Kozol’s Savage Inequalities

Jonathan Kozol was born in 1936 in Massachusetts.   Throughout his life, he has been extremely active in public issues.   He spent several teaching in public schools, fighting against the inequalities there, but also fighting for the civil rights movement and equality for all, despite race or ethnicity.   Most of the schools Kozol taught at were inner-city schools, similar to the ones he writes about in his book (www.wikipedia.com).Kozol’s purpose in writing the book was to expose the vast inequalities that are present in today’s schools.   He provided a snapshot of many different ways schools are unequal: funding, teacher quality, school environment, materials, and more.   He profiled several different schools, in particular, inner-city Chicago schools and suburban Chicago schools (New Trier), to show the vast differences in every aspect of these schools, and the effects that these differences had on the students.Kozol also intended to show the multitude of d ifferent issues that went into creating the problem, such as lack of funding, lack of materials, lack of quality teacher, political laziness or outright disdain (towards inner-city schools), parent misinformation (or lack of information), lack of parental education and knowledge about the system, and more.   These differences all account for why the schools are so vastly different; money is not the only problem and simple solution.Kozol accomplished his purpose.   As one is reading the book, one is filled with shock, horror, and indignation at the vast inequities that exist in the schools.   One particularly telling section is his illustration of the kindergarten students, who Kozol describes as bright and eager to learn, even in the inner-city.   However, these kids – who have every ability to learn – are given few materials and poor teachers, and they fail to thrive.This failure, he explains, results from the education system failing them, and not from their own lack of anything.   He clearly illustrates the unfairness of the school system, and proposes some interesting solutions.   In the kindergarten class in one of Kozol’s examples, there are no pictures on the wall, there are ancient textbooks, there are few toys to play with, and there is a teacher who is almost too tired to care.   The teacher knows that whatever happens, many of these students will drop out of high school, and many of those will land in jail.   The teacher does not believe that she can make a difference, even though at this age, with the students eager and primarily well-behaved, she could.The purpose was well accomplished because of Kozol’s many examples.   The way he used the case studies was especially interesting.   In the case of New Trier, the parents were unwilling to tax themselves at a high rate, but their income and property values were so high that they will had plenty of money.   Therefore, the school had excellent class of ferings, facilities, teachers, and students.   In poorer districts, like Lawndale, parents taxed themselves as much as they could, and they still couldn’t afford to have good school buildings, new materials, and good teachers.   This difference in personality and attitude of the people in the district further illustrates Kozol’s point.In addition, Kozol highlights the sheer environment differences in the schools.   In the suburban districts, teachers come in everyday, on time – or they are subject to discipline or being fired.   He quotes one principal in an inner-city school as saying â€Å"I take everything that comes through the door,† which means that teachers who are absent more often than not, or who show up a couple hours late everyday still have jobs.   These environments portray a complete lack of caring on the part of the teachers.This is at least in part because the teachers truly believe they cannot make a difference.   Many know t hat most of the students will drop out of school and end up in prison, illiterate, and with no job or a poor job.   Some teachers even see this effect as positive, stating that the kids who really care remain in school until graduation.   However, this is a terrible way to think about students, and only perpetuates the situation.Also, the suburban schools tend to be newer, brightly lit, with plenty of classrooms and bathrooms and decorations.   The urban schools are lucky to have one working bathroom that isn’t clean, dark windows, and a building that is falling apart around them.   In some cases, urban schools have extremely overcrowded classrooms, no working bathrooms, no libraries, no computers, no decorations, and are extremely depressing.   Students begin skipping school at a young age merely to avoid these circumstances.Kozol also discusses the attitudes of the law makers.   Many refuse to spend more money on these failing schools because it would, in their estimation, be like â€Å"pouring money into a black hole.† In other words, useless.   This goes to show that government officials are not doing anything to solve the problem; in fact, they often are the problem, by refusing to believe that anything could change.   Their lackadaisical attitude needs to turn around; rather than rewarding the students who are already succeeding, they should attempt to help the students who struggle, who will only turn around if the law makers choose to do their job and advocate for all students.The section on Corla Hawkins’s class was particular interesting.   In it, Kozol illustrates one of the â€Å"bright spots† in otherwise terrible inner-city schools.   Ms. Hawkins is a unique teacher who cares about her students, who makes sure they come to school, who forces them to respect her and each other.   She spends a lot of her own money on supplies for the classroom, including a set of encyclopedias.   She assigns homew ork everyday in order to promote responsibility.She sits the students in â€Å"teams† at groups of desks, and has them teach each other the lessons.   Her emphasis means that students in her class succeed much more than the average student in the school.   Ms. Hawkins also teaches the students important social skills.   She doesn’t give grades at all in the first quarter; she gives team grades in the second; she gives pair grades in the third; she gives individual grades in the fourth.   In this way, she teaches the kids to learn before being competitive about grades, and then to help one another and cooperate more than compete.   Later, she teaches the students to look out for themselves.One of the unfortunate problems with this is that these students will have one year of excellent teaching, and then will go back to the â€Å"typical† way that things are in inner-city schools, meaning that their chances of success are still fairly low overall.   It also gives the students as taste of what could have been, which means that overall, one good teacher doesn’t change anything.The best solution is to correct the problem by changing the way the schools are financed.   Instead of refusing to put money into the schools, politicians should be eager to put more money into them, enough to build new buildings (or improve the current ones) and to hire truly qualified teachers.   If that occurs, change will begin at the bottom levels, as students come in and find teachers with higher expectations, and materials to support learning.   People need to stop being completely hopeless about these schools and these students and start giving them what they need.   Without the proper materials and quality teachers, there is no way that students will care, or learn.In some states, school funding is done in an unconstitutional way.   In fact, in most states, schools are funded at least in part by property taxes.   This offers an imm ediate inequity, since poorer areas, like inner-city areas, will automatically have lower property values, and therefore, less money for schools.   A new funding plan that distributes money more equally, or based on need, is in order.   A suburban school with already current materials, computers, and new buildings does not need as much money as an inner-city school with old materials, no technology, and a crumbling building.Currently, the thinking in education is to give money to the students and districts who are already winners.   Money is allotted as a prize for success.   This value needs to change, so that money is given based on need, because the value is success and opportunity for everyone, not just for the privileged few.Reading this book changes one’s view on the way schools are handled in this country.   It seems perfectly fair to grow up in a privileged district, and to go into education as someone who wants to continue that tradition of excellence.   However, confronting the problems that face many schools today shows that education is not perfect, and not every school or student is nearly as lucky as some.This new realization will change the way a person looks at being an administrator.   Perhaps, instead of fighting for every dollar for a particular school’s excellent AP program, one would choose to distribute that money to districts who do not have things they need.   Or, instead of purchasing new textbooks frequently and getting rid of the old ones, one might choose to buy new textbooks for another school, or to donate older (but still fairly recent) ones to a school in need.Also, when it comes to making policies, one might choose to consider what is best for all students, rather than only a small group.   Many of the students in a poorer district do not have anyone to advocate for them.   Their teachers and politicians mostly will not, and their parents may not know how to.   Some people in their district, and some of the students themselves, may not even speak English.   An administrator from any district may be able to stand up and fight for them.   If enough administrators begin to value equality in education (and separate is not equal, whether it is separated by race or social class), changes will begin to occur.This book is a very eye-opening look at the reality of schools today.   It is an important thing to realize – not all schools are equal.   Many students are suffering because of the lack of opportunity their schools provide, ultimately setting them up for near certain failure.   The only way this will change is if educators stand up and fight for change, and an educator who has not learned about these inequalities will not be able to stand up and fight.   Every educator should know what is really going on.This book comes highly recommended.   Kozol goes into the schools and paints vivid pictures of what the schools are actually like.   He’s no t writing from a high horse or a strictly academic perspective.   He is showing what the day to day realities are for so many students.   He is high-lighting the problems in a completely real-world way.   Kozol’s book is an important one in the field, and one that everyone should read.BibliographyKozol, Jonathan.   Savage Inequalities.Jonathan Kozol.   Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.   Accessed November 10, 2006.   Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Kozol.

Augusta and Ncwo Essay

This report analyses the case study about â€Å"Augusta National Golf Club and NCWO battle for admitting female membership†. Mainly, this report will examine and identify the communication traits and flaws that can be found in this case study and will provide solutions and what should be done rather than taking a stand on who is right and wrong. Therefore, all the communications between Augusta’s Chairman, Mr. Johnson, NCWO’s Chairwoman, Ms. Burk, the CEOs of Sponsor companies, the Augusta members and the media were researched and studied. Furthermore, this report mainly uses secondary data such as newspaper articles and journals to support the arguments and ideas. Moreover, the core purposes of this report is to evaluate the interactions and point out some communication management factors and flaws from this dispute, set it as an example and provide solutions to be improved in the future business communication. Main body Augusta, the private golf club Augusta is the private golf club which its culture and membership are mainly reflected on its prestige and exclusiveness. Moreover, members of Augusta join the club to satisfy mutual interests and to fulfil the social needs and the need for self-esteem such as being a part of the highly regarded golf club in the country. Because it is a private club, it holds its legal rights to choose its own members. (Peraino, 2002). Furthermore, the club clearly specified the club (team) norms (obligation, preference and prohibition) such as â€Å"members are required to sign an agreement not to speak about the club† and have to withhold the membership information to the outsiders. Saporito). Therefore, Augusta organizational control can be identified as a bureaucratic control system where the Chairman, Mr. Johnson has the ultimate power to dominate the club’s affairs. NCWO On the other hand, the NCWO’s sole purpose is to promote women rights and members join the committee to achieve security and satisfy their mutual interests. As you can see from the case, Ms. Burk, the chair of NCWO usually do the decision making for the committee. Although the decision making criteria are not formally discussed in the case or in the media (newspaper articles), we can assume that NCWO lacks the rational decision making process in groups such as orientation, discussion, decision making and implementation. Also, in his article Munching (2002) states that â€Å"she (Burk) forgot to ask herself one question: What women want to do? † which clarify the lack of communication between members of the group and its chair. The dispute The offensive approach and the vulgar feedback It can be seen in the case that without deeply analysing the situation, Ms. Burk took an offensive approach demanding and insisting on female membership, base mainly on the speech about â€Å"inclusion of women in Augusta† by Mr. Lloyd Ward. Moreover, Augusta’s Chair, Mr. Johnson also gave a vulgar feedback to this demand which sparks into a dispute of gender issue. Moreover, negative impressions between them were formed on limited information and stereotyping where Burk is seems as the trouble maker and Johnson as the rigid discriminator. Therefore, this miscommunication and poor transaction of messages led to unnecessary conflicts and egotism of the two corresponding Chairs. The Sponsors, members and Burk When the direct demand fails, Burk took the indirect persuasion and argumentation approach through the Augusta’s sponsors for its prime event, the Masters. She appealed to CEOs of sponsor companies like Citigroup, IBM, Coca-cola, Cadillac and CBS using generalisation and cause-effect relationship methods of arguments to boycott the Masters. For example, she praised their stance in gender discrimination within their firm and point out the possible public opinion in the involvement with the Masters. However, only Citigroup and Coca-cola agreed to help her and these decisions can be seen as corporate social responsibility to raise their public images. On the other hand, others remain neutral to avoid uncertainties involving in the dispute. Moreover, she turns to persuade the members of Augusta, who are highly regarded CEOs of the corporate world. However, with them she used the illegitimate methods of arguments such as appeal to the masses and â€Å"ad hominem† whereby she threatens them and their organization by claiming to reveal the membership list and the â€Å"daily anecdotes of gender discriminations in their (members’) companies†. (2005). For instance, it is noted in Peraino’s (2002) article that â€Å"she told Newsweek that â€Å"We’ve already done quite a bit on the public-embarrassment front†Ã¢â‚¬ . In addition, she even tried to convince Tiger Wood not to participate in the Masters but he too was â€Å"criticized for suggesting that Augusta has a right to its exclusionary policies† (Gutner, 2002). Therefore, one can clearly see from the case study that Burk used many deductive logics and generalisations in influencing and communicating with the sponsors, the members and the players. Burk and Johnson From the start, Mr. Johnson strongly showed his assertiveness as well as his aggressiveness for his club and its membership rules. However, one can recognize the cognitive dissonances from Mr. Johnson’s feedbacks and replies where he imposed denials and unwillingness to change the traditional rules and culture. Moreover, this effect can also be found in Saporito’s article, as â€Å"he booted the Masters’ sponsors–Citigroup, Coca-Cola and IBM–so the companies wouldn’t face criticism by association† and adopted the commercial free move. In addition, Johnson and Burk took hold of some perceptual biases against each other and some of these are selective perception where both of them ignored each other’s rational reasons. Furthermore, stereotyping can clearly be seen between them where they posed each other as threats and arch enemies. Conclusion and results In conclusion, one can identify more communication flaws than the benefits in his case. This is mainly because the poor usage of appropriate communication features and the channels used to communicate, for example, Burk main communication channel with her advocates and opponents is through letters. Moreover, narcissism and egotism also got involved later in the dispute where both of the Chairs started to address and confront each other comments and feedback harshly rather than solving the dispute. (Munching, 2002). As a result, Johnson acquired victory by reasoning through generalization and analogy among private clubs and sororities claiming its legal rights to choose its own members. The dispute between Mr. Johnson (Augusta Golf Club) and Ms. Burk (NCWO) is very phenomenal in indicating miscommunications between two unfriendly organizations. As for the recommendations for this case, since the start, both parties should use more subtle and civil approaches to address the problem to each other and discuss in person how to compromise the situation. For example, Shiflett (2003) implies in his article that Augusta never meant to discriminate and it is only following its highly constructed social role as an all male-club. Moreover, they should utilize more â€Å"lateral thinking†, avoid what is right and wrong and conclude to the best possible solution. In addition, Burk should change her persuasion techniques towards more â€Å"features-benefits mix† and should drop her deductive logic on women rights and organizations. Furthermore, both of them should leave out their egotisms and stereotypical perceptions when dealing with the gender issue. On the other hand, while confronting with the members she should shows cause-effect relationships of their inaction and argues upon their specific reasoning. Munching, 2002). As for Mr. Johnson reactions, he should be more aware on the public images of the club and its members. Moreover, Augusta’s individual orientation of culture should swap with a more collective one where all stakeholders can give out their opinions. Last but not least, the channels used for communication in this case should be changed into more personal and face to face l ike personal meetings or through telephone. This was even suggested by Tiger Wood that â€Å"they’d sit down together and all would be resolved†. (Munching, 2002).

Race and ethnicity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 1

Race and ethnicity - Essay Example The identity based on environmental, cultural or historical diversity should have no effect on the fact that human beings can and may live differently. All peoples of the world possess equal faculties and can attain the highest levels of intellectual, technical, social, cultural, economical and political development. The difference between the achievements of the people are entirely attributed to geographical, historic, political, economic, social and cultural factors and by no means should form the basis of rank-ordered or classification of peoples of different races. All human groups no matter what their ethnic origin contribute according to their own genius towards the progress of civilization and culture. Racism and racial prejudice have afflicted the world in ever-changing form. By continuing legislative provisions and administrative practices which are contrary to the principles of human rights, contempt and injustice continues to prevail for certain individuals and groups in a society. An understanding of the racial issue facing America needs to be viewed in a historical context. The African Americans arrived as slaves, shackled in chains and their social status was defined by their captivity. They were regarded as beings of inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either socially or politically. They were deprived of the rights the white man was bound to enjoy and were considered by some as lawful to reduce them to slavery for their benefit. The criteria by which the social worthiness of individuals is judged and discriminations made are class, caste and the cultural history i.e. the legacy of slavery on race relations as in the case of blacks. The ways in which inequality is institutionalized or the ways by which the socially defined categories of person are rewarded unequally for their social contribution, is by ignoring the talents and abilities of individuals. The targeting and mistreatment of ethnic minorities has been a recurrent theme in the history of the modern world. The ethnic cleansing practiced by the Serbians in Bosnia is a recent example and the systematic massacre of the Jews by the Nazis in the Second World War even to this day, is considered a heinous crime by the whole world. Even some European countries have demonstrated very high levels of intolerance, especially towards immigrants of color who have entered their workforce in recent decades. The society we all live in, is an organic system in which various components work together to contribute to the health of the whole system and some of these systems are more important for the survival of the system as compared to others. Functionalism relies on the metaphor that society is a body or a living system. (Rigney 2001, p. 17) Just as a human organism consists of many parts like the brain, heart, kidneys and lungs etc. which work together for the survival of a person, in the same way the society also consists of multiple cooperative components. Functional analysis proceeds not by examining the details of specific interaction but by looking at the society as

Water Crisis in the Middle East Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Water Crisis in the Middle East - Research Paper Example According to the World Health Organization, every individual requires 1000 cubic meters of water annually for proper health but many countries in the world cannot fulfill these requirements of water for its residents. The Middle East Countries lie top amongst this list (Sivakumar 2010, p25). An article published in the Gulf News in the year 2011 and written by Samihah Zaman further sheds light upon this crisis. The article explains that the water crisis would surge to greater levels and cause more trouble in the coming years and thus steps should be taken at the national and international levels to curb this problem and solve the situation (Zaman 2011). The Middle East Countries are in the center of a crisis of water shortage owing to the increased demand and reduced reserves and this should be tackled effectively to prevent the worsening of the situation. The gravity of the water crisis in the Middle East can be understood with the example of many countries in the region. The popula tion of Egypt is increasing at a fast pace and there is a rise of one million people in the country within every nine months. This raises the demand of water in the country. In Jordan, the situation has aggravated to a level where many towns in the country receive water only on one day in a week. Furthermore, the situation in the country is further worsened by the 60 percent loss of paper from the water pipes. Israel which has already levied taxes upon water consumption is also facing pressure owing to the increase in immigrants in the country. In Syria, the Euphrates River has been contaminated with pollutants and there has been a drop in the level of the river which has led the authorities to take measures like reducing the electrical supply and water to drink in major cities including Damascus and Aleppo. Thus, the scarcity of water in the countries of the Middle East has escalated (Inbar 1995, p234,235). The water crisis in the Middle East exists due to several reasons. The dry climatic conditions and the barren lands in most of the countries is one of the natural causes of the reduced amount of water resources. The other environmental cause is the climatic changes around the globe which have resulted in droughts and have made the scarcity in the region even worse. This has been accompanied with the boom in the growth rate of the population leading to a rise in the demand of water. Not only this, there has been an increase in the agricultural activities in the region as well as a surge in the tourism industry. Thus, the demand for water has greatly increased. Along with this, pollution has also increased in the Middle East and reduced regulations and checks have led to the contamination of water resources with pollutants coming from industries and agricultural sites. Thus, these factors have not only accounted for reduced quantity of water but the quality of the water supply has also been compromised (Selby 2003, p 25; Hamdy and Liuzzi 2005, p16). The wate r crisis in the Middle East is worsening and strategies should be implemented to overcome this grave problem. The most important measure which needs to be understood is the achievement of control over the growth rate of the population. This is because the natural supply of water in the region will not increase and the population rise would put further pressure. Thus it should be reduced. The next step should be the proper management of water through the building of reservoirs like dams, desalination plants and new pipelines so that the leakage is reduced (Selby 2003, p 26,27). Lastly, political stability is

Participate in a Research Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Participate in a Research Study - Essay Example Many of the questions were asking about current situations as well as one that the participant remembered from their past. The strengths of this study were that it only took about 15 minutes and it was done online. This way, the study could be random and they could take as many participants as possible. Because it was online, they were able to take people from all over the world. They also provided links to therapists that could help if the participants had any challenges with their feelings after the study as well as the email of one of the researchers. The only weakness of the study I felt was that the sections were too long in some situations. There were several times that I felt like I just wanted to stop instead of going all the way through to the end. In the initial page of the study, the researchers gave information about any ethical considerations. The study had been approved by their ethical committee and they said participants could leave a study blank if it made them feel uncomfortable. They also gave links to counselors because they said that it could be that one would feel some anxiety or distress in answering some of the questions. They said that the survey was voluntary and that the participant had the right to withdraw participation at any time.

Business Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Business Strategy - Essay Example The paper will also highlight how the organisation has implemented its proposed strategies for the long term sustainability. At the same time, it will also recommend appropriate strategies for the Unilever with the aim of enhancing the competitive advantage in the global market.     Ã‚  As the discussion stresses  unilever is a public limited company, which is operating its business function in the consumer goods market. The organisation was established in the year 1929 in collaboration with Dutch organisation Lever Brothers. The organisation has become globally renowned due to exceptional brand image along with its end number of products. At the same time, Unilever has also gained goodwill from global market place due to its high quality products and services to its consumers throughout the world. Over the years, organisation has been operating its business operations in more than 190 countries. The organisation has also listed its name in the London Stock Exchange in ‘F TSE 100 Index’ constituent. At the same time, the organisation has also committed to ensure its sustainability and maintained competitive advantage in the global market through providing priority to its consumers and their changing demands.  Unilever always keep its focus towards children and farmers for better profitability and operations. Likewise, organisation has also considered healthcare related aspects in order to establish a better future.

Total reward system proposal Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Total reward system proposal - Coursework Example to the overview provided above, it is clear that Rational Holidays will only be capable of meeting its HR needs if it adequately accomplishes a number of crucial elements. According to WorldatWork (2007), the primary aims of a TR strategy are to communicate a unique value proposition that sufficiently meets the needs of current and potential employees in order to minimize unnecessary employee turnover. Secondly, the strategy aims to offer a framework for the design, administration and communication of rewards programs by employers. To achieve these objectives, Rational Holidays must conceive a suitable strategy involving the various elements: The first element is to lay out the company’s strategies. In other words, the firm must first articulate its core values together with its business strategies. Particularly, the firm must spell out how the proposed strategy will ensure that the business needs as well as aims are met. In addition to this, the company will need to stipulate exact timelines when goals are set to be achieved. The second vital element that be encompassed in the TR strategy is the statement of the firm’s overall objectives. It is well-known that multinational companies operate in an environment that is highly diverse, from a number of perspectives. Apart from the diverse legal requirements involved, multinationals have to respond to different customer needs, just the same way that it has to deal with the demands and conflicting opinions of numerous shareholders. As a result, the TR strategy for Rational Holidays will need to include distinctive statements that outline how the system will uphold these diverse needs. To accomplish this, the approach will need to clearly delineate the roles that will be played by every reward element. The third element is prominence. Every TR strategy ought to give a general description of the superiority of compensation rewards over other tools with an impact on actions as well as decisions. To achieve this

International Business Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International Business Environment - Essay Example Globalization has its benefits and challenges. However, it is almost inevitable and the global economy is expected to continue influencing operations of businesses. This paper â€Å"International Business Environment† addresses the question on whether globalization is good or not. The discussion will involve a brief explanation on how different schools of thoughts perceive globalization. Additionally the drivers of globalization, its implications on international business, the benefits, and challenges of globalization to the international society in general will be discussed.Globalization as Perceived by Various Schools of ThoughtInternational business entails any business activity conducted across national borders. The activities may involve sell of goods or services but must be done between two or more countries. Most multinational companies may have their management located in one country. However, they are international since they carry out business activities across more than one nation. International business has become a common phenomenon that influences decision in the political social as well as economic arena. International business operations are characterized by opportunities as well as challenges (Bray, 2003; Stefanovic, 2008).The term globalization means different things to different people. Some view globalization as increased worldwide interconnectedness in different aspects such as cultural as well as social ones. Hyperglobalists describe globalization as a phenomenon that exposes people.... International business operations are characterized by opportunities as well as challenges (Bray, 2003; Stefanovic, 2008). The term globalization means different things to different people. Some view globalization as increased worldwide interconnectedness in different aspects such as cultural as well as social ones. Hyperglobalists describe globalization as a phenomenon that exposes people to international market resulting in denationalization of economies. Skeptics consider globalization to be the economic interdependence resulting from economic integration. However, skeptics oppose hyperglobalist argument that globalization leads to denationalization. Conversely, skeptics claim that globalization leads to increased influence of national governments on the global economy (Bray, 2003). Transformationalists agree with the hyperglobalists’ argument that globalization reshapes social, political, and economic societies. However, transformationalist fail to agree with hyperglobalis ts’ argument that globalization leads to assimilation of the global societies into a single society. They argue that existence of a single business system does not mean that the global economic society is unionized (Bray, 2003). Drivers of Globalization Although the process of globalization has been going on for a long period, it has intensified in the recent past. There are several factors also referred to as drivers that are responsible for the increased pace of globalization. The main driver of globalization is technology. The economic world has made a great leap in technological advancement. Communication plays a major role in the business environment (Devemdra, 2009). This is because most business

Media Log Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Media Log - Essay Example There have been several improvements in the legal standing of the gay and lesbian community, however, it is in a slow pace. The laws concerning them are dragging in the legislation department to be approved. Although the society recognizes their existence, the gay and lesbian community now seeks to enjoy the same rights and privileges that the heterosexual people have. The Stonewall event commemorates and reminds the people the stand and the clamors of the gay and lesbian community, that they, too, are human beings who deserve a fair position in the society. They, too, are humans, and deserve to be treated as such. They, too, have rights the same as the heterosexual community. The gay and lesbian community deserves to be included in the many laws against discrimination and other laws that prevent them from exercising their rights. There is a need to further educate the lawmakers in revising laws in order to accommodate the needs and the rights of the gay and lesbian community. This article tackles the issues that the same-sex encounter in their plight to be accepted as legal partners, same as legal marriages of the heterosexual community. It brings out in the open the voices of the children of gay parents wherein they have also been in the middle of the fight towards their parents’ plea to legalize their marriages. The gay and lesbian community’s children insist that the same sex marriage will not only benefit adults but it will also provide the children equal benefits and privileges as the children from heterosexual marriages. The children’s worries center on issues of custody, financial aid and visitation rights. For example, there is no legal child support requirement in the event one partner leaves the child in care with the other. Another example cited is in the event when one of the gay parents is sick, the

Harms In Keeping Animals for Human Food Consumption Term Paper

Harms In Keeping Animals for Human Food Consumption - Term Paper Example This essay stresses that when people keep animals for food consumption, they create balance within the environment. The ecosystem needs to be balanced at all times through a cycle of the rearing and consumption of animals. Humans need to do their part by keeping animals for food just as the Lions help maintain the ecosystem of the Wild in check. Domestic animals such as cattle, poultry, and pigs play a primary role in the nourishment of the environment through their waste in terms of their droppings and carcasses. This paper makes a conclusion that it is wrong to compare animals with human beings, particularly when it comes to the keeping of animals for food. Unlike people who have compassion towards one another, animals depend solely on instinct even though they also feel pain. The pain of an animal cannot be compared to the pain of a human being. In addition, vegetarians and animal rights activists should, under no circumstances, term the killing animals for food as inhumane. Animals do not undergo torture in the butcheries, but rather they die fast because of the technological means of their execution. In considering both perspectives on animal rearing for food, animals should be kept for food consumption, particularly because of the benefits of such a practice. Although some skepticism regarding the keeping and consumption of animals, animals provide better protein, than plants, and they can service in harsh environments.

Letter from George Essay Example for Free

Letter from George Essay Im sorry I havent written to you in a long time but a lot of things have happened since I last wrote, unfortunately its bad news this time. It all started when Slim and Curley came in the bunkhouse arguing one night. Then Curley turned to Lennie and says what you laughing at, and then he started lashing out at Lennie and smashed him in the nose. I couldnt stand it anymore Lennie wouldnt fight back so I told him to let him have it. Lennie caught Curleys punch, then he crushed it and he wouldnt let go. When he let his fist go it was flattened, not a bone was left unbroken in his hand. I was sure Lennie and I were going to get canned but Slim saved our skins. He told Curley that if he told anyone what happened and get us canned, we will tell everyone then he would get the laugh. That was good of Slim. I was all right at this point, I was happy, I thought if Lennie play and I our cards right and keep clean for a month we will get our fifty bucks each and get that ranch with old Candy. I started to believe our dream could really happen. All the lads and me were playing horses shoes late Sunday evening. I heard shuffling footsteps from the barn, I looked and saw Candy making his way towards me. His body language said every thing, when he looked at me I felt that something was wrong. He came to me said quietly you better come to the barn. When I saw Curleys wife lying there dead the painful thought going though my mind that I had no other solution to this problem but assume that it was Lennie and knew that was what Candy was thinking. At this point the dream was over for sure of a little ranch. I knew this was the end of the road for Lennie. I knew Curley would want lynch him so Candy and I discussed what we were going to do. I went to the bunkhouse and got Carlsons gun, while Candy went to get the boys. My memory flicked back to the night Carlson shot Candys dog. I went to the barn and heard how they were all planning how they going to get him, Slim reassured me that it was the only way. The others went of all armed; they all went the opposite way to where Lennie should be. I knew he would be by the river where we slept a few nights ago, I told him if he ever got into trouble to go there and wait for me. Sure enough he was there, looking at him made me shiver about the thought of my duty ahead. Lennie expected me to be angry with him but I told him visualise the dream of the imaginary ranch and how the rabbits would hop around and there soft hair. When he looked away I ended his life hoping he was going to a better place. As his lifeless body hit the ground it set a feeling guilt that was unimaginable. I looked at my right hand, which held the gun I throw it away in disgust. Ive moved on now people, just dont care about ranch hands. Best of luck Tom perhaps life will treat you better than Lennie and I.

Customer Loyalty in the Restaurant Industry: Nandos

Customer Loyalty in the Restaurant Industry: Nandos Topic: How customer loyalty can be increased in the restaurant industry? The case of Nandos. Why customer loyalty is important? What Nandos is doing and how it can be better develop? Loyalty marketing, loyalty programs, how to manage it? Techniques? Benefits? Problems? Conclusion. Loyalty Marketing: Definitions Of Customer Loyalty The main change concerns in the organization of marketing activities are certainly one of the more remarkable doctrines marketing. The concept of traditional marketing put at the centre of its priorities the creation of a preference for the service, the needs and desires of consumers. The marketing approach, as observed in the theory and practice in recent years focused more on the notion of exchange and the relationship is the focus of analysis. More recent approaches of marketing focus on the customer and make the quality of the relationship the key to loyalty. Indeed, a quality relationship inhibits choice and represses the effect of preferences. Thus, the relationship with the client becomes a primary concern managerial and academic. The market-oriented generates necessary behaviours to create superior value delivered to customers (Kohli and Jaworski 1990) and place the interests of the client first (Deshpande et al. 1993) for a continue satisfaction, permanent, which undergone constant refinement. This satisfaction is no longer about the only service provided by the company, but includes elements of the relationship, such as trust and commitment. For this, we seek an ongoing relationship and oriented in the long term in the context of a relationship marketing (Dwyer, Schurr et Oh 1987, Sheth et Parvatiyar 1994) and in this context that develops loyalty policies (Dawkins and Reichheld 1990). Kyner and Jacoby (1973) define loyalty as follows: Loyalty is defined as a behavioural response bias because non-random (not spontaneous) expressed over time by an entity decision, finding one or several brands taken in an overall, according to a decision process.† In this definition, loyalty requires: A repeat purchase behaviour resulting from several background variables and complement each other; A positive attitude of consumers that must be controlled or directed. This attitude reveals a favourable perception towards the brand, service, differentiating it to the loyalty from routine behaviour. For others loyalty rooted quality and delivered on the positive gap between perceived expectations and post-purchase evaluation. For Shapiro and Varian (1999) loyalty is to the consumer when efforts to change brand, product or supplier are too large to expect a significant gain change. The authors of this school of thought attempt to explain loyalty by exit barriers that prevent a kind of free choice of the client (a client may be considered faithful to a company only because it has characteristics of geographical proximity). Another school of thought on the loyalty is that which gave birth to the management of customer relationship management (CRM) with the emergence of ideas of Life Time Value. It aims to analyze the lifetime value of its current contribution but also on the basis of its potential to better allocate the resources of the company. It is now for an analysis in terms of portfolio of clients (each client has a value for the company that can be measured by the margin gen erated). Customer loyalty can be defined as the tendency of a customer to choose one company or product/service over another for a particular need. Customer/s can be described as being brand loyal because they tend to choose a certain brand of product more often than others. Customer loyalty is evident when it is the customers who make choices and take actions. Customer may express high satisfaction levels in a survey with a product or company, but there is a big difference between satisfaction and loyalty (Kumar (2008). Loyalty is shown by the actions of the customer, who can be satisfied and still not be loyal. The satisfaction with the product is ultimately a condition for loyalty. In fact, satisfaction is necessary for loyalty but not sufficient. It is true that the satisfaction is not only based on the product and service but also the relationship with the staff. Satisfaction towards the product concerns intrinsic attributes: quality, features, design, durability, benefit. Ultimately, th e quality-price emerges as a global assessment. The service specifically covers guaranteed delivery, solving problems and handling complaints. It introduced the relational aspects of accessibility, courtesy, competence and communication. Experience has shown that the first reason why customers leave a company with whom they do business, is that they do not feel that their needs are important to the company, and vice versa for the remaining loyal to the company for a long time, they feel valued and important. This perception and feeling to be considered is the emotional bridge between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (Ghaury and Cateora 2006). Companies use a series of programs as relationship marketing, Database marketing, permission marketing or customer relationship management (CRM). Loyalty has a direct effect on sales of a company, and even better on its profits. However, the increased level of loyalty stems directly from the attitude and behaviour staff to clients. Motivation staff is the most powerful vector loyalty which itself contributes to profits. Meanwhile, business processes influence largely on how the staff behave with customers. It is in the interest of the company to develop a long-term relationship with clients where both parties benefit each other. It is much less costly for the company to keep its existing customers than to seek new ones. The scale of customer loyalty has 5 types of customers starting with: Suspect: A suspect is someone who comes across the companies promotion. They are a potential suspect for the company. Prospect: If the person is interested in the promotion they become a potential prospect. Customers: A customer is someone who purchases either the product or service. Clients: Clients are those who come back to the company. Advocates: Promotes the business on the companys behalf. They are so happy about the product/service that they tell others. (http://www.learnmarketing.net/ladder.htm Accessed on 02/08/2009) Marketing And Loyalty There are many definitions of marketing applying to loyalty programs. Several of them have focused these objectives in view of the value of the customer more profitable for the company. Today, programs and loyalty cards are found everywhere on standard credit cards, restaurants, etc Loyalty programs are widespread in all sectors that deliver goods or services used. They rely on marketing databases built from information from the loyalty cards that identify the client and record information about its behaviour. Their rules often refer to the use of methods from the traditional promotional techniques, encouraging consumers to increase and sustain their purchases in order to obtain a reward. In this context, they can be distinguished from the sales promotion of their defensive focus to longer term. The objective of the promotion is offensive, and when it stops, there is nothing that prevents consumers to come back to their old habits (Ehrenberg et al. 1994). In contrast, a loyalty progr am seeks to preserve market share by locking consumers through tangible benefits deferred (promotional techniques) or intangible (individualization, privileges, etc) and acts somewhat like a permanent promotion in the long term. The effectiveness of a loyalty program thus depends on its characteristics and tangible benefits but also intangible, that is to say, the expected value of the potential relationship that is likely to generate and develop. The consumer joining a loyalty program seeks, in making their purchases at shopkeepers, obtaining dividends, gifts. The trader in investing in this program seeks to seduce and imprison the consumer. This method, better known as retention, is actually a rather simple technique by which the consumer is faced with the efforts invested in the bonus points and is losing everything in case of abandonment of the program. A loyalty program is a relationship between the customer and the merchant in which, technically, the 2 parties have benefits. I n promoting their businesses, traders undertake several actions to attract customers. For the management of immediate rewards, they offer special discount store. By managing customer loyalty program, they offer rewards delayed. In contrast to the sales promotion where earnings appear at the same time as the cost or effort, this ratio is reversed in the context of delayed rewards, since an individual must first make an effort to more or less long term for earnings in the future. Investigations on human behaviour have shown that some individuals possess a strong motivation to engage in efforts leading to the award of future earnings (Atkinson 1957, Nicholls 1989). It is this aspect that loyalty programs appropriated in the construction of systems with delayed gratification the aim of managing the length of the relationship (retention) and discrimination. (Meyer-Waarden (2002). P. 2-88). Curiously this strong motivation is akin to the quest for a reward. In other words, the effort is motivated by greed. Some experts say that consumer motivation fades over time as more becomes aware that the bonus is spaced in time, the more likely he become discouraged with the efforts required for obtaining the reward. (Meyer-Waarden (2002), P 2-89) Thus, programs must allow consumers to obtain the benefits of the program while also locking in this program. To counter this behavioural aspect, 2 types of programs are offered: proportional and landing. The first principle is to proportionately reward the best customers. The second system encourages them to consume more to reach the next threshold points providing more benefits. Thus, it offers a minimum of points to small unprofitable consumers, maximum points for customers who are very profitable, and few points to very large consumers who buy anyway. (Meyer-Waarden (2002). P. 2-89) Greed is thus increased to obtain a value of gift supported by the consumers effort. The number of points necessary for obtaining a reward is related to the amount invested in the market by the consumer. By cons, consumer choice to join or not this kind of program that demonstrates the lure of gain accessible to long-term investment requires not only money but also time. There are several types of loyalty programs. Some programs offer a specific product free after a number of agreed purchase (coffee, compact disk, etc..) Or reductions applicable on each purchase while the issuers of credit cards offer privileges such as trave l insurance and car insurance during a rental. Some cards also allow a percentage discount or return money. In practice the system of loyalty cards is simple. It is generally sufficient to consumers to use when buying the card issued or accepted by the merchant to qualify for benefits. The card companies also offer credit to their customers bonus points programs. Unlike cards issued by participating merchants, using credit cards leads automatically, no matter where it is used, the accumulation of points and can sometimes match the accumulation of these points to another program loyalty. It is important to mention the strategy department stores growing strongly consumers use their credit cards to earn double the points they would get by paying cash or get loyalty points better at the price of an interest rate up to 28.8%. More specifically, programs that offer frequent flyer points accumulated encourage consumers to use the card as often as possible when making purchases to earn poin ts available for every penny spent, which will be redeemable against products or services available through a catalogue of premium or cons of coupons or discounts available with designated partners. (Benavent. Christopher. and Lars Meyer-Waarden. 2001. Loyalty Programs: Strategies and Practices). Some loyalty card segment their customers by offering them the opportunity to pay an additional fee to join an enhanced program that offers them a better ratio spent pounds / points accumulated. The holders can be considered as incidental to their privileged relationship with the issuer of the card. From the outset, the consumer, by joining the loyalty program, provides data that feed the database of the issuing company. Subsequently, all transactions for which the loyalty card is used by the consumer are stored in this database comes to prepare a record of its habits. The program relies on both the declarative, where the consumer fills out the questionnaire affiliation, but also on buying behaviour, thanks to its history. (Frenove, A.S. Hivet, N. Joly, P and Josquin, C. 2003. Topic: The Ethics of supermarkets). The ultimate goal of these programs, in addition to customer retention is to allow traders to analyze the data collected in order to increase the value of the customers shopping cart. The Concept Of Customer Life Cycle And Types Of Loyalty The Concept Of Customer Life Cycle: One of the key concepts of customer-oriented marketing is the life cycle dynamics of the customer, based on the idea that the flows of revenues and costs vary over time as requirements change in customer / business relations, contrary to the classical analysis and static demand. The first feature of the approach is that it is done individually and not aggregated, underscoring again the importance of marketing database, made possible thanks to the performance of information technology. Another interesting aspect is that the analysis is performed dynamically. The main idea is that the opinion of a client may occur more or less intense, and we can assume that it is forming a cycle. Practically, these cycles represent changes in purchasing power, but also modes, changing preferences, the phenomena of learning and forgetting. These cycles depend on several factors: the first is age. During the aging characteristics of opinion trends, tastes and attitudes can occur. Aging is characterized by a higher loyalty, more conservative, more risk aversion. Another factor is the generation based on the assumption that successive generations have value systems and own beliefs relatively distinct from others. This generation effect partially covers the different types of experiences. This manifests itself in innovative behaviours that vary with the gap between innovation and generation. This management based on cycles of life is clear to solve three problems: acquiring the customer, maintain, expand consumption and profitability. According to Dwyer, Schurr and Oh (1987), in the sense of relationship marketing, the life cycles of the relationship between a brand, product and a consumer have three distinct phases characterized by changes over time the amount used: (1) initialization or acquisition, (2) maturation or development and (3) breaking. The beginning of the cycle is quite understandable and is in customer acquisition, with a time of discovery of the other as a potential partner. Both parties calculate the attraction of the relationship, the costs and benefits of continuing it. Marked by the process of adoption and learning, this phase is characterized by a positive rate of consumption growth, but with high costs. In a second phase, presumably the consumers level of consumption stabilizes after having fully explored the use of the service. The expectations of the relationship and its benefits are confirmed, which leads to a continuation trade and then the notion of commitment, which results in the ignorance of competitive offers. Incomes of the company increase first and then level off as costs decrease. Finally, a third cycle is where a revival / reactivation, retention or separation from the client must be considered because the contribution weakens. The decrease in sales of service may occur at any time or gradual ly, indicating a process of wear or a more brutal, reflecting the substitution phenomena. Indeed, the dissolution occurs when the unmet expectations of increased transaction costs, the weakening of the switching costs of changing needs. Both partners must make a trade off between the benefits and costs brought by the relationship to decide whether or not its continuation. Any company engaged in the marketing approach dynamic client needs to adapt its strategy according to these phases. Three types of strategies should be considered in terms of life cycles that match: The customer acquisition, The loyalty and customer retention, And the augmentation of customer loyalty which represent a real challenge. Abandonment is considered when the costs of retention are higher than income generated by the client. (Abandonment=Costs loyalty > Income generated by the client). Once the company has determined the position of the life cycle by customer segment, it becomes clearly evident that this strategy must lead to an individualized approach to lead to a balanced allocation of resources. The problem is that each individual has a different value each time t for the company, which requires segmentation based on the potential and value of customers. Types Of Loyalty Customer loyalty is the result of well-managed customer retention programs. Before developing these successful programs, its important to know there are two types of loyalty: behavioural loyalty and the emotional loyalty. Behavioural loyalty is the loyalty to a brand demonstrated by repeat sales and responses to marketing campaigns by the customer. He behaves exactly like the company wants, by purchasing good or service. Behavioural loyaltys measures include response rate to direct marketing to the customer base. Emotional loyalty is the loyalty to a brand driven by favourable perceptions, opinions and giving recommendations. The customer feels empathy and attachment to a company or brand and he is willing to recommend it around him. It is better for the company if the customer has the both types of loyalty, but when its not the case specific strategies are developed to achieve both. (Chauffey, Chadwick, Mayer, Johnston (2006)). Benefits Of Efficient Customer Loyalty Management First, a loyal customer will continue its purchases over the years. Its purchase volume should also normally increase simply by economic growth and inflation. It should accept offers for complementary products and additional (Cross-Selling and Up-Selling). In any event, transaction costs should not increase proportionately. Consequently, they will decrease as a percentage of the cost and improve profitability (Kumar (2008)). Finally, a satisfied customer refers an average of 3 customers should in the best case follow the same progression. A study by the Harvard Business School published in the journal of the same name, shows an improvement in the percentage of loyal customers by 5% per year for 5 years to double, not sales, but profits.(CRM Odyssey Inc (2003)www.crmodyssey.com Accessed on the 09/08/2009 Another benefit from customer loyalty is it creates allow to the company to protect its markets from competitors; the more the customer is satisfied, the less he will be to buy to another product or service to the competitors. Automatically barriers are created against the competitors trying to enter in the market(s) (Ghaury and Cateora (2006)). Finally the word of mouth behaviour of loyal customer increase brand awareness. Customer share their positive feelings and experiences with their friends, family or mates when they are loyal to the company or product. They still purchase to the company and recommend it to others. It means a reduction of advertising cost; the money can be used to boost the word of mouth by making strategies to reward loyal customers. Reichheld goes even further in 1996 in his book The effect of loyalty by writing: the benefits of loyal customers are increasing over time and can recruit new consumers at reduced cost by using the legal Customer faithful because it is supposed to be a good speaker for the company.† It also shows in his work as a loyal customer makes purchases more often, he tends to buy for a higher amount and is less sensitive to the variable price. He becomes a captive of the company and therefore gives a kind of barrier to entry for potential competitors. The work of the TARP (Technical Assistance Program Reseach) supports these observations. They show that winning a new customer returns four to five times more expensive than keeping a customer is already active. Jones and Sasser (Jones 1995) focused on the relationship satisfaction / loyalty and showed a sense of satisfaction may not necessarily result fidelity as a loyal customer may nevertheless want to take advantage of a promotion with another supplier, test another product or refer to another offer. By cons, they also show a sense of dissatisfaction may cause disloyalty if dissatisfaction is not taken into account by the company. These gains must obviously be taken with caution because they rely heavily on industries. There is however no doubt that customer retention can benefit a significant leverage effect on profitability. The main reasons are: lower costs for customer acquisition, the net margin updated on the life of the customer to cover these costs; reduced management costs, a loyal customer knows the business better and less prone to use his front office to make purchases (reservations) effect of recommendation; Increased revenue per customer The Cost Of Lost Customers: A defensive marketing is cheaper than an offensive marketing, which often requires a direct confrontation with the competition. The cost of keeping a customer is five times less than the cost of converting a prospect, and it can cost up to sixteen times more to achieve with the new customer, the profitability of a customer acquired. So its the rate of customer retention rate that is essential, and not the attraction. The company must carefully monitor the defection of customers and minimize the amplitude. There are four stages: Define and measure retention. This may be the reuse of the services. Know the different reasons for discontinuation, and identify those which can be remedied. Estimate the lost profit per customer lost. Calculate how much it would reduce defections. Profitability: We have already mentioned the theory of Reichheld and Sasser that a company can improve profitability by 25% to 85% by reducing its rate of defection by 5%. Thus, loyal customers are often more profitable than occasional customers. Specifically, in the service activities and the Business to Business, customers of a company tend to increase their purchase from the company as they know it and appreciate it better. A positive word of mouth: In many cases, loyal customers of a business will spontaneously promote to their surroundings, and become, through word of mouth, very effective recruiters because disinterested and credible. For all these reasons, the loyal customer service of a company is considered a real capital, called the customer capital. Retention and its challenges: This new focus puts the customer and his control in centre of our concerns. Given the incredible proliferation of professional works in the field, it seems essential to discuss strategic issues and objectives of retention, by reviewing customer orientation and loyalty policies to give a definition and a clear positioning of loyalty. The retention strategy: Loyalty, recognized as indispensable goal of any customer relationship strategy, not confined to mere promotional programs: Some rules must be respected. Rule 1: Be selective: Customers do not all contribute equally to the profitability of the company. Therefore, retention should be selectively adapting any loyalty action from an analysis of customer value. Rule 2: Propose an attractive loyalty offer and truly innovative. The loyalty offers are numerous, but not all have the same impact. The company can arbitrate according to its objectives between different options: Immediate benefits often focus on value and price (price preference ); Privileges, providing intangible benefits to customers (priority systems, assistance ); Rewards delayed in time, seeking to establish lasting relationships with customers the most profitable and likely to extend their relationship with the company. Whatever the choice of the selected offer, interest for customers is based on five attributes, determining its overall perceived value: The perceived value of any premium or net worth; Attractiveness; Accessibility through time; The freedom given to the customer in the choice of options; Simplicity of the offer. Rule 3: Anticipating the costs: The need to assess the costs in advance of any approach to loyalty is essential. Too often, a company focused on profits resulting from the proposed strategy, without taking into account the costs generated before and repeatedly. These costs may be related to both the growing number of customers affected, and ways and means of dealing with relationships with clients, sometimes completely new to the company. Rule 4: Consolidate and exploit customer information: The challenges that the company have just highlighted described the need to build its strategy of strong customer loyalty for the company. Two main lines of action are considered: †¢ The opportunity to integrate operational databases (sales / billing, marketing ) in a baseline. †¢ The interest of exploiting every opportunity to contact customers to gather information about them. This database will allow the tracking of the customer relationship over time, and identification of customer profiles profitable and unprofitable, which will determine the choice of targets to retain. Problems Linked To Customer Loyalty Difficulties In Marketing: Obtaining a good efficiency requires a good understanding of customer behaviour and causes of abandonment. One must distinguish the causes of termination which are inevitable (and often unpredictable) from other, more or less predictable and can be combated. The causes are unavoidable, for example: a change of personal or professional lifestyle, financial problems, death Preventable causes are: inadequate tariff, a history of poor service and complaints. The challenge is to build something, based on information often dispersed. In anticipation of the termination for inadequate tariff, must be able to say what was the invoice for each client if they had chosen the optimum rate? How much would he have saved? From what current difference between invoice and optimum bill is there a risk? To anticipate the claims for termination, you must classify all types of call to customer service (there are easily hundreds) and identify those that increase the probability of termination. We must also take account of differences in behaviour related to age, family status, and place of residence and recover to the extent possible this information. Difficulties In Management Retention also poses problems of management, for example the coexistence of a culture of acquisition and a culture of loyalty: In a young market, corporate culture is naturally directed towards the acquisition. This orientation manifests itself in several ways, for example, budgets are allocated primarily to sales, what is important here is the market share of sales. In these circumstances it is difficult to make a place to loyalty because it is cultural opposition on both fronts: its budget is in competition with the acquisition, because what is important here is the retention of customers and not flow of customers. Difficulties In The Organization: When the market is young, the sales should be focused on conquering, the measure of the rate of effectiveness is still difficult, and loyalty is part of the Marketing. Then improving customer knowledge, customer service records terminations, understand the causes, loyalty becomes profitable and worthy of large budgets, customer service becomes legitimate to ensure loyalty. In consumer, all sale actions are public, as far as loyalty is confidential. Loyalty is indeed a clear competitive advantage. It allows to keep or to take market share in all discretion. Confidentiality is necessary for a second reason: do not create perverse behaviour on the part of customers, who know the rules of the game could benefit for future benefits. (Jean Baptiste COUMAU and Henri WIDMER, La Jaune et la Rouge,2002) Rejection Of Customers: The approach of loyalty can lead to bias by virtue of its objectives: there is concern that the benefits accorded to consumers more loyal to the product or service concerned and not the enterprise. There is a risk of great loss of power marketing consent. Moreover, the strong competition leads to a generalization of loyalty operations that can not only cause fatigue but also a rejection of the approach by customers. The multiplicity of material resources such as loyalty cards generalized in various companies in portfolios causes both a reaction to the trivialization of operation for the customer and a loss of power to the business on target. The implementation of a loyalty operation is tricky: the company must choose carefully because the target must be loyal customers, those holders of profits. This targeting is difficult and requires the development of a database of well-informed. This base is also used to monitor quantitatively and qualitatively loyal customers. These are consider ations of costs related to these investments in information that may be a limit. (Fotso Tagne Achille Rostand, La fidelisation client http://www.ougagner.fr/fidelisation.html Accessed on the 09/09/2009) Means And Factors Influencing Loyalty Factors Influencing Loyalty If they are well structured and well implemented, customer loyalty programs cited above can bring measurable benefits to the company that would stand out positively of competition by reducing costs and in the same time increase its income. This situation is favoured by: Attracting new customers; A high retention rate of existing customers for a long period; Increasing the frequency of visits by the existing customers; Increasing expenditure on new and existing customers; Making customers in good conditions so they feel appreciated and satisfied then they promote products or services through word of mouth around them. (Memberson (2008) http://www.memberson.com/Loyalty/CustomerLoyalty.aspx Accessed on 01/08/2009) Some factors are essential to create and maintain the Customer loyalty. Showing 6 success factors that make some companies

Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty In Mobile Phone Industry Marketing Essay

Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty In Mobile Phone Industry Marketing Essay A customer is the person who brings us his wants. He is not an interruption of our work, but the purpose of it. We are not doing a favor by serving him; he is doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so (Sara Gustafson, Erica Lundgren 2005). Customer satisfaction is the degree to which customer expectations of a product or service are met or exceeded (BNET Business Directory). The term customer loyalty is used to describe the behavior of repeat customers, as well as those that offer good ratings, reviews, or testimonials (WiseGeek). Consumer satisfaction and loyalty plays an important role in the success of any business. Therefore these are considered as priority task for many businesses (Kotler et al, 2002), as satisfied and loyal customers bring in profitability and competitive advantage to an organization (Bowen and Chen, 2001). As Gould (1995) proposes that no company can survive in business without satisfied and loyal customers. This is the reason, that organizations put efforts to develop and provide offerings to satisfy their customers and maintain their loyalty. Loyal and satisfied customers not only increase the value of the business, but also enable it to maintain the costs lower than those associated with attracting new customers (Beerli et al, 2004). 3. Industry Background The mobile phone service industry provides network services for communication of voice or data signals through wireless mode. There are more than 74 million mobile phone subscribers in U.K. in which 85% of the adults have a handset. UK represents the most competitive market in Europe and there is a huge war among the service providers to differentiate themselves from their competitors (Mintel 2008). Subscription levels are expected to continue to grow, however, it should be noted that while there were 73.5 million subscriptions in UK in 2007, it has been cited that nine million subscriptions are for SIM cards that are inactive and a further 7.7 million that are barely active. Mobile phone subscriptions are forecast to increase in 2008 to 76 million subscriptions. Currently the UK represents approximately 9% of the European market and by 2010 it is forecast to have 78 million subscriptions. (Mintel 2008) There are five mobile phone networks currently operating in the UK : O2, T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone and most recently 3. Vodafone and O2 (formerly BT Cellnet) are the largest and oldest. These two networks were joined by T-Mobile (formerly One 2 One) swiftly followed by Orange. All of these companies now operate digital networks. In addition, there are many virtual networks operating on these major networks, packaged under a different name. e.g. Virgin, OneTel, Lycatalk etc. All the above mentioned facts shows that there is a huge market for Mobile service providers in U.K. Mobile phone is everyones need and there is a large customer base who uses the services of more than one network provider. 4. Justification for the choice of research Over the last decade organizations of all types and sizes have increasingly come to understand the importance of customer satisfaction. It is a renowned fact that it is far less costly to keep existing customers than to make new ones. It is becoming accepted that there is a strong link between customer retention, customer satisfaction and profitability. In a large area of public sector customer satisfaction itself is the measure of success (Nigel Hill, 2002). Mobile phone network industry is a giant industry in U.K. I chose this research topic because I personally observed there is a huge competition in this industry, and the industry is prone to face problems of customer decay. The average business loses between 10 and 30 percent of its customers each year; but they often dont know which customer they have lost, when they were lost, why they were lost or how much sales revenue and profit this customer decay has cost them (Nigel Hill and Jam Alaxender, 2002, p 3). A loyal customer fe els committed towards the organization and results in profit and growth to the organization. In this highly competitive era, every company tries to offer uniqueness and best value for money, an educated and smart customer has some determinants to choose which organization to stay committed with and which company to switch over. 5. Research objectives 5.1 To find out the right service gap Service gap is the difference between the present quality of service and ideal quality of service. It is very important for an organization to know the right service gap so as to focus on narrowing down that service gap and offer better services to the customer. Nigel Hill and Jim Alaxender have specified five types of service gaps (Nigel Hill and Jim Alaxender, 2002, p 5.): Promotional Gap -When what is said about the service differs from the standards actually delivered. Understanding Gap when managers perceptions of customers expectations are inaccurate Procedural Gap when customers expectations are not translated into appropriate operating procedures / system. Behavioural Gap When the service delivered is different from the specifications of the service. Perception Gap When the level of service perceived by customers differs from the service actually provided. 5.2 To find out the degree of customer loyalty There are different levels of customer loyalty referred as a ladder of pyramid in literature. These levels of loyalty vary from the customer perspective. These are defined as follows (Nigel Hill and Jim Alaxender, 2002, p 16.): Suspects When suspects are unaware of the product or have no inclination to purchase it. Prospects When customers have some attraction towards the organization, but they have not yet taken the step of doing business yet. Customers usually one-off purchaser or may be sometimes repeat buyers, but no real feelings towards organization. Clients Repeat customers having positive feeling towards organization, but their support is passive rather than active. Advocates Actively supporting clients who recommend organization to others. Partners Strongest form of loyalty, where both parties see mutual benefit in partnership. Predicting the right level of customer loyalty towards an organization helps in strategically planning the measures to enhance customer trust and shifting from bottom to top level of the loyalty pyramid. There is usually a homogenous segment of customers lying at each level. Identifying that segment and planning accordingly will help in increasing customer retention. 5.4 To analyse the factors that affects customer satisfaction and loyalty. A questionnaire will be designed with an aim to find out first two objectives and carrying out customer expectations from their mobile service provider. In-depth analysis of the data obtained will bring out the factors that affect customer satisfaction and loyalty. The organization can thus underpin those factors in their customer relationship process and try to retain customer commitment. A committed customer stay longer, buy more often, buy more range, spend more, recommend more, consider competitors less and feel committed. (Nigel Hill, Jim Alaxender, 2002) 6. Research Methods The research is clearly classified as exploratory study. This kind of study is a valuable mean of clarifying the understanding of a problem (Saunders et al. 2003, p.96). The above research objectives will be achieved using qualitative primary data in the form of unstructured questionnaire. The primary data will be collected from the below mentioned sample size in the form of unstructured questionnaires. The research strategy that will be carried out will be Survey in the form of unstructured questionnaire. The research will be exploratory study as the precise nature of the problem is not sure (Saunders et al. 2007, p.138). 7. Data collection and analysis Both primary as well as secondary data will be used for this research. Secondary data will be obtained from various sources to obtain theoretical background for carrying out the research. The secondary data collection source would be :- Research Methods for Business Students Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill, 2003. Handbook of customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement Nigel Hilla and Jim Alexander, 2002. Online library resources e.g. Mintel, Emerald etc. After getting the theoretical background for carrying out the research, Primary data would be collected from the sample size in the form of unstructured questionnaires. Unstructured questionnaire would be preferred as compared to other survey methods as it will be less complicated and deems fit for carrying our research like this. . 8. Time scale and resources I have sufficient resources to carry out this research. I have divided my research plan into activities with clear completion time frames and my tendency would be complete the research within the designed time frame. Month Day Activities March 1-15 Further reading on key theories and concepts involved in research and drawing relevant information for the literature review. Mid March to April 20-30 Commencement and finishing of critical literature review drafts May to June 5-30 Collection and compilation of research data July to mid August 1 17 Analyzing the data and writing the first research draft. Mid August to Mid September 17 30 Compiling the final research and carrying out conclusions and recommendations. References Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrain Thornhill (2003) Research methods for business students 3rd Edition. FT Prentice Hall Financial Times Pearson Education U.K) Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrain Thornhill (2007) Research methods for business students 4th Edition. FT Prentice Hall Financial Times Pearson Education U.K) Nigel Hill and Jim Alexander (2002) Handbook of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Measurement. 2nd Ed. USA : Gower Publishing Company. Mintel (November 2008) UK Mobile Services and Network Providers.

Introduction Essay :: essays research papers

Who Am I? My name is xxxxx xxxxx. I am XX years old, married, and have three sons. I was born in Greensboro, NC and lived there until I was 19. I attended XXXX with the intention of getting an Associate's Degree in Commercial Art and Advertising Design. I was gifted in and loved drawing and painting. It never occurred to me that I would have a career in anything else. The summer after my first semester at XXXX, my parents saw an advertisement in the newspaper for those interested in a career as a flight attendant. My parents pressured me to go to the airline's open house. I flat out refused. After all, I was 19 and madly in love with my unemployed 30 year old boyfriend who still lived with his parents. I went to the airline's open house and there were hundreds of women there. Some of us, including myself, were chosen to speak in front of the mass audience of candidates. The next day, an airline representative called me and asked me to fly to Chicago the following day for a formal interview. I did not want to go at all! I was petrified of getting on an airplane. My boyfriend didn't want me to go. Most of all, I was going to be a graphic artist and had never even considered this job in my life. Through many interviews, six weeks of training away from home, several bouts of tearfully begging my mom to let me come home, I became one of the first 19 year olds to become a flight attendant. I absolutely loved my job and the freedom it gave me. I was able to travel to places I never had dreamed of going. I did my job well and was enamored and confident with the different people I met. I planned to retire as a flight attendant. But things change when husbands and babies come along. When I had my first baby and had to leave him for the first time, I cried uncontrollably the entire trip. My feelings of missing him only grew. Several times, I broke down in the middle of a service when I saw a child. When my second baby came along, I decided that I could no longer have both this career and a family. Introduction Essay :: essays research papers Who Am I? My name is xxxxx xxxxx. I am XX years old, married, and have three sons. I was born in Greensboro, NC and lived there until I was 19. I attended XXXX with the intention of getting an Associate's Degree in Commercial Art and Advertising Design. I was gifted in and loved drawing and painting. It never occurred to me that I would have a career in anything else. The summer after my first semester at XXXX, my parents saw an advertisement in the newspaper for those interested in a career as a flight attendant. My parents pressured me to go to the airline's open house. I flat out refused. After all, I was 19 and madly in love with my unemployed 30 year old boyfriend who still lived with his parents. I went to the airline's open house and there were hundreds of women there. Some of us, including myself, were chosen to speak in front of the mass audience of candidates. The next day, an airline representative called me and asked me to fly to Chicago the following day for a formal interview. I did not want to go at all! I was petrified of getting on an airplane. My boyfriend didn't want me to go. Most of all, I was going to be a graphic artist and had never even considered this job in my life. Through many interviews, six weeks of training away from home, several bouts of tearfully begging my mom to let me come home, I became one of the first 19 year olds to become a flight attendant. I absolutely loved my job and the freedom it gave me. I was able to travel to places I never had dreamed of going. I did my job well and was enamored and confident with the different people I met. I planned to retire as a flight attendant. But things change when husbands and babies come along. When I had my first baby and had to leave him for the first time, I cried uncontrollably the entire trip. My feelings of missing him only grew. Several times, I broke down in the middle of a service when I saw a child. When my second baby came along, I decided that I could no longer have both this career and a family.

Capital Punishment is Necessary :: Papers

Capital Punishment is Necessary Capital punishment is necessary in order for justice to prevail. Capital punishment is the execution of criminals for committing crimes that is in regard as so bad that death is the only acceptable punishment. Capital punishment servers to lower the murder rate, but also has value as a form of retribution. Its fairness is determined by the judicial system. As a form of punishment, it saves money when compared to a life sentence. The death penalty deters murder and puts the fear of death into would be killers. A person is less likely to kill, if he fears a possible sentence for his action. Another way the death penalty may help deter murder is the fact that if the killer is death, he or she will not be able to kill again. There are two different opinions on the death penalty. There are those who think that murders deserve to live and serve a life sentence in jail, and those who are supporters of the death penalty as a form of revenge. Both groups want to make examples out of offenders so that the threat of death will be enough to deter from capitol offenses. Some people prefer to give the murder life in prison. Others argue that the punishment does not out the crime. In support of their position, they point the fact that many prisoners do not serve their full sentence. Some prisoners even live very comfortable. Thus burdening taxpayers with the cost of their incarceration some people feel that it is ok and others feel that criminals live in prison off of other people's hard money. In the ending, criminals must think about consequences before they kill someone. To give a killer the death penalty would reassure the family of victims as well as the problems.

Dr. Heideggers Experiment: Reality Or Illusion Essay -- essays resear

Dr. Heidegger's Experiment: Reality or Illusion In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story Dr. Heidegger's Experiment, one of the central ideas of the story revolves around the idea of reality versus illusion. Of course the overriding theme of the story dealt with the ethical dilemma of changing old age into youth, still a major part of how the story was interpreted involved a personal decision on how you took the story; as literal or figurative. The perception that appealed to me the most was reading the text as literal, and concluding the experiment as reality rather then a figment of imagination caused by the intoxicating brew. A couple of points that Hawthorne made led me to believe that the story was indeed a true testament of the powers of the magical water. The first is rather evident and straight forward because it happens before a single person even raises glass close to their lips. I am of course referring to the fifty- five year old rose that was given to Dr. Heidegger on the eve of his wedding by his bride to be. Heidegger places the rose in the water so there could be proof of the mysterious water's power, but in the same act of proving its power to his guests Hawthorne proves to us the power of the water because when the rose regains life nobody was drunk or had even attempted to drink the water. "The crushed and dried petals stirred, and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were r...

Fish Oil Health Benefits

Fish oil health benefits are exaggerated, says a new study appearing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. And yet, it warns, increased consumer demand for fish oil is pushing fish populations to the brink. Medical scientists from St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto have teamed with researchers from the University of British Columbia's Fisheries Centre and author Farley Mowat to closely examine the effects of health claims with regard to seafood. For years, international agencies concerned with health and nutrition have promoted seafood consumption. â€Å"Our concern is that fish stocks are under extreme pressure globally and that studies are still urgently required to define precisely who will benefit from fish oil,† says Dr. David J. A. Jenkins, a doctor at St. Michael's Hospital and a professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine's Department of Nutritional Sciences. Further, if we decide that fish oil supplementation is necessary for good health, then unicellular sources of ‘fish oil' like algae, yeasts, etc, should now be used, as they are in infant formula,† adds Dr. Jenkins. While some studies have reported fish oil health benefits healthy benefits, others have failed to show a significant effect. But these negative studies are often ignored and the result has been increased demand for seafood by consumers in the developed world, often at the expense of food security in developing nations. Governments and industry tell consumers to eat more fish because it is healthy,† explains Rashid Sumaila, director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at UBC Fisheries Centre and study co-author. â€Å"But where do we get these fish? They are increasingly coming from the waters around Africa and other places where food security is a problem. † At best, fish oils are just one factor out of many that may reduce ailments such as heart disease and researchers found that people who do not eat fish, such as vegetarians, are not at increased risk of illness. Furthermore, dietary recommendations to consume more fish are incompatible with the sustainability of ocean ecosystems, according to a concurrent study recently published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. â€Å"For people in Canada or the US, or in the EU, eating fish is one of many possible options, both in terms of a tasty meal, and in terms of a balanced diet,† says UBC fisheries researcher Daniel Pauly. â€Å"For many people in developing countries, fish is often their only source of protein. It would be irresponsible for us to ‘triage' food sources without verifying that fish oil indeed promotes human health. † Farley Mowat, co-author on this study, adds: â€Å"In the immediate future, human beings are going to have to find better ways to live. Our rape and pillage of the environment has to end before it becomes our end. The damage we have already done to life in the oceans is a prime example of our idiocy, and a last warning that we had better change our ways. â€Å"

A Good Teacher Essay

Education is one of the most important parts of our life. Therefore all teachers should try to be a â€Å"good teacher†. The teacher is to help your personality and learning. First, a good teacher is not boring. A good teacher must have â€Å"knowledge† of his/her subject matter. A good teacher should know how to explain the content in easier way that he is teaching. Being a good teacher is to understand the student. In addition, a good teacher should be able to understand that it is important to teach in simple steps so that all students in the class can understand the lesson. The â€Å"good teacher† works with students. A friend of mine told me her math teacher tolerates only students who are good at mathematics or those who have special interest in the subject. Towards the rest of the class my friend says she’s very exacting. She gives homework and tests without bothering to ask about difficulties. She doesn’t try to explain it and as a result many students keep getting bad marks. I family believe teacher shouldn’t forget that all students no matter of their color, race or gender have equal ability to study. Different students have different learning system. Some can learn things easily while others need to spend more time over a given task. That’s why it is advisable for a teacher to know his students individually so that he can remember what kind of problems they have and find the right way to help them. There’s no doubt that teachers have immense influence on their students. That’s why it it’s their responsibility to find the best approach of teaching and make classes more amusing and interesting. A Good Teacher Essay â€Å"Plants are shaped by cultivation and men by education. We are born weak, we need strength; we are born totally unprovided, we need aid; we are born stupid, we need judgement. Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when we are grown is given to us by education. † (Jean Jacques Rousseau) It can be seen that education is one of the most important factor of our life. It is the tool that shapes us intellectually, socially, emotionally and personally. The kind of education that we receive depends highly on the educators that we encounter. A positive or negative encounter can impact our entire life. Therefore, if it is intended for today’s students to be responsible citizens of tomorrow’s society, then all teachers should emulate the roles of a â€Å"good teacher†. A good teacher is one who is knowledgeable of learners and their development, knowledgeable of subject matter and curriculum goals, creates a good learning environment and†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. It can be noted that from the interview conducted, Teacher X exemplifies most of the features of a â€Å"good teacher† and is therefore considered as one. Before entering in a classroom, a â€Å"good teacher† should be highly knowledgeable of the subject area they will be teaching and have a clear understanding of how to organize the curriculum in order to meet the need of the students and the objectives of the school. The interview highlighted that Teacher X is one of the chief writers of the curriculum for the examination body of her institution. It will be ones belief that a personnel would not have been bestowed such privilege if she was not competent in her subject area. She also outlined that her learning objectives are based on the knowledge, ability and skill of the students. This further exemplifies her since Darlington-Hammond and Baratz-Snowden (2005) states that based on the learning needs of their students, teachers must make a wide variety of curriculum decisions, ranging from the evaluation and selection of materials to the design and sequencing of tasks, assignments and activities to the assessment of learning to guide further teaching. The development of the curriculum in light of the students’ interest fosters intrinsic motivation and stimulates the students’ passion for learning a specific subject area. If given the opportunity for input, students’ will generate ideas and set goals that even the teacher had not thought of. At this point teachers should embrace the fact that they do not know everything and should be willing to learn from their students’ in the process. A â€Å"good teacher† must take the time to know her students. Know not only their names or facial representations, but their readiness level, learning styles and interest. Students are all individuals who learn at different rates and in different ways. Tomlinson (2001) outlines that students learn better if tasks are a close match for their skills and understanding of a topic (readiness), if tasks ignite curiosity or passion in a student (interest) and if the assignment encourages students to work in a preferred manner (learning style). The classrooms of our society can be extremely diverse, so teachers must be able to differentiate intrsuctions to meet the individual needs of each student.

Personal and Professional Development Essay

I. Introduction Self-managed learning is an individual person or to find different ways of learning, which may be in the society they live or work in an environment that is diverse. Self-managed learning is also about setting goals for learning by assessing the learning goals and how to achieve that goal. People learn new things such different cultures of people, behavior, personality, cognitive, etc. Individuals can learn things not only in the classroom but also through friends, newspapers etc. Self-managed learning opportunity for people to come up with their own strategies for learning, although sometimes it takes a short time to learn something that might be possible for them to have can pass the exam, or completing a project, it is important for people to acquire knowledge as long as the current environment facing the challenges posed by technological development who need knowledge they can use them in your personal life and your career. Lifelong learning is all about continuous learning individuals can contribute to the professional context. Individuals may have personal assessment as a means of lifelong learning by assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to their (SWOT analysis). (James, 2014) Both 2 Long life and self- managed learning are important to each individual. Self-study, access is really the foundation for acquiring knowledge. Choose a suitable learning can maximize capacity and gather knowledge faster. Access to and understanding of knowledge is a huge advantage for personal growth, personal excellence productivity will lead to broad career. Appropriate plans put in place by making a plan of action, monitoring it, set the date, review it regularly will help students achieve their goals. Although, they need help from colleagues by accepting the opinions and judgments that will help them to learn, individuals need to understand the stages of the career development plan for the purpose of having a clear goal of what they want to achieve from learning self-management. It is a self- managed development can enhance long life. Today, when the world is integration, how to understand and choose a best way to learning to maximize the learning capacity is very important in the competition to get better positions to benefit themselves and their organizations, even is a national interest. Here I’ll write down clearly about my learning abilities, strengths and weaknesses of my learning ability to apply to your organization. II. Task 1: Evaluate approaches to self-managed learning: 1. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle Figure 1. Kolb’ ELC Model Having developed the model over many years prior, David Kolb published his model about learning styles model in 1984. This led to the related terms such as experiential learning theory of Kolb (ELT), and learning styles of Kolb inventory (LSI). In his publications – especially his 1984 book â€Å"learning experience: Experience as the source of Learning and Development ‘Kolb acknowledges the early learning experiences of others in the 1900s, including Rogers, Jung, and Piaget. In turn, the learning style model Kolb and experiential learning theory is now recognized by scholars, teachers, managers and trainers works as really profound concepts fundamental to our understanding and explaining the behavior of human learning, and towards helping others to learn. (businessballs, 2014) Kolb’s learning theory laid out four different learning styles (or preferences), which is based on a learning cycle of four stages. Kolb includes this â€Å"cycle of learning† as a central theoretical principles of their learning experience, usually calculated according to the four-stage cycle of learning, which â€Å"experienced immediate or concrete† offer a basis for â€Å"observations and reflections†. These’ observations and reflections are assimilation and distilled into â€Å"abstract concepts† producing new implications for action which can be â€Å"actively testing† times in turn creating new experiences. Here we are going to learn specifically about Kolb’s ELC model: Concrete Experience: Concrete experience is the first stage in 4 stages of Kolb’s ELC. It’s about when we done any activities, after that we have experiences. Experience will create based on done-activities. In this stage, individual or organization will be implemented or do activities. Base on activities and implementation, the experiences will be created. For example, Organizations open many actual work experiences or work rotation will help their employees be more realistic experiences. Also, for those who are in this stage, they are not primarily interested in theory; instead they want to treat each case as unique and learn best from specific examples. Reflexive Observation: â€Å"When the learner consciously reflects back on that  experience† (Many, 2014, p. 15). That means when the experience from stage 1 came, we have to review again, summarize all the task of activity and make sure it’s true. The ‘reflective observation’ factors deri ved from the analysis and judgment of events and discussions about learning and teaching that you take with your mentors and colleagues. People naturally think about their experiences in teaching, especially when they are new to it and less confident in their abilities or when an already painful experience. All of us went out to tell his lesson â€Å"went well or severe, in a visual sense. This could be called† common sense reflection ‘. But how do we know it is good or bad and what is good or bad about it? We need to speak our thoughts in a systematic way for us to remember what we think and build on the experience for the next time. This example may be through the self-reflection or evaluation of your next event by keeping a log or journal. It can also include feedback from students, peer observation of teaching (e.g., advice or opinions of your peers), moderation of assessment, examiners commented on the outside. All of these can be aggregated to give an overall reflection of your practice. Reflected in itself, though, is not enough to promote the learning and career development. Twenty years of experience may include twenty years of teaching the same content in the same way! Unless we act according to our reflections about themselves and about the opinions of others, there is no development took place. Abstract Conceptualization: â€Å"Is where the learner attempts to conceptualize a theory or model of what is observed† (Many, 2014, p. 15). In this stage, the definition start to forming, the place that all the concepts have to be specification. To plan what we would do different next time, we need to do? – In addition to our reflection on our experience – to be informed of educational theory for example, through the reading of relevant literature on teaching and learning or by attending staff development members or other activities. Therefore reflect a middle ground, aggregate and analyze the theory of action in the past. It allows us to conclude about our practice. Active Experimentation: â€Å"Is the learner trying to plan how to test a model or theory or plan for a forthcoming experience† (Many, 2014, p. 16). When all the concepts, definitions are formed and specific, the learning activity will be active. The conclusions we form from the stage ‘summary overview our’ then form the basis by which we can change the plan – ‘Operation experiments. ‘Experiment  Activity’ then starts the cycle again when we make changes in the actual teaching us to create a specific experience is then followed by reflection and sees review to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the changes†¦ After activities are active, we have experience again and go back to the stage 1 of Kolb’s ELC, continue and expand the cycle. That’s how Kolb’s ELC work. For example, A singer vocal training, when done the first song, he looked back and do not feel good because it is not appreciated when the song be uploaded online in the internet. Singer began thinking about the theory learned vocal and start over, with the stylized rhythms. Finally, the singer then develops a plan and has successfully recorded a next song. In addition, Kolb believes that we can not do both variations on a single axis at a time (such as thinking and feeling). Learning styles of our products is a choice of two decisions. It is often easier to see the construction of Kolb learning styles in a two-by-two matrix. Each learning style represents a combination of two favorite styles. The chart also highlights Kolb term for the four learning styles; diverging, assimilating, and converging, containing: Doing ( Active Experimentation) Watching (Reflexive Observation) Feeling (Concrete Experience) Accommodating Diverging Thinking (Abstract Conceptualization) Converging Assimilating Accommodating: The Accommodating learning style is ‘hands-on’, and relies on intuition rather than logic that mean: people who use other person’s analysis and want to participate in an approach of practical experience. They are attracted to the challenges and new experiences, and plan implementation. They often act on instinct rather than rational analysis.  People with a learning style will tend to rely on others to contain more information than carry out their analysis. This learning style is common in the general population. Diverging: These people can look at things from different perspectives. They are very sensitive. They prefer to watch rather than do, tending to gather information and use imagination to solve problems. They are best viewed in the specific situation of different perspectives. Kolb called this style â€Å"divergence† because people perform better in situations requiring idea generation, for example, brainstorming. Those with a diverging learning style have broad cultural interests and like to collect information. They are interested in people, tend to be imaginative and emotional, and tend to be strong in the arts. Those with divergent styles like teamwork, listening with an open mind and get a personal response. Converging: Those with a converging learning style can solve problems and will use their learning to find solutions to practical problems. They prefer technical tasks, and less concerned with others and personal aspects. Those with a converging learning style are best to use the actual search for ideas and theories. They can solve problems and make decisions by finding solutions to questions and problems. Those with a converging learning style attracted many technical tasks and problems rather than social issues or individuals. A converging learning style allows the expertise and technology. Those with a style convergence want to experiment with new ideas, to simulate, and to work with practical applications. Assimilating: The assimilating learning preferences is a reasonable approach brief. The idea and concept is more important than people. These people require good clear explanation rather than practical opportunity. Predominates in-depth understanding of information and organize it in a clear logical format. People with learning style assimilation is less focused on people and more interested in ideas and abstract concepts. People with this style are more attracted to the more theoretically sound approaches based on practical value. This learning style is important for efficient information and science careers. In formal learning situations, people with this style prefer to read, lectures, exploring analytical models, and have time to think things through. 2. 7 Approaches to Learning There’re 7 ways to approach knowledge below: Learning through Research: Is a person who is able to use internet to read any things available that relevant with their demand. In addition, learning through research also is a person that likely to read books or documents to approach to knowledge. The advantages of this kind of learning is not waste time to learn how because everything already available on the internet and books. Their disadvantages are some time they will get too much information and waste time to classify. Learning from others: Coaches and mentors both work one-on-one. Person who’s tend to learn from precursor’s experience but in better way. With this style of learning, they will get the low rate of risk and comfortable to work. Besides, the disadvantages of learning from other are: They are always depending on mentor’s ideas, their creativity is not been developed. Some mentors come from the other environmental with different lever of knowledge and people who are learning from other won†™t understand, and apply the wrong way. Secondments: Is a person who approaches knowledge from traveling, changes in the work environment, work rotation†¦ Because of the continuity change of environment, their advantages are received more experiences, knowledge and adaptment. However, the disadvantages are lack of team work because they couldn’t belong with a group or a team or maybe they get sick because not suitable with the environment. Interview: It’s conducted in order to achieve a specific purpose for at least one of the practices involved, such as information gathering, problem solving or behavior change. Interview provides a vision about ourselves to know who we are. What our position? Interview helps them to know clearly about them self, know clearly about self-awareness. Obliviously, Not only advantages but also the disadvantages, the disadvantages is the information from interview can be inaccurate. Seminars and Conferences: Is the form that learning with teacher or professor. It usually held for groups of 10-50 individuals (a kind of meeting). Seminars and conferences help them to improve their working in group skill, communication skill, presentation skill because many home work for their team. The disadvantages are conflict of knowledge between teacher/professor and students, sometime is waste of time. Internet, Intranet, Extranet: Distance learning, learning through networking. Students can study online courses to obtain more knowledge outside of school. Because of the internet, extranet, intranet so the works/ knowledge are very convenient and cheaper  than learning in class with direct teacher but much if unverified information, out dated, irrelevant information are the disadvantages of this way to approach knowledge. New groups and forum: Is the kind of learning that we open a thread then discuss online a problem or situation with direct post and direct reply of members in group. When people talking, the brain start to storming and many ideas have given out, we can choose one of them. Sometime the ideas getting conflict and bias†¦ There are 7 approaches to learning and knowledge mentioned above, depends on each person, task, resource, and environmental organizations. Each environment, different jobs have different ways of learning to adapt to the situation. In Vietnam with amore harsh environmental conditions more than the other country. The existence of inferior technology and very difficult to identify the sources of open knowledge. In the US and some European countries, students are funded 100% of tuition, even health insurance from birth to 18 year-old. Also, they are equipped with a lot of open source knowledge and especially completely free. They also promote the academic life of students by offering an innovative fund, all creativity and invention will be using public money of government. However in Vietnam, many knowledge donors but not really common, most students are still very difficult to study and develop themselves. Excelled students tend to learn in a better environment to develop them; their dedication to foreigners led to Vietnam has been severely brain drain. Source: (See survey table in appendix). To against the brain drain and improve our own self-study, the following is suggested models that may help students develop Vietnam’s own self-study: With the popularity of social networking, the groups and the forums, you should use them as a learning tool instead of gaming. Figure 3. Self-Constructed study model 2 In Vietnam, mostly self-taught students through the internet so this model will maximize the learning ability and can reach to the most students in Vietnam; Based on hcmuaf.edu site, the percentage of students use the internet in Viet Nam up to 99% (Tran Minh Tri, Do Minh Hoang, 2013). We will share key, close documents (the documents must pay to be read) on a group or forum. On piracy, the State of Vietnam doesn’t have enough ability to find a  hidden group or a hidden topic to share information, discuss and exchange. You make a great ideas, questions, and people will talk, share relevant documents and receive the request. But it will take time to select a member’s idea, but the idea of the document will be firmer. You buy one document but can get back 10 documents related to the work you want to learn, study. Creating a community with the persons that have the same passion for learning and personal development will help you learn effectively in the environment of Vietnam. Source: (See survey table in appendix). III. Task 2: Propose ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional contexts should be encouraged. 1. Continue Professional Development (CPD) What’s CPD Means? CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development. It refers to the process of tracking and recording the skills, knowledge and experience you can be both formal and informal as you work, beyond any initial training. It is a record of what you experience, learn and apply. This term is often used to mean a physical directory development portfolio of your document as a professional. Some organizations use it to mean a plan for training and development, which I would argue is not exactly true. This article is about the CPD is a process of recording and reflecting on learning and development. (Allen, 2014) What its functions? CPD process is to help you manage your own development on an ongoing basis. Its function is to help you record, review and reflect on what you learned. It is not a tick box document recording the training you have completed. It is wider than that. What are the difference between training and developing? These terms are often used interchangeably, although there are differences. As a rule of thumb, the training is formal and linear. It’s to do with learning how to do something specific, related to skills and competence. Training can be as simple as using a computer application and as complex as learning how to become a pilot. Developers often do not have a formal and widely applicable, giving you the tools to perform a variety of things and  is related to the ability and capacity. It is related to the evolution from basic tips to understanding how higher, adult or complex. Also it can be expanded your range of transferable skills such as leadership, project management or organizational information. 2. Honey and Mumford learning style Learning styles include a variety of theories for the differences in modeling natural systems or personal habits of collecting and processing information in the learning situation. A core concept is that individuals differ in the way we learn. The idea of ​​individual learning style originated in the 1970s, and has great influence education. Proponents of the use of learning styles in education recommend that teachers assess learning styles of students and adapt their classroom methods to suit the learning styles of each best student. Although there is ample evidence that individuals express preferences for how they want to receive information, some studies have found value in the use of learning styles in education. Critics say there is no evidence that the identified learning styles of each student. To understand the learning styles, we have four learning styles based on Honey and Mumford theory as follows: (Mobbs, 2013) Activist: Definition: Activist involving themselves fully and without bias in new experiences. They enjoy the here and now, and I’m happy to be dominated by immediate experiences. They are open-minded, not skeptical, and this tends to make them enthusiastic about anything new. Their philosophy is: â€Å"I’ll try anything once†. The activists are learning by doing. Activists need to get their hands dirty, to jump in with both feet first. There is an open-minded approach to learning, involving them fully and without bias in new experiences. Career: Because of their characteristics is preferred adventurous, not afraid of risk and dare to accept the challenge to succeed, they work with the high-risk nature, requires brainstorming and experience, based on the characteristic of openness in big 5 traits model3 , for example as Strategy  Director. Why is Strategy Director? Strategy Director is a job that requires creativity and pioneering. Strategy Director huge impact to the reputation of a company or a corporation. Similar with openness in big 5 traits, openness very excited to be experienced with whatever news; they want to be a pioneer. When creating a new strategy, the risk of failure is big, but if successful, it will bring the not-small benefits when our company/ group is a pioneer company/group, a leader company/group in a particular field. Way to enhance: From above, to manage risks and develop good career, Activist should use the interview-learning to know their exact location and their own ability clearly, from that then personal development and minimize risk.