International and Intercultural Communication Essay

International and Intercultural Communications have been of great interest to the Hofstede Centre for many years. In fact Geert Hofstede’s dimensions of culture have been the most widely disseminated of all theories. Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions are, â€Å"1) Power Distance, 2) Individualism or Collectivism, 3) Masculinity-Femininity, 4) Uncertainty Avoidance, and 5) Short or Long Term Orientation.† (Donald Baack, 2012, Chapter 2.4). â€Å"Professor Geert Hofstede conducted one of the most comprehensive studies of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture. He analyzed a large database of employee value scores collected within IBM between 1967 and 1973. The data covered more than 70 countries, from which Hofstede first used the 40 countries with the largest groups of respondents and afterwards extended the analysis to 50 countries and 3 regions.† (The Hofstede Center, n.d.). In the next few pages I will compare the similarities and differences in scores between the countries of Croatia and Slovenia in relation to Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions as well as provide a scenario involving two organizations, one located in each country and their business practices relating to the different cultural perspectives. In the dimension of Power-Distance Croatia scores high with a score of 73 which means the people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. In this type of society people expect to be told what to do and this is accepted as the norm. (Hofstede Centre, n.d.). Slovenia also scored high in the dimension of Power-Distance with a score of 71. What this displays is two of the former eastern European countries, are very similar in their societal beliefs in hierarchal order and the populace was still routed in a culture where subordinates do as they are told by the boss and the boss is an aut ocrat in the bigger sense. In the second of the  five cultural dimensions Individualism or Collectivism, Croatia scored 33 which are considered a collectivistic society. â€Å"This is manifest in a close long-term commitment to the member ‘group’, be that a family, extended family, or extended relationships. Loyalty in a collectivist culture is paramount, and over-rides most other societal rules and regulations. The society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group. In collectivist societies offence leads to shame and loss of face, employer/employee relationships are perceived in moral terms (like a family link); hiring and promotion decisions take account of the employee’s in-group, management is the management of groups.† (The Hofstede Centre, n.d.). Slovenia, had a score of 27 is also considered a collectivistic society just like we saw in Croatia. Once again the two bordering countries are nearly identical in their collec tivist societies. Our third dimension of Masculinity-Femininity resulted in a score of 40. With this score they are considered a relatively feminine society. Feminine societies focus on the theory of work to live. In a feminine society it is also common for managers to seek consensus. Even with such a disparity in scores and Slovenia’s’ score of 19 on this dimension, they too are considered more of a feminine society. Like the culture of Croatia they work to live and the people value things like equality, solidarity and pleasure in their working lives. â€Å"Conflicts are resolved by compromise and negotiation. Incentives such as free time and flexibility are favored. Focus is on well-being, status is not shown.† (The Hofstede Centre, n.d.). The fourth dimension of Uncertainty Avoidance resulted in a score of 80 signifying a very high preference for avoiding uncertainty. As stated in the Hofstede report, â€Å"Countries exhibiting high uncertainty avoidance maintain rigid codes o f belief and behavior and are intolerant of unorthodox behavior and ideas. In these cultures there is an emotional need for rules (even if the rules never seem to work) time is money, people have an inner urge to be busy and work hard, precision and punctuality are the norm, innovation may be resisted, security is an important element in individual motivation.† (The Hofstede Centre, n.d.). Slovenia also scored quite high with an 88 signifying they too choose to avoid uncertainty and need rules regardless of the effectiveness of them. Our final dimension is the dimension of Short or Long Term Orientation. In the comparison statistics this is referred to as  pragmatism and indulgence. Croatia achieved scores of 58 and 33 respectively. These figures indicate that the Croatian society believe truth is dependent on situations, context of what is said and the time. â€Å"They show an ability to adapt traditions easily to changed conditions, a strong propensity to save and invest thriftiness, and perseverance in achieving results.† (The Hofstede Cen tre, n.d.). The 33 score received for indulgence is an indication of a restrained country. â€Å"Societies with a low score in this dimension have a tendency to cynicism and pessimism. Also, in contrast to indulgent societies, restrained societies do not put much emphasis on leisure time and control the gratification of their desires. People with this orientation have the perception that their actions are restrained by social norms and feel that indulging themselves is somewhat wrong.† (The Hofstede Centre, n.d.). Slovenia had scores of 49 in pragmatism and 48 in indulgence. These scores both result in no clear preference for one or the other. As I have demonstrated by comparing the results for these two countries, bordering countries can be quite similar in some aspects of International and Intercultural Communications but quite different in others. As an example if I opened a car repair business or franchise in these two countries and expected them to work together some of the things I could expect is, they both would struggle with working together since they both prefer autocratic leaders and operate under the concept of being told what to do. What this means to me is that regardless if I am physically there with them or providing communication from afar they will execute all actions to benefit the business in a positive manner. These societies rely on face and losing face through failure is not an option they accept easily. In contrast to this is they both enjoy the benefits of family time, strong ties to immediate and extended family (the organization), managers often seek consensus and conflict is resolved through compromise and negotiation. This later part about conflict resolution is because both societies are feministic in nature and as we all know, women are often times more level headed and less apt to fly off the hand le over little issues that can be resolved in an agreeable manner when thought out and discussed properly. This could be beneficial or difficult since us Americans believe in more time at work than time with family in today’s working environment. I believe this is an instance where I would need to adjust my work ethic in order to  gain more from these two countries in keeping with their societal beliefs and standards. From my perception of Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions is that two companies in these two countries of Croatia and Slovenia would work very well together and in fact complement one another nicely, leading to great success for the organization. What I have done in the past few pages is to demonstrate the similarities and differences in scores between the countries of Croatia and Slovenia in relation to Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions as well as provided you with the scenario involving two organizations, one located in each country and their business practices relating to the different cultural perspectives. I believe Hofstede’s five dimens ions were quite relevant when originally complied and are still quite relevant today. References Baack, D., Management Communication, 2012. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUBUS600.12.1 Mind Tools Ltd, 1996-2014. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_66.htm The Hofstede Centre, National Cultural Dimensions, n.d. Retrieved from http://geert-hofstede.com/national-culture.html The Hofstede Centre, National Cultural Dimensions, n.d. Retrieved from http://geert-hofstede.com/croatia.html

Lgbt Organizations

LGBT Supportive Organizations The first website I visited was called No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice. Their main focus was on an alternative Christian perspective on the issue of homosexuality. They basically believed in advocating justice for all, especially Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgendered persons. The support that I see they give is a sense of belonging. They give the support that many seek with is religious acceptance. This organization is very unique because for many years the church has never really given gays a home; No Longer Silent gives us that place to go to for moral support.Their website gave educational materials like articles on news pertaining to our community. Also materials like scriptures from that give the LGBT community, who are not familiar with the bible; some interpretations and teachings. The next website that I visited was called Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network. Their focus was on assuring that each member of every school commun ity is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. They give support by giving students internet resources on bullying. They also support our LGBT community by starting their campaign â€Å"Think before you speak†.It helps us inform the world that words do hurt and helps in the prevention of anti-gay language. Their website gives educational materials like Facts about Sexual Orientation. They even give resources like crisis support and advocacy. Then I visited the website for Equality Arizona. Their focus is to secure, protect and defend the rights and welfare of LGBT people in Arizona. The support they give is huge throughout the state of Arizona. They are the ones that fight for our rights. They support us in legal stand points like marriage and adoption.As for educational materials, they give many blogs on how our issues are coming along. For example: They explain how our local LGBT leaders respond to President Obama’s Declar ation of Support for Marriage Equality. Next website visited was PFLAG Phoenix. Their focus is on celebrating diversity and envisions a society that embraces everyone, including those of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Their support is very important to our community. Their support is being our family with open arms. It gives parents and families a place where they can show their support for us.They have a lot of educational material for not only our LGBT community but for our families too. It gives terminology, some theories, and most of all many answers to questions. The last website I visited was 1n10. Their focus is on providing our youth with the tools to improve their self-esteem and help with acceptance of who they are. Their support is how they create a safe space, mentally and physically, for youth ranging for 14-24. Their support also includes helping teens by providing homeless shelters and suicide prevention crisis lines. Educational materials were sca rce.I really didn’t find anything other than a lot of resources for different problems our LGBT youth may encounter. To say the truth, I never knew any of these organizations existed. The one that melted my heart the most would be the PFLAG website. Reason being is all LGBT people look for family acceptance. All the pictures of the protesters made me smile. The 1n10 website also struck me because to me the youth is our future. If they are not educated or helped with open arms, society just might take steps back instead of forward. Our adolescent years are crucial especially being LGBT.The Equality Arizona website gives me hope that one day they will push far enough to make Marriage and Adoption legal for us. I think that step would push us through the red tape at the finish line. No Longer Silent is another milestone. I learned that they gives us a place of religion that doesn’t outcast us or tell us we should change because if we don’t we’ll go to hell. That’s important to me because during my coming out I lost faith in religion. The GLSEN website shows me that one day LGBT could one day cease forever. All of these websites posed as a great learning experience.

Pastoral Care and Counseling

Introduction Pastoral care and Counseling is one of the important ministries in the Church at any place in the world. Our churches are filled with people who experience crisis, lost, loneliness, anxiety, depression, divorced, and family problems. Pastors have a huge opportunity to help people just by listening and encouraging those in household of faith. In some cases it is just enough to listen and teach biblical principles of living but in the other cases there is the need to be specifically train people for a specialized ministry of counseling with deeper problems.In the context of my Country, Russia, I choose three issues which mostly need response in the churches. These issues are Premarital Counseling, Marriage Counseling and Crisis care and Counseling. Most of the times we do not feel comfortable to talk about these issues on the church but it do not mean that the problems do not exist. To have a healthy church these issues need to be addressed and pastors need to learn how to approach people because the people are not going to approach pastors first and ask for help. Part I: Premarital CounselingPsychologist Carl Rogers once gave a sobering perspective on marriage. â€Å"If 50-75 percent of Ford or General Motors cars completely fell apart within the early part of their lifetimes as automobiles,† Rogers wrote, â€Å"the public outcry would be overwhelming and drastic steps would be taken to correct the situation. † But this happens to many marriages and hardly anyone rises any complain. Divorce is fre ¬quent, fewer than half of the marriages that persist could be considered successful, and often couples seem unable or unwilling to correct the situation.The same situation and attitude to marriage we have in Russian, people usually get marry in age of 20 and mostly marriages fail after first three years. When I was getting my bachelor degree, 90% of my classmates were getting married at ages of 20 – 21 but 95% of them got divorced i n the senior year of College. I am talking about secular world and we may have a different statistics among Christians but the fact is that young people have no clue what marriage is about.There are many reasons for the present instability of marriages, but one of the many causes of failure is built prima ¬rily on sexual attraction, the desire to escape from a difficult home situation, a vague feeling of love, or some equally fleeting motive. Many marriage relationships are too flimsy to survive the pressures, challenges, and storms of daily living. Unprepared for the stresses or for the effort and determination required making mar ¬riage work, many people prefer to give up and bail out. That which was meant to be meaningful and fulfilling thus becomes frustrating and personally devastating.I believe that if the society in Russian would pay more attention on premarital counseling in the church and outside then the family institution would have grow stronger and that would lead t he country to success because the foundation of any country is the family institution. Premarital counseling seeks to help individuals, couples, and groups of couples to prepare for and build happy, fulfilling, Christ-honoring, and successful marriages. There are many values in premarital counseling if it is done carefully and consistently by the pastor. One of these values is the satisfaction that it brings to him personally.One pastor cannot change this societal attitude by himself, but each one can experience the inner reward of knowing he has done his part to change this pre ¬vailing attitude. The values of premarital counseling are first of all to help the couple to approach marriage more realistically because they are aware of only two things that they are in love, and they want to spend their lives together. Another value of premarital counseling is that it affords each partner a better understanding of himself. A value of great importance is the knowledge that each partner gains of the other through the counseling process.The pastor must help the partners to gain a greater understanding of the thought patterns of each other. Another practical value of premarital counseling is that partners can see the value of, and gain experience in the skill of communication. Finally, a great value of premarital counseling is that it helps persons to realistically determine if they are making the right choice regarding marriage. Reasons for premarital guidance Gary Collins outlines seven basic principles of premarital counseling that I found helpful in my context. These are: 1.Unrealistic Expectations That Can Lead to Disillusionment. When they ap ¬proach marriage, perhaps most people assume that they have unique relationships. Perhaps these expectations are changing now that marriage failures are so much taken for granted. Often there is impatience, insensitivity, self-centered, attitudes, inadequate skill in relating, and great disappointment and disillusionmen t when one's expectations for marriage are not met quickly. Premarital counseling lets couples express, discuss, and realistically modify their expectations for marriage. 2.Personal Immaturity That Can Lead to Insensitivity. Most 92% marriages in Russian happened because of pregnancy and this is the normal thing nowadays. It is not surprising that one's attitudes and behavior within a marriage differ little from the characteristics that were brought to the relationship. If one or both of the participants are self-centered, hypercritical, impatient, competitive, or striving for status—that is, immature—before marriage, these traits will put a strain on marital stability later. People who are irresponsible before marriage tend to be irresponsible after the wedding.Premarital counseling should seek to uncover and discuss the self-centered tendencies that put strain on a marriage. The couple must be taught how to resolve differences, and they must develop both sensitivity and a willingness to accept and meet each other's needs. This involves giving freely to one's mate just as Christ gave to us. 3. Changing Roles That Can Lead to Confusion. Confusion and conflict may follow when a man and woman each come to marriage with unclear roles and vague expectations about their own and each other's responsibilities.Differing assumptions and views about who is supposed to do what can lead to tension unless the couple has learned to communicate honestly, not defensively, and in loving way. Premarital counseling provides an opportunity for a couple to begin this type of communication. Together they can learn to discuss their different expectations and decide on areas of responsibility. Such role clarification must not ignore biblical teachings. According to Scrip ¬ture, both the Christian husband and wife must be filled with the Spirit: daily confessing sin, giving thanks, and praying for the Holy Spirit to control each of their lives.There also must be an att itude of mutual submission to each other, but the more stringent requirements are laid on the husband. The husband and wife are equally valuable and equally important in the building of a good marriage, but they have different responsibilities. 5. Loosening Sexual Standards That Can Lead to Immorality. Sex before marriage is not new and neither is it rare, even among Christians. But as a result of these more liberal attitudes, dating for many has become a time for exploring each other's bodies and genitals instead of each other's mind, feelings, beliefs, values, and expectations.Sexual standards are loosening and premarital sex, even among Christians, appears to be more preva ¬lent. Nevertheless the Bible still calls this immorality a violation of God's best for our lives. Issues like this should be discussed honestly, faced compassionately, and examined biblically. 6. Previous Experiences That Can Lead to Overconfidence. Books on premarital counseling often assume that most coupl es are young, inexperienced, and entering their first marriage. This is not always true. Many prospective brides and grooms have been previously married.Some previously married people recognize the need for new adjustments and appreciate the help that can come from a sensitive counselor. More often, it seems, people approaching remarriage resist premarital counseling and assume that it is unnecessary and only for those who have had no prior marital experience. The counselor can challenge unrealistic attitudes, help the couple see potential problems that even previously married people might miss, and guide them to resolve issues that may have been unresolved following the previous marriage. 7. Circumstances That Can Lead to Later Misery.When they come to marriage, some people bring what one counselor calls red-flag situations that need special scrutiny and evaluation. Some of these circumstances were mentioned as pregnant bride, one or both participants on the rebound from a previous marriage or engagement, serious drug involvement, emotional problems or mental instability, serious mental or physical handicaps, no financial security, contrasting cultural backgrounds or religious beliefs, wide gaps in education or age differences, and knowing each other for a very short time. Many marriages do not survive.Premarital counseling should not be viewed as a painful procedure designed to snatch unsuspecting couples from the grips of marital misery. Most premarital counseling is done, not with pathological people, but with relatively healthy indi ¬viduals who can be helped to enhance and enrich a growing relationship. Format It should be obvious that a counselor cannot accomplish all of these purposes in one brief interview. Most writers recommend that there be at least five or six one-hour sessions prior to the wedding. This of course can be demanding.It is easy for time pressures and counselee busyness to combine in convincing the counselor that a briefer period of premarital counseling would suffice. Try to resist that temptation. There is much to be discussed if a marriage is to be built on a solid foundation. The general goals according to Hamilton, include the following: (1) an understand ¬ing of the meaning of marriage within the framework of biblical truth and Christian theology, (2) an understanding of the problems affecting marriage in contemporary culture, and (3) an understanding of the Christian concept of the value of human personality.As the pastor deals with these broad concepts he seeks to expand his counselees' awareness of the importance of marriage in the light of its biblical and historical roots, of the unique pressures being brought upon marriage in our times, and of Christianity's view of the worth of persons. All of these goals are of vital importance in building a sound philosophy of marriage.The specific goals, according to Hamilton, center in the following areas: (1) an understanding of each partner's role-percepti on in the forth ¬coming marriage, (2) an understanding of each partner's role-expectation of the other, (3) an understanding of how each partner evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the other, (4) an understanding of the potential strengths and weaknesses of the proposed marriage, and (5) a careful examination of particular problems likely to arise.The underlying, practical goal of all premarital counsel ¬ing is twofold: (1) to enable the partners to pre-solve some potential marriage problems before they arise; and (2) to give the partners knowledge of, and experience in, the art of com ¬munication, which is so necessary in the building of a rich and rewarding relationship. The pastor who wishes to do a creditable job of premari ¬tal counseling should think in terms of at least three sessions: (1) one with the woman, (2) one with the man, and (3) one with both.In each of the individual sessions the pastor will be engaging in four main functions: (1) listening, (2) quest ion ¬ing, (3) analyzing, and (4) teaching. Listening As in other types of counseling, the pastor needs to hear what is, and is not, being said. Only by careful listening can the pastor come to valid insights regarding the counselee’s real feelings about his personal relationship with the proposed marriage partner. Questioning Skillful use of questions enables the pas ¬tor to gather the type of data he needs to help persons prepare for marriage.Questioning will center in the two broad areas of facts and feelings. The area of facts will have to do with such aspects as how they met, how long they have known each other, how long they have dated, and when they plan to marry. The questioning should then move to the deeper level of feelings. This area has to do with such matters as the counselee’s true feelings about the idea of marriage, the de ¬mands of marriage, his perception of his partner as a marriage mate, and his own feelings regarding his ability to be a suità ‚ ¬able marriage partner.The pastor should not hesitate to question his counselees regarding their feelings about every aspect of the marriage relationship including such matters as where they will live and in what kind of dwelling, how many children they want, where they will attend church, whether the wife will be em ¬ployed outside the home (along with how long, how much, and what kind of work), how they will use their leisure time, where they will find their friends and how they will develop social relationships, how each feels about the husband's job, and if either plans for further education.He should also ex ¬amine their attitudes toward in-laws, money, and sex. As the pastor probes the deeper levels of his parishioners' feelings he gains the type and amount of information he needs as he pro ¬ceeds to analysis. Analyzing After the data is sorted out and analyzed, the pastor is ready for a joint session (or sessions) with the partners. In most cases there will be some di fferences in how each partner perceives certain aspects of the future marriage. These are the areas that will need to be given special and care ¬ful attention during the joint session.It is at this time that the two partners will need to be shown the importance of com ¬munication. It will also provide a rich opportunity for them to begin to develop new and better ways of communicating their feelings to each other. Teaching Lastly, the pastor engages in the function of teaching. The amount and type of teaching that is to be done will be determined by what the pastor has discovered in the individual counseling sessions. The broad areas covered in his teaching will usually include the Christian view of mar ¬riage, the tatus of marriage in contemporary culture, the responsible use of sex, the basic differences in maleness and femaleness (most feel they understand the opposite sex but do not), and the art of communication. As a part of his teach ¬ing function the pastor should be prepared to recommend and loan helpful books and articles in areas where the partners lack understanding. It is also important for the pastor to point out the value of a medical examination for the prospective bride, if not for both partners. Thorough work in premarital counseling may involve more than three counseling sessions, but that is the minimum.While this is both time-consuming and exhausting, it is less so than marriage counseling. If a pastor does his premarital counseling work well he may be saving himself, or some other pastor or counselor, from involvement in more extensive mar ¬riage counseling later on. Of greater significance, of course, is that premarital counseling helps couples to build the kind of relationships that are both solid and satisfying We have high incidences of divorce in the church in Russia particularly among young people because they are often pushed into early marriage by teenage pregnancies.Such people do not have any opportunity for premarital counseling. The church often treat them with disdain and may not be readily open to give them some basic premarital counseling that would help sustain them when they get married. Part II: Marriage Counseling Marriage is not a very stable institution at least in the Western and Eastern worlds. In Russia the average duration of a marriage is only 5 years. More than a million couples are divorced every year. Many who stay together have marriages tolerable but not especially happy.Even though happy marriages like these do exist and are possible, we live in a time when marital unhappiness is more common and where many see divorce as a convenient and ever-present fire escape should marital conflicts get too hot to handle. Marriage, the permanent union created by God, is treated more and more as a temporary arrangement of convenience. Marriage is one of the first topics discussed in the Bible. But what does the Bible say about marital problems and ways to help troubled mar ¬riages? Almo st nothing!It should be remembered that marital conflict often is a symptom of something deeper, such as selfishness, lack of love, unwillingness to forgive, anger, bitterness, communication problems, anxiety, sexual abuse, drunkenness, feelings of inferior ¬ity, sin, and a deliberate rejection of God's will. Each of these can cause marital tension, each can be influenced by husband-wife conflict, and each is discussed in the Bible. The causes of marital problems Some common marital problems as found in Russian culture outline by Collins as follow: 1. Faulty Communication.In the professional literature, this probably is the most commonly mentioned cause of marital discord. Citing James 4:1-3, psychologist Lawrence Crabb notes that communication problems inevitably result when people pursue self-centered goals, but sometimes problems also come because individuals have not learned how to communicate clearly and efficiently. Most of us would agree that occasional miscommunication bet ween spouses is inevitable. When miscommunication is more common than clear communication, however, the marriage begins to have serious problems.Poor communication tends to breed more of the same. Try to remember that communication is a learned interaction. Even when it is not good, people can learn to make it better. 2. Underintegrated or Overintegrated Relationships, Getting close to another person is risky. We open ourselves to criticism and possible rejection when we let another person know us intimately, he become aware of our insecurities, or see our weaknesses. Since most of us have learned the value of fending for ourselves, it is not easy to trust another person—even when that other person is a marriage partner 3 Interpersonal Tension.When two people marry, each comes to the marriage with approximately two or more decades of past experiences and ways of looking at life. Each has perspectives that are not shared by the other and sometimes, even when there is a sincere desire for compromise or synthesis, couples still has diffi ¬culty resolving their differences. What happens if there is unwillingness to change, insensitivity to the other person's viewpoints, or a refusal to acknowledge the differences?Often there is tension that frequently centers on one of the following issues: Sex: At times most couples have sexual problems. These include lack of accu ¬rate knowledge, unrealistic expectations, fear of not being able to perform ade ¬quately, differences in sexual drive, inhibiting attitudes about sex, and insufficient opportunities for privacy. Roles: We live at a time when traditional male-female roles are being reeval ¬uated. This often leads to conflict over what it means to be a husband or wife. The society gives little guidance because opinions seem to be changing so rapidly.Inflexibility: When a man and woman marry, each brings a unique personality to the marriage. Sometimes these personality differences complement each other and blend into a mutually compatible relationship. Often marriages take on personalities of their own, each of which can have strengths and weak points. There can be difficulties, however, if one or both of the partners is rigid, unwilling to give, or strongly resistant to change. Religion: The Bible warns of problems when a believer and an unbeliever try to live together in marriage.Counselors have observed tensions when a husband and wife differ from each other in their denominational preferences, degree of com ¬mitment to spiritual things, interest in religion, or expectations about the religious education of children. Sometimes these differences create tension in other areas such as choice of friends, views of ethics, whether and to whom charitable donations will be given, or the use of time on Sundays. Religion can be a binding, strengthening force in a marriage, but when a husband and wife have different viewpoints, religion can also be a destructive focus for marital tension.Va lues: What is really important in life? How should we spend our time and money? What are our goals? These questions concern values. When a couple has similar values, the marriage is often healthy and growing. When values are in con ¬flict, however, the relationship may be one of tension, power struggles, and mutual criticism. Value conflicts are at the heart of many marital problems. Consider, for example, how some of the following value alternatives could create potential for conflict. Functions of the Marriage Counselor The functions of the Marriage Counselor are: To hear the hurts that the counselees are feeling. In many cases these hurts have been intense, of long duration, and unexpressed to a third party. The reason that the counselor needs to hear the hurts is because the counselee feels his or her partner has not truly heard him or her. Attempts to be heard by his mate have been aborted, and this adds to his anxiety and frustration. When he feels that his counselor is gett ing his message and is feeling with him, he experiences the catharsis he needs in order to approach his problem more realistically. 2. To clarify problems.Most persons who come for counsel are aware of symptoms but they do not understand what is producing those symptoms. Most people are so confused they do not know what their problem is until they visit a counselor. 3. To help in the understanding of roles. Most couples are confused of their roles. Be ¬cause it is difficult for one to see the gap between his per ¬ception of himself and his behavior, he feels that he is misunderstood if his mate points out this discrepancy to him. When both partners are thus criticizing each other, each feels mistreated and frustrated. . To fa ¬cilitate communication. A communication problem happens when partners have unresolved conflict between them. The counselor helps deal with the conflicts then now they have free flow of communication. 5. To encourage change in perception and behavior. It is not enough for the counselor to hear hurts, clarify problems, aid in the understanding of roles, and aid in facilitating communication. He must help motivate the partners both to think themselves into a new way of behaving and to behave themselves into a new way of thinking.Moti ¬vation is usually achieved, at least to a degree, when feelings have been ventilated, the problem is seen in clearer perspec ¬tive, and communication lines have been opened. Some marital problems in Russia are like an inflamed appendix, capable of killing but relatively simple to remove. Other problems will be of such depth and severity that the pastor will not be able to deal with them. This means that he will need to refer them to a professional counselor, a psychologist or a psychiatrist. The pastor need not feel defeated by his inability to help such persons.If it is any comfort to him, he should be aware that some marital problems lie beyond the skill of even the best of professionals. Therefore , while he may be truly sorry that he is not able to help in some cases, he should not be embarrassed by this inability. Such failures should, however, encourage him to continue his study of counseling so that his knowledge will expand and his skills will increase. Part III: Care and Counseling in Crises Situation A crisis happens all the time in all cultures nobody is exempted from crisis: big or small, reach or poor, educated or uneducated.A crisis is a part of our lives it is usually happen when person cannot solve the problems by himself. This is where pastoral service is required. A personal crisis develops in four stages: (1) the problem causes tension to the person. (2) Failure to respond to this need produce feelings of anxiety, confu ¬sion, and guilt. (3) When this continues unsolved it develops into a crisis situation that may require external help. (4) If the problem is not resolved, the inner stress of unmet needs mounts until it reaches another threshold—the br eaking point. This is full blown crisis.Caplan in his book Principle of Preventive Psychiatry distinguishes two categories of crises Developmental and Accidental: Developmental crises are normal in the sense that they happen as an integral part of all or many people's growth. Among these are birth, weaning, toilet training, the oedipal conflict, going to school, adolescence, leaving home, completing school, entering a vocation, engagement, marriage adjustment (or the adjustment of singlehood), pregnancy, parenthood, the middle-age crisis, loss of parents, menopause, retirement, death of spouse, death of friends, and eventually one's own dying.These stressful experiences are the occasions of crises for an individual to the extent that they pose problems for which her or his previous coping abilities are inadequate. Each developmental stage and crisis is the occasion for a variety of caring and counseling opportunities. Accidental crises can occur at any age, precipitated by unexpecte d losses of what one regards as essential sources of need satisfaction.Precipitating experiences include all the life events listed on the Holmes-Rahe scale below, loss of status and respect; an accident or surgical operation; mental illness or alcoholism; a physical handicap; an unwanted pregnancy; a natural disaster such as a flood or earthquake; or a massive social calamity such as a war or economic depression. Crises can be triggered by seemingly positive changes such as a job promotion or graduation from college. All these events produce emotionally hazardous situations. Crises happen in people rather than to them, but they tend to occur in high-stress, emotionally hazardous situations.A crisis is more than simply a time of danger, pain, and stress to be endured. It is important for the counselor to see that it is a turning point, a growth opportunity where persons move toward or away from greater personality strength and wholeness. This makes crisis counseling a strategic help ing opportunity. Informal Crisis Counseling Much of the counseling done by pastors takes place in informal settings without being called counseling. This is what happen most in my context. Pastors meet a need a attend to it immediately without insisting that the person concerned must book an appointment before seeing him to discuss the issue.Some occurs in the minister's office or home when people drop by for a chat, without an appointment. By allowing the sensitivities and skills of counseling to permeate their many informal and chance encounters, ministers can help many times the number of people they could reach through formal counseling alone. While it is important that pastors should have some private time for themselves and family, it also important to have parishioners know that their pastor ordinarily is available when severe crises strike unexpectedly.As ministers learn to recognize and utilize the pastoral care opportunities potentially present in many interpersonal contac ts, this becomes a natural pastoral reflex. They discover frequent opportunities to do informal one-session crisis counseling during the ordinary encounters of parish life. Occasionally these will become formal and multiple-session counseling relationships. Informal counseling is informal in one or more of these ways – the setting may be anywhere—a street corner, a grocery store, a hospital room, the church lounge, a parishioner's office or living room, in meeting, etc.The counseling happens in the context of a relationship not identified as counseling—a chance encounter or a pastoral call, perhaps following a meeting or Sunday service. The person's mind-set reflects this informal atmosphere. He/she probably thinks of what occurs as â€Å"talking over a problem with the pastor† rather than counseling. The structure and sequence of formal counseling interviews—appointments, stated time limits, and an agreed-upon series of sessions—are usually lacking. Such brief informal counseling can be very helpful to some people.Informal crisis counseling opportunities occur frequently during a pastor's home and hospital visits. Much of what is done during such calls is general pastoral care. It becomes a counseling issue when the counselee is aware of his /her problem and the pastor shows his willingness to help with the problem. The counselee is able to overcome his/her fear of disclosing the problem to another person with the hope that he/she is going to be helped in such action. Such confidence to disclose the problem does not normally come automatically. It comes with a lot of struggles.Such persons often are receptive to informal counseling long before they enter formal counseling. Some people have great difficulty making a formal appointment for counseling, even when wrestling with very painful problems. They feel that to do so would be to admit failure, which would increase their feelings of low self-esteem and powerlessness . This is why the ability of pastors to go to people, make themselves emotionally available, offer help, and establish informal counseling relationships is a priceless professional asset, which should be used to the full!How can ministers create opportunities, during their pastoral contacts, for care-giving conversations, informal and formal counseling? First, they know or suspect that such and such is in particular need of pastoral care—the bereaved, the sick, the unemployed, the depressed, the hospitalized, the disgruntled, those in psychotherapy, newlyweds, new parents, the recently retired, the handicapped, alcoholics and their families, the lonely, those with disturbed or handicapped children, and those who face painful crises and perplexing decisions.An alert pastor often senses intuitively that a certain family is under extreme pressure. Such â€Å"pastoral care suspects† should go on the Special Help List. By devoting extra pastoral visitation time to these per sons, ministers can build strong relationship bridges with them. Such relationship can bring pastoral care and informal counseling help to the troubled, and also make it easier for them to seek formal counseling. The building of relationship bridges with those who are likely to need help but are not yet motivated to seek it, are described by Seward Hiltner as precounseling.The many interpersonal contacts of pastors contribute to this objective if people feel they are warm, nonjudgmental, caring, competent, shockproof, not â€Å"too busy,† and human—aware of their own humanity . Clinebell believes that, a pastor's sensitivity to the subtle signs of distress is an asset in spotting potential counseling opportunities. Many ministers walk by on the other side of their parishioners' Jericho Roads simply because they lack awareness. The pastor's emotional radar antennas should be tuned to the wavelength of people in order to pick up subtle cries for help and coded â€Å"may day† signals.Clinebell highlights some basic typical distress signals that can help pastors understand people in need. These are: Embarrassment at the minister's call: A frantic attempt to keep the conversation on the surface, avoiding all depth encounters. Depression: including such symptoms as sleeplessness; loss of interest in one's usual pleasures; anxious agitation or heavy sluggishness; feelings of worthlessness, emptiness/meaninglessness or helplessness; a phony-fixed smile. Veiled antagonism between spouses: sometimes hidden behind saccharine-sweet surface behavior.Emotionally disturbed children: including those with behavior problems, (which often reflect hidden marital unhappiness). Frequent intoxication: particularly at inappropriate times. A radical change in usual behavior: including church attendance. Irrational or frantically compulsive behavior. Guilty avoidance of the pastor. Affiliating with extremist political or religious groups. When such distress signals are identified, pastors should make every effort to be emotionally accessible to the persons and to offer help in a way that respects their right to refuse it.A third way to open up informal and formal counseling opportunities is the judicious use of â€Å"openers†Ã¢â‚¬â€questions or statements designed to interrupt superficial conversation and provide an opening for people to discuss their real feelings and issues if they choose. Here are some samples: â€Å"How are things going for you in this difficult situation? † â€Å"What you're saying feels very heavy. † â€Å"How are things going with you really? † â€Å"You seem to be feeling very discouraged (upset, angry, remorseful). † â€Å"I get the feeling you have a burden on your mind. Although such openers may startle people initially, they express the pastor's concern and by implication, offer help. A well-chosen question, asked with warmth and empathy, can help free people to talk about their burdens. A question about one's spiritual health is as appropriate from a minister as is a question about one's physical health from a family doctor. Conclusion Pastoral Care and Counseling ministry is the most important ministry next to the ministry of preaching of the Gospel. People who are hurting they are not be able to listen the Gospel without a healing balm of their wounds.Only Pastors are caring such methods of healing. The Gospel itself addresses to totality of man: spiritual and body. When one part is addressed to the negligence to the other the total needs of man will not be made. Pastors who are sensitive to the hurts of members of their congregation and unable to address such hurts through the appropriate counseling technique are more likely to be successful in ministry then those who neglect these needs. The course Pastoral Care and Counseling has opened my understanding to these needs in our congregation. I got more focused in this area of ministry.And I wish to purs ue it in the future. Bibliography: Benner, David. Strategic Pastoral counseling. Michigan: Baker Book House,1998; Barister C. W . Pastoral care in the church. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1992; Cavanagh, John. Fundamental Pastoral Counseling. Ireland: The mergier press, 1963; Cobb, John. Theology and Pastoral Care. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979; Collins, Gary. Christian Counseling . Dallas: Word Publishing, 1988; Clinebell Haward. Basic Types of Pastoral care and Counseling. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992; Hamilton, James. The ministry of Pastoral Counseling. Michigan: Baker Book House 1975.

AN EXTENSIVE ANALYSIS OF BELOVED, BY TONI MORRISON Essay

AN EXTENSIVE ANALYSIS OF BELOVED, BY TONI MORRISON - Essay Example But before we can relegate the statement to this easy explanation, we must consider the answers to what is ‘it’ referring to; an answer that can change depending upon the way in which it is read. By understanding the general plot line of the story and the reasons why Morrison might have built this deliberately ambiguous statement into the novel, it becomes possible to understand how the various approaches might interpret the story differently in such a way that most of them reach the same final conclusion – that here is a story that absolutely must be told. The story follows the fictional character Sethe, who lives in a small â€Å"gray and white house on Bluestone Road† (Morrison, 1988, p. 1) with her daughter Denver. Throughout the story, we learn these two women have not always lived alone, nor will they remain alone as the story progresses. As the story opens, we learn that Sethe and Denver once lived with Sethe’s two sons, Howard and Bugler, who have both run away as a result of strange, ghostly activities happening at the house. They also once lived with Baby Suggs, Sethe’s mother-in-law and the woman who taught Sethe how to live again after escaping slavery. Very quickly, we are also introduced to Paul D, who was one of the men Sethe had worked with on Sweet Home, the Kentucky plantation where she, her husband and several others had been cruelly treated as slaves. Upon her escape from slavery, an event that happened many years prior to the opening of the story, Sethe murdered her youngest child, a girl, as p art of a desperate attempt to keep her precious daughter from experiencing the type of degradation and abuse Sethe experienced at the hands of Schoolteacher. It is this child who returns to haunt her mother and family in later years, manifesting itself in the bodily form of Beloved, who feeds off of this desperation to eventually bring about a final resolution. It is through

Role and Effects of Financial Intermediaries Essay

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The writer can write any suitable topic relating to what he's Essay

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United Nations and USA Interventions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

United Nations and USA Interventions - Essay Example As a result, intervention in conflicts become an important part of it work. The United States of America is a nation that is made of states occupying the Northern part of America. The making of United States and its ascension to world superpower signifies a path full of conflict. After the Second World War, it emerged as one of the powerful states in the world and the end of cold war era brought a new world order with the United States as the only superpower in the world. Therefore as the only superpower in the world, the United States has had an upper hand in most of the world affairs. As such there are many instances where United States has intervened in conflicts but also in times when there was not intervention which was needed. (Shah 2008, p. 3) Intervention can be considered as a form of arbitration which is meant to bring the conflicting sides together or to mitigate the situation. There have been many forms of interventions in the world depending on the nature of conflict at hand. An intervention is supposed to be in interests of protecting the welfare of all the parties involved or in interest of protecting one of the parties that cannot stand the strength of the other in the conflict. There have been raging arguments concerning the provisions of the UN charter on intervention with conflicting sides arguing about the need to use military intervention in order to bring peace to warring parties and opponents arguing that this has not been provide by the UN charter on intervention and it amounts to violation of human rights. (Shema 2005, p. 1) Throughout history, there have been instance where thousands of innocent citizens have been slaughtered or displaced in the eye of the international community with same kind of argument prevailing. In 1994 thousands of Rwandans were slaughtered and millions of others displaced as the international community watched and the response was that Rwanda was a small unknown country. Since 2000, millions of people have been murdered in Darfur region of Sudan and other displaced as the world watches. These are some of the instance that has called for intervention by use of force in order to end such a crisis. Therefore the overall aim of any intervention is to protect the civilians from sufferings that they may be undergoing especially when the cause can be traced back to a political conflict. Historical interventions of the UN and US Since 1990s, there have been increased humanitarian interventions in the world. This has been due to increased incidence of conflicts and the traditional political system collapsed and countries tried to position themselves in the changing world. There has also been struggle for independence and many political conflicts. When it was formed the UN has been able to intervene in a number of conflict in the world especially in the Middle East in 1948 in Israel, 1957 in Egypt, 1958 in Lebanon and Syria, 1964 in Yemen, 1973 in Israel, 1978 in Lebanon, 1991 in Kuwait, and many others. It has also been involved in intervention in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India in 1988 and 1990. It has also intervened in African in 1992 in Somalia, 1999 in Sierra Leone, 1999, in Congo and recently in Darfur. These are just but some of the instance that the UN has intervened. The number of times that the US has intervened in the world are countless same as the number of countries where it ahs intervened. The history of

Factors That Contribute To Depression Among Adults Research Paper

Factors That Contribute To Depression Among Adults - Research Paper Example Everyone gets sad at one time or another. But there are those I have seen get depressed – that feeling of prolonged sadness that is always written on the faces of some people. I have had been depressed in my life too. I have seen people get depressed. When you ask someone why they are depressed, some have their reasons, others do not even know why they are depressed. And the number of those suffering from depressing has been growing all over the world and has even attracted the attention of the World Health Organization. Depression has been a major challenge in the world with people of all ages and both gender suffering from depression at homes, in schools, and at places of work. Long time ago, before scientific explanations could be made, depression was seen to be a punishment from God for something human being did or failed to do. It was therefore not seen as a medical condition but as one with religious connotations. According to a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, depression was most prevalent in persons aged 45 – 64 years. This suggests that depression is most prevalent among older adults hence the need to examine what causes depression in adults. Currently, depression is seen as a major medical condition and studies have shown a rise in the number of depressed citizens all over the world. While cases of depression rise, the factors that contribute to depression have not yet been exhaustively identified making it hard for medical practitioners to efficiently prevent the rising cases. When am depressed sometimes it is because I have lost someone through death, or I am just stressed. Those I see around me getting depressed also have their reasons, some similar to mine, others not. Like I have said before, some of them do not even know why they are depressed. There has been a plethora of opinion articles and studies dedicated to finding out the factors that contribute to depression. Even though the real causes of depression are not known, as most researchers agree, a number of factors have generally been suggested as having an influence on depression among adults. Dr. Carol Miller in her book Nursing for Wellness in Older Adults identifies the factors as demographic factors and psychosocial influences, medical conditions and functional impairments, and effects of medications and alcohol. A number of authors agree with Dr. Miller on these factors. For instance, according to ADAM Medical Encyclopedia, depression may be caused by stressful life events such as death or illness of someone close, divorce, childhood abuse or neglect, and relationship break-ups. Another stressful even related to these factors is loneliness as explained in the article and affects mostly the elderly. These are mostly psychological factors and may greatly impact the levels of depression in adults. One other related factor here is loneliness. Judy Martin in an article in Forbes magazine shows that stress is a major cause of depression at work as stressed employees to do not report their frustrations for fear of being fired at work for complaining. They therefore keep to themselves and depression sets in. As people, especially men, beco me depressed, they tend to hide their depression through alcohol or use of drugs. But it may also be true that in some cases, depression may be caused by alcohol use. As ADAM Medical Encyclopedia explains, men who are depressed are more likely than women to mast the symptoms with alcohol. The author agrees that while this is the case, alcohol use causes depression in adults. This also mirrors the views of Dr. Miller on alcohol as a cause of depression in adults. Medical conditions have also been seen as one of the causes of depress

Biology (medical botany) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Biology (medical botany) - Essay Example Several findings and implications of the same are established in this study. It concluded that an inhibition was exhibited in the migration of the endothelial cells of the human umbilical cord, in vitro, due to the use of both drugs. Subsequently, the researchers noted that the result of the migration as synergistically inhibited was due to the combination of the two drugs; thus, implying that the drugs were synergestically related. In another perspective, the drugs indicated independent action modes given that artesunate, in XTT assay, repressed HUVEC growth, while captopril in XTT array did not in the entire range of the dose. In establishing the quail egg CAN assay, the study established that a significant reduction in the surface area of the vascular chorioallantoic membranes was noted. The artesunate is shown to have an impact on the growth and structure of the blood cells as witnessed in the veins of the eggs that did not turn red. However, the formation of the blood vessels was inhibited by both drugs, significantly, as compared to the DMSO, which was the negative control. In another finding that analysed the branching of the blood vessels in quail CAM assay, measurements made revealed that the branches fractions and lengths in quail eggs treated by both artesunate and captopril significantly differed from the DMSO with the P Consequently, in testing for the synergism between the captopril and artesunate in vivo, the IC50 values for both drugs were determined for single doses. The effect of this was that a substance that was not affected by the drug, its obtained vascular area was to be 50% of the negative control. If lower than 50%, then the substances acted antagonistically, while if higher than 50%, then the substances acted synergistically. In

Comparisons between two retail organizations namely JC Penney and Research Paper

Comparisons between two retail organizations namely JC Penney and Kohls - Research Paper Example Furthermore, the state of New York has been chosen as a base location for comparison between these two organizations. One store from each organization has been chosen for contrasting between the retailers. ABOUT JC PENNEY AND KOHL’S The business of JC Penney comprises selling various products like apparel, shoes, accessories, jewelry, beauty items and home decoration products along with delivering different services such as salon, photography and decorating among others to the customers by its departmental stores. Since the foundation of the organization, JC Penney has grown to about 1104 departmental stores in 49 states of the US (JCP Media Inc., â€Å"J. C. Penney Company, Inc.†). On the other hand, Kohl’s also provide apparel, footwear, accessories, home products and house wares among others. By the end of the year 2012, Kohl’s has nearly 1146 stores in the entire US region (Kohl's Illinois, Inc., â€Å"Kohl’s Corporation†). SHOPPING ITEMS The shopping list on which the comparison will be made comprise rings from jewelry and watches category, bath towels from bed and bath category, bedroom furniture from furniture category, women dresses from women category and men athletic shoes from shoes category. Appendix 1 would show the list of the selected items along with price range and average price (JCP Media Inc., â€Å"Free Shipping Everyday†; Kohl's Illinois, Inc., â€Å"Kohl’s Expect Great Things†). ... In this context, it can be viewed that JC Penney and Kohl’s have considerable number of stores in New York City. With respect to JC Penney, the closest store is located at Serramonte Center with distance of 8.9 miles from the city, hence this store has been chosen for the study (JCP Media Inc., â€Å"Find A Store†) Concerning Kohl’s, closest mall is Jersey City Mall which is situated at distance of 2.64 miles from the New York City and has been selected for the analysis (Kohl's Illinois, Inc., â€Å"Store†). Customer Service: With respect to customer services, it can be apparently observed that the services of Kohl’s are superior to JC Penny. The stores of Kohl’s are opened longer then JC Penney i.e. in weekdays, the stores of Kohl’s are opened from 8 am to 10 pm, whereas the stores of JC Penney are opened from 10 am to 9.30 pm. In Sunday also, the stores of Kohl’s remain open for longer hours than JC Penney. On the other hand, it can also be observed that it takes much time to talk with the customer service representatives in JC Penney than Kohl’s. However, in JC Penney, the employees are quite able to handle customer service related issues with courtesy and competence. On the other hand, employees of Kohl’s are able to provide support in understanding the cause of any kind regarding customer related issues and provide solutions to the problems. The employees of JC Penney also possess strong knowledge about product features than the employees of Kohl’s (JCP Media Inc., â€Å"Find A Store†; Kohl's Illinois, Inc., â€Å"Store†). Store Layout: The store layout of JC Penney is concentrated on representing a streamlined visual display for the customers. JC Penney restricts the number of displays in the stores and it replaces the inventory

Cyberterrorism Essay Example for Free

Cyberterrorism Essay The term cyberterrorism was created in the mid 90’s by combining cyberspace and terrorism. The term has been widely accepted after being embraced by the United State Intelligence Community. Janczewski and Colarik describe cyberterrorism as â€Å"Premeditated, politically motivated attacks by subnational groups, clandestine agents, or individuals against information and computer systems, computer programs, and data that result in violence against non-combat targets† (Janczewski Colarik, 2005, p. 43). Cyberterrorism is a form of terrorism that uses any form of connected source to engage in attacks of information systems, incitement to violence, theft of data, and planning of terrorist attacks (Britz, 2011, p. 197). As an introduction into the topic, the following definition is key to understanding the definition: â€Å"Cyberterrorism is the convergence of terrorism and cyberspace. It is generally understood to mean unlawful attacks and threats of attack against computers, networks, and the information stored therein when done to intimidate or coercer a government or its people in furtherance of political or social objectives. Further, to qualify as cyberterrorism, an attack should result in violence against persons or property, or at least cause enough harm to generate fear. Attacks that lead to death or bodily injury, explosions, plane crashes, water contamination, or severe economic loss would be examples. Serious attacks against critical infrastructures could be acts of cyberterrorism, depending on their impact. Attacks that disrupt nonessential services or that are mainly a costly nuisance would not† (Denning, 2000). Cyberterrorism is considered an act of violence or intimidation using cyberspace. It is more complicated than simply hacking into a system to see what damage can be done; it has to stem from a motivational source such as politics, foreign government, or some other rousing source (Gross, 2003). Enemies of the U. S. are strongly motivated by hate. Hate can be a strong motivator when it comes to cyberterrorism, and just terrorism in general. When hate is the driving factor of actions, the consideration for the targeted group is very minimal, and the results of hate crimes are usually violent and gruesome acts. The FBI’s definition isn’t that far off from Denning’s. They have published three different distinct definitions of cyberterrorism: â€Å"Terrorism that†¦initiates attacks on information† – â€Å"the use of Cyber tools† – and â€Å"a criminal act perpetrated by the use of computers (Baranetsky, 2009). Most government agencies that have a response program for cyberterrorism have their own published definition of cyberterrorism. The question rises ‘why does cyberterrorism occur? ’ The answer is that the terrorist want cause specific damage to the target. There are three factors that are considered when this question is asked, the first being the fear factor. It is the most common denominator of the majority of terrorist attacks. The attackers want to create as sense of fear in individuals, groups, or societies – whomever they are targeting (Janczewski Colarik, 2005, p. 45). Perhaps a cyber example of this could be the attack of IT installations. Then there is the spectacular factor. Spectacular means that the attacks are aimed at creating direct losses or resulting in a lot of negative publicity (Janczewski Colarik, 2005, p. 45). An example of the spectacular factor at work was in 1999 when Amazon. com was closed because of a Denial of Service (DOS) attack. They suffered losses from the attack, but the worse affect was the publicity that that was received (Taylor, Calabresi, Krantz, Pascual, Ressner, 2000). The last factor is the vulnerability factor. This is simply when vulnerability of an organization is exposed (Janczewski Colarik, 2005). An example of this could be the vandalism of an organizations webpage. The importance and significance of cyberterrorism is a very debatable topic. Kim Taipale, founder and executive director for the Stilwell Center for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology Policy believes â€Å"cyberterrorism, whatever it is, is a useless term. Taipale believes that, â€Å"terrorists will use any strategic tool they can† so â€Å"cyber† terrorism is no more important then other forms (Baranetsky, 2009). The statements by Taipale are strong, and arguments could be made supporting her, and arguments could be made that go against her beliefs. It is true that terrorism is growing all over the world, and terrorists are beginning to use various outlets to threaten nations, groups, and individuals. So the case could be made stating that cyberterrorism is just an accessible outlet terrorists have, because of the access that is granted to an individual on cyberspace. In conflict with that argument is the argument that cyberspace is not monitored and policed enough, and has little to no restrictions as to what can be done in cyberspace. This is an ongoing debate that will not be discussed in this paper. Different Forms of Cyber Attacks Various types of cyber attacks are used within the terrorist aspect of cyberspace. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, cyberterrorism is â€Å"the use of computer networks to shut down critical infrastructure (such as energy, transportation, government operations) or to coerce or intimidate a government or civilian population† (Lewis, 2002, p. ). The most commonly used tactics used to neutralize critical infrastructure are attacks known as the Trojan horse, viruses, phishing, Denial of Service (DoS), and Direct Denial of Service attacks. The first of the types of the cyber attacks to be discussed is the Trojan horse. A Trojan horse is a computer program that conceals a harmful code. Relating to the well know tale of the Trojan horse, it allows you into a system, and then leaves an outlet that allows you to get back into the system. In essence, it is software that appears to perform one action while actually performing another (Gohring, 2009, p. 6). A Trojan horse is a program that appears harmless but hides malicious functions. The most common Trojan horse of today’s day and age is NetBus, which was used for illegally breaking into computer systems and, in particular, used to plant child pornography on computers of people of integrity. Viruses are another form of cyber attack. Viruses are programs that â€Å"infect computer files, usually executable programs, by inserting a copy of itself into the file. These copies are usually executed when the infected file is loaded into memory, allowing the virus to affect other files. A virus requires human involvement to spread† (Kuehl, 2012). Virus writers write programs that infect the systems of certain users, but needs direct involvement by the creator or another human source to spread the virus. Very similar to a virus is a worm. The worm works just like a virus, implemented into a system by a creator. The difference between a worm and a virus is the fact that a worm doesn’t need the hands-on human involvement. Back in 2003, SQL Slammer worm spread throughout the cyber world. This was a worm that exploited a buffer overflow vulnerability of Microsoft’s SQL Server. Six months prior to the launch of the worm, the vulnerability was taken notice of and a patch was developed to strengthen the vulnerability. The worm worked by generating random IP addresses, and if belonged to an SQL Server that was not covered by the patch, it was infected and immediately began sending out more copies of the worm to more random IP addresses (Leyden, 2003). There was no human involvement after the worm was created initiated by the creator. It spread itself to random IP addresses, which categorizes it as a worm. Phishing is a form of deception used in cyberspace. Phishing attempts to trick users into giving out their personal data. The techniques used in phishing attempts are emails and websites that are designed to look like legitimate agency websites asking for an individual’s bank and financial account information and passwords (Kuehl, 2012). This method is not used so much by cyberterrorists, but the possibility is there. A more serious cyber attack comes in the form of a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. DoS attacks deny system access to users by overwhelming the target source with messages and blocking legitimate traffic (Kuehl, 2012). It causes a system overload, and can block the ability to exchange data between systems using the Internet. DoS attacks usually target banks, and earlier this year in September, several major banks were attacked using DoS. The websites of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, U. S. Bank, and PNC Bank all were victims of a DoS attack (Goldman, 2012). The websites were overloaded with traffic directed at them causing them to crash. Most of the time while the cyberterrorists use these attacks to steal information from bank customers, but in this case the motivation was simply to temporarily take down the banks’ public-facing websites, putting them under extreme heat from the public and potentially tarnishing their reputations. There are three levels of cyber capability that need to be taken into thought when considering types of cyberterrorism attacks. The first is simple-unstructured capability. This allows a cyberterrorist to conduct basic hacks against individual systems using tools created by someone else. The organization possesses little target analysis, command and control, or learning capability (Denning, 2000). This level is sometimes not considered to be cyberterrorism, because of the simplicity of the attack. There is slight to no attention focused on the target, which does not reveal any sort of motivation. Referring back to the definition of cyberterrorism, it has to stem from a motivational source to be considered cyberterrorism (Gross, 2003). The simple-unstructured capable individuals are basically the ones who hack into systems just to see what kind of damage they can cause. The second level of capability is the advance-structured level. This is the competence to conduct more sophisticated attacks against multiple systems or networks and possibly, to modify or create basic hacking tools. The organization possesses a straightforward and uncomplicated target analysis, command control, and learning capability (Denning, 2000). These organizations have motivations, but they are not strong enough to cause serious damage to the identified target. The last capability is the complex-coordinated capability. This is the ability for coordinated attacks capable of causing mass-disruption against integrated, heterogeneous defenses. They have the capacity to create sophisticated hacking tools. There is a highly capable target analysis, command control, and organization learning capability (Denning, 2000). Organizations with this type of capability are highly sophisticated with dangerous motivations. These dangerous organizations are the ones that can cause millions of dollars of damage, and also tons of negative publicity, two of the main objectives of cyberterrorist. There are cases when terrorists actually run other forms of terrorisms, such as bombings, with the use of cyberspace. The anonymity and global reach of the Internet has helped facilitate terrorism (Cole Glasser, 2009). â€Å"They put up websites to spread their messages and recruit supporters, and they use the Internet to communicate and coordinate action. However, there are few indications that they are pursuing in cyberterrorism, either alone or in conjunction with acts of violence† (Denning, 2000). There is an example of this from the late 90’s. In February 1998, Clark Staten, executive director of the Emergency Response and Research Institute in Chicago, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee that it was believed that â€Å"members of some Islamic extremist organizations have been trying to develop a network of hackers to support their computer activities in offensive information warfare attacks in the future† (Denning, Cyberterrorism, 2000). It is the perfect way to recruit, because of the anonymity that is granted to the individual. â€Å"The Internet is the ideal medium for terrorism today: anonymous but pervasive† (Cole Glasser, 2009, p. 95).

The pre contractual and post contractual issues leading to hold up

The pre contractual and post contractual issues leading to hold up 1. AIM/OBJECTIVE The purpose of this paper is to examining the concepts of hold-up and how power plays an important role in how the problem of hold-up is resolved. And also look at possible strategies or solutions for the buying organisation to avoid hold-up. 2. METHODOLOGY This paper will examine the work of Klein and Chang Ive in answering the concept of hold-up in the supply chain and also will examine the pre-contractual and post-contractual issues leading to hold-up. The first part of the assignment looks at how concept of incomplete contracts led to problem of hold-up in case of the General Motors and the Fishers case. In the second part of the assignment, is about how other factors like asset specificity and lock-in leads to hold-up problems post contractual in reference with the construction projects. Also look at the case of hold-up in the IT industry in regard to the Flash Apple clash. And finally critically evaluating the different cases and conclude by deriving a strategy or mechanism in avoiding or minimising the risk of hold-ups for buying organisations. 3. INTRODUCTION Hold-up is a situation where there are two parties (say, buyer and supplier) and one party has to make specific investments for the trade. If the investment is specific only to that customer, then the supplier is vulnerable to hold-up and on the visa-versa, if the product designed is specific to the raw material possessed by the supplier then the buyer is bound to have higher risk of hold-up (Klien, 1996). The party with the higher power seeks to achieve the quasi-rents  [1]  . Hold-up on the transactions cost economics is the problem of short-sightedness. Hold-ups can occur under various situations both pre-contractually and post-contractually. As explained by Williamson (Williamson, 1985), it could be Opportunistic behaviour of supplier pre-contractually or Kleins theory of uncertainty in the market condition or the issue of moral hazard or bad behaviour by the buyer that leads to the hold-up situation. As explained by Klein, the buyer/supplier conflict can be due to unanticipated events that occur during their contractual term; like reduced/increased cost or demand, which clearly puts one party with the higher bargaining power and thus changing the power dynamics in the relationship. The party with the higher power tries to breach the contract or be opportunistic in order to achieve the quasi-rents. (Klien, 1996) Williamsons concept of feasible foresight/farsightedness could be a possible solution for the buying organisations to avoid or negate the issue of hold-up. People are boundedly rational and having a myopic view is a problem. Klein looks at the role of contracts in solving the problem of hold-up and says the assessment of self-enforcing range of the contract and a better written contract can avoid the situation. The ways of solving or taking into account the problem of hold-up has been in the core of transaction cost economics. There have been occasions where both parties know that there is a possibility in hold-up in future but considering the cost and time involved in defining each and every contingency in the contract is not feasible (Fares, 2006). Below I will be discussing a few cases where hold-up was evident and what corrective actions were taken under different circumstances. 4. HOLD UP: CASE ANALYSIS There have been numerous cases of hold-up discussed in the transaction cost economics and the one that is most spoken about is the General-Motor and the Fishers Case. In this assignment, I will be discussing three different cases focusing on contractual issues, moral hazard, asset specificity and the issues with time in Hold-up. 4.1 General Motor Fishers Case of Incomplete Contracts  [2]   This has been the most spoke about case in economics in relation to the issue of hold-up. In a nutshell, it is a case where both parties signed a contract in 1919 for the supply of automobile bodies by Fisher to General Motors. Fisher, the manufacturer or supplier in this case had to make specific investments in stamping machines and dies for General Motors. This was a long term contract(over a ten year period) and also General Motors set a price formula, Fishers Variable cost plus 17.5%(to cover the capital and overheads). Ideally General Motors(henceforth GM) designed the contract in such a way that they can create a hold-up over Fisher. GM had even threatened to reduce the demand if Fisher did not come down on price, which would mean that the investment made by Fisher would not be efficiently used. But what really happened was not expected by both the parties. Up till 1919, most of the cars had wooden bodies but there was a huge rise in demand for steal body cars in 1919 which lead to a huge rise in demand for Fishers products. GM had no other supplier to replace with and even doing so would lead to a high switching cost. This could also be a problem of myopic view by GM, who view the price in a long term perspective and ignored the market potential/demand. The unanticipated increase in demand gave Fisher the upper hand and used the contractual terms to its strength in attaining the quasi-rents. They moved farther from GM location and created the extra-income through the formula set by GM in price determination. Fisher found that the contract was over the self-enforcing range and was in a favourable position for it to profit out off the contract if it breaches the contract. This provided as an incentive to Fisher. Both the parties new that the contract was not completely perfect and believed that the contact was optimal designed to minimize the probability of hold-up. GM had only two options available to resolve the problem, first to terminate the contract and find a new supplier. This would mean that the huge market demand cannot be satisfied and the switching cost becomes very high. The second being, renegotiating with Fisher and provide a lump sum payment to keep the contract running. Without question, GM had to settle for the option two as the time span was very limited and GM did not have much of an option in suppliers then. Thus the problem of imperfect or incomplete contracting leading to hold-up is evident in this case. In this case, to prevent the ex-poste problem of contracting, GM should have had the farsightedness view towards contract and defined a contingency plan in case there is a drastic change in the market condition to renegotiate the contract and derive at a new price. This could have saved quite a lot of time and resources. It should not be just from the price point view but should be a holistic view of the contract. They should have defined the self-enforcing range so that they need not be amended frequently. They were right in defining the power relation pre-contractually but underestimated on the post-contractual drift in power. Also GM should have had better incentive plans in place so that the supplier does not think about breaching certain incompleteness of the contract (Klien, 1996). Asset / Process Specificity Lock-In Situation In Construction Projects  [3]   The second is a case with multiple levels of hold-up ranging from small to large in the money involved in the dispute. This is a case in the construction project with three different parameters (uncertainty/unanticipated events in the project, lock-in situation and the amount of money involved in the dispute) of hold-ups identified. In the construction specific project a new form of asset specificity was identified, process specificity (Chen-Yu Chang, 2007). The channel tunnel project is a build-own-operate-transfer project for creating a tunnel for railway network. Both the French and the British governments awarded the project to Eurotunnel, to build and operate the tunnel for 55 years(which after extension is 99 year project). Eurotunnel in-turn sublet the construction to a ten member consortium called Transmanche-Link  [4]  . The project was at the design stage when TML was assigned and the changes that they had to make in the project had to comply with safety rules of the intergovernmental commission (Chen-Yu Chang, 2007). The project started under huge pressure and Eurotunnel, gave out the project to TML under two contracts: cost-plus contract for tunnelling and lump-sum contract for fitting out and terminals (Chen-Yu Chang, 2007). Two events that were ungovernable uncertainty that occurred in the first stage where, the conditions for the land, which TML expected it to be better but was in a much worse condition and the delays in signing of the Anglo-French channel treaty delayed the start of the construction. Although the money under dispute was not a large sum at this stage TML had to go for an extension in the project time and there were no concessions made on the cost overruns. The second round of dispute was on the cost overruns which were outstanding from the previous dispute. By this time both were in a lock-in situation as over  £850 million loan has been drawn out of the bank. Due to the delays caused earlier, there was a step rise in the cost which needed the contract to be re-valued and the new target cost for the project was set but TML had to bear a higher percentage of the cost overruns. The third dispute was a large sum of money involved, where the requirements of intergovernmental commission and railway companies induced a huge rise in cost on the equipments. TML passed on this added cost to the contractor Eurotunnel. By this time Eurotunnel was in a lock-in situation with TML and had to settle for the needs of TML. Thus TML benefitted out of the incomplete long-term contract signed. 4.3 Flash Apple War The third case is over property rights issue in IT industry. IT and Software industry is prone to hold-up problem. For example, developing an internet page/company basing it on a particular software firm/application which the company doesnt have property rights is considered equivalent to building a house without owing the land. For any changes that have to be made on the internet, they need the original creator/vendor, which makes it dependant or held-up by the vendor. Flash is a similar kind of software or platform, where the products built on Flash are at high risk of hold up. Because of this, flash is recently been targeted by firms like Apple and Google, in replacing them with a better source. Apple for its new product iPad, needed to make heavy investment in the ecosystem. Had it used Flash, Apples ability to achieve rents from the investment would have been held-up by Adobe. Flash is a more closed software and does not share exclusive information with its clients. This has been a hindrance to many firms and firms are looking for a much open source software and platforms to develop their products. The issue in the IT sector could be minimized by making a clear contract stating the future maintenance and updating of the software and also define a period when the contract will be re-valued or re-negotiated (Michael Schwartz, 2010). 5. CRITICAL EVALUATION After looking at the three above cases some of the prevention measures that a buying organisation could adopt are as follows. It is not always possible for a buying organisations to adopt these is all the situations. Figure 1: Contractual Process The above picture depicts the process of contracting that the buyer could you to adopt to avoid or minimize the risk of hold-up in a relationship. The first step for the buyer is to decide on the investment and make a cost-benefit analysis of the investment. Some of the basic questions like is the investment really needed, is it worth entering into the relationship and most importantly before the investment decision is the analysis of the buyer-supplier power relationship.The buyer before entering into contract specific investment in relationship, has to assess the power dynamics and foresee the possibility of shift in power post investment. If it finds itself in a weaker position, certain contractual terms could be added to protect its profits out of the investment. Defining the relationship also clears the fear of buyer falling into a lock-in situation with the supplier. As Williamson says, buyers need to have the farsighted view on the contracts than signing a contract and taking care of the problem later, only to recognise that they have to settle for the second best option. Then is the writing of contracts. As we have seen from the above case examples, it is clear that all the contingencies cannot be written down in the contract as identifying them is a lengthy process and is an expensive process too. To make an effective contract, we could use both Klein and Williamsons concept in design a contract which has a self-enforcing range but also had the farsightedness view of the project and identifying opportunistic nature of the supplier. Also it is important at this stage to define the property rights of the product or the process that the supplier is making with the specific investment made. It is also important to define the incentives that the supplier gets for on-time completion of the project and within the budget fixed. This incentive should be made as an attractive offer to the supplier so that the risk of opportunistic behaviour by the supplier can be minimised. The next step is that the supplier makes the investment and the buyer needs to overlook the spend so that they do not go excessive of the planned budget. The problem in conflicts and lock-in has in most occasion been due to the excessive spends and buyer had always been to have partially paid for the mistakes of the supplier because of the sunk cost or switching cost for the buyer if he had to change the supplier during conflict. The contract should be defined in such a way that over a specific period of time and cost, the contract will be re-opened for negotiations and a performance review been conducted on the supplier. The fourth and fifth steps are in relation to the renegotiation of the contracts. During the contract stage, the time period of re-negotiation or re-evaluation of the product should also be defined. Even in a long-term contract when the price is fixed on certain parameters, it is better to re-examine the conditions after a few years or after certain unanticipated events like financial crisis or sudden rise in demand to keep a contractual balance and prevent one party from benefiting from the contract. The final step is the payments for the trade and the buyers need to be careful here not to delay the payments as this could lead to conflict and the supplier taking arbitration actions to court. This could also lead to bad reputation and damage the image of the buyer in the market. 6. CONCLUSION Again, Power relations play an important role for the buyer organisation in defining their contractual terms with the supplier. Power is the universal term in economics and failing to understand it could be costly for organisations. From the case evidence above it is clear that being over-optimistic in design the contracts have made some companies in losing their power post-contractually. Hold-ups are due to unexpected events or sometime a deliberate process due to the lack of time or resources available. There has been no specific method or tool to negate the hold-up issue and depending on the situation the actions are taken. But it is important for buyers to pre-empt the situation and be ready to tackle the situation. Thus I conclude by saying that in real world all the situations are possible, information asymmetry, opportunistic behaviour supplier, moral hazard behaviour of buyers, lock-in situation, incomplete contracting and hold-ups are the evident result and one needs to craft a well designed contract to evade the situation. They buyers need to keep in mind this statement of why settle for a silver when you can go for the gold

American Marketing Association

American Marketing Association Task one Compare the definitions of Marketing given by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the American Marketing Association and one other definition of your choice. American Marketing Association (AMA) define marketing as â€Å"the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. According to American marketing Association (AMA) marketing is a key factor of a business. AMA raise standard in marketing as, they want well to hire the right talent in this field of business. Hire people who knows or kin to learn marketing industry trends. AMA wants to put togather a top notch marketing team. So, they can get business and fulfill customers needs effectivly. The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) define marketing as The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably. CIM shows that marketing is a managerial process it is a key fact to bring profit to the business. Identify the customer correctly, encourage them and satisfy coustomer, as a result profit will follow automatically. According to Marks Spencer (MS) Marketing is â€Å"understanding the competitive marketplace we operate in, as well as working closely with suppliers and product teams. All with the aim of providing customers with fantastic choices and great value.† To introduce the MS brand and communicate with the customer and to understand the demands marketing plays an important role in the business. Task two Using Primark as an example, describe how market-oriented they are in terms of their Mission Statement/Main Objectives, Customer Communications and other relevant characteristics. A market economy is an economy based on labour in which the prices of products and services are determined in a free price system and set by supply and demand. June 1969, the first Penneys store opened in Mary Street, Dublin. Within a year, four more stores opened in the Greater Dublin area. In 1971, the first large store opened outside the Dublin in Cork and by the end of that year 11 more stores were opened in Ireland and one in Northern Ireland. By 1973, the number of stores reached 18 in Ireland and Primark began trading in Great Britain with four out-of-town stores. In the next year Primark opened the first UK High Street stores in Derby and Bristol. In the next ten years, 18 stores were added in the UK and nine in Ireland, which bring the number of stores in the UK and Ireland to 22 each. The mission statement of Primark is: â€Å"We aim to make our employees, suppliers and local and wider communities part of our success by working with them in every way we can.† According to Primark this means that: employees have equal opportunities based on merit suppliers are treated fairly local communities are respected and supported by Primark the company takes its environmental responsibilities seriously As Primark is an international business with a global supply chain Primark accept that they have a responsibility to trade ethically. This includes that Primark suppliers live up to their values and behave as well towards the employees. Primark have more than 400 suppliers in over 16 countries. They buy in very large volumes and aim to build long-term relationships with suppliers and gain trust. Primark directly contributes to the employment of more than 700,000 workers across the continents. According to Primark: â€Å"Primark is committed to providing the best possible value for our customers, but not at the expense of the people who make our products.† In Primark employment, there is no forced, bonded or involuntary prison labour. Employers are not required to lodge deposits or their identity papers and can leave any time their employment after reasonable notice. Primark provide an open attitude towards the activities of trade unions and their organisational activities. Employers receive regular and recorded health and safety training, and training repeat for new or rejoined workers. As come to environment there is no child labour in Primark. Primark is a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), an alliance of companies, trade unions and voluntary organisations working on partnership to improve the lives of people working in global supply chains. In India Primark works with an NGO called SAVE which help to understand and address the challenges faced by workers in the communities where Primark products are made. In China we are working with ICO, a non-profit organisation, and are extending our work with other stakeholders. To, make the environment healthy and happy Primark progressively replacing plastic carrier bags with the paper bags. Paper bags are fashionable and reusable. Primark gave plenty of about the business and how they work on there website, which is easily assessable by any user. Products different sizes guide is available on the website including different brands availabilities. Users can easily search the store near their place by the help of store locator available on the website. These all availabilities can make user or customer to assess Primark more easily and safely. Task three Explain the various elements of the marketing concept and how they apply to Primark. The marketing concept is the philosophy that businesses/organisation use to analyse the needs of their customers and make decisions to satisfy those needs, rather than the competition. Today most firms use the marketing concept. Elements of Marketing Concepts: The Production Concept: The production concept is an idea that a firm should focus on those products that it could produce most efficiently and that the creation of a supply of low-cost products would in and of itself create the demand for the products. At the time, the production concept worked fairly well because the goods that were produced were largely those of basic necessity and there was a relatively high level of unfulfilled demand. What ever company produce in low cost and in large quantity was sold out profitably. There weren’t enough competitors in the market. Primark offer good quality fashion at low prices. Success of Primark is based on big volumes, low mark-ups, and minimal advertising. They are the lean business which responds quickly in the marketplace, good buying and excellent distribution. The Sales Concept: As, mass production become commonplace, competition increased, and there is little unfulfilled demand. Firms/businesses practice the sales concept (or selling concept), under which companies not only produce the products, but also try to convince customers to buy their products through advertising and personal selling. The sales concept pays little attention to the product actually as if needed; the goal simply is to beat the competition to the sale with little regard to customer satisfaction. The sales concept is more likely depend on the feedback from customer the sale of the product is fall in the promotions. Primark use this strategy as, they produce wide range of in market fashion clothing. The quality of product as compare to price is very less. Primark do every sort of clothing which is in demand and in fashion. To compete the competitors Primark introduce new and fresh design in the market at the low price. The products and fashion they produce can be worn as causal and as on occasions. The Marketing Concept: Marketing concept involves focusing on customer needs before developing the product. Realising profit by successfully satisfying customer needs over the long-term. Firms typically set up separate marketing departments whose objective it to satisfy customer needs. Primark is always kept eye on the customer satisfaction. Their products are good in quality and more demanding because of the low price. The business of Primark always put customer’s needs before producing their products. Primark produce according to the customer’s demands and needs. What people want to wear in daily routine and on occasions, Primark make sure that those needs provide to their customers at low price. Task four Identify and assess the benefits and costs of a Marketing Approach and how you perceive Primark to have addressed this. Relationship marketing is a process of creating, maintaining and enhancing strong relationship with customers and other stakeholders. Relationship marketing is more focused on to building strong long term relationship with customers. Relationship marketing is important to satisfy and establish relationships with customers and other parties so that objectives of both parties can be met. It is more focused on customer retention with highly customer service and commitment. Primark take good care of suppliers in the first place and then aim to develop long-term relationships. Primark have more than 400 first tier suppliers from where they buy directly less than 2% in the UK or Ireland, while remainder of production takes place overseas. Six out of 10 suppliers have been with Primark for a decade or more. The mutual understanding that results from relationships is essential to being able to offer value in the market. Suppliers know what business want in terms of quality, product specification and lead times; and in return they get stability, large volume orders and payment within 30 days. Task five Identify and explain macro and micro environmental factors which have influenced Primark’s marketing strategy. S.W.O.T stands for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats. SWOT is the only analysis which deals with both internal and external factors which may influence on business. SWOT analysis will explain the macro and micro environmental factors which have influenced Primark. Strengths: Primark has over 161 stores located. Out of 161 stores 125 are located in the UK. This gives them good business and well recognised in the market. It has an organised business structure according to customers need. Primark offers job opportunities and employs over 27,000 people and offers high street quality clothes for cheap prices and quality services to attract its customers. It provides clothing for all ages and sexes. The company is part of the ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative) which focuses on worker’s rights, their production of goods and bringing businesses together to work on labour rights issues. Weaknesses: Although Primark is a member of the ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative), but there are numerous negative reports concerning its business operations in the way they produce their goods. A study was shown that Primark used child labour to produce their goods. Other issues are with poor working conditions and disvaluing workers rights. The company have problems concerning advertising. Primark does not advertise and this gives competitors the advantage over them. Opportunities: With its already expanding ventures such as opening 47 new stores in the UK, Primark has now opened 7 new stores in Spain to battle along its competition like Zara. Expanding business widely now they have an opportunity to share their high quality products and services overseas and provide high quality clothes to fashion in the market. Threats: Primark’s threats are the competition with other companies such as Zara, HM and other local high street retail businesses. Primark is still working to match the needs of the customer in terms of fashion and uniqueness. Company is still struggling in advertising area whilst their competitors do. That is the biggest threat to the business because Marketing is the key factor to establish the business. Task 6 Take two of the Primark’s products (e.g. baby cloths, Ladies ware etc) and suggest segmentation criteria that could be applied in different markets. Marketing segmentation is the subdividing of a market into distinct subsets of customers, where any subset may be selected as a target market to be reached with a distinct marketing mix. Market segmentation is a design to subdivide target market into a manageable form. Segmenting the market help business make better plan of project. Help to identify profitable market. It is important for business to segment the market to make right decision and identify the market needs. Positioning is, â€Å"The act of designing the companys offering and image so that they occupy a meaningful and distinct competitive position in the target customers minds† (Kotler 1997). Positioning is all about what the customer thinks about the product or organisation. Therefore it is about visibility and recognition of what a product represents for a buyer. Primark targets males, females and children within the mass market. Age of company target customers are from early teens to the middle aged (mostly women buying for the family). It has good positions itself in customer’s minds as the cheapest fashion clothing brand in the UK and does not partake in advertising strategies to emphasise this. However, the positioning strategy only works on differentiating Primark as the cheapest clothing retailer, and does not gain a meaningful position in customers minds as being fashion forward. I would suggest that Primark adopts a positioning concept that emphasises how quickly it responds to new fashions and creates imitations off the catwalk (i.e. product features). Instead of positioning Primark primarily as cheap it would serve them better to create an illusion of youth culture and being fresh and foremost with the newest fashions in a bid to remove associations with mass production and mass culture. One way to overcome on it is, if they would establish an online store, giving Primark an online physical presence also. The teenage / young adult generation of today are highly influenced and dependent on the internet for research, what people want to see, what is in the fashion world, social networking and downloading music. However, many of the online clothing stores target women aged 25-45 who may see ordering online as more convenient (i.e. Next, Debenhams, Little woods, Dorothy Perkins). If Primark open an online store it could position itself as a dominant in the minds of teenagers as the most accessible online store, with the freshest fashions. The only competition currently is New Look which is still more expensive about 50% in the case of jeans, accessories and shoes. Task 7 Outline the factors you believe influence the Primark’s choice of targeting strategy. Primarks products include lingerie, nightwear, footwear, clothing, accessories and even home ware. All the products business provides in the market is very essential. So, it is very easy to approach the target market. Stores are large consists of 2-3 floors and split into two categories such as women wear accessories, menswear underwear, footwear children’s wear. I would suggest that Primark use better visual displays in store by having mannequins with outfit ideas on with the clothing hanging beside. Window displays at Primark look fantastic, but go into the store and it is virtually impossible to find the items. If Primark could put together inspirational displays it would suggest customer that Primark believes in its own clothing, and demonstrates how it can be put together to look fashionable. Moreover, Primark has little in terms of expression and communication as it does not advertise. The only place we can see logo is on shopping bags and on the store logo, suggesting it does not show the reputation of a company and shows the ‘cheap place. To express the brand as being fresh and foremost with the newest fashions they could print coming soon images of new items on their shopping bags for the view of high street shoppers. Also, in keeping with the online store idea, Primark could send weekly emails to customers showing the latest looks, catwalk trends or celebrity outfits. They need to put new policies and rule in the business for advertisements. No doubt they are approaching their target market but business is approaching with ‘cheap shop’ reputation. Company need to work on the marketing process it will change the customers thinking. Instead, of cheap shop it will change into good quality of products. Task 8 Explain how buyer behaviour affects the marketing activities of the Primark using two of its products as example. The Market research report shows the performance of the UK children’s wear market, which comprises clothing designed for under-14 year-olds. Market was valued at  £5.29bn in 2008, following a mixed growth performance. The main sectors of the children’s wear market are: girls’ clothing (ages 2 to 14); boys’ clothing (ages 2 to 14); and infants’ clothing (for under-2 year-olds). The positive influences of the children’s wear market have been countered by changes in UK clothing retailing as a whole since the end of the 1990s. Rise of discount retailers such as Primark, with the growing market show their competitors such as ASDA, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, has exerted a downward pressure on prices, particularly for children’s clothing. In 2008 there was a great deal of price competition on school uniform in 2008, and ASDA eventually offering the cheapest school wear, at just  £4. The UK children’s wear market is very retail-driven, with retailer brands accounting for the greatest share of sales. Major businesses include Adams Kids, Mother care, Marks Spencer, Debenhams, ASDA, Tesco and Primark. The economic downturn, and the recession that began in the UK in 2008, make the retailers to focus on prices, however, despite the difficult economic climate, retailers continued to invest in their brands across all price points. As the child population continuing to rise, the outlook for the children’s clothing market is getting more positive. Expectations are that price influences will dampen growth in 2009 and 2010, before the market begins to show better growth between 2011 and 2013. Design elements, ethical developments and brand investment will drive future growth in the industry. Task 9 Describe how Primark develops its products to sustain competitive advantage. The success story of Primark with regards to international business has been one of the more looked upon cases. Business of Primark shows that it is not enough that the products they are selling to the customers are top of the line. They have to make sure that the products they are producing and selling does have demand from the customers. Primark have to guarantee that the products that they are offering will ensure sale. This could only be done by understanding the market and by establishing great relations with their customers through customer relationship management. Hence, the success of Primark is manifested in the ability of the company to balance both the external and the internal operations of the firm. The demands of the people and the stability of the company to provide those demands are the key ingredients to the overall success of Primark. Task 10 Explain how Primark’s distribution is arranged to provide customer convenience. All suppliers and their factories manufacturer for Primark are covered by Code of Conduct. Primark have an increasingly comprehensive programme of auditing to ensure that suppliers act according to the Code. Audits are carried out by Primark regionally based ethical trade managers. Almost two-thirds of their purchasing spend is with top 100 suppliers. Primark audited 162 suppliers and 340 production sites during the year. 70% of these audits were carried out by specialist external auditors and the remaining 30% by local ethical trade team. Primark targets for 2009 are even more ambitious. They are planning to audit and engage in follow up with factories working for the top 250 suppliers. This will cover 87% of our suppliers by expenditure, and involve over 1,000 audits. All audits and commitment of suppliers with Code of Conduct shows that how important customer’s satisfaction is for Primark. Audits are necessary in the business so that the staff get well qualified and have personal skills for the business and market in which they are working to satisfied and convenience the customer. The quality and price is the main two things that make people to shop from Primark. The stores are all over the country that makes people approach them easily. To be friendly and helpful towards customers and staff, the public need to think that we are a friendly company; this will make them want to come to store. Business treat everybody the same. The people with less money will be treated the same as people that have lots of money. Primark make everyone in the store feel individual, and make everyone feel like they are ‘special’. Task 11 How are Primark’s prices set to reflect their objectives and market conditions? Studies had shown that low-cost retailer such as Primark is the store what people wanted. If we compare other retail companies in the UK, the only thing it does not have is probably the budget chain like Primark clothing. Primark is in the Tertiary Sector; the store buys raw materials from a Secondary Business and sells the products, such as clothing and shoes. It is a large, multinational business. It is quite a well-known business and there are several stores throughout the United Kingdom. Most of people have heard of this store, so it is a strong, well-run organisation. Primark earn plenty of profits, so they are able to provide more products for the public. The businesses objectives are to provide good quality products for the public. Business wants the public to realise that they are a good company and just because products are cheap, it doesn’t mean that they are rubbish. This will achieve by having their products made by people that know what they are doing and test them to check that they are good in quality. To sell goods at reasonable prices; business provide wide range of options to customers, in good quality at reasonable prices. As compare at other stores, selling similar products, and making Primark is low in price. Task 12 Illustrate how Primark integrates their promotional activity to achieve their marketing objectives. In the UK, the retail value-clothing market is growing. At the expense of retailers with more established, quality reputable clothing lines, several companies such as Matalan, Tesco, and Asda are pushing their self to offering consumers low-cost, high-fashion. Primark, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods plc, is arguably the fastest grower with 162 stores in the UK, Republic of Ireland, and a small presence in Spain. Our low prices are the result of technology, efficient distribution and supply, bulk-buying and the fact that we spend almost nothing on advertising. The company is able to negotiate cheap prices from manufacturers in Asia and Eastern Europe because of the high volume of turnover that it focuses on achieving in its stores. It accepts lower profit margins on its products, all in all ensuring price points that are well below anything that the majority of retailers can offer. Primark stores are often heaving with people, messy, and plagued by long queues, but customers know to expect this. Primark, with the slogan looks good, pay less, targets primarily the fashion conscious, price conscious under-35s segment, both males and females. The success of Primark products assortment strategy lies in the ability to find out what is fashionable, design a budget version, and bring it quickly to stores. It takes approximately just 6 weeks from the initial concept stage for Primark to start selling a specific item in stores. However the Primark is not without its problems. It is currently involved in several issues over accusations that it has copied the designs of rival retailers. A more critical current controversy is a report which accuses Primark of serious human rights abuses and sweatshop labour in its Asian factories. Personally I don’t think that their market position will be much affected. Many of their main rivals have undergone similar scrutiny, and the Primark is strong in their approaching marketing strategy that it is quite capable of resisting the charges of the rumour mill. I think that the majority of consumers can expect and will expect to look good and pay less for a long time yet to come. Task 13 Look at the extended marketing mix (7 ’p’ s) and analyse how Primark uses these or otherwise. Marketing professionals use many tactics to attract their customers. These activities comprise of different concepts, the most important one being the marketing mix. The 7Ps of the marketing mix can be discussed as: Product: Basically, it involves introducing new products or improvising the existing products. It must provide value or set price of a product to a customer. Price: Price must be competitive and must be profitable. The pricing strategy can comprise discounts and offers. Place: It refers to the place where the customers can buy the product and how the product reaches out to that place. This is done through different channels, like Internet, wholesalers and retailers. Promotion: It includes the various ways of communicating to the customers of what the company is offering. It is about communicating about the benefits of using a particular product. People: People means the customers, employees, management and everybody else involved in it. It is essential for everyone to realise that the brand reputation that they are involved with is in the people’s hands. Process: It refers to the methods and process of providing a service and is essential to have knowledge on whether the services are helpful to the customers, if they are provided in time, if the customers are informed in hand about the services and many such things. Physical (evidence): It refers that the product physically has to be present in the market. A service has to be goes out to the customer, it is essential that you help them see what they are buying. According to marketing mix 7Ps, Primark use right tactics to attract the customers and run profit business. Primark always introduce the products that attract the people and what people want to see or want to buy. It always brings the product which is according to fashion and always provide with the low price. There are 162 stores all over the country and the product is available in all the stores. Prices remain same of the product in every store. Primark promotes their product quite often because there products are so cheap and everyone can afford it. But, in busy time business put promotions on plenty of their products. Primark is one of the leading companies in the retail market. They are running profitable business and well known in reputation of their prices. The people working in the company are well professional who bring profit for the business. The services provided by the Primark staff are acceptable as they deal with customer about their products and satisfied them. The physical presences of their entire product are according to the people need. Last but not least, the business concentrates on their products and make sure that it is available in the stores. Task 14 Describe how Primark develops its products to sustain competitive advantage. Explain how Primark’s distribution is arranged to provide customer convenience. How are Primark’s prices set to reflect their objectives and market conditions? As we discuss and describe earlier in Tasks 9, 10 and 11 about the Primark development, distribution and prices to approach the customer and satisfied their need. Answer will be the same.