract risk management lessons from a crisis situation that can be used by managers and CEOs to avoid reputational decline in similar circumstances. The paper is structured as a case study that focuses on Toyota Motor Corporation as it faced the greatest threat to its reputation the recall of its vehicles in 2009. It explores key factors that made Toyota vulnerable during the recall and explores the effects of the recall on Toyotas reputation. In order to determine the underlying risk factors that exacerbated the crisis, Toyota is benchmarked against critical risk factors identified in the Roads to Ruin report a research report on risk management by Cass Business School for AIRMIC. The report was chosen because it provides a rich source of lessons about risk, risk analysis and risk management by detailing over one hundred specific lessons about risk from different case studies of companies in reputation-damaging crisis situations. Upon closer examination of the details of the Toyota case, we find that Toyotas reputation was damaged because the company seemed to have no plan whatsoever to prepare for a crisis of the magnitude it faced and hence failed to protect its reputation. Amongst other reasons for Toyotas reputational decline were these factors: management were not communicating effectively with stakeholders during the crisis; decision making was centred in Japan where the company was head-quartered making the crisis response very slow. We also find that Toyota shelved its corporate values which made it a symbol for quality in its quest for growth. In order to understand the Toyota crisis, the paper starts off with a brief introduction of Toyota Motor Corporation, highlighting its businesses and its reputation before the recall crisis. A timeline of the recall is also included to provide an overview of the flow of events during the period under review. Literature on corporate reputation, its importance and ownership is reviewed in the second part of this study whilst chapter three sets out the methodology employed in this study. Chapter four and five represent the crux of this work examining Toyotas actions in more detail. The research work ends with important recommendations for managers for preserving reputation in a crisis situation. Table of Contents CHAPTER 1: Introduction Glass, China, and reputation are easily cracked, and never well mended. -Benjamin Franklin. A few years ago, if we talked about companies with good reputations, the Japanese carmaker Toyota might have been mentioned. 2008 in particular was a good year for Toyota; Toyota was arguably one of the top brands worldwide, scoring high points for reliability and product quality on various reputational studies. It was the 6th top brand in the world according to interbrands Top 100 brands in the world list and was highly reputed for its reliability, customer-focus, and world-class quality. By the 27th of February, 2009, Toyota had moved up to third place on the Worlds Most Admired list, behind only Apple and Berkshire Hathaway. The company had the coveted AAA rating from Fitch and customers and car-enthusiasts alike had come to equate Toyota with quality. Even the companys philosophies, visions and advertising campaigns were unequivocal in stressing its commitment to quality However as Toyota recalled vehicle after vehicle in 2009, its pristine reputation for quality was badly damaged. Toyota literally drove into a reputational crisis like it had never seen before; the crisis was exceptionally damaging to the companys reputation as it struck its perceived core competence safety and quality. Company Background TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION is a Japan-based company mainly engaged in the automobile and financial business. The Company operates through three business divisions. The Automobile segment is engaged in the design, manufacture and sale of car products including passenger cars, minivans and trucks, as well as the related parts and accessories. The Finance segment is involved in the provision of financial services related to the sale of the Companys products, as well as the leasing of vehicles and equipment. The Others segment is involved in the design, manufacture and sale of housings, as well as information and communication business. For its automotive operations which is the focus of this study- Toyota produces and sells passenger cars, minivans and commercial vehicles, such as trucks. Toyotas vehicles can be classified into two categories: conventional engine vehicles and hybrid vehicles. Toyotas product line-up includes subcompact and compact cars, mini-vehicles, mid-size, luxury, sports and specialty cars, recreational sport-utility vehicles, pickup trucks, minivans, trucks and buses. The Companys subcompact and compact cars include the four-door Corolla sedan and the Yaris. In North America, Europe and Japan, Toyotas luxury line-up consists primarily of vehicles and other luxury sport-utility vehicles sold under the Lexus brand name. Toyota sport-utility vehicles available in North America also include the Sequoia, the 4Runner, the RAV4, the Highlander, the FJ Cruiser and the Land Cruiser, and pickup trucks available are the Tacoma and Tundra. Toyota also sells the Century limousine in Japan. Toyotas product line-up includes trucks (including vans) up to a gross vehicle weight of five tons and micro-buses, which are sold in Japan and in overseas markets. Trucks and buses are also manufactured and sold by Hino, a subsidiary of Toyota. Hinos product line-up includes large trucks with a gross vehicle weight of over 11 tons, medium trucks with a gross vehicle weight of between five and 11 tons, and small trucks with a gross vehicle weight of up to five tons. More than its cars, Toyota is well known for its TOYOTA WAY a set of principles and behaviours that underlie the Toyota Motor Corporations managerial approach and production system. These principles have been taught in various business schools and adapted in various organisations. The principles are summarised in the figure below: Figure : The Toyota way (Source: Hispage TONOway) 1.2 The Recall Crisis Toyotas recall fiasco took a disastrous turn on the 28th of August 2009 in San Diego, California. According to news reports, Mark Saylor and his wife, daughter and brother-in-law (Chris Lastrella) were killed when their Lexus, on loan from a dealer, careened out of control at more than 100mph, collided with another vehicle, and crashed into a ravine, setting the car ablaze. Figure : Inset is a picture of the vehicle after the accident (Source: PowayPatch) The familys high-speed tragedy was captured via a 911 call; the fear in the caller Chris Lastrellas voice was apparent as he said there are no brakesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ we need to pray and finally, their high-pitched screams as the car crashed. Over the next six months following this incident, Toyota would issue three separate recalls related to vehicle speed control for over 8 million vehicles; costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars in sales and immeasurable reputational damage. As the crisis intensified, Toyota became the target of adverse media attention with criticisms coming from various stakeholders for its actions during this period, and for its delay in identifying the fault and recalling the affected vehicles. 1.3 Timeline This section provides a chronological flow of the events leading up to and surrounding the recall crisis 2000 A cost cutting exercise called Construction of Cost Competitiveness for the 21st Century is launched by Toyota with the aim of reducing the cost of 180 car parts by 30% and saving $10 billion by 2005. 31-12-04 Toyotas vehicles accounted for about 20% of all unintended acceleration complaints filed with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), up from 4 percent in 2000. 26-09-07 First floor mat recall in US of 55,000 vehicles to correct possible drivers floor mat causing accelerator pedal entrapment. 28-08-09 Off-duty California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor is traveling on Highway 125 in Santee, California (northeast of San Diego), with three family members, when the 2009 Lexus ES350 he is driving suddenly accelerates out of control, hits another car, tumbles down an embankment and catches fire. While the car is careening down the highway at speeds estimated to exceed 100 mph, his brother-in-law calls 911 and reports that the car has no brakes. All four are killed in the ensuing crash. 14-09-09 Preliminary reports from Toyota and local authorities indicate that the Lexus, which had been on loan from Bob Baker Lexus of San Diego, where Saylors personal Lexus vehicle was being serviced, may have had the wrong floor mats installed, interfering with the gas pedal. 29-09-09 Toyota announces it is recalling the floor mats on 4.2 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles. 2-10-09 Newly installed Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda publically apologizes to the Saylor family members killed in the accident and to every customer affected by the recall. 30-10-09 Toyota begins sending letters to owners notifying them of an unspecified upcoming recall to fix the unintended acceleration issue. In the letters Toyota says no defect exists. 2-11-09 NHTSA takes the highly unusual step of publicly rebuking Toyota, calling a company press release re-iterating the statements made in the 30 October letter to owners inaccurate and misleading, noting that the floor mat recall was an interim measure and that it does not correct the underlying defect. Toyota publicly apologizes. 02-11-09 Second floor mat recall in US of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles to correct possible drivers floor mat causing accelerator pedal entrapment. 25-11-09 Second recall of 3.8 million vehicles amended to additionally reconfigure accelerator pedal. 26-12-09 A Toyota Avalon crashes into a lake in Texas after accelerating out of control. All four occupants die. Floor mats are ruled out as a cause because they are found in the trunk of the car. 21-01-10 Toyota recalls another 2.3 million Toyota-brand vehicles because of a problem with the gas pedal. Toyota says a rare set of conditions which may cause the accelerator pedal to become harder to depress, slower to return or, in the worst case, stuck in a partially depressed position. The company says the new recall is unrelated to the floor mat recall, but also announces 1.7 million Toyota vehicles would be affected by both recalls. 26-Jan-10 Toyota stops selling eight models in the US after being sanctioned by the NHTSA to halt selling vehicles with acknowledged defects. Toyota does not say why it has waited five days to stop sales after announcing the recall. 29-Jan-10 Recall extended to 1.8 million Toyotas in Europe and China. 02-Feb-10 U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sharply criticizes Toyotas response to the accelerator pedal concerns, telling the Associated press that Toyota may be a little safety deaf and that while Toyota is taking responsible action now, it unfortunately took an enormous effort to get to this point. 09-Feb-10 Recall of 437,000 Prius vehicles and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to correct possible faulty hybrid anti-lock brake software 23-Feb-10 Public hearings of various committees of the U.S. House of Representative regarding the Toyota safety issue. At the hearing, Toyoda publicly apologizes before Congress and pledges renewed commitment to quality and safety from Toyota. 24-Feb-10 Akio Toyoda, president and CEO of Toyota, issues the following statement at the congressional hearing: Toyota has, for the past few years, been expanding its business rapidly. Quite frankly, I fear the pace at which we have grown may have been too quick. I would like to point out here that Toyotas priority has traditionally been the following: First; Safety, Second; Quality, and Third; Volume. These priorities became confused, and we were not able to stop, think, and make improvements as much as we were able to before, and our basic stance to listen to customers voices to make better products has weakened somewhat. We pursued growth over the speed at which we were able to develop our people and our organization, and we should sincerely be mindful of that. I regret that this has resulted in the safety issues described in the recalls we face today, and I am deeply sorry for any accidents that Toyota drivers have experienced. Especially, I would like to extend my condolences to the members of the Saylor family, for the accident in San Diego. I would like to send my prayers again, and I w ill do everything in my power to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again. 1.4 Aims and Objectives The Toyota case study is an insightful one as it involves the review of management response in a crisis situation that involved major loss of lives and regulatory action. By focusing on Toyotas management response, the aim of this study is to provide useful recommendations for preserving corporate reputation in a crisis situation. The work will focus on Toyotas response, its crisis management and the effect of the crisis on the companys reputation. In so doing, the author aims to extract essential risk management lessons from the case. The objectives of this study are to: Trace the underlying cause of the crisis using the risk factors identified in the Roads to Ruin Report by Cass Business School for AIRMIC. Evaluate the impact of the incident on the ratings, profitability and reputation of the company. Evaluate the actions of the CEO, highlighting what he did well and what he did not do so well. Outline the main consequences of the crisis for shareholders and other stakeholders Outline the key risk management lessons to be learnt. Every reputational crisis is different and there is no panacea for a reputational crisis but this research work seeks to provide a valuable tool for protecting and managing reputational risk when a crisis occurs. In order to fulfil the objectives listed above, the following research questions will be answered: What made Toyota particularly vulnerable during the recall crisis? How did the recall crisis and its ensuing consequences affect the financial position and reputation of the company? How was the recall handled? How could it have been better handled? What lessons can be learnt such that a future crisis is managed better? What was the impact of failing to meet its stakeholders expectations on Toyotas reputation? CHAPTER 2: Literature Review O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, An foolish notion Robert Burns Every individual, every company, every organisation be it a large multi-national or a small food kiosk by the corner- have one thing in common; a reputation. Over time, every contact, every media mention, every rumour, every leak, every piece of gossip (whether true or not) will play its part in forming an overall impression of an organisations standing. This built up reputation not only has a significant impact on share price; but also influences the strength of the brand and determines its competitive advantage amongst its peers. As Bill Margaritis puts it: a strong corporate reputation is a life preserver in a crisis and a tailwind when you have an opportunity 2.1 Corporate Reputation: An Overview In recent years, the idea of reputation as a strong business asset has received increased recognition in management literature. Series of publications have appeared dealing with the benefits of positive corporate reputations, risks to reputation, and reputational risk management. This increased interest grew out of a realization that an organizations reputation is a major determinant for its short run and long run success and differential advantage in any business environment. Furthermore, the last decade has seen many of the worlds most admired companies descend from their once lofty positions. In light of all these, it is not a surprise that corporate reputation has started to feature prominently on Swiss Res and Aons study of the top ten risks identified by corporate executives. This emphasises the point that management and other stakeholders have started to see the importance of corporate reputation and the various factors that make up the reputation of their firm. Fomburn (1996) defines reputation as the overall estimation in which a company is held by its constituents which can be formed based on the net perception of a companys ability to meet the expectation of all its stakeholders. This perception will usually be based on both the organisations actions and inactions such that everything an organisation does, and does not do, has a direct impact on their reputation Dolphin (2004). Other authors, such as Bromley (2001) emphasize the differing nature of reputation and describe reputation as the distribution of opinions about a person or organisation A more balanced view of corporate reputation according to (Warwick, 1992) is the view that corporate reputation is in itself an aggregate evaluation made by stakeholders of how well a company is meeting stakeholders expectations based on its past behaviour. (Atkins, et al., 2006), also address corporate reputation and reputational risk from this perspective and define reputational risk as the threat to a companys reputation resulting from a failure to meet stakeholders reasonable expectations of an organisations performance or behaviour. Corporate reputation should (also) be considered in terms of its historical context, i.e. a corporations track record. A companys standing in the community and in the marketplace all help shape its reputation Fomburn (1996). A reputation is much more than brand image, and includes factors such as trust in the organisations integrity and how it will conduct itself in the future, both at the corporate level and through the actions of its management and staff. . (Atkins, et al., 2006). It is also an important form of corporate capital that determines to a large extent the companys worth, quite simply, it is an index of a companys worth or value (Bromley, 2000). In determining corporate value, most authors have come to agree that a reputation is an indicator of a companys future performance. A favourable reputation is powerful enough to convince the undecided to choose a certain product or service and dissuade existing customers from moving to a competitor; whereas a damaged reputation can be irreparable and in extreme cases, lead to a companys down fall (ORourke, 2004). In order to build a favourable reputation, four attributes need to be developed: credibility, trustworthiness, reliability and responsibili ty. Reputation is in itself intangible, untouchable and most times immeasurable. Reputation often cant be quantified, compared against hard benchmarks or analysed in the same way as financial or other numerical data. Its management requires softer skills such as sound judgement, an ability to anticipate future trends and requirements, understand stakeholder concerns, listen carefully, consider dispassionately and respond constructively. (Rayner, 2003). A good corporate reputation can take many long years to build; it can be destroyed in an instant through an ill-considered off-the-record remark, a lapse in personal behaviour, an ethical blunder in the supply chain or an inadequate response to a crisis. In the words of Warren Buffet who is considered the most successful investor of the 20th century it takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to destroy it. An area where authors share different views is as regards ownership of reputational risk. The first school of thought argues that one person or a group of people be appointed with the sole responsibility of preserving the companys reputation. It is probably due to the inefficiencies of some CEOs over the years in safeguarding reputation that some authors argue that a reputation officer or a reputation department be charged with the responsibility of handling and sustaining the corporate reputation. Others have criticised this view for various reasons, the main one been that, appointing a chief reputational office tends to remove the awareness of the importance of safeguarding corporate reputation from the Board of Directors and other top executives. Another school of thought is the one which states that every member of the organisation is responsible/accountable for the corporate reputation. As good as this argument might sound (it does make some sense for everyone in the organisation to be aware of maintaining the organisations good name), the loophole is in the danger that this leaves the accountability for corporate reputation as everyones task which in most times equals no ones task. The third school of thought argues that the responsibility for corporate reputation should rest on the CEO. According to this school, various studies have shown that CEOs understand the importance of a good reputation and hence should safeguard it. However, studies have also shown that few CEOs put any structure in place to safeguard the reputational asset of the organisation. It is disappointing to note that many CEOs who are supposed to be the custodians of the companys reputation have actually been the villains responsible for tarnishing the companys reputation. (This was certainly the case with AIGs Hank Greenberg). One important reason why CEOs should be responsible for reputational risk rests on the fact that when people think of a company, they are usually thinking of the CEO, with his actions/inactions invariably contributing to the reputation of the organisation. As Dr Leslie Gaines-Row pointed out in an interview, failure to maintain a good reputation should rest squarely on the shoulders of the CEO because in her own words: CEOs increasingly find themselves in the spotlight during crises and are without question a strategic player in reputation recovery. Their success in managing reputational difficulties is one of the determining factors in whether stakeholders retain confidence in the company and believe that reputation will eventually be restored. For this reason, failure to maintain a good reputation rests squarely on the CEOs shoulders. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Studies show) that nearly 60 percent of the blame is attributed to the CEO when crisis strikes. As the companys public face during times of crisis, and the companys chief reputation officer, the CEO should remain visible, and communicate honestly, transparently and proactively. CEOs must also present themselves to stakeholders, whether it is customers, financial analysts or employees, consistently with the companys vision, code of conduct and values. By taking responsibility, acting quickly and compassionately, listening carefully, and establishing clear priorities, the CEO can set an example for reputation recovery for the entire organization. Reputation is the most important asset entrusted to a CEO (Schreiber, 2011). Not all CEOs recognize that, but a growing number do. In a 2009 global study, AON Insurance asked 551 CEOs to rank the relative importance of 31 risk factors. Reputation was ranked No. 6. In past AON studies before the current financial crisis, reputation was the top-ranked CEO risk factor. But, what is troubling is that two-thirds of the respondents had no formal reputation risk plan in place, and that figure has not changed substantially. 2.2 Effects of a Favourable Corporate Reputation Strong reputations act as cushions in case of a crisis and have the ability to protect a company from harm caused by a crisis. A favourable prior reputation protects the organisations reputation during a crisis in two aspects: it gives the organisation the benefit of doubt, which means that if a consumer holds a general favourable view of the company, the consumer might assign the company less crisis responsibility which in turn result in less reputational damage from the crisis; secondly, it acts as a shield, which serves as a part of the larger psychological phenomenon of expectancy confirmation, emphasizing that stakeholders will focus on the positive aspects of the organisation and ignore the recent negative information created by the crisis (Coombs and Holladay). In these ways, a good prior reputation perceived by consumers has the potential to reduce attributed crisis responsibility and dismiss the impact of the crisis. Strong, trustworthy reputations will usually always mean g reater resilience in crisis situations. The occasional lapse of a reputationally strong company is likely to be regarded as a one-off aberration, because it has a solid track record and its values and business ethos are clearly understood the reaction will most probably be a shrug and a thats not like them rather than a there they go again (Rayner, 2003). A typical case is that of oil companies who were ranked rather low in public opinion. In cases where oil companies have faced major crisis, consumers have been less sympathetic with these corporate group. The BP case and the Exxon Vladez case are typical examples. A study in the late 1990s of the performance of US companies during the 1987 stock market crash found out that the shares of the ten most admired companies dropped less and recovered faster, while the shares of the ten least admired companies plunged three times as far a very strong indication that having a good corporate reputation can pay real dividends. Various authors have identified several benefits of a good corporate reputation: (Atkins, et al., 2006) state that a good reputation is highly valuable and can benefit a company enormously. Potentially, it can result in: Banks being willing to supply loans on more favourable rates and terms: Good employees being attracted to work for the organisation, and their services being retained Investors being more likely to place their capital in the firm; Improvement in sales Maintenance and enhancement of market share Public perception of the organisation as an asset to the society in which it operates (John Croft, 2003), identify similar benefits: Securing profits and future cash flows Attracting new business partners Securing investment Attracting new customers word-of-mouth In ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uencing political and legal affairs Human capital: retaining good staff and attracting the best employees Allowing easier entry to new markets and brand extensions Enabling successful mergers and acquisitions Helping to reinforce relationships with suppliers and distributors and other direct stakeholders Enhancing relationships with NGOs or corporate activists that potentially could be aligned against you 2.3 Area of Further Research One area of interest for future research work identified while carrying out this research work is on handling reputation risks from social networking sites and other online media sources the so called web 2.0. Web 2.0 allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue and the mediums include social media sites like Facebook, blogs, twitter and other mediums which allow people to freely air their opinions. This area is important because in recent times, a lot of companies have had their reputation damaged through web 2.0 mediums. What makes web 2.0 dangerous is that response time is very limited; the most time an organisation has to squelch rumours or avoid a reputational disaster is 24 hours. It would be immensely helpful if further research is done into helping companies and various organisations cope with the risks from these mediums. CHAPTER 3: Data Collection and Research Methodology 3.1 Data Collection Data has been collected from a wide range of secondary sources; newspaper articles, academic journals and online resources. This study was also based on documents from five categories of media: (i) print newspapers, (ii) online editions of print newspapers, (iii) the Associated Press newswire, (iv) Blogs, and (v) Internet forums. 3.2 Methodology The research is tailored as a case study. This method gives a multi-perspective approach, incorporating the views of direct stakeholders, indirect stakeholders and the interactions between these two groups. This case study will be based mainly on secondary data. The paper will comprise the collection of secondary data from a broad variety of sources such as business academic journals, books, reports, newspapers and internet articles on the Toyota vehicle recall crisis. All information will be taken from the public domain and the author has put into consideration the possibility of errors in press reports and other sources. The research will use various underlying risk classifications identified in the Roads to Ruin report by Cass Business School for AIRMIC to trace the underlying cause of the crisis. The Roads to Ruin report is a highly valuable guide for this research as it investigates the origins and impacts of over twenty major corporate crises of the last decade. The report was chosen because it provides a rich source of lessons about risk, risk analysis and risk management detailing over one hundred specific lessons about risk. This will be particularly helpful as I develop my recommendations on this subject. A crisis communication framework developed by (Lukaszewski, January/February 1999) would also be used to analyse Toyotas crisis response. CHAPTER 4 Review of the Recall Crisis In this chapter, the author shall in line with the research objectives, test the effectiveness of Toyotas reputational risk response to seven key risk areas identified in the Roads to Ruin report and in so doing trace the deeper cause of the crisis. According to the report, these key risks areas include: Board skill and Non-Executive Directors (NED) control risks -risks ar