Research proposal and introduction and literature review Paper

Proposal and introduction and literature review - Research Paper Example The research will seek to know if politics has any influence on the political decisions of people. It will seek to identify if the media directs the public on what to think and what to do. The research will also investigate on whether the public opinions on political aspects are based on the information  supplied  to them by the media. Voting is one of the biggest political arenas that involve the public and in respect to that, the research will seek to know if the media decides where the public cast their vote during an election. In the past people have considered the media to be the source of political enmity and even have accused the media to be the cause of various political ethnic clashes. The research will seek to know if the media participates in creating political enmity between people of different ethnicities and races. To be able to dig out the above information and make viable conclusions, the research will use three different research methods. It will interview the selected participants using present research questions and record their feedback in order to know their opinions. The research will use questionnaires that will contain research questions. In order to gain valid information, it will include multiple answer questions and open-ended question so as not to limit the interviewee. The final research method will be observation. The researcher will observe the public reaction on prevailing political topics and the gauge the influence of the media on decisions and stands made by the public. The research will also use the available literature in books and journals to study the influence of the media on political behavior of the public According to Popkin, the media have a great influence on how voters make their choices during elections. He argues that the larger percentage of the society makes decisions on whom to vote for based on the media TV stations or

Personal Development Portfolio (PDP) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Personal Development Portfolio (PDP) - Essay Example The paper will outline my PDP for the module strategic management in hospitality and tourism industry. The action plan is based on reflection, values, awareness, planning, and goal setting for personal development. In week one, we were given the overview of the module strategic management in hospitality and tourism industry. The module focuses on the strategic aspects of hospitality and tourism industry, as well as examining the current and emerging issues that I will face in the work environment. At the end of the module, I was informed by the instructor that each one of us will have to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of hospitality, tourism, finance, people, operations, and marketing, as well as entrepreneurism. The module will be taught through various ways including tutorials, lectures, self-directed learning, journals and case studies, textbooks, scenario-based learning, discussion forums and peer-to-peer learning, module webs, and seminars. The learning of this module needs to be assessed through coursework and phase tests, and not the traditional exams. In week two, I learnt about strategy. Chandler (1963, p.13) asserts that a strategy is described as a long-term goals of a firm and the allocation of resources to attain these goals. I was able to summarise the strategy of an organization in a ‘strategy statement.† A strategy statement needs to have a goal, scope and the particular advantages. For instance, the firm uses training and development an employee retention strategy. Besides, I will need to establish the core issues for an organisation’s strategy in relation to the exploring strategy model. The model outlines those situations that require strategic thinking as termed as ill-structured (Rumelt, 2009, p.198). The model enabled me to fully examine the concept of strategy and the role it plays in the guidance of organizations. I was also able to distinguish that corporate strategy is the overall strategy of company.

Small Group Dynamics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Small Group Dynamics - Essay Example He coined the term "group dynamics" to describe the way groups and individuals act and react to changing circumstancesThe social process by which people interact face-to-face is called group dynamic. Small group communication experts Isa Engleberg and Dianna Wynn (2003) have identified seven types of groups to which you can belong: primary, social, self-help, learning, service, work, and public. For the purpose of the study a group is selected which was appointed by the Government. The group is a public group, in which group members interact for the benefit of an audience. There was wide spread fear among the public due to the outbreak of bird flu in many parts of the world. The government was doing its best to ensure the public that the poultry was safe to eat. But the public were reluctant. The poultry business was affected and many restaurants faced problems because of this. The government decided to do a live talk-show on the National television network, wherein the public can call and talk with the experts to clarify their doubts. The experts appointed by the government were: The members knew very little about the other members in the group and they did not know how to function as a group. The group had to, therefore, go through the all the stages in group formation. So the group was a "zero history group". They had one-week's time and so decided to meet every day before the D-day at 9 in the morning. The first step taken was the exchange of certain information about them or about people close to them such as address, phone, fax and email including their housemates, family, neighbours and friends and also their activities and habits. Groups and Relationships A small group is always influenced by the way how the group fits into its content and how the members balance their relationship both within the group and outside the group. There was very cordial and supportive relationship among the members. The members were engaged in the following activities: a) Problem solving- The members tried to find a way to alleviate the fear for poultry products among the public. Their task was to propagate message about the safety of poultry products in the country. b) Creation of identities- The members voluntarily decided to take up the following roles: Mrs. G- Coordinator and Leader (Shows the relationships between ideas) Mr. D- Initiator-contributor (Generates new ideas) Myself, Ms. C- Information-giver (Offers facts or generalization to the group) Mr. E- Recorder (Keeps a record of group actions) Mrs. G was a democratic leader;

Hamlet- Hamlets madness Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Hamlet- Hamlets madness - Research Paper Example Thesis statement: Through feigning madness to cover up for his actions, the protagonist of the play (hamlet) had really become mad in the end. First of all, Hamlet was not mad, but unexpected events in his life forced him to pretend as mad. But this pretension influenced his mind and resulted in his madness in the end. One can see that pretension, with or without reason, can influence an individual’s emotional equilibrium. Hamlet pretends to be mad because he wished to hide his deeds like communication with the ghost, revenge, motive, guilty consciousness, Oedipus complex, and to confuse his enemies. To cover up his communication: In the play, prince Hamlet is portrayed as an individual who is trying to cover up his communication with supernatural elements (say, his father’s spirit). He knows that other people will not believe him because it is difficult to prove that the ghost used to visit him. But the ghost reveals that his uncle is the mastermind behind his fatherâ €™s death. In William Shakespeare’s work, the ghost states that, â€Å"Avenge his foul and most unnatural murder† (21). From a different angle of view, one can see that he was aware of the fact that he must cover up his communication with the ghost. To be specific, the ghost is the link between the prince and his father. If the ghost did not appear, he will not know the conspiracy behind his father’s untimely death. So, Hamlet decides to cover up his communication with the ghost and pretends that he did not know the mastermind behind the conspiracy. Besides, he pretended as mad because he was aware of the fact that others will not suspect him. To cover up revenge: Prince Hamlet knew that he cannot trust anybody because he was totally confused due to the problems within his private circle. He cannot trust his mother because she co-operated with his uncle to assassinate his father. The protagonist cannot trust his uncle because he murdered his father. But he k new that his uncle is watching him because he is the one and only person who can take revenge of the king’s murder. Still, Hamlet did not give up his aim because he must take revenge of the murder. If he tries to conduct an investigation on the murder, his uncle will try to hinder him. So, Hamlet pretends that he was not aware of his uncle’s role in the conspiracy. The best possible way to prove inactive is to pretend as an insane individual. On the other side, Hamlet’s uncle did not suspect him because he considers Hamlet as an insane individual. So, one can see that pretension helped Hamlet to keep himself away from trouble and to find out the truth in the end. To cover up motive: In the play, the playwright inculcates anti-heroic elements on the protagonist (say, Hamlet) to cover up his real motive. One can see that the protagonist is different from traditional protagonists with heroic qualities. For instance, the protagonist does not try to attack his father ’s murderer. Instead, the protagonist tries to collect evidence against the murderer and traps him. This innovative method or the protagonist’s pursuit to kill the murderer is helpful for the viewer/reader to have deeper understanding of the protagonist’s motive. Marvin Rosenberg states that, â€Å"Giving such signals of pretended madness, Hamlet can still be so anguished that he is in fact on the edge of unreason, but his consciousness is

Interpersonal Conflict and Effective Communication Essay

Interpersonal Conflict and Effective Communication - Essay Example Based on the movie presented, there were two identified sources of conflict. One of these conflicts is the people-focused conflicts and the other one is the informational deficiencies. People-focused conflicts were based on emotions and feelings and present an argument by means of personal attack (Hammond, 2011, n.p.). People-focused conflict was demonstrated on the film when Sarah attacked the personal integrity of Hitch as a date doctor, seeing Hitch’s job as a scam. People-focused conflict does not only center on the main characters since it is a movie dealing with emotions. In fact, people-focused conflicts were also observed on Albert’s confrontation with Hitch telling him that love was not Hitch’s life but his job; on Sarah’s best friend attacking the integrity of the unknown date doctor; on a newspaper vendor judging Albert as Allegra’s boyfriend; and on people in the story who judged Hitch’s personality. Actually, the movie projected a predominantly people-focused conflict against the main actor, making him the person to blame for all of the related conflicts.  On the other hand, informational deficiencies such as misinterpretation from different conclusions were observed. This was demonstrated on judging Hitch unfairly as a date doctor. His viewpoints about his work have been different from the understanding of society and interpersonal conflict arises because of misunderstanding.Effective Handling of Conflict  

Econ 4020 reaction 12-13 Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Econ 4020 reaction 12-13 - Term Paper Example However, the total nation debt has kept on fluctuating with different administration implementing significantly different economic policies. In 1919, the participation of the USA in the World War I escalated the total national debt from $6 billion to slightly above $27 billion. The period marking 1920s was characterized by increased levels of private sector spending. As a result, the government generated excess revenue that lead to reduction of the national debt to $16.9 billion. Rate of unemployment also reduced drastically; the nation almost achieved full employment. Unfortunate, in 1929, another great recession invaded the economy as the private spending started to decline. The rate of unemployment too increased (Davidson, 2010). The total national debt continued to increase and by 1936, its ratio to GDP was approximately 4:6. Notably, irrespective of the high debts the USA economy still grew significantly. The period marking World War II (1941-1945), the USA government expenditure drastically increased due to the massive funding of the war. What is interesting is that while the total national debt increased by over 500%, the GDP also doubled. It is recorded that the period that marked the ending of World War I saw each American household have improved standards of living. There was not negative effect of the war as was speculated. The lesion learnt from the historical economic review of the USA is that there should not be fear in spending huge amount of money that results into high debts. The theoretical evidence provided in this paper justifies that the USA economy mostly thrives in times of recession and great depression. Keynes theory suggests that spenders (government) should increase aggregate market demand through spending heavily. This will go along way into creating more job opportunity and at the same time generating additional profits that can be reinvested to grow the economy (Davidson, 2010). The idea is

Southwest Airlines research paper Essay Example for Free

Southwest Airlines research paper Essay Southwest Airlines, since the beginning has struggle and fight to get in the airline business. Starting with Dallas, Texas. Southwest had to fight to stay at Love field airport, when all the airlines moved to the new Airport of Dallas-Fort worth International airport. Winning this battle gave Southwest the opportunity to get all the customers they wanted, from the near downtown airport, instead of driving 15 miles for the new airport, pay for expensive parking and having to arrive one hour earlier. However the other airlines did not like it, like American Airlines and Braniff International. They would have to pay higher fees for use of the new airport and Southwest Airline did not. The other great battle was when Southwest applied to fly from Houston to New Orleans, the application of Southwest Airlines was opposed by local government and by the airlines that flew that route and were operating from the new airport of Dallas-Fort worth, DFW, they felt this could divert customer that could change flying from Houston better than DFW . Jim Wright who was Forth Worth Congressmen was ask by Southwest opponents to help, and as he was a majority of the U. S. House of Representatives, Wright took it to Washington and a new law emerged. The Wright Amendment of 1979 said that â€Å"No airline may provide nonstop or through-plane service from Dallas Love Field to any city in any state except for location in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. † (Thompson, A Gamble, J. (2010). Southwest could only advertise flights out of Dallas Love Field to these five states. The Wright Amendment continue for 18 years, then in 1997 three more states were added to the â€Å"Wright Zone† Alabama, Mississippi and Kansas , and in 2005 Missouri. On 2006 Congress legislation was passed and signed into law that repealed the Wright Amendment beginning in 2014. â€Å"The legal regulatory and competitive battles that Southwest fought in its early years produced a strong esprit de corps among Southwest personnel and a drive to survive and proper despite the odds. † â€Å"They have the warrior mentality, they are here in the airline business to stay and will fight for their share of the market†. (Thompson, A Gamble, J. (2010) The idea of having ticketless help the airline to saved money on paper and accounting for all these tickets. And the idea came from one of the employees. Southwest Airlines places their employees before the customers, this idea has given Southwest Airlines and advantage in customer service that other airlines do not have. In this company the employees feel free to come with ideas and implemented them, if the ideas do not work they will not be reprimand or fired, the failure will be used as example and experience. That gives the employees empowerment and the courage to keep looking for new ideas to improve the service and the company. Herb Kelleher has been an important figure in the culture of Southwest Airlines, with his background; majored in philosophy and law graduating with honors on both. Herb, as everybody called him in Southwest Airlines has given this company a unique culture, where the employees sing and dance with the customers and they give friendship and love more than just customer service. This style has worked for more than 40 years, the airline is love by their customer, who do not really care that there is no first class or preferred seating. They just want the good service and to be transported from point to point safe, on time and with a better price. Even their stock name reflects love. NYSE LUV is Southwest financial name. (Thompson, A Gamble, J. (2010) Southwest Strategic planning for the future, and buying fuel in advance for their planes, gave them the opportunity to save millions of dollars. Southwest was the first airline to negotiate these prices with the oil companies. Southwest Airlines has its own school for flight attendants and training for employees, there is no other University that can train them with the special Southwest Airline Culture. Other airlines have the training schools too, what happen is that the culture is different. Other airlines like United trained the flight attendants for First Class and Business class, besides economy, their training takes longer and their uniforms are more expensive. Southwest uniforms are less expensive and they only have one class, economy. Their flight attendants are also trained to clean the plane on turn around. Other airlines have a cleaning crew that gets into the plane and clean it while the flight attendants are resting; however some airlines have adopted this plan since 9/11. This has saved Southwest salaries on each city for cleaning. Only on cities that the planes stay overnight they have a special cleaning crew that gives the plane a complete service. (Thompson, A Gamble, J. (2010) The idea of having only one type of equipment has given great savings, comparing with other airlines that have different aircrafts and need mechanics specialized on each different aircraft and to have different kinds of plane pieces of maintenance according to each plane. Southwest has all his mechanics highly trained for only one kind of aircraft and the maintenance inventory of their pieces for maintenance in their planes are all the same and this means that they do not need millions of dollars in equipment and train mechanics for each different type of aircraft. After 9/11, Southwest shines like a start as the only airline that do not lose money in 2001 or 2002 and the only airline that did not furlough any of its employees during this time that the rest of the airlines furlough about 500,000 employees among them. It was here when all the eyes of the analyst look at Southwest as the marvelous company that has been doing the right thing all the time, and that was prepared with enough cash, for any eventuality. Southwest Airlines is name in every management book as example of how to conduct an airline and what strategy they have to hold their employees and have very low turn around. Strategy which gives their passengers what they want, and also the strategy has made Southwest a profitable airline since 1973. (Thompson, A Gamble, J. (2010) Company Mission Southwest Airline’s Mission, Vision and Triple Bottom Line Commitment to Performance, People and Planet. (See Exhibit 1) â€Å"Southwest Mission is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride and Company Spirit† (Southwest Airlines). For Southwest Airlines the employees come first and customer second. By having employees satisfied with their job, and treated like family, they will be able to give the best customer service with warmth, friendliness and keep all customer satisfied too. The airline has pursued low fares to make affordable travel to a majority of middle class customers. By charging low fares, and no charging extra fees on baggage, and changing tickets, the customers know exactly what they are paying without paying any extra charges. Southwest serves 72 airports in 37 states and transports 89. Million passengers annually. Southwest had a revenue of $89. 08 billion from November 2012 to November 2013. (Bureau of Transportation Statistics) Internal/External Analysis Strengths  Southwest Airlines firm operating strategy has given profit for 40 years, flying from point to point instead of having a â€Å"hub† like other airlines do, has given Southwest the opportunity to utilized their hours flying for each plane more than others. With their 20 minutes turn over on each point, the airline has on the air their planes most of the time. This capacity utilization makes their cost down and has a competitive advantage over other airlines whose turnaround times were more than 30 minutes. Their bargaining power with suppliers like fuel prices paying in advance and saving millions of dollars over other airlines. Their labor efficiency and pay scales. By training their employees to perform the best and guarantee them good pay and becoming more important than customers, Southwest has economized in having fewer employees per aircraft than other airlines. Employees have in average the same salary as other airlines, employees get profit sharing plan, however they work more. In economies el scale, Southwest Airlines operates only jets Boing 737-300 with 173 planes, Boeing 737-700 with 343 and Boing 737-500 with 25 planes. Having the same kind of planes they operated with very low cost. Widespread Reach: As of the end of 2011, the company serviced 72 cities in 37 states, stretching across the entire United States, and their AirTran acquisition now extends their reach into international skies, mostly over Mexico and the Caribbean islands. Southwest announce 15 more nonstop services from Dallas Love field Airport. Online systems and software, Southwest Airlines invested in next-generation technology and software to improve its ticketless system and its back-office accounting, payroll and human resource information. Previously they have invested in its management information systems to speed data flows and upgrade its customer capabilities. In 2001 implemented new software to generate optimal crew schedules it help improve on-time performance and reduce employees in the schedule department. Southwest operating cost had been lowers than other airlines. (Thompson, A.p. C-294. 2012). Successful differentiation from other airlines is their employees culture, which is transmitted to the customers, employees give a warmth customer service, normally calling the passengers by their first name, singing and hugging and kissing. No other airline does this. †(Guenette, R. November 13, 2013) By giving the same product at a better price than other more expensive airlines, Southwest Airlines has been able to have a larger share of the market. Southwest has a reputable brand with excellent record of safety, this is a major advantage. For the first Quarter of 2013, Southwest reported earnings and revenue that exceeded Wall Street expectations (EPS: $0. 07 per share, Revenue: $4. 08 billion vs. EPS: $0. 02 per share, Revenue: 4. 07 billion). Additionally, average passenger revenue per available seat mile rose 1. 8% along with an increase in passenger traffic by 0. 3%. Keeping the strong numbers in mind from the last quarter, analysts are optimistic about Q2 2013 earnings ($0. 39 a share, up from $0. 36 during Q2 2012). (Ing, S. July 24, 2013). Weaknesses Operating Expenses: The average cost per gallon of fuel from 2005 to 2011 grew 182.  30%, the consumer is constantly demanding added services and amenities to their flights, and the unions are viscously battling for more money for their members; at the end of the day the company does not have much money left over (net profit margin is 1. 14%). Debt: The Company is estimated to possess $361 million of debt on their balance sheet, and until they pay down these debts it will drag significantly on their business. Depending on only one company as supplier for their planes can be a problem if the supplier fails or stop their production. Although Boeing is a robust company, changes can affect Southwest Airlines. The economy, even though Southwest is a low cost airline, until the economy continues low, people cannot fly unless is business or emergency. Achieving sustainable competitive advantage for Southwest is becoming harder as operating costs are going up and the company has a low net profit margin. (Guenette, R. November 13, 2013) Opportunities The industry attractiveness is a strength and an opportunity for Southwest Airlines, the only major airline that do not charge for baggage, many customer look into this as they are also attracted for the price the service, safety and excellent rate on time performance. As a complementary strategy function, Southwest Airlines acquisition of Air Tran gives them the option to fly international for the first time. This acquisition strategy strengthens competitiveness for Southwest Airlines, and gives the opportunity to enter into international markets. Customers that look at how the companies treat their customers and employees, Southwest Airlines have won awards every year for customer satisfaction and by putting their employees first and second their customers. Other airlines that treat the employees as if they were only a number are losing money every year. Example American, United Airlines and Delta Airlines. (Thompson, A Gamble, J. (2010) Threats. The culture establish by Herb Kelleher may not be followed by Gary Kelly and Southwest Executives. Another airlines that are following the pattern of Southwest Airlines, like Jet Blue and Allegiant could get a better share of the Market The airline industry is incredibly competitive, and the race to get the consumer’s business often leads to margin contraction Weather Uncertainty: As we have seen most recently with snow storms in the North east, natural disasters can cause major losses in business for the airlines, and because Mother Nature is so unpredictable, there is always major uncertainty revolving around the company When jet fuel prices rise, airline companies are faced with the decision of passing the pain onto their customers and possibly losing business, or swallowing the costs and ruining their margins The company operates mainly in the United States of America, and thus any economic slowdown exclusive to the American economy could drastically hurt Southwest’s business, while other international companies possess the ability to overcome American decline economy if internationally the economy is better. Goals and Long-term Objectives The analysis shows that Southwest Airlines should seek International market share to gain access to new customers and to spread business risk across a wider market area. Actually Southwest is solely business is within the United States, with the acquisition of Air Tran which was already flying to Mexico, and the Caribbean, Southwest Airlines attempt to fly international is one of the goals and long term objectives. The company has measures their steps into new markets after studying the market and the possibilities, Southwest Airlines will do the same with flight to international markets. Air Tran is already flying to Cancun in Mexico and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, soon other cities could be added, like Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico and other Islands in the Caribbean. Southwest Airlines should not follow an aggressive strategy as the economy is not strong enough. It should continue marketing in the cities where these flights are going to depart from the United States and on their international destination. Southwest Strategy of acquisition has saved the company of all the expenses and complex structure to work in a foreign market. All these procedures and permits and agreements with international governments and the IATA. (International Air Transport Association) are already done by Air Tran. Strategy Selection Southwest Airlines should use the â€Å"Think Global act Global Strategy†, as an International Airline. Southwest Airlines has a brand that is recognized International mainly by the way this company has performed during its 40 years since they start flying. Customers around the world know about their code of ethic, their mission and the way they have run the company by employees first then customers, their safety record and on time performance, and very important their low cost. Should also continue with the Ethical and Cultural Strategy that has been core of the company culture. As the social Responsibility and Corporate Citizenship Strategy. The company Social Responsibility Strategy has been example to many companies not only in the United States, but in other countries too. . (Thompson, A Gamble, J. (2010) Southwest action to enhance employees well-being, by treat them like family and putting their employees first, even before its customers, has given them the merit of recognition of one of the best companies to work for. The company has an ethical strategy and operates honorably and ethically, this was clear when Southwest Airlines was the only Airlines after 9/11 crisis, that did not furlough any of its employees. The airline showed with this example the ethic and honorability which has been their Strategy since the beginning of the company 40 years ago. (Thompson, A Gamble, J. (2010). Southwest Airlines supports several charitable causes, participates in community service activities and contributes to the overall betterment of society. (Thompson, A Gamble, J. (2010) Southwest should continue with these Strategies, as they have shown how well they work for the company, their employees, their customers and their community. These Strategies of Social responsibility and the Strategies stated before about the Vision, Mission, objectives and basic competitive Strategies. Southwest as a low-cost carrier has seen its cost base edge up over the years as it has matured and gained in scale. In response Southwest has modified its business model and has started to fly from crowded markets, such as New York’s LaGuardia . The 2011 Air Tran acquisition, the biggest in Southwest history, has accelerated the process of expansion, and has given the company a larger share in the Atlanta domestic market, and also the international destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico. (Sing, C. 2013) Recommendations/Implementation The above analysis shows that the best recommendation for Southwest is to continue opening new routes in Mexico and the Caribbean. Having already open the door with Air Tram to Cancun, it is feasible that the same permits can be used to fly to the same country. The two destinations we suggest are Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta, following with Los Cabo’s after one year. All these three cities have facilities and International Airports. The affluent of Tourists to these cities is year round. Southwest Airlines could fly these routes with 2 aircrafts. The Company has a contract with Boing for 25 planes during the next 10 years. (Southwest Airlines One Report (February 3, 2013) The persons in charge of this venture will have to be trained to handle international law and all the complex regulations that an airline has to comply, however among the employees of Air Tran; there must be the experience person or persons, needed to handle the opening of the new route. The hiring of ground personnel at the airport of the new destinations, have to be done locally, and the operation manager can be an American. Mexican Immigration Law requires that employees should be of Mexican Nationality, However the Manager can be an American with a job permit up to 2 years (Mexican Immigration Law). Marketing for these two new destinations has to be done principally on the cities that fly nonstop to the new destination. Marketing has to be done also at the new destination, to gain international market share for the airline. The company has the sufficient funds to open these two cities and start operations by next year 2015. (Annex 3) The Company has already a reservations office established and all the ground support for the International service from Air Tran.