A Study Of The Predictive Effect Of Pre-Service Teacher Essay

ABSTRACT: This paper aims to examine the relationship between the personal knowledge management (PKM) competency of pre-service teachers and their instructional design skills. Supporting the sustainable development of teachers as professionals in the knowledge society is a critical issue in teacher education. This study attempts to identify an empirical model and a curriculum framework for nurturing pre-service teachers’ PKM competency. Dorsey (2000) PKM skills were adopted for constructing the theoretical framework and the survey instrument. A quasi-experimental research design was used to collect data from pre-service teachers from Hong Kong’s largest teacher education institution. A structural equation model was applied to explore the predictive power of PKM competency on their instructional design. Results show that a four-factor PKM competency model, which consists of retrieving, analyzing, organizing and collaborative skills, was identified as a predictor of instructional d esign. Use of PKM tools, e-learning activities and collaborative action research for developing pre-service teacher PKM competency are recommended to teaching education institute. Keywords: Personal knowledge management, Pre-service teacher, Teacher education Introduction Rapid advances in technology and communications have greatly accelerated the emergence of information. The increases in the amounts and formats of information available do not automatically make learners more informed or knowledgeable, if a learner cannot manage and meld the accumulation of  information through their daily experience and study to construct knowledge in a systematic fashion. This competency is referred by most literatures (Frand & Hixon, 1999; Dorsey, 2000; Wright, 2005) as personal knowledge management (PKM) competency. Developing learners with PKM competency is not simply a lifelong education issue, it is also an important teacher education issue in terms of sustaining a competitive human capital in the knowledge economy. Teacher development is viewed as an ongoing lifelong learning process as teachers strive to learn how to teach learner to learn how to learn (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999). The recent education reforms in Hong Kong (Education Commission, 2000) addressed this lifelong education issue by proposing a learning to learn slogan in the policy document. The policy suggests that teachers should develop student learning competence for acquiring knowledge through various methods. To develop students with knowledge acquisition skills, teachers should also be equipped with the competency for knowledge acquisition. However, since publication of the policy paper entitled Information Technology for Learning in a New Era Five-year Strategy that launched IT in education in Hong Kong (EMB, 1998), the Education Bureau has not addressed this issue in any teacher professional development policy documents. Recent calls for consultation on e-learning from the Education Bureau likewise generated additional demand for developing teacher information literacy capable of supporting student learning (EMB, 2004). If the government and teacher education institutions really want to develop competent teachers for the knowledge society, they may consider injecting the elements of personal knowledge management (PKM) into the teacher education curriculum for developing pre-service teachers’ teaching competency. However, little studies on teacher education were attempted to examine the effect of PKM on teacher learning and discussed the possibilities of injecting the element of PKM model into teacher education curriculum. This study aims to construct an empirical model for examining the predictive effect of pre-service teachers’ PKM competency on their instructional design skills and to discuss a personal knowledge management curriculum framework for teacher education institutions. Literature Review A review of the literature related to knowledge management suggests that the development of personal knowledge management (PKM) could be a means of enhancing pre-service teacher professional competency in managing personal knowledge for coping with the acceleration of emerging information. Frand & Hixon (1999) define PKM as a conceptual framework to organize and integrate important information such that it becomes part of an individual’s personal knowledge base. Dorsey (2000) emphasizes the importance of injecting PKM into an educational framework for undergraduate education in order to bridge the gap between general education and other subject disciplines. PKM could serve as a framework for integrating general education and majors and as an approach to technology integration initiatives throughout the curriculum. PKM provides learners with both a common language and a common understanding of the intellectual and practical processes necessary for the acquisition of information and its subsequent transformation into knowledge. The significance of exploring PKM may contribute to human cognitive capabilities (Sheridan, 2008). Scholars tend to conceptualize PKM as a set of information skills (Frand & Hixon, 1999; Avery et al, 2001), though there is no standard definition or model for PKM. After Frand & Hixon (1999) outlined five PKM techniques as searching, classifying, storing distributing, evaluating and integrating skills, Dorsey and colleagues (Avery et al, 2001) broadened the Frand & Hixon PKM framework well beyond its formulation. Central to PKM, as clarified by Dorsey, are seven information skills which when exercised together are integral to effective knowledge work. These seven PKM skills are retrieving, evaluating, organizing, analyzing, presenting and securing information and collaboration for creating knowledge. Recently, Pettenati and Cigognini (2009) grouped PKM skills under three intertwined macro-competence categories: creation, organization and sharing. PKM can also be conceptualized as an intertwined macro-competency. Wright (2005) proposes a PKM model that links distinctive types of problem-solving  activities with specific cognitive andmetacognitive, information, social and learning competencies. As a learning competency, PKM enables learners to apply a set of learning skills that are essential to lifelong learning for information processing, knowledge application and decision-making. As a cognitive and metacognitve competency, it enables learners to apply complex thinking skills to solve problems. It is knowledge concerning the learner’s own cognitive processes or anything related to them (Flavell, 1976, p232). As an information competency, it enables learners to link technology tools with a set of information skills, thus providing an intentionality that moves the focus from the technology more directly to the information. As a social competency, its underlying principles include enabling learners to understand others’ ideas, develop and follow through on shared practices, build win-win relationships, and resolve conflicts. PKM integrates human cognitive and metacognitive competency (Sheridan, 2008), social competency (Wright, 2005; Pettenati & Cigognini, 2009) and informational competency (Tsui, 2002). Wright (2007) has developed a PKM Planning Guide for developing knowledge worker PKM competency. The guide is based on his research findings that the four interrelated competencies are activated in order to plan PKM training. The training process encourages participants to reflect on their knowledge activities and focus on areas for improvement. If learners know how to control this process, they can internalize information into personal knowledge, creating a foundation for effective learning. Utilizing PKM for acquiring knowledge refers to a collection of information management processes that an individual learner needs to carry out in order to gather, classify, store, search, and retrieve information in his daily activities (Tsui, 2002; Grundspenkis, 2007). In teacher education, knowledge acquisition focuses on the process how teacher apply PKM to support their day-to-day teaching and learning activities: instructional design. Instructional design is closely related to PKM which is also one of the major learning tasks for pre-service teachers. Instructional design is a process that involves determining the current status and needs of the learner, defining the end goal of instruction, and creating instructional  and learning strategies to facilitate teaching and learning. There are a wide range of instructional design models, many of them based on the ADDIE model (Seels & Glasgow, 1998; Molenda, M., 2003; Strickland, A.W. 2006) which includes the following phases: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. This acronym stands for the 5 phases contained in the model. Knowledge acquisition for instructional design is conceptualized as identifying learner entry skills, formulating instructional objectives, test and design specifications, creating instructional or training materials, making recommendations and preparing a project report for lesson implementation. As instructional design is one of the key components of teacher professional competence, and helps to implement a new curriculum in the information age of the 21st century, exploring the predictive relationships of PKM competency on knowledge acquisition for instructional design becomes key to the development of teacher education. Research Methodology It appears that PKM competency can expand individuals’ knowledge and enhance their learning competency (Davenport, 1997, p146 ; Frand & Hixon, 1999). It provides learners with a targeted, reflective and adaptable cognitive framework for inquiry and problem solving. In this study, knowledge acquisition will be conceptualized as the knowledge required for carrying out instructional design. This study attempts to answer the following research questions: 1. What is the empirical factor structure of PKM competency for pre-service teachers? 2. Is there any relationship between the PKM competency of pre-service teachers and their knowledge acquisition for instructional design? This study adopted Dorsey (2000) PKM skills to conceptualize PKM as a competency for acquiring knowledge (see figure 1). A quasi-experimental research design was used in this study to determine the relationship between PKM skills and knowledge acquisition for instructional design. The exogenous variables were pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their PKM skills. The endogenous variable is knowledge acquisition for instructional design. A  self-response quantitative questionnaire was devised to collect data from the pre-service teachers of Hong Kong’s largest teacher education institution. Figure 1: Theoretical Framework Of The Study The operationalized definitions of Dorsey (2000) PKM skills are as follows: 1. Retrieving skill is the ability of learners to retrieve information from relational databases, electronic library databases, websites, threaded discussion groups, recorded chats, and moderated andunmoderated lists. 2. Evaluating skill is the ability to make judgments on both the quality and relevance of information to be retrieved, organized, and analyzed. 3. Organizing skill is the ability to make the information one’s own by applying ordering and connecting principles that relate new information to old information. 4. Collaborating skill is the ability  to understand others’ ideas, develop and follow through on shared practices, build win-win relationships, and resolve conflicts between these underlying principles. 5. Analyzing skill is the ability to extract meaning from data and convert information into knowledge. 6. Presenting skill is the ability to familiarize with the work of communications specialists, graphic designers, and editors. 7. Securing skill is the ability to develop and implement practices that help to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and actual existence of information. This study adopted ADDIE instructional design model to conceptualize instructional design as a multiple competencies that involves analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a lesson (Molenda, 2003; Strickland, 2006). The acronym ADDIE stands for the 5 phases contained in the model. Pre-service teachers’ learning on instructional design is conceptualized by the knowledge and experiences they come across in the 5 phases of ADDIE model including analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. The learning outcomes include know how to analyse learner characteristics and task to be learned and identify learner entry skills; to design learning objectives and choose an instructional approach; to develop instructional or training materials; implement the lesson and deliver the instructional materials; and to evaluate the lesson plan and recommend the materials achieved the desired goals. The teaching experience that they had gained include determining the current state and needs of the learner, defining the end goal of instruction, and creating some instructional and learning strategies to facilitate teaching and learning. Instructional design is operationalized to the knowledge for: identifying learner entry skills; formulating instructional obJectives, test and designs specifications; creating instructional or training materials; and making recommendations and preparing a project report for lesson implementation (Seels & Glasgow, 1998; Molenda, M., 2003; Strickland, A.W. 2006). The questionnaire was based on a number of scales constructed to measure the variables of PKM skills and instructional design. In order to develop valid items for these scales, the researcher conducted a content analysis on the PKM literature of Dorsey (2000), Skyrme (1999). Hyams (2000), and on the instruction design literature of Seels & Glasgow (1998), Molenda, M. (2003); and Strickland, A.W. (2006). The questionnaire consists of two sections. Section 1 was used to measure the effectiveness of knowledge acquisition for instructional design based on 4 items. Section 2 contains 21 items designed to measure the teachers’ perceptions of their seven PKM skills. Likert 6 point scales were used in both sections to measure the variables. Likert scales are commonly used in attitudinal research. The Likert scale assumes that the difference between answering ‘agree strongly, and ‘agree’ is the same as between answering ‘agree’ and ‘neither agree n or disagree’ (Likert 1932, quoted in Gay, 1992). The data was collected directly from target subjects using the questionnaire. 225 pre-service teachers responded to the survey. Data was collected directly from them by means of the questionnaire. The subjects in the study were pre-service teachers from Hong Kong’s largest teacher education institution. Random sampling was used to collect data from the population. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out on variables using principal factor axis analysis to confirm the constructed validity of the tools (see table 1). The study is interested in a theoretical solution uncontaminated by unique and error variability and is designed with a framework on the basis of underlying constructs that are expected to produce sources on the observed variables. Principal axis factor (PAF) analysis, which aims to reveal the underlying factors that produce the correlation or correlations among a set of indicators with the assumption of an implicit underlying factor model, was applied separately to the items from the learning processes and learning outcomes. Promax rotation, a method of oblique rotation which assumes that the resulting factors are correlated with one other, was applied to extract the factors. An eigenvalue greater than one was used to determine the appropriate number of factors for the factor solutions. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) was then applied to  examine the factor structures and the paths among the variables, using Lisrel 8.3 (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1999). SEM is a collection of statistical techniques that allows the examination of a set of relationships between exogenous variables and endogenous variables. Findings The results of exploratory factor analysis, presented in Table 1, clearly suggest a four- factor structure for exogenous variables that are both empirically feasible and theoretically acceptable. An eigenvaluegreater than one was used to determine the appropriate number of factors for the factor analysis solution. Items were extracted with factor loadings greater than 0.6 across and within factors. The numbers of factor solutions extracted from a Promax rotation theoretically afforded the most meaningful interpretation. The process used to identify and label the factors that emerged was based on examining the derivation of the highest loading items on each of the factors. The reliability coefficients of the scales ranged from 0.792-0.821, which was judged adequate for this study. The results of descriptive statistics show that the scale means of all the variables are higher than 4.27 within the 6 point-scale, reflecting the participants’ tendency to slightly agree with all the items. The reliability coefficient (Alphas) of the scale for instructional design is 0.854, its scale mean is 4.33 (sd = 0.691).

Language Disorders

Language development is connected to the physical maturation, cognitive development, and socialization of a person. Yet, the details of the process — the particulars of what happens physiologically, cognitively, and socially in the learning of language — are still being debated.   Language disorders are the impairment or deviant development of the normal processes in language development. These are often characterized by comprehension and/or use of spoken, written, and/or symbol system. The disorder may involve (1) the form of language (phonologic, morphologic, and syntactic systems) (2) the content of language (semantic system), and or (3) the function of language in communication (pragmatic system) in any combination (Committee on Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools of the ASHA, 1982). . The ASHA definitions suggest a classification scheme involving five subsystems or types of language: phonological (sounds), morphological (word forms), syntactical (word order and sentence structure), semantic (word and sentence meanings), and pragmatic (social use of language). According to Hegde (1996), whatever the age of the child being assessed, it is the role of   clinicians to typically follow a set of common procedures that serve as the foundation for the assessment. The assessment procedure usually entails obtaining clinician various types of relevant data such as: – results of visual and/or audiological evaluations; – medical data that may be relevant; – psychological data, including results from cognitive and intelligence testing After that a general overview of a child’s language skills will be suggested, if there is a possible language problem and further assessment is necessary.   In determining the developmental feature of language disorders, however, these are diagnosed separately, the presence of speech or language problems that cannot be explained by an obvious medical condition. For example, linguistic deficits can be confined to expressive language or can extend to receptive abilities, although pure receptive impairment is seldom seen. When it comes to speech output, affected children may fail to produce sounds that would be expected on the basis of age and dialect, which may be associated with difficulties in the planning and execution of the fine motor sequences that underlie speech. It is important t note that although the ideal time to begin treating children with language problems is during the preschool years, many times it is during elementary school that language problems in children become apparent as the child begins to demonstrate deficiencies in reading and writing which hinders academic progress. For preschool children, there are two features that can be associated with language-learning disability classified to be in the morphosyntactic form. Factors like mental retardation, environmental factors, and others could be the causes of these disorders.   Characteristics associated with language problems can include the following: Problematic syntactic skills. – Shorter instead of longer sentences, simpler instead of more complex sentences, single words or phrases in place of sentences, and a limited variety of syntactic structures. Problematic learning of grammatic morphemes – Difficulty with comparatives and superlatives (e.g., small, smaller, smallest), omission of bound morphemes (e.g., past tense-ed, plural-s), and incorrect use of learned grammatic morphemes, including overgeneralizations (e.g., womans/women, goed/went) past the appropriate developmental point. In school-age children or older person, morphosyntactic difficulties have been observed with the following features: Difficulty in using complex words or sentences containing subordinate clauses and suffixes – They may have problems inflecting words using suffixes (e.g., making a plural by adding s, constructing the present progressive by adding ing). Limited length of sentences; sentences are shorter than expected – School-age children with syntactic difficulties might leave out important grammatical markers, such as articles (a, an, the) and might have problems using pronouns correctly (e.g., say her did it instead of she did it). On the area of disorders in features of semantics, preschool children have been observed to have the following difficulties: Slow or delayed language onset – Delayed babbling, slower vocabulary growth rate, delayed acquisition of vocabulary, slowness in combing words into phrases and sentences, and overall slower acquisition of language milestones. Limited amount of language output or expressive language – Limited verbal repertoire, lack of complex or longer word productions, limited amount of vocabulary produced and comprehended, and lack of abstract words in repertoire. On the other hand, disorders of semantics in school age children and adults have been observed with these features: Word-retrieval problems in conversational speech resulting dysfluencies such as repetitions, revisions, and false starts – For example, after hearing the word rumpus five times in the story Where the Wild Things Are, the child might still react to this word in the future as if he or she has never heard it before. Problems with word-definition skills; possibly especially evident in defining scientific and technical words –   For example, when faced with a situation that has rumpus-like characteristics, the child would not be able to use the word to describe the situation. The individual might not be able to make sense of stories, retell them in ways that make sense to listeners, or say things to which others can attach meaning. In the area of pragmatics, the focus is on the context and the function of the utterance. As pragmatics define the social skills of language: how, where, when, and with whom language is used, it is thus heavily dependent on culture, what is viewed as polite in one culture may be seen as weak and unassertive in another. A person with a disorder in pragmatics might not understand how to use language in social situations. For example, the person might start a conversation with a complete stranger by saying something like â€Å"I like planes a lot, and I like to watch them† or say something offensive, such as â€Å"You’re ugly!† or say something totally not connected with the previous statement. Individuals with pragmatic language disorders may not know how to make their needs clear to others or know how to use language for practical purposes. Thus, problems in this area originate from the previous two disorders (morphosyntactic and semantics) because the feature of this disorder rely on the goals or functions of language, the use of context to determine what form to use to achieve these goals, and the rules for carrying out cooperative conversations; all of which are rooted in the previous two. The proper approach to these disorders demands classification, but human beings and their language are very difficult to categorize. Therefore, all classification systems still contain ambiguities, and none can account for all cases. Children or adults may have either more than one primary diagnostic category or characteristics that do not fit into any category. This is in recognition of the fact that each child represents a unique set of circumstances, so language assessment and intervention should be individualized.   

Bud Light Marketing Analysis

Anheuser-Busch Inc. is a dominating global leader in the beer industry, specifically in the United States. Its roots can be traced all the way back to 1852 from the Bavarian Brewery in St. Louis MO when Adolphus Busch traveled from Germany to join his father-in-law. In 1876 Budweiser was founded and rooted its brand in values, ethics, and quality. These core staples of the company evolved all the way to 1982 when Bud Light was introduced. Today Bud Light is the best selling beer in the U. S. and the #1 beer sold by volume in the world. Let’s take a look into the marketing mix that makes this product so successful. Product. Bud Light was only preceded by Bamblinger and Miller in the â€Å"Light† beer segment of the industry and is brewed at all 12 Anheuser-Busch U. S. based breweries. It’s brewed with all natural ingredients (water, barley malt, rice, premium hops, and yeast) and the clean, crisp, smooth taste is derived from the two and six row malt and cereal grains used during fermentation. Each 12 ounce serving contains 110 calories, 6. 6 grams of carbohydrates and is 4. 2% alcohol by volume. Consumers in the beer segment are very open to try different types of beverages so having a unique taste and â€Å"superior drinkability† separates Bud Light’s product from its competitors. Place. Bud Light (through Anheuser-Busch) has a very large and extremely effective distribution system. It starts with 12 breweries located all across the U. S. which in turn helps minimize delivery times and costs associated. After Bud Light is brewed a chain of over 600 wholesalers distribute the product to the suppliers, who in turn sell and deliver the beer to locations where it’s sold. Each business that sells Bud Light is provided with a secondary supplier to reduce the risk of stock outs. Over half of wholesalers who distribute Anheuser-Busch products deliver only its products. This vertical marketing system ensures two things: 1) Anheuser-Busch has more control over where its products are sold and the price of the beer. 2) Delivery time- in the beer sector this is crucial to quality and taste. Promotion. This area of the marketing mix is where Bud Light excels and blows the competition away! It taps a variety of advertising media. Primarily utilizing television commercials from a comical standpoint, Bud Light ensures it reaches and relates across all demographics. Effective advertising is also attained through sponsorships of special events, concerts, and sporting events. This accomplishes two goals: 1) it guarantees that only its product will be sold during the sponsored event. 2) The event will incur a connection between the â€Å"good time† and drinking Bud Light. Symbolic attributes also play an important role in promotional strategy. The seasonal association between Clydesdale horses and Anheuser-Busch is unmistakable. Also think about females depicted during their television ads, they are stunningly beautiful, playfully flirtatious, and seem genuinely into the target audience represented (males 18 -35). Physical styling and packaging is also incorporated into Bud Light’s advertising campaign. It has introduced co-branding and sports marketing promotional packaging with affiliations of Major League Baseball and NFL teams. All these promotional techniques can be summarized into one simple strategy. Bud Light uses people’s emotional need for a relationship to buy their product. This type of targeted advertising coincides with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. They specifically target consumers who view their ads consistently to entice them with sexuality, attractiveness, and a sense of the â€Å"good life†. With the use of pathos, repetitiveness, and color psychology Bud Light provokes its audience to dream of a euphoric experience. Price. Bud Light retains a position most competitors envy in this particular segment. Since Anheuser-Busch cements itself atop of U.S. beer sales at a 49% clip, it positions itself according to projected earnings growth. There are commodity factors that influence this pricing such as: barley price, gas prices, and advertising expenditures however Bud Light continues to price itself above its competition. Historically Bud Light prices have increased about half the rate of inflation. With competition reluctant to pare its prices with Bud Light, this strategy will remain for the foreseeable future. Bud Light SWOT analysis: Strengths Bud Light is the best selling beer in the U.S. * 37% market share * Brand Strength – leading light brand in the US * Pricing Leadership – Continues to set industry benchmarks for pricing. | Weaknesses * Many consumers consider the taste to â€Å"watered down†. * Challenge of expanding internationally due to the stigma of an American beer. | Opportunities * Possibility of expanding its target focuses to include women. * Continue to retain brand loyal consumers with â€Å"reminder† campaign. | Threats: * Fast growing light beer segment with new competitors entering the arena. As a beer drinker I will not contest the fact that it is almost impossible to differentiate between unlabeled beer brands. This is where brand image is enormously important. The single most important factor Bud Light has on their side is the momentum from its brand culture. In a judgmental society, each person is constantly categorized by their shape, clothes, ethnicity, religion, salary, and yes even the beer they drink. With this awareness, Bud Light has proven that while they may offer a distinct and quality beverage it is the marketing strategy employed that delivers success.

Sustainability in business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

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Writer's Chioce Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

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INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC LAW Assignment - Essay Example ote rule and with the globalization thrust of the WTO, economic growth and development should have propelled economic equilibrium but nonetheless some countries still remain in the quagmire of poverty and unable to cope with the demands of the multilateral trading agreements. This paper will likewise demonstrate that the equality clause remains a lip-service during the process of negotiations and deliberations until it is submitted to the floor for approval as comments and oppositions registered by developing and least developed economies over the inclusion of certain provisions or requests for amendments and modifications to the multilateral agreements and/or decisions are overturned by the sheer number, extreme pressure or overwhelming influence of developed economies that suggested revisions or changes to safeguard the interest of the less developed countries were not given due course at all even though anchored on meritorious grounds. The revolutionary measures introduced by the WTO under the Most-Favored-Nation and National Principles were considered as breakthroughs in world trading to level the field but on the contrary, it became an avenue to oppress the poor and it is the task of this paper to critically analyze the issues for its failure to alleviate poverty and spawn economic growth and development as WTO set out to achieve from the beginning, to include a perspective in the settlement of disputes. Before the advent of WTO, the trade relations between countries could be traced back to the first century of the Common Era where a Greek Manuscript Traveler named Periplus Maris Erythraei recorded transactions between the Romans and the Indians. In West Asia, Asian nomads used camels to travel towards their trading destinations to trade silk and spices. Some countries used ships and boats to sail the seas to trade with other countries. During the middle ages, the first printed paper money was made by Song Dynasty and England was able to gain market

MG 1011 Task 2 Assignment - a Reflection of the work done Essay

MG 1011 Task 2 Assignment - a Reflection of the work done - Essay Example Team formation is a critical initial step that is necessary to create a team that will work effectively. A team or group is the union of two or more people working together to achieve a common goal (Schermerhorn & Hunt & Osborn, p.172). During the initial formation stage of the team the member have to communicate with each other in various brainstorming and socialization exercises in other to get to know each other to create a bond. During these session the team has to create a detail plan of action of the project the have to perform with a detail work break structure of the specific task each member will perform and various deadlines the work has to delivered. There is a need for leadership within the group. It is important for someone to take charge and become the team leader that can guide the other members of the team, while at the same listening to the opinion of others to integrate their ideas. According to Belbin’s team role theory the optimum size for a team is eight m embers (Fisher & Hunter & Macrosson, 2001). If a team is too small the members might get overworked, but a large team can create organizational problems which may result in inefficiencies. I have worked on various team scenarios some of which were good experiences, while others were horrible endeavors. During my first year in college I worked on a group project for college class. The team was made up to four members. It was disaster from day one. One member barely ever came to any of the team meetings. The other two kept arguing over irrelevant points and could not come to any agreements on how to proceed with the project. I tried to play the role of leader and intermediary between the members. Since I took the initiative I paid the price of being the member with the highest workload and ended up covering for two of the members who at the end were extremely irresponsible and disappeared on me and decided that their end of the bargain did not have to complied with. I did both

Gender, income and wealth Essay Example for Free

Gender, income and wealth Essay Gender is a term that has been used many times to describe the different social roles that men and women play in the society. It is also used to explain the biological difference between a man and a woman. However, gender violence, whether on men or on women varies with different communities. Even up to date, there are some societies that still emphasize on the roles and tasks that only men or women can do. Scientific studies on the social life of humans have shown that we are the ones who create inequality amongst ourselves by defining the roles that we should take and leaving those that we dont want to others. Gender difference is however important because it gives the rights and privileges to both women and men. But if viewed from a negative perspective, gender inequality can be defied as a world wide problem. Gender is one of the many determinants of what income a person should be given. In some countries, it is easy for men to get well paying jobs over women. This is especially the case in the developing countries; where the level of education does not really matter when it comes to job hunting. The situation gets even worse where the big jobs can only be given to the men because it is believed that they are better at decision making than women. Statistics have proved that 46 percent of all labor consists of women. However, women represent 75 percent of all the laborers with the lowest income or wages, and only 13 percent represent women of the best paid laborers. The gender factor is also seen to take effect at many homes, where many people believe that a husband should be earning more than the wife. Many husbands feel inferior, especially when they are unable to provide for their families and the wives take on the role of the provider. They believe that they should be the heads of the family and should be in charge of the major activities, including making important decisions. The fact that wives should be submissive to their husbands should not be mistaken as a reason to be discriminated. In general we can say that the world is facing major challenges because of gender inequality. (Karuna Jaggar, 2007) It is not so easy to measure the relation of gender to wealth. This is because most of the wealth is common within members of the same house hold, which consists of both a man and a woman. However, it is a fact that men are likely to own more assets than women. Women dont normally own such investments as bonds, stocks or other financial assets as much as men do. Furthermore, most men have retirement accounts, while most women do not have such accounts, and in addition to that, the pensions of women in most cases are less than those of the men. The gender factor also shows that non married households are not as wealthy as the married households. Also, divorced women contribute more to the labor market as compared to the married women. Married women will feel financially secure because of their husbands, but after they are divorced, their economic condition is affected a lot. The same case applies to widowed women. However, divorce does not have a big effect on the men as it has on the women, because they are always working so their wealth is not affected so much. Women who have never been married own the least wealth of all the house holds. They are said to own only a quarter of the wealth that the non married men own. From the late 1980s, the women initiatives have been helping the women to improve their financial security by advising them to start up small micro enterprises. The reason behind the start of the businesses is because they have very low start up costs, and are hence affordable to the women. Micro enterprises are competent, marketable, and require simple management by the owners. These businesses help women with low wealth and poor incomes to improve their financial status. (Karuna Jaggar, 2007) In general, we can say that gender inequality is a factor that is pulling the efforts to civilization behind and needs to be addressed. References 1) Chang, Mariko, 2007, His and Hers: Explaining the Gender Wealth Gap, retrieved on 1/30/2009 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p109260_index.html 2) Edlund Lena, Kopczuk Wojciech, 2007, Women, wealth and mobility: National bureau of economic research, New York, Cambridge press 3) Karuna Jaggar, 2007, The Race and Gender Wealth Gap, retrieved on 1/30/2009 from http://urbanhabitat.org/node/2815

Government expenditure and classification in india

Government expenditure and classification in india Classification of Government Expenditure The welfare of the people of India highly depends on the expenditure of the Government of India (GOI). Government expenditure is a very important aspect of the governments budget presented by the finance minister every fiscal. Through it GOI tries to maximise the welfare of the people by appropriately allocating economic resources to various government activities. Government expenditure can be broadly classified into four categories: Functional Classification or Budget Classification: In April 1974, the GOI introduced a new accounting structure in order to serve the requirement of financial control and accountability. Under this structure, a five tier classification has been adopted sectoral, major head, minor head, subhead, and detailed heads of accounts. Sectoral classification has clubbed the government functions into three sectors, namely, General Services, Social and Community Services and Economic services. In the new structure, a major head is assigned to each function and minor head is assigned to each programme. Each minor head include activities or schemes or organizations as subheads. Economic Classification: Economic classification of the government expenditure signifies the way of the allocation of resources to various economic activities. It involves listing the government expenditure by significant economic categories, separating current expenditure from capital expenditure, spending for goods and services from transfers to individuals and institutions, inter-governmental loans from grants etc. This classification provides a record of governments influence in each sector of the economy. Cross Classification or Economic-cum-functional Classification: Cross classification provides the break-up of government expenditure both by economic and by functional heads. For example, expenditure on medical facilities, a functional head, is split as current expenditure, capital expenditure, transfers and loans. Accounting Classification: Accounting classification of the government expenditure can be presented under (i) Revenue and Capital (ii) Developmental and Non-Developmental and (iii) Plan and Non-Plan. Each classification of expenditure has an objective associated with it. For instance, Revenue and Capital expenditure indicates the creation of assets by government expenditure and unproductive expenditure. Further, the developmental and non-developmental classification differentiates the government classification as the expenditure on social and community services and economic service from that against general expenditure. Similarly, the Plan and Non-Plan expenditure represents the expenditure on planned schemes of government and non-plan expenditures. The above classification of the government expenditure serves one or more of the purposes of the government, such as, parliamentary control over expenditure, economic development, price stability etc. Analysis of Government Expenditure in India The chart given below shows the division of government expenditure in terms of capital and revenue expenditure for some selected years. The percentage share of revenue expenditure in government expenditure has increased over time due to increase in expenditure in society welfare. A percentage distribution of the plan and non plan expenditure for a representative year of the post and pre reform period each is provided below: The chart above shows there is a increase in the plan expenditure over a period of a decade from 1989-90 to 2008-09. Sector wise percentage distribution of the composition of the government expenditure is provided in the table below: The growth story of the India can be said in terms of five year plans which give an account of government expenditure during the plans. The first five year plan (1951-56) laid emphasis on agriculture, including irrigation and power, wherein the government had spent 36% of its subject on these heads. The second five year plan (1956-61) marks the foray towards industrialization with an increased government spending in transport and communication sector with an contribution of 28.9% of its expenditure. The urge for industrialization continues even during the third five year pan (1961-66) with 24% and 20% public spending on Industry Minerals, and Transport and Communication respectively. Fourth to seventh five year plans have social services of education, health, welfare sharing a majority of the pie with 24% and 26% expenditure in fourth and fifth plan. The eight five year plan (1992-97) commenced the era of fiscal reform and liberalization. There were increased efforts to improve the economic growth and quality of life of the common man. There were high public spending on the sectors like energy (26.6%), Transportation and communication (20.8%) and Social and other services (19.6%). The Ninth five year plan (1997-2002) focussed on the development of infrastructure by allocating 72% of the funds to irrigation, energy, transport and communication and social service. The tenth five year had an objective of atleast 8% growth rate by providing a boast to power sector spending (26.56%) and increasing social Community services sector spending to 29.27%. COMPARISON OF INFLATION BASED ON CPI AND WPI Consumer Price Index (CPI), is defined as the weighted average change over time in the prices of a basket of the good and services consumed by a consumer. While, Wholesale Price Index is defined as the weighted average change over time in the price of a basket of wholesale goods. Inflation rate is calculated based on the CPI and WPI as the percentage in the respective indices over time, generally a year. The calculation of inflation rates based on CPI and WPI form 1994-95 to 2006-07 is given in the table provided below: WPI WPI Inflation rate CPI IW CPI- IW Food CPI-IW Inflation rate Food Inflation rate WPI inflation rate CPI Inflation rate 1994-95 112.6 12.6 284 304 10.1 11.8 2.5 1995-96 121.6 8.0 313 337 10.2 10.9 -2.2 1996-97 127.2 4.6 342 369 9.3 9.5 -4.7 1997-98 132.8 4.4 366 388 7.0 5.1 -2.6 1998-99 140.7 5.9 414 445 13.1 14.7 -7.2 1999-00 145.3 3.3 428 446 3.4 0.2 -0.1 2000-01 155.7 7.2 444 453 3.7 1.6 3.4 2001-02 161.3 3.6 463 466 4.3 2.9 -0.7 2002-03 166.8 3.4 482 477 4.1 2.4 -0.7 2003-04 175.9 5.5 500 495 3.7 3.8 1.7 2004-05 187.3 6.5 520 506 4.0 2.2 2.5 2005-06 195.5 4.4 542 527 4.2 4.2 0.1 2006-07 206.1 5.4 579 575 6.8 9.1 -1.4 Base Year for WPI is 1993-94 Base Year for CPI for 1994-95 and 1995-96 is 1982 and from 1996-97 onward it is 1986-87 CPI and WPI differ in terms of their weights assigned to their respective constituent basket goods and services. Food has been assigned a higher weight in CPI (46% in CPI-IW) as compared to a weight of only 27% in WPI. As a result, the CPI changes more with the change in the food process as compared to the WPI. Further, the fuel group has a much lower weight in CPI (7% on an average) relative to that in the WPI (14.2%). Consequently, the variations in international crude process affect the WPI more than CPI. Also, services are not included under WPI, but are included in the CPI to different extents. Hence, the CPIs are influenced by the service price inflation. Considering the data provided in the table above, it can be inferred that on an average CPI-IW inflation is higher than that of WPI inflation. Also, in terms of WPI inflation the period from 1994-95 to 1995-94 was of higher inflation, then the inflation decreases and increases again in 2000-01 and then decreases again. It can be seen that the inflation rate, both CPI inflation and WPI inflation, follows a cyclic pattern.

The Ontological Argument Essay -- Philosophy Religion

The Ontological Argument In Anselm's ontological argument he is trying to prove the existence of God, his argument is an argument purely based on the mind and does not require the moral agent to venture into the real of the senses. Ontology is to do with being, or what something is. Anselm's ontological argument concerns existence and whether it is an attribute of God in the same way omnipotence, omniscience and benevolence are believed to be. The argument is an a priori argument. It does not rest on proving God's existence by relying on experimental knowledge but on showing that God must exist logically, or that God's non-existence is illogical. The main idea behind Anselm’s argument is that if I can think X to exist X must exist because it is possible to conceive it. As such the central premise of the ontological argument is: 'God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived' In other words it is better for something to exist in reality that in the mind, or to exist is the best quality something can poss...

Graduation Speech: A Graduation Poem :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Some of us may think we've reached the end of our learning but the truth is, we have not; And as we prepare to move on we should remember the lessons we've already been taught. In elementary school we learned how to share and how to color in the lines; We learned how to spell our names and count and had naps and storytime. We had reading groups to share ideas, we learned to add, subtract and round up. We discovered we had to sit in time-out for biting or saying shut up. We learned to multiply and were exposed to culture by writing to pen-pals far away; and we honed our competitive skills by playing four square every day. We eventually put away our dolls and picked up responsibilities. Then we were separated boys from girls and taught about the birds and the bees. In middle school we woke at the crack of dawn and hung out in the locker bay. We learned about Characters of Consequence and got detention for PDAs. Social division and Cultural Fair taught us that we're all different, and yet the same. We thought that we knew everything and we were never the ones to blame. In high school everything was different and we learned we weren't always right after all. We started longing for back in the day when we could take naps and play tetherball. But no, we had to study and get jobs and brace ourselves for standardized tests; We stayed up late writing essays and learned what it means to be stressed. Then our final year came upon us and we filled out many a college application; We learned the feeling of accomplishment through disappointment and determination. Now the real world beckons us and we must learn to survive on our own.

Second Continental Congress Essay -- Essays Papers

Second Continental Congress â€Å"Give me liberty or give me death† were the famous words spoken by Patrick Henry in the struggle for independence (Burnett 62). He addressed the first continental congress in 1774 and started the process of American political revolt. This revolt eventually climaxed in the rebelling of Britain's American colonies and the establishment of what would become the United States of America. The Second Continental Congress accomplished independence through organization, rebellion, and finally declaring independence. This was the beginning of the American Revolution. Britain established a series of acts to control the colonies and this became the main cause of the revolution. These acts enabled Britain to increase the colony's taxes and pay for the costs of the seven years war. In addition, Britain angered the colonies by maintaining a large army in North America after peace was restored in 1773. The British also enforced a Stamp Act, which placed taxes on commercial and legal products. To further add to the frustration, the British controlled the shipping of goods and re-routed shipments to avoid going through London middlemen, who sold to independent merchants in the colonies. The final cause of the American Revolution was the addition of the Coercive Acts, which closed the port of Boston and cut back the local elections and town meetings. Thomas Paine summarized the colony's emotions towards the British and published a pamphlet, â€Å"Common Sense.† In this pamphlet he mocks Great Britain, a small island thousands of miles a way, that controls a large country that should have independence. In September 1774, the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia where they agreed upo... ...of Independence listed the tyrannical acts committed by George III, proclaiming the natural rights of man, and sovereignty of the American States. The Second Continental Congress was the backbone to the Revolution as well as being the key to freedom. It proved that, â€Å"All men are created equal† and possess the freedom of rights. Works Cited - Buckler, McKay H. The History of Western Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995. - Burnett, Edmond C. The Continental Congress. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1941. - Fiske, John. The American Revolution. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1891. - Schlesinger, Arthur M. The Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1957. - Trevelyan, George O. The American Revolution. New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1928.

English Journal Essay

â€Å"Within the diamond haze of the beach something dark was fumbling along. Ralph saw it first and watched till the intentness of his gaze drew all eyes that way. Then the creature stepped from mirage on to clear sand, and they saw that the darkness was not all shadow but mostly clothing. The creature was a party of boys, marching approximately in step in two parallel lines and dressed in strangely eccentric clothing. † (Golding 1954, Ch. 1, p. 19) | This analysis explores the literary feature characterization. In this passage of the novel Golding describes the setting as â€Å"the diamond haze of the beach† to make the reader experience darkness and mystery, as if the reader is actually there. But not just the setting is important in this passage. The author’s choice of words to characterize the choir boys is impeccable. In this quotation the readers see the mysterious â€Å"creature† coming closer and closer to the two boys, Ralph and Piggy. Golding uses imagery to make the reader experience this spooky event. It is evident in the phrase â€Å"Then the creature stepped from mirage on to clear sand, and they saw that the darkness was not all shadow but mostly clothing. † By using the noun â€Å"creature†, Golding instills a scary, horrifying appearance to the group of boys. Also, he uses the word â€Å"mirage† to provide the reader with a mysterious, almost horror-like feeling as the group comes closer and closer. These nouns signify mysteriousness and darkness, providing the readers with a spooky, eerie atmosphere which helps us understand that the group of boys seem dangerous. This passage is taken from the author’s point-of-view and it makes a great impact on the reader. | â€Å"That’s enough! † said Ralph sharply, and snatched back the conch. â€Å"If you didn’t you didn’t. â€Å"-then you come up here an’ pinch my specs-† Jack turned on him. â€Å"You shut up! †(Golding 1954, Ch. 2, p. 46)| This analysis explores the literary feature imagery. In this dialogue of the novel Golding shows an argument between Ralph, the leader, and the other boys. The author uses words and phrases like †You shut up! † and â€Å"That’s enough! † to stress the harshness and seriousness of the situation to the reader. By using â€Å"enough! † the author deeply signifies the disturbance and frustration that Ralph is experiencing as pack leader. Jack is also portrayed as rude and bossy by using the phrase â€Å"You shut up! † This makes the reader feel a scuffle going on between the two, as if two factions are ready to be formed. This short passage shapes the theme â€Å"Inherent evil within humanity† as a whole by giving the reader a rude argument scene to show that there is inherent evil within humanity. | â€Å"Don’t you want to be rescued? All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig! â€Å"But we want meat! † â€Å"And I work all day with nothing but Simon and you come back and don’t even notice the huts! † (Golding 1954, Ch. 3, p. 54) | This analysis explores the literary feature characterization. In this passage of the novel Golding shows Ralph gives a rap on the knuckles to all those who didn’t participate in the hard-working day. By using the words â€Å"don’t even notice†, Golding wants the reader to experience the anger that Ralph has for these children. He states that he â€Å"work all day with nothing but Simon†, which means no child wants to do the hard work, except for those who actually are optimistic and think they have chance to leave this island. The other children’s egoistic behavior becomes problematic for the faction to develop any further. Golding emphasizes the state of stress Ralph is in as the leader of a faction in this sentence: â€Å"And I work all day with nothing but Simon and you come back and don’t even notice the huts! †This passage in the novel is used to let the reader the reader there are lots of egoistic people in the world and that it is very hard to get those people to work. By mentioning the repetition â€Å"pig, pig, pig!†, the children make themselves seem as they only about their personal lives, rather than the life of the faction. | â€Å"Roger and Maurice came out of the forest. They were relieved from duty at the fire and had come down for a swim. Roger led the way straight through the castles, kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones. Maurice followed, laughing, and added to the destruction. † (Golding 1954, Ch. 4, p. 60)| This analysis explores the literary features setting and characterization. In this passage of novel Golding makes it known that the quietness of the forest is disturbed by using verbs like â€Å"burying†, â€Å"kicking†, â€Å"scattering†. These words add to the destructive mood of the passage. Also, the setting is described as horrendous, menacing, and violent because one of the boys, Maurice in particular, laughs during this passage, meaning his carelessness towards the forest may result in shortage of necessary figures for their faction. Golding makes this scene stick out like a sore thumb because of the complete indiscretion that Roger and Maurice caused to the forest.

Principles of Managing Information and Producing Documents Essay

Unit title: Principles of managing information and producing documents 1. Understand the purpose of information technology in a business environment 1. 1 Identify different types of information technology that may be used for work tasks Types of technology that could be used to do tasks at work are computer software like: Microsoft Word which is software used to create documents Excel is software that can be used for storing and organising data. Publisher is software which is used to create almost anything from documents to greeting cards. Could also use a fax machine, telephone and send emails. 1. 2 Outline the benefits of using information technology for work tasks The benefits of using technology for work tasks include: Speed – A computer can search through files and records quickly to find the information you require. It can also make it quicker and easier to change a mistake. Editing – If you hand write documents if there was a mistake you would have to retype from scratch, but on the computer documents can be easily amended. Quality – On the computer there are many tools that make the quality of a document better like spell and grammar check, templates, different fonts and emboldening, borders, bullet points or numbering and all them enable high quality documents to be produced. Access – On a computer you can control who gets access to the documents because you can just send it to certain people or if you have a password on the computer it restricts who can get on. 1. Understand how to manage electronic and paper based information 1. 1 Explain the purpose of agreeing objectives and deadline for researching information The purpose of agreeing objectives and deadlines is to ensure that you collect all the needed information to complete the task given and you will have a correct date to finish it by. You will also know what sort of resources to use to collect the data because depending on what you’re looking for something’s could be copy righted which you cannot use because it’s illegal. 1. 2 Identify different ways of researching, organising and reporting information Different sources of research are: Paper-based like libraries and newspapers. Technological which is internet, CD/DVDS and television. Asking people which is primary research and gathering research yourself is secondary. To organize information you could: Organise informations according to relevance. Put it in numeric or alphabetical order. Keep it in date order. Different ways of Filing information: Numeric order. Alphabetical Date To report information means keep a log of your information and its sources. First you should plan a report and know what the purpose is for it, then find the data you need to write a report, should then produce a draft and check everything you need is there and then finalise your report and checking it again. 1. 1 Describe procedures to be followed for archiving, retrieving and deleting information, including legal requirements, if required Electronic and paper-based methods: Out guide/Absent cards – Are used when someone removes a file from the shelf and they will insert an out guide in its place which will say which file has been taken and who has taken it. Cross Referencing – So if input onto the computer with a number you can find the original in the files. File retention polices – A company has to keep certain documents for a certain amount of time. Indexing – To keeping a list of names or subjects with references to the pages so able to find when needing the original copy from a file. You can store information on a hard drive inside your pc, you can save it onto a CD/DVD or a memory stick. You can keep data safe by having a password on everything that needs to be kept private, and could have locked away in a certain order in some unit cabinets so only certain people can get in and see the information. The best way to dispose important and personal data is to shred it. 1. 2 Explain why confidentiality is critical when managing information Confidential information could be someone’s personal details like their home address and bank details which must be kept secure under legislation requirements. It is important to keep details confidential to avoid identity theft, also makes clients feel more secure knowing there information is safe because they would not want anybody to find out there details. You can keep data secured manually which is held in a locked area or cabinet, or keep it electronically that is password controlled. 2. Understand the purpose of producing documents that are fit-for-purpose 2. 1 Identify reasons for producing documents that are fit-for-purpose Documents should be fit for purpose so that it is suitable for the audience it is intended for and so that it meets the company standards. To do this you need to make sure that the document is readable, is accurate on details and enhances the organisations reputation. 2. 2 Describe different types and styles of documents and when they are used Different types and styles of documents have different people to use for – Letters for clients and customers Emails with attachments for circulation information to colleagues Reports for providing information to colleagues Most companies have a certain house style template for documents which is formatted accordingly to the guidelines of the certain organisation. Having a template specific to the company has the benefit of promoting the company image and having consistency with documents. 1. Know the procedures to be followed when producing documents 1. 1 Identify reasons for agreeing the purpose, content, layout, quality standards and deadlines for the production of document Reasons may include ensuring the correct format is used for the type of document being produced, because if the purpose is unclear the document will not make sense as it needs to. Content – So you know how to write the document correctly for the audience. Style – Varies on the type of document, so if it was an agreement then a formal standard style would be used. Deadline – Makes the time frame clear for something to be complete, also gives the client a clear time when the project should be finished by. Efficiency – Makes the company look more professional and organised. Repetition – Doing good quality work on time gives a good impression of the company which could mean more work because they will be recommended because of its good repetition. 1. 2 Describe ways of checking finished documents for accuracy and correctness, and the purpose of doing so Ways of checking finished documents are by using the spell and grammar checker to ensure there are no mistakes, or you could ask a colleague to check the document to make sure all the necessary information has been included. You should always check that money, date, name and address details are all correct because if the address or money are incorrect someone wrong could be getting a lot or not enough money they need which would have a negative impact on the business and could lead to lost custom. 1. 3 Explain the purpose of confidentiality and data protection procedures when preparing documents You will be observing the Data Protection Act (1998) and policies and procedures of the organisation, this covers, Secure storage of documents Who should have access This is to avoid, Loss of personal data Damage to the business Prosecution The most sensitive information is anything that belongs in a personnel file like: Forms relating to employee benefits. Complaints from customers/co-workers. Records of attendance Warnings or other disciplinary actions Medical/Insurance records Litigation documents Forms providing emergency contacts Wage forms The information in a personnel file should be private and should have log ins to get into if saved onto a computer or saved in locked files and the only people that need access to it for wages etc, will have a key or the password. 1. 1 Compare different types of documents that may be produced from notes and the formats to be followed Documents that can be produced from notes are: Memo – The format will include â€Å"To†¦From†¦Ref†¦Date†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and then the relevant information being communicated. Letter – Printed on company header paper, listing reference, date, name, address, and subject, letter content, from, signature, name and job title. Also if the letter is confidential this must be stated. Report – Title, Introduction, Body of report, a conclusion, consistency of format is essential i. e. using the same font size and style throughout. Minutes – Title of the meeting, date was held, who attended. Agenda – Include apologies for absence, minuets of previous meeting, what it’s about, date, and time. 1. 2 Explain the procedures to be followed when preparing text from notes Procedures to follow when preparing text from notes Purpose for the notes. Format for the document. Check the notes to confirm right and amend if needed. Check you have all correct notes to make a document. Produce document. Check document.

Maxis Essay

Introduction Maxis Communications Berhad is a leading mobile phone service provider in Malaysia. Maxis Communications Berhad was established in the early 1990s and commenced mobile telecommunications operation in August 1995. It was then listed under the first board in Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE). At present Maxis Communication Berhad is the biggest telecommunication provider in Malaysia. The company has total subscribers at 13.95 million as of December 2010. Maxis Communications Berhad, through its subsidiary, Maxis Berhad, engages in the provision of mobile, fixed line, and international telecommunications services in Malaysia. It also provides Internet and broadband services; and wireless multimedia related services, as well as owns, maintains, builds, and operates radio facilities and associated switches. The company was founded in 1995 and is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Maxis Communications Berhad is a subsidiary of Binariang GSM Sdn Bhd. It uses the dialling prefix identifier of â€Å"012†, â€Å"017† and â€Å"0142†. In 2002, Maxis purchased TimeCell, a rival mobile service provider, from Time dotcom Berhad. Prior to the purchase, Maxis offered phone numbers beginning with 012, and TimeCell 017. Now, subscribers can choose between the two. Maxis provide a variety of mobile communication products and services. They offer prepaid call plans, monthly subscription plans, global roaming, MMS, WAP (over both GSM and GPRS), Residential Fixed Line services, Broadband Internet plans, and as of early 2005, 3G services to both prepaid and post-paid subscription customers. Maxis Broadband make consumer can enjoy internet access in outdoor or indoor. It can go online at speed over 15 times faster than traditional dial up and do more, much more over the internet. Profile Maxis Berhad, with its consolidated subsidiaries (together, ‘Maxis’), is the leading mobile communications service provider in Malaysia. Maxis were granted licences to operate a nationwide GSM900 mobile network, a domestic fixed network and an international gateway in 1993. It commenced its mobile operations in August 1995 and launched its fixed line and international gateway operations in early 1996. Since its establishment, Maxis has been providing a full suite of services on multiple platforms to fulfil the telecommunications needs of individual consumers, SMEs and large corporations in Malaysia. Maxis’ mobile service is offered on a post-paid basis under the Maxis brand and via a prepaid format under the Hotlink brand. The use of these two distinct brands, underpinned by synergistic values, has enabled Maxis to develop its prepaid business successfully while maintaining growth in its post-paid segment. Maxis has also pioneered and led the Malaysian market in delivering innovative mobile products and services. It was the first to launch 3G services in Malaysia — known as Maxis3G — in July 2005, and in September 2006, it became among the world’s first to use HSDPA, a high-speed upgrade of its 3G network, to provide wireless broadband services. It was the first operator to bring the BlackBerryâ„ ¢ and Apple iPhoneâ„ ¢ smart phones to Malaysia. The company in April 2009 unveiled the first commercial NFC-powered service in Malaysia. Maxis provide enhanced post-paid packages to corporate and SME customers, based on its highly successful consumer post-paid plans. These plans are custom-made to meet the needs of enterprises, especially improved communications within and beyond their compound. Maxis’ international gateway services include termination of traffic into Malaysia from international telecommunications companies, supporting Maxis’ own outbound international direct dial (IDD) traffic, collecting international transit traffic and bandwidth leasing services. Maxis presently maintain bilateral  connections with more than 95 carriers in 38 countries and have capital investments in a number of submarine cable systems to carry its international voice and data traffic. Maxis’ significant growth and strong track record of bringing innovation, excellent customer experience and value to stakeholders has won the company numerous awards over the years. The latest awards include: Malaysia’s Top Ten Companies: Ranked 1 – Asia’s 200 Most Admired Companies, The Wall Street Journal Asia, 2006 Asian Mobile Operator of the Year – Asian Mobile News Award, 2007 Fourth Most Valuable Brand in Malaysia – Brand Finance, 2008 and 2009 Service Provider of the Year (Malaysia) – Frost & Sullivan, 2008 Mobile Data Service Provider of the Year (Malaysia) – Frost & Sullivan, 2009 Recipient of the Asia Pacific Super Excellent Brand Award – Asia Pacific International Brands Summit Malaysia, 2009 Maxis’ vision is to bring advanced communications services to enrich its customers’ lives and businesses, in a manner that is simple and personalised, by efficiently and creatively harnessing leading edge technology, and delivering a brand of service experience that is reliable and enchanting. Analysis of Market Structure Market structure classifies some of the key traits of a market, including: Number of firms Similarity of the products sold Ease of entry into and exit from the market. Comparison of Market Structures Market Structure No. of Sellers Types of Product Entry Conditions Examples Perfect Competition Large Homogeneous Very Easy Small crops, International commodity markets Monopolistic Competition Large Differentiated Easy Boutiques, Restaurants, motels Oligopoly Few Usually differentiated but sometimes homogeneous Difficult Car Making, Tobacco Products, Oil Monopoly One Unique Extremely difficult Public utilities MAXIS TELECOMMUNICATION FIRM. Few Competitors like DIGI, CELCOM, TUNETALK etc.. Entry into Telecommunication is Difficult. It requires a large amount of capital. Perfect Competition Perfect Competition Market has very large number of small firms, which acts independently rather co-coordinating decisions centrally. Perfect Competition is Price takers due to Huge Competition. Perfect Competition mainly deals with Homogenous Products. Homogenous mean Goods from one firm cannot be differentiated from other. Comparing Maxis with Perfect Competition Perfect Competition Maxis 1. It has very large Number of firms. 2. Entry Requirement is very easy. 3. Very less amount of Capital is enough. 1. It has few Competitors in the Market like DIGI, CELCOM, OKTEL etc.. 2. Entry Requirement is Difficult. 3. It requires large amount of Capital. On Comparing Maxis with Perfect Competition market structure. Maxis do not come under Perfect Competition. Monopolistic Competition Monopolistic Competition Firm has many Small Sellers. They involves in differentiated Product. It is free from Price Competition. It has Easy Entry as well as Exit. Comparing Maxis with Monopolistic Competition Monopolistic Competition Maxis 1. It has many small sellers. 2. Entry requirement is easy. 3. It’s free from Price Competition. 1. It has a few Competitors in the Market. 2. Entry requirement is difficult. 3. It has competition in price with their competitor. On comparing Maxis with Monopolistic Competition market structure. Maxis do not come under Monopolistic Competition. Monopoly Monopoly is a Single Seller in the market. It deals with unique product. Entry Barriers is very difficult. Comparing Maxis with Monopoly Monopoly Maxis 1. It has Single Seller in the market (free from Competitors). 1. It has its Competitors in the market. On comparing Maxis with Monopoly market structure. Maxis do not come under Monopoly. Oligopoly It has very few seller (which is dominated by a few large firms).. It deals with Homogenous as well as Differentiated Product. Entry Barrier is difficult. Comparing Maxis with Oligopoly Oligopoly Maxis 1. It has few Sellers in the market. 2. Entry Barrier is difficult. 3. It requires a large amount of Capital. 1. Maxis have few Competitors in the Market. 2. Entry barrier is difficult. 3. It requires the large amount of Capital. On Comparing Maxis with Oligopoly market structure. We came to know that Maxis is an Oligopoly. Behaviour of Maxis The behaviour of Maxis can be identified by considering the number and size distribution of firms (market share in terms of subscribers and revenue) in the market; the extent to which products are differentiated; how easy it is for other firms to enter the market; and the extent to which firms are integrated or diversified. However, as there are only 3 large cellular communication firms (Maxis, Digi and Celcom), individual market shares are used to measure market power. The basic conditions faced by the cellular communication firms are: Demand conditions †¢Price is relatively elastic as seen by huge swings in net additions leadership quarters to quarters as different cellular communication firms took on price-leadership. Source : MALAYSIA TELECOMMUNICATIONS REPORT Q3 2011 Where the actions and the outcomes of these actions are interdependent among several agents and this interdependence is mutually recognized. Neoclassical economics assume perfectly rational agents, perfect information and zero transaction costs under perfect competition. However, due to limited cognitive capability and/or imperfect information, bounded rational agents experience limits in formulating and solving complex problems and in processing (receiving, storing, retrieving, transmitting) information. Routine standard procedures or heuristic approaches to decision-making are employed by bounded rational agents. The sum of the market shares of the n-largest firms. Maxis subscriber net addition dropped to a dismal 120,000 users in 3Q10 before regaining to 274,000 users in 4Q10. The relevant substitutes are provided by fixed-line Telco’s for local city calls (fixed-line rate of RM0.04/minute versus cellular rate of RM0.15/minute) and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) providers for IDD calls. However, these are not of major concerns currently as the mobile services are cannibalizing/substituting fixed-line services while the VoIP providers are competing in a value-conscious segment with an inferior product (i.e. poorer voice quality). Supply conditions The cellular technology adopted is the European GSM standards. However, due to constant technology changes, both Maxis and Celcom have launched 3G services earlier while Digi had its 2.75G (EDGE) services previously and recently added 3G services in order to be able to compete with both Maxis and Celcom. The market structure analysis summary of Maxis is as follows: Data Observations and/or Measurement Analysis/Comment No. of Firms 3 Regulated Oligopoly Market Share Cellular industry subscriber market share (overall) Cellular industry revenue market share (overall) Subscriber/Revenue market share: Celcom: 33% & 36.0% Digi: 25% & 25.3% Maxis: 41% & 42.1% There is no single dominant firm. However, Maxis is the leading firm in both revenue & subscriber market share, followed by Celcom and Digi. Product Differen-tiation Product differentiation based on calling plans and pricing structure to appeal to different customer segments. Value-added services (ring-tones, etc.) are quite homogenously provided by 3rd party provider. Minimal product differentiation as airtime is airtime and VAS contents are widely available across all 3 firms. Entry barriers Licensing and regulations Heavy capital investments & minimum efficient of scale required First-mover advantages: Network & Lock-in effects High entry barriers mainly due to government regulations Due to frequent technology changes, incumbents do incur substantial ongoing capital expenditures and face the dangers of being â€Å"leapfrogged† by potential entrants Numbers portability not implemented yet to counter the lock-in effects of personalized phone numbers. Exit barriers Huge sunk costs Bulk of capital investments are asset specific to Telco operations. Source : MALAYSIA TELECOMMUNICATIONS REPORT Q3 2011 Price competition Using game theoretic model, Telco’s are assumed to provide a homogenous product and have sufficient capacity to serve the market demand. It is a non-cooperative game as there weren’t any enforceable agreements between them as they compete in the marketplace. It is a repeated one-shot simultaneous game as they were driven by quarterly performance accountable to shareholders. As such, they would decide on their pricing strategies independently and aware of rivals’ prices in the market while forming certain expectations about rivals’ pricing strategies. Actions available are Maintain Price and Undercut Price. Payoffs are ranked in order of preference (higher number is preferred). The most preferred outcome by firms is where one undercuts price while its competitors maintains price, leading to market share gain at the expense of its rivals. When all firms maintain prices, there is no change in market-share and profitability. When all firms undercut prices, market-share remains with reduced profitability. The strategic-form representation in a simplified 2-player model is as follows: Telco2 Telco1 Maintain Price Undercut Price Maintain Price 3,3 1,4 Undercut Price 4,1 2,2 Example of Game Theory Solving for Nash equilibrium, both players have Undercut Price as their dominant strategy resulting in a Pareto-inefficient Dominant- Strategy-Equilibrium at (2,2). This is a repeated Prisoners’ Dilemma game and these interactions are witnessed in the current market through an escalating price-war resulting in reduced Average-Revenue-Per-User (ARPU). Example of Starter pack price wars involving Maxis and Digi Launch Date Maxis Hotlink 017 Digi Beyond Prepaid Sep 8, 2005 RM20 to RM10 Oct 27, 2005 RM18 to RM9.90 Nov 25, 2005 RM10 to RM8.80 Dec 10, 2005 RM9.90 to RM8.50 Average Revenue per User Source : Articles from 2009 to 2011, Press release 2009 to 2011, Maxis reports 2009 to 2011, Digi Reports 2009 to 2011, Celcom Reports 2009 to 2011. If this game is repeated infinitely, collusive behaviour through the use of Tit-For-Tat strategy may result in non-competitive/monopolistic-like pricing which reduces public welfare. Though Maxis had a higher ARPU previously according to the above data, Maxis always need to be proactive in monitoring firms’ behaviour to detect possible tacit collusion through price-signaling. Product differentiation The above game theoretic analysis suggests that if the price-war continues,  Maxis and the other two firms will eventually be forced to price at their marginal costs – similar to a perfectly competitive firm. Therefore, it is rational to expect Maxis or the similar firms to soften the intensity of the price competition through product differentiation and customer segmentation. It is important to note that traditional microeconomic theory treats all consumers as homogenous. In reality, this is not the case and these firms are thus offering different calling plans, pricing structures (ON-Net/Off-Net), pre-bundled minutes and services, etc. Due to bounded rationality and heterogeneous consumption, consumers find it difficult to make head-to head cost-benefits comparisons and thus make the products appear to be somewhat non-homogenous and not fully substitutable for one another. These firms are also competing and differentiating through demand stimulation (‘shifting’ the demand curve) by organizing SMS contests, sponsoring shows like ‘Malaysian Idol’ which encourage SMS voting, etc. where the SMS charges are priced much higher than normal SMS charges in order to drive higher non-voice revenue and profitability as illustrated by Maxis, Celcom and Digi’s 2010 announcements below. Source: DiGi AGM 2011 IRwebsite One has to take note that the marginal costs are almost negligible relative to the huge fixed-cost investments required. ON-Net refers to calls within the same provider’s network. OFF-Net refers to calls made from one provider to another provider’s network. Decision-making based on imperfect information (uncertainty about future, costly to acquire perfect information) and/or limited cognitive capability. Through product differentiation, each differentiated product is addressing its relevant market instead of addressing a large homogenous market, thus allowing Telco’s to raise price above marginal cost (and reduce consumer’s surplus) without losing its entire market share. Thus, product differentiation can soften price competition and create a degree of market  power. We find from the above data that Maxis currently have the highest market power and leading company with the highest revenue. However, these type of firms balance between the reductions in welfare caused by product differentiation pricing above marginal costs versus the increased in welfare by allowing disparate consumers’ preferences to be closely met. Each firm also ensure proper ethical behaviour on the part of the Telco’s to ensure that public welfare is protected in SMS contests, SMS voting, etc. to prevent undesirable negative consumption externalities such as encouraging the habit of ‘gambling’, excessive spending, etc. Advertising Maxis often use advertising to create brand and/or product differentiation in order to soften the price competition. To the extent that persuasive advertising create customer loyalty through perceived differentiation over essentially identical products, they create market power in the sense that consumers may be willing to pay more for preferred brands, thus allowing these type of firms to raise prices above marginal costs. Following the previous assumptions with payoffs ranked in order of preference (higher number is preferred), the most preferred outcome by firms is where one advertises while its competitors don’t, leading to market share and profitability gain at the expense of its rivals. When all firms don’t advertise, there is no change in market-share and profitability. When all firms advertise, market-share remains with reduced profitability. Maxis uses similar strategy by advertising less gaining market share and more profit at expense of its rivals which we can see below: Advertising Expense of 2005 by Malaysian cellular communications industry Communications Sector: Mobile Line Services RM (million) Communications Sector: Mobile Interactive Services RM (million) Total RM (million) Celcom 52.3 Celcom 6.6 58.9 DiGi 37.7 DiGi 5.1 42.8 Maxis 47.8 Maxis 1.9 49.7 Source : www.mcmc.gov.my, Reports by Maxis, Celcom and Digi 2005 Customer Satisfaction Source : SKMM Consumer Survey 2007 at www.mcmc.gov.my The Customer-Satisfaction-Index (CSI) for the three firms are almost similar. We find that Maxis’ performance is satisfactory in the market and can be considered as a leading oligopoly firm among the three. Conclusion Maxis is one of the Malaysian oligopoly cellular communications industry with high entry barriers, mainly due to government licensing restrictions; and high exit barriers due to huge capital investments (sunk costs). However, frequent technology changes could potentially allow â€Å"leapfrogging† by competitors or potential entrants. The market share is with intense price-competition as the market gets more saturated. Non-price competition  is also intense, mainly through advertising. However, as price-competition escalates, other cellular communication industries are pricing closer to marginal costs as evidenced by the steady drop in ARPU over the past few years. Consumer satisfaction is high for Maxis though consumers are seeking for even lower communications charges and greater geographic coverage. Maxis is currently doing a good job and should continue to push ahead with its plan to allow greater customer choice. Maxis should also monitor for deceptive advertising, SMS contests & voting, etc. and also possible tacit collusive behaviour through price-signaling. It is also recommended that Maxis conducts benchmarking against regional and international cellular communication industries on key areas like profitability and/or returns on equity to determine fair-returns, service quality, technical efficiency, etc. to determine the success of its policies in future. _______ References www.theedgedaily.com Digi gains market share†, The Edge Daily, 5 Dec 2005 www.osk188.com www.digi.com.my www.maxis.com.my www.celcom.com.my Maxis Quarterly 2009 Report Maxis Quarterly 2010 Report DiGi 2009 Report DiGi 2010 Report Celcom Annual Report 2010 Maxis Annual Report 2010 DiGi Annual Report 2010 www.mcmc.gov.my www.mobileworld.com.my/ Profit_expense_2005 www.boardroomlimited.com Dixit, A and Skeath, S (2004): Games of Strategy (2nd Ed), W.W.Norton www.wikipedia.org Rosenberg, E.A. and Clements, M.: â€Å"Evolving market structure, conduct and policy in local telecommunications†, The National Regulatory Research Institute. SKMM Consumer Survey 2007 at www.mcmc.gov.my www.boardroomlimited.com/irdigi/†¦/DiGiAGM2011IRwebsite www.theedgemalaysia.com/†¦/170320-digis-2q-profit-up-187-divide†¦ www.digi.my/aboutdigi/media/mr_press_det.do?id=5240†¦4†¦ www.mysarawak.org/2009/10/30/digi’s-subscriber-base-to-grow.html www.boardroomlimited.com/irdigi/irdigi/FA220709.pdf http://telcoblog.nst.com.my/2009/05/celcom-vs-digi-q1-2009.html http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/29/business/1910200&sec=business http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/11/29/business/2675455&sec=business http://telcoblog.nst.com.my/2009/05/celcom-vs-digi-q1-2009.html axiata.listedcompany.com/misc/axiata_presentation_2Q2011.pdf http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/insider-asia/180047-maxis-and-digi-offer-yields-at-fairly-low-risks.html www.maxis.com.my/†¦/Announcement_04_2009_Financial_Result_†¦ axiata.listedcompany.com/misc/axiata_presentation_1Q2011.pdf www.maxis.com.my/personal/†¦/1Q_2011_IR_Pack_(FINAL).pdf Maxis_4Q10_Presentation_FINAL_2 http://www.maxis.com.my/mmc/index.asp?fuseaction=press.view&recID=452 www.maxis.com.my/†¦/Announcement_02_2010_Press_Release.pdf www.maxis.com.my/personal/about_us/†¦/Anmt-PressRelease.pdf www.maxis.com.my/mmc/index.asp?fuseaction=press.view†¦499 www.maxis.com.my/†¦us/†¦/Maxis_4Q10_Presentation_FINAL.pdf http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/insider-asia/179310-mobile-subscriber-additions-surprisingly-robust.html http://www.thesundaily.my/news/business/celcom-may-pass-service-tax http://www.scribd.com/doc/39862337/Telecommunications-Sector-Update-Sizing-Up-The-Pure-Mobile-Domestic-Players-%E2%80%93-Maxis-vs-DiGi-22-10-2010 http://www.scribd.com/doc/60333044/EN for MALAYSIA TELECOMMUNICATIONS REPORT Q3 2011

Residential Schools in Canada

Sociology Dr. C. Barry McClinchey Residential Schools in Canada Before the nineteenth century, the Aboriginal people had their own way of teaching the children in their community, through organic education. In addition to providing knowledge and skills, organic education kept their culture alive (Ravelli & Webber, 2013: pg. 237). This is because the Aboriginal children would also be taught about their culture and its customs. But the Europeans thought, â€Å"Canada’s First Nation peoples were in the way of the relentless onrush of capitalist and industrial expansion (Ravelli & Webber, 2013: pg. 238). This is when the residential education system was established. Since the organic education was what made the Aboriginal culture stronger and last, the Europeans knew they had to break this system in order to weaken the culture. In the film, Education As We See It, some Aboriginal people spoke about their experiences being in a residential school. These experiences they had were n ot pleasant. The paradigm that best helps us examine the overall topic of the film is conflict theory. Many sociological concepts were applied throughout the film such as language extinction, looking-glass self, and self-fulfilling prophecy.The Aboriginal went through many of hardships that the Europeans put them through. Conflict theory is the use of inequality towards another social group to maintain the power of those who dominate (Ravelli & Webber, 2013: pg. 47). The Conflict theory is a paradigm that is well presented throughout the film. The Europeans that settled down in Canada believed that the Aboriginal’s practices were overpowering their beliefs (Ravelli & Webber, 2013: pg. 238). Since the organic education was what made the Aboriginal culture stronger and last, the Europeans knew they had to break this system in order to weaken the culture.And they were able to do this in the residential schooling program. In these residential schools, the Aboriginal children were not allowed to speak their native language and could not see their families, expect for once in a while (Ravelli & Webber, 2013: pg. 238). These children were harshly abused by the nuns in these schools and were terrified of being there. There were many sociological concepts applied in the film, Education As We See It. Language is an important part to culture. Language extinction is a concept presented in the film. When a language is lost, then its culture will start losing its organization.Killing the language of the Aboriginals will lead end their culture, which is what the Europeans wanted. By forcing the Aboriginal children to speak English, the language they spoke with their parents will be lost (Ravelli & Webber, 2013: pg. 131). An Aboriginal that went to a residential school described how they weren’t allowed to speak a word of their language at all and they were restricted from seeing their parents on a regular basis (Bob, Geraldine & Marcuse, 1993). The nuns greatly enforced that these children not speak their language, so that they could completely forget about it.Looking-glass self was a concept that was applied. Looking glass self is how people describe who they are by how others describe them. According to C. H. Cooley, have to envision themselves through social interactions because the mind does not create the â€Å"self† (Ravelli & Webber, 2013: pg. 153). An Aboriginal said that when she was younger and first went to the school, the teacher checked attendance and when she said her name, she answered â€Å"here† in her language and the nun gave her this disgusted look as if she was nothing (Bob, Geraldine & Marcuse, 1993).They make the children feel like speaking their language is horrible. Giving looks also make the child fill like their bad students. The nuns would beat them when they caught them speaking their language or doing anything they felt wasn’t â€Å"civil. † Their ‘self’ is basically r uined because social interactions with others are not good. They are so traumatized that they probably do not even speak at all. They’re unable to go to nuns for help or they’ll get negative responses from them. Another concept used was the self-fulfilling prophecy.It’s when a teacher puts a label to a child and leads to the child actually becoming that label (Ravelli & Webber, 2013: pg. 245). This concept coincides with the looking-glass self concept. What the teacher sees the student as, that student is most likely to become that. This happens because the nuns had low expectation for these children (Ravelli & Webber, 2013: pg. 246). They’re not there to help them, but instead abuse them. For example, this Aboriginal woman explained how her friend experienced her first menstruation cycle and was frightened by it.She went to a nun for help, but the nun just yelled at her saying that she was bad then humiliated the girl by throwing bloody underwear at her in front of everyone at school (Bob, Geraldine & Marcuse, 1993). The nuns were basically showing that the girl was weak and evil and that is what the girl displayed in front of everyone. This behavior and the abuse affect children in the future; making them feel hopeless. And this could lead to them being involved with drug and alcohol abuse. The residential schooling program was such terrible place to be as told in the film Education As We See It.The European missionaries and the church are suppose to be role models and help people, but instead they just cared about making a valuable culture go extinct. And they did this by taking that culture out of the children. This is a conflict theory perspective because the Europeans wanted to be powerful and in order to do this they had to treat the Aboriginals harshly. The concepts language extinction, looking-glass self, and self-fulfilling prophecy were very well applied in this film due to all the experiences the Aboriginals went through when they were children.Even though the residential school system does not exist anymore, it caused long-term damage for the Aboriginals and they will always have this terrible memory with them for the rest of their lives. References Bob, Geraldine and Gary Marcuse. (Directors). 1993. â€Å"Education As We See It. † in First Nations: The Circle Unbroken – Disk 4. [Film]. National Film Board of Canada. Ravelli, B. & Webber, M. (2013). Exploring Sociology. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions.