Industry Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Industry Analysis - Essay Example and retail companies from the US, such as The Cheesecake Factory, Cold Stone Creamery, and WokNRoll so it is clear that Kuwait accepts US retail experiences with open arms. A one area lacking in the Kuwaiti food industry is a specialty grocery sector. The good news for Whole Foods is that the food labeling standards are more relaxed in Kuwait than in the US. Moreover, many cultural events in Kuwait involve food at any social occasion, and this could be the reason obesity is increasing rapidly in the country. Introducing Whole Foods in their diet will minimize fast foods that lead to obesity. In Kuwait, cupcakes are sugary foodstuffs that most young adults make, sell, and start a business from, which contributes to the high obesity in Kuwait. People of Kuwait treasure good health that is why they seek solutions like therapists and exercise to avert the obesity conditions. This will offer the organic food a chance in the market since it is inherently healthy without obesity effects. Globalization is taking place in many different areas; the growth and spread of information media are seen to be part of the culture of globalization. Despite the growth of globalization, the Kuwaiti national identity remains

McDonald’s and Its Crisis Essay Example for Free

McDonald’s and Its Crisis Essay What should a company do when its core product is considered â€Å"unhealthy† or even â€Å"harmful† by the public? Is it even possible for such a company survive and thrive; or will it have to shut down its business? McDonald’s fast food has for a long time been considered unhealthy by the public. In recent years, the health conscious trends have become increasingly popular. Moreover, many scientific studies and findings have surfaced and successfully confirmed that children’s increasing intake of fast food, which often contains high sodium content, sugars, saturated fats, and calories, for a long period of time would lead to childhood obesity. Moreover, obese children have a much higher risk of many health problems such as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain cancersall of which are fatal if left untreated. In 2010, a mother from California sued McDonald’s over the company’s marketing practice of Happy Meal. The mother claimed that McDonald’s used alluring toys to lure kids into Happy Meal. This lawsuit, which might be viewed by many as senseless and absurd, was one of McDonald’s biggest cases. In order to come out of the lawsuit ahead, this largest fast food chain had to undergo some major organizational changes. In this paper, we would like to use the knowledge learned in the class to analyze the event (the lawsuit) and its effects on McDonald’s. The paper will have four main parts. In the first part, we provide a brief introduction of the company, McDonald’s, and the lawsuit. In the second part, we will use the concepts learned in class to analyze Happy Meal’s influencing strategies and the organizational changes during and after the suit. We believe that Happy Meal’s influencing strategies deserve our attention as they were the main causes of the crisis. Since its Happy Meal’s influencing tactics were so effectively and successfully executed, McDonald’s became the obvious target of the mentioned legal dispute. In the third part, we will offer our evaluations, pros and cons, of McDonald’s strategies and tactics in handling the crisis. Finally, in the fourth part, depending on our evaluation of how McDonald’s control of the situation, we want to offer our recommendation to parts of the company’s strategies which in our opinions could have been improved. Also, since we overall felt that McDonald’s managed the crisis extremely well, we recommend its strategies to be implemented to Jack in the Box, which faced a similar situation to McDonald’s. However, unlike McDonald’s which vigorously fight for the continuation of its using toys to push Happy Meal sales, Jack in the Box decided to drop toys in its Happy Meal when it was faced with the pressure from the public. We believe McDonald’s implementation of strategic changes could have helped Jack in the Box to put toys back to its Happy Meal. I Introduction McDonald’s Corporation is the worlds leading food service organization. The corporation started out as a small drive-through in 1948 by two brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald. In 1961, Raymond Albert Kroc, a salesman, saw a great opportunity in the market at the time and bought the business from the McDonald brothers. By 1967, McDonald’s began its first business expansion to countries outside of the United States. This unyielding expansion resulted in the opening of 23,000 McDonalds restaurants in 110 countries in 1994. Today, McDonalds, the leading fast food chain, had twice the market share of its closest U.S. competitor, Burger King. In fact, McDonald’s market share represented 7 percent of total U.S. eating-out sales (Cohen, 2009, p8-2, p8-3). There are several major influences and factorssuch as government, customers, social trends, and so forthwhich play an important role in shaping organizational behavior.In the recent years, McDonald’s corporate image has been negatively affected by adverse publicity. For example, McDonald’s has been criticized of paying its employees low wages and enforcing an aggressive anti-union policy throughout its fast-food empire. Furthermore, the corporation was heavily condemned by the public for exploiting children market and causing childhood obesity. Indeed, McDonald’s has been using advertising which mainly targeted children. As a result, according to the survey to American school student in 1996, 96 percent of all children could identify Ronald McDonald (Cohen, 2011, p8-5). How was McDonald’s able to achieve the above result? McDonald’s children marketing strategies were very simple but extremely effectiveto give small toys as a treatment to children in order to appeal to their interests. With the repeated uses of this psychological influencing tactic, children would subconsciously make a connection between McDonald’s and toys. Therefore, children, who were under the influences of McDonald’s marketing strategies, could not help to think of McDonald’s whenever thinking of toys. The plaintiff, Monet Parham, a California mother of two, sued McDonald’s overly exploiting children market on Oct 2010 (Dan, 2011).She claimed that McDonald’s gave out alluring toys that come with the meals in order to lure kids into unhealthy diet. The mother also stated that â€Å"McDonald’s make it so much harder to say no to her kids when they are really want those toys† (York, 2010). The CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) confirmed that â€Å"kids do not have the cognitive maturity to understand the persuasive intent of advertising† (York, 2010). Later on, the ban of serving Happy Meals with toys was easily passed by the Board of Supervisors in an 8-3 vote, which would take effect on Dec 1st, 2011 if McDonald’s didn’t meets the nutritional standards of meal in San Francisco till that time (San Francisco Happy Meal Toy Ban Takes Effect,2012). McDonald’s quickly made response to this event. The fast food chain’s spokeswoman, Bridget Coffing, told the LA Times newspaper: We are confident that parents understand and appreciate that Happy Meals are a fun treat, with quality, right-sized food choices for their children that can fit into a balanced diet, (York, 2010). McDonalds said that it would defend itself against the lawsuit. Meanwhile, it started offering apple slices and milks in the new Happy Meals. Eventually, the San Francisco judge dismissed the suit since McDonalds was able to meet the required nutritional standards.†¨ In the next part, we will assess this problem relate to the concept of influence and organizational change. II Course Concepts Related To The Event Influence â€Å"Influence is any communication which produces a change in an action and/or an attitude in one or more people.† Influence is one of the most important management strategies in any organization. A strong influence tactic includes role of planning and dialogue, establish credibility, frame goals and common ground, vividly reinforce your position and connect emotionally (Wong, Influence and persuasion, 2012). In this case, although McDonald’s was sued by alluring children, they indeed occupied the children market successfully. In order to establish an influence, one must first establish communicationexchanges of dialogue. McDonald’s did good at emotional influence and ingratiation. The company created a clown character named Ronald and featured it on local TV in early 1960s. Then, people were employed to perform live Ronald McDonald clowns at children’s birthday parties held in restaurants. Ronald McDonald had a magic touch with children giving McDonald’s an important advantage over its competitors in the children market (Cohen, 2011, p8-5). With Ronald McDonald mascot so successful as a communication tool, McDonald’s went one step further to establish its credibility in children’s minds. This was not hard for the leading fast food chain as it is a common notionand quite truethat children are in most cases easy to influence. Then, how did McDonald’s make children trust it? The answer is easymake the children happy. For example, children were happy when gifts such as Ronald dolls and wristwatches were given free with every purchases of Happy Meals. McDonald’s also used toys of characters from popular movies appeal to children. In this aspect, they used influence of ingratiation effectively. Ingratiation means do something what the person likes. For example, a recent and very successful Happy Meal promotion was a tie-in with the popular DreamWorks Animation film Shrek Forever After. The meals included toy watches fashioned after the movies characters Shrek, Donkey, Gingy and Puss in Boots (Dan, 2011). Furthermore, McDonald’s needed to create a common goalas to what it stands forwith children. With free toys and the always smiling Ronald McDonald, McDonald’s convinced children that the company and its restaurants stands for happiness and enjoyment. However, just establishing common goal and credibility is not enough to make an effective influence, the communicating message and/or idea must be vividly reinforced and emotionally connected with the target audience. According to the Fast Food FACTS Report, young people viewed enormous amounts of fast food advertising. Every day, the average preschooler saw 2.8 fast food ads on television, the average child saw 3.5, and the average teen saw 4.7. Teens listened to approximately one radio ad per day. Children were exposed to more than 1,200 traditional fast food ads per year while teens saw and heard more than 2,000. (Harris, Schwartz Brownell, 2010, p132) Thus, with its spending of $900 million in media in 2009, McDonald’s made sure that the company’s image was vividly reinforced and emotionally connected in the minds of many children (Harris, Schwartz Brownell, 2010, p132). In sum, McDonald’s influencing strategies were so successful that 90 percent of the children go to McDonald’s once a month (Fast Food Marketing to Children, 2010). Nevertheless, McDonald’s effective influencing strategies made it a target for one of the biggest lawsuit in the fast food industry. In the next part, we will discuss how McDonald’s applied its strategic changes to overcome the crisis. †¨Organizational Change For years, critics have been criticizing McDonald’s and its role in America’s obesity problemspecifically the franchise’s aggressive marketing strategies toward children. As the lawsuit pointed out, McDonald’s used toys to lure children and in turn set kids up for a lifetime of health problems. The leadership and management of an organization must be prepared for a turbulent environment which demands more complex planning for the future. The phrase â€Å"organizational change† is about a significant change in the organization, such as reorganization or adding a major new product or service. In fact, there are six forces creating the need of change—the changing nature of the work force, technology, economics shocks, changing social trends, the â€Å"new† world politics, and the changing nature of competitions. (Stephen,1992, p.270) From this lawsuit, we could find evidences of a major force, changing social trend. As the health conscious became a more and more popular, people will be looking for healthy food that is low in calories, fat and sodium. In the American, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the last 30 years. Furthermore, according to the Centers for Disease Control, seventy percent of obese children have higher risk for cardiovascular disease, and are at â€Å"greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem† (Centers for disease, 2012). The publics pointed a finger at McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast food company, who use of Happy Meal toys to lure children. This situation made McDonald’s under heavy criticism from public health officials, parents, lawmakers and so on because they are frustrated with rising childhood obesity rates and weak anti-obesity efforts from fast food restaurant operators. Oftentimes, organizations are confronted with problems in the environment or with internal contingencies suggesting that â€Å"current ways of doing things are not effective† (Miller, 2012, p180). When facing the changing forces, organizations often make changes gradually. Of course, the implementation of planned change is neither a simple nor a straight-forward process (Miller, 2012, p181). In fact, it took McDonalds six years (from 1984 to 1990) to react to pressure group tactics and litigation before starting to adapt its service offer to the dietary concerns of its customers. At the very beginning, the company just made some modestly changes, such as using light oil, adding 2% milk into the menu before actually launching new products such as the McVeggie, the McLean, and pizza in the 1990s (Joanne Caroline, 2006). If we consider McDonald’s step-by-step changes, in the above examples, organizational planned change in response to social trend, the fast food franchise’ reactions to the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) lawsuit then can be defined as â€Å"unplanned change†. According to Coombs (1999, p.2), organizational crisis is â€Å"an event that is an unpredictable, major threat that can have a negative effect on the organization, industry, or stakeholders if handled improperly.† In other words, crisis is unplanned change that can rock an organization and all the people associated with it. In response to this lawsuit, on December 15 2010, McDonald’s posted on its website a Response to CSPI Lawsuit: We are proud of our Happy Meals and intend to vigorously defend our brand, our reputation and our food. We stand on our 30 years track record of providing a fun experience for kids and families at McDonald’s. We listen to our customers, and parents consistently tell us they approve of our Happy Meals. We are confident that parents understand and appreciate that Happy Meals are a fun treat, with quality, right-sized food choices for their children that can fit into a balanced diet. (Bridget, 2010) Later on, McDonald’s made it clear that the fast food chain had begun to make changes to the composition of Happy Meals in response to parental and consumer pressure. It also pledged to reduce the sodium content in all of its foods by 15 percent, with the exceptions of soda and desserts. Moreover, it set a deadline of 2015 for limiting salt, and said that it would spend the rest of this decade cutting back on sugars, saturated fats and calories and making adjustments to portion sizes. The new Happy Meals were introduced in September and launched across the company’s 14,000 restaurants on April 2012. They would all include apple slices, but in a smaller amount of three to five slices than the current eight to 10 offered as an alternative (Stephanie, 2011). McDonald’s will also offer a fat-free chocolate milk option, along with the option of low-fat milk or the traditional soda. The price is not expected to change (Andrew,2011). Furthermore, as part of an effort to provide better access to nutritional information about its foods, McDonald’s developed its first mobile application for the public. Additionally, in 2011, McDonald’s executives toured the country to hear directly from consumers about their concerns (Alex, 2011). In the next part, we would like to offer our evaluations, pros and cons, of McDonald’s strategies and tactics in handling the crisis. III Evaluation As we could image, the sales of Happy Meals have been a large contributions to McDonald’s daily revenue. Thus, if McDonald’s had lost the lawsuit, the company would have faced a really huge lost on its total profits and taken serious damage on its reputation. On the side of the organization change, we believe that McDonald’s did quite well in the face of the crisis. Organization crisis could be divided into three stages: pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis (Miler, 2012, p187). In the pre-crisis stage, an organization should protect or prevent possible problems. It should make employees have a kind of consciousness of crisis all the time. Indeed, McDonald’s has always been accused of selling unhealthy, greasy food to grownups, and exploiting children through advertising since 1960s (Cohen,2009,p8-6). As a leading company in fast food industry, adverse publicity always be the major problem for McDonald’s. Still, McDonald’s couldn’t find a way to solve this problem at all. It is necessary that a company grow with self-awareness against any problem. After all, McDonald’s had got unfavorable publicity in this event what had happened before. During the crisis stage, it is very important that the company should make correct and wise decisions in order to salvage the damaged reputation. As we said before, on one side, McDonald’s projected itself as a company which was proud of its products and would vigorously defend its reputation in order to calm down concerned customers . On the other side, McDonald’s announced that it would reduce the portion of French fries in every Happy Meal by half and replace them with apple slices. It even promised to start serving healthier food in the new Happy Meal to meet the nutrition standards. Indeed, McDonalds made very quick response to this event, and they also pointed out that parents could always choose not to buy happy meals for their kids instead of criticizing the corporation’s marketing strategies. After making the changes, McDonald’s operation was not impacted too much. Lastly, in the post-crisis stage, company should take lessons from this and establish backup plans for similar crisis which may happen in the future. Apparently, even after the crisis, Happy Meal was not banned. Furthermore, it has become a huge hit for McDonalds and even made the company one of the worlds largest toy distributors. As a result, more and more companies wanted to corporate with McDonalds. For example, many animation film companies wanted to team up with McDonald’s in order to take advantage of this fast food franchise’ huge market influence in promoting their movies. In sum, with its achievements overweight shortcoming, McDonald’s had a good handle on the whole crisis. Nevertheless, even the crisis had passed, this leading fast food chain suffered from public criticism regarding its products. In the future, we believe that McDonald’s should develop an effective strategy to help improve its brand image and a better risk management methodology to help mitigating coming crisis. In the next part of the paper, we want to offer our recommendation to help McDonald’s better handling similar situation. Also, since we overall felt that McDonald’s managed the crisis extremely well, we would like to recommend its strategies to be implemented to Jack in the Box, which faced a similar situation to McDonald’s. However, unlike McDonald’s which vigorously fight for the continuation of its using toys to push Happy Meal sales, Jack in the Box decided to drop toys in its Happy Meal when it was faced with the pressure from the public. We believe McDonald’s implementation of strategic changes could have helped Jack in the Box to put toys back to its Happy Meal. IV Recommendation and Implementation Recommendation for McDonald’s Obviously, McDonald’s managed the crisis really well. In fact, the nutrition of Happy Meal was improved as the calories were reduced substantially. Because the lawsuit was dismissed, McDonald’s continued sell Happy Meal with toys. In the end, McDonald’s didn’t have to change its children’s influence strategy. Even though McDonald’s made its Happy Meal healthier, we believe that their changes to the meal could be bigger, such as change the cheeseburger to a healthier burger with vegetable inside and make chicken nuggets with real chicken instead of minced meat. Also, McDonald’s could reduce the attraction to children or change a different way. For example, the fast food chain could design an advertisement to advocate children to eat healthy, such as drink milk and eat fruit. Furthermore, McDonald’s could optimize the influence aspect. For instance, McDonald’s could use influence strategy to encourage more people to do char ity and educate children to eat healthy and exercise frequently. Recommendation for Jack in the Box In 2011, under heavy public’s criticism, Jack in the Box decided to stop giving out free toys with the purchases of Happy Meal. Obviously, the scale of the crisis faced by Jack in the Box was much smaller than that faced by McDonald’s. However, we felt that Jack in the Box could benefit greatly by learning from McDonalds way of handling its crisis. We also have some recommendations for Jack in the Box based on the successful influence strategy of McDonald’s. According to the survey, McDonalds Happy Meal accounted for about 10 percent of the chain’s U.S. sales in 2010. The sales of McDonalds Happy Meals alone were more than Jack in the Box’s total sales (Maureen, 2011). This fact showed us that the influence strategy used by McDonalds was extremely effective. A spokesman of Jack in the Box said that the franchise’s target customers were â€Å"the frequent fast food consumer† or adults from 18 to 34. Therefore, we recommend Jack in the Box to use the same influence strategy to their target customer. The fast food chain could also use emotion and/or ingratiation influence to attract customers. For example, Jack in the Box could design online games for adults who gained access to the games with free codes offered with purchases of Happy Meals. Moreover, the company could design a discount card for the customers who accumulate a certain sum of consumption. Unlike McDonald’s which vigorously fight so that it could continue using toys to promote Happy Meal, Jack in the Box decided to drop toys in its Happy Meal when it was faced with the similar pressure from the public. We believed that many of the McDonald’s organizational changes could be copied and apply in Jack in the Box. This would allow Jack in the Box to continue selling its Happy Meal with toys. For example, Jack in the Box could change the composition of Happy Meal toward a more healthier trends—such as reducing the sodium content, sugars, saturated fats, and calories to its foods; including vegetables and fruits in the menu; and offering tea, juice, and milk as alternatives to the traditional soda beverages. Jack in the Box also needed to let its customers know of its commitment in making its products healthier. The reason provided by Jack in the Box regarding its letting go of Happy Meal’s toys was that it waned the Happy Meal to appeal to parents. Brian Luscomb, Jack in the Box’s spokesman, commented: â€Å"Rather than promote a toy weve focused on the quality of products in our Kids Meals, like a grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough, grilled or crispy chicken strips, or a hamburger. We believe that providing these kinds of options is more appealing to a parent than packaging a toy with lower-quality fare†(Bernstein, 2011). However, we believed that Jack in the Box could benefit greatly from expanding its Happy Meal’s target market to include children. To achieve this, Jack in the Box would need to facilitate strategic change†the process of formulating, implementing, and evaluating decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives† (Wong, Organizational change, 2012). In this case, the strategic plan would include extensive products innovation. For example, Jack in the Box could use popular toys and online games to attract children to its Happy Meal. The burger franchise chain could also build playgrounds inside its stores. This offered children with fun and healthy exercises. Implementation for Jack in the Box As we discussed above, Jack in the Box could drew on McDonald’s successful tactics to appeal more customers to consume their products. We found McDonald’s influence tactic could be successfully implemented on Jack in the Box due to two main reasons. The first reason is the industry similarity. Jack in the Box is one of the nations largest hamburger chains with more than 2,200 restaurants in 19 states. Also, just like McDonald’s, Jack in the Box is also a member of the fast food hamburger restaurant (FFHR) industry. This is an industry characterized by high competitiveness and risk. Although Jack in the Box is concentrated on the West Coastprimarily in California, the competition is still intensive. In this industry, McDonald’s is the only fast food chain to occupy nearly 13 percent of the US market (McDonald’s Report, 2010). There is no reason that Jack in the Box could not benefit from learning from the market leader, McDonald’s. The second reason is the easy-to-influence target customers. As we mentioned before, Jack in the Box’s target consumer are youth, aged 18 to 34. This group of customer is the most active part. They are independent buyers. This means that they could choose the thing they want without asking their parents’ permission or admission. Another character of this customer group is economic dependent. This group of customer typically has incomes and also can take charge of their money. The situation is much better than McDonald’s children market. Also, this group customer of Jack in the Box likes keeping pace with the trend. We think if Jack in the Box could use the influence tactic cater to its target consumers, they could further expand their market share in the future. However, in implementing aggressive marketing strategies, Jack in the Box would certainly be criticized by the public. Still, we believed that if Jack in the Box continues making its Happy Meal healthier and supporting the surrounding community through various charity activitiessuch as donating part of its Happy Meal’s profit to children hospitals, giving free Happy Meals to the homeless, and so forth, it can enjoy increase profit and at the same time maintain good public image. Reference: Alex, M. (July 26, 2011). McDonalds Happy Meal to include sliced apples, less fries. Retrieved from http://www.christianpost.com/news/mcdonalds-happy-meal-to-include-sliced-apples-52867/#gKDYWvXCIJGSO8g1.99 Andrew, L. (July 28, 2011). McDonalds adds apple slices, reaction to Happy Meal lawsuit?†¨Retrieved from http://chicagopersonalinjurylegalblog.com/2011/07/mcdonalds-adds-apple-slices-reaction-to-happy-meal-lawsuit.html Bernstein, S. (2011, June 20). Jack in the Box stops including toys in kids meals [updated]. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/06/jack-in-the-box-toys.html Bridget, C. (December 15, 2010). Response to CSPI Lawsuit. Retrieved from http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/newsroom/mcdonalds_statements_and_alerts/response_to_cpi_lawsuit.html Centers for disease control and prevention: Childhood obesity facts. (2012, June 07). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm Cohen, I. (2009). McDonald’s and its critics, 1973-2009. Dan, L. (2011, April 19). McDonalds grimaces at Happy Meal lawsuit. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/19/us-mcdonalds-lawsuit-idUSTRE73I4P820110419 Harris, J., Schwartz, M., Brownell, K. (2010). Fast food FACTS: evaluating fast food nutrition and marketing to youth. Research report, Yale Rudd Center For Food Policy and Obesity, Retrieved from http://www.fastfoodmarketing.org/media/FastFoodFACTS_Report.pdf Joanne, R., Caroline, B. (2006). Corporate Identity and Strategic Change: The Case of McDonald’s Miller, K. (2012). Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes. 6th ed. Boston: Wadsworth. Molland, J. (2010, December 15). California mom sues McDonalds over Happy Meal. Retrieved from http://www.care2.com/causes/california-mom-sues-mcdonalds-over-happy-meals-video.html Stephanie, S. (July 26, 2011). McDonald’s trims its Happy Meal. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/business/mcdonalds-happy-meal-to-get-healthier.html?_r=0

Means To Strengthen National Schools Education Essay

Means To Strengthen National Schools Education Essay A national school is a government-sponsored school which the education is the responsibility of the federal government. The national school was to be provided to unite all races in our country. The education in Malaysia beginning with a national school system consists of Malay, Chinese, Tamil and English medium. Each medium used different instruction and syllabus. The syllabus which is being used originated from their country. They ran the school by their own and establish the school by using curricula and teachers from their country. In the 1950s, the Barnes Report suggested on the need to build national school that involved all races. This was the first time a report talked about nationality. But racial sprits were strong and totally rejected by Chinese community. By doing so, we can face many hurdles and obstacles if the vernacular schools still exist. The purpose of national school was set up is actually to promote unity, so that there would be peace and harmony in order that development can occur. Independent Malaysia must have a strong society to avoid racial conflicts or racial tension. For that to develop: There must be that self consciousness or sense of belongings or like-mindedness that must grow as people live together in a common territory, develop common interests, accumulate the same traditions, share the same ideas, ideals, modes of thinking and behavior. Education is the main based to create national unity because the step is necessary to encourage the producing of national school. By having the national school, several racial communities will be abolished. A view on the national school was that it should be bilingual which meant all students will be taught in English and Malay. English has been declared as a second language in Malaysia but Malay is the national language of Malaysia. So, all races will send their children in national school and they can introduce their society and culture without any barriers. There is no limitation when a race sits with another race to talk and to mingle each other because when they are in national school, spirit of unity will be planted in their selves. The communities still can keep on preserving their mother tongue by its own cultural educations. There are challenges and constraints facing the implementation of the national school. But it can be solved by improving the particular things that can raise the ability of national school such as relationship within the school, classroom approaches, parents and community and teacher education. Besides that, the school system is needed to change by doing reflective practice to improve national schools. Those things are essential to strengthen national schools. It is not easy to apply the ways but we can struggle on it to achieve the objective. All people should be involved to ensure the national school can run successfully. First of all, one of the opinions to toughen the national school is develop relationship within the school that is between teachers, between pupils and teachers, and between pupils themselves. When the kind of the environment is existed in the school, the communication between them will be guileless because pupils are tending to share their story with their teachers and their friends. Absolutely, everybody in the school needs each other to help them when they are in trouble. The teachers have to ask their pupils to learn together with them as teamwork. Clearly, the relationship is a further factor which determines the teachers to educate for a multicultural society. In addition, when pupils are given a task, the teachers should make explicit statement to not confuse them because they are needed to be guide. The teachers also can add some references and do a skeleton or draft for the task. Then explain to them and discuss together with them about the task. The teachers need to show to their students that they are listening and willing to help them if something they do not understand about their task or lesson. The teachers can ask their student to meet them inside or outside the school. Furthermore, another ways to strengthen the national school is classroom approach. The community in the school should give positive approach for everybody to practice their culture because national school is consisting on multiracial students. The aim is to allow the students to share their experiences about their society and culture. The teachers who are being a role model to their students have to start the variety of ways in emphasizing on learning about others culture. Pupil understands of cultural diversity within their own locale so it is a must for the teachers to expose the variety of culture to the students. By knowing others culture, it is important for national unity and there is a common value of tolerance and acceptability. The teachers can teach their students in the several of ethnic cultures in the country by referring on a curriculum that Malaysian needs as a society. For a best way of classroom approach, the teachers and the students should attempt to understand one another better, be sensitive towards the feelings of others, promote and preserve racial harmony and work together to achieve a strong unity. Moreover, parents and community are responsible in terms of national school development. They are responsible to encourage the value of unity to their children because they must worry about their children future and to unite, the students have to join with other races. Being teachers, it is compulsory for them to expose themselves to face-to-face interaction with parents to pertain the achievement of pupils. This is a good benefit for the national school to identify the problems of the students. Even though it is a risk for teachers but the profession has to take them so because they serve for the whole community. The involvement of teachers and parents can ensure that the environment of school always keep in safe and can comfort their students and children to learn in effective and convenient. It is essential for parents to check their childrens works and teachers need to respond wisely when parents ask for lend a hand to take care of their children. The teachers need to provide all the records of their students achievement to give to the parents. Honest information about the achievement can remain closed to parents and students as well as the teachers. The community has minor duty to make sure that the school working is concern by them for the implementations of national school such as if have any problems during outside school, the community can consult the parents or the teachers of the students. This is show how the parents and community are related each other in developing national schools. On the other hand, teacher education is one of the ways to strengthen the national school. Being under the national school system, the teachers are in higher education which needs to equip on multicultural education to improve the students unity. It is a difficult job but after chose the profession it is the responsibility of these people to educate the future generation with the right values and moral standards. Today as Ismail Mansur and Mohd. Azaham said in their book, The Malays, teaching is an occupation which is slowly regarded and poorly rewarded (2001:95). The lots of teachers must be improved. They have to think how to provide high quality teaching to teach in national school because in the school, there are many different familys backgrounds which they do not know either good or not. While teaching, teachers can adopt multicultural environment to heighten education between their students. The teachers, within their selves must have lots of information because students nowad ays are advance than previous students. Sometimes they know better than the teachers. So, in order to avoid this happen, the teachers need to add some general knowledge and in-depth knowledge about their specific subject. In teaching, the teachers must well qualify dedicated. They should know what need to be learnt and continue with effective and relevant lesson. In a national school, learning needs reflection. From an organizational perspective, reflective practice is considered a powerful norm in school in order to achieve high levels of student learning (Hawley Valli, 2000; Kruse, Louis, Bryk, 1995). Reflective practice is a feedback from one another to others as teachers and student to continuous learning and improvement. A commitment to reflective practice indicates a willingness to accept responsibility for ones professional practice (Ross, 1990). It is positive impact on student learning because it can produce a great achievement to the students by knowing their strength and weaknesses. After that, the teachers can play their role to correct the students by giving extra exercises or give further explanation about the task. Reflective practice provides a way to understand and make sense of the world (Brubacher, Case, Reagan, 1994, p. 36). By having reflective practice in the national school, it can increase the potential of school to achieve the success. By doing the reflection, the teachers and the students can share their opinion in certain topics that need critical thinking and new knowledge are created. The relationship between the classroom and the teachers become strong because they share same improvement to move forward in term of education. As conclusion, by having national school, all races in Malaysia can be united under one nation because education is only way to unity. However, it is not easy but we can overcome the problem by taking useful action to strengthen national school. At first we have relationship within the school and then provide more ways to toughen the national school such as classroom approaches, parents and community, teacher education and reflective practice. These are necessary things in improving the national school because for only the ways our national schools can performance better to attract all races to send their children only in national school. For unity to be achieved in the national school, all boundaries of race, religion and culture should be cut. We are together build one nation that everyone is related to one another. For learning in the national school, education is given equally to all the students without any bias. The teachers have to be dedicated and committed in teaching their students because they are useful for our country for the future. A strong belief that the national school is a place where it can produce a student who can adopt any culture in their daily life and a place where is able to play their role effectively by performance wholehearted in a one nation that is unity.

Gender Roles In Star Trek Next Generation Essay -- essays research pap

In 1966 a series called "Star Trek" was created. It's creator, Gene Roddenberry, did not create the show to be a science fiction series. The series was much deeper than that. It wasn't just about discovering new planets and civilizations. It was about controversial issues. Even though the series' take place in the 23rd and 24th century the issues struck with the times and related current issues. Through each series, The Original, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, there has been progression with the times and the issues. The issues that surround the episodes of Star Trek include race, religion, sexuality, the depiction of science and gender roles. The central focus being talked about in this paper will be gender roles. Gender roles in Star Trek deal with leadership and sexuality. Men and women have had different roles in Star Trek as well as different progressions. Men in Star Trek have always had a leadership role. In the original series the four main characters are men. The captain, Kirk, the second in command, Spock, the doctor, Bones or McCoy, and the head engineering officer Scotty are all men. In the Next Generation series there is Captain Picard, the second in command, Riker, and there are others engineering roles played by Warf and Data who are all men. In the Deep Space Nine series Captain Sisko and the head engineer is male. In Voyager the second in command, Chakotay, as well as Tuvok, a Vulcan Spock like character, and Neelix, the cook are all men. Women in Star Trek have made a real progression, at least more then Men have. When men are already at the top having leadership roles there's no place to go but down. This isn't necessarily there work performance or merit is going down but the women's performance, merit and acceptance going up. The women of Star Trek started at the bottom and could only go up. The original series did have one woman in a starring role. Uhura was the head communication officer, however her role was really more of a secretary and didn't really have many lines and if she did they weren't very lengthy, nothing much more than, "Yes captain." In the Next Generation series the women started to move farther up the leadership ladder. The women starring roles were Beverly Crusher, the doctor, and Diana Troy, the counselor. In Deep Space Nin... ...s. Women usually aren't as forward and her forwardness gives the essence of a male fantasy, the female making the moves on the male. Males and females are almost in pursuit of a mate, however males are usually the gender that make the first move. When the female shows immediate and obvious signs of interest, males in general think of it as something with no real challenge and therefore no real commitment. This presents a good time for the crowd of men in 10 Forward. Sexuality plays a big part in gender roles. In Star Trek Next Generation one of biggest issues is gender roles. Sexuality has played a little role in Star Trek. It showed a woman who's only purpose in life was for procreation. Although her actions were abnormal for a woman, it is the only real purpose of both genders. Survival is the goal of both genders and that is done through procreation. Also, men have always had leadership roles in Star Trek since the beginning of the series. Women, however have had to work there way up the leadership ladder. Their roles have been equal to the times or slightly pushing forward a bit, which has been the most important part of gender roles in Star Trek.

Burning a Nation’s Flag: Hate Crime

Burning a nation's flag: Hate Crime or Free Speech? A nation's flag is one of the most important things to a country. Citizens of a nation use it during special ceremonies, and a nation's flag is displayed all over that nation. A flag is an emblem shown as a symbol of unity. It symbolizes the pride and history of a nation. So what does burning a nation's flag mean? Is it considered a hate crime and illegal, or is it considered an act of free speech and protected by the First Amendment?For the purposes of this argument, a hate crime is defined as a crime motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence (What Are Hate Crimes? ). I believe that burning a nation's flag is not a hate crime due to the fact that burning a nation's flag falls under a category that is protected by the First Amendment. In a hate crime, the targeted group could be categorized by not just race or sexuality, but religion and political beliefs or group as well. By burning a nation' s flag, we could easily categorize it as targeting a political group.When a person burns a nation's flag, he/she could be targeting the general people of that nation, the government of that nation, or to be even more specific, the leaders of that government. . In this case, we will say that the political group referred to is the government(to be more specific, the American government). Therefore, by burning a nation's flag, someone disagrees and takes a stand against a political activity or decision. In contrast to what a hate crime is, an act of free speech, protected by the First Amendment, is the right to express any opinions without censorship or restraint.An act of free speech does not necessarily mean saying something out loud. It could also mean expressing your opinions about something by using actions. Since burning a nation's flag suggests taking a stand against a political activity, it is a way of expressing your opinion. Similar to free speech, freedom of expression which is part of the Human Rights Act says that you have the right to hold your own opinions and to express them freely without government interference (Equality and Human Rights Commission).The government cannot arrest you or punish you for burning a nation's flag as long as no one gets physically hurt. Just like in almost every country around the world, America has its own Flag Code. The Flag Code is a guide for all handling and display of the Stars and Stripes, but it does not impose penalties for misuse of the United States flag (US code 36). Each state has its own flag law, and penalty for misuse of the flag is up to the state. Criminal penalties for certain acts of vandalism of a flag were stated in Title 18 of the United States Code prior to 1989.The Supreme Court decision in Texas v. Johnson held the statute unconstitutional, though. In Texas v. Johnson, respondent Gregory Lee â€Å"Joey† Johnson was convicted of an act of disrespect of a venerated object, which violates a Texas statute. During the 1984 Republican National Convention, Johnson protested the policies of the Reagan administration and Dallas-based corporation. During the protest, Johnson burned the American flag. No one was physically hurt or injured, but some witnesses felt severely offended by this.However, due to the First Amendment, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided that the State could not punish Johnson for burning the flag in these circumstances. In addition, the Texas statute states that it is only illegal to burn a nation's flag when the act would result in a serious disturbance of peace. However, the flag burning in this case did not threaten such a reaction (Texas v. Johnson. ). It is true that showing your anger towards the government can be expressed in other ways besides burning the nation's flag.One could protest, write a book, or write a blog to take a stand against a political action. However, no matter which of these actions you decide to do, you are still doi ng it to achieve the same goal: express your opinion and make a change in the government. Citation Page â€Å"Texas v. Johnson. †Ã‚  Cornell University Law School. 21 Mar. 1989. Online. 12 Feb. 2013. ;http://www. law. cornell. edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0491_0397_ZS. html;. â€Å"What Are Hate Crimes? †Ã‚  SikhNet. Online. 12 Feb. 2013. ;http://fateh. sikhnet. com/s/HateCrimeInfo;. â€Å"Article 485†Ã‚  New York Laws. Online. 12 Feb. 2013.

Management at Stamford Hospital

Management at Stamford Hospital Introduction Stamford Hospital is one of the leading hospitals in healthcare provision in Stamford and across Connecticut. The hospital is a nonprofit organization and it has been in the business for more than 100 years. Stamford Hospital is said to have created about 2300 job opportunities for health care providers (Stamford Hospital, 2014). Its vision is to offer quality health care services to its patients.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Management at Stamford Hospital specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The hospital uses new technology in its operations and it is one of the Planetree Alliance member hospitals. The Planetree Alliance members are obliged to provide patient-centered services, and this assertion means that all members must focus on maximizing their patients’ satisfaction. The hospital provides medical services in areas such as cancer treatment, cardiac services, orthopedics, and general health ( Stamford Hospital, 2014). Stamford Hospital is a partner of the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System and a key training partner of the Columbia University, which offers medical courses. The hospital has an employee development program that mainly focuses on equipping workers with the right skills to achieve its corporate goals (Stamford Hospital, 2014). The hospital recorded its first positive profit margin in 2004 and since then it has posted promising results on its financial accounts. The hospital’s success in the past few years has been attributed to good management. This paper will analyze the company’s management, assess the gaps in the management, and provide some recommendations for future improvement. Employees’ career development opportunities For managers and other personnel to accomplish their duties and achieve a corporation’s goals, an education program is necessary to equip them with skills to handle new challenges that come up in the co urse of executing their duties (Frampton Charmel, 2008). Additionally corporate culture becomes obsolete with time, and thus a corporate culture that was successful at one point may not be effective at some other time in the future (Newmark, 2006). In order for a business to achieve its corporate goals, career development should be embraced. Managers should be well equipped with the necessary skills and technical knowhow to handle different situations. At Stamford, a non-discriminative training program is in place to offer lifetime training to managers and other staff members (Heuer, 2004). The program is based on the corporate culture of the organization and it mostly focuses on new employee orientation, new manager orientation, and other staff development training amongst others (Stamford Hospital, 2014).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More New staff recruitment in the hospital is done by the human resources department, which is composed of technical staff in the area of staff management. The hospital considers both skills and the ability of an individual staff to fit in the corporate culture within which the company is established. In addition, the hospital assesses the ability and attitudes of the candidate towards teamwork, accountability, and respect for other staff members and patients (Stamford Hospital, 2014). The aforementioned factors considered during the hiring process ensure that only the right staff members join the hospital’s workforce, this leading to increased patient satisfaction. The major components of the training program are discussed below. New Employee Orientation The hospital management provides every new staff with a 3-days training that centers on the nature of the corporate culture in the organization. The program enables new employees to understand the spirit in the organization coupled with preparing them fo r their new tasks. Additionally, new employees get firsthand information on the hospital’s mission, vision, and values. Given that Stamford Hospital works under the Planetree philosophy of patient-centered care, the 3-days orientation program assists the new staff members to understand the organization’s major goal, which is to ensure patient satisfaction and the role they owe the hospital regarding the accomplishment of that goal (Heuer, 2004). The program also introduces the new staff members to the code of ethics that guides every employee in the company. This aspect is crucial since it defines the â€Å"dos† and â€Å"don’ts† in the organization. The overall result of the orientation program is that it brings all the staff members together to work as a team in a bid to achieve a common goal (Daft Marcic, 2005). The orientation program is important since the employees are drawn from different cultural and religious backgrounds, and thus it welc omes the new staff to the company and establishes a bond between them. New Manager Orientation The success or failure of a business venture depends on the management (Frampton Charmel, 2008). On the other hand, poor management leads to a business’ failure while good management leads to success.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Management at Stamford Hospital specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Stamford Hospital is aware of this view and thus it has introduced a â€Å"new manager-training program, which provides new managers with a general overview of the hospital’s human resources policies and procedures, budgets, corporate compliance, and Kronos timekeeping† (Stamford Hospital, 2014, par.17). Through the program, new managers meet and interact with other new and senior managers and engage in an open discussion where each person has a chance to contribute his or her ideas. Regular assessment of the new managers is done for a period of one year in a bid to ensure that shortfalls and deviations are detected in time. The Leadership Academy This program is â€Å"only accessible to leaders and managers from different levels in the organization† (Stamford Hospital, 2014, par. 18). The program aims at supplementing the leadership skills already possessed by the leaders with some new skills with the sole aim of increasing their efficiency. The program takes in classroom work in fields that relate to strategic management and it centers mainly on maximizing performance coupled with binding managers from different levels in order to achieve the corporate goals. Training is offered under the watch of the hospital’s staff members if not outsourced (Newmark, 2006). The aim of the training may be strategic goal alignment, talent retention, teamwork, health work relations, motivation, and visionary leadership among others (Frampton Charmel, 2008). Online Training In addition t o the aforementioned courses, the hospital also offers online courses to its employees. The courses that the hospital offers to its staff members through the new technology include sexual bullying, corporate acquiescence, handling emergency cases, patient wellbeing, and cultural diversity among others. Staff Development training This program aims at developing skills and competence amongst the junior staff members. The program offers courses designed to improve the employees’ skills coupled with boosting their job satisfaction. The courses are designed in such a way that they address changes in the business environment so that employees are flexible enough to tackle challenges that arise in their line of duty (Daft Marcic, 2005).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This program is continuous and it runs throughout the employee’s tenure in the hospital on top of covering areas acknowledged as fundamental to thriving performance (Frampton Charmel, 2008). All employees are encouraged to enroll in employee empowerment courses, which are accessible to all people. Courses such as conflict management and communication are offered in this program. Managing staff turnover The hospital has a supporting program for incoming nurses known as the Graduates Engaged Mastering Succeeding (GEMS) program (Heuer, 2004). ‘GEMS’ is a 12 week program and aims at ensuring successful transition of fresh health care professionals into the work environment. Throughout the 12 weeks, the nurses are trained on the hospital’s policies and procedures. Each nurse is assigned an experienced mentor who guides him or her through the orientation process. The program ensures smooth transition from a mere student to a practicing nurse. Once hired, a nurs e is under obligation to enroll for a BSN degree program within the first year of service in the hospital (Newmark, 2006). The course goes on for five years after which the nurse will be highly knowledgeable and competent. The mentors continue to guide the nurses even after the orientation period. Such support provides an incentive for competent nurses to remain in the hospital. In addition, the hospital also offers competitive salary to its staff depending on the position held. The high pay and employee development programs adopted by the company provide incentives for staff members to remain in the hospital, thus retaining the best employees. Fringe benefits are also offered to the staff aimed at increasing their morale and motivation. Outpatient vs. inpatient services In the recent past, the Stamford Hospital’s management has shifted its focus from investing in inpatient to outpatient facilities (Stamford Hospital, 2014). The reason behind this new development is that tech nological advancements have characterized the health sector, thus improving surgical treatments. This aspect has led to a decrease in inpatient cases. The hospital has employed extra physicians to increase efficiency of its outpatient services. The company is said to derive more revenue from outpatient services than it does from inpatient services. Criticism Critics have been alleging that nonprofit organizations pay their managers huge amounts of money in the name of retaining the best talents (Frampton Charmel, 2008). This allegation results in high cost of health care provision. Stamford Hospital, as one of the nonprofit organizations, is no exception. The company is claimed to have paid Brian Grisslers, the then company CEO, fringe benefits amounting to $618,000, which represented a 400 percent increase compared to the previous year. The hospital’s management holds that in order to retain experienced staff, it must pay them huge amounts of cash. Such huge salaries have b een cited as the major reasons for the rise of health care costs, thus leading to inaccessibility of healthcare services by the poor in society. Considering the view that Stamford Hospital is a member of the Planetree Alliance where customer satisfaction is the key objective, the hospital may not be in a position to achieve this important goal owing to the high costs of its services (Daft Marcic, 2005). Statistics indicate that more than 400,000 people in Connecticut do not have a health care insurance policy, and thus the high cost of health care resulting from this exorbitant CEOs’ pay may lead to reduced customer satisfaction (Spinelli, 2006). The hospital has also been criticized for neglecting its employees (Heuer, 2004). As aforementioned, the hospital is a member of the Planetree Alliance, which requires member hospitals to ensure patient satisfaction at all costs. The hospital has been accused of working towards ensuring patient satisfaction and overlooking its emplo yees’ needs (Newmark, 2006). This aspect has led to poor morale amongst the employees, this resulting in high staff turnover rate. Loss of experienced staff members means that the hospital may not be in a position to meet its key objective of ensuring customer satisfaction in the end. The hospital’s nursing department has also been criticized for malpractices in giving promotions. Critics claim that promotions in the department are based on friendship as opposed to merit. In this department, workers’ experience is not considered and often the old workers are disregarded and in most cases bullied by younger supervisors who find themselves into management positions through unmerited means (Frampton Charmel, 2008). Recommendations The hospital should set up a committee to assess and determine salaries to be given to each employee based on his or her work requirements. The committee should also consider the salaries paid to other staff members holding similar posit ions in other similar hospitals. Such comparison will help to avert cases of CEOs in the hospital earning higher amounts of money as compared to their counterparts in other hospitals. At Stamford Hospital, it is alleged that Grissler, the company’s CEO, earned $376,000 more than the CEO of Hartford Hospital despite the latter being charged with more responsibilities than Grissler and the Hartford Hospital earning almost 3 times more than the Stamford Hospital (Newmark, 2006). Both customer satisfaction and employees’ satisfaction are two conflicting interests (Heuer, 2004). Achievement of one of the two goals may hinder the achievement of the other. The hospital management should balance the two conflicting issues without overlooking the employees’ satisfaction as this trend may lead to reduced morale and failure to meet the patients’ needs. The hospital management should engage its employees in making key decisions and establish good communication channe ls. Good communication between employees and the management will assist managers to understand the employees’ feelings on the corporate culture that is currently in place, hence evoke the possibility of revising it or even dropping it all together. The hospital should offer promotions based on merit as opposed to favors. Each nurse should have equal opportunity to be promoted. Performance and experience should be assessed and the best performing staff selected (Frampton Charmel, 2008). Harassment and bullying in the nursing department should be illegalized and each worker should be free to report such cases to the top management. Conclusion Stamford Hospital is one of the leading hospitals in the provision of healthcare services in Connecticut. Its management is focused on two main issues, viz. patients’ satisfaction and employees’ empowerment. However, customer satisfaction is highly acknowledged since the hospital is a member of the Planetree Alliance whose m ain emphasize is on patient satisfaction. The hospital has recorded success in the past one decade probably due to good management. The hospital provides its employees with career development opportunities through training programs. The company’s focus is to retain experienced employees so that customer satisfaction can be achieved. However, the hospital faces criticism over mistreatment of its workers and discrimination of a certain group of workers during promotion. It has also been accused of paying its CEOs hefty amounts of cash in the name of retaining the best talents. References Daft, L., Marcic, D. (2005). Understanding management. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Frampton, B., Charmel, P. (2008). Putting patients first: best practices in patient-centered care. New York, NY: John Wiley Sons. Heuer, J. (2004). Hospital accreditation and patient satisfaction: testing the relationship. Journal for healthcare quality, 26(1), 46-51. Newmark, J. (2006). From talk to action: what performance improvement is really all about. Radiology management, 29(3), 18-30. Spinelli, R. (2006). The applicability of Basss model of transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership in the hospital administrative environment. Hospital topics, 84(2), 11-19. Stamford Hospital: About Stamford Hospital. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.stamfordhealth.org/about/