Pestle Zara

Pestle Analysis of Zara SOE11108 Sources of Competitive Advantage Assessment 1 Group Presentation PESTEL – Analysis [pic] Contents 1 Introduction 3 2 Overview 3 3 Business Environment 3 4 Political 4 5 Economic 4 6 Social 5 7 Technological 6 8 Environmental 6 9 Legislative 8 10 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction The global apparel market is a consumer-driven industry. Also, globalization and new technologies have allowed consumers to have more access to fashion. As a result, consumers are changing, competition is fierce, and companies are evolving to meet these demands.Zara, a Spanish-based chain owned by Inditex, is a retailer who has taken a new approach in the industry. With their unique strategy, Zara has the competitive advantage to be sustainable. In order to maintain that advantage and growth they must confront certain challenges and face traditional retailers in the apparel industry. So, now our group will analysis the PESTLE of Zara Company. (Lopez & Fan, 2009) Ov erview Zara is one of the largest international fashion companies and belongs to Inditex, which is one of the largest fashion retailers worldwide.Inditex operates in textile design, distribution and manufacturing. (Inditex, 2011 b) Zara operates in 78 countries worldwide with 1557 stores in the world’s largest cities. (Inditex, 2011 c) The company is founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega, located in Spain and had in 2010 a net sale of 8. 088 million of euro. (Inditex, 2011 a) The have worldwide 1557 stores in 78 different countries. (Inditex, 2011 a) Aim: democratize fashion, offering latest fashion, medium quality and moderate price (Lopez & Fan, 2009)Structure: customer oriented, satisfaction of consumer needs (Mazaira, Gonzalez, & Avendano, 2003) Business Environment Global textile and clothing industry (Lopez & Fan, 2009) with 900 billion Euro in 200 worldwide (Ghemawat & Nueno, 2006). Main competitors: H&M, Gap and Benetton (Ghemawat & Nueno, 2006) Dynamic and innovative sec tor (Nordas, 2005) High quality fashion market vs. lower quality products (Nordas, 2005) Production in Europe vs. Production in low cost (Nordas, 2005) PoliticalInternationalisation: The key pull factors that explain the internationalisation of Zara include Spain’s entry into the European Union in 1986, the globalisation of the economy and thus potential economies of scale, the homogenisation of consumption patterns across countries – Zara’s belief is that â€Å"national frontiers are no impediment to sharing a single fashion culture† – and the abolition of barriers to export as well as the development of information technology (Lopez & Fan, 2009). Indian Market:India provided open market for Zara as Indian government is willingly to provide foreign investment in their country, but Indian Govt. Has their own policy which are to be adhered by organizations as Zara formed joint venture with TATA (Shah, 2011). Economic Production NOT transferred to lo w cost locations Zara resisted the industry-wide trend towards transferring fast fashion production to low cost countries like for example China. Zara states that this gives the greater control as it controls most of its steps on the Supply Chain, designing, manufacturing and distributing of products (CNN, 2001).In the UK 50% of the product Zara sells are manufactured in Spain, 26% in the rest of Europe and 24% in Asian and African countries > clothes with longer shelf life like for example basic t-shirts are outsourced to low cost suppliers mainly in Asia and Turkey (Business Week, 2006). Zero Advertising Policy The most unusual company policy is its’ no advertising policy. It is worth noticing that Zara competitors rely heavily on costly advertising campaigns. However, Zara prefers to invest money in opening new stores instead (CNN, 2001). Producer of about 11 000 items annuallyThe product range of Zara company is significant. It produces nearly 11 000 items annually whilst its competitors produce only about 2000 – 4000. Moreover, Zara changes its designs every 2 weeks which encourages customers to repeated visits and builds the brand loyalty. An average high street store in Spain expects customers to visit three times a year. It is 17 times for Zara. (The Guardian, 2002). Shortening Product Life Cycle Additionally, Zara needs just 2 weeks to design a new product and get it to the stores whilst industry average is 6 months (Business Week, 2006).To sum up, Zara breaks all the rules but this strategy proves to be successful as Zara is one of the biggest retailers in the industry. REFERENCES LIST entrys Social Rising of income With the rising of disposable personal income, people began to pursue a high quality and comfortable life. This tendency provides Zara quite wide market share. Personalized consumption become the mainstream of society. The strategy of ZARA, â€Å"a small amount, variety, cheap,† is a major guarantor of its success. Fa st fashionRegarding the design strategy, an article in Business world magazine describes it as follows: â€Å"Zara was a fashion imitator. It focused its attention on understanding the fashion items that its customers wanted and then delivering them, rather than on promoting predicted season's trends via fashion shows and similar channels of influence, which the fashion industry traditionally used. † There will be a 0. 7% depreciation of fashion products every day. A new product, from design to produce, logistics operation and the final sale, only need 2-3 weeks in Zara. Affordable fashionAn increasing number of people pay more attention to fashion. But fashion is a masterpiece of top designers, only a few people can afford it. The designers of ZARA will follow these fashion elements and design their own product, which most consumers can afford it (Baidu, 2010). Technological R&D and Production 1. Fast production: Deliver within 6 weeks instead of 6 months which is the delive ry time from Zara’s competitors (Ghemawat & Nueno, 2006). 2. Zara has only 20 suppliers which accounted 70% of their products. The other companies have for example more than 200 different suppliers.Therefore it’s easy for Zara to control their suppliers. Logistic 1. Own distribution centre with an order to delivery time of 24 hour for Europe and 48 hours to USA and Asia (Tokatli, 2007). 2. The shops receive two deliveries from distribution centre. That allows the shops to have low inventory and a high turnaround within the shop (Lopez & Fan, 2009) (Ghemawat & Nueno, 2006). Flexible Supply Chain 1. Vertical integrated and controls its entire production chain. One important effect of the control is to re reduce the bullwhip effect. (Ghemawat & Nueno, 2006) . Zara has very short lead times. The Agility of their supply chain enables Zara to deliver from product design to sale within 2 weaks for repeat or 5 weeks for new products (Mazaira, Gonzalez, & Avendano, 2003). Envir onmental Zara wants to help the sustainable developments of the society and the environments with which it interacts. This commitment to the environment is a part of the Inditex group corporate social responsibility policy. Objectives and Actions: At the sores: Zara saves energy and lot of care has been given to make the stores eco efficient.Development of efficient management models for their stores that proposes measures to be applied to all processes, from the design of the store itself, the lighting heating or cooling system equipment, to the possible recycling of furniture and decoration. Use of paper or biodegradable plastic bags 90% of the bags Zara gives out to customers are made of paper. 1. Reduction of waste and encourages recycling Millions of hangers and security tags are processed each year additionally both the cardboard and plastic used are recycled. 2. Increasing awareness among the team membersHeighten employee’s awareness of the need for sustainable practic es such as trimming energy consumption, using sustainable transport or modifying habits. With the product 1. Use of ecological fabrics, like organic cotton. Zara Supports ecological agriculture and uses organic cotton in the production of selected items of clothing (100% cotton, completely free of pesticide, chemical agents and bleaches). With a distinctive label these products can be identified very easily at the stores. 2. Producing PVC –free footwear No petroleum derivatives or non-biodegradable materials are used in producing the footwear.In the transport Zara’s fleet of Lorries transport over 200 million items of clothing annually and uses 5% biodiesel fuel, reducing emission of CO2 into the atmosphere by more than 500 tones. Animal welfare policy All the animal products, including fur and leather sold at Zara come exclusively from animal reared in livestock form and never from animal sacrificed for skin sale. (Zara, 2010) Legislative Plagiarism plagiarism in the fashion industry has become a huge issue. Trends are often copied and cheaply as well as illegally sold in the street. Global expansionAs the European market has a well working trade and legal system facilitating business operations in member countries, other countries globally will not offer the same securities, especially in communistic countries the threat of losing a private run company to the local government is very real. REFERENCES ? Conclusion ZARA was just a small Spanish dress shop, but now, the little-known brand has grown into a leader of the apparel market. Now the footprints of ZARA have around more than 60 countries. The big design group, unique strategy, environmental management idea and other operational strategies make ZARA success.

The Island of Bohol: Heaven on Earth

Bohol is an island in the tropical country of the Philippines which is located in Southeast Asia. A couple of years back, I traveled to Bohol to get acquainted with Asia. The moment I stepped out of the airport, I smelled something different. The scent of tropical paradise overpowered my senses. It's a mix of flavors of coconut trees, sweet fruits and the usual body-scented steam that just makes you want to relax and unwind. More so, the sizzling ray of the sun, the hypnotic sound of the sea and warm smile of the natives of Bohol greeted me as I entered nature's hidden treasure.My adventure began as I traversed the oval-shaped island from the luscious mountainous region going towards the pristine coastal area. I started with the infamous Chocolate hills. It's a large formation of rich brown-colored cone-shaped hills. These cute hills looked like gigantic Hershey's kisses strategically placed in a picturesque landscape. After my first immersion with Bohol's local beauty, I said to mys elf that there's no way that there could be another place that can beat the exquisiteness of Chocolate hills.This was a fact until I saw the long white sandy beaches of Panglao island. It literally took my breath away. It was simply idyllic. Endless columns of coconut trees outlined the beach front. The white sand is so friendly to the naked foot because of it is fine as a salt and soft as milk texture that made me want to cover my whole body with it. The natural charm of the place did not stopt here,it went beyond to the extensive crystal blue water of the sea. The undulating movements of the waves took me to a place that highlighted my contentment and happiness.

Building Positive Relationships in Children Essay Example for Free

Building Positive Relationships in Children Essay To help your child understand feelings you could do a feeling chart or make a feeling tree in your home. To make a feelings chart just draw out faces with how there expression might be when they are feeling that way an do the expressions yourself when showing them. This will give your child a better understanding of their feelings and how they can express them through facial expressions. For a feeling tree its much the same idea as a feeling card but you just take in a branch from a tree and stick the faces with the expressions on it. this will help a child express themselves when they can’t do it through facial expressions. Buy them some books with plenty of colourful pictures with the theme of friendship and them to them.this will help show them how nice it is to have friends and how to make them and keep them. It is only after the age of three that children can incorperate other children into their playtime activities so at around this age ask other parents if they would like to make a playdate for their child and yours n a regular basis.this will get your child used to other childrens company.you can also talk about what they did together at dinner or quiet time alone and encourage them to do it again. To help your child with communication you need to be a good example to them.talk to them as much as you can about your day and ask how theirs was.even talking about their favourite tv programme would be good as they will be more likely to talk about something that they’re interested in. To teach them about respect you need to set a good example for this as well. Giving them boundaries will also help and treating them with respect will encourage them to do the same to you. Factors that impact/Motivate children Tou tourself have a major impact on your child.they learn from how you react to situations and other peaople and will use this as a guide for themselves. Also the tv programmes that they watch will make an impact on them and can also motivate them to try new things that they wouldn’t of thought of themselves. . Building Positive Relationships in Children. (2016, Dec 08). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Scientific Writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Scientific Writing - Essay Example Obakata and many of her co-authors are part of the research teams of the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan. Other Riken researches, however, tried to replicate Obakata’s study and did not find supporting evidence. As a result, it launched an investigation that proved that the research has serious data flaws. Obakata has retracted these two papers from Nature because of allegations of changing data and plagiarism. An investigating committee has found her guilty of fabricating and falsifying data, and she now faces potential dismissal from Riken and losing her doctorate degree. The investigating committee discovered that Obakata may be involved in falsifying and fabricating data. The committee noted that when they studied the DNA images of Obakata’s work, one DNA was spliced from two DNAs. The head of the committee, Shunsuke Ishii, stated: â€Å"The manipulation was used to improve the appearance of the results† (Sample, 2014). Obokata insisted that she only wanted to improve the clarity of the image and not to change the data itself (Sample, 2014). Changing DNA images suggests falsifying data results. In addition, Obakata fabricated data when data inconsistencies are found in her work. She told her co-researcher Teruhiko Wakayama that the green fluorescent protein (GFP) that they used to tag changes in expression of experimental gene is on the 15th chromosome (Cyranoski, 2014). Wakayama tested the mice and found the STAP cells through the GFP in the 18th chromosome (Cyranoski, 2014). Furthermore, the committee noted that Obakata reused data from her dissertation, which also means that she falsified her research by including data that were not part of her original research (Japan Times, 2014). Fabricating and falsifying data are serious accusations, though Obakata stressed that she did not change or add anything to her data (Cyranoski, 2014). Apart from data falsification and

The Sahara Desert Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Sahara Desert - Essay Example Most of such arid regions are because of the pattern of the Earth’s air circulation as well as the topography of the land. Sahara name its derivation emanates from an Arabic term Sahra meaning wilderness and the Arabic speakers use it to describe the barren nature of such a region. Sahara desert occupies 9.1 million square kilometres, which is almost equal to the area of the United States, which is 9.5 M Km2. The desert stretches all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red sea and it is not only the hottest in the world but also the driest. It covers many countries in Africa especially the northern area. The Atlantic Ocean binds the Sahara desert from the west whereas; the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea bind it from the North. In the East, the Red sea binds the desert, finally in the south, the Niger River partly binds the desert, and eventually the desert is exposed to semiarid lands known as the Sahel. Part of Sahara is plateau, which is elevated approximately 395-490 m above sea level. Mount Topside, which is as extinct volcano and the tallest mountain among the mountains of the Sahara, rises up to 3,265 m above sea level. The present deserts lay beneath what were seas in the ancient times. Because of this, ancient sands and calcareous deposits now foam sandstone and limestone found in these deserts. Sahara is a hot desert and the temperatures during summer daytimes exceed 90F for 8 months of the year, and often exceeding 100F (Osborne 27). The world record high temperature of 1370 F was evident in El Azizia, Libya; in North Africa’s Sahara Desert on September 13, 1922. The French colonial meteorologists measured this temperature 5 feet above the ground. The temperatures at night however drop by up to 50F. The nights are cold and in winter, they can fall below freezing (Osborne 27). There are three types of land surfaces in Sahara and they include Erg, Rag and Hamada (Keenan 43). Erg composes of dunes that have formed basins

Aviation history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Aviation history - Essay Example h their mission considering that it had the advantage of using airships, which were only able to drop 300 tons of bombs despite the capability to drop a big number where more damages and loss of lives could have been recorded. Moreover, Germany failed to make any economic value from the war as it incurred more loss from the war owing to its big expenditure budget, which was five time the cost of damage on Britain’s property. Lastly, more than a half of German’s airships were destroyed while only 40% of the German’s service branch engaged in the war were able to return back home (Payne, 2008). According to Payne (2008), the actual impact of the air raids from German’s airships was considerably low but same cannot be said of the psychological effect that it had on the civilians and the kin of British service men who were based overseas. The German airships and in particular the Zeppelin as a weapon of war created more fear among the British citizens and it contributed to a complete lose of military and civil morale, which made it appear as if the Germans had already won the war, since everyone was asking themselves how they will survive such weapons of mass destruction. Payne, D. (2008). The Bombing of Britain in the Great War: The Western Front Association. Retrieved from: http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/component/content/article/121- aerial-warfare/876-bombing-britain-war.html. Accessed on

The future of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Dissertation

The future of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) - Dissertation Example Experts suggest that the energy industry takes a step towards this, because if they concentrate on making sustainable energy resources, they could play a crucial role in conserving energy (Williams, pp. 23-25, 2002). Thus, this has become a priority amongst car builders, manufacturers, and other people responsible. They are now concentrating on creating automobiles that will be most helpful in sustaining energies. Thus, the proposed research would be one small but significant step towards these efforts. Research Statement In this regard, the researcher will endeavor on the below-mentioned research statement to fulfill the aims and objectives of the research: â€Å"To identify and analyze the future of Liquefied Petroleum Gas in the energy market globally† LITERATURE REVIEW A study conducted by Qi, Bian, Ma, Zhang & Liu (2006) found out that Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) is a viable option and solution to the increasing pollution in China. Widespread use of LPG would mean that the country would emit lesser pollutants and dangerous gases due to the consumption of diesel and petrol based fuels. However, the study also recommended that for ensuring LPG has a bright future, experts will have to work to reduce the effects of one major disadvantage caused by LPG, and that be of the high auto-ignition temperature. The study experiments with the effects of replacing a diesel based automobiles with LPG-Diesel blended fuels at various blended rates that are 0 percent, 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent and 40 percent. The effects that were under examination were related to the engine performance and exhaust emissions that revealed that the effects on engine performance did not witness any significant impact; however, with increased LPG volume, the emission of sulfur and carbon oxides did decrease dramatically. Important here to note is that these findings are not in line with the findings of various other studies which have believed that LPG use as a car fuel incre ases hydrocarbon emissions (Gilbert & Perl, pp. 74-78, 2008; Song, Hsu, & Mochida, pp. 52-58, 2000). The Indian scientists, Ahuja, Dash & Shrivastava (2011) under the umbrella of â€Å"Department of Burns, Plastic, Maxillofacial, and Microvascular Surgery† in a recent research have revealed that LPG cylinders used for cooking are much safer in Indian households as compared to other means used for cooking. Furthermore, most of the LPG related incidents, which were reported in Indian households over the past 17 months, were in majority a result of negligence and inability to take care of the instruments. The study took into account various factors such as â€Å"age, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, literacy level, type of family unit, marital status, type of dwelling unit, mode of injury and its exact mechanism, place of incident, level of cooking stove, extent of burns† (Ahuja, Dash, & Shrivastava, 2011). In addition, some of the other factors were â€Å"presenc e of features of inhalation injury, number of patients affected in a single mishap, size of Liquified Petroleum Gas cylinder used, length of hospital stay and mortality† (Ahuja, Dash, & Shrivastava, 2011). Towards, the end it concluded that it is much safer for the lower and middle class Indian households, which are using kerosene related instruments for cooking. Therefore, the provincial governments should giver subsidy on the Liquified

Advantages and Disadvantages of Globalization for Business Essay

Advantages and Disadvantages of Globalization for Business - Essay Example The researcher states that globalization can be defined as the incorporation of national economies into the world market. Integration is achieved through international direct investment, trade migration, cash flow and the advancement and spread of technology. Markets, where it is prevalent and specifically widespread, are financial markets such as credit and money markets, insurance markets and capital markets. Commodity markets, for example, gold, oil, coffee, and tin. Product markets, for example, consumer electronics and motor vehicle. Globalization in relation to business can be described as the process allowing investment and financial markets to carry out business internationally mainly as a result of deregulation and better communications. It is evident that the current world is closely networked together. However, it is easy to lose focus just how rapid and systematically globalization is occurring and how many business organizations are being run. Drucker noted that globaliz ation is not an economic phenomenon but psychological. He noted that all of the advanced western principles and approaches are taken as the norm by many nations. The view took shape for Drucker in 2001 when an old student from Taiwan working in China paid him a visit. Drucker asked him â€Å"what is the most important thing that has happened in China the last three to five years?† the former student paused for a while and answered that the Chinese at that time considered purchasing a vehicle is a need not a luxury. The exact situation is same in Russia where business analysts anticipate the country surpassing Germany and becoming the biggest car market in Europe. However, taking advantage of such opportunities need a specific set of expertise. For instance, there is no need in strategizing the activities of the forever more intricate network of world suppliers, extracting profit on every deal.

Politics of Travel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Politics of Travel - Essay Example The purpose of the article is to spread awareness about the ways, tourism can harm the traditions and resources of a country. Every tourism agency focuses on attracting tourists to their country, while they should also be educating tourists on how they can be respectful towards the resources of the country they are visiting and not waste water or electricity, while they are on the tour. The audience for this article are tourists, who move from country to country in order to explore different places. However, if we go deeper into the article, the audience is also the tourism authorities of the country, who should make sure that whenever people come from other countries, they don’t waste country’s resources, tourism doesn’t become the reason for reservoirs being damaged or crops being destroyed. It is for the tourists to understand that they need to make better choices when they are traveling to someplace. The thesis statement of the article is in its introductory paragraph, which states that â€Å"Tourism has seriously damaged, fragile ecosystems like the Alps-the winter skiing playground of Europe-and the trekking areas of the Himalayas. The writer begins by directly stating the problem which would be discussed in the article, tourism. The writer then defines and generalizes the different areas of the world which are threatened by tourism like the areas of Himalayas, dunes, mangroves, and forests. The writer then changes his point from areas to how tourists are wasting water of the countries they visit and how this water is not available to the locals of the village. Moreover, the writer links water with electricity, as there are luxury hotels built for tourists, in which they stay; for hot water, electricity is consumed too.

Data Rules Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Data Rules - Coursework Example This Decision Support System focuses on the problem solving expertise embedded into it by comparing its inputs with facts, rules and procedures already present in its data bank (also referred to as Data Warehouse). The Knowledge Based Subsystem in the DSS uses this data input (that may be mere facts, figures, personal knowledge and business models) to analytically identify any probable problems that may arise, possible decisions that can be made and possible solutions to an issue. The particular DSS under consideration in the said article concerns a knowledge based system that would assist nurses in decision making under critical conditions. The knowledge base in the said Dss is maintained by using a database that stores information. The data that constructs this data base includes input from medical professionals, theoretical practice maps, prior evidences and practices. This accompanied with input from the patient and user (i.e. nurses) at intermittent levels provides hypothetical results regarding identification of the problem facing the patient and the possible solutions for

On Becoming a Leader Essay Example for Free

On Becoming a Leader Essay The book I chose to review is â€Å"On Becoming a Leader† by Warren Bennis. At the crux of this book is a search to understand how leaders are made. Throughout the book, the author tries to prove through polls and observations, that leaders are not born but are made through a combination of nature and nurture. Leaders who excel tend to have similar characteristics which have been developed by a series of experiences in their lives (these include embracing mistakes, taking risks and learning from adversity). Another idea discussed in the book is that of the role of education in making leaders. Bennis notes a number of qualities and abilities that are common amongst the leaders he interacts with. Some of those are relating well to others, trusting others and in turn being trustworthy, the ability to motivate people and to not give up, inspiration and competence in the job. However, he claims that a major problem in business leadership is the â€Å"societal disease of our time† (as said by Norman Lear to him) short term thinking. He highlights throughout the book that this form of thinking is not beneficial to organizations and that a good leader should be able to look further and not give the short term too much importance. At one point he claims that short term thinking is what kills one of the most important attributes a leader must have innovation. The author mentions that leaders are important to an organization since they are of paramount importance to the operational performance, stability and integrity of the organization. To this end, Warren Bennis presents in a systematic manner various attributes that are required of a leader to be able to perform well. The first attribute discussed is the ability to â€Å"Master the context†. In this chapter, the author discusses the fact that a leader must be able to understand the reasons and outcomes of different situations. Only once he has managed this, will he be able to act in the best possible way for his organization. This is in line with what we have learned throughout our course regarding improving one’s self-awareness as well as the 4 perspectives of organizational effectiveness. A leader must be able to understand the context of work and respond by being aware that he needs to look after different perspectives of people and systems related to the organization. The second thing discussed is â€Å"understanding the basics†, which is quite similar to mastering the context. In this, Warren Bennis explains that leaders need to understand the underlying concepts at work before making decisions. He lists a series of attributes that can be found in most leaders including self-knowledge, passion, vision and trust. He argues that most of the leaders are not born with these attributes but life experiences and a desire to lead people enables them to develop a good understanding of this. Their drive to acquire and learn are much higher than on average and they actively pursue these drives while taking risks and placing lesser importance on their drive for safety. In this he also discusses the difference between managing people and leading them. We have gone through various topics related directly to this effect in class. According to me, one of the strongest drives an individual has is the drive to safety. An individual would be much more comfortable if they can trust their leader. The ability to understand the thought process of their leader and their belief/trust in him helps shore up their drive for safety. Across cultures, people tend to avoid uncertainty and if a leader is able to, through knowledge and an understanding, provide people with an image of consistency; it goes a long way in settling people and reducing stress. The third lesson is â€Å"knowing yourself†. Warren Bennis argues that in order to lead others, one must fully understand themselves. To be able to trust your decisions/inner feelings is extremely important for leading people and making correct choices. The author goes on to highlight 4 lessons that enable an individual to understand themselves. They are â€Å"you are your own best teacher†, â€Å"accept responsibility†, â€Å"you can learn anything you want to learn† and â€Å"true understanding comes from reflecting on your own experience†. All these lessons are at the core of organizational behavior as we have learnt. These 4 lessons can apply even to organizations as well as being useful for individuals. Self-concept is an important part of an individual’s make up and to feed that we must be able to reflect on our past experiences to learn from them. Social learning, learning through reinforcement and learning through experience are discussed as important factors of learning in organizations in our course. I believe this same applies to individuals as they are able to develop their social identity and self-concept through these lessons. Next, the author discusses â€Å"Knowing the world†. This takes a similar route to the previous subject of knowing yourself, while developing a greater scope to the understanding. Cultural understanding is an extremely important attribute in a leader. In an increasingly diverse workforce coupled with increasing globalization, a leader must have the ability to and desire to understand various cultures and behaviors. Values and behavior are very different for different cultures, and a lot of organizations have failed due to the incompatible understanding of their leaders. The HP-Compaq merger was a major case where while it was beneficial financially and operationally for the companies to merge, their leaders were not able to fully adapt the two company’s cultures properly, causing the merger to have not performed anywhere near expectations. One point that I found particularly interesting and felt that was very important was the need for a person to find a mentor who can help them enhance and shape their cultural understanding. The social learning aspect discusses similar concepts, where a person learns from someone whom they aspire to be. Being able to find a mentor who has an in depth understanding of cultures, or at least has a desire to learn cultural differences can help an individual become a more complete leader. The next thought discussed by the author is â€Å"Operating on instinct†. This discussion focuses on the fact that a good leader should be able to believe in himself and should be able to take decisions from his gut feeling. More often than not a leader and even individuals will have to make decisions without knowing all the details they would like to know. The presence of incomplete information should not make the leader less likely to make a decision. A good leader will have developed enough self-awareness and through self-evaluation and verification be able to rely on his instinct to make the right choice. This enables the leader to be able to quickly and decisively contemplate and decide issues. The next discussion is based on †Deploying yourself†. In this the author talks about the fact that a successful leader is a person who is willing to take on challenges even though he might have failed in earlier challenges. The drive to learn and acquire are, I feel, major contributors to this topic. A good leader will be able to reflect on his past experiences and learn from them; and this gives them confidence to continually drive for newer challenges and tasks. Another topic discussed is â€Å"Moving through chaos†. In this chapter, Warren Bennis describes the difference between all individuals and leaders. He points out that everyone faces problems and issues in their career, but that leaders analyze these problems and tend to learn from these. Conflict resolution can take many forms through third-party conflict resolution or negotiation. Leaders reflect on their conflicts and develop an understanding of how to overcome those challenges. â€Å"Getting people on your side† is the next topic covered. The main point of this discussion, and a very important learning for me personally, is the ability of the leader to be trustworthy. To be trusted, a leader must display consistency in his actions, congruity meaning what they say, reliable to their followers and have a strong integrity. This once again gravitates towards the drive for safety individuals have. To be lead by someone, an individual must trust them to act on their behalf and be able to predict to a certain extent what their leaders will do for them. The concept of romanticizing leadership is down to this ability of leaders. If a leader is able to bring their employees/followers on their side, the leader’s ability to work through tasks and challenges is increased. Even mistakes made by them will be viewed in a positive light, enabling them to continue taking risks. â€Å"Organizations can help or hinder† is the next topic that is discussed. This focuses on the fact different organizations will have different expectations from their leaders. The culture at an organization will dictate how well a leader will be able to lead the organization. A good leader will be able to understand the context of the organization and will try to devise strategies he can implement to make changes. The author also mentions that the leader should try and develop organizational characteristics that are in line with their culture. This also transposes into the last discussion of â€Å"Forging the future†. The impediments faced by leaders in an organization can be very hard, but a good leader will be able to develop his own culture and characteristics to move the organization forward. One major issue I had with this book was that while the author continually refers to short term thinking as a â€Å"societal disease†; he himself to a certain extent subscribes to that notion. His interaction with the leaders seems comparatively very short term. Throughout the statements made in the book, it felt that the interviews were more about successful past rather than forward looking. I understand that one of the major attributes is to learn from experiences but the I’d prefer if the author also focused equally on the leader’s thoughts about the future. Secondly I felt that there was quite a bit of political commentary in the book. I knew that it was going to have some after reading the reviews while selecting the book, but the political leadership aspect seemed to be a comparatively one sided. I feel that the author could have refrained from making this political and focused instead on the corporate leadership aspect.

How the Town of Maycomb Strongly Demonstrates Social Iniquity Essay Example for Free

How the Town of Maycomb Strongly Demonstrates Social Iniquity Essay People can be unfair, unjust, and downright cruel. In the novel â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird†, there is a good demonstration by the members of Maycomb’s society of the theme of social iniquity that has very strong supporting evidence towards this opinion. Many different acts are shown to price the county of Maycomb is biased and unfair to its members. It proves things are not as they seem considering the fact that the county of Maycomb is a very proper and ‘classy’ group of people, to some extent. But, as many people read, they notice there are hidden things involved in this ‘not so proper’ place. People in Maycomb are biased towards others based on their colour, job, age, gender, age or family. In more than one way are people discriminated and treated differently due to these aspects of them. Examples that are shown in the novel of social inequity the difference in treatment from a white man compared to a black man, the missionary circle or the different age groups in Maycomb. In the county, there are a group of ladies that like to get together and ‘talk’ about situations that go on in Maycomb and get each other’s input on each of the situations that are brought up. They like to call themselves the missionary circle. Some people think that this group is just a group built to gossip. â€Å"I heard Mrs. Grace Merriweather giving her report in the living room on the equalled lives of the mrunas, it sounded to me. They put the women out in huts when their time came, whatever that was; they had no sense of family- I knew that’d distress Aunty.† (Lee, 121). This quote is simply just an example of what the missionary circle talks about. They find different topics and news about the county and gather around at different locations to talk about it, acting as if they are a club. They all have  different opinions, sometimes belittling different figures or characters in the novel. Some of the opinions given from the members reflect upon other members opinions of situations or characters making some opinions bias. Some of the things said by the missionary circle’s members can be untrue. Since the characters or figures that are being spoken about are not there to defend or give their point of view, this makes the judgement unfair. â€Å"I tell you there are some good but misguided people in the town. Good but misguided.† (124). This quote is in reference to Atticus. Some people could say this quote has a significant impact on this novel because it opens the discussion of the group up to different people in the town and the judgement, sometimes false, that they get from people. Everyone has their own opinions of others, sometimes their opinion is part of someone else’s. The missionary circle’s members are socially high in the rankings from the opinions of others. They tend to be the ‘popular’ group in Maycomb which is why Alexandra wanted to join the group in the first place. The members of the missionary circle consider themselves fine upstanding Christian women of Maycomb. The missionary circle talks about different people in Maycomb and where they are ranked in the social standards to their perspective. The black people of Maycomb tend to be a topic the group talks about and most of the rest of the county. In the novel, people tend to make it seem as though black people are treated very poorly compared to white people. White people think they are better than them and consider it a crime if a black man beats a white man in any way shape or form. This is when Tom Robinson comes into play. He is a huge aspect of the book. He is put into trial for supposedly raping Mayella Ewell. When the court date comes, the information gathered from both sides point to Tom as being innocent. Many people suspect Mr. Bob Ewell was the man that beat Mayella for coming to a black man. Evidence suggest that Tom Robinson only losses his case because of his colour. Even in the courtroom, people are divided by their colour and class. The black people of the crowd have to sit on the balcony while the white folk sit on the floor. This is  discrimination against the black race. They are treated differently than the white people because of false and prejudice judgement and opinions of others. â€Å"A white man’s word against a black man’s word, the white man always wins.†(Lee, 243) This quote is a significant piece of evidence that represents the injustice and biased treatment against black people in Maycomb. This can also demonstrate the fact of how Maycomb tends to be bias towards characteristics of people or families that are out of their control such as age, gender, wealth, race or even your family. Everything the people in Maycomb are is based upon these factors that are out of their control. Atticus tells Scout â€Å"It’s not okay to hate anybody.† (pg. 246). This quote is significant because Atticus is trying to tell Scout that you can’t not like anyone for no reason. He is telling her not to judge a book by its cover. He could be suggesting giving everyone a chance before you give them a negative judgement. In a way, Atticus is trying to navigate Scout away from the common disease in Maycomb of false judgement unlike the rest of Maycomb. Not many people see how they are unfair to each other but it tends to stand out to Atticus which is why he tries to treat people fairly. Atticus also tries teaching Jem and Scout to be respectful to elders and the adults in Maycomb. There are different cases for different people that are older that the kids don’t understand and Atticus is trying to make them appreciate them without telling them their situations. In the novel â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird†, the role of adults is huge. When Scout first goes to school, her first teacher, Mrs. Caroline Fisher, doesn’t know the customs of the county so she   assumes something about the Cunningham’s family. She doesn’t know that the Cunningham’s don’t take anything they couldn’t pay back so it seemed as though she got offended when Walter didn’t take the quarter. Everyone in the class knows what the Cunningham’s are like so when this happens, the class reacted surprised. Mrs. Fisher did not show an act of false judgement which shows that things change in Maycomb. Over time, people begin to look at different situations a bias way due to the perspectives of others. She also  doesn’t like the fact that Scout can read. It seems as though she was discouraged by a child’s knowledge and didn’t know how to react towards it. â€Å"Jem and I hated her. If she was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogation regarding our behavior, and given a melancholy prediction on what we would amount to when we grew up, which was always nothing.† (Lee, 13). This quote shows the false judgement on Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose on the children. Most of the adults in Maycomb do not fully respect Jem and Scout. This is because of their age; something they cannot control. People treat them differently based on this because nobody stands up for them except themselves. The adults have no reason to follow along in someone else’s footsteps in this aspect because no one is making the footsteps for anyone to follow in. Stephanie Crawford even told me once she woke up in the middle of the night and found him looking in the window at her. I said what did you do, Stephanie, move over in the bed and make room for him? That shut her up a while. (48). The meaning of this quote could be interpreted many different ways. Mrs. Maudie is saying this about Boo Radley. He is a very mysterious man. Many people in the town have made false accusations about him, not knowing who he truly is, not even what he looks like. Boo is considered a complete outcast to Maycomb. It is as though he doesn’t exist. People don’t even put the initiative to get to know Boo Radley because if they did, they would be considered weird. Mrs. Maudie is, in a way, sticking up for Boo because she doesn’t believe in false judgement. This is Mrs. Maudie showing the opposite of what most adults in Maycomb. People in Maycomb tend to follow other people. This is when a movement happens. The movement in the novel, â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† is social iniquity because of the decisions made upon the citizens in Maycomb. In a way, the missionary circle is a group of people looking for followers in order to continue their ‘club’ and stream of gossip. People in Maycomb discriminate different people due to their race. This is why black man is considered to be less than a white man in Maycomb’s social standards. It is a cruel judgement which is why everyone should be given a fair chance before they are given a label. People also judge people by their age. All of these  discriminating factors are things you cannot control. It is downright cruel and unfair. Social inequity is something quite simple that should be fixed. Many crucial factors in the novel end up being decided by discrimination. Most people in Maycomb don’t want to break the trend of discrimination and start a new movement by standing up for what is right. It could be very easy to fix. Why carry it on? There isn’t a point. People just end up being punished or judged due to these factors which isn’t right. People shouldn’t be judged on aspects of themselves that they can’t control. Don’t be a follower, be a leader.

Ethnomusicology: Developments of Māori Music

Ethnomusicology: Developments of MÄ ori Music Music in Context A: Ethnomusicology Discuss some of the more recent social, cultural and technological developments that have informed studies in ethnomusicology Introduction For this essay I will be focusing on the MÄ ori people of New Zealand, and looking at the changes and developments in both their traditional music and that of their modern popular culture, much of which is adopted from American and European sources. I will include the work of several ethnomusicologists who have experience in the areas of MÄ ori music, modern New Zealand popular culture, and American rap music and its sphere of influence. The MÄ ori people Have had their own traditional songs since they first inhabited New Zealand. However, there have been changes to the cultural situation of the music and how it is received by both the white public and MÄ ori youth. In this essay I will focus on three points, the transcendence of MÄ ori traditional music, the changes made as a reaction to this and the influence of other modern genres and styles, specifically American rap, to discuss these changes and how they have informed ethnomusicology either positively or negatively. In doing so I hope to show that a vibrant musical continuum is working in New Zealand youth culture, informed by both their traditions and outside influences, and yet is making original new music because of this. Song loss and researching traditional music The MÄ ori have inhabited New Zealand since the 14th century when they arrived from other Pacific islands seeking new lands to migrate to and cultivate. It is hard for an ethnomusicologist to find or have found any songs surviving from the earliest parts of MÄ ori history, for several reasons. Firstly, as many MÄ ori songs are to do with traditions and practices, when those traditions or practices become obsolete or go out of use, then the songs will be lost with them.For example, when canoes started to be replaced with sail ships, all songs about canoeing were either lost, or modified to talk about sail ships instead. Secondly, because of superstitious beliefs, many songs have restricted performances, where only certain members of the tribe or community are allowed to attend and listen or join in. This also limits the number of MÄ ori who will learn theses songs, as they are taught purely by oral tradition. The teaching itself is a point of interest, as traditionally the folk songs of MÄ ori are taught in a very strict sense,as they are not meant to change organically or be re-interpreted, apart from if the community as a whole learns a new version in line with a new meaning, as with the canoe/sail ship example above. In most cases, the songs will be passed down through generations, preserved as accurately as possible, which would in fact make it easy for an ethnomusicologist to discover these antiques of folk song. However, these traditions were cut abruptly short by the intervention of European missionaries. The missionaries were accepted to a degree by MÄ ori curiosity, and arrived decades before the treaty of Waitangi in 1840,which signified the taking of New Zealand by the English under queen Victoria and the official surrender of the MÄ ori as a people (though conflict did continue for years). These missionaries took it upon themselves to educate the seemingly primitive MÄ ori tribes in every aspect of Christian and European ideals. This included their music, as the Europeans found their traditional folk chants ‘idolatrous, ‘indecent and even ‘lascivious.The missionaries set about their task quickly, so much so that by 1830, a letter sent from a missionary to his brother-in-law at home in England read; Quietness and good order has succeeded to their native wildness; we never hear anything of their songs or dances. In place of their traditional music, the missionaries taught them hymns and church music. In doing so, they also taught the rudiments of western music theory, which they encouraged the MÄ ori to adopt as their new musical language. This meant that many new MÄ ori songs were created, using traditional words and stories, but with diatonic harmonies that made them listenable and distinguishable to a European ear.Though this was widely acknowledged and followed through to the MÄ oris own teaching, some traditional songs were kept hidden and secreted in both MÄ ori text collections and those of curious westerners. One such was John McGregor, a guard of captured MÄ ori warriors held in a beached hulk at Auckland harbour. John ‘collected and later published a large number of songs written down by the captives.He could be said to have been one of the first to research and record MÄ ori traditional music, yet this white interest in the music did not start to reappear until t he twentieth century. This change occurred on a grand scale over the next century, and to this day MÄ ori music is seen as synonymous with hymns and European-based melodies. This view has been widely held by the white general public for all of the twentieth century, though many MÄ ori know it not to be entirely accurate. Ethnomusicologist Mervyn Mclean stated that among the public at large, however, such songs are a mostly hidden tradition.A revival of the MÄ ori culture began in the 1960s, dubbed the MÄ ori renaissance,and with it came both the technology and the motivation to record and preserve the traditional songs that were left among the populace. This made the job of collecting and studying MÄ ori music a lot easier for ethnomusicologists, as up until this utilisation of new recording technology, they had been hard pressed to source singers and songs out. Mclean mentions that ‘preparations for fieldwork took an inordinate amount of timein the late 1950s, and mentions that without th e huge advantage of meeting several willing MÄ ori Elders I would not have had the resources to survive in the field. Changes and modern learning The traditional MÄ ori song forms, as well as being non-diatonic as previously stated, were in fact completely incompatible with western tonal language. Though the melodies sung could be transcribed into musical notation, they were not in a fixed time signature or particular key as we would understand it. The lack of harmonic movement mystified witnesses to performances in the nineteenth century, as the MÄ ori music relied more on repetition, both rhythmic and harmonic, and different performance approaches by different singers, for the colour and variety in their music.

Human Fall Detection Using Kinect Sensor Essay -- falls, major risk fra

Falls are a major risk in our society which reduces the quality of the life for various people such as the old aged people who are at a higher risk of fall. This has been supported by NICE stating â€Å"Falling is the leading cause of injury-related admissions to hospital in those over 65. â€Å" For that reason various research has been conducted to discover the ideal solution for the dilemma. A variety of solutions has been produced as well, however the issue is still present. Therefore, this project’s research would be based on how another technology device such as Kinect could be used as a solution to the issue. Consequently, throughout the project, the discussion would be based on how the Kinect could play a role in resolving the problem and how the manipulation of the device can create such a tremendous applicability other than the specified purpose of gaming. Project Schedule Previously, in the project specification, a project timeline had been introduced to manage the time effectively for the delivery of the project on time. The timeline had not incorporated sufficient disruption time for the progression of the project which had an effect on the previous timeline that the project is slightly behind the schedule. The previous timeline is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: Timeline from project specification. Most of the activity has gone according to the plan or achieved earlier than the allocated date. However, the implementation and testing has not adhered to the project timeline but the progress report has been completed before the allocated date. Implementation and testing has not been started due to the amount of research required for the project in-order to acquire the elementary understanding of how the project should be i... ...astorakis, G. and Makris, D. 2012. Fall detection system using Kinect’s infrared sensor. [e-book] Surrey: Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics, Digital Imaging Research Centre. pp. 1-10. Available through: Springer Link http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/704/art%253A10.1007%252Fs11554-012-0246-9.pdf?auth66=1385201938_2821d8c75169ac286da18a72dcc5134c&ext=.pdf [Accessed: 21 Nov 2013]. NICE. 2013. Older patients at high risk of hospital falls. [online] Available at: http://www.nice.org.uk/newsroom/news/OlderPatientsHighRiskHospitalFalls.jsp [Accessed: 20 Nov 2013]. Openni.org. 2013. About OpenNI - 3D sensing Technology for depth sensors | OpenNI. [online] Available at: http://www.openni.org/about/ [Accessed: 21 Nov 2013]. Openni.org. 2013. NiTE 2.2.0.11 | OpenNI. [online] Available at: http://www.openni.org/files/nite/ [Accessed: 21 Nov 2013].

Effects of Media on Children and Adolescents Essays -- media influence

1. Character merchandising will be processed by children at the peripheral level, aka heuristic persuasion processing, as it is a message that relies heavily on emotional attachment and source attractiveness. These appeals rely on moderate levels of consumer attention and low motivation to process the message. The persuasive message is not presented in a rational argument the consumer must cognitively analyze but rather it is presented through an attractive character that children either know or can easily attach to that is aimed at generating a positive emotional association with the brand. Product placement will be processed at the automatic level, aka automatic persuasion processing, because consumers are generally unaware that they are being targeted by a persuasive message. The brand is integrated seamlessly into media content so that children do not know it is placed their intentionally as a marketing strategy. The implicit nature of product placement relies on the consumer to devote no explicit attention to the advertised brand and rather make a subconscious positive association. Children exposed to product placement do not need to be motivated or cognitively able to process the message as it is designed for implicit brand memory. 2. Rozendaal et al. emphasize the crucial difference between conceptual knowledge of advertising and attitudinal knowledge. The study showed that being conceptually literate (recognizing and understanding an advertising message) does not increase advertising defenses in children. Therefore, interventions will most likely be ineffective as children will not use the knowledge they have when faced with a persuasive message. Moreover, most messages aimed at children are processed at the per... ...& adolescent medicine, 153(11), 1184-1189. Veldhuis, J., Konijn, E. A., & Seidell, J. C. (2012). Weight information labels on media models reduce body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls. Journal of Adolescent Health, 50(6), 600-606. Matsuba, M. K. (2006). Searching for self and relationships online.CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9(3), 275-284. Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2007). Preadolescents' and adolescents' online communication and their closeness to friends. Developmental psychology,43(2), 267. Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2008). Adolescents' Identity Experiments on the Internet Consequences for Social Competence and Self-Concept Unity.Communication Research, 35(2), 208-231. Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2009). Social consequences of the internet for adolescents a decade of research. Current Directions in Psychological Science,18(1), 1-5. Effects of Media on Children and Adolescents Essays -- media influence 1. Character merchandising will be processed by children at the peripheral level, aka heuristic persuasion processing, as it is a message that relies heavily on emotional attachment and source attractiveness. These appeals rely on moderate levels of consumer attention and low motivation to process the message. The persuasive message is not presented in a rational argument the consumer must cognitively analyze but rather it is presented through an attractive character that children either know or can easily attach to that is aimed at generating a positive emotional association with the brand. Product placement will be processed at the automatic level, aka automatic persuasion processing, because consumers are generally unaware that they are being targeted by a persuasive message. The brand is integrated seamlessly into media content so that children do not know it is placed their intentionally as a marketing strategy. The implicit nature of product placement relies on the consumer to devote no explicit attention to the advertised brand and rather make a subconscious positive association. Children exposed to product placement do not need to be motivated or cognitively able to process the message as it is designed for implicit brand memory. 2. Rozendaal et al. emphasize the crucial difference between conceptual knowledge of advertising and attitudinal knowledge. The study showed that being conceptually literate (recognizing and understanding an advertising message) does not increase advertising defenses in children. Therefore, interventions will most likely be ineffective as children will not use the knowledge they have when faced with a persuasive message. Moreover, most messages aimed at children are processed at the per... ...& adolescent medicine, 153(11), 1184-1189. Veldhuis, J., Konijn, E. A., & Seidell, J. C. (2012). Weight information labels on media models reduce body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls. Journal of Adolescent Health, 50(6), 600-606. Matsuba, M. K. (2006). Searching for self and relationships online.CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9(3), 275-284. Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2007). Preadolescents' and adolescents' online communication and their closeness to friends. Developmental psychology,43(2), 267. Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2008). Adolescents' Identity Experiments on the Internet Consequences for Social Competence and Self-Concept Unity.Communication Research, 35(2), 208-231. Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2009). Social consequences of the internet for adolescents a decade of research. Current Directions in Psychological Science,18(1), 1-5.

Computer :: science

Computer About two hundred years before, the word "computer" started to appear in the dictionary. Some people even didn't know what is a computer. However, most of the people today not just knowing what is a computer, but understand how to use a computer. Therefore, computer become more and more popular and important to our society. We can use computer everywhere and they are very useful and helpful to our life. The speed and accuracy of computer made people felt confident and reliable. Therefore, many important information or data are saved in the computer. Such as your diary, the financial situation of a oil company or some secret intelligence of the military department. A lot of important information can be found in the memory of computer. So, people may ask a question: Can we make sure that the information in the computer is safe and nobody can steal it from the memory of the computer? Physical hazard is one of the causes of destroying the data in the computer. For example, send a flood of coffee toward a personal computer. The hard disk of the computer could be endangered by the flood of coffee. Besides, human caretaker of computer system can cause as much as harm as any physical hazard. For example, a cashier in a bank can transfer some money from one of his customer's account to his own account. Nonetheless, the most dangerous thief are not those who work with computer every day, but youthful amateurs who experiment at night --- the hackers. The term "hacker "may have originated at M.I.T. as students' jargon for classmates who labored nights in the computer lab. In the beginning, hackers are not so dangerous at all. They just stole computer time from the university. However, in the early 1980s, hackers became a group of criminals who steal information from other peoples' computer. For preventing the hackers and other criminals, people need to set up a good security system to protect the data in the computer. The most important thing is that we cannot allow those hackers and criminals entering our computers. It means that we need to design a lock to lock up all our data or using identification to verify the identity of someone seeking access to our computers. The most common method to lock up the data is using a password system. Passwords are a multi-user computer system's usual first line of defense against hackers.

The Bernard Lawrence “Bernie” Madoff Scandal

unethical in the conduct of business. A Ponzi scheme also known as a pyramid scheme is an illegal savings scheme where unwary savers are lured into putting their money into the fraudulent organization’s account with the promise of unusually high returns. On the surface this may look legitimate. But the problem is that unlike financial institutions who lend out or invest customer’s funds Ponzi schemes use funds received from newer entrants to pay out the earlier entrants exorbitant interest rates. They arouse others greed by enticing them with the prospect of high returns.They pretend and falsify their financial records to create a false sense of stability. No sane government can register such schemes. They therefore operate illegally. Mr. Madoff stands accused of nepotism. This is a business practice why by the owner employs relatives and close associates. Suffice it to say that Madoff had more than 25 employees. However those in key positions were family members most o f whom owned shares of the company. These included his wife Ruth Madoff, two sons Mark and Andrew Madoff, his brother Peter Madoff, Peter’s daughter Shana, and Madoff’s nephew Charles Weiner.It is unethical to use a well positioned family team to cover up illegal dealings. It is unethical to sent more than $250 million from his New York-based firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities obtained ripping off unsuspecting savers in a Ponzi scheme to Madoff Securities International Ltd in the UK, and then back to accounts in the U. S. Question 2: Name three types of parties who were impacted by the actions of Mr. Madoff, and describe how they were impacted. Madoff’s friends included business associates who knowingly or unknowingly served to lure customers into his business.While the going was good, they were well rewarded. They occupied positions in charitable organizations, and received hefty compensations for their services and cooperation. However when the sche me was busted they lost their positions, face, as well as their incomes. Some politically correct friends had to refund monies that had been given to them through Madoff sponsored organizations. The worst party hit was his customers. Many of them were ruined financially for life. The total loss to investors is reckoned to be somewhere between 12 to 20 million dollars. On the flip side, there are those who gained.According to minutes from the trustee about $36 billion was invested into the scam, returning $18 billion to investors, with $18 billion missing. This being a pyramid scheme about half of Madoff's investors were â€Å"net winners,† earning more than their investment. The extend of embarrassment Madoff’s family experienced can only be imagined. Apart from loosing face, they lost a lot of assets. Their bank accounts were frozen and property confisticated. They are also facing legal charges for negligence, and breach of fiduciary duty by virtue of being accomplice s with Madoff.Question 3: Describe three business safeguards (risk management) that may have prevented the harm caused by Mr. Madoff. Government regulations: The hedge funds industry is considered as low risk. While the law enforcers are very strict with the banking and insurance sectors, they do not pay much attention to hedge funds. This made it easy for a smooth operator like Madoff to receive money from investors and manage the same which is illegal. He achieved this through engaging various institutions who were themselves under government regulations. Stricter regulatory and standardizing approaches of the hedge fund industry need to be put in place.a ‘best practice’ charter should be drawn and implemented. Proper audit of the Madoff’s transactions would have revealed anomalies. Independent external auditors would have done the job sufficiently. Question 4: Describe three ways private investors might have better protected themselves from risk. Due diligence in this case is the process of monitoring and reviewing the operation and management of hedge funds and those managing them. The collapse of Madoff was an expensive lesson in the importance of investors and their advisors carrying out thorough due diligence and not relying on word of mouth endorsementDiversification of risk: the nature of a pyramid scheme is to so attractive that potential investors have no other option but put their money in there. With high returns and no fees charges investors were sold. It did not occur to them to avoid putting all their eggs in one basket. There are two types of investor’s risk: systematic risk and market risk. Systematic risk is associated with a single security and is reduced by diversifying or investing is other types of securities. Market risk is occasioned by economic forces and can not be wished away. (Petty 2007)Refraining from greed: The saying that ‘when the deal is too good, think twice came true for the victims of the M adoff scam. The profile of its victims is not simple individuals disconnected from the financial markets and its remote mechanisms but investors who presumably have an expert knowledge of the trade of financial investment: rich private individuals and large financial institutions. The deal was just too good that they closed their eyes to anything else. It is a lesson to all that when investing one has to be level headed and not let themselves be overtaken by greed.Question 5: Describe three legal actions that possibly may be brought against Mr. Madoff under criminal or civil law. Securities fraud: the SEC regulates against trading based on information that is not available to the public, Accounting fraud and misrepresentation (presenting misleading or untrue information about a company, or its securities, to an investor or the public). This crime earned him a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; fine of the greatest of $5 million or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense; r estitution.International money laundering: In his book ‘Money Laundering’, Leonard Jason-Loyd describes it as a form of criminal activity where by money is placed in banks then passed through a number of transactions to act as a smoke screen in order to hide the origin of the cash and later returned to the launderer via the legitimate financial system. (p. 2). Madoff’s crime of transferring funds between his New York-based brokerage operation and the London trading desk earned him a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, fine and restitution.False Statements: Making a false filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission including processed stock trades, use of client money as collateral to obtain loans. This earned him a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, fine and restitution. References Caruso, D. B. , February (26, 2010) (2 June 2010). Former Madoff Aide Charged with Conspiracy, and Securities Fraud. The Associated Press Retrieved from www. law. com/jsp /article. jsp? id=1202444611999 – United States Lloyd L. J. (1997). The Law on Money-Laundering: Statutes and Commentary, London, Great Britain, Frank Cass & Co.Ltd ‘Madoff scandal poses challenges for directors’ (21 Dec 2009) (2 June 2010) Risk Management Lessons from Madoff Fraud Retrieved from www. lloyds. com †º Petty, w. , Keowon, A. J. , Scott JR, D. F. , Martin, O. N. , Burrow, M. , Martin, P. , Nguyen, H. (2006) Financial Management, Frenchs Forest, NSW, Australia, Pearson Education Australia. Silver, V. , Glovin, D. , (2009, 13 Feb), (2 June 2010). Madoff Scandal Ensnares Order of Patron Saint for Moralists. Bloomberg News, Retrieved from www. bloomberg. com/apps/news? pid=20601109& refer=home

The Challenge Facing Managed Care Organizations

The greatest challenge for managed care organizations (MCOs) in our current time is how to obtain lower priced medical fees. As we all know, American health care should essentially be a nonprofit enterprise. However, the privatization of American health care holds that health care in general and hospitals in particular are increasingly operating on a for-profit basis. In fact, the for-profit hospital sector has accounted for a relatively constant share (about 15 percent) of hospital beds over the last twenty years (Morrisson, 1999). This is why recently the U.S. Congress tries to push more â€Å"consumer-directed† health plan options to avoid cash-strapped managed care organizations (MCOs) to boost their deductibles, raise premiums and even defy federal law by authorizing policy holders to buy prescription drugs from low-cost vendors in Canada (Smith, 23 September 2004). Managed care organizations (MCOs) often apply the traditional fee-for-service models, which do not provide adequate financial controls and utilization incentives for physicians and hospitals to contain the costs of providing healthcare. Under managed care, the needs of the patients are balanced with efforts to provide cost-effective care. Typically, MCOs enroll subscribers by promising to provide all necessary medical care in exchange for a fixed monthly premium. The MCO also contracts with hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers to dispense the necessary medical care to its enrollees at a discounted reimbursement rate. In exchange for accepting reduced fees, the caregivers gain access to the MCO’s enrolees (Kirby, Sebastian & Hornberger, 1998). A problem with managed care is that employers who offer a health maintenance organization (HMO) to their employees often pay the premium as long as the HMO premium was not higher than the fee-for-service premium. This behavior by employers creates distorted incentives for the HMO in controlling its costs. Enthoven (1993) suggested that this incentive distortion can be corrected when employers design better alternatives for their employer contributions. The employer could contribute a fixed-dollar amount for health insurance with the employee paying the full difference between plans. The greater the portion of the marginal premium paid by the employees is, the stronger the incentive is to choose lower-cost plans. For example, if the employer pays 80 percent of the premium and the employee pays the remainder, then the employee pays only 20 percent of the difference between the low (let’s presume here) HMO premium and the higher fee-for-service premium. HMOs and other managed care arrangements are organized on a prepayment basis that appear in a wide variety of forms. An HMO could hire physicians on a salary, contract with a preexisting group practice of physicians, or contract with physicians who maintain a fee-for-service practice. According to Luft (1991), â€Å"Because specific social, legal, historical, political, and economic aspects of the medical care environment have shaped delivery systems such as the HMO, it is not reasonable to expect that the typical HMO could be transplanted intact to another country† (p. 173). The key to HMO cost savings is the organization’s wide range of medical services, both inpatient and outpatient. In this way, the HMO can receive the cost savings implied by reduced hospital use. This may be difficult to manage in systems where there are separate financing mechanisms for primary care physicians and inpatient care. As Luft (1991, p. 180) remarks. â€Å"If there were no way to shift funds from the ‘hospital side’ to the ‘physician side,’ it would be difficult to reward clinical decision makers for the development of more cost-effective practice styles.† This is why three areas appear to offer a magnitude of opportunities where MCOs can assist patients, these are ambulatory care, mental health and the alternative therapies. Firstly, ambulatory care-sensitive conditions reflect the quality and availability of primary care services, since they are readily treatable without the need for hospitalization. There are differences in the hospitalization rate for ambulatory care sensitive conditions. Shenkman et al. (2005) had indicated that specialty ambulatory care is important for many children with chronic conditions. However, access to such care may be constrained within managed care environments. The use of primary care providers (PCPs) as gatekeepers for managed care organizations (MCOs) is one commonly used strategy to control specialty care use. Studies of the impact of gatekeeping on children's receipt of specialty care have resulted in mixed findings. Some studies found more specialty care use in gatekeeping MCOs, compared with non-gatekeeping MCOs. Other researchers found that the replacement of a gatekeeping system with an open-access model increased specialty visits among a group of children with chronic conditions. Although the focus on gatekeeping in general yields some important information, MCOs use many other strategies concomitantly with their PCP gatekeepers, such as capitated payments, financial incentives, and prior authorization procedures. The use of these concomitant strategies may meet the unique needs of children with chronic conditions, including their need for specialty physician care. On the other hand, managed care had been significant contributor on delivery systems for mental health services. Taylor et al. (2001) had indicated that direct and indirect persuasion to provide more cost-effective treatments has been one consequence. The cost-saving qualities and the effectiveness of group interventions have produced clear expectations for an increased use of therapy groups. In the research of Taylor et al. (2001), they compared perceptions and uses of group treatments on a national sample of managed care organizations and mental health providers. Implications of differences and similarities between directors of managed care organizations and treatment providers are examined and discussed across five response categories (familiarity/training perceived effectiveness, likelihood of reimbursement/referral, daily use and expectation for future use). Taylor et al (2001) favored the approach where MCOs calibrate treatment referral/reimbursement decisions. Recently published comparison outcome studies and meta-analyses can and should empirically guide the present treatment delivering systems. Lastly, many managed care organizations have already begun to integrate complementary and alternative medical therapies (CAM) with conventional medical providers. Medical practitioners are obligated to assess CAM therapy with patients. Alternative therapies require professionals to rethink staff competency, patient assessment, and patient-focused care. Medical leaders must understand CAM trends and therapies to better integrate these concepts into health care policy, standards of care, and ethical decisions (Parkman, 2001). Among ambulatory care and mental health care, alternative therapies, or CAM, offers the most favorable and cost-efficient strategy for MCOs. This is because the aging â€Å"baby boom† generation is beginning to experience chronic but non-life threatening conditions, such as joint pain, headaches and menopause-related complaints and they are willing to explore options other than prescription drugs. For health plans, the attraction of offering alternative care products lies in retaining and attracting new members, diversifying their services from competitors in a congested managed care market and in attempts to address current or proposed state mandates (West, 1997). In 1997 alone, expenses for professional services were $21.2 billion, a 45% increase over the earlier 1990 data. Expenses for professional services, herbals, vitamins, diet products, books, and classes totaled $27 billion. Five surveys conducted since 1990 have reported frequent use of CAM, ranging from 30% to 73% by patients suffering from conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis, HIV and AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and chronic musculoskeletal pain. Furthermore, the demand for CAM by the general public is increasing, despite the fact that its use is largely paid by consumers without coverage by third-party payers. In 1997, Americans spent an estimated $13 billion for visits to CAM providers and an additional $2 billion for commercial diet supplements and over-the-counter megavitamins (Pelletier & Astin, 2002). Managed care should not only focus on cost savings, but they should also look into diversifying their services. MCOs have generally contributed to the decline in the U.S. health cost growth rate. Their potential will continue to be limited to the extent that employers fail to offer true financial advantages to consumers who choose the low-cost health plans. Thus, more reforms in the policies should be reviewed and revised so that more people could benefit from the quality health care everyone deserves. References Enthoven, A.C. (1993). The History and Principles of Managed Competition. Health Affairs, supplement, 24-48. Kirby, E.G., Sebastian, J.G. and Hornberger, K.D. (1998, Jan/Feb). The Effect of Normative Social forces on Managed Care Organizations: Implications for Strategic management/Practitioner Response. Journal of Healthcare Management. 43(1):81-106. Luft, H. (1991). Translating the U.S. HMO Experience to Other Health System. Health Affairs 10:172-186. Morrison, I. (1999). Health Care in the New Millennium. NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Parkman, C. (2001, February). Alternative Therapies Are Here to Stay. Nursing Management, 32(2): 36-40. Pelletier, K.R. and Astin, J.A. (2002, Jan/Feb). Integration and Reimbursement of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by Managed Care and Insurance Providers: 2000 Update and Cohort Analysis. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 8(1): 38-44. Shenkman, E., Tian, L. and Schatz, D. (2005, June). Managed Care Organization Characteristics and Outpatient Specialty Care Use Among Children With Chronic Illness. Pediatrics, 115(6): 1547-1555. Smith, C. (2004, Spetember 23). Senate Panel Examines Health Care Choices, Insurance Costs. Knight Ridder Tribune. Taylor, N.T., Burlingame, G.M., Kristensen, K.B., Fuhriman, A. et al. (2001, April). A Survey of Mental Health Care Provider's and Managed Care Organization Attitudes Toward, Familiarity With, and Use of Group Interventions. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 51(2): 243-264. West, D. (1997, November 10). MCOs Integrating Alternative Care. National Underwriter, 101(45): 58.   

Business Travel Booking Market Trends & Forecast Essay

†¢The report examines reasons, other than lower ticket prices, that are most likely to influence business travelers to opting for one airline over another †¢The report identifies key factors, other than lower rental costs, that are most likely to make business travelers choose one car rental company over another †¢The report assesses the importance of travel meta-search options for creating business travel plans, and identifies popular travel meta-search websites used by business travelers in the last six months. †¢The report identifies key factors that are decisive for hotel bookings †¢The report examines how companies manage business travel bookings †¢The report identifies key reasons for cutbacks in premium travel plans †¢The report examines the staying patterns of executive when a business trip is extended to a leisure trip †¢The report assesses executives’ viewpoints about cutbacks in group incentive travel programs Complete Report Available at http://marketreportsstore. com/changing-trends-in-business-travel-booking/ . Scope The report features the opinions of travel and tourism industry respondents about the changing trends in business travel booking covering the following aspects: †¢Companies’ approaches to business travel booking †¢Key factors for airline selection †¢Decisive criteria for airline booking †¢Key parameters for car rental company choices †¢Factors influencing hotel-booking decisions †¢Extension of business trips for leisure purposes – additional days’ leisure spend †¢Extension of business trips for leisure purposes – staying preferences †¢Significance of travel meta-search options †¢Popular travel meta-search websites. †¢Cutback expectations for group incentive travel programs †¢Reasons for cutbacks in premium travel plans Inquire for discount @ http://marketreportsstore. com/discount/? rname=14250 . Reasons to buy †¢The report highlights companies’ approaches to business travel bookings, enabling travel operators to restructure their business travel plans. †¢The report enables readers to take strategic decisions by understanding the relevance of travel meta-search options, and identifying popular travel meta-search websites used by business travelers. †¢The report examines key factors influencing executives’ airline and hotel-booking decisions. This will help companies to improve customer service and implement development strategies. †¢The report provides cutback expectations about group incentive travel programs, which are likely to influence growth prospects. †¢The report highlights staying preferences during extensions of business trips to leisure trips, along with the number of extra days spent for leisure purposes. This will help to gauge consumer behavior. Buy a Copy of the Report at http://marketreportsstore. com/purchase? rname=14250 For more reports on Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Click here Contact sales@marketreportsstore. com / Call +1 888 391 5441 for further information on â€Å"Changing Trends in Business Travel Booking† report OR for any other market research and intelligence needs you may have for your business.

Case Study of Karen

Case study – KAREN This assignment is about Karen Lee who comes for personal counseling. As a therapist I use two theories (Psychoanalytic Therapy and Cognitive Behavior Therapy) separately to help her in solving her problem. Psychoanalytic therapy, basic assumption of human nature: Psychoanalytic treatment is highly individualized and seeks to show how the unconscious factors affect behavior patterns, relationships, and overall mental health.Treatment traces the unconscious factors to their origins, shows how they have evolved and developed over the course of many years, and subsequently helps individuals to overcome the challenges they face in life (National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, 1998). As a therapy, psychoanalysis is based on the concept that individuals are unaware of the many factors that cause their behavior and emotions.These unconscious factors have the potential to produce unhappiness, which in turn is expressed through a score of distinguishab le symptoms, including disturbing personality traits, difficulty in relating to others, or disturbances in self-esteem or general disposition (American Psychoanalytic Association, 1998). In An Outline of Psychoanalysis, Freud (1949) explains the principal tenets on which psychoanalytic theory is based 1. human behavior and thinking are largely determined by irrational drives; 2. those drives are largely not conscious; 3. ttempt to bring those drives into awareness meets defense (resistance) in many different forms; 4. beside the inherited constitution of personality, one's development is determined by events in early childhood; 5. conflicts between conscious view of reality and unconscious (repressed) material can result in mental disturbances such as neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety, depression etc. ; 6. the liberation from the effects of the unconscious material is achieved through bringing this material into the consciousness Freud begins with an explanation of the three forces of the psychical apparatus–the id, the ego, and the superego.The id has the quality of being unconscious and contains everything that is inherited, everything that is present at birth, and the instincts (Freud, 1949). The ego has the quality of being conscious and is responsible for controlling the demands of the id and of the instincts, becoming aware of stimuli, and serving as a link between the id and the external world. In addition, the ego responds to stimulation by either adaptation or flight, regulates activity, and strives to achieve pleasure and avoid displeasure (Freud, 1949).Finally, the superego, whose demands are managed by the id, is responsible for the limitation of satisfactions and represents the influence of others, such as parents, teachers, and role models, as well as the impact of racial, societal, and cultural traditions (Freud, 1949). Psychoanalysis fostered interest in human emotional and psychological development traced back to a young age. The human can be seen from a much more holistic viewpoint as one looks at the psychoanalytic theory, which combines the inner workings of the mind and attempts to explain them in the context of a dynamic social environment.Karen-cade study The focus is on how Karen’s childhood experiences create an internalized interpersonal model for relationships. The treatment plan is based on a three-pointed outline: 1. The Problem list 2. Problem Formulation 3. Intervention Karen reports general dissatisfaction of her life, she feels some panic over reaching the age of 39, She has been troubled with a range of psychosomatic complaints including sleep disorders, anxiety, dizziness, heart palpitation, and headaches. She often feels depressed, and she is concern about loosing her looks with her overweight and aging.According to the psychoanalytic theory, the focus is on bringing unconscious to the conscious. Karen case study shows she has repressed. She never wants anything for herself and she typic ally lived up to what other in her life wanted for her. Karen’s gender-role identification was fraught with difficulties. She learned the basis of female-male relationships through her early experiences with her parents. What she saw, was her father as a distant, authoritarian and rigidperson that every actions of her father should never be questioned and everyone should obey his standard and rules.She remembers her mother who was supportive but critical and Karen thought the she would never do enough to please her. She generalized this pattern through her life. It could be further hypothesized that the man be married was similar to her father, and she used her mother as a role model by becoming a homemaker. In a critical incident took place when she was 6 years old, her father caught her during â€Å"playing doctor† with an 8-years-old boy. She reports â€Å"He lectured me and refused to speak me for week. I felt extremely guilty and ashamed. † She repressed he r own emerging sexuality and carried the feeling of guilt into her adolescence.She was not allowed to date until she completed high school. She married the first person she had dated. It could be further hypothesized that she lived up to what othersin her life wanted for her and she generalized it to relation with her children, it’s very difficult for her to cope herself with children’s rebellion especially about her daughter, Jane. She is not satisfied with her husband relationships, and she is anxious over the prospects of challenging this relationship, fearing that she does, she might end up alone. In a general sense, psychoanalytic case formulations always have interpersonal foundations.These foundations are built from repeated child-caretaker interactions, subsequently internalized, and later manifest themselves in clients’ daily live. Consequently Karen’s depressive and anxiety symptoms are traced to early childhood interpersonal experiences andobse rvedduring her life. According to the Karen’s presenting problem and psychological history, her intervention package can be as follow: 1. to motivate her for therapy 2. to reduce her anxiety 3. to emphasize on primacy on self-experience which help her to improve her self-esteem â€Å"Typical change process in psychoanalytic therapy includes four parts: 1.Cognitive insight (usually a repeating maladaptive interpersonal pattern) 2. Practice in detecting maladaptive   mental and interpersonal patterns 3. Creating new and more satisfying interpersonal experiences† 4. Internalization of new and more satisfying interpersonal experiences (John Sommers1957) As I told before, the goal is to† bring unconscious to conscious and it’s not limited to solving problem and learning new behaviors, there is a deeper probing into the past to develop the level of self-understanding that is assumed to be necessary for change in character. (Corey 2009) During therapy, therapis t explores some of these questions with Karen: â€Å"What did you do when you felt unloved in the childhood? As a child what did you do with your negative feelings? Could you express your rage, hostility, hurt, and fears? What effects did your relationship with mother and father have on you? What did this teach you about all women and men? Brought into the here and now of the transference relationship, questions might include â€Å"When you have felt anything like this with me? and What are you learning from our relationship about how relationship with women or men might go?As she comes to understand how she has been shaped by these past experiences, she is increasingly able to exert control over her present functioning. Many of Karen’s fear become conscious, and then her energy does not have to remain fixed on defending herself from unconscious feelings instead, she can decision about her current life. † (Corey 2009) Cognitive behavior therapy, basic assumption of hu man nature: Human nature as believed by my theoretical approach is that we are all capable of loving, happiness, and even self-actualization, however, we also have tendencies toward self-destruction, self-blame, intolerance, and perfectionism.Because we are the inclination to think rationally and irrationally, the theory believe that we can train ourselves to refuse to become upset and resist irrational thoughts by repeating relational thoughts to ourselves and we have capacity to change by choosing to react differently to situations. Ellis assumes that we are self-taking, self-evaluating and self-sustaining. We develop emotional and behavioral difficulties when we mistake simple preferences (desires for love, approval, success).Ellis again affirms that we have an inborn tendency toward growth and actualization, yet we often sabotage our movement toward growth due to self-defeating patterns we have learned. (Ellis, 1999). Although, irrational beliefs can be learned from significant others, human beings are believed to create irrational dogmas and superstitions by themselves and reinforce self-defeating beliefs by the process of autosuggestion and self-repetition and by behaving as if they are useful. Therefore, it is our own indoctrinated irrational thoughts that keep dysfunctional attitudes alive and operative within us. Karen- case studyIn assessment of problem, behaviorally she acts defensive, avoids eye contact, speaks rapidly, and fidgets constantly with her clothes. She lives with her husband and her three children but, generally she is not satisfied of her life. Emotionally she feels unsecure and unappreciated in her relation with her husband and her children, she has experienced some of specific problems such as anxiety, sleep disorder, panic attacks and depression. In cognition area she fears about aging, she fears of not succeeding in professional world and worries about how becoming more professionally involved might threat her family.She concerns a bout losing her children. She is anxious over the prospects of changing the relationships with her husband, fearing if she does, she might end up alone. After assessment of the problem, the intervention package focused on the following: 1. To motivate the patient for therapy 2. To prepare Karen to deal with and face phobic situations she avoided due to anxiety 3. To reduce her anxiety 4. To reduce inferiority complex and increase self-esteem 5. To modify her negative thoughtsTherapist helps client to understand how to change irrational thoughts to rational thoughts and teach her positive thinking and consideration of positive data in critical situation. Therapist pays more attention to the present time and focuses on causes of client’s discomfort in present time. In Karen’s case the most reason and greatest catalyst that triggered her to come for therapy is the increase of her physical symptoms and anxiety. Karen’s therapist should focuses on helping her in defi ning the particular areas that Karen would like to change after completing this assessment.They work together and make a plan for treatment. Therapist helps Karen to understand the purposes of her behaviors and then teach her about how the therapy sessions can help her to reach her goals. CBT helps Karen to understand that she is responsible for his own life and she should b active. According to the case study, she completed a course in introduction to counseling, that encouraged her to have a look at the direction of her life and she took an honest look at her life. Karen finds wondering what she should want and what she should be doing.It shows that she is aware of her life and she wants to change but she fears and she doesn’t know exactly what she wants. Therapist should help her to understand in which area she wants to change. The first things that she wants now, is being successful in her professional world. Therapist uses questioning process to develop a picture of her difficulties. Karen’s concrete aims include her craving to function professionally without being tense and worry about every little thing in her life. As a practice, therapist asks Karen to keep a record of when she feels tense or worry and what events make these feelings.Karen indicates that she worries about her right to think and act selfishly. Behavioral skills therapy is good for her because she has trouble talking with her family. This procedure includes modeling, roleplaying and behavior rehearsal. Then she tries more effective behaviors with her therapist who plays the role of herfamily members and then gives feedback how strong or apologetic she seemed. Karen’s anxiety about her relationship with her husband can also be explored using behavior rehearsal (in case that therapist is male). The therapist plays as her Karen’s husband, Tim.She practices being the way she would like to be with Tim and says the things to her therapist that she might be afraid t o say to her husband. During this rehearsal, Karen can explore her fears, get feedback on the effects of her behavior, and experiment with more assertive behavior. Next, she is requires to list down her specific fears. Karen identifies her greatest fear is not able to function both professionally and responsibility to her family if she branches out. The least fearful situation she identifies is concerning over aging and her â€Å"looks†.Before moving into this simulated situation/ role play techniques, the therapist first does some systematic desensitization on Karen’s fear items hierarchy. Karen then begins repeated, systematic exposure to items she finds frightening, beginning at the bottom of the fear hierarchy. She continues with repeated exposure to the next fear hierarchy item when exposure to the previous item no longer makes Karen anxious. Part of the process involves exposure exercises for practice in various situations away from the therapy office. The goal o f the therapy is to help Karen modify the behavior that results in her feelings of guilt and anxiety.By learning more appropriate coping behavior, eliminating unrealistic anxiety and guilt, and acquiring more adaptive responses, Karen’s presenting symptoms decrease, and he reports a greater degree of satisfaction. As a conclusion according to Karen’s problems, a combination of cognitive, emotional and behavioral approaches (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) is effective and is the first choice of treatment for her anxiety and depression although, there are a number of ways in which common treatment elements for anxiety and depression may facilitate symptom reduction in both disorders. The cognitive restructuring skills typically employed in CBT provide patients with skills to identify, evaluate, and modify maladaptive negative thinking styles more generally. †(Michael W. Otto   2010) References †¢ Freud, S. (1949). An outline of psychoanalysis. New York: Norton. †¢Gerald Corey. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling Psychology. USA: Brooks/Cole †¢ Jesse H. wright, Monica Ramirez, Michael E. Thase. (2006). Learning Cognitive Behavior Therapy . USA: American Psychiatric Publishing. †¢ Judith S. Beck. (2011). Cognitive Behavior Therapy basics and beyond.New York: Guilford Press †¢ John Sommers, Rita Sommers. (1957). Counseling and Psychotherapy Theories. USA: John Wiley and Sons. †¢ Keith S. Dobson. (2010). Handbook of Cognitive Behavioral Therapies. New York:Guilford Press †¢ Michael W. Otto, Stefan G. Hofman. (2010). Avoiding Treatment Failure in the Anxiety Disorders. USA: Springer †¢William. T. O’Donohue, Jane E. fisher. (2008). Cognitive Behavior Therapy. New York: John wiley. †¢ American Psychoanalytic Association (1998, January 31). About psychoanalysis  [WWW document]. Retrieved on 12 June 2012 from http://www. apsa. org/pubinfo/about. htm