Genaral relations of the judicial, executive and legislative body in Essay

Genaral relations of the judicial, executive and legislative body in British - Essay Example This is an exploration about judicial system and its machineries as well as an attempt to recognize and critic some gaps in this literature. British Judicial system The chapter pointed that UK has three court systems. These are in England and Wales; in Scotland and in Northern Ireland. These are independent institutions but the judges and its practitioners are appointed to the Court of Justice, Court of First Instance of the European Communities and to the European Court of Human Rights.2. Author emphasized that UK’s judicial system is not solely focused on civil and criminal adjudications since the parliament made some tribunals as special courts e.g. for election, labor cases, and patent courts. The structure and hierarchy of the court system in England and Wales was also detailed, being the High Court that also decides for cases requiring judicial review and question of laws, although following Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the court is now named as the Senior Courts of E ngland and Wales.3 The broad civil jurisdiction is under the jurisdiction of the country courts and of magistrates’ courts under Legal Services Act 1990.4 The criminal jurisdiction is likewise at the Court of First Instance where the magistrates does a summary trial while those in jury trial by the Crown Court following Courts Acts 1971 (p. 386). Appeals are done to Queen’s Bench Divisional Court of the High Court, to the Court if the High Court, or to the Court of Appeal of the Criminal Division.5 In Scotland, the civil cases are held by the Court of Session, with hierarchy of body to hear cases subject for appeal. Meanwhile, the High Court of Justiciary has jurisdiction on the criminal cases, either for trial or for appeal. The district courts are also mandated of summary criminal jurisdiction. House of Lords has jurisdiction over civil cases while devolution cases, and criminal matters, are heard in the Privy Council. In Northern Ireland, the Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland has jurisdiction of all cases.6 The author affirmed that following rules and administrative polices, judiciary maintained its independence from UK’s legislative body, albeit some judicial matters are subject to policies formulated by the legislative body.7 Numerous laws have evolved the procedural processes within the House of the Lords through historic legislation of policies deemed significant in systematizing the procedural aspect of adjudicating cases. The House of the Lords however remained bereft of authority or jurisdiction over Scottish criminal cases.8 One is certain though that the House of the Lords has influential power in the legislation of policies through the â€Å"system of precedent† until its amended to free the system from the rigidity to avoid injustice and may hinder policy change.9 In 2010, UK developed its Supreme Court that would hear cases on appeals from the House of the Lords and the devolution of Privy Council’s juris diction. The SC mirrors the function of other organized civilization and maintains independence from the two other branches of the government whose luminaries are appointed in accordance to Constitutional Reform Act 2005 although the qualifications remained based on the Appellate

Summary of consumer insights and consumer media profile of Kit Kat for Essay

Summary of consumer insights and consumer media profile of Kit Kat for China - Essay Example Its economic growth can be regarded to be slow despite the stability in its trends. The stability of business growth in a country can be attributed to good international policies and relationships with other foreign countries (Chow 211). It has expanded the boundary of its business associates as well as partners. For instance, recently, the country has entered into several business deals with other foreign countries and multinational companies to widen its demand pool. However, its economy is on a slow growing trend, an issue that is of great concern with others counter plating that the country’s economy would likely face a deep fall if the issue is not reverted. Slow economic growth can be associated with inadequate advertisement strategies. This work focuses on limitations as far as media business adverts are concerned. China imposes a lot of restrictions in the media business adverts. Such restrictions are meant to limit chances of consumers being misled by the economy sect or. For instance, it does not allow the mentioning of certain foreign companies, medical institutions, among other elements in media adverts. Medical sector is meant to contribute a good portion to the general national economy, but inadequate medical adverts may force the citizens to seek medical services from foreign medical facilities with comprehensive adverts. The country does not permit business adverts interrupting television dramas among other programs. Business adverts on televisions are considered among the best advertising platform as it targets huge populations, and the advert is more likely to be viewed by majority of people since more Chinese tend to watch TV dramas compared to other programs. China has got several cultural as well as social values that tend to limit media adverts. For instance, children below the age of 14 should not watch several adverts associated with sexual or even alcohol contents. Furthermore, children below the age of 14 should not be featured i n such adverts. China is strict on the language used in the adverts. For instance, the country discourages adverts in other language other than its native Chinese which may not be understood by the majority of the foreigners (Joseph 177). All these limitations in media adverts tend to discourage consumers from purchasing Chinese and other foreign countries’ products. Customers tend to develop negative attitudes towards such products just because of the incompetency in the media adverts. Such limitations also tend to discourage multinational companies from investing in China due to low demand, which is attributed by inadequate or limited advertisement strategies (Kelley 43). China has lost major foreign business partners due to its restrictions on the use of language, materials or personnel from foreign countries in the adverts of its products. Its limitations in its media adverts could have negative effects on its economy but Chinese culture is greatly preserved. China realiz ed that majority of children could be compelled to imitate the concepts or ideas portrayed in the adverts; this would make them lose their originality which is a very vital component in any Chinese lives. Part 2: Consumer insight and media profile Several studies indicate that college age young adults form the largest proportion of chocolates, candy and biscuits among other snacks consumers in China and other countries as well. Kit Kat is a kind of snack that comprises of

The Last Supper by Andrea del Castagno, Leonardo, Tintoretto Essay

The Last Supper by Andrea del Castagno, Leonardo, Tintoretto - Essay Example The essay "The Last Supper by Andrea del Castagno, Leonardo, Tintoretto" compares three paintings - Andrea del Castagno, The Last Supper,1447; Leonardo, The Last supper, 1495-98; Tintoretto, The Last Supper, 1594. Del Castagno’s painting is one of the most distinct. It has a flat style, sharp angles and corners. All of this is in contrast with predominant style during the renaissance. This painting has no motion, no movement, and creates the sense in the viewer that they are looking into a sunken set of figurines. This static portrayal of Christ reinforces his importance historically. There is also something that recalls a Roman fresco about the piece, which also reinforces Christ as a historical figure set into a particular time and place, with historical importance. Da Vinci’s rendition of the last supper does not attempt to depict Christ in historical lights. This image attempts to cast Christ in a more human light. Da Vinci's last supper does not give Christ any par ticular sign of super-humanness, with only the wisp of a cloud suggesting a halo. Christ is given a position of importance, taking up the central portion of the image almost in its entirety, but there is nothing else that would overly separate him from the apostles. His clothing is similar in form and colour, he is not placed above the rest, nor does he have any sign of super-human lighting. Overall Da Vinci’s image depicts Christ in his humanity, reinforcing his human side and diminishing the supernatural.

Face-to-Face Versus Online Education Essay Example for Free

Face-to-Face Versus Online Education Essay Education is essential to the future of our society. Many adults, including scholars and teachers, are constantly searching for the best way to educate students today. Face-to-face education, being the genuine form, seems to be the first choice of many students. However, online education is becoming more popular and is being used more often at universities. Online courses are convenient for some who have busy schedules which obstruct them from attending face-to-face courses. Online education may be the most convenient form of education, but is it an effective form? Several valid arguments have been made by scholars and other individuals claiming it meets both of these standards. The main question students and scholars would like to know is whether or not one form is better than the other. There are several differences between online and face-to-face education. Lecture classrooms are common in universities. They are an easy way to teach a large number of students at once, however, many students dislike lectures because it places them in the majority. In a lecture classroom setting, students may not have the chance to communicate with the professor or even their peers. Students may feel shy and intimidated by the amount of people around them. The online discussions, chat rooms, and e-mail features in web-based classes makes it virtually impossible to avoid communication with fellow students or teachers. The social barriers which exist in face-to-face communication often seem to be non-existent in online communication and students feel a lot less pressured to speak up, or should I say type up. Online communication, however, does not allow for nonverbal cues and this tends to limit the quality of certain discussions and lecture notes. Some  students may feel they need to be face-to-face with the person teaching them in order to better understand and comprehend the material being presented. Being able to hear what the professor has to say can draw the attention of some and distract the attention of others, sometimes depending on the excellence of the professor. Students are encouraged to try web classes if they have trouble learning from what they hear and find it easier to comprehend what they read. The convenience of online learning is possibly its most brilliant quality. Students find it practical that they can attend a class while sitting in the comfort of their own home. Soldiers, pregnant women, and others with tight schedules are all able to complete their course work in a timely manner through web-based courses. A man who works full time as an assistant at law firm and wants to continue working, while attending classes so he can become a lawyer himself, may want to take online courses instead of face-to-face in order to accomplish both goals. I think situations like this one makes online learning brilliant since it opens doors of opportunity to certain people. By posting information in discussion forums up to several times a day, professors can keep students working, but the students can respond when they have the chance. Online courses allow convenience for time and patience also. Think about the amount of time you spend driving to school and walking to classes, or the frustration of trying to get to a class on time while searching for a parking space in which you wont be towed or ticketed. I spend up to twenty minutes of some school days driving in my car, congested with my vulgarity and frustration, searching for a parking space. Even with the beauty of all its aspects, some say convenience should not be an alternative to higher education. Even though convenience is a positive attribute about the online classroom, it may not be enough to provide for the social and educational needs of students. (Barakat) Students have claimed that they like the idea of not having to attend class but disliked the process of communicating in a delayed, impersonal manner.(Barakat) Through my online education experience, I have found that there are benefits  and disadvantages communicating on the web. Since times and meeting places are not specified in online group work, members of the group cannot make excuses on why they cannot attend. The assignments can be worked on by each group member on their own time. The group members can then cooperate with one another through postings or e-mail to equally combine their contributions. We dont have to worry about the group members who did not participate receiving credit (as commonly happens in in-class group work) because we submit only the names of those who participated in the assignment. Having experienced both online and face-to-face education, I have come to the popular opinion: Online education has its positive aspects in relation to convenience and quantity of communication, however, I believe that face-to-face education produces better quality of communication which, in the end, is more essential to the learning process. Online education is convenient and can grant students opportunity to communicate more often with their professors and peers through postings and mail forums. Face-to-face education allows students to learn in a more personal nature which may make the learning process easier and more enjoyable. Neither form of education has been declared the right, or best form. Different individuals have varied beliefs and opinions on which type of education is the best. In order to form an opinion as to which form of education is best for you develop a hypothesis and then experiment by experiencing both forms. Finally, ask yourself, Is online education as effective as traditional face-to-face education? References Barakat., Dr. Samer A. On-line Education Versus Classroom Face To Face Education. www.sharjah.ac.ae/academic/engineering/e-forum/Abstracts-htm/a2-4.htm#. Kindred, Jeannette. Thinking About the Online Classroom: Evaluating the Ideal Versus the Real. www.acjournal.org/holdings/vol3/Iss3/rogue4/kindred.html. Chamberlin, Sean W. Face-to-Face vs. Cyberspace: Finding the Middle Ground. Syllabus Magazine. Thu., Mar. 4, 2004. J. R. Bourne, A. J. Brodersen, J. O., A Model for On-Line Learning Networks in Engineering Education, Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 85, No 3

Downsizing Strategy Is Being Used Management Essay

Downsizing Strategy Is Being Used Management Essay Given the issues relating to this research field are introduced and research objectives are also be proposed carefully in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, the researcher would like to continuous introduces the concepts, definitions and theories relevant to the issues that already mentioned in Chapter 1, through that, Chapter 2 will provide and build research hypothesis for research. Basically, Chapter 2 includes the main parts as follows (1) The definition of downsizing, (2) The definition of Survivors Syndrome, (3) The research hypothesis (4) Chapter summary. Definition of Downsizing In the economic context of continuos competitive, developing, changing and unpredictable, organizations suffering severe downturns in their business or facing difficulties, downsizing strategy is being used by many organizations in every industries and sectors with different goals and visions, their perception regarding the implementation of the downsizing policy within their organization also be different. There is not a single downsizing definition accepted by all researchers (Davis, Savage, Steward Chapman, 2003). There are many different definitions or understanding about downsizing, for example Cameron, (1994:194) defines downsizing as a positive and purposive strategy for organizations: a set of organizational activities undertaken on the part of management of an organization and designed to improve organizational efficiency, productivity, and/or competitiveness. Businesses for a long time that no longer considered downsizing as a situation solution in the hard time period, but they considered downsizing as an effective strategy to reduce costs, human focus, create job opportunites, increased job challenge and promotion. The right sizing contributes to better decision-making and the control of human resource so that the cost of expenditure can be cut short effectively. It develops a value system of proactive work culture where the members in the organisation get opportunity for better participation and involvement in the decision making process. It develops an ownership mentality among members and they shoulder forward an organization with more collaboration, fidelity, and accuracy. According to Mishra and Spreitzer (1998) defines downsizing has become the strategy favored by many organizations attempting to cope with fundamental, structural changes in the world economy. Or Freeman and Cameron (1993) defined downsizing as a set of activities, undertaken on the part of the management of an organization, designed to improve operational efficiency, productiv ity, and/or competitiveness. Downsizing as a deliberate reduction in size or complexity of a firms activities intended to improve the profitability, productivity, and/or competitiveness of the firms continuing operations(Legatski II, 1998). But in conclusion, most researches have defined downsizing as any reduction in the size of the organization (e.g. Budros, 1999; Cascio, 1993; Freeman Cameron, 1993; Kozlowski, Chao, Smith Hedlund, 1993). Downsizing, in general, refers to the reduction of work for certain organization. For employees, downsizing is considered as a management weapon to enforce greater control over the workforce. To management, it is a strategic measure to bring optimized operation efficiency and productivity in organization. Cameron and colleagues (e.g Cameron et all., 1991, 1993; Cameron, 1994b) have identified three organizational strategies to achieve downsizing: workforce reduction strategy, work redesign and systematic change. The first strategy is workfo rce reduction is typically a short-term strategy, which simply focuses on reducing organizations headcount. In a confirmatory study, Mishra and Mishra (1994) found that such strategy might lead to loss in valued organizational competency or negative outcome of those who remains. Human resource is essential and is a factor that makes the decision for the development of organizations. Lack of human resource will increase workload, anxiety about losing their jobs at any time, and these feeling leads to insecurity psychological, these are reasons that cause labor productivity reduced. Work reduction is applied by organizations through some programs such as attrition, early retirement or voluntary severance packages, layoffs and terminations. The second and third strategies are work redesign and systematic change strategies. While work reductions resulted is lead to reduction, rather than improvement, the work redesign and systematic change are positively related to organizational perfor mance in term of both cost reduction and quality improvement (Cameron et all.,1993; Mishra and Mishra, 1994) and to survivors (people who remains) of downsizing having a positive learning orientation (Farrell and Mavando, 2004). Many previous researches indicated that the use of workforce reduction is increasing and become popular despite the harmful impacts may arise for organization. Workforce reduction or simply called workforce downsizing is becoming the most popular strategy and a plethora of workforce reduction strategies for downsizing of employees has been proposed (e.g. Greenhalgh et al., 1988; Gutchess, 1985; Leana Feldman, 1992; Price, 1990). Whenever reduce equipments, machinesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ organizations can find out the outcome and its impact through simple calculations, but in workforce downsizing, the emotions, loyalty, and human effort can not simply calculate. In an organizational context, employees not only contribute their individual skills and knowledge, they also collaborate and integrate their separate skills toward creating firm capabilities. As such, both human and social capital-and therefore the commitment and the loyalty of employees-play an important role in dictating a firms c apacity to create competitive advantage. Reducing headcount may lead to immediate labor cost savings, but it can also seriously erode employee commitment and loyalty, with negative consequences for firm competitiveness and performance. So the questions are what the impacts of workforce downsizing to organizations are, how it effects, and what the advantage and disadvantage of the impact are? Some researches indicated the opinion that organizational downsizing produce better result in performance and productivity, while, others indicate downsizing as a threat to the human resources and existing organizational culture. Downsizing has been defined as an attempt to increase organizational effectiveness(Kozlowsky, et. al. 1993). Freeman Cameron (1993) and Tomasco (1990) indicate from their findings that the presumed benefits of downsizing include faster decision making, greater flexibility, and improvements in quality and increased efficiency and productivity. Cascio (1993:97) suggested that proponents of downsizing generally expect the following benefits: lower overheads, less bureaucracy, faster decision making, smoother communications, greater entrepreneurship and increases in productivity. Downsizing can suggest to financial markets or government funding agencies that an organization is cutting costs and reducing waste, which may increase availability of capital for subsequent activities (Cascio, 1993; Dial Murphy, 1995; Palmon, Sun Tang, 1997). Downsizing has been defined as an attempt to increase organizational effectiveness (Kozlowsky, et. al. 1993). It develops a value system of proactive work culture where the members in the organization get opportunity for better participation and involvement in the decision making process. It develops an ownership mentality among members and they shoulder forward an organization with more collaboration, fidelity, and accuracy. However, many others strongly disagree with those arguments and indicate that it has devastating effect on human morale, motivation, and productivity. Downsizing may provide a decrease in operating expenses in the near term, but the long term impacts may not be so positive (Difrances, 2002). Downsizing can lead to a loss of knowledge and experience base because of some laid off will be the people who worked for a long time with organization, old people, who may not have a fast and efficient action in work like young people, but they have extensive knowledge, experiences that young people learn in short time, loss available mentors for existing and new employees, loss of corporate culture, and downsizing can have direct impaction to the customers such as loss of established customer service and contacts. Therefore, whenever workforce downsizing is chosen by organizations in hard time or peaceful time, there is definite and obvious impact good or bad on organizations. But in all the affected elements, the human factor is probably the most affected element. They are staffs of organization, they dedicated their soul to the development of organization, they are people who be laid off or people who lucky enough to keep their job. The individuals who lose their jobs (called victims) are obviously the most affected by downsizing. Numerous researchers have focused on the impact of downsizing on workers whose employment is terminated due to reasons independent of job competence (Cappelli, 1992). These individuals are often known as the victims of downsizing due to research that documents the devastation of job loss, focusing on negative consequences in terms of psychological and physical well-heing (e.g., Bennett, Martin, Bies, Brockner, 1995; Cappeili, 1992; Fallick, 1996; Leana Feldman, 1 992). The real pains of downsizing cannot be minimized. Careers change, families struggle, and downsized victims suffer loss of prestige, income and security. While a few downsized individuals may be victims of their own past inefficiency, the vast number are those who have performed well and played by the rules but have become the victims of a changing economic environment. However, several researchers have analyzed those who remain in the downsized organization called survivors (e.g., Allen, Freeman, Russell, Reizenstein, Rentz, 2001; Appelbaum Donia, 2001; Brockner, 1988a; 1992; 1995; Brockner, Grover, OMalley, Reed, Glynn, 1993; Cascio, 1993; Mollica Gray, 2001; Noer, 1993; ONeill Lenn, 1995; Shah, 2000). The survivors of downsizing are not the happy campers, grateful to have their jobs, but rather that surviving is so difficult that continuing employees experience higher levels of stress than displaced employees (Collins-Nakai, Devine, Stainton Reay, 2003). The downsizing has more effect on the psychological contract that exists in between management and workers within the organization. Many researches reported that it would develop stagnation, deterioration, low morale, low trust and productivity. The fear and anxiety of the retainers of the organization is more, as there is more uncertainty and insecurity feeling among them. This is called a s survivors syndrome. Definition of survivor syndrome The literature suggests a condition referred to as survivor syndrome, or a set of attitudes, feelings and perceptions that occur in employees who remain in organizational systems following involuntary employee reductions (Collins-Nakai, Devine, Stainton Reay, 2003 p.109-110). Survivor syndrome is defined by some human resource professionals as being the mixed bag of behaviors and emotions often exhibited by remaining employees following an organizational downsizing (Appelbaum, Close Klasa, 1999 p.424-436). Survivor syndrome has become known as the emotional and attitudinal characteristics of those who have survived from a downsizing (Mossholder et al., 2000; Iverson and Pullman, 2000; Allen et al., 2001). The emotional responses of each survivor are different. There are not many previous researches confirmed the positive response for survivor when downsizing occurs, some note that concentrating on core operational competencies can reduce unnecessary management layers and increase the speed of decision-making (DeWitt, 1993; Tomasko, 1989), somes even suggest that fear of termination may increase individual effort among employees who wish to retain their jobs (Kraft, 1991). A few active survivors feel themselves so lucky because they still have their job, survivors may work more hours without compensation to help the organization through the transition. They believe that they quite understand the difficulties as well as the main reasons why organizations choose to apply downsizing strategy, they are willing to stick with organization for a long time and continue add their efforts to the development of organizations. Contrary to a few positive responses, a stream of research, both laboratory and field, has provided a lot of evidences of the h armful effects downsizing can have on survivors, these effects have been described in terms of lower morale (e.g., Armstrong-Stassen, 1993), high stress (e.g., Leana and Feldman, 1992), and anger, envy, and guilt (e.g., Noer, 1993). According to Collins-Nakai, Devine, Stainton Reay (2003) consistent with the terminology of a syndrome, this collection of symptoms includes anger, depression, fear, distrust, and guilt, or Baruch and Hind (2000) indicates that survivors exhibit a plethora of problems, such as de motivation, cynicism, insecurity, demoralization and a significant decline in organizational commitment. Termination of co-workers may lead to perceptions of organizational injustice and distrust of top management (e.g. Brockner Greenberg, 1990; Mishra Spreitzer, 1998; Noer, 1998). A lot of research shows that in case of downsizing, the organization breaks the implicit psychological contract between employer and employee-a contract that implies lifetime employment in return for hard work and loyalty. As a result, the feeling of dependency that may have evolved into entitlement is transformed into a sense of betrayal. Downsizing survivors often curious about management and spend their times to observe the intention of management after downsizing occurs; they have greater concern on their future with the organization. It leads to stress and strain among members in the organization; it affects their next attempt and the willing to stay with the organizations. With survivors, organization may thinks they are lucky, but in the reality of many people, their emotions are anger, loneliness, feel lost in broken team work because of missing their colleages, they do not feel confident enough for work due to their wondering about their job. Downsizing occurs that means org anization is left with fewer employees who are expected to put in their best effort in a manner that enhances organizational productivity (Kets de Vries Balazs 1997). They are the ones who organization put their faith in; expect long term commitment, but with fews people, it may lead to workload, role conflict, and role ambiguity tend to be high among the remaining staff after downsizing (Hellgren et al. 2005; Parker et al. 1997; Tombaugh White 1990). Workload reflects the perception of having too much work to do in the time available (Beehr, Walsh Taber 1976). Workgroup membership changes also may be associated with the loss of important organizational knowledge (Fisher White, 2000). Role conflict concerns the experience of having to deal with conflicting terms, instructions, and demands in the work environment (Rizzo, House Lirtzman 1970). Role ambiguity relates to the individuals experience of not knowing what is expected of her at work (Caplan 1971). Beside that, survivors may view downsizing as a threat to their job security, an indication of poor organizational performance, or a symptom of unfair management behavior. Survivors may also develop negative feelings toward the organization, as well as perceiving that organizational goals are difficult to achieve. According to Isabella (1989) has noted that while organizations are usually prepared to meet the needs of those being laid off, they are often unprepared for the strong emotions, lengthy adjustment periods, diminished morale and lower productivity often experienced and expressed by survivors. Managers may expect survivors not only to be grateful they were spared and to forgive what happened to their friends, but also to put their feelings aside and work harder. But the reality is not that, a bag of survivor behaviors or called survivors syndrome has always existed, it is like a contract between employees and organizations, the contract gives survivors psychological control over their work enviro nment, which lets them freely invest themselves in caring for customers. Trust Granovetter (1985) and Lewis and Weigert (1985) define trust as a willingness to be vulnerable to others, based on the prior belief that those others are trustworthy. Another definition of trust is offered by Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995), who proposed that trust is the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party. Or according to Mishra Spreitzer (1998) trust is related to psychological contracts since trust is the expectation of a future action based on the action in the past by observing the rules of behaviors in relationships. If these expectations are not met, the expecter becomes hopeless, frustrated and will lose confidence, distrust will appear instead of trust (Robinson, Kraatz Rousseau, 1994). The trust is an essential part of managing people and building a high performance, pro ductivity organization. Trust is the foundation of all relationship from top to bottom in the organization. If employees believe in their manager, their organization, this relationship will always help to create good working conditions, employees are willing to stand up for their organization at any situations, they will naturally want to do a good things, contribute their best effort for the success of their organization. Conversely, if there is no trust between employees and managers, employees will have negative actions, will not devote their energy to the development of their organization, the relationship is broken. Downsizing organizations appear to suffer a deterioration of trust (Buch Aldridge, 1991; Cascio, 1993) and an increase in fear (Buch et al., 1991). The occuring of downsizing makes employees feel uncertain about organization, stress à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the responses tends to score lower in problem solving, creativity and the ability to learn new skills, uncertainty and anxiety reduces the focus of work. Trust between employees and organization also reduced because downsizing is usually a headful though of managers, they need along time for making the decision, but with employees, downsizing is just a sudden result, sometimes they do not have a chance to prepare or may not believe that they will be the one who be laid off. According to ONeill Lenn (1995), survivors who believe that management is competent and reliable, may view downsizing as less threatening because they believe that the managers will keep their promise, be honest và   open và ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ºi what is going on with their employees. Trust is instrumental in overcoming resistance to change, for it shapes how individuals interpret the implementation process (Kotter Schlesinger, 1979). If they have trust, survivors are willing think that all the things that organization do, have a reason, it is a good thing for them, for organization, downsizing just helps organization stand in difficult time as well as creating opportunities for employees in the future. In other words, trust in top management minimizes the categorization of threat by helping survivors to understand and believe in managements intentions and expected behavior. If they do not have trust, survivors wil have negative thinking such as the decision of manager is wrong, or managers put their personal interests above the interests of employees. Without trust, employees are likely to feel threatened by downsizing, leading to resistance and retaliation, rather than the constructive cooperation that is necessary to facilitate deep change (Quinn, 1996). Commitment There are a lot of definitions about employee commitment such as A force that stabilizes individual behavior under circumstances where the individual would otherwise be tempted to change that behavior (Brickman, 1987), or The relative strength of an individuals identification with and involvement in a particular organization (Mowday et al, 1979) or simply A psychological state that binds the individual to the organization (Allen Meyer, 1990). Commitment is loyalty to the organization. A loyal employee identifies with an organization and is involved in being an employee of that organization (Price Mueller, 1986). Committed employees feel that there is a tight string between them and the organization, which, in the positive form, makes them more willing to perform their job. Organizational commitment is the driving force behind an organizations performance (Suliman and Iles, 2000, p. 408). The multidimensional approach poses that organization commitment is influenced by three constru cts: emotional attachment (affective commitment), perceived costs (continuance commitment) and moral obligation (normative commitment) (Allen and Meyer, 1990). Affective commitment is mean that employees stay with organization because they want to, they believes in organization and feel it like their home. Normative commitment is mean that employees stay with organization because they feel obligated to continuew to work for many different reasons and purposes. Continuance commitment is mean that employees stay with the organization because cost of giving up the job is too high for them. (European Motivation-Index.com). It has also been proposed that different types of commitment can have different effects on behaviors and attitudes (Iles et al., 1990). For example, continuance commitment can have detrimental effects on job satisfaction compared to the beneficial effects of affective commitment (Suliman and Iles, 2000). Affective commitment has been shown to be the best predictor of intention to leave (Stallworth, 2004) and found to be more important than job satisfaction in determining service quality of customer-contact employees (Malhotra and Mukherjee, 2004). It can be seen that in human resource management process, organizations should pay attention to the affect commitment group because these people will add value, increase productivity and quality to the organization, but they also be the most affected by downsizing, or in other word maintaining a high level of employees affective commitment to the organization is assumed to be a critical factor for successful downsizing, but downsizing tends to reduce employees affective commitment to the organization (Lee Jaewon, 2002). According to many research about employee commitment, in downsizing context, employees commitment to an organization is challenged. Moreover, commitment has been shown to positively influence other variables related to survivor syndrome, such as job satisfaction (Liou, 1995; Fletcher and Williams, 1996; Mowday et al., 1974; Wong et al., 1995; Vandenberg and Lance, 1992), performance (Hartmann and Bambacas, 2000) and perceived organizational support (Eisenberger et al. , 2001). A negative relationship has been shown for absenteeism (Iverson and Deery, 2001; Metcalfe and Dick, 2000) and turnover intention (Schnake and Dumler, 2000) Stress According to Casico Wynn (2004) stated that the downsizing create a breach of an unwritten rules that constitute the psychological contract between employer and employee leads to a rise in stress and a decrease in satisfaction, commitment, intention to stay and perceptions of an organizations trustworthiness, honesty, and caring about its employees. Stress has been defined as a stimulus, a response, or the result of an interaction between the two, with the interaction described in terms of some imbalance between the person and the environment (Cooper, Dewe ODriscoll, 2001). When downsizing occurs, like the victims, the survivors often lose control over their employment status and work situation. Survivors often feel angry and overwhelmed by the sudden disruption of the workplace, similar to people who be laid off, survivors also have feelings of betrayal and fury when downsizing occurs. Research also indicates that other stressful characteristics tend to emerge when work has to be carried out by fewer employees (Hellgren Sverke 2001; Hopkins Weathington 2006; Pfeffer 1998). The lack of people to work become overwhelmed, constant anxiety because of imbalance as well as job lossed can be happened anytime that creates stress to survivors. Employee stress can take many forms and significant impact on both employees and organizations; it can manifest as anxiety, irritability, dependency, depression and it results in reduced productivity, employee burnout, absenteeism (Valueoption.com). It has been suggested that layoff survivors experience stress that is as great, or even greater than, the stress felt by those who have been laid off (Kaufman 1982). Job insecurity Job insecurity is the exact opposite of job security, is defined as the perceived powerlessness to maintain desired continuity in a threatened job situation by Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt (1984). Job insecurity represents one of the most frequently investigated stressors in the context of organizational change and downsizing (e.g., De Witte 1999; Sverke/Hellgren 2002). The string sticks employees with organizion is job, in other word, any organization keeps their employees by proper job with many opportunities to learn, to develop, and above all of them, the job has to be durable and security. When downsizing occurs, survivors feel like the promise of organization has broken down, they see their colleagues lose their job and they fear of losing their jobs at anytime, fear of instability of income, loss of status or self esteem. They believe that their work will no longer be safe, if the organization was willing to let the employees go in the past, they would be willing to do it again i n the future. Job insecurity leads to dissatisfaction, people intent to leave the organization and come to a safer place; it also leads to greater absenteeism, higher turnovers and disability claims (Boroson and Burgess, 1992; Koco. 1996; Mishra and Spreitzer. 1998; Tombaugh and White. 1990). Previous studies such as Moore, Grunberg Greenberg (2006); Ashford, Lee Bobko (1989); Brockner et al. (1992) or Hellgren Sverke (2003) have concluded that job insecurity are related with organizational downsizing both in short and long term perspective and the worried about future job loss is associated with impaired work attitudes and well-being. Theorists have emphasized that job insecurity is a multidimensional phenomenon (Ashford, Lee Bobko, 1989; Greenhalgh Rosenblatt, 1984; Jacobson, 1991). The first dimension, called severity of threat, consists of the range of work features at risk, the valence of these features, probabilities of losing each feature, and the number of sources of threat. The second dimension is perceived powerlessness, or ones ability to respond to risks. Job insecurity can also be thought of in terms of expectancy (i.e. probability of loss) and valence (i.e. value of job features) from expectancy theory (Jacobson, 1991). Job insecurity is a broad concept , including threats to any desired work features including opportunities for career development or wages. perceptions of job insecurity also can be considered as stress inducing, so reports of worry and stress are sometimes used as proxies for perception of job insecurity. Results showed that perceived job insecurity increased over time as layoffs unfolded but no new information arrived. Job insecurity was lowest among those employees who had no contact with workforce downsizing, with higher insecurity among those who had friends or co-workers laid off, and the highest insecurity among those who had been warned that they would be laid off or who had been laid off and then rehired. Hypothesis Many organization managers apply workforce downsizing strategy for their organization, often focus their attention and effort for those employees who be laid off and pay little attention to those who remain with organization As the large bank in Vietnam, VietinBank is also applying workforce downsizing like many other organizations to overcome the current difficulties. Get to know the survivors syndrome is very important not only for VietinBank but also for many other organizations. The future of the organization can be at stake if these warning signs take hold and start to have a long-term effect. Organizations that understand and combat the causes of survivor syndrome at an early stage have a far better chance of weathering the storm and moving forward after the period of unsettling change. Based on the previous studies, in the scope of this research, researcher would like to find out the impact of workforce downsizing to the behavior such as trust, commitment, and stress and job insecurity of Vietinbanks staffs to see how they were affected by downsizing and which elements of fours will be the most impacted by downsizing. Through this research, researcher hopes to put some help for VietinBank managers in order to have a better understanding about their employees so that they can looking for an appropriate direction as well as specific plan to minimize the harmful impacted may arises from downsizing. Based on the above theory discussion, the Hypothesis is formulated as following: (H1) There is a significant relationship between downsizing and VietinBank survivors trust. (H2) There is a significant relationship between downsizing and VietinBank survivors stress. (H3) There is a significant relationship between downsizing and VietinBank survivors commitment. (H4) There is a significant relationship between downsizing and VietinBank survivors job insecurity. (H5) There is a survivors symptom that be strongest impacted by downsizing in VietinBank Chapter Summary Through out the chapter, researcher give a deeped review of previous research on downsizing and its impacted on survivors. There are many different opinions about the effects of downsizing on organizations, somes indicated that downsizing is an effective stratefy for organization, which may lead to increase innovation, human resource focusing. However, numerous previous studies have concluded that there are adverse effects of downsizing on organizations, especially for survivors, who is considered to be lucky one for remaining their job. Previous researchs have come up with a term survivors syndrome to describe the behaviors or attitudes of survivors during and after the workforce downsizing occurs. And by understanding the attitudes, emotions and viewpoints of the survivors, a clear perspective on the true short and long term benefits, gains or losses of downsizing for corporations can be derived. Even in early survivor syndrome literature there was some evidence that effective mana gement of downsizing can control for negative effects on the survivors (Brockner, 1990; Brockner et al., 1992) The next section of the research studied further the impact of downsizing on trust, stress, commitment and job insecurity of VietinBanks survivors. This research enables better understanding about the perspective and behavior of VietinBanks survivor when downsizing situation occurs.

The use of innovative marketing and product concepts

The use of innovative marketing and product concepts Innovative marketing and product concepts made OSIM International Ltd a leader in the industry of Home Health-care products. Franchise agreements among most of the cross border operations are implemented to ensure capitalization of local marketing expertise and practices of the franchisees. OSIM International Ltd are now employing expressive marketing and distribution system which enables the management to analyze customer needs and preferences both on the regional and local market bases and customize product designs to exceed customer expectations and also in order to address the company weakness. Despite of this effort of the company, the current financial situation of the company is quite unusual, thus a need for financial situational analysis is a must. For most businesses today, the progress and development they created are recorded as basis of their success. These records also serve as essential thing in making decision in business and of course as a benchmark for measuring the firms performance for the period under scrutiny (Ali, A 1993 and Pike, R Neale, B 1999). A financial situation analysis is one such gauge that documents current and future financial situation in an attempt to determine a financial strategy to help achieve organisational goals. Objectives The objective of this paper of evaluates and analyses the business performance of OSIM by reviewing the financial information for the past 3 years. Actually, it attempts to examine the financial statements of the company by using tools such as Ratio Analysis and also to see what might be the other factors that can influence the companys growth and its decision making and than to see the limitations of the financial analysis. These performance indicators are better known as ratios and constitute the main tools of conventional financial analysis. This serves as a proof that more and more organisations are realising the importance the analysis of their financial situation in order to keep up with the demands of the business world. Basically, this paper will be discussing the financial status of OSIM holdings Ltd. in accordance to their financial ratios in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Corporate Profile of OSIM OSIM International Ltd was believed a global leader in healthy lifestyle products. The company was originally founded by Ron Sim in Singapore in 1980. During that time OSIM was under the name of R Sim Trading, an electrical and household appliance company. Using their small start-up capital, the company engages with the promotion of household products such as knife sharpeners, knife and mobile clothes drying rods. Apparently, in 1989, the company listed with the name Health Check and Care, and later on shifted their main focus to healthy lifestyle products. The time following this created great development for the company, and it manages to produce outlets in Indonesia and Malaysia. In 1993, the company officially introduced the OSIM brand name and its distribution network grown up to 60 point-of-sale outlets in Asia. By the year 2002, OSIM formed its global business headquarters in Singapore at 65 Ubi Avenue 1. The Business Headquarters Status (BHQ) was awarded to OSIM by The Economic Development Board. In 1993, the company opened its first concept shop in Shanghai, in the Peoples Republic of China. Currently, OSIM operates about 1,100 outlets in more 30 countries worldwide. Current/Future Trends Figure 1. 2007 to 2009 Business Performance of OSIM Source: www.ft.com As seen in figure 1, the performance of OSIM is at its peak in the 2nd quarter of 2007. But suffers from continues decline in year 2008 up to the 1st quarter of 2009 due the global recession experienced not only by OSIM but of most businesses around the globe. Despite of the recession, OSIM still devices some strategy that will enhance their business performance. As seen in the presentation, there is also a slight revival of business performance in 2009 and it seems that this trend will continue up to the end of 2010. As recorded in ft.com, OSIM International Ltd (O23:SES) set a new 52-week high during todays trading session when it reached 0.615. Over this period, the share price is up 692.04%. Over the last week OSIM International Ltd (O23:SES) outperformed the Straits Times index.. Competitors As indicated in the company report of OSIM, their primary markets are located in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan and currently no company poses a significant threat to them as a major competitor (Osim International Ltd. 2009). The company believed that they have the have a competitive edge over their competitors in their primary markets as their extensive distribution network of outlets is dedicated to home health-care products. As part of the business development of the company, they currently exercise the full control over their point-of-sales network and dictate to their distribution chain how to sell and not only what to sell (Osim International Ltd. 2009). Furthermore, OSIM also control their supply chain, from the design of the products up to the distribution and marketing of the products. In general, the company considers Sanyo and Omron as their competitors. Actually, Sanyo is a major electronics company and member of the Fortune 500 whose headquarters is located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo targets the middle of the market and has over 324 offices and plants worldwide. On the other hand, Omron is an old company which was established in 1933 and incorporated in 1948 by Kazuma Tateishi. Similar to Sanyo, Omrons core expertise is the manufacture and sale of automation components, equipment and systems, but it is generally known for medical equipment such as digital thermometers, blood pressure monitors and nebulizers. As seen, these competitors are not directly targeting the market of OSIM which are mostly home health-care products. However, in response to the competitors and in order to handle competitive pressures from manufacturers of low-priced products in the PRC market, the company have developed NORO as a secondary brand to sell lower-priced massage chairs and kneading massagers to the segment of the consumer market which are more sensitive to pricing (Osim International Ltd. 2009). While the barriers to entry into the home health-care products industry are not exorbitant, new entrants may possibly face high start-up costs and needed to compete against established brands. New entrants may also be short of the knowledge of how to sell and where to sell. Thus, the company is convinced that in this industry, strategic marketing and branding are crucial. Furthermore, new entrants might find it more complicated to set up a distribution network. For example, owners of strategic departmental stores and suburban shopping malls usually prefer the more well-established names. In addition, the comparison of financial values can will be discussed in the next secrtion. Ratio Analysis Characteristically, financial measures as well as the affiliations employed in performance depth are designed to stress outcomes with least or no consideration of the decision processes of the manager. The usual or conventional way of performance was based on episodic profitability gauges without the concern to particular variables that drive these measures (Daroca Nourayi, 2002). Performance in the past is mainly based on conventional accounting and measures based on market performance. In particular, these measures include the evaluation on net income, return on equity/capital employed, earnings per share as well as share-price return. Some financial outrages have put corporate governance in the business spotlight. Basically, the issues and interest in the subject corporate finance can be traced back at least to the eighteenth century and economists such as Adam Smith. Certainly, there is probably little new in the existing debate involving to financial negligence, except for the range of the financial and economic consequences which replicate the greater importance of finance in the current economy. As stated previously, the aim of this presentation is to scrutinize the economic and financial context of corporate governance of a home health-care products company i.e. OSIM. It attempts to evaluate the past, current and future situation of this business in terms of the financial reports. Basically, corporate governance has significant impact for the performance of the financial sector and, by addition, the economy as whole. Well-organised resource allocation is supported by strapping shareholder control rights, which assists investment in fresh development actions and confines the scope for corporate over-investment. Actually, investment decisions are further correlated to corporate governance insofar as investors prefer to invest in suitably supervised businesses and be fitting to avoid investing in uncertain environments. In this manner, the investor assertion created by sound corporate governance stipulations and the security of marginal shareholders encourages the financial market progress by encouraging share ownership and capable capital allocation across firms. Transparent financial reporting is necessary to sending efficient corporate governance. For the last several years, the home health-care products industries in Singapore have seen the rapid growth of the number of firms offering financial situation analysis services. This serves as a proof that more and more organisations are realising the importance the analysis of their financial situation in order to keep up with the demands of the business world. Analysis of Information Profitability Ratios As seen in figure 1, the Osim International Ltds 2009 revenues grew revenues 4.40% from 456.66m to 476.77m. This along with an increase in selling, general and administrative costs has contributed to a reduction in net income from a gain of 99.44m to a gain of 23.33m. From the record for 2009, the company actually suffers from profit decline due to the effect of global recession. As seen, their 2007 performance is expressive compared in 2008 or even in 2009. From these results, we can deviate that OSIM was not performing well in 2009 and 2008 as compared to their expressive 2007. Despite of some downturns in 2008 and 2009 due to the global business crisis, the year 2010 shows interesting trend. From the gathered information, it is expected that in 2010 both the revenue and net income of OSIM will be constantly moving upward. Figure 2. Summary of Profitability Ratios (Prices are in SGD) OSIM Sanyo Omron Source: http://www.ft.com From the given situation and results of revenue and net income of OSIM, the company not only needs to evaluate their business strategies but also the political, economic, and cultural factors of their host country i.e. Singapore. It is not whether the business is in a market oriented status or not. The business norms in Singapore have been changing and are becoming more compatible with international codes and norms after a series of economic reforms (Barton, D., Newell, R. Wilson. G. 2002). Given the nature of the Singapore economy and the large potential of the market, doing business with Singapore requires a continuous process of learning, caution for instability, and flexibility to catch opportunities. In terms of gross margin, OSIM surpasses both Sanyo and Omron. Despite of the large market of Sanyo and Omron, OSIM was still performing expressively. Liquidity and Debt Ratios In financial analysis, the balance sheets of company reports conform to the financial ratios (see Appendix for the complete details of balance sheets of OSIM). The purpose of ratios is to find out how profitable the company is, we can calculate if company has enough liquid resources to pay its creditors, employees and finance charges. It is a useful to shareholders to find out their value of shares. Ratios are most powerful and simplest tool to evaluate companys performance and its validity (Riahi-Belkaoui, A 1998). Atril Mclaney (2004) stated that by calculating a relatively small number of ratios, it is often possible to build up a reasonably good picture of the position and performance of a business. Ratios help to highlight the financial strengths and weaknesses of a business, but they can not, by themselves, explain why certain strengths or weaknesses exist, or why certain changes occurred. Just by details investigation will find the reasons. Ratios can be grouped into certain categories; each of them identifies a particular aspect of financial performance or, position. In this part of the paper, well be considering the liquidity ratios and debt ratio of OSIM. Liquidity ratios show how quickly the company can meet its short-term obligations using its current assets (Riahi-Belkaoui, A 1998). The following ratios are needed to determine the status of liquidity of the firm under analysis: Current Ratio; and Quick Ratio Each of them are calculated for OSIM as follows: The current ratio shows the ability of the company to pay its liabilities, i.e. debts and payables during the period (Pike, R Neale, B 1999). It is expressed as: As an alternative to the use of the current ratio, which may include financial statement items that are not easily liquidated and have uncertain liquidation values, the quick ratio does not include inventory in the computation of liquidity (Pike, R Neale, B 1999). In formula: Figure 3. Summary of Liquidity and Debt Ratios OSIM Sanyo Omron Source: http://www.ft.com It is evident in the computations that OSIM was always in good position to meet its short-term debt for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 compared to 2005 despite of the global crisis. This means that OSIM is always bale to meet their current liabilities using their current assets (cash, inventory, receivables) as compared to both Sanyo and Omron. The figures are not high so as to make the shareholders fear that the assets of the company are not working to grow the business, and not low so as to drive creditors away with respect to the level of risk present. Since quick ratios are perceived as a sign of the companys financial strength or weakness, the figures in the previous table shows the relative stability of the financial strength of OSIM. A higher number would indicate stronger financial performance, and a lower one means weaker performance. Apparently, the high financial leverage ratios of OSIM provide an implication that the organisation is solvent in the long-term. With this regard, the debt ratio shows the OSIMs position to meet its long-term obligation or liabilities. Debt ratios are dependent of the companys classification of long-term leases and other items as long-term debt (Pike, R Neale, B 1999). Pike, R Neale, B 1999, stated that this is the gauge with which the financial strength of a company is a sign of the ratio of capital that has been funded by liability, counting preference shares. A higher debt ratio (which means the company has low equity ratio) does not give the firms creditors the security they require from an organisation (Pike, R Neale, B 1999). The firm would, as a result, find difficulty in raising supplementary financial support coming from outside sources if the firm wishes to take such action. Therefore it reveals that the higher the debt ratio, the harder it is for the company to raise funds from the outside. Market Share For the recorded 2007-2009 business performance of OSIM Holdings Limited, the company generated a worldwide group turnover of around SGD 477 million. This is an expressive market share in global home health-care products business. In Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan which is OSIMs largest markets, their combined domestic sales accounted for 85.6 per cent. of their Groups revenues. In Singapore, IPS Brothers Enterprise Pte Ltd and Goh Joo Hin Pte Ltd market akin home health-care products under the brands of Oto and Lifestyle respectively (Osim International Ltd. 2009). In Hong Kong, National and Omron are OSIMs competitors. In Taiwan, there are many retailers in the home health-care products industry and OSIM do not consider any company as a major competitor to them (Osim International Ltd. 2009). Actually, the claim of OSIM is valid since there are no published statistics or official sources of information on companies engaged in the retail and distribution of home health-care products in their primary markets, thus, the company are unable to determine their market share. However, the company assumed that they are one of the leaders in Asia in this business based on 2 market surveys in 1999 which they had commissioned international survey firms, The Gallup Organisation and ACNielsen (China) Ltd (ACNielsen), to undertake to determine their market positions in Singapore and Hong Kong respectively. The Gallup Organisations survey revealed that in Singapore, OSIM is the number 1 brand for electronic home health-care products when compared to other brands like National, Omron, Oto and Lifestyle, in terms of the following (Osim International Ltd. 2009): brand awareness market share perceived image in terms of quality, trustworthiness, brand preference, technology, designs and features, range of products, customer service and value for money. On the other hand, the ACNielsens survey revealed that in Hong Kong, OSIM was also number 1 in terms of overall brand preference for massage chairs, foot reflexology rollers, pulse massagers and pulse monitors (Osim International Ltd. 2009). Actually, in the ACNielsens survey, OSIM was compared with brands like National, Oto, Sharp and Philips. SWOT Analysis With respect to the given information in the company website, the following presentation will show the SWOT analysis of OSIM. Actually, SWOT analysis can provide a framework for identifying and analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threat. This can also provide an impetus to analyze a situation and develop suitable strategies and tactics, a basis for assessing core capabilities and competences. Moreover, this can provide the evidence for, and cultural key to change and a stimulus to participation in a group experience. Strengths Wide experience in apparels market as they have been in the business for almost 42 years now, their directors can consider their experience in operating venture as strength. Reasonable price offerings of products and services- since they able to keep their overheads low, this allows them to have better control of their prices. This is considered strength because naturally, people would look for a reasonably-priced place to stay in that equally do not sacrifice service and product quality. Already has developed a good reputation for value for money since they have been operating for great number of years, they already have built a name for themselves, attracting a number of loyal customers along the way. Good industry skills the directors of different divisions of OSIM are natural for the business that they ventured into, both being outgoing and friendly, the most important public relation skills that clients look for. Weaknesses Although, the company has seen much strength, OSIM also encompasses some weaknesses. One of its weaknesses is the declining confidence of some of its shareholders. Even though the group was successful, some of the shareholders are not confident due to the current crisis. The company should create ways to address this weakness. Another weakness of OSIM is their inability to have a system that will enhance their marketing and distribution processes. The advancement of technology nowadays is one of the weaknesses of OSIM. Although the company are now adopting different advance technologies, the room for improvement are still open. Thus, it is suggested for the group to have focus in their research and development department. Actually, the group was expressively dominating in the market of Singapore but with regards to the current global financial crisis, OSIM are dragged by the current condition of the country as seen in their financial ratios. Thus, another form of their weakness is their mutual bond to the economy of Singapore. However, if economic growth grows at a rate greater than inflation, then the total of business earnings should be dragged along as well. Opportunities To increase profitability in the face of increased demand for their business offerings this opportunity came from the social areas in the rise in the number of population and changes to consumer preferences. To better improve business performance due to the presence of more competitors, they have the opportunity to develop the business core competencies so that they can still get ahead of the game. To expand business coverage through excellent management and marketing activities, the OSIM could enlarge the business, not only increase the size of the physical facilities and improve offered amenities, but also to expand market scope, possibly to other countries. Threats Continued increase in the number of competitors. Increase in competition would mean tougher business development. Inability to cope up with modern developments this serves as a serious threat, as the competitors have shown that they have the capacity to include modern technology in their services and products offerings. Aggressive competitors as seen in the current environment of Singapore, there are numerous businesses that offer services and products similar to OSIM. This is, off the bat, the most aggressive competitor that the business has to face for the time being, aggressive with respect to the quality of product and services offerings. Porters Five Forces A Five-Force model (see Figure 4) was conducted in the context of the global cosmetic industry. Despite being a market leader, OSIM is not yet resting on its laurels of success, but instead, continuously innovating and developing their company in order to maintain what it has managed to achieve up to this time. Thus, they have constantly formulated competitive strategies in order to attain this. Forces outside the industry are significant primarily in a relative sense; since outside forces usually affect all firms in the industry, the key is found in the differing abilities of firms to deal with them. The most dominant strategic management paradigm in recent years is known as the strategies model (Fredrickson 1991). The state of competition in an industry, in this case the apparel industry, depends on five basic competitive forces, which will be here. The strength of the competitive forces in an industry determines the degree to which the inflow of investment occurs and drives the return to the free market level, and thus the ability of firms to sustain above-average returns. The underlying structure of an industry, reflected in the strength of the forces, should be distinguishable from the many short-run factors that can affect competition and profitability in a transient way (Porter 1998:3). For instance, variations in the economic environment over the business cycle manipulate the short-run productivity of the retailing industry, as can material deficiencies, strikes, and the like. Even though such factors may have strategic implications, the focal point of the analysis of industry structure is on categorising the basic, fundamental features of the industry rooted in its economics and technology that shape the arena in which competitive strategy must be set (Porter 1998). The five competitive forces suppliers, buyers, competitive rivalry among firms currently in the industry, product substitutes and potential entrants to the industry reveal the fact that the competition in the home health-care goes well further than the already existing business (Davies Lam 2001). Customers, suppliers, substitutes, and potential entrants are all competitors to firms in the industry and may be more or less prominent depending on the particular circumstances (Porter 1998). All five competitive forces mutually establish the amount of industry rivalry and productivity, and the most influential forces are prevailing and becoming decisive in terms of strategy formulation. In OSIMs case, even them who have a very well-built market leadership in the home health-care products industry where entrants have little or no threat will receive small returns on their profits if it has to face a superior quality and lower-cost alternative. Figure 4. Porters Five Forces Model Industry Competitors. In the global business industry, regulatory and technological changes are the main catalysts, making entrenched competitive structures obsolete and mandating the development of new products, new processes, new strategies, and new public policies toward the industry under analysis. Financial centres, in vigorous competition with each other, have undergone further regulatory change in their efforts to capture a greater share of international trade in financial services, even as common efforts at the regional and global level have tried to support safety and soundness and a reasonably level competitive playing field. Basically, there are numerous cosmetic players in the industry, included in the list is OSIM, who strive for market leadership in all their business aspects. As such, the level of industry competition is very stiff and very aggressive. Potential Entrants. Natural barriers to entry in the global apparel industry include the need for capital investment, human resources, and technology and the importance of economies of scale. It also includes the role of contracting costs avoided by a close relationship between the vendor and its client, which in turn is related to the avoidance of opportunistic behaviour by either party. The competitive structure of the industry therefore depends on the degree of potential competition. This represents an application of the contestable markets concept, which suggests that the existence of potential entrants causes existing players to act as if those entrants were already active in the market. Consequently, pricing margins, product quality, and the degree of innovation in this industry exhibits characteristics of intense competition even though the degree of market concentration is in fact quite high. Buyers. Home health-care products have a long historya history rich in product diversity, international scope, and, above all, continuous change and adaptation. These competitive changes have forced adaptations, and in general have improved the level and efficiency offer to clients, thereby increasing transactional volume. Coupled with these, the customers have become informed concerning clothing products that OSIM-like companies offer. They have required that service providers meet their very specific individual needs, therefore showing that clients to this industry have shaped what it is right now. This means, on an overall note, that buyers have a high influence on the workings of the global industry pertaining to home health-care products, as they have the ability to affect it. Suppliers. The suppliers to this industry are mainly the providers of technology and materials in home health-care firms use in the conduct of their businesses. There is an enormous variety of new hard and soft technologies at work within the said industry. Hard technologies include advances in telecommunications, computers, analytics, software tools, and video communications, which are enabling participants to have better information at lower cost; to integrate this information with thinking, communication, and analysis; and, finally, to use the resulting knowledge along with other technologies to distribute services to clients more efficiently, effectively, and economically. Soft technologies, or financial innovation things like, say, the use of derivative instruments such as interest rate and currency swaps often use these hard technologies to rethink the delivery of services. Out of these hard and soft technologies have come the securitisation and globalisation movements so oft en talked about in the press. From the above enumeration, it could be said that suppliers significantly affect the cosmetic industry through their tools of trade. Substitutes. There is a high level of substitutes for the healthy and lifestyle products industry, evidenced by the numerous numbers of major players in the global market. The cost to transfer to another beauty firm is also relatively low, so the substitution rate is pretty high. Conclusion The results of the analysis carried out on performance, financial and marketing indicated very significant effects on business sustainability, even amidst the threats of unrest. Therefore, we could conclude that the business strategies such financial and marketing could still be expected to improve business sustainability faster than average. The review of financial capabilities and resources towards business sustainability revealed very little inconsistencies regarding its strategies. This is coherent with its traditional inside-out approach. However, the need to reconcile both the inside-out and outside-in approaches becomes imperative now for marketing. Moreover, it can be said that OSIM is a company whose financial situation is stable and highly likely to improve in the years to follow. To sustain their development, the company should regularly assess the value of their portfolio of its business. They have to be positioned on fast-growing opportunities, whether geographically or by market segment through choosing to invest in businesses with long-term tail-wind profiles. If the current financial situation carries on consistently, OSIM would well achieve their vision of becoming the leader in their industry and a major player in each of their market segments and key geographical markets. The comparison of the past and present performance helped in bringing out pertinent bits of information which led to the conclusion that the Singapore offices adds value and contributes significantly to the progress of the firm as a whole. References: Atrill, P. McLaney, E. (2004). Financial Accounting for Decision Makers, 4th edn., Prentice-Hall, New Jersey. Ali, A. (1993). Decision-Making Style, Individualism and Attitudes toward Risk of Arab Executives, International Studies of Management Organisation, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 53+. Barton, D., Newell, R. Wilson. G. (2002). When Is a Good Time to Make Strategic Advances? during a Crisis, of Course. The McKinley Quarterly, pp. 77+ Daroca, F.P. Nourayi, M.M. (1996). Performance Evaluation and Measurement Issues, Journal of Managerial Issues, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 206+. Pike, R. Neale, B. (1999). Corporate Finance and Investment Decision and Strategies, 3rd edn., Pearson Education Limited, England. Riahi-Belkaoui, A. (1998). Financial Analysis and the Predictability of Important Economic Events, Quorum Books, Westport, Connecticut. Osim International Ltd. (2009) Company Report. Accessed January 12, 2010 from OSIM Ltd. (2010). About Us. Accessed January 12, 2010 from http://corporate.osim.com

Comparing Platos Allegory of the Cave and Maimonides Limits of Mans

Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Maimonides' Limits of Man's Intellect      Ã‚   Enlightenment is the key subject of both Plato's "Allegory" and Moses Maimonides' "Limits of Man's Intellect." To them, obtaining knowledge is life's most significant objective. Plato stresses "the Good" while Maimonides encourages "Perfection" as the aim of this objective. While both authors share compatible thoughts toward the subject of enlightenment, there are key differences between "the Good" and "Perfection" that should be duly noted.    In Plato's "Allegory" we see mankind in a state of imprisonment. What they consider reality is merely shadows that are cast on a cavern wall. This can be linked to Maimonide's essay in that he views man's youth as a kind of imprisonment when it comes to obtaining abstract knowledge. He says it is important to initiate the young and teach them according to their ability to comprehend (296). This I feel is an initial starting point, a state of beginnings similar to man being shackled by the limits of its intellect at youth. In the "Allegory of ...