Paying Less for Fashion Essay

Payless ShoeSource, Inc. is the largest footwear retailer in the United States. The company operates about 4,700 stores in all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico, Guam, Saipan, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, Central America, the Caribbean, Ecuador, and Japan. It also sells footwear via the Internet at www.payless.com. Payless has built its success by offering a large selection of shoes at very low prices, most selling for less than $15 as of 2004. The company has been able to maintain its affordable prices by sticking exclusively to a self-service format, keeping a tight rein on cost structure, and insisting on efficient sourcing and inventory controls. Payless ShoeSource targets as its main customers women from 18 to 44 years of age with household incomes of less than $75,000, and it estimates that in any given year, 40 percent of the women in this target group buy at least one pair of footwear at a Payless store. The company remained a May subsidiary until 1996, when it was spun off to May shareholders as an independent, publicly traded firm. Payless ShoeSource founded in Topeka, Kansas in 1956 by brothers Louis and Shaol Pozez that is owned by Collective Brands, Inc, on a revolutionary idea – selling shoes in a self-select environment. In 1961, it became a public company as the Volume Shoe Corporation which merged with the May Department Stores Company in 1979. More than 50 years later, Payless continues the self-select model combined with leading customer service to provide a fun and engaging shopping experience for our customers. Today, Payless serves millions of consumers through its powerful global network of stores in all 50 U.S. states, as well as in Puerto Rico, Guam, Saipan, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, Central America, the Caribbean and South America. The company also has an expanding presence in the Eastern Hemisphere through franchising arrangements. UPDATING 1956: Pay-Less National is founded in Topeka, Kansas, by two cousins, Louis and Shaol Pozez, to open self-service stores selling budget footwear. 1962: The Company goes public as Volume Distributors. 1967: The company is renamed Volume Shoe Corporation; an accelerated expansion program is launched. 1978: The Payless ShoeSource name is adopted for the bulk of the company’s retail outlets. 1979: Volume Shoe is acquired by the May Department Stores Company. 1991: The company name is changed to Payless ShoeSource, Inc. 1996: May spins Payless off to shareholders, making it once again an independent, publicly traded firm. 1997: The mid-priced shoe chain Parade of Shoes is acquired from J. Baker, Inc.; the first Canadian Payless stores open. 1999: The firm launches e-commerce at payless.com. 2000: Payless enters into a joint venture to expand into the Central American region. 2004: As part of a major restructuring, Payless announces that it will close down the Parade chain and close hundreds of Payless ShoeSource outlets. PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED Matt Rubel: Nowadays he is Senior Advisor at TPG Capital, L.P. and TPG Growth and served as the Chief Executive Officer and President at Collective Brands. He served as the Chief Executive Officer and President at Payless Shoesource Inc., a subsidiary of Collective Brands. He served as the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cole Haan, Inc from February 1999 to July 2005, where he transformed it into a global lifestyle brand celebrating American luxury. Prior to joining Cole Haan, Mr. Rubel served as an Executive Vice President of J. Crew Group. He is responsible for the success of Payless, Cole Haan and J. Crew. His involvement in this case is vital to these brands. http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=23134722&privcapId=23307 Cole Haan, J. Crew: specialty retailers throughout the United States. Matt Rubel is the one responsible for the success of this two brands. They are competitors of Payless, but they also sell clothing. Carrie Bradshaw: fictional character and lead character of the HBO romantic sitcom Sex and the City, portrayed by actress Sarah Jessica Parker. This character was the icon of the decade and every woman wanted to look like her and dress like her. She was a fashionista and the sitcom revolved around fashion and clothing. Payless understood this trend and tried to approach women who wanted to look just like her, without spending that much money. Kenneth Cole, Michael Kors: top designers who were hired to fulfill their places in the Payless Design Team. They both had their own clothing lines, but Payless created an alliance strategy with their names and brands, so women would buy their shoes. This was a smart move by Matt Rubel. Lela Rose, Stacey Bendet, Christian Siriano: Haute Coture up-and-coming designers from New York City. One of them actually won a competition show named Project Runway. Payless asked them to take over their collections, aiming for haute couture, in other words, avant garde designs. They intended to sell cheaper shoes, but with great innovative designs. The typical fashionista was in for it. Mardi Larson: principal, owner and chief Marketing & Communications consultant at Mardi Larson Communications and has served a range of clients with consulting services and as a contract associate for more than a decade. Also included in her roster of clients are footwear brands like Sperry Top-Sider, Keds and Stride Rite, among others. She was the head of public relations of Payless, and developed the target marker for them. Maxine Clark: Maxine Clark was born on March 6 of 1949 in Florida, had her degree in law from St. Louis University. In 1996, Maxine Clark found â€Å"Build-a-bear workshop†. Prior to founding Build-A-Bear Workshop in 1997, Ms. Clark served as the President and Chief Merchandising Officer at Payless Shoesource Inc. from November 1992 to January 1996. Recognized the strategy of Payless, as to sell cheap and chic. Marian Salzman: American advertising and public relations executive. She is currently president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR North America and a member of the holding company, Euro RSCG Worldwide’s Executive Committee, with brand reputation oversight for the company and key executives globally. She forecasted this trend that made Payless grow. Tiffany, Gucci, Armani: top brands that can be found in New York’s Fifth Avenue. They are the ones to set trends and women look forward to dress in their clothes. They are very expensive, and the middle class woman cannot buy them. This is where Payless supplies their demand of high fashion and affordable prices. Isaac Mizrahi: American fashion designer and TV presenter, best known for eponymous fashion lines. First big fashion designer to make an alliance with Payless. This made other brands and designers to focus on the company. They also wanted to work with Payless in a long-lasting alliance, with great benefits for both of the parts. Walmart, Kohl’s, Target: American retailers that were seen as great discount one-stop shops that had become the vendors of choice for tight budgets for buying shoes. Payless was competing with this major retailers and they needed something to differentiate from them. Their cheap and chic strategy was the solution to overcome this competitors. Elle, Vogue, W: fashion magazines that set the trends and state what is IN and what it’s not. Payless ran full-page ads featuring their new tagline â€Å"Look Again†. This was a strategy directed to fashionistas and frequent buyers of this magazines. They intended to show them that their shoes were so good that they were featured by this great magazines. Sophia Bush, Brittany Snow: both are actresses and fashion icons. Every teenager and young woman wanted to look like them. They were invited into the backstage of Lela Rose’s fashion show in New York Fashion Week, and were spotted wearing Payless shoes. They featured this Payless shoes and wore them proudly, announcing the fashion world that it was okay to wear something affordable and chic. Karl Lagerfeld & H&M, Vera Wang & Kohl’s, Ralph Lauren & JC Penney, Todd Oldham & Old Navy: this are examples of strategic alliances between great and recognized fashion designers and big retailers. This process of benchmarking made Payless realize that they also needed to make alliances with some big designers and brands. This is where Isaac Mizrahi decided to take the plunge with them, and design a whole collection of couture shoes. MAIN PROBLEM The main problem this company, Payless Shoesource, was facing was that in 2005 Payless was losing market share and began to close some stores. The retail landscape had changed and giant discount shops like Walmart, Target and Kohl’s had become the vendors of choice for budget conscious shopper’s buying shoes. With thrift as its positioning point, the company had lost its edge; they were producing the same shoes year after year hoping that price will bring customers to their doors. As we see the problem here was that Payless wasn’t innovating, they were pretending that the same styles would attract the same people to its stores because of the affordable price. STRATEGY When they noticed they have this problem Payless had to engineer a new strategy, it began with the new CEO Matt Rubel, he was hired because of its extensive experience with high-end brands, he knew that the company would have to design shoes that exclusive people would wear with prices that they could afford. Their new job was in charge of changing its image from the dusty cheap footwear into the fun, hip merchant of fashion. Rubel’s objective of their new strategy was not only give the brand image makeover but also position the company in such a way that the price increasing would seem like a bargain. Been more specific Rubel’s strategy plan was based on four major components. 1) Expanding the Brand Portfolio; this stage consisted in implementing what he calls â€Å"House of Brands† strategy instead of one product line create a well-known national brands. In terms to organize the new corporate structure and keep track of all its brands, he created a collective Brand. 2) The Payless Design Team; they want to develop products that would enter to the customers minds, that would resonate better with consumers, they were making emphasis on fashion, they Payless Design Team dedicated itself to develop original footwear and accessory designs to keep new styles on target with changing fashion trends. 3) Designer Collections; Payless created a strong relationship with some designers for the past, they have forged these three top New York based designers, so their homework was creating strong bonds with these designers, this benefits of this alliances are plentiful, because Payless gets brand cachà ©, making consumers get runway styles they can afford. 4) Fun Inspiring Store Formats; Payless redesigned its logo to reflect the new image and communicate change to consumers, they make some store formats, creating a new atmosphere, making a drastic improvement, stores more open, light and airy with a more satisfying consumer experience built around style and design rather than price. This new strategy implemented by the CEO Rubel will energize the old customers who they lost and also attract new ones. This trendy new image is perfect for existing customers. Payless has truck a formula for value that customers love. It remains confident that this strategy to democratize fashion will produce great results, regardless of future economic conditions. Furthermore of the implementation of the new strategy created by the CEO Rubel, Payless since its inception began with low prices or affordable prices, making a competitive advantage for the company, providing good profits. In 2008 when the global recession happened Payless took a hit, while other retailers were suffering because of its huge losses, Payless stores fared much better. Whereas the other retailers had loss many money in 2008, Payless gain a net profit of 88 million in 2009. To conclude, as well as the company manage two strategies to stay in the market and be competitive it would be great that for strengthen its strategy they can work in one of its four P ´s of the marketing mix, promotion, to attract more consumers, making more publicity of its brand and new designers that are part of the company, probably and we pretty sure they will bring more customers. If people know that those famous designers’ works for Payless, people are going to be more enthusiastic for buying good quality, good design for an affordable price. 1- Which of the different product mix pricing strategies discussed in the text applies best to Payless’s new strategy? From my point of view they are using a mix of different strategies. Firstly, skimming pricing. This is about selling a product at a high price, sacrificing high sales to gain a high profit, therefore ‘skimming’ the market. They have invested a lot of money to hire top notch designers, rebranding effort like remodeling stores etc. There needs to be some mechanism (read, strategy) to recover this cost. For some items they have even employed premium pricing. Interestingly, Payless came up with some really good product like Lela Rose, Abaete etc. On the other hand, they have products which are low as $12. As best strategy that they are employing; I would say that they are going for Product Line Pricing. They want their customers to get attracted by the big brands in their portfolio. In that way, other products will gain due importance too. So to customers, overall portfolio will look very attractive. The strategy for setting a product’s price often has to be changed when the product is part of a product mix. Companies usually develop product lines rather than single product. Product mix means in the same companies have many type product with they are brands it sold. Product mix pricing strategies consist of five elements which is product line pricing, product bundle pricing, by-product pricing, captive product pricing and optional-product pricing. In this case, the product mix pricing strategy Payless use is product line pricing. Product line pricing is setting the price steps between various products in the product line based on cost differences between the products, customer evaluations of different features and competitor’s prices. Payless has strategy product line, from one comprised almost entirely of store brands to one dominated by well-known national brands. Payless now sells shoes under numerous brand names that it either owns or licenses, including Airwalk, Champion, Spalding, Dexter, Shaquille O’Neal-endorsed Dunkman, and various Disney brands. Customer can buy many types of products with different prices by looking at size, width, color and design. For example, for boys’ shoes, they have many shapes, size, color, design, and numerous brands which they can get with difference price from $ 12.99 until $26.99. For girls, there are shoes in differences brand like Fioni, Amerian, Eagle, Dexter, Lela Rose, and Smartfit from $14.99 until $24.99. Most products Payless offers are under $50. Other than that, Payless has relationship with top New-York based designers Laura Poretzky, Lela Rose, Stacey Bendet and Patricia Field. The four are designing everything from pumps to boots to handbags for Payless. Payless sets most of the stores product line below $15. The company’s CEO, Matt Rubel also has suggested that in many cases, price increases may be as little as 50 cent per pair of shoes. But the expansion of its brand portfolio to include famous labels will certainly give payless greater pricing flexibility. 2- How do concepts such as psychological pricing and reference pricing apply to the Payless strategy? In what ways does Payless’s strategy deviate from these concepts? By definition, psychological pricing on the theory that certain prices has a psychological impact. The retail prices are often expressed as â€Å"odd prices†: a little less than a round number, e.g. $19.99 or  £2.98. There is no explicit reference given in the case where we see that they are using this strategy. As a matter of fact, we see that though Payless is increasing the price of their products. So, sudden upward movement of price may come as a shock to customers. This strategy of Psychological pricing can be employed in this scenario. Payless actually did not pay a heed to that and did not come up with any proper plan towards psychological pricing. In what ways does Payless’s strategy deviate from these concepts? By definition, psychological pricing is a pricing approach that considers the psychology of prices and not simply the economics. The price is used to say something about the product. Psychological pricing occurs when sellers consider the psychology of prices and not simply the economics. In the other hand, reference pricing is prices that buyers carry in their minds and refer to when they look at a given product. Consumers usually perceive higher-priced products as having higher quality. But what happen in Payless is, they did not increase the price of their product to gain higher quality product perception, but changed the image from dusty dungeon of cheap footwear into the fun, hip, merchant of fashion. In addition, Payless even re-designed their logo for the first time in 20 years. They then launched new â€Å"Fashion Lab and â€Å"Hot Zone† store format. It was a drastic improvement. As the result, Payless store now have more open, light, and airy thus creating a more satisfying consumer experience. Payless is now looking forward into style and design rather than price. This is where Payless’s strategy deviate from psychological pricing concept. Payless focuses more towards style and design of their product rather than price. They even upgrade their store environment into more comfortable places which then create customer satisfaction. With the new store environment, it makes the $12 shoe looks like a $20 shoe. However, Payless’s manipulating the reference pricing by implementing a drastic improvement in their store. They launched a new â€Å"Fashion Lab† and â€Å"Hot Zone† store format to create more open, light, and airy with a more satisfying consumer experience built around style and design rather than price. The new format not only attracts more customers, but they even make the customer willing to pay a little bit more than they have in the past. All new Payless stores now have one of the two new formats and old stores are being progressively remodeled. 3- Discuss the benefits and risks of the new strategy for both Payless and the designers with whom its partners. Which of these two stands to lose the most? Benefits of the new strategy would be for both, for the designers and for the company, those designers when working for Payless are going to be more recognized for most of the people, they are going to become more famous, they are going to outstand from the others, also people who really knows this designers would buy more frequently shoes on this store making this company richer. Now talking of the risks of the new strategy would be that for the designers maybe they are not well-paid for their work and also they lose status for working to a shoe retailer. Some people might not like these designers anymore because they are working on that company, so they lose credibility. A risk for the company would probably that maybe making these relationships with those designers they have more costs so it would not be sustainable for the company. We think that designers would go to lose more, because as we mentioned before they would lose credibility and consequently they are going to lose loyal customers. 4- Consider the scale on which Payless operates. How much of a price increase does Payless need to achieve to make this venture worthwhile? Payless was looking to move its average price point up a notch or two, due to the expansion of its brand portfolio to include famous labels that will certainly give Payless greater pricing flexibility. What they can do it’s a price adjustment strategy, looking for some variables they can apply to that specific company. For example they can use segmented pricing, they can segment their market. Psychological pricing, buyers have a reference of its price in their minds, also they can use geographical pricing; they can design different types of shoes for a different country depends on the fashion and the weather and also international pricing, analyzing some specific factors of the country, like laws and regulations, economic conditions. Looking all this price adjustments strategies they can achieve a good price depending on the place and making this venture worthwhile for the company and for the customers.

Tone Realization And Tone Improvisation Of Young Children Education Essay

The principle of the scrutinize was to look into the consequence of marimbas harmonic concomitant on the tone realisation and tone improvisation of immature kids [ aged eight ] .It provide the kids cognitive development, multiple intelligence accent on music and bodily kinaesthetic intelligence which will affect auditory, ocular and kinaesthetic stimulations. It entails rhythmic development, music amptitude which test the consequence of harmonic concomitant on music development and music amptitude kids vocal development and eventually the consequence of harmonic concomitant on singing achievement.Even though consequence based on research on singing accomplishment between the kids which had song direction with a root tune concomitant had no important on tone attainment harmonizing to Gordon ‘s ( 1982 ) IMMA, there was significance consequence on singing accomplishment between kids who received song direction with root tune accompaniment.Xylophones which comes from a Grecian word ‘xylon'meaning wooden sound.It is from percussion household of musical instrument which is believed to hold originated from Africa and Asia but now found around the continents. Cognitive development is the doing up of thoughts procedures, these include doing determination of your ain, work outing a job and retrieving through different phases of human being.Piaget ‘s theory ( 1896-1980 ) of cognitive development analyze how childen respond to their natural environment.As Atherton ( 2010 ) continues to construct on Jean Piaget theory, he describes a kid ‘s cognition as composed of scheme which are modified by complementary procedures that assimilation and accommodation.In this phase which autumn under the concrete operations phase harmonizing to Jean Piaget, kids have the ability to believe and associate by usage of logical and consistent action.This makes kids aged eight to be in apposition to place and associate the sounds from marimbas to better their music this gives the tonic variation.He agues that it is an a test for one to equilibrate between assimilation and adjustment ( equilibration ) .He came up with the phases of cognitive development based on Peaget`s theory ; Sensory motor phase ( babyhood ) ; in this phase there is no usage of symbols but intelligent is showed by motor activity.Permanency of objects they get at seven months.Interllectuals and few linguistic communication is developed. Pre-operational phase ( early childhood ) ; intelligent is showed through symbols, mature languages.Thinking is egoistic, none logical, non irreversible. Concrete operational phase ( simple and adolescence ) ; there is preservation of weight, volme, mass, figure, country, liquid and lengh.Intelligent relation is of objects in logical and use Formal operational phase ( adolescence and maturity ) ; Intelligence is through abstract in usage of symbols.They are egoistic. Harmonizing to Howard Gardner in 1983, in his theory he says that intelligence as one time described in IQ trial bash non explicate cognitive abilities in all facet from kids.It tells that as kids takes more clip in larning a simple construct may understand deeper the whole construct than kids who learn faster particularly in mathematics ( generation ) .This has brought different reaction because most psychologist expression at it that distinction about the construct of intelligence is non backed up by the practical significance of the attacks from the theory.From the recent cognitive and papers which states that the far to which kids posses assorted types of head makes them execute, understand, retrieve and larn in assorted ways.According to Howard, logical mathematics analysis, musical thought, linguistic communication, spacial representation and an apprehension of other persons. If one can non make the understanding in the strength of these intelligence the intelligent are invoked and used in combination to execute other tasks.He says that from these differences affects the acquisition system that takes all to be taught with the same resources in one manner so that tantamount testing is done to the learner.Our system of instruction is greatly biased to logical quantitative manners, appraisal and linguistically.The learnig ways ( types of intelligence ) ; Musical ; achild conveying out sensitiveness to sounds and beat, due to love to music they learn best with background music.They learn good in lesson which is changed to lyrics.Tools are used like wireless, multimedia, musical instrument. Interpersonal ; kids who enjoys and portion with others, they have sympathy.They learn best in seminars and group activites, composing, E-mail, picture. Ocular Spatial ; the kid know a batch about the environment, pulling physical imagery.Resources charts, exposure Linguistic ; the words are used by childrenfor effectivity, they make narratives or poesy, reading.resourses computing machine, books, games. Visual ; helps kids to acquire concrete construct spatial relationship Sounds ; difference on verbal sound and non-verbal such as music Bodily kinesthetic ; these kids use organic structure esthesis to get constructs, they include terpsichoreans, jocks Logical mathematics ; these kids are interested in forms, perform good in arithmetic, experments From the content affecting bodily kinaesthetic, the cardinal component of the bodily kinaesthetic, intelligence is the ability to utilize one`s bodily motion skilfully and capacity to accomplishments in objects touching.This affect how to utilize marimbas to bring forth music with the right tonic variation.It besides contains a sense of timing, ability to develop responses to be as physiological reactions, a turn outing sense of intent of physical doing.This makes these kids to larn more efficaciously when they use marimbas by affecting their muscular motion ( playing it ) doing them to bask music by singing doing them larn best because they remember through verbal memory. From the continent of musical, it goes with the ability to feel beat, sounds, tones and the musical itself.For kids to hold first-class pitch they ever have high musical intelligence, sometimes absolute pitch and this makes them in a place to assist them accomplish their vocalizing and music aptitude Harmonizing to Gordon Institute for Music Learning ( GIML ) music aptitude like endowment which 1 might hold should be given to achild at early phases of their life.Music aptitude which is dispersed among different population, everyone has the ability to win in music.People have different aptitude, few have low and high aptitude while bulk have neither high nor low but are mean in aptitude.Since typical method of instruction is used achild discoveries it hard to win in music.These kids of mean aptitude receives a batch of tonic content plus rhythmic content more than kids of low aptitude and 1s of high aptitude receives a batch of content than mean ones.This makes instructors to avoid deadening kids and non to emphasize others. Music aptitude can besides be measured but with merely valid music aptitude test.Ones endowment can non be determine by ability to accomplish but on important music achievement.This is because kids gets different rich musical and devoted efforts.However kids can non be judged through aptitude proving to be excluded or included in music activities, all kids have a right to education to music though it helps to provide for the demand of every kid by the teacher.It is indispensable to see the degree of the scholar to place the right music aptitude trial. Researchwhich has been done about the development and stabilised music aptitude shows that music aptitude is developed at immature phases of life.Though at birth aptitude of the kid tend to be inmate, it can change upto age of nine depending of the effectivity and diverseness of the music experience the kid have.Past nine old ages a kid is non able to accomplish in music more than one ‘s old music aptitude.It it of import that kids gets tonss of best quality of formal direction and informal aid in music for them to place their ability to music achievement in the phases of their life.It is of import to hold informal music experience before making five old ages old. There are two types of music aptitude ; stabilized and development.Music aptitude is besides multidimensional, and the papers has addendums which are ; improvisation, types of phases of auditory, music acquisition theory and orientation intentionality as constituent of creative.As a kid is taught utilizing the marimbas they tend to develop musical aptitude at this degree ( eight old ages ) .This makes achild to associate the sounds produced by marimbas with the music so that a comprehensive tone realisation and tone improvisation is achieved. There are many different types of music aptitude trials that can be done by the instructors to place the type scholar are being taken attention of.According to Gordon ( 1997 ) theory we have two major one ‘s ; The complete IQ Test ; look intoing how smart one is from the head The complete aptitude Test ; it involves intelligence whether in words or Numberss Others involves ; Test of analytical accomplishment, it test pulling accomplishments The Acuity skill trial ; it involve simple repetation activity The Technical Skill Test ; how one can technically and automatically experience things Verbal Reasoning Test ; it involves word logical thinking The subject of the research on consequence of harmonic concomitant or direction on music developmental music aptitude kids vocal development was to happen the consequence of harmonic concomitant to the kids on tonic improvisation.Some chief purpose of the research were ; to happen if age affect tonic improvisation public presentation of kids at different classs ; happen if increasing root tune concomitant to direction of the vocal affect the usage of harmonic beat and alterations tonic improvisation.For comprehensive music course of study there must be improvisation.through that kids can show their feeling and ideas on music.The kid should be in apposition to show themselves by words.Due to direction kids are able to: better form of tones ( Balasko 1987 ) ; used harmonic intents and retain key and key while improvizing ( Giulbault2004 ) ; coming up with music that have musical construction ; retain metre and steady round ( Kalmer 1987 ) Guilbault ‘s research was to happen if root tune concomitant is added to direction of the vocal which may interfear with tonic improvisation children.It farther pointed that kids who finds song direction with tune of the root concomitant ; used implied harmonic intents and retain tonic and cardinal when improvising. Journal of research in music instruction says that a kid applies ability and map of harmonic to retain cardinal and key while bettering xylophones.Kalmer and Balasko ( 1987 ) analysed pre-school kids when doing marimbas with local available stuffs and playing it to place the figure of responses and thoughts. Harmonizing to Partchey ‘s ( 1987 ) research was of integrity, identifiable beat form, steady pulsation and assortment which are kids ability.Form, pitch, continuance and intestify was done by Wig ( 1981 ) .The result of the research by Guilbault ( 2004 ) found the extra root tune concomitant to song direction affects child tonic improvisation described that achild who got song direction and root tune accompaniment stabilise the key and tonic along with implied harmonic maps on improvizing significantly more than those who had non received instruction.It was merely used for specific immature ages population. To place whether there was pre bing music aptitude kids of first class, 2nd class and 3rd class before intervention were used on the beat subtest and tonal of the Primary Measures of Music Audition ( PMMA ) .This was done by ( Gordon 1979 ) .This was because of different on control group and intervention since kids with lower aptitude may non hold performed as the 1s in high music aptitude ( Gordon2007 ) This made the sub trial for tonic and beat of Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation ( IMMA ) which were done earlier intervention to 4th class, 5th class and 6th grade.For one had non been asingle pupil which had experience with improvising earlier, as it grow through sequenced acquisition The first acquisition of direction is based on primary on music acquisition theory which involves orff activities.These are made up of direction of tonic form, ,identifying of tonic and rhythm form map, tonic and rhythm form direction, vocalizing, playing pitch and unpitched instrument, intoning amongst others. Improvisation activities affecting control and intervention was made up of events incorporating quinine water and dominant map form in major and harmonic child keies which were either same or different ; development events ; colloquial improvisation ; utilizing major and harmonic minor keies when singing new stoping or altering portion of known song.On the intervention group, the 6th class category assigned one randomly but the remainder of the class foremost, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th were assigned two per grade.They involved them in a root tune concomitant which was presented by research worker when pupil sang pitch instrument ; by pupil as research worker present s vocal ; utilizing voice recordings ; by pupil when another one is showing a song.The control group had one random assigned to foremost, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class category where two random assigned to 2nd class class.Everything about vocalizing was done in cappella. The lone different direction which was being given to the pupils at the classs was usage of root tune concomitant other instructions was same When the trial was done of the station instructional public presentation was that the consequences were there there was no significance differences from PMMAandIMMMA composite aptitude tonss between the intervention group and control in every degree of gradesThe consequence of harmonic concomitant on singing achievement involves vocal development where the consequence of diverse harmonic concomitant has been based on the six class pupils where the sub trial was administered.This is harmonizing to Petzold ( 1966 ) .This is to look into the possible to sing melodious fragment accurately.The research involved three accompaniment types: primary chords within simple chord patterned advance, sustained individual chords and secondary chords on inversion within complex chord progression.From non specific method of choosing,540 kids were taken randomly.Three sorts of harmony trial were created. The first one, stimulation which was presented with a melodious line with harmonic concomitant which the kid was to hear and to respond by singing the melodious piece soon heard.Without holding the melodious line of the harmonic concomitant, the kid was to respond.The 2nd one though like the first one, the kid was to answer while non utilizing harmonic accompaniment.The 3rd one had neither response nor stimulation from harmonic intervention. The research found easy chords of tonic, sub-dominant and dominant used had greater singing for children.According to Petzold ( 1996 ) kids are able to sing absolutely when an concomitant by easy ( I ) , ( four ) and ( V ) in his five twelvemonth longitudinal study.The analysis was that harmonic concomitant offer the key and can be reinforce being cognizant of the vocalist of the tonic centre of a song.This analysis is backed up by Gordon ( 1997 ) and Azzara ( 1999 ) in their research.This was different from Gordon ( 1982 ) research which involved music aptitude trial and of the latest.From the latest research acquisition, playing and singing utilizing marimbas ( bamboo ) is given a opportunity to the children.The research was taken to hold 12weeks music lesson program from foreword for mention for it had no lesson program giving uncertainty whether all music direction was given to the kids. From the research done by Sterling ( 1984 ) singing position, vocal external respiration preparation and vocal warm up had no direction unlike present survey had three proceedingss at the beginning of each lesson of vocal techniques as studied by Guilbout ( 2003 ) .He considered extra root tune concomitant as harmonic concomitant consequence on vocal direction on the development of tonic aptitude, tonic accomplishment and tonic improvisation of first class and kindergarten kids The result showed that song direction with a root tune concomitant to developmental tonic aptitude and tonic accomplishment of immature kids had no importance.Because vocal direction got by kids with root concomitant from root tune made public presentation of these kids higher than the 1s which had no root tune accompaniment.Most of the research was based on the music aptitude development of a child.Though at that place was different in the footing of the research like present survey ne'er used pre-test and post-test as indicated by Gordon ( 1982 ) they believed that they had given a sense which is adequate to reason the consequence of bamboo ( marimbas ) as harmonic concomitant. Decision The ability for one to recognize and improvize the tonic as affected by harmonic accompaniment depend on how different phases of life received direction on vocal with a root tune accompaniment.Activities at different phases contribute a batch to the ability of kids and the accomplishments which kids can perform.Instrument lend a batch to the important growing and development of organic structure kinaesthetic intelligent skillfully.It is of import that the cognition and the accomplishments that a kid needs for them to hold accomplishment in vocalizing and improvisation activities is done at the early phases of life ( immature ) which is recommended non to transcend the age of nine.Instrument makes the learning easier for immature ages for the instructor, this is because even though they find it difficult to improvisation activities theorically, they under base best when affecting them in larning practically and giving them a opportunity to interact more with the instrument. Marimbas contribute a batch to placing different tonic variation.As they enjoy music, they develop senses of timing, ability to develop response to be as automatic doing marimbas as effectual when used in learning.Different researches ‘ done by research workers arrives at a common thought about the effects of marimbas harmonic concomitant on the tone accomplishment and tone improvisation of immature kids ; this qualify xylophones harmonic concomitant to hold positive consequence on music accomplishment of immature kids.

Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australians

The purpose of this report is to evaluate the accessibility, acceptability and availability of public health care services among Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander of Australia. Despite improvements in health technology and the high quality of health services in Australia, this group continues to suffer health inequities. This is evident from high rate of chronic disease among Indigenous Australians. The disparities in health among non-indigenous and indigenous Australians arise from many factors including the difference in socioeconomic status, cultural beliefs, and geographical locations. This is evident from high rate of chronic disease among indigenous Australians. This report explores the barrier to the accessibility of adequate health care services and recommends solutions to improve acceptability of public health care services. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first inhabitants of Australia. They have distinct culture and social tradition separate from general population of Australia. The estimated population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 669,900 or 3% of the total population, the majority of whom resided in New South Wales and Queensland (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). They experience health inequity and poor health outcome due to their low socioeconomic status, psychosocial risk factors, poor standard of living and poor geographical location (Markwick, et al., 2014). Structural determinants of health relate to geographical accessibility, income status and affordability and acceptability factors that act as major barriers in access to health services for indigenous people (Germov, 2014, p. 76). Availability of health service means presence of appropriate health care resource relevant to the needs of the population. Equity of access is dependent on income and cultural setting of diverse population groups (Gulliford et al., 2016). Although the standard of health services in Australia is excellent, however the distribution of service is not uniform throughout Australia. As indigenous Australians resides in remote locations, the number of specialist physician decreases due to remoteness (Larkins et al., 2015). In urban areas too, the public health service are concentrated in those areas where people of high socio-economic status resides (Violà ¡n et al., 2014). Economic disadvantage among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is another cause of inaccessibility to health care services (Aspin et al., 2012, pp. 73-75). The unaffordability of health care services has led to high prevalence of health complex disease conditions such as kidney failure, circulatory disease and its associated comorbidity. For example study by (McDonald, 2013, pp. 170-173) revealed that current health disadvantage like kidney problem is linked to social disadvantage among indigenous Australians. The cultural sensitivity of a population is a crucial indicator for determining the level of availability and accessibility of health (Purnell, 2014). It also has impact on health promotion and screening activities (Chalmers et al., 2014, p. 111). Many factors inhibit the acceptability of health services. Firstly, due to their cultural beliefs, indigenous Australians have different concepts and understanding of illness (Thompson et al., 2013, p. 473). Due to lack of awareness and poor knowledge about disease and their morbidity, they avoid primary level of treatment and many chronic disease are diagnosed at later stage of disease (Frey et al., 2013, pp. 519-529). Secondly, reluctance to engage in care because of cultural beliefs has impact on the relation between indigenous people and health professionals. For example culture act as a barrier in effective communication between indigenous patients and health care providers. Such patients are more inclined to traditional method of curi ng disease than depending on scientific health service. Even if they access the service, they have little knowledge about diagnostic process and disease. This leads to conflict between as the expectation of health care providers and patient differs significantly (Dell’Arciprete et al., 2014). Hence instead of approaching health care service, they seek spiritual interventions. This attitude significantly affects the availability and accessibility of preventive health care service (Hunt et al., 2015, pp. 461-467). Lack of cross cultural communication influences the accessibility and acceptability of health service (Germov, 2014). The accessibility and acceptability of care is related to social acceptance of health service according to consumer’s cultural preferences. Many people have different tradition beliefs which act as a barrier in accepting health care service (Dillip et al., 2012). This is evident from the fact many aboriginals reported lack of trust in mainstream health care service because they felt their cultural preferences were not taken into account. Many times language act as a barrier between proper health discussion among indigenous Australians and non-indigenous health professionals (Shahid et al., 2013). Cross cultural miscommunication occurs when health professionals do not understand concerns or gestures of patients and the thought patterns of indigenous people. Due to this gap, therapeutic relationship is compromised and Aboriginal groups do not accept the available health service (Dell’Arciprete et al., 2014). Unavailability of care also occurs due to discrimination of indigenous groups on the basis of their race and poor social position. Racial discrimination significantly lead to deleterious health outcome in indigenous Australians (Cunningham & Paradies, 2013).   Health professional behaviour such as racist attitude, unwelcome comment and evil treatment also influences the indigenous people ability to access and accept mainstream health services (Price & Dalgleish, 2013). Many indigenous patients wanted health professionals to respect their personal choice, cultural preference and autonomy in receiving. But conflict arose due to lack of cultural awareness among health professionals leading to poor patient-physician relationship (Artuso et al., 2013, pp. 193). The health status of a population depends on physical availability of health service structure, their organization and functioning. In case of Aboriginal and Torres Islander people, health service is not uniformly distributed in their area (Willis et al., 2016).  Even if a health service is available, there is shortage of adequate medical staffs to treat disease and illness. Lack of transport is also a factor that hinders their access to care (Nilson et al., 2014, pp. 3394-3405). Due to remoteness of location, many professionals do wish to come to this area and with low-skilled physicians, the overall health outcome among this group is very poor (Durey & Thompson, 2012). Social justice principle is the key to address inequities in health due to social position. This principle enables giving high priority to socially disadvantaged group irrespective of their financial instability.   The uptake can be improved by following the principle of access, equity, rights and participation in social justice (Germov, 2014). After analysing the factors associated with lack of accessibility of mainstream health services in Aboriginal and Torres Islander people, the recommended ways to improve public health services includes the following: The first step is making affordable and high quality service available locally in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Islander people. Arrangement should be made for proper transport facilities to increase the pace of receiving care. Exhibiting flexibility in health care delivery is also important so that the process do not seem burdensome to indigenous groups (Paniagua, 2013). This also follows the right of equality according to social justice principle and by this step health service is distributed to needy person even if they do not the capability to pay for the costly service (Germov, 2014). Health care system also needs to address the cultural incompetence in medical staff through enhancing cultural awareness and developing holistic model of care (Kirmayer, 2012, p. 149). It is necessary to engage more number of indigenous health professionals to promote delivery of culturally safe care. This strategy promotes greater participation amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peo ple and therefore reflects social justice principles (). Health care staff should adopt cultural competence strategy such as understanding of cross-cultural communication style and providing treatment in such a way that their cultural obligation is not denied (Douglas et al., 2014). The disparities in health outcome between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians occur due to lack of accessibility and acceptability of health care services and poor socioeconomic status, cultural beliefs, structural barriers and lack of cross-communication skills. The report brought into focus different issues that act as barrier in seeking care and provided recommendation to improve health care delivery. The main focus should be on adopting culturally appropriate health care service to enhance indigenous people’s trust on medical services.   Artuso, S., Cargo, M., Brown, A., & Daniel, M. (2013). Factors influencing health care utilisation among Aboriginal cardiac patients in central Australia: a qualitative study.  BMC Health services research,  13(1), 1, p. 193. Aspin, C., Brown, N., Jowsey, T., Yen, L., & Leeder, S. (2012). Strategic approaches to enhanced health service delivery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with chronic illness: a qualitative study.  BMC Health services research,  12(1), 1, pp. 73-75. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (June 2011). Estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, June 2011. Abs.gov.au. Retrieved 9 October 2016, from https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3238.0.55.001 Chalmers, K. J., Bond, K. S., Jorm, A. F., Kelly, C. M., Kitchener, B. A., & Williams-Tchen, A. J. (2014). Providing culturally appropriate mental health first aid to an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander adolescent: development of expert consensus guidelines.  International journal of mental health systems,8(1), p. 111 Doi: 10.1186/1752-4458-8-6. Cunningham, J., & Paradies, Y. C. (2013). Patterns and correlates of self-reported racial discrimination among Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults, 2008–09: analysis of national survey data.  International journal for equity in health,  12(1), 1. Dell’Arciprete, A., Braunstein, J., Touris, C., Dinardi, G., Llovet, I., & Sosa-Estani, S. (2014). Cultural barriers to effective communication between Indigenous communities and health care providers in Northern Argentina: an anthropological contribution to Chagas disease prevention and control.International journal for equity in health,  13(1), 1. Dell’Arciprete, A., Braunstein, J., Touris, C., Dinardi, G., Llovet, I., & Sosa-Estani, S. (2014). Cultural barriers to effective communication between Indigenous communities and health care providers in Northern Argentina: an anthropological contribution to Chagas disease prevention and control.International Journal For Equity In Health,  13(1), 6. https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-13-6 Dillip, Angel, Sandra Alba, Christopher Mshana, Manuel W Hetzel, Christian Lengeler, Iddy Mayumana, Alexander Schulze, Hassan Mshinda, Mitchell G Weiss, and Brigit Obrist. 2012. "Acceptability – A Neglected Dimension Of Access To Health Care: Findings From A Study On Childhood Convulsions In Rural Tanzania".  BMC Health Services Research  12 (1). doi:10.1186/1472-6963-12-113. Douglas, M. K., Rosenkoetter, M., Pacquiao, D. F., Callister, L. C., Hattar-Pollara, M., Lauderdale, J., ... & Purnell, L. (2014). Guidelines for implementing culturally competent nursing care.  Journal of Transcultural Nursing, Doi: 10.1177/1043659614520998. Durey, A., & Thompson, S. C. (2012). Reducing the health disparities of Indigenous Australians: time to change focus.  BMC health services research,  12(1), 1. Frey, R., Gott, M., Raphael, D., Black, S., Teleo?Hope, L., Lee, H., & Wang, Z. (2013). ‘Where do I go from here’? A cultural perspective on challenges to the use of hospice services.  Health & social care in the community,  21(5), 519-529. Germov, J. (2014). Second opinion: an introduction to health sociology| NOVA. The University of Newcastle's Digital Repository, 76. Gulliford M, et al. 2016. "What Does 'Access To Health Care' Mean? - Pubmed - NCBI".Ncbi.Nlm.Nih.Gov. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12171751. Hunt, L., Ramjan, L., McDonald, G., Koch, J., Baird, D., & Salamonson, Y. (2015). Nursing students' perspectives of the health and healthcare issues of Australian Indigenous people.  Nurse education today,  35(3), 461-467. Kirmayer, L. (2012). Rethinking cultural competence.  Transcultural Psychiatry,  49(2), 149. Larkins, S., Woods, C. E., Matthews, V., Thompson, S. C., Schierhout, G., Mitropoulos, M., ... & Bailie, R. S. (2015). responses of aboriginal and Torres strait islander Primary health-care services to continuous Quality improvement initiatives.  Frontiers in public health,  3. Markwick, A., Ansari, Z., Sullivan, M., Parsons, L., & McNeil, J. (2014). Inequalities in the social determinants of health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: a cross-sectional population-based study in the Australian state of Victoria.  International journal for equity in health,  13(1), 1. McDonald, S. P. (2013). End-stage kidney disease among Indigenous peoples of Australia and New Zealand.  Kidney international supplements,3(2), 170-173. Nilson, C., Kearing-Salmon, K. A., Morrison, P., & Fetherston, C. (2015). An ethnographic action research study to investigate the experiences of Bindjareb women participating in the cooking and nutrition component of an Aboriginal health promotion programme in regional Western Australia.  Public health nutrition,  18(18), 3394-3405. Paniagua, F. A. (2013).  Assessing and treating culturally diverse clients: A practical guide. Sage Publications. Price, M., & Dalgleish, J. (2013). Help-seeking among indigenous Australian adolescents: exploring attitudes, behaviours and barriers.  Youth Studies Australia,  32(1), 10. Purnell, L. D. (2014).  Guide to culturally competent health care. FA Davis. Shahid, S., Durey, A., Bessarab, D., Aoun, S. M., & Thompson, S. C. (2013). Identifying barriers and improving communication between cancer service providers and Aboriginal patients and their families: the perspective of service providers.  BMC health services research,  13(1), 460. Thompson, S. L., Chenhall, R. D., & Brimblecombe, J. K. (2013). Indigenous perspectives on active living in remote Australia: a qualitative exploration of the socio-cultural link between health, the environment and economics.  BMC Public Health,  13(1), 473. Violà ¡n, C., Foguet-Boreu, Q., Roso-Llorach, A., Rodriguez-Blanco, T., Pons-Viguà ©s, M., Pujol-Ribera, E., ... & Valderas, J. M. (2014). Burden of multimorbidity, socioeconomic status and use of health services across stages of life in urban areas: a cross-sectional study.  BMC Public Health,14(1), 1. Willis, E., Reynolds, L., & Keleher, H. (Eds.). (2016).  Understanding the Australian health care system. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Comparing and Contrasting the legislative, executive, and judicial Essay

Comparing and Contrasting the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the American government and the government of Kuwait - Essay Example In this paper we are going to compare and contrast the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the American government and Kuwait government. The constitution of the United States government is aimed at ensuring a strong and fair national government while at the same time ensuring the freedoms of individuals are protected from abuse by the government. America is a presidential system of government with three branches; the executive, legislature and the judiciary. Each arm of the government has its own function but its powers are checked by the other arms of government. For example, the legislature makes laws while the judiciary ensures the laws are in line with the constitution. The executive arm of government is headed by the president who is democratically elected by the entire country. The president serves for a term of four years whereby fresh elections are held to elect a new president. The president is the head of state and government and is also the commander in chief of the armed forces. He/she is also entrusted with the duty of negotiating treaties on behalf of the government. The president has the power to appoi nt or remove cabinet ministers, Supreme Court judges and other government officials. The executive also comprises of the vice president and cabinet ministers who are nominated by the president. The cabinet consists of fifteen members who represent the government departments. The role of the executive is to enforce laws which are formulated by the legislature. The president signs bills into law making the laws official and enforceable (USA.gov). Unlike the American government, the executive branch of Kuwait government is headed by a constitutional hereditary emirate. The Amir is the head of state while the prime minister is the head of government. The Amir is not elected by the entire nation but inherits the position from the Al Sabah family. Kuwait does not have a

Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 39

Psychology - Essay Example raisals are a person’s beliefs about the ability to deal with a situation based on available resources, and they can lead to a challenge response or a threat response. A challenge response occurs when we believe that we have enough resources to address the situation, and may have beneficial cognitive and cardiovascular benefits. However, a threat response due to an appraisal of insufficient resources may cause damages that are associated with stress. The authors suggest that humans have a natural attentional bias to potential threats, and that we may enter stress responses without a full appraisal of the situation. It is proposed that reappraising the resources available to deal with a potential threat may lead to a challenge response instead, and better psychophysical outcomes. This research included fifty participants (25 male, 25 female) who were compensated with either $25 or class credit. The subjects were prescreened for cardiovascular problems and one was excluded from the analysis after requesting to leave the study. Sensors were used to gain a baseline cardiovascular reading from each subject. They were placed in one of three conditions (reappraisal of resources, ignoring external cues, and a non-intervention control) and were re-tested after reading information about physical stress in scientific journals. The reappraisal group was instructed to appraise the task based on the new information while the external cues group was told to ignore the stress during subsequent readings. A modified Stroop task was used to measure attentional bias, while a Tier Social Stress Test measured perceived threat and questionnaires provided additional information. The collected data was analyzed using a mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA). It was shown that reappraisal participants reported more perceived resources than the other groups along with less physiological reactivity. Reappraisal subjects also showed less attentional bias for threats and emotionally negative

Changes Brought by Occupiers Liability Act to the Common Law Essay

Changes Brought by Occupiers Liability Act to the Common Law - Essay Example The common law of negligence initially applied in cases relating to those who suffered damages while in one’s premise. However, this was to the extent that the claimant proved that a duty of care was owed to him or her under the common law of negligence. However, the common law of negligence had inconsistencies owing to differences in court rulings under the similar set of facts. It also proved less relaxed in holding the owners of premises liable, often for lack of duty of care, more so to visitors and trespassers. These formed the foundation of a legislative intervention The Occupiers liability Acts being enacted. As of now, the law concerning such liability in the United Kingdoms is mostly found in the Occupiers Liability Act 1957 (regarding visitors) while that regarding the non-visitors is largely found Occupiers Liability Act 1984. In as much as the law to a large extent codified common law, the cases have to be relied upon in determining the meaning of â€Å"occupierâ €  and the line between a â€Å"visitor† and a â€Å"trespasser† or a non visitor. According to the Occupiers Liability Act 1957 the occupier only owes a duty of care to the lawful visitors. This duty is similarly owed to the lawfully visitors either to or to on the premise. It is worth noting that the occupiers rather than the owners of the premise retain the liability to compensate the victims injured on the premises as a result of their dangerous state. Sufficient or effective degree of control is used to determine the occupation of the premise. For that reason, one must not necessarily need to be the actual owner of a premise for him or her to be considered the occupier. He may owe the duty if he exercises a substantial extent of control in which case he owes this duty to all lawful visitors with the only exceptions specified in the agreement. The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1984 does not imposes this duty of care on the occupier towards the visitors of the premises; rather it is towards the non visitors, essentially understood as a trespasser. A trespasser for that matter is anybody who goes into the land in another person’s possession intentionally without obtaining a lawful authorization. Taking an example of a theatre, any member of the public who happens to be admitted there is a visitor and the occupier of the theatre owes them a duty of care. The theatre ticket they are issued with serves a license which bears with it an agreement not to be revoked till the end of the performance. As such this is a sufficient authorization (Hurst v Picture Theatres Ltd (1915) 1 KB 1 CA). The extent of liability was traditionally based on whether or not one was a visitor. The question asked then is, who is a visitor? Generally speaking, at common law it was important to know the difference between licensees, invitees and the premise

Comprehensive Technical Analysis Project Research Paper

Comprehensive Technical Analysis Project - Research Paper Example Its revenues were growing by the day, this is because its presence in Europe and Africa. The company in the 1990’s started diversifying its range of cars and opened up manufacturing industries in many parts of the world. This boosted their sales in the countries where they were manufacturing the cars. Toyota by 2010 was still the motor company to beat in terms of sales; it had sold over 8,557,351 units which represents an 11.0% market share. In order to measure if a company is profitable it must be compared with its competitor, Toyota sales from only automotive operations as for the fiscal year of April through September the first six months amounted to approximately 8,863.6 billion yen, this translates to $104 billion dollars at an exchange rate of 85 yen to the dollar. Looking at General motors, the revenues during the two quarters is approximately $67.2 billion. Thus, Toyota auto operations averaged about 12% of all sales done in the motor industry in the fiscal year of 2009 to 2010. Toyota auto operations are over 50% larger than all GM sales. When Toyota and General Motors are compared to the motor industry, they rank way higher than other companies in the industry, this is in terms of the market share and the profitability, the companies have a history of their profits running to billions of dollars and their assets size running into hundreds of billions. They are two of the largest motor companies in the world and they are in frequent competition. The closest company that comes close to the two is the German company Volkswagen, however, it grosses lesser than the two mega companies. The following is a comparison of the industry. Toyota 8,557,351 GM 8,476,192 Volkswagen 7,341,065 Hyundai Motor 5,764,918. Toyota ascent has been attributed to the ever improving profits and this growth compared with the sales is inevitable. To assess the relativity of the

Hedge Funds and Their Role in 2008 Financial Crisis Essay

Hedge Funds and Their Role in 2008 Financial Crisis - Essay Example They are not regulated in the same sense as mutual funds. Mostly, high net worth individuals and some pension funds invest in hedge funds. It is not mandatory for them to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission because they are not supposed to provide information regarding their operation and valuation in public. The paper tries to explore the early history of hedge funds and how prima facie they are different from mutual funds. The paper also focuses on their role and the impact they created during 2008 financial crisis and also what regulatory measures are currently in force to regulate them. Genesis of Hedge Funds Mallaby emphasizes that Alfred Winslow Jones was the first global hedge-fund manager starting his operations in 1949 without any formal qualification and perhaps he set the tone and style of the functioning of hedge funds that are in vogue today. His way of charging the performance fee was different wherein a straight 20 percent cut was made on net gain s while distributing the profits. This deduction was over and above the management fee and even today most hedge-funds continue to have their performance fee policy in the same line. The fund was called so because all along investments were hedged simultaneously – short-selling some of the weaker stocks to mitigate the systemic risks. He used leveraging as a tool to hedge investments. It is worth noting that Jones’s firm made an astounding return of around 5000% during the year 1949 through 1968. Investopedia states that in 1968, around 140 hedge funds were in operations in the US though most of them were out of business due to slump in subsequent years. The hedge funds saw renaissance in the early 1990s but again, many of them including high-profile hedge funds such as Robertson's were in trouble during dotcom crisis of 2000. Hedge Fund Is Not a Mutual Fund Hedge funds are not mutual funds and they differ in several ways. Mutual funds have a large number of retail inv estors while hedge fund is not interested in a retail exposure and limit itself to a few high-net worth investors. After a minimum lock-in period, investors are free to withdraw the funds in mutual funds but hedge funds usually have a longer lock-out period during which investors cannot withdraw their investments. A mutual fund needs to register with Security Exchange Commission while hedge fund does not have such compulsion. Mutual funds do not undertake speculative activities and focus on returns relative to the bench-mark index. For example, if the bench-mark index goes down by 7 percent but the mutual fund investment goes down by only 4 percent then that will imply that mutual fund has performed better. In contrast, hedge funds focus on absolute returns regardless of the movement of market index. That is why hedge funds employ numerous strategies to earn high returns such as long or short positions on derivative instruments, options and futures. Mutual funds do not resort to suc h strategies to enhance their returns as they are governed by a host of regulatory measures (Investopedia). Role of Hedge Funds in 2008 Financial Crisis Chung argues that hedge funds were not behind the financial crisis of 2008; however, there is no guarantee that they will not cause one in future. Regulatory authorities, fund managers and lawyers believe that banks and financial institutions were largely responsible for the recent financial crisis because they invested heavily in subprime mortgages. The study also revealed that short-selling done by hedge funds did not aggravate the crisis. Hedge funds are not required to be brought under the scanner of policy makers; nevertheless, it is suggested that regulators need to keep a watchful eye on their activities. Accordingly, now hedge-funds firms are needed to register

Discuss the barriers faced by firms wishing to enter an oligopolistic Essay

Discuss the barriers faced by firms wishing to enter an oligopolistic market structure - Essay Example Therefore, sellers in the oligopoly are constantly aware of competitor actions and respond accordingly in order to outperform the small volume of competition existing in the market structure. Oligopolists regularly take into consideration the strategic responses of competition, attempting to model the most likely retaliation of important market participants in order to maintain competitive edge. Even though competition is intense between the market players, there is also considerable influence in the oligopoly to prevent new competitors from entering the market. The most common barriers for new market entry include pricing, product differentiation and consumer switching costs, as well as intellectual property and patent laws. An explanation of barriers Firms operating in an oligopolistic market structure have often achieved economies of scale, which are the specific cost advantages achieved by a firm due to its size and scope of operations in which the cost of outputs continues to de crease whilst fixed costs are able to spread over a higher volume of unit outputs (Gelles and Mitchell 1996). This is achieved through better operational efficiency and productivity that also improves variable costs along the production model. Over time, as the oligopolist achieves profit maximisation, the business is able to low the cost of capital, especially as it pertains to asset procurement, thereby increasing production output whilst experiencing better cost efficiency. Economies of scale that have been achieved through continuous operation and success in sales in a market create barriers to new entrants, especially as it pertains to pricing. Businesses in the oligopoly are able to create predatory pricing structures in an effort to undercut emerging competition attempting to enter the market. Because the business competitor has achieved economies of scale and reduced the costs of capital, they are often equipped with the operational capacity to increase production without ha ving to incur significant costs in this manufacturing effort. One should consider the beer industry, one that is currently dominated by major players such as Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors which account for approximately 80 percent of the total market share in the international beer industry (New York Times 2009). If either of these oligopolists is aware that a new competitor is attempting to enter the market, thus providing competitive threat, these manufacturers are able to lower the prices of their selected products and sustain these low prices even though it would, in the short-term, reduce their quarterly profit expectations. New entrants, however, would have to invest considerable capital into the systems required to produce the product, distribute the product and market it. Oftentimes, the new competitor must establish brand recognition (a costly marketing objective) that requires, oftentimes, years of dedicated promotion in marketing simply to get consumers interested in the beverage brand. Major players such as Anheuser-Busch can theoretically cut their prices by 50% on products that are homogenous in relation to the production output of the new competitor. Sustaining these prices in an effort to drive out the new competitor is relatively simplistic when economies of scale have been achieved. Why is this so important in determining barriers to new market entry in the oligopolistic market structure? The law of demand indicates that as a price decreases, consumer demand increases when all other factors remain stable (Boyes and Melvin 2007). Therefore, market characteristics

Intro to Philosophy Essay Example for Free

Intro to Philosophy Essay The word philosophy itself means â€Å"the love of wisdom. † Philosophy stands for doing the right thing or being a â€Å"just† person. Philosophy also means to see things for what they truly are and not what they may seem to be. A philosopher’s life is a lifelong quest to find the meaning of things beyond their physical appearance. The Ring of Gyges is a ring that a man puts on and becomes invisible. When he does wrong he is not blamed, he gets away with it. Once a man puts this ring on he can be unjust without punishment. In the second book of The Republic Adimantus argued that the unjust life is happier than the unjust. His argument was that a just man can go without now and enjoy heaven in the afterlife while an unjust man will go without nothing and still enjoy the benefits of the after life. Through the eyes of a philosopher there are two worlds, the visible world and the intelligible world. In the visible you can see things and judge them from what you actually see. If a person sees a flower one could judge that it is a beautiful flower. However, the person is judging this flowers beauty on its physical appearance and their claim is merely an opinion rather than true knowledge. In â€Å"The Allegory of the Cave† men are chained inside of a cave. All they can see is the shadows that are formed on the wall in front of them. The people inside of the cave believe that the shadows that are being cast on the wall is reality. When one of the men is unchained and brought to the outside world at first he is blinded by the sun and cannot see clearly. The man can only see the shadows of the objects in front of him, this can be perceived as the images of physical objects. When his eyes adjust he can see more than the shadows, he can see the physical objects themselves. When the man goes back inside of the cave to tell the others what he has seen he again cannot see clearly because his eyes have not adjusted. The others in the cave laugh claiming that the sun has ruined his eyes. For a period of time he cannot decipher what the shadows on the wall are imitating. They don’t believe what the man is telling them. In Plato’s Analogy of the Divided Line the four stages of cognition, which represent the levels of existence, are explained. The first two stages, the good and the sun, represent the visible world. The third and fourth stages, knowledge and opinion, represent the intelligible world. These stages are represented in â€Å"The Allegory of the Cave. † Without the sun’s light we would not be able to see anything at all. The sun allows us to see the flower that we perceived as beautiful. Without the suns light we would not be able to see or perceive any of the physical objects that exist. The sun is perceived as the things that we see. The sun also allows for all living life on earth. Without the sun all life on Earth would diminish. Without the sun we could not perceive anything at all. 1. A person can only understand something once they have reached the highest level of cognitive activity. One must acquire the Form of Good before they can truly understand something. Images and assumptions are not enough support to truly understand the meaning of something. The images the prisoners in the cave saw and the assumptions they made about what they thought they could be are only their opinions. Although they were able to identify the shadows on the wall as what they thought they were it is not enough to truly know what they are, the identities given to the shadows by the prisoners is merely their opinion. In â€Å"Phaedo† Socrates claims that our soul is attached to our body. Our body acts as a vessel only operating because of the soul inside. According to Socrates our body holds us back from perceiving things for what they truly are and therefore a philosopher should desire death because it enables them to continue their quest of reality. 2. Socrates viewed death as a purification of the body that allows us find pure wisdom. Socrates explained how our souls are glued to our bodies and only when they are unfastened by death is a person able to experience wisdom in its purest state. The body distracts us from finding the truth because it requires maintenance. The body allows us to feel pain and emotions like love, fear and hunger. Socrates admits that philosophers are more or less practicing for death and should embrace it when it comes for them. â€Å"And will he who is a true lover of wisdom, and is persuaded in like manner that only in the world below he can worthily enjoy her, still repine death? Will he not depart with joy? Surely, he will, my friend, if he be a true philosopher. For he will have a firm conviction that there only, and nowhere else, he can find wisdom in her purity. † (Phaedo pg. 65) Socrates believes that philosophy is good because it enlightens us to what things actually are rather than what they’re perceived to be. Philosophy is what brings the unchained man outside of the cave. It pushes us to go into the unknown, which we at one point we thought we knew. Once we realize what things actually are we also realize that we had no idea what they really were before. The man in the cave that once thought that the only reality was the shadows on the wall now realizes that the shadows weren’t reality at all. Socrates was formally charged because he didn’t worship the gods recognized by the states and for corrupting the youth of Athens. The informal charges against Socrates was asking questions that were unusual, or outside of the box. â€Å"Socrates is an evil-doer, and a curious person, who searches into things under the earth and in heaven, and he makes the worse appear the better cause; and he teaches the aforesaid doctrines to others† p. 21 Apology The oracle of Delphi told Socrates that he was the wisest man. Socrates refused to accept this statement and went searching for a wiser man than himself. In search of a wiser man than himself, Socrates talked with many people including politicians, poets and craftsmen who claimed to be wise. Socrates found them to not be wise because they thought they knew things that they did not. Socrates proclaimed himself as wise because he knew that he did not know. Socrates exposed the false wisdom of the men who were thought to be wise. Naturally these men held much resistance and hostility towards Socrates. These negative feelings contributed to Socrates’ trial. Socrates refutes Meletus’ statement that he doesn’t believe in any god, that he is an atheist. Socrates does this by confirming that he does in fact believe in supernatural activities, such as his inner voice that told him he was the wisest man, and therefore is not an atheist. Socrates states that wealthy young men, enjoy following him around and listening to him question people. It’s entertaining for them. These men, who think they are wise but aren’t, then go out and try to do this on their own. When the people they question get angry instead of being angry with themselves, become angry with Socrates. They accuse Socrates of filling the young men’s head with nonsense. When asked about what Socrates teaches they don’t know and then use claims already made against philosophers against Socrates. Socrates then asks Meletus who he thinks an improver of the youth is. Meletus claims that the law is an improver of the youth, such as judges and senators. Socrates then proclaims that everyone in the state is an improver of the youth except himself. Meletus agrees to this statement. Socrates states that he must either not corrupt the youth or unintentionally corrupt the youth because good do their neighbors good, and evil do them evil. If he had corrupted someone, in theory, they should have harmed him by now. In Socrates’ last defense he says, â€Å"For if you kill me you will not easily find another like me, who, if I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort of gadfly, given to the state by God; and the state is like a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which God has given the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. † (31-32) Socrates is attempting to demonstrate to the people of the city that there is more to their life than what meets the eye. Without philosophers such as himself they will continue to live the life they’re living with no desire to search for more. They will continue to accept the shadows on the wall as their reality. There are three parts to the soul. These three parts consist of the rational, high spirit and the appetitive. The rational portion of the soul is the part of us that seeks knowledge of wisdom. According to Plato the rational should rule the soul. The high spirit consists of the angry and prideful part of the soul that defends and aids the rational. The high spirit avoids shame. The final part of the soul, the appetitive, is the part of the soul that desires. While some desires are necessary, others are not. If not restrained by the rational, the appetitive portion of the soul can over rule all other parts. In addition to the three parts of the soul there are also three parts of the city. These three parts are the gold, silver and the bronze. The golds are the guardians, the silvers are the enforcers of the laws (helpers), and the bronzes are the merchants and tradesmen. The city virtue of wisdom resides within the gold’s, the guardians. In order to posses civic wisdom one must know how the city operates and how all parts of the city are connected. The knowledge of how the city runs and operates allows the city to operate at the highest level. The city virtue of bravery and justice resides with the silvers, the enforcers of laws. Civic bravery is the defined as the Silvers upholding their education about what things are and are not to be feared and in what order as ordered to them by the Golds. Civic justice refers to sticking to your own work whether you are a moneymaker, helper, or guardian. It’s considered unjust to work outside of your boundaries. The city virtue of temperance exists within the bronze citizens, the merchants and tradesmen, of the city. The civic temperance is the agreement (harmony) between the three sections (gold, silver and bronze) as to who should rule and who should obey. The personal virtue of wisdom is housed by ones rational portion of the soul. Personal wisdom consists of knowing all parts of the soul and how they are connected to one another. The ultimate goal of personal wisdom is keeping the soul as healthy and as balanced as possible. Personal bravery and justice is contained within the high-spirit part of the soul. The High-Spirit of the soul is to preserve the education of what is and is not to be feared. The Rational tells the High-Spirit in which order things are to be feared or not feared. The personal virtue of justice minds it’s own within each part of the soul. The appetitive portion of the soul houses the personal temperance virtue. The personal temperance works in agreement between the three portions of the soul as to who should rule and who should obey. The advantage of philosophy with respect to the state is the efficiency. Everyone has jobs that relate well to their attributes. You cannot be a gold (guardian) without first experiencing being a bronze and then a silver. In order to be a gold one must possess knowledge of all three parts of the city. This ultimately leaves the best most knowledgeable citizens in charge of the city. The advantage of philosophy in regards to the individual is the balance between all parts of the soul. All parts of the soul are important to understand and the rational helps us inherit the wisdom needed to understand these aspects of the soul. One who constantly indulges in the appetitive portion of the soul will be overcome by it. When a person posses wisdom they know when a desire is necessary rather than unnecessary. Students and states that pursue philosophy are better off than the ones who don’t because of the level of intelligence they hold. When a student or state has the knowledge of all the levels of either the civic or individual level they’re more likely to excel in their job. Without philosophy there would be no need to extend one’s boundaries and explore the unkown. Socrates was the man in the cave who managed to break free from his chains and see the world beyond the cave. His accusers, the men still chained inside of the cave, refused to accept what Socrates was trying to show them. If they accepted what Socrates was trying to prove it would be a harsh reality for all they ever knew would diminish. Life outside of the cave is unknown. It’s far less scary to continue their life believing that the shadows on the wall are all that there is. Works Cited Plato, and Benjamin Jowett. The Trial and Death of Socrates: Four Dialogues. New York: Dover Publications, 1992. Print. Plato, H. D. P. Lee, and M. S. Lane. The Republic. London: Penguin, 2007. Print.

Economics Of The Music Industry Economics Essay

Economics Of The Music Industry Economics Essay The Industry has reacted very badly to the consumption of CD sales. Many people blame the decline of CD sales on illegal file sharing and downloads but also to be considered is the way that CDs have been distributed and marketed over the last few years. Some of the reasons could include non competitive pricing of CDs, reduced number of shops stocking them and some of the major labels unwillingness to experiment with other form of entertainment industry such as video games and DVDs which hold a considerable force on the industry.  [1]  The competition from other media such as the gaming industry has also affected CD sales. EA (Electronic Arts) is incorporating music and cinema experiences into the games themselves  [2]  . Piracy through CD burning has affected the sales badly unlike other industries such as the software and gaming industry which is forever updating itself. The CD has been around for over 20 years now and the music industry has not been so fast to keep reinventing itself and has fallen behind in the technology race. Whilst Physical sales are falling there has been an increase of ticket sales at concerts and festivals and revenues have grown. In 2009 a report was released by the Performing Rights Society showing the retail value of recorded music fell 6% whilst live revenues grew 13%.  [3]  David Kusek describes this as a good thing for the industry as only 4 percent of records ever sold enough copies to break even.  [4]  The result in the increase of demand for live music could be down to the record industries obsession with marketing and huge profit margins and has gradually become detached from its artists and consumers. Where as generally live music promoters and agents have always been closer to the artists and their audiences  [5]   The relationship between artist, consumer and label is changing due to technology and the internet and this has affected the way in which music can be distributed. The relationship between the artist and label can be difficult. Music labels sometimes edit the artwork or the title of a song, much to the frustration of the artist. The artists have turned to the Internet and the role of labels is becoming increasingly diminished, as artists are able to freely distribute their own material through file sharing, web radio, and other peer to peer services, for little or no cost.  [6]  Bigger artists have ended their contracts. Radioheads problems with their label in 2007 ended with them releasing their album on their own and subsequently released as a pay what you want sales model as an online download.  [7]   The relationship has also changed between artists and consumers. Through the internet fans are now a lot closer to the favourite artists. For example, Tom Delonge, an American Rock musician created a website called Modlife.com which allows uses to connect to bands, artists and personalities using live video broadcasts, text messaging, video blogs, mobile updating and twitter feeds.  [8]   The digital transformation has had a huge impact in the way artist merchandise is sold. The internet can now be use to sell merchandise directly marketed towards the fans. Before the internet, merchandising was selling hats and shirts to a long queue of fans at a venue, but now products are directly related to current fashions and culture. For example Grindstore.com specifically directs is merchandise towards fans of rock music and states it is able to offer the most comprehensive range of male and female music merchandise from all over the world  [9]  Grindstore features clothing from bands such as Greenday, Metalica, Slipknot and Motorhead all in one place. Other similar companies such as the American based Hottopic.com are a multi million dollar company showing revenue over twelve months ending July 31, 2009 was $768,200,000, a 4.52% increase from the previous year.  [10]  This just proves the power of music merchandising and direct marketing using the internet. For the music industry it is a hard task safeguarding existing sources of income and finding ways of developing new ways of income. One solution to safeguarding the future of music industrys income is through a change in the way which music is licensed. One way might be through a small fee that allows users to freely download all music. This could be through a tax which is payable on media products such as mp3 players, Ipods etc or through a blanket licence similar to that of the British Broadcasting Cooperation which is charged to all United Kingdom households, companies and organisations using any type of equipment that can receive and play music. These possibilities could be created by the record companies or part government intervention. I think this will be one of the best ways to create a source of income as it is becoming increasingly harder to police the web for illegal downloads. Another possibility in creating a new source of income is to become more precise in which the PRS collects royalties through the advances of the internet by creating a framework. Currently royalties collected from restaurants for example rely upon human estimations and averages and no consideration is made for the diversity of music played in different types of venues. The use of digital technology could help this to be more accurate. To conclude, I have discussed how the UK music industry has reacted to current changes in consumption and distribution with specific analysis to how the industry has reacted badly to the decline in CD sales but the consumption of live music has increased. I have shown how direct marketing and merchandising by companies like grindstore.com is creating big profits for the music industry through the use of the internet. Through the changing relationships between artist, label and consumer I have shown how music distribution is changing and how due websites such as modlife.com fans are ever closer to their artists. Finally I have demonstrated ways in which the music industry can safeguard their revenues such as a blanket licence or by creating new ways in which royalties are collected.

College Admissions Essay: A Person is Nothing Without Dreams :: College Admissions Essays

A Person is Nothing Without Dreams    My inspiration to succeed has always come from within. As a child, I had the vision of becoming a star and a role model for the next generation. I applied to Harvard because I believe it will help me fulfill those dreams. I am a person who is driven to achieve, and help others. The adversity of living in a small town, the frustration of being different, of looking to rise above and realize my own autonomy has helped me grow. The next step in my growth is Harvard. I am also a person who has a strong connection to beauty and art. I have been able to surmount any and all tribulations, and use music as my outlet. Music for me is the manifestation of one's own expression beyond words. Music is something that has always helped me go beyond the status quo and realize who I am and who I want to be. Music is knowledge, which will lead me to my own meaning of life. With the help of college, experience, and my own expression I hope to gain knowledge and wisdom. College is a process (among many others), which directs me to my next move in life. It is a step that I am obliged to take to gain a wider horizon of this world. One day I hope to apply all that I have learned to reach my goals and help others. A person is nothing without dreams. I live every day with this constant reminder written on a post-it note hidden in my wallet. It reminds me that I have a long way to go in life. I am still small and insignificant in many ways and have not yet broken free from my cocoon.

The Affect of National Culture on Human Resources Essay -- Human Resour

INTRODUCTION In today’s business environment, the complexity of international business has increased and international competition has been highlighted as an essential element for multinational firms (MNCs). Thus, in order to gain competitive advantage, various resources are utilized, such as financial capital, technology location or human resource (HR). Moreover, HR could be seemed as one of the most important resource which has also become a focus of attention of senior managers in MNCs. As suggested by MacMillan(1984), MNCs can gain competitive advantage through use of HR practice, such as training, compensation, socialization, selection, performance appraisal and career development, as long as other firms are unable to duplicate their efforts easily and quickly. However, while HR practices and policies are performing across countries, culture would be a key point. Culture can be defined not only at the national, but also at the group, organizational, and even international level. All t hese cultures have certain effects on the choice and efficiency of HR policies and practices. Between national and other types of culture, therefore, need to be divided clearly because national culture makes a unique contribution to understanding HR policies and practices. Therefore, there is no doubt that national culture is a key factor on HR practices or polices, as a functional activity in international business. In this paper, the role and effects of national culture in HR will be discussed firstly. And then the potential problems that MCNs may have if they do not consider national culture as a key factor in HRM success. In the final stage, the solution of those problems will be presented in this paper. THE ROLE OF NATIONAL CULTURE IN HU... ...aeger, A. M. (1986) ‘Organization development and national culture: Where's the fit? , ‘ in Academy of Management Review, Vol. 11, Iss. 1, pp. 178-190. Hill, C.W.L. (2005) International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace (5th ed.), New York: Mc Graw-Hill/Irwin Hofstede, G. (1993) ‘Cultural constrains in management theories,’ in Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 7, Iss. 1, pp. 81-93. MacMillan, I. C. (1984) ‘Gaining competitive advantage through human resource management practice,’ in Human Resource Management, Vol. 23, Iss. 1, pp. 241-255. Punnett, B. J. & Ricks, D. A. (1992) International business, Boston: PWSKent. Schuler, R. S. & Jackson S. E. (1994) ‘Convergence or divergence: Human resource practices and policies for competitive advantage worldwide,’ in International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 5, Iss. 2, pp. 267-99. The Affect of National Culture on Human Resources Essay -- Human Resour INTRODUCTION In today’s business environment, the complexity of international business has increased and international competition has been highlighted as an essential element for multinational firms (MNCs). Thus, in order to gain competitive advantage, various resources are utilized, such as financial capital, technology location or human resource (HR). Moreover, HR could be seemed as one of the most important resource which has also become a focus of attention of senior managers in MNCs. As suggested by MacMillan(1984), MNCs can gain competitive advantage through use of HR practice, such as training, compensation, socialization, selection, performance appraisal and career development, as long as other firms are unable to duplicate their efforts easily and quickly. However, while HR practices and policies are performing across countries, culture would be a key point. Culture can be defined not only at the national, but also at the group, organizational, and even international level. All t hese cultures have certain effects on the choice and efficiency of HR policies and practices. Between national and other types of culture, therefore, need to be divided clearly because national culture makes a unique contribution to understanding HR policies and practices. Therefore, there is no doubt that national culture is a key factor on HR practices or polices, as a functional activity in international business. In this paper, the role and effects of national culture in HR will be discussed firstly. And then the potential problems that MCNs may have if they do not consider national culture as a key factor in HRM success. In the final stage, the solution of those problems will be presented in this paper. THE ROLE OF NATIONAL CULTURE IN HU... ...aeger, A. M. (1986) ‘Organization development and national culture: Where's the fit? , ‘ in Academy of Management Review, Vol. 11, Iss. 1, pp. 178-190. Hill, C.W.L. (2005) International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace (5th ed.), New York: Mc Graw-Hill/Irwin Hofstede, G. (1993) ‘Cultural constrains in management theories,’ in Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 7, Iss. 1, pp. 81-93. MacMillan, I. C. (1984) ‘Gaining competitive advantage through human resource management practice,’ in Human Resource Management, Vol. 23, Iss. 1, pp. 241-255. Punnett, B. J. & Ricks, D. A. (1992) International business, Boston: PWSKent. Schuler, R. S. & Jackson S. E. (1994) ‘Convergence or divergence: Human resource practices and policies for competitive advantage worldwide,’ in International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 5, Iss. 2, pp. 267-99. The Affect of National Culture on Human Resources Essay -- Human Resour INTRODUCTION In today’s business environment, the complexity of international business has increased and international competition has been highlighted as an essential element for multinational firms (MNCs). Thus, in order to gain competitive advantage, various resources are utilized, such as financial capital, technology location or human resource (HR). Moreover, HR could be seemed as one of the most important resource which has also become a focus of attention of senior managers in MNCs. As suggested by MacMillan(1984), MNCs can gain competitive advantage through use of HR practice, such as training, compensation, socialization, selection, performance appraisal and career development, as long as other firms are unable to duplicate their efforts easily and quickly. However, while HR practices and policies are performing across countries, culture would be a key point. Culture can be defined not only at the national, but also at the group, organizational, and even international level. All t hese cultures have certain effects on the choice and efficiency of HR policies and practices. Between national and other types of culture, therefore, need to be divided clearly because national culture makes a unique contribution to understanding HR policies and practices. Therefore, there is no doubt that national culture is a key factor on HR practices or polices, as a functional activity in international business. In this paper, the role and effects of national culture in HR will be discussed firstly. And then the potential problems that MCNs may have if they do not consider national culture as a key factor in HRM success. In the final stage, the solution of those problems will be presented in this paper. THE ROLE OF NATIONAL CULTURE IN HU... ...aeger, A. M. (1986) ‘Organization development and national culture: Where's the fit? , ‘ in Academy of Management Review, Vol. 11, Iss. 1, pp. 178-190. Hill, C.W.L. (2005) International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace (5th ed.), New York: Mc Graw-Hill/Irwin Hofstede, G. (1993) ‘Cultural constrains in management theories,’ in Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 7, Iss. 1, pp. 81-93. MacMillan, I. C. (1984) ‘Gaining competitive advantage through human resource management practice,’ in Human Resource Management, Vol. 23, Iss. 1, pp. 241-255. Punnett, B. J. & Ricks, D. A. (1992) International business, Boston: PWSKent. Schuler, R. S. & Jackson S. E. (1994) ‘Convergence or divergence: Human resource practices and policies for competitive advantage worldwide,’ in International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 5, Iss. 2, pp. 267-99.